{"prudentius-hamartigenia/0.1":{"o":"Fratres ephebi, fossor et pastor, duo,\nQuos feminarum prima primos procreat,\nSistunt ad aram de laborum fructibus\nDeo sacranda munerum primordia:\nHic terrulentis, ille vivis fungitur.\nCertante voto, discrepantes immolant;\nFetum bidentis alter, ast alter scrobis.\nDeus minoris comprobavit hostiam,\nReiecit illam, quam paravit grandior.\nVox ecce summo missa persultat throno:\nCain, quiesce; namque si recte offeras,\nOblata nec tu lege recta dividas,\nPerversa nigram vota culpam traxerint.\nArmat deinde parricidalem manum\nFrater, probatae sanctitatis aemulus;\nGermana curvo colla frangit sarculo,\nMundum recentem caede tingit impia,\nSero expiandum, iam senescentem, sacro\nCruore Christi, quo peremptor concidit.\nMors prima coepit innocentis vulnere;\nPer crimen orta, dissoluta est crimine,\nAbel quod ante perculit, Christum dehinc:\nFinita et ipsa est, finis exsortem petens.\nErgo ex futuris prisca coepit fabula,\nFactoque primo res notata est ultima.\nUt ille mortis inchoator rusticus\nInsulsa terrae deferens libamina,\nDeumque rerum mortuarum deputans,\nRastris redacta digna sacris crederet\nViventis atrox aemulator hostiae.","t":"Two brothers in their youth, a digger and a shepherd,\nthe first sons whom the first of women bore,\nstand at the altar with the fruits of their labors,\nfirst-fruits of gifts to be consecrated to God:\nthis one offers earthy things, that one living things.\nWith rival vows they sacrifice unlike offerings:\none the young of a sheep, the other the yield of the furrow.\nGod approved the victim of the younger\nand rejected the one the elder had prepared.\nSee, a voice sent from the highest throne rings out:\n“Cain, be still; for if you offer rightly\nbut do not divide the offerings by right law,\nyour perverse vows will have drawn black guilt.”\nThen the brother, jealous of the holiness that was approved,\narms his parricidal hand;\nhe breaks his brother’s neck with a curved hoe\nand stains the new world with impious slaughter,\na world to be expiated late, when already growing old, by the sacred\nblood of Christ, through which the slayer fell.\nDeath first began with the wound of an innocent man;\nborn through crime, it was undone by crime,\nbecause it struck Abel first, and Christ thereafter;\nand it too came to its end, attacking one who has no end.\nSo the ancient story began from things to come,\nand the last event was signified by the first deed.\nAs that rustic beginner of death,\nbringing the tasteless offerings of the earth\nand assigning to God things of dead matter,\nbelieved that what the rake gathered was worthy of sacred rites,\na savage rival of the living victim,","f":"Prudentius, <i>Ham.</i> 0.1 (Lanfranchi 2:lines 1–30; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/prudentius-hamartigenia/0-1)."},"prudentius-hamartigenia/0.31":{"o":"Agnosco nempe, quem figura haec denotet,\nQuis fratricida, quis peremptor invidus\nMactare dum se vota conset rectius.\nMarcion, arvi forma corruptissimi,\nDocet duitas discrepare a spiritu,\nEt segregatim numen aeternum colens;\nQui si quiescat, nec monentem negligat,\nPacem quieta diligat germanitas,\nUnum atque vivum fassa vivorum Deum.\nHic se caduco dedicans mysterio,\nSummam profanus dividit substantiam,\nMalum bonumque cum duorum separans\nRegnum deorum, sceptra committit duo,\nDeum esse credens, quem fatetur pessimum.\nCain cruentus, unitatis invidus,\nMundi colonus, immolator squalidus:\nCuius litamen sordet et terram sapit,\nTerram caduci corporis, venam putrem,\nHumore denso conglobatam et pulvere:\nNatura cuius fraude floret fertili,\nFecunda fundens noxiorum crimina,\nAnimaeque vitam labe carnis enecat.\nCaro in sororem tela mentem dirigit,\nMens in cerebro ventilatur ebrio,\nEx quo furores succulentos colligit,\nMadens veneno corporis lymphatico.\nAudet secare numen insecabile.\nCadit perempta denegans unum Deum:\nCain triumphat, morte fratris oblitus.","t":"I recognize, of course, whom this figure denotes,\nwho is the fratricide, who the envious slayer,\nwhile he reckons that he sacrifices his vows more rightly.\nMarcion, figure of that most corrupted field,\nteaches a doctrine of two gods, at odds with the Spirit,\nworshipping the eternal godhead in separate parts;\nif he would be still and not neglect the one who warns him,\na peaceful brotherhood would love peace,\nconfessing one living God of the living.\nHe, devoting himself to a perishing mystery,\nprofanely divides the supreme substance;\nseparating evil and good, when he separates the kingdom\nof two gods, he entrusts two sceptres,\nbelieving that one is God whom he declares the worst.\nHe is blood-stained Cain, envious of unity,\ntiller of the world, squalid sacrificer,\nwhose offering is foul and smacks of earth,\nthe earth of the perishing body, a rotten vein,\nballed together of thick moisture and dust;\nwhose nature flowers with fertile deceit,\nfruitfully pouring out the crimes of the guilty,\nand kills the life of the soul with the stain of the flesh.\nThe flesh aims its weapons at the mind, its sister;\nthe mind is tossed about in a drunken brain,\nfrom which it gathers juicy frenzies,\nsoaked in the maddening poison of the body.\nIt dares to cut the uncuttable godhead.\nThe faith that denies one God falls slain:\nCain triumphs, forgetting his brother’s death.","f":"Prudentius, <i>Ham.</i> 0.31 (Lanfranchi 2:lines 31–59; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/prudentius-hamartigenia/0-31)."},"prudentius-hamartigenia/1.1":{"o":"Quo te praecipitat rabies tua, perfide Cain,\nDivisor blaspheme Dei? tibi conditor unus\nNon liquet, et bifidae caligant nubila lucis.\nInsincera acies duo per divortia semper\nSpargitur, in geminis visum frustrata figuris.\nTerrarum tibi forma duplex obludit, ut excors\nDividuum regnare Deum super aethera credas.\nBina boni atque mali glomerat discrimina sordens\nHic mundus: Domino sed caelum obtemperat uni.\nNon iccirco duos retinent caelestia reges,\nQuod duo sunt opera humanas agitantia curas:\nExterior terrenus homo est, qui talia cernens\nConiicit esse duo variarum numina rerum,\nDum putat esse Deum, qui prava effinxerit olim,\nEt qui recta itidem condens induxerit, ambos\nAutumat esse deos natura dispare summos.\nQuae tandem natura potest consistere duplex,\nAut regnare diu: quam fons divisus ab arce\nSeparat, alternaque apicum ditione recidit?\nAut unus Deus est, rerum cui summa potestas,\nAut quae iam duo sunt, minuuntur dispare summa.\nPorro nihil summum, nisi plenis viribus unum;\nDistantes quoniam, proprio dum quisque revulso\nVindicat imperio, nec summa, nec omnia possunt.\nQuidquid dispar habet: cumulum discretio carpit.\nNos plenum sine parte Deum testamur et unum,\nIn quo Christus inest, idem quoque plenus et unus:\nQui viget ac viguit super omnia, quique vigebit,\nParticipem nullum conlato foedere passus.\nSumma potestatum, simplex dominatio rerum,","t":"Where does your madness hurl you headlong, faithless Cain,\nblasphemous divider of God? To you the one Creator\nis not plain, and the clouds of a two-forked light are dark.\nYour impure sight is always scattered along two diverging paths,\nits vision cheated by twin figures.\nThe double form of the world deceives you, so that, senseless,\nyou believe a divided God reigns above the heavens.\nThis filthy world gathers up twofold distinctions\nof good and evil; but heaven obeys one Lord.\nHeaven does not hold two kings\nbecause there are two kinds of work that stir human cares.\nIt is the outward, earthly man who, seeing such things,\nguesses that there are two divine powers over the varied things,\nwhile he thinks there is a God who once fashioned evil things\nand one who likewise, creating right things, brought them in; he declares both\nto be supreme gods of unequal nature.\nWhat nature, after all, can stand as double,\nor reign long, when a source divided from the citadel\nseparates it and cuts it down by alternating rule of the summits?\nEither God is one, to whom belongs supreme power over things,\nor those that are now two are lessened by an unequal sum.\nFurther, nothing is supreme unless it is one, with full powers;\nfor when they stand apart, while each claims\nits own torn-off empire, they can be neither supreme nor all.\nWhatever has a counterpart, division plucks from its fullness.\nWe bear witness to God full, without parts, and one,\nin whom Christ is, himself likewise full and one,\nwho flourishes and has flourished above all things, and will flourish,\nand has suffered no partner joined to him by compact:\nsupreme of powers, single dominion over things,","f":"Prudentius, <i>Ham.</i> 1.1 (Lanfranchi 2:lines 1–30; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/prudentius-hamartigenia/1-1)."},"prudentius-hamartigenia/1.121":{"o":"Sordeat, informi tumulus quod tabe resolvat.\nAst alii pietatis amor, placidumque medendi\nIngenium, recreans homines, mortalia servans.\nTestamenta duo fluxerunt principe utroque:\nTradidit iste Novum melior; Vetus illud acerbus.\nHaec tua, Marcion, gravis et dialectica vox est:\nNovimus esse patrem scelerum: sed novimus ipsum\nHaudquaquam esse Deum; quin immo gehennae\nMancipium, stygio qui sit damnandus Averno.\nMarcionita Deus, tristis, ferus, insidiator,\nVertice sublimi, cinctum cui nubibus atris\nAnguiferum caput et fumo stipatur et igni,\nLiventes oculos suffundit felle perusto\nInvidia, impatiens iustorum gaudia ferre.\nHirsutos iuba densa humeros errantibus hydris\nObtegit, et virides adlambunt ora cerastae.\nIpse manu laqueos per lubrica fila reflexos\nIn nodum revocat, tenuique ligamine tortas\nInnectit pedicas, nervosque in vincula tendit.\nArs olli captare feras, animalia bruta\nInretire plagis, retinacula denique caecis\nIndeprensa locis erranti opponere praedae.\nHic ille est venator atrox, qui caede frequenti\nIncautas animas non cessat plectere, Nebroth;\nQui mundum curvis anfractibus et silvosis\nHorrentem scopulis versuto circuit astu,\nFraude alios tectisque dolis innectere adortus:\nPorro giganteis alios luctando lacertis\nFrangere, funereos late exercere triumphos.\nImproba mors, quid non mortalia pectora cogis?","t":"should be foul, which the grave would dissolve in shapeless rot.\nBut the other has love of goodness and a gentle mind\nfor healing, refreshing men and saving mortal things.\nTwo Testaments have flowed from the two rulers:\nthe better one gave the New; the harsh one gave the Old.\nThis, Marcion, is your weighty, dialectical saying.\nWe know there is a father of crimes; but we know that he himself\nis by no means God; rather, he is the chattel\nof hell, to be condemned to Stygian Avernus.\nThe Marcionite God is gloomy, savage, a lurker in ambush;\nhis lofty head, crowned with snakes and girt with black clouds,\nis thronged with smoke and fire;\nenvy suffuses his livid eyes with burnt-up gall,\nfor he cannot bear the joys of the righteous.\nA thick mane of straying serpents covers\nhis shaggy shoulders, and green horned snakes lick his face.\nWith his own hand he draws back into a knot snares\nlooped along slippery threads, and with fine cord he ties\ntwisted fetters, and stretches sinews into bonds.\nHis art is to catch wild beasts, to entangle\ndumb animals in nets, and finally to set traps,\nundetected in hidden places, before wandering prey.\nThis is that savage hunter, Nimrod, who with constant slaughter\nnever ceases to strike down unwary souls;\nwho with crafty cunning goes round the world,\nbristling with winding turns and wooded crags,\nsetting out to snare some by fraud and hidden tricks,\nand to break others in wrestling with giant arms,\nand to celebrate deadly triumphs far and wide.\nWicked death, to what do you not drive mortal hearts?","f":"Prudentius, <i>Ham.</i> 1.121 (Lanfranchi 2:lines 121–150; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/prudentius-hamartigenia/1-121)."},"prudentius-hamartigenia/1.151":{"o":"Ipse suam (pudet heu!) contempto principe vitae\nPerniciem veneratur homo: colit ipse cruentum\nCarnificem, gladiique aciem iugulandus adorat.\nIn tantum miseris peccati nectare captis\nDulce mori est! tanta in tenebris de peste voluptas?\nQui mala principio genuit, Deus esse putatur,\nQuique bona infecit vitiis, et candida nigris.\nPar furor illorum, quos tradit fama dicatis\nConsecrasse deas Febrem Scabiemque sacellis.\nInventor vitii non est Deus: angelus illud\nQui prius augustum radiabat sidus, et ingens\nEx nihilo splendor nutrito ardebat honore:\nEx nihilo nam cuncta retro, factumque quod usquam est.\nAt non ex nihilo Deus, et Sapientia vera,\nSpiritus et Sanctus: res semper viva, nec umquam\nCoepta, sed aerios etiam molita ministros.\nHorum de numero quidam pulcherrimus ore,\nMaiestate ferox, nimiis dum viribus auctus\nInflatur, dum grande tumens sese altius effert,\nOstentatque suos licito iactantius ignes;\nPersuasit propriis genitum se viribus, ex se\nMateriam sumsisse sibi, qua primitus esse\nInciperet, nascique suum sine principe coeptum.\nQuae docet e tenebris subitum micuisse tyrannum.\nQui, velut aeterna latitans sub nocte, retrorsum","t":"Man himself (alas, the shame!), despising the Prince of life,\nworships his own destruction; he himself reveres the bloody\nexecutioner and, about to have his throat cut, adores the sword’s edge.\nTo such a degree is death sweet to the wretches caught\nby the nectar of sin! Is there such delight in darkness from a plague?\nHe who begot evil at the beginning is thought to be God,\nhe who stained good things with vices, and white with black.