Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
The prayer of Solomon for obtaining wisdom, to be used by any religious person and student of wisdom, especially by a prelate and prince: for this prayer is full of pious affections, as well as most efficacious reasons, teaching that wisdom is necessary both for governing oneself and for governing the people wisely, because she knows all things, and without her ignorant and weak man accomplishes nothing that succeeds happily. This appears to be that prayer by which Solomon obtained wisdom, of which we read in III Kings III, 9. From this prayer Blessed Henry Suso around the year of the Lord 1330, composed the Hours of Eternal Wisdom, most useful as well as pious for her students. They exist among his works, and in the Garden of the Soul.
Vulgate Text: Wisdom 9:1-19
1. God of my fathers, and Lord of mercy, who made all things by Your word, 2. and by Your wisdom established man, that he might have dominion over the creature that was made by You, 3. that he might govern the world in equity and justice, and execute judgment with an upright heart: 4. give me the wisdom that sits by Your throne, and do not reject me from among Your children: 5. for I am Your servant, and the son of Your handmaid, a weak man, and of short time, and falling short of the understanding of judgment and laws. 6. For if one among the sons of men be perfect, yet if Your wisdom be not with him, he shall be nothing regarded. 7. You have chosen me to be king of Your people, and a judge of Your sons and daughters: 8. and have said that I should build a temple on Your holy mountain, and an altar in the city of Your dwelling, a resemblance of Your holy tabernacle, which You prepared from the beginning: 9. and Your wisdom was with You, which knows Your works, which also was present when You made the world, and knew what was pleasing in Your eyes, and what was right in Your commandments. 10. Send her out of Your holy heavens, and from the throne of Your majesty, that she may be with me, and may labor with me, that I may know what is acceptable with You: 11. for she knows and understands all things, and shall lead me soberly in my works, and shall preserve me by her power. 12. And my works shall be acceptable, and I shall govern Your people justly, and shall be worthy
1. GOD OF MY FATHERS, AND LORD OF MERCY, WHO MADE ALL THINGS BY YOUR WORD. — The word 'my' is not in the Greek; Holcot reads 'our,' namely of David and the patriarchs, especially Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, who were the fathers of all Israel, that is, of the faithful and religious people, and governed it most excellently and most wisely: in which matter, since he himself wishes to imitate them, he rightly asks for the same gift of wisdom from the same author, God. Again, these men were most dear to God on account of their faith and holiness, so much so that God gloried in their name and wished to be called and invoked by it, saying to Moses and the Hebrews, Exodus III, 15: "The Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob has sent me to you: this is My name forever, and this is My memorial unto generation and generation." And thus God bestowed His name upon the human race, according to Philo in his book On Abraham, so that those having recourse to prayers and supplications would not be excluded from good hope, those three patriarchs being set before God's eyes; which the name of Jesus Christ our Lord now does better, with which we close and seal all our prayers: for upright men especially have been accustomed to set before God the merits of their ancestors, and especially of the saints, when asking for something: so Cantacuzenus, a Castro, Pineda, and others. For God of the fathers is equally God of the sons, whom He Himself gave to the fathers, so that the son, on account of the fathers' merits, may find God propitious to himself just as to the fathers; especially because He Himself had once promised this to the fathers, as when He said to Abraham, Genesis XVII, 7: "I will establish My covenant between Me and you, and between your seed after you in their generations by an everlasting covenant: that I may be your God, and the God of your seed after you;" and ibid. XXII, 17: "I will bless you, and I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven, etc., and in your seed shall all the nations be blessed."
Lord of Mercy. — Vatablus renders it 'beneficence'; Pagninus, 'piety,' that is, supremely beneficent, pious, merciful, and compassionate, who mercifully forgave the sin of murder and adultery to my father David, and to my mother Bathsheba, says Lyranus; whence Lucifer of Cagliari reads, 'Lord of mercies.' God delights in this title, and when invoked by it He hears and grants petitions: for it is the proper work of mercy to have pity on the wretched and to bring them aid; and all stand in need of God's mercy, so that they can and should invoke it as their advocate before God: just as the poor, in order to beg alms from the rich, are accustomed to invoke and praise their mercy and generosity. The word 'Lord' carries emphasis, as if to say: You are the Lord, and You have dominion over Your infinite mercy, as well as over our immense misery; therefore as the richest and most generous Lord, bestow it upon us, that You may relieve so great a misery, for the abyss of our misery calls upon the abyss of Your mercy: for You are the first and supreme almsgiver of all, indeed "You are the Father of mercies, and the God of all consolation," II Corinthians I, 3. Again, God is properly called the Lord of mercy, because He shows His dominion by showing mercy rather than by punishing, or doing anything else, according to that which the Church prays: "O God, who manifests Your almighty power most of all by sparing and showing mercy": for the patient and clement one is powerful over wrath, and master of his own spirit and of all things, as I showed on Proverbs XVI, 32, at those words: "The patient man is better than the valiant."
Who made all things. — He wins for himself God's benevolence in this verse by three divine attributes, namely first, by alleging God's love and faithfulness, that is, that He is the God of his fathers, and had promised to bless their posterity, that is, to do them good: he therefore asks that He now faithfully and actually bestow this upon their needy and invoking descendants, and that He attest and extend to the sons the love with which He pursues the fathers; second, by alleging God's mercy, that He may show it to him in his wretchedness as he asks for it in His usual manner; third, by alleging God's power, that is, that He made and created all things by His word, and therefore it is very easy for Him to grant this request. He therefore teaches us to bind and, as it were, compel God by these three titles to grant what we ask: for God wills to be bound and, as it were, compelled by us through efficacious and ardent prayer and desire.
By Your Word. — By Your command alone, namely in Your mind, saying: let there be light, let there be luminaries, etc., Genesis I, 3: mystically, by the Word, that is, by Your Son: for through Him God the Father made all things: and so the word denotes both the ease and the wisdom with which God created all things: see what was said on Genesis I. Finally, by the Word, that is, the Son of God, Solomon tacitly asks for a teacher for himself, who through the Incarnation was to be the teacher of Israel and of all the nations; whence in III Kings III, 9, when God appeared to Solomon, Pineda and others judge that it was not the Father but the Son who appeared; indeed the Council of Sirmium teaches that in all the divine apparitions of the Old Testament, only the Son appeared, so as to prelude His Incarnation, by which He was to appear visibly to men. St. Basil says excellently in his book Against Eunomius: "Is it not so that when we hear of God that He made all things in wisdom, we are taught His creative art? And when we hear that He opened His hand and fills every living thing with blessing, Psalm CXLIV, 16, we learn of His providence, which passes through all things? And when we hear that He made darkness His hiding place, Psalm XVII, 12, we are reminded of His invisible nature? And when again from the person of God Himself it is said in Malachi III, 6: I am, and I am not changed, we learn the eternal identity and the immutability of the divine substance?" Moreover Plato says: God is good; therefore He willed that all things be made most like Himself, for the good is never touched by envy of anything; and Seneca, book IV On Benefits: "I would not lie if I said that there is no one who does not love his benefits, for whom having given once is not a reason for giving again. To one for whom there was initially no reason for bestowing, we bestow something because we have already bestowed."
of the faithful people and of Your Church; that I may therefore duly discharge the royal office imposed on me by You, grant me the wisdom owed and necessary for this: for I am the son and heir of Adam; and I have been appointed by You as ruler not only of Your holy city, namely Jerusalem, but also in a certain way of the entire world, both because You destined me as a teacher of the world, to investigate the natures of all things and explain them to men; and because You designated me king of Your wise and holy city, so that from me the whole world might draw and grasp the idea of a true king, and the true model of governing. Wherefore Solomon was equal or nearly equal to Adam in wisdom, as well as in the right of ruling: for it was easier for Adam in original justice to rule creatures lacking reason and obedient to his nod, than for Solomon after the fall to rule the Hebrews, stiff-necked and given over to their concupiscences; whence among interpreters the question is debated, whose wisdom was greater, Adam's or Solomon's? And the case is still before the judge, some assigning the primacy of wisdom to Adam, others to Solomon.
