From God the Father through the Son together with the Holy Spirit all things have their existence, their form, and their perfection. All consecration is from the most holy Trinity, that is, from God through the Son together with the Holy Spirit. God is the true priest, from whom all priest-hood in heaven and on earth takes its name. All things that exist have their true existence in God; all that exists outside him is an imitation of God. In God, who is eternal, all things are eternal; hence fatherhood and sonship and love and priesthood are eternal. Hence it is that priesthood is actually, if I may so express it, priest-making; for all priesthood is from God, the priest of priests. A priest's function is a kind of unflagging imitation of God in purity, light, and goodness. God himself is purity, light, and goodness. After God, these qualities are most manifest in the angels, whom God, the supreme priest, has consecrated to himself by cleansing, illumining, and perfecting them. He has consecrated them to himself, however, in such a way that in themselves the angels reflect the triune God by the trinity of their activity; for those three actions exist preeminently in God. It is God himself who is worshipped and to whom sacrifice is offered.

[A] deo patre per filium cum spiritu sancto sunt, formantur, et perficiuntur omnia. A sanctissima trinitate omnis consecratio est: videlicet a deo per filium cum spiritu sancto. Deus verus sacerdos est: a quo omne sacerdotium in celo et in terra nominatur. In deo vere sunt omnia. Extra deum imitatio est dei. In deo qui eternus est eterna sunt omnia. Illic paternitas et filiatio et amor et sacerdotium eternum est. Sacerdotium illic est quidem (vt ita dicam) sacerdotificans, omne enim sacerdotium a deo est, sacerdotum sacerdote. Sacerdotale munus est[t que]dam dei assidua imitatio in puritate, luce, et bonitate. Deus ipse est puritas, lux, et boni-tas. Post deum hec relucent in angelis quos deus summus sacerdos purificando, illuminando, et perficiendo sibi consecrauit. Consecrauit autem et dedicauit sibi, vt angeli in se triunum deum in hac trinitate referant. Quatenus hec tria eminentissime in deo sunt: deus est ipse qui colitur et cui sacrificatur.

Hence the sanctifier in propagating these three actions himself cleanses, illumines, and perfects; in a wondrous way he is a priest who both sacrifices to himself and consecrates priests for others. The effect of this gracious divine priesthood is first of all in the angels: consecrated by so great a high priest they have gone forth joyously as priests consecrated to God by God himself, in order to imitate God in their turn by further consecration

Quatenus sanctificator ille hec propagans creat, illuminat, perficit: sacerdos est mirifice et sacrificans sibi et alüs sacerdotes consecrans. Effectus illius benignissimi diuini sacerdotii primus in angelis est, qui in tanto consecratore et summo pontifice euaserunt feliciter sacerdotes consecrati deo ab ipso deo, vt deum deinceps consecratione imitentur.

—imitate him, that is, by consecrating and sacrificing in the threefold mode of cleansing, illumining, and perfecting in which they themselves have been consecrated to God. It is fitting that propagation should characterize God and that his goodness should flow outward. Those who are employed in this propagation are in God’s holy priesthood. The priest’s sacrifice is most acceptable to God because by the power of the priest things are sanctified to God. God wills that priests sacrifice to him in sanctification just as he makes them holy by sanctifying them to himself. The greatest and fundamental sacrifice to God is the propagation of the Godhead, since it is a work of the most ardent love and for that very reason a work most just. By justice God is wondrously appeased. Hence it is that David said, “Sacrifice the sacrifice of justice” [Ps. 4:6]. By sacrificing justice the angels exercise their priestly power upon one another mutually and without ceasing. Likewise they exercise this power outside their own ranks, that in God the just may appear to the widest possible extent. Their every effort is in virtue of that Order who himself ordains a just and stable order in all things. This is what the priestly power produces. Therefore in more recent times the church has called priesthood orders.

Imitentur (inquam) consecrando sacrificandoque triplici illa racione purgandi, illuminandi, et perficiendi qua ipsi deo sunt consecrati. Propagatio enim oportet sit dei: et illius benignitatis dirivatio. In hoc officio qui sunt, in sancto dei sacerdotio sunt. Quod sacerdotali munere sanctificatur deo, sacerdotis sacrificium est deo acceptatissimum. Velit deus vt sacerdotes sacrificent sibi in sanctificatione, sicut ille sanctificans sacerdotes ipsos sibi [sacrificat]. Propagatio deitatis maximum et precipuum est deo sacrificium. Opus enim est ardentissime charitatis, et ob id quidem opus iustissimum. Iusticia deus placatur mirifice. Hinc illud Daviticum: Sacrificate sacrificium iusticie. Inter se mutuo et sine intermissione angeli sacerdotale munus exercent sacrificantque iusticiam. Item simul extra se fit vt quam latissime in deo iusti appareant. Moliuntur omni conatu in ordine ipso ordinante constantem et iustum ordinem in rebus. Hic effectus sacerdotalis muneris est. Vnde sacerdotium ordo a recentiori ecclesia cognominatum est. Ordinata in ordinatores, ordinatores in ordinem ipsum referuntur.

Things that are ordered manifest those who have ordered them, and these in turn reflect Order himself. Order himself is the all-shaping plan of God, arising from his inmost mind, complete and expressive of his divinity, itself of supreme beauty; for it is the word of God uttered from his royal lips, signifying God wholly in his inmost expression, fully and manifestly. In this fair order all things find their place. And in it the ordained work to propagate order. First and foremost, Order himself acts and operates through his priestly office to cleanse, illumine, and perfect all things and produce a just and stable order, in which the subordinate orders will act in their turn, each in its own order. Thus the first priest is Order himself, and the first Order is the Priest himself. He is the most sacred, the eternal son of God, of whom the Father spoke through the mouth of David these words: “Thou art a priest forever according to the order of Melchisedech” [Ps. 109:4; qtd. in Heb. 5:6, 6:17], which order knows neither beginning nor end. Accordingly he is the eternal priest of God, himself the priest-making God. The same is the eternal Order of God, God himself who ordains all things, from whom all priestly order takes its being, and all ordered priesthood as well. He who is order and priesthood first ordained the priesthood in heaven of the most holy spirits, in whom there is illumining, cleansing, and perfecting4 of all, but especially of and among themselves.

Ordo ipse racio est dei illa omniformis ab intima dei mente deprompta tota et adequata diuinitatis summa ipsa pulchritudo quod ipsum est verbum dei ex alto ore prolatum deum totum intimo exitu plenissime expressissime significans, quo pulcherrimo ordine dictata sunt omnia. In quo ab ordinatis in propagationem ordinis laboratur. Primum et maxime in stabilem et iustum ordinem rerum sacerdotali officio expurgans, illustrans, et perficiens ordo ipse agit et operatur, et in eo deinceps, qui sunt ordines ordine quisque suo. Primus ergo sacerdos est ordo ipse et primus ordo sacerdos ipse. Hic est sacratissimus dei eternus filius cui pater in ore Dauid hec verba habuit: Tu es sacerdos in eternum secundum ordinem Melchisedech, cuius ordinis neque principium neque finis agnoscitur. Itaque eternus sacerdos est dei, ipse deus sacerdotificans. Idem eternus dei ordo, ipse deus ordinans omnia a quo omnis sacerdotalis ordo est et omne ordinatum sacerdotium. I11e ordo et sacerdos primum ordinauit sacerdotium in celis sanctissimorum spirituum, in quibus est illuminatio, purgatio, et perfectio, et inter se maxime ipsorum et omnium.

    That first and exemplary priest, in whom all things exist, who is himself most truly all things—he is also that very sacrament that sanctifies all making all things sacraments that reflect him, the sacrament of sacraments. The first sacrament to be instituted, through which all the other sacraments were subsequently instituted, is that which is called orders or priesthood.

Sacerdos eciam ille primus et exemplaris in quo sunt omnia, qui ipse est omnia verissime. Is ipsum est etiam sacramentum sacrificans omnia omniaque sacramenta faciens que omnia ipsum referant sacramentorum sacrament[um]. Primum autem conditum sacramentum per quod deinde omnia alia sacramenta condantur, erat quod ordinem vocant et sacerdotium.

