# Matins Nocturn 2 for "1st Sunday of October" (Tempora/101-0.txt) — see
# month-week-081.yml's header for the id scheme. Own Responsory4 (not a
# cross-reference).
id: month-week-101
readings:
  - nocturn: 2
    isGospel: false
    source: "St. Ambrose, Bishop of Milan, De Officiis, Book 1, ch. 40"
    text:
      la: >-
        Fortásse áliquos béllica defíxos glória tenet, ut putent solam esse præliárem fortitúdinem; et
        ídeo me ad ista deflexísse, quia illa nostris déforet. Quam fortis Jesus Nave, ut uno prǽlio
        quinque reges captos stérneret cum pópulis suis! Deínde cum advérsum Gabaonítas urgéret
        prǽlium, et vererétur ne nox impedíret victóriam, magnitúdine mentis et fídei clamávit: Stet
        sol, et stetit, donec victória consummarétur. Gédeon in trecéntis viris de ingénti pópulo et
        acérbo hoste revéxit triúmphum. Jónathas adoléscens virtútem magnam fecit in prǽlio.


        Quid de Machabǽis loquar? Sed prius de pópulo dicam patrum; qui cum essent paráti ad
        repugnándum pro templo Dei et pro legítimis suis, dolo hóstium die lacessíti sábbati, maluérunt
        vulnéribus offérre nuda córpora, quam repugnáre, ne violárent sábbatum. Itaque omnes læti se
        obtulérunt morti. Sed Machabǽi considerántes quod hoc exémplo gens omnis posset períre, sábbato
        étiam, cum ipsi in bellum provocaréntur, ulti sunt innocéntium necem fratrum suórum. Unde
        póstea stimulátus rex Antíochus, cum bellum accénderet per duces suos Lýsiam, Nicánorem,
        Górgiam, ita cum Orientálibus suis et Assýriis attrítus est cópiis, ut quadragínta et octo
        míllia in médio campi a tribus míllibus prosterneréntur.


        Virtútem ducis Judæ Machabǽi de uno ejus mílite consideráte. Namque Eleázarus, cum
        supereminéntem céteris elephántem loríca vestítum régia advérteret, arbitrátus quod in eo esset
        rex, cursu cóncito in médium legiónis se prorúpit: et, abjécto clýpeo, utráque manu interficiébat,
        donec perveníret ad béstiam, atque intrávit sub eam, et subjécto gládio interémit eam. Itaque
        cadens béstia oppréssit Eleázarum, atque ita mórtuus est. Quanta ígitur virtus ánimi! primo, ut
        mortem non timéret; deínde, ut circumfúsus legiónibus inimicórum, in confértos raperétur hostes,
        médium penetráret agmen, et contémpta morte ferócior, abjécto clýpeo, utráque manu vulnerátæ
        molem béstiæ subíret ac sustinéret: post infra ipsam succéderet, quo plenióri feríret ictu;
        cujus ruína inclúsus magis quam oppréssus, suo est sepúltus triúmpho.
      en: >-
        There may perchance be some who are so blinded by the glory of war as to think there is no
        valour but warlike valour, and that the reason why I have taken up other subjects is that among
        us there is no warlike valour whereof to speak. But what was the valour of Josue the son of
        Nun, when in one battle he laid low five nations, and took prisoners their kings? When he was
        fighting against the Gibeonites, and feared lest the closing in of night should cut short his
        victory, he cried aloud in the greatness of his mind and of his faith: "Sun, stand thou still
        over against Gibeon, and thou, Moon, over against the valley of Ajalon" — and the sun stood
        still, and the moon stayed, until the people had avenged themselves upon their enemies. (Josue
        10:12-13.) Gideon, with three hundred men, won the victory over the vast people, and the savage
        enemy. The lad Jonathan waxed valiant in fight.


        Shall I speak of the Maccabees? But before I speak of them, I will speak of their fathers, even
        of them who, when they were ready to fight for the Temple of God and for their own rights, were
        assailed by a trick of their enemies upon the Sabbath day, and were willing rather to offer
        their bodies naked to the sword than to strike back again and break the Sabbath, and so they
        gave themselves up gladly to death; but when the Maccabees bethought them that the whole nation
        might thus perish, they avenged the innocent blood of their brethren even upon the Sabbath day
        when they were provoked to battle, and afterward, when King Antiochus had been stirred up to
        make war on them by his generals, even Lysias and Nicanor and Gorgias, he and his Eastern and
        Assyrian forces were so crushed that forty and eight thousand were laid low on the field by
        three thousand.


        What was the valour of Judas the Maccabean leader we may judge by the type of one of his men.
        When Eleazar saw an elephant bigger than the rest, and adorned with the King's harness, he
        thought that the King was riding thereon, and he threw himself into the midst of the enemy, and
        cast away his shield and slew on either hand until he was come to the beast, and ran underneath
        it, and killed it with his sword, and so the beast fell upon Eleazar and crushed him, and he
        died. What valour was here! To begin with, he feared not to die, and when the enemy surrounded
        him he cast himself into the midst of their ranks, pierced their column, and becoming all the
        fiercer through his mockery of death, he threw away his shield and upheld with both hands the
        huge bulk of the wounded monster beneath which he had gone the better to spite it, so that when
        he died with it he might well have been said not so much to be crushed as to be swallowed up in
        victory.
    responsory:
      la: "R. Impetum inimicórum ne timuéritis: mémores estóte, quómodo salvi facti sunt patres nostri: * Et nunc clamémus in cælum et miserébitur nostri Deus noster.\nV. Mementóte mirabílium ejus, quæ fecit pharaóni et exercítui ejus in Mari Rubro.\nR. Et nunc clamémus in cælum et miserébitur nostri Deus noster."
      en: "R. Be ye not afraid of the assault of the enemy; remember how our fathers were delivered. * Now, therefore, let us cry unto heaven, and our God will have mercy upon us.\nV. Remember His marvellous works that He hath done unto Pharaoh and his host in the Red Sea.\nR. Now, therefore, let us cry unto heaven, and our God will have mercy upon us."
    status: { la: verified, en: verified }