\nEqual is the madness of those who, report says,\nconsecrated the goddesses Fever and Itch in dedicated shrines.\nGod is not the inventor of vice: that was an angel,\nwho once shone as a majestic star, and a vast\nsplendor made from nothing, blazing with the honor bestowed on him:\nfor all things before were from nothing, and whatever has been made anywhere.\nBut God is not from nothing, nor the true Wisdom,\nnor the Holy Spirit: a reality always living, never\nbegun, which also fashioned the airy ministers.\nOne of their number, most beautiful of face,\nfierce in majesty, while, increased in excessive powers,\nhe is puffed up, while, swelling grandly, he lifts himself higher\nand displays his fires more boastfully than was allowed,\npersuaded [some] that he was born by his own powers, that from himself\nhe had taken for himself the matter by which he first\nbegan to be, and that his birth had begun without a beginner.\n[That is the error] which teaches that a tyrant suddenly flashed out of darkness,\none who, as if lurking in eternal night, from the beginning","f":"Prudentius, <i>Ham.</i> 1.151 (Lanfranchi 2:lines 151–180; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/prudentius-hamartigenia/1-151)."},"prudentius-hamartigenia/1.181":{"o":"Vixerit, et tecto semper regnaverit aevo.\nAemulus, ut memorant, opera ad divina repente\nCorrumpenda, caput caligine protulit atra.\nHoc ratio sed nostra negat, cui non licet unam\nInfirmare fidem, sacro quae tradita libro est.\nNil, ait, absque Deo factum, sed cuncta per ipsum,\nCuncta; nec est alius quisquam nisi factus ab ipso.\nSed factus de stirpe bonus, bonitatis in usum\nProditus, et primo generis de fonte serenus:\nDeterior mox sponte sua, dum decolor illum\nInficit invidia, stimulisque instigat amaris;\nArsit enim scintilla odii de fomite zeli,\nEt dolor ingenium subitus conflavit iniquum.\nViderat argillam, simulacrum et structile flatu\nConcaluisse Dei: dominum quoque conditioni\nImpositum: natura soli, pelagique, polique,\nUt famulans homini locupletem fundere partum\nNosset, et effusum terreno addicere regi,\nQui cunctum regeret proprio moderamine mundum.\nInflavit fermento animi stomachante tumorem\nBestia, deque acidis vim traxit acerba medullis:\nBestia, sorde carens, cui tunc sapientia longi\nCorporis enodem servabat recta iuventam,\nComplicat ecce novos sinuoso pectore nexus,\nInvolvens nitidam spiris torquentibus alvum.\nSimplex lingua prius, varia micat arte loquendi,\nEt discissa dolis resonant sermone trisulco.\nHinc natale caput vitiorum; principe ab illo\nFluxit origo mali: qui se corrumpere primum,","t":"lived and always reigned in a hidden age.\nAs they tell it, he, a rival bent on suddenly corrupting\nthe divine works, brought forth his head from black darkness.\nBut our reason denies this, for it may not\nweaken the one faith that is handed down in the sacred book.\n“Nothing,” it says, “was made without God, but all things through him,\nall things; nor is there anyone else except one made by him.”\nBut he was made good in his stock, brought forth\nfor the service of goodness, and clear from the first source of his kind;\nsoon he became worse of his own will, while envy discolored him\nand stained him, and goaded him with bitter spurs;\nfor a spark of hatred blazed up from the tinder of jealousy,\nand sudden resentment kindled an unjust spirit.\nHe had seen the clay, the image fashioned, grow warm\nwith the breath of God; he had seen a lord set over\ncreation as well, and the nature of land, sea, and sky\nso ordered that, serving man, it would know how to pour out rich increase\nand give what it poured out to its earthly king,\nwho would govern the whole world by his own rule.\nThe beast puffed up its swelling with the leaven of a resentful mind\nand, embittered, drew strength from its sour marrow:\nthe beast, free of filth, whose straight wisdom then\nkept the youth of its long body without knots,\nsee, now folds new coils in its winding breast,\nwrapping its gleaming belly in twisting spirals.\nIts tongue, simple before, now flickers with a varied art of speech,\nand, split by deceit, resounds with three-forked talk.\nHence came the birthplace and head of vices; from that prince\nflowed the origin of evil: he who learned first to corrupt himself,","f":"Prudentius, <i>Ham.</i> 1.181 (Lanfranchi 2:lines 181–210; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/prudentius-hamartigenia/1-181)."},"prudentius-hamartigenia/1.211":{"o":"Mox hominem didicit, nullo informante magistro.\nUltimus exitium subverso praeside mundus\nSortitur, mundique omnis labefacta supellex.\nNon aliter quam cum incautum spoliare viantem\nForte latro adgressus, praedae prius immemor, ipsum\nEnse ferit dominum, pugnae nodumque moramque,\nQuo pereunte trahat captivos victor amictus,\nSic homini subiecta domus, ditissimus orbis,\nScilicet in facilem domino peccante ruinam\nLapsus, herile malum iam tunc vitiabilis hausit.\nTunc lolium lappasque leves per adultera culta\nFerre malignus ager, glebis male pinguibus ausus,\nTriticeam vacuis segetem violavit avenis.\nTunc etiam innocuo vitulorum sanguine pasci,\nOcciso pastore, truces didicere leones.\nNec non et querulis balatibus irritatus\nPlenas nocte lupus studuit perrumpere caulas.\nInbuit, et tortos acuit fallacia sensus.\nQuamvis maceries florentes ambiat hortos,\nSaepibus et densis vallentur vitea rura;\nAut avibus discerpta feris lacerabitur uva.\nQuid loquar herbarum fibras, medicante veneno\nTinctas, letiferi fudisse pericula suci?\nNoxius in teneris sapor aestuat ecce frutectis,\nCum prius innocuas tulerit natura cicutas,\nRoscidus et viridem qui vestit flos rhododaphnen\nPabula lascivis dederit sincera capellis.\nIpsa quoque oppositum destructo foedere certo\nTranscendunt elementa modum, rapiuntque, ruuntque\nOmnia, legirupis quassantia viribus orbem.","t":"and soon man, with no teacher instructing him.\nThe world receives destruction last, when its ruler was overthrown,\nand all the furniture of the world is shaken.\nJust as when a robber sets out to plunder an unwary traveler,\nheedless at first of the booty, he strikes the owner himself\nwith the sword, the knot and the delay of the fight,\nso that when he dies the victor may drag off the captive clothing:\nso the house subject to man, the richest world,\nfell, of course, into easy ruin when its lord sinned,\nand, already corruptible then, drank in its master’s evil.\nThen the malicious field, daring to bear darnel and light burrs\nthrough adulterated crops, with soils wrongly rich,\nspoiled the wheat harvest with empty wild oats.\nThen too fierce lions learned to feed on the innocent blood\nof calves, once the shepherd was slain;\nand the wolf, provoked by plaintive bleating,\nstrove at night to break into the full folds.\n… guile tinged them and sharpened their twisted senses.\nThough a wall surround the flowering gardens,\nand the vineyards be fenced with thick hedges,\n… or the grape will be torn, plucked by wild birds.\nWhy should I tell how the fibers of herbs, tinged\nwith healing poison, have poured out the dangers of deadly juice?\nSee, a harmful taste seethes in tender shrubs,\nthough nature formerly bore harmless hemlock,\nand the dewy flower that clothes the green oleander\ngave wholesome fodder to the frisking goats.\nThe elements themselves too, their sure compact destroyed,\noverstep their opposing limit, seize and rush upon\nall things, shaking the world with law-breaking force.","f":"Prudentius, <i>Ham.</i> 1.211 (Lanfranchi 2:lines 211–240; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/prudentius-hamartigenia/1-211)."},"prudentius-hamartigenia/1.241":{"o":"Frangunt umbriferos Aquilonum proelia lucos,\nEt cadit immodicis silva exstirpata procellis.\nParte alia violentus aquis torrentibus amnis\nTransilit obiectas, praescripta repagula, ripas,\nEt vagus eversis late dominatur in agris.\nNec tamen his tantam rabiem nascentibus ipse\nConditor instituit; sed laxa licentia rerum\nTurbavit placidas, rupto moderamine, leges.\nNec mirum si membra orbis concussa rotantur,\nSi vitiis agitata suis mundana laborat\nMachina, si terras luis incentiva fatigat.\nExemplum dat vita hominum, quo cetera peccent:\nVita hominum, cui quidquid agit, vesania et error\nSuppeditant, ut bella fremant, ut fluxa voluptas\nDiffluat, impuro fervescat ut igne libido,\nSorbeat ut cumulos nummorum faucibus amplis\nGurges avaritiae, finis quam nullus habendi\nTemperat, aggestis addentem vota talentis.\nAuri namque fames parto fit maior ab auro.\nInde seges scelerum, radix et sola malorum:\nDum scatebras fluviorum omnes, et operta metalla\nEliquat ornatus solvendi leno pudoris:\nDum venas squalentis humi scrutatur inepta\nAmbitio, scalpens naturae occulta latentis,\nSi quibus in foveis radiantes forte lapillos\nRimata inveniat; nec enim contenta decore\nIngenito, externam mentitur femina formam.\nAc velut artificis Domini manus imperfectum\nOs dederit, quod adhuc res exigat, aut hyacinthis\nPingere sutilibus redimitae frontis in arce,","t":"The battles of the north winds break the shady groves,\nand the forest falls, uprooted by boundless storms.\nElsewhere a river, violent with torrent waters,\nleaps the banks set against it, its prescribed barriers,\nand, wandering, lords it far and wide over the overturned fields.\nYet the Creator himself did not establish such fury\nin these things at their birth; but the loose license of things,\nits restraint broken, threw their peaceful laws into confusion.\nNo wonder, then, if the members of the world are shaken and whirled,\nif the machine of the world labors, driven by its own faults,\nif the incitement of plague wears out the lands.\nHuman life gives the example by which the rest may sin:\nhuman life, to which madness and error supply\nwhatever it does, so that wars roar, that loose pleasure\nflows out, that lust boils with impure fire,\nthat the whirlpool of avarice swallows heaps of coins\nin its wide jaws, avarice which no limit of having\nrestrains, adding new wishes to talents piled up.\nFor hunger for gold grows greater from gold gained.\nHence the harvest of crimes, the one root of evils;\nwhile the bawd of ornament, who loosens modesty,\nmelts down all the springs of rivers and the hidden metals;\nwhile foolish ambition searches the veins of the rough ground,\nscratching at the secrets of hidden nature,\nin case, probing, it may chance to find gleaming gems\nin some pits; for, not content with her inborn\nbeauty, woman counterfeits a foreign form,\nas if the hand of the Lord, the craftsman, had given her an unfinished\nface, which the matter still demanded, or [as if she must] paint\nwith sewn-on jacinths the citadel of her garlanded brow,","f":"Prudentius, <i>Ham.</i> 1.241 (Lanfranchi 2:lines 241–270; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/prudentius-hamartigenia/1-241)."},"prudentius-hamartigenia/1.271":{"o":"Colla vel ignitis sincera incingere sertis,\nAuribus aut gravidis virides suspendere baccas:\nNectitur et nitidis concharum calculus albens\nCrinibus, aureolisque riget coma texta catenis.\nTaedet sacrilegas matrum percurrere curas,\nMuneribus dotata Dei quae plasmata fuco\nInficiunt, ut pigmentis cutis inlita perdat\nQuod fuerat, falso non agnoscenda colore.\nHaec sexus male fortis agit, cui pectore in arto\nMens fragilis, facili vitiorum fluctuat aestu.\nQuid? quod et ipse caput muliebris corporis et rex,\nQui regit invalidam propria de carne resectam\nParticulam, qui vas tenerum ditione gubernat,\nSolvitur in luxum. Cernas mollescere cultu\nHeroas vetulos, opifex quibus aspera membra\nFinxerat, et rigidos duraverat ossibus artus.\nSed pudet esse viros; quaerunt vanissima quaeque\nQuis niteant: genuina leves, ut robora solvant,\nVellere non ovium, sed Eoo ex orbe petitis\nRamorum spoliis fluitantes sumere amictus.\nAdditur ars, ut fila herbis saturata recoctis\nPectitur. Hunc videas lascivas praepete cursu\nVenantem tunicas, avium quoque versicolorum\nIndumenta novis texentem plumea telis;\nIllum pigmentis redolentibus, et peregrino\nPulvere femineas spargentem turpiter auras.\nOmnia luxus habet nostrae vegetamina vitae,\nAuribus atque oculis, tum naribus atque palato\nQuaeritur infectus vitiosis artibus usus.\nIpse etiam, toto pollet qui corpore, tactus","t":"or to bind her pure neck with fiery garlands,\nor to hang green pearls from her weighed-down ears.\nThe white stone of shells is also bound into her gleaming\nhair, and her braided locks are stiff with golden chains.\nI am weary of running through the sacrilegious cares of matrons,\nwho stain with dye the forms God endowed with his gifts,\nso that the skin, smeared with paint, loses\nwhat it was, unrecognizable under a false color.\nThis the sex that is weak in strength does, whose fragile mind\nin a narrow breast is tossed by the easy surge of vices.\nWhat of this, that even the head and king of the woman’s body,\nwho rules the frail little part cut from his own flesh,\nwho governs the tender vessel by his authority,\nis dissolved in luxury? You may see old heroes\ngrow soft with grooming, whose rugged limbs the Maker\nhad shaped and whose stiff joints he had hardened with bones.\nBut they are ashamed to be men; they seek all the vainest things\nto shine with: light-minded, so as to undo their natural strength,\nthey take flowing garments, not of sheep’s fleece,\nbut of the spoils of branches sought from the Eastern world.