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Latin ed.:The Liber Confortatorius of Goscelin of Saint Bertin, ed.C.H.Talbot, in M. M. Lebreton, J. Leclercq, C. H. Talbot, Analecta Monastica: Textes et études sur la vie des moines au moyen age, 3rd ser., Studia Anselmiana, 37 (Rome: Herder, 1955), pp. 79-83. Engl. translation based in part on: W. R. Barnes and R.Hayward, Writing the Wilton Women, ed. S. Hollis (Turnhout: Brepols, 2004), 162-166;
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[79] The [BANQUET–] TABLE of the SCRIPTURES |
[79] MENSA SCRIPTVRARVM 7 |
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| WHAT [does it matter] if you imagine yourself entombed here, or come to regard this little room as a tomb? Bearing the cross, following after Christ, you will arise from the tomb. Being entombed does no harm those who will be resurrected. | Quid si te hic sepultam cogites, aut hoc cubiculum sepulcrum estimes? . Ferendo crucem post Christunt, de sepulcro resurges. Non nocet sepultura resurrecturis. |
| We have seen in like fashion an old vine, exhausted after long years, reborn to yield fruit. Ripped up by the root, [but] not transplanted, like a tree, rather its entire body buried with the long arms of its branches: only the tips and and tiny mouths of its shoots are extended upwards in its fingers. And then, suddenly, an astonishing thing to see - new fruitfulness and a new pledge spring forth, and the tree that had been moribund or unfruitful in its roots is revived from entombment to reproduce abundantly. | Vidimus uitem annosam longoque ueterno effetam tali arte in 10 fructus renasci. Eruitur a radice nec arborum more transplantatur, sed toto corpore cum longis brachiis palmitum sepelitur, solos fines et spiracula germinis ad superna suis digitis porrigitur. Hinc repente mirabile uisu erumpunt noui fetus et noua pignora, atque arbor que in sua radice iam erat uel moribunda uel infecunda, in multam propaginem reuiuiscit a sepultura. |
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| Thus the grain of wheat, in which the redeemer signifies himself, falling to the earth has brought forth much fruit by dying for the world (Jn 12.24-25). ***tr*** Paul said: ‘As dying, and behold we live: as chastised and not killed, as having nothing and possessing all things (2 Cor 6.9-10).’ So you have been buried in humility and the mortification of desires, but, raising breathing passages of perpetual hope to heaven, you will give birth with pain, sadness and tears to eternal rejoicing, and you will bear fruit in patíence. | Sic granum frumenti, quo se redemptor significat, cadens in terra multum fructum 15 attulit moriendo in secula. Quasi morientes, inquit Paulus, et ecce uiuimus: ut castigati et non mortificati, quasi nichil habentes et omnia possidentes . Sic tu htunifitate et uoluptatum itnortificatione sepulta, sed perpetue spei spiracula in celum erecta, in dolore, tristitia, ac lacrimis parturies sempiterna 20 tripudia et fructum afferes in patientia. |
| Prudentíus says that humility of mind had made hope a companion for itself. Thus it is necessary to be balanced with both hope and fear, so that a mind that is broken does not fall and one that is elated does not tumble down. Now shun idleness: for idleness breeds disgust, and as St Benedict witnesses: ‘idleness is the enemy of the soul’, and ‘the idle man has desires’, and ‘long rest offers food to vίces. | Mens humilis spem sibi collegam fecerat, ait Prudentius ". Ita oportet et spe et timore liberari, elisa mens ne concidat, elata mens ne corruat . Iam fuge otia; otia enim generant fastidia, et, teste beato Benedicto. otiositas anime est inimica "; et: Oliosus in desideriis estm; et: Diuturna quies uitiis aiimenta ministrat |
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Unceasing Prayer |
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| Prayer and sighs to God without intermission (1 Th 5.17) and, as the Lord has given, tears forbid the soul to be weary. But can we, our teacher Augustine says, always pray? Or always read? Or always keep watch? But let prayer be before all things, and let the face of the Lord always be sought above all things, [80] and let the Lord have prior place in all things, and whatever you do, let all things be done in his name, and all things be consecrated to the Lord: that is to pray every hour. | 25 Oratio et suspiria ad Deum sine:intermisaione et prout Dominus donauerit, lacrime uetant animam tedere. Sed numquid, ait doctor Augustinus , semper possumus orare? Nunquid semper legere? Nunquid semper uigilare? Verum oratio sit ante omnia, et facies Domini semper queratur super omnia, [80] et priorem locum habeat Dominus ad omnia, et, quecunque feceris, in nomine eius fiant omnia, Dominoque consecrentur omnia, hoc est orare omni hora. |
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Holy Reading [sancta lectio] |