Its beginning is from the Priest and Order himself. By this sacrament he consecrated to himself and duly organized those happy spirits, to serve as soldiers in holy and ordered fashion under the very author of order. For all priesthood is a warfare in God by which his power rescues his creation from the forces that are hostile to God and brings it about that God appears in his glory everywhere and in all things. Those that procure evil and iniquity, on the one hand, strive unceasingly to win for themselves evil out of good and, having debased themselves, do all they can to debase others as well, so that the domain of evil may be enlarged. The heavenly priesthood, on the other hand, is consecrated to God and bound together by the sacrament [of orders] to attain and preserve through the one, beautiful, and good God the unity, beauty, and perfection of all things, defending them from the opposite condition of multiplicity, deformity, and defect which those of their own number who through their own wickedness apostasized and from being light-bearers have become the bringers of darkness —the devil and his satellites — strive continuously to bring about. Most blessed are those [angels] who, immediately after the defection of those who embraced their own ruin, stand forth in this universe, which is the temple of God,9 as splendid priests of the most high God and the indefatigable army of the great God of Hosts; such they were made by God, to use unceasingly the strength he had given them, even though their own nature might waver, in order to procure justice for God and to make that justice holy.

In principio a sacerdote ipso et ordine. Consecrauit enim sibi et apte* astrinxit sacramento felicissimos illos spiritus vt in ipso ordinum auctore sancte et ordinate commilitent. Militia enim in deo omne sacerdotium est vt in viribus dei, dei creaturam a racionibus deo contrariis vindicent vtque agant vt deus vbique et in omnibus luculente appareat. Quoniam authores malicie nequitieque indesinenter agunt vt sibi ex bono malum exaugeant: vt quemadmodum deprauerint se ita alia quequumque, quoad possunt in incrementum mali deprauent. Celeste sacerdotium consecratur deo, et sacramentali nexu obligatur vt in vno, pulchro et bono deo vnitatem, pulchritudinem et perfectionem rerum conquirant et conseruent a racionibus videlicet contrariis multiplicitate, deformitate, et defectu, que assidue moliuntur in mundo qui sua ipsorum improbitate apostatarunt ex lucifero illo* factus tenebrifer, diabolus et satellites eius. Sacratissimi illi [angeli] quos dedicauit sibi deus ipse statim [post] defectionem illorum qui in suum malum corruerunt, in hac rerum vniuersitate quod dei est templum extant magnifici sacerdotes summi dei et industriosi exercitus magni dei sabaoth, tales facti a deo vt pro datis uiribus sine intermissione in mundo suapte natura labente conquirant deo iusticiam iusticiamque consacrificent.

The Mosaic priesthood, which abounds in victims and immolations, ingeniously typifies their efforts in this enterprise. The angels, then, in imitation of the exemplar and cause of all priesthood, Order and Justice himself, labor to propagate the justice of God, especially by sacrificing to God and performing their true priestly office. This is simply to beget and bring forth the abundant fruits of justice, as comprehensively and widely as possible, in that sun that is God, whose triple ray cleanses, illumines, and perfects. For priesthood is assuredly the imitation of God in the diffusion of justice.

Quorum assiduitatem in hac parte moysaicum sacerdotium quod scatet hostiis et immolationibus solertissime adumbrat. Illi ergo imitantes exemplar et causam omnis sacerdotii ordinem eciam et iusticiam ipsam in propagatione iusticie dei elab[orant] hoc maxime, sacrificantes deo et vero suo fungentes officio sacerdotali quod est quidem in sole deo triplici dei radio purgatorio, illuminatorio, et perfectorio, et quam late fieri potest et quam longe copiosum iusticie fructum parere et procreare. Quoniam sacerdotium est certe imitacio dei in amplificatione iusticie.

In this power the orders of angels, nine in number (as Dionysius describes them), far excel, both for venerableness and for truth. These orders, consecrated and brought to fulfillment in the creation of the world, the temple of God, are perfect priests, devoting themselves in most holy wise to sacrifices of praise. God has constituted the angels priests in the universe, in order that in all things they may sacrifice unadulterated and true goodness to him, thus increasing the godlike element.

In eo munere ordines illi angelorum numero nouem (sicuti describit Dionysius) longe excellunt et antiquitate et veritate. Qui consecrati et consummati ordines in creatura mundi dei templo perfecti sacerdotes sunt sanctissime se in sacrifitiis laudis exercentes. In quo mundo constituit deus angelos sacerdotes, vt sibi incrementum dei sacrificent in omnibus, id est simplicem et veram bonitatem.

The Son of God is the supreme and eternal priest, who brought into being both the temple of the universe and the angelic, spiritual, priests. He likewise instituted all the sacraments and sacrifices, and in all who offer sacrifice he himself offers sacrifice to God his Father, so that the whole world may be in its entirety temple, priesthood, and sacrifice to God in him who is himself the temple of the temple and the truth of priesthood and sacrifice—to God his Father, from whom he received all things eternally, that also there might be temple, priest, and sacrifice. Thus the first and supreme priest is God himself, whose holy house is the temple of creation, where angels are the priests and where the sacrifice is justice simple and true. The angels were consecrated in perpetual priesthood to God in order to sacrifice justice, or rather to participate as ministers in the sacrifice, for it is the Priest himself who sacrifices all things in all. This is why orders, the priesthood founded by God in the temple of the universe, is first and most ancient among the sacraments. The priestly majesty that consecrates priesthood is eternal.

Dei filius summus et eternus pontifex condens et templum mundi et angelicos et spiritales sacerdotes. Item sacramenta et sacrificia constituens omnia, ipse in omnibus sacrificantibus sacrificans deo patri suo vt vniuersus mundus nihil sit nisi templum, sacerdotium, et sacrifitia deo in eo qui ipse est templum templi et sacerdotii et sacrificii veritas, deo patri suo a quo eterniter accepit omnia; et vt sit templum, sacerdos, et sacrificium. Primus itaque et summus pontifex est deus ipse cuius sacra est edes templum creature in quo sacerdotes sunt angeli; in quo sacrificium est simplex veraque iusticia quam vt sacrificent quin immo vt inter sacrificandum ministri sint (pontifex est enim ipse qui omnia in omnibus consacrificat) in perpetuum sacerdotium deo consecrantur. Quo fit vt in sacramentis prior et antiquior sit ordo, et sacerdotium in templo mundi a deo conditum. Pontificia maiestas sacerdotium consecrans eterna est.

II

II

All the other sacraments exist among spiritual natures too, but in a spiritual and angelic manner: matrimony, penance, baptism, confirmation, the Eucharist, and extreme unction. For like a wife of God the divine spirits cling to him and are fecundated by him; fecundated by the divine seed, they propagate a divine likeness. Men likewise are wives in God, but take other men to themselves in the capacity, so to speak, of women, and impregnate them in a kind of holy coitus. Thus from the first Man and Husband proceeds marriage, by which the superior part attracts the inferior and enfolds her in his embrace so that she may be fecundated in him and become, to the extent of her capacity, full of the divine goodness and justice, which is wholly derived from God and makes men such that they may in turn produce women, a matrimonial interaction by which the world may be made just in the just God. For the purpose of true marriage is to make justice fruitful, by clinging either to him who is Justice itself or to those who are justified by him. The true Man and Husband is that first high priest in whom is all the marrying by which all are fecundated; so that whatever is in itself barren, once subjected to God or the subjects of God, may become tender and abound in the fruit of justice, when scrutinized with a spiritual mind.

[S]unt preterea in spiritalibus naturis reliqua sacramenta omnia sed modo spiritali et angelico: Matrimonium, Penitentia, Baptismus, Confirmatio, Eucharistia, Extrema vnctio. Nam tanquam vxor dei adherent deo diuini illi spiritus et fecundantur ab ipso, et fecundati diuino semine diuinam similitudinem propagant. Item vxores in deo viri sunt, aliosque* tanquam feminas sibi asciscunt et quodam sancto coitu impregnant. Sic a primo viro et marito maritatio procedit, que est inferioris partis attractio sursum a superiore et amplexu astrictio vt fecundetur in eo, et pro capacitate plenum sit diuina bonitate et iusticia que tota est dirivata, que viros facit vt hi feminas faciant viragines atque vt sic vicissitudinario matrimonio iustificetur mundus in iusto deo. Finis enim veri matrimonii est fecunditas iusticie aut ex adhesione que ipsa est iusticia, aut illis que ab ipso iustificantur. Verus vir et maritus est primus ille pontifex in quo est omnis maritatio in fecunditatem omnium vt sterilia queque in se subjecta vel deo vel subiectis deo alicuius iusticie fructus fiant feratia atque tenera, si spiritali mente examinentur.