3. THAT HE MIGHT GOVERN THE WORLD IN EQUITY (in Greek, en hosioteti, that is, in holiness), AND IN JUSTICE, AND EXECUTE JUDGMENT WITH AN UPRIGHT HEART. — 'Govern,' that is, rule, for it belongs to a governor to order and arrange all things in their proper places, ranks, degrees, times, modes, and conditions: similar is verse 12. Whence in Greek it is dioipe, that is, may he dispense, administer, attend to, preside over, moderate, rule; hence God is called by Aristotle (if indeed he is the author) in the book On the World, ho ta panta dioikon, that is, the one administering, arranging, governing all things. Such was Adam as God's vicar on earth, according to Genesis I, 26: "Let us make man in our image and likeness, and let him have dominion over, or preside over, the fish of the sea, and the birds of the air, and the beasts, and the whole earth, and every creeping thing that moves upon the earth;" that is, let us make man, endowed with free will, reason, and wisdom, in which he may be like us, that he may govern the world in holiness and justice, that is, in the worship and religion of the true God, and in the preservation of justice toward other men.
AND EXECUTE JUDGMENT WITH AN UPRIGHT HEART. — In Greek, en euthyteti psyches, that is, in the rectitude of the soul, or, as Lucifer reads for St. Athanasius, of the mind; by which St. Bonaventure and Hugh understand right intention, Holcot clemency, Lyranus the dictate of right reason; more correctly Osorius takes it as equity and rectitude of mind, as if to say: Adam was established by God as ruler of the world, so that with an even and upright mind, free from every sinister affection, passion, and respect of persons, inclining to neither side, he might exercise his just judgment, and declare and render to each his right: for this rectitude is opposed to the crookedness by which one, through fear or favor, deviates from the straight norm and rule of justice, whose source and origin is the eternal law in the mind of God: who therefore must constantly be thought of by the judge in his mind, so that he may judge rightly, according to the counsel of King Jehoshaphat, II Paralipomenon XIX, 6. Whence Job chapter XXXIV, verse 14: "If He should direct His heart toward him, He would draw his spirit and breath to Himself." Our Lorinus adds that the rectitude or direction of heart can signify promptness, and a kind of clarity and ease contrary to harshness, hesitation, and obscurity: for many in judging are obscure, entangled, hesitant, slow, and harsh, whereas a judge ought to be clear, resolute, expeditious, plain, fair, and easy. Hence tropologically Cantacuzenus infers: He, he says, will be the perfect king who from the first administration of the world and the kingdom entrusted by God to man, learns the manner of governing in equity, that is, holily as regards himself; in justice, as regards knowing the natures and necessities of others, in order to render to each what is his own, after the manner of Adam who knew each thing and had dominion over all; and in the direction of heart, directing himself and all that is his to the religion and worship of the true God: for this is what an upright heart does, for the upright man directs it entirely, however great it is, toward God.
2. AND BY YOUR WISDOM YOU ESTABLISHED MAN THAT HE MIGHT HAVE DOMINION OVER THE CREATURE THAT WAS MADE BY YOU; — in Greek, over the creatures made by You. He now begins to press God with reasons for communicating wisdom to himself, so that he may rightly discharge the office of ruling imposed on him by God; whence the ablative 'by Your wisdom' can be referred either to God, who wisely created man as the king and lord of the world, to rule it; or rather to man, whom God imbued with wisdom so that he might wisely govern the world: for this better serves Solomon's purpose, by which he stimulates God to give him wisdom as something owed to him for wise governance. Whence for 'You established,' in Greek it is kataskeuasas, that is, You reformed, adorned, fashioned, taught, and furnished with necessary things, just as a vessel (for this in Greek is called skeuos) is fully formed, fashioned, adorned in every way, so that it may be worked, perfected, and polished for its uses: for thus God infused a rational soul into the body of man formed from clay, and implanted wisdom in him, so that man might be perfect and fit for ruling the world. This therefore is the first reason, as if to say: Lord, who by Your ineffable wisdom created Adam as the king of the world, that he might have dominion over the other creatures, lest they, destitute of reason as well as of a ruler, should clash among themselves, or lack due subordination, arrangement, and governance, and therefore adorned and equipped Adam with the wisdom You implanted in him, so that he might accomplish this; I beg You to implant and communicate the same to me as well: for You have established me as king of Israel, that is,
of the king, II Paralipomenon XIX, 6. Whence Job chapter XXXIV, verse 14: "If He should direct His heart toward him, He would draw his spirit and breath to Himself." Our Lorinus adds that the rectitude or direction of heart can signify promptness, and a kind of clarity and ease contrary to harshness, hesitation, and obscurity: for many in judging are obscure, entangled, hesitant, slow, and harsh, whereas a judge ought to be clear, resolute, expeditious, plain, fair, and easy. Hence tropologically Cantacuzenus infers: He, he says, will be the perfect king who from the first administration of the world and the kingdom entrusted by God to man, learns the manner of governing in equity, that is, holily as regards himself; in justice, as regards knowing the natures and necessities of others, in order to render to each what is his own, after the manner of Adam who knew each thing and had dominion over all; and in the direction of heart, directing himself and all that is his to the religion and worship of the true God: for this is what an upright heart does, for the upright man directs it entirely, however great it is, toward God.
4. GIVE ME THE WISDOM THAT ATTENDS YOUR THRONE. — The Syriac reads: give me wisdom from the presence of Your throne; the Arabic: give me the wisdom of those who attend You; in Greek, dos moi ten ton son thronon paredron sophian, that is, give me the wisdom that sits beside Your thrones. Cantacuzenus by 'thrones' understands the third order of angels of the first hierarchy, who are called Thrones: for upon these God sits after the Seraphim and Cherubim, according to Psalm LXXIX, 2: "You who sit upon the Cherubim, manifest Yourself before Ephraim." More literally by 'thrones' you should understand royal seats, for kings sit on royal thrones; whence God is said metaphorically to sit on the same, He who is King of kings and Lord of lords; by which is signified the supreme and most eminent power and dominion of God over all kings and princes, indeed over all angels and the whole world.
Attendant. — In Greek, paredron. He alludes to the legal assessors who by ancient custom are given to younger or more inexperienced judges, so that by their advice they may pronounce a correct sentence: for these were called paredroi; then synkathedroi, as Ulpian attests, Digest, On Excuses, book X, and Modestinus, Digest, On the Office of Assessors, book I; unless you prefer to see an allusion to angels or attendant genii: for thus kings have their attendant archangels, who direct them in governing. Whence Michael the archangel was the attendant of the Hebrews, another archangel was the attendant of the Greeks, another of the Persians, Daniel X, 13. Likewise Socrates had his attendant genius, that is, an angel or spirit, by whose counsel he did all things, as Plato and Laertius attest in his Life: thus magicians have attendant demons, who reveal secret things to them: thus St. Irenaeus, book I, chapters IX and XX, teaches that Simon Magus and Marcus had attendant genii, who were assuredly none other than familiar demons; Luther too asserted that he had such a one, in his book On the Corner Mass, and Zwingli in his book On the Supplement of the Eucharist, and Calvin in his epistle to Bucer. For when Bucer admonished him to abstain from insults, he replied that this was a disease not of his wit but of his genius: see Feuardent on Irenaeus at the passage already cited, where with various examples from antiquity he teaches that, just as the Holy Spirit and wisdom attend the Church as its assessor, so also a demon sits beside the heresiarchs as their assessor.
It is a personification: for here wisdom is given a persona, like an angel or counselor who attends God, so that He may wisely arrange all things, and be sent by Him to earth, especially to kings and princes, to direct them and teach them to wisely fulfill their office and rule their subjects, Proverbs I, 20; Job XXVIII, 12. Thus the poets imagine that Dike, that is, equity and justice, sits beside Jupiter, whom they claim to be an inviolate virgin goddess presiding over judgments, because she settles and decides disputes; whence Aristotle in the book On the World says: God has as an immediate companion the presider over justice, whom they call Dike, the vindicator of divine law, whenever any of its ordinances has been transgressed.