\n… Art is added, so that threads soaked in boiled-down dyes\n… is combed. This one you may see chasing wanton tunics\nat a headlong pace, and weaving the feathered clothing\nof many-colored birds on new looms;\nthat one shamefully sprinkling the air, in a womanish way,\nwith fragrant perfumes and foreign powder.\nLuxury holds all the quickening powers of our life; …\nfor ears and eyes, then for nostrils and palate,\na use tainted by vicious arts is sought.\nEven touch itself, which is strong throughout the body,","f":"Prudentius, <i>Ham.</i> 1.271 (Lanfranchi 2:lines 271–300; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/prudentius-hamartigenia/1-271)."},"prudentius-hamartigenia/1.301":{"o":"Palpamen tenerum blandis e fotibus ambit.\nProh dolor, ingenuas naturae occumbere leges,\nCaptivasque trahi, regnante libidine, dotes!\nPerversum ius omne viget, dum quidquid habendum\nOmnipotens dederat, studia in contraria vertunt.\nIccircone, rogo, speculatrix pupula molli\nSubdita palpebrae est, ut turpia semivirorum\nMembra theatrali spectet vertigine ferri,\nIncestans miseros foedo oblectamine visus?\nAut ideo spirant, mediaque ex arce cerebri\nDemittunt geminas sociata foramina nares,\nUt bibat inlecebras male conciliata voluptas,\nQuas pigmentato meretrix iacit improba crine?\nNum propter lyricae modulamina vana puellae,\nNervorumque sonos, et convivale calentis\nCarmen nequitiae, patulas Deus addidit aures,\nPerque cavernosos iussit penetrare meatus\nVocis iter? Numquid madido sapor inditus ori\nVivit ob hanc caussam, medicata ut fercula pigram\nIngluviem, vegetamque gulam ganeonis inescent?\nPer varios gustus instructa ut prandia ducat\nIn noctem, lassetque gravem sua crapula ventrem?\nQuid durum, quid molle foret, quid lene, quid horrens,\nQuid calidum gelidumve Deus cognoscere nosmet\nAttactu voluit, palpandi interprete sensu.\nAt nos delicias plumarum, et linea texta\nSternimus, atque cutem, fulcro attenuante, polimus.\nFelix, qui indultis potuit mediocriter uti\nMuneribus, parcumque modum servare fruendi!\nQuem locuples mundi species, et amoena venustas,","t":"seeks tender caresses from soft warmings.\nO grief, that nature’s noble laws should fall\nand her gifts be dragged captive, while lust reigns!\nEvery perverted right flourishes, while men turn\nto contrary pursuits whatever the Almighty gave to be had.\nWas it for this, I ask, that the watchful pupil\nwas set beneath the soft eyelid, to watch the shameful limbs\nof half-men carried about in theatrical whirling,\ndefiling its wretched sight with foul delight?\nOr do the nostrils breathe for this, and do their paired openings\ncome down joined from the mid-citadel of the brain,\nso that ill-gained pleasure may drink in the allurements\nthat the shameless harlot casts from her perfumed hair?\nWas it for the vain melodies of a girl with a lyre,\nfor the sounds of strings and the banquet song\nof heated wickedness, that God added open ears\nand ordered the path of the voice to pass through\ncavernous channels? Does the taste put into the moist mouth\nlive for this reason, that seasoned dishes may bait\nthe sluggish gullet and lively throat of the glutton?\nthat furnished luncheons may lead, through varied tastes,\ninto the night, and his own debauch may weary his heavy belly?\nGod willed that we should know by touch what is hard, what soft,\nwhat smooth, what rough, what hot or cold,\nwith the sense of feeling as interpreter.\nBut we spread soft feathers and woven linens,\nand polish our skin on a softening couch.\nHappy the man who could use moderately the gifts\ngranted him, and keep a sparing measure of enjoyment!\nwhom the rich beauty of the world and its pleasant charm,","f":"Prudentius, <i>Ham.</i> 1.301 (Lanfranchi 2:lines 301–330; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/prudentius-hamartigenia/1-301)."},"prudentius-hamartigenia/1.31":{"o":"Virtutum sublime caput, fons unicus orbis,\nNaturalis apex, generisque et originis auctor;\nEx quo cuncta fluunt et lux, et tempora, et anni,\nEt numerus: qui post aliquid dedit esse secundum:\nUnus enim princeps numeri est, nec dinumerari\nTantum unus potis est. Sic, quum Pater ac Deus alter\nNon sit, item Christus non sit genitore secundus,\nAnterior numero est, cui Filius unicus uni est.\nIlle Deus, meritoque Deus, quia primus et unus.\nIn virtute sua primus; tum primus in illo,\nQuem genuit: quid enim differt generatio simplex?\nUnum semper erit gignens, atque unus ab uno\nAnte chaos genitus, numeroque et tempore liber.\nQuis dixisse duos rem maiestate sub una\nRegnantem, propriamque sibi, retroque perennem\nAusit, et unius naturae scindere vires?\nNumquid adoptivum genitor sibi sumsit, ut alter\nExterni generis numerum praestare duorum\nDebeat, et geminum distans inducere numen?\nForma Patris veri verus stat Filius, ac se\nUnum rite probat, dum formam servat eamdem.\nNon amor adscitus sociat, nec iungit utrumque\nConiurata fides; pietas sed certa, genusque\nUnum, quod Deus est, summam revocatur ad unam.\nHaec tibi, Marcion, via displicet: hanc tua damnat\nSecta fidem, dominis caelum partita duobus.\nQuae te confundunt nebulae? quis somnus inerti","t":"lofty head of the powers, sole fountain of the world,\nsummit of nature, author of kind and of origin,\nfrom whom all things flow, light and times and years\nand number: he who afterward granted that something should be second.\nFor one is the beginning of number, and one alone\ncannot be counted out. So, since there is no other Father and God,\nand likewise Christ is not second to his Begetter,\nhe who, himself one, has one only Son is prior to number.\nHe is God, and rightly God, because he is first and one:\nfirst in his own power, and then first in him\nwhom he begot; for what does a simple begetting divide?\nThe Begetter will always be one, and one from one\nwas begotten before chaos, free of number and of time.\nWho would dare to call two a reality that reigns\nunder one majesty, its own, and everlasting from of old,\nand to split the powers of a single nature?\nDid the Begetter take an adopted son for himself, so that another,\nof foreign stock, should make up the number two\nand bring in a twin and separate godhead?\nThe true Son stands as the form of the true Father, and duly\nproves himself one, while he keeps the same form.\nNo adopted love joins them, nor does a sworn\nloyalty unite the two; but a sure fatherly bond, and one\nkind, which is God, is called back to a single sum.\nThis way displeases you, Marcion; your sect condemns\nthis faith, having divided heaven between two lords.\nWhat clouds confound you? What sleep lies heavy on your sluggish","f":"Prudentius, <i>Ham.</i> 1.31 (Lanfranchi 2:lines 31–60; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/prudentius-hamartigenia/1-31)."},"prudentius-hamartigenia/1.331":{"o":"Et nitidis fallens circumflua copia rebus\nNon capit, ut puerum, nec inepto addicit amori:\nQui sub adumbrata dulcedine triste venenum\nDeprehendit latitare boni mendacis operto.\nSed fuit id quondam nobis sanctumque bonumque\nPrincipio rerum, Christus cum conderet orbem.\nVidit enim Deus esse bonum: velut ipse Moyses\nHistoricus mundi nascentis testificatus;\nVidit, ait, Deus esse bonum quodcumque creavit.\nHoc sequar, hoc stabili conceptum mente tenebo,\nInspirante Deo quod sanctus vaticinator\nProdidit, antiquae recolens primordia lucis,\nEsse bonum quidquid Deus et Sapientia fecit.\nConditor ergo boni Pater est, et cum Patre Christus.\nNam Deus, atque Deus, Pater est et Filius, unum:\nQuippe unum natura facit, quae constat utrique\nUna voluntatis, iuris, virtutis, amoris.\nNon tamen iccirco duo numina, nec duo rerum\nArtifices; quoniam generis dissensio nulla est,\nAtque ideo nulla est operis distantia, nulla\nIngenii: peperit bona omnia conditor unus.\nNil luteum de fonte fluit, nec turbidus humor\nNascitur, aut primae violatur origine venae;\nSed dum liventes liquor incorruptus arenas\nPraelambit, putrefacta inter contagia sordet.\nNumquid equus, ferrum, taurus, leo, funis, olivum,\nIn se vim sceleris, cum formarentur, habebant?\nQuo iugulatur homo, non ferrum caussa furoris,\nSed manus est; nec equum vesania fervida Circi\nAuctorem levitatis habet, rabidive fragoris.","t":"and the abundance that flows around him, deceiving with glittering things,\ndoes not take captive like a boy, nor bind to foolish love;\nwho detects a grim poison lurking under a shadowy\nsweetness, in the covering of a lying good.\nBut this was once holy and good for us,\nat the beginning of things, when Christ founded the world.\nFor God saw that it was good, as Moses himself,\nthe historian of the world’s birth, has testified;\n“God saw,” he says, “that whatever he created was good.”\nThis I will follow, this I will hold, conceived in a steadfast mind,\nwhat the holy prophet, by God’s inspiration,\nhanded down, recalling the beginnings of the ancient light:\nthat whatever God and Wisdom made is good.\nThe Father, then, is the Creator of good, and Christ with the Father.\nFor God and God, Father and Son, are one:\nsince one nature makes them one, which in both\nconsists of one will, right, power, and love.\nYet there are not, for that reason, two divine powers, nor two\nmakers of things; since there is no discord of kind,\nand so there is no difference of work, none\nof mind: the one Creator brought forth all good things.\nNothing muddy flows from the fountain, no turbid water\nis born, nor is the first vein defiled at its source;\nbut while the uncorrupted water laps the dark sands,\nit grows foul amid rotting contagion.\nDid the horse, iron, the bull, the lion, the rope, olive oil,\nhave in themselves the force of crime when they were formed?\nWhen a man’s throat is cut, the iron is not the cause of the fury,\nbut the hand; nor does the hot madness of the Circus\nhave the horse as the author of its frivolity or its rabid uproar.","f":"Prudentius, <i>Ham.</i> 1.331 (Lanfranchi 2:lines 331–360; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/prudentius-hamartigenia/1-331)."},"prudentius-hamartigenia/1.361":{"o":"Mens vulgi rationis inops, non cursus equorum,\nPerfurit: infami studio perit utile donum.\nSic Lacedaemonias oleo maduisse palaestras\nNovimus, et placidum servire ad crimina sucum.\nInde per aerium pendens audacia funem\nArdua securis scandit proscenia plantis.\nInde feras volucri temeraria corpora saltu\nTransiliunt, mortisque inter discrimina ludunt.\nSanguinis humani spectacula publicus edit\nConsensus, legesque iubent venale parari\nSupplicium, quo membra hominum discerpta cruentis\nMorsibus oblectent hilarem de funere plebem.\nMille alia stolidi bacchantia gaudia mundi\nPercensere piget, quae veri oblita Tonantis\nHumanum miseris volvunt erroribus aevum.\nNemo animum summi memorem Genitoris in altum\nExcitat, ad caelum mittit suspiria nemo;\nNec, recolens apicem solii natalis, ad ipsum\nRespicit auctorem, nec spem super aera librat:\nSed mentem gravidis contentam stertere curis\nIndigno subdit domino, perituraque pronus\nHoc pulchrum, quod terra parit, quod gloria confert\nLubrica; commendat quod perniciosa voluptas;\nQuod, velut excitus difflato pulvere ventus,\nPraeterit, exemplo tenuis quod transvolat umbrae.\nPraedo potens, tacitis quem viribus interfusum\nCorda bibunt hominum: serit ille medullitus omnes\nNequitias, spargitque suos per membra ministros.\nNamque illic numerosa cohors sub principe tali\nMilitat, horrendisque animas circumsidet armis","t":"It is the mind of the crowd, lacking reason, not the running of horses,\nthat rages: a useful gift perishes by infamous zeal.\nSo we know that the Spartan wrestling-grounds dripped with oil,\nand that the gentle juice served crimes.\nHence daring, hanging on a rope in the air,\nclimbs the steep stage with fearless feet.\nHence reckless bodies leap over wild beasts with a flying bound\nand play amid the perils of death.\nPublic consent puts on spectacles of human blood,\nand the laws order a punishment to be provided for sale,\nin which human limbs, torn by bloody bites,\nmay delight a crowd made merry by a death.\nI am loath to review a thousand other reveling joys\nof the stupid world, which, forgetting the true Thunderer,\nroll the age of mankind along in wretched errors.\nNo one rouses on high a mind mindful of the supreme Father;\nno one sends sighs to heaven;\nnor, recalling the summit of the throne of his birth,\ndoes he look back to his Maker himself, nor poise his hope above the air;\nbut he subjects a mind content to snore amid heavy cares\nto an unworthy master, and, stooping to perishing things,\n[he admires] as beautiful what the earth brings forth, what slippery glory\nconfers, what destructive pleasure commends,\nwhat passes by like a wind roused when the dust is blown about,\nwhat flies past like a thin shadow.\nThe mighty robber, whom, poured in by silent powers,\nthe hearts of men drink in: he sows all wickedness\nto the marrow and spreads his ministers through the limbs.\nFor there a numerous cohort serves under such a prince\nand besieges souls with dreadful arms:","f":"Prudentius, <i>Ham.</i> 1.361 (Lanfranchi 2:lines 361–390; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/prudentius-hamartigenia/1-361)."},"prudentius-hamartigenia/1.391":{"o":"Ira, superstitio, maeror, discordia, luxus,\nSanguinis atra sitis, vini sitis, et sitis auri,\nLivor, adulterium, dolus, obtrectatio, furtum.\nInformes horrent facies habituque minaces:\nAmbitio ventosa tumet, doctrina superbit,\nPersonat eloquium, nodos fraus abdita nectit.