Adam of Dryburgh (Adamus Scotus)

De Tripartito Tabernaculo

(On the Threefold Tabernacle)

Table of Contents

• Epistle I: Letter of Brother Adam to the Premonstratensian Canons
  • I
  • II
  • III
  • IV
  • V
  • VI
  • VII
  • VIII
  • IX
  • X
  • XI
  • XII
  • XIII
  • XIV
  • XV
  • XVI
  • XVII, XVIII
  • XIX
  • XX
  • XXI
  • XXII
• Epistle II: Letter of Abbot John of Kelso to Adam the Canon
  • I
  • II
  • III
  • IV
  • V
  • VI
  • VII
  • VIII
• Epistle III: Letter of Adam the Canon to Abbot John
  • I
  • II
  • III
  • IV
  • V
  • VI
  • VII
  • VIII
• Part I: On the Tabernacle of Moses in the Literal Sense
  • Chapter I: On the difficulty of treating the material construction and arrangement of the tabernacle of Moses
  • Chapter II: On the boards of the three walls of the tabernacle, on the bases of the same boards, and on their mortises
  • Chapter III: From the book of Exodus on the same subject
  • Chapter IV: Literal exposition of the preceding chapter
  • Chapter V: The words of the Venerable Bede the priest on this chapter
  • Chapter VI: On the bars of the three walls; the screen and its five columns; the veil and its four columns
  • Chapter VII: Also from the book of Exodus on the same subject
  • Chapter VIII: Literal exposition of the preceding chapter
  • Chapter IX: The words of the Venerable Bede the priest
  • Chapter X: On the curtains, the goat-hair coverings, and the coverings of the tabernacle roof
  • Chapter XI: Also from the book of Exodus on the same subject
  • Chapter XII: Literal exposition of the preceding chapter
  • Chapter XIII: The words of the Venerable Bede the priest on the same subject
  • Chapter XIV: On Josephus and the Jews disagreeing with Bede on the extension of coverings and curtains
  • Chapter XV: On the ark and its oracle; the table of showbread; the lampstand; the altar of incense
  • Chapter XVI: From the book of Exodus on the same subject
  • Chapter XVII: Literal exposition of the preceding chapter
  • Chapter XVIII: On the Preceding Chapter, the Words of the Venerable Bede the Priest
  • Chapter XIX: On the Altar of Burnt Offering and the Bronze Laver; On the Courts of the Tabernacle
  • Chapter XX: Also from the Book of Exodus on the Same Subject
  • Chapter XXI: Literal Exposition upon This Chapter
  • Chapter XXII: On the Preceding Chapter, the Words of the Venerable Bede the Priest
  • Chapter XXIII: On the Twelve Tribes That Encamped around the Tabernacle, and on the Levites Who Carried the Tabernacle
  • Chapter XXIV: On the Arrangement of the Tabernacle and Its Erection
  • Chapter XXV: A Repetition of All the Foregoing, with Some Additions and Some Things Stated Differently
  • Chapter XXVI: On the End of the First Part; and That Neither Error Should Be Excused, nor Correction Refused
• Part Two: On the Tabernacle of Christ Which Is in Faith
  • Chapter I: On the Difficulty of Depicting the Tabernacle on a Flat Surface
  • Chapter II: How the Boards of the Walls Are to Be Depicted on a Flat Surface
  • Chapter III: The Holy Place and the Holy of Holies
  • Chapter IV: Covering the walls with curtains, goat-hair coverings, and skins
  • Chapter V: The courts, their hangings, and furnishings
  • Chapter VI: The bases and boards of the walls allegorically expounded
  • Chapter VII: The entrance screen, the bar, and the three walls allegorically expounded
  • Chapter VIII: The pictures in the Holy Place according to the allegorical sense
  • Chapter IX: The image on the pavement of the tabernacle
  • Chapter X: The altar of burnt offering and the bronze basin
  • Chapter XI: The curtains of the courts and their columns
  • Chapter XII: The clerics of the Old and New Testaments
  • Chapter XIII: On the faithful laity of both eras
  • Chapter XIV: On the different state of clerics and laity
  • Chapter XV: Concerning the Levites sounding trumpets at the door of the tabernacle, and concerning the pillar of fire and of cloud
  • Chapter XVI: Another allegorical exposition upon the preceding chapter
  • Chapter XVII: Concerning the fivefold division of the painting
  • Chapter XVIII: Concerning the signification of the fivefold division
  • Chapter XIX: Another exposition on the same subject
• Part III: The Tabernacle of the Soul, Which Is in Interior Thought
  • Chapter I: Concerning the difficulty of treating the third part
  • Chapter II: Why the people of Israel did not build a tabernacle in Egypt; and concerning the three metals
  • Chapter III: Concerning the boards and bases expounded morally.
  • Chapter IV: Concerning the bars, and the rings, and the icons which are placed on the boards and bases.
  • Chapter V: Concerning the three walls of the tabernacle; concerning the bar which is at its entrance; and concerning the five columns which are erected under the same bar.
  • Chapter VI: Concerning the two parts into which the tabernacle of Moses was divided; and what should be morally understood through them.
  • Chapter VII: What the two parts of the tabernacle, with the things that were in them, designate according to the tropological sense concerning the twofold state of man.
  • Chapter VIII: Concerning the twofold division of the tabernacle; and what the things that were in the Holy Place designate according to the moral understanding; and also what the things that were in the Holy of Holies designate according to the anagogical sense.
  • Chapter IX: On the head of the worm, which is depicted on the north side opposite the lampstand in the Holy Place; and on the seven lamps of the same lampstand explained morally; on the tablets, rod, and manna that were in the ark.
  • Chapter X: On the altar of incense, and on the pictures that pertain to the same altar.
  • Chapter XI: On the coverings and pictures of the tabernacle that pertained to the altar of burnt offering, how they are to be understood according to the moral sense.
  • Chapter XII: On the bronze basin and the pictures that pertain to the same basin.
  • Chapter XIII: On the tent curtains of the tabernacle; and on the entry of Moses into the tabernacle and his departure from it.
  • Chapter XIV: On the twofold image of Moses; and how that image, when placed outside the tent, tropologically designates Moses.
  • Chapter XV: On that image of Moses which is depicted in the tabernacle; and on the two spaces in which the clerics and laity of the Old Testament are depicted: how they should be understood according to the moral sense.
  • Chapter XVI: What is to be understood morally by the two Levites sounding silver trumpets at the entrance of the tabernacle.
  • Chapter XVII: How the two columns of fire and cloud, depicted on either side of the tabernacle, should be understood according to the tropological sense.
  • Chapter XVIII: Another exposition of the same topic in another way according to the moral sense.
  • Chapter XIX: On the five spaces of the picture: what is to be understood morally by them.
  • Conclusion
  • Letter of Adam to the Canons of the Premonstratensian Church

ON THE THREEFOLD TABERNACLE

Epistle I: Letter of Brother Adam to the Premonstratensian Canons

Letter of Brother Adam, canon, to the canons of the Premonstratensian Church, concerning the book and picture of the threefold tabernacle; and concerning the primacy and dignity of that same Church, by which it excels the other churches of the same order.

PREFACES.

To his most reverend lords and chief friends, to his most beloved brothers in the heart of Christ, serving God in the Premonstratensian Church, Brother Adam, your humble servant in the Lord and sincere friend: [wishes them] in Bethany, having received a pound of costly spikenard, to anoint the Lord's feet and fill the house with the fragrance of the ointment.

I

That we may not deny the truth, O men of venerable life, we are greatly astonished while we exult, and we are no less astonished while we exult, whenever it comes to our memory how your highness deigned to receive our lowliness when we came to you, to treat us while we stayed with you, and to send us off when we departed from you. Indeed, your threefold devotion was witness to itself: that our arrival was not displeasing to you, and our departure was no less unwelcome. And lest, as sometimes happens, satiety might breed weariness, every delay among you seemed to us to have been without delay, and our very delay seemed brief to you. We are silent about how celebrated our name is among you, since it is agreed that it is unworthy even to be mentioned. And not only that, but we also refrain from saying how often you declared that you desired our return, and that it would be sweet for you if our voice should sound in your ears, since our voice is not sweet, nor our countenance fair (Song 2:14). Let someone say that the word of God should be honored with equal reverence in every person, and that the smallness of the one who professes it cannot diminish what is professed. We do not contradict this. Yet we know that wine sometimes has a better flavor in a golden vessel than in a wooden one. And to add this further, we know likewise that you abound in precious vessels, from which you can draw deeply and abundantly, as often as you wish, just as you abound in good liquor. O how great is our exultation mixed with wonder, and our wonder mixed with exultation, in this remembrance of your affection toward us! We grind with the pestle of this same remembrance, in the little mortar of our breast, and with the sweetness of the fragrance it emits, we refresh our inward parts. And so we marvel, and we rejoice. We rejoice indeed for those things, and we marvel at these: here truly rejoicing, because we have merited to receive such great things; there indeed amazed, that you have deigned to bestow such things upon so small a one.

II

For what are we? Or who are we, or of what quality, or of what account, that you should bring us this far? For if we speak of these matters: in the first place, nature itself is subject to the corruption of sin and the affliction of punishment, miserably polluted on one side and punished on the other. In the second, a person utterly lowly; for there is absolutely no merit in the third, nor eminence in the fourth. The first, therefore, is degraded in the weakness of fragile condition; the second is made cheap by the manifold poverty of personage; the third is in no way made bright by the beauty of holiness; the fourth likewise is not elevated by the summit of any dignity. And what is the house of our Father? For a question could be raised about this too: whether even this amounts to anything, especially in the eyes of those who have been raised and exalted above the heights of the earth. Moreover, since these things amount to nothing great as far as we are concerned, it will be easy to see from this that he who was greatest among those born of women strove to impress upon those who boast of lineage and ancestors: 'Do not begin to say: We have Abraham as our father' (Luke 3:8). But granted that you have bestowed great and many things on one who is unworthy, placing in a high position one who is scarcely at the tail end: in one respect, you showed yourselves to have a hand extended for giving; in the other, you showed yourselves to be humble in your own eyes. O humble generosity, and generous humility! The one, seeing the face, a neighbor approves: the other, searching the heart and kidneys, God approves. But since you have judged us worthy of such sweet embraces, He indeed must be sought from you as witness of them, and for them the Rewarder must be awaited: whose all-seeing eye is present to discern the merit of each worker, and whose all-powerful hand is not lacking to repay the fitting wage.

III

When we were present with you bodily — from whom even now, placed in the kingdom of the Scots, we are not spiritually absent — it pleased you to ask out of humility what you had the power to command: that we should send you the book which we composed about the tabernacle of Moses, together with a picture, two years before this, at the request of certain of our brothers, and especially of an illustrious man, a certain Abbot John, who is in our land. And what was there that we could refuse to you who asked, or in what matter should we not have obeyed you who commanded? We granted you, therefore, what you requested; and what we granted, we confirmed with a promise, caught by our own words (Prov. 6:2) and bound among you; nor can we be legitimately released until we have fulfilled the promise itself. Now indeed we pay what we then promised; and just as we showed ourselves willing in promising, so we strive to show ourselves no less truthful in delivering. For if to refuse those who ask were a fault, then not to fulfill a promise to those same people will surely be the crime of sacrilege. Accept therefore what you asked, what we promised: something certainly small, yet transmitted with no small devotion; which, we pray, may be received by you with the same love with which we know it was sent by us.

IV

How you may understand the picture through the book and the book through the picture, or how you should bring what you will read in the book and what you will see in the picture into a single harmony, you will see in the letter which we sent to the aforesaid abbot, at whose request we set our hand to these things; which letter you will also find written at the head of the book. When you have read the one and seen the other, we ask that your maturity may criticize the superstition of the curious in this, so that your kindness may also accept the intention of the studious in that. And what we are accustomed to offer to all who look upon whatever has been written by us, we also humbly offer to you: namely, that if you find anything set down by us differently from how the truth itself stands, you should by no means allow it to remain without fitting correction. For far be it from us, once and again and always and everywhere far be it from us, that inflated with the swelling of pride, we should either excuse an error clearly shown to us, or refuse an emendation charitably offered.

V

This book, whose title is 'On the Threefold Tabernacle,' together with the picture, and the book divided into fourteen sermons which is inscribed 'On the Name, Habit, and Profession of the Canons of the Premonstratensian Order,' you will keep in memory of us: so that, since you cannot always have our bodily presence among you, you may have something from our side in which you may retain a spiritual presence. We earnestly commend ourselves to your prayers; we also lean confidently upon your merits, possessing in you what we see to be lacking in ourselves, knowing for certain that we cannot be impoverished as long as you are rich. And so we earnestly implore you with bent knees of the mind, as if prostrate at your feet, that you may be mindful of us in your evening sacrifices, having compassion on our manifold weaknesses, offering us to be healed before the holy gaze of our advocate — the just, mild, and gentle Jesus: who paid for us what he did not owe for himself; and made priest and victim for us, buyer and price, offerer and sacrifice, and physician of our wounds and medicine, he hung upon the wood, washing us who were unclean with the generous pouring out of his holy blood, and reconciling the guilty, and now sitting at the right hand of the Father, intercedes for us. Remember therefore Adam the sinner who loves you, when from the very depths of the golden altar you fill the Holy of Holies with the smoke of fragrant spices; and there above all, where the Son is offered to the Father, whose blood cries out from the earth better than Abel's (Gen. 4:10). And we would add this to our petitions, unless perhaps it should be imputed to rash presumption: namely, that you would command our name to be inscribed in the register of your holy congregation, together with the names of your members who have already departed, after death: because we too are yours. Nevertheless, what our modesty does not presume to ask, your kindness, as we hope, will give; because, unless we are mistaken, in the very depth of the fountain of your riches, more wells up from below than we dare to draw from the surface. And of these things, thus far.

VI

For the rest, O men of venerable life, 'Bear with a little of my foolishness; and indeed, support me. For I am jealous for you with the jealousy of God' (II Cor. 11:1-2). We would propose to address you with some admonitory discourse, if either it were not presumptuous, or if there were necessity: that is, if either it were fitting that we should admonish you, or you needed our admonition. Nevertheless your excellency should plainly know that, if there can be any distinction among the houses of our order, the one that is first seems to be preeminent. It ought also to remember that saying of the Lord which is this: 'To whom much has been given, much will be required of him' (Luke 12:48). And to what end are these things? Surely, that considering how much you have received, and considering also what you are, you may know consequently what you owe. Is not the Church of Premontre like a fountain, while the other churches of the same order flow from it as streams from a spring? Let the fountain therefore guard itself against dryness, especially when the streams flow abundantly: lest it lack the very water in which they abound. It precedes in time; it must also precede in holiness: lest perhaps, God forbid, it become worthy of the mockery of onlookers, if it arrives later, having begun to run first. Nor indeed will it lack the same mockery if it happens merely to keep pace with the others in arrival: unless it happens to lead, since it clearly got a head start. For she herself is the mother; the rest are daughters. Therefore let her be so vigilant in acquiring the spiritual works proper to her, that those who praise her may say: 'Many daughters have gathered riches; you have surpassed them all' (Prov. 31:29). Let the daughters rejoice that they have come forth from a noble mother, so that consequently they may rejoice to be noble themselves.

VII

The sole nobility of spiritual birth is the holiness of religious life. The daughters ought to return to her unceasingly, to borrow from her what they see is lacking in themselves: so that they may receive from her the growth of holy religion, from whom they took their beginning. Therefore let a very bright lamp be placed upon the lampstand among her: so that even those who enter these daughter houses may see the light. Very bright, I say, because a lamp that is dim in itself illuminates nothing at a distance. Let the light shine abundantly in her, so that the mother may share light abundantly with the daughters and in no way diminish it for herself. Let her be for them a model and a pattern, a mirror also, and as it were a certain book of life, in which they may clearly read what they ought to choose and what to reject. Let them see in the reading of this book how ready the affability at the gate should be; how effective, according to ability and time, according to the person and the cause; and the cheerfulness in the guesthouse; how great the study should be in the cloister, with perfect silence and without half-gnawed words and superfluous signs of the fingers, in reading. How grave and affectionate the devotion in choir; how mature the reverence and diligent the cleanliness at the altar; how without any murmuring, detraction, or conspiracy; and how brief, silent, only about necessary matters, and among the fewest possible, speech should be in the auditorium. How few and how reasonable the words should be in chapter — how compassion should be severe and severity compassionate in those who preside, for the sake of the person and the cause. How humble and true the confession, and how firm the patience in those who sit. How discreet the zeal in those who make accusations, and absolutely no excuse or murmuring in those accused. How nimble the eagerness, and how eager the nimbleness, with silence and without excess of signs, in the common manual work. How sober the propriety, and how proper the sobriety in the refectory. How mature the quiet, and how quiet the maturity in the dormitory. How compassionate and dutiful, how diligent and gracious the infirmarians should be in the infirmary. How patient in endurance, devout in thanksgiving, not importunate in seeking superfluities, but content with cheerfulness with what is given them, and solicitous in every way in preparing themselves for the hour of their dissolution — the sick. How circumspect and proper the brothers should be on a journey. How finally they must strive with all their might to appear blameless within and without, in every time and place, in every cause and business, in word and silence, in work and leisure, in gesture and bearing, in habit and diet toward every person, and in every bodily movement.

VIII

Faithful is the saying. 'Everyone will be perfect if he is like his master' (Luke 6:40). And, 'It is enough for the disciple to be like his master' (Matt. 10:25). Our master is the community of the Premonstratensian Church; for the individual communities of the other churches are disciples of this master. It is evident from this that he ought to be such that we may consider it sufficient for all holiness if we become like him. For if we surpass him, he is no longer our master. Behold, people hasten from the ends of the earth to Premontre, so that something good and new may be heard from the mother, to be announced to the daughters. They are obliged even by the decrees of the Roman Pontiffs, each year, for the abbot-sons to visit the mother, so that, about to carry things back to the daughters, they may hear from her the institutions of salvation, the precepts, and the law of life and discipline (Sirach 45:6). Far be it forever and beyond, that their first transgression should appear at the very place where their first foundation was celebrated. Neither the length of the roads, nor maritime dangers, nor the emptying of purses, nor the fear of bodily illness — sometimes not only of sickness but even of death — can slow the steps of the sons, but setting maternal reverence and love before all these and other things of this kind, they eagerly approach the same mother; they humbly submit to the wholesome statutes promulgated at her; and they carry them to the daughters to be firmly and inviolably observed, nor are the daughters obliged by duty to observe universally what was clearly not established at her. See what kind of honor, how great, is paid to the mother by the sons; but she boldly and with free countenance demands it from them when she guards the statutes promulgated at her with careful and firm perseverance.

IX

And see whether perhaps what we now have in hand may not inappropriately be referred in some sense to what you read in the book of Genesis. 'A river went out from the place of pleasure to water paradise' (Gen. 2:10). Scripture had said beforehand: 'The Lord God had planted a paradise of pleasure from the beginning, in which he placed the man whom he had formed' (ibid., 8). What shall we say here? Can this mean that God formed man, whom he deigns to call to knowledge and love of himself, and enlightened him with rational understanding? For what else is he to be said to have asked, who said: 'Create a clean heart in me, O God' (Ps. 51:12)? And that other man too complained that this man was not with him, the one who lacked two from the number forty — that is, from the perfection of the law and the Gospel: the love of God and of neighbor. Whence this is the groaning voice of the complainer: 'I have no man, so that when the water is stirred, he may put me into the pool' (John 5:7). Implying that he lacked the rational sense which, through the memory and imitation of the Lord's passion, would raise him from the bed of illness, which is the softness of iniquity. This man was formed by God, and indeed in justice and holiness of truth (Eph. 4:24). Dare we say that He planted paradise when He inspired our first Father to establish this canonical order? But if these two points are granted, why should not this third be admitted as well: that to place this man in paradise is to inspire him whom He illuminates with the knowledge of Himself, by the radiance of His grace, to humbly submit to this order? Consider, if you please, the order of the words: He planted, He formed, He placed. He gave through His servant precepts and the law of life and discipline; He adorned with the light of His grace him whom He predestined to eternal life, beautifying him with spiritual and rational understanding; afterwards He inspired him to subject himself to the canonical institution. And what benefit to this man in being placed in this paradise? Much in every way. For having set forth the virtue of humility, which is both the cause and the guardian of the other virtues, He adorns him with good works, since that Giver and Rewarder of all good things makes them so clear to onlookers for knowledge that they are sweet to imitators for experience; bringing forth in this way, from the ground, every tree beautiful to behold and pleasant to eat (Gen. 2:9). Thus the beauty of the tree of good works pertains to the sight of knowledge; the sweetness, to the taste of affection. And so, beautiful to behold on account of the knowledge of truth; pleasant to eat on account of the affection of charity.

X

Behold I say to you: lift up your eyes and see the religious men in our order, devoted to the exercises of holy conduct that proceed from the virtue of humility; which shine for those who see them and are sweet for those who experience them. And praise Him in all these things who gives virtue and strength to His people (Ps. 68:36). He works in His saints both the willing and the accomplishing according to His good will (Phil. 2:13), bringing forth from the ground every tree beautiful to behold and pleasant to eat. But the exercises of holy conduct are most vigorous when the work of charity is commanded to be undertaken and the contagion of cupidity is directed to be abandoned. The former is commanded; the latter is prohibited. And to that precept someone will perhaps relate the tree of life; to this prohibition, the tree of knowledge of good and evil. The one is indeed of life; the other is of the knowledge of good and evil; because in the exercise of charity consists the life of our spirit, and he who commits in deed what is prohibited as evil is at once in fault and in punishment. He learns evil by experience which previously was known to him only by knowledge. 'The tree of life,' says Scripture, 'in the midst of paradise' (Gen. 2:9); because our order directs its entire intention toward this: to be able to serve charity. Whether therefore it spares or strikes, constrains or relaxes; whether it acts dispensatively on account of some reasonable cause, or changes one thing into another: let it bring everything to the integrity of charity, and transgress its measure in nothing, showing that it has the tree of life in its midst. But let paradise be watered, lest it dry up. What do you say? What do you read? 'And a river went out from the place of pleasure, to water paradise' (Gen. 2:10). What does this mean? Let paradise be watered, lest it dry up. Let the order be renewed, lest it grow old. For when the daughters visit the mother, the order is restored; because wholesome things are established, as the river goes forth from the place of pleasure to water paradise. And what is this place of pleasure? Let us say for now, if indeed it should be said, that the place of pleasure is the Premonstratensian Church. Not of carnal pleasure, not of worldly pleasure; but of the pleasure of God, with whose torrent He gives drink to those who hope under the covering of His wings (Ps. 36:9). From this place of pleasure a river goes forth, by which paradise is watered, when wholesome things are established in the Premonstratensian Church, which is our mother, so that the order itself may be restored.

XI

Since the institutions of this order are many, they especially form these: the penitents, the governors, the workers, and the contemplatives, and any others there may be; these are the novices, the obedientiaries, the prelates, and the cloistered. 'There goes forth,' says Scripture, 'a river from the place of pleasure to water paradise, which from there is divided into four heads' (Gen. 2:10). So that we may know a fourfold draught is to be drawn from it. And what names do these heads receive? The name of the first, Phison; the name of the second, Gehon; the name of the third river, Tigris; and the fourth river is the Euphrates. Let whoever dares to say it, say that Phison pertains to those who newly come: who must strive with all their might, first of all to see themselves fully, and as they are within, so to reveal themselves purely without — because they assert that Phison means 'mouth of the pupil.' For in the mouth is confession; in the pupil, sight. Let the novices look and confess. Let them look diligently and confess humbly. I mean, their old nature. For they will never be able to perfectly seize the height of newness to which they strive to climb, unless they recognize the oldness in which they have thus far lived; because that newness is reached in no way unless this oldness is utterly abandoned. And how will it be abandoned if it is not known? And what if it is indeed recognized but concealed? Certainly knowledge is not sufficient for salvation unless confession is also present, just as a wound is not healed, though felt by the wounded person, unless it is revealed to the physician. Just as they uncover the pupil so that they may see through knowledge, so let them also open the mouth so that they may reveal themselves through confession; because Phison signifies not only the pupil but also the mouth. For oldness always remains as long as confession is absent, even when knowledge is present. Did not the one who said this experience it in himself: 'Because I was silent, my bones grew old' (Ps. 32:3)? But what ought the intention, the effort, and the care of those who see and open themselves be? Surely this: that, having utterly left behind the oldness that has been recognized and shown, they should devote wakeful solicitude to acquiring, exercising, and retaining newness. But there is bitter pain and heavy labor. For it is exceedingly bitter and not a little laborious to entirely renounce the sweetness and pleasantness to which one is accustomed, and to submit to the bitterness and harshness to which one is unaccustomed. It is as if you were forced to change nature itself.

XII

They say that what is said about Phison pertains to this: 'It is the one which encircles all the land of Hevilath' (Gen. 2:11). For Hevilath, according to them, means 'grieving.' What sweetness where there is pain? What pleasantness where there is travail? O how greatly Phison labors, encircling all the land of Hevilath, while the novices are troubled and saddened in the birth-pangs of new life, according to this: 'They were troubled, they were moved, fear seized them; there were pains as of a woman in labor' (Ps. 48:6-8). Nevertheless, from the constant experience of this heavy struggle, from the great anxiety that the solicitude and sadness of inner distress together bring upon the soul, the brightness of wisdom shines forth in the mind — because of Hevilath it is said that gold is born there. For the splendor of wisdom is gold in the minds of those who grieve and are in travail. For from Hevilath itself gold is born, because 'the valleys shall abound with grain' (Ps. 65:14). And to the one who desires wisdom, it is said: 'Have you desired wisdom? Keep the commandments, and God will provide it to you' (Sirach 1:26). And who is wiser than he who grieves because he suffers present exile, and sighs with all his heart for the eternal kingdom? Someone might say this because the text adds: 'And the gold of that land is excellent' (Gen. 2:11). Of which land? Surely of Hevilath. Was the gold of those people excellent, of whom it is said: 'They are wise to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge' (Jer. 4:22)? But the gold of the land which Phison encircles is excellent; because our novices, both grieving over the past on account of sorrow, pray that their debt may be forgiven, and being cautious about the future on account of travail, pray likewise that they may not be led into temptation (Matt. 6:12-13). But the splendor of wisdom should be present in the spiritual life, which the virtue of humility commends and the strength of stable perseverance adorns and confirms. Hence perhaps someone might say that not only is gold born there, which is excellent, but also that bdellium and the onyx stone are found there (Gen. 2:12). They say bdellium is a black aromatic tree; and if so, a good way of life is indeed aromatic on account of the fragrance of prayer, and black on account of the lowliness of self-estimation. But let constancy strengthen these two good things; because in this land which Phison encircles, the onyx stone is found along with the bdellium, which they say is similar to a fingernail. The nail covers the flesh, so that what is soft in the flesh may be protected by the hardness of its covering, and the strength of constancy protects our soft parts, lest they waste away in their own tenderness. Behold what kind, how great, and how many are the goods which the state of the novices contains in itself: clarity of self-knowledge, purity of humble confession, the torment of sorrow, the anxiety of solicitude, the splendor of wisdom, lowliness in self-estimation, devotion in prayer, and — so that Joseph's full-length tunic may be put on among them (Gen. 37:23) and the tail of the victim may be placed in the sacrifice (Lev. 9:19-20) — the strength of perseverance is desired. So much for them.

XIII

It must be said after this that the officials should strive to break away from whatever prosperity smiles upon them; because they assert that the name of the second river, which is Gehon, signifies this; through which their state is also expressed, of which it is said: 'It is the one which encircles all the land of Ethiopia' (Gen. 2:13). Clearly indeed; because their manifold occupations seem covered with a certain darkness. Does not the Lord Himself also in the Gospel assert that they traverse the land as if with a certain laborious circuit, when addressing Martha in their person: 'Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things' (Luke 10:41)? Anxiety is a certain darkness; so is disturbance, because both of them take serenity from the mind and induce a kind of obscuration upon it.

XIV

The third river designates our governors themselves, who hear from Isaiah: 'Go, swift angels, to a nation torn and pulled apart' (Isa. 18:2). Swift, therefore — as they suggest that the name Tigris signifies an arrow. 'And it,' says Scripture, 'goes against the Assyrians' (Gen. 2:14); so that, like a swift arrow, the angels may go to a people torn and pulled apart. Because the prelates are especially ordained for this: to resist the perverse by the authority of their primacy, and ascending on the opposite side, to make themselves a wall for the house of Israel (Ezek. 13:5). Through this arrow indeed a wound is inflicted; but nevertheless sickness is not brought upon the wounded; rather, salvation is bestowed and, once bestowed, is more and more increased. For concerning it this is the voice of our bald one: 'The arrow of the Lord's salvation, and the arrow of salvation against Syria' (IV Kings 13:17). This is an arrow of salvation because the Tigris comes from the place of pleasure, and it is one of salvation against Syria — because Syria means 'exalted.' Against this Syria the Tigris goes. The voice of a certain Tigris is: 'The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God for the destruction of fortifications: destroying counsels, and every height that exalts itself against the knowledge of God' (II Cor. 10:4). He says therefore that in his spiritual arms consists the destruction of all height and exaltation, showing himself thereby to be the arrow of the Lord's salvation and the arrow of salvation against Syria. And why all these things? Because the name of the third river is Tigris, and it goes against the Assyrians. But it is not said of it that it encircles the land of the Assyrians, as of Phison, which encircles all the land of Hevilath, and of Gehon, which encircles all the land of Ethiopia; but that it goes against the Assyrians. Because it is especially incumbent upon the governors of holy congregations not to acquiesce or consent weakly to the wickedness of the proud; but if they truly exercise their office, they will strive to manfully oppose and resist. Yet with a certain necessary labor of circuit, the novices must groaningly apply themselves to the birth-pangs of new life, and the officials, for fulfilling the commands of the father and relieving the needs of the brethren, must patiently bear the stewardship imposed upon them.

XV

The fourth river neither encircles any land nor goes against anyone; because the cloistered, indeed, neither labor in their groaning in the same way as the novices; nor do external occupations darken them as they do the obedientiaries; nor, like the prelates fighting with beasts, resisting the wickedness of rebels, do they sweat under the burden of heavy struggle. There are no pains among them as of one in labor (Ps. 48:8); but in the voice of exultation and confession is the sound of one feasting (Ps. 42:5). Among them no anxious Martha, troubled about frequent service, busies herself; but sitting at the Lord's feet, Mary hears His word (Luke 10:39). Among them, finally, not eleven curtains of goats' hair endure the injuries of rain and the terrors of storms rushing in from without (Exod. 36:14); but rather ten gleaming curtains beautify the interior with manifold ornaments of colors (ibid., 8). Euphrates is its name. And if the cloistered conduct themselves perfectly in all things, as befits them, what in their exercise is not fruitful? What then? Is not the exercise of the novices fruitful? Is not that of the officials and prelates? Fruitful indeed; but it is more truly fruitful among the novices. David does not build a house for the Lord because he is a man of blood (I Chron. 22:8) — so that Phison may encircle the land of Hevilath. And among the officials, Leah has bleary eyes (Gen. 29:17) — so that Gehon may encircle the land of Ethiopia. And among the prelates, the disciples labor at rowing, for the wind is against them (Mark 6:48) — so that the Tigris may go against the Assyrians. But among the cloistered there is a most peaceful man, so that he may bear from reality that distinguished name which is Solomon, and as the wisest he builds a temple for the Lord (III Kings 6:1): Rachel, fair of face and lovely of appearance, is joined to Jacob (Gen. 29:17); Jesus himself also prays on the mountain (Matt. 14:23) and stands on the shore (John 21:4). Behold the threefold fruit of the cloistered: the serenity of peace, the splendor of beauty, the security of rest.

XVI

Can even the novices, or the obedientiaries, or the prelates have these things as excellently as they? Among the cloistered the first-formed man sleeps in paradise, that he may discover in himself both what is feminine and is governed, and what is masculine and governs (Gen. 2:21). Among them the seventh in just generation, Enoch, walks with God and is not seen, because God took him (Gen. 5:24). Among them the just man Noah, to avoid the floods of the deluge — lest the waters or the tempest submerge him, or the deep swallow him — enters the ark, and is shut in from outside by the Lord (Gen. 7:16). Among them the dove, having been sent out, does not find where her foot may rest, and carrying an olive branch in her beak, returns to the seclusion of the ark (Gen. 8:8-9). Among them also the Lord appears to Abraham sitting in the valley of Mamre at the door of his tent, in the very heat of the day (Gen. 18:1 ff.), so that when he lifts his eyes three men appear standing — who addresses three in one and one in three. Among them, mortal life being utterly cast away, Sarah has died a life-giving death, and having a life hidden with Christ in God, is buried in the cave of both action and contemplation — and therefore a double cave (Gen. 23:19). Among them the seed of the late father, blessed joy — so as to bear the name in reality — having Isaac in the Holy Spirit, who does not cease to dig wells until he finds living water (Gen. 26:19), walking along the way that leads to the well whose name is 'Of the Living and Seeing,' and going out to meditate in the field, the day now declining (Gen. 24:62-63). Among them the simple man Jacob, dwelling in the house of the mind, abandons his native soil; and placing one of the stones lying about under his head, in Bethel, after sunset, he sleeps in peace and rests (Gen. 28:11): where he contemplates the ascent and descent of angels on the ladder of charity reaching to the heavens, and the Lord leaning on the ladder (ibid., 12-13). Likewise among them, having now obtained the desired marriage, he prefers the love of the later wife to the earlier; yet hired for the mandrakes of his son, he returns to the bed of the earlier one (Gen. 30:14, 17); and finally made fruitful with the manifold offspring of both, he hastens to approach his father's house; and lest he enter the land by two ways, he is touched in the thigh by the angel as dawn is now rising, and leaning entirely on one foot, he walks lamely (Gen. 32:25). Among them both the birth of Benjamin and the death of Rachel happen at once (Gen. 35:17-18). Among them the dead Joseph, embalmed with spices, is placed in a coffin in Egypt (Gen. 50:26), because especially among them, in the dark exile of present life, dead to this world and filled with the manifold fragrances of virtues, like Rachel's firstborn, the fruit is hidden in the secret place of inner contemplation; because the fourth river — it is the Euphrates.

XVII, XVIII

Among them, having struck down the Egyptian (Exod. 2:12 ff.), Moses escaped the threats of Pharaoh by flight; and having defended the maidens from the approaching shepherds — that is, the thoughts of the heart having been cleansed from assailing fantasies — by fostering and nourishing the good fruitfulness of these thoughts, he waters their flocks; and having driven the sheep to the interior of the desert — that is, having brought simple and innocent meditations to the innermost places of seclusion — stripping the mind's steps of the deadly shoes of wicked examples, he passes through so that in the holy land he may behold the great vision (Exod. 3:3). And he makes all things pertaining to the tabernacle according to the pattern shown to him on the mountain (Exod. 25:40). Among them, separated from the rest of the sons of Israel with his sons, is Aaron the great priest — separated, I say, and washed, anointed and clothed, crowned and specially assigned to the ministry of the Lord (I Chron. 23:13). Among them Joshua subjugates foreign nations (Joshua, passim), that the land may rest from wars. Among them Gideon, at the angel's admonition, places flesh and unleavened bread upon the rock and pours broth over them, so that all these things, struck by the rod of the same angel, may be consumed by fire coming forth from the rock (Judg. 6:20-21). Among them also Samuel, who sleeps in the tabernacle where the ark of God is (I Sam. 3:3), cutting Agag to pieces before the Lord (I Sam. 15:33). Among them the old David, having very many days of age, who cannot be warmed when covered with garments, until the Shunammite Abishag sleeps with him and warms and heats him (III Kings 1:4). Among them the man of God Elijah, declining by flight the cursed and wicked Jezebel — that is, the concupiscence of this world (III Kings 19:3) — flies with all haste to the desert of quiet, having taken the wings of a dove. Among them the same Elijah, leaving his servant in Beersheba of Judah, while through the purity of confession and the sevenfold aspiration he casts off childish understanding; and dwelling in the solitude of the mind, he asks for the death of his soul (ibid.), having a desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ (Phil. 1:23). He, raised from the sleep of sloth by the angel of inner inspiration, is refreshed with bread baked under ashes, while he grows fat with the humility of good work, so that in the strength of this food, through the forty-year period of present exile, he may reach the stable eternity and eternal stability of the heavenly mountain. Among them is Elisha, possessor of Elijah's double spirit (IV Kings 2:9), who follows Elijah and devotes himself to his service in such a way that, through the renunciation of the mind, he kisses farewell to his father the world and his mother concupiscence, turning his back entirely upon them and proposing never to return to them. Among them Isaiah, at the Lord's command, not blushing at the nakedness of the flesh, utterly strips off worldly garments (Isa. 20:2), so that, unburdened of earthly things, like an empty traveler, he may walk singing before the robber, and thus more easily and securely press on toward heavenly and eternal things. Among them holy Ezekiel, who in the building of the city set on a mountain and facing south, standing through the sublime merit of his life, has his eyes toward the gate (Ezek. 40:2) — toward the gate, I say, which leads to the city, walking by faith and desiring by sight, turning his back on transitory things and his face to eternal ones, finally desiring to be dissolved and to be with Christ. Among them, sanctified in the womb, a virgin and priest of God, the most holy Jeremiah (Jer. 1:5), whom rags and old ropes lift from the muddy pit (Jer. 38:6), having in his ascent, by which he strives to reach the songs of degrees, both sharp arrows and devastating coals (Ps. 120:4). Among them Daniel, refusing to be polluted by the table of the king of Babylon (Dan. 1:8), whom Gabriel makes to understand the vision (Dan. 8:16). Among them father Tobias, sitting by the rivers of Babylon, weeps when he remembers Zion (Ps. 137:1), sighing for the beautiful city of Jerusalem: whose gates are built of sapphire and emerald and precious stone; whose circuit of walls is of bright stone; whose streets are paved with pure gold; through whose every lane the song of joy is sung, which is Alleluia (Tob. 13:21). Among them the noble King Hezekiah, whose eyes are worn out looking upward (Isa. 38:14). Among them Josiah, celebrating the most solemn Passover and humbly consulting the prophetess about the book found in the house of the Lord (II Chron. 35). Among them Jesus the great priest, rebuilding the temple (I Ezra 3:10); Ezra renewing the law (I Ezra 7). The inner consoler — for thus is interpreted the name Nehemiah — building the walls of Jerusalem (II Ezra 2:17). And the first is present for sanctification; the second for instruction; the third for security. Among them Mordecai, disdaining to worship the most proud Haman (Esther 3:2). Among them Judith, slaying Holofernes (Judith 13:10). Among them Esther, whose beauty the king desires (Esther 2:17).

XIX

Among them likewise, as we come to the times of grace, when Zechariah entered the temple of the Lord, the angel Gabriel appeared, standing at the right of the altar of incense (Luke 1:11). Among them the boy John grows and is strengthened, and is in the deserts until the day of his manifestation to Israel (Luke 1:80). Among them, having seen the crowds, Jesus ascends the mountain (Matt. 5:1). Among them Peter goes up to the upper room to pray (Acts 10:9). Among them Paul is caught up to the third heaven; he is caught up also into paradise and hears words which it is not permitted for a man to speak (II Cor. 12:2). Among them Jesus Christ signs and sends His Apocalypse, which God gave Him to make known, through His angel to His servant John (Rev. 1:1). Who is wise and will understand these things, and understanding will know them? Surely you are wise. You are also understanding, to whom the Lord has given understanding in all things; whom the anointing itself teaches about all things (I John 2:27). Whence, because we have served you your own and have not proposed new things but recalled known things to your memory, we have judged it sufficient to touch briefly on the surface rather than to dig deeply and expound at length. Indeed, we have taken hold from afar and drawn out the thread at length, so that you might recognize rather than merely learn the singular fruit of spiritual exercise that makes fruitful those who are truly cloistered, and their prerogative.

XX

Is it not clear from these things that this river, which they assert pertains to the cloistered, has its name from the thing itself — signifying fruit, so that it may rightly be said of it: the fourth river is the Euphrates? But if what has been said about these rivers is not to be rejected, it is plainly evident that the river which is divided into these four heads is precious. It is no less evident that the place of pleasure, from which that river goes forth, also has its name from the reality. But what is that place of pleasure? We have already said far above: it is yours, lest we have said it falsely. What does Scripture say after this? 'The Lord God therefore took man and placed him in the paradise of pleasure' (Gen. 2:15). He did this historically then, and He does it spiritually today. What that paradise of pleasure is has already been said. Who this man is has also been said. 'The Lord God therefore took man.' But from where He took him, it does not say. Where He placed him, however, it does not keep silent — for He placed him in paradise. The place from which He took him is not expressed by name, because indeed the various crimes and sins from which He takes him are multiplied, often beyond number. And so this place has no name, because often, as far as we are concerned, not even number can contain it. It did not deserve to be named, because it was not worthy of a name, inasmuch as it was wicked and criminal.

XXI

But for what purpose was man placed in paradise? 'To work and to guard it' (Gen. 2:15). O way of life! O perseverance! Indeed, he works in paradise who lives in an orderly way within the order. He guards it who remains in the order until he dies — the one lest he grow sluggish in idleness, the other lest he fail through dissolution. But let this man beware of the serpent, for he too is in paradise. And who is he, if not any disturber of peace, divider of unity, sower of wicked counsel in the community, disobedient to prelates, always harmful to companions, and utterly hateful to God in all things? This serpent is an apostate man, a worthless person, who walks with a perverse mouth, winks with his foot, speaks with his finger, contrives evil with a depraved heart, and at all times sows quarrels (Prov. 6:12, 14). He drags man to the forbidden food when he contaminates whomever he can, both by words and by examples, sowing among the brothers anger and instigation, envy and detraction, malice and indignation, discord and disturbance — dragging some to hatred of companions and others to contempt of prelates. Whenever he prevails, he pours the poison of pestilent persuasion into the hearts of individuals, inciting them to do that for which they deserve to be cast out of paradise. And certainly, he who does this is cursed among all living creatures of the earth (Gen. 3:14). Having lost the uprightness of mind, he is bent down to the lowest things, crawling upon his breast; and in all his works, desiring earthly things, he utterly casts away heavenly ones, eating dust all the days of his life (ibid.). Let there be perpetual enmity between him and the devout soul: let them never consent to each other in any matter; let her always not will what he wills. However venomously he may flatter, he will certainly offer her deadly poison in the end (even if he could not at the beginning or the middle), lying in wait for her heel (ibid., 15). Therefore, so that the woman may cautiously anticipate and fully guard against these snares, let her reduce to nothing the very beginning of his malicious pride, crushing his head.

XXII

Come now, O Fathers and venerable brothers, beloved by us and by God, we have already said much, and while it delights us to address you, we have already exceeded the measure of a letter. Let your greatness therefore receive with charity what our humility has brought forth with devotion; and if something good has been set before you in it, along with which something bad has also been inserted, we ask that your caution strive to avoid the thorn, so that your care also may not neglect to cultivate the rose. So too, bring to your sense of smell what is fragrant, and remove from your touch what pricks. For the rest, rejoice in the Lord; be perfect, be of one mind, have peace (II Cor. 13:11), being devout toward God, prompt toward neighbors, showing yourselves obedient to prelates, loving one another, redeeming the time, walking in one peace, that you may be able to arrive at the one rest.

Epistle II: Letter of Abbot John of Kelso to Adam the Canon

Letter of the venerable and illustrious man John, abbot of the Church of the Blessed Mother of God Mary of Kelso, sent to Adam the canon, in which he exhorts him regarding the writing about the tabernacle of Moses and the division of the same work into three parts.

I

To his most beloved and in Christ's members honored son Adam the canon, John the abbot wishes eternal salvation in the Lord. Considering, most dear son, how many people occupy themselves with the utmost zeal in the knowledge that contains the understanding of the divine Scriptures, I greatly marvel at their intention and at the same time approve the will by which they strive to attain it with all diligence, judging it to be fitting and useful for them if they have studied to be perfected in it as much as they can. Considering this knowledge therefore above all other things pertaining to vain philosophy, they are raised in mind above themselves, meditating on how delightful it is to attain it; understanding one thing when they behold it in the light of truth, and another when they desire it in their will. For contemplating more keenly and attending in the light of truth, they see how good it is to understand all the Scriptures in a threefold way, and to expound them all without difficulty to a clearer understanding with manifest meaning. This knowledge indeed is greatly desired, which is seen in the mind as in a mirror, and kindles the studies of learners, so that they may be occupied with it and gape after it with all the zeal they devote to attaining such a faculty, so that through it they may bring forth what they seem to foreknow by meditation. When therefore, burning with excessive desire of this kind, they are driven by a certain force of nature to learn, they most clearly demonstrate that they wish to know the mysteries of all the Scriptures. For these things are accomplished among them when they apply the greatest diligence to the works of the saints who translated the Greek and Hebrew scriptures into knowledge, admiring their constancy against adversaries and their endurance of labors for the sake of those who were being instructed in the Catholic faith at that time.

II

When the hour of necessity pressed upon them, to write much against heretics who taught doctrines contrary to the Catholic faith, they went forth armed with the authority of the divine Scriptures to meet them; and since they were few, they labored for a long time disputing against them. At last, multiplied upon the sand by the writings of the saints about the sacraments against the adversaries, and having been set over the universal Church in the Catholic faith, they taught it.

III

Nevertheless, men of the highest learning, passing over certain things in many places with a somewhat superficial touch, reserved them for the exercise of later scholars to explain; and as if deliberately, they omitted gathering in the field of the Scriptures certain stalks standing less than full behind their footsteps, so that future generations might in time thresh them with a threefold rod and minister them to the needy — lest, occupied more ineptly with barren philosophy, without the fruit of labor, they should appear utterly empty in the examination of good works before the Master of the house. Whence I bring forward, by way of example, something that moves certain people. Why, when passing over the tabernacle of Moses in Exodus — with the exception of Josephus and the Venerable Bede the priest — did all who proposed to interpret and explain the Scriptures write so little on this passage? Since their chief intention was directed toward the holy Church and the things that seem to pertain to it, it is remarkable that they so passed over this passage, when the same tabernacle most elegantly prefigured the holy Church in many respects. Nevertheless the Venerable Bede, doctor of the English, though he showed signs of his diligence with a few things about this tabernacle — since in all his writings he was so willing an expositor that, in the manner of a schoolmaster, he would expound every detail syllable by syllable for weary readers — in writing about this he did not satisfy.

IV

Therefore, most dear son, this work, which has been left nearly untouched by them as if it were equally open to all, I enjoin upon your meekness to explain, because you desire the salvation of the Lord, and His law is the meditation of your heart. Embracing therefore the command with confidence, make manifest in the explanation of this tabernacle, with the pen serving you, what the Lord through His Spirit deigns to minister to you on this subject. Do not seek a more leisurely time, since you are utterly ignorant of what the future holds. Therefore, compose a book that encompasses the historical tabernacle, showing readers how it was arranged in reality by Moses, collecting it from the most truthful sayings of the orthodox Fathers; and divide it into three parts with chapters noted beforehand, assigning each part its due proportion. In this, therefore, inserting no opinion against Exodus, lest you seem to linger somewhat too long through error among the diverse opinions of many, weave in the text of Exodus throughout, so that with clear reasoning thus running through it, the book may be well formed, and testimonies may be gathered against the enemies of the Scriptures, against the mouth that speaks wickedness, which has not yet been stopped (Ps. 63:12). Let the first part of this book therefore openly indicate who the craftsman of the building was, and with what materials that old tabernacle was constructed, to those who seek or wish to know; and let it describe most clearly the whole building with everything pertaining to it, within and without; and with the individual walls placed in their proper position, joined by the heads of the bars, let the extension of the curtains and the remaining coverings finally cover the building.

V

But since a question usually arises from some about the half of the sixth goat-hair curtain, by which the doubling was made to protect the back of the tabernacle, let the discussion about it be extended more broadly in this same part of the book; and especially about the grating of the altar, about which there seems to be the greatest ambiguity among both the Greeks and the Latins. Let it not be burdensome to you to gather what various expositors have thought about these matters, so that their teeth may be broken and, as if having nothing to bark about, may be blunted in themselves, and by the opinions of many brought forward against them, they may be utterly confounded in their prolonged insults against holy Scripture. These things therefore are to be placed in the first part of this book, on account of their calumnies, so that expelled from the very threshold, unable to enter the more secret parts of the Lord's house according to the precept of the law, they may withdraw far from the sanctuary, either on account of a bad conscience, bearing with them the perils of their own rashness.

VI

In the text of the second part, depicting the visible tabernacle on a flat surface, express the form of that building to the eyes of those who behold it, as much as it can be shown through a painted likeness: within the Holy of Holies, or simply the Holy Place; placing with all diligence those things which Exodus describes as having been there, since it must be believed without doubt, even though it cannot be expressly understood by all how the meaning of the words is to be taken. And extending the curtain of the court within the camp and the building upon columns in a circle, carefully mark in the picture the spaces and places in which the children of Israel encamped around the tabernacle, so that those who desire to know how it was made in long-past times may have an indication of that building through a painted likeness.

VII

When all things have been depicted, therefore, in that same part of the book, straightaway expound the picture itself through allegorical senses — because sacred Scripture, according to history, seems humble in words to those weak in understanding — so that the reader's zeal and understanding may be increased, and the mind of the beholder and the one who understands may be taught through a visible likeness to turn away from evil, and through allegorical signification may seem to adapt itself to the manner of Scripture. For it follows that he who abstains from vices through good example, exercising himself in good works, immediately shines with virtues.

VIII

Finally, he who investigates the mystical understanding from both [history and allegory] through contemplation adorns the erected building with diverse virtues through the grace of morality, as if with distinct colors. When you have vigilantly completed all things according to the administration of the divine gift, write this letter at the front of the book by way of apology, so that the diligent reader may recognize that you began this work not out of presumption, but constrained by the force of obedience, you obeyed the command of the Father. But since the discourse must now be brought to an end, lest a longer speech breed weariness in the reader, let what has been said suffice. May the grace of the heavenly Protector deign to preserve and always strengthen in good actions your holy fraternity that prays for us. Amen.

Epistle III: Letter of Adam the Canon to Abbot John

Letter of Adam the canon sent to Lord John the abbot, an illustrious man, concerning the material construction of the tabernacle of Moses.

I

To the most reverend Lord and Father, to be embraced with the sweet arms of true love in Christ Jesus, to John: Brother Adam, both humble servant and devoted son of your excellency, [wishes] to be snatched from eternal damnation and to be numbered in the flock of God's elect. Since it is certain, beloved father and venerable lord, that for anyone traveling bodily, in order to arrive well at the place he desires to reach, knowledge of the way by which one goes there is necessary: assuredly we, however many of us are led by the Spirit of God, glorying in the hope of the glory of His children, who desire to reach that heavenly Jerusalem which is built as a city whose parts participate together (Ps. 122:3), need to be fully instructed about the right way that leads there; because it is certain that without its guidance we are utterly unable to arrive at the aforesaid city — namely, that we may not only not be ignorant of where we must arrive, but also may know by which way we must go. This was the supreme and almost sole concern of all the just without any exception, who, living by faith (Rom. 1:17), saved and set aflame by the hope that does not confound and by the charity that never fails (I Cor. 13:8), existed in various ages from the beginning of the world: not only that they should believe by faith that the eternal homeland exists, but also that they should clearly recognize by knowledge the way by which one reaches it, and in that recognized way, until they arrived, they should not cease to run tirelessly through devotion.

II

Hence also one of them prayed with great desire, saying: 'Make known to me the way in which I should walk, because I have lifted up my soul to you' (Ps. 143:8). 'To you,' he says, 'I have lifted up my soul, and therefore make known to me the way in which I should walk.' As if he were saying: 'Because, with you showing me beforehand, I already know where I ought to aim, make known to me, I pray, the way in which I should walk — so that just as I already know where it is good for me to arrive, so I may also not be ignorant of which journey is safe to undertake.' Hence to His disciples the Lord says: 'Seek first the kingdom of God and His justice' (Matt. 6:33). The kingdom of God is truth; His justice is goodness. In these two the right way consists, which leads to the eternal homeland: in the recognition of truth and in the love of goodness, so that we may both choose the true and love the good. And thus it may be that we are made both enlightened, lest we be led astray through ignorance, and devout, lest we be corrupted through malice — having attained indeed the prudence of the serpent in the recognition of the true, and the simplicity of the dove in the love of the good. These two, He says: 'Seek first the kingdom of God and His justice' — seek that these may be given to you, and all other things will not merely be given but will be added to you.

III

Of these two, one clarifies the intellect in the human soul; the other inflames the affection — so that consequently the soul may also move the bodily members to good effect. And thus in these three — in clear intellect, in devout affection, in good effect — consists the merit of man, through which the reward is obtained; since he has both, in merit, the way by which to go, and in reward, the life at which to arrive. But his right way and his true life is He alone who created him in His own image and likeness. For just as it was His doing that he who did not exist should be created, so He is both the way in His humanity, that the lost may be redeemed, and the life in His divinity, that the redeemed may be beatified — the same man receiving a threefold gift from his triune God: the first from the Creator, that he may exist from Him; the second from the Redeemer, that he may exist through Him; the third from the Glorifier, that he may blessedly exist in Him. Because, as the Apostle says, 'from Him, and through Him, and in Him are all things' (Rom. 11:36). To Him also be glory, from whom we have our beginning, through whom our merit, in whom our reward.

IV

Of this right way, of this blessed and beatifying life, holy Scripture is a special guide, and it evidently instructs man concerning both. For the pure and assiduous reading of it instills in man understanding concerning his God as Creator, Redeemer, and Glorifier, and concerning those things that pertain to Him; understanding in turn begets affection; affection also extends itself to effect; and thus truly knowing, ardently loving, usefully working, he acquires merit on the way, through which he reaches the reward in life. Since this is so, both reason counsels, and usefulness suggests, and necessity compels that we strive to apply ourselves to sacred Scripture all the more intently, the more certainly we know that it is through Scripture that so great a good is conferred upon us. Its book, written within and without, has in it lamentations, and a song, and woe (Ezek. 2:9). With its revolving wheels, which go with the holy living creatures when they go, and stand when they stand, and are raised when they are raised from the earth, its stature is lofty and its aspect terrible (Ezek. 1:21). For, to use the honeyed words of Gregory, it is set before the eyes of our mind like a kind of mirror, so that our inward face may be seen in it. For there we behold both our ugly and our beautiful qualities. There we perceive how much we advance; there how far we are from advancement. It narrates the deeds of men and provokes the hearts of the weak to imitation; and it comes about through its words that the mind trembles less amid struggles, the more triumphs of brave men it sees set before it. Sometimes indeed it not only declares to us their virtues but also indicates their falls, so that we may see both in the victory of the brave what to seize by imitation, and again in their lapses what we ought to fear. So that the virtue of the great may nourish our hope, and the falls of the great may gird us with the caution of humility — so that while those things gladdening may uplift and these things feared may press down, the listener's mind, instructed on one side by confidence in hope and on the other by humility of fear, may neither grow proud through temerity, since it is pressed by dread, nor despair under the pressure of fear, since it is strengthened by the example of virtue toward confidence in hope. Moreover, although the depth of this Scripture is great and truly admirable — although the subtlety of its judgments is sometimes perplexing in words and covered with a sacred veil — nevertheless in knowledge of itself, it so admits keen minds that it does not entirely repel the simple: showing indeed in itself both that with which it may refresh the former and that with which it may nurse the latter; so that there may be abundantly found in it both what the strong may eat and what the infant may suck. For by a hidden, so to speak, manifestation, and a kind of manifest concealment, while remaining one and always the same in itself, it varies itself — inclining its majesty with such humility, and exalting its humility with such majesty, that it likens itself in a way to a certain river of no great depth, in which a lamb, however small, can walk most easily, and an elephant, however immense, can scarcely manage to swim.