Solomon therefore prays and says: Grant, O Lord, that wisdom, which attends You as the supreme governor of all, may also attend me, a king in need of counsel, both in ruling and in administering justice: for without the counsel of wisdom kings ought to do nothing, decide nothing. Give her to me therefore as a paredros, indeed as a proedros, that is, as a president and chief, who may sit with me on the royal throne, indeed who alone may occupy it: for I will gladly yield it all to her, so that while she sits beside me, I may stand by as a disciple. Therefore let her continually be present to me, sit beside me and preside, and never depart from my side, so that I may be instructed by her teaching, and learn what to say, what to decide, what to judge: for to her as my teacher I surrender myself for instruction, to her as queen I submit myself; let her therefore as queen attend at my right hand, and rule and direct me in all things, lest anywhere I err or stumble.
AND DO NOT REJECT ME FROM AMONG YOUR CHILDREN. — 'Child' in Scripture signifies either a son or a servant, one chosen and beloved; the sense therefore is, as if to say: Do not cast me out from the number of Your sons and servants, whom as beloved to You, You have gifted and endowed with Your wisdom: for I am a son of Your household, born from Your handmaid, as follows. Now first, Cantacuzenus by 'children' understands the angels, especially the supreme ones attending God, namely the Cherubim (who received their name from knowledge and wisdom) and the Seraphim, who receive light from God with which they illuminate the lower ones: for these are nearest to God, as it were the first children of His household, that is, sons or servants. For in a similar manner Solomon wishes, for so great an office of king, to be most familiar with God, like a Cherub and Seraph angel, and to receive light from Him, which he may pour out upon his subjects and people. Second, and more literally, by 'children' you may understand the fathers and patriarchs distinguished in divine knowledge,
is filled with many miseries;" whence it immediately follows: "A weak man, and of short time." This is the second reason by which Solomon presses and by the right of servitude binds God to give him wisdom, as if to say: I dwell in Your household and am counted among Your domestics, indeed I was born as it were a home-born slave in Your service and servitude, as the faithful son of faithful parents who worship You, and a true worshiper of You, but the wretched son of a wretched handmaid. It is therefore in Your interest that I, Your servant, should be wise, and wisely administer the affairs committed to me by You: for the master's honor, advantage, and profit depend on the servant's wisdom and industry, namely if he skillfully manages, administers, and carries out his affairs; whence David, alleging the duty of a servant, prays in Psalm CXVIII, 123: "I am Your servant, give me understanding, that I may know Your testimonies." For it is the master's duty to provide the servant with necessities; provide me therefore with the wisdom necessary for governing. Moreover Solomon in this prayer so reveals himself as an eager lover of wisdom, that he yet seems to have already attained it in great part (for these reasons of his are most wise), just as one who begs the love of God from God with the most ardent prayers is already in possession of divine love: for He, dwelling in him, spurs him to so ardent a petition, supremely desiring that it increase and grow more fervent day by day with great increments.
distinguished in divine knowledge, namely Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David, etc., among whom Solomon also beseeches to be numbered as a son and heir, and to be marked with the gift of wisdom. Third, others fittingly understand by 'children' kings, judges, and princes, who appear to be God's familiars, as it were His confidential agents, with whom He shares the secrets of His providence, according to Psalm LXXXI, 1: "God stood in the assembly of gods (in Hebrew, elohim, that is, of princes and judges), and in the midst He judges the gods." Princes and judges are therefore children of the household of elohim, that is, of God who judges and governs all things, so that the sense is, as if to say: You are accustomed, O Lord God, to share Your attendant wisdom with kings, as You shared it with David my father; do not therefore deny it to me, his son and heir, and likewise a king, lest I be unfit to rule Israel, and be found unworthy of the royal office and name. Therefore do not remove me from this rank, order, and authority; do not cast me out, abdicate me, and as it were brand me with censure, pass me over, and count me among the rejected and passed over: for this is what apodokimasai means. Whence senators who were removed from the senate for folly or fault were called apodedokimasmenoi, as Festus and Budaeus attest in the Commentary on the Greek Language, part 68. He therefore prays that he not be rejected and erased from the register of wise kings on account of inexperience, ignorance, or folly, as one unworthy and rejected, according to Isaiah XXXII, 5: "No longer shall he who is foolish be called prince; nor shall the deceitful be called great: for the fool will speak foolish things, etc."
Tropologically: "Do not reject me from among Your children," that is, do not allow me to fall into sin, so that I am deprived of Your grace and the state and rank of the sons of God, and become a slave and property of the devil, and fuel for death and hell: so our Alvarez de Paz, On the Spiritual Life, book I, part VII: What is it, he says, 'do not reject me from the children,' but 'do not allow me, abandoned by wisdom, which is the font of all goodness, to lose the dignity of Your servant and friend, O Lord'? For without wisdom, that is, without the light divinely implanted, I neither recognize sin, and therefore do not detest it; nor do I see the beauty of virtue, and therefore I neither love, nor follow, nor embrace it; but no one is Your servant and Your friend without hatred of sins and love of virtues.
5. FOR I AM YOUR SERVANT, AND THE SON OF YOUR HANDMAID. — Namely Bathsheba, who after her adultery with David led a penitent and upright life, and was endowed by God not only with the spirit of wisdom, but also of prophecy, as I showed on Proverbs XXXI, 1: he uses the words of his father David in Psalm CXV, 6. Again, and rather, by the word 'handmaid' he insinuates his own weakness and need of wisdom, as if to say: I am "the son of Your handmaid," that is, of a wretched woman, from whom as from a fountain whatever weakness, feebleness, or ignorance is in me, has proceeded: for, as Job said, chapter XIV, verse 1: "Man born of a woman, living but a short time, is filled with many miseries;"
Tropologically, a king and prince who serves God should also acknowledge himself the servant of his subjects, so as to serve their interests: for those who serve God also serve their neighbor for God's sake; hence the Pope calls himself the servant of the servants of God. Allegorically, Christ, insofar as He is man, is the servant of God, Isaiah XLIX, 3, and the son of the Blessed Virgin, who called herself the handmaid of God, Luke I, 38: so the Interlinear Gloss.
A WEAK MAN, AND OF SHORT TIME, AND FALLING SHORT OF THE UNDERSTANDING OF JUDGMENT AND LAWS. — 'Weak,' in Greek asthenes, that is, feeble in strength, both of body and of mind, especially in judgment, talent, fortitude, and constancy for resisting the powerful who oppress the poor, and for bearing so many and so great burdens of the kingdom. 'And of short time,' both because Solomon as a young man around his twentieth year entered upon the kingdom when he asked wisdom from God, as he asks here; whence he himself praying for it says, III Kings III, 7: "But I am a little child, and know not my going out and my coming in," that is, I do not know what to do, how to conduct myself, how to finish: for one of little time has little experience, and consequently little prudence and wisdom: for experience begets these; and also because my life is short, and therefore does not suffice for learning wisdom so varied and manifold as is required for governing, according to that saying of Hippocrates: "Art is long, life is short." Whence the Zurich translation renders: 'and about to last but a short time, and falling short of the understanding of judgment and laws.' Vatablus: 'and so young that I cannot understand justice and laws.' Again, and rather, 'falling short,'
and this is sufficiently indicated in I Paralipomenon XXIX, 1: wherefore although he was younger in age, he was nevertheless preferred to Adonijah and the other brothers who were older by birth, and therefore he alone from the chosen people of God was the most chosen, for he alone of all was chosen to be king of the people selected and beloved by God, whom therefore God here calls His sons and daughters; by which He signifies that he ought to rule them not as a tyrant, nor so much as a king, but as a father, and a father of the children of God, that is, with great love, care, and reverence. Wherefore from this election Solomon presses God to give him wisdom, as if to say: You, Lord, have chosen me as king of Israel, it is therefore Yours to give me the wisdom not only necessary but also useful and advantageous for this governance. Hence it is again clear that this book belongs to Solomon, in the manner and sense which I explained in the Prooemium.
