Chapter III. In consolation of the people invoking God, Glory to God in the highest is sung by the priest

Chapter III.

In consolation of the people invoking God, Glory to God in the highest is sung by the priest.

1. [Marginal label: Why does the priest begin Glory to God in the highest, and the choir continue?] But the mercy of God never failed, or fails, or will fail those invoking him in all things. Therefore on days of consolations, when the people are to be consoled, from the altar as though from the sight of God, the one who stands at the altar in the place of him who is the Angel of great counsel, the bishop or priest, responds, saying: Glory to God in the highest. As if he were saying that word of Jeremiah 29:11 and 12: The Lord says: I think thoughts of peace over you, and not of affliction... And you shall invoke me, and you shall go; and you shall pray to me, and I will hear you. Hence it is as if he were saying: Since first the clergy cry out in desire, and since the people cry together for mercy, now glory has been made to God, and peace to human beings, as if he were saying that word of Jeremiah 31:16: Let your voice rest from weeping, and your eyes from tears, because there is a reward for your work; for I shall indeed hear these cries, and I shall send to you in the sacrament him whom I sent to the Fathers into the world, so that by participation in him you may be rescued from all evils and be filled in all goods.

And the one who sings the Mass signifies this by the kiss of the altar, which he first takes when approaching the altar, so that he may be able to announce true peace to the people. Ephesians 2:17: And coming, he evangelized peace to you who were far away, and peace to those who were near.

But on ferial days and on days of mourning, as in fasting, unless it is a fast of exultation, as on Pentecost, it is not sung, because then, fearing wrath, we make satisfaction for sins, and we commemorate a peace not yet still given to us.

Thus, therefore, Glory to God in the highest is introduced and omitted in the Mass; and for this reason it is begun by him who stands in the place of God at the altar, and in the place of him who is for us the Angel of great counsel. In figure of him, one Angel sang Glory to God in the highest with us in sacrifice when the Savior was first displayed ¹. But because suddenly with the Angel there was made a multitude of the heavenly army praising God, therefore, when the bishop or priest begins: Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men of good will, for up to this point it was sung by the Angel. And according to the first institution, up to the same place it was to be begun by the bishop or priest. And immediately in memory of that which is said in Luke 2:13: There was made with the Angel a multitude of the heavenly army praising God, the choir begins, We praise you, and sings what follows with a high voice and solemn chant; and these things, according to the truth of the matter, blessed Pope Telesphorus, who was ninth from blessed Peter, composed and added, and he instituted that on the night of the Nativity of the Lord, in the first Mass, it be sung in memory of this, that then it was first sung by the Angel singing beforehand and the Angels singing together in consolation of the human race. But some say that what is said, We praise you, and the rest that follows was composed and added by blessed Hilary of Poitiers, which is not true. But afterward Pope Symmachus instituted that Glory to God in the highest be sung on feasts of the Apostles, Martyrs, and Virgins, when it was not a time of penance and mourning, and on Sundays, for the augmentation of divine praise, which is shown in the glorious feasts of the Saints. Thus therefore and for this cause, Glory to God in the highest, etc., was drawn into the Mass.

Now it is called the hymn of the Angels, because the Angel sang the first part of it by praising; but the rest indeed was made by a human being, yet in memory of the Angels singing together with the Angel singing beforehand. Daniel 3:58: Bless the Lord, Angels of the Lord; praise and superexalt him forever. Psalm 102:20: Bless the Lord, all his Angels, powerful in strength, doing his word, to hear the voice of his words.

2. Therefore this hymn is composed of two things, namely of that which belongs to the Angel singing beforehand, and of that which was made in memory of the army of Angels singing together.

But that which belongs to the Angel singing beforehand has two things, namely glory to be given to God, who found the counsel of this liberation, and it contains the peace that was perfected and rendered to human beings of good will in that counsel.

[Marginal label: Glory evil, feigned, vain, and true.] In the first he says three things, namely glory, and the cause of glory, and that this is to be attributed to God. But glory is evil, feigned, vain, and true. Evil glory is concerning their evils, of whom it is said in Proverbs 2:14: They rejoice when they have done evil, and exult in the worst things. There the translation of the Septuagint has: "They glory when they do evils, and rejoice in the worst things." Psalm 51:3: Why do you glory in malice?