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| After the offerings we owe of prayers, after your breast is weakened with tiredness, restore yourself with holy reading; sharpen your blunted mind with the whetstone of books; from there add matter to the flame when it fails. The Lord says: ‘The fire on my altar shall always burn, which the priest shall feed, putting on wood’ and other fuel (Lv 6.12). Be yourself a priest for God, by sacrificing yourself, and let the fire of divine love burn always on the altar of your heart, which you will nourish with the food of holy writings and works, whence you may send up to the Lord the perfumes of holy desires. | Post debita orationum libamina, post deficientia lassitudine pectora, sancta lectione reficere, hebetatam mentem cote librorum exacue, decidentem 5 flamme materiein inde adhibe. Ignis, ait Dominus, in altari meo semper ardebit, quem nutriet sacerdos subiciens ligna et cetera fomenta . Ipsa Deo sacerdos esto, te ipsam sacrificando, et ignis amoris diuini semper ardeat in altari cordis tui, quem nutries alimentis sanctorum documentorum et operum, unde uapores Domino sanctorum odoramenta desideriorum. |
| Hence the Seraphim, because they are inflamed the more ardently with the love of God the more nearly they are joined, are properly called ‘burning’. Let there be no gatherings of detractors; hedge your ear with thorns and guard it devoutly. May the windows of your cell, tongue and ear be closed against stories and idle talk, or rather malign talk. | Hinc Seraphim, Ioquia eo ardentius Dei caritate inflammantur quo uicinius iunguntur; ardentes proprie nuncupantur. Absint detrahentium conciliabula, sepi aurem tuam spinis in custodia timorata. Celle, lingue et aurium fenestre a fabulis et uaniloquiis, immo maliloquiis, sint obserate . |
| May no cat, no bird, no little animal, no irrational being of any sort share your home, nor make your fleeting time empty. | Non cata, non altilia, non bestiola, non omnis irrationabilis anima sit tibi condomestica, nec tua exinaniant I5 tempora auolantia. |
| As a solitary, be solitary with the Lord. In praying, speak with the Lord; in reading, hear the Lord speaking with you. | Sola sis cum Domino solitaria. Orando cum Domino loquere, legendo tecum loquentem Dominum attende . |
| And thus I pray, beseech and implore this: that you take possession of the holy banquet of sacred volumes with avidity and praiseworthy gluttony, and hunger for it as for the bread of life and thirst for it as for the fountain of life, to sharpen your little intellect, to draw it on with nectar, to fill your lamp with oil and to kindle it more and more to heavenly love. | Itaque hoc oro, obsecro, et imploro, ut sacrorum uoluminum mensam sanctam auiditate et laudabili ingluuie peruadas, hanc ut uite panem ut uite fontem esurias et sitias, que ingeniolum tuum exacuat, nectare trahat, lampadem tuam oleo 20 impinguet, atque ad supernam caritatem magis magisque inflammet. |
| You will find there the life of the soul, for man does not live by bread alone, but by every word from the mouth of God (Mt 4.4), and whatever has been written has been written for our instruction, so that we may have hope patiently through the comfort of the Scriptures (Rom 15.4) | Illic inuenies anime uitam, quia non in solo pane uiuit homo, sed in omni oris Dei uerbo , et quecunque scripta sunt ad nostram doctrinam scripta sunt, ut per consolationem scripturarum spem patienter habeamus . |
| This I inculcated in you, if you recall, as if giving a key for understanding, very frequently, both when I was present, with words, and when I was absent, in writing. | Hec tibi, si recolis, tanquam clauim dans intelligendi, frequentius et presens uerbis, 25 et absens scriptis incukaui. |
| There you will find the treasure and the pearl that you may acquire by selling all the desires of the world (Mt 13.46). Read the expositions of the holy fathers Jerome, Augustine and Gregory, and the other teachers of virtue, and set your heart (Ez 40.4, 44.5) to the understanding of the Scriptures, which contain also the mystery of the church and of spiritual wars in various allegories. I should wish that the window of this cell of yours is large, to admit such an extensive library itself to be by you, or that you can read it through the window if it is brought up to it from outside. | Illic thesaurum et margaritani inuenies, quem, uenditis omnibus mundi cupiditatibus, compares. Lege expositiones sanctorum patrum Ieronimi, Augustini, Gregorii ceterorumque uirtutis doctorum, et pone cor tuum ad intelligentiam scripturarum, que et ecclesie spiritualiumque bellorum in uariis enigmatibus continent misterium. Ipsa quoque ut 30 possit admittere bibliotecam tam capacem, in longum esse uelim huius celle fenestram, aut per fenestram te legere posse a foris ap(p)ositam. |
| Recite the lives and the various writings of the fathers, indeed the Life of St Antony, to protect you against the arguments of the devil, and to teach you how weak all his army is against those believing in Christ. | Recita uitas ac diuersa documenta patrum, uitam uero beati Antonii, que te contra diaboli argumenta muniat, et quam infirmus contra credentes in Christum sit omnis eius exercitus erudiat. |
