The Acts of the Apostles are so entitled, just as among the gentiles in former times the 'public Acts' were so called, by which the account and record of the empire's administration and the management of the commonwealth were established. For there is scarcely any book of our religion that so clearly sets forth the doctrine of truth by irrefutable examples and by the trustworthiness of the history that ensued. And certainly, apart from the Epistles of the apostles, which combine these two, there is none. The Romans had such records, which were entitled 'Acts of the City,' by which evidently posterity preserved, as in a public repository, the testimony of their forefathers. When Judea, polluted with the blood of her own crime and having dared an abomination, completed her work;
the Creator of all things gave for the human race that which he had taken from human limbs without sin, deigning that, as one, he should touch the things of hell, while not leaving the heights of heaven. The day that entered to the shades loosed the darkness condemned to eternal night; the fleeting stars left the heaven, accompanying God; terrified by the cross of Christ, Nature too willed to suffer alike, and the power of death, by conquering itself, perished, for it, sunk under the weight of the triumph as the Holy One snatched away his own, has no right at all; and divine power, binding the limbs together again, set the now-quickened corpses in motion. The tombs lie open unto life, and the ashes of the holy renew their birthday after the grave.
The third light arises; Majesty returns with the flesh, and brings back a gleaming form from the seat of shadows, that from the exiled clay, long shut out, the origin of the fatherland might be sought again. The Almighty himself prepares the ways, and bids the bodies to reign with him after the tomb; the seed of the poison dying, he restored its own shoots to the flower-bearing garden. And now through forty days the Lord had imparted manifest faith by signs, while they beheld, even unto the utmost world spread to its boundary, whom he bids to be his witnesses. The miracles of things could not hide God; what could one add to the proofs which, rising again, he gave so sure? Hence human bodies prove the life.
About to seek heaven, he goes forth to survey the grove of the olive, because by its sacred shoot it is a place of light and of peace; from there he wills to return, whence the divine fragrance commends the creature shining with sealed brow, when from above the chrism washes the anointed inwardly with the name of Christ. He is taken up, the victor about to return into the star-bearing height, and he has with him what he took on—a new pomp of triumph! God sought the fields, man the stars; what crash is given to him from the ethereal region? and how greatly do the heavenly choirs resound in praise, when the Ruler of Olympus bears up to the heights whatever he took up from the depths? And entering heaven, with the trophy of the flesh attending him, he places in the citadel of light the spoils snatched from the jaws of the black abyss, and raises up earthly limbs;
by the same mercy with which he takes them, he went for the sake of that for which he had come. Deep amazement drives the disciples, to whom with shining countenance the radiant men spoke; the things that sound to us both known and wondrous, let us now contemplate, rejoicing, and let us prove the manner of his empire through the laws made subject to him. Born of a virgin mother, rising again with death trodden underfoot, seeking the scepters of heaven, he announces these deeds to his ministers. Nor do the elements cease to serve their own Thunderer; the star, the companion that went before the Magi, serves the honor of his coming; the cloud waits in attendance upon him as he ascends.
Therefore, after it had received angelic words, the chosen band, venerable, left the summits of the olive-bearing mount for the harvest, who by a swift path seek the familiar walls, whither on the sabbath one may go a thousand paces, where then in that station sat the Gate—Mary, the untouched Mother of God the Creator, formed by her own Son. The second Virgin puts to flight the evils of Eve's sin; there is no reproach to her sex: she restores what the first took away. Let not grief, for the old law's sake, stir up complaints by the voice, or weary the mourning hearts with groaning; the very crimes and the abomination please rather at this price, and, the world being redeemed, a better lot comes out of the disaster: the person, not the nature, gave the ruin;
then a woman with child swelled unto peril, now she swelled about to bear God, begetting mortal things and bearing divine, through whom the Mediator came forth into the world and bore true flesh up to the heavens. First in the apostolic company, called from a little boat, was Peter, by whose fishing the scaly throng used to be caught; suddenly seen from the shore, while he draws his net he himself deserved to be drawn; the fishing of Christ, deeming him worthy, seizes the disciple, that he might let down nets to catch the human race:
the hand that had wielded the hook is transferred to the key, and he who burned to turn the wet spoils of the deep sea toward the shores and to fill his boat with plunder, now in better waters lifts them from another quarter, nor does he abandon his art, pursuing his gains through the waves—to whom the Lamb handed over the sheep whom by suffering he saved, and throughout the whole world increases the flock with this shepherd; by which office he rises supreme, and, broaching divine matters, thus venerable he speaks before them: 'You know that the mad traitor paid himself the wages of his crime;'
he himself shuddered at the loathing of his own guilt, choking the voice in his throat, and—the example now failing—reconsidering his guilty crime, he, who deserved to be slain in the very part where the fault lay, by such a judgment gave over his limbs to madness, so that, in the midst of the air, due punishment might appoint a place for the common enemy; hated by heaven and earth, he perishes between the two; his burst entrails fall, to be laid in no tomb, and the ash, slipping out into the thin air, flees from his mouth: this vengeance upon Judas is not without purpose, which denies him burial, and the requital of his wicked wages thus comes, destined to please as just;
for, when he had just purchased fields from the price of his death—the turf bought with the name of blood, composing tombs for the ashes of strangers, making the ground fruitful out of graves—the impious man lacks the fruitfulness of his own field, and salvation is shut out from the lands which bear those tombs, whose savage trumpet first sounded forth the bloody crime, who as standard-bearer, feigning kisses of peace, a wolf, by a sign brought war upon the lamb. Now there is need of prayers, as the prophetic words proclaim, and need to fill the vacant place. Then, praying for the highest things, they appointed two, Joseph surnamed Justus, and Matthias—which name, as they say, sounds 'little of God' in the Hebrew tongue, and by its very meaning marks him as humble. O how far do human things stand from the judgments above!
By the merit of the lowly one, that man is passed over who was just by the praise of men. The twelve signs of the choir shine, and Olympus hurls its ordinances upon the earth. What this light of the work too sets forth, I shall proceed to declare. The world is divided into the four parts of its quarters; a threefold faith calls upon it, by which name it is washed in the font. Therefore, taking the four three times over, the twelvefold order reckons the whole figure which it has carried round. And to the pious disciples, to whom this baptism is enjoined, the mystic cause granted that the former number should return. The Holy Spirit, descending from the ethereal hall, irradiates with its splendor the place where was the blessed garland of the newborn Church, in whom, with fire as their master, warmth steeped their mouths, and with flowing words there comes forth a teeming harvest of tongues.
