There is not one cause of the multitude. I. For it was fitting that, of its own nature, most deservedly, honor be paid to the Lord’s ark, so that it might advance with as large an escort of the people as possible. For if to Kings, Princes, and Lords there is honor if very many attend and accompany them, is it becoming that the divine mysteries, and God himself, be deserted unaccompanied? II. When what pertains to religion and the worship of God is publicly performed, it is fair that men of every rank and age should come together: that men and women be present; priests and laity; boys and old men; soldiers and citizens; the helmeted and the togaed. III. The ark of God was a kind of, as it were, law-repository [nomophylacium]. Because, therefore, the laws of God ought to be observed by all, it is consonant that all, so far as it can be done, accompany the sacred ark. IV. Jericho — a most opulent, most charming city, most fruitful of all delights and pleasures — is this world. Against this [world] the zeal of all ought to glow: to follow God, to cleave to his sacred laws and mysteries, and to enter among themselves into a sacred fellowship, so as to go around the vain and fleeting goods of this world: all ought [to do so]. V. If [only] a few, or [some] warriors, or priests, or others, had gone around Jericho by themselves, they would have created less terror for the enemy, and more danger for themselves, since a sally of the townsmen against them would have been readier. But now, while there are so many and so great [in number], they hold the enemy within the walls trembling and stupefied; while they themselves, hedged and covered by the company of others, are free from all danger, go securely, come from the camp, [and] return to the camp. Always united force [is] stronger; and the things which do not avail singly, help [when] many [together]. VI. All the warriors and laity need the help of the priests; the priests [need] the aid of the warriors and laity. All the ranks conspire together amicably in this world, and in the holy Church of God. The soldier protects the priests with arms; the ark of God [protects] the soldier, and the priest [protects him] with the sacred trumpets — that is, by the administration of the divine mysteries and words. O fellowship of the holy Church! O holy communion of the saints! O holy framework, bond, and charity of all the members of Christ!
Moreover the first cause of the order is expediency. For the unarmed advance more safely, before whom the mass of the arm- ed goes [ahead]. II. The middle place [was given] to the priests; and it was so assigned because from them, into every kind of men — into the first [ranks] and the last — as, so to speak, from the heart into the other members, the spiritual life [flows]: they, as [being] virtue in the midst of the extremes, ought to excel before all the rest in holiness and justice. III. Here there is a certain figure of all who, from the founding of the world, fight against the crimes of this world. The warriors set before us the state of nature; the priests, the ceremonies of the Mosaic law; the following column of unarmed men of every kind, [that of] the Gospel — and peace, and a multitude of every sort. For in the Catholic Church, Jews and Egyptians, Greeks and Scythians, slaves and free, men and women, boys and disciples — all, in short, of whatever region and nation they be, of whatever religion and superstition they may have been — can have a place. IV. For the altars and the sacred things, for the priests and before them, it befits the Christian battle-lines to stand and fight bravely. After these are to be set the things which otherwise are the dearest pledges of all: wives, children, dependents, anything else. Nothing to Christian princes ought to be so hedged, and so walled around with every defense, as religion. “To you” (St. Symmachus addresses the Emperor) “it ought to be a greater concern for the sake of the faith than of the kingdom; and your clemency ought to be more solicitous for the peace of the Churches than for the security of all lands.” V. Here too [is] a certain type of our processions — especially where there is some danger from enemies. You have an example in the litany of the Jerusalem siege, indicated above [in] q. 24.