SR
← Didascalicon de Studio Legendi (On the Study of Reading)/Book 5 · Didascalicon — Liber 5
Chapter 4Didasc.5.4

De septem regulis.

The Head and the Body of Christ

The first rule teaches how Scripture speaks of Christ and his body, the Church, sometimes naming the head, sometimes the body, and sometimes passing between them.

This, too, should be carefully noted: that certain wise men have said there are to be seven rules among the other modes of expression in the sacred Scriptures. The first rule concerns the Lord and his body, which speaks from one to one, and in a single person now shows the head, now the body, as Isaiah says: 'The Lord clothed me with the garment of salvation, like a bridegroom adorned with a crown, and like a bride adorned with her jewels.'✦ For in one person, named with a twofold term, he manifested both the head, that is, the bridegroom, and the church, that is, the bride. So it should be noted in the Scriptures: when the head is written of in particular, when both head and body are, or when it passes from each to each, or from the one to the other, and so the discerning reader should understand what is fitting to the head and what to the body.

The Mixed Body of the Lord

The second rule addresses statements that seem to fit one person but actually belong to both Christ and the Church, requiring the reader to discern which words apply to whom.

The second rule concerns the Lord's body in its true and mixed sense. For some statements seem to fit a single person, yet do not belong to that one person alone — as when it says: 'You are my child, Israel; see, I have wiped away your iniquities like a cloud, and your sins like mist.'1 'Turn back to me, and I will redeem you.' This does not apply to one person alone. For one party is the one whose sins he forgave and to whom he says, 'You are mine,' and the other is the one to whom he says, 'Turn back to me, and I will redeem you' — for when they turn back, their sins are wiped away. For through this rule Scripture speaks to all people in this way: so that the good are rebuked along with the wicked, and the wicked are praised in place of the good — but the one who reads with discernment will learn which statement applies to which person.

Letter and Spirit

The third rule distinguishes letter and spirit — law and grace — insisting that the law must be held historically and understood spiritually.

The third rule concerns letter and spirit—that is, law and grace. Through the law, we are urged to carry out the precepts; through grace, by which we are helped so that we may carry them out. Or rather, the law must be understood not only historically but also spiritually. For it is necessary both to hold faith historically and to understand the law spiritually.

Part for Whole, Whole for Part

The fourth rule explains how Scripture uses a part for the whole and the whole for a part, as when an oracle against one city or nation is understood to address the entire world.

The fourth rule concerns species and genus: a part is taken for the whole, and the whole for a part — for instance, when God speaks to a single people or city, yet it's understood to apply to the whole world. For although the Lord threatens the single city of Babylon through the prophet Isaiah, while he speaks against it he moves from the specific case to the general kind, and turns his words against the whole world.2 Indeed, if he were not speaking against the whole world, he would not have added below, in general terms: 'I will destroy the whole earth, and I will bring disaster on the world's evils,' and the rest that follow, pertaining to the world's ruin.✦3 And so he added: 'This is the plan that I have devised for the whole earth, and this hand is stretched out over all the nations.'✦4 Likewise, after condemning the whole world under the figure of Babylon, he returns to the same city, as though moving from the general kind back to the specific case, saying what happened to that city in particular: 'Look, I will stir up the Medes against them.'✦5 For while Belshazzar was reigning, Babylon was captured by the Medes. So too, under the figure of one Egypt, he wants the whole world to be understood when he says: 'I will make Egyptians fight against Egyptians, kingdom against kingdom,' even though Egypt is described as having not many kingdoms, but one.✦6

The Riddle of Time in Scripture

The fifth rule treats how Scripture handles time — using a part for the whole, narrating future events as past, and grounding this in God's eternity where all things are already accomplished.

The fifth rule concerns times, by which either the greater part of a period of time is introduced through a lesser part, or the lesser part of a period of time is understood through a greater one. So it is with the three days of the Lord's burial: he did not lie in the tomb for three full days and nights, and yet the whole three-day period is accepted on the basis of a part.7 Or take the passage where God had foretold four hundred years beforehand that the children of Israel would serve in Egypt and then leave — yet while Joseph ruled over Egypt they held dominion, and they did not leave right after the four hundred years as had been promised, but withdrew from Egypt only after four hundred and thirty years had been completed.✦✦8 There is also another figure concerning times, by which certain things that are still future are narrated as though they had already happened — as in 'They have pierced my hands and feet, they have counted all my bones, and they have divided my garments among themselves' — and others like these, in which future events are spoken of as though they had already taken place.9 But why are things that still lie ahead narrated as though they had already happened? Because those things that are still future for us have already been accomplished within God's eternity. Therefore, when something is declared to be yet to be done, it is described from our standpoint. On the other hand, when things that are still future are spoken of as already accomplished, they are to be understood in terms of God's eternity, in which everything that is yet to come has already been brought to pass.

