De allegoria.
The Call to Allegorical Reading
Hugh introduces allegory as demanding mature, disciplined readers who approach Scripture with subtlety and restraint, likening it to a building rising from a foundation.
After reading the historical account, what remains is to investigate the mysteries of allegory — and I don't think my exhortation is needed here, since the subject itself clearly carries enough weight on its own. Still, I want you to know, dear reader, that this study doesn't call for sluggish or dull senses — it seeks mature minds, ones that can pursue subtlety without losing their grip on sound judgment. This is solid food, and unless it is chewed, it cannot be swallowed. So you need to approach it with this kind of measured restraint: be subtle and keen in your inquiry, but never reckless in your assumptions — recalling what the Psalmist says: He stretched His bow and prepared it, and in it He prepared the instruments of death.✦ You'll recall, I think, that I said earlier that divine Scripture is like a building: once the foundation is laid, the structure rises high from it. Plainly it is like a building, for it too has its own structure.
The Mason and the Spiritual Building
Using the image of a mason laying stones, Hugh explains how the spiritual sense rises above the literal, with the first row of stones serving as a second foundation that supports the whole allegorical structure.
So don't be put off if we follow this comparison through a little more carefully. Look at the mason's work. Once the foundation is laid, he stretches a line straight out, drops a plumb line, and then sets carefully polished stones in order. He searches for one stone and then another, and if he happens to find some that don't fit the first arrangement, he takes a file, cuts off the protruding parts, smooths the rough spots, and reduces the misshapen ones to shape, and so at last, with the rest arranged in order, he joins them in. But if he finds some that can't be broken down or fitted together properly, he doesn't take them up, so that while he's working to break the flint he doesn't end up breaking his file. Pay attention! I've set before you a thing that looks contemptible on the surface, but that those who understand will find worthy of imitation. A foundation sits in the ground, and it doesn't always have polished stones ready to hand. The structure rises from above the earth, and it requires an even build. In this way the divine page contains many things according to the literal sense that seem to contradict each other and sometimes introduce something absurd or impossible. But spiritual understanding admits no contradiction, in which many different things can exist without any opposites. You see how the first row of stones to be placed upon the foundation is arranged along the line stretched out — the ones on which the whole remaining work rests and is fitted together, and it does not lack meaning. For this is, as it were, a kind of second foundation and the base of the whole structure. This foundation both carries what is placed upon it and is itself carried by the foundation before it. The first foundation everything rests upon, but not in every way are they fitted together. Upon this one the remaining things both rest and are fitted together.
The Orders of Sacraments
Hugh enumerates the eight orders of sacraments contained in Scripture, from the Trinity through the resurrection, as the ranks of the spiritual edifice.
First, it carries the structure and lies beneath it. This carries the structure and isn't merely beneath it but within it. What lies beneath the earth is the foundation—we've said this to figure history; the structure built upon it, to intimate allegory.1 Hence even the very base of this structure ought to pertain to allegory. The structure rises in many orders, and each has its own base. And many sacraments are contained in sacred Scripture, each with its own principles. Do you want to know what these orders are? The first order is the sacrament of the Trinity, because Scripture also contains this: that before every creature God was three-in-one and one. This one made every creature from nothing — the visible, yes, and the invisible: there is the second order. To the rational creature he gave free choice, and prepared grace, so that it could merit eternal blessedness; then he punished those who slipped of their own accord, and confirmed those who stood firm, so that they could slip no further. What is the origin of sin, what is sin itself, and what is the punishment of sin: there is the third order. What sacraments were first established under the natural law for the restoration of the human person: there is the fourth order. What was written under the law: there is the fifth order. The mystery of the Word's incarnation: behold, the sixth order. The mysteries of the New Testament: behold, the seventh order; and finally, of the resurrection itself: behold, the eighth order.
Laying the Foundations of Faith
The reader is urged to recognize the foundations of each sacramental order and to be instructed in the principles of faith before attempting to build upon the vast sea of books.
This is the whole of divinity; this is that spiritual structure which, containing as many sacraments as there are ranks it is built into, is raised on high. Do you also want to recognize the very foundations themselves? The foundations of the ranks are the underlying principles of the Sacraments. Look, you have come to your reading to build a spiritual edifice. Now the foundations of history have been set in you; what remains now is for you to lay the foundations of the structure itself. You stretch the line, set the squared stones in their exact order, and turning in a circle, you mark out the traces of walls yet to come. The line stretched out is the crossbeam of upright faith; the very foundations of the spiritual work are certain principles of faith by which you are initiated. Indeed, a careful reader ought to take care that, before pursuing the sprawling volumes of books, he be instructed in each of the matters that pertain more to his own purpose and to the true profession of faith, so that, whatever he later comes upon, he can safely build upon it.
