De Ordine Creaturarum Liber

THE BOOK OF SAINT ISIDORE OF SEVILLE, BISHOP, ON THE ORDER OF CREATURES.

CHAPTER ONE.

On the Faith of the Trinity.

The disposition of the universe must be understood under a twofold scheme: namely, in God and in things, that is, in the Creator and in creatures; not that we place God as a part, or that the Creator can be equated with a creature, but because everything that exists is understood either as made or unmade, either as powerful or as subject, either as eternal or as temporal. What is made, then, and subject, and temporal, is itself the creature. But what is unmade, and powerful, and eternal, is God himself.

The holy Trinity, indeed—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—is through all rights inseparable in substance, that is, one divinity, and in the subsistence of persons an unjoined Trinity, in which nothing is lower, nothing higher, nothing earlier, nothing later. In the nature of divinity it must be believed that there is nothing servile, nothing subject, nothing comprehensible by place, nothing temporal, nothing weak, nothing that grows, nothing pertaining to sex or bearing, nothing corporeal may be sensed; but there is one God without beginning, everlasting without place, everywhere wholly present, disposing all things mutable without change of himself; beholding alike times past, present, and future; to whom nothing is past, nothing remains, but all things are present.

To whom nothing that is good is displeasing, and nothing that is evil is pleasing; by whom nothing naturally evil has been created, since evil is of itself nothing but the corruption of a created good. Good therefore without quality, great without quantity, eternal without time, most excellent without place, who is poured into all creatures though there is no place for him; whom no creature contains, no intelligence comprehends.

God, one Almighty, the holy Trinity, Father and Son and Holy Spirit. The Father, then, is God Almighty, who derives his origin from no one, and is himself the origin of divinity, from whom the Son is God Almighty, begotten without time; not indeed created, because he is God, to whom, besides that he is Son, all things are common with the Father in divinity, in eternity, in will, in power, in wisdom. So too to the Father, besides that he is Father, all things of the Son are common.

The Holy Spirit is God Almighty, and is not begotten, because he is not the Son; nor does he create, because he is not a creature, but proceeds from the Father and the Son. Besides the fact that he is the Holy Spirit, all things are common to him with the Father and the Son, because he who is the Father is not the Son or the Holy Spirit in person; nor is he who is the Son the Father or the Holy Spirit here; nor is he who is the Holy Spirit the Father or the Son here; but in essence, what the Father is, the Son and the Holy Spirit are this one thing; and what the Son is, the Father and the Holy Spirit are this; and what the Holy Spirit is, the Father and the Son are this. But in that Trinity there is not a threefold number of gods; for with the distinction of persons preserved, the whole of the divinity is common.

The Son received human flesh in time, which is free from vice; he had the nature of humanity, having a prudent, intellectual, and wise soul, except for the divine nature, so that the humanity might be complete; which the Son, who is of God the Father without time, therefore assumed, so that he who in divinity was the Son of God might in humanity be the same as the Son of man. By this humanity he was born of the Holy Spirit and of Mary ever Virgin; not because he is to be believed to be the Son of the Holy Spirit as also of Mary, but because he was conceived by the power and work of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin.

He bore the passion of the cross in the flesh, not in his divinity; he endured death for the redemption and salvation of the world; for the space of three days he was laid in the tomb, and by divine power he rose again in the same flesh; and after he had instructed the one, holy, catholic Church by his word, strengthened it by his example, confirmed it by his grace, and fortified it by his peace, having taken up the whole of human nature, except that whereby it is subject to corruption, returning to the Father, from whom he was never absent, he sits at the right hand of the Father, from whence he will come in the glory of the Father to all men who rise again for the judgment of the living and the dead, and will render eternal punishments to the wicked and eternal rewards to the just.

This is the catholic faith; to believe and confess it profits more than to dispute it. Neither secular prudence nor worldly philosophy, following rather the images of things than the understanding of truth, could recognize it, but the apostolic faith handed it down, and ecclesiastical vigilance guards it.

CHAPTER II.

On the spiritual creation

Having therefore premised this brief account concerning the immensity of the Creator, let us look for a little while upon the order of created things. In this we follow not the invention of our own intention, which is nothing in itself, but the footsteps of Holy Scripture and of the greater expositors, even by some slight relation. Every creature, then, is either spiritual or corporeal. But since creation consists in intellectual spirits, which are not held by flesh, and in the souls of men, which are enclosed by flesh, we must first speak of the distinct grades of the spirits above, whose graces or differences of ministries are comprehended in the divine Scriptures as nine: namely, seraphim, and cherubim, thrones, dominions, principalities, powers, virtues, archangels, angels.

For Isaiah saw the seraphim standing above the lofty throne of the Lord, and heard them sing, and when one of them was sent to him, he was counted worthy to be cleansed from the pollution of his mouth. But the cherubim, in the oracle of testimony, figured the propitiatory and covered the ark, and in the temple of the Lord they were depicted by Solomon together with oxen and lions. Ezekiel also describes that he saw in the visions of God a chariot, which he mystically joins by a fourfold figure to the four signs of the Scripture of both Testaments. But writing to the Colossians, the apostle Paul mentions thrones, and dominions, and principalities, and powers: Whether thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers (Col. 1:16).

He also recounts the powers in his letter to the Ephesians, saying: Far above all principality, and power, and virtue, and dominion. Moreover, the meadows of the divine volumes are filled with the displays and names of the archangels and angels.

The nine precious stones shown by Ezekiel also signify the nine orders of the heavenly citizens. There, under the figure of the prince of Tyre, the prophet directs his lamentation over that highest angel who fell, where it is said: Every precious stone was your covering: the sardius, topaz, jasper, chrysolite, onyx, beryl, sapphire, carbuncle, and emerald. He is said to have been covered by these nine stones because he was adorned with the nine orders of spiritual offices over which he presided.

Therefore, just as we have spoken of their number, so let us also reveal something of the distinct ranks of their offices. The Seraphim, then, that is, the burning or the kindling ones, are so called because they burn with love of God more than every rational creature, by a certain special bestowal of the divine gift; and the more they excel all creatures, the more they draw near to the Creator by the privilege of divine charity, and they stand sublimely established in such honor of exaltedness that between themselves and the Lord there are no other spirits.

Second also in order, the cherubim are numbered among the heavenly citizens; the name of this order is interpreted as a multitude of knowledge. When their understanding is refreshed by clinging closely to the contemplation of God, it is enlarged by a multitude of knowledge more than all intellectual creatures that lie beneath them. For those who gaze more keenly into the mirror of divine clarity, how can the hidden secrets of creatures be concealed from them?

Third also in order, the ranks of the thrones are established among the intellectual spirits; they are interpreted as seats. For when the Lord sits upon them by a special gift, through them he exercises his justice in all creatures terribly and wonderfully. Hence it is said through the Psalmist: You sat upon the throne, who judge justice. And in the Revelation of John the angel says: And he who sits upon the throne will defend them.

Fourth also in the grade of heavenly offices stand the dominions, which excel the ministries of the five grades written below them by their high pre-eminence; and by as much as they are set before the others in the greatness of their power, by so much is the subjection of the rest shown to them through obedience.

Thereafter, after those, in the fifth order of the heavenly citizens, they are called principalities; and since the principate over these good spirits is committed to them, they hold principate for fulfilling the ministries of God which those subject to them ought to perform.

In the sixth rank also among the good spirits, the powers are ordered, who have received by the gift of the Lord to be set over diverse powers; by their power they restrain the wickedness of malignant spirits, lest, if they were permitted more than is fitting, they should dare to exercise savagery or cling to human senses.

The seventh grade of spiritual ministrations is named the virtues, through whom the spirits often work virtues and signs and wonders among men.

The eighth order is the archangels, that is, they are called the highest messengers, through whom the greater things are announced to men; and by how much they excel the angels in the height of their order, by so much, at the command of the Lord, do they carry the more exalted things to the knowledge of men.

The ninth order of the heavenly servants is named angels, who announce and persuade to men whatever is lesser and common according to the will of God.

Furthermore, it must be known concerning these that whenever they are named, they took their names from the property of their offices, when they come to men; for that highest society of the heavenly citizens does not need proper names. Hence Michael is said, that is, Who is like God? because at the end he is destined to be sent against him who will raise himself against God. And Gabriel, that is, the strength of God, is written to have been sent to Zachariah and to the virgin Mary, so that he who had foretold that what nature denied would come to be might be called the strength of God.

To Tobias also Raphael, that is, the medicine of God, is sent; for surely he who was bearing salvation by divine power is not incongruously called the medicine of God. And what is in individuals can also be in the ranks, so that when one performs the office of another, he is also reckoned by that one's name, as it is said: Who makest thy angels spirits (Ps. 104:4); that is, when thou wilt, thou makest all these angels, that is, messengers, spirits. And sometimes from the proximity of other ranks, some assume the offices of ranks; just as from the proximity of the thrones the Scriptures also say that the Lord sits above the cherubim; as it is also written in the psalm: Who sittest above the cherubim, be manifest before Ephraim (Ps. 80:2).

