XLVII. De Contentione.

XLVII. De Contentione.

The fifth image demonstrates contention, which follows deceit here, because when a person is dishonest, they engage in contention, so that each one fraudulently contends with their brother through deceit and injustice. And this appears in the form of a human, having curly and black hair, and a fiery face, because a rational human being loves contention more than other animals that are irrational; and he often mocks other creatures by contending, doing this through twisted impudence and through a darkened annoyance, in various ways of knowledge, and with the intention of his fiery will, when he is furious in anger. But the cloak, which is of various colors and has openings at the shoulders through which it extends its arms, signifies that it covers its desires with the variety of others, in which, through the strength of its own madness, it shows no integrity or any restraint of goodness, but instead has openings of bacchanalian schisms, releasing the extensions and works of its arms according to its own will. For the contentious person neither seeks the will nor the benefit of others, but walks according to his own desires. From this, he also holds a knife in his left hand, which he tightens against himself, because he chews on the wounds of words that he gathers to himself from perverse behavior. And in this way, he often wounds his own hands, as he strikes them in fury, so much so that he even drenches his own clothing with their blood, because in the pursuit of contrary words, he frequently inflicts wounds on himself, as he hurls insults at himself in madness; thus, he lays bare his conscience to others through the crimes of his own actions, and he so exasperates himself that he confounds both himself and others with his own insults, manifesting this even in the words he has spoken. But the judgment of supreme peace is resisted, and people are urged to avoid the same fault.