1. All things, as many as pertain to offices and matters ecclesiastical, be full of divine significations and mysteries, and overflow with a celestial sweetness; if so be that a man be diligent in his study of them, and know how to draw 'honey from the rock, and oil from the hardest stone.' [Footnote 79] But who 'knoweth the ordinances of heaven, or can fix the reasons thereof upon the earth?' [Footnote 80] For he that prieth into their majesty, is overwhelmed by the glory of them. Of a truth 'the well is deep, and I have nothing to draw with': [Footnote 81] unless He giveth it unto me Who 'giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not': [Footnote 82] so that 'while I journey through the mountains' [Footnote 83] I may 'draw water with joy out of the wells of salvation.' [Footnote 84] [{2}] Wherefore, albeit of the things handed down from our forefathers, capable we are not to explain all, yet if among them there be anything which is done without reason, it should forthwith be put away. 'Wherefore I, William, by the alone tender mercy of God, Bishop of the Holy Church which is in Mende,' [Footnote 85] will knock diligently at the door, if so be that 'the key of David' [Footnote 86] will open unto me: that the King may 'bring me in to His treasury,' [Footnote 87] and show unto me the heavenly pattern which was showed unto Moses in the Mount: so that I may learn those things which pertain to rites ecclesiastical, whereof they teach and what they signify: and that I may be able plainly to reveal and make manifest the reasons of them, by His help, 'Who hath ordained strength out of the mouth of babes and sucklings': [Footnote 88] 'Whose spirit bloweth where it listeth,' [Footnote 89] dividing to 'each severally as it will' [Footnote 90] to the praise and glory of the Trinity.
[Footnote 79: Deut. xxxii, 13.]
[Footnote 80: Job xxxviii, 33]
[Footnote 81: S. John iv, 11.]
[Footnote 82: S. James i, 5.]
[Footnote 83: Psalm ciii. Vulgate.]
[Footnote 84: Isaiah xii, 3. ]
[Footnote 85: A city of France, and capital of the department of Lozére, situated on an eminence near the Lot: before the Revolution, the See of a Bishop. The number of inhabitants is about 5000.'—Cruttwell's Gazetteer, s.v.]
[Footnote 86: Apocalypse iii, 7.]
[Footnote 87: Cant, ii, 4.]
[Footnote 88: Psalm viii, 2. See also Wisdom x, 21.]
[Footnote 89: S. John iii, 8. ]
[Footnote 90: I Cor. xii, II.]
2. Sacraments we have received to be signs or figures, not in themselves virtues, but the significations of virtues, by which men are taught as by letters. Now of signs there be that are natural, and there be that are positive: concerning which, and also of the nature of a Sacrament, we shall speak hereafter.
3. Therefore the priests and the bishops to whom 'it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God,' [Footnote 91] as He saith in Luke, and who be the stewards and dispensers of sacred things, ought both to understand the sacred mysteries, and to shine in the virtues which they signify: so that by their light others may be illuminated: otherwise 'they be blind leaders of the blind.' [Footnote 92] As saith the Prophet, 'Let their eyes be darkened, that they see not.' [Footnote 93] But, woe therefore is me! in these days they apprehend but little of those things which day by day they handle and perform, what they signify, and wherefore they were instituted: so that the saying of the Prophet seemeth to be fulfilled, 'As is the people, so is the priest.' [Footnote 94] For when they bear the bread of Prothesis [Footnote 95] to the Lord's Table and the Mysteries, they understand not its signification more than brute beasts which carry bread for the use of others. Of which ignorance they shall give account in the day of vengeance and wrath. 'When the cedars of Paradise shall tremble, what shall the bush of the desert do?' [Footnote 96] For to them is that saying of the Prophet, 'They have not known My ways: so I swear in my wrath, if they shall enter into My rest.' [Footnote 97]
[Footnote 91: S. Luke viii, 10.]
[Footnote 92: S. Matthew xv, 14.]
[Footnote 93: Psalm lxix, 23.]
[Footnote 94: Isaiah xxiv, 2.]
[Footnote 95: Here is a distinct reference to the Prothesis: the more valuable because in writers of the Middle Ages it does not hold so prominent a place as we might have expected: and the table of Prothesis appears not to have occupied a certainly defined situation in Catholic churches. There is also a reference to Lev. xxi, 8, and the showbread.]
[Footnote 96: S. Luke xxii, 3.]
[Footnote 97: Psalm xcv, 11.]
4. Now the professors of the arts liberal, and of all other arts, seek how they may clothe, support, and adorn with causes and hidden reasons those things which be nakedly and without ornament therein set forth; painters moreover, and mechanics and handicraftsmen of what [{4}] sort soever, study in every variety of their works to render and to have at hand probable reasons thereof. So, also, unseemly is it to the magistrate to be ignorant of this world's laws; and to the pleader to know nothing of the law, wherein he is exercised.
5. But although learning be necessary unto priests for the sake of doctrine: yet must not scholastics think slightingly of unlettered priests; according to that saying in Exodus, 'Thou shalt not revile the gods.' [Footnote 98] Whence, saith S. Augustine, they shall not deride if they hear the priests and ministers of the Church, either invoking God with barbarisms and solecisms, or not understanding and misdividing the words which they pronounce. Not but that such things are to be corrected; but they must firstly be tolerated of the more learned. But that which priests ought to learn, shall be said below.
[Footnote 98: Exodus xxii, 28.]
6. Furthermore, the symbolism which existeth in things and offices ecclesiastical, is often not seen, both because figures have departed, and now it is the time of truth; and also because we ought not to judaise. But, albeit those types of which the truth is made manifest have departed, yet even to this time manifold truth is concealed, which we see not; wherefore the Church useth figures. For so by white vestments we understand the beauty in which our souls shall be arrayed, or the glory of our immortality, which we cannot manifestly behold: and in the Mass, by the oblation on the altar, [Footnote 99] the Passion of Christ is represented, that it be held in the memory more faithfully and more firmly.