Chapter 6

Exposition of the same vision.

BUT if it be enquired what was portended by the vision of the feathered beast, what by the horrible pit, what by the setting of the man on high, I will express in few words what I think on these. The beast I deem to have signified the devil, which in Ezekiel is mysteriously called the "great Eagle", both on account of the dignity of its heavenly nature and on account of the greatness of its spiritual iniquity. Who both there is said to have great wings and here also is said to have appeared to have had wings, so that, swollen with the pride of his exaltation, and striving to rise on high, he desired to be like God, and proudly raised up man by guileful promise against his Maker, through which mighty sin he ceases at no time and no hour to tempt the whole human race, to involve greater numbers, and to devote many with himself to eternal fire. His four feet I deem to be either the four winds of which mention is made in Zechariah, or the four kinds of temptations which the psalmist enumerates, or else the four vices of which Joel the Prophet speaks [Joel i, 4] saying --

"That which the palmerworm hath left hath the locust eaten; and that which the locust hath left hath the cankerworm eaten; and that which the cankerworm hath left hath the caterpillar eaten",

by the palmerworm signifying lust; by the locust, vain-glory; by the cankerworm, gluttony; and by the caterpillar anger and fury.

Moreover, Zechariah [Zech i 18] makes mention of the four winds, saying --

"And I lifted up my eyes and saw, and beheld four horns. And I said to the angel that talked with me -- 'What be these?' And he said to me -- 'These are the horns which have disquieted Judah and Israel and Jerusalem'."

By these four winds are signified the four passions of the soul; to wit, fear and sadness, love and gladness, which entirely dissipate quiet of mind, and

'Cloudy the mind is
Bound with a bridle
Where they are ruling.'

Of the four kinds of temptation, David [Ps. xci 5] says -- speaking of the righteous man --

Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night, nor for the arrow that flieth by day, for the pestilence that walketh in darkness, nor for the destruction and evil spirit at noonday.'

The first temptation is light and hidden; the second light and open; the third heavy and hidden; the fourth heavy and open. By these and the aforesaid methods that matchless enemy of mankind presses us down to the earth as if with his feet and, when we are laid low, violently binds us to himself with the cruel claws of his malice. Further, those who of their own accord cleave to him he compels to rush on from vice to vice, from bad to worse, until, their iniquities being fulfilled -- they having been, as it were, carried to the highest summit of all impiety -- by the vengeance of God they fall back to the bottom of the pit, that is, they fall headlong into the bottomless hell, wretched, and of all the wretches the most wretched. By this vision, therefore, I think it was signified to the man that he should prudently consider the manifold snares of our subtle enemy, and wholesomely beware lest swallowed up by a vast precipice he perish wretchedly. But because a man's way is not his own, nor is it for a man to direct his own steps, there has been added the consolation of heavenly mercy, and there has been granted him no small opportunity to acquire virtue, so that divine assistance should be the more readily granted according as he should more carefully fulfil the apostolic command.

I consider that this wise man understood these things through that which was shown him, and that they in nowise escaped from him he has shown forth both by his deed and by his word.

 

The Book of the Foundation of St. Bartholomew's, Smithfield Rendered into Modern English from the original Latin version preserved in the British Museum, numbered Vespasian B. IX, by Mr. Humphrey H. King and Mr. William Barnard for use in the Records of St. Bartholomew's Priory by E.A. Webb.

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