No letter performed the office, no vein of native talent dripped from the mouth, nor did the wax stylus mark out the excellent utterances; faith alone was their learning, and the rich material of the word—a heavenly gift, a new origin of speech which came forth manifold, so that one alone suffices to address the eloquent of the whole world. Long ago, when the old expanse of the sea had overcome the waters, the malicious willed to thrust their tower up into heaven, for whom impious hearts severed the modes of speech, and among the proud companions feeling perished together with voice: there was then a confusion of tongue among one like people; now among many there is one, since it rejoices in the image of the coming Church, which is to have concordant sounds; and, returning, it becomes fruitful in peace for the modest, and the humble order gathers up again what the swollen men had scattered.
A very great matter compels me not to leave long unspoken what it is that the gracious Spirit is given twice in flame, and from the height of the Jordan as a dove; this I shall then duly sing, and pay the debts I promised, if he but bring his gifts. These are two signs of a single figure: that there be the simplicity which the fitting bird loves, and—lest it bear slow lukewarmness without the fire of doctrine—that faith be kindled withal; there at the Jordan he destines the like-minded to the waters, here he bids the teachers blaze with their utterance. Love presses upon the minds, ardor seethes in the words. A true 'error' says that these too were moved, in figurative fashion, by new wine—they whom the teaching of heaven, drunk with a fresh fountain, has filled;
new vessels received the new liquor, nor are they corrupted by the bitter draught with which the old vats were drenched, drinking from the vine which, with Christ as its dresser, gave banquets to words, whence the waters which he changed grow red, and he made the thin savor of the Law grow warm in the books of the Church. The third hour grew bright with starry speech. This number the one God possesses, a simple substance distinct in three persons; very many proofs lie open to us, and the times together show this. But Peter first, who fixes his steps upon the sea, now longing to cast the nets for the salvation of men, that as a rejoicing fisher he might lift these throngs from the font, recounted—while the people marveled—the heavenly triumphs.
He came to the western shores, brought forth in the flesh under human law—God, who, free of time, took a beginning from a mother, nor, mighty in majesty, did he deem it base to take on the form of an earthly body, and, the maker of men, to become a part of them, and to call us back to himself at his own price—after the gifts of healing, and after so many sick ones raised up, their languors driven out, when he restored even bewept and life-spent bodies to the light, and granted them again the upper air; permitting himself also, poured forth from his mother's womb, to suffer the laws of the flesh, lest the world should lose life, he himself chose to die; but that which is born of the pregnant virgin, that it is which dies; the innocent one is hung upon the wood, and the burden of the tree is emptied: thus the wound of the wicked one becomes the medicine of God;
he shone forth amid the fearful shadows, seeking the pale realms—him, gleaming with his own light, chaos could not darken, nor could pains make him flee; then the underworld is afraid to exist, and its punishment, holding no one, recoils upon itself; the new tormentor languishes into idleness. Mournful Tartarus groans, because all its chains are at rest. What could death do there, whither the bringer of life was passing? Him almighty God, to whom no end ever threatens, raises up after the holy grave; we beheld Jesus radiant in body, and saw him returned to his own stars. But flee, O wretches, the deadly atonements of the nation, for which, when God came to turn away its old sins, the wounds of sacrilegious guilt only grew greater. Why, Judea, do you, a parricide, drag your own sons through vows of blood?
Why, the blood of Christ being shed, do you, condemned, press these together with yourself, and hasten to bring forth as guilty those not yet even created, and your homicidal tongue has struck at the course of nature?—for whom a birth later than the crime feeds the peril, and the offshoot of the crimes perishes from its very nativity, which, wounded by the voice of its parents, comes into the light already punished. If you have a care to dissolve the increases of the fruitful evil, restore by the blessed waters the extinguished race; the one hope of having the owed punishment remitted is, after the crimes, to be willing to be born again. Now the shepherd multiplies the sheep; no fewer than three thousand of the throng did that day wash in the river of the Lamb. Here for the first time, after God's commands, the use of baptism arises, ratifying the ordinances given; for a threefold power, I declare, gathers this number, having divided it in equal parts.
Perfect is that which 'a thousand' signifies: so at last we set ages to the centuries, when we speak of the times of the world. A thing made perfect once is joined thrice, and the mystic power of number makes the company. It is the holy figure of the new flock. Meanwhile grace is poured through every sense, and the will, made wealthy, reaps riches in love. And, that the pious may come together into covenants by a sure pledge, they appraise their goods, and their wealth binds their hearts without limit, by shared affection; new ordinances flowed for the blessed from a bountiful hand, by which divided wealth is doubled in joyful abundance, and that which they make common to themselves grows for all, and they take possession of the whole, who wish nothing to be their own. From what fountain this uprightness ran, or what was that origin of goodness, here I shall begin to sing:
Twice was the gracious Spirit granted to the holy disciples: once breathed into them by Christ as he rose again; afterward, sent from the stars, the eloquent fire brought down unknown words to the men. Lest we meditate anything untried with vain effort, come, gracious Spirit; without you, you are never spoken of; give the gifts of the tongue, you who give tongues as your gift. These repeated gifts, I judge, confirm the just, that they may keep the two commands inscribed on two tablets: 'Love God with your mind, full of fervent love'; and again it says: 'Let your neighbor too be dear to you, as you are.' This covenant holds all law, which the gracious Spirit, coming twice, creates through hearts: once the Author gave it on earth, that man might be loved; afterward he sent it from the stars, that human hearts might burn for God:
love of God is first, which loves the Lord vehemently; to which there is then a second, which unites the mortal race; yet the later in order aptly begins, and that which is prior follows, accompanying the second; thus the sacred form teaches: 'unless you love the brother whom you are able to see,' it says, 'you do not know how to love God, whom you are not able to see.' Therefore let concord grow warm with equal vow, and let love of the brother store up the Lord within the breast; let it have for itself one substance from a twofold cause. There was a lame man, to whom the first day gave the beginnings of life together with a ruin of his limbs, passing his years in idleness with a weakness coeval with him, to whom, with John accompanying, Peter says, 'Look at us': hope shed light on his greedy wish, and while it denies, it prepares better things.