Morally, learn here that it belongs to a faithful and Christian ruler to govern Israel, that is, the people of God, so as to keep them in the law, worship, and obedience of God and promote them, and direct them to true salvation and eternal happiness. For this reason God willed that Solomon build Him a temple so that He might be worshiped in it, as follows, and thus the construction of the temple was Solomon's chief work, for which God appears to have made him king. It therefore belongs to faithful kings first to care for and establish religion, then justice and the commonwealth: for the foundation and pillar of this is religion and piety. So did Constantine the Great, Theodosius, Charlemagne, etc., who therefore became the most fortunate and glorious. To pass over others, in this matter the devotion of the kings of England formerly shone forth, who subjected the kingdom of England to the Church and to the Roman Pontiff, and made it tributary: thus to Leo IV, a Pontiff illustrious for holiness, who died in the year of the Lord 855, King Agelolph came from England with his son, and made his kingdom tributary to the Roman Church, with a gold coin imposed on each family every year: so Platina, Baronius, and others. St. Richard, king of England, having relinquished his kingdom and left his sons with St. Boniface at Mainz, traveled as a pilgrim in poor clothing and unrecognized, and hastened to Rome; but seized by illness on the journey, he died at Lucca and migrated to the heavenly kingdom in the year of the Lord 771, and became renowned for miracles. Thus the king, made an exile from his homeland, a despiser of the world, and a contemner of himself, laid down the royal crown for eternal life, and exchanged the purple for sackcloth. His sons were St. Willibald, who was later made Bishop of Eichstatt, and another, Winnebald, chosen as abbot of Heidenheim; his daughter Walburga, having become a nun, was made abbess, and all were inscribed in the Catalogue of Saints on account of their illustrious deeds. So his Life records, and Arnold Wion in the Tree of Life, book IV, Philippus Ferrarius in the Catalogue of the Saints of Italy, and others. Edward III, king of England, was so pious toward God and the Roman Church that he received a heavenly privilege from God, and passed it on as it were as hereditary to
in Greek, hetton, that is, less sufficient, and yielding to the understanding of judgment and laws, that is, too weak to be able to understand the judgments and laws with which a king needs to be equipped. For it was necessary for the king of Israel to know all the laws of God — moral, ceremonial, and especially judicial (for according to these he had to judge) — as God commands, Deuteronomy XVII, 18, and Joshua I, 8. Add to these the municipal laws and the law of customs, and similar things, in which a king and judge must be expert. Moreover the Hebrews divide the laws sanctioned by God for the Jews in the Pentateuch into affirmative ones, which they count as 248, and negative ones, which they count as 365, as R. Moses attests in the Guide for the Perplexed, chapters LVI and LVII. This is the third reason pressing God to give wisdom, drawn from the humble confession of one's own weakness, need, and necessity: for he confesses his ignorance in order to obtain wisdom: for "the prayer of him that humbles himself penetrates the clouds," Ecclesiasticus XXXV, 21.
Morally, Cantacuzenus judges that man is called weak and falling short of the understanding of judgment and laws because, from the time he once transgressed the law, he is feeble and ineffective both in keeping the law and in demanding observance of the law; therefore the wisdom that teaches how to keep the law also teaches how to rule well; which demands the law from subjects, first demands it from the enforcer himself, commanding him to do what must be done before commanding his subjects.
6. AND IF ONE SHOULD BE PERFECT AMONG THE SONS OF MEN, YET IF YOUR WISDOM BE ABSENT FROM HIM, HE SHALL BE REGARDED AS NOTHING. — This is the fourth reason, drawn from the necessity of wisdom, as if to say: Wisdom from God is necessary for man, especially for a prince, so that even though he be a man, indeed an old man, equipped with all the gifts of body and mind; yet if he lacks wisdom, he is of no value and to be esteemed as nothing; how much more then do I, who am a weak, inexperienced youth, destitute of all things, need wisdom? Akin to this is the maxim of chapter XIII, verse 1: "Vain are all men in whom there is not the knowledge of God": for he who knows God practically is truly wise, truly great, truly blessed, though he knows nothing else; but he who does not know God practically knows nothing, even if he knows all else; whence the saying: He who knows Jesus is wise, though he knows nothing else: he who knows not Jesus knows nothing, if he knows all else.
7. YOU HAVE CHOSEN ME TO BE KING OF YOUR PEOPLE, AND A JUDGE OF YOUR SONS AND DAUGHTERS. — This is the fifth and most powerful reason, namely that Solomon was chosen by God as king not of the gentiles, but of Israel, that is, of a wise, faithful, and religious people: wherefore it was necessary for the king to be far wiser, more faithful, and more religious than the people, so as to advance them in wisdom, faith, and religion, otherwise he would give them great scandal and face great punishment in God's judgment — that they heal scrofula by the touch of their hands, and cure numbness of limbs with rings consecrated by a certain rite, as Polydore Virgil attests, book VIII. Finally, England counts among the pious kings inscribed in the Catalogue of Saints two Edwards, Edmund the Martyr, two Ethelberts, Oswald, Kenelm, and Richard already mentioned. He who beholds the present schism of England, will he not rightly exclaim: "O ancient house, under how different a master are you ruled!" Let the English consider these things, and by a return to their ancestral faith, piety, happiness, and glory, come back again. Let them read the ample twelve privileges once granted by God to the Catholic kings of England, of which they are now deprived through heresy, in Thomas Bozius, On the Signs of the Church, sign 92, book XXI.
8. AND YOU HAVE SAID THAT I SHOULD BUILD A TEMPLE ON YOUR HOLY MOUNTAIN, AND AN ALTAR IN THE CITY OF YOUR DWELLING; A LIKENESS OF YOUR HOLY TABERNACLE, WHICH YOU PREPARED FROM THE BEGINNING. — This is the sixth reason, namely that Solomon was commanded by God to build Him a temple, according to the pattern prescribed by God to Moses in the construction of the tabernacle; its symmetry therefore, that is, its proportions and dimensions, were in every respect divine: wherefore great wisdom was needed to build it. He calls it the holy mountain, namely Mount Moriah, which Abraham sanctified by offering his son Isaac upon it; and afterward Christ, when on its hill, namely on Calvary, He offered Himself to God for our redemption and sanctification. See what was said on Genesis XXII, 14.
of majesty": see what was said on Exodus XXV and following. Moreover the temple was the house of God and an image of heaven, in which God was worshiped with continual sacrifices and incense, or thymiama; it was likewise an image of a sacred and divine kingdom: for in the temple God reigned, as it were in His own kingdom, and directed all things by His laws and ceremonies for His own worship and the religion of the people. Therefore God commanded Solomon to build the temple, so that from it he might receive the model of governing: for in the temple all things were neatly and reverently arranged in their places, ranks, and degrees; and the high priest, as it were God's viceroy, commanded so many thousands of priests and Levites, and all the laity coming to the temple, so that to behold the ranks of Levites and priests was the same as seeing the battle line of sacred soldiers most excellently ordered; hence in the temple there was supreme quiet, supreme peace, supreme unity, all of which a king must imitate and procure in his kingdom. See our Vilalpandus, volume II On the Temple, part II, book V, disputation 2, chapters XXIX, XXX, and XXXI, where he teaches that the temple had the likeness of the tabernacle and of the encampment of the people, and was also built after the likeness of the world, heaven, and man.
A LIKENESS (in Greek mimema, that is, an imitation) OF YOUR HOLY TABERNACLE, WHICH YOU PREPARED (that is, previously prepared, and already built before) FROM THE BEGINNING — of the established Synagogue, namely when through Moses You led this people out of Egypt and chose them for Yourself as a church, as if to say: You commanded me to build a temple after the model of the tabernacle which Moses built, according to the plan shown to him by You on Mount Sinai, Exodus XXV, 9 and following. The tabernacle had two parts, the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies: in the Holy Place was the altar of incense, the lampstand shining with seven branches and lamps, and the table of showbread; in the Holy of Holies was the Ark of the Covenant (in which were the tablets of the Decalogue inscribed by the finger of God, the rod of Aaron, and beside it the manna) with the Cherubim and the propitiatory. Before the Holy Place in the open air was the altar of holocausts, on which victims were sacrificed to God; whence above all he mentions the altar here, because it was the chief ornament and instrument of the temple for sacrificing to and worshiping God. Moreover the altar of Moses in the tabernacle had five cubits in length and the same in width; but Solomon, for all Israel, and indeed for foreigners from the whole world flocking to the temple for the sake of religion, erected a larger and more capacious altar, yet preserving the proportion of the tabernacle's altar: for, as it is said in II Paralipomenon IV, 1: "He made a bronze altar of twenty cubits in length, and twenty cubits in width, and ten cubits in
9. AND YOUR WISDOM WAS WITH YOU, WHICH KNOWS YOUR WORKS, WHICH ALSO WAS PRESENT WHEN YOU MADE THE WORLD, AND KNEW WHAT WAS PLEASING IN YOUR EYES, AND WHAT WAS RIGHT IN YOUR COMMANDMENTS. — The word 'Your' is not in the Greek. Some take this maxim absolutely, without connection, as standing on its own, as if to say: And with You, O Lord, from ancient times there was wisdom, which knows Your works; and she was present with You when You created the world, as she herself declares of herself in Proverbs VIII, 27: "When He prepared the heavens, I was present, etc., with Him I was arranging all things;" in Hebrew amon, that is, I was with God, as it were a nurseling and nurturer of creatures, feeding, fostering, and governing them. Send her therefore from heaven to me, that she may likewise be amon to me, that is, a nurturer and director.