Feigned glory is when someone attributes to himself what is not his own, as it is said in 1 Corinthians 4:7: What do you have that you have not received? But if you have received it, why do you glory as if you had not received it?

But vain glory is in perishable and vain things. Isaiah 40:6 and 7: The voice of one saying: Cry. And I said: What shall I cry? All flesh is hay, and all its glory as the flower of the field. The hay has dried up, and the flower has fallen, because the Spirit of the Lord has blown upon it. Jeremiah 9:23: Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, and let not the strong man glory in his strength, and let not the rich man glory in his riches. Proverbs 31:31, where we have: Grace is deceitful and beauty is vain, the letter of the Septuagint has: "Glory is deceitful, and the image is empty."

But true glory is concerning a proper good, which needs no good; and this is twofold, namely of the Author of every good and of the one to whom that good is participated. Concerning the first it is said, John 10, passim, and Isaiah said this in 35:2: They themselves shall see the glory of the Lord. Ecclesiasticus 45:3: He showed him his glory. For this is the glory of divine splendor, beauty, and magnificence. But glory communicated to the Saints is glory in God concerning this beauty and magnificence communicated to them. Jeremiah 9:24: Let the one who glories glory in this, to know and understand me. 2 Corinthians 10:17: Let the one who glories glory in the Lord. And 2 Corinthians 1:12: This is our glory, the testimony of our conscience. Therefore true glory, truly understood, is the divine glory of which we have spoken.

But it is in the highest things, as in its cause.

3. But this is in the highest, not indeed in places, but in beauty and magnificence, which are higher than all high things; in these God alone shows the beauty of his goodness and power, and the magnificence of his wonderful works. Hence in Luke 2:14 it is said: Glory to God in the highest, that is, in the highest counsel and power and magnificence; these were and are, namely that he both sent the Son into flesh and daily sends him into the sacrament. Concerning these things, when they were to be perfected, the Angel said in Luke 1:35: The power of the Most High will overshadow you. And this was signified in Job 40:4 and 5, where the Lord thus says to the human being: If you have an arm like God, and if you thunder with a similar voice, surround yourself with beauty, and be raised on high, and be glorious, and be clothed with splendid garments. As if he were saying: If you are glorious with true glory, it is necessary for you to have the arm of invincible strength, as God has, and to thunder with a voice of similar truth and authority, and to be surrounded with the beauty of virtue, and to show yourself in sublime things, and to be so glorious that you are clothed in splendid garments in conduct beyond all honorableness.

4. [Marginal label: Glory is to be attributed to God alone.] Therefore this is the true cause of glory, and for this reason it is to be attributed only to God, who alone possesses and has this. And therefore let this glory that is in the highest be, supply, attributed to God, and let our praise be given to God who alone is glorious in himself and in his saints. Therefore it is said in Isaiah 42:3: I will not give my glory to another, and my praise to carved images. 1 Timothy 1:17: But to the king of ages, immortal and invisible, to God alone, honor and glory. This was signified in Genesis 39:8 and 9: Behold, my lord, with all things handed over to me, does not know what he has in his house, nor is there anything that is not in my power or that he has not handed over to me, except you, who are his wife. For good Joseph knew what the Apostle was going to say in 1 Corinthians 11:7: The woman is the glory of the man. And therefore although he had accepted the goods of his lord, nevertheless he wished to have nothing in common with his lord's glory, since there is not in man something that is man's from which he could glory, but in the other goods of the lord's house he grants power to us; but in glory he does not wish to have a consort, just as neither does a man in his wife. Thus therefore the Angel also, attributing the truest glory to God alone, sings: Glory to God in the highest.

5. [Marginal label: The necessity, truth, and fittingness of peace.] But continuously he adds what has been made for us from the glory of the God of the highest things, saying: And on earth peace to men of good will. He says three things in the word, namely the necessity of peace, the truth of peace, and the fittingness of peace.

He touches upon the necessity of peace through this that he says: On earth, because on earth there is the attack of war, and therefore on earth there is need of peace. He touches upon the truth of peace in the name of peace, because otherwise the signification of the name would fall away from the effect, which cannot happen in the words of the Angel; and therefore in the name peace, the truth of peace is signified. But the fittingness of peace is brought in by this, that he says: To men of good will; for to those who use reason and intellect, perfect themselves through the study of truth, and form their will by the form of good, so that they will the good, true peace is fitting, and not to others. And thus through this that he says, To men of good will, the fittingness of peace is signified.

