Quam portionem Gallum vocant sapientes: qui interpretantur dictum Socratis, quod moriens, teste Platone dixit, Gallum Aesculapio debeo, reddite. Et bene Gallus vocatur lumen illud, quod a supramundano sole procedit: cum inter solares aves Gallus primum locum tenet. Hinc praeco est lucis, quae inde venit: de qua luce Ioannes[1] ait: Erat lux vera, quae illuminat omnem hominem venientem in hunc mundum.

The wise men call rooster that duty: they who interpret the phrase of Socrates, since when about to die, as recorded by Plato, he said: I owe a cock to Aesculapius, give it to him. And that light which proceeds from the sun being over-earth is correctly called rooster: since among solar birds the rooster holds the first place. Hence is coming the herald of the light which comes from there: concerning this light John says: That was the true light which illuminates every man coming into this world.

Quae sane doctrina congruit omnino, ut videtur, D. Ambrosio[2], ita scribenti: Est etiam Galli cantus suavis in noctibus, nec solum suavis, sed etiam utilis, qui quasi bonus cohabitator et dormientem excitat, et solicitum admonet, et viantem solatur, processum noctis canora significatione protestans. Hoc canente, latro suas relinquit insidias, hoc ipse Lucifer excitatus oritur, caelumque illuminat, hoc canente moestitiam trepidus nauta deponit, omnisque crebro vespertinis flatibus excitata tempestas, et procella mitescit, hoc canente devotus affectu exilit ad precandum, legendi quoque munus instaurat, hoc postremo canente, ipsa ecclesiae petra culpam suam diluit, quam priusquam Gallus cantaret ter negando contraxerat. Istius cantu spes omnibus redit, aegris levatur incommodum, minuitur dolor vulnerum, febrium flagrantia mitigatur, revertitur fides lapsis, Iesus titubantes respicit, errantes corrigit. Denique respexit Petrum, et statim error abscessit. Quod non fortuito accidisse, sed ex sententia Domini, lectio docet. Sic enim scriptum est, quia dixit Iesus ad Simonem: Non cantabit Gallus priusquam me ter abneges. Bene fortis in die Petrus, nocte turbatur, et ante Galli cantum labitur, etiam tertio: ut scias non inconsulta effusione sermonis esse prolapsum, sed mentis quoque mutatione turbatum. Idem tamen post Galli cantum fit fortior, et iam dignus, quem Christus aspiciat. Oculi Domini super iustos. Agnovit venisse remedium, post quod iam errare non posset: et in virtutem ab errore mutatus amarissime flevit, ut lachrymis suis deleret peccatum.

Undoubtedly this doctrine fully agrees, as it seems, with Saint Ambrose, who writes as follows: Also the crowing of the cock is sweet in the night-times, not only sweet, but even useful, since as a good fellow-tenant he wakes the sleeper, calms down the restless and reassures the wayfarer, testifying by a singing signal the progress of the night. When he crows the brigand leaves his trap aside, the same Lucifer awaked by him rises and illuminates the sky, when he crows the frightened sailor lets fall the sadness, and whatever tempest and storm often wakened up by winds of evening is placated, when he crows the devout person full of desire gets astir to beg and also renews the task of reading, finally when he crows the same stone on which the Church has been founded attenuates its guilt, of which had stained itself in denying three times before the rooster crowed. At his crow the hope is coming back to everybody, to the sick the suffering is attenuated, the pain of the wounds is reduced, the ardor of the fevers is mitigated, the trust comes back to those who have been wrong, Jesus takes care of those who are hesitant, He puts on straight and narrow path unstable persons. Finally He took care of Peter and suddenly the error disappeared. The text teaches that this didn’t happen casually, but for wish of the Lord. For it has been written as follows, since Jesus said turned to Simon: The cock shall not crow before you deny me thrice. Peter, nice and strong during the day, during the night is troubled, and he goes to fall before cockcrow, even for the third time: and you have to know that he has not fallen because of an ill-advised speaking, but also because upset by a change happened in the brain. However after the cockcrow he becomes stronger and by now worthy that Christ looks to him. The eyes of the Lord are aimed at the just. He realized that the therapy had come, after which he would not have been able by now to be wrong: and changed by the error into virtue he wept most bitterly to wipe out the sin with his tears.

Ad Galli eiusmodi cantum hymnus Prudentii[3] legitur elegantissimus, quem eo maxime adijcere placuit, quod totam mysticam historiam proxime superioribus accommodatam, ac consentientem complectatur.