| Nor should you neglect, among other things, the book of Augustíne’s Confessions, to instill divine affection in you more deeply. You should love also the three-fold book of ecclesiastical history, together with the history of Eusebius, to narrate to you both of the struggles of the saints [81] and of the victory of faith founded in Christ and unconquered by all storms. Look at Augustine’s City of God, Orosius’ De Ormesta Mundi,Boethius’ The Consolation of Philosophy, and you will understand that nothing is more miserable than the whirlpool of the world, nothing happier than the peace of Christ. | 35 Nec librum inter cetera postponas Augustini confessionum, qui tibi diuinum altius instillet afiectum. Ames etiam librum tripartitum ecclesiastice historie cum historia Eusebii, que tibi et sanctorum certamina, et fidei [81] uictoriam canant in Christo fundate et cunctis tempestatibus inuicte. Respice Augustinum De Ciuitate Dei, Orosium De Ormesta Mundi, Boetium De Consolatione Philosophie, et intelliges nil miserabilius seculi gurgite, nil felicius Christi pace. |
| Boredom will be put to flight by these exercises and the time will seem short; your solitude will delight you, and, now replete, you will lose your appetite for these insipid encouragements of mine. Nor indeed should you give up if anywhere you cannot follow the sense, but take hold, return, read again, until you understand abundantly, because nothing is so difficult that it cannot be found by seeking, and persistent effort conquers a11,and the Lord will open to one seeking and knocking (Mt 7.7-8), and the gracious spirit of wisdom (Ws 1.6) will enter into you. | His exercitiis terga dabunt tedia, et breuia uidebuntur tempora, et delectabit te solitudo tua, iamque plena nausiabis insulsa hec hortamenta. 5 Nec uero refugias sicubi sensu hereas, sed occupa, reuolue, relege, donec affatim capias, quia nil tam dif(f)icile est quin possit querendo inueniri, et labor omnia uincit improbus , et querenti et pulsanti aperiet Dominus , et intrabit ad te benignus sapientie spiritus . |
| St Gregory of Naziaiizus, a very pure and beautiful dwelling-place of wisdom, saw in a dream very beautiful twin girls sitting one on either side of him, and they were cherishing him between them with chaste love. And the champion of chastity, indignant that women should have entered, heard them say this sweetly to him: ‘We are your dearest friends, your ever-inseparable companions and comrades, for we are, that is to say, wisdom and chastity, your sisters, whom you love especially and who love you.ι54 Someone wise says: ‘I have loved wisdom above health and all beauty (Ws 7.10)’, and I have said to wisdom: ‘You are my sister (Pry 7.4) | Beatus Gregorius Naz(i)anzenus saa purissimum et pulcherrimum sapientie domiciliam uidit in somnis, 10 gemellas puellas formosissimas hinc et inde lateribus assidentes, et medium casto amore fouentes. Indignatusque zelator pudicitie pro ingressu femineo, hec ab eis audiuit dul(ci)fluo alloquio: n Nos sumus amice tue karissime comites et laterales semper inseparabiles, nos sumus, scilicet, sapientia et castitas, tue sorores, tue, quas precipue diligis, dilectrices ». Super salutem et 15 omnem pulcvitudinem, ait quidam sapiens, dilexi sapientiam et dixi sapientie: Soror mea es . |
| Follow the example of blessed Paula also and holy Eustochium and likewise Blaesilla, whom her teacher and admirer, Jerome, calls a library of Christ,and, as Daniel prophesies that the learned will shine like the stars of heaven (Dn 12.3), catch fire: moreover, ask of Jerome what difference there is between holy rusticity and learned holiness. | Beatae quoque Paule sancteque Eustochii necnon Blesille quam doctor et affectator Ieronimus Christi bibliotecam uocat , exemplum indue, et, Daniele prophetante quia docti fulgebunt sicut stelle celi , ascendere; quam etiam habeat differentiam sancta rusticitas et docta sanctitas 20 Ieronimum sci(s)citare . |
| St Peter praises studious readers: he says: ‘You have a more certain word of prophecy, to which you do well to attend, until the day dawns and the day star rises in your hearts (2Pt 1.19).’ The Lord, too, castigates the ignorant in the Gospel: he says: ‘You err when you do not know the Scriptures (Mt 22.29).’ | Laudat beatus Petrus studiosos lectores: Habetis, inquit, certiorem propheticum sermonem, cui benefacitis intendentes, donec dies illucescat et lucifer oriatur in cordibus uestris . Dominus quoque in euangelio arguit imperitos: Erratis, ait, nescientes scripturas . |
| Nor could the holy apostles understand the resurrection of the Lord, until he opened their perception so that they might understand the Scriptures (Lk 24.45). But the first thing is to fear God and obey God. ‘The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom (Ps 110.10).’ And: ‘You have desired wisdom: keep the commandments and the Lord will give her to you’(Ecclus 1.33). ‘Wisdom seeks one who is humble and quiet and trembles at the word of God. For swollen knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. | Nec sancti Apostoli poterant intelligere resurrectionem Domini, donec aperuit illis sensum ut 25 intelligerent scripturas. Sed prius est Deum timere et Deo obedire. Initium sapientie timor Domini . Et: Desidevasti sapientiam, serua mandata, et Dominus prebebit eam tibi . Humilem et quietum et trementem sermones Dei querit sapientia . Nam tumida scientia inflat, caritas uero edificat. |
