HOLY weeke.
The Iewes are not satisfied with his scourging & irrision. 8. Pilate hearing them say that he
made himself the Sonne of God, is more afraid. 12. Yet, they vrging him with his loialty toward
Cæsar, & professing that themselues wil no King but Cæsar, he yealdeth vnto them. 17. And so Christ
carying his owne Crosse, is crucified between two theeues, 19. Pilate writing notoriously the only
cause of his death to be, for that he is their King or Christ. 23. His garments be so vsed, euen as the
Scriptures foretellold. 25. He hath special care of his mother to the end. 28. He signifieth al that was
written of his Passion, to be fulfilled and so yealdeth vp his ghost. 31. Then by the Iewes meanes also
other Scriptures about his legges and side, are fulfilled. 38. And finally, he is honourably
buried.
1.
*
Mat. 27,27.
Mark 15,16.
THEN therfore Pilate tooke Iᴇꜱᴠꜱ, and scourged him.
2. And the souldiars platting a crowne of thornes, put it vpon his head: and they
put about him a purple garment.
3. And they came to him, and said: Haile King of the Iewes; and they gaue him
blowes.
4. Pilate went forth againe, and saith to them: Behold I bring him forth vnto you,
that you may know that I find no cause in him.
5. Iᴇꜱᴠꜱ therfore went forth carying the crowne of thornes, and the purple
vestiment. And he saith to them: Loe the man.
6. When the cheefe Priests therfore and the ministers had seen him, they cried,
saying: Crucifie, crucifie him. Pilate saith to them: Take him you, and crucifie him. For I
find no cause in him.
7. The Iewes answered him: We haue a Law; and according to the Law he ought to
die; because he hath made himself the Sonne of God.
8. When Pilate therfore had heard this saying, he feared more.
9. And he entred into the Palace againe; and he saith to Iᴇꜱᴠꜱ: Whence art
thou? But Iᴇꜱᴠꜱ gaue him no answer.
10. Pilate therfoer saith to him: Speakest thou not to me? knowest thou not that I
haue power to crucifie thee, and I haue power to release thee?
11. Iᴇꜱᴠꜱ answered: Thou shouldest not haue any power against me, vnles it
were giuen thee from aboue. Therfore he that hath betraied me to thee, hath the greater sinne.
12. From thence forth Pilate sought to release him. But the Iewes cried, saying: If
thou release this man, thou art not Cæsars freind. Euery one that maketh himself a King,
speaketh against Cæsar.
13. But Pilate when he had heard these wordes, brought forth Iᴇꜱᴠꜱ: and he
sate in the iudgement seate, in the place that is called Lithostrotos, and in Hebrew Gabbatha.
14. And it was the Parasceue of Pasche, about the
✟
He meaneth mid-day, counting from sun rising. For so doth the Scripture count the houres
of the day. Mat. 20, Mark 15, Luke 23, Iohn 4, Act. 13. and 10.
sixt houre, and he saith to the
Iewes: Loe your King.
15. But they cried: Away, away with him, crucifie him. Pilate saith to them: Shal I
crucifie your King? The cheefe Priests answered: We haue no King, but Cæsar.
16. Then therfore he deliuered him vnto them for the be crucified.
And they tooke
Iᴇꜱᴠꜱ, and led him forth.
17.
*
Mat. 27,3.
Mat. 15,20.
Luke 23,33.
And bearing his owne crosse he went forth into that which is called the place of
Caluarie, in Hebrew Golgotha.
18. Where they crucified him, and with him two others, on the one side & on the other,
and in the middes Iᴇꜱᴠꜱ.
19. And Pilate wrote a title also: and he put it vpon the crosse. And it was written, Iᴇꜱᴠꜱ
ᴏꜰ Nᴀᴢᴀʀᴇᴛʜ ᴛʜᴇ Kɪɴɢ ᴏꜰ ᴛʜᴇ Iᴇᴡᴇꜱ.
20. This title therfore many of the Iewes did read: because the place where
Iᴇꜱᴠꜱ was crucified, was nigh to the citie: and it was written in
✟
These three tongues being for other causes most famous before in al the world, are
now also dedicated to God in the triumphant title of the Crosse of Christ, and in
them the holy Scriptures are more conueniently written, taught, and preserued.
Hebrew, in Greeke, and in
Latin.
21. The cheefe Priests therfore of the Iewes said to Pilate: Write not, The King
of the Iewes; but that he said, I am King of the Iewes.
22. Pilate answered: That which I haue written, I haue written.
23. The
*
Mat. 27,35.
Mat. 15,24.
Luke 23,34.
souldiars therfore when they had crucified him, tooke his garments (and they
made foure partes, to euery souldiar a part) & his coate. And his
✟
This coate without seame is a figure of the vnitie of the Church. Cypr. de vnit.
Ec. And Euthymius and other write that our Lady made it.
coate was without seame,
wrought from the top through out.
24. They said therfore one to another: Let vs not cut it, but let vs cast lots for
it whose it shal be. That the scripture might be fulfilled saying:
*
Psa. 21,19.
They haue parted my
garments among them: and vpon my vesture they haue cast lotte. And the souldiars did these
things.
25.
⋮
The Ghospel in a votiue Masse of our B. Lady between Easter & whitsuntide.
And there stood beside the crosse of Iᴇꜱᴠꜱ,
✟
The great loue, faith, courage, compassion, and sorrowes, that our Lady had
who forsooke; not the Crosse and her Sonne when so many were fled from him,
and his cheefe Apostles denied him.
his mother, and his mothers
sister, Marie of Ceophas, and Marie Magdalene.