Concerning the earth in which there is need of peace, it is said in Job 9:24: The earth has been given into the hands of the impious, and therefore it cannot be in peace unless God himself makes peace. Job 7:1: The life of man upon the earth is temptation or warfare. John 16:33: In the world you shall have pressure; but trust, I have conquered the world. This is signified in Daniel 7:2 and following, where four winds fight in the great sea, and beasts fighting together come forth. For the four winds are four diabolical suggestions troubling the sea of this world, that is, vain fear, a vainer hope, evil joy, and justice that works death. For these make the whole world fight like beasts. Here therefore there is the greatest necessity of peace, as is promised in Job 5:23: The beasts of the earth will be peaceful to you, and you will know that your tabernacle has peace. For to this end Christ came in a body, in which there was nothing of battle, but all things were harmonious with reason, just as it is said that all animals were peaceful in the ark of Noah ², which signifies the body of the Lord, in which all things pertaining to our animality were peaceful, so that he might make peace in our earth and pacify hearts, as is said in Isaiah 26:12: You will give us peace; you have wrought all our works for us.

But the truth of peace is brought in when peace is said.

6. [Marginal label: Peace of time, of breast, and of eternity.] But the truth of peace is made up from three things: from peace of time, and peace of breast, and peace of eternity, so that the first is in conduct, the second in sweetness of heart, and the third in the foretaste of eternity.

But the peace of time, not as some think, is tranquility of time, because that was never given to the saints in this world; hence 2 Timothy 3:12: All who wish to live piously in Christ shall suffer persecution. In Apocalypse 1:9 he is called a participant in tribulation in Christ Jesus. Matthew 10:16: Behold, I send you like sheep in the midst of wolves. But sheep in the midst of wolves do not have peace. Hence tranquility of temporal things cannot be called peace of time. Rather, peace of time is an even-minded reception of things emerging in time, so that whatever tribulation or consolation emerges in time may be received with even-mindedness and in peace, with the tranquility of the soul in no way violated, as the Psalmist says, Psalm 119:7: With those who hated peace I was peaceful; when I was speaking to them, they attacked me without cause. This is one part of true peace, which Christ had with Judas when he received him to the kiss. Romans 12:18: If it can be, as far as depends on you, having peace with all human beings.

The second part of peace is in the sweetness of a pacified heart, which is made up from four things, namely from the consciousness of the remission of sins, from reconciliation to God, from the concord of conscience with the will, and from perfect tranquility of the affections of the heart. And the Glosses on the Apostle say this in different places. Concerning the first mode of peace, what is said in Romans 1:7 is understood: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore peace is from grace, which is the remission of sins. Concerning the second mode of peace it is said in Isaiah 27:5: He will make peace for me, that is, he will reconcile himself with me. Concerning the third mode of peace it is said in Psalm 121:7: Let peace be made in your strength. Because that peace is not made between conscience and will unless the heart restrains the will with great strength, lest it make an impulse toward evil. Hence it follows: And abundance in your towers, which towers are the fortifications of the powers of the rational, irascible, and concupiscible soul, in which, if there is abundance of good, the peace of the commanding conscience and the obedient will is perfected. But if it is otherwise, immediately conscience moves war and gnaws back. Concerning the fourth mode of peace it is said in Philippians 4:7: The peace of God

which surpasses every sense, may guard your hearts and your intelligences: for this is the sweetness of a tranquil heart, turning away everything that the senses bring in toward the disturbance of the heart, and holding our intelligences in contemplation and delight of the interior good. Psalm 75:3: His place was made in peace, because God dwells in such peace.

But the peace of eternity, as Augustine says in book XIII of The City of God, is the peace of the heavenly city, which, as the same man says, is the concord of enjoying God and one another in God. For we ought to enjoy nothing except God, and we ought to enjoy one another in God with all the goods that we have in ourselves; then in the sweetness of the divine good held in ourselves and in our neighbor, we foretaste that peace of eternity. Matthew 5:9: Blessed are the peacemakers, because they shall be called children of God.