How to Build on the Foundation
Hugh teaches that the reader should first learn the faith of the Trinity clearly and briefly, gathering what is plain and adding it to the foundation rather than being overwhelmed by obscure or tangled opinions.
For in such a vast sea of books and the tangled maze of competing opinions — which often overwhelm the reader's mind both by their sheer number and by their obscurity — hardly anyone will be able to pull together into one coherent whole something single and unified, unless that person has first identified, summarized in each category (if I may put it that way), a certain fixed principle, grounded in firm faith, to which everything else can be referred. Do you want me to teach you how these foundations ought to be laid? Look back at the things I listed for you a little while ago. The Sacrament of the Trinity. Many books have already been written about it, many difficult opinions have been put forward that are hard to understand and tangled to sort out. It would be tedious and burdensome for you to pursue all of them at this point, since you may perhaps come across many things in which you are more troubled than built up. Don't keep at it this way — you'll never reach the end. First learn, briefly and clearly, what is to be held about the faith of the Trinity, and what you ought sincerely to profess and truly to believe.
Handling Obscurity, Contradiction, and Mystery
The reader is taught to harmonize ambiguous passages, open what is obscure, reverence what cannot be penetrated, hold fast to firm faith, and apply the same method to each sacrament.
But once you begin reading the books, you'll find many things written obscurely, many things openly, and many things ambiguously; so take what's clear and add it to your foundation, if it fits with it. Wherever things are ambiguous, interpret them so they don't contradict each other. Where things are obscure, open them up if you can. But if you can't penetrate their meaning, pass on, so you don't risk error by trying to force what you're not equal to. Don't despise these passages, but rather hold them in reverence, because you've heard what is written: 'He set darkness as his hiding place.' And if you ever find anything that contradicts what you've already learned to hold with the most firm faith, it's still not wise to change your position every day — unless you've first consulted more learned men, and especially considered what the universal faith, which can never be false, requires you to acknowledge. You should do the same with the Sacrament of the altar, the Sacrament of baptism, confirmation, marriage, and all the other sacraments that were listed for you above. You see many people who read Scripture — and because they have no foundation of truth, they slip into various errors and change their opinions almost as often as they pick up a new reading.
The Spirit Gives Life
Through the vision of Ezekiel's wheels following the living beings and the Spirit, Hugh shows that spiritual understanding advances with the saints, and that the letter kills while the Spirit gives life.
Then again, you see others who, by that recognition of truth with which they are inwardly strengthened, know how to bend any number of writings toward fitting interpretations, and to judge what departs from sound faith and what agrees with it. In Ezekiel you read that the wheels follow the living beings, not the living beings the wheels: 'When the living beings walked,' it says, 'the wheels walked together alongside them.'✦ And when the living beings were lifted up from the earth, the wheels were lifted up at the same time.✦ For the minds of the saints, the more they advance in virtues or in knowledge, the more they perceive that the mysteries of the sacred Scriptures are profound — so much so that things which seemed to lie low for the simple, still standing on the ground, appear sublime to those who have been raised up.2 For it continues: 'Wherever the spirit went, thither the spirit going before, and the wheels were lifted up together, following it.'✦3 For the Spirit of life was in the wheels.✦ You see that these wheels follow the living beings, and they follow the Spirit. Again, elsewhere it is said: 'The letter kills, but the Spirit gives life' — because the divine reader must surely be established in the truth of spiritual understanding, so that the subtleties of letters, which can even sometimes be understood perversely, do not turn him aside into any kind of digression.✦45 Why was that ancient people — the ones who had received the law of life — rejected, except that they followed only the letter that kills, and so did not have the Spirit that gives life?✦
Presumption, Humility, and the Need for a Teacher
Hugh warns against interpreting Scripture by one's own understanding, urging the reader to seek instruction from teachers and the authority of the holy fathers to lay a foundation of unshakable truth.
I'm not saying these things to give anyone license to interpret the scriptures as they please, but to show that someone who follows the letter alone can't make progress for long without going astray. So we must follow the letter in such a way that we don't set our own understanding above the divine authors, and follow it in such a way that we don't believe the whole weight of truth's judgment depends on it. Not the lettered person, but the spiritual one, discerns all things. So that you may be able to judge the letter safely, you must not presume on your own understanding, but first be instructed and formed, and lay, as it were, a foundation of unshakable truth on which the whole structure rests. And don't presume to instruct yourself on your own, lest, while you think you're introducing yourself, you actually lead yourself further astray. This introduction must be sought from teachers and wise people who can both establish and open it up to you through the authorities of the holy fathers and the testimony of the scriptures, as needed, and once you've been introduced, they can confirm everything they've taught you by reading each point from the testimony of the scriptures.