But in that heavenly fellowship, whatever is held specially by any one is possessed by all in common, because each one is no less refreshed by what he sees in another than by what he possesses in himself; and when they are sent, God, by whom they are refreshed, is never absent from their contemplation; not that those spirits who are sent can be everywhere at once, but that the Lord, who is everywhere, is always seen by those who run to and fro, in every place, without any change in himself. Whence it is written: Thousands of thousands ministered to him, and ten hundred thousand stood before him (Dan. 7:10).

For the heavenly powers do both things alike, because they both minister, when they are sent, and stand before him, when they contemplate. But sometimes the angels who are sent announce to those men to whom they come by themselves, and sometimes they appoint others, as it were subjects, through themselves for the office of announcing, as is read written in Daniel: Gabriel, make this man understand the word (Dan. 8:16), which is undoubtedly said by someone as though by a superior.

CHAPTER III.

Concerning the waters that are above the firmament.

But since we have undertaken a discourse on the order of created things, which the content of your proposal had encompassed, after the spiritual creature, of which we have discoursed briefly, we shall attempt to set forth concerning the waters that are above the firmament what the intention of the authors could have devised. For when on the first day in the beginning light had been made, which is recognized to have been made the spiritual creature, on the second day the firmament, which divides between the waters that are above the firmament and the waters that are beneath the firmament, Scripture testifies to have been made; from which it is understood that those waters which are above the firmament are, by local space, higher than every corporeal creature.

For although in the one hundred forty-eighth psalm, after the firmament, and the sun, and the moon, and the stars, those waters which are placed above the heavens are found, yet in order to show that they are higher than all corporeal creatures, again recapitulating, as it were, the dwellings of the exalted virtues, the Psalmist places the heavens before these, saying: Praise him, ye heavens of heavens; and ye waters that are above the heavens, praise the name of the Lord (Ps. CXLVIII, 4).

Hence it is shown that after those spiritual spaces, whatever they are, where the spiritual orders, as we have said, dwell—which the prophet calls the heavens of heavens—those waters were established before this visible heaven, as the beginning, so to speak, of corporeal things. Yet, lest anyone join them to the spiritual creature, he placed them after the heavens of heavens, before he spoke of the earth, adding a little later: Praise the Lord from the earth, you dragons, and all you deeps (Ibid., 7).

Behold, the Psalmist says that these waters are placed above the heavens, and yet he sets the heavens of heavens before them. By this it is shown that they are placed between the two kinds of heavens, that is, lower than the spiritual heavens and higher than the corporeal heavens; yet they must be said to belong to corporeal creatures, since in the work of the second day they were made and stand above this corporeal firmament.

But what benefit they perform there for the uses of corporeal things is investigated by the teachers with a twofold intent. For some say that they were reserved by God's foreknowledge for the destruction of the circle of the earth in the flood that took place under Noah (as the history of Genesis narrates), just as Scripture says: And the floodgates of heaven were opened, and rain fell for forty days and forty nights (Gen. 7:11).

But since both the clouds, from whose rains the showers water the fertility of the earthly soil, and also the air, in which all the hemispheres and breezes are swept along, are often reckoned under the name of "heavens" in the divine Scriptures—as it is said: And he rained manna upon them to eat; and he gave them the bread of heaven (Ps. 77:24); and in another place: And the heavens shall give rain, and the earth shall give its fruit (Ps. 66:7)—it pleases certain teachers that the abundance of such great waters poured forth and spread from that lower heaven of the clouds, so that according to that custom which is observed through all time, even then the clouds poured out a supply of rains, in which nonetheless the Scripture records that the cataracts were opened, because a pouring forth of waters had been sent in greater measure than usual. But others assert that these same waters were placed above the firmament for this reason: that they might temper the fiery heat which burns in the luminaries and stars, lest they scorch the lower spaces with heat more than is sufficient.

CHAPTER IV.

Concerning the firmament of heaven.

After those waters, in the second place in the order of corporeal creatures, appears the firmament, which was made on the second day, as we said above, and divides the waters from one another; concerning whose state also—whether it covers the earth from above like a disc, or encircles the whole enclosed creation on every side like the shell of an egg—there are not lacking thinkers of both opinions.

For even that which the Psalmist recalls concerning this, when he says: You stretch out the heaven like a skin (Ps. CIII, 22), does not contradict the assertions of either opinion, since when an animal's own skin clothes its flesh, it surrounds all its members equally on every side; but when it is drawn out separately from the flesh, there is no doubt that it can make either a straight or a curved vault.

Whether, therefore, it covers the earth from above like an extended skin, a tabernacle, or whether, as an animal's limbs are covered by its hide, the firmament encircles the mass of the world on every side, it not difficultly lends support to either assertion.

Concerning the situation of this firmament also, whether it is empty and penetrable or solid and firm, various authors have put forward their own estimations, as though something were leading them to these views. I shall take care to set down their opinions rather than their names. For those of them who prefer to hold that the firmament was made empty and penetrable bring forward the natures of all the elements in confirmation of their opinion.

For they show no less than they say that earth is the heaviest of all corporeal creatures; and they say that it therefore holds the lowest place among creation because no nature is able to sustain itself unless it is something. But water, by as much as we see it lighter than earth, by so much do we perceive it to be heavier than air. For air is not able to subsist beneath water by itself, but to its own spaces, even if it has been drawn away somewhere by some force of necessity, it immediately escapes.

The nature of fire, too, is perceived to be above air; which we easily prove also in that fire which burns in earthly matter, since as soon as it has been kindled, it directs its flame to the higher spaces which are above the air, where its abundance and place are, but, extinguished by the surrounding of thicker air, it quickly vanishes into soft air, so that it cannot reach the place of its own nature. In this, however, it is shown that the nature of fire, which ascends, is lighter than air; just as the nature of water, which descends, is shown to be heavier.

By this same reckoning, then, they also suppose that the space of the firmament which is above the fire is lighter and thinner, because it is established as higher than all the natures we have mentioned above. And in this space they further judge that the light of the shining stars is unequal for this reason, that in that space so vast, some of them run farther off and others nearer; but those who regard this opinion with less favor say that above that space, thinner and more void and more penetrable than air and fire, waters cannot possibly exist; but perhaps, as those whom we mentioned above say, they consist there, being thinner and subtler than all corporeality.

To these others in turn reply: What vaporality of waters, however thin, was ever lighter than the firmament? For this reason, then, those others more readily suppose that the firmament consists solidly and firmly, as though poured out of the most solid air; and therefore they think it is called the firmament because it encloses within itself all the spaces we have mentioned, both the solid and the void, both the light and the heavy, and sustains above itself the waters, whatever sort they are. But since among such great men there has been disagreement concerning so great a matter, we judge that no one's estimation is to be preferred to another's, but we send the reader to these as arbiters of both sides.

CHAPTER V.

Concerning the sun and the moon.

Since, however, in the firmament of heaven — albeit after the fashion of the sea and the earth — two great lights were formed, at the beginning of Genesis the Mosaic law, or rather the divine Scripture, declares; it is not unfitting, if, descending from on high, our discourse in the local order of created things describes the sun and the moon immediately after the firmament — yet in such a way that in the order of creation, after the earth and the sea, the mind places these two lights and the stars together with the words of Scripture, although the catholic faith believes by faithful reasoning that all the elements were made without time.

The sun, then, and the moon are the two lights established in the firmament of heaven. One, which is the greater, to preside over the day; the second, which is the lesser, was appointed to preside over the night. But they did not possess that same light of their splendor which they had when they were created in the beginning; rather, throughout the whole time of their ministry, they preserve it by the courses of days and nights.

For when these things had been destined by God the Creator to minister to human uses, while men lived blamelessly and persevered under the law of the Creator by which they had been made, they also ministered adorned with the fullness of their own light; but when men, to whose service these lights were first joined and shone, were cast down because of transgression and lost the blessedness of paradise, these same lights also, though not through their own fault, endured the loss of their light not without their own grief, as the apostle Paul testifies, saying: For every creature groans together and travails until now (Rom. 8:22).

But because through the Redeemer's advent a restoration of the former blessedness, and better, is promised to the human race, it is not doubted that the creation too will receive its ancient beauty. Whence the prophet Isaiah, enlightened by spiritual understanding, speaks specifically of the sun and the moon, saying: And it shall be in that day, when the tower shall fall, that the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold, as the light of seven days, when the Lord shall bind up the wound of his people and shall heal the stroke of their plague (Isa. 30:26).

When the new heaven and new earth have been made, and the former things that serve corruption are no more in memory, and the Lord has healed the wound of sin and the stroke of the plague of death in the bodies of the resurrected, and the proud spirits have been cast down from the dominion they had seized, then the light of the moon will be changed into the light of the sun, and the light of the sun will be restored to the light of seven days, in which it was created—that is, it will be restored to its sevenfold light. For nothing is restored except what has been lost or corrupted; therefore what the sun and the moon have lost, this they will receive again.

From this it is clear that the luminaries now retain a seventh part of their light, which they will recover sevenfold, when through Habakkuk the Holy Spirit, setting past things in place of future things, says: The sun will be lifted up in its rising, and the moon will stand in its order. For when the mutability of the human condition, to which they minister, has ceased, the mutability of their course will also cease. For what he says, The sun in its rising, indicates that it will never decline in its setting; and in what is said, The moon will stand in its order, he implies that it will not suffer the changes of its increase and decrease, but will always stand in its own order.

