Verba querimonie sponse coram diuina maiestate ex eo, quod quatuor sorores filie regis Ihesu Christi, scilicet Humilitas, Abstinencia, Contentacio et Caritas nunc prochdolor adnichilantur, et sorores filie regis Dyaboli, scilicet Superbia, Delectacio, Superfluitas et Symonia vocantur domine.
The Displacement of Virtue
The speaker laments the loss of the four virtuous sisters—Humility, Abstinence, Contentment, and Charity—who have been cast out of their rightful inheritance.
I come before your majesty to complain, not only for myself but for many of God's chosen, that there were four sisters, daughters of a powerful king, each of whom held a seat and authority within her own inheritance. For anyone who wanted to look upon the beauty of these sisters found comfort in their beauty and good examples in their devotion. The first was named Sister Humility, and she guided the arrangement of everything that needed to be done. The second was named Sister Abstinence, and she kept herself apart from all corrupt ways of living. The third was called Sister Contentment, free from all excess. The fourth was called Sister Charity, for the suffering of one's neighbor. But these four sisters have now been wiped out in their own inheritance, and almost everyone despises them.1
The Rise of Vice
Four illegitimate sisters—Pride, Pleasure, Superfluity, and Simony—have usurped the place of the virtues, leading souls toward destruction.
In their place, four other illegitimate sisters have been installed—born of a fornicator—and they are now called ladies. The first of these is called Lady Pride, who exists to please the world. The second is called Lady Pleasure, who follows every appetite of the flesh. The third is called Lady Superfluity, who goes beyond every necessity. The fourth is called Lady Simony, and almost no one can protect themselves from her deception, because she accepts everything with greed, regardless of whether what she receives was acquired justly or unjustly. These four ladies, however, speak against God's commandments, wanting to destroy them, and they provide an occasion for many souls to fall into eternal damnation.
A Call to Restoration
The reader is urged to support the virtues and reject the vices, seeking the exaltation of Christ's inheritance over the betrayal of the Devil.
So, act out of the love God has shown you, and support these four sisters called virtues—those that have come from the very virtue of Jesus Christ, the supreme King. They have already been humbled in the holy Church, which is Christ's inheritance, so that they might be more quickly exalted, and so that the vices known as masters in the world—which are betrayers of souls because they were born from the very vice of the Devil, the betrayer—might be brought low.
Read the original Latin
Conqueror non solum ex parte mea sed eciam ex parte multorum electorum Dei coram maiestate vestra, quod erant quatuor sorores filie potentis regis, quarum quelibet habebat sedem et potestatem in patrimonio suo.
Quicumque enim volebant inspicere pulchritudinem istarum sororum obtinebant consolacionem ex pulchritudine earum et bona exempla ex earum deuocione.
Prima vocabatur soror Humilitas in omnium agendarum rerum disposicione. Secunda vocabatur soror Abstinencia ab omni inquinata conuersacione.
Tercia vocabatur soror Contentacio sine omni superfluitate. Quarta vocabatur soror Caritas in proximorum tribulacione. Iste autem quatuor sorores sunt iam in patrimonio suo adnichilate et quasi ab omnibus contempte.
In quarum sedibus sunt alie quatuor illegittime sorores institute, que a fornicario progenite sunt et vocantur iam domine.
Quarum prima vocatur domina Superbia, que est ad placendum mundo. Secunda vocatur domina Delectacio secundum omnem carnis appetitum. Tercia vocatur domina Superfluitas super omnem necessitatem.
Quarta vocatur domina Symonia, a cuius decepcione se quasi nullus custodire potest, quia utrum iuste vel iniuste acquisitum sit quod recipit, tamen omnia recipit cum cupiditate.
Iste vero quatuor domine loquuntur contra precepta Dei volentes ea adnichilare et tribuunt occasionem multis animabus ad eternam dampnacionem.
Propterea facite propter caritatem, quam Deus vobiscum fecit, et iuuate istas quatuor sorores que vocantur virtutes, que processerunt de ipsa virtute Iheso Christo summo rege;
que et iam depresse sunt in sancta Ecclesia, que est patrimonium Christi, ut exaltentur cicius et ut vicia que vocantur domine in mundo deprimantur, que sunt proditrices animarum, quia nate sunt de ipso vicio Dyabolo proditore.
Notes
- 1 ↩The term 'adnichilate' (annihilated/wiped out) here carries the sense of being rendered null or void within their own rightful domain.
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