How often do desperate things aid the burdened, and prosperity born of a sinister seed—hiding glad borders amid sad beginnings—come to fulfill their wishes? The needy man will rejoice to have earned a blessing with a pious empty hand, who, while begging for gifts, was himself given to himself. 'I have here no vein of metal,' he answered, 'to pour forth wealth; I, though poor, shall be richer than the sick man; go forward, depart!' From the voice of him who commanded, a mighty healing leaped out, and with a stranger's gait his feet lived together again; leaving behind his long cradle, the veteran trod the ground, and on new soles the old substance moves itself, for whom, with swift course, his walking brought forth whatever his birth had not produced. The manifest proof of the deed stands firm; but another matter too opens to us what the cause signifies:
the nation holds its name 'Israel' from him who, ailing, had abandoned the wars that strove to contend with God; he himself bore beforehand a figure of the body, grievous, which afterward lame Israel holds in a wound of the mind, which, slipping through its own crimes, is feeble more in heart than in flesh, and in those very spaces, removed for forty years from the border of Egypt, it limps, longing for Egypt and seeking idols. The feeble man is set at the Beautiful Gate; further the wretch cannot go, nor touch the threshold of the gate; guilt denied him the way. Who are they who are wont to bear lame Israel in their heart, and strive to bring him to the gate—which, beautiful, brings forth Jesus from its own name? Isaiah, Daniel, and whatever prophets like them, sing in obscure words the manifest miracles of Christ.
And he who bears the name of the gate himself thus admonishes: 'I am the gate for you; he who refuses to enter through me, that one will be a harmful thief.' The prophets are able to carry men to the gate, speaking of things to be seen rather than things seen; into the temple they cannot bring them; this door was entrusted to Peter, who, having confessed Christ, shows forth things known, not sounding things yet to come. O old one, you will lie forever, unless now, lame man, you entreat Peter!—who, driving off harmful things, shuns the burden of gold, for whom the Author of all decreed that he should not carry a purse for himself: seek the gifts of salvation, do not pursue frail riches, which he who would be truly rich ought to spurn together with the Lord. After the temple's thresholds, the Portico of Solomon holds him, who is rightly called the Peaceable; with faith reigning, who in the world will ever be the Peaceable, except Christ?
He protects every one who, with Peter as leader, is pleasing, by whose presiding the Church rises up. Now with a snow-white throng, through five thousand men, the summit of the Church was growing; Judea labors to keep this from being honored, from whose gift flowed what the working power bestowed, but Peter's love knows not how to forsake Christ: 'We will not keep silent about him,' he says, 'by whose granting salvation returns, who by the right of the Creator supplied the unfinished work; and a part restores the solid beauty which his commands renew; here the Redeemer restores the wounded limbs, here he grants the dead to rise.' Their mind is bent on perpetrating wickedness, and on inflicting sacrilegious slaughter upon the holy reverend ones. O ever wicked! They see the gifts, and stir up wars;
but they abandon what they began, lest they harm those whom the crowd cherishes—for whom, with the lame man as proof, there was a witness of the merit—and by this they were lifting up their own hearts. For the step gave no small miracles to the people, the step which the home-born servant, both untrained and old, now under no laws of age, took up from the ground; with whom nature itself, which long lay still, is amazed to be moved, and lately made firm, by its own walking now marks new footprints which had been foreign to it; yet the wicked brood still rages, and forbids to utter what the joys proclaim. Why, Judea, do you fall so often? You buy that the resurrection of Christ be hidden by theft, but, mad, you seek empty proofs out of sleep with a perishing spite: the things which you perceive to be wrought by power, you wish to be denied by fraud.
When the Lord drew near to destroy hell, He brought back thence His own flesh, death being despoiled. As victor from the citadel of the Cross He dispenses His radiant standards. The sun rushes into darkness, while you (O Judaea) rebel with a blackened heart. The fields tremble, shaken to their depths; the rocks crack open, yet you remain hard. Now the rending of the veil laid bare the mystic things of the temple that had long lain hidden. Your Light came to us; with you alone the night remained. Death without end presses upon him for whom life never rises again. O ancient stock, be joined to the new and be planted in the new books, lest, bereft of food, you perish; without whose gift you will be a withered fig tree, because at no time do you wish to bear fruit to the hand of Christ, nor to behold how greatly the uncertain wild olive flourished, producing olives, while the grape sprouts in fullness among the nations out of thorns.
The wrath of the axe threatens the exhausted roots, that you, cut down, may fall, unless now, transplanted, you grow green again. After the wondrous salvation, born in the ancient body, is heard by the disciples and becomes clear, and the proud nation has learned its threats, they celebrate a hymn with these words: You who, as God, by a craftsman's word make all things alive in their own forms, and who, beholding the things produced, see them beforehand, and create the shapes of things by their names: when You command, the voice was seed, nor did nature, following, delay the rising of Your command; soon the Spirit of Your mouth bent the heavens, bound fast the dry land, poured out the seas, and Your will alone bestowed the material of the work. Lest a like image should bear a deforming yoke, the Ruler of Olympus hid beneath a servile covering, so that the gentiles might fulfill the furies they had begun.
What was Herod's guile, when he stirred up grievous wars by ordering the infants to slaughter? Those snatched from the breast the wounds receive, straying over their little limbs that scarcely find a place; and at the savage tyrant's command, to be born was their punishment, whose onset took away their life, which he who destroyed them knew not was being lived. O new condition of death! to undergo life only for an ending, and, since the first day and the last are at once one and the same, to be able to die rather than to know how to die. Who, with dry eye or with ceasing groan, could recount the crime of Pilate, which the very elements bewail? Under whom as judge Christ willed to subject His own members to perils for the world, that flesh might dissolve the carnal evil, and the fierce enemy, from whose cunning flowed the darts of poison, might lose the tearful expiations of the ancient war.
Since an equal substance prevailed, lest the burden of guilt should further pass on through offspring, the condemnation of the Just One became liberty for the guilty. Grant that the seeds of the word be cultivated through Your gifts, and may this hand, no longer sluggish, using the fallow ground, gather sheaves while You make them fruitful, from which You Yourself may build the granaries of Your heaven, and crown the wheaten faith while the tares perish. Where the holy feet shone, the earth seemed to run together under a heavy weight; the kindly Spirit shone upon them, and eloquence grew in the tongues that arose. The prayers, once heard, prevailed: we, the human stock, are earthly matter, and man by his very name betrays his clay parent. The force of the apostolic voice bent and drove the fields, which made those created from the earth to have faith: but why does one place leap up the more and is shaken?
Scripture sang that the feet which bring peace are comely; therefore under their steps the joyful earth is moved, to whom by the word of the holy Master peace was committed, which, carried abroad through them, went out into all lands by a swift gift. Behold, among so many excellent throngs one heart begins to be, and the people obtains one soul. Who could doubt the mysteries of the teaching, that one God is three Persons? when thousands of the multitude come together with one accord, and the souls of the thronging number are as one man; which crowd, destined to bear the everlasting cross, and having followed the faithful Lord, spurned the fields, destined to possess the heavens: this indeed is the power.