But this will be when, as the Apostle says, the creation itself will be freed from the slavery of corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God (Rom. 8:21). For when the saints, in return for the labor with which they have served God, have been changed and have shone like the sun of righteousness, whose health is everlasting, then this bodily sun too, in return for its service by which it is subject to the slavery of corruption, will be restored to a sevenfold radiance of brightness.

In the meantime, however, by the daily motions of its service, as often as the moon follows the sun, it increases the growth of its light; but as often as it goes before the sun, it suffers loss of its splendor. Concerning the state of the moon, indeed, opinions have varied: whether it is a sphere, half of it dark and gloomy and the other half bright and white, and thus its waxing and waning are brought about, so that when little by little its bright part is shown, in the same way the dark part is then hidden, and likewise when the bright part is turned away, the dark part is again made manifest.

Whether it is also round, illuminated by the rays of the sun, which at whatever time it approaches the sun, whether before or after, shines as it were on its face with the light of a ray; but when it seems to recede farther and farther, its light is gradually increased more and more from the splendor of the sun, so that when it has come to stand fully opposite the sun face to face in a perfectly matched orb, it can then fully possess in itself the image of the sun.

But to discuss the courses of the sun and moon belongs neither to this time nor indeed to this place, which I therefore pursue somewhat negligently in this little work, because both its brief compass does not allow it, and they have been turned to the use of almost all readers for the sake of calculating the days of festivals.

But some think that these instruments of light are sensible creatures, yet what we say is more commonly maintained by catholic authors in these ambiguous estimations of opinions. It must be considered which view the authority of the holy Scriptures more supports; although this too must be examined, namely what the multitude of catholics has brought into belief; but the diverse estimations, which have been asserted by catholics on both sides, and to which the words of the sacred canon are not contrary on either side, so that they run equally to both, these must be left in ambiguity to the judgment of readers.

CHAPTER VI

On the Higher Space, and the Paradise of Heaven.

Having spoken of the firmament and the luminaries, there follows the vast empty space which is drawn down from the firmament of heaven all the way to the earth, and it is explained by several writers that it is divided into two spaces; but the higher space is said to belong to heaven, while the lower is undoubtedly joined to the lands.

For indeed the lofty space which we said belongs to heaven is most pure and most subtle, and it has no swelling of clouds, nor inflations of winds, nor damp gatherings of rains or showers, nor cold coagulations of snows or hailstones, nor changes of air, nor crashes of tempests and thunders; nor indeed does it have the air itself, which would have been able to sustain the bodies of flying birds and the denser mass of the air itself belonging to the clouds, and which refreshes the lives of various living things by the reciprocal breathing of airy spirit and animates them by its breath, nor does it in any way have any disturbances whatsoever of the diverse hemispheres.

Just as the highest peaks of the mountain Olympus are proved to be the highest of the earth, and for that reason unknown to the other men who climb them, and it is reported by the account of those who, wrapping sponges moistened with vinegar over mouth and nostrils to preserve the inflation and breathing of the airy spirit, ascend with yearly regularity (led by some superstition, I know not what); and they confirm that there they have seen neither any bird, nor cloud, nor rain, nor any wind, and when the offices of the sacrifices for the sake of which they go have been completed, they return after imprinting certain signs and marks in the sands, which even there, ascending again after a year, they find unharmed and untouched.

From this it is clearly shown that nothing of disturbed air persists there, especially since in that same place nothing that pertains to the power of herbs or of shrubs can be found or seen. But nevertheless it must not be thought that this is that most pure and most subtle supernal space of which we spoke above, to which no earth pertains or can approach, but this place belongs to the outermost parts of this lower space and to the neighboring confines of that higher one. In which place, however, the life of those who are clothed in flesh can by no means dwell.

It is evident that that higher, most pure and most tranquil space, of which we discoursed a little before, was not prepared as a dwelling for fleshly beings, nor for the uses of mortal things. Wherefore very many of the catholic authors assert that this space was originally destined to be inhabited by the angels who fell with their prince, since they judge that none of the heavenly angels fell from above, but that the heavenly ones, as long as they were in angelic blessedness—in which, however, they did not remain for a time.

For, as Scripture says, the devil himself is a liar from the beginning (John 8:44), and did not stand in the truth (1 John 3:8); they think that by lot he received this place of habitation, which Scripture declares to be the heavenly paradise, which, under the person of the prince of Cyrus, speaks thus to that highest apostate angel: You were perfect in beauty in the delights of the paradise of God (Ezekiel 28:13).

For just as men, after their sin, cast down from the felicity of the earthly paradise, were thrust in a plague-like manner into a dwelling-place in this earth subject to the curse, so that where they sinned on earth, they might afterward live under the penalty of their offense in the dwelling of a worse earth, so also the angels who are thought to have sinned in the aerial space—indeed, even in the purer part of that same air—are believed to have been hurled down into a lower place, darker and more turbulent even than this air, and to live wretchedly and unhappily, away from the seat of the supernal and pure air and of their own most blessed dignity, in expectation of the future judgment, in which they will be more harshly condemned; so that, while they have aerial bodies and now dwell in the air, they may not unreasonably be thought to have formerly held even the earlier seat of their blessedness in the air—but in a purer and subtler air.

Yet that place, since it belongs to the heaven of the firmament, as I said before, is designated by the name of heaven, as the Lord himself declares, saying: I saw Satan falling like lightning from heaven (Luke 10:18). For by the merit of his sin he was cast down from the clear and pure blessedness of that place, and was assigned to the unhappy and wretched dwelling of a lower space, that is, of the cloudy and frosty air; as the apostle Paul testifies, saying: Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities and powers of this air, against the rulers of this world of darkness (Eph. 6:12).

The same Paul declares that Christ triumphed in himself over these spiritual wickednesses in the heavenly places.

Therefore, when the malignant spirits with their prince the devil had been cast out of that most limpid dwelling-place of the sub-celestial spaces which we mentioned before, and afterward the human race had been redeemed from the sin of Adam and from each one's own transgression through the coming of the Mediator, certain thinkers suppose that the same place is meanwhile a place of rest for holy souls while they await the future resurrection; and they hold that it is this place which is called the heavenly paradise, of which the Lord had answered the thief confessing on the cross: Amen I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise (Luke 23:43).

Nay rather, souls stripped of their bodies have no need of that paradise planted with trees and excelling in its shining fountain; nay rather, the spiritual man, freed from the body of death, does not possess carnal use, nor does he have need to be refreshed by the fruit-bearing trees of an earthly paradise; for the eternal does not use temporal things, but contemplates things eternal and spiritual.

We have touched on these matters for the minds of those who are not confirming but estimating, especially since we do not attribute to ourselves even the perspicacity of estimating such things. For when necessity demands it, we shall be able to bring into the open the authors of all these reckonings, to whom either faith or doubt may be ascribed; we labor at reporting their opinions rather than defending them, for we are prepared to submit in concord to the assertion of some other, better view, if one be present, which either the examples of Scripture or the estimations of the wise among catholics have supported more. But having explained these matters of the upper space as best we can, let us hasten to what follows.

CHAPTER VII.

On the lower space, and the different hemispheres.

Next, the lower space is called air, which we have said is joined to the earth, and by which we prove both in ourselves and through ourselves that the life of all flesh which moves in the air upon the earth is aided and sustained. This same air is sometimes even called by the name of earth in the Scriptures; as it is said through the Psalmist, when in praise of the Lord the creator all creation is stirred in the highest order, and when, these things which pertain to the higher order of the heavens being completed, one comes to these spaces of the air, it is thus subjoined: Praise the Lord from the earth, ye dragons, and all ye deeps; fire, hail, snow, ice, stormy winds, which do his word (Psal. CXLVIII, 7).

For up to this point our discourse has concerned the air, which is often called by the name "earth"; hereafter indeed, by the words of Scripture, we are directed to treat of the soil and the natures of the lower earth: Mountains, and all hills; fruitful trees, and all cedars (Ps. 148:9). The air therefore often receives the name "earth" for this reason, that by the thickness and, as it were, solidity which it possesses in itself, the bodies of flying birds, even the largest, are supported, which, like fish, penetrate in swimming the almost watery depths of the sea's waves hidden within, so birds in flying pass through the airy spaces.

For whatever water provides for the preservation of life to aquatic creatures, this the air does for flying creatures, since just as by the reciprocal breathing of birds, and of all things that live in air and on earth, life is nourished and preserved, so for those that dwell in the waters, by the drawing in and letting out of breath through the water, the vital motion is restored.

Hence when they are drawn into the air, because they do not have the breathing of lungs, they quickly fail; just as those also that live in the air, when the air is shut off from them, cannot live any longer. But just as, as I said, the bodies of flying creatures are supported by the solidity of the air, so that same air, by the earthly thickness which it has in itself—for which reason it also often receives the name "earth"—sustains the swollen mass of the clouds, and through that solidity the thickness of the air brings forth snows, and hail, and storms, with the force of cold striving to accomplish it, when it is so brought about.

