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Chapter 37InclA.1.37

Caput XXXVI. De ornamentis virtutum praeferendis.

True Glory and False Ornament

The reader is called to glory in the Lord with reverence and warned against substituting outward artistic display for genuine interior devotion.

If you glory in the Lord, serve him with reverence. But don't chase after that glory as if under the appearance of devotion — glory in paintings or sculptures, in the feathers of birds or the images of beasts, or in varied pictures of different flowers.1 Let these things belong to those who have nothing within to glory in, and so acquire outward things for themselves to take pleasure in.2

The King's Daughter and Her Inner Glory

Drawing on Psalm 44, the text teaches that the soul, as king's daughter and bride of Christ, must place all her glory within, in the testimony of a good conscience.

All the glory of the king's daughter is within, in golden fringes, clothed about with variety.✦3 If then you are now a daughter of the king — seeing that you are the bride of the king's Son, and have heard the voice of the Father speaking: Listen, daughter, and see, and bend your ear (Ps.✦45 XLIV, 14, 15, 11); let all your glory be from within — see to it that your glory be the testimony of your conscience.6

The Beauty of United Virtues

The soul's inner glory is described as a variety of virtues that mutually enhance one another's beauty.

There let the most beautiful variety of virtues be found.7 There may diverse colors come together and be joined to one another in such a way that each enhances the beauty of the other, and what shines less brightly in its own nature may appear more radiant by comparison with the rest.8

Read the original Latin

Si gloriaris in Domino, servias ei cum timore. Sed illam te noli quasi sub specie devotionis sequi gloriam in picturis, vel sculpturis, in pennis avium, vel bestiarum aut diversorum florum imaginibus variatis. Sint haec illorum, qui nihil intus, in quo glorientur, habentes, exterius sibi comparant, in quibus delectentur. Omnis gloria ejus filiae regis ab intus, in fimbriis aureis circumamicta varietatibus. Si autem tu jam filia regis es, utpote filii regis sponsa, Patrisque vocem audisti, dicentis, Audi, filia, et vide, et inclina aurem tuam (Psal. XLIV, 14, 15, 11); sit tua omnis gloria ab intus, vide ut gloria tua sit testimonium conscientiae tuae. Ibi sit pulcherrima virtutum varietas. Ibi diversi colores sic conveniant, et sic jungantur sibi, ut alterius pulchritudinem alter augeat; et qui in sua natura minus lucet, alterius collatione lucidior appareat.

Scripture echoes

  1. ↩Ps.44.14-Ps.44.15 — You make us a reproach to our neighbors, a mockery and derision to those around us. Ps.44.15 — You make us a proverb among the nations, a shaking of the head among the peoples.
  2. ↩Ps.44.11 — You have made us turn back from the foe, and those who hate us have plundered for themselves.

Notes

  1. 1 ↩quasi sub specie devotionis: the phrase warns against mistaking aesthetic splendor for genuine devotion; 'quasi' softens the comparison to 'as if' rather than a direct equation.
  2. 2 ↩The relative clause 'qui nihil intus, in quo glorientur, habentes' frames the spiritual poverty of relying on external decoration: they possess nothing interior in which to boast.
  3. 3 ↩Direct quotation of Psalm 44:14–15 (Vulgate). The 'king's daughter' is an allegorical figure for the devout soul or the Church.
  4. 4 ↩Embedded quotation from Psalm 44:11 (Vulgate): 'Audi, filia, et vide, et inclina aurem tuam.' The Father addresses the soul as bride of the Son.
  5. 5 ↩filia regis / filii regis sponsa: the soul is both daughter of the heavenly King (the Father) and bride of the king's Son (Christ), a double relationship drawn from bridal mysticism.
  6. 6 ↩testimonium conscientiae: the conscience bears witness to the authenticity of one's interior life; glory is redefined as the integrity of conscience rather than external display.
  7. 7 ↩The 'ibi' (there) points back to the interior space — the soul adorned within. The 'variety of virtues' replaces the external variety of gold, flowers, and feathers mentioned earlier.
  8. 8 ↩The color metaphor extends the Psalm 44 imagery of varied garments into a spiritual principle: virtues mutually reinforce one another, and even lesser virtues gain luster through their companionship with greater ones.

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