It is a stronger thing to gain the whole out of a part, and to weigh things abiding against things that perish, and to pursue gain through losses. You do not do this, O prodigal seller of goods, but you, ambitious one, who desire to keep your rights, and in a little time leave behind what you always wish to be yours. Thus to scatter the fields was to be unwilling to lack them; for what does substance profit which, when kept, perishes? which, placed in the citadel of the stars, he who yields holds more conveniently. Seek thence, O creditor, the help of greater interest, and store up your treasures where they cannot suffer adversity; no chance wears down perpetual riches there.
You shall hold without end what you make the Lord to owe you. Now look, learned reader, upon the pious portions, and turn over with your shrewd mind what you should suppose it to be, that the pomp of ruddy metal is laid before the feet, not owed to sacred hands; they prove it ought to be cast aside, since they shun to touch it, and they teach that the gold which they set beneath their steps is to be trodden down; from which earthly cares come to the heart, like a boaster scattering similar soil. Learn, O greedy one, in what place your mind should stand; what you guard panting, what you press by your watch, what you more often burn to behold, into whose embrace through dreams you ever run back, the pious shudder to handle, nor even then do they carry it when they prepare good deeds: how greatly do they observe it to be wickedness to rest in it, and the gold one bears as a gift is despised!
Unhappy Ananias fell by the wound of his guilt, a thief of his own assessment under his own fraud; the impious wife falls, struck by like punishment, because from one crime a common wickedness is made, whenever consent makes a crime already done its own: for that sentence was the avenger of the greedy mind. In short, when does the love of gold cease? It ever burns the breast; by it the mortal race is captured; from this root every evil sprouts, whose ambition burns the more violently as its measure grows, and the gains added to plunder feign a hunger. But, since a changed will holds the crime of falsehood, and since a precaution of vow has already been made, it is fitting to stand firm, and not to wish to violate it afterward; it is more lawful to retain one's own right than to take it away.
The vengeance upon the two sanctioned an example for all, lest anyone call those things gifts which a debt once pledged demands. Look, true faith, and, bright in blessed doctrine, seek the words of Peter: Who persuaded you to deceive, and shut you in by proving it? You do not, by speaking such things, delude men; you lie to God. The doctrine which condemns the wicked edifies the pious. That the kindly Spirit is God, full instruction is from many books. And yet from this faith takes its arms: whither do we strive further? Who would doubt what Peter says? You who rightly come to the waters, stand in this place; it sufficiently withstands the enemies, that which the form of the Church proclaims.
Fear the judgment concerning your end, you who are the author of your crime and of your error: Arius, unhappy, rushed forth with his belly poured out, falling the more in mind, and, slain by death, bore a death in common with Judas, who, hanging by the throat, emptied of his bowels, died; nor does punishment set apart those whom equal guilt binds, who prepare a wound from their mouth against the honor of the Majesty: this one betrayed, that one tore apart, both guilty by sacrilegious speech. God, the arbiter of the world, is in three Persons, in whom there is at once one power. He took away from these the appearances of works, created by His goodness, who looked not upon the beauty of the Maker, and, erring, suppose that He who made all things is Himself made.
Fame stirs the peoples to hasten from all places to the mystic signs of salvation, and to bring down upon their beds the sick afflicted with plagues, whom they set in that part of the city where Peter holds his sacred footsteps. O if a more eloquent course should move my mouth, and an iron voice, an eloquent tongue, gave a hundred sounds in this praise, how much more splendid would be the compass of my speech! to open each thing with varied figures, and not to enclose great things in scanty words—what would be the face of things, when in a little time the flocks of diseases fell, and unforeseen salvation flowed to all, which the shadow of light, poured from his serene body, creates, and, removed from doubtful death, they raised their head.
But they could not catch sight of the Author of the good, whose lofty power hides the help it bestows, and the thing is prepared before any hope could be, and the hidden medicine gives stealthy rewards of life, and snatches away the fever of the panting body while the sick man knows it not—a help which he who proves it has come does not know to be present, and the power of the deed grows lacking recognition; whose image of splendor, flitting over all things and cleansing harmful things by its touch, stands by its gifts, fleeting to the eyes, and everywhere leaves the couches full of its bounty, and casts the dark foes out from the senses, and strips the limbs of their ghostly mists. Go swift, Peter, and, treading the path of men's cares, shake out your steps; with you the medicine of salvation walks; press on the way.
Hope is swift toward joys, that there be no delay in the feet; your pathway is life; if you hasten, now no one lies sick; you by the motions of your shadow lift up all bodies; and this at once the silent crowd, unaware of its own wish, receives, which, when one asks, one alone receives. [Therefore to all came salvation, at the asking of one.] Seek, you whom reverence for so great a deed stirs, what typological meaning this thing bears, and, with the books unrolled, learn that this glory was granted to Peter alone; and behold what lessons lie hidden beneath this appearance; which I will attempt to speak, although such ability is granted only as that a dry rivulet should drive great waves.
Again miracles come from ancient causes; a firmer substance of things is grasped in all, perceived by its own body, and it follows, and is poured forth with a certain body, nor does a shadow bound a solid figure: yet it itself marks that bodies precede it. We venerate on earth the Church which none may doubt to be proclaimed as ethereal, but truer is that one which, abiding above the stars, is called celestial and lofty. This one, which is seen in the passing of the doubtful world, is given to be the way to life, and in this span it destines those whom it gathers for the eternal one, and from here the journey of the approved is to follow the heights; Peter rules both companies, and from here gives the stars by lot to the troops he has led, as was made plain through the words of God.
"Whatsoever you shall loose," He said, "and whatsoever you bind on earth, so bound or loosed it endures in heaven": this Church which we behold cultivated in the fields would therefore be the figure, while firm is that which the clouds bear. Peter, ruling both, prepares the body there and the shadow here, so that those sick whom he shall release here from vices and harms may be led innocent to that Church which abides among the stars, ready to receive the pious throngs while this one cleanses them. Meanwhile the chiefs of the temple, with biting zeal, grieve that the Church has grown, and, lest the apostles scatter the colonists of the soul, lest they sow what they reap with the heart, they confine them in the prison's seat, that hoes might be wanting to the springing harvest.
The angel, coming, drove back the dark scrolls of night, and suddenly the caverns gleamed with brightness, and the day, bursting forth at an unwonted time, makes the holy men go to the temple; but, with the hinge fixed fast, the guard remains in vain over the sealed sign, and the prison, standing at its own doors with its base walled around, though shut, lays open plain paths to the apostolic steps, and the deceitful gate mocks the watchmen. O faith never neglected! to which is subject that which nature denies, which the Omnipotent does not permit to use its own laws; as often as He Himself in turn bids the unwonted to become possible, nature, marveling, presses on to obey. If anyone still ponders Thomas with a frail breast, let him seek lessons from here, because then, being penetrated, it received.