For this space of air has, implanted in its own nature, the property of drawing up and gathering, by a smoky lightness, the vapors of waters from the earth and from the surface of the sea; and lifting these on high, when they are formed into the minutest drops, with the clouds gathered together into themselves, the air itself holds them suspended by its own power. But when, with the wind stirring them, those little drops coalesce into larger drops, since the nature of the air can no longer bear them, the showers fall down rain-like upon the earth.

If, however, the same drops which we mentioned above, gathered together by the wind into somewhat larger masses, are seized by frost in the clouds before they rain down, the violence of the cold congeals them into hardened little stones. But if the cold, that is the frost, comes upon those vapors while they are still somewhat looser and not yet thickened into drops, the great force of the cold transforms them into the appearance of snow; and what the cloud, suspended on high, has thus nourished within itself, since the air cannot sustain it and the wind scatters it, it sends down to the earth.

As the Psalmist also, recalling this same matter, says of the Lord: Who gives snow like wool, he scatters mist like ashes. He sends forth his crystal like morsels of bread; before the face of his cold who shall endure? And to show that snows, whether on earth or in the clouds, are accustomed to be resolved again into waters, a little later he adds, saying: He shall send forth his word, and shall melt them; his spirit shall blow, and the waters shall flow.

But that it may be clear that the waters themselves are suspended in the clouds in this manner, it is seen written in the book of holy Job: Who suspends the waters in his clouds, that they may not burst forth together downward. Yet the air sends down to the earth and to the sea those waters which it had previously drawn up from those same lower parts. And although the rain-bearing conception has drawn them from the salt expanse of the sea, through the air it becomes sweet. Just as when salt water from the deep is drawn up and poured through the soil of the earth (as is the frequent custom of sailors), it is immediately changed into the taste of sweet water. But by the changing of the air, by the winds, and by their more violent stirring, even fires and thunderings, by hidden commands through the angels, by whom the visible world is governed, as also all other things, the Creator makes.

Some, however, direct their attention to the effect of thunder, namely that since around the air there are the spaces of two elements, that is, of fire and water—one above, as we have said, and one below—and yet the nature of the air draws both into itself, that is, water vaporously from below and fire by its heat from above, these two elements, being contrary to each other, clash.

For it is impossible for thunder to be stirred up without moist clouds and flashes of lightning, as is plainly evident to the eyes of those who observe; in this conflict of fire and water, confused sounds and horrible crashes are aroused; and if fire is the victor, it harms the fruits of the earth and of trees not a little; but if water conquers, it does not lose its fruit-bearing power, both in trees and in those things which are born in the various kinds of vegetables.

For thunder sounds especially at that time when the fruits of trees and lands are still in their showing forth, before they begin to ripen. For by creatures the increase or decrease of other creatures is governed by the command of the Lord Creator.

CHAPTER VIII.

On the devil and the nature of demons.

But in this turbulent and cloudy dwelling of this air, the angels cast down from the sublime happiness, as we have said, abide with their prince. But that prince is called Satan and the devil, while the rest, the spirits of that same prince, his ministers, who formerly were angels, are now called demons. For just as their merits changed, so too their names and their places changed; yet even now in the Scriptures they are often called angels by their ancient name, because these are messengers of iniquity, just as the good spirits are messengers of righteousness.

As is read written in the Gospel: Which my Father hath prepared for the devil and his angels (Matt. 25:41). And the Apostle says: There was given to me a thorn in my flesh, an angel of Satan, to buffet me (2 Cor. 12:7). But even these seats they possess in the meantime, until the time of judgment, in expectation of the terrible coming of the Lord, not without fear and trembling, though fruitless; as the apostolic words declare, in which it is said: For even the demons believe, and tremble (James 2:19). And that it may be manifest that it is in expectation of the time in which they shall be more harshly judged, or rather destroyed, that these unclean spirits inhabit this region of the air, who in the presence of the Savior cried out: What have we to do with thee, Jesus, Son of God? Art thou come hither to destroy us before the time (Luke 4:34)?

For at the coming of the eternal judge (when the common prayer of all the saints is to be fulfilled, saying: Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven), the unprofitable servants will be cast out into outer darkness, when the Lord will expel from heaven His adversaries, as He repelled them with the hook, for whom the punishment of eternal fire (as the Lord Himself testifies) has been irremediably prepared by the Father.

And they deserve to receive neither remission nor redemption for this reason: because they fell from the most exalted state of their order, and therefore they had nothing else to which they might again be called, their sin being dismissed, since they defiled all their blessedness, in which they were established, by the transgression of the natural good that they were, and of the Lord's law under which they were created; on account of which they neither desire to repent, nor even, if they had repented, could they receive pardon at all.

For the human race has deserved to receive redemption from its Creator for this reason: because it fell from the lower grade of its own order; for, while it was still placed in the earthly paradise, destined for the function of generation and appointed for the eating of foods, it would receive a better, more sublime, and spiritual life without death, if man, for as long as he was placed in this condition, had remained in the keeping of the commandment.

The clemency of the Creator therefore recalls to that winged state, to which the sinner had not yet attained, through the passion of the Lord; and had he fallen from it, like an angel, he would never be recalled again, since the restoration will be made not to that degree or order from which the first man fell, but to another, more exalted one, which he hoped for, the Lord saying: They shall be as the angels in heaven. Namely, because not as men in paradise; for into that mortality, which was for a time appointed for begetting offspring and for eating food, men, though redeemed, will not be able to return; but rising after death in spiritual bodies, not growing, not aging, not dying, they will be partakers of angelic felicity.

But if the time of the devil's transgression is sought, it is originally understood that the devil's sin was before the time of visible things; for Scripture teaches that all things that were made were made at once and without time, which says: He who lives forever created all things at once. Among all these, it is doubted by no means that that eternal infernal fire, of which the Lord says: Go into the eternal fire, which my Father prepared for the devil and his angels, was also made at once. For in that which it says, He created all things at once, it left nothing unmade among all creatures.

For whom, then, in that condition of creatures was a prison prepared? His sin originally preceded those creatures themselves; for the Lord would by no means have prepared a punishment for an innocent being, unless that one's offense had preceded the punishment prepared. But indeed he did this without time, who made the punishment of his damnation, by which the fugitive servant would be tormented.

But this angel, when he withdrew from the blessedness of the Creator, lost entirely every good of his nature that he had in his creation; but though evil to himself, he ever remains good to God, in that he obeys the Lord's command obediently, though not of his own will, yet on account of God's power. For out of all the good of nature that he had, he now has only this, that he obeys the God and Creator in all things commanded.

But this good is not good in the devil and his ministers, who obey for this reason, that they cannot not obey; but this obedience of theirs is good in God, whose good will indeed the evil will of the devil, unwilling though it be, cannot resist when it is commanded to do good. But it very often happens that when something is commanded to be done by God's good will, his own evil will is fed upon in that very same work.

Just as, when he was sent by the Lord to deceive Achab, that most impious king—an idolater, that is, and a persecutor of the prophets—and was asked by what means he would deceive him, he not only offered himself willingly for this task, but even indicated by what plan he would accomplish it, and answered: I will go, and I will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets. And the Lord says: Go, and do so, and you shall deceive Achab (2 Chronicles 18:21).

For it was most fitting that he who had put the true prophets of the Lord to death should himself perish, seduced and deceived by the false utterances of false prophets. Behold, the devil most readily, by his own evil will, swiftly offered himself for this office of deceiving the impious man, but unless he had been permitted by the Lord, he could not have done it; in this matter the good will of God carried out the just vengeance of the holy prophets, but the evil minister fed his own evil will in the destruction of the impious and sinful man.

But neither among men nor among the things that are subject to men is he able to do anything without God's permission, as the evangelical truth declares, where it is related: If you cast us out, send us into the herd of swine (Matthew 8:31). For just as he could not remain in those men from whom he was being cast out against the Lord's command, so too he showed that he could not enter into the swine without His permission.

This is likewise made manifest in the blessed Job and in the things he possessed and lost. In these it is proved that the wickedness of the enemy accomplished nothing without the Creator's permission, as it is said: Have you not fenced him in, and his house, and all his substance? (Job 1:10). And when his substance was permitted by the Lord to the power of the malignant enemy, it is thus added: Behold, all that he has is in your hand; nevertheless, do not stretch out your hand against him (Job 1:12). And Job, perceiving this, when he learned of the losses of his possessions, answered thus: The Lord gave, the Lord has taken away. As He willed, the Lord has done: blessed be the name of the Lord (Job 1:21).

He did not say, "The Lord gave, the devil took away"; for he knew most certainly that without God's permission the adversary can do nothing at all in things or among men. But often, as I have said, in that same ministry both the depraved will of his adversary feeds itself, and the benevolence of the Lord is administered, either by the dispensation of just vengeance or of fruitful testing; under which twofold distribution of good and evil will, they both slay the wicked through vengeance and prove the good through temptations.

For to this end their punishment is deferred by the Lord—as long as they still fly freely in this air—until the time of the final judgment, so that the wicked among men, their partners in both crime and punishment, may appear, and the good may become manifest as proven through the tribulations inflicted on them by these.

