Page:Gesta Romanorum - Swan - Wright - 2.djvu/128

116 corpses in the most honourable manner, and over them constructed an oratory. They perished in the first year of Adrian, A.D. 120, in the calends of November: or as some write, the 12th of the calends of October. (21)

My beloved, the emperor is Christ; Placidus, any worldly-minded man. The stags, are the senses. The large and beautiful stag is reason, it ascends a precipice, which is justice or rectitude. The horns, are the old and new law. The wife of Placidus is the soul; the two sons are the will, and the works of man. The master of the ship is a prelate, who would detain the soul from error; and the ship is the Church. The river is the world; the lion is the devil; and the wolf, the flesh.