Now he that betrayed him gave them a sign, saying, Whomsoever I shall kiss, that same is he: hold him fast.
Ver. 48. Whomsoever I shall kiss] Ah, lewd losel! betrayest thou the Son of man with a kiss? a Givest thou thy Lord such rank poison in such a golden cup? Consignest thou thy treachery with so sweet a symbol of peace and love? b But this is still usual with those of his tribe. Caveatur osculum Iscarioticum. Jesuits at this day kiss and kill familiarly; officiose occidunt, as one saith of false physicians. When those Rhemish incendiaries, Giffard, Hodgson, and others, had set Savage to work to kill Queen Elizabeth, they first set forth a book to persuade the English Catholics to attempt nothing against her. So when they had sent Squire out of Spain to poison the queen, they taught him to anoint the pummel of her saddle with poison secretly, and then to pray with a loud voice, God save the Queen. Lopez, another of their agents, affirmed at Tyburn, that he had loved the queen as he had loved Jesus Christ: which, from a Jew, was heard not without laughter. So Parsons, when he had hatched that nameless villany the gunpowder plot, set forth his book of resolution; as if he had been wholly made up of devotion, E societate Iesu fuit qui Iesum tradidit. He was from the fellowship of Jesus whom Jesus had taught.
a καταφιλειν ουκ εστι φιλειν. Philo.
b Sacramento pacis tradidit sacrificium pacis. Jerome.