Recapitulation

The sixth rule is recapitulation, by which Scripture returns to an event already narrated, as in the Genesis account of the nations and languages after the Flood.

The sixth rule is about recapitulation. Recapitulation happens when Scripture returns to something whose account had already passed by, just as when Scripture had mentioned the sons of Noah's sons, it said they were in their own languages and nations, and yet afterward, as though this also is required in this order of times: 'The whole earth,' it says, 'had one language, and one voice was in all.' How then were they according to their own nations and according to their own languages, if there was one language for all, unless because the account, by recapitulating, turned back to that which had already passed by?

The Devil and His Body

The seventh rule mirrors the first: just as Christ and his body are spoken of interchangeably, so are the devil and his body, with statements passing between head and members.

The seventh rule is about the devil and his body — that is, the things often said of his head, which apply more fittingly to his own body. Indeed, often his sayings seem to apply to his members, and yet they fit only the head. For the head is understood under the name of the body, as in that Gospel passage about the weeds mixed with the wheat, where the Lord says, 'An enemy man did this,' calling the man himself the devil and designating the head by the name of the body.✦10 Likewise, the body is signified by the name of the head, as it says in the Gospel, 'I chose twelve of you, and one of you is a devil' — clearly pointing to Judas, because he was the devil's body.✦11 The apostate angel is the head of all the wicked, and the body of this head is all the wicked; and so, together with his members, he is one, so that often what is said of his body is referred rather to him, and again what is said of him is in turn applied to his members — as in Isaiah, where, after the prophetic discourse had said many things against Babylon, that is, against the devil's body, it turns again to the head, that is, to the devil, and directs the oracle's sentence against him, saying, 'How you have fallen from heaven, Lucifer, who rose in the morning,' and so on.✦12

Read the original Latin

Illud quoque diligenter attendendum est, quod septem esse inter ceteras regulas locutionum sanctarum scripturarum quidam sapientes dixerunt. prima regula est de Domino et eius corpore, quae de uno ad unum loquitur, atque in una persona modo caput, modo corpus ostendit, sicut Isaias ait: 'Induit me Dominus vestimento salutari quasi sponsum decoratum corona, et quasi sponsam ornatam monilibus suis.' in una enim persona duplici vocabulo nominata, et caput, id est, sponsum, et ecclesiam, id est, sponsam manifestavit. proinde notandum est in scripturis, quando specialiter caput scribitur, quando et caput et corpus, aut quando ex utroque transeat ad utrumque, aut ab altero ad alterum, sicque quid capiti, quid corpori conveniat, prudens lector intelligat.

Secunda regula est de Domini corpore vero et permixto. nam videntur quaedam convenire uni personae, quod tamen non est unius, ut est illud: 'Puer meus es tu Israel, ecce delevi ut nubem iniquitates tuas, et sicut nebulam peccata tua. convertere ad me, et rediman te.' hoc ad unum non congruit. nam altera pars est cui peccata delevit et cui dicit: 'Meus es tu,' et altera cui dicit. 'Convertere ad me, et redimam te,' qui si convertantur, peccata eorum delentur. per hanc enim regulam sic ad omnes loquitur scriptura, ut et boni redarguantur cum malis, et mali laudentur pro bonis, sed quid ad quem pertineat, qui prudenter legerit discet.

Tertia regula est de littera et spiritu, id est, de lege et gratia: lege per quam praecepta facienda admonentur, gratia per quam ut operemur iuvamur, vel quod lex non tantum historice, sed etiam spiritualiter sentienda sit. namque et historice oportet fidem tenere, et spiritualiter legem intelligere.

Quarta regula est de specie et genere, per quam pars pro toto, et totum pro parte accipitur, veluti si uni populo vel civitati loquatur Deus, et tamen intelligatur omnem contingere mundum. nam licet adversus unam civitatem Babyloniam per Isaiam prophetam Dominus comminetur, tamen dum contra eam loquitur, transit ad genus de specie, et convertit contra totum mundum sermonem. certe si non diceret adversus universum orbem, non adderet infra generaliter: 'Et disperdam omnem terram et visitabo super orbis mala', et cetera quae sequuntur ad internecionem mundi pertinentia. unde et adiecit: 'Hoc est consilium quod cogitavi super omnem terram, et haec manus extenta super omnes gentes.' item postquam sub persona Babyloniae arguit universum mundum, rursus ad eandem quasi de genere ad speciem reveritur, dicens quae eidem civitati specialiter contigerunt: 'Ecce ego suscitabo super eos Medos.' nam regnante Balthasar, a Medis obtenta est Babylonia. sic ex persona unius Aegypti totum vult intelligere mundum dicendo: 'Et concurrere faciam Aegyptios adversus Aegyptios, regnum adversus regnum,' cum Aegyptus non multa regna, sed unum describitur habuisse regnum.

