Verba querimonie virginis ad filiam de quodam suo ficto deuoto, comparando ipsum ad armigerum in bello corporali male armatum.
The Distracted Devotee
The Mother laments the hypocrisy of one who claims love but remains inattentive and distracted.
The Mother speaks: "He is the one who says he loves me, but turns his back on me when he serves me." When I actually speak to him, he asks, 'What are you saying?' . He turns his eyes away from me to look at the things that delight him more.
The Poorly Armed Soldier
The devotee is compared to a soldier in battle who is completely unprepared and ill-equipped for spiritual combat.
He is strangely armed, like someone placed in a physical battle whose helmet has its eye-slits in the back, and whose shield, which should be on his arm, hangs instead from his shoulders. His sword has been cast aside so that the scabbards remain empty, and his doublet—which ought to protect his body and chest—lies beneath him in the saddle, the straps of which are loose on the horse. This is how he is spiritually armed before God, and that is why he doesn't know how to tell the difference between a friend and an enemy, nor does he know how to inflict any damage on the enemy.
The Cowardly Opportunist
The spirit of the devotee is revealed as one of worldly opportunism rather than divine love.
The spirit that fights alongside him is like someone who thinks this way: 'I want to be with the ones at the back of the battle, so I can see how things turn out if the front line loses the fight.' But if they win, I'll come running so fast that I'll be counted among the first.' That’s why anyone who starts a war like this is acting out of worldly wisdom, not out of the love of God.
Read the original Latin
Mater loquitur: "Ille est, qui dicit se me diligere sed vertit ad me posteriora, quando seruit michi. Cum vero loquor ei, dicit: 'Quid dicis tu?' . Auertitque oculos a me et respicit ea que eum plus delectant.
Iste est mirabiliter armatus, sicut ille, qui esset positus in corporali bello, cuius galee foramina essent in occipite, cuius clippeus ponendus in brachio penderet in humeris,
cuius gladio abiecto vagine remanerent vacue, cuius dyplois, que corpus et pectus defendere deberet, iaceret subtus eum in sella, cuius selle ligature in equo solute essent.
Sic iste armatus est spiritualiter coram Deo, et ideo discernere nescit inter amicum et inimicum nec scit facere dampnum hosti.
Spiritus vero qui pugnat cum eo est sicut ille, qui taliter cogitat: 'Ego volo esse cum ultimis in pugna, quod possim videre rubeta, si primi perdiderint bellum. Si vero vicerint, veniam ita velociter, quod computabor cum primis.'
Ideo qui emisit bellum fecit secundum sapienciam carnalem et non ex caritate Dei."
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