Commodianus: Instructiones

PRAEFATIO
Prima praefatio nostra uiam erranti demonstrat
Respectumque bonum, cum uenerit saeculi meta,
Aeternum fieri, quod discredunt inscia corda.
Ego similiter erraui tempore multo
Fana prosequendo parentibus insciis ipsis;
Abstulit me tandem inde legendo de lege,
Testifico Dominum: doleo pro ciuica turba,
Inscia quod pergit periens deos quaerere uanos;
Ob ea perdoctus ignaros instruo uerum.

PRAEFATIO
Our first preface shows the way to one erring
and the good regard, when the goal of the age shall come,
to become eternal, which unknowing hearts disbelieve.
I likewise erred long in time
pursuing shrines with my very ignorant parents;
reading from the law at last removed me from that state,
I testify the Lord: I grieve for the civic crowd,
ignorant that it goes on, perishing, to seek vain gods;
therefore, thoroughly taught, I instruct the ignorant in the truth.

1 INDIGNATIO DEI
In lege praecepit dominus caeli, terrae marisque:
Nolite, inquid, adorare deos inanes
De manibus uestris factos ex ligno uel auro
Indignatio mea ne uos disperdat ob ista.
Gens ante Moysi rudis, sine lege morata
Nesciensque Deum, defunctos reges orabant,
Ad quorum effigies faciebant idola uana.
Translatis Iudaeis Dominus de terra Aegypti
Imposuit legem postmodum et ista praecepit,
Omnipotenti sibi soli deseruire, non illis.

1 INDIGNATION OF GOD
In the law the Lord commanded, of heaven, earth, and sea:
"Do not," he said, "worship vain gods
made by your hands out of wood or gold;
lest my indignation destroy you for these things."
A people rude before Moses, dwelling without law,
and not knowing God, prayed to dead kings,
to whose effigies they made vain idols.
When the Jews were carried forth from the land of Egypt
the Lord afterwards imposed the law and commanded these things,
to serve the Almighty alone, not those.

De resurrectione quoque docetur in ipsa
Et spe fortunata rursum in aeuo uiuendi,
Idola si uana relinquantur neque colantur.

On the resurrection also is taught in it
and by the fortunate hope of living again in the age,
if idols are left vain and not worshipped.

2 CULTURA DAEMONUM
Cum Deus omnipotens exornasset mundi naturam
Uisitari uoluit terram ab angelis istam;
Legitima cuius spreuerunt illi dimissi;
Tanta fuit forma feminarum, quae flecteret illos.
Ut quoinquinati non possunt caelo redire,
Rebelles ex illo contra Deum uerba misere.
Altissimus inde sententiam misit in illis;
De semine quorum Gigantes nati feruntur.

2 CULTURE OF DEMONS
When Almighty God had adorned the nature of the world
He wished that this land be visited by these angels;
Their lawful order they scorned and were cast aside;
So great was the beauty of the women that it would bend them.
So defiled, they cannot return to heaven,
From that rebellion they uttered words against God.
The Most High then sent judgment upon them;
Of whose seed Giants are said to have been born.

Ab ipsis in terra artis probata fuere,
Et tingere lanas docuerunt et quaecumque geruntur,
Mortales et illi mortuos simulacro ponebant.
Omnipotens autem, quod essent de semine prauo
Non censuit illos recipi defunctos e morte.
Unde modo uagi subuertunt corpora multa;
Maxime quos hodie colitis et deos oratis.

From them on earth arts were proved,
and they taught to dye wools and whatever garments are worn,
and they set up mortals and the dead with a simulacrum.
But the Omnipotent, because they were of a perverse seed,
did not judge that they should be received back from death.
Whence now the wandering ones overthrow many bodies;
especially those whom you this day cultivate and pray to as gods.

3 SATURNUS
Saturnusque senex si deus, deus quando senescit?
Aut si deus erat, cur natos ille uorabat?
Terroribus actus, sed quia deus non erat ille,
Uiscera natorum rabie monstruosa sumebat.

3 SATURNUS
And Saturn old — if a god, when does a god grow old?
Or if he was a god, why did he devour his offspring?
Driven by terrors, but because he was not a god,
he consumed the viscera of his children with monstrous rage.

Rex fuit in terris, in monte natus Olympo,
Nec erat diuinus; sic deum esse diceba<n>t.
Uenit inops animi, lapidem pro filio sorbsit:
Sic deus euasit, dicitur modo Iuppiter ille.

There was a king on the earth, born on Mount Olympus,
and he was not divine; thus they used to say he was a god.
Bereft of mind, he swallowed a stone in place of a son:
thus the man passed for a god, and that one is now called Jupiter.

4 IUPPITER
Iuppiter hic natus in insula Creta Saturno
Ut fuit adultus, patrem de regno priuauit.
Proinde nobilium uxores sororesque delusit.
Praeterea sceptra fecerat faber ille Piragmon.

4 JUPITER
Jupiter, born here on the island of Crete to Saturn,
when he was grown, deprived his father of the kingdom.
Thereupon he deceived (and seduced) the wives and sisters of nobles.
Moreover that smith Piragmon had made scepters.

Initium caelum, terram Deus et mare fecit;
Terribilis autem iste medio tempore natus
Ex antro processit iuuenis furtimque nutritus.
Respice querellas: Alter est Deus, non Iouis ille.

In the beginning God made the heaven, the earth, and the sea;
But that terrible one was born in the middle of time
From a cave there came forth a youth, and was secretly suckled.
Consider the complaints: He is another God, not that Jupiter.

5 DE FULMINE IPSIUS IOVIS AUDITE
Dicitis o stulti: Iouis tonat, fulminat ipse.
Etsi paruulitas sic sensit, cur anni dicentes?
Fuistis infantes: numquid et semper eritis?

5 ON JUPITER'S OWN THUNDERBOLT, HEAR
You say, O fools: Jupiter thunders, he himself hurls the thunderbolt.
Although infancy thus perceived it, why speak of "years" as cause?
You were infants: will you be infants forever?

Uersari inmaturum infantia non capit <usus>
Lusus puerilis cessit: sic et corda recedant;
Moribus utique consilia uestra debentur.
Insipiens ergo Iouem tonitruare tu credis
Natum hic in terris et lacte caprino nutritum;
Ergo si illum deuorasset <pater> Saturnus,
In istis temporibus quis pluebat illo defuncto?
Praesertim mortali patre deus nasci credatur?

Infancy does not admit premature dalliance <usus>
Childish play has ceased: so too may hearts withdraw;
For your counsels ought certainly to be governed by morals.
Therefore, fool, do you believe that Jupiter thunders,
this one born on the earth and nursed on goat’s milk;
Therefore if that Saturn had devoured him,
in those times who rained, he being dead?
Especially, is it to be believed that a god is born of a mortal father?

Saturnus in terris senuit et defecit in ipsis.
Illum non aliquis prophetauit ante pronasci.
Uel, si tonat ipse, lex ab ipso lata fuisset.

Saturn on earth grew old and died there.
No one prophesied him before he was born.
Or, if he himself thunders, the law would have been issued by him.

Seducunt historiae, factus cum fue<rat ipse>.
Ille autem in Cretam regnauit et ibi defecit.
Omnipotens uobis factus Semelis amator.
Uix ipse modo similiter amaret, si uiuere<t> ille.

Histories mislead, when he himself had been made.
He, however, reigned in Crete and there died.
The Almighty became for you the lover of Semele.
Scarcely would he himself now love likewise, if that one were living.

Inpuros oratis et dicitis esse caelestes
Semine mortali natos de Gigantibus illis.
Auditis et legitis natum in terra fuisse:
Unde bene meruit corruptor ascendere caelum?
Dicitis et fulmen Ciclopas illi fecissent.

You worship the impure and call them celestial,
born of mortal seed from those Giants.
You hear and read that he was born on earth:
how then did the corrupter rightly deserve to ascend to heaven?
You also say that the Cyclopes made that thunderbolt for him.

Inmortalis enim habuit a mortalibus arma.
Tot reum criminibus, parricidam quoque suorum,
Ex auctoritate uestra contulistis in altum.

For the immortal indeed possessed arms taken from mortals.
With so many guilty of crimes, even a parricide of his own,
by your authority you raised him up to high place.

6 DE SEPTIZONIO ET STELLIS
De circulo zonae fallit uos imperitia uestra,
Ex eo quod forte Iouem experitis orandum.
Saturnus fertur ibi, sed stella, non ille; exfugit
Expulsus a Ioue. Aut Iouis in stella credatur
Poli quoque sidera tractauit solisque sator?

6 ON SEPTIZONIUS AND THE STARS
From the circle of the zone your ignorance deceives you,
because from that you, by chance, think Jupiter must be entreated.
Saturn is reported there, but a star, not he; he fled—
driven out by Jupiter. Or should Jupiter be believed to have been in the star,
who likewise handled the pole's stars and is the begetter of the sun?

Troianis qui bellum fecit, auem mortalem amauit.
Ipsis sideribus aut Mars qui cum ipsa deprehensus
Zelo maritali deus dominetur aduliscens?
O nimium stulti, qui putatis moechos ab astris
Nascentes regere aut tota<m> mundi natura<m>.
In uulnera positi et ipsi sub fata uiuentes,
Obsceni, furiosi, bellatores, impii uitae,
Et filios totidem mortales illi fecere:
Terribilis omnis, stulti, septizonio fortis!

He who made war on the Trojans loved a mortal bird.
Or is it Mars himself among the very stars, who, caught with her,
as a jealous husband-god would rule, a young god in marital zeal?
O you exceedingly foolish ones, who think that adulterers are governed by the stars
at birth, or that the whole nature of the world is thus.
Placed into wounds and themselves living under the fates,
obscene, raging, warriors, men of impious life,
and they begot as many mortal sons as well:
All terrible, fools, mighty in the sevenfold heaven!

Si stellas colitis, colite et bis sena sigilla!
Tam arietem, taurum, geminos, toruumque leonem
Et dein qui uadunt in piscibus tu quoque probabis.
Lex sine lege, fuga uestra, quod uult esse ualebit.

If you worship the stars, worship also the one hundred and twenty seals!
So the ram, the bull, the twins, and the grim lion
and then those who go in the fishes you too will approve.
Law without law, your flight; what it wishes to be will prevail.

Lasciua uult esse, sine freno uiuere quaerit.
Ipsi quod uultis erit, et deos et deas oratis.
Sic ego colui, dum erraui, quos modo culpo.

Lascivious she wishes to be, she seeks to live without a rein.
She herself will be what you wish, and you pray to gods and goddesses.
Thus I cherished those while I erred, whom now I blame.

7 DE S0LE ET LUNA
De Sole et Luna, licet sint praesentanea nobis,
Erratis; quod ego prius, putatis oranda.
Sunt quidem in astris, sed non sua sponte currunt
Omnipotens illos, cum conderet omnia primum,
Locauitque ibidem cum stellis quarta dierum.
Errorem antiquus quin cum ***
Et quidem in legem iussit, ne quis illos adoret.

7 DE S0LE ET LUNA
Of the Sun and Moon, although they are present to us,
you err; that which you think ought to be prayed to beforehand.
They are indeed among the stars, but they do not move of their own accord.
The Almighty, when he first founded all things,
placed them there with the stars as the fourth of the days.
Errorem antiquus quin cum ***
And indeed he commanded it into law, that no one should adore them.

Tot deos oratis, qui nihil de uita promittunt,
Lex quorum in terra non est, nec ipsi praedicti
Uos autem seducunt sacerdotes pauci <inanes>
Numina qui dicunt aliquid morituro prodesse.
Accedite legis <codicem> et di<s>cite uerum.

You pray to so many gods, who promise nothing of life,
whose law is not on earth, nor are they themselves predicted
But you are led astray by a few priests <inanes>
who say that numina will avail anything to one dying.
Approach the law’s <codicem> and di<s>cite the truth.

8 MERCURIUS
Mercurius uester fiat cum arabylo depictus
Et galea et planta, pinnatus et cetera nudus.
Rem uideo miram, deum <cum> saccello uolare:
Currite pauperculi, cum gremio quo uolat ille,
Ut sacculum effundat: uos extunc estote parati.
Respicite pictum: quando uobis hic ab alto
Iactabit nummos, uos tunc saltate securi.

8 MERCURIUS
May your Mercury be made portrayed with an arabylo,
And helmet and sandals, winged and otherwise naked.
I see a wondrous thing, a god flying with a little purse:
Run, poor little ones, to the bosom from which he flies,
So that he may pour out the little bag: be ready from now on.
Look upon the painted image: when from on high
will he cast coins to you, then leap carefree.

Uane, non insanis, colere deos pictos in axe?
Si uiuere recte nescis, cum besteis perge morari.

Fool, are you not mad, to worship gods painted on an axle?
If you do not know how to live rightly, go on dwelling with the beasts.

9 NEPTUNUS
Neptunum facitis deum ex Saturno pronatum,
Et tridentem regit, ut pisces suffigere possit.
Paret esse deum + cumerale illi parate!
Troianis non ipse cum Apolline muros eduxit?

9 NEPTUNE
You make Neptune a god prostrate from Saturn,
and he wields a trident, so that he may impale fishes.
Let him seem a god — prepare a cumerale for him!
Did he not himself, with Apollo, raise the walls for the Trojans?

Unde deus factus inops cimentarius ille?
Non Cyclopem genuit monstrum? non moechus et ipse?

Whence was that god made a needy mason?
Did that monster not beget a Cyclops? Was he not himself an adulterer?

Uiuere non poterat de suo, quod structura<m> gerebat.
Sic genuit generatus, qui fuit iam mortuus olim.

He could not live from his own, because of what the structura<m> was bearing.
Sic genuit generatus, qui fuit iam mortuus olim.

10 APOLLO SORTILEGUS FALSUS
Apollinem facitis citharoedum atque diuinum.
Primum de moechia natus in insula Delo,
Oblata mercede postmodum structura<s> secutus
Laomedonti regi Troianorum muros eduxit
Locauitque sese, quem deum seducti putatis;
Ossibus cuius amor Cassandrae flagrauit,
Subdole quem lusit uirgo, falliturque diuinus
Officio uerbenis <is> potuit scire bicorde<m>,
Repudiatus enim discessit inde diuinus.
Terruit hunc uirgo specie, quam ille deberet.

10 APOLLO SORTILEGUS FALSUS
You make Apollo a cithara-player and divine.
First born of adultery on the island of Delos,
having accepted a proffered fee, afterwards he followed the trade <s> of building
and led out the walls of the Trojans for King Laomedon
and took up his place, him whom you suppose to have been a god seduced;
whose bones the love of Cassandra burned,
whom the maiden slyly played, and the divine man is deceived
by the office of herbs <is> he could learn with a two‑hearted mind <m> ,
for repudiated he departed thence as divine.
The maiden terrified this man with a form which he ought to have given.

Illa prior utique debuerat deum amasse.
Lasciuientemque Daphnem sic coepit amare.
Et tamen insequitur, dum uult uiolare puellam:
Gratis amat stultus, nec potuit consequi cursum.

