Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
Christ speaks, and says that He is the sword and chosen arrow of God, for piercing through to Himself the nations of the world, even the Chinese, verse 12. Then, at verse 14, He introduces Zion, that is, the Church beginning in Judea, complaining about the small number of believing Jews. To which God responds that He will substitute for them all the Gentiles and peoples. Whence, at verse 22, He foretells that at the sign of the cross all nations will flock together, and that kings and queens will be the foster-fathers and nurses of the Church; and that God will feed the enemies of the Church with their own flesh and blood, so that they devour themselves.
Vulgate Text: Isaiah 49:1-24
1. Hear, O islands, and attend, you peoples from afar: The Lord called me from the womb, from the bowels of my mother He remembered my name. 2. And He made my mouth like a sharp sword: in the shadow of His hand He protected me, and He made me like a chosen arrow: in His quiver He hid me. 3. And He said to me: You are my servant, Israel, because in you I will be glorified. 4. And I said: I have labored in vain, without cause, and I have spent my strength uselessly: therefore my judgment is with the Lord, and my work with my God. 5. And now the Lord says, who formed me from the womb as a servant to Himself, that I might bring back Jacob to Him, and Israel will not be gathered: and I have been glorified in the eyes of the Lord, and my God has become my strength. 6. And He said: It is a small thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to convert the dregs of Israel. Behold, I have given you as a light to the Gentiles, that you may be my salvation unto the ends of the earth. 7. Thus says the Lord, the redeemer of Israel, His holy one, to the contemptible soul, to the abominated nation, to the servant of lords: Kings shall see, and princes shall rise up, and they shall adore, because of the Lord, who is faithful, and the Holy One of Israel who chose you. 8. Thus says the Lord: In the acceptable time I have heard you, and in the day of salvation I have helped you: and I have preserved you, and given you as a covenant of the people, that you might raise up the earth, and possess the scattered inheritances: 9. that you might say to those who are bound: Go forth; and to those who are in darkness: Be revealed. They shall feed upon the roads, and in all the plains shall be their pastures. 10. They shall not hunger, nor shall they thirst, and neither heat nor sun shall strike them: because He who has mercy on them shall lead them, and shall give them drink at the fountains of waters. 11. And I will make all my mountains into a road, and my paths shall be raised up. 12. Behold, these shall come from afar, and behold, those from the North and from the sea, and these from the land of the South. 13. Praise, O heavens, and rejoice, O earth; shout for joy, O mountains, with praise: because the Lord has consoled His people, and will have mercy on His poor. 14. And Zion said: The Lord has forsaken me, and the Lord has forgotten me. 15. Can a woman forget her infant, so as not to have pity on the son of her womb? And even if she should forget, yet I will not forget you. 16. Behold, I have inscribed you upon my hands: your walls are before my eyes always. 17. Your builders have come: those who destroy you and scatter you shall go forth from you. 18. Lift up your eyes round about, and see: all these have gathered together, they have come to you. As I live, says the Lord, you shall be clothed with all these as with an ornament, and you shall bind them about you as a bride. 19. For your deserts, and your solitudes, and the land of your ruin, shall now be too narrow for your inhabitants, and those who swallowed you up shall be driven far away. 20. The children of your barrenness shall yet say in your ears: The place is too narrow for me, make room for me to dwell. 21. And you shall say in your heart: Who has begotten these for me? I was barren, and did not bear, exiled and captive: and who has reared these? I was destitute and alone: and where were these? 22. Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will lift up my hand to the Gentiles, and will raise up my standard to the peoples. And they shall bring your sons in their arms, and carry your daughters upon their shoulders. 23. And kings shall be your foster-fathers, and queens your nurses: with face bowed down to the earth they shall adore you, and they shall lick the dust of your feet. And you shall know that I am the Lord, over whom those who wait for Him shall not be confounded. 24. Shall the prey be taken from the strong? or that which was captured
from the mighty, can it be saved? 25. For thus says the Lord: Indeed, even the captives shall be taken from the strong: and that which was taken from the mighty shall be saved. But those who have judged you, I will judge, and your children I will save. 26. And I will feed your enemies with their own flesh: and as with new wine, they shall be made drunk with their own blood: and all flesh shall know that I am the Lord who saves you, and your redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.
Verse 1
1. HEAR, O ISLANDS. — Here he passes from the shadow to the truth, namely from Cyrus to Christ, from the Synagogue to the Church. Therefore, just as he addressed the Jews at the beginning of the preceding chapter, saying: "Hear these things, house of Jacob:" so here he addresses the Gentiles, even the most remote and hidden, saying: "Hear, O islands, and attend, peoples from afar." For these things pertain not to Cyrus, as Hugo maintains, nor to John the Baptist, as others hold; but to Christ, as is clear from the very words, and from Acts XIII, where that verse 47: "I have placed you as a light to the Gentiles," is expounded of Christ; and II Corinthians chapter VI, that verse 2: "In the acceptable time I have heard you," is explained of the time of the Christian Church; and Apocalypse chapter VII, that verse 16: "They shall not hunger, nor thirst," etc., is understood of the blessed and triumphant Church of Christ in heaven. Therefore Christ is here introduced, as it were delivering a sermon to all men, in which He gives an account of His mission, coming, and office, namely, to call all the Gentiles to God and salvation, and to substitute and replace them for the Jews in the true Church of God.
THE LORD CALLED ME FROM THE WOMB, — saying to the Virgin Mother through the Archangel Gabriel: "You shall call His name Jesus," Matthew chapter I, verse 21, that is to say: Just as I named Cyrus from the womb, indeed before the womb, and said: "I have called you by your name," chapter XLV, verse 4; likewise Israel, saying: "Forming you, from the womb your helper," chapter XLIV, verse 2; and chapter XLVI, verse 3: "You who are carried from my womb:" so from the womb, indeed before I was conceived in the womb, God called me "Jesus," that is, Savior — that is, He designated and destined me to be the avenger and redeemer of the human race; for God calls things as they are, or as they will be: indeed, as He Himself will make them; for God's naming is efficacious, and God's speaking is doing. So St. Jerome, Cyril, and Ambrose on Psalm XXXV.
Verse 2
2. AND HE MADE MY MOUTH (that is, my words, as the Chaldean translates) LIKE A SHARP SWORD, — like the edge of a sword. He alludes to the Hebrew phrase: To strike with the mouth of the sword, that is, with the edge of the sword; for to this he compares the mouth of Christ. Again he alludes to Cyrus, the type of Christ, of whom he said in chapter XLV, verse 2: "I will go before you: and I will humble the glorious ones of the earth: I will break the gates of bronze," etc. For in like manner He gave swords and arms to Christ, with which He subjugated the whole world. The meaning therefore is, that is to say: Behold, I, Christ, come to make slaughter not of bodies, but of souls; for I come to slay sins and vices, so that the flesh, that is, the animal life, may perish, and the spirit may live. For the preaching of Christ, that is, the Gospel and the word of God, cuts away and slays crimes, passions, concupiscences; likewise the reprobate and demons, especially on the day of judgment. This is what Christ says: "I have not come to send peace, but a sword: for I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law," Matthew X, 34.
With this sword of the mouth Peter killed Ananias and Sapphira, Paul blinded Elymas. So St. Jerome, Cyril, and Procopius. This is what Paul says, Hebrews chapter IV, verse 12: "The word of God is living, and effectual, and more piercing than any two-edged sword: and reaching unto the division of the soul and the spirit, of the joints also and the marrow." To this John alluded, Apocalypse chapter I, verse 16: "And from His mouth came forth a sword sharp on both sides." And St. Paul, arming the Christian soldier with the full armor of Christ: "Take, he says, the helmet, and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God," Ephesians chapter VI, verse 17. By these words therefore, and what follows, the force, energy, and efficacy of Christ's preaching are described.
The Church applies these words to St. John, not in the literal sense, but in an accommodated sense, because he was the precursor of Christ, and His voice, crying in the wilderness. In like manner you may apply these to the Apostles and other efficacious preachers of Christ, just as in the Divine Office many things which in Scripture are said of certain particular persons and Saints, are adapted to other similar ones. As that saying about Abraham: "There was not found one like him in glory, who kept the law of the Most High," Sirach chapter XLIV, verse 20, is adapted to all Confessors.
IN THE SHADOW OF HIS HAND HE PROTECTED ME. — First, "in the shadow," that is, in protection. Whence the Septuagint translates, in the protection of His hand He hid me, so that namely the lowliness of my flesh might be covered by the power of the divinity. Whence also the Angel said to the Blessed Virgin Mother, who was about to conceive Christ: "The Holy Spirit shall come upon you, and the power of the Most High shall overshadow you," Luke chapter I, verse 35. So St. Jerome and Procopius. For shadow is a symbol of protection, because shade protects men from the heat of the sun, which in Judea is intense, and birds sheltering their chicks with their wings protect them from the kite. "In the shadow therefore of His hand, that is, with His hand shading and interposed for me, He protected me." So it is said of Christ, Lamentations chapter IV, verse 20: "In His shadow we shall live among the Gentiles."
