>On Wed, 25 Feb 1998 Bill East <[log in to unmask]> wrote <snipped>:
>Crux fidelis
>
>The last three stanzas of the 'Pange lingua' seem to me particularly
fine,
>with an astonishing range of sometimes daring imagery and some very
subtle
>biblical allusion. See if you agree.
The Roman liturgy agrees with you. The Crux fidelis stanza is repeated
as a refrain and becomes a classic summary of the entire Good Friday
theme. (Good Friday liturgy, part III: Adoratio Crucis)
>'germen', a bud or shoot, means literally an embryo, an unborn child. >
There is just a suggestion of the cross giving birth to Christ, of
>being in a sense his mother. This suggestion will be made much more
>explicit in the next stanza.
>
>The cross, the tree of life, is not explicitly compared with the tree
in the
>Garden of Eden, but such a comparison has already been made in stanza
two,
>with its mention of poisonous fruit.
As further indication of your birth/death link here, also common was the
linking of the wood of the manger with the wood of the cross.
[Fortunatus develops the re-birth of creation through the death on the
cross theme further in his _Salve Dies_ poem/hymn/sequence.] BTW, wood
of the Cross theme has common links to --i.a.-- Eden (tree of life),
Ark, Throne, Temple, Manger, Gate (Jerusalem, heaven).
>
>There's an interesting one at Revelation 2:7, 'Vincenti dabo edere de
ligno
>vitae, quod est in paradiso Dei mei.' - To the victor I shall give to
eat
>of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of my God. I don't have
a
>Glossa Ordinaria to hand, but if I were a medieval commentator I should
>certainly expound this as referring to the Eucharist, Christ's body
being
>the fruit of the tree of life. Do any of you cyberfolk have medieval
>commentaries to hand?
FWIW, Aquinas uses a parallel passage (that's parallel as in Hebrew
parallelism, not as in cross reference), Rev 2.17 in a Lauds antiphon in
the office of Corpus Christi. [At least as the office has come down to
us. Cf. M.Rubin, _Corpus Christi_, pp.185ff.] So your surmise of the
reference would seems to be a good one.
>Coincidentally, I'm reading Richard Fletcher's 'The Conversion of
Europe' at
>the moment, and just now I came across the statement (p.138) 'Venantius
>Fortunatus composed two of the most magnificent hymns ever written,
Vexilla
>Regis and Pange Lingua.' I must say I entirely agree with this
judgement.
>
Fortunatus continues to amaze me with his skillful parallels and
insights into the unity of a splintered and disparate universe.
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