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← Speculum caritatis (The Mirror of Charity)/Book 1 · Speculum caritatis — Liber I
Chapter 29SpCar.1.29

Quantum errent, qui de Dominici jugi asperitate causantur, cum, quidquid laboris sentitur, ex reliquiis sit cupiditatis; quidquid requiei, ex infusione charitatis.

The Complaint Against the Yoke

The speaker confesses a personal fault against a friend and recognizes that all sin is ultimately against God alone.

They are wrong, Lord—they are wrong; they are deceived, those who, not knowing themselves and not noticing what is going on within them, complain about the harshness of this yoke and the heaviness of this burden. What then? You say—you who seem to have placed your neck under this yoke and subjected your shoulders to the burden—do you never labor? On the contrary—very often. For even today I labored somewhat. Since a word had escaped me rather incautiously, a certain very close friend of mine took it so badly that he even showed his annoyance by his expression, and when I had prostrated myself at his feet, he raised me up rather slowly. Nor has my spirit yet fully sweated out that grief—Lord, you know—not because I was slow to get up, but because he was offended, and I had been caught off guard by an incautious remark.1 And perhaps because of the remarkable closeness with which I've been accustomed to speak more openly to him, my words slipped out more easily here—according to the common saying: a familiar master quickly makes a servant.2 And now, Lord—you who see my weakness, physician of my soul, my only hope of salvation—against you alone have I sinned, even in the very act of sinning against him.

Sin Is Against God Alone

Because God commands all obedience, every sin is ultimately a transgression against God's will, as shown by scriptural examples.

It's not a sin because I offended him, but because you forbade me to offend him. Whoever sins, Lord, sins against you alone, because when sin is committed, either what you command is not done, or what you forbid is done. Homicide, Lord, is a sin, because you said: You shall not kill (Exod.✦ xx). And so when you once said, Kill, it was not only not a sin to kill, but the greatest crime to refuse to kill when you commanded it. The law also condemns fraud, and yet when, at your command, the Hebrews despoiled Egypt with borrowed vessels and garments (Exod.✦ xii), because they obeyed you, they did not sin. You say, nevertheless, You shall not commit fornication, and so fornication is the most monstrous crime; yet your prophet, when you commanded it, did not hesitate to take a woman of fornication as his wife, so that he might produce children of fornication (Hos.✦

The Weight of 'Against You Alone'

The speaker meditates on the profound meaning of Psalm 51:4, recognizing that God alone has the right to judge and punish sin.

He certainly would not have done this if he had joined her to himself in the bond of marriage. Although it is debated whether this was done exactly according to the letter. Against you, therefore, alone I have sinned (Ps.✦ l). Nor does this phrase, 'Against you I have sinned,' occur easily in the Scriptures as something said to you — although it is indeed said, 'Against you I have sinned.'✦ I do not know what great thing is signified by what was said to you. What then does 'Against you alone I have sinned' mean, except this: by your judgment my sin is to be assessed, by your judgment it is to be judged, by your judgment it is to be punished?✦ Against you alone I have sinned.✦

No One Is Without the Stone

Drawing on Christ's words to the woman caught in adultery, the speaker acknowledges that only God may judge, yet still seeks reconciliation with the offended friend.

Why does the Jew prepare a stone?✦ Against you alone I have sinned.✦ Let the one among you who is without sin, he says, be the first to throw a stone at her (John 8).✦ 8). It is to him alone, therefore, that I have sinned — he to whom judgment over sin rightly belongs; and it is his prerogative to judge, since it is established that this is truly sin. You then, Lord, you forgive — because I have sinned against you alone. But because I have also sinned against that person, I will throw myself again at his feet; and you, inspire him to forgive as well the wrong I did him — even though, as you know, at the time I did not think of offending him, nor did I will it. But let me return to my earlier point: Is this struggle of mine really about the Lord's yoke, or is it not rather about my own sickness?

The Sweet Yoke and the Remnant of Desire

All peace comes from Christ's yoke; all weariness comes from the remnants of worldly desire, and final healing awaits the resurrection.

