Excerpt from The Easter Song: Being the First Epic of Christendom The Easter Song of Sedulius takes rank as the First Epic of Christendom, and may be regarded as the Morning Hymn of the Christian World. Juvencus, who preceded him, produced but a metrical and amplified version of the text of the New Testament. Sedulius conceived the Great Epic. Beginning with the expulsion of the First of Man from Paradise, and the intrusion of Death because of disobedience, he describes the consequences of the Fall - the darkness of the World illumined by one only hope - and the coming, the sufferings and the sublime triumph of the Redeemer of Mankind. Few works have been held in so high honour, or have commanded a great audience through so many generations. Its earliest Editor was a Roman Consul; an Emperor, Theodosius, declared himself grateful for its dedication; the First Council of the Church welcomed it with distinguished praise. From its appearance in the middle of the fifth century it became the Christian classic. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.