THE MYSTICS
327
"Me nescire sum professus,
Sed fide non dubia.
Qui sic credit, non festinet,
Et a via non declinet
Insolenter regia
Servet fidem, formet mores,
Nee attendat ad errores
Quos damnât Ecclesia.
Is not mine to make profession,
Save with faith unswerving.
Thus professing, thus believing,
Never insolently leaving
The highway of our faith,
Duty weighing, law obeying,
Never shall we wander straying
Where heresy is death.
Such a school took natural refuge in the Holy Ghost and the Virgin,
— Grace and Love, — but the Holy Ghost, as usual, profited by it
much less than the Virgin. Comparatively little of Adam's poetry is
expressly given to the Saint Esprit, and too large a part of this has a
certain flavour of dogma: —
Qui procedis ab utroque
Genitore Genitoque
Pariter, Paraclitel
Amor Patris, Filiique
Par amborum et utrique
Compar et consimilis!
The Holy Ghost is of the Father and of the
Son; neither made nor created nor begotten,
but proceeding.
The whole three Persons are coeternal to-
gether; and coequal.
This sounds like a mere versification of the Creed, yet when Adam
ceased to be dogmatic and broke into true prayer, his verse added a
lofty beauty even to the Holy Ghost ; a beauty too serious for modern
rhyme : —
Oh, juvamen oppressorum,
Oh, solamen miserorum,
Pauperum refugium,
Da contemptum terrenorum!
Ad amorem supernorum
Trahe desiderium!
Consolator et fundator,
Habitator et amator,
Cordium humilium,
Pelle mala, terge sordes,
Et discordes fac concordes,
Et affer praesidium!
Oh, helper of the heavy laden,
Oh, solace of the miserable,
Of the poor, the refuge,
Give contempt of earthly treasures I
To the love of heavenly treasures
Lift our hearts' desire!
Consolation and foundation,
Dearest friend and habitation
Of the lowly hearted,
Dispel our evil, cleanse our foulness,
And our discords turn to concord,
And bring us succour!