\nInde canina foro latrat facundia toto.\nHinc gerit Herculeam vilis sapientia clavam,\nOstentatque suos vicatim gymnosophistas.\nIncerat lapides fumosos idololatrix\nRelligio, et surdis pallens advolvitur aris.\nHeu quantis mortale genus premit improbus hostis\nArmigeris! quanta ferratus satellite ductor\nBella gerit! quanta victos ditione triumphat!\nSurgit in auxilium Chananaeus, atque agmina denset,\nCasside terribilis, setarum pondera mento\nConcutiens, dextramque gravi cum cuspide quassans.\nAst alia de parte furens exercitus ardet\nRegis Amorrhaei: tum milia Gergesaeorum\nEffundunt aciem toto volitantia campo:\nEminus hi feriunt, confligunt comminus illi.\nEcce Iebusaeae fervent ad proelia turmae,\nAurea tela quibus, de sanguine tincta draconis,\nMortifero splendore micant, radiantque necantque:\nNec non terrificas pilis armare catervas\nTe, Chettaee, iuvat: sed gens Pherezaea sagittis\nInsultat virtute pari, sed dispare ferro.\nPostremum cuneum rex promovet Evaeorum,\nSquamosum thoraca gerens de pelle colubri.\nHic subnixa viris scelerum perversa potestas","t":"anger, superstition, grief, discord, luxury,\nblack thirst for blood, thirst for wine, and thirst for gold,\nenvy, adultery, deceit, slander, theft.\nTheir shapeless faces bristle, menacing in their bearing:\nwindy ambition swells, learning is proud,\neloquence resounds, hidden fraud ties knots.\nHence doglike eloquence barks through the whole forum.\nHence cheap philosophy carries the club of Hercules\nand shows off its naked sages in every street.\nIdolatrous religion waxes smoke-stained stones\nand, pale, grovels before deaf altars.\nAlas, with what great armor-bearers the wicked enemy\npresses the mortal race! What wars the ironclad leader\nwages with his guard! With what dominion he triumphs over the conquered!\nThe Canaanite rises to help and thickens the ranks,\nterrible in his helmet, shaking a weight of bristles\non his chin and brandishing his right hand with a heavy spear.\nFrom another side the raging army of the Amorite king\nburns; then thousands of Girgashites\npour out their line, darting over the whole plain:\nthese strike from afar, those clash hand to hand.\nSee, the Jebusite squadrons seethe for battle,\nwhose golden weapons, dipped in a dragon’s blood,\nflash with deadly splendor, and gleam and kill;\nand you, Hittite, delight in arming your terrifying\nbands with javelins; but the Perizzite nation\nattacks with arrows, with equal courage but different steel.\nThe king of the Hivites brings forward the last wedge,\nwearing a scaly breastplate of serpent’s skin.\nHere the perverse power of crimes, supported by these men,","f":"Prudentius, <i>Ham.</i> 1.391 (Lanfranchi 2:lines 391–420; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/prudentius-hamartigenia/1-391)."},"prudentius-hamartigenia/1.421":{"o":"Edomat invalidas mentes, quae simplicitate\nIndociles bellique rudes, sub foedere falso\nTristis amicitiae primum socia agmina credunt,\nMammoneamque fidem pacis sub amore sequuntur.\nMox faciles ad vincla rapi, iuga dura volentes\nAddictis subeunt cervicibus, et nebulonum\nSpirituum iussis servire ferocibus optant.\nFinitimisque inhians, contempto limite, agellis\nDucitur innexus manicis, et mille catenis\nAnte triumphales currus, post terga revinctus,\nNec se barbaricis addictum sentit habenis,\nHic, qui ventosae scandit fastigia famae,\nInflaturque cavo pompae popularis honore,\nQui summum solidumque bonum putat, ambitionis\nCrescere successu, praeconum voce trementes\nExanimare reos, miserorum in corpora fasces\nFrangere, terribiles legum exercere secures;\nIn laqueum iam colla dedit, iam compede dura\nNectitur, et pedibus servilia vincula limat.\nCredite, captivi mortales, hostica quos iam\nDamnatos cohibent ergastula, quos famulatu\nPoenarum virtus non intellecta coercet;\nHaec illa est Babylon, haec transmigratio nostrae\nGentis, et horribilis victoria principis Assur:\nCarmine luctifico quam deflens Ieremias\nOrbatam propriis ululavit civibus urbem.\nNum latet, aut dubium est, animas de semine Iacob\nExsilium gentile pati, quas Persica regna","t":"subdues weak minds, which, untaught in their simplicity\nand raw in war, at first believe under the false treaty\nof a grim friendship that the ranks are allies,\nand follow Mammon’s pledge out of love for peace.\nSoon, easily dragged into chains, willingly\nthey bow their devoted necks to hard yokes, and choose\nto serve the fierce commands of worthless spirits.\nHe who gapes at his neighbors’ little fields, scorning the boundary,\nis led bound in manacles and a thousand chains\nbefore the triumphal chariots, his hands tied behind his back,\nand does not feel himself handed over to barbarian reins.\nThis man, who climbs the summits of windy fame\nand is puffed up by the hollow honor of popular display,\nwho thinks it the highest and most solid good to grow\nby the success of ambition, to terrify trembling defendants\nwith the herald’s voice, to break the rods on the bodies\nof the wretched, to wield the terrible axes of the laws:\nhe has already put his neck into the noose, already he is bound\nwith a hard fetter, and wears servile chains on his feet.\nBelieve me, mortal captives, whom the enemy’s workhouses\nalready hold condemned, whom a power of punishments,\nnot understood, keeps in servitude:\nthis is that Babylon, this is the deportation of our\nnation, and the dreadful victory of the prince of Assyria,\nwhich Jeremiah lamented in a mournful song,\nwailing for the city bereft of its own citizens.\nIs it hidden or doubtful that the souls of Jacob’s seed\nsuffer a pagan exile, which the Persian kingdoms","f":"Prudentius, <i>Ham.</i> 1.421 (Lanfranchi 2:lines 421–450; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/prudentius-hamartigenia/1-421)."},"prudentius-hamartigenia/1.451":{"o":"Captivas retinent, atque in sua foedera cogunt?\nIllic natali desuescunt vivere ritu,\nMoribus et patriis exutae in barbara iura\nDegenerant, linguamque novam, vestemque sequuntur,\nDeque profanato discunt sordescere cultu,\nNutricemque abolent petulanti e pectore Sion,\nOrgana, et externi laudant anathemata regni.\nNonne fuit melius saevum Memphitidis aulae\nImperium tolerasse patres, penitusque sinistris\nAdsedisse focis? positos Pharaonis iniqui\nSub pedibus, limo et paleis servire paratos,\nCarnis et immodicae spurco ructamine crudos?\nQuo tantum auxilii per prodigialia signa\nEffudit Dominus, populum dum forte rebellem\nServat ope immerita, vinclis dum subdita colla\nSolvit, et Aegyptum virga serpente coercet?\nQuid iuvat aequoreum pelago cedente profundum\nPulverea calcasse via, cum conscia ponti\nSaxa sub ignoto patuerunt prodita caelo,\nAruit et medio sitiens in gurgite limus?\nSi victor virtute Dei, mediasque tenebras\nLuce columnari scindens exercitus olim\nPerdidit inventi vallem botryonis opimam?\nSi nescit versare solum, cui melle perenni\nGleba fluens niveos permiscet lactea rivos?\nSi domitam Iericho lituis atque aere canoro\nRursus in antiquos patitur consurgere muros?\nSi ripis rursus Iordanis pellitur, et iam\nDeserit adscriptam dimensa in iugera sortem?\nDenique si structam tantis sudoribus urbem,","t":"hold captive and force into their own covenants?\nThere they lose the habit of living by their native rite,\nand, stripped of their fathers’ ways, they degenerate\ninto barbarian laws, follow a new tongue and new dress,\nand learn to grow foul from profane worship;\nthey blot Zion, their nurse, from their wanton breasts,\nand praise the instruments and the offerings of a foreign kingdom.\nWould it not have been better for the fathers to have endured\nthe cruel rule of the Memphian court, and to have sat on\nby the hearths of ill omen, set beneath the feet\nof unjust Pharaoh, ready to serve with mud and straw,\nand gorged with the foul belching of immoderate meat?\nTo what end did the Lord pour out such help through wondrous signs,\nwhile he saved, it may be, a rebellious people\nwith undeserved aid, while he loosed their necks bowed under chains\nand curbed Egypt with the serpent-rod?\nWhat good is it to have trodden the depths of the sea\non a dusty road as the ocean gave way, when the rocks,\nwitnesses of the sea, lay open, betrayed under an unknown sky,\nand the mud dried up, thirsty in the middle of the flood,\nif the army, once victorious by God’s power, splitting the darkness\nwith the light of the pillar, has lost\nthe rich valley of the cluster that it found?\nif it does not know how to turn the soil of a land\nwhose clods, flowing with everlasting honey, mingle snowy streams of milk?\nif it lets Jericho, subdued by trumpets and resounding bronze,\nrise again into its ancient walls?\nif it is driven back again from the banks of Jordan, and now\nabandons the lot assigned to it, measured out in acres?\nAnd finally, if it cannot defend the city built with such sweat,","f":"Prudentius, <i>Ham.</i> 1.451 (Lanfranchi 2:lines 451–480; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/prudentius-hamartigenia/1-451)."},"prudentius-hamartigenia/1.481":{"o":"Et quae nubigenas transcendunt culmina nimbos,\nDefensare nequit? Si nescit, quis lapis ille est\nHostibus obsistens, ut inexpugnabile turris\nPraesidium, quem non aerato machina rostro\nArietat insiliens, nec ferrea verbera quassant?\nAngulus hic portae in capite est, hic continet omnem\nSaxorum seriem, constructaque limina firmat,\nQuem qui rite suis per propugnacula muris\nNoverit insertum, seque ac sua moenia vallo\nPraecingat triplici, celsa stans eminus arce,\nFretus amore petrae, castis et pervigil armis;\nNon illum regina Tyri, non accola magni\nEuphratis Parthus rapiet, non decolor Indus\nTempora pinnatis redimitus nigra sagittis.\nQuin si fulmineos cogens ad bella gigantas\nAllophylus tua castra velit delere tyrannus,\nTutus eris, nec te firma statione movebit\nIpse Charon mundi, numen Marcionis: ipse,\nQui regit aerio vanas sub sole tenebras.\nNam vanum quidquid sol adspicit: ex elementis\nCuncta solubilibus fluxoque creamine constant.\nFallor, creaturam nisi doctor Apostolus omnem\nSubiectam vanis non sponte laboribus orsus,\nPeriuro ingemuit miserans servire latroni:\nErrat, ait, qui luctamen cum sanguine nobis,\nEt carne, et venis ferventibus, et vitioso\nFelle putat, calidisque animam peccare medullis.\nNon mentem sua membra premunt, nec terrea virtus\nOppugnat sensus liquidos, bellove lacessit;\nSed cum spiritibus tenebrosis nocte dieque","t":"and the summits that rise above the cloud-born rain?\nif it does not know who that stone is,\nwhich stands against the enemy as the impregnable guard of a tower,\nwhich no engine charging with its bronze beak\ncan batter, nor iron blows shake?\nThis is the corner at the head of the gate; this holds the whole\ncourse of stones and makes the built threshold firm.\nWhoever knows that it is duly set into his walls\nalong the ramparts, and girds himself and his fortifications\nwith a triple rampart, standing on the high citadel far off,\ntrusting in love of the rock, and watchful in chaste arms,\nhim the queen of Tyre will not carry off, nor the Parthian\nwho dwells by the great Euphrates, nor the dark Indian,\nhis black temples crowned with feathered arrows.\nNo, even if a foreign tyrant, gathering thunderbolt giants to war,\nshould wish to destroy your camp,\nyou will be safe; nor will Charon of the world himself,\nMarcion’s god, move you from your firm post: he\nwho rules the empty darkness beneath the airy sun.\nFor empty is whatever the sun looks upon: all things consist\nof elements that dissolve and of a fleeting creation.\nI am mistaken unless the Apostle, our teacher, beginning to speak of all creation\nsubjected unwillingly to vain labors,\ngroaned in pity that it served a perjured robber.\n“He errs,” he says, “who thinks our struggle is with blood\nand flesh and burning veins and vicious gall,\nand that the soul sins from hot marrow.”\nIts limbs do not press down the mind, nor does earthly strength\nattack the clear senses or provoke them to war;\nbut with dark spirits, night and day,","f":"Prudentius, <i>Ham.</i> 1.481 (Lanfranchi 2:lines 481–510; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/prudentius-hamartigenia/1-481)."},"prudentius-hamartigenia/1.511":{"o":"Congredimur, quorum dominatibus umidus iste\nEt pigris densus nebulis obtemperat aer.\nScilicet hoc medium, caelum inter et infima terrae\nQuod patet, et vacuo nubes suspendit hiatu,\nFrena potestatum variarum sustinet, ac sub\nPrincipe Belia rectoribus horret iniquis.\nHis conluctamur praedonibus, ut sacra nobis\nOris Apostolici testis sententia prodit.\nNemo habitum naturae, aut inritamina peccans\nCorporis accuset: facile est frenare rebelles\nAdfectus carnis, nimiosque retundere pulsus\nMateriae fragilis, et viscera victa domare.\nQuippe animus longe praestantior, utpote summo\nAethere demissus, subiectos si velit artus\nImperio quassare gravi, iussisque severis\nDedere, regnanti Domino vis nulla resistet.\nMaior inest vis illa homini, quae flatile virus\nIngerit, et tenuem tenui ferit aere mentem.\nParthica non aeque ventos transcurrit harundo,\nCuius iter nullus potis est comprendere visus,\nPraepes enim volucres dum pennis transvolat auras\nImprovisa venit, nec stridor nuntiat ante\nAdventum leti, quam pectoris abdita rumpat,\nSecuram penetrans medicato vulnere vitam.\nSed magis aligera est, magis et medicata sagitta,\nQuam iacit umbrosi dominatio lubrica mundi,\nEludens excussa oculos, calamique volantis\nPraepete transcursu cordis penetralia figens.