Priesthood is the same thing as matrimony, and sanctification is the same thing as begetting offspring. For when one has begotten offspring of justice in the world, he has sacrificed to God. Of this true matrimony the marriage of male and female for the propagation of the flesh is a vain and empty shadow, whose institution and meaning we shall discuss later

Idem est sacerdotium quod matrimonium, et sa[crificatio idem] est quod prolificatio. Quum enim in mundo prolem iusticie fecisti, sacrificasti deo. Huius matr[imonii] leuis et inanis umbra est id quod est maris et feinine in propagationem carnis de cuius institutione et quid velit dicemus postea prolixius.

and at some length.Now, however, we wish to say something in a cursory glancing way, about how the other sacraments are celebrated in this great temple of the world under God as high priest, so that the conclusions we reach in these prior matters may lay a firmer groundwork for our subsequent discussion. For we intend to speak more fully concerning the sacraments of our church, by means of which we carry on the battle like men sworn to our God in Jesus Christ.

Nunc autem cursim et leuiter in hoc magno mundi ternplo sub pontifice deo quomodo celebrantur reliqua sacramenta volumus annotare vt a primis fontibus dirivata oracio influat in id melius quod intendimus. Habemus enim in proposito loqui expressius de sacramentis ecclesie nostre quibus quasi iurati deo nostro in Iesu christo militamus.

III

Now penance, which might far more aptly be termed the sacrament of reconciliation or of the return to what is better, always comprises repentance for the fault, confession of sin, and the desire to make amends; and might just as well be called confession or amendment as penance. This sacrament of reconciliation ‚14 then, which the church in more recent times has preferred to call penance, is zealously conferred on those who are estranged and lapsed by the priestly part of the world, the spirits who lift up everything to God and restore everything to its place so that under God, who is Order, all things may be ordained in their due order. Owing to natural frailty, sins and transgressions occur frequently in the lower and corporeal part of the world. If the lower world were not lifted up and supported by the higher and spiritual part the downward tendency of all things toward evil and ugliness would, because of men’s utter powerlessness, bring him to nothingness.15 In the universe, therefore, the part that is cleansed, illumined, strengthened, and perfected, that priestly part that God has consecrated to himself, the angelic and spiritual part, exercises its priestly power, so to speak, by means of the sacraments. It cleanses the weak and impure corporeal part and insofar as possible establishes it in spiritual being, which then may be cleansed, illumined, and perfected according to its capacity; thus all things may be brought from dividedness to oneness, from ugliness to beauty, from defect to perfection, and reflect God in themselves, so that he may duly be revealed as all in all. In this lies the power and office of the priest; in this is the sacrifice that is pleasing to God.

Penitentia vero que longe rectius reconciliationis sacramentum vocaretur et reditus a deteriori ad id quod melius est, que semp[er] est cum penitencia delicti et confessione peccati et voluntate recompensandi vt confessio etiam et satisfactio possit vocari eque ac penitentia. Illud (inquam) reconciliationis sacramentum (quod posteriori ecclesie placuit penitentiam appellare) in alienatis et lapsis assidue a sacerdotali mundi parte agitur qui spiritus sunt, qui ordines illi releuant et quodque ad suum statum restituunt vt in ordinatis a deo qui ipse est ordo omnia suum ordinem teneant. Ex infirmitate rerum transgressiones et casus sunt frequentes in mundi parte inferiore et corporali. Quod si a superiori et spiritali parte reuocata non sustinerentur, defluxus rerum suapte impotencia in malum et deforme euaderet in nihilum. In hoc ergo magni mundi templo pars illa purgata, illuminata, confirmata, perfecta, pars videlicet illa a deo sibi consecrata et sacerdotalis, pars spiritalis et angelica, sacerdotale munus exercet quasi sacramentali racione, et corpoream partem infirmam et impuram purgat et stabilit quoad fieri possit in esse spiritali, vt pro captu illuminetur et perficiatur in deo: vt a diuisione ad vnum, a deformitate ad pulchritudinem, a defectu ad perfectionem contracta, omnia deum in se referant vt deus qui debet extet omnia in omnibus: in hoc munus et officium sacerdotis est, in hoc sacrificatio grata deo est.

For through the priest’s power men work and act together in God, who wills that the world should be one, beautiful, and good in himself, and that all things should be reclaimed from evildoing, darkness, and death; so that when death is finally superseded all things may live in God, radiant and perfect in their order. Through the angels, who strive to consecrate the world to God, come the cleansing and reconciliation of things, the illumining of baptism and the confirmation in the light, and finally the filling of each person with goodness according to the measure of his capacity and the degree of his perfection.

Quoniam in hoc est coactio et cooperacio in deo, qui vnum in se pulchrum et bonum mundum veut esse et res omnes a malitia, tenebris, et morte vindicare vt tandem absorpta morte vivant in deo omnia luculenta ordine et perfecta. In quo labore, per angelos qui student consecrare mundum deo, est expurgatio et reconciliacio rerum et baptismalis illuminatio et confirmatio in lumine et denique sua cuiusque quatenus potest capere bonitate impletio et perfectio.

All priestly power has as its sole purpose cleansing diversity into unity, illumining darkness, and finally bringing those who are deficient to the fullness of perfection.

Nihil enim aliud vult omne sacerdotale munus nisi diuersorum purgationem in vnitatem et tenebricosorum illuminationem in claritatem et postremo deficientium impletionem in perfectionem,

In the case of spiritual natures all this is done simply and openly, without the mark of a sign perceptible to the senses. In natures partly spiritual and partly corporeal, such as those of human beings, the same results are accomplished, but by the use of symbols and sensible signs, so that such natures’ corporeal element too may attain its own purity, light, and goodness. As to natures not endowed with eternal spiritual being, their temporal felicity consists in a state of purity, beauty, and goodness not conferred by any external sign. Indeed there are three kinds of beings under God, the true cause of all beings: those wholly spiritual, without temporal bodies; those wholly corporeal, without eternal spirits; and those intermediate, with both temporal bodies and eternal spirits. In the first-mentioned natures the reality of the sacrament consists simply in its essence, while in the second-mentioned the outward sign is the only reality of the sacrament. In the third, that intermediate class that comprises human beings, the sacrament is to some extent the reality itself and to some extent the outward sign, so that it is both spiritual and corporeal, as befits man’s dual nature. These are the sacraments of man’s fellowship in Christ, to which our discussion will turn in due course.

que in spiritalibus naturis fiunt simpliciter et aperte sine consignatione sacramenti sensibilis. In naturis partim spiritalibus partim corporeis cuiusmodi sunt homines eadem fiunt sed adhibitis etiam symbolis et consignaculis sensibilibus, vt corpus in eis habeat etiam quod agat puritatem, lumen, et bonitatem ipsius. In naturis vero que non sunt predite spiritibus eternis, in ipsis pura, pulchra, et bona conditio eorum sine ulteriore significatione est earum temporalis felicitas. Etenim tria sunt genera rerum sub ipsa rerum omnium causa deo: spiritalia penitus sine corporibus temporalibus, et corporea prorsus sine eternis spiritibus, et inter hec media ex temporalibus corporibus et eternis spiritibus constantia. In illis primis sacramentum est quodque res ipsa sacramenti; in secundis res ipsa sacramentum. In mediis his qui sunt homines et res est ipsa aliquatenus et sacramentum quiddam medium scilicet ex spiritali et corporeo compositum medie nature admodum congruum. Hec sunt sacramenta humane societatis in christo ad que aliquando nostra perueniat oracio.

From what has been said above it is clear that under the Son of God, the high priest of the temple (that is, of the whole world), there are spiritual natures, cleansed to a simple and stable existence in God, illumined with multifarious wisdom, and filled with all goodness; these natures cleanse, illumine, and perfect the beings that are fit to be cleansed, illumined, and perfected in God.

Ex superiore itaque sermone constat sub pontifice templi id est tocius mundi dei filio esse naturas spiritales purgatas in esse simplex et stabile in deo et illustratas omnifaria sapientia et impletas omni bonitate, que purgant, illuminant, et perficiunt purganda, illuminanda, et perficienda in deo.

