105 Cf.  Rev. xvii. 8:  “The beast that thou sawest was, and is not;
     and is about to come up out of the abyss, and to go into perdition.”

109 Cf. 2 Thess. ii. 4:  “The son of perdition, who opposeth and
     exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped;
     so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that
     he is God.”

127 The phrase rorem subisse sacrum would suggest baptism by
     sprinkling, except that Prudentius uses the word loosely elsewhere. 
     Immersion was undoubtedly the general practice of the early Church,
     “clinical” baptism being allowed only in cases of necessity.

128 The anointing with oil showed that the catechumen was enrolled
     among the spiritual priesthood, and with the unction was joined the
     sign of the Cross on the forehead.

VII

1 This entire hymn is used in the Moz.  Brev., divided into fifteen
     portions for use during Lent.

27 The word sacerdos here, as in ix. 4, is used in the sense of
     “prophet”; but in both passages there is some idea of the exercise
     of priestly functions.  Elijah may be called “priest” from his having
     offered sacrifice on Mount Carmel, and David from his wearing the
     priestly ephod as he danced before the Ark.

69 The old editors discuss these lines with much gravity, and mostly
     come to the conclusion that “locusts” were “a kind of bird, of
     the length of a finger, with quick, short flight”; while the “wild
     honey” was not actual honey at all, but “the tender leaves of
     certain trees, which, when crushed by the fingers, had the pleasant
     savour of honey.”

76 A gloss on one of the Vat.  MSS. adds:  “This is not authorised; for
     John merely baptized with water, and not in the name of the Father,
     Son and Holy Ghost; therefore his baptism was of no avail, save that
     it prepared the way for Christ to baptize.”  Many of the Fathers,
     however, while expressly affirming that John’s baptism differed
     from that of Christ, allowed that the stains of sin were washed
     away by the former.  St. Chrysostom draws this distinction:  “There
     was in John’s baptism pardon, but not without repentance; remission
     of sins, but only attained by grief.”

100 The story of Jonah, as a type of the Resurrection, is one of the
     most frequent subjects of the frescoes of the Catacombs.  In one very
     ancient picture, a man in a small boat is depicted in the act of
     placing the prophet in the very jaws of the whale.

115 Two stanzas are omitted in the text, which depict the sufferings
     of Jonah with a wealth of detail not in accordance with modern
     taste.  For the sake of giving a complete text, we append them here:—­