Second, Forerius aptly takes the "shadow of His hand" as the sheath of the sword, which is, as it were, hidden under the left hand (for this is what the Hebrew חבא chaba properly signifies), and by it is covered and overshadowed. For he continues in the metaphor of the sword, which is concealed under the left arm in a sheath, so that it may easily be drawn out by the right hand. For just as He presently calls Himself an arrow hidden in the quiver of God, so here He calls Himself a sword stored in a sheath, under the hand of God, that is to say: I am a sharp sword, because I am the sword of the most powerful God; for God in His sheath, as in the shadow of His left hand, hid me,
AND HE MADE ME LIKE A CHOSEN ARROW. — He alludes to Cyrus, who was, as it were, the sword and arrow of God. For the weapons of a soldier are two, namely the sword, with which he strikes at close range, and the arrow, with which he strikes the enemy from afar and most swiftly. So to Christ the leader, Psalm XLIV, 4, a sword is given: "Gird Your sword upon Your thigh, O Most Mighty." Then arrows, verse 6: "Your arrows are sharp, peoples shall fall under You." For Christ, through Himself and the Apostles, powerfully and swiftly conquered nations both near and far, and subjugated them to His faith, and so fought, conquered, and triumphed both at close range with the sword and from afar with the arrow. So Forerius, Vatablus, Sanchez, and others. For "chosen," Forerius and Vatablus translate polished, burnished, shining, and gleaming; by which word is signified the sharpness, success, brilliance, and strength of the arrow. For thus soldiers are accustomed to polish their swords and arrows, both for adornment and to sharpen them, that they may shatter and penetrate everything. And this is what the Hebrew ברור barur properly signifies; whence our Translator and the Septuagint, who translate "chosen," seem to have read בחור bachur.
Christ therefore is the Father's sword, and an arrow polished and chosen above the Apostles and other Saints, which He hid in the quiver both of His foreknowledge and providence, say Cyril and Lyra, and of human flesh. He sends this arrow where He wills, and with His words, blows, and wounds He pierced, pricked, and wounded the minds of the faithful with love for Himself, and slew their vices and sins. So St. Jerome, Procopius, Cyril, and St. Chrysostom, Homily On Virtue or the Turtledove, volume V, who also adds: Wounded by this arrow, Jeremiah, chapter XVII, verse 16, said: "I am not troubled, following You as shepherd: and I did not desire the day of man, You know;" and David saying: "My soul has clung to You;" and Peter: "Lord, You know that I love You;" and Paul: "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?" These are the arrows of love, whose target is the heart at which they aim, so that they may give life by killing, says St. Ambrose, Exhortation to Virgins: "How blessed to be wounded by this arrow," says Origen, Homily 2 on the Canticle.
By this arrow St. Augustine too was pierced when he heard of the conversion of two courtiers, who, reading the Life of St. Anthony, left the court and consecrated themselves to God in solitude, as he himself relates, Book VIII of the Confessions, chapters VI and VIII. Struck by this arrow, St. Magdalene poured forth rivers of tears. For her tears were the blood of a wounded heart, flowing through her eyes. Note here the efficacy of these arrows of Christ: for they so struck and subdued hearts, that those very hearts immediately became arrows, by which He subdued others to Himself. For thus Magdalene, Paul, and the Apostles, pierced by these arrows of Christ, themselves became arrows, to wound others with love for Him. And for this reason Christ is here called a chosen arrow, because whomever He touched, He made into arrows, and so His army crept forward and grew, by which He soon pervaded the whole world and subjugated it to Himself. For this is the nature of the love of Christ,
Tropologically, the arrows of God and of Christ are the Apostles and apostolic men. So St. Jerome, in his letter to Principia, calls St. Paul an arrow. For the Apostles are the same as "those sent," and it is the nature of an arrow to be sent from a bow. For this reason St. John, Apocalypse VI, 2, says: "And I saw: and behold a white horse, and he who sat upon it had a bow, and a crown was given to him, and he went forth conquering that he might conquer." For the white horse is the Apostles, the rider is Christ, the bow and arrow are the evangelical preaching, the crown is the victory, namely the conversion and subjugation of the Gentiles. See what was said there. The word "arrow" shows what sort of men the Apostles ought to be: namely, first, sent and directed by God, as His instruments; second, united with God through prayer, obedient to Him in all things, and conforming themselves to Him; third, swift; fourth, efficacious and penetrating. For thus an arrow is borne with great force toward the target at which the archer sends it, and pierces and penetrates it; fifth, cleansed from vices and polished and shining with the holiness of virtues, so that with John the Baptist they may be burning and shining lamps; sixth, that they be aimed directly at the target, that is, that they strike and pierce with the fear and love of God the heart and mind, not merely touch and tickle the ears. Finally, a preacher, if he is truly a preacher, must be wholly an arrow; for it is necessary that he strike the hearts of men as much by holy examples as by words, and so his entire life ought to preach, and pierce the hearts of mortals with the fear of God. Would that You, Lord Jesus, would give us and make us such arrows, that we might be the sharp arrows of the Mighty One, by which men, being struck, may say with the bride: "You have wounded my heart: support me with flowers, surround me with apples, because I languish with love!" Canticle II, 5, and IV, 5.
Verse 3
3. AND HE SAID TO ME: YOU ARE MY SERVANT, ISRAEL. — Christ is called the servant of God, because though He was in the form of God, He willingly for love of us took the form of a servant. See what was said at chapter XLII, verse 1. Again He is called Israel, that is, an Israelite, because He was born, says St. Jerome, from the seed of Israel and Judah. Second, because He was sent primarily to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Third, because His type was Jacob, or Israel: for just as Jacob, wrestling with the Angel — God's deputy and envoy — and prevailing, was called Israel, that is, ruling over God: so much more was Christ Israel, that is, He prevailed over God, when by His obedience unto the death of the cross He overcame God in His wrath, and made Him propitious to men, and so rescinded God's vengeance and the sentence of condemnation passed against men. See Canon XXI.
BECAUSE IN YOU I WILL BE GLORIFIED. — For Christ in this world, through so many labors and crosses, sought nothing other than the glory of God, that through them He might glorify the Father. Whence He Himself says, John XVII, 4: "I have glorified You upon the earth," etc. Second, that is to say: You are indeed my servant, but you are also all my glory, and my beauty, because in You alone I showed the world the abyss of my goodness and love: whence the world, recognizing that in You, submitted itself to me, and likewise glorified me. So Forerius.
Verse 4
4. AND I SAID: I HAVE LABORED IN VAIN. — This is the voice of Christ complaining that so many and so strenuous labors and toils, which He expended among the Jews in teaching, preaching, traveling about, and suffering, were without fruit. For few of them were converted. So St. Jerome.
THEREFORE MY JUDGMENT IS WITH THE LORD, — that is to say: I, Christ, have made Your name known, O Father, to men, namely the Jews; I have done whatever I could for their salvation, even unto the cross and death, in which, bowing my head, I cried out: "It is finished." Therefore I commit the judgment of this cause to You, Father; You judge, through whose fault it happened that so few of them were converted and saved by my labor, says St. Jerome, and those who despised my labors and rendered them fruitless in themselves, judge and punish.
Meanwhile, my work, that is, the reward of my work, says the Chaldean, is with my God, that is, with You, O Father, it is kept intact for me. For You reward good works according to the labor, not according to the effect and fruit obtained from them, which is often not in the power of the worker; indeed it is rendered void by hard-hearted listeners or by rivals. Let apostolic men note this and imitate Christ — men who, whether here or in India among the Barbarians, endure immense labors, sometimes with little fruit: for the reward and the apostolic laurel are kept intact for them with God.
Second, Sanchez also explains it thus: Judgment, that is, my pact is with God the Father, namely that just as I glorify Him, so He in turn may glorify me, and He Himself has abundantly fulfilled that. Whence the work, that is, the reward of my work, remained with God, and was given to me, when He glorified me in the baptism, saying: "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased: hear Him," Matthew XVII, 5, and in death, by bringing darkness upon the world, and in the very resurrection, by gloriously raising me up.
Third, Forerius takes the Hebrew משפט mispat, that is, judgment, for state, condition, office, and activities: for it is often taken thus, that is to say: Do not think from the fact that I labored in vain among the Jews, that I was not sent by the Father, or that I conducted the business for which He sent me otherwise than I ought, or that I was at fault in anything. For the condition, state, office, activities, and all my actions were arranged and ordered by God the Father, from whose judgment and order I did not recede even a nail's breadth. "For as the Father gave me commandment, so" I have done, and "I do always." But the first meaning is the most clear and genuine.
AND NOW THE LORD SAYS. — Here God is introduced as if responding to the complaint of Christ, that He labored in vain among the Jews. But He responds in the following verse. For in this verse Christ sets forth and justifies His cause.
Verse 5
5. FORMING ME FROM THE WOMB AS A SERVANT TO HIMSELF, THAT I MIGHT BRING BACK
so that when He wills, He may draw me forth with His right hand, unsheathe me, and cut and penetrate all things.
JACOB. — From this it is clear that Christ was sent by the Father, through Himself, and primarily, as if by office and commission, to teach and save the Jews: for the Messiah had been promised to them by Him. Therefore Christ received from the Father the command to teach the Jews, and He fulfilled it through Himself and through the Apostles during His life: whence He commanded them saying, Matthew X, 5: "Do not go in the way of the Gentiles, etc. But rather go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." When therefore the Jews rejected His Gospel, God willed it, and Christ, ascending into heaven, commanded the Apostles to preach to the Gentiles and to the whole world: "Going, He said, teach all nations," etc., Matthew XXVIII, 19. St. Paul, Acts XIII, 46: "It was necessary that the word of God should first be spoken to you: but since you reject it, etc., behold we turn to the Gentiles: for so (the Father to Christ, and Christ) has commanded us: I have placed you as a light to the Gentiles," etc.