Quinta regula est de temporibus, per quam aut pars maxima temporis per partem minorem inducitur, aut pars minima temporis per partem maiorem intelligitur. sic est de triduo Dominicae sepulturae, dum nec tribus plenis diebus ac noctibus iacuerit in sepulcro, sed tamen a parte totum triduum accipitur. vel sicut illud quod quadringentis annis praedixerat Deus filios Israel in Aegypto servituros et sic inde egressuros, qui tamen dominante Ioseph Aegypto dominati sunt, nec statim post quadringentos annos egressi sunt, ut fuerat repromissum, sed quadringentis triginta peractis, ab Aegypto recesserunt. est et alia de temporibus figura, per quam quaedam quae futura sunt, quasi iam gesta narrantur, ut est illud: 'Foderunt manus meas et pedes meos, dinumeraverunt omnia ossa mea et diviserunt sibi vestimenta mea,' et his similia, in quibus futura, tamquam si iam facta sint, ita dicuntur. sed cur quae adhuc facienda erant, iam facta narrantur? quia ea quae nobis futura sunt, apud Dei aeternitatem iam facta sunt. quapropter quando aliquid faciendum esse pronuntiatur, secundum nos dicitur. quando vero quae futura sunt iam facta dicuntur, secundum Dei aeternitatem accipienda sunt, apud quem iam omnia facta sunt quae futura sunt.

Sexta regula est de recapitulatione. recapitulatio enim est dum scriptura redit ad illud cuius narratio iam transierat, sicut cum filios filiorum Noe scriptura commemorasset, dixit illos fuisse in linguis et gentibus suis, et tamen postea quasi hoc etiam in hoc ordine temporum requiritur: 'Erat,' inquit, 'omnis terra labium unum, et vox una omnibus erat.' quomodo ergo secundum suas gentes et secundum suas linguas erant, si una lingua erat omnibus, nisi quia ad illud quod iam transierat recapitulando est reversa narratio?

Septima regula est de diabolo et eius corpore, qua saepe dicuntur ipsius capitis, quae suo magis conveniunt corpori. saepe vero videntur eius dicta membrorum, et non nisi capiti congruunt. ex nomine quippe corporis intelligitur caput, ut est illud in evangelio de zizaniis tritico admixtis, dicente Domino: 'Inimicus homo hoc fecit,' hominem ipsum diabolum vocans, et ex nomine corporis caput designans. item ex nomine capitis significatur corpus sicut in evangelio dicitur: 'Duodecim vos elegi, et unus ex vobis diabolus est,' Iudam utique indicans, quia diaboli corpus fuit. apostata quippe angelus omnium caput est iniquorum, et huius capitis corpus sunt omnes iniqui, sicque cum membris suis unus est, ut saepe quod corpori eius dicitur, ad eum potius referatur; rursum quod illi, ad membra ipsius iterum derivetur, sicut in Isaia, ubi dum contra Babyloniam, hoc est, contra diaboli corpus multa dixisset sermo propheticus, rursus ad caput, id est, ad diabolum oraculi sententiam derivat, dicens: 'Quomodo cecidisti de caelo, Lucifer, qui mane oriebaris,' et cetera.