But concerning this threefold peace of time, of breast, and of eternity, Christ says to his own in John 14:27: Peace I leave to you, my peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. And indeed he left us the peace of time. He gave the peace of breast, not according to the mode of the world, but as an indication of his own proper sweetness; he gave the peace of eternity. For this peace is fitting for human beings living rationally, not for beastlike ones tearing one another, of whom it is said in Galatians 5:15: If you bite and devour one another, see that you are not consumed by one another. For these are the ones who have changed the likeness of their heart into beasts, of whom it is said in Psalm 48:13: Man, when he was in honor, did not understand; he was compared to foolish beasts and made like them. Therefore this peace is given to human beings cultivating understanding, justice, and piety, because they are truly a tame animal by nature, which the Philosophers said to be proper to human beings. Esther 13:2: I wished... that they should enjoy peace desired by all mortals, especially if they are of good will, which will is not good, as Augustine says, unless it is preceded by operative grace so that it may will the good, and unless there follows the grace of virtue, which grace is called cooperative, so that it may will the good efficaciously and not in vain. Philippians 2:13: God is the one who works in you both to will and to accomplish, for good will. For grace, which he himself works, works the willing, by which he informs the will so that it may will good and turn itself away from evil. But he works accomplishing by cooperating grace, which works with us in the work of virtue and merit, lest we say in vain that we have a will when we do nothing. 2 Corinthians 8:12: If the will is prompt, it is accepted according to that which it has. For such a will is like divine tranquility, and peace is fitting for it. Thus God kindly acts for us in his good will, reforming human beings to his image so that they may be human beings, and perfecting good will by the distinctions of his operative and cooperative grace, so that it may be tranquil and suited to this peace; for there will be no peace for the beastlike ones of evil will. Hence Isaiah 57:21: There is no peace for the impious, says the Lord God. For the heart of the impious is like a boiling sea, which cannot rest, but its waves overflow into trampling. These are those for whom the division of the Angel is not enough, so that they themselves may have peace and attribute glory to God, but, wishing to take glory away from God, they tear peace apart, and therefore they lose glory. Hosea 4:7: I will change their glory into ignominy. 1 Maccabees 2:62 and 63: Because his glory is dung and a worm; today he is lifted up, and tomorrow he will not be found, because he has returned into his earth.

Thus therefore it is said: Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men of good will.

7. We praise you. These are the things that were added by holy Pope Telesphorus in commemoration of the heavenly armies singing together with the Angel. And the understanding of these consists in two things, namely in the harmonious song of praise and in the cause of praise.

But that harmonious song consists in three things; for our goods are considered in three ways, namely as they are from God, and as they are from us, and as they are referred back to him.

But as they are from God, they are considered in two ways, namely in the form or kind of the things given, and in the mode by which God gives them.

Therefore as they are considered in the kind of things given, it is said: We praise you, we bless you. But considering the mode by which God gives them, it is said: We adore you, we glorify you. But referring God's goods back into him, it is said: We give thanks.

In the first consideration we consider twofold gifts of God flowing into us from him, namely the gifts of virtues and graces, and the gifts that are goods of nature, or ordained to the conservation of nature. Therefore for virtues and graces we say: We praise you. But for natural goods we say: We bless you.

[Marginal label: Praise is the proper proclamation of virtue.] That we praise for virtues and graces is proved by the Philosopher in the first book of the Ethics, saying that virtue belongs to praiseworthy goods. And he says the same in the book On Praiseworthy Goods. For praise, as Tully says, is the proper proclamation of virtue. And therefore, considering the bestowal of his virtues and graces, we say: We praise you. Hence it is said in Proverbs 31:31: Give her from the fruit of her hands, and let her works praise her in the gates; for the fruit of the Lord's hands are the works of virtue, because the right hand of the Lord has wrought virtue ³, and those works proclaim him in the gates of the cities of all the saints. Psalm 23:10: The Lord of virtues, he is the king of glory. Thus in Psalm 47:2 it is said: Great is the Lord and exceedingly praiseworthy, in the city of our God, on his holy mountain. For the Lord is great in power, exceedingly praiseworthy by the bestowal of virtues, in the city of the saints, because he is praised in every city of the saints, which is wholly in the splendor of honorableness, virtue, and grace; on his holy mountain, in the eminence of his honor that is owed to the operation of virtues. For all his own are rich in virtue, as is said in Ecclesiasticus 44:6: Men rich in virtue, having zeal for beauty. Thus therefore, We praise you, on account of the virtues shown in you and displayed to us; for virtue, as Augustine says, is a good quality of the mind, by which one lives rightly, which no one uses badly, which God works in us without us.