AND ISRAEL WILL NOT BE GATHERED. — So read the Hebrew, Symmachus, Theodotion, and others. Therefore others erroneously read לו lo with vav instead of לא lo with aleph, that is "not," and translate the opposite: and will be gathered. The meaning is, that is to say: I sought the lost sheep of Israel, to bring them back into the fold and Church of God; but they refused: and so they will not be gathered, that is, they will refuse to be collected and gathered into it.
AND I HAVE BEEN GLORIFIED IN THE EYES OF THE LORD, — both because I performed glorious signs and miracles before the Jews, by which I convicted and proved them guilty of infidelity and obstinacy; and because God the Father, in place of the Jews, gave me all the Gentiles of the world. For their conversion and salvation was Christ's great glory, as well as His joy. He adds the cause, saying: AND MY GOD HAS BECOME MY STRENGTH, — that is to say: I do not ascribe the glory just mentioned to myself, but to God the Father: for He gave me the strength and power to acquire it, and to accomplish the work of human redemption. Haymo understands the strength as that by which Christ was powerfully raised from the dead by the power of God, and rose again.
Verse 6
6. IT IS A SMALL THING. — In Hebrew נקל nakel, that is, it is light; Forerius translates, it is vile, unbecoming, ignominious, that is to say: If to anyone it seems ignominious that You were not able to bring back the Israelites to me; behold, I give You as a light to the Gentiles: and so I compensate and overwhelm this ignominy with greater praise and glory.
THE DREGS. — In Hebrew נצורי netsure, that is, those preserved and surviving from so many disasters and destructions, especially that of Titus and Vespasian; which our Translator rightly renders, "the dregs," that is, the vile and meager remnants of "Israel." For the Jews are now so cast down, exiled, and wretched, that they seem to be the dregs of all nations and the refuse of the world.
BEHOLD, I HAVE GIVEN YOU AS A LIGHT TO THE GENTILES (that You may be, as it were, the spiritual and divine sun of the world, and "a light for the revelation of the Gentiles," as Simeon sings, Luke II, 32), THAT YOU MAY BE MY SALVATION. — The Septuagint: that you may be for salvation. See how much God has at heart and cares for our salvation, since He calls it His own. "I will, says St. Jerome, that my salvation may occupy the whole world." Behold the magnificent glory of Christ. For is it not glorious that one crucified man is worshipped as God in the whole world? And that He drew barbarian nations to Himself and to God through His disciples — is it not glorious that, instead of a corner of Judea, He occupies the ends of the earth and the borders of the world? For what the Apostles did, Christ speaking and cooperating in them accomplished.
Verse 7
7. THUS SAYS THE LORD, etc., TO THE CONTEMPTIBLE SOUL, — that is, to the lowly Jews, who are now, as it were, vile and contemptible servants. So some say according to St. Jerome. Whence St. Thomas also refers these words to the Jews freed from Babylon; Hugh, however, to Cyrus, who as a boy was exposed to wild beasts in the woods by order of his grandfather Astyages, and was raised by God to the kingdom. But I say that the discourse is addressed to Christ, and to His disciples. For Christ was despised by Herod, Annas, Pilate, and the Jews, as if He were "a worm, and not a man, the reproach of men and the outcast of the people;" and, as Isaiah says chapter LIII, verses 3 and 4: "Despised, and the lowest of men: and we esteemed Him as a leper, and struck by God, and humiliated." Such also were the Apostles, and the first Christians under the Gentile Emperors and tyrants. Therefore He calls the Christians an abominated nation, and the servant of any lords whatsoever. Whence Aquila and Theodotion translate: To him who despises his soul, who is an abomination to the nation, who is the servant of princes, that is, to Christ with His Christians, who for the redemption of the human race, as a servant, a slave, indeed as a beast, spat upon, crowned, beaten, and mocked — "Hail, King of the Jews" — gave His life unto death to the princes of the Jews and to Pilate. So St. Jerome, Cyril and Procopius, Eusebius, Tertullian, and from them Leo Castrius, Forerius, Sanchez, and others.
Whence the Septuagint translates: Sanctify him who despises his soul, who is abominated by the Gentiles, the servant of princes. This is what Christ foretold to His own, Luke XXI, 17: "You shall be hated by all men because of my name;" and John XVI, 2: "The hour comes, that everyone who kills you, will think he is offering service to God." That this actually happened to the Apostles is clear from Acts chapter II, 5, 6, and following, and I Corinthians IV.
The meaning therefore is, that is to say: Although Christ and the Church may now seem to be despised and trampled upon, and the whole world rises up against it with hatred, says Cyril, and tortures Christians with insults and torments, as vile slaves, indeed as sheep destined for slaughter and as the refuse of the world; yet this miserable lot of theirs will not last long: for I will soon reverse the situation, and cause kings to honor and adore her. For this is what follows:
KINGS SHALL SEE, AND PRINCES SHALL RISE UP, AND SHALL ADORE, — that is to say: Kings and princes shall rise up, and reverently do homage to You, O Christ, and to the Church; that is, as verse 23 says: "With face bowed to the earth they shall adore You, and shall lick the dust of Your feet." Second, St. Jerome and Procopius refer these words to the day of judgment: for then Christ, the Apostles, and the Martyrs, sitting on glorious thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel, and indeed Annas, Caiaphas, Pilate, Nero, Decius, Diocletian, and all the kings and tyrants who once persecuted, judged, condemned, and tortured them; they will compel them, as defendants, to appear before their tribunal, and to become suppliants, and to venerate them, and they will judge and condemn them.
BECAUSE OF THE LORD (that is to say: The Lord will be the efficient cause of this change, so that kings, formerly hostile, now adore Christ and the Church), BECAUSE HE IS FAITHFUL, — to fulfill what He promised. Otherwise Forerius: Because of the Lord, he says, the princes paid this honor to the Lord's disciples, because they saw and recognized them as chosen by the Lord, by the Holy God of Israel, which from the signs and virtues, and the immense endurance of evils, unheard-of meekness, and other heavenly gifts — which even barbarian men and kings themselves cannot but admire — they plainly understood that these things could proceed from nothing other than the help and power of God, who is faithful and generous to His saints and chosen ones. Whence they were impelled, and all but compelled, to love and worship this God.
Verse 8
8. THUS SAYS THE LORD: IN THE ACCEPTABLE TIME I HAVE HEARD YOU, — that is to say: At that time when You were despised, harassed, indeed crucified, O Christ, by the impious Jews, You prayed to me that I might rescue You from these insults of the Jews and Gentiles, glorify You, raise You from the dead, make Your name celebrated throughout the whole world, and through it give righteousness and salvation to all the Gentiles. For You said in the time of Your contempt, Psalm XCVIII, verses 12 and 14: "I have become a parable to them. But I directed my prayer to You, O Lord: may the time of Your good pleasure come, O God. In the multitude of Your mercy hear me, in the truth of Your salvation." Likewise You prayed on the cross "with a strong cry and tears, and You were heard because of Your reverence," Hebrews V, 7. For on the third day I raised You from death, on the fortieth day I carried You triumphant into heaven, on the fiftieth day in Your name I sent the Holy Spirit upon Your Apostles, who forthwith made Your name celebrated throughout the whole world, and brought and proclaimed Your faith, grace, and salvation to all the Gentiles.
These are the words of the Father to the Son, that is to say: I have heard, that is, I will hear You when You have become incarnate and been born, praying for Your members, and in Your members, namely the Apostles and Christians, and seeking help, grace, and salvation for the whole world. For because of Your prayers I will confer and bestow these things upon the world. See Canon XL. So St. Jerome, Cyril, Procopius, and many others.
The time therefore of good pleasure, or of benevolence (for this is what the Hebrew רצון ratson signifies) of God toward Christ and the Church, is the acceptable time, in which God was appeased and reconciled through Christ with the human race, namely the time of the grace of the Gospel, especially that which immediately followed the death of Christ, in which Paul and the Apostles lived, taught, and converted the world. For thus St. Paul explains it, II Corinthians VI, 2: "In the acceptable time I have heard you, and in the day of salvation I have helped you. Behold, now is the acceptable time, behold, now is the day of salvation." For "acceptable time" is the same as "day," that is, time, "of salvation."
AND I HAVE PRESERVED YOU, — lest dying You should perish, but that You might soon rise gloriously: this I will confer upon You. There follows another thing which I will bestow upon Your faithful for Your sake.
AND I HAVE GIVEN YOU AS A COVENANT OF THE PEOPLE, — that You might establish a new covenant, pact, and testament between God and all the Gentiles, just as Moses sanctioned the old covenant between God and the Jews, and that You might seal this covenant with Your death and blood. Whence second, "I have given You as a covenant," that is, as a federal victim, by which the Father, being appeased, was reconciled with men, and entered into a covenant with them to give them eternal salvation. So Forerius, who also adds: The primitive Church too, and the Apostles, who form one body with Christ, are called the covenant of the peoples, because they were the ministers of this reconciliation and covenant, and sealed it also with their own death and martyrdom. For this is what Paul says, in chapter VI already cited: "For Christ we are ambassadors. We beseech you for Christ, be reconciled to God."
THAT YOU MIGHT RAISE UP THE EARTH, — that You might raise up the inhabitants of the earth, who had fallen into sin and were rushing into death and hell, and call them back to heavenly life and salvation.
AND MIGHT POSSESS THE SCATTERED INHERITANCES — of the Gentiles sitting in darkness, in prison and the shadow of death, of infidelity, ignorance, and sins, and through these scattered and receding far from faith, God, grace, and salvation. So St. Jerome, Cyril, and others. Isaiah uses a similar metaphor in chapter XXXV, 5, and often elsewhere.