But truly the wicked and impure spirits, wandering and subtle, are passible in mind, and clothed in airy bodies, they never grow old; and when they exercise hostilities against men, they swell with pride. Deceitful and cunning in fraud, they stir up the senses of men, and bringing terror upon mortals, they disturb life with restless dreams, and diseases, and distortion of limbs, licking up portents and oracles, and governing fate, they pour the desire of illicit love and cravings into human hearts; and lying about things that resemble the truth, they transform themselves even into the appearance and light of good angels.

And just as in wickedness, so too they differ in the ranks of their powers. And just as now the good spirits, that is, the perfect angels, pass through the air without suffering, so these also, had they not sinned, would possess those places which they now occupy in a state of suffering; and if they lived happily and blessedly, they would hold these same places subject to themselves.

And they also, when they utter their names, assume for themselves names from the offices of wickedness and from their powers, just as when the adversary was asked by the Lord concerning his name in the region of the Gerasenes, answering, he said: "My name is Legion, because we are many" (Mark 5:9). Whence it is manifest that he brought forth not the name of a proper name, which he did not have, but the designation of his rank and power; and to the Lord asking, because he could not speak otherwise, he indicated concerning himself what was true.

CHAPTER IX.

On the nature of the waters and the course of the Ocean.

After the spaces of the air with their inhabitants have been run through, now the intention is directed to the element of water, which is established between the air and the earth: whose gathering, as the Scripture of Genesis declares, is called the sea, when it is said: "And the gatherings of waters he called seas" (Gen. 1:10). The part of these which is poured out among the lands through springs, and rivers, and pools has sweetness, so that it might provide drink for thirsty animals, and comforts for other uses, and might irrigate the earth more fruitfully for nourishing fruits.

For this reason also the rains, which are sifted from the clouds and flow down through the air, become savory, so that they may more aptly serve the fruitful power and quench thirst, as we said before. But that unaltered part of the waters which is spread out through great expanses of the earth, and whose boundaries are hidden, naturally retains within itself saltiness and a sharper taste, so that it may fittingly nourish for human uses, more usefully, the fruits which a wave of savory liquid would not have.

But whether water has a savory or a salty taste more naturally, or both equally, God will see for certain; although very many also think that saltiness is the natural taste of waters, but judge that the sweeter is seasoned by the nature of earth or air. Yet just as salt water poured over the ground becomes sweet, so also sweet water poured over the ashes of sea vegetables at once becomes of a salty taste; whence it is not difficult to believe that each taste is natural in its own way, since either can be poured back from one into the other.

But the expanses of lands are repeatedly separated by the straits of the sea, so that it might both shut in the boundaries of nations and, by the munificence of its waves, enrich all the provinces of diverse peoples, and provide in common among all lands all necessary commerce, exchanged in turn. How great a concord, moreover, the Ocean has with the courses of the moon in its flooding and retreat is plainly evident to those who observe and carefully consider it, since it is seen daily to come to the land and recede twice through twenty-four hours without ceasing, whose entire harmonious course is divided into the alternations of the ledo and the malina.

But the ledo, established, always completes six hours of its increase with unchanging custom, and through as many hours it uncovers again the spaces it had covered. The malina, however, established, spends five hours of its flooding, and through seven hours of its retreat it renders empty those shores which it had filled; which seems to have such great concord with the moon that the moon always rises in its midst, which it is seen by careful investigation to persist through seven days, and twelve hours, and a fourth part of a day.

And so it comes about that when the full moon wanes again, the malina is likewise once more halved in darkness; but when intervals have been interposed, the ledo is detected, which is never seen to approach either the full moon or the beginnings of the waxing moon, and by this alternation it is brought about that through every common year twenty-four malinae and as many ledones are counted; in the embolismic year, however, twenty-six malinae and ledones of the same number are found, because in all things the sea's tide accompanies the course of the moon inseparably.

But four of these, that is, of the seasons, four are mean, namely the two equinoctial malinae, and the other two, when either day or night makes the end of its increase and decrease, are stronger than usual, as may be proved by the eyes, and are seen to become higher for flooding and to lay bare greater expanses of the shores. And since it is impossible that it not leave behind some spaces, though unknown to us, when it overflows through the soil of our lands, just as, withdrawing from the same places, it fills them, so that what is ebb for us is flood there, and what is ebb for us is flood there, we are compelled to confess that we are ignorant of half the ministry of the sea.

But in this and in many similar matters nothing is granted to our knowledge except to proclaim the power and immensity of the Creator, who disposed all things in number, weight, and measure (Wis. 11:21). And meanwhile, with the distinguished teacher of the Gentiles, to say: We know in part, and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect is come, then shall I know, even as I am known (1 Cor. 13:9).

From this watery element, moreover, the Scripture of Genesis declares that the diverse kinds of fish and birds—that is, of all swimming and flying creatures—were made. But the philosophers who reason about the natures of things enumerate one hundred and fifty-three kinds of fish, that is, of all living creatures that live in the waters, which number the apostolic net, gathering as it were from every kind of fish, had drawn in.

Whether birds also have this number of their kinds, or a greater, or a smaller, even if there are some who reckon so, yet because they cannot confirm it by weighty authority, they are neither to be followed nor rejected; but since the origin of all birds proceeded from the water, whence did such diverse habits of theirs arise—of dwelling, or living, or swimming—so that some always float upon the salt waves and have their sustenance there, while others abide in the pools and rivers of sweet waters? Others live on land with no habit of swimming at all, of which some are wont to be found in fields, others in woods, others in mountains, others in marshy places.

Another the wing does not lift up for flying; others penetrate by flying the lofty and remote spaces of the air so far that in summer time they even carry snow from the highest clouds on their feathers.

Unless perhaps the diversity of their condition in all birds produces these most diverse habits from their origin, even though from water: so that some of them are formed from salt water, others from fresh water, others from the dew of plants, others from the dripping of trees, others from the moisture of marshes, others from the confluence of mountains, others from the vapor of the air, others from the flowing exhalation of the highest clouds, and each of them naturally grows accustomed to that which belonged to the origin of its own condition, so that each bird lives from there and thence whence it first had it to be.

CHAPTER X.

On paradise.

And since after the waters the earth stands established in the order of the elements, we shall first speak of paradise, where the dwelling of the first humans had existed; although the account must be set down by way of remembrance, concerning which the diverse opinions of very many have been brought forward: whether that immortal life itself, with which humans were endowed before sin, was called by the name of paradise; or whether this whole circle of lands was so fittingly disposed for those living innocently that it was called paradise, inasmuch as, for as long as its possessors lived blamelessly without any vice, even the dwelling upon that earth would minister all things to them happily without any toil; and afterwards, when they sinned and were changed for the worse, even their world was changed and darkened by their own vice and by the sentence of punishment (as we have said of the sun and the moon), and had lost its beauty and its fruit-bearing power, if not entirely, yet for the greatest part, so that the things which had aided the blessedness and felicity of those living well should heap up the punishments of those living badly.

Was there also, in a spiritual sense, some place filled with the blessedness of this felicity, prepared for humans who would keep the merit of their creation, in which there was nothing that could harm bodily blessedness, as long as the endurance of the command was observed? The authority of the Scripture of Genesis gives no small support to this view, saying: "And the Lord God had planted a paradise from the beginning, in which he placed the man whom he had formed" (Gen. 2:8). For paradise is said to have been planted "from the beginning," since this place specifically appears to hold the primacy of the world, in which the first man is not doubted to have been established at once after his creation.

For it was fitting in every way that the head and beginning of the human race should be placed in the head and beginning of the world, so that from there the offspring of humans should take the increase of its members, whence the circle of lands, which it inhabits, received its beginning. And when the same Scripture enumerates the condition of this paradise, planted with fruit-bearing trees, and recounts it as adorned with a great fountain, by which the face of the whole earth is watered, it speaks of the man placed there, saying: "Eat from every tree of paradise" (Gen. 2:16). And the woman says: "We eat of the fruit of the trees that are in paradise" (Gen. 3:2). And a little earlier it is brought forth: "And a fountain rose up from the earth, watering the whole surface of the earth" (Gen. 2:6).

In these matters, what would prevent the truth of Scripture itself from being preserved historically, without any enigmas, just as the authority of Scripture also shines forth bodily concerning all the things it contains about the beginning of the whole visible creation as it came to be? For we believe that the firmament was made, and the sea, and the earth, and the luminaries, and the stars, and also the water creatures and the land animals, and man himself, just as the book of Genesis investigates historically, without any enigmas.

Or shall we not accept this only in the case where it records that the place of paradise was planted with fruit-bearing trees and made bright by a great fountain, except as an enigma? But this can be understood in both ways, that is, both according to the historical narration of events and according to tropology, that is, according to moral explanation.

For sacred Scripture is understood by a threefold principle. Its first mode of understanding is when it is known only according to the letter, without any figurative intention, as Saint Jerome says: The Acts of the Apostles seem to me to sound forth a bare history. The second mode is when it is investigated according to figurative understanding without any regard to events, as the first and last part of Ezekiel, and the Song of Songs, and the exposition of certain parables of the Gospel, which speak one thing and do another.

