VISIO TERTIA, cap. XII
The Body's Hidden Discipline
The navel, loins, and kidneys are shown as centers of bodily desire that must be restrained by reason, justice, and upright thought so a person may walk in ordered, holy living.
You see too that at times these bodily fluids press toward a person's navel — the navel that stands as it were at the head of the inner organs — and it gently holds them together so they don't scatter, and it keeps their pathways and warmth, along with the veins, in proper balance, even though it is often stirred by their surges; otherwise a person could not live at all. For when a faithful person shuts out an evil report, he restrains the navel of his many desires with wholesome thoughts, so that he may be able to reach the life of true blessedness, since that evil report provokes him again and again to the restlessness of what is harmful.12 But they also press toward a person's loins, which in their energy are as deceptive and dangerous as something played with, and which are held in check by the sinews and by the other veins. In these loins reason too flourishes, so that a person knows what to do or what to avoid; and from them pleasure in those works comes. And those on the right side of the body are warmed and strengthened by the breath of a person's spirit and by the liver. In this way, then, a person receives discipline and discernment, learning how to curb the storms of the other impulses so that he may carry out his works in an ordered way — because the loins, in which excess dwells, he girds up, and for the soul's salvation this is strengthened through the virtue of justice, prudently and honorably brought to completion.34 These same fluids also sometimes touch the veins of the kidneys and the flanks, which press toward the veins of the spleen, the lungs, and the heart. And all these, together with the inner organs, are shaken on the left side when the lung heats them; the liver, for its part, kindles the right side of the body. For a person, by upright thoughts, powerfully restrains those same kidneys, which through wrongful desire again and again touch his heart and shake it toward evil — this when the lightness of the flesh touches them. And he does this by walking in the paths of justice.56
The Body's Hidden Discipline
The veins of the brain, heart, and liver descend to strengthen the kidneys and calves, then return to empower each sex for procreation, with the whole body full of veins and fluids.
The veins of the brain, the heart, and the liver strengthen the kidneys as they descend, and the veins of the kidneys, going downward, fortify the calves; and when they return upward again, joined together in the right places, they lend their power to each sex for procreation; and the muscles, arms, and legs are full of veins and fluids — and this is a brief illustration of these things.78
Read the original Latin
Vides quoque quod interdum humores isti ad umbilicum hominis tendunt, qui quasi caput viscerum exstans, illa leniter claudit ne dissipentur, et qui itinera caloremque eorum et venarum ad rectum temperamentum conservat, licet multoties impulsibus suis inquietus sit; alioquin homo vivere non posset: quoniam cum fidelis homo malum auditum excludit, bonis cogitationibus suis umbilicum diversarum concupiscentiarum constringit, quatenus ad vitam verae beatitudinis pertingere valeat, quia ille eum saepius ad inquietudinem malorum provocat. Sed et lumbos hominis aliquando petunt, qui in viribus suis velut ludendo deceptuosi et periculosi sunt et qui a nervis, et a caeteris venis retinentur; in quibus etiam rationalitas floret, ita ut homo sciat quid faciat, vel quid devitet; unde et delectationem ad opera illa habet, et qui in dextra parte corporis de flatu spiraminis hominis, et de jecore ejus calefiunt, et roborantur; unde et sic homo discretionem disciplinamque recipit, quomodo procellas aliorum humorum compescat, quatenus opera sua disciplinate perficiat, quia lumbos, in quibus luxus est, praecingit, et hoc ad salutem animae per virtutem justitiae confortatur discrete et honeste complet. Idem quoque humores venas renum et iliorum interdum tangunt; quae ad venas splenis, pulmonis et cordis tendunt, et haec omnia cum visceribus in sinistra concutiuntur, cum illa pulmo calefacit; dextram vero partem corporis jecur accendit, quoniam homo eisdem rectis cogitationibus renes, quae per injustam concupiscentiam cor suum saepius tangunt, et ad malum concutiunt, fortissime constringit, cum levitas carnis illos tangit, hocque per vias justitiae incedendo facit.
Quod venae cerebri, cordis et jecoris, renes confortando, venae quoque renum suras descensu suo roborando, et cum venis ipsarum sursum redeundo locis opportunis invicem conjunctae utrique sexui vires ad gignendum conferunt, et quod lacerti, brachia et crura venis et humoribus plena sint, et brevis horum exemplificatio.
Notes
- 1 ↩The passage uses the navel as an image of the soul's governing center: it gathers and restrains the 'humors' (bodily fluids, here standing for impulses and desires) so they do not dissipate. 'Fidelis homo' (faithful person) signals a spiritual application of what begins as physiological description.
- 2 ↩The Latin reads 'bonis cogitationibus suis umbilicum diversarum concupiscentiarum constringit' — the faithful person 'binds' or 'restrains' the navel of desires with good thoughts. The navel here is the image of the will's concentrated governance, not a literal anatomical claim.
- 3 ↩The loins (lumbos) image the seat of vital energy and, in moral terms, the seat of desire and lust ('luxus'). The text reads them as the place where reason and self-discipline must be marshaled.
- 4 ↩Discretio rendered as 'disciplernment' in the sense of trained discernment; the Latin couples it with disciplina. The phrase 'de flatu spiraminis' is rendered 'by the breath of a person's spirit' to keep the physiological metaphor intact.
- 5 ↩The kidneys (renes) are read morally as the seat of deep desire; 'per injustam concupiscentiam' is rendered 'wrongful desire' to keep the moral sense without over-personalizing. The left/right and liver/lung imagery stays within the physiological metaphor while carrying spiritual weight.
- 6 ↩The clause 'cum levitas carnis illos tangit' is rendered 'when the lightness of the flesh touches them' — 'lightness' preserves the Latin's sense of fickleness or instability rather than mere physical lightness.
- 7 ↩The Latin is a dense physiological allegory: 'Quod' introduces an indirect statement, and the anatomical details (veins, kidneys, calves, muscles) carry symbolic weight about the body's role in generation and strength. The final phrase 'brevis horum exemplificatio' signals that the physical description serves as an allegory for spiritual realities.
- 8 ↩jecoris is a variant spelling of iecoris (liver); suras is the anatomical term for the calves of the leg. The gerund forms confortando and roborando are ablative of means ('by strengthening / by fortifying').
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