V

Since therefore it is always one and the same in itself, and never disagrees with itself through contrariety, but has one face of pure utterances, it gives birth to diverse understandings according to the capacity of readers: now refreshing beginners and the tender with a certain milk of history; now feeding those advancing in faith with the bread of allegory; now also restoring those strenuously sweating in good works with the solid food of tropology; finally, those suspended from the lowest things through contempt of the earthly and advanced to the highest through desire of the heavenly, it intoxicates in the anagogical sense with the wine of theoretical contemplation. And although, among its other three senses, history tends to be both easier and more open for understanding, nevertheless a diligent reader sometimes finds many things in it that lie hidden according to the historical sense and open according to the spiritual sense — so that it is sometimes more necessary to be in the dark when viewing the plain of the field than the density of the forest. For if, by way of example, one thing is brought forward from many: in the construction and arrangement of the tabernacle, which was once made in the desert among that ancient people of God, many things are read which are easily evident to most in their spiritual signification, and yet remain hidden from them in the truth of the historical event — so that in a wonderful and very unusual way, they can take food by sipping, but can only take drink by chewing.

VI

Since indeed some moderns by no means understand how the same tabernacle was actually made and arranged, your venerable authority has deigned to command my smallness that I too should write something about this matter, although I lack both keenness of intellect and brilliance of expression — so that I should rightly both be frightened with astonishment and astonished with fright, while in these days of ours I so clearly see holy Moses, who is most faithful in all the house of God (Num. 12:7), both humbly listening to the counsel of Jethro (Exod. 18:1) and choosing Hobab the son of Raguel as guide for the journey, when there is no doubt that God Himself speaks to him mouth to mouth, as a man is accustomed to speak to his friend (Deut. 34:10), and always goes before the people in the pillar to provide the place for the camp (Exod. 13:21). For who among all the wise who are in this land would be, I do not say preferred, but even equaled to you in this matter, if the business of governing received from God allowed you to attend to these things? Your paternity fully instructed me regarding how I should write about this, so that in a certain way Solomon could build the temple through me all the more easily, the more fully his father David showed him how it should be built (I Chron. 22:8), and intended to prepare and bestow whatever would be necessary for him in the construction. Compelled therefore by your command, my beloved father, and instructed by your learning, and animated by your consolation, casting my thought upon Him who opens the mouths of the mute and makes the tongues of infants eloquent (Wis. 10:21), I applied my mind with zeal and my hand to the pen; and what He deigned to minister to me about this through His Spirit, I have expressed in writing. But not only how that visible tabernacle of Moses was actually made and arranged, I have attempted to show; but I have also undertaken, according to your command and to the best of my ability, to explain what the same tabernacle and the things pertaining to it signify according to both allegorical and tropological meaning. For your paternity commanded me to try to show not only what is to be admired in the history, but also what is to be venerated in the allegory with the belief of perfect faith, and what is to be imitated in the tropology through the holiness of good conduct.

VII

Furthermore, as your paternity commanded, I have made a certain picture that represents the form of that old tabernacle in a certain manner, so that those things which must be understood by faith concerning the common Church of the elect, and which must be constructed in individual elect persons through meditation, may also be to some extent beheld through a bodily vision. Regarding the grating of the altar, about which you say there is great ambiguity among both the Greeks and Latins, I have not presumed to state my own opinion; but I have taken care to put forward what men who far preceded me in age, knowledge, and life have not only said but also left in their writings, considering it superfluous to light a lamp in the sunshine. But regarding the half of the sixth goat-hair curtain, by which the doubling was made to protect the back of the tabernacle, I extended a broad discussion according to your command, and I clearly showed in its proper place whether I consider the opinion of the Jews or that of the Venerable Bede to be accepted on this matter. But I want my reader above all to know this: although in the material description of this tabernacle, by revealing the entire truth of the historical event, I did not entirely remove from him every doubt or every occasion for questioning, nevertheless by asserting something in it — since the same truth of the matter has no falsehood — I took care to avoid mendacity as far as I was able to discern, so that if I could not run in the full light of truth, at least I would not remain entirely blind in the density of the shadows. For in order to treat more securely and more clearly both the tabernacle of the holy Church, which belongs to allegory, and the tabernacle of the human heart, which belongs to tropology, I first demonstrated how that old tabernacle of Moses was actually made and arranged, insofar as I was able to conjecture and grasp from the words of the book of Exodus — whence the first knowledge of this matter came to us — and from the book of the Venerable Bede the priest, in which his allegorical exposition of the same tabernacle is contained. For the more strongly, so to speak, the foundation was laid in the house of our book, the more securely its walls could be raised and its roof placed upon them. First, therefore, I set down the words of Exodus, both those in which the Lord addresses holy Moses about the same tabernacle yet to be made, and those which the author of the same book compendiously repeats after it was already built; then, wishing to show how the Venerable Bede the priest agrees with my understanding, I took care to attach his opinion as well; and I also did not omit placing the words of a certain honest and learned man whenever it was necessary. Furthermore, I divided this book into three parts, as the authority of your Paternity commanded. The first part treats of the construction and arrangement of the material and visible tabernacle of Moses. The second deals with the picture of the same tabernacle and its allegorical signification. The third, however, deals with its moral signification.

VIII

For among the other things about which sacred Scripture is accustomed to speak, these three tabernacles are especially prominent: this material and visible tabernacle, the tabernacle of the holy Church, and the tabernacle of the human soul. The first is the tabernacle of Moses, and it exists in reality; the second is of Christ, and it exists in the right belief of sound faith; the third is of the Holy Spirit, and it exists in the internal purity of the cleansed mind. The first was made on Mount Sinai, which is the subject of history, that we may admire it; the second in the breadth of the world, which is the subject of allegory, that we may venerate it; the third in the purity of the soul, which is the subject of tropology, that we may imitate it. Around the first tabernacle are the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel; around the second, the twelve apostles; around the third, the twelve virtues which the Apostle enumerates: charity, joy, peace, patience, longsuffering, goodness, kindness, meekness, faith, modesty, continence, chastity (Gal. 5:22). 'Let us make three tabernacles,' says the Apostle (Matt. 17:4). And so these are the three tabernacles. The first is the tabernacle of the covenant; the second, the holy Church; the third, the human soul. Whence, because I speak of these three tabernacles in this place, I have judged that it should be entitled 'On the Threefold Tabernacle,' unless perhaps it has seemed otherwise to you. Speaking therefore about the construction and arrangement of the material tabernacle in the first part, I want my reader to know beyond all doubt that I have diligently and carefully followed the words of the book of Exodus and of the Venerable Bede the priest, and I am conscious of having said nothing contrary to them in any respect. But when neither the text of the book of Exodus, nor of the Venerable Bede, nor of Josephus, nor the words of that man whom I briefly touched upon above — whose religious life and Catholic doctrine I know not to be unknown — showed me the full truth of the historical event: then at last I simply set down what seemed right to me, taking care indeed not to affirm as certain what I said in this way, but only putting forward my conjecture simply and openly, and humbly leaving to the judgment of those who know the full truth about these matters whether it should be ratified or annulled. In the second part also I depicted the tabernacle itself and some of the things pertaining to it on a flat surface; yet I did not fully demonstrate through this picture how it was actually made and arranged, but showed in some part what its construction and arrangement was like. In this picture set before the viewer, I intentionally wished to note not much but very little about the allegorical arrangement of the same tabernacle, because whoever wishes to read can find copiously how all these things are to be understood allegorically in the sayings of the holy Fathers, and especially in the book of the Venerable Bede the priest, which he composed about the tabernacle according to the allegorical sense.

ON THE THREEFOLD TABERNACLE

PART ONE. ON THE TABERNACLE OF MOSES IN THE LITERAL SENSE.

Chapter I. On the difficulty of treating the material construction and arrangement of the tabernacle of Moses.

I. Since it pleases your excellency, venerable Father, that we too should attempt to show how that old tabernacle of Moses was actually made and arranged, it is indeed necessary to beseech with devout prayers that supreme and true Craftsman, that He may deign to fill even your Bezalel with the Holy Spirit, so that he may pour forth at least some small demonstration of so great a matter. For your paternity clearly knows that there is absolutely no one in this time who has seen the aforesaid building with bodily sight, and therefore it is no wonder if we too are in the dark regarding its physical construction and arrangement. If anyone should say that from the words of the book of Exodus we can fully conjecture the material construction and arrangement of the aforesaid tabernacle, let him know that it is no wonder if we by no means fully understand the words of the aforesaid book according to the letter, since certain eminent doctors, far removed from us in both holiness of life and sublimity of knowledge, are found to have held different views about the literal understanding of the same words.

II. To bring forward a few things out of many: our Father and advocate, the incomparable doctor of the Church Aurelius Augustine, in many places, as those who have read assert, says that the altar of incense was within the veil, whereas Josephus and nearly all the expositors of holy Scripture affirm that it was placed between the lampstand and the table of showbread, outside the veil, opposite the ark of the covenant. The same most reverend doctor says furthermore that individual boards, which were in the three walls of the tabernacle, did not have two bases placed under them; but that one base was placed under the board and another placed on top, so that the upper base would serve as a kind of capital -- although Scripture clearly says that two bases were placed under each board at its two corners, the Lord saying to Moses: 'Let two bases be placed under each board at two corners' (Exod. 26:19). And again: 'Two bases being counted for each board' (ibid. 25). And who does not know that the Venerable Bede the priest, doctor of the English, was not only a diligent searcher of the word of God but also a truthful expositor? Yet from the same doctor, Master Andrew greatly dissents regarding the extension of the curtains and goat-hair coverings for covering the roof of the tabernacle, and the doubling of the sixth curtain at the front of the roof.

III. I have said these things to you, most dear Father, so that you may consider it no wonder if I succumb when you impose such a heavy burden on my weak shoulders; and if I, a mole, am blind in the rays of that sun in which such great eagles are found to be blinded. Since therefore I am driven to reveal my foolishness regarding the material construction and arrangement of the tabernacle, first indeed I shall endeavor to show, as much as I can grasp, how the three walls of the tabernacle were made of boards, and how the same boards were joined to each other. Second, how the boards were connected and secured, and the walls with the entrance were erected. Third, how the aforesaid walls were covered with curtains and goat-hair coverings, and with reddened and blue-violet skins. And when the tabernacle has been completed in this way, I shall attempt to treat of the things that were inside it and around it on the outside, as far as I can conjecture.

Chapter II. On the boards of the three walls of the tabernacle, on the bases of the same boards, and on their mortises.

IV. The Lord said to Moses: 'You shall make upright boards for the tabernacle of acacia wood, each of which shall be ten cubits in length and one and a half cubits in width. On the sides of each board there shall be two mortises, by which one board shall be connected to another. And in this manner all the boards shall be prepared. Twenty of them shall be on the southern side, facing south, for which you shall cast forty silver bases, so that two bases may be placed under each board at its two corners. On the second side of the tabernacle also, which faces north, there shall be twenty boards with forty silver bases. Two bases shall be placed under each board. But for the western side of the tabernacle you shall make six boards, and again two others, which shall be erected in the corners behind the tabernacle, and they shall be joined from bottom to top, and one joining shall hold them all together. For the two boards also that are to be placed in the corners, a similar joining shall be maintained, and there shall be eight boards together, with their sixteen silver bases, two bases being counted for each board' (Exod. 26:15 ff.).

Chapter III. From the book of Exodus on the same subject.

V. He made upright boards for the tabernacle of acacia wood. The length of one board was ten cubits, and one and a half cubits its width. There were two mortises per board, so that one might be joined to another. Thus he did for all the boards of the tabernacle, of which twenty were on the southern side facing south, with forty silver bases. Two bases were placed under one board on either side of the corners, where the mortises of the sides terminate in the corners. On the side of the tabernacle also that faces north, he made twenty boards with forty silver bases, two bases per board. Toward the west, that is, toward the part of the tabernacle that faces the sea, he made six boards, and two others at the individual corners of the tabernacle behind, which were joined from bottom to top and were fitted into one joining. Thus he did on both sides at the corners, so that there were eight boards together, and they had sixteen silver bases, namely two bases under each board (Exod. 36:20 ff.).

Chapter IV. Literal exposition of the preceding chapter.

VI. As I can conjecture from what is written in Exodus, the tabernacle which was constructed in the desert consisted of three walls: the southern, the northern, and the western. On the eastern side, where the entrance was, there was no wall; but from the southern to the northern side a bar was extended, where a curtain hung, suspended before five columns. About this eastern side, more must be said in what follows. For the three aforesaid walls consisted of boards made indeed of acacia wood, but overlaid with gold on both sides, as is read in what follows, of which twenty were in the southern wall, the same number in the northern, and eight in the western. Under each board there were two silver bases, cast and placed under the two corners of each board, four fingers high from the ground, as Josephus writes. On the sides of each board also there were two mortises, by which one board was connected to another. Josephus likewise says that each board had two pivots inserted through two bases, which were of silver, and received the pivots of the boards in their holes. And so each board had two corners, through which two bases were placed under it, and in those same corners the mortises of the sides terminated, by which each board around the circuit of the three walls was connected to another board.

VII. But the form of these mortises, as the Venerable Bede says, could not be seen when the joining of the boards was regularly arranged and the tabernacle itself was erected. Nevertheless, the firm stability of the walls showed that all the walls of the tabernacle had been coupled to one another through these connections of mortises. As for the length of each wall -- the southern and the northern -- Scripture does not say openly; but nevertheless from the measurements of the widths of the boards of which the same walls consisted, we can clearly determine this. For since it is certain that each wall consisted of twenty boards, and each board was a cubit and a half in width and ten cubits in length, it is plainly evident that each of the aforesaid walls was thirty cubits in length and ten in height, because the widths of the boards made the length of the walls, and the lengths of the boards made the height of the walls. The tabernacle therefore was thirty cubits in length, ten in height, and ten in width.

VIII. Concerning these mortises, and the length of the house, and the two bases that were placed under each board, a certain man of venerable life and diligent searcher of the word of God writes thus according to the letter: Each board of the tabernacle had on each side a mortise, that is, a certain groove and hollow, and so skillfully did they receive and join one another through these hollows that they all appeared to be one continuous piece of wood. And since on each side of the house there were twenty boards, and each was one and a half cubits wide, it is clear that the length of the tabernacle was thirty cubits. Two pivots were in the lower parts of each board toward the ground, and individual bases were placed under individual pivots. Augustine, however, says that two bases were not placed under each board on one side; but one base was placed under the board, the other was placed on top, taking the base for a capital. But the letter seems to contradict this, which says: 'Let two bases be placed under each board at two corners' (Exod. 26:19). So he says.

IX. Regarding those eight boards which made up the western wall, we should know that not all of them had the same measurement in width within the walls as the boards of the other walls. For if each of these boards within the walls were a cubit and a half in width, as each board of the other walls was, the tabernacle would no longer have been only ten cubits in width, but twelve; because eight full cubits and eight half-cubits make twelve. What therefore should be said about the widths of these eight boards, except that each of six boards was a cubit and a half in width; but the seventh and eighth -- that is, the two that were placed in the corners of the western wall -- not only lacked a cubit and a half in width, but did not even have one full cubit within the walls, but only a half cubit? And the book of Exodus indeed neither asserts nor denies that all these boards had the same measurement in width as the boards of the other walls; but Josephus says that the corner boards of the western wall were cut from a half cubit. For he says: 'The six boards of the rear wall made nine cubits, to which were joined two other boards cut from a half cubit, which they placed as corner boards in the manner of the larger boards.'

X. And although the book of Exodus does not say openly, as Josephus does, that the same corner boards were cut from a half cubit, nevertheless by treating them separately, it perhaps secretly suggests to us that they did not have the same measurement in width within the walls as the other six boards. For in the aforesaid book it reads thus: 'For the western side of the tabernacle you shall make six boards, and again two others, which shall be erected in the corners behind the tabernacle' (Exod. 26:22-23). Again: 'Toward the west he made six boards, and two others at the individual corners of the tabernacle behind' (Exod. 36:27-28). He mentions first therefore the six boards that were in the middle, and then the two that were in the corners, so that perhaps he would thus make us understand that those two were of one measurement within the walls -- at least as far as width is concerned -- and these six were of another. A certain commentator, expounding the words in Exodus about 'two others which are erected in the corners' according to the letter, seems to agree with this opinion of mine, unless I am mistaken, when he says: 'He says "others" perhaps because they were of a different size according to Josephus than the rest; for each was a half cubit. But the other boards of the same wall were certainly of the same size as the boards that were on the sides. The same and similar joining bound them all together.'

Chapter V. The words of the Venerable Bede the priest on this chapter.

XI. The tabernacle was a house consecrated to the Lord, having thirty cubits in length, ten in width, and likewise ten in height, having an equal roof throughout the whole, in the manner in which it is customary to build houses in Palestine; whose three walls indeed -- the southern, northern, and western -- are constructed from wooden boards overlaid with gold on both sides. The setim wood, from which the tabernacle was made, is of an incorruptible nature, of outstanding whiteness and lightness, and not much different from white thorn, except only in size. Hence Jerome sometimes in his book of Hebrew Names, as also in his other small works, interpreted setim absolutely as 'thorns,' for example: Abel-shittim, 'the brightness of thorns.' However, this type of wood is not easily found except in the deserts of Arabia, where the tabernacle was built. Hence both Greek and Latin translators were unable to give it any other name beyond the Hebrew one. Although some, wishing to express the quality of its nature, translated it as 'incorruptible wood' -- inasmuch as there was no knowledge of it among them.

XII. Moreover, for the eastern wall there was one bar, where the entrance also was, which would extend through the middle of the boards from corner to corner, that is, from the outermost top of this wall to the top of the other wall, upon which the curtains of the tabernacle and the roof could rest, where a screen hung from five columns. How great the length of the tabernacle was is not specifically stated; but it is implied from the fact that its walls consisted of twenty boards, and each of these is said to have had one and a half cubits in width. For twenty cubits and twenty half-cubits make up a total of thirty cubits; which Josephus writes was the length of the tabernacle. All the boards of the tabernacle were joined to one another by the bond of mortise-and-tenon joints. And indeed, when the tabernacle was erected and the frame of the boards was properly arranged, the figure of the joints was not visible. Yet how great was the strength by which the boards were united to each other, the firm stability of the unshaken wall itself showed. Two bases were placed under each board at its two corners, so that with the corners well supported, the whole board could stand upright and immovably. Josephus writes that the boards of the tabernacle were suspended four fingers' breadth above the ground. From which he seems to wish us to understand that the bases of the boards were made of that height.

Chapter VI. On the bars of the three walls, on the joining and erection of those same walls. On the screen of the entrance and its five columns. On the veil before the Holy of Holies and its four columns.

XIII. The Lord said to Moses: You shall make bars of setim wood: five for holding the boards of one side of the tabernacle, and five others on the other side of the same number for the western side, which shall be thrust through the middle of the boards from top to top. And you shall overlay the boards with gold, and you shall cast golden rings on them, through which the bars may hold the boards together, which you shall cover with plates of gold, and you shall erect the tabernacle according to the pattern which was shown to you on the mountain. You shall also make a veil of hyacinth, and purple, and scarlet twice-dyed, and fine twisted linen, of embroidered work and beautiful variety: which you shall hang before four columns of setim wood, which themselves shall be overlaid with gold, and shall have golden capitals; but silver bases. The veil shall be inserted through rings, within which you shall place the ark of the covenant, and by which the sanctuary and the holy of holies shall be divided. You shall also place the mercy seat upon the ark of the testimony in the Holy of Holies, and the table outside the veil, and opposite the table the lampstand on the southern side of the tabernacle: for the table shall stand on the northern side. You shall also make a screen for the entrance of the tabernacle of hyacinth, and purple, and scarlet twice-dyed, and fine twisted linen, of embroidered work: and you shall overlay five columns of setim wood with gold, before which the screen shall be drawn, whose capitals shall be golden and bases bronze (Exod. xxvi, 26 ff.).

Chapter VII. Also from the book of Exodus on the same subject.

XIV. He also made bars of setim wood, five for holding the boards of one side of the tabernacle, and five others for fitting together the boards of the other side; and besides these, five other bars for the western side of the tabernacle toward the sea. He also made another bar, which would extend through the middle of the boards from corner to corner. He overlaid the boards themselves with gold, having cast their silver bases, and made their rings of gold, through which the bars could be inserted, and covered these also with plates of gold. He also made a veil of hyacinth, and purple, and scarlet twice-dyed, and fine twisted linen, varied and marked with embroidered work: and four columns of setim wood, which he overlaid with their capitals, having cast their silver bases. He also made a screen at the entrance of the tabernacle of hyacinth, purple, vermilion, and fine twisted linen with embroidered work; and five columns with their capitals, which he covered with gold, and cast their bronze bases. (Exod. xxxvi, 31 ff.)

Chapter VIII. Literal exposition of the preceding chapter.

XV. After that firmness of connection which the mortise joints provided to individual boards, the bars also conferred another strength upon the walls, of which five were in the southern wall, and the same number in the northern, and the same also in the western, inserted in the middle position around the circuit of the three walls, in golden and cast rings for holding and securing the boards in each wall, made indeed of setim wood, but covered with plates of gold. Concerning these golden rings, into which these bars were inserted, Josephus writes thus: Each board, he says, had golden rings projecting from its outer surfaces, fixed as if by certain roots in a row looking toward one another. How many rings there were in each board, the book of Exodus does not say; but Bede says that five rings were fixed in each board: Each board, he says, had five rings, and again: Five golden rings were fixed in each board. For this purpose, then, in each wall there were bars, so that the rings -- of which there were five in each board -- inserted around the circuit, would firmly hold the board-work of those same walls; inasmuch as just as in the lower part, because the sockets placed beneath received the two tenons of each board, as Josephus says, through their holes; and on the sides through the bond of mortise joints, which joints of the sides terminated at the corners where the bases were placed and set beneath, the aforesaid board-work was secured in its position and erection: so no less through the bars inserted in the rings, the same board-work was also secured in its middle around the circuit: so that in this way, secured below, on the sides, and in the middle, they would stand firmly joined together, so that from any blast of winds neither would a crash occur nor would the structure totter. The book of Exodus neither denies nor affirms that the ends of individual bars were joined to one another by some connection; but Josephus says: The head of each bar entered into the head of another bar in the manner of a shell. Concerning these bars a certain writer says: The bars of the front, he says, and of the sides were of the same number, but not of the same size, because those of the sides were six cubits, and those of the front two cubits: Not five rows of bars on each side, as some suppose, but five on this side, that side, and the same number on the western front, which were inserted into rings fixed in each board; and the head of each bar entered into the head of another bar in the manner of a shell. So he says concerning the bars.

XVI. Therefore, to briefly recapitulate what has been said at greater length above, and to in some way erect those walls about which we have already spoken much, these three walls of the tabernacle -- the southern, northern, and western -- were constructed from boards of setim wood overlaid with gold on both sides; of which twenty stood on the southern side of the tabernacle, and the same number on the northern, and eight on the western: each having ten cubits in length, and one and a half cubits in width: except for those two corner boards which were on the western wall (where the southern and northern walls were joined on either side to the western), which within the walls had only half a cubit in width: and by a double mortise joint also, individual boards were joined each to each by two silver bases, cast ones, around the circuit of the three walls, reckoned by the same two corners of each board; in which corners on both sides the mortise joints of the sides terminated, and the aforesaid bases had, as Josephus says, holes which received the two tenons that were inserted in each. The length of the southern and northern walls was thirty cubits, and the height of each wall was ten; the width of the tabernacle, that is the space between the walls, was likewise ten. There were also in each wall five bars, made of setim wood but covered with plates of gold, for holding and securing those oft-mentioned boards, in each side of the tabernacle, inserted in the middle around the circuit of the three walls in golden and cast rings; the head of each bar entering into the head of the next bar, in the manner of a shell.

XVII. On the eastern side, where the entrance was, there was no wall; but with one bar stretched from one corner of the wall to the other corner, through the middle of the boards, at the top; five columns of setim wood, overlaid with gold, having golden capitals skillfully fitted into the bar itself and secured in it, were erected crosswise beneath that bar; but with bronze bases. Before the four columns, that is, they hung a screen woven of four colors: hyacinth, purple, scarlet twice-dyed, and fine twisted linen. For a certain author says: The bar, he says, was on the eastern side, extended from the southern side to the northern, upon which the capitals of the five columns rested, before which a curtain was hung at the entrance of the tabernacle. Another screen also, which they properly called a veil, woven of the same four colors, hung before four columns of setim wood erected crosswise between the walls, overlaid with gold, having golden capitals and silver bases, inserted through rings. The interior space, which extended from this veil to the western wall, was the Holy of Holies; the exterior, which was from the entrance to that same veil, was simply called the Holy Place. The exterior had twenty cubits in length, as Josephus says; the interior ten. And so the entire house had thirty cubits in length. This we have said concerning the walls of the tabernacle and its entrance; now let us show how the Venerable Bede confirms these words of ours.

Chapter IX. Upon this chapter, the words of the Venerable Bede the priest.

XVIII. The five bars, he says, held the boards of the tabernacle, and five golden rings were fixed in each board of the tabernacle, and the bars held the board-work through the golden rings. A certain bar, indeed, from the top of the first boards to the top of the other side, extended through the ten cubits of the tabernacle's width, is to be believed: with each end skillfully fitted into the capitals of the columns; and thus its placement both guarded the stability of the walls on the eastern side, and held the position of the columns so that they could not slip or be overturned: so that through this, that side of the tabernacle which consisted not of boards but of columns would remain no less fixed than the others, even when wind pressed against it. There also the screen was hung from five columns, which columns had golden capitals but bronze bases, and which were commanded to be made of setim wood but covered with gold. There was also a veil varied with embroidered work, hung from four columns, by which the sanctuary and the holy of holies were divided. This veil, by which the tabernacle was divided in the middle, Josephus reports was so placed that twenty cubits of length indeed belonged to the first room, and ten to the second, so that in all things it might be permitted to agree with the measurements of the temple which was afterward built by Solomon; which being forty cubits in length and twenty in width, had the third part of the length, that is, ten cubits, separated off for the inner room, that is the Holy of Holies: so that the length and width of that same inner room were equal. So therefore also the inner part of the tabernacle had equal length and width, that is, of ten cubits each.

Chapter X. On the curtains, and the goat-hair coverings, and on the coverings of the tabernacle roof.

XIX. The Lord said to Moses: The tabernacle you shall make thus. You shall make ten curtains of fine twisted linen and hyacinth, and purple, and scarlet twice-dyed, varied with embroidered work. The length of one curtain shall be twenty-eight cubits, the width four cubits: all the hangings shall be of one measure. Five curtains shall be joined to one another, and the other five shall be connected with a similar bond. You shall make loops of hyacinth on the sides and tops of the curtains, so that they can be coupled together. Fifty loops shall one curtain have on each side, so placed that the loops come opposite the loops, and one may be fitted to another. You shall also make fifty golden rings, by which the curtain panels are to be joined, so that one tabernacle may be made. You shall also make eleven coverings of goat hair for covering the roof of the tabernacle. The length of one covering shall be thirty cubits and the width four. The measure of all the coverings shall be equal: of which you shall join five apart, and you shall couple six together: so that you double the sixth covering at the front of the roof. You shall also make fifty loops on the edge of one covering, so that it may be joined with the other; and fifty loops on the edge of the other covering, so that it may be coupled with the other. And you shall make fifty bronze clasps, by which the loops may be joined, so that one covering may be made from all. But what remains over of the coverings that are prepared for the roof, that is, one covering which is extra, with half of it you shall cover the back of the tabernacle; and a cubit shall hang on one side and another on the other, which is the surplus in the size of the coverings, protecting each side of the tabernacle. You shall also make another covering for the roof of reddened rams' skins, and above this yet another covering of violet skins (Exod. xxvi, 1 ff.).

Chapter XI. Also from the book of Exodus on the same subject.

XX. Bezalel made, to complete the work of the tabernacle, ten curtains of fine twisted linen, and hyacinth, and purple, and scarlet twice-dyed, of varied work and embroidered art: of which one had twenty-eight cubits in length, and four in width; one measure was for all the curtains. And he joined five curtains one to another, and coupled the other five to one another. He also made loops of hyacinth on the edge of one curtain, and similarly on the edge of the other curtain, so that the loops would face each other and be mutually joined; whence he cast fifty golden rings, which would clasp the loops of the curtains, and one tabernacle would be made. He also made eleven coverings of goat hair from the hair of goats for covering the roof of the tabernacle; one covering had thirty cubits in length, and four cubits in width; all the coverings were of one measure, of which he joined five apart, and six others separately, and he made fifty loops on the edge of one covering, and fifty on the edge of the other covering, so that they might be fastened to one another; and fifty bronze clasps, by which the roof would be fastened, and one cloak from all the coverings would be made. He also made a cover for the tabernacle of reddened rams' skins, and another covering above of violet skins (Exod. xxxvi, 8 ff.).

Chapter XII. Literal exposition of the preceding chapter.

XXI. Since we have now erected the walls of the tabernacle, let us now cover those same walls. The aforesaid walls were covered first by the curtains, then by the goat-hair coverings. The curtains were ten in number, woven of hyacinth, and purple, and scarlet twice-dyed, and fine twisted linen, each having twenty-eight cubits in length and four in width. They also had fifty loops of hyacinth on their sides, so that with the curtains firmly connected to each other through these, one tabernacle would be made from all of them. The goat-hair coverings were also eleven, each having thirty cubits in length and four in width: and just as the curtains each had fifty loops on their sides, so that as I said about the curtains, with these coverings joined to each other through the loops, one covering would be made from them. Although both individual curtains and individual coverings were coupled together, yet concerning the curtains it was commanded that five and five should be joined together: and concerning the coverings, that five should be joined, and six should be connected with a similar bond: for this reason, as I judge, because it seemed too laborious when taking down the tabernacle to separate individual curtains and individual coverings, and likewise when erecting it to couple both these and those one by one. For the Venerable Bede says: All the curtains were of one color, and were adorned with the same colors, but five were joined together. Likewise, he says, the ten curtains which when joined together completed the beauty of the tabernacle, were at the appropriate time separated so that five on each side would remain together; yet at the time when the tabernacle was erected, all the curtains were fastened to one another. It is also well said that the curtains had loops on each side, so that each curtain might embrace the curtains nearest to it on either side, as if with arms stretched out on this side and that. This Bede says concerning the curtains: and concerning the coverings: The divisions, he says, of the coverings into five and six can be understood according to what we explained above about the curtains divided into five and five. This the venerable man says concerning the curtains and coverings.

XXII. But we should know this, that five curtains were joined to the other five curtains by golden rings, cast ones: with those same rings, which were fifty, clasping the same number of loops which were on both the fifth curtains. The five goat-hair coverings were joined to the six coverings in entirely the same way, except that the curtains were coupled with golden rings, as has been said, while the coverings were coupled with bronze clasps. There were also loops of hyacinth on the sides and tops of the curtains: for thus it is written: You shall make loops of hyacinth on the sides and tops of the curtains (Exod. xxvi, 4). And there are indeed some who say that these 'tops' of the curtains should be understood as their edges, which hang down toward the ground, and that loops should be placed on these edges so that with ropes threaded through them, the aforesaid curtains might be stretched and held by pegs, lest the violence of a rising storm tear them away. And because neither authority, as with those loops which were on the sides, nor the exposition of the doctors declares the number of these loops, they assert there were as many as could hold the curtains without wrinkles. But that eloquent man does not seem to agree with those who say this, who writes thus about these same tops of the curtains: Some, he says, think that the tops of the curtains should be understood as their edges in width, and that loops were commanded to be made there just as on the sides. But when they are asked for what purpose they would have been there, if indeed they were there, they respond that the curtains might be stretched out by ropes threaded through loops by pegs on either side; but Scripture seems to make no mention of this. So he says concerning the tops. Therefore the same eloquent man does not call these tops of the curtains the edges hanging downward toward the ground, but rather the corners and the surfaces of the curtain sides: on which sides fifty loops were placed along the length, as he says in what precedes: It seems to us, he says, that each curtain had fifty loops on each side along its length, and at the tops, that is at the corners of the sides. Concerning the joining of the curtains and coverings he likewise writes thus: It should be understood that the tabernacle was shown beforehand to Moses on the mountain, according to whose pattern that which he was about to make would be made. He commanded the tabernacle to be made as he proposes: namely, that ten curtains should be taken, of such kind and size as he himself describes, and many other things which he adds, so that from them a tabernacle might be made.

XXIII. It should be known, however, that the curtains are properly called the tabernacle. Hyacinth is wool dyed in this color; purple is of a blood-red color, and dyed with the blood of shellfish; scarlet twice-dyed is wool dyed twice with scarlet color, so that it is very red; fine linen is a kind of the softest and whitest linen, with embroidered work. 'Pluma,' as Augustine says, in the Punic language means 'needle.' Embroidered work is when threads of gold or silver are inserted with a needle into already-made cloth, to produce cloth-of-gold or various figures on the cloth itself: work of this kind is commonly called brustatum. The ten curtains of the tabernacle were so arranged that five were joined and adhered to one another; and the other five likewise. You shall make loops of hyacinth on the sides and tops of the curtains, so that they can be coupled together (Exod. xxvi, 4). Here he shows how the curtains are to be joined to one another. But it is doubtful whether he commands that in this way individual curtains be coupled to individual ones, or five with five, so that one covering may be made from all. It seems to us that each curtain had fifty loops on each side along its length and at the tops, that is, at the corners of the sides: and that they were firmly connected to one another either by bands or by certain other ties through the loops, but otherwise only five and five were joined to one another, to make one covering, having been bound together by fifty golden rings; and that the rings themselves had a small gap, so that when the tabernacle was to be erected or taken down, they could easily be inserted into the rings, and again easily removed from them. This concerning the curtains.

XXIV. He also writes about the coverings in this way: Goat-hair coverings, in Hebrew, cilicine curtains: Augustine calls these curtains 'hairy veils,' because perhaps so it is in the Septuagint translation, which he himself uses. He calls them veils because they are square in the manner of a veil: 'hairy' because made of hair; for the hairs of the head are pili. Coverings are also commonly called cilicia; and the addition of cilicina after saga is a pleonasm. Moreover, a sagum is a military cloak invented by the Gauls, and called quadrum because it was first made square, or fourfold: perhaps because of the square form of the cilicine cloth which was prepared for covering the roof of the tabernacle, they were called saga. The joining of the coverings to one another was done in the same way as that of the curtains: except that among the coverings there were six on one side and five on the other, and that the curtains were coupled with golden rings, but these with bronze clasps. This he writes concerning the curtains and coverings. Therefore, with one tent made from both the curtains and the coverings, let us hang them above the walls, first the curtains, then the coverings; and let us see how they covered them; but first, taking two measuring cords, let us measure with one the length of the house, and with the other its width crosswise. That cord by which we wish to measure the entire length of the house, that is, from the base of one of the five columns which are at the entrance of the tabernacle, to the base of one of the boards of the western wall, will have fifty cubits in length; namely ten for the ascent of the eastern wall, thirty for the length of the house, and ten for the descent of the western wall. The other cord, by which we wish to measure the house crosswise according to its width, that is, from the base of some board in the northern wall to the base of some board in the southern wall, will have thirty cubits in length, namely ten for the ascent of the northern wall, ten for the descent of the southern wall, and ten on the level, at the top between the walls.

XXV. For this tabernacle of which we speak was not raised with ridged roofs in the manner of our houses, but was level and flat at the top: just as houses were built at that time in that land, whence also in Deuteronomy it is commanded that whoever builds a new house should place a parapet around the roof, lest innocent blood be shed when someone slips and falls headlong (Deut. xxii, 8). And I believe this is what the Lord says to the disciples in the Gospel: What you have heard in the ear will be proclaimed on the housetops (Luke xii, 3): because indeed in the province of Palestine people were accustomed to sit on the rooftops, which were everywhere level at their summits. Let us therefore hang the curtains above the walls, and the goat-hair coverings above the curtains. We should know this: that both the curtains and the coverings covered the length of the house with their own lengths; and covered its width crosswise with their own widths. So with the curtains hung above the walls, we will see that they cover the entire width of the house crosswise from their lengths down to the ground, except for one cubit on each side near the ground, which will be uncovered on each side where the curtains fall short, because the width of the house crosswise is thirty cubits, and the curtains have in length only twenty-eight cubits. But the same curtains will cover the length of the tabernacle, which is thirty cubits, from the length which their widths, joined together, produce; and they will also cover the eastern side, where the entrance is, and the western wall, with five cubits descending on each side, from the length of their widths; because the widths of the ten curtains joined together make a length of forty cubits. Of these forty cubits, thirty will be allocated to the two walls, southern and northern, because they had the same in length: and of the ten that remain, five will be allocated to the eastern side, and five to the western wall in descending: this was properly and specifically called the tabernacle. But those five cubits which on the eastern and western sides reach down to the ground on each side will by no means be bare. Rather, those five cubits of the curtains which remain beyond where the walls end will be drawn together from the eastern and western sides simultaneously, and will be joined to one another; so that the five cubits of curtains may cover both the eastern and western walls of the house. The goat-hair coverings, because they had thirty cubits in length, hung above the tabernacle, completely cover that one cubit which on each side of both the southern and northern walls was uncovered near the ground where the curtains fell short.

XXVI. And because they were eleven, and each had four cubits in width, just like the curtains: they cover the entire length of the tabernacle, and exceed the curtains by two cubits on the eastern side and the same on the western in descending; because the widths of the eleven coverings joined together make a length of forty-four cubits. Of these forty-four cubits, thirty cover the length of the walls: of the fourteen that remain, seven were allocated to the eastern side and seven to the western. And those two cubits which on the eastern side exceeded the curtains were doubled, as is also said in Exodus: You shall double the sixth covering at the front of the roof (Exod. xxvi, 9). The Venerable Bede shows the reason why the sixth covering was doubled at the front of the roof, in these words: According to the literal sense, he says, by the front of the roof he means the entrance of the tabernacle, where not boards, as we briefly said above, but columns, and a bar extended from corner to corner of the boards, were commanded to be placed. And therefore as far as the form of the work is concerned, there was more need for a doubled covering-protection there, where the solid firmness of a wall was absent. In this way therefore both that one cubit on each side near the ground which had been left uncovered by the curtains falling short was covered by the coverings placed above; and by two cubits on both the eastern and western sides the same coverings cover the curtains in descending.

XXVII. And I believe this is what that subtle and verbally complex verse says. But what remains over of the coverings which are prepared for the roof, that is, one covering which is extra, with half of it you shall cover the back of the tabernacle (Exod. xxvi, 12). That covering which he says is extra and with which the back of the tabernacle is to be covered, is the eleventh covering, which indeed is extra compared to the curtains, because those are only ten, while these are eleven; and its half covers the back of the tabernacle in that it exceeds the curtains by two cubits, as has often been said, which make half a covering, on the western side, where the back of the tabernacle is: And a cubit, he says, shall hang on one side and another on the other, which is the surplus in the size of the coverings, protecting each side of the tabernacle (Exod. xxvi, 13). This double cubit, which he says is the surplus in the size of the coverings and protects each side of the tabernacle by hanging on either side, pertains indeed to that double cubit which in the coverings was more than in the curtains; because those had in length, as has been said, only twenty-eight cubits, while these had thirty; and it protected, that is, covered, each side of the tabernacle: where, with the curtains falling short, one cubit on each side near the ground was uncovered, which uncovered cubit these two cubits that in the coverings were more than in the curtains, one on this side and the other on that, covered. But the space of those three cubits, which on the eastern side and on the western side where the coverings fall short reaches to the ground, will by no means remain bare; but the seven-cubit coverings, just as we said a little before about the curtains, which remain beyond where the walls end, will be drawn together, and with them both the front and back of the house will be very firmly covered down to the ground; because indeed these coverings not only like the curtains, which covered the eastern and western parts of the house in descending with only five cubits, were able to reach one another and meet in the middle of each wall, namely the western and the eastern; but because they were of seven cubits on each wall, they exceeded the middle of both the eastern and western sides by two cubits in either direction. Of these four exceeding cubits, two on the eastern wall, where the front was, were doubled over: so that there, according to the Venerable Bede's judgment, there would be the protection of a doubled covering where the solid firmness of a wall was lacking.

XXVIII. So therefore the coverings covered the walls of the tabernacle on every side, and the curtains, except for one cubit on every side. Two more coverings were still made, not indeed for covering the walls of the tabernacle, but for covering only its roof, of which the first was of reddened rams' skins; the second of violet skins. What the number of these skins was, what their length and width was, how they were arranged or joined, since the text does not define, it is enough to understand that with them connected, the entire length and width of the tabernacle at the top of the roof could be covered over, and the roof and walls in those parts were much larger than ours. Concerning these skins, a certain writer long before us wrote thus: It should be known, he says, that both this covering of reddened skins and that of violet skins should be made only according to the form and size of the tabernacle's roof, because nothing hung down from either the sides or the fronts. Therefore how the curtains and coverings covered the walls of the tabernacle, and how the reddened rams' skins and violet skins covered its roof, we have explained as seemed right to us: but let us hear what the Venerable Bede says about this.

Chapter XIII. The words of the Venerable Bede the priest on the same subject.

XXIX. We have said, he says, that the walls of the tabernacle, which consisted of boards and columns, had a length of thirty cubits, a width of ten, and a height likewise of ten. If therefore someone wished to encircle the house in its width with a cord, for example from the base of one board on the southern side to the base of the board which was opposite on the northern side, it is certain that the same cord would need to be thirty cubits in length, that is, ten cubits of ascent on the southern wall, ten others of level surface above between the walls, and ten thirdly of descent on the northern wall. Likewise, if you wished to stretch a cord along the length of the house, that is, from the bases of the columns upward, and along the length of the entire house to the western wall, and then down to its bases, that cord would have fifty cubits of length: namely ten of ascent beside the columns, thirty of level surface along the length of the house, ten again of descent beside the boards of the western wall. Having considered these things, then, examine also the measurements of the curtains with which the house was to be covered, how they could match the aforesaid measurements. There were ten curtains, each having twenty-eight cubits of length, four of width; which joined together and combined into one, filled the tabernacle with forty cubits of their width. Hang therefore the curtains, which each have twenty-eight cubits of length, and place them in a house whose crosswise measurement is thirty cubits, and you will see that the curtains have on the level between the walls ten cubits; but in the ascent or descent beside the walls, nine cubits. And so it happens that the edges of the curtains cannot touch the ground; but are higher than the ground by one cubit. Likewise you will see that the curtains have thirty cubits on the level along the length of the house, but in the ascent or descent on the eastern or western side, five cubits; and therefore the same side edges of the curtains by no means reach down to the ground, but were higher than the ground by five cubits. Hence it was necessary that those five cubits of the curtains which remain beyond where the walls end should be drawn together from the eastern and western sides simultaneously, and be joined to one another: and so it will be that the curtains cover the house on every side, except for one cubit near the ground. This concerning the curtains.

XXX. Furthermore, the coverings had thirty cubits of length, four of width. And because there were eleven, joined to one another along their sides they filled forty-four cubits. Place therefore these also in the house; and because the length of the coverings agrees with the cord by which you measured the house crosswise, it happens that their edges reach down to the ground. For they had ten cubits of level surface between the walls; ten equally of ascent or descent on each side. And this is what Scripture says, that a cubit should hang on one side and another on the other, which is the surplus in the size of the coverings, protecting each side of the tabernacle (Exod. xxvi, 13). For by 'tabernacle' he properly means the very construction or joining of the curtains, which the coverings exceeded by one cubit on the southern side of the house, and another on the northern. And therefore they reached to the ground, because these had thirty cubits of length, while those had two less. Likewise the measure of all the coverings along the length of the house extended to forty-four cubits: having namely thirty cubits on the level, from the front of the house to the top of the boards on the western side; and seven cubits hanging down from the front of the house, and seven likewise hanging down on the western side. And so it was that the measure of the coverings on the western side exceeded the measure of the curtains by two cubits; because indeed the curtains coming from above, as we also mentioned before, covered five cubits of the wall and left five others untouched: and this is what is said: But what remains over of the coverings which are prepared for the roof, that is one covering which is extra, with half of it you shall cover the back of the tabernacle (Exod. xxvi, 12). For the half of a covering in width is two cubits, from which half the back of the tabernacle was covered, that is, two cubits of the curtains, which were properly called the tabernacle, because the last covering, extending downward, exceeded them by two cubits, as we said.

XXXI. And so the coverings coming from above covered only seven cubits of the western wall; nor however did the remaining three cubits down to the ground lie exposed to the injuries of storms; but with coverings of seven cubits drawn together from each side, which remained beyond where the walls ended, the back of the house was very firmly covered right down to the ground, and indeed these were able not only to reach one another, and like the curtains to meet in the middle of the wall; but because they were of seven cubits, they exceeded the middle of the wall by two cubits in each direction, and were laid over one another where they were joined: which we think should be understood in the same way entirely for the eastern side also, and therefore the command above that the sixth covering should be doubled at the front of the roof (Exod. xxvi, 9). And so the house was covered both above and on every side with curtains woven in wonderful variety, which was properly called the tabernacle; it was also covered on every side with goat-hair coverings reaching to the ground; but another covering was also made for the roof of reddened rams' skins, and above this again another covering of violet skins. These matters, most difficult as they are, we have taken care to explain briefly, as we seem to have understood them, ready to learn more accurate things in these matters, if anyone should wish to teach us.

Chapter XIV. On the fact that in the extension of the coverings and curtains, Josephus and the Jews seem to disagree with the Venerable Bede.

XXXII. These things concerning the curtains and coverings the Venerable Bede says, whom we also have taken care to follow with sure step, inasmuch as we could, as a diligent searcher of the word of God and a truthful expositor; but another master, speaking about the same curtains and coverings, judges that the opinion of Josephus and the Jews is to be preferred in this matter over Bede's view. For that same master writes thus: In the extension, he says, of the curtains and coverings for covering the tabernacle's roof, and in the doubling of the sixth covering at the front of the roof, let us follow the opinion of the Jews and Josephus rather than that of Bede. Since the curtains are ten, and the coverings of four cubits, the former joined together make forty, and the latter coupled together make forty-four cubits. These were extended according to the Hebrews and Josephus so that both the curtains and the coverings covered the roof of the tabernacle with thirty cubits (for that was its length), and the western front of the house with ten cubits (because this was the height of the tabernacle). But the four cubits by which the coverings exceeded the curtains, at the eastern front of the house where the entrance was, were doubled, and with two cubits covered the columns and the entrance screen. They were doubled because of the violence of winds; and this is what the book says: the sixth covering, that is, the four cubits which make a covering in width, you shall double at the front of the roof. But what remains over of the coverings which are prepared for the roof, that is one covering which is extra, with half of it you shall cover the back of the tabernacle (Exod. xxvi, 9, 12). The coverings exceeded the curtains by one cubit on each side of the tabernacle, and therefore reached to the ground, because these had thirty cubits of length and those two less. The half of a covering in length is two cubits, from which half on each side the back of the tabernacle was covered, that is of the curtains, which are properly called the tabernacle. And this is what it says: 'And a cubit shall hang on one side and another on the other, which is the surplus in the length of the coverings, protecting each side of the tabernacle (Exod. xxvi, 13).' The construction is to be done in this way: with the half of that which remains over in the coverings prepared for the roof, you shall cover the back of the tabernacle: and he interposes by way of parenthesis what this is, namely one covering which is extra. As if he were saying: with the half of one covering, which one covering remains over and is extra compared to the curtains, you shall cover the back of the tabernacle, that is the ends of the boards where they are joined to the ground, which the curtains could not reach on either side.

XXXIII. See, in this way he speaks about the extension of the curtains and coverings, and seems to disagree with the Venerable Bede. But whatever he himself has said, many judge Bede's opinion to be truer than the view of Josephus and the Jews in this matter, and they think they can prove this in this way: The Lord says to Moses: But what remains over of the coverings which are prepared for the roof, that is one covering which is extra, with half of it you shall cover the back of the tabernacle (Exod. xxvi, 12). He says indeed, and it is entirely true, that the Lord calls the extension of the curtains themselves, joined together, over the walls, the 'tabernacle'; and they call the 'back' of that same tabernacle those curtains by which the rear part of the house, the western wall, was covered: which curtains were called the back of the tabernacle, to distinguish them from those curtains which, as they say, hung on the eastern side, which also according to them were called the front of the tabernacle. From the half, therefore, of one covering which was extra, according to the Lord's command, Moses covered the back of the tabernacle, because the eleventh covering, which among the coverings was extra compared to the curtains (since these were only ten), he made exceed the curtains on the western wall of the tabernacle (these assert this was the back) by two cubits, which made its half, so that according to Bede's view the curtains would have five cubits descending on that same wall, and the coverings seven. Let therefore the Jews and Josephus show -- who says that both the curtains and the coverings covered the western front of the house with ten cubits -- with whose covering's half Moses covered the back of the tabernacle, that is of those curtains which, as many affirm, were on the wall on the western wall Moses covered, if on that same western wall the curtains were just as long in descending as the coverings were, that is, if both the curtains and the coverings covered that wall entirely down to the ground. But if someone says that the back of the tabernacle was not those curtains which were on the western wall, but rather the ends of the boards of both walls, the southern and the northern, where they were joined to the ground, which the curtains could not reach to cover on either side because they had only nine cubits in descending: it will be asked of him, what was that covering which was extra, and with whose half Moses covered these ends of the boards of the southern and northern walls, since it is established that there was no covering there whose half could cover those same ends of the boards? For those ends of the boards were covered not by some halved covering, but rather by the overhanging edges of the coverings, exceeding the curtains by one cubit on each side. We know indeed that the coverings exceeded the curtains in descending by two cubits: one on one side and another on the other, and that two cubits made the half of a covering; but apart from the edges of the coverings which, hanging downward, exceeded the curtains by one cubit on each side, there was absolutely no covering there whose half could cover the back of the tabernacle, that is the ends of the boards -- if indeed the back of the tabernacle was nowhere else than at the very ends of the boards.

XXXIV. Moreover, we know that, preserving that spiritual signification which lies hidden within, the coverings were thrown over the tabernacle for this purpose: to cover the curtains and the boards, where those same curtains had fallen short, entirely down to the ground, and by covering them to keep them unharmed from winds and rains and other filth rushing in from outside. Since this was the case, to say something according to human conjecture, what reason would dictate that they should triply cover the western part of the building -- where there was a most solid wall, which wall consisting of the strongest boards, compacted most firmly below by tenons inserted into bases, on the sides by mortise joints, and in the middle by bars fitted into rings -- with both curtains and coverings down to the ground, while the eastern part, where there was no wall at all, but only five columns with one curtain hung from them, should be covered by nothing from the curtains and nothing from the coverings either, except one covering alone? Which covering indeed, when it was doubled at the front of the roof according to the Lord's command, covered the curtain that hung there by only two cubits, and eight cubits were exposed to winds and rains and other external injuries. For these reasons, therefore, and perhaps others which are here passed over in silence, some judge that the Venerable Bede should be accepted without any scruple on this point: unless perhaps some other authority, speaking more fully about these matters, should stand against it, and showing a clearer reason why Bede should be rejected in this place and Josephus with his Jews should be accepted.

Chapter XV. On the ark, and the oracle which was above it; on the table of showbread; on the lampstand of light, and on the altar of incense.

XXXV. Since we have now for the most part completed the tabernacle itself, and have in a way erected the completed structure in its place, let us now speak about those things which were within it, and let us show, as best we can, how and where they were placed within it. The Lord said to Moses: Construct an ark of setim wood, whose length shall be two and a half cubits, width one and a half cubits, height likewise one and a half cubits: and you shall overlay it with the purest gold inside and out, and you shall make a golden crown above it all around, and four golden rings, which you shall place at the four corners of the ark; two rings shall be on one side and two on the other. You shall also make poles of setim wood, and cover them with gold, and you shall pass them through the rings which are on the sides of the ark, so that it may be carried by them; they shall always remain in the rings, and shall never be taken out of them: and you shall place in the ark the testimony which I shall give you; you shall also make a mercy seat of the purest gold. Two and a half cubits shall its length be, and a cubit and a half its width. You shall also make two golden cherubim, hammered work, on each side of the oracle: one cherub shall be on one side and the other on the other. Let them cover each side of the mercy seat, spreading their wings, and covering the oracle, and let them look toward one another with their faces turned toward the mercy seat, with which the ark is to be covered: in which you shall place the testimony which I shall give you. From there I shall give commands and speak to you, namely from above the mercy seat, and from between the two cherubim which shall be upon the ark of the covenant, all things which I shall command through you for the children of Israel (Exod. xxv, 10 ff.).

You shall also make a table of setim wood, having two cubits in length, and one cubit in width, and one and a half cubits in height, and you shall overlay it with the purest gold: and you shall make for it a golden rim all around, and on the rim itself an openwork crown four fingers high, and above it another small golden crown. You shall also prepare four golden rings, and place them at the four corners of the same table at each foot. Under the crown there shall be golden rings, so that poles may be passed through them, and the table may be carried, and the poles themselves you shall make of setim wood, and surround them with gold for carrying the table. You shall also prepare bowls, dishes, censers, and cups, in which drink offerings are to be offered, of the purest gold, and you shall place on the table the bread of the Presence before me always (Exod. xxv, 23 ff.).

You shall also make a lampstand of hammered work of the purest gold, its shaft and branches, cups, knobs, and lilies proceeding from it. Six branches shall go out from the sides, three from one side and three from the other. Three cups shaped like almonds on each branch, with knobs and lilies together. This shall be the work of the six branches which are to be produced from the shaft. On the lampstand itself there shall be four cups shaped like almonds, with knobs for each and lilies. And knobs under each pair of branches in three places, which together make six, proceeding from one shaft. And the knobs therefore, and the branches from it, all shall be of hammered work of the purest gold. You shall also make seven lamps and place them on the lampstand, so that they may give light from the opposite side. The snuffers also, and the trays where what is snuffed out may be extinguished, shall be made of the purest gold. The whole weight of the lampstand with all its vessels shall be a talent of the purest gold. Look, and make it according to the pattern which was shown to you on the mountain (Exod. xxv, 31-40).