But we bless you in the goods of nature bestowed on us, which are intellect, reason, sense, life, substance, and things of this sort, and in those things that conserve these in us, such as health, goods of fortune, honor, fame, and things of this sort. And concerning these two goods it is said in James 2:17: Every best gift and every perfect gift is from above, descending from the Father of lights. For the best things given are ordained to nature. But perfect gifts are the gifts of virtues and graces.

[Marginal label: Blessing is twofold.] But what is this, that it says: We bless you, since in Hebrews 7:7 it is said that without any contradiction what is lesser is blessed by the better? It seems therefore that God should bless us, and not we him. The same is contained in Numbers 6:27: And they shall invoke my name over the children of Israel, and I will bless them.

To this one must say that blessing is twofold. One indeed consecrates that which is blessed. But the other is praise and proclamation of what has been given and received. And concerning the former it is said that what is lesser is blessed by the better, and with that blessing God blesses us, and the priests themselves bless in this way. And therefore in the anointing of the hands of priests the bishop says: "Deign, Lord, to consecrate and sanctify these hands through this anointing and our blessing, so that whatever they bless may be blessed, and whatever they consecrate may be consecrated and sanctified in the name of the Lord." But with the other blessing, by which we praise and proclaim the goods of God, we bless God, and God does not bless us. Tobit 12:6: Bless the God of heaven, and before all living persons confess him. Psalm 102:22: Bless the Lord, all his works; in every place of his dominion, bless the Lord, my soul.

8. [Marginal label: Why do we prostrate the body in adoration?] We adore you. Here he touches upon the mode of bestowal by which God confers both praiseworthy and blessable things. But there are two modes of power, namely that by which he has the capacity of conferring such things, and the mode of magnificence by which, in conferring such things, he shows magnificent liberality. The first is the majesty that we adore. The second is the liberality of magnificence that we glorify. From majesty he has capacity, and from the magnificence of liberality, glory. In the epistle of Jeremiah it is said: Say in your hearts: You ought to be adored, Lord ⁴. But majesty is adored by the prostration of the whole body, as Damascene says, to signify that we are nothing except dust and ashes, unless by the very majesty of the Trinity we had been raised up into something. Psalm 131:7: We shall adore in the place where his feet stood. Exodus 4:31: They heard, namely the Hebrews, that the Lord had visited the children of Israel and had looked upon their affliction; and bowing forward, they adored. Thus therefore, We adore you, as true professors of your majesty. John 4:23 and 24: True adorers will adore the Father in spirit and truth. For the Father also seeks such who adore him. God is spirit, and those who adore him must adore in spirit and truth.

9. But on account of the magnificence of liberality, We glorify you, because as is said in James 1:5: He gives to all abundantly and does not reproach. Esther 2:18: He bestowed gifts according to princely magnificence. And this is worthy glory and magnificence. Ecclesiasticus 42:30: In all things, when glorifying, for what will we be able? For he himself is omnipotent above all his works. And below, verse 32: Glorifying the Lord however much you are able. Exodus 15:2: This is my God, and I will glorify him; the God of my father, and I will exalt him.

10. We give thanks to you, that is, according to the referring of goods back into him. For these things that flow from him are returned to him through thanksgiving, so that they may flow more abundantly, like rivers that return to the sea. Ecclesiastes 1:7: To the place from which the rivers go out, they return, so that they may flow again. For ingratitude, as blessed Bernard says, is a burning wind drying up the fountain of piety and the fervor of grace and mercy. For blessed Dionysius says in the book On the Celestial Hierarchy ⁵ that every light of grace proceeding from the Father of lights comes into us, and fills us with its abundance, and gathers us together by its simplicity; and because all things hasten to return to their principle, therefore it converts us to the paternal bosom of light, because it gathers into itself all goods that proceed from it. But he says these things in these words: "Every procession of the manifestation of lights moved by the Father, coming into us excellently and largely, fills us, and as a life-giving power gathers us together and converts us to the deifying super-simplicity and unity of the gathering Father. And this is through thanksgiving, in which, as grateful ones, with the gifts of God we return to the Father, the fountain of all graces." 1 Thessalonians 5:18: In all things give thanks. 2 Corinthians 9:15: Thanks be to God for his unspeakable gift. Thus therefore the praise of those singing together has been completed in memory of that which is said in Luke 2:13: There was made with the Angel a multitude of the heavenly army praising God and saying: Glory to God in the highest, etc.