An elegant hymn of Prudentius can be read, devoted to the crowing of that rooster, that seemed me very suitable to be inserted since it contains all the mystic history which suits very closely the previous ones and which agrees with them.

Ales diei nuncius

Lucem propinquam <prae>cecinit

Nos excitator mentium

Iam Christus ad vitam vocat.

[5] Auferte clamat lectulos

Aegros, sopores, desides,

Castique, recti, ac sobrii

Vigilate iam sum proximus.

Post Solis ortum fulgidi

[10] Serum est cubile spernere,

{Ne} <Ni> parte noctis addita

Tempus labori adieceris.

Vox ista, qua strepunt aves

Stantes sub ipso culmine

[15] Paulo ante quam lux emicet

Nostri figura est {indicis} <iudicis>.

Tectos tenebris horridis

Stratisque opertos segnibus

Suadet quietem linquere

[20] Iam iamque venturo die.

Ut cum coruscis flatibus

Aurora caelum sparserit,

Omnes labore exercitos

[25] Confirmet ad spem luminis.

Hic somnus ad tempus datus

Est forma mortis perpetis,

Peccata ceu nox horrida

Cogunt iacere, ac stertere.

[30] Sed vox ab alto culmine

Christi docentis praemonet

Adesse iam lucem prope

Ne mens sopori serviat.

Ne somnus usque ad terminos

[35] Vitae socordis opprimat,

Pectus sepultum crimine,

Et lucis oblitum suae.

Ferunt vagantes daemones

Laetos tenebris noctium

[40] Gallo canente exterritos

Sparsim timere, et cedere.

Invisa nam vicinitas,

Lucis, salutis, numinis,

Rupto tenebrarum situ,

[45] Noctis fugat satellites.

Hoc esse signum praescii

Norunt repromissae spei,

Qua nos soporis liberi

Speramus adventum Dei.

[50] Quae vis sit huius alitis,

Salvator ostendit Petro,

Ter antequam Gallus canat

Sese negandum praedicans.

Fit namque {peccator} <peccatum> prius,

[55] Quam praeco lucis proximae

Illustret humanum genus,

Finemque {precandi} <peccandi> ferat.

Flevit negator denique

Ex ore prolapsum nefas

[60] Cum mens maneret innocens

Animusque servaret fidem.

Nec tale quicquam postea

Linguae locutus lubrico est

Cantuque Galli cognito

[65] Peccare iustus destitit.

Inde est, quod omnes credimus

Illo quietis tempore

Quo Gallus exultans canit

Christum redisse ex inferis.

The winged messenger of the day

announced by his crowing the light by then near;

Christ, who stirs our minds,

now calls us to life.

[5] Take away, he cries, the beds

sick, somnolent, lazy,

and chaste, right, sober men

keep watch, by now I am close.

After the shining sun has risen

[10] it is late to spurn the bed,

unless by adding part of the night

you give more time to your toil.

This voice, by which the birds chatter

standing up under the same eaves

[15] a little while before the light shines forth

is the figure of our Judge.

Them who are covered by horrifying shadows

and covered up by blankets of laziness

he persuades to leave the rest

[20] for the day is by then arriving.

So that when with her sparkling breaths

the dawn has speckled the sky

all those who are accustomed to the toil

[25] you reassures in the hope of the light.

This sleep given in a due time

is an image of perpetual death,

the sins or the fearful night

force to sleep, to sleep heavily.

[30] But the voice from the high building

foretells that of Christ the teacher

the light is by now at hand

so that the mind may not be enslaved to slumber.

So that the sleep until the extreme limits

[35] of a sluggish life doesn’t oppress us,

with the bosom buried by sin,

and forgetful of its own light.

They say that demons wander

happy in the darkness of nights

[40] and that frightened by the crowing cock

here an there fear and run away.

For the hostile closeness

of light, salvation, divinity,

after having torn the place of darkness,

[45] puts to flight the ministers of night.

That this is a sign of a omen

they know, of a sure hope,

thanks to which free from sluggishness

we hope for God’s coming.

[50] What is the power of this bird,

the Savior showed to Peter,

that thrice before the cock crowed

predicting he would deny Him.

For the sin occurs before

[55] the herald of the close light

shines on humankind,

and brings the end of sinning.

At last the denier wept

the evilness that fell from mouth

[60] while the mind remained innocent

and the spirit kept faith.

Nor afterwards something of similar

he uttered deceitfully with tongue

and when he heard the cockcrow

[65] the just man ceased to sin.

Thence it follows what we all believe

that at that time of rest

when the cock crows exultant

Christ came back from underworld.