But more fittingly and in better agreement with the Greek, others connect this maxim to the preceding one, namely to the construction of the tabernacle, as if to say: You, Lord, once built the tabernacle through Moses, and now the temple through me, Solomon, and Your wisdom built the same together with You: for she suggested to You the most beautiful idea and model of the tabernacle and temple, according to which You might build it. For she "knows Your works," that is, the plan, form, and arrangement of Your works, as well as their purpose and end; whence she "was present with You when You made the world." He mentions the creation of the world because this was the model for the building of the temple; for the world is an image of the temple; and the temple in turn is like a small world, whence that passage in chapter XVIII, 24: "In the robe of the ephod, etc., the whole world was represented." Hence just as the temple, so also the world is the narrow house of God, and, as Philo says: "The world is the holy temple of the Lord." Again, just as wisdom had originally founded and arranged the world as a kingdom, in which Adam, or man, as king, over all
creatures might have dominion soberly, modestly, holily, justly, and religiously, as he said in verse 3: so the same wisdom here designs and arranges the temple, or the church of Israel, as a kingdom in which Solomon may reign peacefully, piously, and justly. Therefore Solomon rightly claims for himself the same wisdom for completing the construction of the temple as well as for the governance of the kingdom, especially since God once bestowed the same upon Bezaleel and Oholiab, the architects for building the tabernacle, Exodus XXXI, 2.
And she knew (that is, Wisdom knew of old when she was creating the world, and still knows) what is PLEASING IN YOUR EYES, AND WHAT IS RIGHT (in Greek euthes, that is, straight) IN YOUR COMMANDMENTS — that is, what You most rightly will, decree, command, and prescribe, as if to say: Give therefore also to me this wisdom, so that I may know what is pleasing and agreeable to You, and what is directly in accord and consonance with Your will, law, and commandments, so that I may exactly follow and execute it both in building the temple and in administering the kingdom. For 'pleasing' the Greek is areston, whence the French arrêt, that is, a decree of the Court, or a decision: it signifies that wisdom has the most complete knowledge of the divine will, and of His counsels and commandments, which He has either given to us, or implanted in the things He has made.
10. SEND HER OUT OF YOUR HOLY HEAVENS, AND FROM THE THRONE OF YOUR MAJESTY. — In Greek: and from the throne of Your glory send her: for he repeats the word 'send' to signify the ardor of his desire. These things are said anthropopathically: for God, since He is a most pure spirit, does not need a throne, nor can He sit on one, since this belongs to bodies; the throne of glory therefore means the place, namely the height of the empyrean heaven, where God shows and communicates His glory to the blessed. Wisdom is therefore introduced here as a most wise person who attends the throne of God and suggests to Him all things that need to be done, and then executes them most wisely. Solomon asks that the same be sent to him, to attend his throne on earth with him, and to direct him in governing, so that he may know what must be done, and then wisely execute it together with her: for wisdom has two parts — the first, to prudently conceive and plan a matter in the mind; the second, to wisely execute and carry out the matter wisely conceived. By all these things he signifies that he beseeches God to assist him by His uncreated wisdom, and to breathe and implant into his mind a rivulet and ray of it, namely created wisdom, so that he may prudently foresee, order, and accomplish all things, both those pertaining to the construction of the temple and those pertaining to the governance of the people; certain that he can do nothing without her, and through her can refer all things to the glory of God and his own and his people's salvation.
Symbolically, Solomon asks that the Son be sent to him, to whom as the Word wisdom is attributed, so that He may teach him: so St. Thomas, I part, Question XLIII, article 5: for "to send a divine person, he says, to someone through invisible grace, signifies a new mode of indwelling of that person, and his origin from another," namely that the Son proceeds and is begotten from the Father: see there the Scholastics and the Master, book I of the Sentences, distinction 14 and following. For God the Father bestows upon us wisdom, grace, and every good through the Son: for this reason the Church concludes all her prayers and collects addressed to God the Father with this formula: "Through our Lord Jesus Christ," etc. The origin of this custom is most ancient, as is clear from the Canon of the Mass, whose author is held to be St. Peter; for in it all prayers are closed in this way: "Through Christ our Lord." The same can be seen in the Liturgy of St. James and of St. Mark, although not as frequently as in the Canon. The beginning and root of this formula was that saying of Christ, John XVI, 24: "Ask (in My name) and you shall receive;" and ibid. verses 23 and following: "If you shall ask the Father anything in My name, He will give it to you;" whence St. Paul, following Christ's command, so decrees, Hebrews XIII, 15: "By Him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise always to God, that is, the fruit of lips confessing His name;" and elsewhere he frequently teaches that Christ is our mediator with the Father, that He intercedes for us, etc.; whence he himself frequently, and often in alternating verses, interposes and doubles the name of Jesus Christ. St. Peter and the other apostles did the same. But later, when Pelagius the heresiarch in the time of St. Augustine detracted from the grace of Christ, the Church, in order to refute him, concluded absolutely all prayers with: "Through our Lord Jesus Christ," etc.; and so did St. Gregory, who composed very many collects of the ecclesiastical office, as is clear from his Antiphonary: see more in Amalarius, Walafrid, Durandus, and the others who wrote on the ecclesiastical offices.
St. Bonaventure says subtly: "Uncreated Wisdom, he says, is said to be in the bosom of the Father, to be begotten from the womb, to proceed from the mouth: the first, on account of concealment; the second, on account of consubstantiality; the third, on account of manifestation; but to be sent from heaven, on account of illumination; to sit in the soul, on account of tranquility."
THAT SHE MAY BE WITH ME, AND MAY LABOR WITH ME, THAT I MAY KNOW WHAT IS ACCEPTABLE WITH YOU. — And when I have known, I will execute it. In Greek, hina symparousa moi kopiase, that is, that she being present with me, or attending me, may labor, that is, labor with me, or collaborate, as Cantacuzenus reads: for the wisdom and grace of God does not operate the good work alone, as Calvin would have it, but simultaneously with the mind and free will of man, with which she cooperates: for from grace the work has what makes it holy and pleasing to God; but from free will, what makes it human and free; whence Paul, alluding to this, says: "I have labored more abundantly than all of them, yet not I (alone), but the grace of God with me," I Corinthians XV, 10, that is, as St. Augustine explains in the book On Grace and Free Will, chapter XV: "Yet not I, but the grace of God with me, and through this neither the grace of God alone, nor he alone, but the grace of God with him." The Greek kopiase signifies labor with trouble and fatigue: for through this man must prepare
for virtue, and it is the duty of servants (such as he confessed himself to be in verse 5) to labor constantly for the master. He therefore asks for wisdom to not only labor with him, but also to teach him to labor, and to preside over the labor, and to urge and require it; whence our Pineda, book III On the Affairs of Solomon, chapter VI, number 3, judges this to be a metaphor from taskmasters, who stand over laboring servants, demand work, and insist on continued effort, not allowing servants to either sleep or act sluggishly: he therefore says: Do not allow me to grow torpid or drowsy in exercising the royal office, since those who reign do God's work and duty. Therefore let wisdom require of me my measure of labor, press me, and just as I, being king, am in the midst of the people like a taskmaster and overseer inspecting his subjects and urging them to complete the work, and thus appear to labor with them: so since "I am Your servant," as I labor to carry out Your work, assign me wisdom as a taskmaster, attendant, and inspectress. Wisdom therefore is like a king or queen of bees, who constantly traverses and circles the hive, so as to urge all the bees to assiduous labor, that they may continually build combs as it were houses, and in them make and store honey. She does the same so that the labor may achieve its proper effect and fruit: for with wisdom helping and directing, what labor will not be fruitful or successful? She likewise, collaborating with the laborer, provides him great consolation as well as help: for who would shrink from labor when God puts His shoulder under it with him, and as it were carries the load alongside? "It is a great crown to have fellowship with God," says St. John Chrysostom, homily 11, on the Epistle to the Romans; and St. Jerome, epistle 2 to Heliodorus, urging him to the religious life: "Do you fear poverty? But Christ calls the poor blessed. Are you terrified by labor? But no athlete is crowned without sweat. Do you think of food? But faith does not fear hunger. Do you fear to lay your limbs wasted by fasts on the bare ground? But the Lord lies beside you," as if to say: This one fellowship with God, even if all other consolations are absent, will soften whatever laborious thing can befall you. And St. Ambrose, book II On Abraham: "An exercised mind, he says, does not carry the images of eagles, nor dragons, but advances to battle in the cross of Christ and the name of Jesus, strong by this sign, faithful under this standard."