11. [Marginal label: Fourfold definition of glory.] But the cause of so great a praise is explained when it is said: On account of your great glory. This cause, however, is explained in two ways: in common, and in particular through the attributes of the individual persons.

In common indeed when it says: On account of your great glory. In this expression three things are said, namely the cause of praise, the greatness of the cause, and that glory is proper to God. The cause is glory, which is defined in four ways. For Tully gives two definitions at the end of the first Rhetoric, one of which is that glory is praise proclaimed by the mouth of many. The second is that glory is a widely open proclamation. Augustine gives the third, and it is placed in the Gloss at the end of the epistle to the Romans, 16:27, To whom be honor and glory, where he says thus: "Glory is clear knowledge with praise." But the Philosopher says in the Topics that through glory it comes about that, with no one aware, one would not hasten into being; and according to him glory is that which by its nobility and honorableness manifests itself to the consciences of human beings. Therefore in this way glory is fitting to God, because he alone is proclaimable by the mouth of many, who by universal power has presented himself as praiseworthy to all. Hence it is said in Psalm 116:1: Praise the Lord, all nations; praise him, all peoples. For he himself is the one whom the Father displayed to all as glory in which they may glory. Luke 2:32: A light unto the revelation of the nations, and the glory of your people Israel. He himself is proclaimed by the mouth of many, Isaiah 12:5: Sing to the Lord, because he has acted magnificently; announce this in all the earth. He himself is the one who is set forth to every knowledge with clear praise, because nothing except what is praiseworthy is found in him. Daniel 3:55 and 56: Praiseworthy and glorious and superexalted forever. Here, by his nobility and honorableness, he manifests himself to the consciences of all human beings. Psalm 150:1: Praise the Lord in his holy things; praise him in the firmament of his power. Holy things there is of the neuter gender, that is: Praise him in holy things, that is, the things that are his holy things, all of which are noble and honorable. This therefore is glory. But it is great, and greatest, because nothing can be compared to it. Psalm 112:5: Who is like the Lord our God, who dwells on high? Hence it is said in Luke 2:14: Glory to God in the highest. Ecclesiasticus 42:32: Glorifying the Lord as much as you are able, and he will still surpass. But this great glory is properly yours, because glory is owed to no other except to God alone. Isaiah 42:8: I will not give my glory to another, and my praise to carved images. 1 Timothy 1:17: To God alone be honor and glory. Therefore this is the cause of praising and blessing and adoring and glorifying and giving thanks to the Lord.

12. Lord God, etc. Here he touches in particular the attributes of the persons. And first he touches the things that belong to the Father. Second, the things that belong to the Son. Third, the things that belong to the Holy Spirit. Fourth, he adds that which belongs to the unity of essence in the three persons.

But the things that belong to the Father he touches in three ways, namely according as they are considered in him, and according to those things that are worked in us.

But the things that are in him he touches in two ways, namely according to authority and according to governance.

[Marginal label: Lord is a name of authority.] For it belongs to authority that he says: Lord, not because the Father alone is Lord, since it is written in the symbol of Athanasius: "The Father is Lord, the Son is Lord, the Holy Spirit is Lord; and yet there are not three Lords, but there is one Lord." But what is common according to operation is attributed to the Father by appropriation of authority, because the Father is not from another; of him it is said, Esther 13:11: You are Lord of all. Hence it is that the Son calls him Lord in Matthew 11:25, when he says: I confess to you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth. Acts 17:24 and 25: Since this one is Lord of heaven and earth, he does not dwell in temples made by hand, nor is he worshiped by human hands as though needing something. He does not need, who is the fountain and origin of all beautiful and good things.