In cleansing, or reconciliation, there is a manifold ministry. Hence those who exercise it are called by Dionysius ministers. Among the ministers in the universe one can think of doorkeepers, lectors, exorcists, acolytes, and subdeacons—but of much greater excellence than those among us, in our church. It seems to me that Dionysius calls deacons priests, and those whom we call priests and presbyters he calls pontiffs and presidents, whose function it is to confer the Eucharist and to fill the illumined with the mysteries, whereas the priests and deacons illumine those who have been cleansed. The primary function of the ministers is to cleanse; among them, as I have said, are the doorkeepers, who stand at the entrance of God’s temple to keep out those who are not undistracted, while permitting the undistracted to enter; the readers of psalms and sacred Scripture (readers in the spiritual sense are those who wordlessly point out God’s truth); the exorcists, who release and liberate those who are haunted and possessed by evil spirits, as the angelic spirits do by adjurations not known to us; the acolytes, who provide fire and water for the temple, an office that in the temple of the world is performed in a far different and truer manner by the heavenly acolytes. The subdeacons serve zealously in God’s shrine and sanctuary, as also, in an ineffable manner, in the sanctuary and choir of the world.

In qua purgatione (que reconciliacio est) multiplex est ministerium. Vnde in eo versati a Dionysio ministri vocantur. In quibus potes cogitare in magno mundo sed longe meliori nota quam in nobis nostraque ecclesia Hostiarios, Lectores, Exorcistas, Acolitos, Hypodiaconos. Diaconos mihi videtur Dionysius vocare sacerdotes. Et quos nos vocamus sacerdotes et presbiteros, ille pontifices et presules appellat quorum est dominicum corpus conficere et illuminatos complere mysteriis: sacerdotum dyaconorumque illuminare purgatos. Ministrorum primum expurgare, in quibus (vt dixi) hostiarii sunt, qui stant pro foribus templi dei excludentes multiplices, simplices sinentes intrare. Item lectores psalmorum et scripture sacre hi in spiritalibus sunt, qui tacite indicant sine verbo veritatem dei; Exorciste qui energuminos obsessosque a malignis spiritibus soluunt et liberant, quod faciunt angelici spiritus adiurationibus nobis incognitis; Acoliti qui ignem et aquam templo amministrant, quod est factum in mundi templo a celestibus acolitis longe alio et veriori modo; Hypodiaconi in sacrario et dei sanctuario sollicite inseruiunt, quod in sanctuario et cho[ro] templi mundi fit ineffabiliter.

Now, all things are washed and cleansed by water and fire. Love and the grace of the Holy Spirit are the heavenly water and fire. Above those orders whose function in the priesthood of the world is to cleanse may be considered the priests of the other world and of this (so Dionysius calls them—we say “deacons”) whose function is to illumine the cleansed so that they are able to see at least images of the divine truth and be inspired by them. In the celestial hierarchy these are the Powers and Denominations and Virtues, whose place is in the middle of the supernal hierarchy; illumining in the world comes from them, as cleansing comes from the lowest hierarchy. Above the middle hierarchy consider the highest, the high-priestly order, under God the highest of high priests. Their work, under God, is the ministration of perfection to each. It is they who fill all things in the universe with perfection, as our bishops are supposed to do among us. None are more excellent than they, save God himself. With these the number of the ecclesiastical orders is complete; among the choirs of angels they exist in the priesthood of the universe in exemplary fashion, while the human hierarchy is their image. In the books of Moses all of them are adumbrated except for those which now exist under the names of bishops, archbishops, primates, officers, and administrators. But these, which we have just spoken of as orders, are really powers rather than orders. Concerning them, as they exist among us, we shall shortly speak more at large.’’

Aqua autem et igne lauantur purganturque omnia. Celestis ignis et aqua est amor et gracia spiritus sancti. Supra hos purgatorios ordines in mundi sacerdotio potes cogitare qui se habent illic vt apud nos nostri sacerdotes—vt vocat Dionysius; vt nos vocamus Diaconi—quorum est purgatos illustrare vt saltem imagines diuine veritatis uideant eisdemque iniiciantur. Hi in celesti hierarchia sunt potentes et dominantes virtutes que in media illic hierarchia locantur, a quibus est in mundo illuminatio sicut ab infima purgatio. Supra hos cogita summum pontificalem ordinem sub pontificum pontifice deo, a quibus sub deo cuique est perfectionis ministratio. Illi sunt in mundo perfectione complentes omnia sicut nostri apud nos debent esse pontifices. Nihil est his excellentius preter ipsum deum. In his consummatus est numerus ecclesiasticorum ordinum qui sunt exemplariter in mundi sacerdotio in illis choris angelicis, imaginarie in humana hierarchia. Apud Moysen eadem erant omnia umbrositer preter hec que sunt et nominantur: episcopi, archiepiscopi, primates, officia, et administrationes. Atque hi quos modo diximus, facultates sunt potius quam ordines. Sed de his apud nos iam statim plura diffusius dicemus.

This above all we must remember, that all things have God for their exemplar; the angels manifest him more truly, our church manifests him in an image, and the church of the Old Law as a shadow.18 We must remember too that all things exist in heaven before they exist on earth, and that whatever is done on earth moves from the imperfect to the perfect. For the image of God could not have been portrayed on earth, among men, unless it had previously been sketched. It is as though Moses drew a hazy outline on the panel that is the world, using men, so to speak, as his charcoal; and our Jesus then filled in the colors more clearly.19 The ultimate idea and exemplar of all things is in heaven.20 This truth is approached when a work begun by God upon earth is brought to perfection. Thus a work that has advanced here on earth from the Mosaic shadow to the Christian image will in like manner advance in due course from this image to the truth of Christ in heaven. But each thing has its own time, and only God knows the moment that belongs to each. He who knows the time for the shadow and the time for the image knows also the time for the truth. In order that orders, matrimony, reconciliation, baptism, confirmation, the Eucharist, and extreme unction and the other things that are effected by cleansing, illumining, and perfecting may be accomplished, the first orders contain doorkeepers, lectors, exorcists, acolytes, subdeacons, deacons, presbyters; just as in the great temple of the world in heaven. There, however, everything is true and after a heavenly fashion; while here in this world, which is ordered on the model of the other, everything is an image. The names of the images of these realities are those we have just given, which are those of the sacraments of our church. As we declared at the outset we shall now discuss them, rather in a freely inquiring than in a doctrinaire spirit.

Hoc ante omnia teneamus in memoria: ad exemplar dei omnia esse, quem referunt angeli verius: ecclesia nostra imaginarie, ecclesia legalis umbrose; omnia pr[ius] esse in celo quam in terra. In terra que fiunt ab imperfecto ad perfectum proficisci. Non potuit enim imago dei depingi in terra in hominibus nisi prius adumbraretur. In media mundi tabula et hominum quasi carbone infuscauit atrum quiddam Moyses; depinxit clarius in toto mundo noster Iesus. Primaria idea et exemplar omnium in celis est, in quam veritatem ibitur* aliquando vt opus a deo ceptum in terris perficiatur. Quod vt est promotum a moysaica umbra ad christianam imaginem in terris, ita ab hac imagine ad christianam veritatem in celis suo tempore promouebitur. Est enim suum cuiusque tempus. Temporis momenta solus deus nouit. Qui nouit tempora adumbrandi et depingendi, idem nouit eciam verificandi. Ordo autem, matrimonium, reconciliacio, baptismus, confirmacio, synaxis, extrema vnctio, et eciam vt hec fiant purgatione, illuminatione, et perfectione in illis quoque ordinibus primis sunt hostiarii, lectores, exorciste, acoliti, hypodiaconi, diaconi, presbiteri: tanquam in magno huius mundi templo in celis. Sed illic modo celesti et vere omnia; hic in nobis qui ad illud exemplar componimur, imaginarie. Quorum imaginum nomina sunt que modo diximus et nostre ecclesie sacramenta significantia. De quibus nunc vti in principio statuimus liberius vestigantes magis aliquid quam diffinientes diss[eremus].