That former one indeed ought to have loved a god.
And thus he began to love lascivious Daphne.
And yet he pursues, while he wishes to violate the maiden:
The fool loves for naught, nor could he overtake her course.

Uel, si deus erat, occurreret illi per auras:
Sub tectis illa prior uenit remansitque diuinus.
Fallit uos genus hominum, nam improbi isti fuerunt.
A primitia quoque pecora pauisse refertur.

Or, if he were a god, he would meet her through the breezes:
Under roofs she came first, and the divine one remained.
The race of men deceives you, for those were wicked ones.
It is reported that even the first of the flock have fed.

Lusibus in positis dum mitteret discum in altum,
Sublapsum non potuit retinere prostrauit amicum:
Ultimus ille dies fuit Hyacinthi sodalis.
Si diuinus erat, mortem praecessisset amici.

While the games were set, as he hurled the discus on high,
having slipped he could not hold back and laid low his friend:
that day was the last day of Hyacinthus's companion.
If he were divine, he had anticipated the death of his friend.

11 LIBER PATER BACCHUS
Liberum patrem certe bis genitum dicitis ipsi.
In India natus ex Ioue Proserpina primum
Belligerans contra Titanas profuso cruore
Expirauit enim sicut ex mortalibus unus.
Rursus flato suo redditus in altero uentre.

11 BOOK LIBER, FATHER BACCHUS
You yourselves certainly say that Liber, the father, was born twice.
Born in India first from Jove and Proserpina
warring against the Titans with blood lavishly shed
for he died, like one of mortals.
Again returned by his breath into another womb.

Percipit hoc Semele iterum Iouis altera moecha,
Absciso cuius utero prope partu defunctae
Tollitur et datur Niso nutriendus alumnus.
Ex eo bis natus Dionisius ille uocatur,
Religio cuius in uacuo falsa curatur.
Bacchantur et illi, qualis nunc ipsi uidentur,
Aut pediculones mineruae omnisque scitoris.

Semele perceives this — the other adulteress of Jove once more,
whose womb, having been cut off from her who died near childbirth,
is lifted up and given to Nisos to be nourished as a foster-child.
From that one twice-born is he called Dionysus,
whose religion is falsely observed in an empty fashion.
They too rave as Bacchants, such as they themselves now appear,
or the little lice of Minerva and every inquisitor.

Conspirant in malo, proludunt fincto furore,
Ceteros ut fallant dicturos numen adesse.
Huic manifeste rudes homines suille uiuentes
Uino permutati, primo quod expresserat ille,
Sub ludicro suo honorem illi dedere.

They conspire in evil, they rehearse with feigned frenzy,
that they might make the others say a numen is present.
To him plainly rude men, living as swine,
changed by wine, on account of what he had first uttered,
under their sport gave him honor.

12 INVICTUS
Inuictus de petra natus si deus habetur,
Nunc ergo reticeo; uos de istis date priorem!
Uicit petra deum, quaerendus est petrae creator.
Insuper et furem adhuc depingitis esse,
Cum, si deus esset, utique non furto uiuebat.

12 INVICTUS
Invictus, born from a rock, if he is held to be a god,
Now therefore I hold my peace; you, speak first about those things!
The rock conquered the god; the maker of the rock must be sought.
Moreover you still paint him as a thief,
When, if he were a god, surely he would not have lived by theft.

Terrenus utique fuit et monstruosa natura
Uertebatque boues alienos semper in antris
Sicut et Cacus Uulcani filius ille.

He was indeed terrestrial and of monstrous nature,
and he always drove other men's oxen into caves
just as that Cacus, the son of Vulcan.

13 SILVANUS
Siluanus unde deus iterum apparuit esse?
Inde forte placet, eo quod bene fistula cantat?
Lar igitur quando?

13 SILVANUS
Silvanus — whence did the god appear again to be?
Does it then perhaps please, because the pipe sings well?
Lar, then, when?

lignum nam forte non esset.
Uenalem emisti dominum, cum tu ipse sis illi.
Aspice, deficit lignum!

for perhaps there would be no wood.
you have bought for sale the master, since you yourself belong to him.
behold, the wood is failing!

quid illi debetur?
Non te pudet, stulte, tales adorare tabellas?
Unum quaere Deum, qui post mortem uiuere dicit!

what is owed to him?
Are you not ashamed, fool, to worship such tablets?
Seek the one God, who says he lives after death!

Secede ab istis, qui sunt biothanati facti.

Depart from those who have been made biothanati.

14 HERCLES
Hercules quod monstrum Auentini montis elisit
Euandri qui solitus erat armenta furare,
Rustica mens hominum, indocilis quoque, pro laude
Cum gratias agere uellent, absentis Tonantis
Laetandas aras in memoriam sibi fecerunt.
Ex eo porrexit, de uetusto more colatur.
Sed deus hic non est, licet fuit fortis in armis.

14 HERCLES
Hercules, who struck down the monster of the Aventine hill
and Euander, who was wont to steal herds,
the rustic mind of men, also unlearned, when they wished to give thanks as a form of praise,
made for themselves, in memory, altars to be rejoiced for the absent Thunderer.
From that it arose, and is celebrated according to ancient custom.
But this is not a god, although he was mighty in arms.

15 DE DIS DEABUSQUE
Dicitis esse deos, qui sunt manifeste cruenti,
Et dicitis fata genesis adscribere nobis?
Dicite nunc ergo, quibus primum sacra ferantur:
Inter utrumque uias mors inmatura uagatur.
Si tribuunt fata genesis, cur deum oratis?

15 DE DIS DEABUSQUE
You say there are gods, who are manifestly bloody,
And you say that the fates of genesis are ascribed to us?
Say now then, to whom first are the sacred rites carried:
Between the two ways death wanders untimely.
If the fates of genesis allot them, why do you pray to gods?

Deciperis, uane, qui Manes quaeris orare,
Et qui fabricantur dominos tibi nuncupas esse.
Aut feminas quoque nescio quas deas oratis,
Bellonam et Nemesim, deas Furinam, Caelestem,
Uirginis, et Uenerem, cui coniuges uestrae delumbant.
Sunt alia praeterea daemonia <procul a> fanis,
Quae nec numerantur adhuc et in collo feruntur,
Ut nec ipsi sibi possint rationem reddere pestis.

You are deceived, O vain one, who seek to pray to the Manes,
and who call those who are fabricated your lords.
Or you also pray to some I know not what women-goddesses,
Bellona and Nemesis, the goddess Furina, Caelestis,
the Virgin, and Venus, to whom your wives perform lustrations.
There are other daemona besides <procul a> from the shrines,
which are not yet numbered and are carried on the neck,
so that not even the pestilence itself can render an account to itself.

Exportari magis in ultima terra deberent.

They ought rather to be exported to the uttermost land.

16 DE SIMULACRIS EORUM
Deludunt uos pauci scelerati uates inanes,
Extricare suam dum quaerunt ** uitam.
Subornant aliis ex se sub mysteria falsum.
Inde simulantes concussi numine quodam
Maiestatemque canunt et se sub figura fatigant.

16 DE SIMULACRIS EORUM
A few wicked, empty vates deceive you,
they seek to extricate their own **life** while they pursue it.
They suborn for others, from themselves, a falsehood under mysteries.
Thence feigning, shaken by a certain numen,
and they chant majesty and weary themselves under a guise.

Uidistis saepe Duellonarios, quali fragore
Luxurias ineunt, dum furias fingere quaerunt,
Aut cum dorsa sua allidunt parca bipinne,
Cum doctrina sua cernant, quod cruore sanent.
Respicite, quando non illos numina cogunt,
Ipsi qui se primum conponunt integra mente;
Sed stipem ut tollant ingenia talia quaerunt.
Ex eo uidete, quoniam sunt omnia ficta.

Have you often seen the Duellonarii, with what crash Luxuries enter,
while they seek to fashion furies,
or when with their backs they strike with the sparing two‑edged axe,
when by their learning they discern what they cure with blood.
Behold, since the numina do not compel them,
they who first compose themselves with an intact mind;
but they seek such arts in order to raise a fee.
From this see, since all things are feigned.

Obumbrant populum supplicem, perituri ne credant.
Res semel in uano de uetustate processit,
Ut uaticinanti credatur prodita falsa;
Maiestas autem illorum nulla locutust.

They cast a shadow over the suppliant people, lest those about to perish should trust.
Once a matter from antiquity went forth in vain,
so that the seer might be believed in that which is betrayed false;
but their majesty has spoken nothing.

17 DE AMMUDATE ET DEO MAGNO
Diximus iam multa de superstitione nefanda,
Et tamen exsequimur, ne quod praeterisse dicamur.
Ammudatem qui suum cultores more colebant,
Magnus erat illis, quando fuit aurum in aedem.
Mittebant capita sub numine quasi praesenti.

17 ON AMMUDATE AND THE GREAT GOD
We have already said much about the wicked superstition,
and yet we pursue it, lest we be said to have omitted anything.
Ammudate, whom his cultors worshipped in the accustomed manner,
was great to them, while there was gold in the temple.
They thrust their heads under the numen as if it were present.

Uentum est ad summum, ut Caesar tolleret aurum:
Deficit numen aut fugit aut transit in ignem.
Auctor huius sceleris constat, qui formabat eundem.
Tot uiros et magnos seduxit false prophetans,
Et modo retacuit qui solebat esse diuinus.

It came to a head, that Caesar should take away the gold:
The numen fails, either flees or passes into fire.
The author of this crime is manifest, he who devised the same.
He has seduced so many men and great ones, prophesying falsely,
And now he has been brought low who was wont to be called divine.

Erumpebat enim uocis quasi mente mutata,
Tamquam illi deus ligni loqueretur in aurem.
Dicite nunc ipsi, si non sunt numina falsa.
Ex eo prodigio, quod perdidit, ille propheta
Oblitus est iste prophetare, qui ante solebat.

For he burst forth in voice as if his mind were altered,
as though to him the god of the wooden image spoke into his ear.
Say now yourselves, if these are not false numina.
From that prodigy which he had contrived, that prophet
forgot how to prophesy, he who before had been wont to do so.

Monstra deo ista fincta sunt per uiniuoraces,
Audacia quorum damnabilis numina fingit.
Gestabantur enim, et aliut tale sigillum:
Nunc et ipse silet, nec ullus de illo prophetat.
O nimium <stulti>, sed uos ipsos perdere uultis.

These wonders for a god were fabricated by vine-eaters,
whose audacity fashions damnable numina.
For moreover there was borne another such signet:
Now even he is silent, nor does any one prophesy about him.
O too <stulti>, but you yourselves desire to destroy yourselves.

18 NEMESIACIS VANIS
Non ignominium est uirum seduci prudentem
Et colere talem aut Dianam dicere lignum?
Mane ebrio, crudo, perituro creditis uno,
Ex arte qui fincte loquitur, quod illi uidetur;
Se uere deum agit, sibi uiscera poscit.
Incopriat ciues unus detestabilis omnes
Adplicuitque sibi similis collegio facto,
Cum quibus historiam fingit, ut deum adornet.

18 NEMESIACIS VANIS
It is not a disgrace for a prudent man to be led astray
and to worship such, or to call Diana a piece of wood?
In the morning one you trust — drunk, raw, about to perish —
who by art speaks what is feigned, what seems to him;
he truly plays god, demanding entrails for himself.
One detestable citizen curses all the citizens,
and has attached to himself a like-minded college formed,
with whom he fabricates a history to deck himself out as a god.

Ipse sibi nescit diuinare, ceteris audet.
Succollat, quando libet, eum, et quando, deponit;
Uertitur a se rotans cum ligno bifurci,
Ac si putes illum adflatum numine ligni.
Non deos uos colitis, quos isti false prophetant:
Ipsos sacerdotes colitis in uano timentes.

He himself does not know how to divine for himself, yet he dares for others.
He props him up whenever he pleases, and when he wills, lays him down;
He is turned by him, revolving with a forked piece of wood,
And as if you would think him inspired by the numen of the wood.
You do not worship gods whom those falsely prophesy;
You worship the very priests, fearing them in vain.

Sed si corde uiges, fuge iam sacraria mortis.

But if you flourish in heart, flee now the shrines of death.

19 TITANES
Titanes uobis tutanos dicitis esse;
Ita Mutas, Tacitas sub culmine uestro rogatis,
Tot Lares aediculis, simulacra facta titano!
Adoratis enim stulti malo leto defunctos,
Non legem ipsorum legentes; non ipsi loquuntur,
Et deos audetis eramine dicere fusos?
Solueretis eos magis in uascula uobis.

19 TITANES
You call the Titans your protectors;
thus you beseech the Mute Ones, the Silent Ones beneath your roof,
so many Lares in little shrines, images made a titan!
for you, foolish, adore those dead by evil death,
not reading their own law; they themselves do not speak,
and do you dare to call the gods hewn-out of wood?
you would rather melt them down into little vessels for yourselves.

20 MONTESIANIS
Monteses deos dicitis, dominentur in aruo
Obscurati malo aliena mente iurantes.
Nam si purus animus et mens serena maneret
Tu tibi de illis ipsi disputare deberes.
Excordaris homo, si putas, ut isti te saluent
Seu regant, seu minuant, nisi quod tu fani decurris.

20 MONTESIANIS
You call the Montesians gods; let them hold sway in the field
having been darkened by evil, swearing with an alien mind.
For if a pure spirit and a serene mind remained,
you yourself would have to dispute to yourself about them.
You are bereft of heart, man, if you think that those will save you,
whether they rule or diminish, except that you run down to the shrine.

Iustitiam legis quaere magis quam illa, salutis
Auxilium portat et fieri dicit aeternum.
Nam quicquid in uano sequeris, per tempora gaudes
In breui laetaris et postmodum plangis in imis:
Subtrahe te illis, si uis resurgere Christo.

Iustitiam legis seek rather than that; it bears the aid of salvation and is said to be made eternal.
For whatever you follow in vain, you rejoice through times; briefly you are glad and afterwards you lament in the lowest depths:
Withdraw yourself from those things, if you wish to rise again to Christ.

21 HEBETUDO SAECULI
Heu doleo, ciues, sic uos hebetari de mundo!
Excurrit alius ad sortis, aues aspicit alter
Belantum cruore fuso malus inspicit alter
Et cupit audire responsa bona crudelis,
Tot duces et reges ubi sunt consulti de uita.
Uel portenta sua scisse quo profuit illi?

21 HEBETUDO SAECULI
Alas I grieve, citizens, that you are thus dulled from the world!
One runs forth to the casting of lots, another observes the birds;
another, wicked, inspects the blood poured from the slain,
and the cruel one yearns to hear favorable responses,—
where are so many leaders and kings consulted about life?
Or of what use was it to him to have known his own portents?

Di<s>cite quaeso bonum, ciues, simulacra cauete:
Omnipotentis enim in legem quaerite cuncti.
Sic ipsi conplacuit domino dominorum in altis
Ad probationem nostram daemones in mundo uag<ar>i.
****************
Caelestis fieri qui relinquant aras eorum.
Unde non hoc curo disputari paruo libello:
Lex docet in medio; oror consulete pro uobis!

