PRIMA VISIO, cap. XIII
The Monster of Discord and the Serpent's Deception
True love crushes the venomous monster of discord, while the cunning serpent of the devil fixes itself to that monster, beginning with small vices and ending in consummate malice, just as Satan transmitted his pride to humanity through hearing.
For there is a certain horrible monster of venomous form and black color, and it tramples a serpent with its own feet. This is what true love does: it crushes the injury of discord, twisted by many vices and made horrible by many perversities, venomous in its deception and black in its destruction, lying in wait for whatever faithful it can reach through the footsteps of the Son of God — since that same Son of God also brought it down to nothing on the cross.12 It fixes its mouth in the right golden side of that same monster, and bending the rest of its body across its head, it extends its tail on the left side all the way down to its feet. Because the devil sometimes pretends that his deception is doing good, he fixes discord in place, applying the whole race of vices lightly at first on this side and that, yet in the end he shows that he holds the worst and most consummate perversity of discord for himself.3 For the serpent, being more cunning in its guile than other worms, destroys everything it can with that same cunning, and turns itself into what is worst.4 The various colors that are in it also signify this. And so Satan did: when he recognized his own beauty, he wanted to be like his Creator, and he also sent this into man through hearing, as if through the serpent's head. And he won't stop doing this even to the last day, because it is like his tail.5
Love in the Wheel of Eternity
Love exists eternally in God as heat in fire, and God foreknew all creatures and brought them forth in love so that humanity would lack nothing.
Therefore love is in the wheel of eternity without time, just as heat is in fire.6 For God in his eternity foreknew all creatures, and brought them forth in the fullness of love so that man would lack no refreshment or service in them — because he joined them to man like flames to fire.7
The Fall of the Proud Angel and the Fall of Humanity
The first angel, adorned by God, fell through pride and was cast into the abyss, then brought an evil design against the human being, and Adam and Eve, persuaded by the devil's envy, lost the glory of immortality.
Now God established the first angel with many ornaments, as was also said before; but when he saw himself, he hated his own Lord and wanted to be the Lord. But God cast him into the pit of the abyss.8 Then the same transgressor brought an evil design against the human being, and the human being consented to it. Adam and Eve, persuaded by the devil as he envied them, by their own consent lost the glory of the heavenly garment — that is, immortality.
Read the original Latin
Quod vero quoddam monstrum horribilis formae, ac venenosi nigrique coloris, et serpentem quemdam pedibus suis conculcat, hoc est quod vera charitas injuriam discordiae plurimis vitiis distortam, multisque perversitatibus horribilem, ac in deceptione venenosam, et in perditione nigram, antiquumque serpentem quibusque fidelibus insidiantem, per vestigia Filii Dei conterit, cum etiam idem Filius Dei illum in cruce ad nihilum deduxerit. Qui os suum dextrae auri ejusdem monstri infigit, et reliquum corpus suum in transversum capitis ipsius incurvans, caudam suam in sinistra parte illius usque ad pedes ejus extendit, quoniam diabolus deceptionem suam se bene facere interdum simulans, discordiae infigit, totumque genus vitiorum hac et illac initio illius leviter apponens, in fine tamen illorum perversitatem pessimae consummationis discordiae se habere ostendit. Serpens enim caeteris vermibus in dolo callidior existens, in eadem calliditate omnia quae potest destruit, et in id quod pessimum est se convertit. Quod etiam varii colores qui in ipso sunt designant. Sic et Satan fecit, quoniam cum pulchritudinem suam cognosceret, Creatori suo se similem esse voluit, et hoc etiam homini per auditum quasi per caput serpentis immisit, et nec hoc usque ad novissimam diem facere desinet, quod velut cauda ipsius est. Charitas itaque in rota aeternitatis sine tempore est, quemadmodum calor in igne. Deus enim in aeternitate sua omnes creaturas praescivit, quas in plenitudine charitatis ita protulit, quatenus homo nulla refectione vel servitio in eis careret, quoniam ipsas ad hominem velut flammas ad ignem conjunxit. Primum autem angelum Deus cum plurimis ornamentis, ut etiam praedictum est, constituit, sed ubi ille se ipsum conspexit, Dominum suum odio habuit, et Dominus esse voluit, sed Deus in puteum abyssi illum projecit.
Tunc idem transgressor homini malum consilium intulit, cui homo consensit.
Quod Adam et Eva suasione diaboli invidentis eis, consentiendo gloriam coelestis vestimenti, id est immortalitatem, perdiderunt.
Notes
- 1 ↩The opening Quod is treated as a connective introducing the vision's explanation rather than a straightforward relative; vero is rendered as confirmatory emphasis.
- 2 ↩charitas rendered as 'love' per default policy; theologically it names the divine love that tramples the serpent/discord.
- 3 ↩quoniam rendered 'because' for the causal explanation of the devil's method; tamen rendered 'yet' marking the contrast between the light beginning and the destructive end.
- 4 ↩enim rendered 'For' as explanatory, expanding on the serpent's nature.
- 5 ↩quoniam rendered 'when' (temporal-causal cum) for Satan's motivation; the final quod velut cauda ipsius est rendered with 'because' to capture the explanatory force.
- 6 ↩charitas rendered as 'love' per default policy.
- 7 ↩charitas rendered as 'love' per default policy.
- 8 ↩autem rendered 'Now' as continuative; the two instances of sed rendered 'but' marking the turn from angelic dignity to pride and then to divine judgment.
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