You shall also make an altar for burning incense of setim wood, having one cubit in length and another in width, that is, square, and two cubits in height. Horns shall proceed from it. And you shall overlay it with the purest gold, both its grate and the walls all around, and the horns. You shall make for it a small golden crown on each side, and two golden rings under the crown on each side, so that poles may be passed through them and the altar carried. The poles themselves you shall also make of setim wood, and overlay with gold: and you shall place the altar before the veil which hangs before the ark of the testimony, before the mercy seat which covers the testimony, where I shall speak to you, and Aaron shall burn fragrant incense upon it (Exod. xxx, 1 ff.).

Chapter XVI. From the book of Exodus on the same subject.

XXXVI. Bezalel also made an ark of setim wood having two and a half cubits in length, and a cubit and a half in width. The height also was of one and a half cubits. And he covered it with the purest gold inside and out, and made for it a golden crown all around; casting four golden rings at its four corners. Two rings on one side and two on the other. He also made poles of setim wood, which he covered with gold, and which he passed through the rings that were on the sides of the ark for carrying it. He also made the mercy seat, that is the oracle, of the purest gold, two and a half cubits in length, and a cubit and a half in width: also two cherubim of hammered gold, which he placed on each side of the mercy seat; one cherub at the top of one side, and the other cherub at the top of the other side. Two cherubim at each end of the mercy seat, extending their wings and covering the mercy seat, and looking at each other and at it.

He also made a table of setim wood, two cubits in length and one cubit in width, which had one and a half cubits in height; and he covered it all around with the purest gold and made for it a golden rim all around, and on the rim itself an openwork golden crown four fingers high, and above this another golden crown. He also cast four golden rings, which he placed at the four corners, at each foot of the table opposite the crown, and passed poles through them so the table could be carried. The poles themselves he also made of setim wood, and covered them with gold; and vessels for various uses of the table -- bowls, dishes, cups, and censers -- of pure gold, in which drink offerings are to be offered. He also made a lampstand of hammered work of the purest gold, from whose shaft branches, cups, knobs, and lilies proceeded, six on each side. Three branches on one side and three on the other. Three cups shaped like almonds on each branch, with knobs and lilies together. The work of the six branches which proceeded from the stem of the lampstand was equal. On the shaft itself were four cups shaped like almonds, with knobs for each and lilies. Knobs under each pair of branches in three places, which together make six branches, proceeding from one shaft. And the knobs therefore, and the branches from it, all were of hammered work of the purest gold. He also made seven lamps with their snuffers, and vessels so that what is snuffed out may be extinguished, of the purest gold. The lampstand with all its vessels weighed a talent of gold.

He also made the altar of incense of setim wood, having one cubit on each side of the square, and two in height, from whose corners horns proceeded: and he overlaid it with the purest gold, both the grate and the walls and the horns. And he made for it a small golden crown all around, and two golden rings under the crown on each side, so that poles might be passed through them and the altar could be carried. The poles themselves he also made of setim wood, and covered them with plates of gold. He also compounded the oil for the anointing of sanctification, and the incense of the purest spices, by the work of a perfumer (Exod. xxxvii).

Chapter XVII. Literal exposition of the preceding chapter.

XXXVII. Therefore in the inner place, which was within the veil, where once a year the high priest entered, there was an ark made of setim wood but overlaid with gold on every side: having a golden crown around it, which a certain master calls a border around it. Some indeed say that this crown was a golden binding encircling the ark on every side, made for its beauty and strength, so that it could not come apart and would appear more beautiful. Upon this ark there rested a certain golden plate, of hammered work, having the same length and width as the ark, which was called the mercy seat. The lid of the ark, that is the plate by which the ark was covered, was called the mercy seat: because God appearing above it was merciful to the people. On each side of it there stood one cherub of hammered gold, and these two cherubim, spreading their wings toward each other, covered the mercy seat and looked at each other. How tall these same cherubim were, or how long their wings were, Scripture does not say. But it seems to me that, while each one with wings spread out against the other from either side covered each side of the mercy seat, each wing of each cherub had no more than two and a half cubits in length, at most; because some say that one cherub touched one wall with its wing, and the other touched the other wall with its wing: but with their other wings they touched each other in the middle: and these middle wings covered the mercy seat, just as the two great cherubim in Solomon's temple did.

There was also in the ark itself beneath the mercy seat a golden urn containing manna, and the tablets of the covenant, and the rod of Aaron which had budded, and according to the book of Deuteronomy, the book of the Song of Moses. For Moses commanded the Levites who carried the ark of the covenant, saying: Take this book and place it beside the ark of the covenant of the Lord, that it may be there as a witness against you (Deut. 31:26). These things were in it according to the authority of Sacred Scripture; and yet in the third book of Kings it is written: In the ark there is nothing else except the two tablets which Moses placed in it at Horeb, when the Lord made a covenant with the children of Israel (III Kings 8:9). If there was nothing else in it in Solomon's time except the tablets, it would seem that neither the manna, nor Aaron's rod, nor the book of the Song of Moses was in it at that time. But modern doctors resolve this doubt in this way, saying: that Scripture which includes only the tablets looks to the mystical sense; while that which asserts the other things named above were in the ark together with the tablets looks to the literal sense. For they say that these all yield the same meaning when viewed mystically; yet at the literal level they are separate. About this a certain writer says: In the book of Kings and of Chronicles it is asserted that there was nothing in the ark of the Lord except the stone tablets on which the ten commandments of the law were written. But in that Epistle which is inscribed to the Hebrews, we read that a golden urn containing manna, and the rod of Aaron which had budded, as well as the tablets, were in the ark (Heb. 9:4). We can say that in earlier times only the tablets were in the ark; but afterward, out of fear of enemies, they placed the golden urn containing manna and the rod of Aaron which had budded in the ark, lest they be taken by enemies. Because they knew it was known to the nations that the Philistines had been struck with a heavy plague on account of the ark which they had taken, they therefore trusted that it would not be taken by enemies. Perhaps the aforesaid things were not in the ark itself, but at its sides: just as the book of the law. And therefore they were said to have been in the ark, because they were in some appendage at its side. So he says. On the tablets ten words were written, as Josephus says: On each tablet two and a half per page. This concerning the things which were in the Holy of Holies.

In the outer room, which was simply called the Holy Place, there were these three things: the table of showbread on the northern side, not far from the entrance, as Josephus says; and opposite it the lampstand on the southern side; and the altar of incense in the middle before the veil. The table was also made of setim wood overlaid with gold, having two cubits in length, one cubit in width, and one and a half cubits in height. The table was not that thick; for it would be a block, not a table; rather, from the bottom where the feet joined the ground, it rose to this height. The same table had a golden rim all around, on which rim an openwork crown was made four fingers high, and above it another small golden crown. If one asks what the rim on the table around it was, and what those two crowns were, perhaps it was a certain golden projection fixed to the table on every side; and to this projection another was attached, four fingers high, which Scripture calls a crown; and to this also a third was joined. These three projections were probably made around the table so that those twelve loaves which were continually placed on it — not in the middle but on each side facing each other — being as if recessed and enclosed on every side, would have a stable place to lie; lest when the same table was carried, if they lay flat upon it without enclosure, they would be pushed together. There is also another opinion which says that the rim encircled the table through a certain hollowing from the table itself, and an openwork crown covered the width of that rim, drawn around for strength and ornament, upon which another small crown was placed, providing both strength and beauty to the first. Twelve loaves were continually on it, baked from fine flour, as is read in Leviticus, each having two-tenths of an ephah, of which six were placed on each side, with two golden bowls full of the purest frankincense placed upon them (Lev. 24:5-6). A certain eloquent writer also says: The rim around it is a certain curve depending around the table, looking outward, and adds: Upon this curve, he says, a certain border was placed, not on the outer side, but on the upper part: and he added: above this also another border, narrower and less tall, was placed. He calls the crown "openwork" because it was artfully carved. Under the crown were the rings. He shows in what places the rings should be set, through which poles are to be passed for carrying the table: namely at the top near the rim, which he here calls the crown, and not down near the ground. Some say that the two crowns he spoke of above, he here calls one, upon which he said the rings were to be placed. According to this view, two crowns are attached on the outer side to the aforesaid rim, and why they are attached is not easily clear. But on the upper surface they seem necessarily to be attached, so that they may contain what is placed on the table and be an obstacle lest anything accidentally fall from the table. So he writes about the table: Bowls, he says, are temple vessels in which vinegar was contained. A "phiala" is a certain glass vessel. "Phiala" is said as if "hiala": for "hialim" means glass. These vessels, as they say, are capacious, narrow at the bottom and wide at the top: the Hebrews call these vessels "scutellae" (dishes). Cups are certain narrow vessels of small capacity. There were twelve loaves continually on the table: these loaves are called loaves of the Presence because they were always set forth on the table and were at hand. There were twelve, each made from two-tenths: these were taken away for the use of the priests on the Sabbath when fresh ones were set out in their place. This he says about the vessels of the table and the bread of the Presence. The same table had at its four corners four feet under the aforesaid crown, and at each corner a golden ring, so that with two poles of gilded setim wood passed through them on each side, the table itself could be carried.

The lampstand was both golden and of hammered work, from whose shaft six branches proceeded, three from one side and three from the other, and all, as it seems to me, were of equal height at the top; where seven lamps were placed, three on this side and three on that at the tops of the six equal branches, and the seventh at the top of the shaft, whose top was equal to the tops of the other branches: and it was, as it seems to me, that the first branch on each side was longer than the second, and the second than the third, but none taller than another. For the first was longer than the second on each side, and the second than the third. Not however as regards their tops, where they all met together at the summit; but as regards their points of departure, where they did not all proceed from the shaft at the same point. And I think this is what Scripture means when it says: The work of the six branches which proceeded from the stem of the lampstand was equal (Exod. 37:19). Their work was not equal where they proceeded at the bottom; but where their tops met at the summit. In the length of the lampstand itself, the three-fold arrangement occupied an equal distance; and there were in each branch three cups shaped like almonds, three knobs also, and three lilies. How long or thick the lampstand was, Scripture does not say, but the same Scripture says that its entire weight with all its vessels was a talent. A certain writer says that there are three kinds of talents, and that the smallest talent contains fifty pounds, the middle one seventy, and the largest one hundred and twenty. Scripture says nothing here about the poles of the lampstand, or whether it had rings so that poles could be passed through them for carrying: on this point it is completely silent in this place, and yet in the book of Numbers, where it treats of the moving of the camps, it is thus written: They shall also take a cloth of hyacinth, with which they shall cover the lampstand with its lamps and tongs, and all vessels of oil; and upon all they shall place a covering of violet skins, and insert the poles (Num. 4:9-10). And concerning the lampstand a certain writer says: He calls the middle stem of the lampstand the shaft; from this three branches go out on each side. The branches are called the arms of the lampstand, because they are round in the likeness of reeds, although some branches proceeded from the stem lower and some higher, yet all ascended to the same height: so that of the lamps which were placed upon them, none was higher or lower than another. Where the branches went out from the shaft on each side, at each one there were knobs, roundels, and lily flowers, and certain things formed in the shape of an almond, which Scripture calls cups: but the Hebrew does not mean that these cups were made in the shape of an almond, but rather, so to speak, nielloed. Works made of silver are commonly nielloed; but I do not recall having seen golden niello work. The branches have these three aforesaid ornaments in three places: where they go out from the stem, in the middle, and at the top. The middle stem, however, has these in four places. The lampstand was placed obliquely, but the lamps were so placed that they shone as if from opposite the ark. The snuffers were tongs with which the wicks were trimmed so they would burn better. This he says concerning the lampstand.

The altar of incense was likewise, like the table and the lampstand, outside the veil; but it was nevertheless opposite it, although some say it was inside the veil. A certain most learned master says among other things that it was outside the veil, in these words: According to the Hebrews, and Josephus, and almost all expositors, the altar of incense was placed between the lampstand and the table of showbread outside the veil, facing the ark of the covenant. Augustine, however, says in many places that it was inside the veil. On the days when Aaron and his sons were about to enter the tabernacle to minister, they were forbidden to drink wine and strong drink. If therefore the high priest entered beyond the veil daily on account of the continuous burning of incense, as some hold, he would never have been permitted to drink wine. But according to the Hebrews the altar was outside, and the priests ministered in turns and offered incense. And therefore he commanded that during the time of their ministry they should abstain from wine and strong drink. The lesser priests offered incense and aromatic spices to the Lord; but they did not enter beyond the veil which is before the ark, into the Holy of Holies. From this it is clear that this altar was outside the veil; for into the Holy of Holies, only once a year, on the day of atonement, did the high priest enter with blood. Therefore the altar on which they offered incense was necessarily outside the veil. By these arguments he proves that the altar of incense was outside the veil. This altar was made of setim wood overlaid with gold, having equal length and width, that is one cubit each way, square, and two cubits in height. It had horns proceeding from itself, which indeed together with its walls and the grate itself were overlaid with the purest gold. The small golden crown which it had all around was, as some think, a small projection around its circumference; under which on each side there was a golden ring, so that with two poles of gilded setim wood passed through them, the altar could be carried. Therefore concerning these three things which were outside the veil, I have disclosed my ignorance. But let us now hear the wise judgment of the Venerable Bede on these matters.

Chapter XVIII: On the Preceding Chapter, the Words of the Venerable Bede the Priest

Within the veil was placed the ark of the covenant, and facing the ark outside the veil the altar of incense. Likewise in the middle of the sanctuary itself, the lampstand was on the southern side; the table stood on the northern. The ark was made of setim wood. Its length was two and a half cubits; its height one and a half cubits; and its width one and a half cubits. Some are accustomed to ask how large the cubit should be estimated which Moses set, whether in Noah's ark or in the making of the tabernacle. But if we look at Josephus's words, the question will be easily resolved. For it is not to be doubted that a Jewish man, of priestly lineage, of the most excellent intellect, could in any way have been ignorant of this. He says therefore: The ark was made five palms in length, three in width. Whence it is plainly evident that he designates the cubit which two palms complete. And whoever measures something by the palm extends the hand with fingers spread to the greatest effort, so that he may hold the measure he is measuring plainly and without any scruple of doubt. The ark is overlaid inside and out with the purest gold, and a golden crown is commanded to be placed around it. The ark has four corners: and two rings are on one side, and two on the other. The poles by which the ark is carried are commanded to be always in the rings. If you wish to know what this testimony is which Moses received from the Lord to be placed in the ark, hear the Apostle. After the second veil, he says, is the tabernacle which is called the Holy of Holies, having a golden censer and the ark of the covenant covered on every side with gold; in which was a golden urn containing manna, and the rod of Aaron which had budded, and the tablets of the covenant (Heb. 9:3-4). Josephus relates that the tablets of the covenant were inscribed with the Decalogue of the law in such a way that each tablet contained five words. It is commonly asked what he means by the mercy seat with which the ark is to be covered. But since he commands it to be made of gold, and of as great a length and width as he had commanded the ark to be made: it is certain, beyond doubt, that he wished a plate to be made large enough to cover the ark.

You shall also make two golden cherubim, of hammered work, on each side of the oracle (Exod. 25:18). In the singular indeed it is "cherub"; in the plural "cherubin," and it is a noun of masculine gender. But Greek custom placed "cherubin" in the neuter gender, changing the letter M to N. But our translator, following the Hebrew idiom, put it in the masculine gender: "two golden cherubim, of hammered work you shall make," not "two golden cherubin, hammered"; which I believe was corrupted in his translation through the carelessness of scribes, so that "cherubin" was written in the manner of the ancients instead of "cherubim." The cherubin look at each other, and turn their faces toward the mercy seat. From above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubin, the Lord speaks to Moses all things which he commands through him for the children of Israel.

The table is made of setim wood, whose length is two cubits, and it has one cubit in width; its height is one and a half cubits. The table of the tabernacle is overlaid with the purest gold, and a golden rim is made around the table, and a golden crown four fingers high is placed upon the golden rim of the table. The table has four feet, and under the crown there were rings, through which rings poles are to be passed for carrying the table. The bread of the Presence is always placed upon the table: concerning which bread, in Leviticus more fully, how many and of what kind they were to be made, and how they were to be arranged, is told when the Lord says to Moses: You shall also take fine flour, and bake from it twelve loaves, each of which shall have two-tenths. You shall set six of them on each side upon the most pure table before the Lord, and you shall place upon them the purest frankincense: that the bread may be a memorial of the offering of the Lord. On each Sabbath they shall be changed before the Lord, received from the children of Israel by an everlasting covenant; and they shall belong to Aaron and his sons, that they may eat them in the holy place (Lev. 24:2, 5, 9). And so it happens that the table of the Lord never remains without bread; but as soon as one is removed, another is substituted in its place. What is written in the book of Kings — that David entered the tabernacle and received the holy bread from the priests (I Kings 21:6) — took place on a Sabbath morning. For he came to the tabernacle at that hour when the loaves of the preceding week had been removed from the Lord's table, so that new loaves, which had been baked the day before, might be set out; and thus he received the bread, so that not even for a moment would the Lord's table remain without bread. The loaves were baked in the morning before the Sabbath, as Josephus writes: and on Sabbath morning, having been offered, six were placed on the sacred table, facing each other, with two golden dishes full of frankincense placed beneath them: and they remained until the next Sabbath, and then others were brought in their place: and when the frankincense was burned on the sacred fire in which all holocausts were made, other frankincense was placed upon the other loaves.

The lampstand of the tabernacle, like the table, is before the veil within which the ark of the Covenant is placed, and three branches go out from one side of the shaft, and three from the other. The branches therefore go out from the shaft at different points, yet all of them, each in its own place and order, bending upward, reach one summit, so that they may maintain an equal position of the lamps above them. The first branch had three cups, knobs, and lilies. The second branch likewise had three cups, knobs, and lilies. The third branch similarly had three cups, three knobs, and three lilies. Likewise from the other side of the shaft, the first, second, and third branches had three cups, knobs, and three lilies. On each branch therefore there were three cups, knobs, and lilies. On the lampstand itself four cups were made: with each cup knobs and lilies together were fashioned, and they are commanded to be not above the branches but below the branches. The fourth cup, however, with its knob and lily, was above all the branches near the top of the lampstand; and this cup with its knob and lily rose higher than the branches. The entire work of the lampstand — both the middle stem and the branches proceeding from it, with all its ornamentation — was of gold, and that same gold was hammered work. Seven lamps are placed on the lampstand, and they shone from the opposite side and illuminated the tabernacle of the Lord. Snuffers, and vessels so that what is snuffed out may be extinguished, are made of the purest gold. The entire work of the lampstand with all its vessels is shown to have a talent of the purest gold. A talent is a full and perfect weight. The altar of incense is clothed with the purest gold, and both the grate of the altar and the walls and horns are commanded to be covered with gold. The grate indeed was inside, in the middle of the altar, prepared for receiving the incense. The walls were visible on the outside, and the horns themselves, visible on the outside, rose higher with a special peak. And a golden crown is made around the altar; and it is encircled with rings on each side: and the altar stands before the veil which is hung before the ark.

Chapter XIX: On the Altar of Burnt Offering and the Bronze Laver; On the Courts of the Tabernacle and the Hangings of the Courts; On the Columns of the Hangings and the Bases of the Columns

The Lord said to Moses: You shall make an altar of setim wood, which shall have five cubits in length and the same in width, and three cubits in height. There shall be horns at the four corners, and you shall cover it with bronze. You shall make for its use pots for receiving ashes, and tongs, and flesh-hooks, and fire-pans. All vessels you shall make of bronze; also a grating in the form of a bronze net, at whose four corners there shall be four bronze rings, which you shall place upon the ledge of the altar, and the grating shall reach to the middle of the altar. You shall also make two poles for the altar of setim wood, which you shall cover with plates of bronze; and you shall pass them through the rings, and they shall be on each side of the altar for carrying. You shall make it not solid, but hollow and empty within, just as it was shown to you on the mountain (Exod. 27:1-8).

You shall also make a bronze laver with its base for washing, and you shall place it between the tabernacle of the testimony and the altar; and water having been poured in, Aaron and his sons shall wash their hands and feet in it, when they are about to enter the tabernacle of the testimony, and when they are about to approach the altar, to offer incense upon it to the Lord, lest they die (Exod. 30:18-21).

You shall also make a court for the tabernacle, on whose southern side toward the south there shall be hangings of fine twisted linen. One side shall hold one hundred cubits in length; and twenty columns with the same number of bronze bases, which shall have silver capitals with their engravings. Similarly on the northern side along its length there shall be hangings of one hundred cubits; twenty columns, and bronze bases of the same number, and their capitals with their engravings shall be silver. In the width of the court which looks toward the west, there shall be hangings of fifty cubits, and ten columns, and the same number of bases. In that width of the court also which faces the east, there shall be fifty cubits, in which hangings of fifteen cubits shall be allocated to one side, with three columns and the same number of bases. And on the other side there shall be hangings extending fifteen cubits, three columns, and the same number of bases. At the entrance of the court there shall be a screen of twenty cubits, of hyacinth, and purple, and scarlet twice-dyed, and fine twisted linen, of embroidered work. It shall have four columns, with the same number of bases. All the columns of the court around shall be covered with silver plates, with silver capitals and bronze bases. In length the court shall occupy one hundred cubits, in width fifty. The height shall be five cubits. It shall be made of fine twisted linen, and shall have bronze bases. All the vessels of the tabernacle for every use and ceremony, both its pegs and those of the court, you shall make of bronze (Exod. 27:9-19).

Chapter XX: Also from the Book of Exodus on the Same Subject

He also made the altar of burnt offering of setim wood, five cubits square and three in height, whose horns proceeded from the corners, and he covered it with plates of bronze. And for its use he prepared various vessels: pots, tongs, flesh-hooks, hooks, and fire-pans. And he made its grating of bronze in the form of a net, and beneath it in the middle of the altar a ledge, having cast four bronze rings at the four corners of the grating, for inserting the poles for carrying; which he also made of setim wood and covered with plates of bronze, and passed them through the rings which projected from the sides of the altar. The altar itself was not solid, but hollow from its boards and empty within (Exod. 38:1-7).

He also made a bronze laver with its base from the mirrors of the women who kept watch at the door of the tabernacle. And the court, on whose southern side were hangings of fine twisted linen, of one hundred cubits; bronze columns with their bases, twenty, the capitals of the columns, and all the engraved work, silver. Equally on the northern side, the hangings, columns, bases, and capitals of the columns were of the same measure, workmanship, and metal. On that side which faces the west, there were hangings of fifty cubits, ten columns with their bronze bases: and the capitals of the columns and all the engraved work were silver. Toward the east he prepared hangings of fifty cubits, of which fifteen cubits with three columns and their bases occupied one side. And on the other side, because he made both sides as an entrance to the tabernacle, the hangings were equally of fifteen cubits, three columns, and the same number of bases. All the hangings of the court were woven of fine twisted linen. The bases of the columns were bronze, and their capitals with their engravings were silver. He also covered the columns of the court themselves with silver. And at its entrance he made its screen of embroidered work, of hyacinth, purple, vermilion, and fine twisted linen; which had twenty cubits in length. The height was five cubits, according to the measure which all the hangings of the court had. The columns at the entrance were four, with bronze bases, and their capitals and engravings were silver. He also made the pegs of the tabernacle and of the court all around of bronze (Exod. 38:8-20).

Chapter XXI: Literal Exposition upon This Chapter

Within the entrance of the court on the east was the altar of burnt offering, not however at the entrance itself, but as a certain learned man long before me wrote, toward the south, having five cubits in length and the same in width, that is, square, and three in height, made indeed of setim wood, covered with bronze, and having a grating in the form of a net of bronze: so that through its frequent openings, as the Venerable Bede says, the fire placed beneath might freely penetrate to consume all parts of the victims. For the aforesaid altar was hollow and empty within, having on each side a bronze ring, so that with two poles of setim wood, which were covered with bronze, passed through them on each side, it could be carried. Various vessels of bronze were made for its use: namely pots in which ashes could be received; tongs with which firebrands could be arranged under the altar in the fire; flesh-hooks, which in Greek are called "creagrae," with which cooked pieces of meat could be lifted; and fire-pans. Concerning these vessels and this altar, a certain writer, no less eloquent than devout, writes: You shall make for its use pots for receiving ashes, tongs, flesh-hooks, and fire-pans (Exod. 27:3). In the Hebrew it reads thus: You shall make its pots for receiving its ashes, and its shovels, and its basins, and its hooks, and its fire-pans. Shovels for lifting ashes, pots for receiving them, basins for pouring blood, hooks for lifting meat from cauldrons, fire-pans for carrying coals. It continues: "And a grating" — understood: you shall make for it — in the form of a bronze net, at whose four corners there shall be four bronze rings, which you shall place upon the ledge of the altar, and it shall reach to the middle of the altar (ibid., 4). Concerning this grating there is great ambiguity both among the Hebrews and among our own scholars: especially since the Hebrew text seems to differ somewhat from our translation. For it reads thus: You shall make for it a "Michar," a work of a bronze net, and you shall make upon the net four bronze rings at the four ends, or corners of it. And you shall place it, namely the Michar, or set it, namely the net, beneath the base of the altar underneath, and the net shall reach to the middle of the altar. According to this reading, therefore, "Michar" does not seem to mean a grating on which meats would be roasted: but a four-sided frame perforated on every side for lightness, made in the likeness of a vessel: in which the altar seems to sit, as it were, whose walls rising around the altar were raised to the middle of the altar, at whose four upper corners four rings hung, through which, with poles inserted, the altar resting upon it would be carried. For the altar is not read to have had any other rings by which it might be carried, except the rings of the net.

But whether this net was divided and separable from the altar on its own, and contained its own floor in the upper part of the altar, and thus enclosing the walls of the altar with its own walls: or whether it adhered at the bottom with the lower edge of the walls by cast work, and with some interval of width between its floor and the walls around it, so that at last its walls would be raised to the middle of the altar — this is not sufficiently clear, except that the following arrangement seems fitting. Some say that this altar had neither a top above nor a floor below; but that the walls merely placed were filled with earth, according to what it says: "you shall make me an altar of earth" (Exod. 20:24), and that fire was built on its upper surface, where the burnt offerings placed upon it were burned. There were also those who said that between the walls of the altar a grating was placed, raised to the middle of its height, and that under the grating itself a small hearth was formed, and on it fire was built, through a door opening in the eastern wall of the altar; and thus the meats placed upon the grating were burned within, with the smoke escaping through the open top of the altar. And lest any suspicion should arise about the wooden walls of the altar being consumed by the nearby fire, they asserted that the same wood was incombustible. But if this wood is to be thought such that it could not be corrupted at all by either water or fire, why bronze plates should have been needed on the outside is not apparent. Nor can it be sufficiently clear how the grating itself with its poles could be properly placed within, or how the altar could be carried with poles inserted through its rings, or how the rings of the grating could be placed beneath that interior hearth. The Jews, wherever we say "altar" (ara), say "area." What we call the bronze altar on account of the plates fixed to the boards, they call the walls of the area. They say that these walls, set in a square, were customarily filled to the top with earth; that on top of the clods enclosed by the aforesaid walls, wood was placed, upon which sacrifices were laid; and that the grating of both altars, whether golden or bronze, was a certain work full of holes on every side, which they call "Kias" after the likeness of those which are in the Church. These reached from the bottom of the altar, where it was joined to the ground, to its middle. These Kias had at their four upper corners four rings. These rings were placed upon the ledge of the altar. What we call the ledge, the Jews say was a small platform, or a certain groove in the middle of the walls of the altar, to which point the Kias of the altar reached. The rings of the grating were placed under this groove, because the grating reached to that point. With poles passed through these rings, the grating and the walls of the altar were carried together. It is credible that both altars were carried separately, and their gratings carried separately. This is what he writes concerning the altar of burnt offering and its grating.

Between this altar and the tabernacle there was also a bronze laver (Exod. 38:8). Concerning which I read both from what and for what purpose it was made; because it was made from the mirrors of the women who kept watch at the door of the tabernacle: and for this purpose, that with water poured into it, Aaron and his sons might wash their hands and feet in it, when they were about to enter the tabernacle. But it may be asked how it was made, how great its length, width, and depth were, what arrangement or form it had, what also its base was like and how large, and finally who those women were who kept watch at the door of the tabernacle, and what kind, how large, and what manner of mirrors they had, from which the aforesaid laver was made. And indeed it seems that it had to be of no small size, in which so many priests entering the tabernacle had to wash themselves: as many as served in the tabernacle. As for the women keeping watch at the door of the tabernacle, some understand them to be holy widows and holy virgins who had professed a vow of chastity; from whose great number of mirrors the bronze laver was fabricated. What kind, how large, or how many the mirrors were; what also was the form and arrangement of the laver itself, what its length, width, or even depth — the authority of sacred Scripture does not declare. The tabernacle itself was also surrounded on every side by courts, which were enclosed by hangings of fine linen. Of these hangings, both the southern and northern sides had one hundred cubits in length, and on each side they were hung from twenty columns on each side. On the western side also the hangings were of fifty cubits, hung from ten columns. And on the eastern side, on the right, the hangings were of fifteen cubits, hung from three columns; and on the left side, the same number of hangings were assigned to the same number of columns; and between both sides, in the middle, was a screen of twenty cubits, not indeed of fine linen alone like the other hangings, but rather woven of the four oft-mentioned colors; which hung before four columns, where the entrance also was. All these columns, which were sixty in number, had five cubits in height, made indeed of setim wood but covered with silver plates, having also silver capitals with engravings and bronze bases; and beside each base there were pegs, as Josephus says, of one cubit in size, by which the hangings were held and stretched below, while above they were inserted into rings and suspended. The lengths of these hangings, which were one hundred cubits, on the southern and northern sides simultaneously, exceeded the length of the tabernacle, which was only thirty cubits, by fifty cubits on the east and twenty on the west. And the widths of the hangings, which were fifty cubits, exceeded the width of the tabernacle, which was only ten cubits, by twenty cubits on each side in the eastern and western parts. So long therefore and so wide around the tabernacle were the aforesaid hangings, containing the tabernacle within them, facing west and having its entrance from the east: and before the entrance of the courts within, the bronze altar was set up, not at the entrance itself but apart toward the south, and between that altar and the entrance of the tabernacle was the bronze laver. Concerning these hangings and courts, and also concerning the altar and the laver, let this suffice that we have said in the present according to the literal sense.

Chapter XXII: On the Preceding Chapter, the Words of the Venerable Bede the Priest

The altar of burnt offering has five cubits of length and the same of width, and three of height, which is covered with bronze, and horns at its four corners. If anyone is puzzled, according to the literal sense, how the wood of the altar could remain unconsumed with so great a fire nearby, let him receive the blessed Jerome's answer to this question: The wood of the altar, he says, which is from the wood of paradise, is not consumed by nearby fire, but is rendered purer. Nor would I think this surprising about the sanctuary, the inner parts of the temple, and the altar of incense: since even "amyton," a kind of wood having the appearance of wood, the more it burns, the cleaner it is found. Various vessels of the altar — pots, tongs, and fire-pans — were commanded to be made. Pots receive the holy ashes. Tongs are to be believed to have been made for tending the fire of the altar. With tongs, that is with a double iron instrument, the priests cleaned the fire of the altar. Flesh-hooks, which in Greek are called "creagrae," were used in the service of the altar for this purpose: that the meat of the victims might be removed from the cauldrons through them, and brought to the eating of those who were to be refreshed by them. Fire-pans, moreover, were appointed for this: that through them the holy fire from the altar of burnt offering might be carried to the altar of incense, evening and morning, for placing the incense. All vessels are made of bronze. The altar was commanded to be made not solid but hollow and empty, so that it might have ample space to receive either the sacred fire, or wood for the fire, or the burnt offerings which were to be consumed by fire. But also in its middle a grating, distinguished throughout in the form of a net, on which the meat of victims to be burned would be placed; and beneath it a hearth, on which with wood arranged, fire would burn, always ready to devour the burnt offerings. For opposite the hearth there was a door in the eastern wall of the altar; whence wood could be put in for fuel, or coals and ashes could be removed. The grating was distinguished in the form of a net, so that through its frequent openings the fire placed beneath might freely penetrate to consume all parts of the victims. Four bronze rings are commanded to be made at the four corners of the altar, and two poles: so that they may carry the altar by the rings: the altar of burnt offering stood outside before the entrance.

The bronze laver was placed between this altar and the tabernacle: because twice daily those same priests, that is morning and evening, when they entered to offer incense to the Lord at the altar, were commanded to wash in it. For no one of the common people was to wash there; but the high priest himself was commanded, and his sons, namely priests of the lower rank.

And surrounding all, there was the court of the tabernacle, having one hundred cubits in length, fifty in width. The western side of the court had hangings of fifty cubits and ten columns, and the width of the eastern court was fifty cubits; and anyone about to enter the court of the tabernacle has on each side hangings of fifteen cubits, hung from three columns each: and these hangings were of fine twisted linen. At the entrance of the court, a screen of twenty cubits is hung on four columns; because this screen at the entrance of the court is not, as in the rest of the court, of fine twisted linen; but is made of four colors, namely hyacinth, and purple, and scarlet twice-dyed, and fine twisted linen, with embroidered work. The whole length and width of the court, which extends one hundred and fifty cubits, has five cubits in height. All the vessels of the sacred tabernacle are commanded to be of bronze. The pegs of the tabernacle, or of the court, were made for this purpose: that, fixed into the tops of the columns, they might project outward; and with the ropes of the curtains or tent-coverings placed upon them, they might thus raise them from the ground and suspend them. The tent-coverings themselves, or veils, in order to receive ropes, necessarily had loops or rings at their upper parts, through which the same ropes would be passed. Ropes of the tent-coverings are placed on the pegs of the columns, so that thus stretched out and raised on high they might complete the beauty of the tabernacle, and the veils or tent-coverings, stretched by ropes and raised up, might display far and wide the marvelous beauty of their workmanship, which they could not show when folded up.

Chapter XXIII: On the Twelve Tribes That Encamped around the Tabernacle, and on the Levites Who Carried the Tabernacle

In this manner, then, with the tabernacle and all things pertaining to it having been made and arranged, the children of Israel pitched their camps around it. To the east, these three tribes pitched camp: Judah, Issachar, Zebulun; whose number from twenty years and above was one hundred eighty-six thousand four hundred. To the south, Reuben, Simeon, and Gad pitched camp; whose number was one hundred fifty thousand, and one thousand four hundred fifty. To the west, Ephraim, Manasseh, and Benjamin pitched their tents; whose number was one hundred eight thousand one hundred. To the north, Dan, Asher, and Naphtali set up camp; whose number was one hundred fifty-seven thousand six hundred. The total of all who were numbered from twenty years and above was six hundred three thousand five hundred fifty. Between these twelve tribes and the tabernacle, the Levites pitched their tents all around, keeping watch over the tabernacle. Read the book of Numbers (Num. 1:35). To the east were Moses, Aaron, and their sons, keeping guard over the sanctuary. To the south were the sons of Kohath: whose number from one month and above was eight thousand six hundred; and from thirty years and above, up to the fiftieth year, two thousand seven hundred fifty. These, when the camp moved, carried the holy and precious things that were in the tabernacle on their own shoulders by means of carrying-poles: the ark, the mercy seat, the table with its censers, mortars, bowls, and cups, the lampstand with its lamps, tongs, snuffers, and all the vessels of oil; the golden altar with all the vessels used in the sanctuary; the altar of burnt offering with its vessels, namely fire-pans, forks, tridents, hooks, and shovels. These indeed were the burdens of the sons of Kohath (Num. 4:15); but the things that were within the sanctuary, Aaron and his sons would first wrap them, and then commit them wrapped to the Kohathites to carry. To the west were the sons of Gershon: whose number from one month and above was seven thousand five hundred; and from thirty years and above, up to the fiftieth year, two thousand six hundred thirty. These carried the curtains, and the goat-hair coverings, the tent-covering made of red-dyed ram skins, and the other covering of blue-dyed skins, and the screen at the entrance of the tabernacle, and the hangings of the court, and the curtain hanging at its entrance. They also had for carrying these things two covered wagons with four oxen. Read the book of Numbers (Num. 4:3, 7). To the north were the sons of Merari, whose number from one month and above was six thousand two hundred; and from thirty years up to the fiftieth year, three thousand two hundred. These carried the boards of the tabernacle, and their bases, and the bars, as well as the columns of the court before the Holy of Holies, and those at the entrance of the tabernacle, with their bases, the columns of the court as well, and their bases, and the pegs. And because their burdens were very great, they had for carrying them four covered wagons with eight oxen. Therefore the total of the sons of Levi, who pitched their tents around the tabernacle, from one month and above, was twenty-two thousand: and from thirty years and above up to the fiftieth year, those who entered to stand and minister in the tabernacle, eight thousand five hundred eighty.

Chapter XXIV: On the Arrangement of the Tabernacle and Its Erection

As we read in the book of Numbers (Num. 9:16), a column always hung over the aforesaid tabernacle; by day a column of cloud, and by night a column of fire. As long as the column remained motionless, the children of Israel remained in camp. But when the cloud moved and left the tabernacle, with the Levites standing at the door of the tabernacle and sounding two silver trumpets with short blasts, the Levites would dismantle the tabernacle, and each one taking what was assigned to them, and placing on their shoulders what could only be carried on shoulders, and loading onto wagons what could be carried on wagons; with the remaining tribes likewise taking their tents and all their belongings, they all set out following the cloud. And they marched in fitting and orderly fashion. First, as it seems to me, those three tribes that were to the east: Judah, Issachar, Zebulun; and after them those to the south: Reuben, Simeon, Gad; and then those to the west: Manasseh, Ephraim, and Benjamin; and last those to the north: Dan, Asher, Naphtali. And they marched as long as the cloud went before them. But where the cloud came to rest, there, having set down their burdens, under the cloud itself as I suppose, they would again erect the tabernacle around it, and the Levites and the other tribes would pitch their tents as was fitting for each. And with everything arranged as customary, they remained in the same place until again, with the cloud leaving the tabernacle, it being again dismantled and carried with them in the manner we have described, they followed the cloud that led them. And this is how, in this manner during those forty years in which they were in the desert, they changed places and encampments, which from the departure from Egypt up to the entrance into the land of Canaan numbered forty-two, until they arrived at the land of promise, where they no longer carried the tabernacle from place to place.

Chapter XXV: A Repetition of All the Foregoing, with Some Additions and Some Things Stated Differently

It pleases us to repeat these things from the very beginning, even in the words of others, so that while we set before our hungry reader certain diverse and seemingly contradictory things, we may refresh the palate of his understanding by the very variety of courses. A certain eloquent man writes, a teacher of admirable knowledge among other teachers, in this way about the walls, the boards and bases, the bars and rings: The Lord said to Moses: Take offerings, that is, precious things from the people of Israel; but only from him who offers willingly; gold, silver, and bronze, blue and purple, and scarlet twice-dyed, that is, silk of blue, purple, and scarlet color; and fine linen, which is a kind of Egyptian linen, soft and white; also goats' hair, and red-dyed rams' skins, which we call Parthian, because the Parthians used to dye them thus; and blue-dyed skins, and acacia wood. Acacia is the name of a mountain, a region, and a tree, which is similar to white thorn in its leaves and is a very light wood, imperishable and incombustible. Also oil for preparing the lamps; spices for ointments and incense of sweet odor, and onyx stones and gems, that they may make me a sanctuary: that I may dwell in their midst, so that they need not return to this mountain, according to the likeness of the tabernacle which I shall show you, you shall make it. The tabernacle was a house dedicated to God, square and oblong; enclosed by three walls, northern, southern, and western. The entrance lay open from the east, so that when the sun rose, its rays might illuminate it. The length was thirty cubits, the width ten, the height ten. On the southern side there were twenty boards of acacia wood standing, each having ten cubits in length, four fingers in thickness, and a cubit and a half in width. They were joined to each other by mortise-joints, so that there would be no crack, nor the surface of the wall uneven; and they were overlaid with gold on both sides: each placed upon two perforated silver bases, into whose openings golden tenons were inserted. At each corner of the tabernacle the boards projected, as is customary in chests. Augustine, however, seems to hold that one base was under the board and another above as an architrave. But the text is clear, which says: Two bases shall be placed under each board at its two corners (Exod. 26:19). Whether the boards were suspended above the ground upon the bases, or reached down to the ground between the bases, is not recorded. The northern wall was made in the same pattern. To the west, there were six boards, in all respects similar to the others, and standing in the same manner on bases. But since they filled only nine cubits, half a cubit on each side was left empty; and therefore a board one cubit wide was cut in half; and two half-cubit boards were made, which, placed on either side, joined the western wall together with the other two, and these also were each set into two bases. Lest the walls be shaken by the force of winds or any other cause, or collapse together, each board had golden rings fastened in order as if by certain roots; through which bars passed crosswise through the wall and held the boards firmly together.

The bars were of acacia wood overlaid with gold, each five cubits long, and the end of one bar was inserted into the end of another in the manner of a screw-joint, so that from many thus linked together it appeared as though one bar of immense length; just as is customary with the ivory staff of the pontifical sambuca. This would be plain enough, had not the Lord added that there should be five bars on the northern side, and the same number on the south, and the same on the west, which seems less fitting. For since each bar was five cubits long, five extended along one side would span only twenty-five cubits; and so five cubits of that side remained untouched. On the western side, two alone would have sufficed. Some say that of the three superfluous bars, one was added on the south, and thus what was lacking was filled: the third was cut in two, and these were placed at the two corners of the walls, so that bent around they might bind together the joints of the corners, just as corner joints in chests are bound with beams; but this cannot be deduced from the text. Since therefore the text states that five bars are to be inserted through the middle of the boards from top to top, it is clearly to be understood of the height of the wall. There was therefore near the highest point of the wall one row of bars extending along the entire wall lengthwise, and near the lower point another row in the same manner, and in the middle surface three rows: so that the statement about five bars on one side refers rather to the number of rows than of individual bars. There were therefore five rings in each board, and in each of the two walls thirty bars, because each of the five rows had six bars. On the western side there were ten bars, two per row. Some say that not all the bars were of the same size: but each bar, except the five on the large sides, was six cubits long: and thus five sufficed to span thirty cubits; and the five bars on the west were each two cubits long; but Josephus, speaking of these bars, says: each having a length of five cubits.

He also writes in this manner about the two veils, of which one was at the entrance of the tabernacle, and the other divided the Holy of Holies from the Holy Place, and about the columns of each. This tabernacle was divided into two parts. The rear part extended ten cubits toward the west, and was thus square; namely ten cubits in length, width, and height. This part was called the court, or the Holy of the Holy, or the Sanctuary of the sanctuary, or the Holy of Holies. The front part extended twenty cubits toward the east, which was granted only to priests: and this was called the Holy, or the Holy Place, or the Sanctuary. In relation to this, the rear part was called the Holy of the Holy, that is, Holier than the Holy; as one says Lord of lords, and King of kings. To separate these two parts, four columns of gold-plated acacia wood were placed in the middle, having golden capitals and silver bases. However, Josephus says there were four boards worked in the manner of the others, equally spaced from one another, between which three narrow passages lay open. Above the capitals of the columns two bars of ten cubits were placed, extending from wall to wall. From these, inserted through golden rings, hung a veil, stretched before the four columns, square on every side, namely ten cubits, so that it blocked the view of the interior from every direction. The veil was made of twisted fine linen, which is the whitest and softest kind of linen, and of blue, purple, and scarlet twice-dyed, that is of silk threads of blue, purple, and scarlet color, composed in embroidered work, that is needle-work; for "pluma" in a certain language means "needle." This kind of veil is commonly called "bistratum," as if "twice layered." For first the fabric is woven, upon which many pictures are then sewn by hand-work. Some say the embroidered work takes its name from the likeness of birds, to which the variety of plumage has been added. The same work is also called polymitum from "poly" meaning "many," for the multitude of pictures. This veil was woven with beautiful variety from all the flowers, as Josephus says, that the earth produces, and other pictures that painters could interweave, apart from the forms of animals. At the entrance of the tabernacle there were five columns of gold-plated acacia wood, having golden capitals but bronze bases, over which two bars, or one of ten cubits, extended from wall to wall, inserted at each end into its wall in the manner of a beam in a house. From this hung another veil, inserted through golden rings, worked in the manner of the first; but according to Josephus it hung down to the middle of the columns, covering them for five cubits: for the remaining space down to the ground was open for the entry of priests. Above this he says there was another woolen curtain superimposed, reaching to the ground, with cords running through rings to draw it and pull it back; so that on feast days, when drawn back, it would afford a view of the tabernacle; on other days, when drawn over, it would prevent the view, especially when it appeared cloudy. For the weave was strong and easily withstood wear: He says a similar one was hung at the entrance of the temple as well.

In the inner sanctuary there was the ark with the things we said were placed in it, and with those that were set upon it. In the front part the lampstand was to the south, the table to the north; in the middle the veil; not far from the entrance the golden altar, which Josephus calls the golden censer, about which more is said later. He also writes thus about the curtains, the goat-hair coverings, and the two coverings of the roof. The roof of the tabernacle was not peaked but flat in the manner of Palestinian houses, fitted with four coverings. The first covering consisted of ten curtains, which are also called veils, or tent-coverings, or sometimes the tabernacle: these were made of the four aforesaid colors in embroidered work. The length of each curtain was twenty-eight cubits, the width four: of which five were joined to one another, and five likewise; so that two curtains, as it were, were produced from five joined together. They were joined by blue loops, arranged on each side of the curtains, one coming around the other, and pairs were fastened with a golden ring, just as golden or silver brooches at the neck usually fasten both edges of a hood together. Josephus says, however, that they were joined with golden rings and hooks. The second covering consisted of cilician goat-hair cloths, which are also sometimes called hair-veils. They were made from goats' hair, which we sometimes call "capillos" to distinguish it from sheep's wool, from which also cilices were made. Hence those coverings were called cilician, and because of their roughness they were called "saga." Hence we call certain rough cloths "sagios," or perhaps "saga" is derived from their square shape. Hence also the military cloak invented by the Gauls, because it was square, was called a "sagum"; which however, being made of rough cloth against inclement weather, could be called a "sagum." These goat-hair cloths were eleven in number; the length of one had thirty cubits, the width four, and five were joined together to make as it were one cloth; and the other six likewise joined into one cloth. They were joined with bronze rings inserted into loops coming around each other. Whether the individual curtains or goat-hair coverings were coupled to one another in that way: or whether five curtains sewn together with thread inseparably into one curtain, and another five likewise, and to cover the tabernacle these two great curtains were joined only by rings and loops, is not clear. Let us see how the rear of the tabernacle was covered by these.

According to Bede, the ten curtains coupled together were stretched crosswise covering the entire tabernacle, and descending along the sides, they stood one cubit from the ground on every side; and since joined together they filled forty cubits, they covered the length of the tabernacle which was thirty cubits: and five cubits hung down beside the western side, and another five descended before the opening on the east; yet lest they hang in disorder, on both sides the curtains passing beyond the two long sides of the tabernacle reached to the middle of the opening, were drawn together and joined to one another. And likewise on the western side: on every side the tabernacle was covered with curtains, with only one cubit near the ground on every side left uncovered. The goat-hair coverings were placed similarly crosswise: but because they were thirty cubits long, they descended along the sides to the ground: and thus they covered the cubit not veiled by the curtains. And since crosswise they had forty-four cubits, being eleven joined together, each being four cubits wide, they covered the thirty cubits of the tabernacle's length; of the fourteen remaining, seven descended on the east, and seven on the west. The parts of the goat-hair coverings that remained, hanging along the two long sides down to the ground, were brought back from each side to cover the eastern entrance. But since seven cubits came from each side, while the entrance space was only ten, covering was doubled over covering: or perhaps at the top of each, two cubits were folded back and sewn like the hems of a garment, and then the coverings coming equally from the sides were coupled in the middle of the entrance at the same place as the curtains. And likewise on the western side, because of this overlaying or folding of the goat-hair coverings, Bede says that the Lord first said to Moses: You shall double the sixth covering at the front of the roof (Exod. 26:9), that is, you shall fold the half covering that exceeds the curtains at the entrance: and more plainly he added, what remains of the goat-hair coverings, that is one covering which is extra, from its half, you shall cover the back of the tabernacle, that is the western side. They were doubled so that they could withstand the force of the winds, and according to this arrangement, the tabernacle was covered on every side with goat-hair coverings down to the ground, and nothing of it was visible, and the precious tent-screen at the entrance was hidden there; and when the priests entered the tabernacle, it was either necessary to lift the coverings and curtains to enter underneath, or if they were joined in the middle, they were unfastened at their entrance by hooks and rings. There is another arrangement by Josephus, with which Origen agrees, and it seems more probable: For he says that the ten curtains, joined to each other as has been said, were stretched crosswise from the front of the tabernacle over the entrance, and covered the entire tabernacle, and descended beside the western side to the ground; but the entrance was not covered by any part of the curtains, since it had its own veil. Likewise concerning the goat-hair coverings, he says the entire tabernacle was covered except the entrance; but because two cubits of goat-hair coverings extend beyond the curtains on each side, he says they were folded under the curtain, lest wind entering between the coverings and curtains shake the entire covering, for which reason he thinks it was said: You shall double the sixth covering at the front of the roof. But even according to this arrangement, the beautiful and most precious outer part of the tabernacle was not visible, nor were the curtains that flowed around the tabernacle. The work of such great effort therefore seemed in vain: wherefore perhaps on every side the curtains and coverings were stretched out with ropes around the tabernacle, and fastened with bronze pegs and ropes (Exod. 28:20); because Moses says below that the tabernacle had pegs, and in the manner of a hanging roof they were raised up all around, so that the tabernacle could be seen from every side, and one could walk around under the curtains. However these two coverings may have been arranged, about the remaining two there is no question. The third covering was indeed of red-dyed ram skins, which covering only the top, did not descend to the sides, fastened all around with ropes and bronze pegs fixed to the ground. The fourth covering was likewise placed on top of blue-dyed ram skins; these two were placed on top to protect against heat and the pouring of rain. Great amazement, as Josephus says, seized those looking from afar; for they thought its color in no way differed from the sky.

About the ark he writes thus, and about the mercy seat, and about those things that were with them within the veil. The length, he says, of the ark had two cubits and a half: the width likewise a cubit and a half. Josephus calls the cubit here a palm; and the ark is said not to have had feet, and to have been overlaid within and without with the purest gold. And above was made a golden crown in the manner of a rim, as is customary on tables and chess-boards; and along each side of its length were two golden rings, penetrating through the entire wood, and through them bars of gold-plated acacia wood were inserted, by which the ark was carried: and they were never removed: in which was placed the testimony: that is, the tablets on which the covenant was written, inasmuch as the testimonies deposited there can be so called. There was placed in it a golden urn full of manna, as a testimony that God had given them bread from heaven. The tablets as testimony that he had awakened in writing the natural law that had been dormant in their hearts. The rod of Aaron, as testimony that all power is from the Lord God. Deuteronomy as testimony of the covenant they had declared: All that God has said to us, we will do. For this reason it was called the ark of the covenant, or of testimony, and for this reason also the tabernacle, or testimony was so called: and also because legal cases were conducted before its doors. Above the ark was also made a golden mercy seat: that is, a golden plate of the same length and width as the ark, so that it could cover it: of its thickness nothing is recorded. This was called the oracle, because God gave responses from this place. For a divine response is called an oracle; because it is given to those who pray. It was also called the mercy seat; because the Lord speaking from there was merciful to the people: or because on the day of atonement they said the glory of the Lord always descended there. On each side of the oracle, namely at the two front corners, were placed two golden cherubim, hammered out, not cast, but produced by the blows of hammers. They are, as Josephus says, winged creatures having a form that has been seen by no human being. Moses said that he saw these figured on God's throne. One cherub faced the other; yet with their faces turned toward the mercy seat: and with two wings spread out and touching each other they veiled the oracle, while they stretched out their other wings on the opposite side.

About the table and its vessels he writes in this manner: The Lord said to Moses: You shall also make a table of acacia wood, having two cubits in length, a cubit in width, and a cubit and a half in height. He is silent about the thickness: And you shall overlay it on every side with the purest gold (Exod. 25:23). As Josephus says, this table was close in style to a Delphic table, having four legs, which are called its height. From the middle of the lower part they were round and turned on a lathe, while the upper part of the work was rectangular. In each leg there was a golden ring, and there was a groove in the leg where the ring was set. In the rings were gilded bars, by which the table was carried; there was also a rim around it as on the ark; and attached to the rim was a golden crown, four fingers high: so that half of it projected above the table, lest things placed on it fall off. The other half hung below for beauty, and this crown was openwork: that is, alternating between engraved work and flat surface. As the Hebrews say, those engravings were like images of kings, and prophetic: as many images were made there as there would be kings in Jerusalem from David to Zedekiah: yet Josephus seems to hold that there was no other rim on it than this openwork crown, that is, a latticed one. Above this was placed another crown, smaller than that one, but how large and in what manner it was placed, and whether flat or openwork, we do not know; it is simply called the little crown. The Hebrews say this too was added prophetically, to prefigure the division of the kingdom into two kingdoms. For the kingdom of Israel was more populous than the kingdom of Judah; but nevertheless less worthy, and therefore the little crown was placed above, and yet was smaller. This table was placed in the tabernacle to the north, not far from the entrance, and upon it were placed twelve unleavened loaves of the finest pure flour, and they were arranged six on each side, and each consisted of two-tenths of an ephah, which Josephus calls two assarii; and a golden plate was placed on each, and upon the plate a handful of incense. Josephus says golden bowls full of incense were placed on them. At dawn on the Sabbath, fresh and warm ones were placed on the table, and they remained there unmoved until the following Sabbath; then those were removed; and with all the incense burned upon the altar, new ones with other incense were substituted: the removed ones only the priests ate; hence they were called priestly loaves, or also for this reason: because, as Josephus says, God had commanded that only the priests should form and bake those loaves; and place them on the table and remove them; yet they did not observe this. They were called the loaves of proposition, because they were set forth before the Lord as an eternal memorial of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel: or "set forward," that is, placed for a long time; or through the whole week, or to be placed forever in succession.

God also commanded that four kinds of vessels be prepared from the purest gold, for offering libations, which were given by the offerers to the priest to taste, and by the priests to be poured out to the Lord; and they were placed upon the table: namely bowls, phials, censers, and cups. In these the wine that was to be offered was examined and pre-tasted, whether it was worthy to be offered or not. But since wine is recognized by its color and taste, it is said that the phials were glass. Hence from "phialim," which in Greek means glass, they were so called: narrow at the bottom, wide at the top, in which color and taste could be discerned, which the Hebrews call dishes. The cups were smaller and narrower, and golden, with which wine was poured upon the altar as a libation for the sacrifice. In the censers, which were also called mortars, incense was examined and offered: likewise vinegar in the vinegar-bowls. But since oblation of vinegar never or rarely occurs, some say "acceptabula" (vessels of acceptance); where, namely, what was to be offered was examined by the priests, whether it was acceptable, that is, suitable, or not. Then he subdivides the acceptabula into three: phials, for wine; censers, for incense, fine flour, grain, and salt; and cups, for oil. For the priests first took small portions of what was to be offered, which they placed in vessels of this kind for pre-tasting, as it were sampling from each, which Moses called the libations to be offered, that is, to be taken from the offerings.