Di<s>cite quaeso bonum, ciues, simulacra cauete:
Learn, I pray, the good, citizens, and beware the idols:
Omnipotentis enim in legem quaerite cuncti.
For all of you seek into the law of the Omnipotent.
Sic ipsi conplacuit domino dominorum in altis
Thus it pleased the Lord of lords on high
Ad probationem nostram daemones in mundo uag<ar>i.
that demons should wander in the world for our trial.
****************
Caelestis fieri qui relinquant aras eorum.
Those who forsake their altars may be made heavenly.
Unde non hoc curo disputari paruo libello:
Wherefore I do not care that this be debated in a little booklet:
Lex docet in medio; oror consulete pro uobis! The law teaches in the midst; I beseech you—consult for yourselves!

In duas intrastis uias: condiscite rectam.

You have entered two roads: choose the right one.

22 DE UBIQUE PARATIS
Dum uentri seruis, innocentem esse te dicis,
Et quasi communis facis te ubique paratum.
Uae tibi, stulte homo, mortem circumspicis ipse,
Barbaro de more sine lege uiuere quaeris:
Ipse tibi figis asciam in crure de uerbo.
Qui simplicem fingis, simpliciter uiue cum isto.

22 ON BEING PREPARED EVERYWHERE
While you serve the belly, you say that you are innocent,
And as if common, you make yourself ready everywhere.
Woe to you, foolish man, you yourself look about for death,
You seek to live in barbarian fashion, without law:
You yourself fix for yourself an axe in your leg by a word.
You who feign simplicity, live simply with that one.

Uiuere te credis, dum uentrem cupis implere.
Exiguus tua in domo resedes, praue,
Paratus ad epulas, et refugis cenae praecepta.
Aut quia discredis Deum iudicare defunctos,
Rectorem caeli facis te tu forte pro illo?

You think yourself to live, while you desire to fill your belly.
Your exiguous goods will remain in your house, perverse,
ready for feasts, and you shun the precepts of the supper.
Or because you disbelieve that God judges the dead,
do you perhaps make yourself the Ruler of heaven in his stead?

Aspicis ad uentrem, quasi tu sis prouidus illi.
Tu modo profanus, modo sanctus esse uideris.
In supplicem prodis Dei sub aspectu, tyranne.

You gaze upon the belly, as if you were provident for it.
You now seem profane, now seem holy.
You come forth as a supplicant under the aspect of God, tyrant.

Senties in fatis, cuias modo legem inanis.

You will feel in the fates the law which you just now made void.

23 INTER UTRUMQUE VIVENTIBUS
Inter utrumque putans dubie uiuendo carere
Nudatus a lege, decrepitus luxu praecedis.
Tot, uane, <luxurias> prospicis; quid quaeris iniqua?
Et quidquid egistis, istinc remanere defuncto
Respicite!

23 BETWEEN BOTH WHILE LIVING
Thinking yourself between the two, hoping to lack by living doubtfully,
Stripped of law, worn out by luxury you go before.
So many, O vain one, <luxurias> you foresee; what unjust thing do you seek?
And whatever you have done, to remain there thence when dead—
Look back!

Stulte, non eras, et ecce uideris!
Unde processisti nescis nec unde nutriris.
Tu Deum excelsum fugis tuae uitae benignum
Rectoremque tuum, qui te magis uiuere uelit;
Uertis te in faciem et dorsum Deo remittis,
Mergis te in tenebris, dum putas te in lucem morari.

Fool, you were not, and behold you will be seen!
You do not know whence you proceeded nor whence you are nourished.
You flee the high God, the benign ruler of your life
and your Rector, who would rather have you live;
You turn your face and give your back to God,
you plunge yourself into darkness, while you think yourself to remain in the light.

Quid in sinagoga decurris saepe bifarius?
Exis inde foris, iterum tu fana requiris;
Uis inter utrumque uiuere, sed inde peribis.
Insuper et dicis: 'Quis est, qui a morte reuenit
Ut credamus ei, quoniam ibi poenas aguntur?'
Ea non sunt sic, ut tu putas esse, maligne!

Why do you run about in the synagogue so often in two ways?
You go out thence into the open, again you seek the fanas;
You wish to live between both, but from that you will perish.
Moreover you say: 'Who is there who has returned from death
that we should believe him, since there punishments are exacted?'
Those things are not thus, as you malignly think!

Nam illique prodest post funera, recte qui uixit,
Tu tamen mox moreris, duceris in loco maligno;
In Christo credentes autem in loco benigno,
Blanditurque quibus haeret amoenitas illa.
Uos autem dubios uiuos sine corpore poena
Suscitat in faciem tortoris sero clamare.

For to that man it avails after funerals who lived rightly,
but you, however, will soon die, you will be led into a malign place;
those who believe in Christ, however, into a benign place,
and that pleasantness flatters those to whom it clings. But it rouses you, the doubtful, alive, a punishment without body,
to cry out late in the face of the torturer.

24 QUI IMENTET? NON CREDENT
Quamdiu, stulte homo, Christum cognoscere non uis?
Uitas agrum pinguem et stereli semina iactas.

24 QUI IMENTET? NON CREDENT
Quamdiu, stulte homo, Christum cognoscere non uis?
Uitas agrum pinguem et sterili semina iactas.

In silua manere quaeris, ubi latro moratur.
Ingredere iam nunc totiens inuitatus in aula:
Matura iam messis, tempus totidemque paratum,
Ecce modo mete, quodsi non te paenitet inde.
Nunc, si non habes, collige; uindemia uenit;
Tempus adest uitae credenti tempore mortis.

You seek to remain in the forest where a robber dwells.
Enter now, even now so often invited, into the hall:
The harvest is already ripe, the time likewise prepared,
See, only reap — unless you will regret it afterwards.
Now, if you have not, gather; the vintage comes;
The time is at hand: for the believer, the moment of death is life.

Est Dei lex prima fundamentum posterae legis,
Teque designabat, crederes in lege secunda;
Nec minus et ipsos et ex ipsa sibi prudentes
Obstupe iam factus ora tu credere Christo,
Nam testamentum uetus de isto proclamat.
Credere nun<c> opus est, tantum in isto defunctum
Resurgere posse <et> uiuere tempore toto.
Ergo si quis ea discredis esse futura
Dummodo uincetur reus in morte secunda,
Euentura canam paucis in isto libello
Nam cognosci potest, ubi sit spes uitae ponenda.

The first law of God is the foundation of the later law,
and it pointed to you, that you should believe in the second law;
Nor less did it likewise point out them themselves, and from it those prudent for their own sake;
Be now struck dumb, your mouth, to believe in Christ,
for the old testament proclaims concerning this.
Now it is necessary to believe that the one dead in this
can rise again and live for all time.
Therefore if anyone doubts that these things will be future,
provided only that the guilty one be overcome in the second death,
I will sing what is to come in few words in this little book;
for it can be known where the hope of life must be placed.

Tamen uos adhortor quantocius credere Christo.

Nevertheless I exhort you to believe in Christ as soon as possible.

25 REPUGNANTIBUS ADVERSUS LEGEM CHRISTI DEI VIVI
Respuis, infelix, bonum disciplinae caelestis
Et ruis in mortem, dum uis sine freno uagari.
Perdunt te luxuriae et breuia gaudia mundi,
Unde sub inferno cruciaberis tempore toto.
Gaudia sunt uana, quibus oblectaris inepte.

25 REPUGNANTIBUS ADVERSUS LEGEM CHRISTI DEI VIVI
You reject, unhappy one, the good of heavenly discipline
And rush into death, while you wish to wander without rein.
The lusts of luxury and the brief pleasures of the world destroy you,
Whence beneath Hell you will be tormented for all time.
The joys by which you delight yourself are vain, and foolishly so.

Non illa te reddunt hominem fuisse defunctum.
Anni te non possunt iam triginta reddere doctum?
Nescius si primum errasti, respice canum.

Those things do not show that you were a dead man.
Can thirty years not now render you learned?
If you erred at first unknowingly, look to the dogs.

Tu putas nunc uitam isti te perfrui laetum?
Iniurias, lites ibi sunt et damna diurnum,
Bella uel infanda, fraudes, cum sanguine furta,
Ulceribus corpus uexatur gemiturque, ploratur,
Seu luis inuadit aut longo morbo teneris,
Aut natis orbaris, aut perdita coniugula defles;
Destruitur totum, ruunt dignitatis ab alto;
Ureris pauperie dupliciter certe si languis:
Et dicis uitam, ubi uitrea uita moraris?
Respice iam tandem hoc tempus inritum esse;
Sed in futuro tibi spes est sine dolo uiuendi.

Do you think now to enjoy that life happily?
There are injuries, lawsuits, and daily losses there,
wars or unspeakable deeds, frauds, thefts with blood,whether plague invades or you are held by a long disease,
or you are bereft of children, or you lament a lost little spouse;
the whole is destroyed, the heights of dignity collapse from on high;
you will be consumed by poverty doubly, certainly, if you languish:
and do you call life that in which you delay a glassy life?
Consider now at last that this time is void;
but in the future there is hope for you of living without guile.

Uiuere uoleba<n>t utique paruoli rapti,
Sed uita priuati iuuenes senescere forte,
Lautities diues perfrui quia ipse parabat;
Et tamen inuiti reli<n>quimus omnia mundo.
Gens et ego fui peruersa mente moratus
Et uitam istius saeculi coram esse putabam
Mortemque similiter sicut uos iudicabam adesse,
Cum semel exisset animus, perisse defunctum.
Haec autem sic non sunt; sed conditor orbis et auctor
Requisiuit enim fratrem a fratre peremptum:
Impie, dic, inquit, ubinam frater?

They certainly wanted to live, the little ones having been snatched,<n>
But the youths, deprived of life, might perhaps grow old,
They might enjoy wealthy luxury because he himself provided it;
And yet unwillingly we left all things to the world.<n> Gens et ego fui perversa mente moratus
And I and the people remained with perverse mind
And I used to think the life of this age to be present before me
And I judged death likewise to be present, as you do,
That once the soul had gone forth, the deceased had perished.
But these things are not so; but the Creator and Author of the world
for he demanded the brother slain from his brother:
"Impious one," he said, "where is your brother?"

Ille negauit.
Sanguis enim fratris ad me perclamauit in altum.
Torqueris, uideo, ubi nil sentire putabas,
Ille autem uiuet et loca dextera tenet,
Delicias fruitur, quas tu perdidisti, nefande!

He denied it.
For the blood of his brother cried aloud to me up to the heights.
You are tormented, I see, where you thought you would feel nothing,
But he will live and holds the right-hand places,
He enjoys the delights which you lost, impious one!

Et cum renouasti saeculum, et ille praegressus
Iam <in>mortalis erit; nam tu sub tartara planges.
Uiuet certe Deus, qui defunctos uiuere fecit
Innocuisque bonis ut reddat praemia digna,
Uesanis autem et impiis tartara saeua.
Incipe sentire iudicia Dei, seducte!

And when you renew the age, and that one gone before
will now be <in>mortal; for you lament beneath Tartarus.
Certainly God will live, who made the dead to live
and to the innocent and to the good to give worthy rewards,
but for the mad and the impious Tartarus is savage.
Begin to feel the judgments of God, O seducer!

26 STULTE NON PERMORERIS DEO
Stulte, non permoreris nec mortuus effugis actus,
Tu licet disponas nihil te sentire defuncto.
Uinceris, insipiens: uiuit Deus conditor orbis,
Legitima cuius clamat ualere defuncto.
Tu autem dum praeceps sine Deo uiuere quaeris,
Extinctum in fatis iudicas aut fatale credis.

26 STULTE NON PERMORERIS DEO
Fool, you will not remain nor, being dead, escape action;
though you may arrange that you feel nothing as one deceased.
You are overcome, unwise one: God, maker of the orb, lives,
whose legitimate power proclaims that it avails for the dead.
But you, while headlong you seek to live without God,
judge him extinguished in the fates or hold him fatal.

Non ita disposuit, ut tu putas, Deus aeternus,
Obliuitos esse mortuos de gesto priore.
Nunc nobis imperita fecit receptacula mortis,
Post cineres autem nostros uidebimus illa.
Erue te, stulte, qui putas, post funera non sis.

God eternal did not so dispose, as you think, that the dead be forgotten for their former deeds.
Now he has made for us the receptacles of death unknown;
after our ashes, however, we shall see those things.
Rouse yourself, fool, you who think that you will not be after your funeral.

Rectorem dominumque tuum nihil posse fecisti.
Mors autem in uacuum non est, si corde retractes.
Optandum noscas, nam sero senties illum.

You have made your rector and lord able to do nothing.
Death, however, is not emptiness, if you recall it in your heart.
Know him to be desirable, for you will feel him too late.

Rector eras carnis, non te certe caro regebat;
Exemptus ab illa reconditur illa tuorum.
Recte mortalis homo separatur a carne.
Idcirco nec poterint oculi mortales aequare,
Sic habet abyssus noster de Dei secreta.

You were a ruler of the flesh, yet the flesh certainly did not rule you;
Taken from her, that one of your own is laid to rest.
Rightly a mortal man is separated from the flesh.
Therefore mortal eyes cannot equal it,
Thus our abyss holds the secrets of God.

Da nunc ergo Deo, fragilis dum moreris, honorem,
Et crede, quod Christus uiuum te de mortuo reddit.
Omnipotenti laudes in ecclesia reddere debes.

Therefore now give to God honor, while you, fragile, are delaying,
and believe that Christ restores you alive from the dead.
You must render praises to the Almighty in the church.

27 IUSTI RES URGUNT
Iustitia et bonitas, pax et patientia uera
Uiuere post fata faciunt et quaeri de actu:
Subdola mens autem, <in>noxia, perfida, praua
Tollit se in parte et fera mente moratur.
Impie, nunc audi, qui <uis> malefacta lucrari:
Respice terrenos iudices, in corpore qui nunc
Excruciant poenis diros: aut ferro parantur
Supplicia meritis aut longo carcere flere.
Ultime tu speras Deum inridere caelestem
Rectoremque poli, per quem sunt omnia facta?

27 THE MATTERS OF THE RIGHTEOUS URGE
Justice and goodness, true peace and patience
make to live after death and to be sought concerning deed:
But the deceitful mind, inharmful? noxious, perfidious, perverse
lifts itself aside and dwells with a savage mind.
Impiously, now hear, you who wish to profit by evil deeds:
Consider the earthly judges, who now in the body
are tormented by dreadful punishments: either punishments are prepared by iron
for the deserved, or to bewail in long prison.
At last do you hope to mock God the heavenly
and the Ruler of the sky, through whom all things were made?

Grassaris, insanis, detractas nunc et Dei nomen?
Unde non effugies, poenam post fata qui ponet.
Nunc uolo sis cautus, ne uenias ignis in aestu.

You rail, you rave, and now you cast reproaches even on the name of God?
From which you will not escape, him who will lay punishment after death.
Now I will that you be cautious, lest you come into fire in its blaze.

Trade te iam Christo, ut te benefacta sequantur.