[Marginal label: God is a name of governance.] But God is a name of governance, which is also attributed to the Father, because from ancient times those were also called fathers who governed others as kings, and it also belongs to a father to govern the family in a house. For God in Greek is called θεός; if that name is derived from the Greek verb θεωρέω, εἴς, which is I see, you see, it is the same as seeing all things with the eye of providence. Ecclesiasticus 23:28: The eyes of the Lord are much brighter than the sun, looking around on all the ways of human beings,... looking into hidden parts. Hebrews 4:13: No creature is invisible in his sight. But if Θεός is derived from the Greek theaste, which sounds circuit, again it signifies God who goes around all things by the care of his providence. Ecclesiasticus 24:8: I alone went around the circuit of heaven, says the Wisdom of the Father, to whom belongs all providence. But if it is derived from the Greek thetim, which sounds heat, it signifies the love of the one providing, as is said in Psalm 17:7: There is no one who hides himself from his heat. Thus, therefore, by the light of vision, the swiftness of care, and the heat of love, he provides for all and governs all things; and therefore Psalm 54:23 says: Cast your care upon the Lord, and he himself will nourish you. 1 Peter 5:7: Casting all your solicitude upon him, because he has care for you.

13. [Marginal label: What is kingdom?] Heavenly King. Behold what he does in the Angels, because by metonymy king is called heavenly, because he is King of the Angels, marvelously restoring his kingdom from the ministers standing by him. But he is King because he first distributed to the Angels, and through the Angels to human beings, the ends of intentions, the good things of operations, the laws in the precepts of justices, and the orders of ministers. For Dionysius says that kingdom is the distribution of every end and adornment of law and order ⁶. Isaiah 32:1: Behold, a king will reign in justice, and princes, that is, Angels, will preside in judgment. Isaiah 33:22: The Lord is our lawgiver, the Lord is our king; he himself will save us. Jeremiah 10:6 and 7: There is none like you, Lord; you are great, and your name is great in strength. Who will not fear you, O king of the nations? For yours is beauty; among all the wise of the nations and in all their kingdoms, there is none like you.

14. God the Father almighty. This is said according to the attributes of the Father in us, and he is called God providing for us. Psalm 31:8: On this way by which you will walk, I will set my eyes firmly upon you. But he is called Father as forming us in the grace of adoption. Isaiah 64:8: And now, Lord, you are our father, but we are clay; and you are our maker, and all of us are the works of your hands. Psalm 32:15: He who fashioned their hearts one by one and understands all their works.

But he is called almighty because, although there are three things in us resisting reformation to good, namely the disobedient heaviness of the lower nature, the depressing frailty of human weakness, and the resistant iniquity of spiritual wickedness, none of these can stand in the way of his forming us into sons. Romans 9:19: Who resists his will? Luke 1:37: No word will be impossible with God. Genesis 18:14: Will anything be difficult for God?

15. Lord, only-begotten Son. Here he touches the things that are attributed to the Son. He touches these under six differences. First, he touches those things that he has in himself, from which he is powerful to save and debtor of salvation. Second, he touches the mode of display by which he applied the grace of salvation. Third, he touches the grace of redemption. Fourth, he touches the grace of gratification. Fifth, he touches the grace of glorification. Sixth and last, he touches one by one the cause of each of these.

Therefore he says: Lord, Son, etc., and he touches two things. The first is that from which he was able to save. The second, that from which he ought to save, taking up our debt in himself. Concerning the first of these he says: Lord, Son. He says three things: the first brings in the capacity of salvation, the second the inheritance of those capacities, and the third brings in the undivided fullness of the capacities of salvation.

For through this that he says, Lord, since Lord speaks of every-sided possession of beautiful and good things, he signifies the capacity of those things from which he can save. But this that he says, Son, since a son has by inheritance all the capacities of his father, signifies the inheritance of those capacities. But through this that he says, Only-begotten, since the only-begotten is he who, as Basil says, did not divide the paternal glory with one begotten second, he signifies the undivided and possessed fullness of those capacities; and from these he has the full and perfect capacity from which he can save. Concerning the first it is said in Psalm 8:1: Lord, our Lord, how wonderful is your name in all the earth! For this is wonderful on earth, that he has the capacity of saving all. For he himself is the one of whom it is said in Romans 10:12: The same Lord of all, rich toward all who invoke him. Hence Paul says in 1 Corinthians 1:5 and following: In all things you have been made rich in him, in every word and in every knowledge, as the testimony of Christ has been confirmed in you, so that nothing is lacking to you in any grace. Therefore from these capacities he saves all.