| [82] But wisdom, the mother of the humble, tramples on the necks of the proud and lofty (Ecclus 24.11). They err who forbid learning on account of the suspicion of pride, since the more learned someone is, the more humble they can be. For as Solomon attests: ‘whoever increases knowledge increases pain’ (Bed 1.18), because he finds out what he should fear, to make him repress the character of arrogance. | Humilium [82] autem mater sapientia superborum et sublimium colla calcat . Errant qui propter inflationis suspicionem discere uetant, cum eo quis possit esse humilior, quo fuerit doctior. Nam, Salomone attestante, qui apponit scientiam apponit doloyem . quia inuenit quod timeat, unde tipum arrogantie reprimat. |
| It is the same madness if they condemn continence, abstinence, vigils and other virtues, which are the matter of pride. Rather indeed let them learn through erudition how they can guard humility, the guard of all virtues, and trample on the barbarism of pride and the arrogance of those who are uneducated. | 5 Ea dementia est si damnent continentiam, abstinentiam, uigilias reliquasue uirtutes, que sunt materia elationis. Immo uero per eruditionem discant, quomodo omnium uirtutum custodem possint humilitatem custodire, et barbariem superbie et indisciplinatorum iactantiam calcare. |
| We see the unlearned deride and despise the learned, and think ignorance of literature to be knowledge of the world and purity of life. Is it surprising if they neglect what they do not know, if they prefer what they do know, if being blind they despise those who see, if being ignorant of the cultivation of humility they are proud? | Videmus indoctos deridere doctos ac despicere, litterarumque ignorantiam seculi prudentiam 10 aut uite sanctimoniam putare. Quid mirum si quod nesciunt postponant, si quod sciunt preferant, si ceci uidentes despiciant, si ignorantes humilitatis culturam superbiant? |
| Therefore allot fixed times to prayer and reading, or rather give your first and last attention to prayer, as if always seeking the face of the Lord. Amid darkness and lack of light, let the true light, Christ, be made to shine by prayer; in the helpful daylight, let a lamp be sought for your feet by reading the word of the Lord (Ps 118.105). | Orationi igitur et lectioni certa diuide tempora, immo prima et suprema orationi, tanquam semper querendo faciem Domini, concede studia. In tene 15 bris et inopia lucis lux uera Christus orando excitetur, in lucis am(m)iniculo lucerna pedibus tuis uerbum Domini legendo queratur. |
| When you weave anew the web of the Psalter, sing as if you were in the sight of the angels, and as if you were singing the very words of the Saviour in the presence of the Lord of majesty himself. The Saviour Lord himself intercedes for us (Rom 8.34) through the dispensation of humanity in the sacrament of psalm-singing, and because our voice deserves to be heard by God only through his own mediation, we have him as an advocate with the Father (τ 7n 2.1), praying for us his members as if for himself: ‘O God, deliver my soul, that is, my church, from the sword, and my only one, that is, my spouse, redeemed by my blood, from the power of the dog (Ps 21.21). | Cum telam psalterii retexeris, ita cane sicut in conspectu angelorum et sicut ipsa uerba saluatoris coram ipso Domino maiestatis. Ipse Dominus saluator per dispensationem humanitatis in sacramento psalmidico interpellat pro nobis, et quia uox 20 nostra non meretur audiri a Deo nisi per ipsum mediatorem, ipsum habemus aduocatum apud patrem, pro nobis membris suis ac si pro se orantem: Erue a framea Deus animam meam , hoc est, ecclesiam meam, et de manu canis unicam meam, hoc est sponsam meam, meo sanguine redemptam. |
| Save me from the lion’s mouth (Ps 21.22), me, that is, my body, all my elect, of whom I am the head.’ I have taken this light from the smoke of fables, where in Homer Thetis is represented as having prayed thus for her son, | Salua me ex ore leonis , me, hoc est corpus meum, omnes electos meos quorum caput 25 sum. Hanc lucem accepi de fumo fabularum, ubi in Omero fingitur Thetis sic orasse pro Achille filio: |
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Achilles: ‘Avenge me and my flesh’, that is: ‘my son’. |
Vlciscere meque meumque corpus, hoc est filium meum. |