The third mode is when, with the historical narration of things preserved, it is understood in a mystical sense, just as Noah's ark, the tabernacle, and the temple were made historically, and intellectually the mysteries of the Church are designated through these. So indeed also the place of paradise prefigured the mysteries of the first Adam, who was a figure of the one to come, and of the future Church, which is the land of the following Adam.

But while man lived there immortally and blessedly, would not even the subjection of the whole world lie beneath him? For what would shut him out from entering the world, who among creatures did not fear that anything could harm him, since fire did not burn, water did not drown, the strength of beasts did not slay, the stings of thorns or of any thing did not wound, the absence of air did not suffocate, and all things that harm mortals did not hinder him?

For an immortal, invulnerable, and uninjurable body found nothing among all creatures that could bring death, wound, or injury, until by disobedience it offended the Creator. What, then, forbade the inhabitant of paradise to survey all things that had been subjected to him, since the Lord not only did not forbid him to do this, but commanded it, saying: Increase and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the heaven (Gen. 1:28).

For just as it is free for the angels to move about from the seat of heaven among those things that are subject to them, and yet they have their seats in heaven, what would prevent men also, established in paradise, from moving about through every creature subject to them without any labor of their own? For just as they possessed bodies immune from pain, old age, and death, so too they had them free from all labor and sluggishness.

But when the first husbandman in that place of his earthly felicity had committed sin, he was thrust down into the dwelling of the cursed earth, and immediately he lost some of all those things that he had formerly possessed, and preserved others only with labor. And when he was shut out from the seat of blessedness, the possibility of returning again was closed off, and so it came about that, just as the apostate angel, cast down with his followers from the highest serenity of his own paradise, obtained as his lot the dark region of this air, so too man was thrust down from the earthly blessedness of his own paradise into the dwelling of this cursed earth.

For so it is written: And the Lord God cast him out of paradise, and drove him into the earth from which he was taken. And he placed before paradise a cherub, having a flaming and turning sword, to guard the way of the tree of life (Gen. 3:23). In this it is shown that, although the cherub is said to guard the way of the tree of life, lest men be able to return, they are commanded to defend even the whole of paradise, since Scripture indicates that the flaming sword was placed not only before the tree of life but before the whole of paradise.

It is not sufficiently clear, however, from which tree Adam specifically ate, but it is clear that immediately after the sin he covered his nakedness with the leaves of the fig tree, which alone in the time of his flesh the Lord Jesus, shortly before he underwent death for Adam's transgression, cursed, and it quickly withered, when he said: May no fruit ever be born from you forever (Matt. 21:19), that is, one that could harm men any further, as the devil did above. Behold, into this tree, that is, the fig, Christ gathered the curse of Adam's transgression, which would have infected the whole earth, before he cleansed it with the dew of his blood.

But whether man first took on guilt from this tree or from another, God certainly sees. Yet that tree, whatever it now is, which was then called the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, must not be thought able to harm those who use it now as much as it could then when they were established in paradise, so that even now it could bring death to those who use that tree; for it must not be believed that anything deadly was in the nature of the tree, or even that it could produce the knowledge of good and evil, but the transgression of the Lord's command, by which it was commanded that he should not eat from this wood, brings about death.

If there had been obedience to it, this was to know good; and while there was disobedience, this is to know evil. Yet man could not understand the difference between these except by transgression; for when he possessed only good, he did not know what evil was and how it would harm him. But so that it may be clear that in this tree of whatever kind, apart from the original disobedience, there was nothing harmful, behold, it is not from this tree but from the way of the tree of life that he is excluded, in whose exclusion a merciful remission of the former offense is prepared.

For if man after that original sin had eaten of the fruit of the tree of life, he could by no means have laid aside the stain of the sin he had committed, wretchedly and forever, by dying in a body subject to old age and pains; for the Lord prepared that the guilt of this offense be blotted out in no other way than by death, which He foreknew and predestined would afterward come to pass through the advent in the flesh of His Son Jesus Christ, so that by His death our guilt might die, and by His resurrection the law of our death might be abolished, and by the ascension of His own body and His dwelling in heaven immortality might be given to our humanity, and the fellowship of the angelic and spiritual life, which was prepared for us in the beginning, might be given; just as also at the final calling of the future judgment it is certain that the Lord said to those set at His right hand: Come, blessed of my Father, possess the kingdom which was prepared for you from the beginning of the world.

CHAPTER XI.

On the situation of the circle of lands which the human race inhabits.

Furthermore, concerning the situation of the circle of lands which the human race inhabits, the psalmist says to the Lord: Who founded the earth upon its own stability; it shall not be moved for ever and ever. The deep, like a garment, is its covering; the waters shall stand upon the mountains. From this it is understood that the earth is founded not upon the solidity of another element, but upon its own stability and firmness. But whether anything is placed beneath it, as the waters are beneath the earth itself, and the air beneath the waters, and the higher space beneath the air, and the firmament beneath that, and the upper waters beneath the firmament, He himself knows, who sees all things everywhere and from every side.

But in that part which has been given to men to inhabit, many authors have handed down that the circle of the world is set in four divisions; and the wise understand that the names of these four parts begin with the four letters of the name of the first earth-born man, that is, Adam. Namely, Anatole, Dysis, Arctus, Mesembria, that is, East, North, South, West. For it was fitting that he who by his kind was to fill the whole earth should gather in his name the names of the four parts of the squared circle of the world.

It is also distinguished by the four divisions of the seasons in yearly order, and when the span of the year is complete, the governance of the earthly circle is always brought back around without ceasing. In the time of spring, moreover, by which the world was established, it always grows green; in summer it blossoms and bears fruit; in autumn it ripens and gives to mortals the fitting use of its fruits; in winter it falls and dries up.

But it endures this custom of its increase and decrease for as long as, subject to the slavery of corruption, it is handed over to the service of mortals. For when the condition of being born and dying has ceased among men, then the earth itself will no longer have the increases and losses of its greenness and dryness, when the prophecy of Isaiah—or rather, the Lord's prophecy through Isaiah—has been fulfilled: Behold, I create new heavens and a new earth, and the former things will not be in memory, but you will rejoice and exult in these things which I create.

For when men live spiritually in bodies that have been changed, it is necessary that they dwell in places of habitation changed for the better, that is, spiritual places. This body, as Paul says, is sown in corruption, it will rise in incorruption. The body is sown as a natural body, it will rise as a spiritual body; it is sown in dishonor, it will rise in glory. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality (1 Cor 15 and following). For when corruption and mortality have ceased to be in bodies, then man will have no need to use mortal and corruptible things.

The holy Gospels confirm that this was also proven in the resurrection of the Lord's body, when they report that the linen cloths in which he had been wrapped were, after his resurrection, left alone in the tomb, just as it is said of Peter: And he saw the linen cloths lying there alone, and he went away, marveling to himself at what had been done (John 20:5). Therefore for new bodies, which do not need those things that the use of a corruptible life requires, a new earth with a new heaven will be created for dwelling, that is, the nature and surface of this earth will be restored into a spiritual state, one that befits spiritual beings, without any changeableness.

But when will this be? When Jerusalem, the praise, has been created on earth, and her people their joy and exultation, and when the saints will rejoice in those things that the Lord creates, and whose sun will not set and whose moon will not wane; when those redeemed by the Lord have come to Zion with praise, and everlasting gladness will be upon their head, and they have obtained joy and gladness, and pain and groaning have fled, and the days of their mourning have been fulfilled, and those who mourn have been consoled, and God has wiped away every tear from every face of the saints, and has blotted out the reproach of his people, and the sorrow of all who mourn for Zion has been laid aside, and they have received a crown for ashes, the oil of gladness for mourning, a mantle of praise for the spirit of sorrow, and have been called in her the mighty ones of righteousness: when the blessed have come to the right hand, and have shone like the sun in the kingdom of their Father.

CHAPTER XII.

On the nature of men after sin.

But in the meantime, men destined for the habitation of this world after the original sin did not lose all the natural good that they had in their creation; but having been first corrupted by the transgression of their parent, they further fell into depraved habits, and so it comes about that just as they receive the fruits of the cursed earth with labor, so too they cannot keep the natural good that they have in themselves without laborious care.

And just as in the serpent, and the woman, and the man consenting, they fell in threefold manner in the transgression of the first-formed man, in like manner all his sons, wrapped in three wounds, that is, pain, old age, and death, fail, and every good that they had received naturally implanted in themselves from the Creator, found in part by studious labor, they scarcely preserve with great vigilance of mind; and whatever good they find sought by the gift of God through study, they do not leave to their heirs except as unjust mammon, and all the arts that they acquire one by one in life, they lose equally in the decline of this life, when the spirit is poured out.

By an equal condition of weakness, poor and kings, fools and wise men are vexed. For all alike need sleep, and must be refreshed with food, and have need to be clothed with garments. They are either weighed down or corrupted by the passions of carnal vices; they are straitened by the motions of the mind, that is, by anger and love, by concupiscence and fear. They fail through pain, and old age, and death. They are quickly stripped of things past; they use present things but moderately; they await all things future as uncertain.

