Verba Christi ad sponsam, qualiter parentes instruentes filios in mundanis moribus ad acquirendum honores et mundanam gloriam cum superbia per serpentes nutrientes filios suos et docentes eos pungere cum stimulo et venenare notabiliter designantur.
The Serpent's Education
The Lord describes the metaphorical birth and training of a serpent, illustrating how worldly parents nurture malice in their children.
When the serpent and its mate come together, they carry poison in the seed of their union, and from their nature a venomous serpent is conceived. Once the serpent is conceived, however, it can't be brought to life except through my grace, because nothing exists or can exist without me, nor can it obtain spirit except through the mediation of my power. When a snake is born, because the mother has no breasts for the newborn to nurse from, she coils herself around her offspring and warms it so intensely that it's nearly suffocated. Feeling the intense heat from above and the extreme cold from the earth, it's driven by necessity to press its mouth to the ground and begins to suck and eat the earth little by little. Then, to teach her offspring how to move, the mother pricks her young one in the tail; and when it begins to stretch it out, she pricks it again so that it will pull it back. In the same way, she teaches it to stretch out its head and arch its back by pricking it. Afterward, the mother looks for a place where the sun's heat is more intense, and she leads her offspring there, moving along just ahead of it so it learns to follow. As it follows and falls asleep in the heat of the sun, the mother thinks to herself: My child possesses the poison for malice. Therefore, he must learn how to sting. But because his sting is still tender, if I were to apply something hard, he would break sooner than he would be accustomed and strong enough to sting.' So the mother, wisely looking out for her son, seeks out something very soft, brings it, and places it before her sleeping child. Afterward, she blows hard into his ears, rousing him roughly until, as if beside himself from the agitation of her breath, he begins to prod at the soft thing she has placed before him. It practices its sting for so long that, as the sting hardens and the habit of striking becomes fixed, it learns to pierce stone, wood, and anything else that's hard. Finally, once the offspring is trained, the mother leaves it.
The Poison of Pride
The allegory is applied to human parents who, driven by pride, raise their children to seek worldly power rather than divine love.
That is the kind of person you know. He's like a child of a serpent, for he was born of a serpentine father and a serpentine mother. For both of them came together with the worst kind of poison—that is, pride—which has harmed the soul more damnably than physical poison harms the body. Finally, the serpent himself, having an excessive desire for ambition and an inextinguishable craving, burned with lust for the female. Seeing that he was wise, handsome, and capable, she burned with an equal love for the serpent. So, in their pride and having ignored my fear, they have come together and, from a poisonous lineage, have brought forth a poisonous serpent. Into their seed, because I am merciful and justice demands it, I have placed a soul created from my own divinity. But because the mother lacks the breasts of divine love with which to nurse her child, she warms him beneath her instead—that is, she feeds him on a love for the world—and she brings him up among the elite, longing with all her heart for how he might be counted among the powerful.1 And inciting him to his own ruin, it speaks to him, saying: 'If you had that kind of power and authority, you could be just like your parent.' Such honor would become you, and you're bound to work for such honor.'
The Growth of Malice
The child, fully trained in worldly ambition, begins to sting others through injustice and eventually threatens the Church itself.
Instructed by its mother with these words, this serpent-born creature is warmed toward worldly things by the coldness of divine love; it begins to consume worldly things through desire, and by consuming them, it burns all the more intensely. Then, so it learns to move its limbs and lift its head, its mother stings it in the tail, instructing and prompting it to lure others to itself with promises. They draw others to themselves with words and favors, when they are not required to spare their own goods so that they might be called good, nor to spare their own lives so that they might be called brave, nor to have any rest so that their name might be celebrated. A mother also teaches her child to crawl, and by going before him, she leads him into the heat of the sun; just so, when she acts with pride and recklessness, she incites him to do the same, saying to him both in private and in public: This is how your father and your ancestors lived, and this is how great people ought to carry themselves. 'It's a disgrace if you want to be holier than they were, and it's shameful if you want to be humbler than they were—they who won the favor of men through smooth talk and gained a great name by conforming to their ways.' Enticed by these warnings, the serpent-born child follows its mother from one sin to the next, until it arrives at the lust of the flesh as if into the heat of the sun. Once the heat of the flesh begins to settle and grow sweet, the mother then teaches it how to sting and provoke. But because the mother considers his weakness in the face of temptation, his lack of resources, and his deficiency in strength, she suggests easier things to him at first—namely, that he should start by acquiring worldly things of lesser reputation and climb toward minor honors, all of which seem soft and sweet to possess in the beginning. Giving in to poisonous advice, such a person stings the helpless—those who have no strength to resist—by stealing what they own; they sting others with injustice, and still others they sting with hatred, even taking their lives. Once the sting of malice has been strengthened in these lower things, the person—breathed into again by their mother—begins to climb toward higher things, to envy those in greater positions, to set traps, and to stir up conflict, to such an extent that they don't even fear to extend their sting against the strongest, that is, to the injury of the holy Church, unless it is carefully foreseen and wisely guarded against beforehand.
