Capitulum XVII, de comparatione malitiae ypocrisis ad pardum in Daniele.
The Vice of Hypocrisy and Its Scriptural Mirror
The author announces the pursuit of hypocrisy's vice and introduces Daniel's panther as a figurative example for spiritual instruction.
We have pursued the vice of hypocrisy in words with stones. Now, if you will, let us add a single example to illustrate its judgment. For we read that Daniel used the variegated appearance of a panther to represent this in a figurative way.
The Spotted Panther: Holiness on Display
The panther's spotted body signifies the outward show of holiness in hypocrites.
For it is an animal whose whole body is sprinkled with certain spots, signifying the holiness that is displayed outwardly in hypocrites.✦1
Wings Without Purpose, Heads Without Unity
The beast's four wings and four heads represent hypocrites' disordered ambition, pretense, and divided intention rather than genuine virtue.
Now the bird had four wings spread over itself, and there were four heads above the beast, and power was given to it. To pursue studies of virtue and to care nothing for virtue's merits or rewards — that is to hang suspended like a bird, having wings but to no purpose, especially since, for the sake of ambition and human favor, the harsh demands of strict observance are endured almost beyond what's humanly possible.23 And if the head rules the whole body and every action of ours serves the intention, then to have four heads is to do nothing from singleness of purpose, but for the whole work to proceed from a fourfold, disordered attachment. And because hypocrites boast of the good things they have and pretend to have the evils they do not have, while excusing their obvious faults and concealing their hidden ones, this beast has four wings — because every hypocrite now leans on pretense, now on concealment, now on show, now on excuse — and because everything a hypocrite does serves not a pure intention but ambition, since ambition is nothing other than the pursuit of honor.45
The Four Faces of Ambition
Ambition in hypocrites divides into four attachments: freedom, dignity, authority, and power.
This beast is said to have four heads, because ambition is divided into four kinds, and every action of hypocrites serves them: namely, the attachment to freedom, so that it may flee from being subject to anyone; the attachment to dignity, so that it may climb from one rank to the next and rise to even greater heights; the attachment to authority, so that a man may appear to be of great counsel; and the attachment to power, that it may obtain the highest place in the house of God.67
Power, Pretense, and the Snare of Vanity
Hypocrites labor for passing glory, practice almsgiving as a hunt, and lurk unseen in palaces, where they should be driven out.
Power, moreover, has been given to it, because the followers of vanity often labor more for passing glory than the true imitators of justice do for glory that is real and eternal. From this power, therefore, they seem to stand out in the eyes of men. For men see that these people give alms to the poor, but they don't see that they do it in order to receive more in return. It's not almsgiving — it's a hunt. That's how birds are caught in a snare, and fish on a hook. A small bait is placed on the hook, so that purses full of wealth may be drawn out by it. So it is with this hidden plague, this secret poison, this craftsman of deceit — hypocrisy lurking unseen, the rust of virtues, the moth of holiness, this business prowling in the darkness: it dwells and rests in the palaces of princes.✦ They ought to be driven out all the more readily than the barbers and cooks that Julian drove from his own palace.
Love That Does Not Seek Its Own
Restraining hypocrites with good intention is not envy, for true love does not seek its own interests but suffers with its neighbor.
If the way is blocked for these people, so that they don't prosper into danger for the Church — if this is done with a good intention and honest speech — it's judged to be neither envy nor slander.8 For love doesn't seek its own interests; it suffers with its neighbor, counting nothing as its own in good times, and nothing as foreign in bad times.✦9
Read the original Latin
Prosecuti sumus verborum lapidibus yprocriseos vitium. Nunc, si placet, in ejus judicium unicum addamus exemplum.
Hanc enim pardi varietatem legimus Danielem ministerialiter expressisse.
Animal enim est quod per totum corpus maculis quibusdam respergitur, sanctitatem innuens quae exterius in ypocritis declaratur.
Alas autem habebat avis IIIIor super se et quatuor capita erant super bestiam, et potestas data est ei. Virtutis enim studia exercere, et virtutis mérita vel praemia non curare hoc est praeinane in modum avis se suspendere et alas habere, maxime cum propter ambitionem et favorem humanum durae districtionis observantiae subeuntur fere ultra humanae x possibilitatis modum. Et si caput corpus universum régit, et intentioni omnis actio nostra servit, IIIIor capita habere est nihil ex simplicitate intentionis agere, sed ex quadruplici inordinata affectione opus universum exire. Et quia soient ypocritae jactitare bona quae habent, et simulant se habere mala quae non habent, et manifesta mala sua excusant, et occulta mala sua dissimulant, alas habet IIIIor ista bestia, quia modo simulationi, modo dissimulationi, modo ostentationi, modo excusationi innititur omnis ypocrita, et quia omne quod ypocrita agit non purae intentioni sed ambitioni deservit, cum nihil aliud sit ambitio quam honoris affectatio.