And of the construction of the temple. The second function is in executing and working: prudence, discretion, rule, norm, and measure, which the word 'soberly' signifies, in Greek sophronos, that is, moderately, discreetly, wisely, prudently; he therefore asks for the golden mean, which ought to be the norm of all our actions: for this prescribes measure to operation, lest one apply oneself to the work more slackly or more ardently than right reason demands. The third is the guarding of action and work, lest it be hindered by an enemy or another cause: for this is provided by the ever-watchful providence of wisdom; and thence the power that skillfully foresees and powerfully dispels all impediments.
12. AND MY WORKS SHALL BE ACCEPTABLE (to God and to men), AND I SHALL GOVERN (I shall moderate, administer, rule, as I said in verse 3: in Greek, diakrino, that is, I shall judge, that is, I shall render to each his right, for this is a forensic and judicial word) YOUR PEOPLE JUSTLY, AND SHALL BE WORTHY OF THE THRONE (in Greek, thrones) OF MY FATHER. — 'Seats' or 'thrones' in the plural denote the many provinces and courts of judgment over which Solomon presided through his judges and prefects; he therefore wishes all these to be directed by wisdom, because the care of all of them fell to him by his office, so that he might imitate David his father, who had wisely and holily governed all Israel; for often sons degenerate from the virtue and character of their parents, especially of princes, the cause of which I gave in the Proverbs; whence the saying: "The sons of heroes are harmful"; and that of Homer, Odyssey II: For few sons are like their father, More are worse, few better than their father. Augustus Caesar, detesting the disgraces of his daughter Julia and his granddaughter like abscesses, according to Suetonius exclaimed: Oh, would that I had lived unwed, and died without offspring. Plutarch in the Apophthegms of the Lacedaemonians narrates that Damatria killed her son, who had conducted himself cowardly in war, saying: "It was in no way fitting that a son born of the bravest parents should survive as a coward." Another Spartan woman did the same to a similar son, about whom the following epigram exists in the same author: Lazy offspring, go to the underworld, and let Eurotas, Detesting you, not give water to timid deer. Cowardly pup, bad lot, hence go down to Orcus: Go, unworthy of Sparta, whom not even I bore.
11. FOR SHE KNOWS ALL THINGS AND UNDERSTANDS, AND SHALL LEAD ME SOBERLY IN MY WORKS, AND SHALL PRESERVE ME BY HER POWER. — In Greek, 'in her glory,' that is, glorious power, for, as Sallust says in the Preface to the Catiline: "In the greatest empire is the greatest glory," as if to say: Wisdom will guard me by her powerful glory and majesty, so that she may acquire glory for herself either from my actions, or from my governance and guardianship, namely so that God may appear glorious in His minister. He notes here three offices of wisdom, and begs that they be given to him: the first is knowledge and understanding of the things to be done, whether through virtue or through art, such as architecture
13. FOR WHAT MAN CAN KNOW THE COUNSEL OF GOD? OR WHO CAN THINK WHAT GOD WILLS? — This is the seventh reason, drawn from the sublimity of God, as if to say: A king established by God is His vicar and interpreter on earth, and therefore he must govern the people according to God's will and mind; but how will he discover and learn something so hidden, unless wisdom is his intermediary? Send her therefore, O Lord, to me. St. Paul alluded to this maxim, indeed practically cited it, in Romans XI, 34, saying: "For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been His counselor?" and I Corinthians II, 16: "For who has known the mind of the Lord?"
of the Lord?" Hence Moses in all doubtful matters concerning the governance of the people, took refuge in the tabernacle, and there consulted God, and received answers from Him; Joshua is commanded by God to do the same through the high priest Eleazar, Numbers XXVII, 21. Let princes and prelates imitate both, so that in perplexing matters they consult God through prayer.
St. Cyprian beautifully presses this passage in On the Singularity of Clerics, and teaches that God's counsel and will is the sole norm of justice, and the form of just governance: for he says thus: "His (God's) commands must be so observed, that if He should command something that according to men seems to be unjust, it must be believed to be just and done, and if He should command what is just, it must be reputed just and done; since what He commands cannot be without justice, He who is powerful enough to call justice what unjustly justifies; and by reproving justice, to prove it to be injustice turned perverse, whose will is the sole and true justice." He adds the reason: "For if all that we do, we do for this sole purpose, that we may please the Lord, then assuredly that alone will be just, whatever God has willed, commanded, and approved, whom we desire to please: for since servants cannot know of themselves what pleases their masters, unless they follow the commands of their masters; and since men cannot recognize the interests of other men similar to themselves, unless they have received what they should observe: much more do mortals not know how to comprehend the justice of the immortal God, unless He Himself deigns to demonstrate the judgments of His justice, as Solomon confirms, saying, Wisdom IX, 13: For what man can know the counsel of God, or who can think what God wills? For the thoughts of mortals are timid, and our foresight uncertain."
14. FOR THE THOUGHTS OF MORTALS ARE TIMID, AND OUR FORESIGHT UNCERTAIN. — The Syriac: for the thoughts of mortals are feeble, nor are their conceptions firm; the Arabic: the thoughts of mortals tend to fears, and their conceptions, or visions, are perilous. He proves that men, especially kings, must rely on the counsel of divine wisdom and providence, and constantly implore it, from the fact that the thoughts of men, in Greek logismoi, that is, reasonings, discourses, and counsels, are timid, in Greek deilai, that is, wretched, timid, weak, and sluggish, so that they fear regarding the outcome of the matter, and therefore approach and pursue it slowly and sluggishly, indeed do not dare to attempt and undertake difficult things, especially because they do not know whether God wills it and finds it pleasing, so as to second and prosper our efforts.
AND OUR FORESIGHT UNCERTAIN. — For we think that by our petty reasonings and counsels we can find means suitable for accomplishing the matter, and in execution we find them weak, feeble, defective, deceptive, and ending in an unhappy outcome: therefore we must consult God's providence, as being secure and certain, and depend entirely upon it. In Greek, epiphaleis hai epinoiai hemon, that is, our opinions are deceptive, as Vatablus translates, because we hardly know anything with certainty, but only opine; others render it: our perilous inventions; others: our unstable conceptions; others: the plans devised by us are subject to peril: both because they depend on very many and often unknown circumstances; and because they can be impeded and overturned in a thousand ways and cases; and because in reasoning we often hallucinate and draw false conclusions from the weakness and blindness of the mind. Hence the translator of St. Chrysostom on Psalm CXLIII renders it: the reasonings of men are timid, and their discoveries unstable. This is the eighth reason, drawn from the weakness, ignorance, and imprudence of man: for these need the direction of divine wisdom and providence; whence King Jehoshaphat wisely says, II Paralipomenon XX, 12: "When we know not what we should do, this alone remains to us, that we direct our eyes toward You."