Second, Forerius: The inheritances, he says, that were desolate and scattered, or, as in the Hebrew, blasted — that is, which at first those who saw them execrated and hissed at as something hidden — were the virtues and endowments of Christ and Christians, namely contempt, vigils, fasts, poverty, hunger, nakedness, reproaches, scourges, the cross, etc. Add innocence, chastity, continence, meekness, humility, etc. For who did not shrink from these, as from the cross and the gibbet? But Christ and the Apostles led us into these deserted possessions, so that we now seek them, and consider that through them we reach heaven, through them we are blessed. This interpretation is more subtle and spiritual; the former is more solid and authentic.
Verse 9
9. THAT YOU MIGHT SAY TO THOSE WHO ARE BOUND: GO FORTH. — Go forth, O Gentiles! from the chains of sins, from the guilt of fault and punishment, by which you are bound to the devil and to hell: I through Christ claim you for freedom and the state of grace, indeed I adopt you as my friends and children.
AND TO THOSE WHO ARE IN DARKNESS (of idolatry and paganism): BE REVEALED, — that is, be illumined, be flooded with the light of the Gospel; and consequently, "cast off the works of darkness, and put on the armor of light, so that as in the day you may walk honestly." St. Anselm in the Elucidarium refers these words to the souls existing in Limbo and Purgatory, all of which he holds Christ freed from there when He descended after death; of which I have said more at Hosea chapter XXIII, 13.
THEY SHALL FEED UPON THE ROADS, AND IN ALL THE PLAINS SHALL BE THEIR PASTURES. — By these and the following metaphors the Prophet signifies that in the time of Christ, not only in Jerusalem as before, but everywhere among the Gentiles, there will be an abundance of food and of spiritual fountains, namely the word of God, grace, the Sacraments, and every spiritual consolation. Finally, God promises that He will then remove all impediments, so that the way of salvation may be smooth and clear, amid prosperity and adversity. So St. Jerome, Cyril, and Origen, Book I Against Celsus. In particular, Origen takes "pastures" as churches; St. Jerome, however, and Cyril take it as Sacred Scripture, the evangelical doctrine, and whatever feeds the soul. This is what Christ says: "He shall go in, and go out, and shall find pastures," John X, 9.
Verse 10
10. THEY SHALL NOT HUNGER, NOR SHALL THEY THIRST, AND NEITHER HEAT NOR SUN SHALL STRIKE THEM. — He alludes to the Hebrews in the desert, whom God fed and satisfied with manna from heaven, and protected from the heat of the sun with a pillar of cloud, that is to say: In like manner, indeed in a better and happier way, God will feed and satisfy Christians with His Gospel, His doctrine and grace, and especially the Eucharist: and He will protect them from the heat of temptations, so that if they are willing to rely on Him, follow Him, and cooperate with His grace, they will overcome all the heats of temptations and tribulations, and will experience no spiritual hunger or thirst. Having experienced this, Paul said, II Corinthians chapter IV, 8: "In all things we suffer tribulation, but are not distressed: we are in difficulties, but are not forsaken; we suffer persecution, but are not abandoned: we are cast down, but we do not perish: always bearing about in our body the mortification of Jesus, that the life also of Jesus may be made manifest in our bodies." Therefore the pious bear their adversities and afflictions more lightly — in which they not rarely rejoice and glory with Paul — than the wicked bear their prosperity, in which they not rarely grow disgusted. So Forerius.
Anagogically, understand these things of the blessed satiety of grace and glory in heaven. For thus St. John understood them, Apocalypse chapter VII, 16.
BECAUSE HE WHO HAS MERCY ON THEM SHALL LEAD THEM. — This is the reason why they shall not thirst, why they shall not be burned by the sun: namely because God, who from the inmost depths of His charity has mercy on them; who has compassion on their afflictions and, as it were, suffers with them, shall guide them, or, as Vatablus translates, shall feed them, "and shall give them drink at the fountains of waters" already mentioned. He alludes to Psalm XXII, 1: "The Lord rules me (in Hebrew, feeds me), and nothing shall be wanting to me: He has placed me in a place of pasture." Note: For "shall give drink" the Hebrew and the Septuagint have "shall carry"; but the Latin Bibles, the Roman and others generally read "shall give drink," with a fuller meaning: for He shall carry them to the fountains, that there He may give them drink.
Verse 11
11. AND I WILL MAKE ALL MY MOUNTAINS INTO A ROAD, AND MY PATHS SHALL BE RAISED UP. — He alludes to the Hebrews coming from Egypt into Canaan and Jerusalem, and returning there from Babylon. For God, as it were, leveled the mountains and paths, or valleys, for them: lowering the mountains, filling and raising the valleys; because He caused them to travel by a smooth and easy road, joyful and eager, that is to say: In like manner, indeed in a better way, He will lead the Gentiles wherever they may be, so that they may overcome all steep and rough obstacles, and hasten by a smooth road to Jerusalem and Zion, that is, to the Church of Christ. This is what John the Baptist says: "Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be brought low," Luke chapter III, 5.
St. Cyril specifically takes the mountains as the heights of virtues. Formerly, he says, virginity, continence, innocence, patience, martyrdom, love of enemies, contempt of the world, etc., seemed to be virtues impossible for man and like inaccessible mountains: now through Christ, God has made them level and easy; and so He has, as it were, leveled the way to perfection and heaven, and reduced it to a smooth path; yet in such a way that to men who savor earthly things it seems exalted, and truly is. "For our conversation is in heaven."
Verse 12
12. BEHOLD, THESE SHALL COME FROM AFAR. — St. Jerome, Forerius, and Sanchez think that the four quarters of the world are signified here, namely that the Gentiles will come from them to Christ and the Church. Whence by "from afar" they understand the East. But this does not seem to have been the Prophet's concern in this passage: for "from afar" does not mean the East rather than the West, since the Gentiles would come to the Church equally from the most remote West and from the East: as we see today coming from the most remote regions of America. For he has expressed these quarters sufficiently elsewhere, as in chapter XLIII, 5: "From the East I will bring your seed, and from the West I will gather you. I will say to the North: Give up; and to the South: Do not hold back." Therefore "from afar" is rather a general term, signifying any remote quarter of the world in general. Whence, subdividing it not into all, but into some of its more important parts, he adds: "Behold, those from the North and from the sea, and these from the land of the South." For the word "behold," which he prefixed to "from afar," saying: "Behold, these shall come from afar," he repeats only once in the following clauses, saying: "Behold, those from the North," etc., signifying that these three clauses that follow explain and subdivide the "from afar." For otherwise, if "from afar" signified only the East, he would have prefixed the word "behold" equally to the West and the South, as to the East and the North.
AND FROM THE SEA, — that is, from the West. See Canon XXXIX.
AND THESE FROM THE LAND OF THE SOUTH. — In Hebrew ואלה מארץ סינים veelle meerets sinim, which the Hebrews, according to the testimony of St. Jerome, Forerius, Forster, Vatablus, and Sanchez, translate: and these from the land of the Sineans, or inhabitants and neighbors of Mount Sinai, that is, the Southerners. For Sinai, they say, is to the south of Judea. Second, the Septuagint translates: and these from the land of the Persians. St. Cyril and Procopius think that by the Persians the three Magi are signified, as if they had come from Persia.
But I say with Osorio and Arias Montanus that here there is properly a prophecy about the vast and magnificent kingdom of the Chinese; I therefore translate: And these from the land of the Chinese. Now the Chinese are in the extreme East, near Japan; and toward the North, they have Tartary as their nearest neighbor.
This opinion is proved: first, because Sinim properly means the Chinese, nor could Isaiah name the Chinese in Hebrew otherwise than by saying Sinim. For just as in Hebrew the Galileans are called Gelilim, the Jews Jehudim, the Assyrians Assurim, the Chaldeans Casdim, the Syrians Aramim: so the Chinese are called and are Sinim. Now the Chinese are best known by this name, and no other (even though at home they call themselves by another name), throughout the whole Christian world.
Second, because the other interpreters, says St. Jerome, namely Symmachus, Aquila, and Theodotion, as well as the Syriac, and the Arabic both Antiochene and Alexandrian, and Leo the Hebrew, retained the Hebrew name Sinim, as a proper name of the nation, and translate: And these from the land of Sinim, that is, of the Chinese, as I have already said.
Third, that Sinim means the Chinese rather than the Sineans, or inhabitants near Mount Sinai, is proved first, because nowhere in Scripture are the Sineans or Southerners called Sinim in Hebrew from Mount Sinai, even though Mount Sinai is frequently mentioned. Again, the South, or the southern region, is not called Sinai in Hebrew, but negeb or teman. Third, Mount Sinai, says Sanchez, is more to the west of Judea than to the south (which however does not appear in geographic maps, for there it is marked as south of Judea); whence he himself takes Sinim here as the West, and the sea as the South: for the Mediterranean Sea is as much to the south as to the west of Judea. Whence in Scripture the sea sometimes denotes the South, sometimes the West. Fourth, Mount Sinai is deserted and has few inhabitants. Why then, in such a great multitude of nations that were to come to the Church, would the most eloquent Prophet have named only the deserted and few Sineans?
Fourth, because by the Chinese we properly explain the phrase "behold, these shall come from afar." For the Chinese are situated at the greatest distance from this world, and are in the extreme East, whereas the Sineans are neighbors of Judea.