IV

IV

In the divine world the angels had knowledge and yet they departed from God of their own free will. At that moment the evil of sin began in the creation—namely, disobedience, pride, and transgression. It is only fitting that he who in his pride rebelled against God should be cast down and cut off as evil. Factious Lucifer, who had been so closely joined to God, turned from him of his own will, carrying with him a great troop of angels to the other side. Their sin was unforgivable and their fall irrevocable, for they did what they did knowingly and voluntarily; and a conscious voluntary sin cannot find forgiveness. It is the sin “against the Holy Spirit, which will not be forgiven either in this world or in the next” [Matt. 12:32]. With the malice of his wicked will Lucifer is now unweariedly plotting in the world to bring about evil and folly and dividedness and death. He especially hates man, for he sees his future glory. Hence this author and propagator of evil, whom Moses calls “the serpent more subtle than all the beasts of the earth that the Lord God made” [Gen. 3:1], persuaded the woman to eat of the seductive fruit of the tree that stood in the middle of paradise by the false promise that she would be like God and know good and evil. The husband acceded to the promptings of his wretched wife, though already aware that they were evil and that he was listening to evil in listening to his helpmeet, who had listened to the serpent “accursed among all the beasts of the earth, crawling on his belly and eating the earth, always the treacherous enemy of woman” [Gen. 3:14]. Hence the life of humankind, outside paradise and far from the tree of life, is burdensome, hard, difficult, and full of misery. Man sinned because he was seduced; in a sense, he sinned unwittingly and unwillingly. Therefore there was some ground for showing mercy to man, since he had some degree of excuse: the sin was laid upon the serpent who seduced him. God knows the best time to show mercy. It fell out in this way in order that he who created man should also recreate him.

[D]iuino erant in mundo angeli scientes et sponte desciscebant a deo. Hic malum cepit in creatura peccatum: scilicet inobedientia, superbia, transgressio. Superbi[entis] a deo est humiliari decidique in malum. Sua sponte longe abut a deo, cui* erat coniunctissimus, lucifer ille factiosust secum contrahens in suas partes magnam angelorum cateruam quorum culpa inuenialis et discessus irreuocabilis est quod scienter et sponte commissus erat. Sciens enim spontaneumque peccatum non habet veniam. Est id contra spiritum sanctum quod non remittetur neque in hoc seculo neque in futuro. Hic voluntaria n[ocentia] in mundo et nequitia est malum et stultitiam et diuisionem mortemque machinans assidue, hic maxime inuidie homini cuius gloriam vidit fore. Hinc hic author et propagator mali quem Moyses serpentem callidiorem vocat cunctis animantibus terre que fecerit dominus deus, suasit mulieri falso promisso vt de illecebroso fructu ligni (quod est in medio paradisi) ederet: hoc scitura dea bonum et malum; cui muliercule assensus est vir, iam scius mali, auscultans malum, audiens sociam mulierem que audiuit serpentera maledictum inter omnia animantia terre, pronum, terram comedentem, perpetuum inimicum mulieris, et insidiosum. Hinc humano generi vita erumnosa, dura, difficilis, plena miserie extra paradisum, longe a ligno vite. Homo quia seductus peccauit quodammodo inscius et inuitus peccauit. Vnde non erat ei nihil loci misericordie quum homini erat aliquid excusationis. In serpentera seductorem reiectum peccatum est. Nouit deus optimum tempus miserendi.

Man was created to be the spouse of the divine Son, but the wisdom of God (of which Paul exclaims, “O the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how incomprehensible are his judgments and how unsearchable his ways! For who has known the mind of the Lord?” [Rom. 11:33–34]) —that wisdom permitted man to fall in order that God’s great mercy should be seen to be greater still, in that he took as his bride not merely what he had created from nothing but what he had re-created from evil. The whole of creation was astonished and awestruck at the Creator’s great goodness. God created and re-created for himself a human spouse. The riches of his goodness are so great that Paul could find no words to express worthily so great a theme but simply spoke of “the riches and abundance of mercy” [Rom. 2:4]. If before the Fall he had taken mankind as his wife, neither the propagation of evil nor the power of God in dispelling evil nor the great wisdom and mercy of God would have appeared in the world. Sin and evil proclaim the justness and goodness of God, and as again Paul says, “The truth of God abounds in falsehood” [Rom. 3:7]: iniquity commends the justice of God and makes for his glory.21 Evil gives scope for God’s grace, as disease gives scope for the physician’s art and makes for his glory. Before he performed that great miracle of taking on human nature in the world, which was his own creation, he knew and permitted the fall of man to nothingness, that by raising man up from that utter dejection he might clearly manifest a mercifulness that was all the grander and worthier of God. It was foreordained that created man should fall,22 seduced by him who fell without being seduced; so that God’s power over his creatures should appear no less in the re-creation than it had in the creation, since it is far greater mercifully to recall man from evil than mercifully to create him from nothing. There is no reason why what does not exist should not be created, but there is reason not to re-create what is evil.

Erat faciendum vt qui creauit homines idem recrearet. Creatus erat homo vt esset coniux diuini filii, sed sapiencia dei (de qua exclamat Paulus, O altitudo diuitiarum sapientie et scientie dei: quam incomprehensibilia sunt iudicia eius et inuestigabiles vie eius. Quis cognouit sensum domini?) illa sapientia vt tanta misericordia adhuc maior agnosceretur sinit hominem delabi vt non solum creatum* ex nihilo sed etiam recreatum ex malo ducat uxorem vt vniuersa creatura tantam creatoris benignitatem obstupescat et reuereatur.’ Creauit et recreauit sibi suam coniugem humanam deus; que bonitatis diuitie sunt tante vt verba defecerint Paulum quibus digne rem tantam exprimeret, sed diuicias et opes misericordie appellat. Si ante casum assumpsisset sibi in vxorem hominem, et propagatio mali et potencia dei in malo discutiendo et in mundo maxima dei sapiencia et misericordia non apparuisset. Transgressiones et mala declarant equitatem et bonitatem dei; iniquitas iusticiam dei commendat & vt idem sentit paulus, Veritas dei in mendatio abundat, in gloriam ipsius. Materia gracie dei malum est vt morbus materia artis medicine in gloriam medici. Antequam illud tantum miraculum assumpte humane nature in creatura mundi ostentaretur sciuit et permisit hominem cadere in nihilum, vt ex tanta humilitate in sublimatione hominis ingentius benefitium et deo dignius manifestissime cognosceretur. Predestinatum erat vt homo creatus decideret seductus ab illo qui decidit non seductus, vt in recreatione rerum in creaturis dei potencia eciam non minor quam in creatione appareret, misericordia autem multo maior quam in creatione; quum multo maius est ex misericordia reuocare a malo quam ex misericordia creare a nihilo. Nam quod non est vt non creetur non est causa, quod autem malum est vt non recreetur* causa est.

Evil is a greater obstacle to God’s re-creating than nonexistence is to his creating; so that it would be a matter of much greater power to re-create the world from evil than to create it from nothing. In creation there is pure power, and in re-creation pure mercy, while in both is the highest wisdom; through his wisdom God both created in power and re-created in mercy. Thus along with his fearsome power his boundless and lovable mercy might at length stand revealed in full wisdom in the world (as Paul again and again emphasizes), to the praise of his glorious grace.

Magis obstat deo malum in recreatione quarn non esse in creatione, vt multo maioris potentie esset recreare mundum a malo quam creare ex nihilo. In creatione pura potentia, in recreatione pura misericordia, in utraque summa sapientia erat: per quam deus et potenter creauit et misericorditer recreauit, vt in mundo tandem simul cum potentia timenda inestimabilis misericordia eiusdem amanda sapientissime effulgeret (vt iterum atque iterum inculcat Paulus) in laudem gracie glorie sue.

The most high God therefore willed to take a bride from the lowness of his creatures and also to take on rational nature, which was not only base in itself but had actually fallen into irrationality; he did this in order that that supreme rational nature that had fallen through envy might burn still more miserably through envy. For the glory of the saved is a torment to the damned;23 the greater the mercy that is shown to the saved, the greater appears the justice to the damned, and the loftier God’s vengeance. Thus one may see in what ineffable manner God is at once just and merciful, and at the same time the greater his mercy is, the greater is his justice; so that it is evident that his justice is born of his mercy, and that in God mercy and justice are the same thing in one infinite wisdom.

Ex tanta ergo humilitate, in creaturis voluit sibi coniugem accipere altissimus deus et infimam naturam racionalem eam quoque in irracionalitatem delapsam, vt suprema illa natura racionalis que inuidia decidit magis in suam miseriam inuidia ardeat. Est enim pena perditis gloria salvatorum, et in his quanto maior est misericordia tanto illis iusticia maior est altiorque vindicta, vt liceat cernere quam ineffabili modo est deus simul iustus et misericors, et simul quanto magis misericors eo magis iustus, vt in misericordia eius videatur nasci iusticia et esse eadem in deo misericordia et iusticia in una infinita sapientia.