Hand yourself over now to Christ, that good deeds may follow you.

28 DIVITI INCREDULO MALO
Differ<r>is, diues, nimium tua cuncta uidendo,
Insatiabiliter quibus adhuc adicere quaeris.
Uiuere post ista, dicis, non spero defunctus.
Ingrate summo Deo, qui sic Deum iudicas esse,
Te qui nesciente protulit, deinde nutriuit;
Ipse prata tua, gubernat uineas ipse,
Ipse greges pecorum et quicquid possides ipse,
Nec istis adtendistis.

28 TO THE RICH, UNBELIEVING WICKED
You put off, rich man, delaying by beholding all your things too much,
Insatiably to which you still seek to add.
You say, I do not hope to live after these things when dead.
Ungrateful to the Highest God, whom thus you judge to be God,
He who, without your knowing, brought you forth, and then nourished you;
He himself made your meadows, he himself governs your vineyards,
He himself [made] the flocks of beasts and whatever you possess himself,
And you did not heed these things.

Aut tu regis omnia forte?
Caelum hoc et terram et maria salsa qui fecit,
Reddere decreuit nos ipsos in aureo saeclo
Et modo si credis, uiuitur in Dei secreta.
Disce Deum, stulte, qui uult te inmortalem adesse
Ut gratias illi referas in agone perennis.

Or do you perhaps rule all things?
He who made this heaven and earth and the salt seas
decreed that we ourselves be restored in the golden age
and now, if you believe, one lives in the secrets of God.
Know God, fool, who wills you to be present immortal
that you may render thanks to him in the perpetual contest.

Lex docet ipsius, sed quia uagari tu quaeris,
Omnia discredis et inde in tartara ibis:
Mox animam reddis, duceris quo te paenitet esse.
At luitur ibi poena spiritalis aeterna;
Lugia sunt semper, nec permoreris in illa
Omnipotentem Deum iam tunc ibi sero proclamans.

The law teaches of him himself, but because you long to wander,
you unlearn all things and thence into Tartarus you will go:
soon you give up your soul, you are led to where you will repent having been.
But there is borne an eternal spiritual punishment;
laments are perpetual, nor will you linger in that place
proclaiming Almighty God then there, too late.

29 DIVITES HUMILES ESTOTE
Disce, moriture, bonum ostendere cunctis.
In medio populi quid te facis alterum esse?
Uadis ubi nescis, et inscius inde recedis;
Impie tractas, cum ipso corpore sitis
Tu super diuitias, nimium te tollis in altum
Et <fe>stiua ducis nec respicis pauperes ultro
Subditos nunc uobis, nec parentes pascitis ipsos.

29 RICH, BE HUMBLE
Learn, you who are about to die, to show good to all.
In the midst of the people, why do you make yourself different?
You go where you do not know, and ignorantly you withdraw from there;
You behave impiously, while you are in the very body.
You place yourself above riches, you lift yourself up too high
And <fe>stiua you lead, nor do you look back on the poor of your own accord
You now have subjects under you, and you do not feed even the parents themselves.

Heu miseri! fugiant longius mediocres a uobis.
'Uixit et extinxit pauper' ebriace clames.

Alas, wretches! let the mediocre flee far from you.
"He lived and he perished, the poor man," you cry drunkenly.

Mox furiis ageris, cum pereas ipse, Carybdis.
Indisciplinati sicut <pecora> diuites estis:
Legem datis istis, nam uobis parcitis ipsis.
Exuite, diuites, tantis malis Deo peruersos,
Subueniat utique tibi, qui nunc operati si forte.

Soon you shall be driven by furies, when you yourself perish, Carybdis.
You wealthy are undisciplined like <pecora>:
You make law for them, for you spare them for your own advantage.
Cast off, rich men, turned away from God by such evils,
May he indeed come to your aid, who now perhaps are at work.

Estote communes minimis, dum tempus habetis;
Sicut ulmus amat uitem, sic ipsi pusillos.
Terribilem legem malis bonis atque benigna<m>
Obserua nunc sterelis, subditus in prosperis esto;
Tollite corda fraudis, diuites, et sumite pacis.
Expiate malum uestrum benefactis a Summo.

Be communal in little things while you have time;
As the elm loves the vine, so love ye the little ones yourselves.
Observe a terrible law: harsh to the wicked and kindly to the good.
Now keep silence, be submissive in prosperity;
Put away hearts of fraud, O rich, and take up peace.
Atone for your evil by good deeds toward the Highest.

30 IUDICIBUS SIBI PLACENTIBUS
Intuite dicta Salominis, iudices omnes,
Uno uerbo suo qualiter uos ille detractat:
Dona quam et xenia corrumpunt iudices omnes!
Inde 'nimis', sequit<ur>, 'datorem semper amatis',
Cum quaerit<ur>, causa uictoriam tollit iniqua.
Innocens hic ego sum, nec uos incuso pusillus,
Blasphemium tollat Salomon, qui <clamat> aperte.

30 TO JUDGES PLEASING TO THEMSELVES
Consider the sayings of Solomon, all you judges,
in his one word how he detracts you:
Gifts and even xenia corrupt all judges!
Hence 'nimis', it follows, 'you always love the giver',
When sought, an unjust cause robs victory.
I am innocent here, nor, as a pusillus, do I accuse you,
Let Solomon, who proclaims it openly, remove the blasphemy.

'Uobis autem Deus est uenter et praemia iura.'
Suggerit hoc Paulus apostolus, non ego pulex.
Si locus aut tempus fauet aut persona prouenit,
Iudex esto tuus. Quod nunc extolleris inde?

'To you, however, God is belly and rewards are rights.'
Paul the apostle suggests this, not I, a flea.
If place or time favor, or a person proves suitable,
be your own judge. Why are you now exalted on that account?

Blasphema<s>, indocilis: de cuius praestantia uiuis,
In fragilitate tanta non respicis umquam.
Per gradu<m> et lucra auidus fortunae praesumis,
Lex tibi non ulla est, nec te in prosperitate dignos
Auro licet cenes cum turba choraulica semper
Cruciarium Dominum si non adorasti, peristi.
Et locus et tempus et persona tibi donatur,
Nunc si tamen credis; sin autem, pro eo timebis.

Blasphema<s>, indocilis: by whose preeminence you live,
in so great frailty you never cast a look back.
Through rank<m> and gains, greedy of fortune, you presume;
no law is any to you, nor does prosperity make you worthy;
though you may feast in gold always with a choral throng,
if you did not adore the Crucified Lord, you are lost.
And place and time and person are granted to you,
now, if indeed you believe; but if not, for that you will fear.

Tempera te Christo et ceruicem illi depone:
Isti honor remanet et tota fiducia rerum.
Blanditur quando tibi tempus nunc, cautior esto,
Ultima fatorum non prouidens, quae te oportet.
Sine Christo nec uixisse te conpotis unquam.

Temper yourself to Christ and lay down your neck to him:
To him honor remains and the whole trust of things.
When time flatters you now, be more cautious,
Not foreseeing the last things of fate, which you ought.
Without Christ you could never have lived.

31 SIBI PLACENTIBUS
Si locus aut tempus fauet aut persona prouenit,
Iudex esto tuus. Quod nunc extolleris inde?
Blasphema<s>, indocilis: de cuius praestantia uiuis,
In fragilitate tanta non respicis umquam.

31 SIBI PLACENTIBUS
If place or time favor, or a person prospers,
be your own judge. What do you now exalt from that?
Blasphemer, unlearned: of whose excellence you live,
in so great a fragility you never take heed.

Per gradu<m> et lucra auidus fortunae praesumis,
Lex tibi non ulla est, nec te in prosperitate dignos
Auro licet cenes cum turba choraulica semper
Cruciarium Dominum si non adorasti, peristi.
Et locus et tempus et persona tibi donatur,
Nunc si tamen credis; sin autem, pro eo timebis.
Tempera te Christo et ceruicem illi depone:
Isti honor remanet et tota fiducia rerum.

Through gradu<m> and gains, greedy for fortune, you presume,
No law is yours, nor do you deem yourself worthy in prosperity;
Though you may dine on gold always with a choragic throng,
If you have not adored the Crucified Lord, you are lost.
Both place and time and person are granted to you,
Now if you nevertheless believe; but if not, for that you will fear.
Submit yourself to Christ and lay down your neck to him:
To him honor remains and the whole trust of things.

Blanditur quando tibi tempus nunc, cautior esto,
Ultima fatorum non prouidens, quae te oportet.
Sine Christo nec uixisse te conpotis unquam.

When time flatters you now, be more cautious,
not foreseeing the last things of fate, which behoove you.
Without Christ you are never capable of having lived.

32 GENTILIBUS
Gens sine pastore ferox iam noli uagare.
Et ego, qui moneo, idem fui nescius errans.
Nunc ideo Domini figuram sumite uestri,
Tollite corda fera et exasperate seorsum:
Intrate stabulis, siluestris, ad praesepia tauri,
Latronibus tuti sub regis tecta manentes.

32 TO THE GENTILES
Nation without a shepherd, fierce, do not roam any longer.
And I, who warn, was likewise ignorant, wandering.
Now therefore take on the figure of your Lord,
Lift up your savage hearts and cast cruelty aside:
Enter the stalls, O sylvan ones, to the ox’s mangers,
As robbers, remain safe beneath the king’s shelter.

In silua lupi sunt, ideo refugite sub antro.
Bellaris, insanis nec respicis, ubi moraris.
Uno crede Deo, ubi mortuus uiuere possis
Surgas et in regno, cum sit resurrectio iustis.

In the forest there are wolves, therefore take refuge under a cave.
Warlike one, do not regard the mad where you linger.
Trust in the one God, that though dead you may be able to live
Rise up and enter into the kingdom, since there is a resurrection for the righteous.

33 ITEM GENTILIBUS IGNARIS
Indomita ceruia respuit iugum ferre labori,
Tunc iuuat in campis crassis satiare cauliclis.
Et tamen inuita domatur utilis aeque
Minuiturque ferox esse perinde domata;
Gens, homo, tu frater, noli pecus esse ferinum,
Erue te tandem et tecum ipse retracta:
Non utique pecus nec besteis, sed homo natus,
Tu te ipse doma sapiens et intra sub antra.
Idola qui sequeris, nihil nisi uanitas aeui.

33 ALSO TO IGNORANT GENTILES
The untamed hind spurns to bear the yoke of labor,
Then it delights in the fields to sate on thick shoots.
And yet unwillingly the useful thing is tamed just the same
A fierce nature is lessened when domesticated;
People, man, thou brother, be not a wild herd,
Arise at last and draw thyself together:
Not surely a herd nor beastly, but born a man,
Thou thyself tame thyself, wise one, and enter beneath the caves.
The idols that thou followest are nothing but the vanity of life.

Leuia uos corda perducunt poenali barathro.
Ibi aurum, uestes, argentum ulnis refertis,
Ballatur ibi, dein cantatur pro psalmis amori.
Uitam esse putas, ubi ludi, aut prospicis ista:
Sortiris, ignare, extincta, aurea quaeris.

Light hearts lead you down into a penal abyss.
There you fill your arms with gold, garments, silver,
There one dances, then love is sung in place of psalms.
You think that life is where there are games, or you behold these things:
You choose, ignorant one; you seek golden things already extinguished.

Inde non effugies pestem, licet ipse diuines.
Gratiam, quam misit Dominus in terra legenda<m>,
Non requiris eam, sed sic quasi besteus errans.
Aurea post fata ueniet tibi saecla, si credis recte,
Rursus ut incipias inmortale uiuere semper.

From there you will not escape the pestilence, though you yourself divine.
The grace which the Lord sent on earth to be read<m>,
you do not seek it, but thus as if a beast wandering.
Golden ages will come to you after fate, if you believe rightly,
so that you may begin again to live immortal always.

Illud quoque datur scire, quod ante fuisti:
Subiectum te praebe Deo, qui cuncta gubernat.

That too is granted to know what you were before:
Offer yourself as subject to God, who governs all things.

34 ABCDEFGHIKLMNOPQRSTUXYZ
Adam protoplaustus ut Dei praecepta uitaret,
Belias seruator fuit de inuidia plasmae.
Contulisset nobis seu boni seu mali quod egit
Dux natiuitatis; morimur idemque per illum,
Ex diuino ipse ut recedens exsul factus a uerbo.
Finitis sex milibus annis inmortales erimus.

34 ABCDEFGHIKLMNOPQRSTUXYZ
Adam, the protoplast, that he might avoid the precepts of God,
Belias was guardian from the envy of the creature.
He would have conferred upon us, whether good or evil, what he wrought
the leader of birth; we die and likewise through him,
he himself, departing from the divine, was made an exile from the word.
When six thousand years are finished we shall be immortal.

Gustato pomo ligni mors intrauit in orbem:
Hoc ligno mortis quaeramus uitae futurae.
In ligno pendit uita ferens poma, praecepta:
Kapite nunc ligno uitali poma credentes.
Lex a <ligno> data est homini primitiuo timenda,
Mors unde prouenit neglecta lege primordi:
Nunc extende manum et sume de ligno uitali.

With the fruit of the wood tasted, death entered into the world:
By this wood of death let us seek the life to come.
On the wood hangs life bearing fruits, precepts:
Take now from the life-giving wood the fruits, believing.
The law was from <ligno> given to primitive man to be feared,
Whence death came, the origin neglected by the law at the first:
Now stretch forth your hand and take from the life-giving wood.

Optima lex Domini sequens de ligno processit;
Perdita lex prima; gustat, unde licet illi,
Qui deos adorat uetitos, mala gaudia uitae.
Respuite gustum; sufficiet scire quod esset.
Si <ui>uere uultis, reddite uos legi secundae,
Templorum cultura<m>, daemonum fana uitate.

The best law of the Lord, following, came forth from the wood;
the first law being lost; he tastes — whence it is permitted to him
who worships forbidden gods, the evil delights of life.
Reject the taste; it will suffice to know what it was.
If <ui>vere you wish to live, restore yourselves to the second law,
shun the cultivation<m> of temples, the fanes of demons.

Uertite uos Christo, et eritis Deo sodales.
Xancta Dei lex est, qui mortuos uiuere dicit.
Ymnum sibi soli Dominus proferre praecepit,
Zabolicam legem omnes omnino uitate.

Turn yourselves to Christ, and you will be companions of God.
The holy law of God is he who says that the dead live.
The Lord commanded that a hymn be offered to himself alone,
Avoid altogether the diabolical law.

35 DE RUCI STULTITIA
De duplici ligno dixi, mors unde processit,
Et iterum inde procedere uita<m> frequenter.
Rex aeternitatis per crucem diros adumbrat,
Ut sibi non credant. O stulti, morte uiuentes!

35 ON THE FOOL'S FOOLISHNESS
I have spoken of the twofold wood, whence death proceeded,
and again from it life frequently proceeds.
The King of eternity through the cross casts dire shadows,
so that they may not trust themselves. O fools, living in death!

Cain iuniorem occisit nequam repertus:
Inde Noe subolis Cananaei nati feruntur.
Sic genus iniquum increuit mundo, qui nunquam
Transmutat animos in Domini credere crucem.
Uenit in errorem, et dicunt se uiuere recte.

