the crucified orator 700 and Jews themselves who thought that the kingdom belonged to them alone as sons of Abraham.”28 Indeed, as the mellifluous Ambrose teaches, “We force the Lord not by coercion, but by tears; not by provoking insults, but by tearful supplication; not by blasphemy stemming from pride, but by mourning in humility.”29 Opowerful and efficacious battering ramof Penance that inflicts violence upon God, seizes Heaven, and conquers Paradise! An eloquent account from history helps elucidate this. Magdeburg, the noblest and wealthiest town situated on the Elbe, slowly grew powerful (due to its favorable location, as Florus the German affirms), a fact which was often disagreeable to the Roman Emperors,30 as it had frustrated their efforts and preserved its independence intact31 for many centuries. But the industrious Tyllius the Great, a famous Catholic warrior, wanted to deprive the rebellious city [of its freedom] by order of Emperor Ferdinand II, whose authority it rejected. He surrounded it with a great army, and having stripped it of its bulwarks, pressed by hunger and destroyed by missiles, he endeavored to force it to surrender. At that point, the citizens, already afflicted with many evils, were more desirous of the clemency of the victor than to experience the ruin of the city and intended to hand themselves over to him on whatever conditions. Therefore, they sent a trumpeter to Tyllius. While the matter unexpectedly [and] slowly dragged on, another participant in the siege, Papenheimius, the strongest and most pugnacious soldier, eager for glory and perhaps also for booty, enflamed his own [companions] to the destruction of the enemy city. Baptist Burg32 recounts that he said: “How long, fellow 28 Cornelius à Lapide, S.J., Commentaria in Quattuor Evangelia ed. V, TauriniRomae 1941, t. I: in S. Matthaeum, Pars Prior, pp. 391-392. 29 Ibid., p. 392. 30 Roman Emperors here refer to the emperors of the Holy Roman Empire (i.e., modern Germany). 31 In Latin, “illibatam virginitatem” (“intact virginity”). In the old German language, “magad” signifies “virgin.” This is the etymology of the name for the city of Magdeburg. 32 This probably refers to the German author whose name (in Latin) is Petrus Baptista Burg(us) Genuensis.
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