A Personal Word and a Reading List
Hugh closes with a humble personal testimony, acknowledging that others may proceed differently, and recommends the most useful books of Scripture for this kind of spiritual reading.
That's how it seems to me. Whoever I'm pleased to imitate in this, I gladly accept; and whoever decides it shouldn't be done this way, let them do as they please — I won't argue. I know, for instance, that many don't keep to this practice in their learning. But how some people still make progress, again I'm not unaware. If you're asking which books are most useful for this kind of reading, I think: the opening of Genesis on the works of the six days, the last three books of Moses on the laws and sacraments, Isaiah, the beginning and end of Ezekiel, Job, the Psalter, the Song of Songs, especially the two gospels — namely Matthew and John — the Epistles of Paul, the canonical Epistles, and the Apocalypse; but especially the Epistles of Paul, which by their very number also signify that they contain the perfection of each Testament.
Read the original Latin
Post lectionem historiae, superest allegoriarum mysteria investigare, ubi mea exhortatione opus esse non puto, cum ipsa res satis per se digna appareat. nosse tamen te volo, o lector, hoc studium non tardos et hebetes sensus, sed matura expetere ingenia, quae sic in investigando subtilitatem teneant, ut in discernendo prudentiam non amittant. solidus est cibus iste, et, nisi masticetur, transglutiri non potest. tali ergo te moderamine uti oportet, ut, dum in quaerendo subtilis fueris, in praesumendo temerarius non inveniaris, recolens quod ait Psalmista: Arcum suum tetendit, et paravit illum; et in eo paravit vasa mortis. meministi, ut aestimo, supra me divinam scripturam aedificio similem dixisse, ubi primum, fundamento posito, structura in altum levatur; plane aedificio similem, nam et ipsa structuram habet.
Non ergo pigeat si hanc similitudinem paulo diligentius prosequamur. respice opus caementarii. collocato fundamento, lineam extendit in directum, perpendiculum demittit, ac deinde lapides diligenter politos in ordinem ponit. alios deinde atque alios quaerit, et si forte aliquos primae dispositioni non respondentes invenerit, accipit limam, praeeminentia praecidit, aspera planat, et informia ad formam reducit, sicque demum reliquis in ordinem dispositis adiungit. si vero aliquos tales invenerit, qui nec comminui valeant nec congrue coaptari, eos non assumit, ne forte, dum silicem frangere laborat, limam frangat. intende! rem tibi proposui intuentibus contemptibilem, sed intelligentibus imitatione dignam. fundamentum in terra est, nec semper politos habet lapides.
fabrica desuper terram, et aequalem quaerit structuram. sic divina pagina multa secundum litteralem sensum continet, quae et sibi repugnare videntur et nonnumquam absurditatis aut impossibilitatis aliquid afferre. spiritualis autem intelligentia nullam admittit repugnantiam, in qua diversa multa, adversa nulla esse possunt. quod etiam primam seriem lapidum super fundamentum collocandorum ad protensam lineam disponi vides, quibus scilicet totum opus reliquum innititur et coaptatur, significatione non caret. nam hoc quasi aliud quoddam fundamentum est, et totius fabricae basis. hoc fundamentum et portat superposita et a priori fundamento portatur. primo fundamento insident omnia, sed non omni modo coaptantur. huic et insidunt et coaptantur reliqua.
primum fabricam portat et est sub fabrica. hoc portat fabricam et non est solum sub fabrica sed in fabrica. quod sub terra est fundamentum figurare diximus historiam, fabricam quae superaedificatur allegoriam insinuare. unde et ipsa basis fabricae huius ad allegoriam pertinere debet. multis ordinibus consurgit fabrica, et quisque suam basim habet.
Et multa sacramenta in divina pagina continentur, quae singula sua habent principia. vis scire qui sint ordines isti? primus ordo est sacramentum Trinitatis, quia et hoc scriptura continet, quod ante omnem creaturam trinus et unus fuerit Deus. hic de nihilo omnem fecit creaturam, visibilem scilicet et invisibilem: ecce secundus ordo. rationali creaturae liberum dedit arbitrium, et gratiam praeparavit, ut mereri posset aeternam beatitudinem, deinde sponte labentes punivit, et persistentes, ut amplius labi non possint, confirmavit. quae origo peccati, quid peccatum, et quid sit poena peccati: ecce tertius ordo. quae sacramenta primum sub naturali lege ad reparationem hominis instituerit: ecce quartus ordo. quae scripta sub lege: ecce quintus ordo.
sacramentum incarnationis Verbi: ecce sextus ordo. sacramenta Novi Testamenti: ecce septimus ordo; ipsius denique resurrectionis: ecce octavus ordo.