I truly sense that whatever tranquility is mine, whatever peace, whatever gladness — this whole yoke brings forth all of it for me as something most sweet. But whatever toil, whatever weariness, whatever heaviness of any kind comes from the remnants of worldly desire.3 Under that yoke — the yoke that the prince of Babylon, that is, the prince of confusion, laid on my most wretched neck — my strength has been weakened, my bones crushed. And though the captivity has been loosed in some part, still from that ancient oppression no small weakness remains, from which the serenity of a soul that has already tasted sweetness is very often disturbed, until he who shows mercy to me in all my iniquities heals all my weaknesses as well, and having redeemed my life from destruction, crowns me in mercy and compassion.✦45 When this corruptible body puts on incorruption, and this mortal body puts on immortality, the word that is written will be fulfilled: 'Death has been swallowed up in victory.'✦67 . Meanwhile, from the sweetness of this yoke there is no small consolation, and against my inborn weakness there is no small struggle.8

Read the original Latin

Errant, Domine, errant; falluntur, qui ignorantes semetipsos, et quid in se agatur non advertentes, de jugi hujus asperitate ac oneris gravitate causantur. Quid ergo, inquis, tu qui videris huic jugo supposuisse cervices, ac oneri humeros subjecisse, nunquam laboras? Imo persaepe. Nam hodie quoque nonnihil laboravi. Cum enim paulo incautius mihi verbum exsiliisset, ita illud amicissimus quidam meus moleste accepit, ut etiam offensionem suam vultu proderet, et prostratum me ad pedes ejus paulo tardius erigeret. Nec adhuc plene exsudavit animus meus moerorem illum: Domine, tu scis; non ideo quia ego tarde erectus, sed quia ille offensus, et ego incauto sermone praeventus. Et forte ob singularem familiaritatem, qua ei magis nude loqui consuevi, hic mihi facilius sermo subrepsit, secundum id quod vulgo dicitur, privatus dominus statim mancipium facit. Et nunc, Domine, inspector infirmitatis meae, medicus animae meae, unica spes salutis meae, tibi soli peccavi, etiam quod in ipsum peccavi.

Non enim ideo peccatum est, quia illum offendi; sed quia ne offenderem tu prohibuisti. Tibi, Domine, tibi soli peccat, quicunque peccat; quia, cum peccatur, aut non fit quod jubes, aut fit quod prohibes. Homicidium, Domine, peccatum est; quia tu dixisti: Non occides (Exod. xx). Et ideo cum tu aliquando diceres: Occide, non solum peccatum non fuit occidere, sed scelus maximum, te jubente nolle occidere. Fraudem quoque damnat lex; et tamen cum, te jubente, mutuatis vasis et vestibus Hebraei spoliarent Aegyptum (Exod. xii), quoniam tibi paruerunt, non utique peccaverunt. Dicis nihilominus: Non fornicaberis; et idcirco fornicari immanissimum scelus est; nec tamen, te jubente, dubitavit Propheta tuus sumere sibi uxorem fornicariam ut faceret filios fornicationis (Ose.

1): quod utique non faceret, si uxorio vinculo sibi eam copulasset. Quanquam dubitetur utrum ad litteram sic factum sit. Tibi ergo soli peccavi (Psal. l). Neque occurrit in Scripturis, hoc facile homini dictum, tibi peccavi, quanquam dictum sit: In te peccavi. Nescio quid magnum innuit, quod dictum est, tibi. Quid est ergo, tibi soli peccavi, nisi: tuo arbitrio aestimandum est peccatum meum, tuo arbitrio judicandum, tuo arbitrio puniendum? Tibi soli peccavi.

Ut quid parat lapidem Judaeus? Tibi soli peccavi. Qui sine peccato est, inquit, vestrum, primo in illam lapidem mittat (Joan. viii). Illi ergo soli peccavi, cui congruit de peccato judicium; cujus judicii est, quod hoc constat esse peccatum. Tu ergo, Domine, tu ignosce quod peccavi; quia tibi soli peccavi. Quia tamen et in illum peccavi, projiciam me adhuc ad pedes ejus; tu autem inspira ei, ut et ipse ignoscat, quod illum offendi; quanquam sicut tu scis, tunc cum offendere non cogitavi, non volui. Sed ut redeam ad priora; nunquid hic labor meus de jugo Dominico, et non potius de morbo proprio?