He also writes about the lampstand in this manner. God also commanded that a lampstand be made of the purest gold, hammered work. Josephus however says it was cast, whose shaft was fixed in a base, and was of iron, overlaid with five jointed golden tubes in the manner of a reed; and the five heads of the tubes were joined to each other. The heads had swellings: and were joined to one another in the form of a cup, which we call a goblet, like two cups in the shape of a nut: and from the bottom of each cup proceeded curved flowers, like lilies; and in the very bottom between the cup and the lilies was a revolving sphere, just as revolving spheres are found beneath the heads of chairs: and so when five tubes were coupled in this manner on the shaft, there were four joints, each of which had cups, as it were two joined together, and spheres as well, and lilies. And this is what Moses says, that there were four cups on the shaft in the shape of a nut; yet the Hebrew text does not say cups, but says nielloed roundnesses, that is, decorated with niello. From this shaft there proceeded from the sides three arms on one side and three on the other, of iron, each of which was overlaid with golden tubes in the manner of the shaft, and at the joints the heads of the tubes met, like cups in the shape of a nut with spheres and lilies. And because Moses says there were three cups in each one, it appears that each had four tubes: yet to some it seems the spheres were not at the bottom of the cups, as has been said, but in the middle surface of each tube a revolving sphere was placed on top. Thus the lampstand was made of iron overlaid with golden tubes, if it was cast; but if it was hammered, it was simply of gold, and produced in this form by hammers with marvelous craftsmanship. It was, as Josephus says, composed of seventy parts, erected on a single base. Thus on the shaft and arms there were thirty-nine tubes: not complete, but made of two parts. In the middle, where the parts were joined, a sphere was placed on top so that the joint would not be visible and it would appear to be one tube: and so there were fifty-eight tubes, with as many spheres; five parts in the base, seven lamp-holders. However it was made, at the top it had seven equal heads, upon which seven golden lamps were placed. There were also seven golden oil-pourers, with which oil was poured into the lamps. The Lord also commanded that the purest olive oil, beaten with a pestle, be offered by the children of Israel. For this is purer than nut oil, linseed oil, myrrh oil, or radish oil: so that a lamp might always burn from it in the tabernacle of testimony, which Aaron and his sons lit in the evening; and until morning seven lamps shone upon the lampstand before the Lord; but during the day only three. The wick of the lamp was of papyrus. The lamp-holder, which we called a lamp, was golden. There were also golden tongs for trimming or extinguishing the wicks; and small golden vessels for quenching in water what was trimmed off, lest they give off a foul odor. Its entire weight, with its vessels, amounted to a talent of gold by the weight of the sanctuary. For they had three talents. The lesser was fifty pounds, which belonged to merchants. The middle was seventy, which belonged to citizens. The greatest was one hundred twenty, which belonged to the sanctuary. Yet Josephus says it weighed a hundred minas, which the Hebrews call "cinthares," translated into Greek is called a talent. It was placed to the south opposite the table, not directly, but obliquely.

He also writes thus about the altar of incense. This altar was made of acacia wood, having a cubit in length and another in width, that is, square, and two cubits in height; and it was covered with the purest gold, having horns, and a golden grating, and chains, and rings, and golden bars like the previous one. Whether it had a fire-pan, or the earth received the ashes, is uncertain. Josephus adds: and at each corner it had six crowns of the purest gold, which was perhaps said individually in Exodus: You shall make a golden crown around it (Exod. 30:3). This altar was called the altar of incense, or of thymiama; because every day morning and evening, to consume the perpetual sacrifice, incense was burned upon that altar, offered to the Lord; yet there were those who said that in the morning only incense, that is frankincense, was placed upon it: in the evening, for the dignity of the evening sacrifice, thymiama. Moreover, whether this altar was within the Holy of Holies, or in the sanctuary with the lampstand and the table, the holy Fathers seem to have doubted. Nor should it be thought that doubt arose over whether it was in the sanctuary, since the Hebrews say this, and Josephus more clearly, and the original proportions of the tabernacle made by Moses suggest it: except that Paul in Hebrews places the golden censer within the Holy of Holies (Heb. 9:3). It could well have been that in the temple, where everything was enlarged and multiplied, besides the golden altar which was outside the veil, to which it was necessary to go twice a day, there was an additional censer in the secret place, in which the high priest would burn coals and incense that he carried with him, when it happened that he penetrated to the inner parts.

About the courts he writes in this manner. There was a court around the tabernacle, on the southern side one hundred cubits; and on the northern one hundred; on the eastern fifty, and the same on the western; and so it was square; but in a form with one side longer. On the southern side there were twenty columns, five cubits high, having silver capitals with engravings, with bronze bases, spaced five cubits apart from each other, upon which individual rings were set; and ropes extended from the rings to the tops of pegs, which were a cubit in size, and firmly fixed in the ground by each column, to keep the court immovable. A curtain of the softest fine linen, one hundred cubits in length and five in height, hung from the columns, spread from top to base, so that it seemed no different from a wall, unless perhaps in bad weather it was drawn back with ropes and pegs behind it, so that under it, as under a roof, the people might be sheltered. In the same manner the northern side had twenty columns and a curtain spread out. From the west ten columns and a curtain of fifty cubits enclosed the court. At the entrance to the east three columns stood on each side, and curtains spread beside them, not differing from the previous ones. In the middle of that side there were four columns in the manner of gates, from which hung a veil, woven of the four precious colors in embroidered work, which could easily be raised and lowered for entry or exit. It should be noted, however, that on the longer sides there were twenty-one columns, between which were twenty openings totaling one hundred cubits, and on the two shorter sides nine; but because of the corner columns, which were common to two sides, twenty are counted on the long sides, and ten on the short.

He also writes thus about the altar of burnt offering and the bronze laver (Exod. 27:1). God also commanded that an altar be made of acacia wood; this altar was called the altar of burnt offering, or of holocausts, or of whole burnt offerings, and could be called the altar of sacrifices: but it received its name from the more dignified term. It was five cubits in length and width, that is square, and three in height. To which, as a tower raised high, something was added at the time of ministration, on which the minister would stand, which was removed when the ministration was completed. For the altar was prohibited from having steps, and it was hollow like an ark without a lid; the walls were wooden, but were covered with bronze inside, so that on the outside they could not be burned, just as neither amiton nor any wood of paradise is, which is purer through burning; whose hearth, or fire-pan, was like the bottom of a chest, upon which the fire sat, which was set through a window on the eastern side. At the four upper corners there were four curved horns projecting outward, in which four chains were inserted into rings, from which hung a bronze grating, made in the form of a net; and it descended to the middle of the altar, upon which the things to be burned as a sweet savor to the Lord were placed, which the fire ascending through the openings of the grating from the fire-pan consumed. Around the four lower corners were four bronze rings, in which bars of acacia wood covered with bronze were placed, for carrying the altar. About this altar, however, and its grating, there is ambiguity not only among us, but also among the Hebrews, especially since the Hebrew truth seems to differ somewhat from our translation. For we have it thus: You shall make a grating in the form of a bronze net at the four corners (Exod. 27:4). There shall be four bronze rings, which you shall place upon the fire-pan of the altar, and the grating shall reach to the middle of the altar. But the Hebrew has it thus: You shall make for it a Michar, a work of bronze netting, and under the net four bronze rings, and you shall set it at the bottom of the altar below, and the net shall reach to the middle of the altar. Josephus writes: Beneath which was a grating made in the form of a small net. For the earth received the fire which was carried from the grating; because no bases were placed beneath it. Cassiodorus the senator, however, in a picture he made, which he mentions in his exposition of the Psalms, made four feet on each altar. Accordingly, it seems to some that meats to be roasted were not placed upon the grating, but that it was a kind of vessel in which the altar sat, whose walls rising around the altar were elevated to the middle of the altar, at whose upper corners four rings hung, through which, with bars inserted, the altar resting upon it was carried. For the altar is not recorded to have had any other rings, but whether this grating-vessel was separate from the altar, so that the altar could be removed from it when they wished and placed back upon it; or whether it was so fabricated from the altar itself by casting that it appeared as if added on, is uncertain. Upon the fire-pan of the altar, which they say was placed in its middle, God commanded that a pile of wood be placed through the window on the east, and meats to be roasted upon the wood, or there was no fire-pan; but the fire was made upon the grating placed beneath, which is what Josephus seems to have meant in the aforementioned words. To others it seems it had neither a cover nor a bottom; but the walls were simply filled with earth. According to what God said: You shall make me an altar of earth (Exod. 20:24): on whose upper surface the fire was made, where the things to be burned were placed, and they hold the same view about the grating placed upon the altar. The fire-pan, beneath which the grating is said to have been placed, the Hebrew calls a small ledge, or furrow, which he says was in the middle of the altar's walls, to which point the height of the grating extended. The altar was placed before the tabernacle in the open air, not directly before the entrance; but somewhat to the south and descending; so that those sacrificing before it, standing to the north, could look into the tabernacle itself all the way to the Holy of Holies. And because they stood to the north and faced south, it is sometimes read that they sacrificed to the north, sometimes to the south. For its use there were basins for collecting ashes when they accumulated, and for carrying them away: they were stored in a secluded and clean place; and tongs for tending the fire of the altar, and flesh-hooks, which in Greek we call "creagras," because cooked meats were drawn from cauldrons with them; and fire-pans, as if "for carrying," with which coals were brought from this altar to the altar of incense; besides pots and jars for cooking meat, which were not cooked beside the altar, however. All these were of bronze. The Hebrew has: You shall make its pots, and its shovels, and its basins, and its hooks, and its fire-pans. The Lord spoke again to Moses: You shall also make a bronze laver with its base (Exod. 30:18), that is, a washing vessel, which is also called a laver, which stood between the tabernacle and the altar of burnt offerings; in which, with water poured in, the priests washed their hands and feet, about to receive the sacred vestments for sacrificing, and likewise when entering and leaving the tabernacle. What is said to have been made from the mirrors of the women who kept watch at the entrance of the tabernacle, was perhaps made from the bronze stands of the mirrors; or rather, once it was made, mirrors were placed around the circumference of its upper rim, in which the priest could see if he had any stain on his garment or face that needed washing.

About the children of Israel who kept watch around the tabernacle, he writes in this manner. The Lord also commanded that the tabernacle always be placed in the middle of the camp, and the children of Israel keep watch around it in troops and wedge-formations, which here means the same thing. A troop is properly thirty soldiers, and a wedge-formation is so called, being a converging multitude. "To keep watch" is also taken broadly here; for watches properly mean the vigils of the night. Three tribes on each of the four sides of the tabernacle were distributed at such a distance, however, that they had very large open squares in the middle, and the arrangement was like a marketplace of goods for sale, with everyone stationed in order. Craftsmen of various trades were also at their stations; so that the camp appeared most similar to a well-built city. Judah, Issachar, and Zebulun therefore encamped to the east; Reuben, Simeon, and Gad to the south; Ephraim, Benjamin, and Manasseh to the west; Dan, Asher, and Naphtali to the north. Between the tabernacle and the camps the Levites kept watch in their own tents, closer to the tabernacle than to the camps, and they likewise kept watch on the four sides; Moses and Aaron with their people to the east; the rest of the Kohathites to the south, under the charge of Eleazar son of Aaron; the Gershonites to the west; the Merarites to the north, and both groups were under the charge of Ithamar. The Lord said to Moses: Number the Levites from the thirtieth year up to the fiftieth, that they may serve me in the tabernacle by carrying and setting up (Num. 4:3). And when they had been numbered, eight thousand five hundred eighty were found (ibid. 48). The Seventy, however, say from the twenty-fifth year, which number of years in the order of priests we also observe. These dismantled the tabernacle in this manner; because the things beyond the veil were not permitted to be seen uncovered. First the priests entered and wrapped the ark, mercy seat, and cherubim, first with the veil that hung before them; and then with a blue covering (Num. 4:7); likewise they wrapped the lampstand, the golden altar, and the table with its utensils in coverings. Then the Kohathites entering would carry all these wrapped items on their own shoulders. The altar with its utensils, as some think, the Gershonites carried; dismantling the roof of the tabernacle, they also carried other things, namely the curtains, goat-hair coverings, red-dyed skins, and blue skins, the screen that was before the tabernacle, the hangings of the court, and ropes, and the vessels of ministry that pertained to the bronze altar. About the altar of burnt offering the book of Leviticus is silent as to who carried it; it can be said that the Gershonites carried its vessels, as is found in the aforementioned book. The altar itself the Kohathites carried on their own shoulders; the Merarites, to speak briefly, carried all the hard objects of the tabernacle and the court: boards, bases, bars, columns, pegs, and each carried their share. Veteran Levites, however, did not serve thus in the work, but when the tabernacle was set up, they sat as guards.

Chapter XXVI: On the End of the First Part; and That Neither Error Should Be Excused, nor Correction Refused

Behold, in this manner, venerable Father, in this first part of our book, I have described both the construction and form and arrangement of the tabernacle, as well as the things that were within it, as a most difficult matter, one seen by absolutely no person of our age in bodily form, as best I could gather from the text of the book of Exodus and the words of the Venerable Bede the priest, which I was able to collect from many places, groping in the dark; and advancing timidly, and feeling my way with doubt: interposing the words of others, as much as I thought necessary, and leaving to the reader's discretion whose words should be trusted. In this manner, I say, I have described the aforementioned things; but to him who knows how to speak of these things more fully, clearly, and truly, I not only do not presume to prejudge, but I both ardently wish and earnestly entreat him to speak. For I did not set forth these things so much to prejudice anyone's knowledge, and especially his who is more learned than I in these matters, as to exercise myself first of all studiously in them, and to instruct charitably, as far as I am able, those who are in need, if indeed there happen to be any. This too should be added: that if I have strayed from the path of truth in anything, I will not arrogantly excuse my error when charitably shown to me, nor will I proudly refuse correction kindly pointed out.

PART TWO: ON THE TABERNACLE OF CHRIST WHICH IS IN FAITH

Chapter I: On the Difficulty of Depicting the Tabernacle on a Flat Surface

Thus, with the first section of our book concluded as best we could, in which certain things about the material construction and arrangement of the tabernacle were treated, as the Lord gave us ability, according to your command, holy Father, so that I may also depict the oft-mentioned tabernacle on a flat surface, as far as I know and am able: I now set my hand to the task, so that even through a bodily vision it may be perceived to some extent; which should both be understood of the common Church of the elect through faith, and be built in each of the elect through meditation. But because the extensions of the curtains and goat-hair coverings, and also the red-dyed and blue skins with which the roof of the tabernacle was covered, and certain other things pertaining to it, cannot be depicted on a flat surface with full clarity, it is certainly necessary that what is depicted for the bodily eye be seen in such a way that by the reason of the mind those things which cannot be depicted may also be comprehended. I say this because everything depicted on a flat surface appears more to be pressed down below than erected on high, and I should by no means promise what I certainly cannot accomplish.

Chapter II. How the boards of the walls of the tabernacle are to be depicted on a flat surface, and how they are to be joined and understood in relation to one another. Also how these three walls with the entrance are to be erected.

78. Therefore in the middle of the flat surface on which I wish to depict the tabernacle, having applied a ruler on four sides, I draw four straight and narrow lines, of which four lines I make two, the southern and northern, of such length as the tabernacle will be in width; because those two which constitute the tabernacle's length will be three times as long as those two which make its width; because thus was Moses' tabernacle, having thirty cubits in length and ten in width, that is, three times as long as it was wide. To the east, on the surface of the flat area, as far from that line which extends crosswise from south to north, as long as the line itself is, I extend a certain bar, somewhat wide; and as long as the aforementioned line, from south to north. After this, along the three lines, the southern, northern, and western, I construct the three walls of the tabernacle from boards joined side by side, and of such height as the length of the western line and the bar at the east. These boards I overlay with gold, and I place twenty of them to the south, the same number to the north, and eight to the west, and I make them all of one and the same width, except for the two corner boards that are on each side of the western part, which two had only a third of the width compared to the width of the others within the wall; because while all the other boards of the tabernacle had a cubit and a half, these two on the inside had only a half cubit. After this, in the middle of each board, I fix a golden ring all around, and through these rings I insert five gilded bars along each wall; so that the end of each bar enters the end of the next. About these rings, this should be known: that according to what Bede says, five should be placed in each board; but because the boards themselves are very narrow in this picture, I depict only one in each, and because in Exodus we do not clearly read that there were five rings in each board, as it says of them: You shall overlay the boards with gold and cast golden rings for them (Exod. 26:29). And again: He made their rings of gold (Exod. 36:34). Some say that these bars were on the outside of the tabernacle. But because, so that their significance may be more clearly understood, they must also be presented to the bodily eye, I place them in this picture not outside, but inside, in the middle around the three walls; for they would not be seen in it at all unless they were depicted on the inside, since the walls in which they are set do not stand upright in this picture but lie flat below. In this, however, I do not think I contradict the text of the book of Exodus, which neither affirms that they were on the inside, nor indeed denies it; merely showing clearly that they were made to hold together the boards of the tabernacle; but not saying whether they were placed inside or outside, leaving this perhaps to our opinion; since it is not so necessary for us to know this that it contributes greatly to true salvation, nor does ignorance of it cause great harm. Moreover the book of Exodus, from which our first knowledge of this matter came, does not clearly assign five rows of bars to each side, in which book we read thus about the same bars: You shall make bars of acacia wood, five to hold together the boards of one side of the tabernacle, and five others on the other side, and the same number for the western side, which shall be inserted through the middle of the boards (Exod. 26:26-28). And again: He also made bars of acacia wood, five to hold together the boards of one side of the tabernacle, and five others to fit the boards of the other side, and besides these five other bars for the western side of the tabernacle (Exod. 36:31-32).

79. Then under each board, at its two lower corners, I place two silver bases all around underneath, so that just as in the middle the boards are firmly joined to each other by bars inserted through rings, so too at their lower part, with two bases placed under each, and the openings of those bases, as Josephus says, receiving the two tenons of each board, they are also confirmed indissolubly at the bottom. The mortise-joints, by which the individual boards of the ancient tabernacle were connected to each other; which mortise-joints were on each side of each board, and terminated at the corners where two bases were placed under each board -- these cannot be seen on the sides of these boards as they lie on the flat surface of the picture; because even in that former material tabernacle, as the Venerable Bede says, when it was erected and the arrangement of boards was set in order, those same mortise-joints could not be seen. Nor can those two tenons, which Josephus asserts were in the middle of each board, nor the individual openings of each base, which, as he says, received the aforementioned tenons of the boards, be seen with the bodily eye in these boards that are depicted here. Therefore, after this, with the three walls of the tabernacle raised upright, and the western wall firmly connected on each side to the northern and southern, that bar also which now lies crosswise at the east, where the entrance should be, according to the flat layout, is raised upward and extends from the top of the northern wall to the top of the southern: beneath which five gilded columns, having golden capitals and bronze bases, are erected at equal distances across from each other; before which, from that bar which projects on high, toward the ground hangs a screen woven of blue, purple, scarlet twice-dyed, and twisted fine linen; whose columns' capitals are skillfully inserted into the aforesaid bar extending across, and firmly fastened in it.

Chapter III. On the place called the Holy, and on that called the Holy of Holies; and what should be placed in each.

80. With the walls of the tabernacle thus erected, I divide that space within them by a line extending crosswise from one wall to the other according to the width into two parts, yet in such proportion that what faces east, which is called the Holy Place, has two parts of the length; while what faces west, which will be the Holy of Holies, has the third. For since the tabernacle had thirty cubits in length, twenty were assigned to that place simply called the Holy: and ten to the Holy of Holies. At this sacred line, then, which separates the Holy of Holies, four columns at equal distances across I erect gilded columns with silver bases and golden capitals; which columns stand at equal intervals from each other; before which I hang a veil woven of the four aforesaid colors, inserted through golden rings from top to ground. Within this veil I set up the gilded Ark of the Covenant with two gilded bars on each side inserted through four golden rings, above which I place a golden mercy seat matching the length and width of the ark itself, which has one golden cherub on each side, who with faces turned toward it spread their wings toward each other to cover it. Outside the same veil, in the Holy Place, I set to the north a gilded table, standing on four legs, with twelve loaves placed six on each side, along with two bowls full of incense; opposite which I place the lampstand to the south, from each side of which three branches extend. In each branch, at three points, there is a cup, a sphere, and a lily, each branch containing equal spacing according to the threefold division. From different points on the shaft these branches proceed, which however, each bending back in its own order, arrive at one summit. On the shaft of the lampstand itself, at four points equally divided from each other, I place a cup, a sphere, and a lily together, and lighting seven lamps on the seven tops of the lampstand, which are all level, I set up the golden altar in the middle outside the veil.

Chapter IV. How the aforesaid walls are to be covered with curtains and goat-hair coverings; and how the roof should be covered with red-dyed and blue-dyed ram skins.

81. In this manner then, with the three walls of the tabernacle erected, and five columns placed at its entrance before the screen hung upon them, and four columns likewise erected between the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies, with the veil hung before them; and finally, with those things placed within the oft-mentioned walls, both in the Holy Place and in the Holy of Holies, that were to be placed in them, I first cast over those walls ten curtains woven of the four aforesaid colors, having twenty-eight cubits in length and four in width, and joined together on the sides with blue loops. And thus I cover the entire width of the house crosswise with the lengths of those same curtains; except for one cubit on each side, which on either side is uncovered where the curtains fall short; because the width of the house crosswise is thirty cubits, namely ten at the top between the walls, and ten in the descent of each wall on either side, and the curtains in length have only twenty-eight cubits. The length of the tabernacle, which is thirty cubits, I cover from the total width made by the curtains joined together, and I cover the eastern part, where the entrance should be, and the western wall, with five cubits on each side in descending, from the length of the curtains' combined widths; because the widths of the ten curtains joined together make a length of forty cubits. Of these forty cubits, thirty are assigned to the two walls, the southern and northern, since they have that many in length; and of the ten remaining, five are assigned to the eastern part in descending, and five to the western. Those cubits of the curtains which, beyond where the walls end, remain both on the east and west, I bring from the eastern and western side toward each other in the middle of each wall on either side, and join them to each other there; and thus I cover the house on every side, except for one cubit on every side near the ground.

82. The goat-hair coverings, since they have thirty cubits in length, thrown over the curtains cover indeed the entire length of the tabernacle, and exceed the curtains in descending by two cubits on the western wall, and the same on the eastern side; because the widths of the eleven goat-hair coverings joined together make a length of forty-four cubits. And since each of these coverings had a length of thirty cubits, they entirely cover that one cubit which, on each side of the southern and northern walls, was left uncovered near the ground where the curtains fell short. The space of three cubits, however, which on the west the goat-hair coverings lack to reach the ground, I by no means leave uncovered; but, as I showed a little before concerning the curtains, the seven cubits of goat-hair coverings which beyond where the southern and northern walls end remain on the west, I bring from each side toward each other, and with them I most firmly cover the back of the house down to the ground. For I make these goat-hair coverings not only reach each other and, like the curtains, touch each other in the middle of the wall; but because they are seven cubits long, I make them exceed the middle of the wall, which is only ten cubits, on each side by two cubits in the middle where they touch each other; and overlapping each other, I join them on the western wall, where the back of the house is. In this manner, then, I cover the western wall of the house entirely with goat-hair coverings down to the ground. In like manner also, from those seven-cubit goat-hair coverings which remain beyond where the southern and northern walls end, bringing them from each side toward each other, I also most firmly cover the front of the house down to the ground; except that I double those two cubits which make up half of one covering, on the same front of the house where the edge of the roof is; so that there may be the protection of a double covering there, as Bede says, where the solid firmness of the wall is lacking. You see therefore, as I believe, clearly how from the seven-cubit goat-hair coverings brought toward each other and exceeding each other by two cubits in the middle of the wall, which remain beyond where the southern and northern walls end, both on the east from each side and on the west from each side likewise, I cover both the eastern part of the house with half the covering doubled, and the western wall of the same house with two cubits overlapping each other in the middle of the same wall, laid one upon the other down to the ground, since indeed both the curtains and goat-hair coverings exceed the length of the two walls, the southern and northern, on each side both on the east and on the west, even near the ground, by as many cubits as they have on the eastern and western parts in descending; that is, the curtains five, and the goat-hair coverings seven. So much for the curtains and coverings.

83. I also make two further coverings, not indeed to cover the walls of the tabernacle, but only to cover its roof, of which one is of red-dyed ram skins; and the other of blue-dyed. And in this way with curtains, goat-hair coverings, red-dyed skins, and blue skins, I cover both the walls and what is within them. But neither the curtains, nor the goat-hair coverings, nor the skins, about which so much has been said, can be seen by the bodily eye in a picture lying on a flat surface; because the curtains are covered on the outside by the goat-hair coverings on every side, as was sufficiently shown above, so that they do not appear, and the goat-hair coverings lying under the three walls on the flat surface, and under the screen lying toward the east in the picture, are understood to be almost entirely hidden. And the roof of the walls, with the walls themselves lying flat in the picture, is not visible; but all these things, as I said, those who are willing to trust without doubt the words of the Venerable Bede about these matters must both weigh with the understanding of the heart and know that this is how it was in the visible tabernacle of Moses itself.

Chapter V. On the courts, the hangings of the courts, and what should be placed in the courts themselves.

84. Therefore, with the tabernacle completed in this manner through the erection and covering of the walls, using a ruler I draw around it at a great distance a large rectangular enclosure, twice as long as it is wide, whose length exceeds the tabernacle's length by as much space as double the tabernacle's length and its width together contain; because the length of the courts was one hundred cubits, which length this rectangle's length indicates, and the tabernacle's length, as has often been said, was only thirty cubits, and its width only ten. From this it is clearly gathered that this rectangle I am now making exceeds the tabernacle's length by seventy cubits in its own length. Within this rectangle the tabernacle is erected facing west, with its entrance from the east, and the spaces around the tabernacle within the rectangle are the courts of the tabernacle itself. In this rectangle, along each of its lines around the circumference, I erect columns having half the height of the tabernacle, and standing apart from each other by as much space as their own height. Of these, twenty to the south, the same number to the north, and ten both to the east and to the west, covered in silver, I erect them and from their silver capitals down to their bronze bases I hang everywhere screens of twisted fine linen, except for those four columns placed in the middle of the eastern side, from which I hang a screen woven not of fine linen alone, but of the four oft-mentioned colors.

85. Opposite this screen, on the inside, I set up a bronze altar; not however at the very entrance, but off to the side, toward the south, and between this altar and the entrance of the tabernacle itself I place a bronze laver full of water. And so the tabernacle stands within the courts, surrounded on every side by hangings, which hangings both hang from the columns all around, and are indeed lower than the tabernacle's walls by half, but much longer than those same walls, just as in our own time a church stands in its cemetery enclosed on every side by a wall; which wall, just as it is far lower than the church's walls, is indeed much longer than them. Concerning this tabernacle I take this careful provision: that it is placed by no means in the middle of the courts, but within them in such a way that half the length of the courts extends from their entrance to the entrance of the tabernacle, and a fifth of their length extends from the tabernacle's western wall, when it has been erected, to the western side of the court; because when those once-visible courts had one hundred cubits in length, from their entrance to the entrance of the tabernacle there were fifty cubits, as a certain wise man writes; and from the western wall of the tabernacle to the western side of the courts there were twenty; the tabernacle itself held thirty cubits in length. For the same man writes in this manner. There were, he says, fifty cubits from the entrance of the court on the eastern side to the entrance of the tabernacle, and in that space between the two entrances, of the court and of the testimony, there were two places of prayer, one for the men of Israel and another for the women. Between these, however, and the entrance of the tabernacle was the altar of burnt offerings, not however at the very entrance, but off to the south. These things, then, which have been both stated in the preceding part and shown to the bodily eye in this picture, if anyone wishes to perceive fully how that visible tabernacle of Moses with the things pertaining to it was made and arranged in reality, he will be able to gather some idea.

Chapter VI. On the bases and boards of the walls allegorically expounded.

86. It now remains that we apply some of those things which we have depicted concerning the material tabernacle to the spiritual tabernacle of Christ, which is the holy Church, in the picture placed before us. And indeed, just as from this picture, although it is not very beautiful, one can somewhat gather that Moses' visible tabernacle was very beautiful and splendid. But there is another tabernacle far more splendid, more precious, and more sublime than that one; more splendid in beauty, more precious in material, and more sublime in holiness, namely the holy Church, which through the illumination of its Redeemer from the darkness of ignorance was called, in this world as in a certain desert, and from Abel the righteous at the very beginning of the world began to be built, and does not cease to be built up to the last elect person who is to be born at the end of the world. How all these things pertain to the holy Church -- what the tabernacle itself first of all signifies in regard to faith, what its walls and entrance mean, what the boards and bases; what the rings and bars; what the screen at the entrance, the columns and veil; what the Holy Place simply; what the Holy of Holies, what the curtains and goat-hair coverings; what the two roof coverings; what then the things that were in the tabernacle signify; what within the veil the ark and its rim; what the cherubim and mercy seat, what the bars and rings; what in the ark the urn with manna; what the tablets and the rod; what in the Holy Place the table and its placement to the north; what its rim and crowns; what its feet and rings; what the loaves and incense upon it; what the golden lampstand and why it was hammered, or why it stood to the south facing the north; what its shaft and cups, spheres, lilies, branches, and lamps; what the altar of incense and its horns; what finally those things outside the tabernacle signify; what the courts and their hangings, and what their sixty columns around the perimeter; what the bases of the columns, what the ropes and pegs; what the altar of burnt offering and its horns and its grating; what the basins and tongs; what the fire-pans and flesh-hooks; what the bronze laver and the women's mirrors from which it was made; what finally all the other things pertaining to this tabernacle of which we speak; what even, lest we seem to have omitted anything, the measurements of length, width, and height that were in these aforementioned objects -- all this you can find fully and plainly in the expositions of the orthodox Fathers; and especially in the book of the Venerable Bede the priest, whose title is On the Tabernacle. If this is so, indeed because it is so, it is surely worthy and entirely just that we not only hold the words of the Holy of Holies as confirmed; but also judge them sufficient by our silence, and by no means presume to examine by a new exposition what they have set forth; inasmuch as we are not even sufficiently fit to understand what they said. Nevertheless, because it pleased your good desires that from the things visibly depicted here we should speak somewhat mystically, showing how certain of them should be understood allegorically, or may also be taken morally; taking some things from the words of the holy Fathers, adding some of our own, we shall show them to you in the picture itself, as best we can. Where we place the words of the Fathers, there we write their names in the margin; but we have chosen not to write our own name for our own words; lest perhaps, even if we said something well, it would be rejected for this sole reason, if it were recognized as having been said by us.

87. The tabernacle of Christ, therefore, is the holy Church; because from the beginning of the world to the last elect person who is to be born at the end of the age, it extends through three times, through six ages. The three times are: the time of natural law, which was from the beginning of the world up to Abraham, from whom in circumcision the written law in a certain way begins. The time of the written law, which was from Abraham up to the coming of Christ, through whom grace and truth were made; the time of grace, which began from the first coming of the Savior and will last until the second, in which the judge of the living and the dead will appear. The first age was from Adam to Noah, having one thousand six hundred and fifty-six years. The second, from Noah to Abraham, having two hundred and ninety-two years. The third, from Abraham to David, having nine hundred and forty-two years. The fourth, from David to the exile to Babylon, having eight hundred and seventy-three years. The fifth, from the exile to Babylon to Christ, having five hundred and eighty-five years. The sixth age is from the first coming of Christ to the second, of which age already one thousand one hundred and eighty years have passed. The mention of 1,180 years since Christ dates the composition of this work to approximately 1180 AD, consistent with Adam of Dryburgh's known lifetime (d. 1212). The seventh is now in the rest of souls; and the eighth will be in the happiness of resurrected bodies, when both the week of this life will end, and the eternity of the other life will follow. Through these three times, therefore, through these six ages, with the orders of deeds and arrangements of events according to the unity of meanings and diversity of sacraments, all working one salvation in one faith, proclaiming also one Creator, and one and the same Savior, whether preceding his coming or following it in harmony; the holy Church, running in faith, hope, and charity from the beginning of the age to the end, from labor to rest, from darkness to light, from misery to happiness, from exile to homeland, from grief to joy, and from prison hastens to the kingdom, like a certain tabernacle, which, sanctified and inhabited by the Most High, is carried through the manifold perils of a certain desert, by the hands of Levites, to a certain good and spacious land, a land beautiful and fruitful, a land indeed flowing with milk and honey.

88. The elect of this holy Church, partly from the beginning of the world to Christ's coming, partly from Christ's coming to the end of the age, devote themselves to holy way of life. Therefore the bases of the tabernacle placed beneath the boards around its perimeter are the saints who from the beginning of the age up to the Savior's coming into the world came, and who prefigured Christ's grace and the state of the holy Church in both sexes, whether in their words, or in their deeds, or even in the interpretations of their names. The boards, which are placed upon those same bases and rest upon them, designate the saints who after Christ's coming appear in the world until the end of this life, and rest upon the words and deeds of the preceding saints as boards upon certain bases. These saints adorned the holy Church in one faith and by the shedding of their blood, and illuminated it with the light of holy preaching, and adorned it with the examples of their holy lives. Therefore, beginning from the first base under the first board of the southern wall, I write on it the name of the first father Adam, and after him the names of the holy fathers who lived up to Solomon, with individual names inscribed on individual bases in this manner: Adam, Abel, Seth, Enosh, Enoch, Noah, Shem, Japheth, Melchizedek, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher, Issachar, Zebulun, Joseph, Benjamin, Moses, Aaron, Eleazar, Phinehas, Joshua, Caleb, Job, Ehud, Shamgar, Gideon, Jephthah, Samson, Elkanah, Samuel, David, Solomon. And these names are under the bases of the southern wall. On the bases of the northern wall I write, beginning from the first base of the first eastern board: Nathan, Gad, Shimei, Ahijah, Elijah, Elisha, Jehoiada, Daniel, Hananiah, Azariah, Mishael, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi, Hezekiah, Josiah, Ezekiel, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Joshua, Tobias, Nehemiah, Jesus, Onias, Mattathias, Judas, Jonathan, Simon, John, Zechariah, Joseph. And these names are under the bases of the northern wall. Under the bases of the western wall I write the names of the women who were in the Old Testament, beginning from the first base of the first corner board of that same wall to the south in this manner: Eve, Sarah, Rebecca, Leah, Rachel, Bilhah, Zilpah, Tamar, Rahab, Deborah, Ruth, Hannah, Bathsheba, Esther, Judith, Elizabeth. These, then, are the names of saints, both men and women, which are placed here under the bases of these three walls; these saints were in the world up to the coming of Christ: of whom not one existed who did not prefigure the grace of the same Jesus Christ our Lord, and the state of the holy Church, either in the words they spoke, or in the deeds they performed, or at least in the interpretations of their names. After this I paint images of these saints above their names on the bases themselves from the beginning, because, as was said above, these same bases designate those same saints, and beneath their names, which are written under the bases and images, from Adam to Nathan I write this inscription: These are the saints from the beginning of the age, coming into the world up to the coming of Christ, and prefiguring the grace of Christ and the holy Church in both sexes, either in words, or in deeds, or even in the interpretations of their names. For all these Old Testament saints, as I said above, prophesied either what the grace of Christ would accomplish in those who would believe in him; or what the state of the holy Church would be through his coming, whether in the words they uttered, or in the actions they performed, or finally in the expressions of their names, which they bore with good reason.

89. Then on the boards, which are placed upon the bases, I place the names of saints who lived in the time of grace -- namely apostles, martyrs, and confessors -- with their icons written above, placing two names described and two icons superimposed on the tops of individual boards, beginning from the icon of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is the end of the law and the beginning of grace, I write these names in this manner: John the Baptist, Peter, Paul, Andrew, James, John, Thomas, James, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Simon, Thaddeus, Matthias, Barnabas, Mark, Luke, Timothy, Titus, Stephen, Linus, Cletus, Clement, Sixtus, Cornelius, Cyprian, Lawrence, Chrysogonus, John, Paul, Cosmas, Damian, Ignatius, Alexander, Marcellinus, Peter, Fabian, Sebastian, Vincent. And these are on the southern part. On the first board of the northern wall I begin writing in this manner, and these are the names I write on this wall: Gervasius, Protasius, Lambert, Quentin, George, Vitalis, Dionysius, Maurice, Hippolytus, Alban, Oswald, Edmund, Alphege, Edward, Silvester, Leo, Gregory, Ambrose, Augustine, Martin, Nicholas, Remigius, Hilary, Vedast, Amandus, Germanus, Cuthbert, Wilfrid, John, Chad, Dunstan, Severinus, Jerome, Eligius, Benedict, Anthony, Leonard, Giles, Guthlac, Botolph. And these names are on the northern wall. The inclusion of several Anglo-Saxon saints (Oswald, Edmund, Alphege, Edward, Cuthbert, Wilfrid, Chad, Dunstan, Guthlac, Botolph) reflects the author's English and Scottish background. On the boards of the western wall I also write the names of holy women with their icons: first indeed on the first board of that same western wall to the south, the name of Blessed Mary, and after her the rest, in this manner: Mary Magdalene, Felicity, Perpetua, Agatha, Agnes, Cecilia, Lucy, Anastasia, Euphemia, Margaret, Catherine, Genevieve, Etheldreda, Brigid, Hilda. It should be noted that I paint all the saints of both the Old and New Testaments from head to foot; so that Adam, placed beneath Christ, reaches his hands and eyes upward toward Christ as if in devotion. Likewise Eve, placed beneath Mary, raises her hands and eyes toward her. Mary holds a rose in one hand and a lily in the other. After this, above the icons of the New Testament which are depicted at the tops of the boards, in one continuous line around the three walls from the icon of the Lord Jesus, which is on the first board of the southern wall, to the icon of Gervasius, which is on the first board of the northern, I write this inscription: These are the saints from the first coming of the Savior to the end of the age, coming into the world in both sexes, and adorning and illuminating the holy Church under one Lord in one faith and one baptism, by the shedding of their blood, the light of holy preaching, and the examples of good works. For from the coming of Christ there will not be lacking in the world those who adorn the holy Church with examples of a good life, or illuminate it with the brilliance of holy preaching, or embellish it with the shedding of their blood.

Chapter VII. On the screen hanging at the entrance, the bar at the entrance, and the three walls of the tabernacle allegorically expounded.

90. Now to the screen which hangs at the entrance, I approach, and across it I write these words: The Beauty of the Primitive Church. For the aforesaid screen at the entrance of the tabernacle, woven with a beautiful variety of colors, is the ornament of the primitive Church, glorious with the diverse flowers of virtues; about which Luke writes: The multitude of believers was of one heart and one soul, and there was no division among them, nor did anyone say that any of the things he possessed was his own; but all things were common to them (Acts 4:32). For blue was in it; because it was accustomed to think of heavenly things and lead a heavenly life on earth. Purple was in it; because it was prepared to die for Christ. Scarlet twice-dyed was in it; because it burned with love of God and neighbor. Twisted fine linen was also in it; because it rejoiced in continence of the flesh and chastity. Above the columns themselves I write across: Doctors of the Primitive Church. For those columns, from which the screen was hung, are the holy doctors of that time, about whom Luke says: With great power the apostles gave testimony of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, our Lord (Acts 4:33): These were rightly made five in number on account of the same number of books of the law, which books indeed we have placed under the bases of those same columns; with which it is necessary that holy doctors fortify the words of their preaching, and especially those who founded the primitive Church, which, gathered from the Hebrew people, knew itself to be established only by the authority of the Mosaic law, since evangelical and apostolic doctrine did not yet shine throughout the world. On the golden capitals of those same columns I write across: Christ, the Head of all the saints. Nor should it seem incongruous that through five capitals of columns one head of the Church, Christ, is figured; for there were as many capitals as columns, because indeed Christ himself is the Lord of all the saints, one head, and in himself always remains indivisible; but to each individual elect he distributes the grace of the Holy Spirit according to the capacity of the recipients. On the bronze bases of the columns I also write across: Prophets of the Old Testament. For those bronze bases upon which the columns rest are the prophets, by whose words the apostles and apostolic men are confirmed in faith. These things we have said allegorically about the entrance of the tabernacle.

91. After this, on that bar which extends from the top of one wall to the top of the other, I write in one line this verse: The Lord Jesus justifying the circumcision from faith, and the uncircumcision through faith (Rom. 3:30). For this bar is the Lord Jesus, who reaches, as it were, from corner to corner; because from the Jewish people, whom he first called, he extended himself to save the multitude of the Gentiles, so that just as in the prophet he was called the cornerstone (Isa. 28:16), so also in the law he might be called the corner-bar. Beside the first board of the northern wall I write: The North gives. And beside the first board of the southern: The South does not withhold. For the southern side of the tabernacle, which faces the south, designates that ancient people of God, which, having long ago received the light of legal knowledge, was accustomed to burn with love of its Creator. But the other side, which faces the north, figures the multitude of the Gentiles, which did not cease to be numb with the darkness and cold of unbelief up to the time of the Lord's incarnation. But this bar extends itself to both these walls, when he called not only the Jewish people but also the Gentile to faith. Therefore from the first board of the southern wall up to the end of the bar, these two verses are written diagonally: The shepherds came in haste, and found Mary and Joseph and the infant laid in the manger (Luke 2:16). Likewise from the first board of the northern wall up to the other end of the aforesaid bar, these two verses are written diagonally: The Magi entering the house found the Child, and falling down they worshipped him, and opening their treasures they offered him gifts: gold, frankincense, and myrrh (Matt. 2:11). How all these things pertain to the calling of both peoples, the Jewish and the Gentile, is sufficiently evident. For the joining of the southern wall with the bar signifies what the coming of the shepherds to the child signifies. And likewise the joining of the northern wall with the same bar signifies the coming of the Magi to the same child. Along the width of the western wall, above the icons of the women, in one line from one corner to the other I write this verse: The fulfillment of the universal holy Church to be completed at the end of the world. For the western side, which receiving both walls into itself completes the building of the tabernacle, rightly designates the fulfillment of the entire holy Church, which is completed at the end of this world, to which the right action of both peoples will persevere, reaching it as a twin length of wall.

Chapter VIII. On the pictures in the Holy Place, how they should be understood according to the allegorical sense.

92. With these things thus allegorically depicted on the walls of the tabernacle, I turn my hand to those things in the tabernacle itself outside the veil; and beside the table, which stands in the Holy Place to the north, I make four steps; two at each end on either side, on account of the four things pertaining to Sacred Scripture, which that same table signifies; namely the subject matter of that same Scripture, its manner of understanding, its dignity, and the number of its books. The subject matter it treats; the mode of understanding according to which it treats; the sublimity with which it treats; the books in which it treats. Its subject matter is the works of human restoration with all its sacraments, both those which from the beginning of the world to the coming of Christ existed and in various ways proclaimed the future salvation of mankind, promised from the beginning, rendered at the end, destined to remain without end; and those which from the same coming of the Savior are exercised in the holy Church to the end of the world, and confirm the aforementioned salvation of mankind displayed through his coming. The understanding according to which it treats this subject matter, is fourfold: history, allegory, tropology, and anagogy. History pertains to the open narration of deeds accomplished and is contained in the surface of the letter, and is understood just as it is read. Allegory, however, contains something more in itself, because through what it says about the truth of the matter, it gives something else to be understood about the purity of faith; and it shows the mysteries of the holy Church, whether present or future, sometimes through words, sometimes through deeds, but always through figures and veils. Tropology also, like allegory, consists in figurative words or deeds; but it differs from allegory in this: that allegory builds up faith, while tropology builds up morality. Anagogy, however, whether through veiled or open words, treats of the eternal joys of the heavenly homeland, and demonstrates what reward awaits either right faith or a holy life, through words either open or hidden. History, therefore, through the examples of the saints that it narrates, excites the reader to the imitation of holiness; allegory in the revelation of faith to the knowledge of truth; tropology in the instruction of morals to the love of virtue; anagogy in the manifestation of heavenly joys to the desire of heavenly happiness. Since Sacred Scripture walks, as it were, on these four modes of understanding as on four feet, I place them at the four feet of that same table, one at each; because these four feet signify them. The dignity of Sacred Scripture also consists in this: that beyond all secular writings it has not only words but also things that are significant; hence all the arts which they call liberal serve it. The books, however, of which we speak here, and which treat of Scripture, partly belong to the Old Testament, partly to the New. And the Old is divided into three orders: into the Law, whose books are five; into the Prophets, whose books are eight; into the Hagiographa, to which nine books belong: which joined together make twenty-two, which is also the number of letters in the Hebrew alphabet; so that the holy life of a just man may be exercised in wisdom by as many books as the tender age is instructed in eloquence by letters. These four things, then -- the subject matter of Sacred Scripture, its understanding, its dignity, and the number of its books -- are signified by those four steps which we have placed at the table that designates this Scripture of which we speak, two on each side at either end. For a more extensive treatment of these themes, Adam of Dryburgh refers the reader to the first part of Hugh of St. Victor's De Sacramentis Christianae Fidei. On the table I place twelve loaves, which although they were always there historically; yet allegorically they express holy men imbued with apostolic doctrine and distinguished in action, and tropologically those spiritual virtues which the Apostle commemorates: namely charity, joy, peace, patience, longanimity, goodness, benignity, meekness, faith, modesty, continence, chastity; in which the vital refreshment of our soul consists. And this table stands in the tabernacle in the Holy Place, to the north.

93. After this, on the trunk of the lampstand, which stands opposite to the south, is written "Christ"; on its shaft, "Church." From the trunk, therefore, the shaft proceeds, because the strength and support of the Church is Christ. The lampstand itself, which is visibly depicted here, figuratively represents him who said of himself: I am the light of the world (John 8:12). It was rightly both golden and hammered; because our Redeemer the Lord Jesus was both free from all sin, and yet endured the persecutions of suffering upon himself. It also had seven lamps upon it; because our Lord distributed the offices of seven spiritual grades, which he gave to his body, namely the holy Church, according to the sevenfold grace of the Holy Spirit, while he himself, possessing the fullness of the same Holy Spirit in himself, exhibited them: namely the office of doorkeepers and readers, exorcists and acolytes, subdeacons and deacons, and the office of priests. These seven grades, together with the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit, which are: Fear, piety, knowledge, fortitude, counsel, understanding, and wisdom (Isa. 11:2), from whose sevenfold Spirit's gift they derive, are written beside the aforesaid lamps of the lampstand, by which they are signified. The Lord, therefore, took upon himself the office of doorkeepers in his own person, when, having made a whip of cords, he cast out the buyers and sellers from the temple (John 2:17). He showed the office of readers in himself, when in the midst of the elders, opening the book of Isaiah, he read in it: The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, he has sent me to bring good news to the poor (Luke 4:18). He exercised the office of exorcists when he cast seven demons out of Mary Magdalene. He showed himself to have the office of acolytes when he said: I am the light of the world (John 8:12). He also exercised the office of subdeacons when, supper being made with his disciples, he girded himself, and pouring water into a basin, washed the feet of the disciples and dried them with a towel (John 13:5). He took upon himself the office of deacons when after the supper he dispensed with his own mouth and his own hands the sacraments he had confected; and when he invited the sleeping apostles to prayer, saying: Watch and pray (Matt. 26:41). He also excellently exhibited in himself the office of priests, when he himself, both priest and victim, offered himself on the altar of the cross for the sins of the human race, and entering the eternal holy places through his own blood (Heb. 9:12), he made peace between heavenly and earthly things (Col. 1:20). About these seven grades Solomon says: Wisdom has built herself a house, she has hewn out seven pillars (Prov. 9:1). For Wisdom built herself a house and hewn out seven pillars; because God's wisdom, Christ Jesus, took on a human body in which to dwell, and exhibited the aforesaid offices of seven grades in the man he assumed. What therefore in Solomon are seven pillars in the house of wisdom, in Moses are seven lamps on the lampstand of the tabernacle, at least according to the allegorical sense. And let these things be said allegorically about the table and the lampstand.

Chapter IX. On the image which is depicted on the pavement of the tabernacle.

94. After these things, on the pavement of the tabernacle itself I paint an image of the Savior from head to waist in the Holy of Holies, and from the waist extending down to the feet in the Holy Place. I clothe that part of it which is in the Holy of Holies in white garments, and that which is in the Holy Place in red ones. For our Lord Jesus Christ is God and man, being one person in three essences and two natures. He is indeed one person, because the same son of man without a father is the Son of God from eternity without a mother. Three essences are in him: the Word, flesh, and soul. Two natures: divinity and humanity. The part of the image, therefore, which is in the Holy of Holies designates the sublimity of divinity, which reigns from eternity in heaven; the other part, which is in the Holy Place, designates the humility of humanity, which for a time endured the sorrows of the Passion in the world. Within the Holy of Holies on the image itself I write across it: "Bright-white." Outside in the Holy Place on the same image I likewise write across: "Ruddy." So that it may be shown that this image designates him of whom the Bride says in the Song of Songs: My beloved is white and ruddy (Song 5:10). White in his divinity, ruddy in his humanity. In divinity indeed the Lord Jesus is white on account of the blessedness which he has had from eternity in that nature, equal with the Father and the Holy Spirit. But ruddy in his humanity, who, having a red garment in the passion of the same assumed humanity, though he is beautiful in his robe, yet coming from Edom leaves behind garments stained from Bozrah (Isa. 63:1). On the image itself within the Holy Place, below the feet of the high priest standing at the golden altar, I write downward this verse: If anyone wishes to come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me (Luke 9:23). And above the head of the image, along the width of the tabernacle in the Holy of Holies, from one wall to the other beneath the images that are there, in one stroke I write this verse: Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor has it entered into the heart of man, what God has prepared for those who love him (1 Cor. 2:9). These two verses, one of which is written in the Holy Place, the other in the Holy of Holies, I distinguish with steps. To the verse "If anyone wishes to come," I set three steps, corresponding to those three words: "Deny, take up, follow" -- one step for each word. For those three steps express the three things which in this verse the Lord Jesus sets before the human soul, made in the image of the Trinity: namely servitude, abasement, and hardship. For in the denial of self there is servitude; in the bearing of the cross, abasement; in the imitation of Christ, hardship. For it is servitude for anyone to deny himself to himself and to subject himself to the dominion of another; it is abasement to carry about the cross, because the cross was formerly a sign of degradation; and to follow Christ is hard, for he taught us by his own example and instructed us by his precept to despise what is sweet and pleasant to the flesh, and to embrace what is harsh or bitter. Therefore let the faithful soul obey these three precepts of its Savior, taking upon itself both servitude in the denial of self, and abasement in the bearing of the cross, and hardship in the imitation of Christ; so that the soul which had fallen through disobedience from the state of threefold blessedness may, humbled by the affliction of these three things, rise again through obedience.

95. For it had fallen from itself, from the company of angels, and from the vision of God himself -- that is, from liberty, from dignity, from blessedness. For it belongs to liberty for anyone to be possessed by himself and to sustain no contradiction whatsoever within himself against himself. Such was man before sin, when both his body was subject to his spirit and his spirit was subject to the Creator. But after the spirit swelled up through pride against its Creator, not only did the body rebel against the spirit, but the spirit itself also in a wondrous and miserable way began to be rebellious against itself in many things; and so man ceased to possess himself. To dignity, however, pertains being associated with the angels. This dignity man no longer has, because he who refused to understand while he was in this honor, having lost the company of angels, is now not only associated with but even compared to senseless beasts, and has become like them. Nothing, indeed, is more blessed than to see God; because this is eternal life, that we may know God the Father and Jesus Christ whom he has sent. But after incautious man opened his outward eyes to lust for the fruit of the forbidden tree, he damnably closed those inner eyes by which he ought to have seen his Creator. But so that man might be called back to these three things, the Creator of man himself deigned to become man; and in his humanity, which the ruddy part of the image signifies, he sets before that same man a threefold affliction -- namely servitude, abasement, and hardship -- so that man may be able to receive the three goods which he lost: liberty, dignity, and blessedness. For to the three words of that verse -- namely "seen," "heard," "entered" -- these three steps are placed, one step to each word. For liberty will be so great that no eye has seen it; dignity so great that no ear has heard it; blessedness also so great that no human heart has comprehended it. And these are the things which God has prepared for those who love him (1 Cor. 2:9). Therefore we placed that verse, namely "If anyone wishes to come," in the humanity; but this one, namely "Eye has not seen," in the divinity; because Christ set those three things before us in his humanity, but prepared these in his divinity, so that we may exercise the former in merit in order to deserve to possess the latter as reward. But in our painting, this verse must first be read: "If anyone wishes to come after me," etc. Then the verse: "Eye has not seen"; because we must first suffer with him so that afterward we may reign with him (Rom. 8:17; 2 Tim. 2:12). Therefore let the faithful soul read: "Let him deny himself," so that it may acquire what eye has not seen. Let it read: "Let him take up his cross," so that it may attain to what ear has not heard. Let it read finally: "Let him follow me," so that it may be worthy to ascend to that which has not entered into the heart of man. Thus by denying himself -- that is, his own will -- in exchange for the servitude he bears, let him recover his liberty, which will consist in the possession of himself, which eye has not seen; by taking up his cross -- that is, by crucifying his flesh with its vices and lusts -- in exchange for the abasement he carries, let him recover the dignity which will consist in the company of angels, which dignity ear has not heard; by following Christ -- that is, by imitating his Passion -- let him recover the lost blessedness which will consist in the splendor of his vision, which has not entered into the heart of man. Further, below on the right side of the altar of incense, on the thigh of the image itself I write: King of kings. On the left side of the same altar, on the garment of the image: Lord of lords, so that it may be understood that this image designates him of whom it is written in the Apocalypse: He had on his garment and on his thigh written: King of kings, and Lord of lords (Rev. 19:16). What the garment of the Lord Jesus is, and what his thigh, or why that Son of man, to whom all power has been given in heaven and on earth (Matt. 28:18), had written on the garment of his humanity with which divinity is clothed "King of kings," and on the thigh of the flesh which came forth from the Virgin "Lord of lords," is well known from frequent exposition.