Hic est tota divinitas, haec est illa spiritualis fabrica, quae, quot continet sacramenta, tot quasi ordinibus constructa in altum extollitur. vis etiam ipsas bases agnoscere. bases ordinum principia sunt sacramentorum. ecce ad lectionem venisti, spirituale fabricaturus aedificium. iam historiae fundamenta in te locata sunt: restat nunc tibi ipsius fabricae bases fundare. linum tendis, ponis examussim, quadros in ordinem collocas, et circumgyrans quaedam futurorum murorum vestigia figis. linea protensa rectae fidei trames est, ipsae spiritualis operis bases quaedam fidei principia sunt, quibus initiaris. debet siquidem prudens lector curare, ut, antequam spatiosa librorum volumina prosequatur, sic de singulis quae magis ad propositum suum et professionem verae fidei pertinent instructus sit, ut, quaecumque postmodum invenerit, tuto superaedificare possit.
vix enim in tanto librorum pelago et multiplicibus sententiarum anfractibus, quae et numero et obscuritate animum legentis saepe confundunt, aliquid unum colligere poterit, qui prius summatim in unoquoque, ut ita dicam, genere aliquod certum principium firma fide subnixum, ad quod cuncta referantur, non agnovit. vis ut doceam te qualiter fieri debeant bases istae? respice ad ea quae paulo ante tibi enumeravi. est sacramentum Trinitatis. multi iam de illo libri facti sunt, multae datae sententiae difficiles ad intelligendum, et perplexae ad solvendum. longum tibi et onerosum est adhuc omnes prosequi, cum multa fortassis invenias, in quibus magis turberis quam aedificeris. noli instare, sic numquam ad finem venies. disce prius breviter et dilucide, quid tenendum sit de fide Trinitatis, quid sane profiteri et veraciter credere debeas.
Cum autem postea legere coeperis libros, et multa obscure, et multa aperte, multa ambigue scripta inveneris, quae aperta invenis, adiunge basi suae, si forte conveniant. quae ambigua sunt, ita interpretare ut non discordent. quae vero sunt obscura, resera si potes. quod si ad intellectum eorum penetrare non vales, transi, ne, dum praesumere conaris quod non sufficis, periculum erroris incurras. noli ea contemnere, sed potius venerare, quia audisti quod scriptum est: Posuit tenebras latibulum suum. quod si etiam aliquid inveneris contrarium illi quod tu iam firmissima fide tenendum esse didicisti, non tamen expedit tibi cotidie mutare sententiam, nisi prius doctiores te consulueris, et maxime quid fides universalis, quae numquam falsa esse potest, inde iubeat sentiri agnoveris. sic de sacramento altaris, sic de sacramento baptismatis, confirmationis, coniugii, et omnibus quae tibi enumerata sunt supra, facere debes. vides multos scripturas legentes, quia fundamentum veritatis non habent, in errores varios labi, et toties fere mutare sententias, quot legerint lectiones.
rursum alios vides, qui secundum illam veritatis agnitionem, qua intus firmati sunt, quaslibet scripturas ad congruas interpretationes flectere noverunt et quid a fide sana discordet aut quid conveniat iudicare. in Ezechiele legis quod rotae animalia sequuntur, non animalia rotas: Cum ambularent, inquit, animalia, ambulabant pariter et rotae iuxta ea. et cum elevarentur animalia de terra elevabantur simul et rotae. sanctorum quippe mentes quantum virtutibus vel scientia proficiunt, tantum sanctarum scripturarum arcana profunda esse conspiciunt, ut quae simplicibus et adhuc stantibus in terra iacere videbantur, erectis sublimes appareant. nam sequitur: Quocumque ibat spiritus, illuc eunte spiritu; et rotae pariter levabantur sequentes eum. Spiritus enim vitae erat in rotis. vides quia rotae hae animalia sequuntur, et sequuntur spiritum. rursum alibi dicitur; Littera occidit, Spiritus autem vivificat, quia nimirum oportet divinum lectorem spiritualis intelligentiae veritate esse solidatum, et eum litterarum apices, quae et perversae nonnumquam intelligi possunt, ad quaelibet diverticula non inclinent.
quare antiquus ille populus, qui legem vitae acceperat, reprobatus est, nisi quia sic solam litteram occidentem secutus est, ut Spiritum vivificantem non haberet?