Haec bestia IIIIor capita habere dicitur, quia ambitio quadrupliciter dividitur, cui omnis ypocritarum actio famulatur : affectatio scilicet libertatis, ut subesse réfugiât, affectatio dignitatis, ut de gradu in gradum ad ma jora cong scendat; affectatio auctoritatis, ut vir magni consilii appareat; affectatio potestatis, ut in domo Dei summum locum obtineat.
Potestas autem data est ei, quia plus laborant saepe sectatores vanitatis pro gloria transitoria quam veri aemulatores justitiae pro vëra gloria et aeterna. Ex hac ergo potestate videntur hominibus eminere. Vident enim homines quod pauperibus eleemosinas isti faciunt, sed non vident quod ut plus inde accipiant istud agant. Non est eleemosyna sed venatio. Sic enim aves capiuntur laqueo, pisces hamo. Modica esca in hamo ponitur, ut in ea divitiarum saculi protrahantur. Sic pestis occulta, virus secretum, doli artifex, latens ypocrisis, virtutum aerugo, tinea sanctitatis, negotium perambulans in tenebris, in principum palatiis habitat et quiescit. Qui rectius inde expelli deberent quam Julianus tonsores et cocos a palatio suo expulit.
Istis si via obstruitur ne in periculum ecclesiae prosperentur, si bona intentione et vera locutione id fiât, nec invidia nec detractio judicatur. Caritas enim, non quaerens quae sua sunt, in proximo compatitur, in bonis nihil suum, in malis nihil reputans alienum.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Dan.7.6 — After this I looked, and behold, another beast, like a leopard, with four wings of a bird on its back, and four heads belonged to the animal, and authority was given to it.
- ↩Luke.22.55;Job.24.15 — When they had kindled a fire in the middle of the courtyard and had sat down together, Peter sat down among them. Job.24.15 — The eye of the adulterer watches the twilight, saying, 'No eye will see me,' and he covers his face.
- ↩Phil.2.4 — Let each of you look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.
Notes
- 1 ↩The participle innuens ('signifying') may agree with animal (neuter) or with an implied masculine subject; the translation follows the more natural reading that the spotted animal itself signifies the outward holiness of hypocrites.
- 2 ↩praeinane: rare form, rendered 'to no purpose' (from prae + inanis); the image is of a bird hovering with wings outstretched but going nowhere — activity without real substance.
- 3 ↩x possibilitatis: the 'x' is uncertain — possibly a numeral (ten) or an abbreviation; rendered as 'what is humanly possible' reflecting the sense of an extreme or immoderate limit.
- 4 ↩soient: non-classical form (possibly Old French soi- + -ent or medieval Latin); rendered as present indicative 'are' in a causal clause.
- 5 ↩The four wings map to four modes of hypocrisy: simulation, dissimulation, ostentation, and excuse — corresponding to the four heads of the beast described in the following section (32.5).
- 6 ↩affectatio rendered as 'attachment' here (negative/disordered sense) rather than 'affection' or 'striving', following lexeme policy for negative contexts.
- 7 ↩Tokens 29–32 (ma, jora, cong, scendat) are a split/abbreviated form of 'maiora conscendat'; normalized reading supplies the intended sense 'ad majora conscendat' (may climb to greater things).
- 8 ↩The ne clause is ambiguous between purpose and prohibition; the translation follows the purpose reading ('so that they don't prosper into danger'), which fits the surrounding context of restraining hypocritical influence.
- 9 ↩The phrase quae sua sunt echoes Philippians 2:4. The rendering 'its own interests' captures the sense of self-seeking while keeping the theological weight of caritas as a virtue that looks outward.
Eruditio regum et principum (Education of Kings and Princes) companion
Louis IX kept a daily rule of reading. Keep yours.
After day 21, Chosen Portion keeps the habit going with one historic devotional portion each morning, free on iOS.
Guibert formed Louis IX through short scheduled installments, and Chosen Portion delivers formation in the same daily-installment pattern.
- One reading and prayer per day, about 3 minutes
- Continue with 78 royal and monastic works after the plan ends
- Reflection questions suited to reading with a teen or small group