III. On Kissing at Verbum Caro Factum Est.
A Lytyll compilacion declaryng when men kysse in
Churche stoone or erthe Tymbre or Iron. What
they shuld remembre therby. [John Lydgate Verbum Caro factum est: Stow.]
1
O] deuout pepyll whyche kepe an obseruaunce
Lowly in churche to kysse stoone or tre,
Erthe or yron, haue in remembraunce
What they do meane, take the moralyte;
Erthe tokeneth furst the pure humanyte
Of Cryst Iesu, the stone hys sepulture,
The spere of steele, the sharpe nayles thre,
Made large his woundes, remembryd in scripture.
2
Thynke on the crosse, made of four dyuerse trees.
As Clerkes seyn, of Cedyr and Cypresse,
To hygh estates and folkes of lowe degrees
Cryst brought in pease, the Olyfe bereth wytnesse;
The Cedre aloft, contemplatyf swetnesse,
Graue all these sygnes depe in thy memory,
And howe hys passion was groundyd on mekenesse,
Geyne cruell Sathan to make vs haue vyctory.
3
These .iiij. fygures combynyd in-to oon,
Put in thy mynde for a memoryall,
Erthe and yron, iiij trees and the stoon,
To make vs fre where as we were thrall,
Beholde the baner vyctoryous and royall,
Crystes crosse as standard of most pryse,
Thynke howe the thyef for mercy dyd call,
Tawght by thys tre the way to paradyse.
4
Your hertes ey lyft vp in-to the Est,
All yowre body and knees boweth downe,
When the preest seyth Verbum caro factum est,
With all your inward contemplacion,
Your mowthe furst crossyd of hygh deuocion,
Kyssyng the tokenes rehersyd here toforn,
And euer haue mynde on Crystes passion
Whyche for your sake weryd a crowne of thorne.
Explicit [John Lydgate: Stow.]
