XLVI. O virgo ecclesia (In dedicatione ecclesie)
The Wolf Tears the Church
The virgin Church is mourned as the wolf tears her sons away, and the crafty serpent is denounced.
Antiphon: O virgin Church, you have reason to weep, for the fiercest of wolves has torn your sons from your side.1 O woe to you, crafty serpent!2
The Blood That Betroths
The precious blood of the Savior on the cross betroths the Church to Christ, and so she seeks the restoration of her sons.
But O, how precious is the blood of the Savior, who on the king's banner has betrothed the Church to himself.3 Therefore she seeks that one's sons.4
Read the original Latin
Antiphona: O virgo ecclesia, plangendum est, quod sevissimus lupus filios tuos de latere tuo abstraxit. O ve callido serpenti! Sed o quam preciosus est sanguis salvatoris, qui in vexillo regis ecclesiam ipsi desponsavit. Unde filios illius requirit.
Notes
- 1 ↩plangendum est: periphrastic gerundive expressing necessity — 'there is cause to weep' or 'it must be lamented.' quod is taken as causal ('because'), not as a relative/complementizer.
- 2 ↩callido serpenti: case is ambiguous — could be vocative apostrophe ('O crafty serpent') or dative ('woe to the crafty serpent'). Rendered as vocative exclamation. ve is a Latin interjection of lament, akin to 'woe.'
- 3 ↩in vexillo regis: 'on the banner of the king' — likely evoking the cross as royal standard (cf. the vexillum as a military/Christian standard). ecclesiam ipsi desponsavit: 'he has betrothed the Church to himself' — spousal/ecclesial imagery.
- 4 ↩illius: referent ambiguous — could refer to the serpent (the Church seeks the serpent's sons, i.e., those led astray) or to the Savior (the Church seeks the Savior's sons). Given the context of betrothal and the preceding stanza, the referent may be the Savior, but the ambiguity is real. Rendered as 'that one's' to preserve the uncertainty; reviewer should assess.
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