Haec vero non ideo dico ut quibuslibet ad voluntatem suam interpretandi scripturas occasionem praebeam, sed ut ostendam eum qui solam sequitur litteram diu sine errore non posse incedere. oportet ergo ut et sic sequamur litteram, ne nostrum sensum divinis auctoribus praeferamus, et sic non sequamur ut in ea non totum veritatis iudicium pendere credamus. non litteratus, sed spiritualis omnia diiudicat. ut ergo secure possis iudicare litteram, non de tuo sensu praesumere, sed erudiri prius et informari oportet, et quasi quandam inconcussae veritatis basem cui tota fabrica innitatur, fundare. neque a te ipso erudiri praesumas, ne forte, dum te introducere putas, magis seducas. a doctoribus et sapientibus haec introductio quaerenda est, qui et auctoritatibus sanctorum patrum et testimoniis scripturarum, eam tibi, prout opus est, et facere et aperire possint, cumque iam introductus fueris, testimoniis scripturarum legendo singula quae docuerint confirmare.
Sic mihi videtur. cui me in hoc imitari placuerit, libens accipio, cui visum fuerit non ita oportere fieri, faciat quod placuerit, non contendam. scio enim plures hunc morem in discendo non servare. sed quomodo quidam proficiant, rursus non ignoro. si quaeris qui libri magis ad hanc lectionem valeant, ego puto principium Genesis de operibus sex dierum, tres ultimos libros Moysi de Iegalibus sacramentis, Isaiam, principium et finem Ezechielis, Iob, Psalterium, Cantica canticorum, duo praecipue evangelia, scilicet Matthaei et Ioannis, Epistulas Pauli, canonicas Epistulas, et Apocalypsim, praecipue tamen Epistulas Pauli, quae etiam ipso numero designant utriusque testamenti perfectionem se continere.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Ps.7.13-Ps.7.14 — If he does not turn, he sharpens his sword; he bends his bow and makes it ready. Ps.7.14 — He has prepared instruments of death; he makes his arrows into burning shafts.
- ↩Ezek.1.15-Ezek.1.21 — As I looked at the living creatures, behold, one wheel was on the earth beside the living creatures, for each of their four faces. Ezek.1.16 — The appearance of the wheels and their construction was like the gleam of beryl, and the likeness of them was one for all four, and their appearance and their work was as it were a wheel within a wheel. Ezek.1.17 — Upon their four sides, when they went, they went; they did not turn when they went. Ezek.1.18 — And their rims were tall and terrifying, and their rims were full of eyes all around the four of them. Ezek.1.19 — And when the living creatures went, the wheels went beside them; and when the living creatures rose from the earth, the wheels rose. Ezek.1.20 — Wherever the spirit would be present, there they would go — the spirit directed their going — and the wheels rose alongside them, for the spirit of the living creature was in the wheels. Ezek.1.21 — When they went, they went; and when they stood, they stood; and when they were lifted up from the earth, the wheels were lifted up with them, for the spirit of the living creature was in the wheels.
- ↩Ezek.1.19 — And when the living creatures went, the wheels went beside them; and when the living creatures rose from the earth, the wheels rose.
- ↩Ezek.1.20 — Wherever the spirit would be present, there they would go — the spirit directed their going — and the wheels rose alongside them, for the spirit of the living creature was in the wheels.
- ↩Ezek.1.20 — Wherever the spirit would be present, there they would go — the spirit directed their going — and the wheels rose alongside them, for the spirit of the living creature was in the wheels.
- ↩2Cor.3.6 — who also has made us sufficient as ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.
- ↩2Cor.3.6 — who also has made us sufficient as ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.
Notes
- 1 ↩The Latin uses epexegetical infinitives (figurare, insinuare) to explain the symbolic function of the foundation and the structure. Rendered as purpose clauses ('to figure', 'to intimate') to preserve the hermeneutical logic of history as the base and allegory as the superstructure.
- 2 ↩The quantum ... tantum correlation is rendered as a matching growth of capacity and perception; arcana profunda is kept as 'profound mysteries' to preserve the depth language of sacred reading.
- 3 ↩The clause 'et rotae pariter levabantur sequentes eum' continues the Ezekiel vision quotation; Moses resolution pending.
- 4 ↩'Littera occidit, Spiritus autem vivificat' is a known Pauline tag (2 Cor 3:6); Moses resolution pending.
- 5 ↩litterarum apices rendered 'subtleties of letters' to capture the sense of pointed, fine-grained textual details that can mislead; alternative 'letter-points' considered.
Didascalicon de Studio Legendi (On the Study of Reading) companion
Hugh said begin with small daily portions. Start tomorrow.
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