| herefore, stand in the presence of the Lord to sing psalms in such a way that mind is in harmony with voice, following the teaching of our father Benedict. Run through the psalms, as you sing them with an upright heart (Ps 118.7); but where you come to an expression of greater feeling, such as is: ‘O Lord your name in eternity’, and ‘your memorial’ (Ps 134.13), by which you handed yourself over for us, and ‘Bless the Lord, my soul, and all that is within me bless his holy name’ (Ps 102.1), and others of this kind, such that you are held by them with celestial love, there, feeling remorse by divine providence, you should pause, with long sighs. | Sic ergo sta coram Domino ad psallendum, ut mens concordet uoci, iuxta patris Benedicti documentum . Curre psallendo in 30 directione cordis; ubi uero ad affectuosius uerbum ueneris, ut est: Domine nomen tuum in eternum • et memoriale tuum, quo pro nobis te tradidisti, et benedic anima mea Domino, et omnia que intra me sunt nomini sancto eius et cetera huiusmodi, quibus celesti amore tenearis, ibi diuinitus compuncta longis suspiriis immoreris. |
| As St Gregory teaches us to sigh with frequent repetitions in offering words: ‘That it may see good, that it may see good, good, [83] good’, those inestimable things, so pour out your soul to the Lord in high desire and sigh. And may it suffice for you to seek all things with one phrase from your inmost heart: ‘Let your mercies come to me and I will live (Ps 118.77). Let my soul live and it will praise you (Ps 118.175).’ And for someone who is your friend: ‘Deal with your servant, Lord, according to your mercy (Ps 118.124).’ Say more things from your heart and from desires to which you give voice. | Vtque beatus Gregorius nos docet, suspirare frequenti 35 repetitione uerbis in offerendis: Vt uideat bona, ut uideat bona, bona, [83] bona, illa inestimabilia , sic effunde animam tuam Domino per alta desideria et anhela. Et sufficiat tibi omnia uno uerbo ex intimo petere: Veniant mihi miseyationes tue et uivam . Vivat anima mea et laudabit tel. Et pro aliquo intimo: Fac cum seruo tuo, Domine, secundum misericordiam tuam. Plura dic corde et desideriis uociferis. |
| 5The holy day of redemption | SANCTVS DIES REDEMPTIONIS |
| Consecrate all hours to the sufferings of Christ. In the middle of the night reverence him as he was captured and imprisoned, in the morning as he was flagellated, at terce as he was handed over to the cross; by calling out: ‘Let him be crucified’ (Mt 27.23), they crucified him with their tongues. | Omintes horas Christi passionibus consecra. Media nocte adora captum et carceratum, mane flagellatum, hora tertia cruci addictum; conclamando: Crucifigatur, linguis crucifixerunt eum. |
| At sext reverence him as he was hung on the cross, at nones as he died, at vespers as he was buried. Again from early dawn, and as the morning star rises, with matutinal praise greet the resurrection of the Lord, at terce the coming of the Holy Spirit, at sext the Lord in the sixth age of the world visiting us, sitting at the fountain, consecrating baptism for us, at nones his ascension to heaven, so that as all the hours passed, by the divine ordination by which he was abased in death, he was glorified in his ascension. | Hora sexta cruci appensum, hora nona mortuum, uespere sepultum. Item a gallicinio, oriente lucifero, matutina 10 laudatione saluta resurrectionem Domini, hora tertia, aduentum spiritus sancti, hora sexta sexta etate mundi Dominum nos uisitantem, sedentem ad fontetn, baptisma nobis consecrantem, bora nona celos ascemlentem, ut omnibus euntibus diuina ordinatione, qua hmailiatus est morte, glorificaretur ascensione. |
| And see the order of the Lord’s disposition, which was prescribed before the ages. On the sixth day man was created; on the sixth day he was redeemed.ó4 On the sixth day the redeemer was conceived, and on the same day he died and was buried. On a Sunday he was born; on a Sunday he was raised again to life. He came forth then from an enclosed womb, now from a sealed tomb. | Et uide dominice dispositionis ordinem ante secula 15 prescriptum. Sexta feria homo factus, sexta feria est redemptus. Sexta feria redemptor conceptus, et eadem mortuus est et sepultus. Dominica nascitur, dominica resuscitatur. Ibi egreditur de clauso utero, hic de clauso mausoleol. |
| I have heard from a certain monk, who is not unlearned, that when that virgin, unique among all, who was going to give birth to God, rose according to holy custom in the middle of the night (to sing) divine hymns, and as she rose sang a song of ascents, at this verse when she said: ‘lay the Lord keep your coming-in and going-out’ (Ps 120.8), the archangel Gabriel entered with celestial splendour, so that the virgin seemed to receive him with such greeting, and indeed also that one whose birth from her the messenger was announcing, whose coming-in at his conception and going-out at his birth would be, he said, in the Lord’s keeping, and thus with her spirit rejoicing in God her Saviour (Lk 1.47) at the angel’s message, she entered the synagogue with the song of the following psalm: ‘I rejoiced at the things that were said to me: We shall go into the house of the Lord (Ps 121.1).’ | Audiui a quodam monacho non indocto, cum illa singularis omnium uirgo Deum paritura media nocte sancta assuetudine ad diuinos hymnos surgeret, 20 et Canticum graduum inter surgendum timpanizaret, ad hunc uersum ubi dixit: Dominus custodiat introitum tuum et exitum tuumlo, ingressum fuisse Gabrielem arc(h)angelum cum celesti splendore, adeo ut uirgo uideretur hunc tali salutatione excipere, immo illum quem nuntius ferebat nasciturum ex se, cuius Dominus custodiret introitum in conceptione, et exitum in na 25 tiuitate, atque ita de angelico nuntio exultante spiritu in Deo salutari suo , sinagogam intrasse cum sequentis psalmi cantico. Letatus sum im his que dicta sunt michi. In domum Domini ibimusi |