The closed door received God; it is a marvel if He thus approaches the gate with His body, He whom a virgin bears, whom the mother's intact womb conceives. What cause, I ask, was there for His taking human flesh, save that He might raise us up? Returning thence He displayed His side as witness, and by the example of His own body teaches that the ashes of our body are to be made new, proving His own members by His wounds: now, Didymus, you learn how great a wickedness it would have been to have doubted, had the Author not done that which you see was permitted to us. If the desire steals upon you to resolve in your understanding what Christ said, the appearance is not lacking in meaning—why the holy ones forsook these shades. He spoke, providing rich gifts, that these are the ministers of light, and, like lamps set upon the citadel of the lampstand, they shine in the whole house.
No night holds back those whom the Light, light itself, calls, who merited God as the bearer of gifts and as witness, by what law that place hid in its caverns so many suns in order, from which, that the world might conquer darkness with errors driven out, it merited to know the eternal light. The rights of the ministry, fitted to the sacred altars, they apportioned among seven men, whom, chosen from everywhere, it pleases to call Levites: how splendidly the hand of the Church began to shine! which may mix the cups of life and offer the waters together with the blood of the Lamb. To this number the honor conferred bears with it lofty sacraments, through which the measure of my road now suffers me to go no further, lest, having spoken more, I be found to have said less.
Let it be the care of the ministers to weigh their own office, with what garment of praise it befits this choir to shine, which the mystic order consecrates in its number, and to which heavenly things give form. I will keep the promised measure: the assembly venerable to the world says: It rather befits us all to attend to the Word than to grasp the foods of the table. O rich glory of the apostolic mouth, never to permit the people to feel a famine of virtues; the sum of a talent, when dispersed, is wont to grow; the money committed to the tongue displeased while it was alone; this passage shows that better are the dishes of the harvest for the unschooled people than the feasts poured through the limbs, and that the fatness of the heavenly word should richly nourish the skilled mind. For what do the nourishments of bodily fattening profit, while the soul hungers?
Whose fasting it ever befits to be fed from the mouth of the Word, that we may stretch the table toward that feast with abundant words, to which reclines the guest who shines in the whiteness of his garment, lest, drawn away, he forsake the blessed couches—whoever comes deformed to it with squalid speech; let the food bear salvation, proceeding from the bread of heaven; let the gullet of the heart encircle it, and let the inner man hasten to taste it with the full palate of the soul; and lest the lesser cause should be cheaper, it is nonetheless entrusted to be handled by illustrious ministers, and the precious office held the heavenly number. From hence shines forth Stephen, who first in the contest has the crown, heir of his name, of whom the foretelling voice of the palm sang, which the cause supplied.
The battles, O martyr, destined to have happy deaths, where punishment is glory, and to fall is a rising, and with throats laid open an age is born, embracing the gifts of eternal life [it was the beginning of blessed life without end] thus to have merited to die. O rebellious Judaea, you, maddened, snatch up stones against Stephen, you who by a hard crime will ever be stony; him at last Christ adopts, unto whom the soldier, exulting, called through sacred wounds, made his way by blood, and, as victor seizing into his rewards to hasten by this way, reaping the honor of the snow-white path, advances to the heights of the lofty King, and through so many stones is joined to the one Rock. What new fury is this, second to none in savagery, to refuse to spare the pious one? With quivering arms you hurl stones.
He makes ready his prayers, nor looks whence the wicked hail falls, who, in the time of death, prays as a friend for the sinning people; though you bear all weapons with you, and weigh out heavy flints and burdens, he whom you slay shall live, who, with his end as husbandman, sows an example whence the line of Christ may rise, and festal banquets crown the cup of the Lord. Having the eyes of the heart, he beheld the heavens opened, lest it be hidden what Christ does; for the martyr He rises, whom he then sees standing, though our confession is wont rather to celebrate Him as seated; the flesh joined to the Thunderer favors itself in Stephen; the foreknowing Captain arms those whom He calls to His gifts, lest any here fight in suspense; the Body stood open in the citadel of God as a gift for the witness.
At Saul's feet they laid their garments—"Saul," which the Hebrew says means the underworld; now it stands established for both, that each here feels his own desert, since the martyr seeks the stars, the executioners seek hell; the first lot reveals it, and creates an example, that to one waging such wars this flowed from this fountain, so that for the slayers Tartarus soon follows, and for the dying the stars lie open. Often Peter makes John to be his companion, because the virgin pleases the Church, with whom at last joined, seeking the neighborhood of Samaria, he sealed the sheep washed in the waters of baptism, to whom the kindly Spirit was present, and made various tongues come forth. Washed indeed in the font, but not clean in heart, had this Simon the magician been, whom the punishment that followed betrayed to the world as not having known the faith.
By bargains of gold he wishes to make equal the gifts of God, and to repay with coins what a merchant might buy with a price. Peter, seeing him attempt such things, said: What fury, O lost one, moved you to these things? What the Lord's grace gives, that you should suppose it for sale, is received by this understanding, not by gold; nor is it permitted that corrupt money should seek heaven, money which the searcher of earth loves; no rest henceforth remains for you in this lot, nor will you be able to come to these things, you who, defiled by wiles, swelling with the gall of a bitter heart, seek what belongs to another; for the Spirit enters those halls of the mind which shine with simplicity. From this saying the light of the sacred figure is made manifest. A structure of old presented the image of the Church.
Built in the times of Noah, which alone received every kind, and bearing for those shut within the likeness of baptism, when the wandering throng suffered deadly storms it turned the waters to life: at once it cleansed both the dove and the raven, but no concord of mind made the two alike; the throats full of plunder withdrew the latter from the way, and, desiring to feed upon a corpse, it could follow nothing; the bird friendly to grain returns, and, shipwrecked, succumbs to no waters, fearing to be nourished from death, and by its zeal of toil gives the lessons of a pious creature, with how great love faith devoted to its work is held, and the olive was the pledge of its modest beak: love ever has in its mouth the fruit of peace.
Both fly upon the waves out of one and holy bosom, in the belly of the preserving ark, the sea walling round the purified, yet one is an exile, and, with its return failing, perishes: therefore the washing wave does not suffice for salvation, unless he who is begotten by the waters be a dove without gall. This Simon had touched the wave of baptism, but he was a raven, seeking his own gains, which never merited God, who is wont to drive sellers from the threshold of the temple: let us follow better things! Peter calls to these, who is said by the mouth of God to be the son of the dove, and rightly created by this mother undertakes the work of the Church: from the gift of offspring the parent has her name, whom the kindly Spirit chooses, deigning to be seen in the image of the harmless bird.