Sentio profecto quidquid mihi est tranquillitatis, quidquid pacis, quidquid est jucunditatis, hoc totum mihi hoc suavissimum jugum parturire; quidquid vero laboris, quidquid fatigationis, quidquid denique gravitatis ex reliquiis mundialis concupiscentiae provenire. Sub jugo enim illo, quod infelicissimae cervici meae Babylonis, id est confusionis princeps imposuit, infirmata est virtus mea, contrita sunt ossa mea: et quamvis ex aliqua parte sit soluta captivitas, restat tamen ex antiqua oppressione nonnulla infirmitas: ex qua plerumque turbatur jam aliquantulum expertae suavitatis serenitas, donec ille qui propitiatur omnibus iniquitatibus meis, sanet etiam omnes infirmitates meas, redimensque de interitu vitam meam coronet me in misericordia et miserationibus (Psal. cii): cum corruptibile hoc induerit incorruptelam, et mortale hoc induerit immortalitatem: et impleatur sermo qui scriptus est: Absorpta est mors in victoria (1 Cor. xv). Interim ex jugi hujus suavitate non modica consolatio, et contra inditam infirmitatem nonnulla conflictatio.

Scripture echoes

  1. ↩Exod.20.13 — You shall not murder.
  2. ↩Exod.12.35-Exod.12.36 — And the people of Israel had done as Moses had asked, and they asked the Egyptians for silver vessels, and gold vessels, and clothing. Exod.12.36 — And the LORD gave the people favor in the eyes of the Egyptians, and they let them ask, and they plundered the Egyptians.
  3. ↩Hos.1.2 — When the LORD first spoke through Hosea, the LORD said to Hosea, "Go, take for yourself a wife of whoredom and children of whoredom, for the land commits great whoredom by forsaking the LORD."
  4. ↩Ps.51.4 — Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.
  5. ↩Ps.51.4 — Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.
  6. ↩Ps.51.4 — Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.
  7. ↩Ps.51.4 — Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.
  8. ↩Ps.11.1;Ps.12.1 — To the choirmaster. Of David. In the LORD I take refuge. How can you say to me, ‘Flee like a bird to your mountain’? Ps.12.1 — To the choirmaster: according to The Sheminith. A Psalm of David.
  9. ↩Ps.50.6 — And the heavens declare his righteousness, for God is Judge. Selah
  10. ↩John.8.7 — As they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, 'Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.'
  11. ↩Ps.144.9 — I will sing a new song to you, O God; upon a ten-stringed harp I will play for you.
  12. ↩1Cor.15.54 — But when this perishable puts on imperishability, and this mortal puts on immortality, then the saying that is written will be fulfilled: 'Death has been swallowed up in victory.'

Notes

  1. 1 ↩exsudavit (sweated out) is a vivid metaphor for fully working through grief; rendered literally to preserve the physical concreteness of the Latin.
  2. 2 ↩privatus dominus statim mancipium facit — a proverbial saying rendered with a natural English equivalent structure. The sense is that excessive familiarity breeds presumption or servility.
  3. 3 ↩parturire/provenire: the Latin uses two different verbs for 'bring forth / come forth' — the first applied to the good that the yoke produces, the second to the suffering that flows from disordered desire. The translation preserves this contrast with 'brings forth' and 'comes from' rather than flattening both into a single verb.
  4. 4 ↩The 'prince of Babylon, that is, the prince of confusion' is an allegorical identification: Babylon = confusion (confusio). The text reads Babylonis as a genitive of Babylon and confusionis as an appositive genitive explaining it. The translation preserves the explanatory 'that is' to make the allegory clear.
  5. 5 ↩The closing phrase 'in misericordia et miserationibus' echoes Psalm 144:9 (Vulgate) or similar psalmic language. The psalm reference is incomplete in the source (Psal. cii) — the verse number is cut off. Candidate allusion retained pending Moses resolution.
  6. 6 ↩The quotation 'Absorpta est mors in victoria' is from 1 Corinthians 15:54. The biblical reference is incomplete in the source (1 Cor. xv — verse number cut off). Candidate confirmed as 1 Cor 15:54 pending Moses resolution.
  7. 7 ↩induerit is ambiguous between future perfect indicative ('will have put on') and present subjunctive ('may put on'). The eschatological context favors the future perfect reading, which the translation adopts.
  8. 8 ↩inditam (from indo, rare) rendered as 'inborn' — the sense is that weakness is something we carry from birth, not merely acquired. The translation preserves this nuance rather than rendering it as 'inherent' (which would be more abstract) or 'natural' (which might confuse the theological point).

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