Cain killed the younger, found wicked:
From him are said to have sprung the Canaanites, born of Noah’s offspring.
Thus the iniquitous race grew in the world, which never turns souls to believe in the Lord’s cross.
It has come into error, and they say that they live rightly.

Lex in ligno fuit prima, et inde secunda
Terribilem legem prima<m> cum pace <p>raeuenit.
In praua iactatione saeua scelerati ruerunt:
Traiectum clauis Dominum cognoscere nolunt,
In cuius iudicium cum ue<ne>rit, ibi dignoscunt.
Abel genus autem credit modo Christo benigno.

The law was first on the wood, and thence a second
The first<m> returned a terrible law with peace <p>.
In perverse boasting the savage wicked rushed:
They will not acknowledge the Lord pierced by nails,
When to whose judgment it comes, there they recognise.
But the race of Abel now believes in Christ the benign.

36 QUI IUDAEI DIANT FANATIC?
Quid? medius Iudaeus, medius uis esse profanus?

36 WHO DO THE JEWS CALL FANATICS?
What? a half-Jew, half-strength to be profane?

Unde non effugies iudicium Christi defunctus.
Ipse caecus erras et ad caecos intras, inepte;
Idcirco caecus caecum in fossa reducit.
Uadis ubi nescis, et inscius inde recedis.

Whence you will not escape the judgment of Christ when dead.
You yourself, blind, wander and enter among the blind, foolish one;
Therefore a blind man leads a blind man into a pit.
You go where you do not know, and, ignorant, you withdraw from there.

Discentes ad doctos eunt, ut docti recedant,
At tu aliis uadis, unde nihil discere possis.
Exis pro foribus, inde et ad idola uadis.
Interroga primum, quod sit in lege praeceptum,
Dicant illi tibi, si iussum est deos adorare.

Students go to the learned, that the learned may withdraw,
But you go to others, from whom you can learn nothing.
You go out before the doors, and thence you go to idols.
Ask first what is commanded in the law,
Let those men tell you if it is commanded to worship gods.

Ignoratur enim propter quod maxime sumus:
At illi quoniam rei sunt ex ipso delicto,
Nihil de praeceptis Dei nisi mirabilia narrant.
Tunc tamen in fossam secum uos caeci deducunt.
Funera sunt; nimium de illis tota deferre,
Aut, quia concludor, agerem congustus aratris.

For that reason we are most unknown;
but they, since they belong to the matter from the very sin,
tell nothing of the precepts of God except marvels.
Then nevertheless the blind lead you into the ditch with them.
They are funerals; it would be too much to carry off the whole of them,
or, because I am confined, I would be doing a little tillage with the plough.

Noluit Omnipotens illos intellegere Regem;
A scelere a tanto refugit ipse cruentos.
Tradidit se nobis <noua> superaddita lege,
Inde modo latrant nobiscum re<ge> deserti.
Ceterum in illis si spem <in>esse putatis,
********

The Almighty would not have those perceive the King;
He himself recoiled from the blood-stained because of so great a crime.
He delivered himself to us, <noua> superadded law,
Thence now they bark with us, deserted by re<ge>.
Ceterum in illis si spem <in>esse putatis,
********

37 IUDAEIS
Inprobi semper et dura ceruice recalces,
Uinci uos non uultis: sic exheredes eritis.
Dixit Esaias incrassato corde uos esse.
Aspicis legem, quam Moyses allisit iratus;
Et idem Dominus dedit illi lege<m> secunda<m>.
In illa spem posuit, quam uos subsannatis erecti.

37 IUDAEIS
You, always wicked and stubborn of neck, you will not wish to be bound: thus you will be disinherited.
Isaiah said that you are of a hardened heart.
You see the law, which Moses struck in anger;
And the same Lord gave to them a law<m> second<m>.
In that he placed a hope, which you deride as established.

Sic ideo indigni non eritis regno caelesti?

Thus then, will you not be unworthy of the heavenly kingdom?

38 ITEM IUDAEIS
Inspice Liam typum sinagogae fuisse,
Tam infirmis oculis, quam Iacob in signo recepit;
Et tamen seruiuit rursum pro minore dilecta,
Mysterium uerum et typum ecclesiae nostrae.
Intuite plenae dictum Rebeccae de caelo,
Unde simulatis aliene, ne Christo credatis.
Deinde Thamar partum geminorum adite;
Ad Kain intendite, primum terraeque cultorem,
Et Abel pastorem, priscus inmaculatus offertor
In fratris saeuitie qui fuit mactatus a fratre.

38 ITEM TO THE JEWS
Consider Leah to have been a type of the synagogue,
received with eyes so weak, as Jacob took her in the sign;
And yet she again served, beloved for the younger one,
a true mystery and a type of our Church.
Behold Rebecca's full saying from heaven,
from which you who feign yourselves strangers, do not trust in Christ.
Then go to Tamar and the birth of twins;
Attend to Cain, the first tiller of the earth,
and Abel the shepherd, the ancient spotless offerer
who was slain by his brother in the brother's cruelty.

Sic ergo percipite iuniores Christo probatos.

Thus, therefore, receive the younger ones approved in Christ.

39 ITERUM IPSIS
Incredulus populus non est nisi uester, iniqui,
Tot locis et totiens reprobatus lege clamantum.
Et sabbatas uestras spernit et tricensimas Altus
Rescidit omnino uniuersas uestras de lege,
Ut nec sacrificia faceret<is> illi praecepta
Mittere qui dixit lapidem in scandalo uestro.
Iniqua si quis uestrum non crediderint morte
Pars alia legis clama<t>: 'Uidebitis inde
Suspensam in ligno uitam; nec illi credidistis'.
Ipse Deus uita est, pependit ipse pro nobis,
Sed uos indurato corde subsannatis eundem.

39 ITERUM IPSIS
The unbelieving people are none but yours, O wicked ones,
rejected by the law in so many places and so often, they cry aloud.
And the Most High scorns your sabbaths and your thirtieths;
he utterly cuts away all your observances from the law,
so that your precepts would not even make sacrifices for him —
he who said to cast a stone in your scandal.
If any one of you wicked men did not believe in death,
another part of the law cries: 'From that you will see life suspended on wood; nor did you believe him.'
God himself is life, he himself hung for us,
but you, with hardened heart, deride the same.

40 DE ANTECHRISTI TEM<P>ORE?
Dixit Esaias: Hic homo, qui commouit orbem
Et reges totidem, sub quo fiet terra deserta.
Audite, quoniam propheta de illo praedixit;
Nihil ego conposite dixi, sed lege<m> legendo.

40 OF THE ANTICHRIST'S TIME

?
Isaiah said: This man, who stirs the world
and just as many kings, under whom the land will become desolate.
Hearken, for the prophet foretold concerning him;
I have said nothing contrived, but the law by reading.

Tum scilicet mundus finitur, cum ille parebit
Et tres imperantes ipse deuicerit orbe.
Cum fuerit autem Nero de inferno leuatus,
Helias ueniet prius signare dilectos,
Rex quam sub fine regit et artatio tota.
In septem annis tremebit undique terra:
Sed medium tempus Helias, medium Nero tenebit.

Then, of course, the world will be ended, when that one shall appear
and himself shall overthrow three rulers of the world.
But when Nero shall have been raised up from hell,
Elijah will come first to mark the elect,
before the king who rules at the end and the whole realm.
In seven years the earth will quake everywhere:
But Elijah will hold the middle time, Nero the middle.

Tunc Babillon meretrix <erit> incinefacta fauilla
Inde ad Hierusalem perget, uictorque Latinus
Tunc dicit: Ego sum Christus, quem semper oratis.
Et quidem conlaudant illum primitiui decepti
Multa signa facit quoniam cuius pseudopropheta.
******
Omnipotens tribuit, ut <spiri>talis eradat.

Then Babylon the harlot <will be> burned to ash
Thence she will go to Jerusalem, and Latinus, victorious,
Then says: I am Christ, whom you always pray for.
And indeed the first, deceived, praise him
He works many signs, for whose false prophet he is.
******
The Almighty grants, that <spiri>tual he may be.

Recapitulantes scripturas ex eo Iudaei
Exclamant pariter ad Excelsum sese deceptos.

Recapitulating the scriptures from that, the Jews
cry out together to the Excelsum that they themselves have been deceived.

41 DE POPULO ABSCONSO SANCTO OMNIPOTENTIS CHRISTI DEI VIVI
Desidet <populus> absconsus ultimus sanctus
Et quidem ignotus a nobis ubi moretur.
Per nouem tribum agant et dimidiam ipsi,
Omissae duae tribum haec sunt et dimidia nobis.
Praecepitque Christus per legem uiuere priscos.

41 DE POPULO ABSCONSO SANCTO OMNIPOTENTIS CHRISTI DEI VIVI
The hidden people sit idle, the last, holy one
And indeed unknown to us where he sojourns.
They go through nine tribes and a half themselves,
Two tribes being omitted; these and a half remain to us.
And Christ commanded by the law to live the ancient ways.

Uiuamus nunc omnes, nouellae traditio legis
Lex ut ipsa docet! Apertius indico uobis.
Obrelictae duae tribum et dimidia: quare
Ab istis dimidia tribum?

Let us now all live, the novel tradition of the law
as the law itself teaches! I declare to you more openly.
Two and a half tribes remain: why
a half-tribe from these?

Ut martyres essent
Bellum cum infer<r>et electis suis in orbem,
Seu certe sanctorum chorus prophetarum ad illam
Consurgeret plebem, qui frenum inponeret illis,
Obsceni quos equi trucidarunt calci remissa
Nec suerit ad manus pacem aliquando tenere.
Semotae sunt isti tribuum, ut mysteria Christi
Omnia per istas conpleatur saeculo toto.
Sunt autem de scelere duorum fratrum enatae,
Auspicio quorum facinus secutae fuere.

So that they might be martyrs
He would bring war with his elect into the world,
or certainly that a chorus of holy prophets might arise for that people,
who would place a bridle upon them,
the obscene ones whom horses slaughtered with the bit loosened,
nor will it ever be fitting to hold peace in hand.
These are removed from the tribes, that the mysteries of Christ
might all be fulfilled through these in the whole age.
But they were born of the crime of two brothers,
by whose auspices the crime ensued.

Non merito tales dispersi sunt ipsi cruenti?
Conueniunt iterum propter mysteria castris.
Tunc autem properant conpleri legis narrata.

Were not those very bloodstained ones rightly dispersed?
They gather again in the camp because of the mysteries.
Then moreover they hasten that the things narrated of the law be fulfilled.

Omnipotens Christus descendit ad suos electos,
Obscurati nobis qui fuerunt tempore tanto
Milia fot facti; illa est gens uera caelestis.
Non natus ante patrem moritur ibi, neque dolores
In suis corporibus sentiunt ut ulcera nata.
Pausantes in lecto suo mature recedunt
Omnia conplentes legis, ideoque tutantur.

Almighty Christ descended to his elect,
those who had been obscured to us in so great a time;
they were made thousands; that is the true heavenly people.
No one born before the Father dies there, nor do they feel pains
in their bodies as if born sores.
Pausing on their bed, they depart in due season,
fulfilling all the law, and thus are preserved.

Transire iubentur ad Dominum partibus istis
Exsiccat fluuium quibus sicut ante traiectis,
Nec minus et Dominus ipse producit cum illis.
Transiit ad nostra, ueniunt cum rege caeleste.
In quorum itinere quod dicam, quo Deus educet,
Subsidunt montes ante illos et fontes erumpunt:
Caelestem populum gaudet creatura uidere.

They are ordered to cross to the Lord by these parts
the river through which, as before, they had been passed across, dries up,
and no less does the Lord himself bring forth with them.
He passed into our lands, they come with the heavenly king.
On whose journey — which I will tell, to where God leads them —
the mountains give way before them and springs burst forth:
creation rejoices to see the heavenly people.

Hic tamen festinant matre<m> defendere capta<m>.
Rex autem iniquus, qui obtinet, illum ut audit,
In partem boreae refugit et colligit omnes.
Sed cum se inlidet exercitu Dei tyrannus
Terrore caelesti prosternuntur milites eius,
Ipse cum infando conprehenditur pseudopropheta;
Decreto Domini traduntur uiui gehennae.
Ex eo primores et duces seruire iubentur.

They nevertheless hasten here to defend the mother<m> taken<m>.
But the unjust king, who holds power, when he hears it,
flees to the northward side and gathers them all.
But when the tyrant dashes against the army of God
his soldiers are prostrated by celestial terror,
he himself together with the unspeakable false-prophet is seized;
by the decree of the Lord they are delivered alive to Gehenna.
From that time the leading men and duces are ordered to serve.

Intrabunt tunc sancti ad antiqua ubera matris,
Ut autem et illi refrigerent, quos malus ille suasit,
In uariis poenis cruciabat sibi credendos.
Uentum est ad finem, quod tollantur scandala mundo;
Incipiet Dominus iudicium dare per ignem.

Then the saints will enter to the ancient breasts of the mother,
and that also those whom that evil one persuaded may be refreshed,
he tormented with various punishments those to be believed.
It has come to the end, that scandals be taken away from the world;
the Lord will begin to give judgment by fire.

42 DE SAECULI ISTIUS FINE
Dat tuba caelo signum sublato leone
Et fiunt desubito tenebrae cum caeli fragore.
Summittit oculos Dominus, ut terra tremescat,
Adclamat et<iam>, ut audiant omnes in orbem:
'Ecce diu tacui sufferens tanto tempore uestra!'
Conclamant pariter plangentes sero gementes,
Ululatur, ploratur, nec spatium datur iniquis.
Lactanti quod faciet mater, cum ipsa crematur?

42 ON THE END OF THIS AGE
The trumpet gives a sign to heaven with the lion uplifted
And suddenly darkness falls with the crash of the skies.
The Lord lifts up his eyes, that the earth may quake,
And he cries out et<already>, that all in the orb may hear:
'Behold, long I held my peace, suffering your things for so long a time!'
Together they cry aloud, beating their breasts, late groaning,
There is howling, there is weeping, nor is respite given to the wicked.
Lactantius, what will the nursing mother do, when she herself is burned?

In flamma ignis Dominus iudicabit iniquos:
Iustos autem non tanget ignis, sed immo delinget.
Sub uno morantur, sed pars in sententia flebit.
Tantus erit ardor, ut lapides ipsi liquescant,
In fulmine cogunt uenti, furet ira caelestis
Ut, quacumque fugit, impius occupetur ab igne.

In the flame of fire the Lord will judge the wicked:
But the fire will not touch the righteous, rather it will cleanse them.
They will abide together under one, yet part will weep at the sentence.
So great will be the heat that even the stones will melt,
In lightning the winds are driven; heavenly wrath rages
So that, wherever he flees, the impious man is overtaken by fire.

Subpetium nullum erit nec nauticae puppes.
Flamma tamen gentis media partiturque seruans,
In annis mille ut ferant corpora sanctis.
Nam inde post annos mille gehennae traduntur,
Et fabrica cuius erant cum ipsa cremantur.

