the same, the roar the same. The king of the Greeks wears long hair, a tunic, long sleeves, a hood; is lying, crafty, without pity, sly as a fox, proud, falsely humble, miserly, and greedy; lives on garlic, onions, and leeks, and drinks bath-water. The king of the Franks, on the contrary, is beautifully shorn; wears a garment not at all like a woman's garment, and a hat; is truthful, without guile, merciful enough when it is right, severe when it is necessary, always truly humble, never miserly; does not live on garlic, onions and leeks so as to spare animals and, by not eating them, but selling them, to heap money together. Te have heard the difference; do not be willing to accept their interpretation, for either it refers to the future, or it is not true. For it is impossible that Nicephorus, as they falsely say, can be the lion and Otto the whelp, and that they together shall exterminate any one. For " sooner mutually changing their bounds shall the Parthian exile drink the Araris, or the German the Tigris," than that Nicephorus and Otto shall become friends and close a treaty with each other.
Ye have heard the interpretation of the Greeks; hear now that of Liutprand, bishop of Cremona. For I say — and not alone do I say, but I affirm—that if the prophecy is to be fulfilled in the present time, the lion and the whelp are the father and the son. Otto and Otto, unlike in nothing only differing in age,—and that they together shall, in this present time, exterminate the wild ass Nicephorus; who not incongruously is compared to the wild ass on account of his vain and empty glory, and on account of his incestuous marriage with his fellow god-parent and mistress. If now that wild ass shall not be exterminated by our lion and his whelp—by Otto and Otto, the father, namely, and the son, the august emperors of the Romans—then that which Hippolytus wrote will not have been true; for that former interpretation of the Greeks is entirely to be discarded. But oh blessed Jesus, eternal God, the Word of the Father—who dost speak to us, unworthy as we are, not by voice but by inspiration—may'st Thou be willing to see in this sentence no other interpretation than mine. Command that that lion and that whelp may exterminate and bodily humble this wild ass; to the end that, retiring into himself, subjecting himself to his masters the emperors