15. FOR THE CORRUPTIBLE BODY WEIGHS DOWN THE SOUL, AND THE EARTHLY DWELLING PRESSES DOWN THE MIND THAT THINKS UPON MANY THINGS. — The Syriac: for the body of corruption is heavier than the soul, or is heavy against the soul; the Arabic: the corruptible body burdens the mind, and the earthly habitation greatly weighs down the intellect of manifold solicitude, or anxiety; in Greek: for the corruptible body weighs down the (incorruptible) soul, and the earthly habitation, or tabernacle, presses down the mind polyphrontida, that is, of many cares, caring for many things, as St. Augustine reads, book II Against Julian the Pelagian, and seething with many cares. He gives the reason why the thoughts of men are timid and of uncertain foresight: namely because the body weighs down the mind, so that it does not see the true spiritual reality, but only corporeal shadows, which are often deceptive, and deceive and mislead the eye of the beholder. Hear St. Bernard, sermon On Septuagesima: "Truly it is not simply the body, but the body that is corrupted, that weighs down the soul, Wisdom IX, 15, so that you may know that the soul of our first parent was free from this burden, as long as it still bore an incorrupt body. Indeed God placed him in freedom, so that moving between the highest and lowest things, he might ascend to the former without difficulty and descend to the latter without allurement or necessity; penetrating the former by the natural keenness and purity of mind, judging the latter by the authority of one who presides. Finally, the animals were brought to Adam so that he might see what he would call them; he was not led by some curiosity to see them. Not so is reason free in us, but on every side it must struggle: for thus it is held captive by a kind of birdlime from the lowest things, and repelled unworthy from the highest, so that it can neither be torn from the former without pain, nor admitted to the latter without great groaning, or but rarely."
death this tabernacle; the skin wrinkles, the sinews relax, the feet totter: so Pineda on Job chapter XVIII, 14.
The body therefore weighs down the soul and mind because, first, it drags it downward from its single focus, namely truth and God, toward corporeal and sensible things, and distracts it with various imaginations and phantasms, by which the imagination, like a wandering horse in a field plucking its food, constantly roams about. Whence St. Augustine, Confessions X, chapter XL, sighing to unite his mind with God: "Nor in all these things, he says, which I survey, consulting You, do I find a safe place for my soul, except in You, in whom my scattered parts are gathered together, and from whom nothing of me may depart. And sometimes You admit me to an affect most unusual inwardly, to some indescribable sweetness; which if it be perfected in me, I know not what it will be that this life will not be. But I fall back into these things with their burdensome weights, and am swallowed up again by the usual, and am held, and I weep much, but much am I held. So great is the burden of habit that weighs me down. Here I am able but do not will; there I will but am unable: wretched on both sides." And Gregory of Nazianzus, in Poem IX:
Now, he says, when reason is gathered, and I myself by old age Have approached the finish, wretched me, I wander like a drunkard, And the serpent crushes me sideways in cruel oblique combat, And seizes my right counsels by stealth and openly; Sometimes my mind is borne toward the King of Olympus: Sometimes it inclines toward the world, dragged down by the body, By which the greatest part of our soul is gravely wounded.
the true, especially the heavenly and divine, is weighed down by the gravity and weight of the body, and as if in sleep is agitated by various false and erroneous phantasies, by which, when blinded it believes and gives credence, it is deceived as it were unknowing and asleep, and is led into error, as we see happen in the delirious, the drunk, and the sleeping: for these consider what they imagine and dream, however absurd and foolish, to be true and prudent. The very same thing happens to a waking man, especially one seething with cares and desires: for desires so affect and imbue the imagination, that what they desire, this the imagination sees as beautiful, true, and to be chosen: hence often the good Homer nods, that is, a mind otherwise wise is beclouded, confused, deceives itself, and errs: for it sees the matter as if through fog and smoke of vapors that rise from the stomach to the brain and imbue it with wondrous phantasms, by which the thing appears entirely other than it is in itself; for in place of the true image of the thing, a fictitious and false phantasm is thrust upon the imagination, and thence upon the mind (which depends entirely on the imagination), in place of true reason a sophism, in place of a true syllogism a paralogism, in place of certain knowledge an apparent but deceptive opinion; whence it happens that men, precisely when they seem to themselves most wise, are then most foolish.
THE EARTHLY DWELLING (in Greek geodes skenos, that is, an earthly tabernacle; thus he calls the body, for in it, as in a tabernacle, the soul dwells for a short time, because it is a pilgrim in it and tends toward heaven, whence it received its origin; but the body, because it is of earth and made from earth, drags the heavenly soul down to earthly things) PRESSES DOWN. — 'Mind,' that is, it calls the mind polyphrontida, that is, of many cares, and meditating on many things, and agitated, anxious, and troubled by many cares, such as is the mind of kings and princes, which therefore, pressed on one side by cares, weighed down on the other by the body's weight, must necessarily succumb to the weight and to error, unless it is lifted up and supported by the aid of divine wisdom and grace; which therefore Solomon teaches must be constantly implored. Alluding to this, St. Paul says, II Corinthians V, 1: "We know that if our earthly house of this habitation be dissolved, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens, for in this also we groan, desiring to be clothed upon with our habitation that is from heaven": see what was said there. Hence also Plato in the Cratylus judges the body to be called soma, as if sema, that is, a tomb, as though in it the soul and its power lie buried as in a sepulcher; whence that philosopher, pitying the wretched lot of his soul: "Little soul, he said, you carry about a sensitive corpse." Moreover there is a manifold analogy between the body and a tabernacle, for like a tabernacle our body is covered with skin, against the external injuries of the sky; it is stretched out with sinews as with cords; bones like a mast or other rigging support it; feet appear to serve as stakes by which it is fixed and made firm; it is taken down by
See Cassian, Collation XXIII, chapter VII. Second, because the body by its weight dulls and blunts the sharpness of the mind, and makes it, as it were, like itself — thick, heavy, and burdensome — according to that passage of Virgil, Aeneid VI:
Noxious bodies slow them down, And earthly limbs and moribund members make them dull.
Third, because it fatigues and wearies the soul, so that it cannot long continue speculation, prayer, or meditation: just as the breastplate and arms of Saul weighed down and wearied David, so that he could not advance. Fourth, because it beclouds, deludes, and deceives the soul with its phantasms, as I said at the beginning: moreover the body casts upon the soul, as it were, chains and shackles, so that it cannot fly upward. Fifth, because with the mind it presses down the appetite and will that yearns for spiritual goods, toward loving and pursuing corporeal, earthly, and perishable goods; whence the Apostle groaning sighs, Romans VII, 23: "I see another law in my members, fighting against the law of my mind, and captivating me in the law of sin that is in my members. Unhappy man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" And the bride, languishing with love for the bridegroom, sighs to him, Song of Songs II, 17: "Until the day" of blessed eternity "breathes, and the shadows" of the body and wretched mortality "decline." And Job, chapter VII, 20: "I have become, he says, a burden to myself": see St. Prosper, epistle to Demetriade, not far from the end, where he teaches
that temptations arise in man from the body and its oppressive concupiscence, but that they are overcome by charity lifting the mind up to God. Hence we see that by far the greater part of men are occupied throughout nearly their entire life about the body, providing it with food, clothing, and other comforts and pleasures, so that they think little and rarely about the soul and its eternal salvation.
Wherefore from this maxim St. Cyprian in On the Singularity of Clerics urges that the company of women must be avoided, lest clerics cohabit with them: "Therefore, he says, the company of women must be avoided when there is a continual and constant preoccupation with carnal cares: for among its cares the flesh always provokes the incitements of desire, and produces fuel for sinning there, where, attending to its own comforts, it has felt itself somewhat relaxed by the thoughts of temporal life, as Solomon asserts saying, Wisdom IX, 15: The earthly thought presses down the mind thinking upon many things": for, as St. Bernard keenly observes, sermon 81 on the Song of Songs, "it was brought about by sin that the body which is corrupted weighs down the soul; but by love, not by mass: for that the soul can no longer rise by itself, though it was able to fall by itself, the will is the cause, which, languishing and lying prostrate through the vitiated and vicious love of the corrupt body, likewise does not admit the love of justice." Then he beautifully declares how this will becomes necessity: "Thus by some perverse and wondrous way, the will itself, indeed changed for the worse by sin, creates necessity: so that neither can necessity, since it is voluntary, excuse the will; nor can the will, since it has been enticed, exclude necessity: for this necessity is in a certain way voluntary: it is a flattering force, pressing while caressing, and caressing while pressing; whence the guilty will, once it has consented to sin, can neither shake itself free by itself, nor excuse itself in any way by reason. Hence that plaintive voice, as of one groaning under the burden of this necessity, Isaiah XXXVIII, 14: Lord, he says, I suffer violence, answer for me." For this reason St. Gregory of Nazianzus fittingly calls the body an echeneis, or remora fish: for just as this tiny fish, attaching itself to ships, retards and halts their course, so also the body the soul: thus he sings in his Precepts to Virgins:
Do not let the remora of your own flesh impede your life, Which like an unconquered shackle holds back the speeding ship And forces so great a vessel to stand still.