96. Moreover, in these two titles -- in the kingship which he holds over all kings and in the dominion which he holds over all who rule -- he sets forth certain things in his humanity, which has been proposed to us as an example, to be imitated by each of the faithful of holy Church. For in a certain way the stimuli of vices, fighting through temptation, are kings; and their servants and slaves are those who consent to their suggestions; because, as the Lord says, everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin (John 8:34). And any holy man is King of these kings and Lord of these lords when he does not shamefully succumb to their temptations, but with a certain royal power and manly dominion crushes their tyranny by resistance. These sins, of which we ought in this way to be kings and lords, are seven: pride, envy, anger, sloth, avarice, gluttony, lust. These sins are called original and capital because they are the beginnings and causes of all others. And through these seven we sin in three ways: by thought, by word, by deed. In thought, through love of the flesh and love of the world; in word, through arrogance and detraction; in deed, through crime and wickedness. The first two defile the mind; the second two the tongue; the third two the body. The first two also exclude the love of God and the desire for the heavenly homeland; the second two extinguish humble confession of sins and true esteem for one's neighbors; the third two drive out continence and innocence. But because we must both reign over the aforesaid seven and dominate these three -- namely impure thought, wicked speech, and nefarious action, which three proceed from those seven -- therefore to express those seven we have placed seven steps next to "King of kings"; and to signify these three we have likewise depicted three steps next to "Lord of lords." After these things, because whoever possesses this spiritual dominion by which these three evils are crushed, a certain newness of reward awaits him in the heavenly homeland from the presence of the Deity; and whoever possesses this manly kingship which blunts those seven criminal sins, a certain greatness of ineffable recompense awaits him; therefore in the right hand of the image in the Holy of Holies, opposite "Lord of lords," one scroll is held, on which is written: Behold, I make all things new (Rev. 21:5). And in the left hand of the same image, opposite "King of kings," another scroll is held, on which is written: My reward is with me, to render to each one according to his works (Rev. 22:12). And because both that newness and this greatness will utterly lack any end, therefore next to each scroll a green circle is placed: because indeed the rewards of the elect will wither at no end, but will flourish without end, just as in a circle neither beginning nor end is found. In the humanity also, which is in the Holy Place, in the lower circle which is beneath the lampstand, between the feet of the image I write: "Way," at the end of the garments of the image. In the divinity above, in the golden center of the circle which is above the two cherubim, on the breast of the same image I write: "Life," written across beneath the beard of the image. In that circle whose middle part is outside the veil, next to the altar of incense, and whose middle part is inside the veil beneath the Ark of the Covenant, I write: "Truth." So that two syllables of this word are in the outer half of the circle, and the third syllable in the inner half. These three words placed in these three locations are to be understood so that within these three circles this verse is written: "Way, Truth, Life." For the Lord himself says of himself in the Gospel: I am the way, the truth, and the life (John 14:6). For Christ Jesus himself, who is designated by this image, is for us the Way, the Truth, and the Life. The Way, that we may go through him; the Truth, that we may go after him; the Life, that we may go to him. Through him, lest we go astray; after him, lest we fail; to him, lest we die. Lead me, Lord, in your way, and I will walk in your truth: let my heart rejoice (Ps. 86:11). We are led in the way so that we may go, and we enter into the truth so that we may run; let our heart rejoice so that we may live forever. Likewise: You have held my right hand, and in your will you have led me, and with glory you have received me (Ps. 73:24). You held me, O Truth, lest I should fail; you led me, O Way, lest I should go astray; you received me, O Life, lest I should perish. The Way therefore is in the Holy Place, which he exercised in his life among men; Truth in sound doctrine, by which he instructed the world through preaching; Life in eternity, by which he blessed his own with exultation. The Way in example, Truth in promise, Life in reward. The Way, finally, in humanity, Life in divinity, Truth in both. Therefore the Way is in his humanity, because he provided us in it an example of holy living. Therefore Life is in his divinity, because of eternal blessedness he bestows upon us the reward. Truth also is therefore in both, because what he promises us in his humanity, he repays in his divinity. And this is the reason why I wrote below in the Holy Place, that is in his humanity, between his feet, "Way"; above in the divinity, which is in the Holy of Holies, "Life"; and in both the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies, in both the humanity and the divinity, "Truth": because he himself, as has already been said above, is both the Way in the examples which he showed in his humanity, and the Life in the rewards which he bestows in his divinity, and the Truth in the promises which he indeed makes in his humanity and fulfills in his divinity.

97. Next to the image above in the Holy of Holies, on the right side are written the nine orders of the blessed spirits who are in the heavenly homeland, with their icons; on the left side of the same image I paint a certain large icon of a man from the chest upward, because this twofold creature is in heaven: the angelic, namely, and the human. Beneath the angels in one stroke toward the image I write these words: This is he into whom the angels desire to look (1 Pet. 1:12); and beneath the icon of the man: We shall see him as he is (1 John 3:2). Next to this icon I also write fourteen beatitudes, which the saints will have in the future, of which seven pertain to the soul and seven to the body. Those seven which pertain to the soul are written between the head of the image and the icon: namely, wisdom, friendship, concord, power, honor, security, joy. The other seven, which pertain to the body, are written on the other side of the same icon: namely, beauty, swiftness, strength, freedom, health, delight, everlastingness. Between these fourteen beatitudes, above the head of the icon is written this title: The human race, which is the tenth drachma. On that same side where this icon is, I write: The boundaries of the peoples. On the side where the angels are, I write: According to the number of the angels of God: because the multitude of men believed to be ascending there is as great as the multitude of angels that remained there. The eyes of all the individual icons, both of the man and of the angels, are turned toward the face of the image; because the entire blessedness of both angels and men consists in the vision of the Deity. Furthermore, I overlay the field which is in the Holy of Holies with a sapphire color, which has the appearance of the sky when it is clear.

98. The field which is in the Holy Place I overlay with purple; because the Holy Place designates the present Church, which endures the temptations of sufferings; while the Holy of Holies designates the heavenly homeland. On these two fields I also place these titles: on the purple field which is in the Holy Place on the right of the image, I write: The sparkling Pleiades (Job 38:31). And opposite this title above in the Holy of Holies, on the sapphire field, likewise on the right of the image, I write: Are joined together. Likewise in the Holy Place, on the left of the image, opposite the Pleiades on the other side toward the north, on the purple field I write: The circuit of Arcturus (Job 38:31). And in the Holy of Holies on the left, opposite, I write: Is dispersed. These four titles, of which two are written in the Holy Place and two in the Holy of Holies on opposite sides, pertain to that passage in which the Lord addresses blessed Job in these words: Can you join together the sparkling stars of the Pleiades, or can you scatter the circuit of Arcturus? The sparkling stars of the Pleiades, which are indeed separated in their course but joined in their location, designate the individual elect of holy Church, who indeed held one and the same faith in their Creator and Savior, but were not all in the world at one and the same time. By the circuit of Arcturus is expressed the continual labor of the holy universal Church in the present life; which holy Church is indeed always wearied but never conquered, just as Arcturus is always turning but never sinks below the horizon. But the sparkling Pleiades will be joined, and the circuit of Arcturus will be scattered; because all the elect will be present together in the heavenly homeland, and then holy Church will universally cease from her labor. And this is the reason why on the purple field which is in the Holy Place I placed these two titles: "The sparkling Pleiades" and "The circuit of Arcturus." And on the sapphire field which is in the Holy of Holies, these two: namely "Are joined together" and "Is dispersed"; because the individual elect will then be in the same blessedness who, though separated here by time, were nevertheless joined in one and the same faith; and the labor of holy Church will be changed into rest, bitterness into sweetness, exile into a kingdom, and sorrow into joy. In the purple field, therefore, the Pleiades sparkle in one place, though not in one course, and Arcturus revolves; but in the sapphire field both those are joined together and this is dispersed; because in the pressures of the present life, which the purple field expresses, the individual elect, even though they do not exist in one and the same time, nevertheless shine before the Lord in one faith; and holy Catholic Church, spread throughout the whole world, always conquering, labors in many ways; but in the heavenly homeland, which the sapphire field depicted in the Holy of Holies designates, both the individual elect will be joined together in rest, and the holy universal Church will cease from her labor. And let these things about the image depicted on the pavement of the tabernacle, and about the things pertaining to it, be said allegorically.

Chapter X. On the paintings which pertain to the altar of burnt offering and to the bronze basin.

99. With the tabernacle thus arranged on the interior, going out from it I proceed outside to the courts and to the altar of burnt offering, which is outside at the entrance of the courts; where I paint a certain Levite slaughtering a red heifer with a knife upon it. This red heifer, which is visibly depicted here, signifies that heifer about which the Lord says to Moses in the book of Numbers: Command the children of Israel to bring to you a red heifer of perfect age, in which there is no blemish, and which has not borne a yoke (Num. 19:2). This heifer, according to the allegorical sense, signifies our Lord Jesus Christ in the humanity taken from the Virgin. He is fittingly called a heifer in the feminine gender on account of the weakness of the flesh: because he himself bore our sorrows, and he himself carried our infirmities (Isa. 53:4). It is called red and not white, because he came in the likeness of sinful flesh, who, as the Apostle says, was tempted in all things in our likeness, without sin (Heb. 4:15). But in this heifer there was neither blemish nor did it bear a yoke; because he admitted into himself neither the stains of any vices nor the burdens of sins. It was of perfect age, because he not only lacked all evil but also had all good in himself. "And Eleazar shall sacrifice it," it says (Num. 19:3). We also sacrifice this heifer daily, when we faithfully receive the most holy body of our Redeemer. At the altar of burnt offering, therefore, the heifer is cut with a knife, because we indeed make parts in the sacrament; but we do not divide or separate him from himself. The outward appearance is shown to us outside, by which our senses may be instructed; but the incorruption of the body is preserved within, in which its unity is not divided. And where there is a part, there is also the whole; because just as it can be one in different places, so also in individual parts it can be the whole. Beneath this sacrifice I also make three steps, because although there is one sacrament on the altar, yet three distinct things are set forth there: the visible appearance, the truth of the body, and the power of spiritual grace. The visible appearance which is visibly turned there; the truth of the body and blood which is believed under the visible appearance; and spiritual grace which is received with the body and blood. The appearance is seen with the eye of the flesh; the truth is apprehended by the purity of faith; the power is perceived through the merit of faith by means of bodily reception. What is seen according to appearance is the sacrament and image of the other; what is believed according to the truth of the body is the sacrament of that which is received according to spiritual grace. And since these three are there in one, in the first indeed is found the sign of the second, in the second the cause of the third, in the third the power of the second and the truth of the first; and the appearance of that thing is manifest whose substance is not present, and the substance is hidden whose form does not appear. These, therefore, are what those three steps signify which we placed beneath the heifer.

100. But because these three in one sacrament are also one sacrament, I draw a line across those same three steps and join them together. At the bronze basin I place two priests on either side, one washing his hands, the other his feet. These two priests allegorically designate the priesthood of the Jews and of holy Church. The priest who washes his hands represents the priests of the Old Testament; for whom, as they were about to celebrate bodily sacrifices, it was sufficient to cleanse their outward works, which outward works are designated by the hands. The other priest, who washes his feet, represents the priests of our own time; for whom, since they are about to offer daily to the Father the true body and blood of Christ for the remission of sins, it should not be sufficient to cleanse themselves outwardly from crimes and wickedness, unless they also purge themselves inwardly from impure affections. This cleansing of inner affections is denoted by the washing of feet. For the feet of the mind are its affections, by which it advances with as many steps as it extends itself through desire toward the things it covets. For to will to do something is already to go in the mind. Outside the tent also, to the east, Moses is stationed holding in his hand the tablets of the Decalogue, the prophecy which he uttered about Christ, and directing words to the priests who are washing themselves, he addresses them thus, saying: Wash yourselves, be clean (Isa. 1:16). Because the law given to us through Moses rouses us to spiritual purification. To whom one of them responds saying: I will wash my hands among the innocent (Ps. 26:6). The other says: "Wash my feet as I enter the house of God," because we must spiritually obey the precepts of the law. On the other side is Aaron, and he says: I will go in to the altar of God (Ps. 43:4). He also, opening the entrance of the tent and wishing to enter, addresses the Levite who sacrifices the heifer, saying: Offer to God a sacrifice of praise (Ps. 50:14). To whom that same Levite responds: I will voluntarily sacrifice to you, O Lord (Ps. 54:8). For that Aaron should say this is for the holy priesthood, which we venerate, to rouse us to the mortification of the flesh both by words and examples. And we indeed respond what the Levite responds in this place, if we offer humble assent to the exhortations of holy prelates. Let these things be said allegorically for the present about the things pertaining to the altar of burnt offering and the bronze basin.

Chapter XI. On the curtains of the courts and their columns.

101. From here I turn my hand to the courts which surround the tabernacle, and beginning from that column next to which Aaron enters while drawing back the veil, going around through the middle of the curtains themselves in one stroke up to the column which is opposite Moses, I write this verse: The curtains of the tabernacle, made of twisted linen, are the first rudiments of beginners, who restrain the enticements of both flesh and spirit. For just as the Holy of Holies designates that part which is in heaven, and the Holy Place typically announces the perfect life of the faithful dwelling in this present age; so the court of the tabernacle which was on the outside represents the first rudiments of beginners. These were well made of twisted linen, because the first care to be taken by beginners is to restrain the enticements of both flesh and spirit. And because that width of the court which faces east expresses the beginning of our good way of life, which proceeds from faith, therefore above those curtains to the east, from that column which is next to the calf up to that which is next to the lion, in one stroke I write this verse: The width of the court facing east is the beginning of a good way of life, starting from faith. And because the other width of the court, which faces the setting of the sun, where, when the labor of the day is ended, the grace of sleep succeeds in the night, signifies that time when, after death with the active life ceasing, the rest and eternal reward of the saints is hoped for, therefore above those curtains to the west, from that column which is next to the man up to that which is next to the eagle, in one stroke beneath the icons of the Gershonites I write this verse: The width of the court facing west is the rest and eternal reward of the elect after death.

102. Again, because the columns before which the curtains we are speaking of hang designate the holy preachers who preside over the peoples of the faithful, therefore from that column which is opposite the arm of Aaron up to that which is opposite Moses, in one stroke going around below the curtains and columns I write this verse: The columns holding up the curtains on high are the holy Doctors, drawing the hearts of their listeners out of earthly contagion and lifting them to heavenly desires; and stretching them carefully like the garment of the Lord, lest any duplicity be able to exist in them. Likewise, beginning from the column which is opposite Moses up to that next to which Aaron draws back the veil, beneath the curtain which hangs there I write this verse: The entrance of the court is the entrance of holy Church. For this is what is designated by the entrance of the court. From that column which is next to the lion up to that which is positioned next to the man, lengthwise through the middle of the Kohathites I place this title: The court having one hundred cubits in length is holy Church, taking upon itself the labor of patience and temporal continence for the sake of eternal life in heaven. From the other side, from the column next to the eagle through the middle of the Merarites up to that which is erected next to the calf, I write this title: The Church has one hundred cubits in length, which lifts its arms to good works for the sake of eternal life. With the courts thus titled on every side, because through holy Scripture, to which the seven arts are subordinate, holy Church is protected and fortified against the incursions of errors, along three sides of these same courts at the tops of the columns I write all the books of both the Old and New Testaments together with the seven arts which they call liberal; so that in the four corners of them the four evangelists are depicted: to the east the lion, to rouse us at the dawn of holy living to the strength of good works; to the south the man, to lead us through the breath of the Holy Spirit to the reasoning of the mind; to the west the eagle, to illumine us through contemplation against the setting of virtues; to the north the calf, to exhort us to the mortification of the flesh against the suggestions of the ancient enemy, who is represented by the north.

Chapter XII. On the clerics of the Old and New Testaments.

103. After this, around the circuit of these curtains of the court of which we have spoken, by drawing a certain large line somewhat far from it in a square, I make a certain large quadrangle which encompasses all the things mentioned above placed within it. Within this quadrangle, I place Moses and Aaron to the east, and above Moses an archbishop in the same quadrangle with his archdeacon; and above Aaron I paint a bishop with his archdeacon likewise. To the south also, next to the line of the curtain, in the middle I place a certain large icon of a man with the name Kohath inscribed above his head, and next to him his sons the Kohathites: namely six on the right lengthwise and six on the left, and above them one priest celebrating Mass at the altar; and a deacon vested in a dalmatic, offering him a chalice at the altar, I paint in two places on either side. To the north, next to the line of the curtain, I write the name Merari with his icon, and the icons of his sons six on the right lengthwise and six on the left, apart from them. To the west I place the name Gershon with his icon, and the icons of his sons four on the right and four on his left, apart from them. Again I turn my hand to the east, and above Moses and Aaron, between the archbishop and the bishop and their archdeacons of whom we spoke above, I write the Patriarch of Jerusalem with his icon, by whom the bishops of the faith were consecrated. To the south, above Kohath, the Patriarch of Antioch, rousing on one side a Levite and on the other a priest, as if recently ordained by him, to preaching, extending to the priest a scroll on which is written: Cry out, do not cease, raise your voice like a trumpet (Isa. 58:1); and with the text of the Gospel, I place another scroll for the Levite, on which is written: Preach the word, be urgent in season and out of season (2 Tim. 4:2). To the north, above Merari, I place the Patriarch of Aquileia with his icon, extending a maniple to a subdeacon and a candle to an acolyte at their ordination. To the west also, above Gershon, I place the Patriarch of Alexandria with his icon, ordaining an exorcist, a lector, and a doorkeeper, and extending three scrolls to those three: one to the exorcist, on which is written: Receive and have the power of laying hands upon those possessed by demons, and upon catechumens; another to the lector, on which is written: Receive and be relators of the word of God; and a third to the doorkeeper, on which is written: Act as one about to render an account to God for the things which are kept under these keys; to whom he also gives a key.

104. With the Levites of the Old and New Testaments thus arranged around the tabernacle, I make their inscriptions in this manner. To the east, between the curtain and Moses and Aaron, from one corner to the other, I write this verse: These are Moses and Aaron, who with their sons keep watch in the guardianship of the tabernacle (Num. 1:53), having the custody of the sanctuary. Above this verse, from one corner to the other, to explain this verse between the bishops and archdeacons through the patriarch, I write this verse: These are they who preside over holy Church, freely bestowing blessings and promotions of spiritual degrees. For archbishops and bishops, having the custody of the spiritual sanctuary, that is, of holy Church, and keeping watch in its guardianship with their archdeacons and chief ministers and treasurers, consecrate basilicas, anoint altars, prepare chrism, have the imposition of hands and the common blessing over the people; they distribute ecclesiastical offices and orders, and also bless holy virgins. To the south, through the middle of the sons of Kohath from one corner to the other, is written in one stroke this verse: These are the Kohathites, who when the camp moved carried on their own shoulders with poles those holy things which were in the tabernacle (Num. 4:15). And a little above this verse, over the heads of the Kohathites themselves, I place this number: Two thousand, seven hundred, fifty (Num. 4:36). So many were the sons of Kohath from thirty years old and above up to the fiftieth year, who encamped to the south of the tabernacle. Above, over the heads of the priests and deacons, and through the patriarch, in one stroke from east to west I write this verse: These are they who in holy Church confect the sacraments of Christ, and distribute what has been confected to the people of God, baptizing and preaching the word of life. For priests ought to confect the body and blood of Christ; deacons ought to distribute what has been confected to the Christian people, and both ought to preach, catechize, and baptize. To the north also, from one corner to the other, through the middle of the sons of Merari, in one stroke I write this verse: These are the Merarites, carrying the boards of the tabernacle, and the bases, columns, and bars (Num. 4:31). Above this verse, over the heads of the Merarites themselves, I place this number: Three thousand, two hundred. Further above, over the heads: Those offering the vessels of the body and blood of Christ at the altar, reading the epistle, and showing to their neighbors the works of light. For the subdeacons, who are called hypodiakoni in Greek, serve under the Levites; they themselves offer the vessels of the body and blood at the altar, and hold the water pitcher, towel, and hand-cloth for the bishop. The acolytes, while the Gospel is read, hold candles, whence they are called ceroferarii in Latin, not to illuminate the darkness of this air, but so that, just as they carry a visible light in their hands, so they may show the works of light to their neighbors.

105. To the west also, from one corner to the other, through the middle of the sons of Gershon, in one stroke I write this verse: These are the Gershonites, carrying the tabernacle and the curtains of the court, the coverings of the walls and roof (Num. 4:25). Above this verse, over the heads of the Gershonites themselves, I place this number: Two thousand six hundred thirty (Num. 4:40). And a little above this verse, from south to north, over the heads of the doorkeepers, lectors, and exorcists, and through the patriarch, in one stroke I write this verse: These are they who guard the doors of the Church, minister the word of God, and cast unclean spirits from those possessed. For the doorkeepers, who in the Old Testament were called janitors, guard the keys of the Church, at the appropriate hours they unlock and open the temple, receive the faithful, and do not admit the unfaithful and the excommunicated. The lectors also announce the word of God and recite the prophetic readings in the Church. The exorcists perform the sacraments of opening over catechumens, having spiritual authority over unclean spirits to cast them out from those possessed. Of all these icons, of both Old and New Testament clerics, I fittingly paint the images around the circuit of the court curtains: a priest celebrates Mass at the altar; a deacon offers him the chalice; a subdeacon reads the epistle; an acolyte holds a lit candle in his hands; a doorkeeper holding a key opens the door; a lector recites the reading; an exorcist casts an unclean spirit from a man. In this way, therefore, I have arranged the ministers of both the Old and New Testaments around the tabernacle.

106. After all these things, to the east above the Patriarch of Jerusalem I place the name and image of Peter the Apostle, the Prince of the other apostles. Whence he was also called Cephas by the Lord, having keys in his hand delivered to him by the Lord; with which whatever he bound on earth was bound also in heaven, and whatever he loosed on earth will be loosed also in heaven (Matt. 16:19). After Peter, within a certain quadrangle which extends all around on every side up to the same image of Peter, are placed the icons of other apostolic men who were successors of his apostolic see in the Roman Church after him, holding in their hands the same keys; so that the names of each are placed beneath the individual icons, in this manner.

Peter, Linus, Cletus, Clement, Anacletus, Evaristus, Alexander, Sixtus, Telesphorus, Hyginus, Pius, Anicetus, Soter, Eleutherius, Victor, Zephyrinus, Callixtus, Urban, Pontian, Anterus, Fabian, Cornelius, Lucius, Stephen, Sixtus, Dionysius, Felix, Eutychian, Gaius, Marcellinus, Marcellus, Eusebius, Miltiades, Sylvester, Mark, Julius, Liberius, Felix, Libertus, Damasus, Siricius, Anastasius, Innocent, Zosimus, Boniface, Celestine, Sixtus, Leo, Hilary, Simplicius, Felix, Gelasius, Anastasius, Symmachus, Hormisdas, John, Felix, Boniface, John, Agapetus, Silverius, Vigilius, Pelagius, John, Benedict, Pelagius, Gregory, Sabinian, Boniface, Adeodatus, Boniface, Honorius, Severinus, John, Theodore, Martin, Eugene, Vitalian, Adeodatus, Domnus, Agatho, Leo, Benedict, John, Conon, Sergius, John, John, Sisinnius, Constantine, Gregory, Gregory, Zacharias, Stephen, Paul, Constantine, Stephen, Adrian, Leo, Stephen, Paschal, Eugene, Valentine, Gregory, Sergius, Leo, Benedict, Paul, Stephen, Nicholas, Adrian, John, Martin, Adrian, Stephen, Formosus, Boniface, Stephen, Romanus, Theodore, John, Benedict, Leo, Sergius, Anastasius, Lando, John, Leo, Stephen, Martin, Agapetus, John, Leo, Benedict, John, Benedict, Domnus, Boniface, Benedict, John, John, Gregory, John, Sylvester (who was also Gerbert), John, John, Sergius, Benedict, John, Benedict, Sylvester, Gregory, Clement, Damasus, Leo, Victor, Stephen, Benedict, Nicholas, Alexander, Gregory, Victor, Urban, Paschal, Gelasius, Callixtus, Honorius, Innocent, Celestine, Lucius, Eugene, Anastasius, Adrian, Alexander.

These apostolic men, together with Peter, whose place they hold and whose office they exercise, we have placed in so lofty a position for this reason: because they are the heads of the holy universal Church and the prelates of all its prelates. For ecclesiastical custom is accustomed to call them popes, that is, fathers of the Fathers, and has established that they should be so called. For they are the principal and greatest successors of the apostolic see in the Roman Church; whence holy Church has been accustomed to call them especially "apostolics." We have therefore placed them in our painting above all persons of the Church in eminent and highest places, on certain lofty thrones and sublime consistories, because with them presiding in the place of blessed Peter the Prince of the Apostles, the entire ecclesiastical order must obey them; for they alone, by the singular prerogative of their exalted dignity, hold the keys of binding and loosing all things upon the earth.

107. Then on the saffron line itself, which below these apostolic men encompasses all things enclosed within it, in one stroke around the circuit I write this verse: The total of the Levites, who from thirty years and above up to the fiftieth year were counted for ministering to the Lord, was eight thousand six hundred eighty (Num. 4:48). For so many they were. And indeed the new Levites also spiritually contain this number in themselves, while they diligently strive to perfectly observe in themselves the incorruption and purity of the five senses in the hope of the future resurrection. For in sacred Scripture it is customary for the number five to signify the five bodily senses; the hundred for perfection; the eight for resurrection; and the thousand, which contains all numbers within itself and beyond which there is no number, for that full exhibition of divine promises which surpasses every desire. That exhibition, namely, which the Lord in the Gospel calls a good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and overflowing (Luke 6:38). Which Isaiah also says neither eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor has it entered into the heart of man (Isa. 64:4). Of which the Apostle briefly says: And God will be all in all (1 Cor. 15:28). Therefore the spiritual ministers of our time are five hundred insofar as they live holily; they are eighty insofar as they believe rightly; and they are eight thousand insofar as they strive to have both right faith and holy conduct in order that they may attain the full blessedness which the just Judge will give to his elect after the general resurrection of the dead. Therefore at the end of this long verse, which in this saffron line is written in one stroke from Peter the Apostle back to the same Peter, I have placed three steps, one corresponding to eighty, the second to five hundred, the third to eight thousand: so that this number may be shown to pertain to the ministers of holy Church. And between the eighty I write: Right faith; and between the five hundred: Holy life; and between the eight thousand: Full blessedness. Because the ministers of holy Church both believe rightly here and live holily, and there will have full blessedness. After this, from one side of the image of Peter to the other side of the same image, all around in one stroke in a certain squared line which extends from the aforesaid image to the same image, I write this verse: These are the special fathers of the holy universal Church, and the prelates of all its prelates; presiding over all the children of holy Mother Church and holding by special prerogative of dignity the keys of binding and loosing all things, the entire ecclesiastical order must obey them upon the earth; because this verse is distinguished by two steps at its beginning, through which those keys are expressed. For the keys which were conferred by the Lord upon Peter and his successors are nothing other than the power of opening and closing, and the discernment between those to be admitted and those to be excluded.

Chapter XIII. On the faithful laity of both eras.

108. With the clergy thus ordered around the tabernacle, I arrange the faithful laity around the same tabernacle, but outside the clergy; because of course the faithful laity, although they do not have a spiritual office in the tabernacle of holy Church as clerics do, nevertheless belong to it through faith and good works. First, therefore, I place the laity of ancient times by their tribes around the aforesaid tabernacle, within a certain large quadrangle which I now make, through its four sides with their names and icons, with three tribes distributed to each side in their middle place. To the east is placed Judah; on one side of him Issachar, and on the other Zebulun. To the south, Reuben with Simeon and Gad. To the west, Manasseh with Ephraim and Benjamin. To the north also, Dan with Asher and Naphtali. It should be noted that three tribes are placed in the middle of each side around the circuit; at each side also, below the icons themselves, the number of men of those same tribes from twenty years old and above is written. To the east: one hundred eighty-six thousand, four hundred. To the south: one hundred fifty-one thousand, four hundred fifty. To the west: one hundred eight thousand, one hundred. To the north: fifty-seven thousand, six hundred. And which tribes pitched camp on one side around the tabernacle, and which on another, I place beneath the tribes themselves. Then to the east, where three tribes are positioned, I paint married couples celebrating their nuptials and lawfully using the undefiled marriage bed. To the south also I paint the same householder in two places: in one offering food to the hungry, in the other giving drink to the thirsty. To the west the same householder is depicted twice: here clothing the naked, there taking in a stranger -- that is, leading a pilgrim into his house. To the north, in one part the same man visits the sick; in another he consoles a prisoner who has his hands and feet bound. These are indeed the six works of mercy which the Lord specifically enumerates in the Gospel: in which the perfection of good works is signified. Through these works the faithful laity, lawfully possessing earthly goods, dwelling in the four parts of the world, stationed as it were through the four sides of the tabernacle, persist in them and show compassion to their neighbors for God's sake, that they may deserve to find mercy from the Lord himself. After this, to the east through the middle of the icons from one corner to the other, in one stroke I write this verse: These are they who, in lawful marriages and an undefiled bed, lawfully using the world, belong to the tabernacle on account of the six works of mercy which they practice. To the south, from east to west, I write this verse: These are they who feed Christ hungry in his members, and give drink to him when thirsty. To the west, from one corner to the other, in one stroke is written this verse: These are they who cover Christ naked in his members, and take in the stranger. To the north, in one stroke from west to east this verse is found: These are they who visit Christ sick in his members, and console him when imprisoned.

110. After this, to the east I paint the Roman Emperor, wearing a golden diadem on his head, holding in one hand a drawn sword and in the other a golden scepter, with a golden ring on his finger, a golden bracelet likewise on his right arm, and the emperor himself clothed in purple: because just as the Lord Pope is the head of the clergy, so the emperor is the head of the laity. And just as the Lord Pope has patriarchs or primates, archbishops and bishops, and other ecclesiastical prelates under him who govern holy Church under him, so the emperor has other powers under him: namely dukes and counts, magistrates and judges, prefects and princes, who exercise right justice under him according to the institutions of the laws and reasonable customs. This image which is visibly depicted in this place signifies the great and illustrious Emperor Constantine, who in first place after the two Emperors Philip, who were the first Christians among the Roman emperors and who were ensnared by the treachery of their successor Decius and killed in various places -- with such devotion he received the faith, and with such fervor of mind he obtained the grace of baptism, that in true confession and holy living he converted himself with his whole heart to the true and living God, being most Christian and most faithful, devoutly building churches, holding the servants of God and the ministers of the sacred altar in great reverence and honor, and commanding by public edict that throughout the entire Roman empire the temples of idols should be closed and churches built. About whom blessed Pope Gregory thus writes to Ethelbert, king of the English: Constantine, that most pious emperor, calling the Roman state back from the perverse worship of idols, subjected it together with himself to almighty God, our Lord Jesus Christ, and turned himself with all his mind, together with the peoples subject to him, to him. Whence it came about that that man surpassed the fame of the ancient princes with his own praises, and exceeded his predecessors as much in reputation as he surpassed them in good works. Indeed it is incredible to recall how quickly by his zeal holy Church grew far and wide throughout the whole world, and how great was his ardor for the expense of building churches. For when by public edict churches were being built throughout his entire empire, he himself most lavishly contributed money from the royal treasuries to accomplish this. He even wrote to the individual cities of his realm that the people should provide for the bishops from the royal treasury, so that the holy churches might be completed. For his spirit burned with the faith of God, and his benign and merciful nature was nourished by good works.

111. After this Constantine of whom we speak, within a certain quadrangle which extends around the circuit up to the same Constantine, the icons of other emperors are placed, decorated with the same insignia, so that the names of each are written beneath their individual icons. Julian the Apostate, too, the son of a certain Constantius, brother of Constantine the Great through his father Constantine but not through his mother Helena, we do not depict among these emperors; because although some of the other emperors consented to heretics and, deceived by their errors, frequently and gravely afflicted the servants of God, nevertheless none of them, having become entirely pagan, defiled himself with the worship of idols. But this man, having been made emperor after being a cleric, shamelessly washing away holy baptism with the blood of sacrifices, did everything by which demons are accustomed to be appeased. For he unlocked the temples of the pagans and became a more cunning persecutor of Christians than all other persecutors. For not by force or torments, but by rewards, honors, flatteries, and persuasions he conquered a greater part of the people than if he had struck them savagely: for he said that the belt of military service, the administration of provinces, and the office of judging should not be entrusted to Christians, inasmuch as their own law had forbidden them to use the sword. Whence he afterward commanded soldiers by public edict either to sacrifice or to leave the military. On account of these and his other manifold impieties, therefore, we do not place him among the other emperors in our painting, since we are well aware that he does not belong to the tabernacle of the Church. We carry these emperors down to Constantine, the son of Irene, after whom the Roman empire devolved to the kings of the Franks. For the great and glorious king of the Franks, Charles, son of King Pippin and Queen Bertrada, having been asked by Pope Adrian, entered Italy against Desiderius king of the Lombards, captured Pavia, killed Desiderius, and subjugated all of Lombardy to himself. The same man also afterward, entering Rome, was the first from the nation of the Franks to assume the name of Empire and Augustus there, and sent into exile those who had dishonored Pope Leo. And so after Constantine, the son of Irene, we place the kings of the Franks, going back to earlier times and beginning with Clovis, who was the sixth king of the Franks and the first of the kings of that nation to be baptized by blessed Remigius, and we carry them down to Louis the son of Lothaire, who, made king after being a cleric, was captured by the Franks and perished at Laon: in whom the lineage of Charlemagne among the kings of the Franks came to an end.

112. After this Louis, we place the kings of the Franks who were of the family of Hugh Capet; and we carry them down to the present Philip, son of Louis, who was the son of Louis, who was the son of Philip, who was the son of Henry, who was the son of Robert, who was the son of Hugh Capet. After this Philip we place the kings of England, leading them from the most Christian king Alfred down to this Henry the Third, son of Henry the Second. And after this Henry we place certain kings of the Scots, from Malcolm, who took in marriage the most Christian Queen Margaret -- who was the mother of the most excellent Queen Matilda, wife of Henry the First, king of England, and mother of the Empress Matilda, who afterward married Geoffrey Count of Anjou and bore to him Henry the Second, king of England, and father of this Henry the Third, king of England -- we carry them down to this William king of the Scots, whose father was Earl Henry; his father was the pious King David, whose mother was the most holy woman Margaret, the most excellent queen of the Scots, surpassing the splendor of her name by the sanctity of her conduct. Her father was Edward, who was the son of the most invincible King Edmund, whose father was Ethelred, whose father was Edgar the Peaceful, whose father was Edmund, whose father was Edward the Elder, whose father was the noble Alfred, who was the son of King Ethelwulf, who was the son of King Ecgberht, whose father was Ealhmund, whose father was Eafa, whose father was Eoppa, whose father was Ingild, whose brother was the most famous King Ine by name: whose father was Coenred, who was the son of Ceolwald, who was the son of Cutha, who was the son of Cuthwine, who was the son of Ceawlin, who was the son of Cynric, who was the son of Cerdic, who was the son of Cerdic, who was the son of Elesa, who was the son of Elsa, who was the son of Gewis. He was the head of his nation, from whom that whole people received its name: whose father was Wig, whose father was Freawine, whose father was Frithugar, whose father was Brand; whose father was Baeldaeg, whose father was Woden, who was the son of Frealaf, who was the son of Frealaf, who was the son of Frithuwulf, who was the son of Finn, who was the son of Godwulf, who was the son of Geat, who was the son of Beaw, who was the son of Sceldwa, who was the son of Heremod, who was the son of Itermon, who was the son of Hathra, who was the son of Hwala, who was the son of Bedwig, who was the son of Shem, whose father was Noah, whose father was Lamech, whose father was Methuselah, whose father was Enoch, whose father was Jared, who was the son of Mahalalel, who was the son of Cainan, who was the son of Enosh, who was the son of Seth, who was the son of Adam, the father of all. Seth was born in place of Abel, whom Cain killed. Just as the passion of Christ was figured in Abel, so also the resurrection of Christ is figured in Seth. For Seth is a Hebrew name and in the Latin language means "resurrection."

113. From this Seth, therefore, the genealogy is traced down to Enoch, who, translated alive by God, awaits the coming of Antichrist with holy Elijah. From there one comes to Noah, who alone with his sons and their wives, when the world was perishing, merited to be saved: whose firstborn Shem merited to be blessed by his father. The Hebrews say that he was a priest of the most high God, and was afterward called Melchizedek, who in a figure of our priesthood offered bread and wine. Whence it is also said to Christ in the Psalms: You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek (Ps. 110:4). From this Shem, therefore, the genealogy is traced down to Woden, who was of such authority among his own people that they consecrated to his name the fourth day of the week, which the pagan Romans called the day of Mercury. This custom is preserved by the English to this day; for they call the same day Wodnesdei [now Wednesday], that is, the day of Woden. Furthermore, from Woden the line of kinship extends to Geat, who was himself held to be of such wisdom and virtue that he was worshipped as a god by the pagans. From there one proceeds to the most Christian kings of England, Ingild and Ine. Of whom Ine, when he was the most powerful of the kings of England, leaving his kingdom, set out as a pilgrim to Rome; and there, living happily as a pilgrim, at last he ascended more happily to the heavenly mansion. From Ingild the line of kinship extends to Ecgberht, who was of such probity that he brought under his own rule all of England south of the Humber, which had until then been subject to several kings in division, and so was called the first monarch of all England. His son was Ethelwulf, certainly the most splendid head of his future line, and the most precious root from which the holiest fruits would spring. Though in an earthly kingdom, he was always meditating on heavenly things, so that it was plainly given to understand that he was not conquered by greed but moved by charity, consulting the needs of others by ruling, not satisfying his own will by dominating. For he was a father of orphans and a judge of widows, a defender of churches, a founder of monasteries. He was so devoted to almsgiving that he tithed his entire land for Christ and divided the tenth part among churches and monasteries. At length, having set out for Rome with great preparation, he stayed there an entire year, frequenting the holy places, devoting himself to prayers and vigils, and distributing many alms to the poor. He also bestowed very many gifts with royal munificence upon the churches of the most blessed apostles Peter and Paul and upon the supreme pontiff himself; and so, returning to England with the wages of many virtues, after two years he wisely divided the kingdom among his sons, distributed the poor to be fed and clothed throughout his individual territories, mercifully dispersed his treasures and gave to the poor, of which no small portion he assigned to the churches of the apostles at Rome and to the bishop of the supreme see; and so in a good old age he was gathered to his fathers, certainly not losing a kingdom but exchanging one: leaving a temporal kingdom behind and gaining an eternal one.

114. His son was that glory of the English, the jewel of kings, the pattern of virtues, Alfred, younger in age than his elder brothers, but more advanced in virtue. Hence he was loved by his father more than all his brothers, on account of the likeness of their characters and the privilege of a certain special grace, which already shone forth wonderfully in him while still a boy. Hence his father, when he was still a little boy, sent him to Rome with many soldiers and the greatest gifts, that he might be commended to the prayers of the holy apostles and blessed by the supreme pontiff. The venerable high priest Leo, who then presided over the Roman Church, contemplating the countenance and bearing of the boy, when he had perceived in him the presence of divine majesty by the signs of sparkling virtues, anticipating the time and age of reigning with the sacrament of royal anointing, just as once holy Samuel anointed the boy David, so this most holy bishop most devoutly consecrated him as king. Afterward, returning to Rome with his father, he merited to be a cooperator and helper in all his father's good works. From almost his very infancy he found it sweet to read and learn, assiduous around churches, most frequent in prayers, obedient to his parents, humble and devoted to his companions. He meditated in his boyish years on what as a devoted old man he would fulfill. Indeed, a certain portion of the Psalter in which he especially delighted, written in a small volume, he always carried about in his bosom, so that what his inner breast ruminated upon would not depart from the breast of his outer man. When, after the death of his brothers with whom he had reigned for some time, the entire kingdom had passed to him by hereditary right, though higher than all, he became the servant of all, so that he could say with the Prophet: I was exalted, but then humbled and troubled (Ps. 88:16). He showed himself so lovable to the good, so terrible to the wicked, so respectful to the ministers of churches, so pleasant to friends and companions, so mild and generous to the poor, that he seemed aptly suited to the characters of all men, useful and necessary to all; and -- what is now rarely found on earth -- he believed that the greatest dignity of a king was to have no power in the churches of Christ. This, he said, is the true dignity of the ruler: if he recognizes that in the kingdom of Christ, which is the Church, he is not king but citizen; if he does not lord it over priests by his laws, but humbly subjects himself to the laws of Christ which the priests have promulgated. Moreover, he took the very greatest care that the poor should not be oppressed by the sheriffs and officials, and burdened with unjust exactions. Hence his name became celebrated throughout the whole world, even in the great city of Rome; because he often sent many donations and most generous alms to the churches of the Apostles and to the supreme pontiff himself. The supreme pontiff, gladly embracing such devotion, moved by his pious prayers, absolved the Saxon school from all tribute and tax, and also transmitted many gifts and moreover a portion of the wood of the Lord's Cross to the king. The Patriarch of Jerusalem also, hearing of his fame, honored the king with precious gifts. Of the annual revenue that was paid to him, he ordered a most just distribution, so that a third part should be assigned to the wages of soldiers, a third part should be returned as the prince's recompense, and a third part should be kept for royal gifts, which he was accustomed to bestow most munificently upon those who came, both rich and poor. King Alfred, therefore, having reigned twenty-nine years and six months, passed from his earthly kingdom to the heavenly kingdom, leaving his son Edward as heir of both his realm and his character.

115. He was inferior to his father in knowledge of letters, but not much less in holiness, and superior in power. For he extended the borders of his kingdom much more widely than his father, founded new cities, and renewed those that were destroyed. The most impious nation of the Danes, which his father had not repelled, rebelling against him, he either drove out completely, crushed in many battles, or suppressed in wretched servitude, and restored the entire face of the island to its ancient beauty. From then on he reigned with such modesty and judged his subjects between neighbor and neighbor with such justice that he seemed not only to be unwilling but even unable to do anything against the truth. Whence it is reported that, angry with certain people, he said: "I tell you, if I could, I would have taken revenge." What could a king not do against his subjects, a master against his servants, the powerful against the weak, a general against his soldiers? But whatever equity did not dictate, whatever justice did not permit, whatever was opposed to truth, whatever did not befit royal gentleness, he believed to be impossible for himself. He himself founded a new monastery, and his mother, the most holy woman Ealhswith, built a monastery of virgins in the same city. King Edward lived in his reign twenty-four years and begot sons and daughters from the most noble woman Edwina: his firstborn son Athelstan from Queen Ecgwynn, Edwin, Edmund, Eadred, and four daughters, of whom the first, Eadburh, was chosen and consecrated as a bride of God; the second was taken in marriage by Otto, emperor of the Romans; the third was destined to be led away by Charles king of the Franks; the fourth was taken in marriage by the king of the Northumbrians. King Edward slept with his fathers, and his son Athelstan reigned in his place: And he walked in the ways of his fathers; he did not turn to the right or to the left (2 Chron. 34:2); maintaining the same faith, the same grace toward his subjects, devotion toward churches, mercy toward the poor, and reverence toward the priests of God. When he had lived sixteen years he died, and his brother Edmund reigned in his place. He was in all things an imitator of his father Edward, a simple and upright man, fearing God (Job 2:3), and persevering in his innocence to the end of his life. Promoted to the kingdom, he was zealous with zeal for the faith of Christ, and most grievously bearing that the remnants of pagans should defile the beauty of his kingdom with the worship of idols, he wrested from their hands five most noble cities -- Lincoln, Leicester, Stafford, Nottingham, and Derby -- which they had until then inhabited; and having scraped away all infidelity, he illumined them with the light of the Christian faith. With the kingdom purged of foreigners and subjected to him in every part, he took the greatest care of monasteries and churches, and with the counsel of the most holy Dunstan he established what needed to be established and corrected what needed to be corrected. Hence he committed Glastonbury to blessed Dunstan to be founded as a habitation for monks; and with holy Dunstan's cooperation he arranged many other good things. When therefore England was flourishing in great peace under so great a father and great king, it suddenly withered with grief and fear at his premature death, which, after five years and five months in the reign, he suffered through an abominable act of treachery.

116. His brother Eadred succeeded him in the kingdom, and he walked in the ways of his brother, obedient in all things to the counsels of blessed Dunstan and governing his subjects with the most just laws. He was also of such probity that he easily conquered the Northumbrians and Scots who rebelled against him and reduced them to their former subjection without great effort. A precious death concluded his praiseworthy life: for when blessed Dunstan was being called to the ailing king, on the very journey he heard the voice of angels saying: King Eadred has now fallen asleep in the Lord. After him Edward, son of King Edmund, received the kingdom of the English; when he died, his brother Edgar succeeded him; for he was the son of the most noble King Edmund, who was the son of Edward the Elder, that most Christian prince, who was the son of Alfred, that most victorious leader. This Edgar, more fortunate than all his predecessors, inferior to none in holiness, surpassing all in the sweetness of his character, shone in his days like the morning star and like the full moon. He was no less memorable to the English than Cyrus to the Persians, Charles to the Franks, or Romulus to the Romans. For he composed the kingdom of the English in a kind of heavenly peace and united peoples of many tongues under the law of one covenant. Hence he shared a title with Solomon, so that he was called by the common voice of all "the Peaceful," which is what Solomon means. Nor is this surprising: for at the very time of his birth blessed Dunstan heard angels singing: Peace for the Church of the English, in the time of this boy who has been born. Just as the dawn drives away the darkness of the past night with the rays of its brightness, so by the promotion of this most holy king the night of unbelief was banished throughout all England, and the shadows of wrath and discord were driven away. For he displayed such signs of inner sweetness in his words, his countenance, and his conduct, that with God cooperating the whole Island surrendered to him without bloodshed, and Scotland, Northumbria, and Wales gladly hastened to submit to him. For with him reigning, the sun seemed more serene, the waves of the sea more peaceful, the earth more fruitful, and the face of the entire realm more beautiful with more abundant splendor. In those days neither the censure of punishments, nor exile, nor proscription was feared -- only the slightest displeasure of the good prince. With all throughout England therefore running together in the same spirit of love, the king devoted his care and effort to building and ordering churches, to founding and enriching monasteries. Finally throughout the kingdom of England he had forty monasteries built, and assigned some to monks, others to virgins. Glastonbury, which his father had founded, he himself completed. Abingdon, Peterborough, Thorney, Ramsey, and the nunnery at Winchester he founded with great zeal and distinguished with much diligence. At Winchester, the church in the new monastery which his father had begun and which he himself completed, he had dedicated with the greatest honor. In winter and spring he was accustomed to travel within his kingdom to every province: to investigate more carefully the judgments, conduct, and acts of his officials and nobles, to scrutinize more closely how the rights of the laws and the statutes of his decrees were being observed, and to take careful precautions lest the poor should be oppressed by the powerful through unjust treatment. He had prepared very strong ships, three thousand six hundred in number, in which, with the return of summer, he was accustomed to circumnavigate the entire Island with the greatest display, to the terror of foreigners and for the training of his own men. Amidst all this he was always conferring with bishops and most learned men about the law of God and sacred letters, and what he could learn himself he strove to teach his subjects not only by word but also by example.

117. But alas! In human affairs nothing is stable, nothing immovable in things that are transient, nothing eternal in temporal things, nothing immortal among mortals. For when King Edgar was translated to heavenly things, his son Edward succeeded him in the earthly kingdom: who, unjustly killed by the wicked, by God's gift merited both the name and the merit of a saint, both on account of the holiness of his life and the cruelty of his death. His brother Ethelred, the son of Edgar, succeeded him in government and kingdom, and was anointed and consecrated by Saint Dunstan the archbishop and the other bishops of the English. He is said to have received this prophecy from Saint Dunstan: Since the English have conspired against the blood of your brother the most holy king, blood and the sword shall not cease from them until a people of an unknown tongue comes upon them and reduces them to destruction and to the last servitude. But in the end the Lord will visit them. When the aforesaid king was reigning, the Danes came upon them and devastated a great part of the land with fire and sword. Then the king, sending messengers to Normandy, both sought and received Emma, daughter of Duke Richard, as his wife -- although he had already received a son Edmund from the daughter of Count Thored, a most noble lord. From Emma he then had two sons, Alfred and Edward, about whom we shall speak later. Then the king, stronger than usual, ordered all the Danes throughout England to be killed on one day and at the same hour by means of dispatched letters. Hearing this, the Danes from overseas, turned to fury, under the leadership of Swein, entering England with an innumerable army, spread through the provinces and were scattered, sparing neither rank, nor sex, nor age, and not keeping their sacrilegious hands from the sacred things and sanctuaries of churches and monasteries. Though the most valiant King Ethelred resisted them often, at length made weaker by the treachery of his own men, he sent the queen with his little sons to Normandy, and afterward, stripped of his kingdom, he followed them himself. But Swein the Dane, either struck down by sudden death or smitten by the invisible punishment of Saint Edmund, having received the wages of his cruelty in the underworld, Ethelred was recalled by the English, reclothed in the insignia of kingship, and again raised up strong in valor against the Danes. Against him Cnut, son of Swein, king of the Danes, did not cease to exercise his paternal hatred. Ethelred, having reigned most laboriously but most valiantly for thirty-seven years, died at London, leaving his son Edmund as heir of both his labor and his kingdom. Whatever I might say would be too little to do justice to his marvelous fortitude; for on account of the invincible strength of his body he received the name Ironside, that is, "of the iron flank." His arrow never turned back, and his sword did not return empty (2 Sam. 1:22): against his enemies of leonine ferocity, toward his own people of dove-like simplicity; than whom no one was braver, no one more steadfast in adversity, no one more temperate in prosperity.

118. The Danes, then, and those English who had deserted the king elected Cnut as their king; but the most valiant King Edmund, with his army, like a roaring lion going about the land, received into surrender, with no one resisting, very many regions which Cnut had occupied. The most valiant King Edmund died and was buried at Glastonbury with his grandfather Edgar. Then Cnut, wishing to deprive utterly of the hope of the kingdom both the brothers of Edmund who were in exile in Normandy and his little sons Edmund and Edward, but fearing to strike them openly out of shame, sent them to the king of the Swedes to be killed. But the king of the Swedes, taking pity on the distress of the noble boys, decided to send them to the king of the Hungarians. He received them kindly, cherished them more kindly, and most kindly adopted them as sons. He gave his own daughter as wife to Edmund; he joined Edward in marriage to the daughter of his kinsman, the Emperor Henry; but shortly after, Edmund was transferred from temporal things to eternal ones. Edward enjoyed safety and prosperity. Meanwhile, with Cnut and his sons who had reigned after him dead, Edward the brother of Edmund, son of Ethelred, who, as we said, was in exile in Normandy, was summoned to the kingdom of the English: for his brother Alfred had perished by a cruel death in England through the treachery, as was believed, of Godwin. Coming therefore to England, Edward was received by the entire clergy and people with great joy, and at Winchester on the holy day of Easter was anointed and consecrated as king by the archbishops of Canterbury and York and nearly all the bishops of the realm. And he walked in the ways of his father Edgar, a man gentle and pious, protecting his kingdom more by peace than by arms. He had a mind that was victorious over anger, contemptuous of avarice, and free from pride. When he had obtained peace both from his own people and from foreigners and had been pleasing and lovable to neighboring kings and princes, he sent messengers to the Roman Emperor, asking that he might deign to send his nephew -- the son of his brother Edmund Ironside -- the future heir of the kingdom owed to him. The Emperor, graciously receiving the king's messengers, detained them for no little time with the highest honor. At length, having prepared ships and loaded them with everything that seemed necessary for those sailing, he sent Edward with his wife Agatha, daughter of his kinsman, and his children Edgar the Atheling, Margaret, and Christina, to England with great glory and riches, as the king had requested. Coming to England with a favorable voyage, he gladdened both king and people by his arrival. But departing this life after a few days, he changed joy into mourning and laughter into tears. Not long after this, the king himself, having had the noble monastery which he had founded in the western part of London in honor of blessed Peter dedicated with the greatest glory, after twenty-three years and six months and twenty-seven days in the kingdom, on the vigil of the Epiphany ended his praiseworthy life with a happy death and filled the whole Island with tears and grief. When he had been entombed in the aforesaid monastery, as befitted so great a man, some attempted to make Edgar the Atheling, to whom the kingdom was owed by hereditary right, king; but since the boy seemed less fit for so great a burden, Harold the earl, of the race of traitors, whose mind was more cunning, whose purse was richer, and whose soldiers were more numerous, obtained the kingdom under an evil omen.

119. For when William Duke of Normandy heard that not anyone of the royal blood but Harold had usurped the sovereignty of his cousin King Edward -- which was more justly owed to him by right of blood kinship and of the ancient agreement between himself and King Edward, and also by Harold's own sworn pledge -- having assembled an innumerable army from overseas regions, he came to England and by the judgment of God deprived Harold of both his kingdom and his life at once. But Edgar the Atheling, king of the English, seeing everything thrown into confusion, having boarded a ship with his mother and sisters, attempted to return to the country in which he had been born; but when a storm arose at sea, he was compelled to land in Scotland. Through this occasion, however, it came about that Margaret was given in marriage to King Malcolm. A book published about her sufficiently sets forth her praiseworthy life and most precious death. Her sister Christina also was blessed as a bride of Christ. Six sons and two daughters were born to Queen Margaret: of whom Edgar, Alexander, and the splendor of his line David, were kings. Edgar was a sweet and lovable man, in all things like his kinsman King Edward, exercising nothing tyrannical, nothing harsh, nothing avaricious toward his own people, but governing his subjects with the greatest charity and benevolence. Alexander, moreover, was quite humble and lovable to clerics and monks, but exceedingly terrible to the rest of his subjects; a man of great heart, extending himself beyond his strength in all things. He was learned, and most zealous in ordering churches, in seeking out the relics of saints, in preparing and arranging priestly vestments and sacred books: most generous to all who came, even beyond his means, and so devoted to the poor that he seemed to delight in nothing more than in receiving, washing, feeding, and clothing them. King David indeed did not live for himself but for all: taking care of all, looking after the salvation of all, a director of conduct, a censor of crimes, an encourager of virtues: his life was a pattern of humility, a mirror of justice, an example of chastity: a just king, a gentle king, a chaste king, a humble king. Who could easily tell what benefit he conferred upon human life, how much his gentleness made him lovable, his justice made him fearsome, his chastity made him composed, his humility made him accessible. The sister of these men, Matilda, married the most glorious king of England, Henry: whoever wishes to write about her admirable glory and the virtue of her soul, how assiduous and devout she was in divine offices and sacred vigils, and moreover how humble in such great power, will reveal to us a second Esther in our times. The sister of this most blessed woman, Mary by name, was given as wife to Eustace, Count of Boulogne. From this most excellent and most Christian queen was born Matilda, who married first the Roman Emperor, then the most noble Count of Anjou, Geoffrey. From Mary was born Matilda, who was given in marriage to the then Count of Mortain, and afterward King Stephen of England. King David, meanwhile, through the arrangement of King Henry, married Matilda, daughter of Earl Waltheof and Judith, who was the niece of the first King William, from whom he received a son Henry, a gentle and pious man, of pleasant appearance and a pure heart, in every way worthy of being born from such a father.