There will be no refuge sought nor any seafaring ships.
Yet the flame of the people divides and spares a middle part,
that in 1,000 years the bodies may be preserved for the saints.
For then after 1,000 years they are delivered over to Gehenna,
and the fabric whose they were is burned up with them.

43 DE RESURRECTIONE PRIMA
De caelo descendit ciuitas in anastase prima.
Et quod referamus de fabrica tanta caeleste?
Resurgimus illi, qui fuimus illi deuoti,
Et incorrupti erint iam tunc sine morte uiuentes,
Sed nec dolor ullus nec gemitus erit in illa.

43 DE RESURRECTIONE PRIMA
From heaven descends the city in the first resurrection.
And what shall we recount of so great a heavenly fabric?
We shall rise to that one, we who were devoted to it,
And incorrupt they will be then, living without death,
But neither any pain nor groan will be in it.

Uenturi sunt illi quoque, sub Antechristo qui uincunt
Robusta mar<tyr>ia, et ipsi toto tempore uiuunt
Recipiuntque bona, quoniam mala passi fuere,
Et generant ipsi per annos mille nubentes.
Conparantur ibi tota uectigalia terrae,
Terra quia nimium fundit sine fine nouata.
Inibi non pluuiam, non frigus in aurea castra,
Obsidiae nullae, sicut nunc, neque rapinae.

There will also be those who, under the Antichrist, conquer
robust mar<tyr>doms, and they themselves live the whole time;
and they receive good things, because they suffered evils,
and they themselves beget for a thousand years those who marry.
There all the tributes of the earth are equalized,
for the earth pours forth exceedingly, renewed without end.
There is no rain, no cold in the golden camp,
no sieges, as now, nor plunder.

Nec lucernae lumen desiderat ciuitas illa:
Ex auctore suo lucet, nec nox ibi paret.
Per duodecim milia stadia lata, longa, sic alta;
Radicem in terra, sed caput cum caelo peraequat;
In urbem pro foribus autem sol aut luna lucebit.
Malus in angore saeptus propter iustos alendos.

Nor does that city desire the light of a lamp:
It shines from its Author, nor does night appear there.
For twelve thousand stadia wide, long, and thus high;
Its root is in the earth, but its head is equal with heaven;
Into the city moreover at its gates the sun or the moon will shine.
The wicked one is shut up in anguish, kept for the nourishment of the righteous.

Ab annis autem mille Deus omnia portat.

From the thousand years, however, God carries all things.

44 DE DIE IUDICII
De die iudicii propter incredulos addo:
Emissus iterum Dei do<mi>nabitur ignis;
Dat gemitum terra rerum tunc in ultima fine
In ter<r>a gentes ut tunc incredulae cunctae,
Euitat et tamen sanctorum castra suorum.
In una flamma conuertit tota natura,
Uritur ab imis terra montesque liquescunt,
De mare nihil remanet, uincetur ab igne potente,
Interit hoc caelum et ista terra mutatur.
Conponitur alia nouitas caeli, terrae perennis.

44 ON THE DAY OF JUDGMENT
Concerning the day of judgment I add because of the unbelievers:
Once more sent forth, the fire of God will rule;
Then the earth of all things gives a groan at the last end
and on the earth all peoples then unbelieving will be confounded,
and yet he spares the camps of his saints.
In one flame all nature is turned,
the earth is burned from its depths and the mountains melt away,
from the sea nothing remains; it is overcome by mighty fire,
this heaven perishes and that earth is changed.
A new, perennial heaven and earth are established.

Inde qui mereunt mittuntur in morte secunda,
Interius autem habitaculis iusti locantur.

Hence those who deserve are sent into the second death,
but the righteous are placed more inwardly in habitations.

45 CATECUMINIS
Credentes in Christo derelictis idolis omnes
Admoneo paucis propter salutaria uestra.
Temporibus primis per errorem si qua gerebas,
Erogatus enim Christo tu cuncta relinque,
Cumque Deum nosti, esto bonus tiro, probatus,
Uirgineusque pudor tecum uersetur in agno.
Mens bonis inuigilet: caue ut non delinquas ut ante;
In baptismo tibi genitali sola donantur.

45 CATECHUMENS
Believing in Christ, all having forsaken idols,
I admonish briefly for your salvation.
If in former times by error you practised any things,
having been given over to Christ, therefore renounce all things,
and since you know God, be a good recruit, proved,
and let virginal modesty dwell with you in the Lamb.
Let the mind be vigilant for good things: beware that you do not sin as before;
In the baptism of your birth alone are these gifts bestowed.

Nam si quis peccans catecuminus poena notantur,
Insignis illa uiuat, sed non sine damna moraris.
Summa tibi: grauia peccata deuita tu semper.

For if any sinning catechumen is marked with penalty,
let that notable one live, but do not tarry without loss.
The sum to you: always avoid grievous sins.

46 FIDELIBUS
Fideles admoneo, fratres ne odia tollant:
Impia martyribus odia reputantur in ignem;
Destruitur martyr, cuius est confessio talis,
Lex iniquo datur, ut possit sese frenare;
Inde lotus carere debes similiter et tu.
Bis Deo peccas, qui lites fratri protendis.
Unde non effugies peccatum prisce sectans.
Semel es lotus, numquid poteris denuo mergi?

46 TO THE FAITHFUL
I admonish the faithful, brothers, that they bear not hatred:
Impious hatreds toward martyrs are reckoned unto the fire;
A martyr is destroyed whose confession is such,
To the unjust the law is given, that he may be able to restrain himself;
Therefore, being washed, you ought likewise to be free from it.
Twice you sin against God who bring lawsuits against a brother.
Whereby you will not escape sin by following the old way.
You are washed once—can you be plunged again?

47 FIDELES CAVETE MALUM
Fallantur uolucres et siluarum bestei escis:
Incauta natura quibus est tradita mentis,
Decipiunturque strofia aut esca sequentes,
Et uitare malum nesciunt nec lege tenentur.
Lex homini data est et doctrina uitae legenda,
Ex qua recordatur, ut possit uiuere caute,
Sui quoque locum, mortis et deroget ea quae sunt.
Condemnat se ipsum grauiter qui regi delinquet:
Aut ferro ligatur aut decus gradu deiectus
Uel uita priuatus perdet, quod frui deberet.

47 FAITHFUL, BEWARE THE EVIL
Let birds be deceived and the beasts of the woods by their food:
to whom an unwary nature of mind has been entrusted,
they are deceived following decoys or bait,
and know not how to avoid evil, nor are they held by law.
A law is given to man and a doctrine of life to be read,
from which he is admonished, that he may live cautiously,
and also his own lot, and that he may reckon with death and set aside such things as are.
He grievously condemns himself who offends the king:
either he is bound by the sword or his honor thrown down from rank
or, deprived of life, will lose what he ought to enjoy.

Exemplo moniti grauiter peccare nolite,
Translati lauacro magis caritatem habete,
Et escam muscipuli, ubi mors est, longe uitate.
Multa sunt martyria, quae sunt sine sanguine fuso.
Alienum non cupire, uelle martyrii habere,
Linguam refrenare, humilem te reddere debes,
Uim ultro non facere nec factam reddere contra
Mens patiens fueris: intellege martyrem esse.

Warned by example, do not sin grievously,
Having been brought to the laver, hold charity more,
And avoid far off the bait of the mousetrap, where death is.
Many martyrdoms there are which are without blood being shed.
Do not covet another’s things, nor desire to possess martyrdom,
You must restrain your tongue, and make yourself humble,
Not to use force of your own accord nor to repay what was done against you;
Be patient-minded: understand what it is to be a martyr.

48 PAENITENTIBUS
Paenitens es factus: noctibus diebusque precare,
Attamen a matre noli discedere longe,
Et tibi misericors poterit Altissimus esse.
Non fiet in uacuum confusio culpae perinde
In reatu tuo debes manifesta deflere,
Tu si uulnus habes altum, medicumque require,
Et tamen in poenis poteris tua damna lenire.
Namque fatebor enim unum me ex uobis adesse
Terroremque diu quondam sensisse ruinae.

48 TO PENITENTS
You have become penitent: pray by night and by day,
Yet do not depart far from your mother,
And the Most High can be merciful to you.
The confusion of guilt will not be wiped away in a void just the same;
In your fault you ought to bewail openly,
If you have a deep wound, seek a physician,
And yet in punishments you will be able to soften your losses.
For indeed I will confess one thing was present in me from you,
and that I once long felt the terror of ruin.

Idcirco commoneo uulneratos cautius ire,
Barbam <atque> comam foedare in puluere terrae
Uolutareque saccis et petere summo de Rege
Subuenire tibi, ne pereas forte de plebe.

Therefore I admonish the wounded to go more cautiously,
to foul the beard <atque> the hair in the dust of the earth
and to roll about in sacks and to seek from the supreme King
help for you, lest perhaps you perish among the common people.

49 QUI APOSTATAVERUNT DEO
Quando bellum autem geritur aut inrigat hostis,
Uincere qui poterit aut latere, magna tropaea,
Infelix autem erit, qui fuerit captus ab illis.
Amittit et patriam et regem, cui digne prouenit,
Pugnare pro patria qui noluit neque pro uita.
Obisse debuerat quam ire sub barbaro rege,
Seruitiumque pateat hostibus sine lege deferre.

49 QUI APOSTATAVERUNT DEO
When, however, war is waged or the enemy besieges,
he who can conquer or lie hidden—great trophies;
unhappy, however, will be he who is taken by them.
He loses both fatherland and king, to whom it has rightly come,
who would not fight for his country nor for his life.
He ought to have died rather than live under a barbarian king,
and that servitude be laid open to be handed over to the enemies without law.

Tu si praedicando moreris pro terra, uicisti,
At si manus dederis incolumem, lege peristi.
Transfluuiat hostis, tu sub latebra <re>conde,
Aut si intrare potest sine c<aede>, ne cessa.
Undique te redde tutum tuos quoque: uicisti;
Et uigilanter age, ne quis incurrat in illa.

If you die preaching for the land, you have prevailed,
But if you give your hands over alive, by the law you have perished.
Let the enemy stream through; you, hide yourself under a lair conde,
Or if he can enter without c, do not hesitate.
From every side render yourself safe and your own too: you have prevailed;
And act watchfully, lest anyone fall into it.

Rex infamis erit, si quis se propalat hosti.
Uincere qui nescit et occurrit tradere sese,
Nec sibi nec patriae laudem remisit ineptus;
Tunc uiuere noluit, cum ipsa uita peribit.
De<inde> si refugiat inops aut profanus ab hoste,
Eramen ut sonans, facti uel ut aspides surdi,
Orare satis debet et se condere tali<s>.

A king will be infamous, if anyone betrays himself openly to the enemy.
He who does not know how to conquer and meets to surrender himself,
has left no praise for himself nor for his fatherland, the unwise;
he would not wish to live then, when life itself will perish.
Moreover if he flees helpless or profane from the enemy,
yet like sounding bronze, or like deaf aspides powerless in deed,
he ought to pray sufficiently and to hide himself in such a manner<s>.

50 DE INFANTIBUS
Debellum hostis <si> subito uenit inundans,
Et prius quam fugerent, paruulos occupauit inertes,
Inproperandum eis non est, licet capti uidentur.
Nec quidem excuso: ob delicta forte parentum
Fuere promeriti, ideo Deus tradidit illos.
Attamen adultos hortor, in aula recurrant,
Nascunturque quasi denuo suae matri de uentre,
Terribilem gentem fugiens semperque cruentam,
Impiam, indocilem, ferina uita uiuentem
Bellum enim alium cum fuerit forte gerendum
Uincere qui poterit aut certe iam scire cauere,
S............................................

50 ON INFANTS
If the enemy suddenly comes, sweeping in,
and before they can flee he has seized the little inactive ones,
they are not to be blamed, although they seem taken captive.
Nor indeed excused: perhaps for the faults of their parents
they were deservedly given over; for that reason God delivered them.
Yet I exhort grown men to return to the hall,
and be reborn as if anew from their mother’s womb,
fleeing a terrible and ever-bloody people,
ungodly, untaught, living a savage life;
for when another war by chance must be waged
who will be able to conquer or at least already know to take precautions,
S..................................................

51 DESERTORES
Desertores enim genere non uno dicunt<ur>:
Est alius nequam, alius in parte secedat,
Sed tamen utroque iudicia uera decernunt.
Ecce militatur Christo sicut Caesari: paret.
Refugium Regis pete, si delictor fuisti;
Tu illum inplora, prostratus illi fatere:
Omnia concedet, cuius sunt et omnia nostra.

51 DESERTORES
For they call deserters of more than one kind:
One is worthless, another withdraws into a party,
Yet in both cases true judgments they pronounce.
Behold, he serves Christ as he would Caesar: he obeys.
Seek the refuge of the King, if you have been a transgressor;
Implore him yourself, prostrate, confess to him:
He will grant all things, to whom all things, even ours, belong.

Repositus castris ulterius caue delinquas.
Errare noli diu miles per spelaea ferarum.
Sit tibi pro peccare desistere gestum inmensum.

Placed back in camp, henceforth beware that you do not sin.
Do not wander long, soldier, through the caves of wild beasts.
Let stopping from sin be reckoned to you a great deed.

52 MILITIBUS CHRISTI
Militiae nomen cum dederis, freno teneris.
Incipe tunc ergo dimitte<re> pristina gesta,
Luxurias uita, quoniam labor inminet armis;
Imperio Regis omni uirtute parendum,
Tempora postrema si uis pertingere laeta.
Illa bonus milis semper expecta fruenda,
Blandire noli tibi, desidias omnino omitte;
Ut tuo proposito cottidie praesto sis ante,
Sollicitus esto, matutinus signa reuise.

52 TO THE SOLDIERS OF CHRIST
When you have taken the name of militia, you are held by the rein.
Begin then, therefore, to dismiss your former deeds,
a life of luxuries, since labor looms in arms;
to the command of the King with all virtue must one be obedient,
if you wish to attain the last times joyful.
Always await those things of the good soldier to be enjoyed,
Do not flatter yourself, wholly abandon sloth;
So that you may be daily ready before your own purpose,
Be solicitous, review the morning standards.

Cum uideris bellum, agonia sume propinquus;
Haec gloria Regis, militem uidere paratum.
Rex adest optato; propter spem dimicat uestram;
Ille parat dona, ille pro uictoria lectos
Suscipit et proprium satellem dedicat esse.
Tu tibi praeterea in datis parcere noli,
Impiger esto magis, ut reddat famam pro morte.

When you see war, assume a near agony;
This is the glory of the King, to see the soldier ready.
The King is present as desired; on account of your hope he battles;
He prepares gifts, he receives those chosen for victory
and dedicates them to be his own satelles (attendant).
You, moreover, in givings do not spare yourself;
Be more eager, that he may render renown in exchange for death.