| Note also that in the middle of the day, [84] when the sun was occupying the middle of the sky, that true sun,ó5 from whose injury the material sun fled darkened, was suspended on the balance of the cross,ó6 namely in the centre of heaven and in the middle of the earth, he who made the heaven holy with his head, the earth with his feet, and the sides of the world with the embrace of his arms. | Nota etiam quod in media [84] die cum sol teneret medium celi, ipse sol uerus a cuius iniuria materialis sol obscuratus fugit, in statera crucis libratus est, scilicet in centro celi et in medio terre, qui celum uertice, terram uestigiis, latera mundi brachiis complexatus sacrauit . |
| For as David says, the place of the Lord’s passion is reckoned in the middle of the earth: ‘But God is our king before ages: he has wrought salvation in the midst of the earth (Ps 73.12).’ It is said also that on the same day of the conception and the passion, in the same month, will be the day of judgement; whence it is written: Thy husband is not at home; he has gone on a long journey’ to heaven; ‘on the day of the full moon’, which is the church of all the elect made perfect, ‘he will return’ (Pry 7.19-20) for judgement. | Nam in medio terre locus censetur, ut Dauid ait, passionis 5 dominice: Deus autem rex noster ante secula, operatus est salutem in medio terre . Pertur etiam quod, eodem die conceptionis et passionis, in eadem luna erit dies iudicii; unde scriptum est: Non est uir in domo sua, abiit uia longinqua in celum; in die pleno lune, que est perfecta ecclesia omnium electorum, reuersurus est ad iudicium. |
| With what great reverence, therefore, is this day of redemption to be observed, which knows the redeemer and is the herald of the judge. So I exhort you, whatever you do on other days, to observe this day with the highest devotion in prayers and weeping, and with a contrite heart give over especially that time from sext to nones, as if to the Lord hanging on the cross. | Quanta ergo reuerentia colendus 10 est hic dies rederaptionis, qui conscius est redemptoris et preco iudicis. Unde hortor te, quicquid feceris aliis diebus, hunc diem summa deuotione in precibus ac fletibus solemnizare, et maxime illud tempus a sexta ad nonam, ac si Domino in cruce pendenti, contrito corde immolare. |
| Someone very humble, who was formerly most devoted to you, chose, according as the Lord had appointed in that hour of salvation, to repeat often these five psalms for the five wounds of hands, feet and side, with prostrations: ‘Ο God, my God, look on me’ (Ps 21.2) up to ‘The Lord is my light (Ps 26.1)’. And so, after the Lord’s prayer, he worships his birth, temptation, crucifixion, death and burial, his descent into hell, his rising from the dead, his ascent to heaven, his sitting on the right hand of the Father and his future coming from there as a judge. | Quidam humillimus et tibi quondam deuotissimus elegit prout Dominus 15 locum dederat in illa hora salutifera, hos quinque psalmoslo ad quinque plagas manuum, pedum ac lateris decantare, cum prostrationibus: Deus, Deus meus respice men, usque Dominus illuminatio meam. Sicque post dominicam orationem adorat natum, temptatum, brucifixum, mortuum et sepultum, descendentem ad inferos, resurgentem a mortuis, ascendentem ad 20 celos, sedentem ad dexteram Patris atque inde iudicem uenturum. |
| I have read in a book of miracles that the very holy glory of Tours, Martin, prayed at the tomb of the blessed virgin Vitaliana, when she had been recently buried, and addressed her thus with a holy greeting: ‘How are you, blessed virgin? Have you come yet before the face of the Lord, and have you seen Christ, your spouse in glory? | Legi in libro miraculorum sanctissimum Tutonensium decus Martinum ad tumbam beatissime uirginis Vitaliane iam sepulte orasse, eamque sancta salutatione ita compellasse: « Quomodo te habes, uirgo beatissima? Numquid coram facie Domini adhuc uenisti, et sponsum glorie Christum uidisti? ». |
| With a sudden utterance she responded thus to him from the grave: ‘No, most holy father, for this guilt alone stands in the way, that I used to wash my head on Fridays, not celebrating the memorial of the Lord’s passion with due reverence.’ Then St Martin said to his followers: ‘What shall we sinners do, if such a holy soul is kept away from the glory of the Lord’s face for such a light offence? For who understands sins? | Cui subita 25 uoce de tumulo ita respondit: « Non, pater sanctissime, nam hec sola obstat culpa, quia caput abluebam in sexta feria, dominice passionis memoriale debita non celebrando reuerentia ». Tunc beatus Martinus sequentibus se Quid faciemus nos peccatores, si a gloria uultus Domini differtur tam sancta anima pro tam leui offensa? Nam delicta quis intelligit? » 30 |