Whence he urges that the mind and love must be narrowed, for just as water narrowed in a small channel leaps upward, so a narrowed mind leaps up to Christ:
Not otherwise, he says, I bid you raise your love, Which is so narrowed, to Christ with a rising wave.
Moreover the remora is a fish about a cubit in size, of dark color, similar to an eel, says Oppian, book I On Fishes. Plutarch adds in the Symposiacs, decade 2, chapter VII, that the remora retards a ship, because it increases
its moisture, and so too the body makes the soul moist, and therefore heavy and blind: for a dry soul is the wisest; the soul therefore in the body is held as if enclosed in a prison, and is weighed down by its members as if by shackles. The body is to the soul as a fog, which does not allow it to see heavenly things clearly; it is to it as an enticement, which drags it toward evil and the forbidden; it is to it as a chain, which scarcely allows it to fly on the wings of affections to sublime things; whence the Psalmist sighs, Psalm LV, 7: "Who will give me wings like a dove, and I will fly and be at rest?" Finally hear St. Bernard, sermon 3 on the Ascension: "But we are in this region where there is very much wickedness and little wisdom, because the body which is corrupted weighs down the soul, and the earthly habitation presses down the mind thinking upon many things, Wisdom IX, 15. By 'mind' here, I judge the intellect to be designated, which is then truly pressed down when it thinks upon many things, when it does not gather itself around that one and unique meditation which is conceived about that city whose participation is in the selfsame. Such an intellect must necessarily be pressed down and distracted through many things in many and manifold ways. But by 'soul' here I judge the affections to be meant, which in a corrupt body are affected by diverse passions, and these can never be mitigated, not to say healed, until the will seeks one thing and tends toward one. There are therefore two things that must be purged in us, the intellect and the affections: the intellect, that it may know; the affections, that they may will." He then adds the examples of Elijah and Enoch: "Happy and truly happy are those two men, Elijah and Enoch, from whom all material and occasions have been taken away that might hinder their intellect or affections, because living for God alone, they know none but God, nor desire any but God. Finally, of Enoch too it is read, Wisdom IV, 11, that he was taken away, lest wickedness should change his understanding, or deceit beguile his soul. Our intellect was disturbed, not to say blinded; our affections were stained, and greatly stained: but Christ illuminates the intellect, the Holy Spirit purges the affections."
WHICH IS CORRUPTED. — He gives the reason why the body weighs down the soul, namely because it is corruptible: for first, what is corruptible is material and earthly (for immaterial and heavenly things are incorruptible) and therefore heavy and ponderous, just as earth is heavy and ponderous. Second, because the corruptible and earthly body deteriorates day by day, and inclines toward the earth from which it was formed, and yearns to return to it as to its mother and origin; whence it drags the soul down with it, to incline and lean toward earthly things. Third, because the corruptible body keeps man occupied, so that he must constantly attend to its corruption, and thus calls him away from heavenly things: for the body, when it hungers, compels man to take food to relieve his hunger; when it thirsts, compels him to drink; when it is fatigued, compels him to rest; when it is cold, compels him to warm himself; when it grows drowsy, compels him to sleep, etc. These are the necessities of the body, which the soul is compelled to serve against its will; whence one must pray about them with the Psalmist, Psalm XXIV, 17: "Deliver me from my necessities." This is clear in the sick, who are entirely occupied in caring for the body and recovering its health, so that they can neither study, nor meditate, nor labor, nor do anything else: indeed even in the healthy, for these spend nearly a third of the day and of life sleeping; the remaining two parts of the day they often devote to manual labor, lunch, dinner, recreation, conversation, etc., so that they scarcely find half an hour to give to prayer and to God. Hence the Origenists and Pythagoreans thought that the soul was created perfect by God before the body, but on account of sins it had committed was thrust down into the body, as into a prison, to pay the penalties for its crimes; but the Manicheans, says St. Augustine in the book On Heresies, chapter XLVI: "Although they use wives, they nevertheless avoid conception and generation, lest the divine substance, which enters into them through food, be bound by fleshly chains in offspring"; but these are the manias and ravings of Mani.
For 'presses down' the Greek is brithei (as if from borithei, from bora, that is, food), that is, from the heaviness of food or drink, the body as it were drowses, and makes the mind likewise drowse, so as to shake it, and as though dreaming, to confuse its phantasms, so that it imagines, chooses, and embraces one thing for another, false for true, doubtful for certain, counterfeit for genuine: for thus we indeed experience the mind, when it wishes to speculate
16. AND WE HARDLY JUDGE (in Greek eikazomen, that is, we imagine, we conjecture) THE THINGS THAT ARE ON EARTH; AND THE THINGS THAT ARE IN SIGHT (in Greek, that are in our hands) WE FIND WITH DIFFICULTY. BUT THE THINGS THAT ARE IN HEAVEN, WHO HAS SEARCHED OUT? — In Greek, exichniasai, that is, will search out, as if to say: No one has searched them out, nor will anyone search them out by himself, without wisdom as a guide. Cantacuzenus, by eikazomen, that is, 'we imagine,' judges that the senses are denoted, both external and internal, through which from sensible things images are drawn, that is, species, which are impressed upon the mind, so that it may know things, not as they are in themselves and in their essence, but through species as through colors, with which things are clothed, depicted, and as it were colored: therefore we do not know the natures and substances of things, but only their external forms and pictures. All these things show how the body weighs down the soul and mind.
17. AND WHO SHALL KNOW YOUR MIND, UNLESS YOU GIVE WISDOM, AND SEND YOUR HOLY SPIRIT FROM ABOVE? — For 'shall know,' the Greek has the past tense 'knew'; St. Cyprian, in On the Singularity of Clerics reads 'knows': for by the past tense the other tenses are denoted, namely the present and the future. Hence also St. Jerome on Zechariah chapter XII, for 'You shall give' and 'You shall send' reads 'You gave' and 'You sent.' For 'mind,' the Greek is boulen, that is, counsel, mind, will. The Holy Spirit can be taken here either as created, namely grace and charity; or as uncreated, namely the Third Person of the Holy Trinity: for to Him are appropriated illumination and sanctification; whence the Church, invoking Him, says: Kindle a light in our senses, Pour love into our hearts, Strengthening the weaknesses of our body With perpetual power.
18. AND SO THE WAYS OF THOSE WHO ARE ON EARTH MAY BE CORRECTED (Lyranus and Dionysius incorrectly read 'If'), AND MEN MAY LEARN THE THINGS THAT ARE PLEASING TO YOU? — He notes a twofold effect of wisdom and the Holy Spirit: the first is that she teaches the things that are pleasing to God; the second, that for carrying them out in practice, she provides grace and strength, through which she reforms minds and corrects morals. For 'corrected,' St. Cyprian in On the Singularity of Clerics reads 'directed.'
19. FOR BY WISDOM THEY WERE HEALED, WHOEVER HAVE BEEN PLEASING TO YOU FROM THE BEGINNING. — These last words are absent in the Greek. For 'were healed,' the Greek is esothesan, that is, they were preserved or saved, that is, they were freed from dangers of death, both of body and of soul; whence he reviews examples of these from this point to the end of the book: wherefore some begin chapter ten from this verse. In a similar manner St. Paul, imitating the Sage, in Hebrews XI, throughout the entire chapter proves that all who have been saved since the beginning of the world were saved through faith.
THIRD PART OF THE BOOK OF WISDOM, IN WHICH HE REVIEWS EXAMPLES OF WISDOM AND ITS FRUITS FROM THE HISTORY OF THE FATHERS, BY WHICH HE CONFIRMS THE EXCELLENCE AND GIFTS OF WISDOM HITHERTO ENUMERATED.