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MEDIÆVAL HYMNS.
145

    Hugh of S. Victor, in his treatise "de proprietatibus rerum," under the title "Crux," says:

    "Crux, serpentis ænei palus, ligna Isaac, scala Jacob, virga Moysi, lignum Marath, Signum Thau in superliminari domus." (Compare Ezekiel ix. 4.)

    The "two sticks" which the widow of Sarepta was gathering, when Salvation came to her house, are expounded of the two beams which by their intersection made up the Cross.

    I. e., when the bridge of boats broke down under the routed army of Maxentius, who thus perished miserably in the Tiber.

    A very clear reference to the Crusades. The two last stanzas are slightly altered from the Translation which Mr. Wackerbarth has given of them, as a separate poem. The Ista suos fortiores is quoted by Archbishop Harsnett, in a Sermon preached at Paul's Cross.