Chapter XXXVIII
.
[276] _Vita prima_, cap. xi. Translated _ante_, Vol. I., p. 427, note 1.
[277] _Spec. perfectionis_, ed. Sabatier, cap. 53. Translated _ante_, Vol. I., p. 427.
[278] _Ibid._ cap. 93. Translated _ante_, Vol. I., p. 432.
[279] Cap. li., ed. Graesse.
“Annunciation Sunday (Advent) is so called, because on that day by an angel the advent of the Son of God in the flesh was announced, for it was fitting that the angelical annunciation should precede the incarnation, for a threefold reason. For the first reason, of betokening the order, that to wit the order of reparation should answer to the order of transgression. Accordingly as the devil tempted the woman, that he should draw her to doubt and through doubt to consent and through consent to fall, so the angel announced to the Virgin, that by announcing he should arouse her to faith and through faith to consent and through consent to conceiving God’s son. For the second reason, of the angelic ministry, because since the angel is God’s minister and servant, and the blessed Virgin was chosen in order that she might be God’s mother, and it is fitting that the minister should serve the mistress, so it was proper that the annunciation to the blessed Virgin should take place through an angel. For the third reason, of repairing the angelical fall. Because since the incarnation was made not only for the reparation of the human fall, but also for the reparation of the angelical catastrophe, therefore the angels ought not to be excluded. Accordingly as the sex of the woman does not exclude her from knowledge of the mystery of the incarnation and resurrection, so also neither the angelical messenger. Behold, God twice announces to a woman by a mediating angel, to wit the incarnation to the Virgin Mary and the resurrection to the Magdalene.” The order of the Latin words is scarcely changed in the translation.
[280] In order that no reader may be surprised by the absence of discussion of the antique antecedents of the more particular genres of mediaeval poetry (Latin and Vernacular), I would emphasize the impossibility of entering upon such exhaustless topics. Probably the very general assumption will be correct in most cases, that genres of mediaeval poetry (_e.g._ the Conflicts or _Débats_ in Latin and Old French) revert to antecedents sufficiently marked for identification, in the antique Latin (or Greek) poetry, or in the (extant or lost) productions of the “low” Latin period from the third century downward. An idea of the difficulty and range of such matters may be gained from Jeanroy, _Les Origines de la poésie lyrique en France au moyen âge_ (Paris, 1889), and the admirable review of this work by Gaston Paris in the _Journal des savants_ for 1891 and 1892 (four articles). Cf. also Batiouchkof in _Romania_, xx. (1891), pages 1 _sqq._ and 513 _sqq._
[281] Cf. Taylor, _Classical Heritage of the Middle Ages_, chap. ix.
[282] There is much verse from noted men, Alcuin, Paulus Diaconus, Walafrid Strabo, Rabanus Maurus, Theodulphus. It is all to be found in the collection of Dümmler and Traube, _Poetae Latini aevi Carolini_ (_Mon. Germ._ 1880-1896).
[283] It is amusing to find a poem by Walafrid Strabo turning up as a favourite among sixteenth-century humanists. The poem referred to, “De cultura hortorum” (_Poet. Lat. aev. Car._ ii. 335-350), is a poetic treatment of gardening, reminiscent of the Georgics, but not imitating their structure. It has many allusions to pagan mythology.
[284] _Post_, p. 193 _sqq._
[285] _Ante_, Vol. I., p. 147.
[286] _Ante_,