In the same way they sense and live by hearing, sight, touch, taste, and smell. By the same bond also of original sin they are bound; enriched by the same gift of the Redeemer, they are washed in the waves of baptism and by the Holy Spirit; but even for these men, if they neglect either the faith of redemption or the works of faith, eternal punishment is due, equally with the transgressing angels and their prince the devil; but for those who keep the rights of their first condition, whether through the documents of Scripture or through the defenses of the good of nature, future life has been prepared by the gift of the Redeemer.

CHAPTER XIII.

On the diversity of sinners, and the place of punishments.

But since the condition of sinners is diverse, there are certain crimes that can be purged by the fire of judgment; but certain ones are to be punished by the penalty of eternal fire; and of these, certain ones become worthy of eternal punishment, certain ones do not come to judgment, certain ones undergo the lot of perpetual damnation after the examination of judgment; just as the apostle Paul says: The sins of certain men are manifest, going before to judgment; but certain ones also follow after (1 Tim. 5:24).

For concerning those who lack judgment, the Lord himself testifies and said: He who does not believe in the Son is already judged (John 3:18). Whence it is understood that those who do not deserve to undergo the lot of faith, nor obtain the grace of baptism, are not going to come forth to the future judgment, but, examined by the word of the Gospel, they will depart from this life, as it is written: Amen I say to you, unless one is born again of water and the Holy Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God (John 3:3). To these also the words of the Psalmist agree, in which he says: The impious do not rise again in judgment (Ps. 1:5).

But those who after the washing of baptism are weighed down by a multitude of sins are themselves divided into two factions. For some of them, before they depart from this life, are judged by the words of Sacred Scripture, of whom the apostle Paul speaks, saying: Be not deceived; neither adulterers, nor fornicators, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor idolaters, nor the covetous, nor the effeminate, nor those who lie with men, nor thieves, nor robbers, shall possess the kingdom of God (1 Cor 6:9). For those who commit these and similar capital crimes even to death without remedy, having been judged, shall go forth from this life to everlasting punishments.

Concerning the guilt of these, John, the guest of the Lord's breast, speaks: Is there a sin unto death? I do not say that anyone should pray for it (1 John 5:16). For sin leads to death when a man, even at the final term of life, neglects to repent of past crimes. And it must be noted, according to the apostle James, that whoever offends in one of these has become guilty of all. For he who said, You shall not commit adultery, himself also said, You shall not kill. But if you do not commit adultery, yet you kill, you have become a transgressor of the law (Jas 2:10).

But certain others are reserved for the final judgment of the divine examination—those who will not be entangled in these capital crimes—and they depart from this world, and yet by the sentence of the heavenly Judge they will undergo the lot of eternal damnation, because, despising the works of mercy, they do not refresh Christ in the poor with food or drink, nor clothe them, nor receive them as guests, nor bring the solace of visitation to the sick, to those bound in mines, and to those in prisons; for which reason they will hear from him: Go, you cursed, into the eternal fire, which my Father has prepared for the devil and his angels (Matt. 25:41).

For it does not suffice for desiring the kingdom of heaven to refrain from doing evil, if one has not taken care to do good; for through the prophet Isaiah the Lord likewise commands: Cease to do perversely, learn to do good (Isa. 1:16). Through the Psalmist also the same Spirit of the Lord composes these same words, saying: Turn away from evil, and do good (Ps. 36:27). And so that it might be shown that after the terror of this sentence, as terrible as we have foretold, the Judge would not be turned by any repentance, at the end of the whole disputation it is thus added: Then these will go into the eternal fire (Matt. 25:46).

But concerning the place of that eternal fire, that is, the prison of hell, many have said that it is a place for bodies, where the bodies of sinners will be tormented; for unless that fire were corporeal and a place, how would it hold the tormented bodies of those who rise again, in which the truth of corporeality will be so capable of suffering that it will be subject to gnashing of teeth and tearful weeping, as the words of the Lord and Judge himself declare, saying: But cast the unprofitable servant into outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth (Matt. 25:30). Where their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched (Isa. 66:24; Mark 9:45)?

In which place it is said to the king of Babylon through the Prophet thus: Under you shall be strewn the moth, and your covering shall be worms (Isa. 14:11). Concerning which place someone also said: As the lands are in the depth of the waters, so are the infernal regions in the depth of the lands. Whence that which is written seems to be written concerning it: That neither in heaven, nor on earth, nor under the earth, was anyone found who could open the book and loose its seals (Rev. 5:2). Whence it is plainly evident that this place, whatever it is, is under the earth, which is called the lower hell and the land of forgetfulness.

But this fire, since it is said to have been prepared for the devil and his angels, of what sort of corporeality must it be thought to be, which can torment angels? The soul also of the rich man, stripped of the body, that infernal fire is described as having tormented, when he said: Because I am tormented greatly in this flame (Luke 16:24). Unless perhaps that fire and place has this power, that it can torment and hold angels and souls and bodies in the same manner. Or certainly, as it is said of the sons of the resurrection and of eternal blessedness: And they shall be as the angels in heaven (Mark 12:25).

Doubtless, then, the sons of eternal damnation, when they have resumed their bodies for the punishment of eternal fire, will themselves be as the demons in hell; so that the sons of the good resurrection, since they are sons of God, may enter the fellowship of the good angels, and the sons of eternal death, since they are sons of the devil, may undergo the fellowship of the angels of Satan. Concerning whom it is said: And they shall be gathered together in the gathering of one bundle into the pit, and they shall be shut up there in prison, and after many days they shall be visited (Isaiah 24:22). Whether this will be to increase or to diminish their punishments, we do not know.

CHAPTER XIV.

On the fire of purgation.

But those who will receive the consolations of eternal life will themselves also obtain the blessedness of the kingdom of heaven in a twofold manner of the gift of largesse. For to some of these, while they are still placed on earth, when they become poor for Christ's sake, the kingdom of heaven is not promised, but, though absent, it is granted in the meantime to those persevering in labor and weariness, when it is said: Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven (Matt. 5:3).

Likewise also those who endure the persecutions of men for righteousness' sake rejoice in the same recompense of reward, when it is added: Blessed are they who suffer persecution for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven (Matt. 5:10). He did not say "for theirs will be," so that they might hope for a future calling, but when they go forth from their bodies, they will receive, as it were through themselves, what while abiding in their bodies they possess in the meantime by the gift of the giver; and for this reason it is said also to these, while they are still placed on earth: Whatever you shall loose on earth shall be loosed also in heaven. And whatever you shall bind on earth shall be bound also in heaven (Matt. 18:18).

As if he were saying: in this it is understood that the kingdom of heaven is still yours while you remain on earth, in that whatever person you loose from sins, so that he can be a possessor of it, shall possess it; and whatever person, destined to the mass of perdition, you exclude, shall be excluded from that same kingdom. Therefore the Lord commanded them: Rejoice and be glad, because your names are written in the heavens (Matt. 5:12). As if it were said, since your names have been erased from the fellowship of earthly inheritance for the sake of the heavenly kingdom, and cast aside, it is necessary that you be written in the meantime as heirs of the eternal fatherland.

These, then, receiving all pressures and evils in this life, will enter eternal refreshment without any tribulation of examination and, so to speak, without a calling; by whose grace some also will be called after purgation, and will possess consolation without [examination], to whom after the examination it will be said: Come, blessed of my Father, possess the kingdom (Matt. 25:34). Which they will merit to possess on account of the consolations of the poor, or rather of Christ in the poor, when to the hungry they gave food, to the thirsty drink, to the naked clothing, to the wandering a home, and to Christ sick and placed in prison they offered visitation, ministry was offered in his least brothers.

In their calling, however, it seems manifest that even now they are still somewhat far from Christ, although they have been set at his right hand, to whom it is afterward said by the supreme Judge: Come, you blessed. As if he were saying: You who until now have been in the purging of examination, as long as you had any uncleanness that was to be purged by the fire of judgment, having been somewhat far from salvation, now, examined thoroughly and cleansed from every stain of faults, even the slightest, draw nearer and come.

The Lord himself does not deny that certain faults are forgiven in the future, when it is said: But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit has no redemption neither in this age nor in the age to come, but will be guilty of an eternal sin. From this it is understood that there are certain sins which, even if they are not forgiven in this age, can nonetheless be blotted out by fire in the future judgment. But if it were not so, the Lord would by no means have set down this distinction.

Concerning this fire John the Baptist, the forerunner of the Lord's coming, speaks to the Jews: He who comes after me, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry; he will baptize you in the Holy Spirit and fire (Matt. 3:11). That is: he will wash away or loose your sins that went before through the Holy Spirit by the baptism of water, and certain of those crimes that follow afterward he will remit through purgatorial fire. For concerning that fire which is kindled not to cleanse the wicked who have been judged but to destroy the damned, it is added a little later by the same John: Whose winnowing fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly cleanse his threshing floor, and gather his wheat into the barn; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire (Matt. 3:12; Luke 3:17).

For it is one thing to be baptized with fire, another to be burned with unquenchable fire. Concerning which fire the same John also says: Every tree that does not bear good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire (Matt. 3:10). But concerning the fire of purgation the Lord himself speaks in the Gospel: But whoever says to his brother, Fool, will be liable to Gehenna (Matt. 5:22). He did not say of eternal fire; namely, because this offense is to be believed punished through purgatorial fire rather than perpetual flame.