| But when he had offered acceptable sacrifices to God on her behalf, afterwards he returned to her place of sleeping and said exultantly: ‘Rejoice, blessed virgin, that now after three days you will see the Lord for eternity.’ When he had said this, after three days St Vitaliana shone forth in miracles, by which she declared herself that she had reached the face and grace of the Lord.O how true is that truth that is attested in the Gospel: ‘The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, is not the God of the dead, but of the living. [85] For all live to him (Lk 20.37-38).’ | Ut 30 uero pro ea acceptabiles Deo hostias immolauit, postea regressus ad eius dormitionem exultanter dixit: « Gaude, uirgo beatissima, quia iam post triduum sempiterne uidebis Dominum ». His dictis post triduum beata Vitaliana miraculis coruscauit, quibus se Domini faciem et gratiam adeptam declarauit . O quam uerax est ueritas, que testatur in euangelio: Deus 35 Abraham, Deus Isaac, Deus Iacob, non est Deus mortuorum, sed uiuorum. [85] Omnia enim uiuunt ei . |
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Read in the life of St John of Alms how much faith and perseverance deserve also. A certain poor woman wanted to confess her sins to this patriarch, but she could not in any way, because shame had obstructed her whole mouth. Then the bishop said: ‘Are you able to write and seal it and to entrust it to me to keep it without opening it?’ And she said: ‘Father, I can do this, and I can trust you not to read it.’ She went away, wrote it, sealed it and placed it in the very faithful hands of her protector. No long time afterwards the bishop went to the Lord, and while heaven held his spirit, a sepulchre received his body. The woman ran there in a frenzy, but she could not fmd where to seek what she had deposited with him. She feared that she was now known to all, where she could find nobody who knew of it. Woman, why do you tremble? Even if a contradictory mind deceives you, the sincerity of John will never deceive you. Take breath and endure, so that your great faith may find what it seeks. So for three days continually she prostrated herself at the grave of the saint, demanding with infinite cries and laments what she had entrusted to him. On the third day towards evening, when she had collapsed with her limbs worn out by vigils and fasting, behold she saw plainly and with her own eyes St John, and with him two bishops, between whom he was lying, together leaving their graves with episcopal staffs and clothing, and he was speaking to her thus: ‘Why do you disturb us, woman, with your laments, and do not spare at least these brothers of mine with your weeping? Now we are inundated with your tears.’ And offering the sealed tablets: ‘Do you recognize these?’ he said. ‘They have been preserved exactly as you entrusted them to me. Unseal them and read them.’ She recognized them, snatched them, unsealed them, opened them and found all her sins erased and only this writing: ‘On account of my servant John, your sin is forgiven.’ And having been soothingly consoled by these things, she saw them re-enter their graves together.70
She deserved such things by perseverance, and Mary, by persevering, deserved to be first to see the risen Lord. The life of Basil the Great also hands down something similar, where a woman who had written down her sins found after the death of the saint when she received back the tablets that they had been erased by divine providence.71
The riches of the creator of the universe
But further, so that you do not fail in the poverty and solitude of Christ, wonder at the great works of the Lord and the riches of things. Why need I say how huge the whole world is, when we, all the human race, possess scarcely a fifth part of all of it? The two outermost circles are uninhabitable from cold; the middle puts all to flight with burning heat; (only) the two regions in between are habitable, because of a balance of heat and cold. We earthly living beings dwell only in one, for who could cross through the torrid zone to the other? So here we human beings, the whole population of the world, are a fifth part [86] of the whole mass. Here are all living beings, all multitudes of nations, immense seas, innumerable rivers, very vast areas of the lands without inhabitants, mountains, valleys, crags, rocks, impassable heights and depths, infinite extents of woods, cornfields, plains, pastures, shores and banks, and multitudes of buildings, cultivated fields and (works of) all the arts; for of course dwellings are gathered all together especially in the fifth region, and yet that part extends so far, that it is never constricted by any quantity of citizens and things. When this circle is so great in part, how great shall it be reckoned as a whole? If this little portion that is your cell were compared to the whole magnitude of this, what would something so small be to something so immense? But when all the immensity of lands is compared with the heavenly sphere, how much smaller it will seem in relation to that home of the stars, than your cave seems in relation to this very kingdom of lands.