120. Let the viewers of this painting know that, just as we, because we are in the land of the English and in the kingdom of the Scots, have placed in it the kings of the English and the Scots, so also they themselves, if they should wish to make another painting according to the pattern of this one, can also place in it the most Christian kings of their own regions after the kings of the Franks: with this, however, diligently observed, that the great quadrangle which extends from one side of the image of Constantine the Great to the other should be filled with the icons of Christian kings, with the names of individual kings inscribed above the individual icons. It should also be noted that after the kings who now reign, a space should be reserved, so that it may thereby be clearly understood that the names of those who will succeed them are to be written in those same spaces beneath the icons placed above; because they who now hold the kingdoms last will be the first to give them up. And therefore what we said above about the icons and names of these four apostolic men should be maintained in every respect also in this place regarding the emperors: namely that from one side of Constantine to the other, around the circuit with names placed below, without any intervening space, the icons of emperors and kings should be placed; but those icons which are placed after those who now reign should not have names written beneath them. Therefore we write the names of these rulers -- namely of the Roman Emperors and the kings of the Franks, of the English, and of the Scots -- with the icons of each depicted above in this quadrangle extended all around, in this manner.

121. Constantine the Great, Constantius, Constantine, Constans, Jovian, Valentinian, Valens, Gratian, Valentinian, Theodosius, Arcadius, Honorius, Theodosius, Marcian, Valentinian, Leo, Leo, Zeno, Anastasius, Justin, Justinian, Justin, Tiberius, Maurice, Phocas, Heraclius, Heraclius, Heraclonas, Constantine, Constantine, Justinian, Leontius, Apsimarus, Justinian, Philippicus, Anastasius, Theodosius, Leo, Constantine, Charlemagne, Louis, Lothaire, Louis, Charles, Arnulf, Louis, Conrad, Henry, Otto, Otto, Otto, Henry, Conrad, Henry, Henry, Henry, Lothaire, Conrad, Frederick, Clovis, Theodoric, Chlodomer, Childebert, Clothar, Charibert, Guntram, Childeric, Sigebert, Clothar, Dagobert, Clovis, Clothar, Theodoric, Lothaire, Childebert, Dagobert, Childeric, Theodoric, Pippin, Charles, Louis, Charles, Louis, Charles, Ralph, Louis, Lothaire, Louis, Hugh, Robert, Henry, Philip, Louis, Louis, Philip, Alfred, Edward, Athelstan, Edmund, Eadred, Eadwig, Edgar, Edward, Ethelred, Edmund, Cnut, Edward, Harold, William, William, Henry, Stephen, Henry, Henry, Malcolm, Edgar, Alexander, David, Malcolm, William.

The kings of the English, therefore, as we said above, we trace from Alfred down to Henry the Third, who was the son of Henry the Second, whose mother was Matilda, whose father was Henry the First, whose father was William the Bastard, whose father was Robert, Count of Normandy, whose brother was Richard, whose father was Richard, whose father was William Longsword, whose father was Robert, who was also called Rollo, and who himself conquered Normandy.

122. Hence to each icon of the individual emperors and kings whose images are depicted in this painting, we give a golden ring on the finger, also a golden bracelet on the right arm, in one hand a golden scepter and in the other a drawn sword; and also a golden diadem on the head, and we clothe each icon in purple. For these are certain ornaments of dignity granted to kings, by which both the excellence of their order is shown and the sacrament of mystery is figured; for they do not only represent an outward beauty to those who look upon them, but also contain a spiritual signification hidden within them, because each of these insignia indicates the spiritual ornaments which they ought to exercise in holiness of life. For the ring expresses faith, the bracelet good works, the purple reverence, the sword vengeance, the scepter justice, and the diadem glory. And fittingly they receive these two ornaments, the ring and the bracelet: so that these may signify that they ought to shine both in the rectitude of faith in the knowledge of truth and in the devoutness of conduct in the exercise of virtue; fittingly also neither bracelet without ring nor ring without bracelet, because without faith it is impossible to please God, and faith without works is dead in itself. But those who believe rightly and live holily will be objects of reverence and veneration to those who behold them; for right faith and holy conduct make a man venerable; so that purple may adorn our kings just as the ring and bracelet create them. They carry the sword for the punishment of evildoers and the scepter for the moderation of justice, so that they may punish the guilty in such a way that they do not exceed measure in inflicting punishment; and also so observe measure in punishing that they may take away from the wicked the boldness to rage against the saints. Therefore neither sword without scepter nor scepter without sword, so that vengeance may sharpen justice lest tepidity contract it too much this side, and justice may moderate vengeance lest rigor extend it too far beyond. Truly beautiful and exceedingly precious are these ornaments: the rectitude of faith clarifying, the sanctity of life adorning, the maturity of reverence honoring, the rigor of vengeance restraining, the justice of vengeance moderating. Beautiful, I say, and precious; but it is necessary that in these things our kings should await the Lord as witness and expect him as rewarder for them. Let them therefore so act, and let their own conscience testify to them that there is in them a full testimony providing for all severity. Therefore adorned with these insignia, let our kings bear the diadem on their heads -- they who are then truly adorned when they glory in the Lord. For this is the voice of Saint Paul: Our glory is this: the testimony of our conscience (2 Cor. 1:12). The beauty of the diadem on the head is therefore the true testimony of a good conscience in the mind. And these things about the ornaments of kings we have touched upon briefly.

123. With the icons of the rulers thus painted according to the order of their succession, and the names of each appended to the individual icons, on the saffron line itself which encompasses the twelve tribes, from Emperor Constantine to the same Constantine in one stroke around the circuit I write this verse: The total of all those who from twenty years and above were counted is six hundred three thousand, five hundred fifty (Num. 2:32). And this number, just as we said about the number of the Levites, pertains to the faithful laity of the New Testament, who are spiritually six hundred three thousand: because they have both right faith in the holy Trinity now, and good works in the present -- which is expressed through the works of the six days; and in the future they will receive from the Lord full recompense for both. They are five hundred fifty, because while they strive to have perfect purity of the five senses, they arrive at rest of mind. Therefore at the end of this verse I place five steps: the first corresponding to six hundred, the second to three hundred, the third to the thousands, the fourth to five hundred, the fifth to fifty. And between the six hundred, where the first step is, I write "work"; between the three hundred, "faith"; between the thousands, "reward"; between the five hundred, "purity"; and between the fifty, "rest." So that it may be understood that the faithful laity, both on account of good works and right faith which they now exercise, will receive full recompense in the future; and on account of the purity of the five senses, to which they attend, they sometimes even in the present attain rest of mind. After this, from one side of the image of Constantine the Great to the other side of the same image, all around in one stroke in a certain squared line which extends from the aforesaid image to the same image, I write this verse: These are the highest lords of the realm, vigilant defenders of the tabernacle which is the Church, distinguished by the ring of faith; adorned with the bracelet of good works, honored with the purple of reverence; being to evildoers a terror through the sword of vengeance, and to the good a love through the scepter of justice, and pleasing to God through the diadem of a good conscience.

124. And this verse is distinguished at its beginning by five steps; because, as Master Hugh says, that justice which has been given to earthly power over subjects is determined in five ways: according to the person, according to the cause, according to the manner, according to the place, and according to the time. For what is permitted in some way is not at once permitted in every way, and justice itself, unless it is justly administered, loses the name of justice. Therefore what is permitted must be carefully examined as to how it is permitted, and the modes by which the form of justice is determined must be considered. According to the person, something is permitted and something is not permitted; for example, it is permitted for a secular judge to lay hands upon a lay person if he has sinned, but it is not permitted to do so upon a cleric. According to the cause, justice is determined: namely, that secular affairs should be examined by the earthly power, but spiritual and ecclesiastical affairs by the spiritual power. According to the manner or measure, justice is determined when any fault is punished with a fitting and appropriate penalty, so that neither private affection in the vindication of equity subtracts anything, nor private hatred adds to the due severity. According to place and time, justice is determined if judgment is exercised and the sentence of truth is pursued where and when it is fitting. Therefore justice is violated according to person if a secular judge should lay hands on an ecclesiastical person; according to cause, if he should undertake to examine ecclesiastical affairs; according to measure, if he should punish a lie or a curse with hanging; according to place, if he should presume to violate sacred places, and those fleeing to them, even the guilty and those to be condemned for their crimes, should he attempt to inflict violence upon them in a disorderly manner; according to time, if he should not show reverence on sacred and solemn days, when even those faults which deserve punishment must be spared. In these ways, therefore, secular power ought not to exercise justice; following the institutions of the laws, approving nothing in judging except justice and truth. Secular power has the king or emperor as its head; from him depend, through subordinate powers, dukes and counts, prefects and other magistrates, who all nevertheless derive their authority from the first power, in that they exist as prelates over those subject to them.

Chapter XIV. On the different state of clerics and laity.

125. Next I clothe the space of that quadrangle in which the clerics are depicted with a sapphire color; and that in which the laity are, with a green color; because the former devote themselves to a heavenly way of life, which the sapphire color designates in that it has the appearance of the sky when it is clear; the latter to an earthly way of life, which the green color expresses in that it is similar to the earth. The former ought so to live that they can say with the Apostle: Our citizenship is in heaven (Phil. 3:20); but to the latter the Lord says in the Gospel: Make friends for yourselves from the mammon of iniquity, so that when you fail, they may receive you into eternal dwellings (Luke 16:9). To the former it is said through the Apostle: No one serving as a soldier of God entangles himself in secular affairs, so that he may please him who enlisted him (2 Tim. 2:4); about the latter it is said through the same Apostle: Let those who have wives be as though they had none; and those who weep, as though they wept not; and those who rejoice, as though they rejoiced not; and those who buy, as though they possessed not; and those who use this world, as though they used it not (1 Cor. 7:29-31). The latter are anxious and troubled about many things; the former choose the best part, which shall not be taken from them (Luke 10:41-42). These two lives, therefore -- one of clerics and the other of the laity; one earthly, the other heavenly; one carnal and the other spiritual; one by which the body lives from God -- these two colors designate: green and sapphire. For the sapphire color, which is similar to the sky, designates the heavenly and contemplative life of clerics; while the green, which is similar to the earth, designates the earthly and active life of the laity. The faithful laity, therefore, handle earthly things and the necessities of earthly life, and it is granted to them to possess earthly goods. And for this reason I represent them by such a color as is similar to the earth: those tribes which once received an inheritance in the land bore their type. But the clerics, who are called from the Greek kleros, which translated into Latin means "lot" -- either because they were chosen by lot by God and for the service of God, or because God himself is their lot and they should have no lot on earth except God; for whom it has been ordained that they be sustained by tithes and offerings which are offered to God -- they dispense only spiritual things. And therefore I mark them with the sapphire color, which is similar to the sky; the tribe of Levi designates them, which among that ancient people of God did not receive a part in the inheritance, but serving the tabernacle, was nourished by tithes, offerings, and the victims of sacrifices.

126. But this too must not be passed over carelessly: that in this green space I overlay those areas in which the works of mercy are performed in two places across its three sides with a red color, which has the appearance of fire. And what else is the feeling of charity, if not a certain ardor of fire? Therefore the laity are indeed depicted in the green color; but the areas in which the works of mercy are painted have a red tint; because the faithful laity devote themselves to earthly activity, but they both show compassion through charity and render aid through generosity to any who are oppressed and destitute. Hence it is written of that blessed penitent woman that she both watered the feet of the Lord and wiped them with her hair (Luke 7:38). And, as blessed Gregory says: We water the feet of the Lord if we bow ourselves in the feeling of compassion to any of his least members; if we share the suffering of his saints in tribulation; if we consider their sorrow as our own. Hair indeed is superfluous to the body. And what is abundant earthly substance, if not something that takes on the appearance of hair? -- which, while it is superfluous to the use of necessity, even when cut off, does not feel it. With our hair, therefore, we wipe the feet of the Lord when to his saints, with whom we share suffering out of charity, we also show mercy from those things which are superfluous to us: so that the mind may grieve through compassion in such a way that the generous hand may also show the feeling of grief. What therefore is understood in the Gospel by the fact that Mary both watered the feet of the Lord and wiped them with her hair, is here understood by the fact that in the green color there are also red areas, and in those same red areas the six works of mercy are depicted. In the green color, therefore, where the laity are contained, both red areas are found, and in those same red areas the works of mercy are painted; because the faithful laity, for the love of him who, though he was rich, became poor for our sake (2 Cor. 8:9), both share suffering through the feeling of charity with any who are destitute, and render aid through the effect of generosity. At the four corners of that outer saffron quadrangle which encompasses all things placed within it, I place an icon of Christ holding six scrolls. On that one scroll which is held to the east is written: I was hungry, and you gave me to eat (Matt. 25:35). On another: I was in prison, and you came to me (Matt. 25:36). On that scroll which is on the southern side toward the west is written: I was thirsty, and you gave me to drink (Matt. 25:35). On the other: I was a stranger, and you took me in (Matt. 25:35). On that scroll also which is held to the north, in the hand is written: I was naked, and you covered me (Matt. 25:36). On the other: I was sick, and you came to me (Matt. 25:36). Individual scrolls are extended to those images which exercise the work of mercy written on them; so that we may know that we also do it to Christ himself, whatever we do in his name for his love to one of the least of his own (Matt. 25:40).

127. Those two areas, in one of which lawful marriages are celebrated, in the other of which also the marriage bed is depicted as undefiled, are covered with the purple color that signifies the distress of affliction: because indeed the faithful who are married, in that they lawfully render to one another the debt of the flesh, are entirely free from damnable guilt and from mortal sin; but on account of the various events of the present life, they are not fully free from temporal affliction, whether through anxiety in the mind or through labor in the body. For those who are bound by the law of marriage are indeed often tormented by manifold tribulations; they are now pulled in different directions by the concerns of household affairs in their minds, and now wearied by labors in the flesh; and although they lawfully acquire and lawfully possess present things, nevertheless the greater the affection with which they love what they possess while they have it, the greater also is the grief with which they are afflicted when they lose it: for there cannot be a loss without great pain of that thing whose possession was held with great love. Therefore beside the tabernacle those who celebrate lawful marriages and who use an undefiled marriage bed are depicted; but those spaces in which they are depicted are covered with the purple color, which everywhere in this painting of ours signifies the distress of tribulation: because the faithful who are married do indeed belong to the holy Church on account of the good works in which they persist; but their state, while it is free from damnable guilt, is nevertheless not free from temporal affliction, according to the saying of the Apostle: If you have taken a wife, you have not sinned; and if a virgin has married, she has not sinned: yet such shall have tribulation of the flesh (1 Cor. 7:28). That field in which the priest is depicted consecrating marriage through prayers and blessings, I cover over with the sapphire color, which, as we taught above, is similar to the sky: because the priests of the holy Church, when they consecrate and dispense the sacraments of our faith by praying, ought to shine with brightness of mind and to be resplendent before God with heavenly desire. And let these things said about the spaces of our exterior quadrangle suffice for the present.

Chapter XV. Concerning the Levites sounding trumpets at the door of the tabernacle: and concerning the pillar of fire and of cloud which stood above the tabernacle.

128. But still after all these things I return to the tabernacle, and I station two Levites sounding two silver trumpets, one on one side of the door and the other on the other side: because holy preachers, having the two commandments of charity, admonish the faithful through holy preaching both to avoid evils and to practice good works. Therefore beside the trumpet of one is written: Cease to act perversely (Isa. 1:16). And beside the other: Learn to do well (ibid.); because the teachers of the holy Church persuade both that evils be abandoned and that good things be embraced. These two Levites can also represent two orders of preachers, of whom one was sent to the circumcision and the other to the uncircumcision. It was said above that the southern wall represents the Jewish people; the northern, the Gentiles. To each of these walls that bar of which we spoke above extends itself; because through the knowledge of the one true faith, God and man, Jesus Christ, united both peoples to himself. And therefore that Levite who stands opposite the southern wall represents the order of preachers who announced the words of faith to the Jewish people. The other Levite, who is stationed opposite the northern wall, represents the order of teachers who called the Gentile people to the faith through holy preaching. On each side of the tabernacle also an image of Christ is depicted, holding in one hand a pillar of fire, and in the other a pillar of cloud; because the pillar that continually hung over the tabernacle represented our Lord Jesus Christ, who is equally both the Redeemer of the human race and its Judge. That pillar which of old continually stood over the tabernacle had by day the appearance of a cloud, and by night the appearance of fire; and therefore it prefigured Christ in two ways. Hence I have depicted on one side of the tabernacle an icon of Christ with a double pillar of fire and cloud: not because there are two Christs; but because through this pillar of cloud and fire the one and same Christ must be understood in two different ways, which could in no way be seen on the flat surface of the painting unless the figure were doubled on the same surface, both of the icon of Christ and of the pillars of fire and cloud. For since this pillar signifies Christ himself, it signifies him in one way in that it had the appearance both of fire and of cloud; and in another way in that it had the appearance of cloud by day and of fire by night. The fire, therefore, signifies his divinity, in which he is terrible: because, as we read, Our God is a consuming fire (Heb. 12:29). The cloud signifies the humanity of the same, in which he appeared gentle: because, as Isaiah says, The Lord mounted a light cloud and entered Egypt (Isa. 19:1). He mounted a light cloud and entered Egypt, because he took on flesh clean from all sin and came into the world. Therefore the pillar is one, namely having in itself the appearance of fire and of cloud; because Christ is indeed one person, but there are two natures in him, divine and human. And this is the way in which this pillar represents Christ, in that it had in itself the appearance of fire and of cloud. Likewise, the fiery pillar of our Lord Jesus Christ expresses the terror which he will display to the reprobate at the last judgment; the cloud, however, expresses the gentleness which he will show to the elect at that judgment; because the pillar, as was said, had by night the appearance of fire, and by day that of cloud. And by night is expressed the life of the sinner, and by day the life of the just. Therefore one pillar showed fire by night and cloud by day; because one and the same Christ, the merciful Savior of the elect and the just Condemner of the reprobate, at the final judgment both rewards the brightness of the just and condemns the darkness of the unjust. And this is the other way in which the same pillar represents Christ, in that it bore cloud by day and fire by night. And this is the reason why the double pillar of fire and cloud I have depicted on the flat surface of the painting: although of old over the tabernacle of Moses there was only one pillar; that is, there is only one whom that pillar prefigured, namely Christ. That pillar, therefore, which is to the south, represents the Lord Jesus Christ, who in his divinity, which is signified by the pillar of fire, was terrible to the ancient people, who are depicted there on the right because they believed in God, punishing their sins; to whom he would say in the terror of his divinity: If anyone does this or that, let him die the death (Exod. 21:17). Hence Moses is stationed beside them, having heavy and weighty hands, holding a whip in one hand and an unsheathed sword in the other: because the law was prepared for striking and slaying sinners. On the left side of the icon, however, the Gentile people is depicted, who worshipped idols; concerning whom the same Christ speaks in the cloud of humanity depicted there beside them: I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance (Luke 5:32). Hence also Aaron and Hur are there beside them supporting the hands of Moses; because the loftiness of the Lord's incarnation, which is expressed through Aaron, and the fire of the Holy Spirit, which through Hur, make the commandments light for us. Let these things said briefly about that icon which is to the south suffice.

129. That icon on the north, however, existing on the opposite side, signifies the same our Lord Jesus Christ; and it shows him as he will appear at the last judgment, just as the other icon which is to the south, about which we have already spoken at length, shows him as he appeared both in the severity of his Deity to the ancient people and in the gentleness of his humanity to the new people. Therefore the Judge of the living and the dead, that Son of Man to whom the Father has given all judgment, is shown through this northern icon, who in the terror of fire, or if a better expression is preferred, in the fire of terror, will say to the reprobate, whose resurrection is depicted there on the left, because they will be on the left at the judgment: Depart, you cursed, into eternal fire (Matt. 25:41). Into which fire they shall go, as both the inscription written there and the image of hell depicted there in the corner demonstrate. Concerning this depiction of hell, this also must be fully understood: that although it is depicted in the courtyard of the tabernacle, it does not at all belong to the courtyard itself in which it is placed; but because in order to demonstrate why the pillar that was above the tabernacle bore the appearance of fire by night and the appearance of cloud by day, it was necessary also to mention the last judgment, and therefore hell itself, where the condemned reprobate will be thrust, also had to be depicted there on the left. On the right side also of the same icon which is to the north, the resurrection of the just is depicted, to whom the just Judge, the Lord Jesus, will say in a cloud of gentle kindness: Come, blessed of my Father, receive the kingdom (Matt. 25:34). To which kingdom they shall go, as the title written there shows. And they shall go there, as the images depicted there indicate, from every order and profession: bishops, that is, clerics, regulars, and monks; priests also, and also men who lived religiously in secular garb, and women; who are Noah, Daniel, and Job, who on the day of judgment, when Christ shall show himself in fire and in cloud, shall be saved (Matt. 25:34). Then they shall receive the kingdom prepared for them from the foundation of the world, which kingdom, as was said far above, is depicted in the Holy of Holies, where beside the image on one side are angels, and on the other the tenth drachma. And there after the judgment the elect shall go, where the drachma is, because they themselves are that same drachma; but in these images the same elect are depicted going to the kingdom; in the drachma, however, possessing the same kingdom.

Chapter XVI. Another allegorical exposition upon the preceding chapter.

130. We can still say some things allegorically about this twofold icon of Christ and the pillar of fire and cloud, which the reader's judgment may discern whether they should be accepted or rejected. Concerning these same two icons of Christ, which are depicted on each side of the tabernacle facing each other from opposite sides, this must be considered by us, even if it cannot be seen with the bodily eye, yet it ought to be weighed by the understanding of the mind: that these two pillars, although now they lie flat on one surface according to the layout of the plan, on each side, nevertheless when the tabernacle itself is raised upright, not indeed on any one side of it, but above the tabernacle itself in the middle of it with their pillars and all the other things pertaining to those pillars, they will hang at the top, and then there will not be two icons, but one joined to the other and completely united, only one will appear. Nor will there be two pillars of fire and cloud, just as there will not be two icons; but with the two pillars from one side of the tabernacle joined at the top above the tabernacle to those two which lie on the other side, from these pillars which according to the layout of the plan are four at the bottom, there will be only two at the top with one icon: one of fire on one side of the icon, the other of cloud on the other side of the icon. Then also the Gentiles going to the heavenly kingdom will be joined to the just, and the Jews will be joined to the wicked going to hell; because indeed, to pass from the general to the specific, as far as pertains to the present state of the world, the calling of the Gentiles now is in a certain way what the salvation of the just will be at the end: and the rejection of the Jews now is what the condemnation of the wicked will be at the end. For just as on the day of universal judgment the Lord will say to all the reprobate in general, both Jews and Gentiles: Depart, you cursed, into eternal fire (Matt. 25:41): so also now by the just but hidden judgment of the same Lord, through the effect of the thing itself, to the unbelieving Jews, hardened in their unbelief, he says by reproving them: Depart, you cursed, into eternal fire: that fire, namely, of which we read in prophecy: And now fire consumes the adversaries. And into that fire of which the Psalmist says: Fire fell upon them, and they did not see the sun (Ps. 57:9); so that the fire of sin now torments them in soul, whom then the fire of punishment will torment in hell. Which fire indeed can be called eternal; because the torment of any wicked persons who are hardened in their wickedness begins here, but there it does not cease to endure without any end ever failing. Again, just as on the day of universal judgment the Lord will say to all the elect in general, both Jews and Gentiles: Come, blessed of my Father, receive the kingdom (Matt. 25:34); so also now through the effect of the thing itself, to the Gentiles whom he proposes to take to himself, through the election of grace and the call of his mercy, the same Lord says: Come, blessed of my Father, receive the kingdom. So that those same Gentiles, receiving the true faith and believing in the true author of salvation, may come to the kingdom of the holy Church through the knowledge of truth, and possess it through the love of virtue. Which kingdom was certainly prepared for them from the foundation of the world; because the Church of the Gentiles, which is called in time to life, was predestined in eternity. But in the hell to which the wicked are condemned, Moses is rightly joined, who has heavy hands and holds in them a whip and a sword; because indeed the law, which is expressed through Moses, not only punished those who transgressed with present death, but also declares that those who are hardened in iniquity and unbelief are to be condemned to the eternal sword and scourge of infernal punishment. Fittingly also, according to this signification, the same Moses who on the other side is depicted with Aaron and Hur supporting his heavy hands and by supporting them making them light, is joined to the just who receive the kingdom; because so that the nations in the kingdom of the Church, which in the Gospel is sometimes called the kingdom of heaven, might honor the Lord for his mercy, Aaron and Hur still today make the heavy hands of Moses light: since the loftiness of the Lord's incarnation, which is understood through Aaron, and the love of the Holy Spirit, which through Hur, make the hard precepts of the law light, because now sinners are mercifully saved through penance, who formerly were severely punished by the severity of the law. Hence the same Aaron, that is the Lord appearing in the flesh, designated through Aaron, sending disciples forth to preach, enjoins them to say: Do penance, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand (Matt. 3:2). As if he were saying: Let the hands of Moses be supported, and once supported let them be made light; for now is the time that the blessed sons of my Father should come and possess the kingdom prepared for them from the foundation of the world.

131. But this also must not be negligently passed over; that although now on one surface, according to the layout of the plan, the Jews are on the right of the icon and the Gentiles on the left, nevertheless when all these things which appear divided to the bodily sight at the bottom of the painting shall appear joined to the understanding of the heart at the top: conversely, when the southern icon has been united with the northern and with all things pertaining to it, the Jews will be on the left of the icon and the Gentiles on the right: because indeed before God became man, the Jews were in a certain way on the right, because having the law they believed in him who gave the law; but the Gentiles were on the left, because utterly ignorant of the Lord, they worshipped idols. But after the Son of God raised up from below the icon of humanity and joined to it the icon of his divinity; after the Word was made flesh, that is, the southern icon was united to the northern: and the divine nature was joined to the human nature in the unity of person (yet with the property of each nature preserved), so that there would be one person in two natures, as if one icon made from two icons: the Jews, who formerly were on the right, are assigned to the left on account of their unbelief; and the Gentiles, who formerly were on the left, are called to the right through grace; because our icon came in judgment above the tabernacle of the Church, so that those not seeing might see, and those who saw might become blind (Mark 4:12); and so the first became last and the last first (Matt. 20:16); but also those on the right became those on the left, and those on the left became those on the right. Hence this icon speaks in the tenderness of humanity, as if in a certain gentleness of cloud, saying: I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance (Luke 5:32), because the Jews who applaud themselves for their righteousness are abandoned on account of their pride and unbelief; and the Gentiles who trust in repentance are taken up on account of their humility and faith (Luke 18:14). Therefore our icon says in its cloud: I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance; because the tax collector went down to his house justified rather than the Pharisee (Luke 18:14); and the penitent Mary is praised, and the proud Pharisee is rebuked (Luke 7:38); and Lazarus full of sores is saved, and the rich man feasting splendidly every day according to the law is condemned (Luke 16:22). Concerning the Jews also, who from being on the right have now become those on the left, the same icon utters a severe sentence in the terror of divinity, as if in a certain blaze, saying: If anyone does this or that, he shall die the death (Exod. 21:17); for let not the Jews think that this cloud will accuse them before the fire; but the one who accuses them is Moses, in whom they place their hope: for if they believed Moses, they would perhaps also believe him (John 5:45), whose icon it is; for Moses wrote about him. Hence the same Moses is depicted opposite, facing the fire, holding a whip in one hand to strike, and a sword in the other to slay: because the holy law declares and judges that the unbelieving Jews, because they refuse to receive the gentle kindness of the cloud, that is, to believe in Christ as man, are to be punished in the fury of fire and in his wrath, Moses the lawgiver himself prophesying, commanding, and threatening in this manner: God will raise up for you a prophet from your brothers, like myself; you shall listen to him in all things whatsoever he shall say to you. And it shall be: Every soul that will not hear that prophet shall be destroyed from among the people (Deut. 18:15; Acts 3:22-23). For it was a prophecy, when the prophet was to be raised up for them from their brethren; it was a commandment: when they are ordered to listen to that prophet in all things whatsoever he shall say; it was a threat: when every soul of the people that shall despise hearing him is declared to be destroyed. Therefore what Moses said in word concerning the Jews: Every soul that will not hear that prophet shall be destroyed from among the people (Deut. 18:19). This same thing the Moses depicted here signifies, who, placed facing the fire, extends one hand with a sword and the other with a whip toward those same unbelieving Jews, who have therefore become those on the left. The support of Moses' hands and the lightening of them, which is placed facing the cloud beside the Gentiles who have now become those on the right -- that is, those same Gentiles receiving the faith of Christ, embracing the gentleness of the aforesaid cloud, and repenting of their sins -- both sets them free from the fury of this fire and protects them under the sweet covering of humanity, as if under the gentle shade of a cloud; because they are protected from the terror of divinity when through right faith and good works they flee to the gentle kindness of humanity; for whom that same cloud is an advocate before the fire, and it is the propitiation for their sins (1 John 2:2). These things we have treated concerning the two icons of Christ lying on each side of the tabernacle, and concerning the double pillar of fire and cloud, and concerning those things that pertain to them, under a double signification according to the allegorical sense, so that we may leave it to the reader's judgment which should rather be chosen.

Chapter XVII. Concerning the fivefold division of the painting.

132. After these things it must be considered with diligent attention that this painting (about which we have already said much) is divided into five spaces. For the first space is that place in which the laity of both times are contained. The second, in which the clerics of both Testaments. The third, in which the Levites enter to sacrifice. The fourth, in which the priests enter to offer incense to the Lord. The fifth, in which the high priest alone was accustomed to enter once a year. The first space is that in which the good and the evil are mixed together; because in the state of the laity more evil are found than good: so that the better they are, the fewer they also are; and it is like a certain field, in which there are good and evil plants -- not good alone, nor evil alone, but good and evil together. The second space is that in which the good are contained; because although not all clerics, just as not all laypeople, are good; but in these perilous times more evil are found even among them, as among laypeople, than good; nevertheless I call them good and holy: because insofar as pertains to their office, they are bound by a certain special duty to have a certain prerogative of goodness and holiness above the laity, so that the higher they are in profession and office, the holier they should be in conduct and merit: because (as we read), from those to whom much has been given, much will be required (Luke 12:48). And therefore I affirm that in this space are the good; because those who are contained in it, above other faithful, are especially bound, even if they are not, to be good. Hence this space is like a certain garden, in which only good plants are nourished. For in a field, plants arise by themselves and of themselves; but the good plants that are in a garden are chosen elsewhere by the gardener's discernment, and brought from elsewhere by his labor, and planted in the garden, once planted they are watered, once watered they are nourished: because laypeople indeed live content with a certain natural condition under the common title of Christianity; but from the common state of laypeople, those who are to be ordained as clerics are chosen by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, as if by the discernment of a certain gardener, and once chosen are elevated to the height of the clerical state under the bonds of a stricter profession: like certain plants that are taken from the common field and planted in the garden with studious care.

133. Into the third space the Levites enter, not indeed all of them, but those who are found suitable for immolating the burnt offering on the bronze altar that was outside the tabernacle; and this space is like a certain royal court, in which friends and intimates are accustomed to be received. For all the Levites indeed encamped around the tabernacle; but none entered to minister to the Lord except those who were of mature age and perfect purity. Hence concerning these same Levites the Lord says to Aaron: A man of your seed throughout his families who has a blemish shall not offer bread to the Lord, nor approach his ministry (Lev. 21:18). Concerning the age of these same Levites, the Lord says thus to Moses: From twenty-five years and above they shall enter to minister (Num. 4:35). Therefore this space, in which those Levites offer burnt offerings to the Lord who are both mature in age and conspicuous in purity, is like a certain royal court, where his friends and intimates enter for the purpose of devoutly attending to his service. Into the fourth space the priests enter with washed hands and feet, to offer incense to the Lord, and it is like the house of a certain very wealthy father of a household, in which his relatives and parents are received. Into the fifth space also, which is within the veil and is called the Holy of Holies, the high priest alone was accustomed to enter: and this place is like a certain bridal chamber, in which, with all friends and intimates set aside, and even parents and relatives excluded, the bridegroom and bride alone delight in an even sweeter love because they are in a more interior place. In this space the ark of the covenant is placed, and the ark is in this place like a bed in a bridal chamber. Among all the places pertaining to this tabernacle of which we speak, none is more private than this, and among all the things of the same tabernacle none is more, if I may say so, private than the ark and those things that were within it. Hence I have compared this place to a bridal chamber and the ark to a bed; because among all the rooms that are in a palace, none is more private than the bridal chamber; and among all the things that are not only in the bridal chamber itself but that pertain to this life, nothing is more private than the bed of the bridegroom and bride. Therefore the first space is in a certain way a field, the second a garden; the third a courtyard; the fourth a house; the fifth a bridal chamber. Laypeople, both good and evil, are in the first place, like good and evil plants together in a field; clerics, who represent the good, in the second: like chosen plants in a garden; the Levites in the third: like friends and intimates in a courtyard; the priests in the fourth: like relatives and parents in a house; the high priest alone in the fifth, where the ark is containing manna: like the bridegroom and bride alone in the bridal chamber, where sweetness is on the bed. These are the five spaces by which this painting of which we speak is divided.

Chapter XVIII. Concerning the signification of the fivefold division.

134. What signification we think this fivefold division of our painting conveys to us according to the allegorical sense must now be explained. If it perhaps seems unworthy to anyone that what we have depicted on a flat surface should be drawn into allegory, we think it fitting that that fivefold division, or, if a more fitting expression is preferred, the partition, which pertained to that ancient tabernacle of Moses, can be understood allegorically. For just as it has been depicted visibly here, so we think it existed in some way at that visible tabernacle of Moses. So that in the first space around the tabernacle itself there would be the twelve tribes; in the second, the Levites along its four sides. The third space was the courtyard, which contained within itself the altar of burnt offering and the bronze basin. The fourth was the outer room of the tabernacle, which the priests always entered, as the Apostle says, performing the duties of sacrifice (Heb. 9:6). The fifth was the inner room of the same tabernacle, which was open only to the high priest alone, and only once a year. We read that this was so at that ancient tabernacle; and we too, as best we could, have depicted it here. What then do these things signify? For if, as the Apostle says, All things happened to them in figure (1 Cor. 10:6), and were written for our correction: these things must by no means be believed to be devoid of mystery. Let us therefore humbly show what we think about this matter, without prejudice to those who know how to speak more subtly and truly and elegantly about it. Preserving then a better and more fitting understanding, which is open to more learned minds, let us see whether perhaps the fivefold state of this world can be allegorically fitted to this fivefold division. We distinguish these five states of the world as follows. The first state of this world was from the very beginning of the world up to the flood. Which state, since no law had yet been given to man by whose precepts he could be constrained and bound, we not unworthily compare to the breadth of a field. In which state, since the sons of God and the sons of men were mixed together, they were like good and evil plants together in a field. The second state existed after the flood, in the times of the patriarchs and of Moses, through whom the old law was given to the people: which state pertains in a certain way to the good; because although neither in that time nor in any time of this age were the good alone, yet with the patriarchs and lawgivers called to the faith and worship of the one true God, like good plants brought from elsewhere and planted in God's garden fenced round with the hedges of legal precepts; both a more numerous multitude of saints and a greater knowledge of truth shone forth in the world. The third state also pertains to the time of the judges and kings, who presided over that ancient people of God in the care of governance. Which state was like a certain royal or princely court, in which his friends and intimates would attend to his service; because in that time, so that they might more freely attend to divine worship, that people was both expanded through growth and strengthened through might by the temple built in their own land. The fourth state pertains to the time of the prophets, who, in that they announced the coming of the Son of God in the flesh, and the mysteries of our redemption, and the sacraments of the holy Church in many ways and modes: were indeed joined to the supreme Father of the household by a certain, so to speak, kinship and blood relationship. And this state was in a certain way like the house of a certain very wealthy father of a household; in which the parents and relatives of that same father of the household, namely the holy prophets, were. The fifth place, which was called the Holy of Holies, expresses the coming of the Son of God in the flesh for this reason: that into it the high priest alone was accustomed to enter. Which state, what else was it than a bridal chamber, in which the bridegroom Christ was joined to his bride, the holy Church? These therefore are the five states of this world. The first from Adam, in the times of the sons of God and the sons of men, up to the flood; the second, in the times of the patriarchs and the lawgiver; the third, in the times of the judges and kings; the fourth, in the time of the prophets; the fifth, in the time of the Son of God and man. And according to the reasons set forth above, the first is like a field; the second, like a garden; the third, like a courtyard; the fourth, like a house; the fifth, like a bridal chamber. Therefore in the first space, which is the most exterior of all, I write, Field; in the second, Garden; in the third, Courtyard; in the fourth, House; in the fifth, Bridal Chamber: to show that for the reasons stated above, the first space is in a certain way a field; the second, a garden; the third, a courtyard; the fourth, a house; the fifth, a bridal chamber.

Chapter XIX. Another exposition on the same subject.

135. We can also relate these five spaces of our painting, of which we have spoken, to five states of the holy Church, which was called to the faith after the coming of Christ. The first state of the holy Church was that when, after the ascension of the Lord, with the primitive Church clothed with power from on high, whoever would dare to believe in Christ, whoever would dare to preach him, was dragged to denial by various kinds of torments: when that hour had already come when all who would kill the apostles would think they were offering a service to God (John 16:2); when persecutors, laying bloody hands on them, were leading them before kings and governors; when finally they were hated by all men on account of the name of Christ (Matt. 10:22). Behold the field, in which among many weeds there were few good plants, when the nettle was preventing the lily from growing, when the spikenard was being destroyed by the saltwort. But after the Lord Jesus was awakened by the long and anxious cry of the disciples laboring at the oars (Matt. 8:24), so that the winds and sea obeyed him as he commanded and a great calm arose (Matt. 8:26): lest Peter's little ship should be troubled any longer, with the Roman Empire preserved for the faith; and with the necks of other kingdoms far and wide throughout the world bowed down to the reproach of the cross and the shame of Christ, peace was given to the Church: so that in the Lord's garden, good and chosen plants brought from that field might be planted all the more numerously as they were more freely: already then instead of the saltwort the fir tree grew up; already instead of the nettle the myrtle grew (Isa. 55:13); already upon the dark mountain of Babylon the standard of the cross was raised. Already the voice of the preachers was exalted; already the leaders entered the gates, because indeed those whom in her first state the holy Church had as mighty ones in the Lord's wrath, in this second state of hers she received as ones exulting in his glory. Already, I say, the voice of a multitude upon the mountains, like thronging peoples: because the thunder of the sound of kings and of nations gathered together rang out. This state of the holy Church, therefore, was a garden, in which good plants were planted. The Church, therefore, being at peace, rejoiced that both the merit and the number of her members were growing. And not only true faith grew, but also holy works. And then in this third state, the friends and intimates of the supreme Emperor entered his court. Friends, I say, and intimates. Friends through faith, and intimates through works, so that both by rightly believing and by vigorously working they might attend to his service. So the Church was exalted above the height of the earth and set up as the pride of ages.

136. Now came her fourth state, in which the devotion of the faithful was kindled in goodness far more excellently than in the third or second state, their purpose strengthened, their resolve increased; because the same virgin mother Church, in many of her faithful, would not have been content in this fourth state of hers with the common holiness of Christianity, unless she fully despised the world and the things of the world; took up the sweet yoke of the Lord and his light burden (Matt. 11:30); and devoutly embraced in innumerable members the common life which she once had in few at her beginning: so that through the sharing of possessions unity of minds would be fostered, so that in this state also the multitude not only of believers but also of those living holy lives would be of one heart and one soul, nor would any of them say that anything he possessed was his own: but all things would be common to them (Acts 4:32). And what else is this state but a certain holy place, a place of awe, which is rightly called Bethel, that is, the house of God? Where the ladder of charity is raised, where through its rungs angels ascend and descend (Gen. 28:12). Into this house enters a chosen race, a royal priesthood, and a people of his own possession (1 Pet. 2:9). A race, I say, chosen from those who minister outwardly, chosen to offer within to the Lord the incense of sweetest fragrance. The race of canons regular; the race of Limousin and Premonstratensian canons; the race of Arrouaisians and Beauvaisians: the race also of holy monks; the race of Carthusians and Cistercians; the race of Cluniacs and Gironians; the race also of other diverse professions, each of which according to its kind surrounds the one and same queen standing at the right hand of her King in gilded garments with variety indeed (Ps. 44:10), yet does not strip her of unity. Religious monks and canons regular inhabit this house, who are joined to the common Lord not only by a certain friendship and intimacy, but also by kinship and blood relationship, because while each of them with full contempt of present things and desire of future things studies with whole intention to do his will: that person is indeed, as he himself says, his brother, and sister, and mother (Matt. 12:50). In this house they have both food of good works on the table, and the light of reading on the lampstand, and the sweetness of prayer on the altar of incense. That food designates good works, we have from the saying of the Lord: My food is to do the will of my Father (John 4:34). That the lampstand signifies sacred reading, the apostle Peter shows, saying: We have a more sure prophetic word, which you do well to attend to as a lamp shining in a dark place (2 Pet. 1:19). That incense also expresses the sweetness of prayer, the Psalmist demonstrates: Let my prayer be directed as incense in your sight (Ps. 140:2). These are the three things that our priests in this house must continually have; because whenever they are free from the necessary care of the body, they should be either in work, or in reading, or in prayer: work for bodily service; reading for spiritual instruction; prayer for contemplative purity. Three orders also inhabit this house: novices, obedientiaries, and cloistered religious. These are they who have with them the Lord Jesus in Bethany, that is, in the house of obedience, as the evangelist John says: They made him a supper, and Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those reclining at table with him; and Mary took a pound of ointment of pure costly spikenard, and anointed his feet, and the house was filled with the fragrance of the ointment (John 12:2-3). Martha therefore serves the Lord, Lazarus reclines with him, and Mary anointed him. Martha therefore, who attends to the Lord's service, who also, as the same Lord says of her elsewhere, is anxious and troubled about many things (Luke 10:41), represents the obedientiaries of the monastery, who should be faithful and prudent. Prudent in acquiring, faithful in spending. Prudent lest the error of ignorance deceive them, faithful lest they seek anything of their own in God's service. Lazarus, however, who now reclines with the Lord but who was once dead and stank four days in the tomb, designates the novices who have arrived at the banquet of God in the common life: who previously, however, spiritually dead through the delight, consent, and habit of sin, and through despair of pardon, stank before God and men through the infamy of a wicked life: but now resurrected by the Lord and loosed by his disciples, they are promoted to such dignity by the Lord himself that they are judged worthy to recline with him; and are no longer guests and strangers, but fellow citizens of the saints and members of God's household (Eph. 2:19). Mary also specially designates the cloistered religious, who can give themselves to the Lord Jesus alone the more freely as they are more fully stripped of all anxieties about earthly things. Mary is very familiar to the Lord Jesus himself, and very close. Among all who are in Bethany she is certainly the most familiar to him and the closest. For although Martha serves him, and Lazarus reclines with him, neither the one nor the other touches him. Mary alone touches him. She touches what is lowest in him, bowing down at his feet, and reaching up to his head, she took a pound of pure costly spikenard (John 12:3). She received it, I say, because unless she had received it, she would not have had it. Every best gift and every perfect gift is from above, descending from the Father of lights (James 1:17). In the pound is understood fullness of perfection; in the spikenard, the fragrance of knowledge; in the pure nard, the purity of truth. From these three things Mary composes and prepares a choice and excellent ointment; because from the full and true knowledge of the Lord Jesus, the cloistered religious conceive a sweet love in their hearts. They anoint the head and feet of the Lord: because they ardently love his twofold nature, namely the divine and the human. For the head of Christ, as the Apostle says, is God (1 Cor. 11:3). And what else do his feet designate but his incarnation, by which he touched the earth of our mortality! On two feet also that Prophet mighty in deed and word (Luke 24:19) walked upon our earth, namely by teaching and by doing: because he both did and taught. It seems beautiful to our Mary to see him working; sweet no less to hear him speaking: so that she may have with her both his works for imitation and his words for consolation and instruction. These therefore are the three orders inhabiting this house: the order of obedientiaries, the order of novices, the order of the cloistered. Which three orders are signified by those three steps that we have placed in the sanctuary beside the word "house." But there are still two other steps placed on the other side of the same word: because among the other virtues there are two which are very necessary for all living the common life: namely the sharing of possessions and unity of souls. These two virtues were principally present in the primitive Church, from which this life of cenobites of which we speak took its beginning. For it is written in the Acts of the Apostles: The multitude of believers was of one heart and one soul (Acts 4:32). Behold the unity of hearts. Nor did any of them say that anything he possessed was his own: but all things were common to them (Acts 4:32). Behold the sharing of possessions. Concerning these same two virtues, Blessed Augustine addresses the clerics themselves in their Rule, saying: These are the things we command you to observe who are established in the monastery. First, the reason you have been gathered into one: that you may dwell with one mind in the house, and there may be among you one soul and one heart in God, and you may not call anything your own; but let all things be common to you. Therefore to signify these two virtues, which among others are very necessary for all cenobites, we have depicted these two steps, so that none of those who have professed the common life may wish to differ from another through discord, or presume to possess anything as his own.

137. These things we have said at length about the fourth state of the holy Church; but perhaps not uselessly. The fifth state of the same holy Church pertains to the profession of the anchorites themselves; because their profession, on account of the secret and solitary manner of life they practice, is not unfittingly likened also to the interior place of the tabernacle, which is called the Holy of Holies. From the Holy Place the high priest was accustomed to come to the Holy of Holies; because the holy Fathers of old, having first extinguished the vices of the flesh and calmed the tumultuous movements of the mind, were accustomed to attain from the perfection of the cenobitic life to the secret purity of the anchoretic way of life. This secret and solitary way of life of the anchorites, what else can it be called but a kind of bridal chamber! Beside this word, namely "bridal chamber," three steps are placed to signify a certain threefold solitude which is very necessary for anchorites: namely solitude of place, solitude of occupation, and solitude of soul. The first solitude flees the multitude of people; the second avoids the anxiety of earthly things; the third avoids the wandering of the heart. The first also expels tumultuous curiosity; the second takes away the anxiety of the mind; the third also empties out the foul vanity of rushing phantasms. These therefore are the five states of the holy Church, which was called to the faith after the Lord's ascension; which can be represented by these five spaces of our painting in this way. The first state was in the persecution of the martyrs, the second in the conversion of princes, the third in the multiplication of Christians, the fourth in the community of cenobites, the fifth in the solitary life of anchorites. And the first was like a field, the second like a garden, the third like a courtyard, the fourth like a house, the fifth like a bridal chamber. In the field there were good and evil plants together, in the garden chosen plants, in the courtyard intimates and friends, in the house parents and relatives, in the bridal chamber the Bridegroom and the bride. In the field, plowing and sowing; in the garden, planting and watering; in the courtyard, sacrificing and washing; in the house, eating and drinking; in the bridal chamber, God and the soul, like Bridegroom and bride embracing, and kissing one another. These therefore are the things which we have said before your Charity concerning the fivefold division which pertained to that old and material tabernacle: and concerning the five spaces of our painting. These also are the things which we have demonstrated allegorically in this painting of ours, as you commanded, concerning the state and manifold adornment of the holy Church in this second part of our book, as briefly as we could. If you judge these things to be sound, please do not attribute to the lead pipe the cup of wine that it has served you; but rather to him who filled it with the drink that it would pour forth. Concerning whom it is no wonder if, for his own praise, he forms even his own words through our tongue, who once, so that the mad foolishness and foolish madness of man might be rebuked, even changed the braying of an ass into human speech.

PART THREE. THE TABERNACLE OF THE SOUL, WHICH IS IN INTERIOR THOUGHT.

Chapter I. Concerning the difficulty of treating the third part.

138. Because your Eminence, Venerable Father, clearly recognizes that, just as in its allegorical signification the visible tabernacle of Moses, about which much has already been said, designates the universal Church of the elect; so no less does the same tabernacle in its moral understanding express the secret of the mind: you still enjoin upon my littleness that, just as I have partly shown how these things which are depicted before the bodily eye pertain in allegory to all the children of the holy Church on account of the common faith, so also I should show how in tropology they pertain to each individual, according to the interior purity of the heart. It is a laborious work, and for me, I confess, not only difficult but nearly impossible: since to discuss morals pertains more to the taste of experience than to the smell of knowledge. Nevertheless I judge it entirely unjust that, insofar as he himself, without whom we can do nothing, shall have supplied me with strength, my obedience should fail in those things which your command compels me to address. Which command of yours is indeed so just that I ought rightly to obey it; so sincere that I wish to; if only your prayer may obtain that what I willingly owe and owingly will, I may also efficaciously accomplish. Therefore, just as we have demonstrated that certain things which we have recounted about the tabernacle pertain to the common Church of the elect: so also let us demonstrate, as we are able, how certain of these things pertain to each one of us; so that, just as our understanding has been illuminated in us through right faith, so also our affection may be aroused and kindled in us through devout thought.

Chapter II. Why the people of Israel did not build a tabernacle in Egypt; and concerning the three metals which pertained to that tabernacle.

139. We said at the beginning of this book that that ancient people of God, as long as they were in Egypt, never built a tabernacle to God; but so that they might at some point do so, almighty God led them out of Egypt. And he not only led them out of Egypt, but also settled them in the desert, so that they might at last devote themselves to building the tabernacle of their God. Those leave Egypt who renounce the world with all its worldly pomps. Having drowned the Egyptians, those enter the desert who, with their former vices extinguished in the waters of compunction, have undertaken a hard and rough way of life through the choice of a new life. Those build the tabernacle who, with all corruption of earthly things set aside, all anxiety completely dismissed, all disturbance calmed, and finally all things of this world despised and consigned to oblivion, devote themselves to their spiritual rest through a stable sameness of pure thoughts, through a refined affection of holy desire. Formerly, however, they remained in Egypt: because they were, as the Apostle says, once darkness (Eph. 5:8), and Egypt is interpreted as darkness. There they were slaves, there bound, there also restless. Slaves, because, according to the voice of truth, everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin (John 8:34). Bound; because, as we read, The sinner is bound by the cords of his sins (Prov. 5:22). Restless; because, associated with the tumultuous gatherings of the Egyptians, they were utterly devoid of true rest: Mingled among the nations, they learned their works and served their graven images, and it became a stumbling block to them (Ps. 105:36). But now, by God's mercy, who called them from darkness into his wonderful light (1 Pet. 2:9), from slaves they have been made free, from bound they have been released, from restless they have become tranquil. Surely in each one of us the Lord has set free the wild ass, loosing his bonds and giving him a home in the wilderness (Job 39:5-6). This wild ass, which is called a wild donkey, designates those whom the Lord set free when he rescued them from the servitude of Pharaoh. Their solitude is fourfold. The first is from sin, the second from business, the third from companionship, the fourth from mystery. The first is a solitude of good, the second of mind, the third of place, the fourth of the Bridegroom. In the first we are purified, in the second adorned, in the third exalted, in the fourth made blessed. In the first purified from vices; in the second adorned with virtues; in the third exalted with divine charisms; in the fourth made blessed by the sweetest and most secret embraces of the interior Bridegroom. These are the solitudes of which Isaiah says: Let the solitudes of the Jordan rejoice (Isa. 35:1). They are rightly said to rejoice, because all who possess them are made to rejoice. Truly we ought to rejoice in these solitudes: because through the first, the restoration of nature is conferred; through the second, the beauty of justice is given to us; through the third, the loftiness of grace is acquired; through the fourth, the joy of interior glory is granted. The first excludes natural infirmity; the second breaks apart the iniquity of the soul; the third removes all manner of punishment and vanity; the fourth advances to full felicity. This is the fourfold solitude in which he who set them free and loosed their bonds gave a home to those going out from Egypt. And what is this freedom which he conferred on them? Surely he freed them from vanity, freed them from curiosity, freed them from pleasure, freed them from calamity. He freed them, I say, from the vanity of spiritual pride, from the curiosity of worldly delight, from the pleasure of carnal concupiscence; he will also later free them from the calamity of infernal punishment: from vanity, which blinded them; from curiosity, which alienated them from themselves; from pleasure, which defiled them; from calamity, which will torment the reprobate forever. He freed them so that they might be free both in this life and in the other: in this life from guilt, in the other from punishment. For everyone who commits sin, just as here he is a slave of sin (John 8:34), so also in the future he will be a slave of punishment.

CXL. But he also dissolved his bonds (Job 39:5). What bonds? Just as there are four solitudes and four liberties which he conferred, so also there are four kinds of bonds. For there are certain bonds by which we are all commonly bound in this life, from which we are not freed even before death itself: namely the corruptions of our mortality. The great Preacher groaned that he was bound by these bonds, saying: I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ (Phil. 1:23). He would not desire to be dissolved unless he saw himself bound: Wretched man that I am, he says, who will free me from this body of death? (Rom. 7:24.) The bond, therefore, by which he was bound was the body of death. There are also other bonds that properly pertain to sinners, who are indeed bound by as many bonds as they are burdened by weights of sin. Of these bonds the Psalmist says: The cords of sinners have entwined me (Ps. 118:61). There are also certain bonds that pertain only to the good: namely the bonds of love and affection, of which the Lord says through Hosea: I will draw them with the cords of Adam, with the bonds of charity (Hosea 11:4). There are yet other bonds by which the damned are bound in punishments: by which he also is commanded to be bound who, not having a wedding garment, is found among those reclining at table by the king: Bind his hands and feet, he says, and cast him into the outer darkness (Matt. 22:13). The first bonds, therefore, are of necessity; the second of iniquity; the third of charity; the fourth of calamity. The first pertain commonly to all; the second to the wicked; the third to the just; the fourth to the damned. The first bind all the children of Adam in this corruption of the mortal body; the second the children of sin in the perpetration of iniquity; the third the children of God in his love; the fourth the children of perdition in the affliction of hell. The Lord will loose the first bonds in us when, death being swallowed up in victory, our corruptible puts on incorruption and our mortal puts on immortality (1 Cor. 15:54); the second he has already loosened in us, when he freed us from sin and made us his servants: but he permits us neither to be absolved from the third nor to be bound by the fourth. In this way, therefore, by God's mercy, we have been made free from slaves, released from those bound, and peaceful from the restless. Therefore we have peace. Where do we have it? Surely there is no true peace except in solitude; because whoever is in turmoil can in no way be at rest. But we have gone far away in flight; and behold we remain in solitude (Ps. 54:8). In which fourfold solitude of ours, indeed, the Lord has given us a home. In this solitude of the heart, tranquility is given, serenity of soul, purity of conscience, the brightness of interior light is perceived, the sublimity of contemplation is grasped, the felicity of the Bridegroom is tasted in advance. In this solitude, he who set us free, who loosed our bonds, and gave us a home, so that in it we might build a tabernacle for the God of Jacob: that is, in this interior quiet of the mind we might build our secret place with God. O freedom! O release! O solitude!