Man’s weakness and inability to rise again through his own strength became obvious long before God finally relieved it, in order that human nature, abandoned to its own efforts, would recognize both its own powerlessness and the divine mercy, and that that nature which through pride had fallen away from God might learn to rise again in humility and refer all things to God. When humanity did not have the Law it wandered from the true path, and when it had the Law it deviated more. At the fitting moment, when the peril was extreme, God came to the rescue of mankind. He drew to himself poor human nature, covered with filth, as forcefully as if he grasped it by the head or the hand. He removed its foul and putrid garment, scattered the dust, wiped away the dirt, and reinvested humanity in the cleansed garment, a shining and saving wedding garment. As both high priest and husband he consecrated the nuptials, so that he might be the high priest of men as well as of angels, and so that he who built the churches might be the one to restore them. He willed that this great nuptial sacrament should be in created man before the Fall so that the sacrament would be holier, that man wondrously created out of nothing might be the sign of the re-creation of man out of evil. In the creation he gave to Adam, the first man, a wife for the propagation of the flesh; this was to signify that the first man in the re-creation was also to have a woman taken from his side, re-created and redeemed by the shedding of his blood, for the propagation of spirit; to whom it was said, “Increase and multiply” with a spiritual offspring, “fill the earth and subdue it, and be lord over the fishes of the sea and the birds of the heavens and all things that move on the earth” [Gen. 1:28]. The woman created in paradise foreshadowed the church re-created on earth, which Adam, the first prophet, foretold when he said, “A man will leave father and mother and cling to his wife, and they will be two in one”—spirit [Gen. 2:24]; for Adam’s “flesh” signifies the spirit of Christ. This is the sacrament of which Paul speaks in the Epistle to the Ephesians and which, because of its grandeur (as Jerome writes),24 he does not explain, merely saying in a word or two that it is “the sacrament in Christ and the church” [Eph. 5:32], preferring to pass over the great mystery in silence rather than diminish it by speaking about it. On that account he admonishes the Ephesians to “love their wives as Christ does the church” [Eph. 5:25], to sanctify them and make them fruitful in the spirit, not in the flesh.25 For to the extent that the fleshly element enters into marriage its truth of spirit is lessened. In paradise too there was marriage of male and female without carnal union, a sacrament of spiritual coition. Adam, however, the first created man and the father of fleshly progeny, was the shadow of the second, re-created, man, the parent of a spiritual progeny as numerous as the stars.

Longa era declaratio imbecillitatis humane impotentieque resurgendi per se, antequam eam reuelauit deus vt deserta multo experimento et suam imbecillitatem confiteretur et diuinam misericordiam agnosceret, vtque que volens superbire decidit a deo discat humilitate resurgere et referre omnia deo. Sine lege delira erat, sub lege deliratior; oportuno tempore in extremo periculo succurrit diuina znisericordia et pauperculam naturam hominis obsitam et squalidam quasi manu vel capite apprehensam ad se traxit, exuit fedam et tabificam vestem, discussit puluerem, extersit sordes, purgatam induit nitidam et salutarem vestem nuptialem. Idem pontifex et maritus consecrauit nuptias, vt qui angelorum pontifex est idem sit pontifex hominum idemque restauret ecclesias qui construxit. In creato homme tantarum nuptiarum sacramentum voluit antecedere eciam ante peccatum vt sanctius sacramentum esset: vt mirabiliter creatus homo ex nihilo recreati hominis ex malo sit sacramentum. Ade primo homini in creatione adiecit mulierem ad carnem propagandam: vt ex hoc primo homini in recreatione intelligatur adiecta femina, ex latere eius recreata redemptione effusi sanguinis in spiritum propagandum cui dicatur, Crescite et multiplicamini spiritali prole et replete terram et subiicite earn et dominamini piscibus maris et volatilibus celi et vniuersis que mouentur super terram. In paradiso creata femina virago erat recreate in terra ecclesie umbra de qua vaticinatus est Adam primus propheta dicens quod relinquet homo patrem suum et matrem et adherebit vxori sue et erunt duo in spiritu vno. Nam caro Adam significat spiritum christi. Hoc est sacramentum quod dicit Paulus in Epistola ad Ephesios et pre magnitudine (vt leronimus scribit) non explicat sed vno fere verbo dicit quod est sacramentum in christo et ecclesia malens tantum mysterium tacere quam de eo loqui diminutius. Iccirco admonet Ephesios vt vxores diligant sicut christus ecclesiam in sanctificationem earum et fecundationem in spiritu non in carne. Nam quatenus in coniugio res carnis sit, tanto veritas spiritus minuitur. Et in paradiso erat maris et femme connubium sine carnali copula, spiritalis coitus sacramentum. Adam autem primus homo creatus et parens carnalis progeniei umbra erat secundi hominis recreati et parentis prolis spiritalis ad numerum stellarum.

The first Adam was God’s minister in the propagation of the flesh that results in death; the second Adam was God’s minister in the propagation of spirit that results in life. In his Epistle to the Romans Paul calls the first Adam “the type of him who was to come” [Rom. 5:14], whose grace would abound to many others and justify them after their many crimes so that the just might reign together in life through Jesus Christ alone, through whose obedience men were justified.26 He it is who is the parent and propagator of the spirit for life on earth,27 while the first Adam is the begetter of the flesh for death. This is what Paul means in writing to the Corinthians: “As in Adam all men die, so in Christ are all men given life. The first Adam became a living soul, the last Adam a life-giving spirit. The first man came from the earth and was earthly, the second came from heaven and is heavenly” [1 Cor. 15:47]. In Christ therefore there is no engendering save a heavenly engendering of the spirit. For, as Paul says elsewhere, “We know no one according to the flesh” [2. Cor. 5:16]. As is only fitting, in Christ propagation is in no way carnal but altogether heavenly, “that we may bear the image of the heavenly” [1. Cor. 15:49] and be like our heavenly parent who makes the Church fruitful by casting into her his divine seed so that she may bear a copious offspring of justice for the kingdom of God. He who created Adam to be his image willed him to be in a certain sense re-created, so that, as was written to the Colossians, “he who is the first-born of all creation” should be also “the beginning, the first-born from the dead” [Col. 1:15, 18], the head of the church; that he might hold the first place among all, both the created and the re-created, both those that were lacking and those that were full. He emptied himself utterly so as to be preeminent in re-creation and reconciliation just as he was preeminent and the first-born of all the universe in creation and fullness and perfection. “For on him is based everything that is perfect in heaven and on earth, all things visible and invisible, whether Thrones or Dominations, whether Principalities or Powers; all things were created through him and in him” [Col. 1:16] wondrously and omnipotently—the creator unmaking himself in a sense in order that those he created might be remade, that the first-born of the creation might be also the first-born of the re-creation; in that human nature, I mean, which had fallen, to which also the Son of God himself condescended by becoming son of man, in order that refashioned human nature might become the daughter of God and the eternal spouse of the Son. As man fell to the level of the flesh it was necessary that he be redeemed from the flesh by the embrace of the spirit, and that the flesh, which had been dominant, should be overcome by the spirit, so that the emergence of spirit might make man suitable for a spiritual marriage with God himself, with whom no one can be united unless he is in the highest degree spiritual;

Erat primus Adam minister dei in propagatione carnis ad mortem, secundus Adam minister dei in propagatione spiritus ad vitam. Primum Adam vocat Paulus in epistola ad Romanos formam futuri, cuius gracia in plures abundauit ex multis delictis in iustificationem vt iusti conregnent in vita per vnum Iesum christum per cuius obedientiam homines iustificantur. Is erat parens et propagator spiritus ad vitam in terris, sicut primus Adam progenitor carnis ad mortem. Quocirca scribit Paulus ad Chorinthios, Sicut in Adam omnes moriuntur ita et in christo omnes viuificantur. Factus est prim[us] homo Adam in animam viuentem, nouissimus Adam in spiritum viuificantem. Primus homo de terra terrenus, secundus homo de celo celestis. In christo ergo non est prolificatio nisi celestis et spiritus. Iarn (ait Paulus alibi) neminem cognouimus secundum carnem. Nec carnalis in christo debet esse ulla propagatio sed tota celestis, vt portemus imaginem celestis, et celestis parentis nostri similes simus, qui fecundat suam ecclesiam iniecto in earn diuino semine vt copiosam pariat prolem iusticie ad regnum dei. Qui creauit Adam vt esset imago sui voluit ipse quoddammodo recreari vt (sicut ad Colocenses scriptum est) qui est primogenitus omnis creature idem sit principium, primogenitus ex mortuis, ecclesie caput: vt sit in omnibus ipse primatum tenens, et creatis et recreatis, et plenis et deficientibus, qui defecit ipse maxime vt esset eciam in recreatione et reconciliatione primas sicuti in creatione et plenitudine et perfectione rerum erat primas et primogenitus omnis creature. Quoniam in ipso condita sunt vniuersa perfecta in celis et in terra visibilia et invisibilia, siue throni, siue dominationes, siue principatus, siue potestates; omnia per ipsum et in ipso creata sunt mirifice et omnipotenter, deficiente ipso creatore quodammodo vt creatura reficiatur: vt primogenitus creature sit idem primo regenitus recreature in recreata scilicet humana natura que defecit, ad quam eciam defecit dei filius ipse et factus est filius hominis, vt refecta natura humana fiat filia dei et sponsa filii eterna. Vt decidit homo in carnem ita fuit necesse vt exemeretur ex carne comprehensione spiritus: fiat ex carne spiritalis, carne que regnauit a spiritu victa: vt spiritus existens homo, idoneus esset vt spiritali connubio cum deo ipso coniungeretur cum quo nequaquam coniungi potest nisi sit summe spiritalis

