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Chapter 39OdoC.1.39

Caput XXXVII

The Bowels of the Church Poured Out

Those who wear the religious habit while indulging vice publicly or secretly are the 'bowels' of the Church, and when the devil drags them into worldly affairs he tramples these innermost members upon the ground.

There is, moreover, another class of evils — namely those who take up the habit of religious life but submit themselves either to many vices publicly or to certain ones in secret. Hence blessed Job, speaking with the voice of the grieving Church, says: I have poured out my bowels upon the earth (Job 16:14).✦ For because bowels are innermost in the human body, those are called the bowels of the Church who, clothed in the habit of religious life, ought to serve her deepest sacraments. Therefore, when the wicked enemy drags certain of them away to worldly desires or business, he pours out the bowels of the same Church upon the ground, because he tramples those in the lowest things who were called to this end — that they might cling to spiritual things.

Leviathan Tramples the Shining and the Spiritual

Job's Leviathan imagery is applied to the devil, who causes high-ranking churchmen to behave perversely and treats spiritual persons as though they were carnal, while the golden splendor of Babylon signifies the intoxicating glory of this world.

Concerning these it is further written: Under him shall be the rays of the sun (Job 41:21) — which then comes to pass when those who within the holy Church seem to shine with higher rank or keenness of wisdom submit themselves, behaving perversely, either to diabolical suggestions or to worldly powers, and forgetting heavenly things pursue earthly ones.✦ Hence it is further said: He will spread gold for himself as if it were mud (Job 41:21) — that is, he tramples those who seem to be spiritual as though they were carnal.✦ Moreover, by the name of gold the splendor of temporal glory is signified, just as it is said through the prophet: The golden cup of Babylon (Jer.✦ 51:7).

The Golden Cup of Babylon and Leviathan's River

The golden cup of Babylon intoxicates foolish minds with temporal beauty, just as it first intoxicated Eve, and Leviathan devours both secular people as a river and ecclesiastical persons as the Jordan, while hell consumes those who live negligently in the religious habit.

For what does the name of Babylon signify but the glory of this world? This is called a golden cup because, while it displays temporal things as beautiful, it intoxicates foolish minds with their own lust, so that they chase after temporal things that are speciously attractive and despise the truly beautiful things that are invisible.1 By this golden cup Eve was the first to be intoxicated of her own accord, and all who are placed in ecclesiastical disciplines and receive whatever worldly enticements — just as she did in paradise — certainly imitate her.2 Therefore, as often as Leviathan — who is said to do these things — either strews the rays of the sun or gold for himself like mud, so often does he trip up certain people from the habit of religion through particular vices, as though they were merely secular.✦3 Hence it is also said: He will swallow up a river and not be astonished, and he is confident that the Jordan will flow into his mouth (Job 40:18).✦ By the river, secular people are signified; by the Jordan, ecclesiastical men. For he does not think it a great thing if he devours those who, driven by earthly desires, flow downward like a river; but he strives earnestly to swallow up those placed in an ecclesiastical rank, whom he also sometimes kills through the snares of his cunning, swallowing them like the Jordan.4 Hence it is said again that the fire which the Lord called for judgment will have consumed the portion of his house, since hell also devours those who live negligently in the habit of religion.5

Read the original Latin

Est autem et aliud malorum genus, eorum videlicet qui habitum religionis assumunt, sed vel multis vitiis publice, vel quibusdam occulte se subdunt. Unde beatus Job voce dolentis Ecclesiae dicit: Effudi in terram viscera mea (Job XVI, 14). Nam quia viscera in humano corpore interius sunt, viscera Ecclesiae vocantur, qui religionis habitu induti ad intima ejus sacramenta deservire debent. Cum ergo malignus hostis quosdam ex eis ad saecularia desideria vel negotia pertrahit, ejusdem Ecclesiae viscera infundit in terram, quia illos in infimis conculcat, qui ad hoc vocati sunt ut spiritalibus inhaererent. De his iterum scriptum est: Sub ipso erunt radii solis (Job XLI, 21): quod tunc fit, cum hi qui intra sanctam Ecclesiam, altiori gradu vel acumine sapientiae resplendere videntur, aut diabolicis suasionibus, aut terrenis potestatibus prave duntaxat agentibus se submittunt, oblitique coelestium terrena ambiunt. Hinc iterum dicitur: Sternet sibi aurum quasi lutum (Job XLI, 21), id est, eos qui spirituales videntur conculcat quasi carnales. Praeterea auri nomine nitor gloriae temporalis exprimitur, sicut per prophetam dicitur: Calix aureus Babylon (Jer. LI, 7).