Scripture echoes

  1. ↩Isa.61.10 — I will greatly rejoice in the LORD; my soul shall exult in my God, for he has clothed me with garments of salvation, a robe of righteousness he has wrapped around me, as a groom wears a priestly crown, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.
  2. ↩Jer.25.12 — And when seventy years are completed, I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation, declares the LORD, for their iniquity, and the land of the Chaldeans, and I will make it desolate forever.
  3. ↩Isa.14.24-Isa.14.26 — The LORD of hosts has sworn: "Surely as I have planned, so it will be, and as I have purposed, so it will stand." Isa.14.25 — to break Assyria in my land, and to trample him on my mountains; and his yoke shall depart from them, and his burden from his shoulder shall be removed. Isa.14.26 — This is the plan that is planned concerning the whole earth, and this is the hand that is stretched out over all the nations.
  4. ↩Isa.13.17 — Behold, I am stirring up against them the Medes, who will not regard silver, and gold they will not desire.
  5. ↩Isa.19.2-Isa.19.4 — And I will set Egypt against Egypt; and they shall fight each man against his brother, and each man against his neighbor; city against city, kingdom against kingdom. Isa.19.3 — And the spirit of Egypt will be emptied out within it, and its counsel I will swallow up; and they will seek to the idols and to the charmers and to the mediums and to the familiar spirits. Isa.19.4 — And I will deliver Egypt into the hand of a cruel lord, and a fierce king will rule over them, declares the LORD of Hosts.
  6. ↩Gen.15.13 — Then he said to Abram, "Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, and they will serve them, and they will afflict them for four hundred years.
  7. ↩Exod.12.40-Exod.12.41 — Now the time that the people of Israel lived in Egypt was four hundred thirty years. Exod.12.41 — And at the end of four hundred thirty years, on that very day, all the hosts of the LORD went out from the land of Egypt.
  8. ↩Matt.13.24-Matt.13.30 — He put before them another parable, saying, "The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field." Matt.13.25 — but while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away Matt.13.26 — But when the wheat sprouted and produced grain, then the weeds also appeared. Matt.13.27 — But the servants of the householder came and said to him, 'Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? Where then does it have weeds?' Matt.13.28 — But he said to them, 'An enemy has done this.' The servants said to him, 'Do you want us, then, to go and gather them up?' Matt.13.29 — But he said, 'No, lest while gathering the weeds you uproot the wheat along with them.' Matt.13.30 — Let both grow together until the harvest; and at the time of the harvest I will say to the reapers, 'First gather the weeds and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn.'
  9. ↩John.6.70 — Jesus answered them, "Did I not choose you, the twelve? And yet one of you is a devil."
  10. ↩Isa.14.12 — How you have fallen from heaven, O Day Star, son of Dawn! You have been cut down to the earth, you who laid low the nations!

Notes

  1. 1 ↩Quoted source not resolved by Moses lookup; candidate allusion to Isaiah 44:22 (Vulgate: 'ecce delevi ut nubem iniquitates tuas et sicut nebulam peccata tua'). Preserved as quoted scripture pending tx-08 resolution.
  2. 2 ↩'transit ad genus de specie' moves from the particular (species) to the general class (genus); rendered as 'moves from the specific case to the general kind' to keep the logical structure plain.
  3. 3 ↩The quoted Latin ('Et disperdam omnem terram et visitabo super orbis mala') does not correspond cleanly to a single Moses-verse; it echoes Jeremiah 25:12 and other judgment oracles. Marked as candidate pending Moses resolution.
  4. 4 ↩The Latin quote ('Hoc est consilium quod cogitavi super omnem terram, et haec manus extenta super omnes gentes') echoes Isaiah 14:24–26 (the Lord's plan against all nations). Marked as candidate pending Moses resolution.
  5. 5 ↩The Latin quote ('Ecce ego suscitabo super eos Medos') echoes Isaiah 13:17. Marked as candidate pending Moses resolution.
  6. 6 ↩The Latin quote ('Et concurrere faciam Aegyptios adversus Aegyptios, regnum adversus regnum') echoes Isaiah 19:2–4 (civil strife in Egypt). Marked as candidate pending Moses resolution.
  7. 7 ↩The rule illustrates synecdoche with the traditional triduum: the burial is reckoned as three days though the actual interval was not three full days and nights.
  8. 8 ↩The example turns on Genesis 15:13 (four hundred years of servitude) and Exodus 12:40-41 (the actual sojourn of four hundred and thirty years), illustrating how a round number stands for the longer period.
  9. 9 ↩The figure described is the prophetic perfect: future events narrated in the past tense as though already accomplished, expressing certainty.
  10. 10 ↩Alludes to Matthew 13:24–30 (parable of the weeds among the wheat) and the identification of the enemy sower as the devil; the quoted phrase 'Inimicus homo hoc fecit' is Matt 13:28.
  11. 11 ↩Quoted phrase 'Duodecim vos elegi, et unus ex vobis diabolus est' is John 6:70 (Vulg.).
  12. 12 ↩Quoted phrase 'Quomodo cecidisti de caelo, Lucifer, qui mane oriebaris' is Isaiah 14:12 (Vulg.). The passage (Isa 14:12–15) against the king of Babylon is traditionally read as also referring to the fall of Satan.

Didascalicon de Studio Legendi (On the Study of Reading) companion

Hugh said begin with small daily portions. Start tomorrow.

Chosen Portion serves one short, ordered devotional reading each day — the medieval lectio pattern, free on iOS.

Hugh taught that formation comes from ordered, incremental daily reading, and Chosen Portion is that ordered daily portion delivered to your phone.

  • A curated daily portion in 2-3 minutes, no decision fatigue about what to read
  • Progress through complete historic works in order, the way Hugh prescribed
  • Free app plus a weekly email unpacking one reading in depth
Chosen Portion — Daily Prayer (free iOS app) →