for there must be some kind of proportion between those who are joined in marriage. The flesh is so far removed from God that it is impossible for carnal man to be united with him. Hence it is that Paul and the other Apostles exert all their powers in pleading and demanding that the flesh be mortified and then revivified in the spirit, always teaching plainly that unless men become spirit they can never so cling to God as to be one spirit with him.28 We are “dead and buried with” Christ [Rom. 6:4], says Paul in the Epistle to the Romans. “Our old nature has also been crucified, that the body of sin might be destroyed and that we might serve sin no longer” [Rom. 6:6]. A little later he asks, “Who will free me from the body of this death?” [Rom. 7:24-25].29 Again: “The wisdom of the flesh is enemy to God,” and, “The prudence of the flesh is death” [Rom. 8:7, 6]. “Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.” “If Christ is in you the body indeed will die to sin but the spirit will live and be justified” [Rom. 8:8, 10]. And still further on: “I beseech you, brethren, through the mercy of God, that you present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God, a reasonable service.” “And do not be conformed to this world but be reformed30 in newness” of spirit and “of your mind, that you may determine what is the good and well-pleasing and perfect will of God” [Rom. 12:1, 2]. To the Corinthians he wrote: “The natural man savors not the things that are of God; they are foolishness to him and he cannot understand them, for it takes a spiritual man to discern them; whereas the spiritual man discerns all things” [1 Cor. 2:14, 15]. The one he had spoken of as the “natural” man he soon after refers to as the “carnal” man, “who is guided by human standards” [1 Cor. 3:3]. And in the Second Epistle to the Corinthians he writes, “We who live are always being delivered over to death for the sake of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may be manifested in our mortal flesh”; and in the same place, “We carry always the dying state of Jesus Christ in our bodies so that the living state of Jesus may be manifested in our bodies too” [2 Cor. 4:11, 10]. Again: “Christ died for all men,” and in Christ “all men died, so that those who now live do not have their life from themselves but from him who died and rose up again for them. We, accordingly, do not know any man in the flesh. If there has been a new creation in Christ the old has passed away, and behold! all things are made new” [2 Cor. 5:14, 17]. There is also this passage: “I would rather glory in my weakness that the power of Christ might dwell in me. When I am weak, then I grow strong” [2 Cor. 12:9, 10]. To the Galatians he wrote, “If I were to please men I would not be the servant of Christ” [Gal. 1:10]. Again: “Through the law I have died to the law that I might live to God; for Christ I am crucified to the cross; it is not I that live, but Christ lives in me” [Gal. 2:19, 20].

Proportione enim aliqua oportet lint que copulentur. Caro enim longe distat a deo, vt carnalem hominem cum deo coniungi sit impossibile. Hinc Paulus et reliqui apostoli suadent et imperant quoad maxime possunt mortificationem carnis et reuiuificationem in spiritu, semper hoc docentes plane: nisi homines fiant spiritus eos deo vt unus fiat spiritus adherere non posse. Commortuos et consepultos dicit Paulus nos esse cum christo in epistola ad Romanos. Vetus homo noster simul crucifixus est vt destruatur corpus peccati, vt ultra non seruiamus peccato. Est paulo post: Quis me liberabit a corpore mortis huius? Item Sapientia carnis inimica est deo, et prudentia carnis mors. Qui in carne sunt deo placere non possunt. Si christus in vobis est corpus quidem mortuum est propter peccatum, spiritus viuit propter iustificationem. Si spiritu facta carnis mortificaueritis viuetis. Et adhuc postea: Obsecro vos, fratres, vt exhibeatis corpora vestra hostiam viuentem, sanctam, deo placentem, racionabile obsequium, et nolite conformari huic seculo sed reformamini in nouitate spiritus et sensus vestri vt probetis que sit voluntas dei bona et beneplacens et perfecta. Ad Corinth[ios], Animalis homo non sapit ea que dei sunt: stulticia enim est illi et non potest intelligere quia spiritaliter examinatur. Spiritalis autem iudicat omnia. Quem dicit animalem hominem eundem mox postea carnalem dicit et secundum hominem ambulare. Et in .ii. ad Corinth[ios], Semper nos qui viuimus in mortem tradimur propter Iesum vt vita Iesu manifestetur in carne nostra mortali, et in eodem loco, sempter mortificationem Iesu christi in corpore circumferentes, vt et vita Iesu manifestetur in corporibus nostris. Item, Vnus pro omnibus mortuus est christus et in christo omnes mortui sunt vt qui viuunt iam non sibi uivant sed ei qui pro eis mortuus est et resurrexit. Itaque nos ex hoc neminem nouimus secundum carnem. Si qua ergo in christo noua creatura, vetera transierunt: ecce noua facta sunt omnia. Et illud: Libenter gloriabor in infirmitatibus meis vt inhabitet in me virtus christi. Quum infirmor tunc fortior sum. Ad Galathas, Si hominibus placerem christi servus non essem. Item, Ego per legem legi* mortuus sum vt deo vivam, christo crucifixus sum cruci: viuo iam non ego, viuit vero in me christus.

And again: “Walk in the spirit, and do not carry out the desires of the flesh, for these are enemies the one to the other” [Gal. 5:16, 17].

Et illud: spiritu ambulate et desideria carnis non perficietis. Caro enim concupiscit adversus spiritum, spiritus aduersus carnem. Hec enim sibi inuicem aduersantur.

And a little further on he says, “Those who are of Christ have crucified their flesh to vices and concupiscence. If we live by the spirit let us walk by the spirit” [Gal. 5:24, 25]. Later he says, “Let me make no boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom the world is crucified to me and I to the world,” in which “there is nothing of value but the new creation” [Gal. 6:14—15 ]. And writing to the Ephesians [1:3] he calls God the father who has blessed us with all the spiritual blessings of heaven. And again he says, “Put away your former mode of life and your old self, which was corrupted according to the appetites of error, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind; and put on the new self, which is created according to God’s image in the justice and holiness of truth. Do not grieve the Holy Spirit” [Eph. 4:22-24, 30]. Again: “Be filled with the Holy Spirit” [Eph. 5:18]. “Ours is a struggle against the spiritual powers of wickedness on high,” which must be overcome by “the weapons of God” [Eph. 6:12, 11]. And to the Philippians Paul writes, “For me, to live is Christ and to die is lucre” [Phil. 1:21]. And again: “I am molded in the pattern of his death if I am in any way to come to the resurrection from the dead and to possess him who possesses me from Christ Jesus. Forgetting what lies behind me I hasten on to what is ahead, to the destined prize of the lofty calling in Christ Jesus” [Phil. 3:10—14]. To the Colossians he writes, “Now I rejoice in my sufferings for you, that I can make up in my own flesh anything that was lacking in the sufferings of Christ” [Col. 1:24]. Likewise he says, “Mortify your members that are on earth” [Col. 3:5]. Cast off and “strip away the natural self with its deeds, and put on the new” [Col. 3:9, 10].