Quid enim Babylonis nomine, nisi hujus mundi gloria designatur? qui calix aureus dicitur, quia dum pulchra esse ostentat temporalia, stultas mentes in sua concupiscentia debriat, ut falso speciosa temporalia appetant, et invisibilia vere pulchra contemnant. Hoc aureo calice prima sponte sua debriata est Eva, quam omnes utique imitantur, qui in ecclesiasticis disciplinis positi, saecularia quaelibet blandimenta sicut illa in paradiso suscipiunt. Toties igitur Leviathan qui haec facere perhibetur, vel radios solis, vel aurum sibi sternit quasi lutum, quoties aliquos de habitu religionis per quaedam vitia tanquam saeculares supplantat. Hinc item dicit: Absorbebit fluvium, et non mirabitur, et habet fiduciam quod influat Jordanis in os ejus (Job XL, 18). Per fluvium saeculares, per Jordanem ecclesiastici viri designantur. Neque enim magnum putat si illos devorat, qui terrenis concupiscentiis impulsi, deorsum quasi fluvius fluunt: sed magnopere satagit, ut in ecclesiastico gradu positos absorbeat, quos et per suae calliditatis insidias, tanquam Jordanem deglutiens, necat aliquando. Hinc rursus dicitur, quod ignis quem Dominus vocavit ad judicium, partem domus ejus consumpserit, quoniam illos quoque gehenna devorat, qui in habitu religionis negligenter vivunt.

Scripture echoes

  1. ↩Job.16.14 — He breaks through me, breach upon breach; he runs upon me like a warrior.
  2. ↩Job.41.21 — Clubs are counted as straw; he laughs at the rattling of the javelin. POETIC-DAILY: Clubs are straw to him; the javelin rattles, and he laughs. MESSAGE-DAILY: A club is nothing but straw to him, and when the javelins rattle, he laughs.
  3. ↩Job.41.21 — Clubs are counted as straw; he laughs at the rattling of the javelin. POETIC-DAILY: Clubs are straw to him; the javelin rattles, and he laughs. MESSAGE-DAILY: A club is nothing but straw to him, and when the javelins rattle, he laughs.
  4. ↩Jer.51.7 — Babylon was a golden cup in the hand of the LORD, making the whole earth drunk; from her wine the nations drank—therefore the nations rave.
  5. ↩Job.41.21 — Clubs are counted as straw; he laughs at the rattling of the javelin. POETIC-DAILY: Clubs are straw to him; the javelin rattles, and he laughs. MESSAGE-DAILY: A club is nothing but straw to him, and when the javelins rattle, he laughs.
  6. ↩Job.40.18 — His bones are tubes of bronze, his limbs like bars of iron.

Notes

  1. 1 ↩speciosa rendered 'speciously attractive' to capture the deceptive beauty implied by falso speciosa.
  2. 2 ↩prima sponte sua rendered 'the first of her own accord' to capture both priority and willing agency.
  3. 3 ↩Leviathan is treated as a proper name for the devil, following the Job allegorical tradition.
  4. 4 ↩necat aliquando rendered 'sometimes kills' — the temporal force of aliquando is uncertain; it may mean 'at some point' or 'at times.'
  5. 5 ↩partem domus ejus rendered 'the portion of his house' — the referent of 'his' (God's? Leviathan's?) is ambiguous in the source.

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