26. When Iᴇꜱᴠꜱ therfore had seen his mother and the Disciple standing whom he
loued, he saith to his mother: Woman, behold thy sonne.
27. After that, he saith to the Disciple: Behold thy mother. And from that houre the
Disciple tooke her to his owne.
28.
⋮
The Ghospel in a votiue Masse if the Passion.
Afterward Iᴇꜱᴠꜱ knowing that al things were now consummate, that the
*
Psa. 68,22.
scripture might be fulfilled, he saith, I thirst.
29. A vessel therfore stood there ful of vinegre. And they putting a sponge ful of
vinegre about hissope, offered it to his mouth.
30. Iᴇꜱᴠꜱ therfore when he had taken the vinegre, said: It is consummate. And
bowing his head, he gaue vp the ghost.
31. The Iewes therfore (because it was the Parasceue) that the bodies might not
remaine vpon the crosse on the Sabboth (for that was a great Sabboth day) they desired Pilate
that their legges might be broken, and they might be taken away.
32. The souldiars therfore came: and of the first indeed they brake the legges, and
of the other that was crucified with him.
33. But after they were come to Iᴇꜱᴠꜱ, when they saw that he was dead,
they did not breake his legges,
34. but one of the souldiars with a speare opened his side, & incontinent there came
forth bloud and water.
35. And he saw it, hath giuen testimonie: and his testimonie is true. And he knoweth
that he saith true, that you may also beleeue.
36. For these things were done that the scripture might be fulfilled:
*
Exo. 12,45.
You shal
not breake a bone of him.
37. And againe another scripture saith:
*
Zac. 12,10.
They shal looke on him whom they pearsed.
38. And after these things
*
Mat. 27,57.
Mark 15,42.
Luke 23,50.
Iohn 3,1. 7,50.
Ioseph of Arimathæa (because he was a Disciple of
Iᴇꜱᴠꜱ, but secret for feare of the Iewes) desired Pilate that he might take away the body
of Iᴇꜱᴠꜱ. And Pilate permitted. He came therfore, & tooke away the body of Iᴇꜱᴠꜱ.
39. Nicodemus came also, he that at the first came to Iᴇꜱᴠꜱ by night, bringing
a mixture of myrrhe and aloes, about an hundred poundes.
40. They tooke therfore the body of Iᴇꜱᴠꜱ, and bound it in linnen clothes with
the spices, as the manner is with the Iewes to burie.
41. And there was in the place where he was crucified, a garden: and in the garden a
new monument, wherein no man yet had been laid.
42. There therfore because of the Parasceue of the Iewes, they laid Iᴇꜱᴠꜱ,
because the monument was hard by.
ANNOTATIONS.
Cʜᴀᴘ. XIX.
17. His owne crosse.)
THE HOLY CROSSE.
This crosse, for that it was the instrument of our redemption, and as it
were the altar of the supreme sacrifice, highly sanctified by the touching, hearing, and oblation of the
sacred body and bloud of our Lord, is truly called the HOLY CROSSE: and hath been endued with virtue
of miracles, both the whole and euery litle peece thereof. For the which causes, and specially for the
most near memorial of Christs Passion, it hath been visited in Pilgrimages, honored by festiual daies
and otherwise, reserued and reuerenced of the ancient fathers, with al deuotion: as contrariwise it hath
been abused of Pagans, Apostates, and Heretikes, seeking in vain to deface and destroy it. See S. Cyril
li. 6. cont. Iulian. S. Hierome ep. 17. S. Paulinus ep. 11. Ruffinus
li. 1. c. 7. & 8 Euagr. histo. li. 4. c. 25. S. Leo ep. 72. and Ser. 8. de Pasione. Paulus
Diac. li. 18.
26. To his mother.)
By this you see why in Catholike Churches Marie and Iohn stand by the Rood.
The maruelous respect that Christ had to his mother, vouchsafing to
speake to her, and to take order for her euen from the crosse in the middes of his infinite anguishes and
mysteries a working for mankind.
27. To the Disciple.)
A great honour to Iohn and charge, to haue that blessed iewel in keeping:
and an vnspeakable comfort, that from that day forward the one was to the other mother and sonne,
Virginem virgini comendauit, saith S. Hierome, *He commended the virgin to a virgin.
*li. 2 adu. Iouinian.
34. Bloud and water.)
The Sacraments issued out of Christs side, & thence haue their virtue.
This piercing of Christs side, though on the soldiers part it was done
blindly and insolently, yet by Gods ordinance it contained great mysteries, and was prefigured by
Moyses striking the rock with his rod: as this streame of bloud and water drawn miraculously out of his
dead body, running in the Sacraments of the Church after the people of God, was signified by the water
of the same rock following the Israelites in the desert, *Out of this side (saith St. Augustine)
issued the Sacraments. Hence (saith St. Chrysostom) the great mysteries haue their
beginning. Who warneth vs,
that when we come to drinke of the holy chalice, we should so approach, as though we drew the bloud
out of Christs side. And both bloud and water apart did flow forth, to show vs the fountaine of the two
principal Sacraments, and their seueral matters, Baptisme and the Eucharist, springing to life euerlasting
in the Church.
The Church builded of Christs side, as Eue of Adams.
The fathers also say that the Church who is Christs spouse and his coadiutrice in
applying the bloud and water to the benefit of the Faithful, was here formed, builded, and taken out of
this holy side of Christ sleeping on the Crosse, as *Eue was of Adams side, when he was cast asleep in
Paradise.
*Exo. 18.
Num. 30.
Tract. 9. in Ioan.
Hom. 24. in Ioan.
**Gen. 2,21.