De spirituali circumcisione, quae in charitate continetur.
The Nature of Spiritual Circumcision
Spiritual circumcision is defined not as a bodily cutting but as the complete inner and outer purification of the person through the removal of every vice.
This is plainly not the carnal amputation of a single member, but rather the true and perfect circumcision of the inner and outer person — cutting away pleasures, extinguishing lust, restraining the appetite, holding back anger, utterly overturning envy, and overcoming pride, the mother of all vices.1
Circumcision Against Sloth and Avarice
Spiritual circumcision heals the soul from the languor of sloth through spiritual sweetness and frees it from the plague of avarice through liberality.
This circumcision, by tempering the sharp stings of sadness with a certain spiritual sweetness, meets the weariness that comes from sloth.23 This circumcision, piercing through the plague of avarice with the most pleasing sword of liberality, frees the soul from the vice of idolatry and preserves it.
The Perfection of Circumcision and the Garments of Skin
This circumcision is declared most perfect because it destroys the body of sin, lays aside the hairy skins of the first-formed Adam, and casts off all ancient corruption.
What, I ask, could be more perfect than this circumcision, by which the members of vice are cut away, the body of sin is destroyed, the hairy skins of the first-formed are laid aside, and the entire stain and squalor of ancient oldness is cast off?✦45
The Soul Filled with Love
A mind filled with the sweetness of love is shown to be free from every vice—fear, lust, anger, pride, vainglory, fury, ambition, avarice, sadness, and envy.
For the mind that the sweetness of love has filled — fear does not constrain it, lust does not stain it, anger does not tear it apart, pride does not raise it up; the empty smoke of vainglory does not blow through it; fury does not drive it about, the goad of ambition does not disembowel it; avarice does not contract it, sadness does not cast it down, envy does not waste it away.678
The Pauline Portrait of Love
The chapter invokes 1 Corinthians 13 to show that charity is not envious, not puffed up, not ambitious, and does not seek its own.
For love is not envious; it does not act wrongly; it is not puffed up, it is not ambitious; it does not seek its own, it is not provoked, it does not think evil, it does not rejoice over iniquity (1 Cor.✦9 xiii).10
Circumcision of the Bodily Senses
Spiritual circumcision purifies all five bodily senses with a divine knife, cutting off wantonness of the eyes, itching of the ears, excesses of taste, insolence of the tongue, whorish odors, and pernicious softness of touch.
You see that this spiritual circumcision is the destruction of all vices; it also purifies all the senses of the body with a certain divine knife — cutting off the wantonness of the eyes, rooting out the itching of the ears, driving away the excesses of taste, removing the insolence of the tongue, shutting out whorish odors from the nostrils, and uprooting the pernicious softness of touch.111213
Read the original Latin
Hic plane non carnalis unius membri amputatio, sed potius interioris exteriorisque hominis vera et perfecta circumcisio, resecans voluptatum, exstinguens libidinem, coercens gulam, cohibens iracundiam, invidiam penitus evertens, omnium vitiorum generatricem expugnans superbiam. Haec edaces tristitiae stimulos spirituali quadam suavitate contemperans, sequacis acediae occurrit languori. Haec avaritiae pestem liberalitatis gratissimo mucrone confodiens, ab idololatriae vitio animam liberat ac conservat. Quid, rogo, hac circumcisione perfectius, qua vitiorum membra resecantur, corpus peccati destruitur, protoplastorum exuviae villosae deponitur, totaque antiquae vetustatis labes squalorque rejicitur? Mentem enim, quam dulcedo charitatis oppleverit, non timor angustat, non libido commaculat, non ira dilaniat, non superbia elevat; non caenodoxiae inanis fumus eventilat; non exagitat furor, non stimulus ambitionis eviscerat; non avaritia contrahit, non dejicit tristitia, non invidia tabefacit. Charitas quippe non aemulatur; non agit perperam; non inflatur, non est ambitiosa; non quaerit quae sua sunt, non irritatur, non cogitat malum, non gaudet super iniquitate (1 Cor. xiii). Vides hanc spiritualem circumcisionem omnium vitiorum esse peremptoriam; etiam omnes sensus corporis divino quodam cultro purificat, oculorum abscindens petulantiam, aurium pruritum eradens, gustus superfluas summitates propellens, linguae procacitatem detrahens, meretricios odores excludens naribus, tactus perniciosam mollitiem eradicans.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Gen.3.21 — And the LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and for his wife, and clothed them.
- ↩1Cor.13.4-1Cor.13.5 — Love is patient; love is kind. Love does not envy; it does not boast; it is not puffed up. 1Cor.13.5 — It does not dishonor others, it does not seek its own, it is not easily provoked, it does not keep a record of wrongs.
Notes
- 1 ↩generatricem: substantivized use of generatrix, rendered 'the mother of all vices' to capture the personification of pride as the source of all other vices.
- 2 ↩contemperans: rare verb, rendered 'tempering' — suggesting a blending or moderating of the sting of sadness with spiritual sweetness.
- 3 ↩sequacis acediae: 'following from sloth' — the languor is understood as a consequence of acedia (spiritual sloth).
- 4 ↩protoplastorum exuviae villosae: 'the hairy skins of the first-formed' — an allusion to Genesis 3:21, where God clothed Adam and Eve in garments of skin. 'First-formed' refers to Adam and Eve.
- 5 ↩antiquae vetustatis: 'ancient oldness' — the aged condition of sin inherited from the Fall.
- 6 ↩oppleverit: form ambiguous between future perfect indicative and perfect subjunctive; rendered as present perfect 'has filled' to convey the completed action of love filling the mind.
- 7 ↩caenodoxiae: rare Greek loanword (kenodoxia), rendered 'vainglory' — the empty desire for praise.
- 8 ↩eventilat: rare verb, rendered 'blows through' — the smoke of vainglory is scattered and has no lasting hold.
- 9 ↩This is a close paraphrase of 1 Corinthians 13:4–5, following the Vulgate wording. The citation marker (1 Cor. is incomplete in the source.
- 10 ↩Citation marker completing the reference to 1 Corinthians 13.
- 11 ↩summitates: rendered 'excesses' — a metaphorical use for the superfluous pleasures of taste.
- 12 ↩meretricios odores: 'whorish odors' — figurative language for seductive or unchaste sensory pleasures.
- 13 ↩peremptoriam: rare adjective, rendered 'destruction' — emphasizing the thoroughness of this spiritual circumcision against all vices.
Speculum caritatis (The Mirror of Charity) companion
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