Presepe

PRESEPE, or Præsepium, a Manger, for Beasts to eat out of. The Holy Virgin was compell’d to put the new-born Infant Jesus in a Manger, belonging to the Stable in which she lay, because she had no Cradle, or other Place wherein to put him. The antient Fathers tell us, a That the Stable wherein Joseph and Mary were obliged to take up their Quarters, was a Cave made in a Rock. The Manger might also be hollow’d in the Rock; but within the Manger of Stone, there might be also a wooden Trough, wherein the Child Jesus lay. The Manger preserv’d at Rome is a wooden Manger. A Latin Author quoted by Baronius,¹ under the Name of St. Chrysostom, says, That the Manger wherein Jesus Christ lay was made of Earth, but that it was taken away to have a Silver one put in its Room.

The Painters have been used to represent near the Manger of our Saviour, an Ox and an Ass. To justify which they quote this Passage² Isai. i. 3.Passage of Isaiah, The Ox knoweth his Owner, and the Ass his Master’s Crib; and Habak. iii. 2.that other of Habakkuk, Thou shalt be known between two Animals. And several of the Fathers say,³ That Christ was known in his Manger by the Ox and the Ass. The Author of the Poem under the Name of Lactantius is directly for his Opinion, as also the Author of the Book of Promises, cited under the Name of St. Prosper. But notwithstanding these Authorities, several of the Criticks doubt whether the Ox and the Ass were then in the Stable of Bethlehem, neither the Gospel, nor the more antient Fathers having taken any Notice of it. And the Passages of Isaiah and Habakkuk brought to prove this, do not shew it fully and expresly.

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