53 DE REFUGIS
Damnatorum animae merito se ipsae secernunt;
Ex hoc protegenti iterum ad sua recurrunt.
Radix Cananaea, maledictum semen, erumpit
Et in seruili gente sub barbaro rege refugit,
Flamma quos aeterna torquebit die decreto.
Uult uagus errare sine disciplina profanus
Grassari per fauces uiarum lege solutus.

53 DE REFUGIS
The souls of the condemned justly separate themselves;
From this sheltering they again return to their own.
The Cananaean root, a accursed seed, bursts forth
And flees back into a servile people under a barbarian king,
Whom the eternal flame will torment on the appointed day.
The profane wanderer wills to err without discipline,
To prowl through the throats of the ways, law-loosed.

Isti ergo tales, quos nulla poena coegit
Si <sece>dere nolunt ab idolis, respui debent.

Therefore those men, whom no punishment compels,
if they will not <sece>dere from idols, ought to be rejected.

54 DE LOLII SEMINE
De semine lolii, qui stant in ecclesia mixti
Expletis temporibus messis separatur a fructu.
Lolium est natum, quod non <in>miserat dominus;
Omne lolium agricola collectum separat illud.
Lex ager nobis est: qui fecerit bonum in illa,
Ipsam uti<que> nobis prestat requiem ueram
Ipse Dominator, qua lolium igne crematur.

54 OF THE SEED OF LOLIUM
Of the seed of lolium, which stand mixed in the church
when the times are fulfilled the harvest is separated from the fruit.
Lolium is born, which the lord had not sent in;
the farmer gathers all the lolium and separates it.
The field is for us a law: whoever does good in it,
indeed it grants to us that very true rest
the Lord himself, whereby lolium is burned with fire.

Si ergo putastis, quando sub uno morantur
Erratis: sterelis Christianos uos esse designo
Maledicta fuit arbor sine fructu ficulna
In uerbo Domini et statim exaruit illa.
Non operas facitis, non donum gazo paratis:
Et sic promereri Dominum putatis inanes?

If therefore you think that when they dwell under one
you err: I designate you barren Christians
Cursed was the fig-tree without fruit
at the word of the Lord, and straightway it withered.
You do no works, you prepare no gift of treasure:
and thus do you think to deserve the Lord in vain?

55 DISSIMULATORI
Dissimulas legem tanto praeconio latam
In tuba praesente caeleste uoce clamante.
Si propheta tantum declama<ui>sset in nubem,
Sufficeret utique Domini uox missa per illum.
In tot profatorum uolumina uox Domni proclamat;
Malitiam nullus dimittit [ita] aeque de corde.

55 TO THE DISSIMULATOR
You dissemble the law, laid down with so great a proclamation,
with trumpet present and a heavenly voice crying aloud.
If the prophet had only declaimed into a cloud,
the Lord’s voice sent through him would certainly have sufficed.
In so many volumes of blasphemers the voice of the Lord proclaims;
No one casts off malice [ita] equally from the heart.

Uis bona uidere et fraudibus uiuere quaeris.
Lex ipsa cur ergo processit tanto labore?
Abuteris Domini mandata et te filium inquis;
Tu si talis eris, sine causa fideris, inquam.

You desire to seem good and seek to live by frauds.
Why then did the law itself go forth with so great labor?
You abuse the Lord's commands and call yourself a son;
If you are such, you will be trusted without cause, I say.

Omnipotens mites quaerit sibi filios esse,
Rectos, corde bonos, deuotos legi diuinae,
Inmites autem iam scitis ubi demersit.

Omnipotent seeks to have mild sons to himself,
upright, good in heart, devoted to the divine law,
but you already know where the unmerciful have sunk.

56 SAECULARIA IN TOTUM FUGIENDA
Si quidam doctores, dum expectant munera uestra
Aut timent personas, laxantes singula uobis,
Et ego non doceo, sed cogor dicere uerum.
Cum caterua Mali pergis ad expectacula uana,
Ubi Satanas fragoribus conparat astus
Licere persuadis tibi, quocumque placebit.
Altissimi prolis cum filiis Zabuli mixta
Respicere non uis, cui renuntiasti, priora.

56 SAECULARIA IN TOTUM FUGIENDA
If certain doctors, while they wait for your gifts
Or fear persons, loosening separate things to you,
I do not teach, but I am forced to speak the truth.
When you proceed with the troop of the Evil One to vain spectacles,
Where Satan by noises prepares his craft,
You persuade yourself that it is permitted, wherever it will please you.
You will not wish to regard the former things, mixed with the offspring of the Most High and the sons of Zabuli, to which you renounced.

In ipsis uersaris iterum: qui proderit Unus?
Aut si pro languore datum quod stulte profanas
I........................................
Nolite diligere mundum neque ambitum eius:
Tanta Dei uox est, et tibi pro le<ui> uidetur.
Obseruas mandatum hominis, et Dei deuitas;
Tu fidis muneri, quod doctores ora procludunt
Ut taceant neque dicant tibi iussa diuina.

You are again occupied in them: who will betray the One?
Or if through faintness you have foolishly profaned what was given
I........................................
Do not love the world nor the desire of it:
So great is the voice of God, and it seems slight to you.
You heed the command of man, and spurn the deity of God;
You trust in a gift which the teachers lock from their mouths,
so that they keep silence and do not tell you the divine injunctions.

Me uera dicentem si contemneres, prospice Summum:
Filius cuius eras, illi te adsigna clientem.
Uiuere si quaeris gentiliter homo fidelis,
Gaudia te mundi remouent a gratia Christi;
Indisciplinate quod leue licere praesumis,
Et choros historicos et cantica musica quaeris,
Nec tali subolem exuanniri amentia curas.
Dum uita frunisci putas, inprouidus erras.

If you would scorn me speaking the truth, look to the Highest:
to the Son whose you were, assign yourself a client to him.
If you seek to live in a gentlemanly way, faithful man,
the joys of the world draw you away from the grace of Christ;
undisciplined because you presume that light things are permitted,
and you seek historic dances and musical songs,
nor with such madness care that your offspring be stripped away.
While you think life is to be enjoyed, you err unwary.

Altissimus uiuet, et iusta praecepta deuitas.

The Most High shall live, and piety shall uphold the just precepts.

57 CHRISTIANUM TALEM ESSE
Cum Dominus dicat, in gemitum edere panem,
Hic ut quid nunc agis, qui cupis uiuere laetus?
Rescindere quaeris sententiam Summi demissa<m>
In protoplausto uide frenum procedere legis.
Si Deus omnipotens cum sudore uiuere iussit,
Tu qui iocundaris, ergo iam exter es illi.

57 THAT A CHRISTIAN SHOULD BE SUCH
When the Lord says, to utter bread in a groan,
here — what now do you do, you who desire to live joyfully?
You seek to rescind the sentence of the Highest demissa<m>
See in the protoplaust the bridle of the law advancing.
If Almighty God commanded to live with sweat,
you who make merry, therefore now are foreign to him.

Indignatum ait Dominum scriptura Iudaeis:
Ab esca refecti surrexerunt ludere fili.
Nunc ergo cur illos persequimur sponte profectos?
Unde perierunt illi, nos cauere debemus.

The Scripture says the Lord was indignant with the Jews:
"Refreshed from food, the sons rose up to play."
Now therefore why do we pursue those who have set out of their own accord?
From whence those perished, we ought to beware.

Maxima pars uestra luxuriis dedita paret.
Transgrederis legem, cum te facis musicis inter.
Apostolus clamat, <clamat> immo Deus per illum:
Licentia uestra uos, inquit in ipsa, deperdunt.

The greatest part of you, given over to luxuries, obeys.
You transgress the law when you make yourself among musicians.
The Apostle cries out, <clamat> nay rather God through him:
Your licentiousness, he says in it, utterly destroys you.

Esto ergo talis, qualem uult esse te Christus:
Mitis et in illo hilaris, nam saeculo tristis.
Excurre, labora, suda, cum tristitia pugna;
Spes cum labore uenit et uictoriae palma donatur.
Si refrigerare cupis animam, ad martyres i!
Expecta requiem futurorum transitu mortis.

Therefore be such as Christ wishes you to be:
gentle and in him cheerful, for in the world sorrowful.
Run forth, work, sweat, and fight against sadness;
hope comes with toil and the palm of victory is granted.
If you desire to refresh your soul, go to the martyrs!
Await the rest to come by the passing of death.

58 MATRONIS ECCLESIAE DEI VIVI
Matrona uis esse Christiana ut saeculi discens:
Auro te circumdas aut sirica ueste, pudica,
Terrorem legis ex auribus uento remittis,
Res uanas adfectas cuncta de Zabuli pompa,
Ornas et ad speclum cincinnos fronte reflexos,
Nec non et inducis malis medicamina falsa,
In oculis puris stibium peruerso decore,
Seu crines tingis, ut sint toto tempore nigri.
Est Deus inspector, penetrat qui singula corda.
Ceterum pudicis ista necessaria non sunt.

58 TO THE MATRONS OF THE CHURCH OF THE LIVING GOD
Do you wish to be a Christian matron, departing from the world:
Do you gird yourself with gold or with a silk robe, chaste one,
You let the terror of the law be blown from your ears like wind,
You desire vain things, all from the pomp of Zabuli,
You adorn and, before the mirror, bend back your curls upon your brow,
And moreover you introduce false remedies for evils,
You apply antimony to your pure eyes as a perverted ornament,
Or you dye your hair so that it may be black at all times.
There is God the inspector, who pierces each heart.
Moreover, these things are not necessary for the chaste.

Claro ac pudico sensu pertundite pectus;
Lex Dei testatur tales abscedere leges,
Ex corde quae credit femina marito probata
Sufficiat esse non cultibus sed bona mente.
Induite uestes quas oportet, frigus ut ostent
Aut nimium solis, tantum ut pudico proberis
Et in plebe Dei facultatis dona demonstres.
Dat tibi memoriam <Tabitha> clarissima quondam;
Exanimata iacet precibus uiduarum erecta.

Pierce your heart with a clear and chaste sense;
The law of God testifies that such usages must be dismissed,
What a woman believes in her heart, proved to her husband,
Let it suffice to be, not in dress, but in a good mind.
Put on the garments which befit you, that they may show restraint
Not excessive display, only so that you may be proved modest
And among the people of God demonstrate the gifts of your faculty.
The most renowned <Tabitha> of old gives you a remembrance;
She lay breathless, and was raised by the prayers of widows.

In dando promeruit, non comtibus, inde leuari.
Uos matronae bonae uanitatis fugite decorem:
In<cestas in> feminas congruet cultura lupana.
Uincite malignum, pudicae feminae Christi,
In dando diuitias uestras ostendite totas.

In giving she deserved, not from counts, hence to be raised.
You good matrons, flee the adornment of vanity:
Into <cestas in> women will fit the culture of the prostitute.
Overcome the evil, chaste women of Christ,
In giving, show all your riches.

[Xancta Dei mulier diuitias corde demonstrat.
Ymnificato choro placitoque Christo seruire
Zelantes fauore Christo offerte odorem.]

[Xancta, a holy woman of God, shows riches in her heart.
Ymnificato choro, placitoque, to serve Christ with a hymnful choir and pleasing spirit
Zelantes favore Christi offer the fragrance.]

59 ABCDEFGHIKLMNOPQRSTUXYZ
Audiuisti uocem, quae uis Christiana manere,
Beatus Paulus qualiter rogare praecepit.
Caeliloquax autem Esaias doctor et auctor
(Detestatur enim caritatem mundi sequentes)
Exaltatae, inquit, ceciderunt filiae Sion.
Fas in Deo non est Christianam coli fidelem.

59 ABCDEFGHIKLMNOPQRSTUXYZ
You have heard the voice which bids you remain Christian,
how Blessed Paul taught to pray.
But heaven‑eloquent Isaiah, teacher and author
(for he detests those who follow the love of the world)
says, "The exalted daughters of Zion have fallen."
By divine law it is not permitted in God to regard a Christian woman as faithful.

Gentili more quaeris praecedere Dei sancta?
Has Dei praecones damnant in lege clamantes
Iniustas esse feminas, quae se taliter ornant.
Kapillos inficitis, oculos nigrore linitis,
Lunatis comulas gradulatim fronte deuinctas,
Mala<m> medicatis quodam superducto rubore,
Nec non et inaures grauissimo pondere pendent,
Obruitis collum naturale gemmis et auro,
Palmas Deo dignas praesagio malo ligatis.

Do you seek, in a gentle custom, to go before the holy things of God?
These heralds of God, crying out in the law, condemn
that women who thus adorn themselves are unjust.
You tincture your kapillos, you smear your eyes with blackness,
your crescented little locks bound stepwise about the brow,
your cheeks<m> medicated with a certain superadded rouge,
and furthermore your earrings hang by a very heavy weight,
you overwhelm the natural neck with gems and gold,
you bind hands worthy of God with an ill-omened band.

Quid memorem uestes aut tota<m> Zabuli pompa<m>?
Respuitis legem, mauultis mundo placere,
Saltatis in domibus, pro psalmis cantatis amores.
Tu licet sis casta, non te purgat sinistra sequendo:
Uos ideo tales Christus cum gentibus aequat.
Xancta Dei mulier diuitias corde demonstrat.

Why should I recount your garments or the whole<m> pomp of Zabuli<m>?
You spurn the law, you prefer to please the world,
You dance in houses, for psalms you sing loves.
Tu, though you may be chaste, following the sinister does not cleanse you:
Christ therefore ranks you with the Gentiles.
Xancta Dei, a woman of God, shows riches in her heart.

Ymnificato choro placitoque Christo seruire
Zelantes fauore Christo offerte odorem.

With a hymn-singing choir and to serve Christ with goodwill
Zealous in Christ’s favor, offer a fragrance.

60 IN ECCLESIA OMNI POPULO DEI
Iustus ego non sum, fratres, de cloaca leuatus,
Nec me supertollo, sed doleo uestri, qui cerno
Ex tanto populo nullum in agone coronari.
Certe si non ipse pugnat, uel suggerat illis.
Cladem obiurgate, ouanter officite luxu!

60 IN THE CHURCH TO THE WHOLE PEOPLE OF GOD
I am not righteous, brothers, lifted up from the sewer,
Nor do I exalt myself, but I grieve for you, whom I behold
From so great a people none crowned in the contest.
Certainly if he himself does not fight, or urge them.
Rebuke the ruin, O vain ones, refrain from luxury!

Labora<t> frater aduersante mundo sub armis,
Et fretus opibus nec pugnas nec pugnanti resistis.
********
In talem pendit ecclesia tota, si uincat.
Abstinere uides fratrem et pugnare cum hoste.

Work, brother, with the world opposing, under arms,
And trusting in riches you resist neither battles nor the combatant.
********
The whole church depends on such a one, if he prevails.
You see the brother abstain and fight with the enemy.

Optas tu in castris pacem, foras ille repugnat.
Misericors esto, ut sis ante omnia saluus.
Nec intuis Dominum praeconio tanto clamante<m>,
Inimicis etiam qui iubet alimenta praebere?

You desire peace in the camp, but he resists outside.
Be merciful, that you may be safe above all.
Do you not behold the Lord, shouting with so great a proclamation,
who even commands that food be provided to enemies?