The angel addresses Philip, full of power, bidding him to frequent the southern way, by which the eunuch was proceeding with yoked Ethiopian horses, who, faithful in the queen's court, guarded the wealth: he, winged, wishing to seek fixed joys with hastened course, in that very chariot will deserve to cast away the wheels of errors. O how great seeds of good things you will receive! you who come to take such precious gifts of the laver, and store up in a barren body what you may reap with better fruit. Set Philip on board—"the mouth of a lamp," as the Hebrew says—who, his name as witness, proves the honor of his mind; it is good to hear this master, because he rightly teaches the disciple; He Himself will give, of whom the prophet's words resound, and, since once He made all things, in what part now salvation lies: if, believing, you hear, He too will be born for you, and you thence will be reborn for Him.
When the waters were seen in haste, the fruitful faith of the eunuch began to glow, who, plunged in the flood, laid down the burden of the serpent, and ran on in his wagon, happy in the journey he had pondered. No small cause of figure shines beneath the image of the obscure region. The Omnipotent attests that Moses joined to himself an Ethiopian by the covenant of the marriage-torches, whom the Scriptures report afterward to have spoken with the Lord more closely, face to face. What wonder, if the love of the law then began to grow, when it was joined to the Church? for the eternal bride comes rather from this people, nor do the songs conceal it, which call her dark and beautiful; she advances from the South, where the sun scorches the soil of the Ethiopians, to praise in the mouth of Solomon her Peaceable one, by which name was long ago signified that which Christ holds.
Now owed to the world, she sends ahead a keeper of riches, by which pledge she will begin to bring forth her treasures; what treasure in her is more excellent than the honor of the font? what gold is richer than wealthy faith within the heart? how rightly, in fine, is the eunuch a forerunner to this? at whose advance lust is driven out, and the chaste seize the heavenly kingdoms. Saul, raging bitterly, prepares with Jewish savagery to wage wars at Damascus, but the Lamb will be loved against whom the wolf hastens to rage. O happy lot of his ruin, in which guilt falls; he learned, his body fallen, now to stand on the step of the mind; when he closes his eyes, then he opens his heart, and the Author of heaven is recognized as day departs: how much the darkness merited! After losing his eyes he sees greater things; nourishing faith gave a wondrous example to the ages.
Ananias shakes off the fury—O new palm of victory! that one tames the ravening wolf, whom the Hebrew called a sheep; we shall be proclaimed God's to the world by this herald, and Saul, stripped of the shadow of the law, beneath which he was blind, will shine into all lands, glowing with the perpetual Sun. Cease not, O Saul, to celebrate this day; that night, full of the light of many, is given to you, and here you carry your own clouds, that you may cleanse them of the world. Now I will follow lessons more inwardly full of figures, and I will attempt to bring forth the radiance covered in its hiding-places: that Saul spends a three-day span in darkness makes him faithful by the measure of its own example, and the teaching punishment teaches him, at last compelled, no longer to spurn the Lord, who after the third day overcame chaos.
When he himself thus began to restore his own sight, in that from his dark orbs heavy scales also fell—which the serpent's nature is wont to bear—it has force by reason: Judaea ever vomits poison from its mouth, crueler than the deaf asp. The snake of perfidy hisses in the Synagogue's den. The Saviour says to His disciples: You shall trample on serpents, that your deed may be purer for heavenly services. Saul first casts off the viperous wickedness, and the teacher soon wages better battles; who, when he had overcome the wicked, merited to escape ambushes by closed gates. A basket, wont to be woven of rushes and palms in turn, gives coverings to Saul, retaining in honor the figure of the Church, for the rush belongs ever to the waters and the palm to the crowns: the wave of baptism profits the Church, and the blood of martyrdom.
Long ago, while the throng was feeding, the foods nourished beneath the tooth began to fill the folds of seven baskets: just so many Churches Scripture indeed sings throughout the world, because the Spirit there is present, thus working, and the power marks the names, although we nonetheless celebrate one Church in all. The figure therefore protects the man, for whom that very Vessel fights, remaining a vessel within a vessel, and with this as guide, safe from the enemy, he goes forth, a teacher who conquers in all arms. Peter, ever-watchful in the watches of the entrusted sheepfold, after, beholding all, he had surveyed the saints in order, bore his steps through the fields of Lydda, where, standing by the walls, he beholds Aeneas living with dead limbs, and, his soul freed from the loosened mass with knots untied, dying with no death.
"Rising, O paralytic," he said, "set in order your bearer, nor be slow to repay the service to one carried so long." By which gift of voice he is bound into solidity, who before had flowed loose in his sinews. Then man, formed anew, and a corpse of long time, raises his extinguished limbs to life, and, lifting himself, leaves behind the monuments of the empty couch, which had been to the wretched man a part of death. The whole people began to stand firm along that way, and ample salvation came upon many through the sickness of one, and, the liquid being touched, soon expelled the contagions of the shut-out disease, washing souls in the font, made firm by another's strength. Hence I will tell what are the secrets of the sacred figure, if He moves my heart, whose voice restores bodies.
That the age of the sickness is reported as eight years, rightly through this time the man failed in his deprived limbs, lying beneath the ancient law, for they always have throat-cutting wounds, by which the infant is made wounded when the eighth day comes; He healed him, heavy from that part, and long mangled by the crisis of the flesh, He made solid in the flowing waters, so that the eighth year might free the sick man from the blows of his extinguished body, on which number, the day coming, Christ, solemnly rising again, now consecrated the work: the custom of the time stands, but returned with a better vow: hence the wounds creep, hence the things taken away rush to ruin; there the rule subjects to punishments, here the medicine cleanses by the waters, and the limbs, long since loosened to death in the former span, are bound fast for salvation.
The paralytic too, with his years marked by number, lay inert, to whom the nearby stirred Siloam—alas!—furnished no waters; the pool, bound by porticoes, was Judaea, for it holds five halls at its enclosures, having attained the measure of the law through the five books of Moses, surrounded by whose circle the feeble man for ever beheld Jesus without His gift, sick among his own books; from there He snatches one, who, coming, bore away sins, which figure the world fittingly bears everywhere, whom, after, loosing the Sabbath, He drove to the font, grace overcame the law. Peter recalls to the Church the lessons of the Master, by whose hand in the world one paralytic leaps up; and, with faith advancing, the world casts off its chains.