CXLI. Therefore your tabernacle, my dearest brother, is the tranquil and peaceful secret of your heart, in which you ought to dwell with yourself and within yourself. But to that material tabernacle of Moses three metals pertained: gold, silver, and bronze. Likewise in you also, who ought to be a tabernacle of the Holy Spirit, let these three metals be present spiritually. Gold pertains to the serenity of the heart; silver, to the purity of speech; bronze, to the strength of action. Let there be gold in you, therefore, so that you may have brightness in interior thought; silver, so that you may have it in good speech; bronze, so that you may have strength in useful action. Hence the Psalmist compares that man who meditates on the law of the Lord day and night to a tree planted beside the streams of waters, which shall yield its fruit in its season, and its leaf shall not wither, and all things whatsoever he does shall prosper (Ps. 1:3). For this tree designates any religious man. The streams of waters are the instabilities of worldly people, beside which streams this tree is planted; because in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, holy men shine like lights in the world. Which tree shall yield its fruit in its season; because it preserves pure thoughts in the heart. Its leaf shall not wither; because, avoiding the criminal slip of the tongue and utterly excluding it from itself through the discipline of silence, it refuses to be scattered and wasted by harmful and vain words. And all things whatsoever he does shall prosper: because walking on the royal road and acting prosperously in all things, he does not deviate from the right path of action, neither lifted up by favorable things on the right nor broken by adversities on the left, using each hand as if it were the right hand, for whom the darkness and the light are alike. He is therefore clean in heart, pure in speech, successful in action. Behold the three days' journey by which the Israelites went out from Egypt into the desert (Exod. 3:18): namely purity of mind, purity of speech, perfection of action. O what a tree, and how great! Blessed was Samuel, who indeed bore fruit; for he grew and the Lord was with him (1 Sam. 3:19-20). His leaf did not wither; for none of all his words fell to the ground (ibid.). All things whatsoever he did prospered, and the fame of his manner of life spread so widely that all knew, from Dan to Beersheba, that Samuel was a faithful prophet of the Lord. Therefore what the fruit of the tree given in season is in the Psalm, gold signifies in the moral tabernacle: and what the leaf that does not wither is there, silver is here: and what the prosperity of actions is there, bronze is understood here.

Chapter III. Concerning the boards and bases expounded morally.

CXLII. Consider after these things that your tabernacle must be made of boards from acacia wood: so that you may understand that you too must have pure and strong thoughts, because acacia wood is strong and imperishable. Let your thought therefore be imperishable and strong: imperishable through the purity of cleanness, strong through the strength of stability; let it be imperishable so that nothing unclean may dwell in your mind; let it be strong so that you may not wander through many things in your soul. But what does it mean that the tabernacle was gilded both inside and outside? Let your tabernacle be gilded within; let it be gilded without as well. Within, on account of the purity of thought; without, on account of the usefulness of action. Within, so that you may meditate on holy things; without, so that you may do useful things. Within, so that you may please God in your heart; without, so that you may benefit your neighbor in your deeds. Within for the contemplation of sanctification; without for the imitation of action. Within, finally, for conscience; without, for reputation; because according to the voice of the Psalmist: He who loves iniquity hates his own soul (Ps. 10:6), even if a good opinion of him is held among men; and as a certain saint says: He who neglects his own reputation is cruel; even if as far as he is concerned he lives well before God. So says that saint. Therefore he is not perfect who, while he lives badly in secret, glories in the public proclamation of false good things about himself, or who counts his reputation among men as nothing, although he lives well in secret. Therefore let your tabernacle be gilded within, so that your light may shine. And let it not only be gilded within, but also without: so that the same light may shine not only before you, but also before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify not indeed you, but your Father, who is in heaven (Matt. 5:16). Let your boards rest on their bases. The boards of your tabernacle are the thoughts of your heart: the bases are the intentions. Let your boards therefore be gilded, let your thoughts be pure. Let the bases also be silver, and the intentions upright. Have nothing polluted in thought, nothing feigned in intention. God hates both in his tabernacle, in your heart: spot and wrinkle. Your heart has a spot if it is stained; it has a wrinkle if it is creased. You have gilded boards in your tabernacle, therefore, if you resolve to do something good in your heart. And silver bases, if through this you desire to please the eyes of the sole Inspector of all things, and do not on this account seek praise from men. Under such gilded boards, those have bases not of silver but of lead who do indeed plan good things to be done in their minds, but through this seek popular favor. For silver becomes brighter in fire; but lead melts and fails: because indeed when those who seek to please God through a good resolve are rebuked, the brightness of their goodness increases; but when the breeze of favor that used to come to those who desire to please men ceases, and the falseness of their intention reveals itself through the failure of the praise they sought, then it appears that their bases were not silver but lead. Therefore let your boards be gilded and your bases silver, so that you may equally have both a good resolve in thought and rectitude in intention; lest you incur sin, even though a right offering may have preceded in you, while a right division has not followed. Therefore gilded boards signify pure thoughts, and silver bases signify right intentions.

CXLIII. Therefore on the boards themselves, around the circuit of the three walls, from the first board of the southern wall to the first board of the northern wall, I write this verse, with individual syllables placed on individual boards: These boards of the tabernacle, made from acacia wood and gilded on every side, are the thoughts of the soul, wholly pure from evil and strong in good. And at the beginning of this verse on the first board I make three steps; because in order that the thoughts of our soul may be pure and strong, we must strive to have stability in memory, clarity in reason, and purity in will. For our mind must be strengthened through the stability of memory, illuminated through the clarity of reason, and purified through the purity of the will. Strengthened, lest it flow away in disorder; illuminated, lest it grow dark in ignorance; purified, lest any stain obscure it. Let our memory therefore beware of being scattered from itself; let reason avoid being blind; let the will strive to be pure, and the thoughts of our heart will be both pure from evil and strong in good. On the silver bases themselves, which are placed beneath the boards in the painting, around the circuit from the first base beneath the first board of the southern wall to the first base placed beneath the first board of the northern wall, this verse is written, with individual letters inscribed on individual bases: The silver bases on which the gilded boards are placed are the right intentions on which pure thoughts rest. And this verse indeed has no division in the painting; because our intention ought to be uniform and simple. For in all our movements, both interior and exterior, we ought to intend this alone: that we please God alone.

Chapter IV. Concerning the bars, and the rings, and the icons which are placed on the boards and bases.

CXLIV. These things are lofty, these things are profound, and very difficult, and possible for very few. For it pertains to the perfect to have such thoughts, and in those thoughts such intentions. And therefore have after these things in your tabernacle bars and rings; bars, I say, covered with golden plates, and golden rings into which those same bars may be inserted. These bars, which are indeed made of acacia wood but clothed with golden plates, are the strong and bright examples of the preceding Fathers; and the golden rings designate the perpetual brightness and the bright perpetuity of the rewards of those same holy Fathers. In the bars, therefore, you see their manner of life, and in the rings their recompense. In the bars their merit, in the rings their reward. In the bars, finally, their temporal labor, and in the rings their everlasting crowns. Therefore in the bars, ends are seen; but in the rings no end can be seen: because the afflictions of the saints have limits; but their rewards will endure without end. Hence it is that they count as little all the labor they endure, while they weigh how great the reward will be that they shall have. See how little blessed Paul considered his own labors and those of his fellow citizens, who said: That which is at present momentary and light of our tribulation (2 Cor. 4:17). He considered his tribulation as little, which he called not only light but also momentary. But see how great a reward he assigned: for he says: Works in us above measure exceedingly an eternal weight of glory (ibid.). Truly he foresaw that it would be great, which he perceived as exceedingly sublime, eternal, glorious, and weighty. Speaking indeed of both, namely the bars and the rings: The sufferings of this time, he says, are not worthy to be compared with the glory to come that shall be revealed in us (Rom. 8:18). As if he were saying in other words: Even if the bars we carry are heavy, they are nevertheless tolerable and light for us: because we continually think about the brightness of the rings with which we shall be adorned at the end without end. But what does it mean that the head of one bar entered the head of another, so that it seemed to be almost one bar around the circuit of the three walls, if not that holy men join virtues to virtues in themselves, so that they may possess in themselves both firm holiness and holy firmness? Hence the Psalmist says: The saints shall go from virtue to virtue (Ps. 83:8). As if he were saying: So that the tabernacle may stand firmly, bars are joined to bars. And he adds about the rings into which those same bars are inserted: The God of gods shall be seen in Zion (ibid.). Peter the apostle also admonishes that in the moral tabernacle bars should be joined to bars, saying thus: Minister in your faith, virtue; in virtue, knowledge; in knowledge, self-control; in self-control, piety; in piety, love of the brethren; in the love of the brethren, charity (2 Pet. 1:5-7). He begins from faith and arrives at charity; because faith is indeed the foundation of our spiritual tabernacle, hope raises the structure; but charity completes the building. You also place these bars in your boards when through the constant contemplation of the manner of life of the preceding Fathers you arouse and raise up, kindle and sharpen good will in yourself, so that you count as easy to accomplish what you see accomplished by them. And you fix rings in those same boards if you both contemplate the eternal rewards of the aforesaid Fathers through contemplation and desire them through affection: so that you may trust and desire to be associated in reward with those whose footsteps you see yourself imitating. You place bars in your boards, therefore, so that you may be strengthened in labor; and rings, so that you may be encouraged in hope. Bars, so that you may know how well you must live; rings, so that you may know why you must live well. The bars, therefore, inserted into the rings are the strong ways of life of the saints, made bright by the eternity of the heavenly fatherland and rewarded by eternal brightness. These bars and rings are indeed in your tabernacle also, when you both practice their ways of life through action and desire their rewards through affection.

CXLV. Therefore on those same bars, around the circuit of the three walls, from the first bar of the southern wall to the first of the northern, I write this verse, placing individual words on individual bars: The bars covered with gold, strengthening the boards, are the strong and pure examples of holy men, confirming our minds. This verse at the first board above the first letter has three steps: because there are three things to which the examples of the saints draw us. The first is that we may abandon evil; the second, that we may practice good; the third, that we may strive to persevere also in the good that we practice. That we may be, namely, cleansed, adorned, and confirmed. Cleansed in the abandoning of vices; adorned in the practice of virtues; confirmed, while in the good things we do we persevere to the end. And this is the reason why, as I said far above, I placed these bars not outside but inside the tabernacle; because since the walls are not raised upright but rather lie flat at the bottom on the surface of the painting, they could in no way be seen, at least by the bodily eye; nor would their significations be understood so clearly unless they were depicted on the interior. Under the golden rings also, into which the bars are inserted, around the circuit of the three walls from the one on the first board of the southern wall to the one on the first of the northern, this verse is found, with individual syllables of the same verse written on individual boards: These rings made of the purest gold, into which the bars are inserted, are the bright rewards of the blessed, given for a holy life, enduring without end. And this verse on the first board beside the first letter is distinguished by three steps; because there are three things that will be given to the elect in the future life, namely power, wisdom, and benevolence. For then they will be powerful, wise, and loving. Powerful in themselves; wise in God; loving toward one another. There their being will not have death, nor their knowing error, nor their loving offense. They will have the strength of power from supreme power, the Father; the brightness of wisdom from true wisdom, the Son; the sweetness of love from sweet charity, the Holy Spirit; so that in this way God may be all in all. The icons which are placed around the circuit of the three walls both on the bases and at the tops of the boards seem to convey to us the same meaning in the moral signification that the aforesaid bars convey, which are inserted through the middle of the boards. For since in the tabernacle of the Church the bases designate in the allegorical sense the religious men and women who existed in the world from the beginning of the world up to the incarnation of Christ; and the boards designate the saints of both sexes who are in the Church from the coming of Christ up to the end of the age: then you raise the boards and place the bases beneath them in your tabernacle if you survey and traverse with diligent and constant contemplation the saints of both periods, continually setting before yourself both their words for instruction and their works for imitation. Go around therefore and offer in the tabernacle of the Lord the sacrifice of shouting: sing and say a psalm to the Lord (Ps. 26:6). Sing through pure thought, say a psalm through good action. And traverse in mind and thought all the saints, who both from Adam the father of us all, of both sexes, up to our common Lord Jesus Christ existed in the world; and from the beginning of his incarnation up to the end of the age now exist; and set before yourself both the things they said and the things they did; so that from their words you may become more learned, and from their deeds more holy, and especially diligently examine how pure the thoughts were which we said should be morally understood through the gilded boards; and how upright the intentions which are understood through the silver bases: and so in the interior of your tabernacle you will have icons inscribed both under the bases and on the boards. Therefore in this painting of ours, icons have been depicted both on the boards of the saints of the New Testament and on the bases of those who, of both sexes, lived in the Old: so that for acquiring both purity in the thought of the mind, which is understood through the gilded board, and uprightness in interior intention, which through the silver base, you may have the lives and conduct of the saints of both periods both known through clear contemplation and practiced through fruitful imitation. These things about the bars and the rings. These things also about the icons that are on the bases and on the tops of the boards. These things, finally, about the three metals that pertained to this tabernacle of which we speak, namely gold, silver, and bronze, may suffice as moral exposition.

Chapter V. Concerning the three walls of the tabernacle; concerning the bar which is at its entrance; and concerning the five columns which are erected under the same bar.

CXLVI. After these things reason leads us to inquire what the three walls of the tabernacle can express according to the moral sense; and what through the bar which is at its entrance; and what also through the columns placed beneath that same bar can be morally expressed. These three walls of the tabernacle can signify to us the three movements which are in man, namely the movement of the mind, the movement of the body, and the movement of sensuality. The movement of the mind is indeed in the will; the movement of the body in action; the movement of sensuality, which is in the middle, is in delight. For the mind moves itself according to its own will, and is moved from itself and through itself; because it belongs to it to move itself, whether it is moved well or badly. It is moved well when it is moved toward good, that is, toward justice: and badly when toward evil, that is, toward guilt. And it belongs to it to be moved in both directions, toward good and toward evil: because to willing or to not-willing it is driven by no violence; but by the freedom of its own will it proceeds from itself and through itself. The movement of the body both promptly follows the movement of the mind and effectively carries it out: and such is the result in action as has preceded in the will. The movement of sensuality, however, favoring each of these aforesaid movements, runs between them in delight, embracing each and pleasing itself in both. Since therefore things are so, the southern wall of the tabernacle expresses the good movement of the mind; because the mind, as was already said, does indeed have it within itself to move; but in order that it may be good, it ought not to move according to itself, but rather according to him who is understood through the South Wind, namely its Creator and Disposer, the Holy Spirit, so that it may then move itself in the will toward that thing, when and toward what it has recognized that the Holy Spirit, the inspirer and orderer of all good things, wills: so that it may in no way dare either proudly to oppose his will or craftily to anticipate it. For the Holy Spirit, who never wills evil, and if evil sometimes seems good, the inspirer and executor of all good things, always indeed wills that we should always do good and never do evil: yet he does not will that we should always do the same good; because, just as evil can never be committed except illicitly, so also good can sometimes be lawfully omitted; to such a degree that, since all things have their time, good itself sometimes loses its goodness in some respect if it is not done at the fitting time. Therefore this wall in the tabernacle faces the south: because in order that the movement of the mind may be ordered in us who ought to be God's tabernacle, it is necessary that both in willing and in not willing, it imitate the inspiration of the Holy Spirit; so that it diligently, I say, seek out what he wills or does not will and when, and in both strive to follow him obediently, so that, as was already said, it may dare neither to fraudulently anticipate his will nor arrogantly to oppose it. The northern wall, however, which is in all things similar to the southern wall in length, height, number of boards, ornament, and connection, expresses the movement of the body, which serves the movement of the mind; because as the one is conceived in us in the will, so the other is brought forth by us in action. The third wall, however, which is connected and joined to each of the other walls, designates the movement of sensuality: which movement embraces the two preceding ones in delight.

CXLVII. But so that each of these walls may be fully stabilized in its erection, for the purpose of firmly connecting them both, a certain bar is extended crosswise at the entrance of the tabernacle from one to the other, so that it may stabilize and strengthen each aforementioned wall, so that neither may waver either too little or too much beyond what is proper; because in order that each of these movements in us may be blameless, the strength of reason extends itself to both the movement of the mind and the movement of the body, fitting both together: lest the mind defile itself through impurity of the will, or the body cast itself headlong through indiscretion of action. The strength of reason, therefore, intervenes in us: lest the movement of our mind be impure or that of our body be indiscreet. Under the bar also five columns are erected: and lest they be forced to fall, they are firmly and skillfully fitted into that same bar: because lest the five senses of our body feebly rush into sin, they must be subjected and disposed under the rule of reason. A curtain hung upon them also covers those columns, lest being exposed to the outside they be stained by any exterior defilements; because lest the disordered and illicit desires of visible things occupy those same senses in us, the contempt of those same visible things shuts them off, lest the column of sight be defiled and stained by vanity, or the column of hearing by curiosity, or the column of smell by pleasure, or the column of taste by gluttony, or the column of touch by impurity. These columns, through which one enters the tabernacle, are elsewhere in the prophet called windows, and the same prophet laments that the curtain of which we speak was not hung upon them, saying: Death has entered through our windows (Jer. 9:21). As if he were saying in other words: Because the curtain did not cover the columns that are at the entrance of our tabernacle, what should not have been able entered through them. The southern wall of the tabernacle designates the purity of the will; the northern, the vigor of action; the western, the inclination of sensuality. There are therefore, as it were, three walls in the tabernacle, three movements in man: of the mind, of the body, of sensuality. That bar which, extending itself to each wall, strengthens both, is the power of reason, which in us fits together and strengthens each movement, namely both that of the mind and that of the body. The five columns placed beneath that same bar and fixed to it are the five bodily senses, subjected to the dominion of reason. Through the curtain hung upon those same columns, we understand the contempt of external things.

Chapter VI. Concerning the two parts into which the tabernacle of Moses was divided; and what should be morally understood through them.

CXLVIII. This must first be considered by us: that the old tabernacle was divided into two parts: one which was outside the veil, and another which was inside; one which was called the Holy Place, and another which was called the Holy of Holies. If any elect person, perfect in the way of God, is this tabernacle, what else is its exterior part but the body of that same elect and perfect man? And what does this interior part designate but his soul? For into the exterior part the priests used to enter; but into the entrance only the high priest was accustomed to go; because what we are in our exterior conduct is apparent to people from the outside; but what we are within, hidden in our own minds, is open only to that supreme high priest, to whom the abyss of human conscience is naked. Into the exterior part of the tabernacle, therefore, many entered; but to its interior part only the high priest approached: because man indeed sees the face, but God looks upon the heart (1 Sam. 16:7). Likewise, the exterior part of this tabernacle is called the Holy Place, the interior the Holy of Holies; because although the elect of God are exceedingly holy in their exterior observances, through the heavenly desire with which they burn within before God, they are far holier. Your eyes, he says, are like doves, apart from what lies hidden within (Song of Songs 4:1). As if the Bridegroom were saying to his Bride in other words: In exterior observances you appear very holy to people, but in your interior desires before me you lie hidden in your mind as far holier; because in the fulfillment of my will you comprehend more within by affection than you are able to fulfill within by effect, so that your interior holiness, in comparison with the exterior, may rightly be called the Holy of Holies. In the exterior part also, the humanity of our Savior is depicted; in the interior, his divinity: because indeed his humanity could be seen in this world with bodily eyes; but his invisible divinity had to be believed with the spiritual eyes of faith. Hence it is said to the touching Thomas: Because you have seen me, you have believed (John 20:29). He saw what he touched; but he believed what he recognized to be present in him whom he touched. In short, he saw the man, he believed the God. What is said, therefore -- you have seen -- pertains to the Savior's humanity, which is depicted in the exterior part; but what is said -- you have believed -- pertains to his divinity, which is depicted in the interior.

CXLIX. The space also which is in the exterior part of the tabernacle is covered with the purple color; but that which is in the interior with sapphire; because indeed we must tolerate tribulations and distresses in the body, but console ourselves through certain hope and a firm desire for the heavenly homeland. For the Apostle, that vessel of election, says: Even though our outward man is being corrupted, yet the inward man is renewed day by day (2 Cor. 4:16). As if he were saying: Although the exterior part of our tabernacle is covered with the purple color, yet that which is interior is unceasingly adorned with the sapphire color. The exterior part of the tabernacle, according to the moral signification, expresses the holiness of the body, which consists in exterior action; the interior part suggests the holiness of the heart, which consists in interior desire. Our bodily holiness, after the six works of mercy which are to be shown to our neighbor, consists in these eight things: in the rigor of fasting, in the persistence of vigils, in the labor of the hands, in the chastity of the flesh, in the gravity of countenance, in the sparseness of speech, in the vileness of clothing, and in the maturity of gait. These eight things are signified by those eight steps which are depicted in the exterior space, with four steps placed on each side. The desire of our mind also, in which interior holiness consists, is threefold: the desire for pardon, the desire for grace, the desire for glory. With all our affection we ought to desire these three things: pardon, grace, glory: pardon for sins, the grace of merits, the glory of rewards. The first desire was perfectly possessed by that woman of whom it is said: Many sins are forgiven her, because she loved much (Luke 7:47). The second desire was possessed by him who said: My soul has longed to desire your justifications at all times (Ps. 118:20). With the third desire also the great Preacher burned ardently when he said: Having a desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ (Phil. 1:23). And this threefold desire is expressed by those three steps which are placed in the sapphire-colored space within the veil, on the right side of the image. In the exterior part of the tabernacle there are these three things: the table, the lampstand, and the altar, so that, as was said above about these three, we should always practice either useful work, or studious reading, or pure prayer. In the ark also, which is in the interior part, there are these three things: the rod, the tablets, and the manna. The rod is straight and flowering, and designates the memory of our soul; on the tablets was the knowledge of truth, and through them the reason of the soul is understood; and the manna also, a sweet and savory food, expresses the pure sweetness and sweet purity which we ought to have in the will. For our memory ought to be pure, our reason skilled, our will devout. And these three things are indicated by those three steps which are depicted at the northern end of the ark.

Chapter VII. What the two parts of the tabernacle, with the things that were in them, designate according to the tropological sense concerning the twofold state of man.

CL. I think it is not absurd if we say that the tabernacle of Moses was divided for this reason: that our state is twofold -- one in the present, another in the future; one in the labor of exile, another in the rest of the kingdom; one which is called the Holy Place, another the Holy of Holies; one in merit, another in reward; one in affliction, another in consolation; one, finally, on the way, another in the homeland. Now indeed we remain in the Holy Place, but we cannot yet reach the Holy of Holies; because now indeed, as the apostle John says, We are the children of God, but it has not yet appeared what we shall be (1 John 3:2): because blinded by the veil of our mortality, we are unable to perceive the secret joys of that interior and heavenly homeland. Now, I say, we are in the Holy Place; because in some things we are now holy, but when we shall reach the Holy of Holies, we shall be holy in all things. Now we know some things, not all, because in many things we are in darkness. We can do some things now, not all: because in many things we are weakened. In some things we are now just, not in all: because in many things we offend. And in some things we are temperate, not in all: because in many things we exceed. Behold the four principal virtues: prudence, fortitude, justice, temperance. Prudence, which illuminates us; fortitude, which strengthens; justice, which adorns; temperance, which moderates. Of these virtues we possess some things now: but we see that many things are still lacking to us, all of which we shall fully possess in the other life, which the Holy of Holies designates. And therefore I have placed these four virtues not in the Holy Place, but in the Holy of Holies itself, within the veil, above those very columns which are erected before that same veil: because now indeed we are partly prudent and strong; partly just and moderate; but when that which is perfect shall come, that which is in part shall be done away with (1 Cor. 13:10). For then we shall know without doubt, we shall be able without weakness; we shall be fully just, because in nothing shall we offend; fully temperate, because in nothing shall we exceed. For these four virtues are preserved in one way by us in the labors and miseries of this life, and in another way by the angels and holy souls in heaven. For there, to be subject to God reigning, who is seen present, is justice; to prefer no good to God or to equate any with him is prudence; to cling most firmly to God is fortitude; to take no delight in any harmful deficiency is temperance. But what justice does here in helping the wretched, what prudence does in avoiding snares, what fortitude does in bearing troubles, what temperance does in restraining wicked pleasures, will not be there, where nothing evil will exist.

CLI. On the golden capitals of those same columns, in one line across, I write these two words: The Knowledge of God. Because in the clear understandings of their minds, which those golden capitals designate, all the elect will fully know God in the heavenly homeland. For as the prophet says: No one shall teach his neighbor saying: Know the Lord. For all shall know me from the least to the greatest, says the Lord (Jer. 31:34). At the beginning of the first word I place three steps: because the elect will have full knowledge of the Holy Trinity. For then fully, insofar as pertains to the creature, they will know both what it is for the Father to beget, what for the Son to be begotten, what for the Holy Spirit to proceed; what finally in the one Godhead is both the Trinity of persons and the unity of substance. Below, on the silver bases of the columns, I write across: The Unceasing Praise of God. Because all the elect of God will then specially stand firm on this as on a foundation: that they may sing praises and hymns to their Creator forever. For through the beauty of silver must be understood the brilliance of the words which they will utter in praise of God without end. And on the first base I place five steps, because there are five things for which we shall praise the Lord forever: namely our creation, redemption, liberation, protection, and the benefit he bestows on us. For he created us, redeemed us, liberated us, protects us, and does us good. He created us when we did not exist, redeemed us when lost, liberated us when captive, protects us in our weakness, does good to us who are unworthy. He created us, I say, in his divinity, redeemed us in his humanity, liberated us from captivity, protects us in our present infirmity, does us good in eternal felicity. For he himself is our Creator, Redeemer, Liberator, Protector, and Benefactor. To his creation we owe that we exist; to his redemption, that we are restored; to his liberation, that we are called; to his protection, that we are justified; to his beneficence, that we are magnified. These are the mercies of God which we shall sing forever, proclaiming his truth with our mouths. Concerning these five things, a clear and, I think, sufficient instruction is found in the book that we recently composed, whose title is On the Sweetness of God. On the veil itself, hung here upon four columns, I write these words across: Heaven adorned with ineffable beauty. For as the Venerable Bede understood, this veil designates heaven. For he says of it: That the same veil was woven from hyacinth and purple, scarlet twice-dyed, and fine twisted linen in beautiful variety -- who does not see that even according to the letter it corresponds to the beauty of the heavenly vision? And he adds: For if you consider the beauty and the tapestry of the stars, if you consider the manifold appearance of clouds, if you consider the rainbow itself drawing a thousand colors against the sun; would you not seem to yourself to note far more and more beautiful pictures of colors set in the sky than were woven into the veil of the tabernacle? And let these things be briefly said about the four columns which are within the veil; also about their golden capitals and silver bases; and about the veil hung upon those same columns, according to the anagogical sense.

Chapter VIII. Concerning the twofold division of the tabernacle; and what the things that were in the Holy Place designate according to the moral understanding; and also what the things that were in the Holy of Holies designate according to the anagogical sense.

CLII. It has already been said that the twofold division of the tabernacle designates our twofold state: one in which we are in the present; another in which we shall be in the future. One is called the Holy Place, the other the Holy of Holies. That in which we now are is called the Holy Place: but that toward which we sigh, the Holy of Holies. Now, therefore, we remain in the Holy Place; then we shall arrive at the Holy of Holies. Now, however, in the Holy Place we have the table of reading, the lampstand of contemplation, the altar of prayer. And reading indeed illuminates us, contemplation purifies, prayer inflames. The pursuit of sacred reading, I say, illuminates us, lest we stray from the way of God; the serenity of interior contemplation purifies us, lest we become empty through the instabilities of fluctuating thoughts; the persistence of devout prayer inflames us, lest we grow cold from the love of God. If therefore you meditate day and night on the law of the Lord; if you continually retain in your mind sacred Scripture setting before us both the holiness of examples in history, and the belief of right faith in allegory, and the felicity of heavenly joys in anagogy: you have indeed a gilded table resting on four legs in your tabernacle. If, moreover, you diligently consider in your mind both the holy life and hard passion of our Redeemer himself; the order of preachers, the obedience of hearers, the uprightness of those who do good works, and finally the unfading joy of that everlasting virtue, the homeland toward which we sigh, through the purity of contemplation: you have indeed a lampstand both made of the purest gold and hammered, and in the same lampstand cups, spheres, and lilies placed in your holy place. Finally, if you pray without ceasing, if you unceasingly lift up pure hands without wrath and contention (1 Tim. 2:8): you have indeed built in yourself a gilded altar of incense. Make therefore in yourself this table, lampstand, and altar. You have the table if through the pursuit of sacred reading you are illuminated in mind; if through the assiduity of good works you are adorned in body: because the table, as was said above, represents both sacred Scripture and good action. You have the lampstand if through the serenity of interior contemplation you are purified. The altar of incense, if through the persistence of devout prayer you are inflamed in the love of God. Let holy reading, therefore, illuminate you against the darkness of ignorance; let good action also adorn you against idleness, which is the enemy of the soul; let interior contemplation purify you against the emptiness of rushing phantasms; let prayer kindle you against the torpor of the northern cold. These therefore are the things which in this state in which you now are, that is, in the Holy Place, you ought continually to practice: namely the pursuit of sacred reading, the assiduity of good action, the light of interior contemplation, the devotion of pure prayer.

CLIII. From this Holy Place you will come to the Holy of Holies, because through the holiness of merits you will reach the felicity of rewards. Once a year the high priest, clothed in sacred vestments, was accustomed to enter the Holy of Holies; and you, with the crown of the year of divine kindness, which the Lord has blessed (Ps. 64:12) and which he has proclaimed as propitious, having discharged a certain spiritual and invisible pontificate before him, adorned with the variety of good works as with the appearance of beautiful vestments, will enter once into the heavenly joys, because, as the Apostle says, it is appointed for men to die once, and after this the judgment (Heb. 9:27). In the Holy of Holies you will see the ark; because the Lord Jesus will show himself to you and manifest himself to you (John 14:21). In which ark there are these three things: the rod, the tablets, and the manna. Over this ark hangs the mercy seat, above which two cherubim are placed looking upon each other and turning their mutual faces toward the mercy seat itself. This ark is the Mediator of God and men, God and man, Christ Jesus. The ark was made from acacia wood and clothed on every side with gold. What is more precious than gold? What more excellent than the divinity of Christ? Acacia wood is imperishable, and from the purest members and entirely free from all corruption of sin, the body of Christ is fashioned. His conception in the Virgin gives forth the fragrance not of some part of holiness but of its entire fullness, and so does his life among men: because he who was conceived without sin lived among men without sin. Just as he did not contract sin, so neither did he commit it. Nevertheless, even though he had no sin, in the likeHe also came in the likeness of sinful flesh; for the shittim wood from which the ark was made, though incorruptible and dense, is nevertheless similar to thorns; and by thorns is sometimes designated in Sacred Scripture the sting of sin. But the mercy seat was placed upon this ark, because God's own compassion commends Him above all other virtues. Hence it is said: "The Lord is gracious to all, and His mercies are over all His works." For He came to call sinners to repentance (Luke 5:32): as He is in name, so He is in deed; for He is rightly called Jesus, since He saved His people from their sins. Both Testaments proclaim in harmony this most sweet and gentle compassion of His. The Old Testament indeed through His humanity yet to come; the New through the same already accomplished—like two cherubim turning their faces toward one and the same mercy seat of the ark, gazing upon one another and upon the mercy seat itself. In this ark there is manna, tablets, and a rod; because in Christ there is the sweetness of clemency, the fullness of wisdom, and the equity of justice. There are tablets in the ark, because in Christ are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge; there is a rod in it, because the Father has given all judgment to the Son (John 5:22); and there is manna in it, because as was said above, and must be said more often and never consigned to oblivion, He came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance (Luke 5:32). The tablets therefore pertain to wisdom, the rod to justice, and the manna to clemency. "Advance, prosper, proceed, and reign: for the sake of truth, and meekness, and justice" (Ps. 44:5). Advance, O wise one! Proceed, O merciful one! Reign, O mighty one! Advance, He says, O wise one, for the fullness of truth that is in the tablets; proceed, O merciful one, for the sweetness of meekness that is in the manna; reign, O mighty one, for the equity of justice that is in the rod. And do these things in your beauty and your splendor. In your splendor, on account of the gold; in your beauty, on account of the shittim wood—you who are so splendid in the gold of divinity that the angels desire to gaze upon you, so beautiful in the incorruptible wood of humanity that the prophet David declares you beautiful in form beyond the sons of men, whom God the Father anointed with the oil of gladness beyond your companions (ibid., 3).

CLIV. Two carrying poles inserted through four rings also bear this ark; because preachers of both the circumcision and the uncircumcision, instructed by the words of the four evangelists, announce and manifest to the world both natures of Christ, namely the divine and the human. These three things that are in this ark, which designates our Lord Jesus Christ, indicate those three steps that we placed in the lower part of the ark itself. In the ark, then, are these three: the manna of meekness, the rod of justice, the tablets of truth. And justice indeed pertains to the reprobate, meekness to the elect, and truth to both. Meekness pertains to the elect because it belongs to the sweetness of His mercy that they shall be saved. Justice pertains to the reprobate because the equity of His rigorous justice decrees that they be condemned. Showing mercy, He proves Himself truthful to both, since He will render to the former the punishment He threatened and to the just the glory He promised. "And they shall come forth," He says, "those who have done good, to the resurrection of life" (John 5:29): behold the glory He promises the elect. "Those who have done evil, to the resurrection of judgment" (ibid.): behold the punishment He threatens the reprobate. This is the truth that exists in our ark from eternity, in which are immutably both predestined those who are to be saved and foreknown those who are to be damned. This truth, together with the manna of meekness pertaining to the elect and the rod of justice pertaining to the reprobate—both reprobate and elect will fully see to be present in this ark of which we speak, when what the same ark both threatens and promises in the Gospel is fulfilled, saying: "And these (without doubt the reprobate) shall go into eternal punishment, but the just into eternal life" (Matt. 25:46). Therefore the ark that shines forth in the Holy of Holies shows itself terrible to us through the rod and lovable through the manna; and truth is commended equally by manna and rod, because from eternity and for eternity the election of the sons of God and the reprobation of the sons of perdition are true, so that neither can the former be saved nor the latter be damned. In the ark therefore are these three: the rod, the tablets, the manna; which three represent the three steps placed above the ark itself in its lower part.

Chapter IX. On the head of the worm, which is depicted on the north side opposite the lampstand in the Holy Place; and on the seven lamps of the same lampstand explained morally; on the tablets, rod, and manna that were in the ark.

CLV. Since indeed, on account of the causes of diverse significations, one and the same thing in Sacred Scripture can be understood in multiple ways, provided one does not depart from the unity of faith, we believe it is not pointless if we now refer the outer chamber of the tabernacle—which shortly before we said represented the body of any holy person, for the reason we then showed—in turn, for another reason, to the mind of that same holy man according to another signification. For your diligence should not negligently pass over the fact that just as the inner tabernacle, according to the anagogical sense, represents the secret of the heavenly homeland (about which we have already spoken briefly), so also the outer tabernacle, according to the tropological sense only, can suggest the secret of the mind. For here in the meantime we rest in merit, so that there afterward we may rest in reward. Here in holiness, that there in happiness. Here, finally—that is, in the secret of the mind—we secretly receive the hidden ambushes of the hidden enemy, and laboriously endure what we have received, prudently detect what we have endured, and bravely overcome what we have detected. Here also we are illuminated by the sevenfold light of the Holy Spirit and kindled by His ardor. Here we sweetly burn before Him through our prayers; there we shall see Him face to face. Here, finally, we labor in many ways, so that there we may be happily crowned. Therefore in the taberin the outer tabernacle, by which the secret of the mind is designated, opposite the lampstand that is placed to the south, I depict the unsightly head of a certain horrible worm on the north side—whence all evil spreads over all the earth—protruding beneath the table itself. This head emits the blackest cloud from its mouth and nostrils. Opposite it, however, I light seven lamps on the lampstand; because by the light of the sevenfold Spirit, who is represented by the south, we detect the murky temptations of that cold north wind, so that we may overcome them. And we must carefully note this about the harmful head of the venomous enemy: it emits a threefold smoke from its mouth and nostrils, because there is indeed a threefold ignorance by which it is accustomed to seduce the human soul. Namely, ignorance of good and evil; of true and false; of beneficial and harmful. By this threefold ignorance it so darkens the reprobate that, sometimes blinded inwardly, they consider evil what is good, good what is evil, true what is false, false what is true, beneficial what is harmful, and harmful what is beneficial. About such people the prophet thunders, saying: "Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter" (Isa. 5:20). They put light for darkness and darkness for light who think what is true to be false and what is false to be true. Furthermore, they put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter who take what is beneficial for harmful and what is harmful for beneficial. This is the cloud that the prophet Ezekiel saw coming from the north in his vision of God. "I looked," he says, "and behold, a whirlwind was coming from the north, and a great cloud" (Ezek. 1:4). The prophet Isaiah also saw the obscurity of this smoke emerging from the north when he said: "From the north smoke shall come, and there is none who shall escape its ranks" (Isa. 14:31). For the ancient enemy first darkens the minds of the reprobate, withdrawing from them the light of truth, then inflames them, leading them to the commission of crime. First he darkens through fog, then inflames through the ardor of desire. The tempter therefore emits both smoke and fire from his mouth, so that he may equally both blind the human soul through blindness and set it ablaze through desire.

CLVI. But since our purpose was rather to show in this picture of ours how that venomous enemy tempts the elect in their mind, and being tempting is detected by them, and being detected is conquered—rather than how he overcomes the reprobate through their consent—therefore we depicted only smoke, by which temptation is expressed, in the mouth of the worm. And we lit the seven lamps on the lampstand, which signify the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit, by which holy men both detect and, once detected, conquer the temptations of the hidden enemy in the tabernacle of their heart. We did not, however, place fire—by which is designated the desire that burns the minds of the reprobate—in the mouth of the aforementioned worm. Moreover, for denoting the author and instigator of malice, this kind of worm seemed to me more fitting and suitable than many others; because although the serpent itself and certain other worms may sometimes designate something good in Sacred Scripture, I do not recall ever finding this one in a good signification. Therefore, since this horrible worm coming from the north has dispersed against us this threefold smoke described above, before we are either darkened or set ablaze by the same worm, let us have the seven lamps of the southern lampstand burning in the tabernacle of our heart; because we need to be both illuminated by the light of the sevenfold Holy Spirit and inflamed by His ardor, so that, enlightened, we may prudently detect and, enkindled, we may bravely overcome the cunning iniquities of the oft-mentioned enemy. Therefore I write one gift of the Holy Spirit at each of the lampstand's lamps, so that Wisdom is written at the lamp that is at the top, and on one side of it, Understanding, and on the other, Counsel. Then the other four gifts on this side and that; because by these three gifts—namely the gift of wisdom, understanding, and counsel—we detect the venomous iniquities of the ancient enemy; and by the remaining four—namely the gifts of fortitude, knowledge, piety, and fear—we overcome those that have been detected.

CLVII. In the inner tabernacle there is the ark, and in the ark, as has often been said, these three things are contained: the rod, the tablets, and the manna—because in heaven the eternal Godhead reigns, in which Godhead three persons are believed to be coeternal, coequal, and consubstantial: namely the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And since power is noted in the rod, not unfittingly by the rod is understood the Father. Since the fullness of knowledge was in the tablets, aptly also by those same tablets is understood the Son. Since the manna is said to have been a sweet and flavorful food, rightly by the manna is expressed the Holy Spirit. Because power is assigned to the Father, wisdom to the Son, and kindness to the Holy Spirit—yet these three are substantially one in God, although personally distinct—therefore these three, the rod, the tablets, and the manna were in the Holy of Holies, which designates heaven; because there are three who give testimony in heaven: the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit (1 John 5:7). These three are indicated by the three steps depicted in the upper part of the ark beneath the mercy seat itself. There are therefore nine steps placed in this ark of which we speak. Three in its northern part, three in its lower part, and three in its upper part. And to briefly repeat some of what was said more fully above: those three steps placed in the northern part of the ark represent, according to the moral sense, those three things that are in the human soul—namely memory, designated by the rod; reason, by the tablets; and will, by the manna. Those in its lower part suggest to us three things that are in Christ: namely the equity of justice, understood in the rod; the fullness of knowledge, in the tablets; and the sweetness of clemency, which is in the manna. By those three also who are in the upper part, we understand those three Persons who are believed in and adored in one Godhead: first the Father, whose power we judge can be designated by the rod; the Son, whose wisdom by the tablets; the Holy Spirit, whose sweetness by the manna.

Chapter X. On the altar of incense, and on the pictures that pertain to the same altar.

CLVIII. It now remains also for us to speak somewhat tropologically about the altar of incense, so that we may not seem to have passed over anything of what is within the tabernacle itself, or within the Holy of Holies. This altar stood outside the veil in the Holy Place; by which, according to the moral sense, nothing else should be understood except a pure mind kindled by the fire of divine love, upon which we offer our prayers to God, like certain incenses of good and sweet odor, on a gilded altar. Therefore in our picture, before the altar of incense, outside the veil, I depict a certain pontiff dressed in pontifical vestments, offering incense on the same altar with a golden censer, so that we, who are a royal priesthood, may strive to offer the sweet incense of prayer to God on the altar of the mind. But we must provide with all solicitude that, with God's help, we prepare ourselves before the time of prayer to be such as we desire to be found before God, whom we pray to, at the time of prayer itself. For we must unceasingly consider that, according to the sentence of the Psalmist, "If we have regarded iniquity in our heart, the Lord will not hear" (Ps. 65:18). Hence, because he did not regard iniquity in his heart: "Therefore," he says, "God has heard, and has attended to the voice of my supplication" (ibid., 19). Therefore it is necessary that we purge our heart from all the emptiness of phantasms, as much as God grants us the ability, before the very time of our prayer; so that we may lift up a free face of the mind in prayer, just as Augustine admonishes in our Rule: "When we pray to God with psalms and hymns, let us turn over in our heart what we bring forth with our mouth." For certain people, when they should be applying themselves to prayer, unceasingly revolve in their mind the clamor and tumult of earthly affairs; and while they are divided from themselves by so many and such great distractions, they do not even grasp what they say with their mouth. Many indeed, similar to me, frequently receive in their mind during the time of prayer the bothersome flies of phantasms rushing in, so that they are wholly ignorant of what they say. Others also, maddened by a greater folly, when they pray to God, turn over within themselves the foul images of their past iniquities: the persons, places, and times with whom, when, and where they committed their crimes, they delightfully replay in their mind. And those who come to prayer precisely to implore pardon for what they have done illicitly, in their very prayer, through the pleasure of sordid thought, commit those very sins for which they need to pray even more earnestly. This threefold thinking, then, wretchedly devastates us who are weak in the very time of our prayer: burdensome, idle, and passionate thought. Burdensome thought is to be immoderately scattered in the mind by the clamor of earthly thoughts and the tumult of worldly occupations; idle thought pertains to the vanities of phantasms rushing in; and passionate thought pertains to the pleasurable recollections of former iniquities. But if we want our prayer to give off a sweet fragrance to God on the altar of the mind, we must make every effort, when we apply ourselves to prayer, to cast all these things behind the back of the mind through complete forgetfulness, as much as the Lord grants; and to turn its face toward what we utter, as much as we can. Therefore behind the back of the aforementioned pontiff standing at the altar, we depicted three steps; because whoever desires his prayer to be fruitful must, when he prays, expel this threefold thought behind the back of the mind, so that in his breast, insofar as divine grace furnishes the ability, during the time of his prayer there may not enter either a piercing care, or a phantasm rushing in, or a flattering guilt.

CLIX. But after he has expelled these from himself, it is nonetheless necessary that he attentively consider these four things in his mind. First, who is he who prays; second, who is He whom he prays to; third, what is the thing for which he prays; and fourth, how he prays. Considering himself, therefore, the one who prays should see himself to be such—so inclined to vices, so weak for virtues, so sluggish for good, so ready for evil, entangled in so many miseries, and burdened by so many and such great masses of sins—that he may know with absolute certainty that on his own merits he deserves to obtain nothing at all from God. But let him regard Him whom he prays to as both powerful and merciful: merciful for compassion, powerful for help; who both can and wills to hear His elect who worthily invoke Him, because He in a certain way both feels their peril through compassion and bestows assistance through power. Thus the diligent examination of yourself brings you sorrow, and the careful consideration of divine mercy brings you hope; so that you may firmly trust to obtain through His clemency what you did not dare to presume because of your frailty. After this, it follows that you should also see what you ask for. What else should we ask for, if not these three: pardon, grace, and glory? Pardon for sins, grace for merits, glory for rewards. Through pardon for sins, by the mediation of grace for merits, one arrives at glory for rewards. Through the first we are cleansed; through the second adorned; through the third made blessed. Therefore all who ask in the name of Jesus are accustomed to ask these three with all devotion: pardon, grace, and glory; that Almighty and merciful God may lovingly wash away the evils in them, abundantly bestow the good things they lack, bravely guard what has been bestowed, and in the end grant them the joys of His blessed vision without end. Lastly you must consider how you ask, namely that you should both ardently ask your Lord and pray perseveringly; so that with a certain ardent perseverance and persevering ardor pressing upon your prayers, you may both hold what you ask in the highest desire and never cease from prayers until you obtain what you seek. These then are the four things that you must studiously keep before the eyes of the mind at the time of prayer: that you consider most attentively who you yourself are who pray, who He is whom you pray to, what that thing is for which you pray, and finally how you pray, so that you may pour forth a prayer both pleasing to God and fruitful for yourself. Therefore, after we depicted three steps behind the back of the pontiff standing at the altar, we also placed four more before his face, so that you might know that when you pray you must cast those three evil thoughts behind the back of the mind and keep these four good ones before the sight of the heart.

CLX. After all these things, it is necessary that, as the Lord Himself admonishes in the Gospel: "When you stand to pray, forgive if you have anything in your heart, that your Father may forgive you" (Matt. 5:24). And know, as Solomon says, that "he who turns away his ear from hearing the poor shall himself cry out and not be heard" (Prov. 21:13). Hence it is necessary, if you wish your prayer to be fruitful, that you both forgive from the heart those who offend against you, and effectively incline for God's sake the ear of hearing to those who ask of you according to God. You pray that it may be forgiven you and given to you: that the sin you have committed be forgiven, and that merit and reward be given—merit, I say, of a good life, and the reward of blessed glory. And you too forgive and give: forgive those who offend against you, give to those who ask of you. Therefore, after those steps we spoke of above, we also placed two beneath that verse: "Let my prayer be directed" (Ps. 140:2), which the pontiff speaks. So that, if you desire to pray rightly, you may both hold in memory in your heart and effectively practice in action what the Lord says in the Gospel: "Forgive, and you shall be forgiven; give, and it shall be given to you" (Luke 6:37). So that you may both forgive injuries inflicted upon you and grant requested favors—that your sins, which you have committed before God, may be forgiven you, and eternal life, which you ask from Him, may be given. And let these things be said morally about what was within the walls of the tabernacle; both about that part of the tabernacle called the Holy Place, and about that called the Holy of Holies.

Chapter XI. On the coverings and pictures of the tabernacle that pertained to the altar of burnt offering, how they are to be understood according to the moral sense.

CLXI. We have been detained a very long time in explaining the walls of the tabernacle and the things within those same walls. It now remains for us to go forth from the tabernacle itself, in which we have lingered so long, and to consider how those things which are outside should be understood according to the tropological sense only—yet so that we first speak morally about the coverings of that old tabernacle, as far as we can grasp. We know indeed, as was fully shown above, that the visible tabernacle of Moses was first covered with curtains almost to the ground, then completely on all sides to the ground with goat-hair coverings. The roof of the tabernacle itself was first covered over the goat-hair coverings with reddened ram skins, then overlaid with hyacinth-colored skins. You too must cover your tabernacle with curtains, goat-hair coverings, reddened skins, and hyacinth skins—but spiritually. For your tabernacle is spiritual, and therefore it must be covered with spiritual coverings. The curtains were ten in number and woven from four colors: hyacinth, purple, scarlet twice-dyed, and twisted fine linen. They touched the gilded wall-boards more closely than the other coverings, and covered everything within them. And although they covered the aforementioned walls on all sides exteriorly, they did not extend all the way to the ground, but stood one cubit from the ground on every side around the circuit. What do you think these things signify? Let us briefly show what we think about them. These ten curtains, which both touch the boards most closely and cover what was within them, morally represent those holy persons who have chosen to serve God in hidden life, who are able to fulfill the commandments of the Decalogue more perfectly in practice the more fully they have stripped their mind of earthly cares. These curtains are also aptly made from the four aforementioned colors and woven in beautiful variety; because such holy persons, serving the Lord in hidden quiet, shine before the eyes of God both in the beautiful variety of holiness and the varied beauty of virtues—radiant with desire for the heavenly homeland, resisting the tyranny of vices with a certain royal authority, burning with the fire of twofold charity, shining with the splendor of chastity in body. For the hyacinth color, which has the appearance of heaven when it is clear, designates heavenly desire. Purple, which pertains to the adornment of a king, designates spiritual dominion over the assaults of vices. Scarlet twice-dyed expresses twofold charity: of God and neighbor. Fine linen, which rises from the earth with a shining appearance, suggests the chastity of the body. That these same curtains do not reach to the ground must not be thought devoid of mystery; rather through this it is suggested to us that holy men devoted to the quiet life neither wish to cling to earthly things or worldly affairs through care or through affection, but fix their heart there where they know their treasure to be. The goat-hair coverings too, which cover the curtains and protect them from all injury of storms rushing in from outside so that they may shine pure within, are the prelates of holy Church, devoted to pastoral care with wakeful solicitude, who protect from external hindrances those who devote themselves to the quiet of secret and inward sweetness. If they perhaps sin in something, being entangled in earthly cares and sometimes mixed with worldly crowds, they do not fail to scrape it away immediately with the sharp razors of penance; because these same razors they do not fail to scrape it away immediately; because these same goat-hair coverings were both eleven in number and made of haircloth. By the number eleven, transgression of the law is understood; by the haircloth, which was made from the skins of goats that were formerly offered for sin in the law, compunction of mind is understood. The goat-hair coverings therefore were eleven and of haircloth; because in the holy prelates of holy Church, if the number eleven of transgression stains them in anything, the haircloth of compunction washes it away.

CLXII. To speak briefly about the two coverings that were made from skins and covered not the walls of the tabernacle but only the roof: the reddened ram skins are the saints who shed their blood for the name of Christ; and the hyacinth-colored skins are likewise the saints who through incorruption lead a heavenly life on earth in the body, like angels. Therefore if you store away in the chamber of your mind through diligent meditation the hidden way of life of those who live quietly in the Church, the compunction of good prelates, the patience of martyrs, and the incorruption of virgins; and if you kindle the desire of your heart for their holiness and resolve to imitate them as much as you can—then indeed you hang beautiful curtains, haircloth coverings, reddened skins, and hyacinth skins over your wall-boards. But as was said in the second part of this book, neither the curtains, nor the coverings, nor the skins about which we have already said so much can be seen with the bodily eye in this picture of ours, which lies flat; because the curtains are covered on all sides by the coverings so they do not appear, as was sufficiently shown above; and the coverings under the three walls lying flat in the picture and under the tent screen that lies to the east in the picture are understood to be almost entirely hidden; and the roof of the walls, with the walls themselves lying flat in the picture, is not visible at all. Nevertheless, so that these coverings may be considered both to have been visibly present in that visible tabernacle of Moses and to be spiritually necessary in the visible tabernacle of the soul in this manner, near the tabernacle itself, in the court, next to the northern Levite, I write this word: Curtains. Then at some distance from this word I write in black letters: Coverings. Then these two words, namely Reddened Skins, I write in red letters. And in the same manner in hyacinth-colored letters: Hyacinth Skins. Because, as was said, the curtains covered the boards, and the coverings covered the curtains. Over these coverings, for the extent of the roof space, reddened skins were placed, and over those skins others were added, which were hyacinth-colored. Then outside the tabernacle to the east, near the entrance of the tent, I set up the altar of burnt offering and kindle fire upon it. Two altars pertained to that old tabernacle of Moses. One that was outside, the other inside. One covered with gold, the other with bronze. One, in which incense was burned; the other, on which animals were sacrificed. What is to be understood morally by that inner altar has already been partly shown. By this altar, which was on the outside, on which the flesh of animals was customarily offered, can be figuratively understood the minds of those who devote themselves with vigilant solicitude and solicitous vigilance to works of the flesh—either those already committed that must be lamented through penance, or those by which they are still tempted daily that must be resisted through continence. Therefore in our picture I depict at this altar a certain Levite sacrificing a red heifer upon it with a knife, to show that we must burn up carnal works and the things we have committed on the altar of the heart with the fire of penance, and mortify with the knife of continence those things by which we are still tempted. Above this altar I also make five steps; because the wantonness of our senses is indeed fivefold, which we must both burn up through penance and mortify through continence: namely, vanity in the sight of the eyes, curiosity in the hearing of the ears, pleasure in the smell of the nostrils, gluttony in the taste of the palate, impurity in the touch of the hands.

Chapter XII. On the bronze basin and the pictures that pertain to the same basin.

CLXIII. After this I make a certain bronze basin and, placing water in it, set it between the altar of burnt offering we just spoke of and the entrance of the tabernacle itself. I also depict two priests, one washing his hands and the other his feet. This basin commends to us the washing of compunction and tears, which we always need; but especially when we approach to minister in the heavenly mysteries. "Let Aaron and his sons," it says, "wash their hands and feet when they are about to enter the tabernacle of the testimony and when they are about to approach the altar to offer incense to the Lord, lest they die" (Exod. 30:19-20). For the spiritual and eternal death of the soul is to be feared if anyone presumes to enter the most sacred mysteries without the spiritual washing of compunction and to handle the holy things of the Lord with common hands. Let them therefore wash their hands and feet in the water of the bronze basin, and so approach the altar—that is, let them wash their actions and steps with tears, and then extend their hands to touch the mysteries of Christ and place their feet in the courts of the Lord. Therefore at this basin that we made in our picture, we depicted two; because when we are about to offer the sacrifices of our prayers to the Lord, we must cleanse both the affections of the heart, designated by the feet, and the actions of the body, designated by the hands, in the waters of compunction and the basin of confession. In this bronze basin I also make four steps slightly separated from each other; because whoever wishes to acquire full compunction in himself must carefully consider these four things: where he was, where he is, where he does not wish to be, and where he desires to be. Where he was—that is, in sin. Where he is—in the world. Where he does not wish to be—in hell. Where he desires to be—in heaven. The place where we were, then, is sin. Which indeed was in us in three ways: in heart, in mouth, and in body. In two ways in the heart: through love of the world, which lifted us up with the vanity of pride; through love of the flesh, which defiled us with the pleasure of corruption. In the mouth likewise in two ways: through arrogance, when we used to boast of our good deeds with pride; and through detraction, when we enviously disparaged the good of our neighbor. In the body also in two ways: through disgraceful conduct, by which we polluted ourselves with lust; and through crime, by which we wickedly harmed our neighbors. Behold the place where we were. The place where we now are is this world. Although we are not of the world, we are nevertheless in the world: for even if we do not cling to it by affection, we must needs possess it for use. And this place is hostile to us in three ways, because it rages against us through the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. For everything that is in the world, as the apostle John says, is the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life (1 John 2:16). This is that three-pronged fork by which meat is lifted from the caldrons in the Book of Kings (1 Sam. 2:13). These same three things also delay all carnal persons from the Lord's supper to which they are called in the Gospel. For marrying a wife pertains to the lust of the flesh; buying five yoke of oxen to the lust of the eyes; and buying a farm to the pride of life (Luke 14:18ff.). These are the three evils that rage against us from this world itself as long as we are in it.

