In Genesin Ad Leonem Papam

I have obeyed your commands, following your sweet instructions, O bishop of Christ, which you gave with pious mouth. Would I not sing the praises of such a father, the gift and work of God, while I have a tongue? A hoarse one indeed, grating and unworthy of any buskins, and my talent lies idle: but it pleases me to speak of high things. It is a worthy and just work always to give thanks to you. Almighty creator of the world, by whose beginning all things took up the day and, suddenly arisen after darkness, the lights of heaven stared in wonder: the race of men, and cattle, and wild beasts, and a thousand birds, and the throngs that run through the clear plains, all things through you, from you, who establish the greatest things: born from you, Father; nor is there another father of the father: you are the head of the head, you are the origin of the first spring, the first peak of things, the first sower, establishing all things; yet you do not draw your origin from another: you yourself are the eternal spirit, living through the ages with ancient motion. You will always be, because you always were: not in need of death, you who lack birth and will not know the end of time. He to whom the beginning came from himself does not await another author of chance: a terminus presses upon things that are born. When black chaos covered all things and a high mass pressed down from above the formless body of the world and oppressed it with darkening, late death, and there was neither species nor form, God, you were working within, mingled with the hidden bodies, a secret power, already then arranging the rising walls of the world and the various faces of things and the souls to come. And as a head, you brought forth, having conquered the darkness of night.

Lifting a sublime countenance, the shadows perceived. Soon the lord of things shook off sluggish slumbers, and sluggish matter trembled, struck by the name, and simultaneously stirred, conscious of a ripe birth. The body of the vast heap is split into very many members, and at the same time, seeds mark out places by command. And the confused entrails of the mass descend together. Cut into parts, the pieces, looking for forms, are now nourished within by heat and roused by a gentle fire. And first, the free expanse of the sky, embracing all the spaces of the world, is suspended in a high orb: heavy earth sinks with sluggish weight to the bottom and, fixed upon itself, settled, founded on the brine. So that there might be an open space of an empty region, where the gentle aether, advancing, might nourish mortal things, and where so many gifts of the father's works might be able to go forth, and the things born might be carried through the void with no labor. The diffused waters are gathered: soon the seas are dissolved on a fixed threshold, and the wave does not overstep its limit. Then the nourishing light arises, day, which was ordered to be called, and bathed the nascent world with tender light, revealing your gift and work, your greatest gifts, which the father, with paternal piety, was preparing to store. And so that the skillful life of men might become clear, rejoicing in ethereal arts which draw out all the lights and wearies the mind with diverse praise. Black night follows day, and dense shadows, which bring sleep to bodies, rest to the weary, and one face and similar form to all. For day variously distinguishes the faces of things and gives each its own color when night is scattered; it incites minds, hot for greater works.

sharpening mortal hearts with various cares, so that day is more the form of life, night the image of death. Then the father thickens the sky with stars and distributes the lights, distinguishing the constellations with varied perfected figures. The rosy Lucifer rises, and the evening star, bright of face; Dawn scatters her crimson locks. The Serpent brings fair weather, the Pleiades bring rains. There are the Yoke, there are the Wains. The Crown, glittering with gems, and the twelve signs rolling the year through their forms, and many other ornaments of the lofty house besides. With these signs the world is propped, and the royal palace of the highest father, painted with varied light of stars, gleams. But a greater light belongs to the sun, which the father, with generous gift, deigns to honor fully. That fiery radiance lifts its lofty head; red of mouth, it is borne through the walls of the sky, leader of the stars, vigor of the world and the elements. Behold another wonder, a wondrous beauty: the moon changes its course anew; it gathers the fires it loses, and, extinguishing its horns, it disturbs the light of its face; yet soon it blazes again, completing its circle, and feeds the nocturnal light with its own light to the sown stars. Yet this, which the eternal machine of the ether revolves, is not merely a picture of the sky, nor a lofty will: mind and reason and a useful order for things underlie it. Hence doctrine comes to the lands, hence counsel to all farmers and to those who traverse the deep seas, so that they may know where to go, be able to predict the lights, know the coming rains and the dry fair weather, the time when the plowman leads the bulls into the fields and the sailor, now secure, ventures onto the doubtful sea.