You too, mighty in praise, renowned for heavenly signs, O Joppa, we sing in songs, where in her seat Tabitha poured forth riches that would endure, and was ever a mother by her bounty to the needy, who, with the season of her life closed, is laid in the midst, washed the more with tears, upon the bier, destined to live again after her own funeral. Confidence summons Peter; he, bearing the pledge of divine love, that he may never be empty of piety, is present to provide what the prayers require. To him as he sought the mourning house stand the poor and the widowed flocks, and they show their arms laden with their garments, which the hands of Dorcas herself had woven and given to them. O what fomentations does fervent grief implore! they do not carry on the affection of piety with sad murmur, nor ply from the mouth the instruments of prayers.
Whatever good deeds deserve, they wished to speak by their offices, and chose the refusal of their own voice, lest the wounds of the heart lie hidden, which had made a way for tears. To one who groans it is eloquent matter to have said nothing, and a too-resounding cause asks for what the tongue keeps silent, nor does it cease from the ear, with clamorous faith knocking; by which Peter is approached, who is wont to hear minds; he bids all go more swiftly outside, and with bent knee becomes more prostrate to the ground, then lying the more open to the heights. The prayer poured forth to the Thunderer soon flies above the stars, and enters by its own keys. Tell, where are they, O worldly wisdom, your laws? By what power do you deny that corrupt things return into themselves, you who see life come out of death?
When Peter felt the gifts of God to be present, by which she who lies bewailed is to be restored to life, he speaks, turning to her: Arise, Tabitha. Called, she returns, and brought back to the light marveled that she survived herself, whom at once he takes hold of, and offers her, raised up, to the rejoicing city. She merited to touch the right hand of Peter, which had been generous to the poor, by which hand life, returning, lifts the rest of the members, and, about to pass through the whole body, first entered this hand, which was the cause. If we are rightly moved, the renewed day of the soul lies open, fitting for figures, the soul which the shadow of the ancient peril had too much oppressed, turned back at the voice of Peter.
The head, before weighed down in the lap of the obscure law, as if a second one rising while the Church is present, lifts itself, and the Light of works, accompanying faith, repels the darkness—that salvation which had not been promised from the mouth of the law, because to those reborn in the font grace began to give the gifts of everlasting life. In the city of Caesarea was the venerable Cornelius, salvation from a gentile stock, whom a life devoted to pious causes consecrated by the sacred waters, and by his doing he began to believe, who had done whatever faith is wont to provide to those washed in baptism: for an angel sent from the stars, coming to him, said: In the sight of the Most High Lord stand the alms you scatter, the words you pray; lest rewards be wanting to your virtues, receive a sure way, with Peter coming hither.
Thus the messenger, with words flashing, fixed his commands upon the eternal lavers. It was then the ninth hour, by which hour more rightly the threefold faith would now come forth, because the simple third again teaches this thrice-threefold, and the single ones thrice make the sacred figure, and thrice tripled they rejoice. This is the mighty ninth, which gave back eyes to the world; after the darkness, the day returning, when the light born from the rays of the Cross brought forth its rising, and this radiance filled all without end; for it stands established that the world is a place laden with gentiles, for whom, washed in baptism, full lights shone upon the re-purified world.
This denarius is wont to follow her, bestowing all things, which the Arbiter offers to those who keep the ten commandments, nor does he permit that the earlier laborers should outrun the slow in wages — the help of this present time, which the forerunner reached through the sacred font: O that the working of our life might seek it, and that our mortal origin might set this zeal before itself, so that the believer's love might gaze upon the glory of the reality, and he who once gave himself to the waters might furnish an example by his merits! And now Cornelius, made capable of faith, by the token of his prayer bids three men go to Peter. Thus the threefold confession of the regenerating water comes, and through that very number the circle of Europe and Asia and Libya shall be held. Peter goes forth to climb to the lofty upper rooms, now at the midpoint of the day's torrent; the high place instructs him, looking down upon the ground, to follow ever the heavenly things, Peter, not to pursue the earthly.
The circle of the sixth hour likewise discloses the age at which Christ came into the world to bestow the help of the Savior; and the number of days set forth the pattern by which He had formerly founded the world. Coming at last in this age, the Redeemer forbids that man be pressed under sin's dominion: so finally that sixth hour too is said to be enacted, when the Master, wearied from the road, sitting above the mouth of the well, through the vessels of the maiden seeks draughts of water — about to make rest everywhere from the font of His own Church. At the hour when Peter hungers, that loving Master thirsts, ever loving to add to His own gifts; to him whose honor of name He had enlarged, He grants likewise to nourish the faith. The world shall rejoice, sated by this hunger, which, richer than any gift, flows forth in delight and leaves no one empty, destined to bear everlasting feasts.
O Peter, you who know how to loose, strike off the slow fetters of my speech, and from your banquets hold out food to my exhausted tongue! The heavenly key-bearer beheld the opened heaven, using his honor; thence is let down the shape of a vessel, that there might be a vision on earth — that in Peter's body all things can be contained, who, whatever he takes to be eaten, the Church makes to be food. The image is set forth, with the four orders submitting themselves; one is the form of the Church, which towers over the four parts of the world and opens its mouth to as many heralds, holding every kind of birds, of cattle, of beasts, and of creeping things together. These cleave to mortals from their merits and their vices: it is plain therefore that the Author commanded the nations to be poured into the bowels of the Church. "Kill and eat," while He commands;
draw them away from what they are, and make them like yourself; he who is turned is reckoned another — in short, Saul dies because Paul has begun to live. "Far be it," says Peter — how great is the reverence for the holy Law! — and hungering he spurns the food offered. Thrice sounded the Lord's voice, which is uttered as wholesome: this the Begetter, and the Son together, and the Holy Spirit accomplished; against this faith warlike Arius falls, denying that the three Persons are one; and Sabellius, confessing one — but the Father — says that the same is in turn called the Son and the Holy Spirit, yet that He is wholly as the Father Himself. And that which one summit contains in threefold order, the one divides, the other abandons.
Both lie conquered; for the threefold command of Him who admonishes indicates one number in the virtues of the Persons, by which authority He calls the nations. This it is lawful to believe, if we wish to fulfill the faith. You do all things, O Christ; cleanse with Your own blood — You who from the wound of Your side made discordant water joined to it; the spotted serpent wanders about, and groans that its poison has been extinguished by the waters. Being summoned, Peter learns what his vision is — he who has his name from merit, for "Peter" sounds, recognizing it, in the Hebrew tongue; as a gift Christ granted him so to be called, by whose knowing it is made plain. He goes down to see those whom He had sent thither; he who was a seeker of the waters, Peter, is said to go down, coming to the people and the new-born nation which had not yet known the water.