The Remedy and Judgment
The Lord offers the remedy of cutting off the serpent's tongue and pronounces judgment upon those who rely on worldly vanity instead of repentance.
There is only one remedy for rooting out the malice of this sting: the serpent's tongue must be cut off. But it’s up to the wise to discern how it’s cut off, and what that tongue actually is. Then the Lord added to her, "Just as a cloth is pierced and feels nothing, and just as a piece of fruit is bruised and its owner is not hurt, so is my Passion in the heart of this serpent, because he never remembers it attentively in his heart." For they place their faith in predestination, saying: 'If God has foreseen that I am to be damned, why should I labor any further?' 'But if I am to be saved, He will easily accept my repentance.' Woe to that person unless they amend their ways quickly, because no one is condemned on account of my foreknowledge. You should also know that this female serpent, the mother of that person, won't achieve what she so foolishly desires. But neither her children nor that generation will prosper; instead, she herself will die in bitterness, and her memory will be forgotten. The Son of God says: "Take the greatest care not to seek help or stability for your kingdom from the brood of the woman and the serpent, because they are already drawing near to God's judgment, and their days won't be prolonged." Christ appeared again, saying, "Know for certain that this lady will not obtain what she desires." Neither will her children prosper, nor will they produce offspring, nor will their memory endure from generation to generation."
Read the original Latin
"Serpens et femella eius, cum commiscentur, habent in semine sue commixtionis venenum et de natura eorum venenatus concipitur serpens.
Concepto autem serpente non potest viuificari nisi per graciam meam, quia nichil sine me est vel esse potest nec spiritum optinere nisi mediante mea virtute.
Nato vero serpente, quia mater non habet vbera, que natus sugere possit, componit se super suum natum et sic fortiter calefacit eum, vt fere suffocetur.
Qui senciens ex superiori parte calorem nimium et ex terra nimium frigus vrgente necessitate applicat os ad terram et incipit terram paulatim sugere et comedere.
Deinde informans eum mater ad mouendum se pungit natum suum in cauda; quam cum incipit extendere, iterum pungit, vt retrahat. Similique modo docet caput pungendo extendere dorsumque curuare.
Postea mater attendit locum aliquem, vbi calor solis est feruencior, et illuc secum trahit natum suum precedens ante eum leuiter, vt addiscat sequi. Quo sequente et in calore solis obdormiente cogitat sic mater secum:
'Filius meus habet venenum ad maliciam. Ideo necesse est, vt addiscat pungere. Sed quia adhuc tenerum habet stimulum, si adhibuero aliquid durum, cicius frangetur, antequam assuetus et fortis fuerit ad pungendum.'
Ideo mater sapienter prouidens filio inquirit aliquid mollissimum et apportans ponit ante natum suum dormientem.
Postea valenter flatu suo perflans in aures eius excitat eum duriter in tantum, quod quasi extra se factus ex commocione flatus incipit stimulare in illud molle, quod ante eum appositum est.
In quo tam diu assuefacit stimulum, quod crescente duricia stimuli et consuetudine punccionis discit pungere lapides et ligna et queque forcia. Tandem informato nato relinquit eum mater.
Talis est ille homo, quem tu nosti. Est enim sicut natus serpentinus, quia de patre serpentino et femella serpentina natus est. Nam isti ambo conuenerunt cum pessimo veneno, idest superbia, que dampnabilius nocuit anime quam corpori venenum materiale.
Ipse denique serpens, cum nimium haberet ambiendi affectum et cupiditatem inextinguibilem, arsit in concupiscenciam femelle. Que considerans eum sapientem, formosum et strenuum ardebat in serpentem amore equali.