And indeed the globe of the sun, which flies across heaven and earth between them with incalculable speed, is determined as being far greater than the whole mass of lands, although to us on earth it seems able to be measured with the palm of the hand. What will be the limit of the ether as a whole, when the eye, which is larger than all the earth, appears so small? But the single stars are thought to be bigger (to put it thus) than all Europe, which is reckoned as a third part of our world. So when one considers the heavens, what are earthly kingdoms but caves of mice and a cause of laughter at those who wish to rule in them? What are the tops of cities, of castles and of buildings, but ditches, lumps of earth and dusty mounds of moles? These and all the constructions of human presumption are less to angelic majesty than the
65 See Gregory of Tours, On the Miracles of St Martin, 1. 4, PL 71, 918A-c.
66 Homilies on Joshua, xx. 1-2, pp. 404-17.
67 For the story of Joshua and Caleb entering the Promised Land for the first time, see Numbers 13, 14.
70 Compare St Columba, Instructiones varice sive sermones, Χ. 3, PL 80, 249λ.
71 Virgil, Aeneid, iv. 13.
72 See Ambrose, De officiis, τ. 41, PL 16, 85c-86π (206), CCSL 15, 77/70-78/73 (207).
73 See Ambrose, De virginibus, τ. 2 (9), PL 16, 189c-91τ3.
74 See Acta sanctorum, February r, pp. 30-31.
75 See Acta sanctorum, July vii, p. 204.
76 See Acta sanctorum Jan τ, p. 139.
77 Virgil, Aeneid, Π. 120-21; xii. 447-48.
BOOK 3
42 See Seneca, Letters, 123.2.
4 3 Compare Life of St Augustine, Π. 2, PL 32, 146
44 Prudentius, Psychomachia, 199, 201, PL 60, 38λ, 39λ, CCSL 126, 158/199, 201.
4 5 From the hymn Magnae Deus potentiae, used on Thursdays at vespers throughout the year, CAO 8341, Analecta hymnica 51, p. 37.
46 Benedict, Rule, 48, PL 66, 703λ.
4 7 Cato, Distichs, i. 2, p. 35.
48 See Enarratio in Psalmum 37, 14, PL 36, 404, CCSL 38, 392/8-9.
4~ Compare Jerome, Letter 22: To Eustochium, 26, 29, PL 22, 411-12, 415-16, CSEL 54, 181/1-182/8, 186/15-189/7.
50 Compare Ambrose, De officiis, 1. 3 (9), PL 16, 26 —c, CCSL 15, 4/1-12.
51 That is, Historia ecclesiastica tripartita, a continuation of Eusebius’ Ecclesiastical History, consisting of extracts from Socrates Scholasticus, Sozomenos, and Theodoretos, translated by Epiphanius Scholasticus under the direction of Cassiodorus.
52 That is, Orosius’ History Against the Pagans.
53 Virgil, Georgics, 1. 145-46.
54 See Mournful Poem on the Calamities of his Soul, 201-58, Patrologia Graeca 37, 136772; Aldhelm, In Praise of Virgins, PL 89, 25 lA—Β.
55 These phrases are used in a responsory and verse for the Summer Histories, from Wisdom, CAO 7727.
56 For ‘library of Christ’, compare Jerome, Letter 60, To Heliodorus, 10, PL 22, 595, CSEL 54, 561/18 (expressing a similar sentiment about Nepotian).
57 Jerome, Letter 53, To Paulinus, 3, PL 22, 542, CSEL 54, 448/10-12.
58 Isaiah 66.2 (Septuagint version).
59 Compare a responsory for the Summer Histories, from Wisdom, CAO 6793.
60 Compare Augustine, On the Gospel ofJohn, 23. 13, PL 35, 1591, CCSL 36, 242/12-13.
61 Ba.ebius Italicus (?), Ilias Latina, ed. and trans. by Marco Scaffai (Bologna: Pàtrοn, 1982), 89-90, pp. 90-91.
62 Benedict, Rule, 19, PL 66, 476λ.
63 Compare verse 4 of offertory, week xxi after the octave of Pentecost, Liber antiphonańus, PL 78, 720c. Goscelin’s quotation is taken directly from Job 7. 7, et non revertetur oculus meus ut videat bona, ‘and my eye shall not return to see good things’, but in the sense he follows the adaptation of the verse for the offertory: Quoniam, quoniam, quoniam non revertetur oculus meus, ut videam bona, ut videam bona (ut videam bona is repeated another seven times): ‘since my eye shall not return, may 1 see good things, may 1 see good things.’
64 That is, on Friday.
65 Compare Cyprian, On the Lord’s Prayer, 35, PL 4, 542λ, CCSL 3λ, 112/661.
66 Compare Author uncertain (Augustine?), Sermon 153, 1, PL 39, 2042, now attributed to Eusebius ‘Gallicanus’, Sermones extravagantes, 5, CCSL 101s, 853/5.
67 Psalms 21-25 (22-26).
68 Compare the Nicene Creed.
69 See Gregory of Tours, Book of the Glory of the Confessors, 5, PL 71, 833-34Β. The saint is named there as Vitalina.
70 The Life of St John of Alms, 51, Lives of the Fathers, τ, PL 73, 380D-82Β.
71 The Life of St Basil, 10, Lives of the Fathers, τ, PL 73, 307τ3-309c.
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