The apostle Paul also sets forth this distinction between those whom the fire that is to come will not touch to harm them and those who will obtain salvation after the fire's loss, saying thus: For no one can lay another foundation besides that which has been laid, which is Jesus Christ. Another builds upon it with gold, silver, precious stones; another truly with wood, hay, stubble; if anyone's work remains, what he built upon it, he will receive a reward; if anyone's work burns, he will suffer loss, but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire (1 Cor. 3:11 ff.).

By these two kinds of building, that is, gold and silver and precious stones, and wood, hay, stubble, works built upon faith in Christ are designated as perfect and less perfect; but those which are designated by wood, hay, stubble are shown to be fragile, yet not made polluted.

From this it is understood that it is not the principal crimes that defile—whose workers Paul excluded from the kingdom of God—but those that do not greatly harm, though they edify less, that can be designated by this, that is: to use lawful marriage more than is sufficient and thus uselessly; to eat food in immoderate abundance; to rejoice in any matter whatsoever; to be moved to anger even to intemperate words; to delight in one's own possessions more than is necessary; to apply oneself to prayer more negligently than the fitness of the hours requires; or to rise more slowly than is fitting; to raise one's voice in immoderate laughter; to indulge the body in sleep more than necessity demands; to keep silent about the truth; to speak idle things; to suppose something true that is not so in fact; to approve as false, in matters that do not pertain to the faith, what you have thought false; to negligently forget the good that ought to be done; to have a disordered habit. These sins, and those similar to them, can be purged by fire—this is not to be denied—and their doer, if he is not weighed down by greater sins, is nonetheless to be thought saved, yet so as through fire.

But those who repent at the final end of this present life—whether they here fully receive remission of sins, or their offenses are blotted out by purgatorial fire—he himself knows who, beholding the reins and the heart, weighs the worthiness of repentance, who answered the thief on the cross, repenting almost without time, without works: Today you will be with me in paradise (Luke 23:43). And to Ezekiel he says: On whatever day the wicked man turns from his wickedness, I will not remember all the iniquities that he has done (Ezekiel 33:12). But concerning that purgatorial fire it must be observed that it is both longer and sharper than every manner of torment that a man can devise in the present.

CHAPTER XV.

Concerning the future life.

But concerning that true blessedness of the future life, holy Scripture declares: What the eye has not seen, nor the ear heard, nor has it entered into the heart of man, what God has prepared for those who love him (1 Corinthians 2:9). Concerning these the Lord says: They will be like the angels in heaven (Mark 12:25). And a speech of the same Lord announces something more exalted concerning these: Then the just will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father (Matthew 13:43); namely, the sun of justice will rise for those who fear the name of the Lord, in whose wings is healing, who on the mountain emptied the face of Moses with Elijah before the apostles; and when the saints suffer with him, they will be glorified together.

Now, in that which he had said earlier—"They will be like angels in heaven" (Mark 12:25)—it must be considered that just as the angels were first made mutable by nature, which was proven in those who fell, but now have been made immutable by the contemplation of God, so that they neither fear to sin nor are able to, so also men, themselves created mutable by nature—which was tested in Adam and his seed—after the resurrection, having been made immutable by the contemplation of their Creator, will neither desire to sin nor be able to; for every rational creature that is refreshed by the contemplation of God cannot sin.

Not that angels and men, being free from fault, do not have the free choice of the will; for whatever they will in that life, that they do, but they are in no way able to will anything that is not good; whence, because they never will evil, they commit no offense at all.

But this perfect good will is perfected through the contemplation of the supreme Creator, when what the creature could not have of itself is granted by the gift of the giver himself; whence it is clearly understood that the angels or men who sinned, whether in heaven or in paradise, did not see God, since if they had seen him, they could in no way afterward have done wrong.

But someone might respond against these things and say: Why, then, after the vision of glory, from which the face of Moses shone brightly in the wilderness, did he stumble at the waters of contradiction? And why did Peter, after the glory of the Only-begotten was shown on the mountain with Moses and Elijah, deny the Lord in the courtyard of the priests? To this proposition it is easily answered that Moses saw the back parts of the glory through an angel or another creature. And Peter and the other disciples beheld the divinity of Christ shining through a human body; for if they had beheld the divinity through itself, they could in no way afterward live in the flesh.

For the Lord himself answered Moses: No one will see my face and live (Exod. 33:20). The saints, therefore, after the resurrection will not see the Lord through figures and enigmas, as the renowned Teacher of the Gentiles declares concerning this same matter: For we see through a mirror in an enigma; but when that which is perfect has come, then I shall know as I am known (1 Cor. 13:12). As John, the possessor of the Lord's breast and a mighty guest, says: We shall see him as he is (1 John 3:2); when there shall be fulfilled what is promised to the Church through the prophet Isaiah: There shall no longer be the sun to shine by day, nor shall the splendor of light illuminate you, but the Lord shall be to you an everlasting light, and your God your glory (Isa. 60:19).

From this it is understood that the Church will be illuminated not through creatures, but by the majesty of the Lord himself, when, with the serenity of perpetual felicity, she is permitted securely to enter into the fellowship of angelic dignity; in which serenity she will possess all things prosperous without an accusing pressure, since neither will light be ended by darkness, nor life by death, nor health by pain, nor joy by sorrow, nor youth by old age, nor love of dear ones by their absence, nor beauty by decay or any vileness, nor strength by weakness, nor righteousness by sin—even though beyond these there will also be those things which neither thought nor any reasoning of man, while still placed on earth, is able to apprehend.

But out of all these creatures, whose order we have touched upon, the Creator made some from nothing and some from something; for heaven and earth, the sea and the things that were made in them, he formed from unformed matter; but the unformed matter itself, and the orders of angels, of which we have spoken above, and the human soul, he made from nothing. For God established that the soul be made neither from himself nor from any underlying matter of corporeal creatures whatsoever, since we believe it to be not a part of God, but a creature of God. For if God had made it from himself, it would by no means be passible, and mutable, and miserable.

Likewise, if he had created it out of bodily creatures, it would have something bodily in its nature: either heat from fire, or breath from air, or moisture from water, or thickness and solidity from earth. But because it lacks all these, it is fitting that it was made incorporeal, and through that very incorporeality, and eternity, and mutability, and the power of free will, it is recognized to have the same substance as the angels and the same origin in creation. But this image of God possesses likeness not in eternity but freely in free will; the Prophet speaks of this likeness of the image of God impressed upon us, saying: The light of your countenance is stamped upon us.

But whether they are sent by God to individual bodies one by one, or are to be thought to come from Adam and from parents, just as the bodies of those being born do, since this has been debated by many wise men, and yet they have left nothing concerning this question to which faith could be more fittingly accommodated, what ought we to attempt concerning so great and so dangerous a matter, or what benefit does it confer for us to bring forth anything to their ambiguities, in which the parties conquer one another in turn, when they cannot establish their own explanations?

And therefore, lest we desire anything beyond us, we reserve this question, which many writers have declared insoluble, to the knowledge of the Creator, since whatever the fullness of one eating the flesh of the paschal lamb could not consume, the devouring flame of the morrow consumes with no small care; whereby it is understood that all things in Sacred Scripture which escape the knowledge of our investigation by its bodily sense, being illuminated and consumed by the fire of the Lord's wisdom, are made clear.

But even those things which, as it were through a narrow window of our sense and wisdom, we have touched upon by some preceding illumination of his grace, we are not able to know perfectly in every respect, as is fitting; for we know in part, as long as we are in this world; but if we come to that inestimable light of the Father of lights, then we shall know as we are known.

Behold, venerable Father, concerning the order of creatures, to you who proposed it, according to the measure of my little understanding, I have responded summarily in a concise discourse. The reward of this little gift I will repay with your prayers; not that the service of my smallness in obedience

I noted that this entire epilogue is wholly absent in our manuscript, in the Isidorian notes, chapter 25, note 16. It would seem that "compensation by your prayers" should be read. But I would not dare to change anything. For in place of "nam et in gazophylazio," which is conjectured in the Baluzian edition to be read, the old edition had "omnia esse in gasophylazio."

And against the babblers. Thus rightly in your Haluzian veneration and authority it could confer worthy things, but the effort of obedience fulfills even those things which it cannot attain; for also in the treasury of the temple the tiny gift of the poor widow's bronze is preferred to the abundant gold of many rich people, and in the gilded tabernacle, where the gifts of silver and precious gems, of fine linen and purple, and of hyacinth and scarlet are brought together, even the diligence of those who bring goatskins is not despised.

Therefore do you likewise not disdain this obedience of my smallness in the calm harbor of your heart, and against the unstable courses of the babblers, with the helm of your authority, do not be unwilling to steer the little boat of this present work. For I, agreeing with good and catholic readers, do not care about the quarrels of the envious, who, creeping on the earth without wings, mock the nests of birds with the flight of frogs. Protected against them by the shield of your reason, and armed with the Lord's support, I shall take care to hasten to the fatherland, safe on both sides. For we who take care to please God do not at all fear the threats of men. Thanks be to God. Amen.