\nNec segnis natura animae est, aut tarda cavendi\nVulneris: ignitum quoniam Deus indidit olli","t":"we join battle, to whose dominion this moist air,\nthick with sluggish clouds, is obedient.\nFor this middle region, which lies open between heaven\nand the lowest parts of earth and hangs the clouds in an empty gap,\nbears the reins of various powers, and under\nBelial, their prince, bristles with unjust rulers.\nWith these robbers we wrestle, as the sacred saying\nof the Apostle’s mouth bears witness to us.\nLet no one, when he sins, accuse the condition of nature\nor the provocations of the body: it is easy to bridle the rebel\npassions of the flesh, to blunt the excessive impulses\nof frail matter, and to tame the conquered vitals.\nFor the mind, far more excellent, sent down as it is\nfrom the highest heaven, if it chooses to shake the subject limbs\nwith stern command and give them over to severe orders,\nno force will resist its reigning lordship.\nGreater is that force within man which injects an airy poison\nand strikes the subtle mind with subtle air.\nThe Parthian arrow does not cross the winds so swiftly,\nwhose path no sight can follow;\nfor while it flies on wings through the winged breezes,\nit comes unforeseen, and no whistle announces\nthe coming of death before it bursts into the secret places of the breast,\npiercing a life secure with a poisoned wound.\nBut more winged and more poisoned is the arrow\nthat the slippery dominion of the shadowy world shoots,\neluding the eyes when it is loosed, and with the swift passage\nof the flying shaft piercing the inner chambers of the heart.\nYet the nature of the soul is not sluggish or slow to guard\nagainst the wound, since God has put into it a fiery","f":"Prudentius, <i>Ham.</i> 1.511 (Lanfranchi 2:lines 511–540; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/prudentius-hamartigenia/1-511)."},"prudentius-hamartigenia/1.541":{"o":"Ingenium purum, sapiens, subtile, serenum,\nMobile, sollicitum, velox, agitabile, acutum:\nFactorem modo casta suum veneretur, et ipsi\nMilitet, ac victum proculcet sobria mundum:\nNil de pestiferis opibus, aut falsificatis\nTerrarum spoliis stulto oblectamine libans,\nNec sub fasce iacens, alieno et dedita regno\nNon queat argutas hostis vitare sagittas.\nSed quid ego omne malum mundique hominumque maligni\nHostis ad invidiam detorqueo? cum mala nostra\nEx nostris concreta animis genus, et caput, et vim,\nQuid sint, quid valeant, sumant de corde parenti?\nIlle quidem fomes nostrorum, et caussa malorum est.\nSed tantum turbare potest aut fallere, quantum\nNos volumus, qui decrepito suggesta leoni\nArmamenta damus; friget fera futile frendens,\nHumani generis ni per suffragia gliscat.\nGignimus omne malum proprio de corpore nostrum:\nUt genuit David, alias pater optimus, unum\nCrimen Abessalon: taetrum pater ille, sed unum,\nAusus in auctorem generis qui stringere ferrum.\nAh pietas! si quis contraria signa paternis\nEgit, et unius commisit sanguinis arma.\nNostra itidem diros urente propagine natos\nPectora parturiunt, versis qui protinus in nos\nMorsibus insuescunt gignentum vivere poenis:\nDepopulantur enim nimium fecunda parentum\nViscera, et interitu genitalis stirpis aluntur.\nProgeniem verum ille suam, rex utpote summus,\nAtque Dei vates, pariturae et virginis auctor,","t":"a mind that is pure, wise, subtle, serene,\nmobile, careful, swift, quick to stir, and sharp;\nonly let it, chaste, worship its Maker and serve\nas his soldier, and, sober, trample the conquered world,\ntasting nothing, with foolish delight, of pestilent wealth\nor of the counterfeit spoils of the earth;\nso that it will not, lying under a burden and given over to another’s rule,\nbe unable to escape the enemy’s cunning arrows.\nBut why do I twist all the evil of the world and of men\ninto a grudge against the malignant enemy, when our evils,\ngrown together out of our own souls, take their origin, head, and force,\nwhat they are and what they can do, from the heart that bears them?\nHe is indeed the tinder and cause of our evils;\nbut he can disturb or deceive only as much\nas we will, who supply weapons to the decrepit lion;\nthe beast grows cold, gnashing to no purpose,\nunless he swells through the votes of the human race.\nWe beget all our evil from our own body:\nas David, otherwise the best of fathers, begot one\ncrime, Absalom: that father was grievous, but one\nwho dared to draw the sword against the author of his stock.\nAh, filial love! if anyone has carried standards against his father’s\nand joined in arms of one blood.\nLikewise our hearts give birth to dreadful offspring\nof a burning breed, who, turning their bites on us at once,\ngrow used to living on the pains of those who bore them;\nfor they lay waste the too fruitful vitals of their parents\nand are fed by the death of the stock that bore them.\nBut that king, as the supreme king he was,\nthe prophet of God and ancestor of the Virgin who would bear,","f":"Prudentius, <i>Ham.</i> 1.541 (Lanfranchi 2:lines 541–570; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/prudentius-hamartigenia/1-541)."},"prudentius-hamartigenia/1.571":{"o":"Tristibus atque piis variaverat, ut Salomonis\nFrater Abessalon sereret sua crimina iustis\nPignoribus, dulcemque domum turbaret amaris.\nSic dignum Salomone nihil: nos degener implet\nSolus Abessalon, lacerans pia viscera ferro.\nSi licet ex ethnicis quidquam praesumere, vel si\nDe physicis exempli aliquid: sic vipera, ut aiunt,\nDentibus emoritur fusae per viscera prolis.\nMater morte sua, non sexu, fertilis, aut de\nConcubitu distenta uterum; sed cum calet igni\nPercita femineo, moriturum obscena maritum\nOre sitit patulo; caput inserit ille trilingue\nConiugis in fauces, atque oscula fervidus intrat,\nInsinuans oris coitu genitale venenum.\nNupta, voluptatis vi saucia, mordicus haustum\nFrangit amatoris blanda inter foedera guttur,\nInfusasque bibit, caro pereunte, salivas.\nHis pater inlecebris consumitur, at genetricem\nClausa necat soboles: nam postquam semine adulto\nIncipiunt calidis corpuscula parva latebris\nSerpere, motatumque uterum vibrata ferire,\nAestuat interno pietatis crimine mater,\nCarnificemque gemit damnati conscia sexus\nProgeniem, saepti rumpentem obstacula partus.\nNam, quia nascendi nullus patet exitus, alvus\nFetibus in lucem nitentibus excruciata\nCarpitur, atque viam lacerata per ilia pandit.\nTandem obitu altricis prodit grex ille dolorum,","t":"had varied his offspring with sad and with dutiful sons,\nso that Absalom, Solomon’s brother, sowed his crimes\namong righteous children and troubled a sweet house with bitter things.\nSo there is nothing worthy of Solomon: degenerate Absalom\nalone fills us, tearing the dutiful vitals with the sword.\nIf one may take anything from pagan writers, or\nsome example from the natural philosophers: so the viper, they say,\ndies by the teeth of the offspring poured through her vitals.\nThe mother is fertile by her own death, not by her sex, nor is her womb\nswollen from intercourse; but when she grows hot, stirred\nby female fire, she thirsts obscenely with gaping mouth\nfor her husband, who is about to die; he thrusts his three-tongued head\ninto his mate’s throat and, burning, enters her kisses,\ninstilling the begetting poison by union of the mouth.\nThe bride, wounded by the force of pleasure, bites\nand breaks her lover’s throat as he drinks, amid their caressing pact,\nand drinks the poured-in spittle as her mate perishes.\nBy these allurements the father is consumed; but the shut-in brood\nkills the mother: for when, the seed grown,\nthe little bodies begin to creep in their warm hiding place\nand, wriggling, strike the stirring womb,\nthe mother burns with the inward crime against natural love\nand, aware of her condemned sex, groans over her offspring as an executioner,\nbreaking through the barriers of the enclosed birth.\nFor since no outlet for birth lies open, the belly,\ntortured by the young straining toward the light,\nis torn, and opens a way through her lacerated flanks.\nAt last, by the death of the one who nourished it, that brood of sorrows comes forth,","f":"Prudentius, <i>Ham.</i> 1.571 (Lanfranchi 2:lines 571–600; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/prudentius-hamartigenia/1-571)."},"prudentius-hamartigenia/1.601":{"o":"Ingressum vitae vix eluctatus, et ortum\nPer scelus exsculpens. Lambunt natale cadaver\nReptantes catuli, proles dum nascitur, orba,\nHaud experta diem, miserae nisi postuma matris.\nNon dispar nostrae conceptus mentis: ab ore\nVipereo infusum sic combibit illa venenum\nConiuge Beliade: sic oscula devorat haustu,\nInteriusque rapit; sic felle libidinis ardens\nImpletur vitiis, perituro mixta marito.\nTunc praegnans letale genus, concepta maligni\nFert opera ingenii, de semine complicis hydri;\nQuem poenis pensare prius sua facta necesse est\nCorruptae pro stupro animae, proque orbe perempto.\nIpsam porro animam crudelia vulnera carpunt\nMille puerperiis, soboles dum parturit ex se\nContra naturam genitas, peccamina crebra\nScilicet, et pastos materno funere natos.\nHinc illa est Domini iusta obiurgatio Christi:\nNonne pater daemon, vos increpo, peccatores,\nConcubitu carnis, semen sitientis iniquum,\nVos genuit? Sanctum, lector, percense Volumen:\nQuod loquor, invenies Dominum dixisse profanis\nVera obiectantem mortalibus: ex Patre nam vos\nEsse meo genitos pietas, ait, ipsa probaret,\nAc pietatis opus. Proh caeca libido! quid hoc est?\nQuod cum se thalamis desponsam mens bona iustis\nNoverit, inque torum Regis nuptura vocetur,\nEt Regis semper iuvenis, senioque repulso\nDivinum decus aeterno servantis in ore,\nMalit adulterium, fulvo et se munere vilem","t":"having barely struggled its way into life, carving out its birth\nthrough a crime. The crawling young lick the corpse that gave them birth,\nan orphaned brood even as it is born,\nnever having known the day except as posthumous children of their wretched mother.\nThe conception of our mind is not unlike this: so it drinks in\nthe poison poured from the viper’s mouth\nby its husband, the son of Belial; so it devours his kisses in a draught\nand seizes them deeper within; so, burning with the gall of lust,\nit is filled with vices, mingled with a husband doomed to die.\nThen, pregnant with a deadly brood, it bears the conceived works\nof a malignant mind, from the seed of its accomplice serpent;\nwhose deeds must first be paid for with punishments,\nfor the defilement of the corrupted soul and for the world destroyed.\nThen cruel wounds tear the soul itself\nin a thousand births, while it brings forth from itself offspring\nbegotten against nature, that is, frequent sins,\nchildren fed on their mother’s death.\nHence that just rebuke of Christ the Lord:\n“Did not the devil, your father, I rebuke you, sinners,\nthirsting for wicked seed through union with the flesh,\nbeget you?” Read through the holy Book, reader:\nyou will find that what I say the Lord said to profane mortals,\ncasting true charges in their teeth: “For love itself,” he says,\n“and the work of love would prove that you were begotten of my Father.”\nO blind lust! What is this?\nThat when the good mind knows that she is betrothed to a lawful\nmarriage, and is called to wed the bed of the King,\nof the King who is ever young, who drives away old age\nand keeps divine beauty in his eternal face,\nshe should prefer adultery, and sell herself cheaply for a tawny gift","f":"Prudentius, <i>Ham.</i> 1.601 (Lanfranchi 2:lines 601–630; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/prudentius-hamartigenia/1-601)."},"prudentius-hamartigenia/1.61":{"o":"Incubat ingenio, cui per phantasmata duplex\nSi vim mentis hebes stupor obsidet, adspice saltem\nObvia terrenis oculis elementa, quibus se\nRes occulta Dei dignata est prodere signis.\nHanc haeresin praesaga Patris praeviderat olim\nScinderet in partes, geminatum segrege regno.\nIccirco specimen posuit spectabile nostris\nExemplumque oculis, ne quis duo numina credat\nImperitare vagis mundi per inania formis.\nUna per immensam caeli caveam revolutos\nPraebet flamma dies: texit sol unicus annum.\nTriplex ille tamen nullo discrimine trina\nSubnixus ratione viget, splendet, volat, ardet,\nMotu agitur, fervore cremat, tum lumine fulget.\nSunt tria nempe simul, lux, et calor, et vegetamen;\nUna eademque tamen rota sideris indiscretis\nFungitur his, uno servat tot munera ductu,\nEt tribus una subest mixtim substantia rebus.\nNon conferre Deo, velut aequiparabile, quidquam\nAusim, nec Domino famulum componere signum:\nEx minimis sed grande suum voluit Pater ipse\nConiectare homines, quibus ardua visere non est.\nParvorum speculo non intellecta notamus,\nEt datur occultum per proxima quaerere verum.\nNemo duos soles, nisi sub glaucomate, vidit:\nAut si fusca polum suffudit palla serenum,\nOppositus quoties radiorum spicula nimbus\nIgne repercusso mentitos spargit in orbes.\nSunt animis etiam sua nubila, crassus et aer;","t":"wit, so that through phantoms [you see God as] double?\nIf dull stupor besets the strength of your mind, look at least\nat the elements that meet earthly eyes, signs\nby which the hidden reality of God has deigned to show itself.\nThe Father’s foreknowledge long ago foresaw this heresy\n[of one who] would split [God] into parts, doubling him into a separate kingdom.\nTherefore he set a visible pattern\nand example before our eyes, so that no one should believe that two divine powers\nrule over the shifting forms through the void of the world.