Et paulo post, Qui auteur sunt christi carnem suam crucifixerunt cum viciis et concupiscentiis. Si viuimus spiritu, spiritu ambulemus. Et post hec: Mihi absit gloriari nisi in cruce domini nostri Iesu christi, per quem mihi mundus crucifixus est et ego mundo, in quo nihil valet nisi noua creatura. Et ad Ephe[sios] scribens deum patrem appellat qui benedixit nos in omni benedictione spiritali in celestibus. Et illud: Deponite vos secundum pristinam conuersationem veterem hominem (qui corrumpitur secundum desideria erroris) et renouamini spiritu mentis vestre: et induite nouum hominem qui secundum deum creatus est in iusticia et sanctitate ueritatis. Et, Nolite contristare spiritum. Et, Implemini spiritu sancto. Est nobis colluctacio aduersus spiritalia nequicie in celestibus, que vincenda sunt armatura dei. Et ad Philippenses: Mihi viuere christus est et mori lucrum. Et illud, Configuratus morti eius, si quomodo ad resurrectionem occurram que est ex mortuis. Si quomodo comprehendam in quo et comprehensus sum a christo Iesu. Que quidem retro sunt obliuiscens ad ea que priora sunt extendens meipsum ad destinatum prosequor brauium superne vocationis in christo Iesu. Ad Collocen[ses]: Nunc gaudeo in passionibus pro vobis vt adimpleantur ea que desunt passionum christi in carne mea. Item, Mortificate membra vestra que sunt supra terram: deponite et expoliate veterem hominem cum actibus suis et induite nouum.

But what is the purpose of these quotations? Simply to make us understand that if we wish to be linked and joined to God, who is spirit, we must needs mortify the flesh and become wholly spirit, utterly renewed in Christ and living in Christ after the pattern of him who gave the example that we might follow in his footsteps; for this purpose only did he become man, to show men the spiritual and divine life in man and to teach them what wedding garment man must put on if he would be taken to wife by God. None can be wife to God but a maiden reborn in spirit, “without wrinkle, without spot or anything of that kind, altogether holy and immaculate” [Eph. 5:27], chaste bride with chaste husband, holy bride with holy husband, spiritual and divine in the spirit and God. When the Lord “looked down from heaven, to see whether there were any who knew God and sought after him,” he found no such maiden on earth; for “all had turned away and were of no use; there was none who did well, not even one” [Ps. 13:2, 3]. It was therefore absolutely necessary for God, creator of all things, when in his inconceivable mercy he willed to take humanity to wife and bind it to him by the closest of ties, to create this wife.

Sed quorsum hec testimonia? Nempe vt intelligamus si deo qui spiritus est coniungi et copulari voluerimus, nos necessario mortificata carne spiritales omnino esse oportere et penitus nouos in christo ad formam illius hominis in christo uiuentes qui exemplum dedit vt sequamur vestigia eius qui ob id cause solum assumpsit hominem vt spiritalem et diuinam in hoinine vitam ostendat hominibus doceatque quam vestem nuptialem induat homo si velit a deo in vxorem duci. Noc locatur matrimonio deo nisi virgo reiuuenescens spiritu, sine ruga, sine macula aut aliquid eiusmodi, tota sancta et immaculata, casta cum casto, sancta cum sancto, spiritalis et diuina cum spiritu et deo. Cuiusmodi puellam dominus quando de celo prospexit vt videret si esset intelligens aut requirens deum sibi in terris non inuenit quoniam omnes declinauerunt simul inutiles facti sunt: non erat qui fecit bonum, non era usque ad vnum. Fuit igitur necesse sane vt deus creator omnium, quum voluit in terris (misericordia quanta excogitari potest a nemine) vxorem ducere et hominem arctissima copula sibi astring[ere], earn crearet.

He created the first man in the womb of the virgin mother Mary; he joined to himself this second Adam, who was utterly holy and free from the stain of sin, as the first Adam had been before he fell. In him the Son of God appeared to men, so as to make them willing to believe and thus receive many of the now justified sinners into the fellowship of his Son, that holy spouse of his called the church. Paul often calls the church the “new creation in Christ” [2 Cor. 5:17]. Thus mankind—now the female, so to speak—is supremely fulfilled through the sacred nuptials and divine union with God in the embrace of this great husband and God;31 and she who was barren was made abundantly fruitful in that merciful cohabitation with the Son of God, so that having conceived as it were by his seed she brought forth in herself abundant fruit of holiness and justice—good works, which Paul often calls fruits unto life eternal.32 To the Galatians he writes, “The fruits of the Spirit are love, joy, peace, patience, long-suffering, goodness, kindness, gentleness, faith, modesty, temperance, chastity” [Gal. 5:22-23].33 These virtues are as it were the offspring of the Son of God and his spouse the church. Human beings are summoned into the church to be God’s wife, that they may be impregnated by the divine seed and, though previously they were cold, should now be warm and bring forth out of their love good works in profusion, along with the righteousness that is the eternal progeny of God and the church. Human beings, as brothers or sisters of the daughter of God the Father, are collectively the spouse of the Son of God: we are sisters to the man in Christ and spouses to the divinity in him. Human beings are also like sisters to this divinity, whom the eternal God espoused so that in the common house of his Father, the church might be to him both sister and spouse:34 a sister created by God the Father that his Son might make her his wife, fecundating her with justice eternally. Accordingly the church is to man a sister in Christ, sister and spouse to God the son in Christ, and daughter to God the Father. But this daughter of God is more virile than are the male sons of men. By an eternal generation God the Father begot a Son coeternal with himself— begot him, that is, in himself, and of himself, and as it were by a union with himself, that he might bring forth the Son in himself; in that ineffable manner he is at once father and mother. Now, that eternal Son whom he begot, the power and wisdom of God the Father, could not, when he began to love, be without a wife. For it could not be that the great power of filling with love, perfecting, propagating his own image in and with another—that this should be lacking in things divine and in the divine Son. This is matrimony, the union of male and female; if it is good it ought first to be in him who is first, in order that what succeeds should take its name thence. Therefore the Son of God is the first husband [maritus] from whom all marriage [maritatio] in heaven and on earth takes its name. He is the very essence of a husband, the very essence of masculinity, who perfects the feminine creation.

Creauit primum hominem vtero matris virginis Marie, quem secundum Adam coniunxit sibi sanctum penitus et sine labe peccati cuiusmodi erat primus Adam antequam cecidit. In illo dei filius apparuit hominibus vit omnes volentes credere crearet eiusmodi adscisceretque multos ex peccatoribus factos iustos in societatem filii sui, in sanctam sibi coniugem que vocatur ecclesia quam Paulus sepe vocat in christo nouam creaturam: vit sancrosanctis nuptiis et diuino coitu homo cum deo (femina homo) in amplexu tanti uiri et dei summe perficiatur: et que erat sterilis plene fecundetur in illo misericordi concubitu dei filii: vit quasi semine concepto pariat copiosum fructum in se sanctitatis et iusticie que sunt bona opera, que sepe Paulus vocat fructus in vitam eternam. Ad Galath[as] scribit, Fructus autern spiritus est charitas, gaudium, pax, paciencia, longanimitas, bonitas, benignitas, mansuetudo, fides, modestia, continentia, castitas. He virtutes sunt quasi soboles filii dei et ecclesie, opera iusticie quasi filii sunt dei et sue coniugis ecclesie. Homines vocantur in ecclesiam in partem vxoris dei vit diuino semine impregnentur, et quum antea friguerint iam caleant et ex charitate pariant spisse bona opera et iusticiam que proles est eterna dei et ecclesie. Homines confratres vel consorores filie dei patris vna coniunx est filii dei; homini in christo consorores sumus, deitati in christo coniuges. Illi eciam deitati quasi sorores* quibus nupsit eternus dei filius, vt ecclesia sit ei in communi patris domo et soror et coniunx. Soror creata a deo patret vit eam vxorem ducat filius, earn fecundans iusticia in eternitatem. Itaque ecclesia homini in christo consoror est: deo filio in christo et soror et coniunx, deo patri filia virago. Sed filia dei virilior est viris filiis hominum. Deus pater genuit sibi eterna generatione coeternum filium, genuit quidem in se et ex se ipso et quasi coit cum se ipso vit filium progignat in se ipso vit illo ineffabili modo filio esset simul [pater] et mater. Genitus autem filius ille eternus dei patris virtus et dei sapientia quum ceperit amare non potuit esse cui non tradatur vxor. Nam ex amore implere, perficere, et in alio et cum alio propagare imaginem et simulitudinem suam tanta virtus abesse diuinis et diuino filio non potest. Hoc est matrimonium, coniunctio maris et femine, que si bona est debet esse prima in primo, vit a primo deinceps que sunt nominentur. Dei filius ergo primus maritus est, a quo omnis maritatio in celo et in terra nominatur. Est vir ipse et ipsa masculinitas, femine creature perfectio.