You will say: Why then does St. Jerome, whose translation is approved by the Church, translate Sinim as "the land of the South"? I respond: Because in the time of St. Jerome, China and the Chinese region were unknown; whence by Sinim he himself in his Commentary understood the Sineans, who after the Chinese most closely approach the Hebrew word Sinim. The Holy Spirit, however, guided his hand, so that he translated not "the Sineans" but "the southern land." For the Chinese, who are properly signified here, although they are to the East, can nonetheless be said to be to the South: first, because the Portuguese, when sailing to China, at first navigate by a long circuit to the South, namely from Portugal all the way to the Cape of Good Hope, which is the last point on the continent, and directly opposite the South. So Arias. In like manner, Babylon the devastator of Judea is said in Scripture to be to the north of Jerusalem, although it is rather to the East, because Nebuchadnezzar with his forces entered Judea through Dan, or Caesarea, which is to the north of Jerusalem, and from there proceeded to Jerusalem, as I said at Jeremiah I, 13.
Second, because under "the South" he also implies the East (which he therefore does not name). For here the South is contrasted with both the North and the sea, that is, the West. Whence the Septuagint, to whom the Chinese were likewise unknown, translate Sinim as Persians, who are to the East of Judea. Now through Persia there is a direct land route from Judea to China. Therefore St. Jerome too, uncertain about the word Sinim, and thinking that the four quarters of the world are signified here, says that by Sinim one can understand the East. "But if by Sinim, he says, as the Septuagint translated, we understand the Persians who are situated to the East; that which is said above: Behold, these shall come from afar, we can refer to the South." By Sinim therefore, understand with St. Jerome and the Septuagint the Eastern peoples: and whom else, I ask, will you understand but the Chinese? For what have the Persians to do with the word Sinim? Isaiah therefore predicts that the Sinim, that is, the Chinese, will come to Zion, that is, to the Church of Christ.
You will ask: Why, above all the other Gentiles so many and so great, does Isaiah mention only the Chinese? I respond: first, because he had said: "Behold, these shall come from afar;" and the Chinese are at the greatest distance. Again, because, as our Maffei teaches, Book VI, Botero in the book On the Greatness of Empires regarding China, Ortelius, and others, the Chinese are most numerous, and their region is so populous that ordinary cities are reckoned at more than 1,150, and larger ones at 247. Again, the inhabitants dwell not only in towns and villages, but also on rivers, bridges, and boats.
Botero writes that 70 million men are counted in China, a multitude that is not found in all of Europe. For Italy, as the same author relates, numbers 10 million, England three, France 12, Germany 15, and so on proportionally. Therefore the king of China always has under arms and maintains one million soldiers. But our Nicolas Trigault, who lived for many years in the Chinese kingdom, and narrates what he saw, not what he heard, asserts, Book I of the Expedition to China, that more than 58 million adults are counted there, who pay tribute to the king. But in these numbers neither women, nor children, nor adolescents, nor eunuchs, nor soldiers, nor magistrates and scholars, and many others are included, who all together, if computed, exceed 250 million.
Second, because the Chinese marvelously follow the guidance of nature and reason, and are humane and teachable as well as ingenious: whence they had the printing press and bronze cannons before the Europeans; they have an admirable system of government and civil administration, in which, as Plato wished, the rulers are philosophers, and none but philosophers and learned men govern. Therefore they are very capable of receiving Christian wisdom, and the heavenly and supernatural philosophy which Christ brought to the world through His Gospel.
Third, because they are most wealthy. They abound in wheat, wine, oil, meat, fish, fruits of every kind, linen, silk, wool, mines of gold, silver, bronze, and all metals. Botero and Maffei write that the annual revenue of the king of China is 120 million in gold. A 'vessel' of gold they call 100,000, not florins, but gold coins: a gold coin is a drachma of gold, or 12 julii, or reals. Which sum is so great that Vespasian, although monarch of the world and most greedy for gold, did not leave even that much when he died. Hence the Chinese call their king "the son of heaven, and lord of the world." But our Trigault from the Chinese records themselves teaches that the king's annual revenue exceeds 150 million, which sum seems immense and incredible to Europeans; but he himself, calculating the king's taxes and accounts, easily persuades the reader that it is so.
Fourth, because the Chinese are inaccessible, and under penalty of death or slavery and imprisonment, they forbid entry to their kingdom to all foreigners. Whence they have separated themselves from the Tartars by a wall 405 leagues long: and against them, if they should invade, the king immediately leads into battle 300,000 infantry, 200,000 cavalry, indeed, if he wishes, a million soldiers. Isaiah therefore signifies that the Chinese, although they exclude other foreigners, will nonetheless not exclude in their time European Apostles; who will teach the inhabitants not only clocks, astrolabes, Astronomy, Mathematics, Physics, Metaphysics, and other natural sciences, and especially Ethics, Economics, and Politics, by which the justice, happiness, and splendor of commonwealths wonderfully increases and shines; but also supernatural disciplines, namely the faith and law of Christ, Christian ethics and wisdom, and Theology, which shows the way to heaven, to living blessedly for all eternity, and which will illumine the Chinese commonwealth with a wonderful splendor of wisdom and virtue, and preserve it in equity, obedience, modesty, and peace, and will likewise procure for it immense honor and wealth, and the extraordinary favor and beneficence of God; they will teach the inhabitants and instruct them in every virtue and holiness. And so they will lead them to obtain immortal life and eternal glory in heaven.
The Prophet therefore names the Chinese above other peoples, to teach that the Chinese, although inaccessible to others, most remote, and most powerful, will nonetheless submit themselves to Christ the Son of God and His Church, that they may obtain grace and salvation from Him. Again, to signify that there will be a remarkable conversion and an illustrious Church of the Chinese above other churches of the Indies, indeed of the whole world. Whence, exulting and breaking forth into jubilation, he adds: "Praise, O heavens; and rejoice, O earth; because the Lord has consoled His people." Now this conversion and illumination of the Chinese began in this happy age of ours, through the burning zeal of the great Apostle of the Indies, St. Francis Xavier, Matteo Ricci, and others of our Society, and is growing and increasing more and more every day.
Note: Under the Chinese he includes the neighboring Japanese, who received their learning and religion from the Chinese. Likewise the peoples of the middle Indies, and all the Eastern and Southern peoples: for he designates and encompasses these as, being in the middle or on the borders, from the extremity and boundary, namely from the Chinese. Thus recently some Japanese kings, converted to Christ, sent an embassy unheard of for centuries to Rome, to Pope Gregory XIII, and through their ambassadors offered him obedience and the kissing of his feet: and regarding the zeal of the Japanese for the faith, piety, and martyrdom, and regarding the propagation and holiness of Christians, after the pattern of the primitive Church, we hear wonderful and great things from the letters of our Jesuits from Japan, every year with immense pleasure of soul.
Of these things therefore, which neither St. Jerome nor any earlier age saw, the experience of this present age clearly explains, and will henceforth explain even more, this prophecy of Isaiah. Go forward then, O noble athletes of Christ! O Apostles! O zealous Religious! who, prodigal of your lives, across the immense spaces of the ocean and of lands, beyond the Seres and Indians, to the Chinese and Japanese, strive with a pure desire for their salvation and with the love of God; go forward steadfastly, proceed courageously, your labor will not be in vain in the Lord. Overcome cheerfully the heats, the cold, the hunger, thirst, persecutions, prisons, scourgings, deaths, and martyrdoms. By these the primitive Church was founded, and by these the Chinese Church must be founded. Isaiah pledges to you, indeed the Holy Spirit pledges through him — He who can neither be deceived nor deceive, whom no force, no craft, no obstacles can resist — the conversion of the Chinese: He pledges among them altars and temples of Christ, He pledges a glorious and stable Church.
Go forward you too, O Chinese! O noble souls! Eagerly receive this joyful and magnificent oracle concerning you, delivered by the most noble Prophet more than two thousand years ago. Reverently receive the Apostles of the great God, whom He Himself, looking past the times of your former ignorance, having mercy on you, now sends to you as if by a right of return. Embrace with exultation the Gospel of our Savior Jesus Christ, give thanks to God, "who has called you out of darkness into His admirable light, and into the portion of the lot of the saints." For now you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but you are fellow citizens of the saints and members of the household of God. To you therefore Isaiah proclaims: "Be revealed. They shall feed upon the roads, and in all the plains shall be their pastures. They shall not hunger, nor shall they thirst, and neither heat nor sun shall strike them: because He who has mercy on them shall lead them, and shall give them drink at the fountains of waters."
Verse 13
13. PRAISE, O HEAVENS. — In Hebrew רננו rannenu, that is, shout for joy, as Vatablus translates; exult, as Forerius. The Prophet invites inanimate things, namely the heavens and the earth, to celebrate with jubilation and triumph so great a benefit of God, by which He called the Chinese and all the Gentiles to Himself and to His grace and salvation. See here the pious zeal of the Prophet for the salvation of souls. For he wishes that the heavens and the elements had many tongues, with which to congratulate men returning from the captivity of sin, says Forerius. Again, hear St. Jerome: "The heavens and the earth are commanded, he says; or those virtues which dwell in heaven and on earth; or the Angels and men, to sing the praises of God. And those who are placed on the height of virtues, let them attest the joy of their mind with jubilation and exultation." He adds the cause: BECAUSE THE LORD HAS CONSOLED HIS PEOPLE, namely those of the Jews who had been willing to believe. And He has had mercy on His poor and humble ones, that is, on all His people, who from East and West, North and South, has been called to Him: having neither the law, nor the Prophets, nor spiritual riches; but deserted, poor, and humble, subject to all the demons.
