Mediaeval Hymns and Sequences/Redeundo per gyrum
Redeundo per gyrum.
The following Prose on the Theban Legion, was first published in my Collection of Sequences from a MS. at Wolfenbüttel:—and I never saw it in any other MS. or printed Missal. Mone subsequently edited it from a better MS.: and Daniel comparing the two, has given a more perfect copy than either. It was not of course in the first edition of this book.
As the circling year rolls on
O'er our northern region,
Comes the day that gave the crown
To the Theban Legion:
Equinoctial was that day,[1]
As the world believed it;
Everlasting was its ray,
As that band received it.
They had light that knew no end,
Chiefs of ancient story,
That the sun illumined not,
But diviner glory;
Day of calm serenity,
By no twilight followed—
Day when age was changed to youth,
Death in victory swallowed.
There, Mauritius, spite his name,[2]
Shines in heavenly whiteness:
Ethiopian Candidus
Puts on candid brightness:
Exuperius o'er his foes
There superior standeth;
Victor, vanquished though by death,[3]
With the victors bandeth;
Innocentius meetly falls,
Innocence defending:
And Vitalis for his meed
Hath the life unending.
Six the chiefs that led the war,
Thousands six they guided;
For the truth they stood in fight,
Careless what betided:
Though their necks endured the sword,
They, the gallant-hearted,
From their Head—their Head and ours—
Never could be parted.
Pray, ye valiant six, that we
Still may bid defiance,
So we gain the six-stepped[4] Throne,
To the twice six lions:
That the six adversities[5]
May beset us never,
Pray, ye glorious ones, who now
Wear the Crown for ever!
- ↑ The Theban Legion is commemorated on Sept. 22. The poet would remind us that the day which, had they remained in the world, would have had as many hours of darkness as of light, was changed for them into the everlasting day of heaven.
- ↑ The names particularised by the poet are the only six which have come down to us. Of these S. Maurice was the commanding officer; Exuperius, a Senator; Candidus, a Campidoctor, that is, the officer who gave instruction in military exercises; Victor, a veteran; Innocent and Vitalis, simple soldiers.
- ↑ So the legend of S. Victor of Marseilles tells us that, at the very moment his head was struck off, a voice was heard from heaven, "Thou hast conquered, Blessed Victor, thou hast conquered." And so Adam of S. Victor:
Victor, effuso sanguine,
Victoris dignus nomine,
Cœlo receptus hodie,
Palmam tenet victoriæ. - ↑ The reference is of course to Solomon's Throne—as the type of that more glorious Throne of the Eternal Solomon:—the lions being the temptations and difficulties which assail us in our progress towards it.
- ↑ The poet refers to Job v. 19. Daniel also sees a reference to the six curses addressed to the wicked in our Lord's description of the Day of Judgment.