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Jesus joins his disciples and the Last Supper begins.
Atque ea dum intentis hauriebant auribus omnes,------------
haud rerum ignarus Christus de montibus altis
cesserat, infensaeque iterum successerat urbi. [645]
Et iam declivi cum sol properaret Olympo,
hospitis intravit, sociis comitantibus, aedes
regifico instructas luxu; dapibusque paratis.
Discubuere omnes. Unà inter dirus Iüdas,
dissimulans sedet, et vultu mentitur amorem. [650]
Iamque heros puras fruges properataque liba
accipiens, frangensque manu, partitur in omnes:
inde mero implevit pateram lymphaque recenti,
et laticis mixti dium sacravit honorem,
spumantemque dedit sociis; mox talia fatur: [655]
“Corporis haec nostri, haec vera cruoris imago,
unus pro cunctis quem fundam sacra parenti
hostia, ut antiquae noxae contagia tollam.
Vos ideo, quoties positas accedere mensas
contigerit, sacrasque dapes, libamina iussa, [660]
funeris his nostri mœstum referetis honorem;
et nunquam istius abolescet gloria facti.”
Nec plura: ex illo mox servavere minores
hunc semper ritum memores, arisque sacramus
synceram cererem, et dulcem de vite liquorem, [665]
pro veterum tauris, pecudum pro pinguibus extis.
Ipse, sacerdotum verbis eductus ab astris,
frugibus insinuat sese regnator Olympi;
libaturque Dei sacrum cum sanguine corpus:
in summos haec relligio successit honores. [670]
Whilst everyone’s ears were full of this song,------------
Christ, who knew everything, left the mountains
and came back again to the city of his enemies. [645]
As the declining sun hurried on its way
he and his disciples entered the house
which was laid out with regal pomp, the food ready.
Everyone sat down. Amongst them, dire Judas,
sat there, dissimulating, feigning love. [650]
Now the hero took the quick-baked unleavened
bread, broke it and passed the pieces about:
then poured a bowl with fresh flowing water,
mixed in wine and consecrated the joyous cup,
giving the bubbling cup to his disciples: [655]
“This is my body, this is truly my blood,
though only one man, I'll spill my blood for all
to requite my Father for mankind’s ancient sin.
You all, whenever you sit down to such meals
with this consecrated bread and wine, [660]
think back to the mournful honour of my death;
whose glory will never be abolished.”
He said no more; but generations of his
followers have since preserved that rite, and so
we sacralise ourselves with bread and sweet wine, [665]
in place of the sacrificed bulls and sheep of yore.
And, drawn down from the stars by the priest’s words
The Lord of Olympus enters the meal;
the sacred body and blood of God offered up:
a holy tradition held in highest reverence. [670]
This, obviously, is Vida’s version of the initiation of the eucharist. Of the four NT accounts of this—Mark 14:22–25; Matthew 26:26–29; Luke 22:14–20 and 1 Corinthians 11:23–26—Vida is closest to Paul's:
For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, that the Lord Jesus the same night in which he was betrayed took bread: And when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me. After the same manner also he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, this cup is the new testament in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me. For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord's death till he come.Gardner thinks Vida's line 657, pro cunctis quem fundam sacra parenti, owes something to Paulinus of Nola: pro cunctis hominem sumsit Deus [Paulinus Nolani Carmina 26:59]. I mean, I guess so.
At the head of this post: Jesus with the Eucharist at the Last Supper by Juan de Juanes (mid-16th century, and so more-or-less contemporaneous with Vida's poem). The original is in the Prado.
[Next: lines 671-700]
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