\nOne flame, through the immense vault of heaven,\nbrings round the revolving days; one sun weaves the year.\nYet that sun, threefold without division, flourishes,\nresting on a threefold principle: it shines, it flies, it burns;\nit is driven by motion, consumes with heat, and gleams with light.\nThere are three things together: light, heat, and quickening force;\nyet one and the same wheel of the star performs these\nundivided, keeps so many offices in one course,\nand one substance underlies the three things, blended.\nI would not dare to compare anything to God as if it were his equal,\nnor to set a servant sign beside the Lord;\nbut the Father himself willed that humans, who cannot see high things,\nshould infer his greatness from the smallest things.\nIn the mirror of small things we mark what is not understood,\nand it is granted to seek the hidden truth through what is near.\nNo one has seen two suns except with glaucoma,\nor when a dark mantle has overspread the clear sky,\nwhenever a cloud set against the darts of the rays\nscatters them, the fire reflected, into false orbs.\nMinds too have their own clouds and thick air;","f":"Prudentius, <i>Ham.</i> 1.61 (Lanfranchi 2:lines 61–90; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/prudentius-hamartigenia/1-61)."},"prudentius-hamartigenia/1.631":{"o":"Vendat nocticolae spurcis complexibus Indi,\nAspernata Dei fusam per virginis artus\nProgeniem, dulcesque vocans in fornice natos?\nSentio quam contra moveat pellacia litem,\nQuo dente obnitens spinosa calumnia pugnet.\nSi non vult Deus esse malum, cur non vetat? inquit.\nNil refert, auctor fuerit, factorque malorum,\nAn opera in vitium sceleris pulcherrima verti,\nCum possit prohibere, sinat; quod si velit omnes\nInnocuos agere Omnipotens, nec sancta voluntas\nDegeneret, facto nec se manus inquinet ullo.\nCondidit ergo malum Dominus, quod spectat ab alto,\nEt patitur, fierique probat, tamquam ipse crearit.\nIpse creavit enim, quod cum discludere possit,\nNon abolet, longoque sinit grassarier usu.\nDamna aures, Pater alme, meas, et claude meatus\nObbrutescentis capitis, ne pervia tales\nConcipiat flexura sonos: est perdere tanti\nExstinctum vitae officium de parte cerebri.\nImmunem modo sese anima, expertemque nefandi\nAuditus, felix stolida conservet ab aure.\nQuis ferat haec iniecta Deo convicia, qui se\nDivinis meminit praecellere nobilitatum\nMuneribus? multa ut taceam, vel sola benignum\nExcitat e tumulis homines, regnique per aevum\nParticipes iubet esse sui: qui si foret auctor,\nServatorque mali, numquam post damna salutis,\nPeccantumque obitus, redivivam ferre medelam\nLabi hominis, servare Dei est: meritis perit iste:","t":"to the filthy embraces of a night-dwelling Indian,\nscorning the offspring of God poured through the limbs of a virgin,\nand calling the children of the brothel sweet?\nI perceive what suit seductive deceit raises against this,\nwith what tooth thorny slander strains to fight.\n“If God does not want evil to be,” it says, “why does he not forbid it?\nIt makes no difference whether he was the author and maker of evils,\nor whether he allows his most beautiful works to be turned into the vice of crime\nwhen he could prevent it. If the Almighty wished that all\nshould live innocently, no holy will would\ndegenerate, nor would any hand defile itself by any deed.\nSo the Lord created evil, which he watches from on high,\nand permits, and approves its being done, as if he himself had created it.\nFor he did create it, since, though he could shut it out,\nhe does not abolish it, and lets it rampage in long practice.”\nCondemn my ears, kind Father, and close the passages\nof my head, gone dull, so that its open winding\nmay not take in such sounds: it is worth losing so much,\nthe office of life extinguished in a part of the brain.\nOnly let the soul keep itself free and without share\nin impious hearing, happy with a dull ear.\nWho could bear these insults hurled at God, who remembers\nthat he excels, ennobled by divine gifts?\nTo say nothing of many things, this alone [shows him] kind:\nhe raises men from their tombs and bids them share\nin his kingdom for ever. If he were the author\nand preserver of evil, never, after salvation was lost\nand sinners had died, [would he have willed] to bring a life-restoring remedy.\nThe fall is man’s; to save is God’s: this one perishes by his deserts;","f":"Prudentius, <i>Ham.</i> 1.631 (Lanfranchi 2:lines 631–660; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/prudentius-hamartigenia/1-631)."},"prudentius-hamartigenia/1.661":{"o":"Ille abolet pereuntis opus, meritumque resolvit.\nArgumentum ingens, Dominum, qui talia praestet,\nNolle malum, nec, quod post abluit, ante probare.\nInvitone aliquis potis est peccare Tonante,\nCui facile est in corde hominis componere sensus,\nQuos libeat, fibrasque omnes animare pudicis\nPulsibus, et totum venis infundere honestum?\nNescis, stulte, tuae vim libertatis ab ipso\nFormatore datam? nescis ab origine quanta\nSit concessa tibi famulo super orbe potestas,\nEt super ingenio proprio, laxaeque soluto\nIure voluntatis: liceat cui velle, sequique\nQuod placitum, nullique animum subiungere vinclo?\nAn cum te dominum cunctis quaecumque crearat\nPraeficeret, mundumque tuis servire iuberet\nImperiis; cumque arva, polum, mare, flumina, ventos\nDederet, arbitrium de te tibi credere avarus\nNollet, ut indigno, libertatemque negaret?\nQuale erat, electus magni rex orbis ut esset,\nNon rex ipse sui, curto foedatus honore?\nNam quis honos domini est, cuius mens libera non est,\nUna sed impositae servit sententia legi?\nQuae laus porro hominis, vel quod meritum, sine certo\nInter utramque viam discrimine vivere iuste?\nNon fit sponte bonus, cui non est promta potestas\nVelle aliud, flexosque animi convertere sensus.\nAtqui nec bonus est, nec conlaudabilis ille,\nQui non sponte bonus: quoniam probitate coacta\nGloria nulla venit, sordetque ingloria virtus.\nNec tamen est virtus, ni deteriora refutans\nEmicet, et meliore viam petat indole rectam.","t":"he abolishes the work of the one who perishes and cancels his deserts.\nIt is a great proof that the Lord, who grants such things,\ndoes not want evil, nor approves beforehand what he afterward washes away.\n“Can anyone sin against the will of the Thunderer,\nfor whom it is easy to arrange in the heart of man the feelings\nhe pleases, to quicken all its fibers with chaste\nimpulses, and to pour all that is honorable into its veins?”\nDo you not know, fool, that the force of your freedom was given\nby the Maker himself? Do you not know how great a power\nwas granted you from the beginning over a world that serves you,\nand over your own mind, and by the unbound right\nof a free will: you, who may will, and follow\nwhat you please, and bind your mind to no chain?\nOr, when he set you as lord over all that he had created\nand ordered the world to serve your commands,\nand when he handed over the fields, the sky, the sea, the rivers, the winds,\nwould he grudgingly refuse to entrust you with the decision about yourself,\nas one unworthy, and deny you freedom?\nWhat would it have been, to be chosen king of the great world\nand not king of oneself, disgraced by a curtailed honor?\nFor what honor has a lord whose mind is not free,\nbut serves one decision of an imposed law?\nAnd what praise is there for a man, or what merit, in living justly\nwithout a real choice between the two ways?\nNo one becomes good of his own accord who has no ready power\nto will otherwise and to turn the bent feelings of his mind.\nYet he is neither good nor praiseworthy\nwho is not good of his own accord; for from forced uprightness\nno glory comes, and inglorious virtue is worthless.\nNor is it virtue, unless it shines out by refusing the worse\nand seeks the right way with a better disposition.","f":"Prudentius, <i>Ham.</i> 1.661 (Lanfranchi 2:lines 661–690; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/prudentius-hamartigenia/1-661)."},"prudentius-hamartigenia/1.691":{"o":"Vade, ait ipse Parens, opifexque et conditor Adae;\nVade, homo, et adflatu nostri praenobilis oris,\nInsubiecte, potens, rerum arbiter, arbiter idem\nEt iudex mentis propriae: mihi subdere soli\nSponte tua, quo sit subiectio et ipsa soluto\nLibera iudicio. Non cogo, nec exigo per vim,\nSed moneo iniustum fugias, iustumque sequaris.\nLux comes est iusti: comes est mors horrida iniqui.\nElige rem vitae; tua virtus temet in aevum\nProvehat, aeternum damnet tua culpa vicissim.\nPraestet et alterutram permissa licentia sortem.\nHac pietate vagus, et tanto munere abundans,\nTransit propositum fas, et letalia prudens\nEligit, atque volens illud magis utile retur,\nQuod, prohibente Deo, persuasit callidus anguis.\nPersuasit certe hortatu, non impulit acri\nImperio. Hoc mulier rea criminis exprobranti\nRespondit Domino: suadelis se malefabris\nInlectam suasisse viro: vir et ipse libenter\nConsensit. Licuitne hortantem spernere recti\nLibertate animi? Licuit; namque et Deus ante\nSuaserat, ut meliora volens sequeretur; at ille\nSpernens consilium, saevo plus credidit hosti.\nNunc inter vitae dominum, mortisque magistrum\nConsistit medius: vocat hinc Deus, inde tyrannus\nAmbiguum, atque suis se motibus alternantem.\nAccipe gestarum monumenta insignia rerum,\nPraelusit quibus historia spectabile signum.\nLoth fugiens Sodomis ardentibus omnia secum\nPignora cara domus properabat, sede relicta,","t":"“Go,” said the Parent himself, the maker and founder of Adam;\n“go, man, most noble by the breath of our mouth,\nsubject to none, powerful, arbiter of things, and likewise arbiter\nand judge of your own mind: submit to me alone\nof your own will, so that your very submission may be free,\nwith judgment unbound. I do not compel, nor demand by force,\nbut I warn you to flee the unjust and follow the just.\nLight is the companion of the just; dreadful death is the companion of the unjust.\nChoose the way of life; let your virtue carry you on\nfor ever, or in turn let your guilt condemn you eternally.\nLet the freedom granted you bring about one lot or the other.”\nFree by this kindness, and abounding in so great a gift,\nhe passes beyond the right set before him and knowingly\nchooses deadly things, and willingly thinks more useful\nwhat the cunning serpent persuaded, though God forbade it.\nHe persuaded, certainly, by urging, not drove by harsh\ncommand. This the woman, guilty of the crime, answered\nto the Lord when he reproached her: that, enticed by ill-working\npersuasion, she persuaded her husband; and the husband himself\ngladly consented. Was it allowed him to spurn the tempter\nby the freedom of an upright mind? It was; for God too had\nurged him before to will the better and follow it; but he,\nspurning the counsel, put more trust in the cruel enemy.\nNow he stands in the middle between the Lord of life\nand the master of death: God calls him from this side, the tyrant from that,\nas he wavers and swings to and fro with his own impulses.\nHear the notable records of things done,\nby which history foreshadowed a visible sign.\nLot, fleeing as Sodom burned, was hurrying,\nhis home abandoned, to take with him all the dear pledges of his house,","f":"Prudentius, <i>Ham.</i> 1.691 (Lanfranchi 2:lines 691–720; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/prudentius-hamartigenia/1-691)."},"prudentius-hamartigenia/1.721":{"o":"Nubibus urbicremis subducere, sulphure cum iam\nNimboso ignitus caelum subtexeret aer.\nAngelus hanc hospes legem praescripserat illis,\nEmissus virtute Dei sub imagine dupla:\nOmnis ut e portis iret domus, atque in apertum\nDirigeret constans oculos, nec pone reflexo\nLumine regnantes per moenia cerneret ignes.\nNemo memor Sodomae, quae mundi forma cremandi est,\nUt semel e muris gressum promoverit, ore\nPost tergum verso, respectet funera rerum.\nLoth monitis sapiens obtemperat, at levis uxor\nMobilitate animi torsit muliebre retrorsus\nIngenium, Sodomisque suis revocabilis haesit.\nTraxerat Eva virum dirae ad consortia culpae:\nHaec peccans sibi sola perit, solidata metallo\nDiriguit fragili, saxumque liquabile facta.\nStat mulier, sicut steterat prius, omnia servans\nCaute sigillati longum salis effigiata,\nEt decus, et cultum, frontemque, oculosque, comamque,\nEt flexam in tergum faciem, paullumque relata\nMenta retro, antiquae monumenta rigentia noxae.\nLiquitur illa quidem salsis sudoribus uda;\nSed nulla ex fluido plenae dispendia formae\nSentit deliquio: quantumque armenta saporum\nAttenuant saxum, tantum lambentibus humor\nSufficit, attritamque cutem per damna reformat.\nHoc meruit titulo peccatrix femina sisti,\nInfirmum fluidumque animum per lubrica solvens\nConsilia, et fragilis iussa ad caelestia voti.","t":"out of the city-burning clouds, when the air, set on fire,\nwas already weaving the sky beneath with stormy sulphur.\nThe angel guest, sent by the power of God\nin double likeness, had prescribed this law for them:\nthat the whole household should go out from the gates, keep its eyes\nfixed steadily on the open country, and not, turning its gaze behind,\nlook at the fires reigning through the walls.\nLet no one, remembering Sodom, which is the figure of the world that is to be burned,\nonce he has stepped out of its walls, turn his face\nbehind him and look back at the funeral of things.\nLot wisely obeys the warnings; but his fickle wife,\nwith her shifting mind, twisted her womanish\ndisposition backward and clung, recalled, to her Sodom.