A part has surely been submerged, lacking the sacred font, whose way leads the travelers to the help of a better fatherland — by which, if one ceases to press on, he does not enter where life calls. With these same men accompanying him, Peter hastens to Cornelius, about to give the heavenly kingdoms, to sanctify the house; whom, on bended knee, he does not allow to fall prostrate at his feet: accustomed to give gifts freely, he wards off the deed of honor. "From hence you raise your head, O new-born world, you who had been struck by the tooth of the ancient parent, and the font has restored your birth; brought forth anew, do not press your neck upon your own faults — free from another's." As soon as Peter began to utter the sublime doctrines and to unfold the mysteries of the eternal Christ, the great-souled men were astonished, and following the voice they found the way. What does undoubting faith not offer to those who believe?
For it, gifts never come late, nor do divine things make delay: soon the nourishing Spirit, lavishing varied tongues with a rich gift, filled the house without precedent; Peter performs the baptism, that he might cleanse in the waters those already washed by the flames. This place is without parallel, where the nourishing Spirit forestalled the very waters which it had hallowed; that Spirit which is ever wont to add such gifts, and to hasten them, laid on by the hand, only upon those reborn from the font; it does these things in turn, lest anyone should think it his own and to come by merits — for what it varies, it of its own accord prepares; for the nourishing Spirit bears rewards that know no measure, and ministering more than the hoper had, grace outruns the prayer. He arrives; departing thence, Peter into the sublime city which holds the standards of the cross —
the whole assembly inquires whence salvation comes to the nations; to whom the teacher opens all things, and joining word to word he admonishes that it is never lawful to deny the things which come by the goodness of God; a saying worthy of the devout voice, to show openly the love of the guardian, that he wishes the heavenly kingdoms to lie open to all, he who holds these doors without end. Why, O crowd, do you wear away our joys with complaints? These are no new gifts to Peter, marked out before by so many turns, when Christ grants him to enjoy the praise of the gracious name, whom the laws appointed to bear the affairs of His Church — when, seeing two boats stand by the shore, ministering His precepts, He wills to teach in Peter's stern. The Synagogue surely remained dry upon the ground.
After the Master's teaching gave the Church to follow the heights, the faithless one stands fast on the land — faith now coursing over the sea — for its own figure clung to each boat. Joseph called Him "son" whom Judaea bore; to whom Peter says: "You, O Christ, are proved to be the Son of God." That part is fixed in the fields which fell pursuing the earthly; that part advanced into the deep which grew speaking divine things. Without any fish the catch was made in the darkness, for in the time of light — because the Light, which is Christ, is present — He despoils the salt shallows of the dragon, that the sacred nets of the font may drive all to the shore, and they be snatched from the jaws of the dark-blue deep. For the sea was the world, from whose flood Peter —
drawing the wet lines, by the fishing of the word, filled the keels with a greater haul, because a throng was to come from two peoples; and then, with the sea serving, it lifted up the nations, and in the full stern he professes the Church, in whose peaceful anchorage he stores up what he catches by the Lord's word — He who had said before that there were other sheep which He was seeking; these surely He was preparing, whom now He duly calls, through whom the clemency of Peter gathers the human flocks into heavenly folds. Its fame shall not be wanting to the place. Peter was born in the city of Bethsaida, which in the Hebrew name is called "house of hunters," because the true hunter of the Church is present from that place, who, ranging over all things, has encircled them, and gathered the nations into the nets of faith.
Peter is shut up in a dark prison, yet not without light, nor can the shadows hide the Church's day with their tawny gloom: that fear makes a common punishment for all; the guarding of Peter was a public penalty; but the shepherd, his guardian being preserved, rules his own fold, whom the love that thrice confessed the Lord enriches with honor. From the name of the Rock having the name "Peter," he bears eternal titles, carrying foundations that shall never suffer ruin. "O you awaited by your own, and dear in all time, even now to us, O Peter, come! Go out together with all whom the former nature goads!" Now in the deep night the angel, bearing the stars, enters the prison-cells shining, with day accompanying him; with heaven's minister coming, the prison's shadow flees;
the shadows, being driven off, perished, with the new morning-star shining; the black color is banished, and the nocturnal twilight, changed, beholds the sun. With the band of guards hemming him in, amid his chains Peter had sleep in the body, but while there kept watch in him that faith which knows not to sleep — this the Song of Songs proclaims: "I sleep, yet wakeful in heart." Learn, you who have merited to be reborn from the clear font, the joyful teachings of the figure, and behold with devout heart what form abides in Peter's hallowed body; the angel himself teaches this way of open virtue; touching the side, he struck where in the Church the head stands; from which side the messenger knew it had arisen, from there he lifts him. To the side of the ark Noah fastened the holy doors, the animals shut within; hence, when the deluge laid waste, is salvation.
Eve is brought forth, with the man sleeping, an offspring generated from the side, bearing the name of life — and, had there never been any fault, so she would have abided the more. Thus afterward the mystic Adam, Christ, deigning to give His limbs to the cross and to be pressed by death in His slain flesh — whereby life returns — through His side consecrated new gifts of the water-stream as a path: now the angel calls Peter to that side, that every mind may believe the glory of the Church to consist in him, and may hold the faith with its heavenly Champion; at whose admonition about the sandals these feet earned it, which the Master's right hand touched, that cleansed the whole world with waters. As those men walked, the closed gates gave way; he supposes all to be done with sleep mocking him — for whom Majesty, ignorant of deceit, had prepared true rewards.
Now the iron gate lies open to its bars, the stiff door-posts loosen their bonds. Cutting off from the nations the edge of harsh ferocity, He subdues all rugged things, lest a fixed door should forbid the road of the world, by which the course shall be. Say, O glory of things: what wonder if the iron gates yield to Peter — whom God appoints guardian of the heavenly hall, and, making him hold fast the summit of His Church, bids him overcome the nether realm? Soon, free from the foe, he celebrated the divine work, whom the first woman proves to return from the darkness, to whom the grace of Christ gave the thing to be equal; the very Rising One, seen, approaches the women; the glory of the returning flesh speaks to the sex which the mother has. Hence too it is plain that the prophet perceived his Church, which bears joys diffused throughout the whole flock.
Who, in telling such things, could unfold them, or with words lift up the weight of these matters? That greatest terror, which had bound the cold limbs, became the measure of joy; through every age abides the summit of this pledge, and it holds the place of a star, that which Peter consecrated by his body and the angel by his mouth. By these things faith is made firm; by these chains, O Rome, salvation is perpetuated for you; encircled by their bond you shall be forever free. For what would chains not bestow, which He touched who can loose all things — whose, unconquered by hand, or sacred in triumph, these walls are by no foe shaken to the core? He shuts off the road from wars, who opens the gate among the stars.