69 This symbolism of the gifts of the Magi is also found in Juvencus
     (I. 250):  “Frankincense, gold and myrrh they bring as gifts to a
     King, a Man and a God,” and is again alluded to by Prudentius in
     Apoth. 631 et seq. The idea is expressed in the hymn of Jacopone
     da Todi, beginning Verbum caro factum est (Mone, Hymni Latini,
     Vol. 2): 

          “Gold to the kingly,
          Incense to the priestly,
          Myrrh to the mortal:” 

and it has passed into the Office for Epiphany in the Roman Breviary:  “There are three precious gifts which the Magi offered to their Lord that day, and they contain in themselves sacred mysteries:  in the gold, that the power of a king may be displayed:  in the frankincense, consider the great high priest:  in the myrrh, the burial of the Lord” et passim.

172 The idea that Moses defeated the Amalekites because his arms were
     outstretched in the form of a cross is found also in one of the hymns
     (lxi.) of Gregory Nazianzen.  The symbol of the Christian religion,
     the cross, “was fancifully traced by the Fathers throughout the
     universe:  the four points of the compass, the ’height, breadth,
     length and depth’ of the Apostle expressed, or were expressed by,
     the cross....  The cross explained everything” (Maitland, Church in
     the Catacombs, p. 202).

193 The discomfiture of the heathen gods wrought by the Incarnation
     is elaborated by Milton, whose lines recall this and similar passages
     in Prudentius:—­

“Peor, and Baaelim
Forsake their temples dim

* * * * *

And sullen Moloch fled,
Hath left in shadows dread,
His burning idol all of blackest hue.

Our Babe, to show his Godhead true,
Can in his swaddling bands control the damned crew.”

FINIS