\nEve had drawn her husband into partnership in dreadful guilt;\nthis woman, sinning, perishes alone: hardened into a brittle\nmineral, she stiffened and became a stone that melts.\nThe woman stands as she had stood before, keeping everything,\nshaped in a crag of moulded salt for long ages:\nher grace and her dress, her brow, her eyes, her hair,\nher face turned backward, and her chin drawn\nback a little, stiffened records of the ancient guilt.\nShe does indeed melt, wet with salty sweat,\nbut she feels no loss of her full form\nfrom the flowing moisture: as much as the herds, eager for the savor,\nwear down the stone, so much moisture is supplied to those who lick,\nand it restores her worn skin through its losses.\nBy this title the sinful woman deserved to be set up,\nloosening her weak and fluid mind through slippery\ncounsels, and through a vow fragile toward the heavenly commands.","f":"Prudentius, <i>Ham.</i> 1.721 (Lanfranchi 2:lines 721–750; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/prudentius-hamartigenia/1-721)."},"prudentius-hamartigenia/1.751":{"o":"Propositum contra non commutabile servat\nLoth ingressus iter, nec moenia respicit, alto\nIn cinerem conlapsa rogo, populumque perustum,\nEt mores populi, tabularia, iura, forumque,\nBalnea, propolas, meritoria, templa, theatra,\nEt circum cum plebe sua, madidasque popinas.\nQuidquid agunt homines, Sodomorum incendia iustis\nIgnibus involvunt, et, Christo iudice, damnant.\nHaec fugisse semel satis est; non respicit ultra\nLoth noster; fragilis sed coniux respicit, et, quae\nFugerat, inverso mutabilis ore revisit,\nAtque inter patrias perstat durata favillas.\nEn tibi signatum libertatis documentum:\nQuo voluit nos scire Deus, quodcumque sequendum est,\nSub nostra ditione situm, passimque remissum\nAlterutram calcare viam. Duo cedere iussi\nDe Sodomis, alter se proripit, altera mussat.\nIlle gradum celerat fugiens, contra illa renutat.\nLiber utrique animus, sed dispar utrique voluntas.\nDividit huc illuc rapiens sua quemque libido.\nTalem multa Sacris speciem notat orbita Libris.\nAdspice Ruth gentis Moabitidis, et simul Orphan.\nIlla socrum Noemin fido comitatur amore,\nDeserit haec: atquin thalamis et lege iugali\nExutae, Hebraeisque toris, sacrisque vacantes,\nIure fruebantur proprio. Sed pristinus Orphae\nFanorum ritus praeputia barbara suasit\nMalle, et semiferi stirpem nutrire Goliae.\nRuth, dum per stipulas agresti amburitur aestu,\nFulcra Booz meruit, castoque adscita cubili","t":"Lot, on the other hand, keeps his purpose unchanged\nonce he has set out, and does not look back at the walls\ncollapsed into ash on the high pyre, nor at the burnt-up people,\nthe people’s ways, their record-offices, laws, and forum,\nbaths, hucksters, brothels, temples, theatres,\nthe circus with its crowd, and the reeking taverns.\nWhatever men do, the burning of Sodom wraps\nin just fires and condemns, with Christ as judge.\nIt is enough to have fled these things once; our Lot\nlooks back no more; but his fragile wife looks back, and,\nchangeable, revisits with turned face what she had fled,\nand stands hardened among her native ashes.\nHere is a sealed proof of freedom for you,\nby which God willed us to know that whatever is to be followed\nlies within our own control, and that leave is given to everyone\nto tread one way or the other. Two were ordered to depart\nfrom Sodom; one hurries away, the other mutters.\nHe quickens his step in flight; she, on the contrary, refuses.\nBoth had a free mind, but each a different will.\nEach one’s own desire divides them, seizing them this way and that.\nMany a track in the Sacred Books marks such a pattern.\nLook at Ruth, of the Moabite nation, and Orpah with her.\nThe one accompanies her mother-in-law Naomi with faithful love;\nthe other deserts her. Yet both, released from their marriages\nand the law of wedlock, free of their Hebrew beds and their rites,\nenjoyed their own right. But Orpah’s old\nrite of the shrines persuaded her to prefer barbarian foreskins\nand to nurse the stock of the half-savage Goliath.\nRuth, while she is scorched by the field’s heat among the stubble,\nwon the couch of Boaz and, taken into a chaste bed,","f":"Prudentius, <i>Ham.</i> 1.751 (Lanfranchi 2:lines 751–780; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/prudentius-hamartigenia/1-751)."},"prudentius-hamartigenia/1.781":{"o":"Christigenam fecunda domum, Davidica regna\nEdidit, atque Deo mortales miscuit ortus.\nSaepe egomet memini fratres geminos ad hiulcum\nPervenisse simul bivium, nutante iuventa,\nEt dubitasse diu bifido sub tramite, quodnam\nEsset iter melius: cum dextrum spinea silva\nSentibus artaret, scrupulosaque semita longe\nDuceret aerium clivoso margine callem;\nAt laevum nemus umbriferum per amoena vireta\nDitibus ornaret pomis, et lene iacentem\nPlanicies daret ampla viam: squalentibus unum\nContentum spinis reptasse per ardua saxa;\nPorro alium campo sese indulsisse sinistro;\nIllum sidereis caput immiscere propinquis,\nHunc in caenosas subito cessisse paludes.\nOmnibus una subest natura, sed exitus omnes\nNon unus peragit, placitorum segrege forma.\nHaud secus ac si olim per sudum lactea forte\nLapsa columbarum nubes descendat in arvum\nRuris frugiferi, laqueos ubi callidus auceps\nPraetendit, lentoque inlevit vimina visco,\nSparsit et insidias siliquis vel farre doloso:\nInliciunt alias fallentia grana, gulamque\nInnectunt avidam tortae retinacula saetae,\nMolle vel implicitas gluten circumligat alas:\nAst aliae, quas nullus amor prolectat edendi,\nGressibus innocuis sterili spatiantur in herba,\nSuspectamque cavent oculos convertere ad escam.\nMox ubi iam caelo revolandum, pars petit aethram","t":"fruitful, she brought forth the house from which Christ was born, the kingdom of David,\nand joined mortal birth with God.\nI myself remember how often twin brothers, in wavering youth,\ncame together to a gaping fork in the road\nand long hesitated at the forked path which\nwas the better way: since on the right a thorny wood\nnarrowed the way with brambles, and a rough path led far\nup a lofty track along a steep edge;\nbut on the left a shady grove, through pleasant greenery,\nwas adorned with rich fruit, and a broad plain\noffered a gently lying road: the one, content\nwith the rough thorns, crept up through steep rocks;\nthe other indulged himself in the field on the left;\nthe one mingled his head with the stars nearby,\nthe other suddenly sank into muddy marshes.\nAll have one nature beneath, but not all\ncome to one end, since the forms of their choices are apart.\nJust as when a milk-white cloud of doves, gliding through\nthe clear sky, comes down perhaps onto the field\nof a fruitful farm, where a cunning fowler\nhas stretched snares and smeared the twigs with sticky lime,\nand laid his ambush with pods or deceitful grain:\nthe deceiving grains lure some, and the bonds of twisted\nhorsehair entangle their greedy throats,\nor the soft glue binds their entangled wings;\nbut others, whom no love of eating entices,\nwalk about with harmless steps in the barren grass\nand take care not to turn their eyes to the suspect bait.\nSoon, when it is time to fly back to the sky, some make for the starry","f":"Prudentius, <i>Ham.</i> 1.781 (Lanfranchi 2:lines 781–810; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/prudentius-hamartigenia/1-781)."},"prudentius-hamartigenia/1.811":{"o":"Libera sideream, plaudens super aera pennis;\nPars captiva iacet, laceris et saucia plumis\nPugnat humi, et volucres nequidquam suspicit auras.\nSic animas caeli de fontibus unicolores\nInfundit natura solo; sed suavibus istic\nDevinctae inlecebris retinentur, et aethera paucae\nConscendunt reduces: multas viscosus inescat\nPastus, et ad superas percurrere non sinit auras.\nPraescius inde Pater liventia tartara plumbo\nIncendit liquido, piceasque bitumine fossas\nInfernalis aquae furvo suffodit Averno,\nEt Phlegethontaeo sub gurgite sanxit edaces\nPerpetuis scelerum poenis inolescere vermes.\nNorat enim flatu ex proprio vegetamen inesse\nCorporibus nostris, animamque ex ore perenni\nFormatam non posse mori, non posse vicissim\nPollutam vitiis sursum ad convexa reverti,\nMersandam penitus puteo ferventis abyssi.\nVermibus et flammis et discruciatibus aevum\nImmortale dedit, senio ne poena periret\nNon pereunte anima. Carpunt tormenta, foventque\nMateriam sine fine datam: mors deserit ipsa\nAeternos gemitus, et flentes vivere cogit.\nAt diversa procul regionibus in Paradisi\nPraemia constituit maiestas gnara futuri\nSpiritibus puris, et ab omni labe remotis:\nQuique Gomorraeas non respexere ruinas,\nAversis sed rite oculis post terga tenebras\nLiquerunt miseri properanda pericula mundi.\nAc primum facili referuntur ad astra volatu,","t":"heaven, free, clapping their wings above the air;\nsome lie captive and, wounded, their feathers torn,\nstruggle on the ground and look up in vain at the flying breezes.\nSo nature pours souls of one color, from the fountains of heaven,\nonto the earth; but there, bound by sweet\nallurements, they are held fast, and few climb back\nto the upper air; a sticky bait ensnares many\nand does not let them run through to the higher breezes.\nSo the foreknowing Father set gloomy Tartarus on fire\nwith molten lead, and dug pitch-black trenches\nof infernal water, thick with bitumen, beneath dark Avernus,\nand decreed that in the gulf of Phlegethon devouring worms\nshould breed for the everlasting punishment of crimes.\nFor he knew that a quickening force from his own breath was in\nour bodies, and that the soul, formed from his everlasting mouth,\ncannot die, nor, on the other hand,\ndefiled by vices, return upward to the vault of heaven,\nbut must be plunged deep into the pit of the boiling abyss.\nTo the worms and flames and torments he gave\nan immortal age, so that the punishment should not perish with age\nwhile the soul does not perish. The torments consume and keep alive\nthe matter given them without end: death itself forsakes\nthe eternal groans and forces the weeping to live.\nBut in far different regions of Paradise\nthe Majesty that knows the future has set rewards\nfor pure spirits, removed from every stain:\nthose who did not look back at the ruins of Gomorrah,\nbut, their eyes rightly turned away, left behind them\nthe darkness, the wretched dangers of a world to be fled.\nAnd first they are borne back with easy flight to the stars,","f":"Prudentius, <i>Ham.</i> 1.811 (Lanfranchi 2:lines 811–840; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/prudentius-hamartigenia/1-811)."},"prudentius-hamartigenia/1.841":{"o":"Unde fluens anima structum vegetaverat Adam.\nNam, quia naturam tenuem declivia vitae\nPondera non reprimunt, nec tardat ferrea compes,\nConcretum celeri relegens secat aera lapsu,\nExsuperatque polum fervens scintilla remensum,\nCarcereos exosa situs, quibus haeserat exsul.\nTunc postliminio redeuntem suscipit alto\nCana Fides gremio, tenerisque oblectat alumnam\nDeliciis, multos post diversoria carnis\nOre renarrantem querulo, quos passa, labores.\nIllic purpureo latus exporrecta cubili\nFloribus aeternis spirantes libat odores,\nAmbrosiumque bibit roseo de stramine rorem.\nDitibus, et longo fumantibus intervallo,\nFluminaque, et totos caeli sitientibus imbres,\nImplorata negat digitum insertare palato,\nFlammarumque apices umenti exstinguere tactu.\nNec mirere locis longe distantibus inter\nDamnatas iustasque animas concurrere visus\nConspicuos, meritasque vices per magna notari\nIntervalla, polus medio quae dividit orbe.\nErrat, quisque animas nostrorum fine oculorum\nAestimat; involvit vitreo quos lucida palla\nObice: quis speculum concreta coagula texunt,\nImpediuntque vagas obducto humore fenestras.\nNumne animarum oculis denso vegetamine guttae\nVolvuntur teretes? aut palpebralibus extra\nHorrescunt saetis, ciliove umbrante teguntur?\nIllis viva acies, nec pupula parva, sed ignis\nTraiector nebulae, vasti et penetrator operti est.","t":"from where the soul, flowing out, had quickened Adam when he was fashioned.\nFor since the downward weights of life do not hold back\nits fine nature, nor an iron fetter slow it,\nit cleaves the dense air, retracing its way in swift flight,\nand the burning spark rises above the sky, measuring its way back,\nhating the prison where it had clung as an exile.\nThen, as it returns home by right of recovery, hoary Faith\ntakes it into her high bosom and delights her nursling\nwith tender pleasures, as, after its lodging in the flesh,\nit recounts with plaintive voice the many labors it has suffered.\nThere, stretched at its ease on a purple couch,\nit sips the breathing scents of everlasting flowers\nand drinks ambrosial dew from a bed of roses.\nTo the rich, smoking at a long distance\nand thirsting for rivers and all the rains of heaven,\nit refuses, when implored, to put a finger to their palate\nand to quench the tips of the flames with a moist touch.\nDo not wonder that, in places far apart, the sight\nof condemned and of righteous souls meets in clear view,\nand that their deserved lots are observed across the great\ndistances which the vault divides in the middle of the world.\nHe errs who judges souls by the limits of our eyes,\nwhich a bright mantle wraps with a glassy barrier,\nwhose mirror is woven of congealed humors,\nand which hinder the roving windows with a film of moisture.