Caput XI
The Enemy's Two-Fold Strategy
The devil openly tempts the wicked but works by stealth against the good, using the wicked as agents to lure or obstruct them, as the prophet laments that our enemies are swifter than eagles.
To anyone who's wicked, though, he openly suggests whatever evils he likes, and to them as to old companions he lays out sins more plainly — so that they knowingly do what they're well aware is wrong. With good people, then, as with strangers, he works by stealth, quietly slipping in the evils he can't promote openly — so that those who refuse to go along with wickedness either grow lukewarm in their pursuit of good, or go overboard with misguided zeal. Those he harms more severely through his agents than through himself — using the wicked either to lure the good toward evil, or to hold them back from doing good. Hence the prophet says: 'Swifter than the eagles of the sky are our enemies' (Thren.✦ IV, 19).
Three Vices and Three Names
The devil overpowers all through three vices—pride, lust, and malice—and is accordingly given three names: the bird, Behemoth the beast of burden, and Leviathan the dragon.
Yet everyone he overpowers, he plunges more deeply through three vices. Namely: some through pride, by which they exalt themselves; others through lust, by which they serve their own pleasures; and others through malice, by which they burden their neighbors. And so he's given three names drawn from those three modes of action: namely, the bird, and Behemoth — which is the beast of burden — and Leviathan, which is the dragon.
The Three Names at Work in the Soul
The bird works in the proud, the beast of burden in the lustful, and the dragon in the malicious; in some all three operate together.
In those whom it raises to pride because of spiritual or temporal riches, the bird is at work. In those whom it enervates toward luxury, the beast of burden is at work. In those whom it inflames with the malice of doing harm, the dragon is at work. In those whom it submerges equally through all three of these, the beast of burden, the dragon, and the bird are at work together.
Luxury as the Devil's Greatest Strength
The devil's greatest power lies in luxury, as shown by the scriptural image of Behemoth's strength in the loins and navel, referring to men and women respectively.
Its greatest strength, however, is in luxury. Hence it is said to blessed Job: His strength is in his loins (Job 40:11).✦ Namely, on account of men. And its strength, on account of women, is in the navel of its belly (Job 40:11).✦
Becoming the Devil's Body
The strength resides not in the loins of the fallen but in the devil himself, for those who yield to lust literally become his body, as Gregory's Moralia teaches.
. Here it should be noted that his strength is said to reside not in the loins or the navel of those who are brought low, but in the loins and navel of the devil himself — because, just as is reported in the thirty-second book of the Moralia, those who yield to him through lust literally become his body.✦
Read the original Latin
Quibuslibet autem pravis mala quaelibet aperte suggerit, eisque velut familiaribus iniquitates manifestius insinuat, ut scienter agant quae mala esse non ignorant. Bonis ergo velut extraneis latenter insinuans, mala quae publice non valet, tecta subintroducit: ut qui malis consentire refugiunt, in bonis aut tepidi sint, aut nimio zelo modum excedant. Quos plerumque gravius per ministros suos, quam per seipsum nocet, dum per malos vel illicit bonos ad malum, vel impedit eos in bono. Unde propheta: Velociores, inquit, fuerunt aquilis coeli inimici nostri (Thren. IV, 19). Omnes tamen quibus praevalet per tria vitia vehementius mergit. Videlicet alios per superbiam, qua se extollunt; alios per luxuriam, qua suis voluptatibus serviunt; alios per malitiam, qua suos proximos gravent. Unde et tribus nominibus ex ipsis tribus actionibus appellatur: scilicet avis, et Behemoth, quod est jumentum, et Leviathan, quod est draco.
In his namque quos pro spiritalibus vel temporalbus divitiis in superbiam elevat, avis est. In his vero, quos ad luxuriam enervat, jumentum est. In his quos ad nocendi malitiam inflammat, draco est. In illis autem quos pariter per tria haec mergit, jumentum simul, et draco, et avis est. Maxima tamen virtus ejus in luxuria est. Unde ad beatum Job dicitur: Fortitudo ejus in lumbis ejus (Job XL, 11). Videlicet propter masculos. Et virtus illius, propter feminas, in umbilico ventris ejus (Ibid.)
. Ubi notandum, quia fortitudo ejus non dicitur esse in lumbis, vel in umbilico eorum qui prosternuntur: sed in lumbis et umbilico ipsius diaboli, quia nimirum sicut in Moralium libro XXXII perhibetur, ejus proprie corpus fiunt, qui ei per luxuriam succumbunt.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Lam.4.19 — Swifter were our pursuers than the eagles of the sky; they chased us over the mountains, they lay in wait for us in the wilderness.
- ↩Job.40.11 — Pour out the fury of your anger, and look on everyone who is proud and bring him low.
- ↩Job.40.11 — Pour out the fury of your anger, and look on everyone who is proud and bring him low.
- ↩Job.40.16 — Look now—his strength is in his loins, and his power is in the muscles of his belly.
Collationes (Conferences / Collations) companion
Day 11 and onward, delivered every morning
All 140 conferences — and the rest of the Sub Rosa library — in daily portions in the free Chosen Portion iOS app
Odo urged a daily return to sacred reading as the cure for the soul's slow decline; Chosen Portion makes that daily return a scheduled habit on your phone.
- Continue through all three books of the Conferences at 5 minutes a day
- Daily examination-style readings drawn from 78+ historic works
- One morning notification to keep the practice going past day 10