CLXIV. There is yet a twofold peril that is severely hostile to us from within ourselves. One pertains to the body, the other to the soul. What pertains to the body is fivefold. For in our body there is deformity, dryness, weakness, servitude, and corruption. Our body is indeed misshapen, sluggish, weak, subject to hard and cruel servitude, and liable to manifold and wretched corruption. The peril of the soul in this world is threefold; for our soul is sick with a threefold disease: in memory, in reason, and in will. In memory through the weakness of inconstancy; in reason through the obscurity of ignorance; in will through the wickedness of iniquity. The weakness of memory is threefold: for it is debilitated by passionate, burdensome, and idle thought. Passionate thought occurs when one is affected by necessities: such as the thought of eating, drinking, clothing, and the like. Burdensome thought occurs when one is weighed down by the thought of external matters: as when one thinks about what must be acquired, what spent, what built, what planted, and the like. Idle thought is that about which one is neither affected as about necessities nor burdened as about external matters, yet through it one is hindered from thinking good things: as when one thinks of a running horse, a flying bird, a swimming fish, or something of the sort. Passionate thought makes the soul anxious about itself; idle thought alienates it from itself; burdensome thought casts it beneath itself. The ignorance of reason is also threefold: namely, ignorance of good and evil, of true and false, and of beneficial and harmful. Hence the soul has lost that threefold badge of philosophy by which it should have known these things: namely ethics, logic, and physics. For through ethics, good and evil are known; through physics, the beneficial and harmful; through logic, the true and false. Three things are wont to devastate the will: vanity, curiosity, and pleasure. The vanity of spiritual pride, the curiosity of worldly joy, and the pleasure of carnal desire. Vanity lifts up and blinds the will of the human soul; curiosity scatters it and alienates it from itself; pleasure corrupts and defiles it. Vanity pertains to the temporal power of the world, curiosity to the empty joy of the mind, and pleasure to the foul desire of the flesh. Behold the threefold disease of the soul: weakness, which debilitates the strength of memory; ignorance, which darkens the light of reason; depravity, which stains the purity of the will. But since this sickness is very great, divine grace rather than any human power or industry will cure it. For since it belongs to the Creator Trinity to reform this trinity that He created in His own image and likeness, God the Father must be invoked with humble and devout prayer to heal the memory; God the Son to heal reason; and God the Holy Spirit to heal the will. The Father indeed through His power creates fear in the heart, which orders and strengthens memory. The Son through His wisdom pours knowledge into the heart, which illuminates and clarifies reason. The Holy Spirit through His kindness bestows charity on the heart, which purifies and adjusts the will. And so much for the three evils by which this world—the place where we now are—is hostile to us. And so much for the two perils we endure in it, one of which troubles us in the body, the other in the soul.

CLXV. In the third place there are three things: fire, the worm, and the eternity of both; because the former is called unquenchable and the latter immortal. "Their worm," He says, "shall not die, and their fire shall not be quenched" (Isa. 66:24; Mark 9:43, 45, 47). These three things are in the third place, and they are like a threefold dwelling in that place, to which the reprobate arrive by an equally threefold path. For their way is threefold: delight, consent, and habit. From delight they proceed to consent, from consent to habit. Through delight they grow sick, through consent they die, through habit they are buried. They arrive by this threefold way at that threefold dwelling: namely, the burning of fire, the gnawing of the worm, and the eternity of both. Through delight they go to the fire, through consent to the worm, through habit to the eternity of both—so that the fire may burn the flesh that took pleasure in sin; the worm may gnaw the soul that consented to the flesh; and on account of the habit of sin, the soul may experience the eternity of both, because the one is called unquenchable and the other immortal. And just as he never wished to end his guilt, so he will never end his punishment. So much for the third place. Three things also in the fourth place will be given to the elect by the rewarder of merits and distributor of prizes himself: the strength of power from the supreme power of the Father, that they may be powerful in themselves; the brightness of wisdom from the true wisdom of the Son, that they may be wise in God; the sweetness of love from the sweet charity of the Holy Spirit, that they may love one another, so that in this way God may be all in all (1 Cor. 15:28). But since we spoke at some length about these things above when we discussed the rings of the boards, we avoid lingering on them longer. There are therefore these four places: the first, where we remember having been; the second, where we perceive ourselves to be; the third, where we dread being present; the fourth, from which we do not wish to be absent. The first place is called the pleasure of the flesh, the second the calamity of the world, the third the harshness of hell, the fourth the happiness of heaven. These are the four places from which four streams of water flow. For from the careful consideration of the first place there flows in us the water of sorrow, because we grieve that we were such. From the second, the water of fear, because we greatly fear that we might still be such. From the third, the water of horror, because we dread falling there. From the fourth, the water of love, because we long to reach there. In the first place indeed there is shame and sorrow; in the second, toil and fear; in the third, terror and horror; in the fourth, delight and love.

CLXVI. From these four places, then, four fountains flow that irrigate the Lord's garden. From the first place flows the lamentation of personal guilt; and this is the water that circuits the land of Havilah—that is, those giving birth to a new life. For Havilah means "giving birth," in which land gold is also born, because he who adds knowledge adds sorrow (Eccl. 1:18). From the second place flows the compassion of the manifold misery we endure in the present. And this is the water that circuits the land of Ethiopia. From the third, the dread of the punishment of hell. And this is the one that goes toward the Assyrians. From the fourth, the loving and longing expectation of the heavenly homeland, filled with the fruit of life; and this water is called the Euphrates, because it takes its name from fruit. These waters also flow abundantly to us from that most loving and sweetest Redeemer, the Lord Jesus Himself. For He is read to have wept twice in the Gospel, while He is never found to have laughed even once. He wept at the tomb of Lazarus (John 11:35); He wept over the city of Jerusalem (Luke 19:41); He sweated before His passion when in His agony He prayed more earnestly (Luke 22:43); and when already dead but still fixed to the cross, He poured forth from His side not only blood but also water (John 19:34). Behold the four humors that are administered to us for our cleansing by the Lord Jesus Himself, who in Sacred Scripture is called the living fountain, and in the prophet the open fountain of the house of David for washing the sinner and the unclean (Zech. 13:1). Of the first humor it is written: "And Jesus wept" (John 11:35). Of the second: "Seeing the city, He wept over it, saying: If you had known" (Luke 19:41-42). Of the third: "His sweat became like drops of blood running down upon the ground" (Luke 22:44). Of the fourth: "One of the soldiers opened His side with a lance, and immediately blood and water came forth" (John 19:34). The weeping of the Lord Jesus at the tomb of Lazarus, then, designates that water that we draw from considering the place where we remember having been—when we grieve that we were weighed down by the stone of obstinacy, putrefied in the cave of foul desire, dead through consent to sin, and buried through habit. Those tears that He shed weeping over the city of Jerusalem suggest to us that water that we conceive from the inspection of the place where we now are—when we fear that our enemies may surround us with a rampart, press us on every side, cast us to the ground, and leave in us no stone upon stone. All of which also happen to us morally in the present life, when malignant spirits surround us with temptations, disturb us with tribulations, cause us to slip toward earthly things, and allow no stable or firm thought to remain in us. The sweat that the innocent Lamb produced in His agony figuratively expresses that water produced by the horrible vision of the third place—when we greatly fear that those spiritual Jews may seize us and hand us over to eternal death. When, however, raised from all visible things through contemplation and utterly dead to all things in the world through complete contempt of visible things, we have been extended on the cross of charity—then we are washed with that water that the crucified and dead Lord Jesus poured from His side.

CLXVII. The first water is of a spring, and gives drink to the thirsty; the second of a river, and irrigates the parched; the third of the sea, and cooks the raw; the fourth of snow, and whitens the black. It gives drink through sorrow, irrigates through fear, cooks through horror, whitens through love. To the first two pertains the lamentation of present misery; to the third, the woe of hell; to the fourth, the song of glory. These four waters are designated by the four steps placed in the basin. But since there are two defilements from which we must be cleansed—namely sin and transgression—we placed two steps next to the priest who washes his hands, that we may mourn both having committed what should not be done and having omitted what should be done. Again, because we must have a threefold confession in our cleansing—humble, pure, and faithful—therefore three steps are placed next to the other priest who washes his feet. Let our confession be pure, humble, and faithful. Pure, lest we conceal anything; humble, lest we be proud of our sins; faithful, lest we despair of pardon. Pure against dissimulation, humble against pride, faithful against despair. Because without a certain great tribulation and anguish, neither such a mortification of the flesh as we commemorated in the preceding chapter nor such a purification of the mind as we described here can occur. Therefore I cover the field of the courts, where the altar of burnt offering and the bronze basin are depicted, with a purple color. And we have said more about the bronze basin and the things pertaining to it than we had thought we would.

Chapter XIII. On the tent curtains of the tabernacle; and on the entry of Moses into the tabernacle and his departure from it.

CLXVIII. After this we must carefully consider that the old tabernacle of Moses was surrounded on all sides by tent curtains. Similarly you too, if you do not neglect to guard the good things you have with strong caution, hang tent curtains around your tabernacle and what is within it. For it will profit you nothing at all to have gathered spiritual goods within yourself unless you guard them with careful and solicitous circumspection. Hence in Sacred Scripture we read that God placed man in paradise to work it and keep it (Gen. 2:15). God places man in paradise when, freely bestowing upon you a delightful abundance of spiritual graces, He makes you sweetly rest in a holy and tranquil conscience. But see that you both keep and work this paradise: work it through the strength of fortitude, keep it through the protection of circumspection; work it diligently and keep it cautiously; work it, finally, so that you may spiritually acquire spiritual virtues, and keep it, lest you negligently lose what you have acquired. Therefore, first indeed build both the tabernacle and the things that should be within it in the way I have instructed you; but carefully hang the tent curtain around it, so that you may first build up good things in yourself through solicitous exercise, and then take care to preserve them through the provident circumspection of your life. After this, your diligence should not leave unexamined what is signified by the fact that holy Moses of old, whenever he had doubts about anything or endured any tribulations, always took refuge in the tabernacle—both to consult the Lord about his doubt and to receive from Him defense and consolation. Moses enters and leaves the tabernacle many times. He enters to consult the Lord; he leaves to instruct the people. Within the tabernacle he receives commands from the Lord, which he delivers to the people outside; and he who within sweetly hears the Lord speaking to him busily involves himself outside in the affairs and business of the people. What do you think, my brothers, this entry and departure of his signifies? We have said frequently above that, according to the tropological signification, the tabernacle of Moses represents the secret of the soul. We enter this tabernacle when, setting aside for the time being the care of earthly things, in love of God, in the interior secret of the heart, we devote ourselves to sweet meditation, pure speculation, and purified contemplation. But we depart from this tabernacle when, setting aside for a little while the pursuit of contemplation, out of compassion for our neighbor, we devote ourselves to the lawful occupations of earthly affairs. In this way, then, we enter and depart. We enter, I say, and depart; and in entering and departing we find pasture, so that by entering we may live piously, by departing justly, and by feeding soberly in this world. Piously toward God, on account of pure contemplation; justly toward our neighbor, on account of fruitful action; soberly toward ourselves, on account of right intention. Therefore we enter to contemplate, and depart to work. We contemplate the eternal and heavenly, and work at the transitory and earthly—the former through the affection of the heart, the latter for the use of the body. Within we contemplate the divinity of Wisdom itself, begotten from the Father from eternity without a mother; outside we imitate the humanity of that same Wisdom, incarnate from a mother in time without a father. In a certain book we read both inside and outside: in a certain book, I say, written both inside and outside (Rev. 5:1). Inside we read what is written inside it; outside, what is written outside it. For the Mediator between God and men, God and man, Jesus Christ (1 Tim. 2:5), is a certain book in which we must read, written inside and outside: inside in His divinity, outside in His humanity. Therefore within the tabernacle we read what is written inside this book, when in the secret of the heart we in a certain way see the divinity of Christ through the purity of contemplation; and outside we read what is written outside it, when in the public sphere of action we follow His humanity as best we can through the imitation of His deeds. Inside we read: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God" (John 1:1). Outside: "The Word became flesh and dwelt among us" (ibid., 14). Since therefore there are two lives, the active and the contemplative, the contemplative is signified by entry into the tabernacle and the active by departure. And since there are two commandments of charity, namely the love of God and neighbor: the love of God leads us to the entry of contemplation; that of neighbor to the departure of action. We enter on account of the joy that proceeds from the beauty of Rachel; we depart on account of the fruit of fertility that comes from the childbearing of Leah. The entry of Moses into the tabernacle, therefore, designates the entry of any perfect man into himself, which occurs through contemplation; and his departure represents the going out to action.

Chapter XIV. On the twofold image of Moses; and how that image, when placed outside the tent, tropologically designates Moses.

CLXIX. So that this entry and departure of Moses might be visible in our picture, we depicted two images of the same Moses: one outside the tabernacle, at the entrance of the tent; the other within, to the right of the altar of incense. The image that is outside represents the correct and proper form of Moses, who there presents his horned face to the people and appears standing in secular garb; because to be clothed, as it were, in secular vestments and common garments is to be anxiously occupied with the care of earthly things. That image, however, which is within, although insofar as it is dressed in pontifical vestments and offers incense to God at the altar of incense, it properly should represent the high priest Aaron himself—nevertheless in this place and according to this signification, it also has to designate Moses himself, devoting himself to the purity of contemplation in the interior secret of the heart. And about this image it must be carefully noted that it represents the form of Moses neither in dress nor in face as that image represents him that is outside the tabernacle at the entrance of the tent; because the one who devotes himself to the contemplation of heavenly and eternal things in the innermost secret of the heart has a far different state and disposition of mind than the one who, mingled with crowds of people, attends to the occupation of earthly and temporal things. Outside, Moses both shows his horned face to the people and in his clothing does not differ from the people; because however holy anyone may be, as long as he is occupied with the solicitudes of earthly actions, it is very difficult for him not to bear in his mind a somewhat bestial face and in his conduct a somewhat worldly disposition. But within, Moses is seen both in pontifical vestments and with an unhorned face; because when we devote ourselves to the purity of contemplation from the very marrow, then, with our conduct adorned with the purity of holiness and with face unveiled, we behold the glory of the Lord. In this place, therefore, the image of Moses that is outside designates the one who works; the one within, the one who contemplates. The former represents the active life; the latter, the contemplative. The active life is also twofold, consisting both in preaching and in action. In the preaching of truth and in the work of virtue. In preaching for the instruction of the heart; in action for the support of the body. In preaching, finally, that we may instruct our erring neighbor; in action, that we may assist his need. Therefore next to that image of Moses which is outside, both preaching and action are noted. Preaching in the words he speaks; action is expressed through the steps placed crosswise above his head.

CLXX. These steps are indeed five, because our good action should be fivefold: namely good, spontaneous, pure, discreet, and firm. Let it be good, so that it is not corrupted by any taint of malice. Let it be spontaneous, so that it is done with a willing and by no means reluctant spirit—for it profits you nothing that you do what is good if you do it unwillingly and with grumbling; because, as a certain holy man says, no one unwillingly does good, even if what he does is good. Third, see that your action is pure, so that whatever you do, you do it to please the eyes of the sole internal Inspector alone, and desire Him alone as the examiner of your work whom you await as its rewarder. For if, God forbid, you work in order to be seen by men and praised when seen, you have already received your reward; because the reward of your work is the human favor that you sought in that same work. And therefore if you want God to reward your work, do what you do for God's sake; because He has to reward only what He sees done for His sake alone—so that the presence of God may be the recompense in retribution for those for whom love of Him was the cause in their action. But let your action be discreet; because moderation is the governance of all virtues and, as it were, a certain rampart, and as the saying goes: "Everything that is excessive turns into vice." Lastly strive that your action be firm and stable; because not the one who began and started, but the one who persevered to the end shall be saved (Matt. 10:22). And see how fittingly these two virtues are joined together, discretion and firmness; because your work can never be firm unless it is discreet. For as someone says: "If you never stop bending the bow, it will become slack" (Ovid, Heroides, Ep. iv, 90). And the same author says: "What lacks alternating rest is not durable; rest restores strength and relieves weary limbs" (ibid., 87-88). These then are the five kinds of actions that the active must practice: namely, action that is good, spontaneous, pure, discreet, and firm. The Apostle made mention of these five when he said: "I beseech you, brothers, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy, pleasing to God, your reasonable service, and do not be conformed to this world" (Rom. 12:1). Present, he says, your bodies as a living sacrifice. A victim is killed to be sacrificed. But a living sacrifice is a body afflicted for the Lord. Our body is a sacrifice because it is mortified from vices. But he adds immediately, saying "holy." For our work is holy when it is done with a ready and willing spirit. "Pleasing to God": behold pure action; for what you do pleases God when you do it for this sole reason: to please Him. "Your reasonable service": our service is reasonable when our work is discreet. In conclusion he says: "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed in the newness of your mind." Behold firmness and constancy in good work. For it is the custom of worldly people that they sometimes begin a good work but do not persevere long in it, because they believe for a time and fall away in the time of temptation (Luke 8:13). Our action is therefore fivefold: good, spontaneous, pure, discreet, and firm. Good, so that it is not polluted by the filth of any malice; spontaneous, so that it is not done with an unwilling and forced spirit; pure, so that through it no human favor or gratitude is sought; discreet, so that it is not broken by the violence of excess; firm, so that it is not abandoned before the end of life.

CLXXI. This fivefold action is signified by those five steps placed crosswise above the head of Moses. In those words: "He will raise up a Prophet" (Deut. 18:15), with which the layperson instructs; right faith is understood. In those other words: "Wash yourselves, be clean" (Isa. 1:16), by which he instructs the clerics, a holy life is expressed; because the whole preaching of the saints consists in this: that we both believe rightly and live in holiness. Next to his prophecy I first place two steps, because there are two natures in that Prophet: divinity and humanity. And next to these two, I place three other steps, because just as there are two natures in Him, so also three essences: the Word, flesh, and soul. Through the middle of these steps I draw one step that intersects them; because our Lord Jesus Christ is none other than one Person, who in two natures, in the unity of one subject, is believed to be one Son of God and son of man, Mediator between God and man, God and man, Jesus Christ. I also distinguish with steps the other words addressed to the priests washing themselves in the basin, in which a holy life is expressed: under "wash yourselves" I place one step; and under "be clean," another; because if we wish to live in holiness and devotion, we must make every effort, as holy preaching admonishes us, to both wash ourselves and strive to be clean—to purge from ourselves past defilements and guard against future ones. Hence in the Lord's Prayer we ask that our debts be forgiven us and that we not be led into temptation (Matt. 6:12). On the other side of this verse there are eight steps, which in their preaching, by which holy preachers strive to rouse us to a holy life, propose eight things to us: prohibition, precept, concession, persuasion, correction, consolation, threat, and promise. For holy preachers prohibit, command, concede, persuade, correct, console, threaten, and promise. They prohibit evils, command goods, concede things indifferent, persuade to perfect things, correct the restless, console the fainthearted, threaten the punishments of hell, and promise the joys of the kingdom. Prohibitions are at the bottom, precepts on the slope, concessions on the plain, persuasions at the summit. At the bottom of vices, on the slope of commandments, on the plain of what is lawful, at the summit of counsels. Corrections pertain to wine, consolations to oil (Luke 10:34); threats to old things, promises to new (Matt. 13:52). The first two pertain to the Samaritan; the second two to the Scribe learned in the kingdom of heaven. To wine, which stings; to oil, which soothes; to old things, which frighten; to new things, which delight. And these things we have said about that image of Moses which is placed outside the tent, by which the departure that occurs through action is designated, as best we could, though not as we should have.

Chapter XV. On that image of Moses which is depicted in the tabernacle; and on the two spaces in which the clerics and laity of the Old Testament are depicted: how they should be understood according to the moral sense.

CLXXII. It is time now for us to discuss that image of Moses which is depicted in the Holy Place and was shown above to be referable to Moses himself. This, then, as was said above, designates the secret of interior contemplation. For here Moses hears the voice of the Lord speaking to him from between the two cherubim; he hears His word, I say; but he discerns no form or appearance of His—because when we devote ourselves to the purity of contemplation in the secret of the mind, we should indeed devoutly incline the ear of the heart to those ineffable words that are uttered to us without syllables and words, without movement of lips; but we should cautiously close the phantasmic eyes of foolish imagination, lest in that uncircumscribed light we fabricate something corporeal. Hence Elijah too, when he heard the whisper of the gentle breeze, covered his face with his mantle (3 Kings 19:13). We too hear the whisper of the gentle breeze when through a sudden contemplation we subtly taste the savor of uncircumscribed truth. But after the whisper of the gentle breeze we must cover our face with a mantle, that in the very most subtle contemplation of truth we may humbly acknowledge how great is the ignorance that covers us. To draw a mantle over the face is to veil the mind by consideration of its own weakness, lest it dare to seek higher things—so that it may by no means rashly open the eyes of understanding beyond itself, but may reverently close upon what it cannot grasp. The word of God, then, which resounds in the Holy of Holies from between the two cherubim, is heard by the contemplative Moses who stands in the Holy Place outside the veil; but no form or appearance of it is seen by him. God addresses the contemplative Moses; and without a word transiently sounding outwardly, He speaks where He is enclosed above himself in the tabernacle of the heart: what He is in Himself, what in the elect, and what also in the reprobate. And our contemplator hears, as God declares to him in the ear of the mind, that his Lord is in Himself altogether incomprehensible; in the elect, lovable; in the reprobate, terrible. That He is incomprehensible in Himself He clearly shows, because in Him one strives to contemplate what is the personal distinction and the consubstantial unity.

CLXXIII. In the ear of contemplation, in the interior and secret tabernacle of the heart, with God Himself instructing him through the unction that teaches about all things (1 John 2:27), he hears that there are three in Him, and these three are one; and that these three are one, and that these three and this one are one. He hears the voice speaking to him from between the two cherubim, declaring Him to be the Alpha and Omega (Rev. 1:8): and that which is from no one, and that which is from another, and that which is from both—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit—and that each of these is what the other is, but that none of these is he who is the other, so that neither is the property of persons at all confused nor is the unity of substance separated. He hears also that He is three and one, above all things, beneath by governing, within by sustaining, outside by filling, surrounding all things and disposing them sweetly—the courses of times, the motions of bodies, the inclinations of minds—establishing for every creature a law, weight, measure, and number: "In whom we live, and move, and have our being" (Acts 17:28). He hears furthermore that He moves all things, disposes, and unfolds all things: and that no time can equal His eternity, nor place His immensity, nor virtue His goodness, nor sense His wisdom, nor work His power; and that He is everywhere, yet nowhere grasped: knowing things that exist, foreknowing things to come, disposing what must be done, predestining what must be saved, providing for His subjects—three and one. He hears that in the Trinity there is eternity, admitting immutability and excluding time; and immensity, consenting to simplicity and not admitting quantity. He hears that in the Trinity there is both the communion of unity, the equality of immensity, and the coeternity of eternity. The first is not severed by division, the second is not diminished by deficiency, the third is not ordered by succession. Our contemplator hears that his God is in every thing without His own limitation, in every time without changeability; and that He can by no means be divided because of His simplicity, or stained because of His purity, or comprehended because of His immensity. And in this way he hears that his Lord is altogether incomprehensible in Himself. But that He is lovable in His elect is proclaimed by the eternity of predestination, the grace of holiness, and the glory of happiness. For those whom He predestined, these He justified; and those whom He justified, these He glorified (Rom. 8:30). The purpose of Almighty God stands firm, and His decree of peace over His elect, so that in a wondrous way not only good things but even bad things work together for their good. These have in a certain way never sinned, because even if they seem to have offended in time, their offenses do not appear in eternity; for the love of their Father covers a multitude of sins. On the contrary, over the rational reprobate creature there keeps watch—keeps watch, I say—the immovable, most secret, and most severe judgment of God's just judgment, terrible in His counsels over the sons of men. In the reprobate, what proclaims Him terrible is both the contempt of whatever goodness there may be, the eternal remembrance of wickedness, and the hardening of the blind heart. For He neither rewards their good works, nor washes away their evils, nor softens their hearts, but even hardens them—whose depraved will Almighty God so governs that what is unjustly attempted against Him is secretly disposed according to Him: which, although it displeases insofar as it is evil, yet pleases insofar as it is ordered. Thus God, terrible and just, hardens the hearts of the impious whom He has rejected from eternity—as terribly as immovably, justly indeed, but secretly. The elect, therefore, even though they seem full of every sin, have in a certain way never offended; the reprobate, however, even though they are seen bound by no sins, have in a certain way never done well—since it happens that neither the former are damned nor the latter saved. And this is the threefold kind of contemplation about which God speaks with Moses, teaching in this contemplation that He is altogether incomprehensible in Himself, lovable in the elect, and terrible in the reprobate. In this threefold kind of contemplation His words are indeed heard, because these things are believed about Him in this way; but no form or appearance of His is discerned by Moses, because how these things are is not grasped even by the contemplator himself.

CLXXIV. This threefold kind of contemplation is signified by those three figures placed above the mercy seat between the two cherubim in the image itself. The first figure is a certain circle, by which figure the first kind of divine contemplation—namely the incomprehensibility of God—is aptly denoted; because He Himself neither begins nor ends, just as in a circle neither beginning nor end is seen. This circle is also made in green; because God is a certain life flourishing from eternity and into eternity. And rightly by the green circle the unfading eternity of God is figured, because it neither begins to bloom and grow green nor falls and withers at the end. The remaining two figures, in which a beginning is indeed seen but an end is not seen at all, designate the perpetuity both of the salvation of the elect, in whom God is lovable, and of the perdition of the reprobate, in whom He is terrible; because the salvation of the just and their perdition both begin, but neither ceases for eternity. The sapphire figure expresses the blessedness of the elect, on account of the gentleness of divine mercy that is upon them from eternity and unto eternity. The red figure, which bears the appearance of fire, signifies the perdition of the reprobate; because God appears to the reprobate as a devouring and consuming fire, whom He both rejects from eternity and condemns for eternity. Let these things be said about the entry of Moses. But so that all these sublime and holy things we have treated in our lengthy discussion may be both acquired when absent with studious solicitude and zealous care, and practiced when present with persevering devotion, we have abundantly at hand the examples of the saints who have either preceded us on the way of God or walk with us in it, so that these things may seem lighter for us to practice the more often we know them to have been practiced by others. Therefore after all these things we depicted around the tabernacle the faithful and holy—both clerics of every rank and laity of both sexes; because to acquire and retain in ourselves the exercises of holy religion, we must take examples from good clerics and laity. In the sapphire space, therefore, which has the appearance of heaven when it is clear, the clerics are contained with the proper ministries to which they are assigned; in the green field, which represents the earth, the laity devoted to works of mercy are depicted—so that we may imitate the religious in the purity of contemplation and the secular in the usefulness of good action.

Chapter XVI. What is to be understood morally by the two Levites sounding silver trumpets at the entrance of the tabernacle.

CLXXV. After this we must consider what the two Levites sounding silver trumpets before the tabernacle signify according to the moral sense. Of these two Levites in our picture, one is stationed on the right next to the entrance, the other on the left—by whom nothing is more aptly understood than fear and love. The Levite who cries out: "Cease to do evil" (Isa. 1:16) designates fear, which holds us back from evil; while the one who says: "Learn to do good," designates love, which rouses us to good. Fear and love are like two Levites who move this tabernacle of our heart—about which many things have already been said—or rather the secret of our affections, more vehemently, as it were by certain trumpet blasts. For fear and love are like two movements of the heart, by which the rational soul is impelled to do everything it does. When these two are good, they accomplish every good. Through good fear, evils are avoided; through good love, good things are practiced. But when they are bad, they are the cause of all evils. Through bad fear, one withdraws from good; through bad love, crimes are committed. These are therefore like two gates through which both death and life go forth. Death indeed, when they are opened to evil; life, when they are directed to good. Hence these two Levites, who designate good fear and love, are stationed at the entrance of the tabernacle in our picture. But for those wishing to speak about the fear and love understood morally through these two Levites, it must be considered that love, although it is naturally one movement of the mind, nevertheless receives different names according to different qualities, and is sometimes called cupidity when it is directed toward the world, but charity when toward God. And fear, although it is naturally one movement of necessity, is figured by various names according to the various modes in which it is had or operates, and is called worldly and servile when directed toward the world and sin, but initial and filial when directed toward good and through good. There are therefore these four kinds of fear: servile, worldly, initial, and filial. Servile fear is to abstain from evil to avoid punishment while retaining the evil will. Worldly fear is to abstain from good to avoid punishment while retaining the evil will. Initial fear is to cut away evil thoughts along with perverse works in order to avoid punishment. And filial fear is to cling firmly to good because you are unwilling to lose it. Servile fear dreads the punishment inflicted by men, and therefore it suffices for it to cease from evil work; because wishing to please men, it serves for show and does not fear the guilt of conscience. Worldly fear does not seek to please men but fears displeasing them, and it too pretends what is not—as deceitful in denying the truth as the other is false in concealing falsehood. Both offend against truth: the one because it timidly denies what is; the other because it perversely pretends what is not. Initial fear is that which, while it fears the punishment God threatens and strives to avoid it, sees that it is not enough to restrain itself from unlawful action unless the very thought of the heart also appears sincere and unpolluted. This fear is called initial because under it, through good will, virtue takes its beginning and vice its end. It is not yet perfection, however, because while one thing is done and another intended, good is not yet loved for its own sake. Yet it happens that charity enters through this fear, which in a certain way commands that protection be sought and desired. It therefore turns the heart to God, so that one might in a way flee from Him to Him—that is, while one is careful not to have Him angry, one may strive to have Him favorable. This is followed by filial fear, which is born when charity succeeds, so that to fear Him is nothing other than to be unwilling to lose the good already tasted in charity. Now you love willingly out of reverence, not fearing unwillingly because of punishment. These four kinds of fear are designated by the four steps placed next to that Levite through whom fear is expressed.

CLXXVI. And because of these four fears two are good—initial and filial—and two are bad—worldly and servile—we must keep two for ourselves and cast two away from us. Therefore of the four steps that signify the four aforementioned fears, we placed two behind the Levite's back and two before his face; so that we may cast the two evil ones—servile and worldly—behind the back of the mind through hatred, and keep the two good ones—initial and filial—before the face of the heart through practice. Love too, which is understood through the other Levite as said above, is called cupidity when directed toward evil, but charity when toward good. Charity, moreover, as we read throughout Scripture, is twofold: namely of God and of neighbor. Of God, so that we may love Him in such a way that we rejoice in Him. Of neighbor, so that we love him not to rejoice in him but to rejoice with him in God: that is, that we may love the Lord for His own sake, but our neighbor for the Lord's sake. God is therefore to be loved for His own sake because He Himself is our good; our neighbor for God's sake because with him our good is in God. We love Him so that we may both reach Him and rejoice in Him; we love our neighbor so that we may run with him and arrive with him. Him as our joy; this one as the companion of our joy. We must love our neighbor whether he is good or not, provided he can still become good. Whoever either is good or, if not good, can become good, is our neighbor and is to be loved by us. But those who are so evil that they can no longer become good are not our neighbors; therefore they are not to be loved by us. Such are the demons and reprobate men condemned with the demons, who are not our neighbors but are alien and utterly foreign to us, because the path of return to good no longer lies open to them. They are therefore not to be loved by us because they have irretrievably fallen from that good in which everyone who is rightly loved is loved. But we must love those who either have not departed from goodness, or if perhaps they have departed, can return again through God's grace and the freedom of the will. For those who, even if they have gone away, can still return are not altogether far away. These are the neighbors we must love, either in God if they have not departed, or for God's sake if they can return. And this is what is commanded us: that we love our friend in God and our enemy for God's sake. Our friend in God, because he has God—who would indeed not be a friend if he did not have God. Our enemy for God's sake, that he may have God—so that he who, by not having God, is an enemy, may by having God become a friend. All these things we can see clearly through an example. If honey is sweet, the honeycomb is sweet; and if you love the honey, you also love the honeycomb, which is the receptacle of the honey. But when honey is loved, it is loved because it is sweetness itself. When you love the honeycomb, however, you do not love it because it is sweetness, but because sweetness is in it—because the honeycomb is the receptacle of sweetness. Honey therefore is loved for its own sake; the honeycomb for the sake of the honey. And if you happen to see a honeycomb without honey, you see a receptacle where honey ought to have been; you grieve that it is empty; you are not pleased that it is dry; and you wish the honey you love were in it; and if honey comes into it, you love it more. So love your God for His own sake, because He is sweetness itself. Love your neighbor because he is the receptacle of this sweetness; love that sweetness in him, love it for him, and love him for its sake. But if you find your neighbor empty of this sweetness, grieve, because you see your receptacle empty, and wish that his good may come into him, without which he cannot be good.

CLXXVII. This therefore is the twofold charity of God and neighbor; and in this way God and neighbor are to be loved. But because, as we said above, love is sometimes good, sometimes bad—bad when directed to evil, and then it is called cupidity; good when directed to good, and then it is called charity, and there are two precepts of charity—just as a little earlier we distinguished the kinds of fear by steps, so now we distinguish these modes of love by steps. We therefore placed one step behind the back of the Levite through whom the love we are discussing is expressed, so that we may cast that depraved love called cupidity behind the back of the mind through contempt and hatred. We placed two before the face of the same Levite, so that we may strive with all zeal to hold the twofold charity—of God and neighbor—before the face of the heart through both full approval and continual practice. These steps are also made in a red color resembling fire, because charity makes burn the one it affects. The upper step expresses the love of God who is on high; the lower, of neighbor, who dwells with us below. From the upper step three steps extend upward, because the love of God is distinguished by three—He who is commanded to be loved by us with our whole heart, our whole soul, and our whole strength. In this matter, as blessed Gregory says, it must be noted that the divine word, when it commands that the Lord be loved, not only states from what source but also informs with what measure, when it adds "from the whole"—namely, that whoever desires to please God perfectly may leave nothing of himself for himself. From the lower step two steps hang downward, because the love of neighbor is derived from two precepts: when a certain wise man says, "What you hate to be done to you by another, see that you do not do to another"; and Truth says through Himself: "Whatever you wish men to do to you, do also to them" (Matt. 7:12). By these two mandates of both Testaments, through one malice is restrained, through the other kindness is extended: so that by not doing the evil that one does not wish to suffer, one may cease from the work of harm; and again by bestowing the good that one desires for oneself, one may exercise oneself in kindness toward the benefit of one's neighbor. When these two are carefully considered, the heart is stretched to innumerable services of virtue, lest the mind either seethe with desires to inflict what it should not, being restlessly disturbed, or grow torpid with laziness in rendering what it should, being dissolved in idleness. Let what has been said about the two Levites sounding trumpets at the entrance of the tabernacle, according to the moral signification, suffice.

Chapter XVII. How the two columns of fire and cloud, depicted on either side of the tabernacle, should be understood according to the tropological sense.

CLXXVIII. Concerning the two columns of fire and cloud, which are on the flat of the picture on either side of the tabernacle, we now propose to treat briefly according to the moral understanding, since we lingered for some time on their allegorical explanation in the preceding part and are hastening to discuss certain things that still remain. We have said frequently that according to the allegorical sense, the tabernacle of Moses represents the Church of Christ. Above this tabernacle a certain figure rises, holding a cloud on the right and fire on the left; because the prelates of holy Church preside, who display the fire of terror to those subjects who resolve to persevere in a wicked life, and the cloud of gentleness to those who choose to devote themselves to holy conversation. To the former they say: "What do you wish? Shall we come to you with a rod, or in a spirit of gentleness?" (1 Cor. 4:21). As if they were saying: Since the wickedness of your reprobate conduct has placed you on the left side, you deserve that we visit you with the rod of stern discipline. To the latter, on the contrary, it is said: "We do not lord it over your faith, but are helpers of your joy, for by faith you stand" (2 Cor. 1:24). As if to say: Since through faith that works through love you stand on the height of holiness, it is indeed more just and fitting that we assist your good resolution through charity than that we dominate you through austerity. This cloud and this fire are designated by the pastoral staff, which is curved at the top and pointed at the bottom; so that with the sharpness of correction it may prick those who incline by affection toward earthly things, and with the feeling of compassion the shepherd may bend himself toward those who cling to heavenly things. What the curved part of the staff designates at the top, the cloud of the icon suggests on the right; and what the pointed part designates at the bottom, the fire of the icon signifies on the left. By Moses, who there is depicted next to the subjects on the left, with a scourge and sword, the same just severity of prelates is understood, which threatens perverse subjects with both the sword of correction and the scourge of discipline. Next to those subjects who are on the right, the hands of the same Moses are supported, and being supported are made light; because for humble subjects the strictness of prelates is tempered. Indeed Aaron and Hur support these hands. By Aaron, who is interpreted "mountain of strength," according to the moral signification the virtue of humility is understood; because the more lowly and weak one sees oneself, the more sublime and strong one is. By Hur, who is called "fire," the ardor of love is expressed. Morally, then, Aaron and Hur support the hands of Moses when the sublime strength of humility and the ardor of charity temper any discreet and just prelate both in correcting and in sparing—lest through pride he be too rigid in correcting, or through lukewarmness too lax in sparing.

CLXXIX. That this icon of which we speak says to the subjects on the left: "If anyone does this or that, he shall surely die" (Exod. 21:18), in fire; and to those on the right: "I came to call sinners to repentance" (Matt. 9:13), in cloud—what are we to think this means, except that the prelates of the Church threaten punishment with terror upon rebellious subjects, and promise pardon with gentleness to the humble? All those things that pertain to the other icon, where on the other side the salvation of the elect and the perdition of the reprobate are depicted: if you consider subtly, you will see them fitting to the prelates or subjects of whom we speak, according to this signification at least. So that, as we showed a little earlier in the preceding part, all these things which now lie separated from each other in the lower plane of the picture on either side of the tabernacle—when raised above the erect tabernacle and joined to each other—as far as the allegorical sense is concerned, denote both the calling of the Gentiles and the rejection of the Jews. So too according to the moral understanding, the same things joined together at the top should be known to express both the office of prelates and the conduct of subjects. For, to speak briefly, to the damned on the left: "Depart, you cursed, into everlasting fire" (Matt. 25:41), our icon says in our picture through fire; and to the saved on the right: "Come, blessed of my Father, possess the kingdom" (ibid. 34), the same icon says in cloud—when any prelate of holy Church declares that the disobedient, because of their contempt for divine commandments which they cast from their obstinate minds, shall terribly go into eternal fire; and announces that the obedient, because of their fulfillment of heavenly precepts which they receive with humble heart, shall mercifully possess the heavenly kingdom. We have spoken briefly about this twofold column of fire and cloud.

Chapter XVIII. Another exposition of the same topic in another way according to the moral sense.

CLXXX. A few things yet remain in this one topic that must be considered somewhat more subtly about this column of fire and cloud, which we have deemed worthy of mention: because, as has been said more than once above, that external tabernacle of Moses designates the internal secret of the soul. A column perpetually hangs over this tabernacle, because our heart is continually either defended or accused by thought. Hence the Apostle says: "And their thoughts mutually accusing or even defending" (Rom. 2:15). For thought defends our heart when it has a good conscience, but accuses it when a bad one. This is why, since the column of which we speak was always over the tabernacle, by day it bore the appearance of cloud, but by night the appearance of fire. By fire, as was sufficiently shown above, the severity of terror is understood; by cloud, the soothing of gentleness; by night, the life of the sinner; and by day, the life of the just. Over the tabernacle, therefore, in the daytime there is a column of cloud and at night one of fire; because our inner thought both soothes our heart gently through the consolation of lenity when we are good, on account of the brightness of holiness by which we are illuminated; and terrifies it through the terror of reproof when we are wicked, on account of the darkness of wickedness by which we are obscured. The reproof of our heart is twofold; because when we act wickedly, it judges us worthy not only of temporal tribulation, but when we persevere in evil, of eternal damnation. And so a twofold reproof harshly shakes the sinful soul even in the present life: one concerning the guilt it wretchedly commits, the other concerning the punishment it fearfully dreads. Likewise the consolation of our heart is also twofold; because when we both ardently love the good from affection and perseveringly practice it in our affection, we not only rest sweetly in the chamber of the mind, but we also confidently hope, that as month follows month and Sabbath follows Sabbath, we shall arrive both at secure eternity and the eternal security of heavenly rest. And so a twofold consolation receives us: one from the merit that is already a reality, the other from the reward that is now firmly in hope but in the future will be a reality. This twofold consolation and reproof of the heart will happily come about, and it can, unless I am mistaken, be figuratively understood through the pictures that are on either side of the tabernacle, next to the twofold column of fire and cloud. By Moses, who is depicted on one side of the tabernacle near the Jews close to the fire, holding a scourge and sword, we understand this accusation of the heart of which we speak. This accusation of the heart harshly strikes anyone living hypocritically under the law—who is a Jew outwardly, who practices only the circumcision that is in the law through external observances and carnal ordinances, eager to please the eyes of men, and neglects the inner sincerity of mind and the testimony of Him who knows hidden things and discerns intentions—with the wound of correction, as with a certain blow of the scourge, and the bite of reproof, as with a certain sharpness of the sword. Hence the Jews are depicted there in the number eleven, which designates transgression of the law. The law itself, understood through Moses, convicts these Jews of transgression, as the verse proceeding from Moses and written beneath the Jews shows: "Convicted by the law as transgressors" (James 2:9). As if to strike Jews with the scourge and slay them with the sword, threatening, Moses is depicted in the tabernacle—when the thought conscious of transgression both strikes the mind that transgresses the law through correction and judges it worthy of death through reproof. By the hell, moreover, which is depicted opposite on the other side—kindled and open in the corner, ready to swallow the reprobate placed near the fire—we likewise denote the same accusing conscience of the sinful soul; because by itself and in itself, as far as both its own evil merit and God's strict judgment are concerned, it is judged worthy of eternal damnation even in the present. For a kind of hell swallowing the reprobate is depicted in the tabernacle when the punishment of hell and the torment of the damned are both attentively foreseen in thought and anxiously dreaded through fear.

CLXXXI. So much for the twofold accusation of the heart. By Moses, who is depicted on the southern side of the tabernacle, to the right of the cloud near the Christians placed close to the cloud itself, the internal consolation of a holy mind with a good conscience is expressed—the consolation that gently soothes a holy mind drawing near to its Redeemer, designated by the cloud, through a religious way of life. Hence, fittingly, Aaron and Hur support the hands of the same Moses in this place. By Hur, who is called "fire," the ardor of divine love is understood; by Aaron, "mountain of strength," the stability of heavenly contemplation—because in strength is understood the power of stability, and in the mountain the sublimity of contemplation. The hands of Moses are therefore made heavy to the Jews placed near the fire by the scourge and sword; and to the Christians located near the cloud, Aaron and Hur make them light by supporting them. For the inner accusation of a heart with a bad conscience strikes any wicked person who, by transgressing the law, proudly despises the fire of the Godhead, with the scourge of correction and bloodies him with the sword of reproof. And a certain inner consolation, born from the full testimony of a good conscience, pacifies and stills in a kind of sweet resting-place any holy person who, by fulfilling charity, humbly imitates the cloud of the humanity, while striving both to burn ardently with the ardor of love for his Creator and to devote himself perseveringly to the sublimity of holy contemplation. Hence those same Christians are depicted there in the number fifteen near the cloud; because holy men, pacified by this inner consolation, await in interior rest the eighth day of the future resurrection with happy hope. Under these Christians this verse is written: "That the Gentiles might honor God for His mercy" (Rom. 15:9). Because Christians attribute all the good they do not to their own merits but to divine mercy. By the salvation of the elect, which is depicted opposite on the other side—where the same elect, both called to the kingdom and going to the same kingdom where Christ is the drachma, are depicted—we understand the consolation that gladdens the saints even in the present life in the hope of future blessedness. They are so lifted up and confirmed in confidence by so great a hope that they can say with the Apostle: "We know that if our earthly house of this dwelling is dissolved, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens" (2 Cor. 5:1). For in a wondrous way they already in some manner possess what they firmly hope to have one day. For the vessel of election, the apostle Paul, was not only in this mortal body on earth but was perhaps detained in prison and in chains when he said of himself and his fellow citizens: "Who raised us up together and made us sit together in the heavenly places" (Eph. 2:6). He already therefore considered himself in some manner both raised up and about to sit in the heavenly places. And David says: "I was glad when they said to me: We shall go into the house of the Lord" (Ps. 121:1). He had not yet reached the house of the Lord, yet he declared himself already glad because he had heard that he would go there. This must be diligently committed to memory and ceaselessly retained in the mind without forgetfulness: that the ineffable joy over the attainment of that blessedness which will then be a reality will be all the greater, since so great an exultation already affects them now in the expectation of that same happiness, which is now in hope. For it is not surprising if what the full taste of experience will reach will be very savory, provided that what the slender scent of report perceives already tastes so much. All these things that have been said about this twofold consolation are then depicted in the tabernacle when they are in this way recognized in the mind through understanding, loved through affection, and practiced through effect.

CLXXXII. That these columns of fire and cloud of which we speak will, when the tabernacle is erected, be joined to each other at the top along with the pictures pertaining to those same columns—this too must not be thought devoid of mystery according to this signification. For, to briefly show without prejudice to others what we think about this: when the tabernacle is erected, the Jews are joined with the damned and Moses holding the scourge and sword in heavy hands with hell; the Christians are joined with the elect called to the kingdom, and Moses with hands supported by Aaron and Hur with those same elect going to the kingdom. Because at the end of this world's present state, the wicked will perpetually experience in punishment what they now fearfully dread in conscience, and the just will fully and happily have in reality what they now joyfully and firmly hold in hope. And these are the things we have said about the column of fire and cloud according to the moral sense, as it seemed right to us, without prejudice to the more subtle understanding open to more learned minds. If these things said about the pictures in this manner have perhaps displeased anyone, he at least cannot deny that fire expresses the severity of terror, cloud the soothing of gentleness, night the life of the wicked, and day the life of the just. If these things are so—indeed, because they are so—we should not be said to deviate from the truth of faith, as I judge, if we understand by that column which once rose above the visible tabernacle of Moses our conscience, which should preside over the tabernacle of our mind according to the moral sense; and by the appearance of cloud that was in the same column by day, the consolation brought to our mind by that same conscience for the brightness of holiness; and by the fire that was in the said column by night, the accusation brought to our heart for the darkness of wickedness.

Chapter XIX. On the five spaces of the picture: what is to be understood morally by them.

CLXXXIII. In proposing to speak concisely about the moral signification of the five spaces into which our picture is divided, we must briefly repeat certain things from what was said at length above, so that we may come more fittingly to what we propose to say. We said in the preceding sections that in the first space the laity of both ages are depicted, and this space is like a certain field in which good and bad herbs are nourished together, mixed. In the second space are the clerics of both the Old and New Testaments; this space is not unfittingly compared to a garden in which choice herbs are planted. The third space was entered by those Levites who were mature in age and distinguished in purity, to sacrifice burnt offerings on the bronze altar; this space can in a way be called a kind of royal court, in which his friends and familiars attend to their duties. The fourth space was entered by priests; it is a kind of house in which his parents and relatives are received. The fifth space, finally, which is within the veil and is called the Holy of Holies, into which only the high priest enters, is like a kind of private bedchamber, in which the Bridegroom and bride delight in each other with a love all the sweeter for the more secret place. For in this place is the ark, and in the ark the manna; and the ark is in that place like a bed in a bedchamber, and in the ark the manna, like sweetness in the bed. These then are the five spaces into which our picture is divided, all of which can also be adapted to the human soul according to the moral understanding alone. For our mind often goes forth from itself; having gone forth, it is scattered through exterior things; being scattered, it is dissipated. And so scattered and dissipated, it wanders through the empty phantasms of visible and invisible things: now thinking good things well and bad things badly, now thinking good things badly and bad things well; yet it does not settle in or cling to any of these thoughts, but runs here and there, wandering and errant, and nowhere rests in any thought. This mind, then, first depicts in itself the first space, whose thoughts, because they are innumerable and not only good and bad separately but good and bad together, can rightly be compared to the breadth of a certain field in which good and bad herbs grow together.

CLXXXIV. Sometimes, however, our mind strives to recall itself from this infinite distraction back into itself; having recalled itself, it gathers it to itself; having gathered, it draws it near; having drawn near, it places it beside itself. And since it does not yet know how to think fully about the things that pertain to eternal life, it busies itself in thinking about the necessities of the present life, having excluded idle, impure, unlawful, and superfluous thoughts. It studies anxiously, seeking anxiously how to acquire what is lacking and how to spend what is at hand; how also to avoid harmful things when they threaten and expel them when they harm; how to acquire wholesome things and practice what has been acquired; and it thinks about the other necessities of this temporal life. We have compared these thoughts, because they anxiously busy themselves with the necessities of this life, to a certain garden in which only choice herbs necessary for human use are cultivated. When our mind busily involves itself in thinking about the good works to be done through the body; when it studiously considers how vices are to be resisted and virtues to be acquired; when it seeks with all care how the eyes are to be closed from vanity through contempt of the world, the ears to be stopped from curiosity through compunction of soul, the sense of smell to be guarded from pleasure through the gravity of good desire, the taste to be mortified from gluttony through the rigor of fasting, the tongue to be restrained from loquacity through the bridle of silence, the touch to be controlled from impurity through the virtue of self-mortification, and the other movements of the members to be kept from impurity through the maturity of holy conduct—then this mind constructs within itself the court of the supreme King, in which grave and pure thoughts, like certain Levites mature in age and distinguished in purity, sacrifice burnt offerings to the Lord. In this court, I say, those moral Levites—that is, holy thoughts—with the knife of humility strive to mortify the bull of pride, with the knife of chastity the goat of lust, and the other bestial impulses.

CLXXXV. But if our mind anxiously involves itself in thought not only about the external purity of the body but also about the internal purity of the heart—to speak briefly, it constructs within itself a house in which its parents and relatives are received. For inasmuch as parents and relatives are closer to us than friends and acquaintances, to that degree these thoughts about the internal purity of the mind are more sublime than those thoughts that involve themselves with the external sanctity of the body—because the more worthy the spirit is than the body, the more exalted is spiritual holiness than bodily. But if our mind has ascended to such heights of perfection that it is no longer necessary for it to struggle either against the provocations of the flesh or against the phantasms of the heart, but with all its effort strives, through the stability of thought, through the purity of contemplation, through the sweetness of speculation, to unite its spirit to God, as much as is granted in this mortal flesh—thinking of Him purely at every hour, loving Him ardently, and desiring Him vehemently—then it has indeed depicted in itself the fifth space of our picture, which we compared to a bedchamber. In this bedchamber, all other thoughts having been set aside for now—those plowing and sowing in the field, planting and watering in the garden, sacrificing and offering in the court, eating and drinking in the house—the human soul, which is the bride of God, alone with her Bridegroom God alone, is firmly joined in the embrace of charity and sweetly united in unity of spirit. And in this way we have adapted the five spaces of our picture to the human soul. In the first space I write "outside"; in the second, "beside"; in the third, "near"; in the fourth, "within"; in the fifth, "above": because in the field of unstable thoughts our mind is outside itself; in the garden of thoughts about temporal life it is beside itself; in the court of provision for bodily chastity it is near itself; in the house of the intention of spiritual purity it is within itself; in the bedchamber, where it devotes itself to the height of secret contemplation, it is above itself. It is therefore outside itself through the unstable wandering of fluctuating thoughts; beside itself through the lawful care of necessary things and earthly occupations; near itself through the external purification of the body; within itself through the internal sanctity of the mind; above itself through the sublimity of purified contemplation.

Conclusion.

CLXXXVI. Many other things indeed, venerable Father, occur to us to say on this subject; but we must recognize that we should consult the weariness of those who tire as much as the zeal of the studious. Hence we have divided this book into three parts, but we have tempered it with such a mean that, by combining a certain great smallness and a small greatness of thoughts, so to speak, it may be neither too lengthy for the lazy nor too copious for the studious—since through it, the scent can in a way confer an appetite for daring greater things upon the former, and the taste can confer at least a satisfaction in understanding these upon the latter. But among these things, my most beloved Lord, you should know that, to use the words of the Apostle: "I have become foolish; you compelled me" (2 Cor. 12:11). For in order to comply with your will, as I should, I opened my mouth and spoke, and in speaking I betrayed my foolishness—lest, had I been silent, the wisdom I lacked would be thought to be present in me. For a fool, as a certain wise man says, if he keeps silent, will be considered wise. I have betrayed, I say, my foolishness by speaking; but not to my harm, since charity is the cause and humility the fruit of this speech of mine. For it is a matter of charity that, obedient to your will, I have perhaps served the advancement of many; of humility, that they can see what I lack, because I know what I do not know. If therefore anyone, bitten by envy, should wish unjustly to calumniate me because the absence of that which puffs up (1 Cor. 8:1) was with me in this book, I certainly ought to be freed from blame, because the presence of that which builds up (ibid.) was not lacking, nor of that which humbles. Moreover, since he who errs in ignorance ought to be corrected, and he who knowingly excuses his error deserves to be condemned: I too, even though I do not fully acknowledge that I have deviated from the truth in what I have said, do not rashly deny that I have not altogether avoided deviation, nor do I proudly refuse correction reasonably shown—so that, like David who humbly repented of his bodily fall, I may be salutarily corrected by Nathan, and by no means, like Saul who proudly excused his own disobedience, may I be wretchedly condemned by Samuel.

Letter of Adam to the Canons of the Premonstratensian Church, concerning the threefold picture of the aforementioned tabernacle and the threefold kind of contemplation.

To the most beloved, most illustrious, and in Christ most embraceable community of canons serving Almighty God in the Premonstratensian church, Brother Adam, most humble servant of God and of the servants of God, the little that I am, if indeed I am anything. The book composed about the threefold tabernacle, O men of venerable life, we have sent to you who are absent, we who are absent—the book we promised you when present to those present. A modest gift indeed, yet transmitted with no modest devotion. Let the scales of your equity, therefore, weigh this gift by the affection of the giver. For it is fitting and right that your estimation should by no means consider the gift itself small, whose spirit is great in the eyes of your thought—because there the measure of quantity can in no way appear small where the fullness of the whole transfers and absorbs whatever there is into itself. Since the subject matter we were treating was not moderately profound, many things indeed occurred that needed to be said. We have therefore divided the aforementioned book into three parts and have individually assigned to those parts their own proper themes, so that with the summary of each fully known, our readers might perfectly comprehend the whole in sequence through that knowledge, however lengthy it may be. The first part treats of that visible and ancient tabernacle of Moses; the second, of the tabernacle of Christ, which is the holy Church of the elect; the third, of the tabernacle of the Holy Spirit, which is the devout and faithful soul. To the first tabernacle pertains history, and it exists in the truth of the event itself. To the second, allegory, and it exists in the catholic belief of sincere faith. To the third, tropology, and it exists in the internal purity of secret conscience. The picture contains the first and second parts in itself, showing in its own flatness how that old tabernacle of Moses was actually made and arranged with the things that pertained to it; immediately at the beginning of the second part showing, as much as in the flat surface