\nDo round drops of thick quickening fluid roll\nin the eyes of souls? or do they bristle outside\nwith eyelid hairs, or are they covered by a shading lash?\nTheirs is a living sight, not a small pupil, but a fire\nthat passes through the mist and pierces the vast unseen.","f":"Prudentius, <i>Ham.</i> 1.841 (Lanfranchi 2:lines 841–870; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/prudentius-hamartigenia/1-841)."},"prudentius-hamartigenia/1.871":{"o":"Nil ferrugineum solidumve mentibus obstat;\nNocturnae cedunt nebulae, nigrantia cedunt\nNubila, praetenti cedit teres area mundi.\nNec tantum aerios visu transmittit hiatus\nSpiritus, oppositos sed transit lumine montes,\nOceani fines atque ultima litora Thulae\nTransadigit, volucresque oculos in Tartara mittit.\nNostris nempe omnes pereunt sub nocte colores\nVisibus, et caeco delentur tempore formae.\nNumquid et exuti membris ac viscere perdunt\nAgnitione notas rerum, vel gressibus errant?\nUna animas semper facies habet, et color unus\nAeris, ut cuique est meritorum summa, sinistri\nSeu dextri; alternas nec commutabile tempus\nConvertit, variatque vices: longum atque perenne est\nQuidquid id est: unus volvit sua saecula cursus.\nExpertus dubitas animas percurrere visa\nAbdita corporeis oculis, cum saepe quietis\nRore soporatis cernat mens viva remotos\nDistantesque locos, aciem per rura, per astra,\nPer maria intendens? nec enim se segregat ipsa\nAnte obitum vivis ex artubus, aut fugit exsul\nSanguinis et carnis penetralia, seque medullis\nExuit, abductamve abigit de pectore vitam,\nViscerea sed sede manens, speculatur acutis\nOmnia luminibus: et qua circumtulit acrem\nNaturae levis intuitum, nullo obice rerum\nDisclusa, ante oculos subiectum prospicit orbem,\nAtque orbis sub mole situm sordens elementum.\nObiacet interea tellus, nec visibus obstat.","t":"Nothing rusty or solid stands in the way of minds;\nthe mists of night give way, the blackening clouds\ngive way, the round expanse of the world stretched before them gives way.\nNor does the spirit send its sight only through the gaps\nof the air; it passes with its light through mountains set against it,\npierces the bounds of Ocean and the farthest shores of Thule,\nand sends its flying eyes into Tartarus.\nFor our sight, all colors perish at night,\nand forms are blotted out in the blind time.\nDo they too, stripped of limbs and flesh, lose\nthe marks of things from recognition, or wander in their steps?\nSouls always have one face, and one color\nof the air, according to each one’s sum of deserts, on the left\nor on the right; nor does changeable time\nturn and vary their alternate lots: long and everlasting\nis whatever it is; one course rolls on its ages.\nDo you, who have experienced it, doubt that souls survey things\nhidden from bodily eyes, when often, drowsed by the dew\nof rest, the living mind sees remote and distant\nplaces, directing its gaze through fields, through stars,\nthrough seas? For it does not separate itself\nfrom the living limbs before death, nor flee as an exile\nfrom the inner chambers of blood and flesh, strip itself\nof the marrow, or drive away the life withdrawn from the breast;\nbut, staying in its seat in the flesh, it surveys all things\nwith sharp eyes; and wherever it has turned the keen\ngaze of its light nature, shut in by no barrier of things,\nit looks out before its eyes on the world beneath,\nand on the foul element that lies under the world’s mass.\nMeanwhile the earth lies in the way, yet does not block its sight.","f":"Prudentius, <i>Ham.</i> 1.871 (Lanfranchi 2:lines 871–900; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/prudentius-hamartigenia/1-871)."},"prudentius-hamartigenia/1.901":{"o":"Quin si stelligerum vultus convertat ad axem,\nNil intercurrens obtutibus impedit ignem\nPervigilis animae, quamvis denseta graventur\nNubila, et opposito nigrescat vellere caelum.\nSic arcana videt tacitis cooperta futuris,\nCorporeus Iohannes adhuc, nec carne solutus,\nMunere sed somni, paulisper carne sequestra,\nLiber ad intuitum, sensuque oculisque peragrans\nOrdine dispositos venturis solibus annos,\nProcinctum videt angelicum, iam iamque cremandi\nOrbis in excidium, raucos et percipit aure\nMugitus gravium mundi sub fine tubarum.\nHaec ille ante obitum, membrorum carcere soptus,\nSecedente anima, non discedente videbat.\nNonne magis flatus sine corpore cuncta notabit,\nCorporis involucris tumulo frigente repostis?\nCerta fides, rapidos sub terna nocte caminos,\nQui pollutam animam per saecula longa perenni\nIgne coquunt, oculis longum per inane remoti\nPauperis expositos; nec secius aurea dona\nIustorum, dirimente chao, rutilasque coronas\nEminus ostendi poenarum carcere mersis.\nHinc Paradisicolae post ulcera dira beato\nProditur infelix, ululans in peste reatus,\nSpiritus; inque vicem meritorum mutua cernunt.\nO Dee cunctiparens, animae dator, o Dee Christe,\nCuius ab ore Deus subsistit Spiritus unus:\nTe moderante regor, te vitam principe duco,\nIudice te pallens trepido, te iudice eodem\nSpem capio, fore, quidquid ago, veniabile apud te,","t":"Indeed, if it turns its face toward the star-bearing heavens,\nnothing coming between its gazes hinders the fire\nof the ever-watchful soul, though the clouds are heavy\nand thick and the sky blackens with a fleece set against it.\nSo John, still in the body and not released from the flesh,\nsees secrets covered by the silent future;\nbut, by the gift of sleep, with the flesh set aside for a while,\nfree to behold, and ranging with sense and eyes\nover the years arranged in order for the suns to come,\nhe sees the angelic host girded for the destruction\nof a world that is about to burn, and hears with his ear\nthe hoarse bellowing of the heavy trumpets at the end of the world.\nThese things he saw before death, lulled in the prison of his limbs,\nwhile his soul withdrew but did not depart.\nWill not the breath, then, much more mark all things without the body,\nwhen the wrappings of the body are laid away in the cold tomb?\nIt is a sure faith that the raging furnaces beneath the [nether] night,\nwhich cook the defiled soul through long ages with everlasting\nfire, are exposed to the eyes of the poor man far off across the long void;\nand no less, that the golden gifts of the righteous,\nwith the chaos dividing them, and their glowing crowns\nare shown from afar to those plunged in the prison of punishments.\nHence the unhappy spirit, howling in the plague of its guilt,\nis revealed to the blessed dweller in Paradise after his dreadful sores;\nand in turn they see each other’s deserts.\nO God, Parent of all, giver of the soul, O God Christ,\nfrom whose mouth the Spirit, one God, subsists:\nunder your rule I am governed, under you as my prince I lead my life;\nwith you as judge I tremble, pale; with you, the same judge,\nI take hope that whatever I do will be pardonable before you,","f":"Prudentius, <i>Ham.</i> 1.901 (Lanfranchi 2:lines 901–930; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/prudentius-hamartigenia/1-901)."},"prudentius-hamartigenia/1.91":{"o":"Est glaucoma, aciem quod tegmine velet aquoso,\nLibera ne tenerum penetret meditatio caelum,\nNeve Deum rapidis comprendat sensibus unum.\nSpargitur in bifidas male sana intentio luces,\nEt duplices geminis auctoribus exstruit aras.\nSi duo sunt igitur, cur non sint multa deorum\nMilia? cur numero deitas contenta gemello est?\nAnnon in populos dispersa examina divum\nFundere erat melius, mundumque implere capacem\nSemideis passim nullo discrimine monstris,\nQuis fera barbaries perituros mactat honores?\nDissona discretum retinent si numina caelum:\nConvenit et nebulis, et fontibus, et reboanti\nOceano, et silvis, et collibus, et speluncis,\nFluminibus, ventis, fornacibus, atque metallis\nAdsignare deos proprios; sua cuique iura.\nVel, si gentiles sordet venerarier umbras,\nEt placet esse duos sceptris socialibus aequos,\nDic age, quis terras ditionis sorte retentet?\nQuis regat aequoreas aeterna lege procellas?\nEde coheredum distinctum ius dominorum.\nUnus, ait, tristi residet sublimis in arce,\nAuctor nequitiae, scelerum Deus, asper, iniquus:\nQui quodcumque malum vitioso fervet in orbe,\nSevit, et anguino medicans nova semina suco,\nRerum principium mortis de fomite traxit.\nIpse opifex mundi, terram, mare, sidera fecit;\nCondidit ipse hominem, lutulenta et membra coegit,\nEffigians, quod mortis edat, quod crimine multo","t":"there is a glaucoma that veils the sight with a watery film,\nso that free meditation may not pierce the subtle heaven\nnor grasp the one God with swift senses.\nAn unsound attention is scattered into two-forked lights\nand builds double altars to twin authors.\nIf, then, there are two, why should there not be many thousands\nof gods? Why is deity content with a twin number?\nWould it not have been better to pour out swarms of gods\nscattered among the peoples, and to fill the capacious world\neverywhere, without distinction, with demigod monsters,\nto whom fierce barbarism sacrifices honors doomed to perish?\nIf discordant powers hold a divided heaven,\nit is fitting to assign their own gods to the clouds, the springs,\nthe resounding ocean, the woods, the hills, the caves,\nthe rivers, winds, furnaces, and metals,\neach with its own rights.\nOr, if it disgusts you to worship the shades of the pagans,\nand you prefer that there be two, equal in shared sceptres,\ncome, tell me: which of them holds the lands by the lot of rule?\nWho governs the storms of the sea by eternal law?\nSet out the distinct rights of the co-heir lords.\n“One,” he says, “sits aloft in a gloomy citadel,\nthe author of wickedness, God of crimes, harsh and unjust,\nwho sowed whatever evil seethes in the vicious world\nand, steeping new seeds in snake’s venom,\ndrew the beginning of things from the kindling of death.\nHe himself is the maker of the world; he made the earth, the sea, the stars;\nhe himself founded man and compacted his muddy limbs,\nshaping what would yield to death, what with much crime","f":"Prudentius, <i>Ham.</i> 1.91 (Lanfranchi 2:lines 91–120; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/prudentius-hamartigenia/1-91)."},"prudentius-hamartigenia/1.931":{"o":"Quamlibet indignum venia faciamque loquarque.\nConfiteor: dimitte libens, et parce fatenti:\nOmne malum merui; sed tu, bonus arbiter, aufer\nQuod merui: meliora favens largire precanti.\nDona animae quandoque meae, cum corporis huius\nLiquerit hospitium, nervis, cute, sanguine, felle,\nOssibus exstructum, corrupta quod incola luxu\nHeu nimium complexa fovet; cum flebilis hora\nClauserit hos orbes, et conclamata iacebit\nMateries, oculisque suis mens nuda fruetur,\nNe cernat truculentum aliquem de gente latronum,\nImmitem, rabidum, vultuque et voce minaci\nTerribilem, qui me maculosum adspergine morum\nIn praeceps, ut praedo, trahat, nigrisque ruentem\nImmergat specubus, cuncta exacturus ad usque\nQuadrantem minimum damnosae debita vitae.\nMulta in thesauris Patris est habitatio, Christe,\nDisparibus discreta locis: non posco beata\nIn regione domum; sint illic casta virorum\nAgmina, pulvereum quae dedignantia censum\nDivitias petiere tuas; sit flore perenni\nCandida virginitas, animum castrata recisum.\nAt mihi Tartarei satis est si nulla ministri\nOccurrat facies, avida nec flamma gehennae\nDevoret hanc animam, mersam fornacibus imis.\nEsto: cavernoso, quia sic pro labe necesse est\nCorporea, tristis me sorbeat ignis Averno:\nSaltem mitificos incendia lenta vapores\nExhalent, aestuque calor languente tepescat:\nLux immensa alios, et tempora vincta coronis\nGlorificent; me poena levis clementer adurat.","t":"however unworthy of pardon what I do and say.\nI confess: forgive gladly, and spare one who confesses.\nI have deserved every evil; but you, good judge, take away\nwhat I have deserved; in your favor grant better things to one who prays.\nGrant to my soul, when at some time it has left the lodging\nof this body, built of sinews, skin, blood, gall,\nand bones, which its tenant, corrupted by luxury,\nalas, embraces and cherishes too much; when the mournful hour\nhas closed these eyes, and the matter lies\nmourned with the last cry, and the mind, stripped bare, enjoys its own eyes:\nthat it may not see some savage one of the race of robbers,\nmerciless, rabid, terrible in face and in menacing\nvoice, who, like a bandit, drags me headlong, stained\nwith the spatterings of my ways, and plunges me, falling,\ninto black caverns, to exact all the debts\nof a ruinous life down to the last farthing.\nThere are many dwellings in the Father’s treasuries, Christ,\nset apart in different places: I do not ask for a home\nin the blessed region; let the chaste ranks of men be there,\nwho, scorning dusty wealth, sought your riches;\nlet white virginity be there in everlasting flower,\nwhich has cut off and gelded its passion.\nBut for me it is enough if no face of a minister\nof Tartarus meets me, and if the greedy flame of hell\ndoes not devour this soul, plunged into the lowest furnaces.\nSo be it: since this is necessary for the stain of the body,\nlet the grim fire swallow me in cavernous Avernus;\nat least let the slow flames breathe out gentler vapors,\nand the heat grow lukewarm, its burning slackened.\nLet boundless light and temples bound with crowns\nglorify others; let a light punishment burn me mercifully.","f":"Prudentius, <i>Ham.</i> 1.931 (Lanfranchi 2:lines 931–965; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/prudentius-hamartigenia/1-931)."}}