Instructed fires in the sky, best of fathers, you approach to cultivate the lands and with a rich gift you bestow the realms of men and beasts, the hearth and rest of birds. The plains become level, the hills rise in steep swelling. The valleys sink down. The flowering meadows grow green, the rocks harden, the rich soil loosens, springs burst forth, whence the lofty race of rivers has its origin; the varied grasses of the fields spring up. And already the tender crop was pouring forth fruit from the ear, when there were no yokes nor any ploughshare for the plough. No bull bellowed in the furrowed fields. Behold also the vine, already full with the moist cluster, still without experience of the sickle and ignorant of hard iron, was weaving shady bowers of vine-leaves on the high hills. A diverse form of wild beasts arises, four-footed creatures and also creeping things are born on the earth, birds with painted wings through the clouds. When these were perfected, the father, seeing the already rich world, perceives that all things demand the care of a great king, who would govern the sea, the lands, and all that is born, and who would look up at the high sky and praise mightily the great gifts of God, lest these things have been established in vain: then you say, "Let us make man." Tell me, best of fathers, with whom are you speaking? It is clear: even then your Son sits with you on the high throne and looks upon the friendly lands. But you say, "Let us make man, whose face will be our image, and let him proceed into eternity by my hands." Then, maker of things, you take up the soft earth and form the man, from whose rib, desired, woman is made with a face: woman is made from the rib of man.

How much more dear to a husband and fitting for his side is a wife. O happy animal, whose right hand of the highest Thunderer is a father; O too happy one, who derive from Olympus both your lineage and your form; if the vices of the earth do not deceive you nor flattering error undermine you, you will be a divinity and, returned to heaven, you will marvel at the realms which a faithful father promises to the good with his own mouth. For God conferred many things upon you freely at birth: first, an ethereal face and a fatherly countenance, and a straight gait of the feet, a lofty neck, so that there might be no delay for your gazing eyes in reaching heaven; then, swift and ready hands, ministers of life, and the home of divine reason and the seat of high counsel within your breast, the honor of an eloquent voice. These were granted to man alone; for the rest, the mute and the beast, obtained the belly, the innards, the sinews, the channels of the veins and the blood scattered through the body, and the sense of right and left together, and the feeling of pain. But you, Almighty, generous with a private gift, lavishing favor upon man with your own hands and works, cherishing him with the piety of a fatherly pledge, so that nothing may be lacking from divine countenances, you breathe in the fire of the ether and grant a rich portion of the sacred mind, mingled throughout the whole body. Hence it is permitted to remember the ancients, to know the present.

From this is given, and it is lawful for the soul to see what is to come; from this we speak and sing of God. From this all the stars, and the cultivation of the lands thrives, and the sea is stirred; from this come arts and reputation, modesty, prudence, justice; from this arise strong souls; from this proceeds the honorable and the path which leads the chaste to the thresholds of heaven. Therefore, O father, you place the human being, perfected by a full gift, over the things of the world and entrust the reins of things: let him have all things and subject them to himself; let him be in the place of the creator: lord of the earth, your servant, let him possess all things of the world, only let him serve you, the lord. After the first man did not fear to feed on the forbidden tree and, caught by the wiles of the serpent, offered himself, he stands guilty. And naked, with downcast eyes, he begs for a covering and flees his lord and hides his face. Guilt follows as a companion; a life subject to sin weakens the powers, the gifts coming from heaven. The fire sent down from the ether gradually fails. Hearts grow numb and stiffen with the cold of sin: the care of food and of the belly comes, and the care of covering the body. And the sacred enters the mortal breast. From this is born the offspring of sin; from this springs a much worse progeny, and a worse generation follows; by steps they increase to crimes. Crimes which goad and sharpen the demented hearts.

you, Father, arm them with various terrors of their own accord. Then first the winds began to press upon the lands, and unseasonable rain to descend from the clouds; then first thunderbolts were hurled from a clear sky; then dread hail beats upon the troubled fields; the broken ether murmurs with high-sounding thunder. Yet these things do not recall the wicked: impious fury besieges the world, and madness is borne along with loosened reins. Wars and slaughters please, likewise perjuries, frauds; it is pleasing to lie, to steal is love, to conceal thefts: there is no faith among peoples, there is no truth anywhere any longer. The flood washes away the crime of the lands with its waters, and one man remains, the restorer of the race and people, and one, through whom many are reborn, given the light; an ark shelters a few, preserving the seeds of the camps; already then the likeness of the future font was shown, the church preserving the offspring received in faithful birth. After the swelling of the flood subsided, the wave receded, a bird of peace bore a leaf of olive; flying back on dry wings, it gave omens of peace. Then a better people arises, then a purer race of men from the waters, destined to bear great descendants to the lands; from there, the hearts of the priest are given to heaven.

From this point, boys prepared to sing amid the flames, and the boy whom the lions had not touched, though unfed. Then kings sang of God, then the true mouths of prophets resound, shining offspring of heaven upon the earth. Although all things served God, with crime defeated, yet still a drop of ancient poison sprinkled the peoples, and there were traces of deceit, which the good teacher would wash away with better waters.