Verse 14
14. AND ZION SAID: THE LORD HAS FORSAKEN ME. — These words, up to the end of the chapter, some take literally of carnal Zion, that is, of the Synagogue, or of the Jews captive in Babylon, as if they were mourning and weeping over their fate, and God were consoling them with the hope of a swift return and better fortune. So the Chaldean, St. Thomas, Hugh, and Sanchez. The last three of these mystically hold that under the Jews, Christians are here foreshadowed, and under Zion, the Church of Christ. But the things said here are far too exalted to apply to the carnal Jews. I admit, however, that there is an allusion to them.
Second, St. Augustine, Eusebius, Cyril, Justin, Tertullian, and from them Leo Castrius, by Zion literally understand the Church of Christ, and think that this is the voice of the Church and the Apostles in the time of persecution, as if complaining that they had been abandoned by God. But the Apostles and the first faithful, in persecutions, did not complain, but rather rejoiced and exulted; and they knew, indeed they saw, that through them and through martyrdoms, the Church was growing. Furthermore, shortly before, God had promised numerous offspring to the Church, from all parts of the earth: "Behold, He said, these shall come from afar, and behold, those from the North," etc. Therefore the Church could not immediately complain that she had been abandoned by God.
I say therefore with St. Jerome, Haymo, Forerius, and others, that by Zion here is understood the Synagogue and the Jews — but not all of them, only those who believed in Christ and were pious. For these, seeing the far greater part of their nation fall away from the faith and from Christ, and that they themselves were few, complained that God seemed to have abandoned Zion and the Synagogue. To whom God responds that He cares for them, that He can forget them less than a mother her infant, that He has them always before His eyes, indeed inscribed on His hands, and therefore He will ensure that Zion, that is, the Church of the faithful, will not perish nor diminish; for although a few obstinate Jews fall away, He will substitute for them an innumerable multitude of Gentiles, and will bring them from every quarter to the Church. For that these things pertain to the Jews, besides the reasons already given, is urged by what the following chapter says at the beginning: that He gave to their mother, that is, to the Judaizing Synagogue, a bill of divorce; and what chapter LI says at the beginning: "Look to Abraham your father, and to Sarah who bore you." For Isaiah treats the same argument in the following chapter as he does in this chapter, according to his custom.
Note here: Isaiah, as also the Evangelists, by Zion and the Jews sometimes understand the faithful and pious, sometimes the unbelieving and impious, so that when they console the former, they may soon after rebuke the latter. See Canon VII. For the faithful Jews grieved that their nation, once holy and chosen by God, was now falling away from faith and holiness, and was being rejected and reprobated by God, and they complained of this before God; to whom He Himself responds: Even if that nation should partly perish, yet Zion, that is, the Church, would not perish, and in guarding it He would keep the promises made to Abraham and the fathers. The Apostle treats the same complaint of the Jews, Romans IX, 6, and responds that God's promises were made to the children of Abraham, not the carnal but the spiritual, that is, to those who follow the faith and piety of Abraham, whether they be Jews or Gentiles: "For not all who are from Israel, he says, are Israelites; nor are all the children of Abraham his seed; but in Isaac shall your seed be called; that is, not those who are children of the flesh are the children of God; but those who are the children of the promise are counted as the seed."
Verse 16
16. BEHOLD, I HAVE INSCRIBED YOU UPON MY HANDS. — In Hebrew, I have engraved you; the Septuagint, I have depicted; Theodotion, I have formed; Symmachus, I have fashioned; Aquila, I have carefully inscribed, that you may be as a sign, or a seal upon my hand, Canticle VIII, 6. It is a catachresis, that is to say: I keep an intimate and constant memory of you, I always remember you, I diligently care for you and your affairs, as if I had inscribed you upon my hands, so that you might always strike my eyes, every time I look at my hands. Whence it follows: "Your walls are before my eyes always." Sanchez thinks there is an allusion to rings, on which friends are accustomed to engrave those whom they intimately love and venerate, just as Cicero and Pliny, Book XXXV, chapter II, report that the image of Epicurus, engraved on a ring by his followers, was customarily worn. More remote is what Arias says, that there is an allusion here to the ground plan of architects, who sketch the rough idea of a structure, such as its area, on their hand and display it.
Second, properly speaking, Christ inscribed the Church His Bride and each of her faithful in the scars of the wounds which He received in His hands for them, and which He will bear always, for eternity. For there He inscribed them not with ink, but with His blood; not with a pen, but with nails and stigmata; not on the skin, but in the flesh, so deeply that no age, not even eternity, will ever erase it. For from there flowed the gifts of grace, the Sacraments of the Church, and all spiritual goods, by which He perpetually protects and strengthens the walls of the Church. So St. Ambrose, Book VI of the Hexaemeron, chapter V. Whence St. Cyril notes that by the hands is signified strength and power, and therefore that the invincible forces of the Church are founded in the hands of Christ. For thus he says: "The passion of Christ, and the precious cross, and the nailing of His hands, was the security and the impregnable wall." The wounds of Christ therefore are for all the faithful, in every persecution and tribulation, a certain and safe refuge and asylum. Flee here therefore, whoever you are who are anxious, sorrowful, or afflicted. Piously St. Augustine, in the Soliloquies, chapter II: "Your hands, Lord, he says, have made me and fashioned me: those hands, I say, which were nailed for me. Do not despise, Lord, the work of Your hands; I beg You to look upon the wounds of Your hands. Behold, in Your hands, Lord God, You have inscribed me; read that writing, and save me. Lo, Your creature sighs to You; You are the Creator, recreate me. Lo, Your handiwork cries to You; You are life, give me life. Lo, Your creature looks to You; You are the fashioner, restore me."
Anagogically, Procopius refers these words to the book of life which is in the hand of God, in which He has indelibly inscribed the elect to glory, so that no one can expunge them, nor can He Himself forget them.
Verse 17
17. YOUR BUILDERS HAVE COME. — He alludes to Jerusalem destroyed by the Chaldeans, which the Jews thought would never be restored; but God made Ezra and Nehemiah its builders and restorers. Now by these builders he understands the Apostles, that is to say: Behold, the Apostles are here, who will restore you, O Zion, indeed renew you, and build, as it were, a new Church of Christ. For "have come" the Hebrew has מהרו miharu, that is, they have hastened, that is, they came in haste, that is to say: You are about to be restored right away; behold, my disciples are at hand, who will rebuild you.
THOSE WHO DESTROY YOU AND SCATTER YOU SHALL GO FORTH FROM YOU, — that is, they shall depart from you, I will remove them, so that they cannot hinder your building. He alludes to Sanballat, who tried to prevent Nehemiah from rebuilding Jerusalem, Nehemiah chapter IV, 1, that is to say: I see, as formerly, so also now, the ruins of your walls, O Zion! I know what needs to be done; I see your enemies — Scribes, Pharisees, Emperors and tyrants, apostates and heretics — who go out from you and are deserters to the enemy, wanting to destroy, scatter, and overthrow you. But I will turn them away, or restrain them, or at least ensure that they do not impede but rather promote your building. Whence the Septuagint translates: You were quickly built by those by whom you were destroyed. For the Jews, and especially the Emperors, who persecuted the Church, afterwards, converted to it, propagated it even more. So did Saul, when he became Paul. So did the Emperor Constantine and his successors. Thus explain St. Jerome, Cyril, Augustine, Tertullian, Justin, and from them Leo Castrius. The same is said and amplified in what follows by the Prophet, so clearly that St. Augustine, Tertullian, and Origen assert that it needs no interpretation. We must still pray to God, that He may graciously look upon His Church, and restore to her such builders, and remove those who scatter her, and restore to her her judges and princes as they were before, and her counselors as in ancient times, that she may be called the city of the just, the faithful city.
Verse 18
18. LIFT UP YOUR EYES ROUND ABOUT, — that is to say: You mourn, O Zion, the fewness of your faithful: come, rejoice; behold, see the peoples coming in throngs from the four quarters of the world to you, that they may be joined and incorporated with you. All these come to you, because although they are not descended from Abraham, but from the Gentiles, they are nevertheless your children, as well as Abraham's, according to faith and spirit. "You shall be clothed with all these as with an ornament." For a numerous and well-behaved and holy offspring is a great ornament to a mother: "Your children are like young olive trees around your table," says the Psalmist, Psalm CXXVII, 3.
Well known from Valerius Maximus is the story of Cornelia, who was the mother of the Gracchi. For when a certain lady was magnificently displaying to her her gems, necklaces, and collars, she waited until her sons returned home: and when they returned, greeting their mother with great reverence, modesty, and propriety, she displayed them to the lady, saying: "These are my gems, my collars and necklaces." The same did a Spartan woman in Plutarch's Apophthegms.
Therefore whoever converts souls, or excels in good morals, adorns the Church with as many gems, indeed Christ Himself: but whoever scandalizes and entices into sin, takes away as many from her, and tears the wedding garment of both. This is what the Psalmist sings of this bride, Psalm XLIV, 10: "The queen stood at Your right hand in gilded clothing, surrounded by variety" of so many nations, orders, ages, customs, and virtues. Whence he adds, verse 14: "All the glory of the king's daughter is from within, clothed about with golden fringes in variety. Virgins shall be brought to the king after her; her companions shall be brought to you."
Verse 19
19. FOR YOUR DESERTS. — By "deserts" and "solitudes" he means the regions and assemblies of the Gentiles: for these, by the will and decree of God, belonged to the Church (which God wills to be universal and to encompass the whole world), even though they themselves through paganism had turned away from it and lived as if in deserts and wildernesses, as the barbarian and savage Indians live. The "land of ruin," or the ruinous part of Zion and the Church, are the Jews, who at the coming of Christ fell away from the Church and became apostates, that is to say: God will bring so great a multitude of nations to you, O Church, that both the ruins of the Jews will be repaired, and the wastelands of the Gentiles will be so filled with faithful children that they will seem too narrow for the throng of citizens streaming in. It is a hyperbole.