Prandia ob ea prospice diurna, quae semper
Omnibus omnino diebus cum pauperis sumpsit.
Pascere tu quaeris, stulte, qui te denuo pascat.
Uix ille mihi paret, qui conponi proponit.

See to the daytime lunches on that account, which
he has always taken with the poor on every single day.
You seek to be fed, fool, who would feed you again.
Scarcely does he obey me who proposes that he be put in order.

Laute cibatum distenso uentre declamas,
Oppressus inopia frater est iuxta tabescens.
De die Dominica quid dicis? Si non ante uocauit,
Exuoca de turba pauperem quem ad prandium ducas
In talibus spes est uestra de uestro refectis.

You declaim of lavish fare with your belly distended;
oppressed by want, your brother is wasting away beside you.
What do you say of the Lord’s Day? If he did not call before,
call forth from the throng the poor man whom you will lead to your luncheon
— in such matters is your hope in your own refreshments.

61 DE ZELO CONCUPISCENCIAE
Dum cupis, inde peris, dum ardis proximi zelo;
Extinguis te ipsum, quando te incendis abactus.
Zelaris alium, inuide, de malo lucrantem,
Et te parem concupis fieri pecuniae tantae.
Lex sic non aspicit; dum illam incumbere quaeris,
Omnia suspensus uiuis in ardore lucrorum;
Cumque reus tibi sis ipsum te iudice damnans,
Oculorum acies nunquam satiatur auara.

61 ON THE ZEAL OF CONCUPISCENCE
While you desire, there you perish; while you burn with the zeal of another;
You extinguish yourself when you set yourself aflame, driven on.
You envy another, begrudging him who profits from evil,
And you long to be made equal to him in so great a sum of money.
The law does not look on it thus; while you seek to lay hold of it,
Hanging on everything, you live in the ardor of gains;
And since you are a defendant to yourself, condemning yourself as judge,
The gaze of the eyes, avaricious, is never satisfied.

Nunc ergo si credeas et cogites: uana cupido est
Congere<re> nimium sub fragili uita moranti.
Unde Deus clamat: Stulte, hanc noctem uocaris!
Postea ruina ruit: cuius erint ista talenta?

Now therefore if you would believe and reflect: desire is vain
to heap up too much while life lingers on a fragile footing.
Whence God cries: "Fool, this night you will be called!"
Afterward ruin collapses: to whom will those talents belong?

In suprema cadis iniusta lucra conando,
Suggeret cum Dominus unicuique uicta diurna.
Congestet alius: tu bono uiuere quaere,
Et Deus cor censens agis super omnia uictor;
Nec enim dico, ut in timore te mittas,
Cum pro die tuo uigilas sine fraude uiuendo.
In esca perit auis aut inhaeret inprouida uisco.

You fall, attempting unjust gains at the supreme hour,
when the Lord will set before each one the day’s conquered gains.
Let another heap up: you seek to live well,
and God, judging the heart, you act above all as victor;
for I do not say that you should cast yourself into fear,
when you watch for your day by living without deceit.
A bird perishes on bait or clings unwary to the sticky gum.

Arbitrare tibi simpliciter ualde cauendum.
Excedant alii, finem tu prospice semper.

Consider for yourself that you must simply be very cautious.
Let others exceed; you always keep the end in view.

62 BELLUM COTTIDIANUM
Belligerare cupis, stulte, quasi bella quiescunt!
Ex protoplausto die pugnatur in fine nobis.
Libido praecipitat: bellum est, compugna cum illo.

62 BELLUM COTTIDIANUM
You long to be belligerent, fool, as if wars were at rest!
From the very first day a fight is waged against us to the end.
Desire hurries you headlong: it is war—do battle with it.

Luxuria suadet: abutere, bellum uicisti.
Uino copioso parce, ne per illum aberres;
Maledicti retinete linguam, unde dominum adoras;
Conpescere furiam, pacificum redde te cunctis;
Oppressos miseriis depremere caue minores
Terrorem adcommoda tantum et noli nocere;
Tramite uos recto ducite sincero per saeclum
In tuis diuitiis communem te redde pusillis;
De labore tuo dona, nudum uesti: sic uincis.
Insidias nullo facias qui Deo deseruis:
Aspice principium, unde perit inuidiis hostis.

Luxury urges: will you abuse it? you have conquered war.
Spare abundant wine, lest through it you wander;
Keep back the tongue of the cursed, by which you worship a master;
Check your fury, make yourself peaceful to all;
Be careful not to press the oppressed, the humble, down with miseries;
Apply terror only as fitting, and do no harm;
Lead yourselves along a straight path, guide truly through the age;
In your riches make yourself common to the humble;
From your labour give gifts, clothe the naked: thus you conquer.
Make no ambushes against anyone who serves God:
Mark the source whence the enemy perishes by envies.

Non sum ego doctor, sed lex docet ipsa clamando.
Uerba geris tanta uana, qui sub uno momento
Martyrium quaeris otiosus tollere Christo.
[ 63
Dum cupis, inde peris, dum ardis proximi zelo;
Extinguis te ipsum, quando te incendis abactus.

I am not a teacher, but the law itself teaches by crying aloud.
You utter such vain words, you who in a single moment
seek martyrdom, idle, to exalt yourself toward Christ.
[ 63
While you desire, thereby you perish, while you burn with zeal for your neighbor;
You extinguish yourself when you set yourself aflame, having been led astray.

Zelaris alium, inuide, de malo lucrantem,
Et te parem concupis fieri pecuniae tantae.
Lex sic non aspicit; dum illam incumbere quaeris,
Omnia suspensus uiuis in ardore lucrorum;
Cumque reus tibi sis ipsum te iudice damnans,
Oculorum acies nunquam satiatur auara.
Nunc ergo si credeas et cogites: uana cupido est
Congere<re> nimium sub fragili uita moranti.

Envious one, begrudge another, jealous, gaining from evil,
And you long to be made equal to such great money.
The law does not look on this; while you seek to lean upon it,
Suspended you live in the ardor of gains;
And since you are guilty to yourself, condemning yourself as judge,
The sight of the eyes is never satisfied, avaricious.
Now therefore if you would believe and consider: desire is vain
Congere too much while life lingers on a fragile thing.

Unde Deus clamat: Stulte, hanc noctem uocaris!
Postea ruina ruit: cuius erint ista talenta?
Suggeret cum Dominus unicuique uicta diurna.

Wherefore God cries: "Fool, this night you are called!"
Afterward ruin falls: to whom will those talents be?
When the Lord shall assign to each his daily gains.

Congestet alius: tu bono uiuere quaere,
Et Deus cor censens agis super omnia uictor;
Nec enim dico, ut in timore te mittas,
Cum pro die tuo uigilas sine fraude uiuendo.
In esca perit auis aut inhaeret inprouida uisco.
Arbitrare tibi simpliciter ualde cauendum.

Let another heap up: you seek to live well,
and God, deeming the heart, who judges, pronounces you victor above all;
for I do not say that you should cast yourself into fear,
since for your day you watch, living without fraud.
A bird perishes in its food or clings to the unwary sticky bait.
Judge to yourself simply that you must be very cautious.

Excedant alii, finem tu prospice semper.]

Let others excel; you always look to the end.]

64 QUI DE MALO DONANT
Quid te bonum fingis alieno uulnere, nequor?
Unde tu largiris, alter cottidie plorat.
Ista tu discredis Dominum uidere: doceris.

64 WHO GIVE FROM ILL-GOTTEN GOODS
Why do you feign yourself good by another's wound, scoundrel?
From what you lavish, another daily weeps.
By those things you keep men from seeing the Lord: you are taught.

Dona iniquorum non probat Altissimus, inquit.
Erumpis miseris, dum fueris locos adeptus.
Munera dat alter, ut alterum reddat inanem,
Aut si fenerasti duplicem centesima nummum,
Largiri uis inde, ut te quasi malum depurges:
Omnipotens tales operas omnino recusat.

The Most High does not approve the gifts of the unjust, he says.
You burst upon the miserable, having obtained positions.
Another gives gifts so that another may render them vain,
Or if you have usured a double-hundredth coin,
you wish to give from it, as if to cleanse yourself of evil:
The Almighty utterly rejects such works.

Donas tu de lacrimis candidatus; ille nigratus
Oppressus usuris deplorat factus egenus.
Nanctus praeterea tempus captat oribus hostis,
Ad praesens populas pretio tu sanctos iniquus.
Nec non et de lucro mercis si uis te piare,
Te ipsum inlidis, non alium, <inquam> inique.

You give alms from tears, a candidate; he, blackened,
oppressed by usury, laments, made needy.
Moreover, having found the time, the enemy seizes on mouths,
and you, unjust, buy off the holy for a present price.
Nor if you wish to propitiate yourself by the profit of trade
do you strike another but yourself, <inquam>, unjustly.

65 DE PACE SU<B>DOLA
Dispositum tempus uenit nostris pacem in urbe
Et ruinas simul blandiente saeculo primis.
Praecipitis populo, quem <ipsi> in schisma misistis:
Aut facite legem ciuitatis aut exite de illa.
Conspicitis stipulam cohaerentem in oculis nostris,
Et uestris in oculis non uultis cernere trabem.

65 ON DECEITFUL PEACE
The appointed time has come to establish peace in our city,
and at once, with the age flattering, it brings ruin upon the foremost.
To the headlong people, whom you yourselves have sent into schism:
Either make a law for the commonwealth or depart from it.
You behold the straw clinging in our eyes,
and in your own eyes you will not wish to see the beam.

Subdola pax uobis uenit, persecutio flagrat.
Uulnera non parent, et sic sine caede ruistis,
**********
De <omnibus> uobis uix unus caute se gessit.
O malo nutriri in occisione praedicti!

A treacherous peace has come to you, persecution blazes.
Wounds do not heal, and so you fell without bloodshed,
**********
Of <omnibus> scarcely one of you carried himself with caution.
O that one be nourished by evil in the slaughter of the aforesaid!

Laudatis pacem subdolam et uobis iniquam.
Alterius facti milites, non Christi, peristis.

You praise a deceitful peace and one unjust to yourselves.
You have perished as soldiers made for another cause, not of Christ.

66 LECTORIBUS
Lectores moneo quosdam cognoscere tantum,
Et dare materiam ceteris exemplo uiuendi,
Certamen fugire lites totidemque uitare,
Terrorem premere, nec unquam esse superbos.
Obsequia iusta maiorum quoque deferte;
Reddite uos Christo similes, filioli, magistro;
Inter agrestiua benefacitis lilia sitis.
Beati facti estis, cum fe<ce>ritis edicta.

66 READERS
I warn readers to know some things only,
and to give matter to others by an example of living,
to shun contention, avoid lawsuits as well,
to quell terror, and never be proud.
Render also the just obediences of your ancestors;
make yourselves like Christ, little sons, to your teacher;
among country folk do good deeds, be lilies.
You will be blessed when you have fulfilled the edicts.

Uos flores in plebe, uos estis Christi lucernas,
Seruate quod estis et memorare potestis.

You, flowers in the populace, you are Christ’s lamps,
Preserve what you are and remember that you can.

67 MINISTRIS
Ministerium Christi zacones exercite casti;
Idcirco ministri facite praecepta magistri.
Nolite fugere personam iudicis aequi,
Integrate locum uestrum per omnia docti.
Susum intendentes, semper Deo summo deuoti
Tota Deo reddite inlaesa sacra, ministri.

67 MINISTRIS
Exercise the ministry of Christ, chaste deacons;
Therefore, ministers, do the precepts of the master.
Do not flee the person of the just judge,
Fill your place in all things, learned.
Aiming upward, always devoted to God most High
Offer entirely to God the unblemished sacred rites, ministers.

Rebus in diuersis exemplum date parati;
Inclinate caput uestrum pastoribus ipsi:
Sic fiet, ut Christo possitis <esse> probati.

Be ready to give an example in diverse matters;
Bow your head to the pastors themselves:
Thus it will be, that you may be found approved by Christ.

68 PASTORIBUS DEI
Pastor si confessus fuerit, geminauit agonem.
Apostolus autem tales iubet esse magistros:
Sit patiens rector, sciat, ubi frena remittat;
Terreat in primis, et postea melle perungat,
Obseruetque prius, ut faciat ipse quid dicit;
Redditur in culpa pastor saecularia seruans,
In faciem cuius sis ausus dicere quicquam.
Bullit in inferno rumoribus ipsa gehenna:
Uae miserae plebi, dubia quae forte uacillat!

68 PASTORIBUS DEI
If a pastor has confessed, he has doubled the contest.
The Apostle moreover orders such to be teachers:
Let the ruler be patient, let him know where to slacken the reins;
Let him frighten at first, and afterward anoint with honey,
And observe first, that he himself may do what he says;
A pastor is rendered guilty who keeps worldly things,
In whose face you would dare to say anything.
Gehenna herself boils in hell with rumors:
Woe to the miserable people, who perhaps stand wavering in doubt!

Si talis aderit pastor, paene perdita instat;
Deuotus autem <eam> continet recte gubernans;
Exhilaratur enim ex anima regibus aptis.
In talibus spes est et uiuit ecclesia tota.

If such a pastor be present, ruin is almost at hand;
But a devout man, rightly governing, preserves it;
For he is gladdened in soul by rulers fit;
In such persons is hope, and the whole church lives.

69 MAIORIBUS NATI DICO
Me solum exposcit tempus uobis dicere uerum.
Ab uno semper mouitur, quod multi detractant.
In me solo uolo odia conuertere uestra,
Omnium ut pausent praecordias tanto rumore.

69 BORN OF GREATER ONES, I SPEAK
Time alone demands that I tell you the truth.
It is ever moved by one thing, namely that many detract.
I alone wish to turn your hatreds upon me,
that the hearts of all may cease because of so great a clamor.

Respicite dictum, quod ueritas odia tollat.
Iam praedixi quod est de pace subdola quanta!
Blandiendo uobis subrepsit Euae seductor.

Consider the saying, that truth removes hatreds.
I have already said how great is that treacherous peace!
By flattering you, the seducer of Eve crept in.

Uos quia nescitis, laqueo instar ruistis,
Sorbitis omnino auram dum saeculi ipsam.
Non gratis aget, pro quo interceditis, ullus;
Ab igne qui refugit, agit in uoragine uestro.
Tunc repetit suppetium miser denudatus a uobis:
Ipsi iam horrescunt iudices peculantia uestra.

Because you do not know, you have rushed like into a noose,
you wholly inhale the very breath of the age while.
No one will act gratis for whom you intercede;
he who recoils from the fire drives into your whirlpool.
Then the wretched man, stripped by you, seeks supplies again:
the judges themselves now shudder at your peculations.

De breuiori titulo nam in uobis inararem.
Inspicitis dicentes, quibus uos ostenditis ultro;
Cum ipsis et epulas capitis et pascitis ipsos.
Ob ea iam terrae paene fundamenta paratis.

For I would touch on a shorter title concerning you.
You scrutinize, saying to whom you of your own accord show yourselves;
With them you both take feasts and feed them.
On account of these things you now almost prepare the foundations of the earth.