Ideo cum omni superbia contempto timore meo conuenerunt isti et de venenato genere venenatum generauerunt serpentem. In quorum semen, quia misericors sum et iusticia sic exigit, dedi animam de diuinitate mea creatam.
Verum quia mater non habet vbera diuine dileccionis, quibus lactet natum suum, ideo calefacit eum sub se, idest nutrit eum ad amorem mundi, et cum excellencioribus educit eum desiderans toto affectu, quomodo reputari possit cum magnatibus.
Et incitans eum ad subuersionem sui alloquitur eum dicendo: 'Si haberes illud dominium et principatum, consimilis posses esse parenti. Et talis honor deceret te et pro tali honore laborare teneris.'
Talibus igitur verbis natus serpentinus instructus a matre et ad terrena calefactus ex frigore diuine caritatis incipit terrena desiderando comedere et comedendo arcius estuare.
Deinde, vt addiscat mouere membra et erigere caput, pungitur in cauda a matre, quando ab ea informatur et inducitur, vt alios sibi alliciat promissionibus,
alios associet sibi verbis et fauoribus, quando non iubetur parcere bonis, vt vocetur bonus, non parcere vite, vt vocetur strenuus, non habere quietem, vt celebretur nomen eius.
Docet eciam mater natum serpere et precedendo ducit ad feruorem solis, quando seuiendo superbe et dissolute incitat eum ad consimilia, dicens ei priuatim et publice:
'Sic vixit pater tuus et antecessores tui, sic magnates decet incedere. Pudor est, si velis esse illis sanccior, dedecus est, si tu velis esse illis humilior, qui ex blanda locucione acquisierunt fauorem hominum et ex conformacione morum eorum optinuerunt magnum nomen.'
Hiis monitis natus serpentinus illectus sequitur matrem ab vno peccato in aliud, vsque dum venerit in luxuriam carnis tamquam in solis ardorem. Vbi cum inceperit quiescere et dulcescere carnis ardor, tunc docetur a matre pungere et stimulare.
Verum quia mater considerat infirmitatem eius in stimulo ac paupertatem in facultatibus et in viribus defectum, ideo suadet ei primo molliora, scilicet vt acquirat primo temporalia minoris reputacionis, ascendat ad honores minores, que omnia videntur in principio mollia et suauia ad habendum.
Qui venenato acquiescens consilio pungit miseros, quibus vis resistendi nulla est, ablacione suorum; pungit alios iniuria, alios pungit odio atque priuat vita.
Deinde confortato malicie stimulo in istis inferioribus perflatus iterum a matre incipit ad alciora ascendere, maioribus inuidere, prodiciones tendere et suscitare litigia in tantum, quod eciam in fortissima non formidat extendere stimulum suum, idest ad sancte Ecclesie iniuriam, nisi sollicite ante preuideatur et sapienter caueatur.
Ad huius vero stimuli extirpandam maliciam non est nisi vnum remedium, idest vt abscidatur lingua serpentis. Hoc vero erit sapiencium discernere, quomodo abscidatur et que sit eius lingua."
Deinde subiunxit ei Dominus: "Sicut pannus transfoditur et non sentit, et sicut pomum decoriatur et possessor eius non leditur, sic passio mea est in corde istius serpentis, quia numquam eam in corde suo attente recordatur.
Nam in predestinacione ponit fidem suam dicens: 'Si Deus presciuit me dampnandum, cur amplius laborabo? Si vero saluandum, faciliter recipiet penitenciam meam.' Ve illi, nisi se cicius emendauerit, quia nullus propter prescienciam meam reprobatur.
Scias eciam, quod illa serpens femella, mater istius, non consequetur, quod insipienter desiderat. Sed nec filii nec generacio illa prosperabitur, ymmo ipsa in amaritudine morietur et memoria eius erit in obliuione."
Filius Dei loquitur: "Caueatur summopere, ne de genere femelle et serpentis queratur auxilium et stabilitas regni, quia iam appropinquant iudicio Dei et dies eorum non prolongabuntur."
Item alias Christus apparuit dicens: "Scias pro certissimo, quod hec domina non consequetur, quod desiderat. Nec filii eius prosperabuntur nec facient semen, nec memoria eorum in generacione et generacionem erit."
Notes
- 1 ↩The Latin 'calefacit eum sub se' (she warms him beneath her) evokes the image of a serpent brooding over its eggs or young, contrasting with the 'breasts of divine love' mentioned earlier.
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