AND THOSE WHO SWALLOWED YOU UP SHALL BE DRIVEN FAR AWAY, — those who were planning, striving, and beginning to swallow you up. For what is signified is an act begun and intended, not completed and actually accomplished. See Canon XXIX.
Verse 20
20. THE CHILDREN OF YOUR BARRENNESS SHALL YET SAY IN YOUR EARS: THE PLACE IS TOO NARROW FOR ME. — Forerius translates "barrenness" as "bereavement" and understands the Apostles: for with Christ dead, the Church was like a widow, and the Apostles bereaved. These therefore, as the number of the faithful grew, said: Judea is too narrow for us; wherefore they divided and dispersed themselves through all nations, and through them extended the Church. Second, properly, the "children of barrenness" of the Church, as Isaiah calls them, are the Gentiles: for among these, being idolaters before Christ, the Church was barren; but after and through Christ, it became so fertile and vast that it says: "The place is too narrow for me." This is what he says, chapter LIV, 1: "Praise, O barren one, who do not bear," that is to say: The Church will be spread most widely and extensively throughout the whole world, even to the Garamantes and the Indians. Third, very aptly, the "children of barrenness" of Zion are the Apostles, and the few believers from among the Jews at the beginning of the Church. For the Church, reduced to these few, seemed to be barren and to be perishing, especially at the time when Judea was destroyed by the Romans: for then the Church, which had been born from it and in it, seemed likewise to be cut down. Whence then it was new and wonderful to see it soon afterwards propagated throughout the whole world, and barbarian nations vying with one another to flock to it. Hear St. Jerome writing to Laeta: "The picture of the saving cross adorns the purple of kings and the blazing gems of diadems. Already the Egyptian Serapis has become a Christian. Marnas of Gaza mourns, shut up in his temple, and continually trembles at its overthrow. From India, Persia, and Ethiopia we daily receive companies of monks. The Armenian has laid down his quiver; the Huns are learning the Psalter; the cold of Scythia glows with the warmth of faith; the ruddy and fair-haired army of the Getae carries about the tents of churches."
Verse 22
22. I WILL RAISE UP MY STANDARD, — that is to say: I will erect by my hand and power a "standard," that is, the banner of the cross of Christ, and to it, and to the camp of my Church, I will summon all the Gentiles. God speaks as if He were the commander of a holy war. So St. Jerome, Cyril, and Haymo. Truly it was wonderful, and a sign of divine power, that namely not by arms, not by wisdom, not by wealth, not by strength, but by the cross alone — merely by raising and displaying it — He drew the world to Himself, and that kings and monarchs subjected themselves and their kingdoms to Christ crucified. This was the power of the cross of Christ.
THEY SHALL BRING YOUR SONS IN THEIR ARMS, AND YOUR DAUGHTERS UPON THEIR SHOULDERS, — that is to say, says Cyril, the Apostles and other propagating children of the Church will not impose upon the faithful the heavy yoke of the Mosaic law, but will nourish them as infants with the sweetest milk of the Gospel, and with arms and shoulders, that is, with all maternal care and benevolence, will bring them to the Church. Parents and teachers of the faithful will do the same. Hence kings and queens will cherish and nourish you, O Church.
Verse 23
23. KINGS SHALL BE YOUR FOSTER-FATHERS. — In Hebrew אמנים omenim, that is, educators, stewards, guardians. That is to say: Kings will nourish you, O Church, and will enrich you with their goods, just as a father and mother nourish and educate their infants and children. Some take these words of Cyrus and Darius, who nourished the Jews. But from what has been said it is clear that these things pertain to the Christians.
AND QUEENS SHALL BE YOUR NURSES. — In Hebrew מיניקת menicot, that is, wet-nurses. Whence Symmachus translates: The noble women shall give them milk. This is what he says in chapter LX, 16: "You shall be nursed at the breast of kings," that is to say: Kings and queens will liberally and royally nourish your faithful, Pastors, and Prelates, O Church. Second, that is to say: Queens will instill in their sons, future kings, along with their milk, love and obedience toward Christ and the Church, and so will nourish new kings as new children of the Church. Or, that is to say: The sons of kings, who are nourished and educated by kings as their heirs and future successors, will receive the Gospel. So Vatablus. Such were Constantine, Theodosius, Charlemagne, Louis, Helena, Pulcheria, Cunegunde, and recently the kings of Spain and Portugal in subjugating the new world for the Church.
WITH FACE BOWED TO THE EARTH THEY SHALL ADORE YOU. — He alludes to Cyrus and the kings of Persia, with whom no one could speak unless he prostrated himself on the ground and kissed the traces of the royal feet, as Xenophon attests, Book VIII, and Plutarch in his Life of Alcibiades, that is to say: Kings will pay the same honor to the Church and her Prelates that they themselves formerly used to receive from their subjects; namely, they will honor and venerate the Prelates as their lords, indeed as their kings.
AND THEY SHALL LICK THE DUST OF YOUR FEET. — In the word "lick" there is a hyperbole and amplification, signifying the greatest humility and veneration. "They shall lick," therefore means they shall kiss, both as suppliants and as conquered by you. So Psalm LXXI, 9, it is said: "Before Him the Ethiopians shall fall down; and His enemies shall lick the ground." Thus we see kings kissing the feet of the Church, in the person of the Pope, who is the head of the Church. Therefore let heretics not rage at this kiss, since Isaiah himself predicted it here, and congratulated both the kings and the Church on it. For just as one who greatly honors and reverences the viceroy, greatly honors and reverences the king himself: so one who honors the Pope, honors Christ, because He instituted the papacy as, so to speak, His vicariate and the supreme magistracy in the Church. Conversely, one who despises the Pope despises Christ and Christ's ordinance; for He Himself said: "He who hears you,
hears me; he who despises you, despises me." He predicts the glory that the Church would have under Constantine, and thereafter. For before him it was in continual persecution. Whence it is no wonder that St. Peter, St. Paul, and the other Apostles did not have or receive this honor, as Calvin wrongly objects. Again, "the dust of your feet," that is, the ground and pavement on which you set your feet and which you tread upon, kings and queens will kiss. This, St. Hedwig, Duchess (formerly those now called kings were called Dukes) of Poland, aunt of St. Elizabeth, is reported to have done to Prelates, indeed to monks, as have others. And this was formerly a rite of reverence, as is clear from Abraham, Genesis XXIII, 7; and even now this is the custom of the Japanese and Chinese, who, when about to greet and venerate a prince, strike the ground with their forehead. However that may be, by this phrase or catachresis the Prophet means to say: Kings and princes will submit themselves and their scepters and diadems to you, O Church, will pay you extraordinary honor, and will all but worship you as God.
Hear Leo Castrius here: "In a most ancient codex of the Order of St. Benedict, he says, I found that formerly the kings of Spain, when they attended a synod of Bishops, used to prostrate themselves flat upon the ground before the Bishops, and to kiss the ground before the Bishops themselves; nor would they raise themselves from the ground until the Bishops rose from their seats, and lifting up the kings who lay prostrate at their feet with their arms, placed them in the royal chair according to their dignity."
Concerning the Franks, you have King Clothaire, who prostrated himself as a suppliant at the feet of St. Lupus, Bishop of Sens. Concerning the Lombards, it was written by Aribo, the fourth Bishop of Freising, that the king of the Lombards descended from his royal throne and cast himself at the feet of Bishop Corbinian.
Hence St. Augustine, Sermon 18 On the Words of the Apostle: "You run to the Church, he says, you desire to see the Bishop, you cast yourself at his feet." And St. Ambrose, Book On the Dignity of Priests, chapter 11: "The necks of kings and princes, he says, are submitted to the knees of priests, and having kissed their right hands, they believe themselves fortified by their prayers."
Hence Suidas thus introduces Leontius addressing Eusebia, wife of the Emperor Constantius, who was asking him to visit her: "If you wish me to come to you, he said, preserve for me the reverence due to Bishops, so that I may enter, and you forthwith descend from your lofty throne, and meet me with modesty; then let me sit, and you stand reverently, and do not sit until I give the signal. If you are willing to comply with these conditions, I will visit you; but if not, know that you will not obtain from us that we should betray the honor due to Bishops, and be injurious to the divine right of the priesthood." These words he spoke to the heretical Empress.
St. Jerome attests that it was formerly the custom for the people to go out to meet the Bishop, and to prostrate themselves to kiss his feet, and that this was done specifically for Epiphanius. Theodoret relates that Gainas, the Arian commander of the Goths, who had dared to stir up seditions against Arcadius, went a long journey to meet St. John Chrysostom, although his enemy, and ordered his sons to kiss his knees. Moreover, Paulinus writes that the Emperor Theodosius, after obtaining a victory, prostrated himself at the feet of St. Ambrose and thanked him, because he attributed to him the victory gained over the tyrant Eugenius. That the same emperor prostrated himself at the feet of Bishop Amphilochius and begged pardon, Nicephorus relates, Book XI, chapter IX. Fortunatus records that the Emperor Valentinian, and his wife, showed the same, indeed greater, honors to St. Martin. For thus he writes: "Hence Cæsar leaped from his seat, seizing himself forward, and burning, Embracing Martin's knees, and rolling at his feet." And soon after: "Nor does the tearful queen cease to bathe his feet, Stretching her limbs upon the ground, suspending her joys in prayer." Severus Sulpicius says the same, Book III.
The Emperor Justin, when Pope John came to Constantinople, went out with the whole city to meet him, and prostrated himself at his feet, removing his imperial insignia from himself, and falling down humbly begged that the Pope would again adorn him with them. The Emperor Justinian, at Nicaea, prostrated himself at the feet of Pope Constantine and kissed them. The same did Charlemagne at Rome, in the year of Christ 774, and his father Pepin, for Pope Stephen II, coming into France, in the year of Christ 754. The same did Louis the Pious, son of Charlemagne, for Pope Sergius II, in the year of Christ 844. See more in Thomas Bozius, volume II, On the Signs of the Church, sign 68.
despises His ordinance; for He Himself said: "He who hears you, hears me; he who despises you, despises me." He predicts the glory that the Church would have under Constantine, and thereafter. For before him it was in continual persecution. Whence it is no wonder that St. Peter, St. Paul, and the other Apostles did not have or receive this honor, as Calvin wrongly objects. Again, "the dust of your feet," that is, the ground and pavement on which you set your feet and which you tread upon, kings and queens will kiss. This, St. Hedwig, Duchess (formerly those now called kings were called Dukes) of Poland, aunt of St. Elizabeth, is reported to have done to Prelates, indeed to monks, as have others. And this was formerly a rite of reverence, as is clear from Abraham, Genesis XXIII, 7; and even now this is the custom of the Japanese and Chinese, who, when about to greet and venerate a prince, strike the ground with their forehead. However that may be, by this phrase or catachresis the Prophet means to say: Kings and princes will submit themselves and their scepters and diadems to you, O Church, will pay you extraordinary honor, and will all but worship you as God.
Verse 24
24. SHALL THE PREY BE TAKEN FROM THE STRONG? — It is a proverb, similar to that one: "Who would snatch the club from Hercules, or the thunderbolt from Jupiter?" That is to say: Who can take the spoils from a strong giant or lion? Who can wrest the prey from his jaws? Surely whoever does so must be stronger than he, and of giant strength, like a second David, I Kings XVII, 37. This is precisely what our Christ demonstrated, who therefore says, Matthew XII, 28: "If I by the Spirit of God cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. Or how can anyone enter into the house of the strong man, and plunder his goods, unless he first bind the strong man? and then he will plunder his house." So St. Jerome, Cyril, and Origen, Homily 7 on Numbers chapter XII, who also adds: "If you look at nature, the demon is a giant, and we are locusts; if we follow Jesus, who has weakened him, he will be as nothing in our sight." The same was taught both by word and deed by St. Anthony, as can be read in his Life by St. Athanasius, who accordingly mocked the monstrous horrors and terrors of demons by the power of the cross, the invocation, and the grace of Christ, and scattered them like cobwebs, and set them before his followers and us as things to be laughed at and dispersed.
Verse 25
25. FROM THE MIGHTY. — In Hebrew it is צדיק tsaddic, that is, from the just; but the translator seems to have read עריץ arits, that is, mighty, which in Hebrew letters is similar to tsaddic; for arits appears in the following verse, where he responds assertively to this question with the same words. And the sense seems to require this: for the discussion is about prey that is wrested from the mighty, not from the just. If however you read tsaddic, that is, just, understand the just captivity of men under the power of the devil. So Forerius. Or rather, then translate from the Hebrew thus: Shall the captivity of the just be freed? That is, as the Septuagint: If someone has taken a captive (namely a just one) unjustly, will he be saved? So the Roman Septuagint Bible reads, as if to say: Surely through Christ, the mighty giant, he will be freed and saved. For such unjust captivity is made by a powerful tyrant, namely the devil, as our Translator renders it. Moreover, man, and the human race, is called just, and a just one, because man was created by God in justice, and because in comparison with the devil, he was just, that is, innocent, and was unjustly held captive by him.
BUT THOSE WHO HAVE JUDGED YOU (condemned, afflicted your faithful and children with blows and death — it is a metalepsis) I WILL JUDGE, — I in like manner will condemn, punish, and strike with present and eternal death.
Verse 26
26. I WILL FEED YOUR ENEMIES WITH THEIR OWN FLESH, — so that they may destroy one another by mutual slaughter, and swords, hands, and garments may be stained with fraternal blood. For the flesh and blood of your brother is your own flesh and blood; and so it will come to pass, "that they will be sated, says St. Jerome, not by the killing of others, but by their own death." It is a catachresis. So in chapter IX, 20, Isaiah said: "Each one will devour the flesh of his arm (that is, of his kinsman)." He alludes to the Midianites, who, terrified by the blast of trumpets and the clashing of pitchers by Gideon and his companions, cut one another down with mutual wounds, Judges VII, 23. The same did the Moabites before King Jehoshaphat, II Chronicles XX, 23. Again, truly and properly, the Jews, enemies of Christ, besieged by Titus and Vespasian, sated themselves on the flesh of their own children, as Josephus and Hegesippus attest.
Third, Sanchez thinks that here is described the gesture of extreme grief and anguish; for then men bite their lips, tear their breast, and as if insane, stain their mouths and teeth with their own blood, Apocalypse chapter XVI, 10.
This therefore is the just vengeance and punishment of tyrants who persecute the Church: that, just as they thirsted for the flesh and blood of the faithful, and as it were drank and devoured them, so also they may devour their own flesh, and feed upon their own blood. Hear some illustrious examples.
The Emperor Nero, persecutor of the Christian religion, after the sentence passed against him by the Senate — that he should be led naked through the streets, with a fork inserted in his neck, and beaten to death with rods — for having harassed the entire Senate; utterly despairing of any better state, abandoned even by the Praetorian soldiers, putting on cheap clothing, took to flight, and with three or four freedmen fled to the estate of one of them named Phaon, between the Salarian and Nomentane roads, four miles from the City: where, hiding in a cave, when he learned that horsemen seeking him were approaching, he inflicted death upon himself, although trembling; and as he lingered dying, one of his freedmen Epaphroditus finished him off, on the fourth day before the Ides of June, the very day on which he had formerly murdered his wife Octavia, being in his thirty-second year. So Baronius, volume I of the Annals, in the year of the Lord 70, from Suetonius' Life of Nero.
The Emperor Galerius Maximian was seized by chastisement and punishment sent from heaven, which arose from his own flesh and invaded his soul. For suddenly, in those parts of the body which nature has covered and hidden out of modesty, a tumor formed; then in the interior recesses of his body, a purulent and fistulous ulcer. And the incurable gnawing of these consumed his inmost organs, which indeed swarmed with an infinite multitude of worms, from which a lethal and pestilent stench was emitted. See Eusebius, Book VIII of the History, chapter XVIII.
Galerius Maximinus, when he raised his hands against God and the Christians, was afflicted by a divine scourge throughout his entire body. For immediately, seized by the greatest pain and anguish, he rolled about in bed, and wasted away from inability to eat. A burning that arose within his bowels corrupted every aspect and form of his body, and externally also disfigured his appearance, so that in a short time nothing was left of him but dry bones resembling a statue, which struck horror and fear into the beholders, and his body seemed to be like a bronze tomb, or a leather sack containing within itself something deeply buried. And when his entire brain had been consumed, the orbs of his eyes were dislodged from their sockets and fell out, blinding him. Tortured by the most extreme pains, and confessing God, he prayed for his death to be hastened; and at the very last, testifying that he was receiving just punishment for the crimes and insults with which he had insolently and arrogantly persecuted Christ, he finally gave up his accursed soul. So Eusebius, Book IX of the Ecclesiastical History, chapter X, and Baronius, volume III of the Annals, year 314.
In the year of the Lord 484, when Huneric, king of the Vandals, mad over the overthrow of the Catholic faith, was preparing a triumph for himself, he was compelled to experience divine vengeance. For rotting and swarming with worms, not his body, but the parts of his body seemed to be buried. Then also, as Gregory of Tours says, the sun appeared dark, so that scarcely a third of it shone, and this as vengeance for such great crimes and the shedding of innocent blood. Huneric moreover, after these things, was seized by a demon — who had long fed on the blood of the Saints — and tore himself with his own bites, in which torment also he ended his unworthy life with a just death. So Victor, Book III, On the Vandal Persecution, at the end, and Gregory of Tours, Book II, On the Deeds of the Franks, chapter III, in the year 484.
Finally, well known is the disastrous end of Diocletian, Aurelian, Domitian, Decius, Maxentius, Licinius, Julian the Apostate, and other persecutors of the Church. The disasters and fates of these men therefore explain this prophecy of Isaiah about them more clearly than any interpreters.
The Saracens, who were harassing Constantinople and the neighboring regions, and everywhere inflicting atrocious slaughter on the Christians, perished without number by famine, cold, war, and pestilence. So great a famine afflicted them that they did not refrain from the excrement, both of beasts and of men, nor from the flesh of corpses. Those whom famine and pestilence spared, the sword consumed. Those who survived these disasters, the sea swallowed up, when a storm of fiery hail was divinely sent upon them, from which only ten ships were rescued, five of which were captured by the Romans, and five carried off to Syria, to serve as testimony of the divine vengeance. So Sigebert in his Chronicle, year of Christ 719, and Paul the Deacon, chapter XXI.
The Hungarians, while devastating the Church of Bremen and heaping many and great insults upon the servants of Christ, were struck when a storm suddenly burst into the city and hurled flames upon the roof of the church, with such violence that the shingles, bricks, and tiles, flying apart with a great crash, overwhelmed the enemy with such force that some, struck down, perished immediately, while others, caught by the citizens, fell in a bloody death. So Albertus Crantz, Book III of the Metropolis, chapter II, year of the Lord 913.