But Son says this: because by natural inheritance he possesses all things. Luke 15:31: Son, you are always with me, and all my things are yours. Hebrews 1:2: Whom he established heir of all things, through whom he also made the ages. John 16:15: Whatever things the Father has are mine.

But Only-begotten says this, because he possesses indivisibly. John 1:14: We saw his glory, glory as of the Only-begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. Thus therefore from these things that belong to deity he has the capacity of saving; but because before a just judge no one satisfies except the one who owes, therefore he took from what is ours that from which he ought to satisfy for us.

16. [Marginal label: Christ was able and ought to satisfy for us.] And this is what follows: Jesus Christ. But what certain persons add, Most High, is not of the letter and was added by presumptuous persons, because nothing was to be added to so great an authority as the Angel and the vicar of Jesus Christ made.

Now these are two names, Jesus Christ. Jesus indeed, as Damascene says, says God made human, and Christ says, conversely, a human being deified, because the two natures mutually pass around one another in the one person of the Son: because deity exercises power in the acts of the human being, when the leper touched by humanity is healed, the dead man touched is brought to life, the blind man touched is illumined, and so concerning the others; and the human nature, preserving its own properties, shows itself in the power of divinity when he dies darkening the sun, when he is crucified splitting the rock, when he is buried laying down his soul by his own power and taking it again. Therefore Jesus says God made human, and Christ, as has been said, says a human being deified. And this is that from which he ought to satisfy for us. For Ambrose says, and Anselm proves in the book Why God Became Man, that no one could satisfy for us except one who ought and who could. But he could insofar as he was God, Lord, the only-begotten Son of the Father; and he ought insofar as he was a human being; and he ought and could insofar as he was God made human and a human being deified. But Anselm proved this. For Adam, in whom we all sinned and were condemned, lost the original justice of all human beings who could be born from him. But infinitely many can be born from him, all of whom would have handed over that original justice to God, which in infinitely many would be an infinite good that no one could restore unless he was of infinite goodness, and this was no one except God the Lord, the only-begotten Son of infinite goodness. But to demand this from one who owes nothing does not belong to a just judge. Since therefore God is a just judge, he demands this only from a human being who owed; and so it was necessary that the savior be a human being, who owed not from the debt of fault but from the debt that he voluntarily took up. Therefore it was necessary that the human being be God, and God a human being, and God in the human being, and the human being in God. And thus, as is said in 1 Timothy 2:5: There is one mediator of God and human beings, the man Christ Jesus. Therefore what he owed and could do is brought in through this that is said: Jesus Christ.

And concerning Jesus indeed it is said in Matthew 1:1: You shall call his name Jesus, for he himself will save his people from their sins. Ecclesiasticus 46:1 and 2: Strong in war was Jesus,... who was great according to his name, greatest for the salvation of God's elect. But concerning Christ it is said in Isaiah 45:1 and 2: To my Christ Cyrus, whose right hand I have grasped, that I may subject nations before his face and turn the backs of kings, and open doors before him, and the gates shall not be shut. I will go before you and humble the glorious ones of the earth; I will crush bronze gates and break iron bars. But Cyrus is interpreted heir, because this Christ is first the heir of God the Father, whose right hand the Father grasped, because he made the power of salvation in us. To him also he subjected the nations saved in the faith of the Church; he turned the backs of the kings of the world and imposed on them the burden of his commandments; he broke the bronze gates of hell and broke the bars in the barriers of sin; he went before him in great miracles, confirming and bearing witness to all the things that he did; and thus he laid low the glory of the world, and inclined the glorious and renowned in humility of spirit. This therefore is what he says: Lord, only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ.

17. [Marginal label: Christ saved powerfully, meekly, and obediently.] Lord God, Lamb of God, Son of the Father. Here the whole mode of saving is touched. He saved powerfully, meekly, and obediently. Powerfully so that he might do the work of salvation efficaciously; meekly so that he might do it praiseworthily; obediently so that our salvation might have the uncontradictable force of authority.

He touches the first through this that is said: Lord God, who is powerful to save. He touches the second through this that he says: Lamb of God, who is meek for suffering. He touches the third through this that he says: Son of the Father, who is obedient to the Father for paying the price for Adam's debt.

Lord, who are powerful; God, who are wise and providing all things: from this you will be able to save, because no strength resists the Lord, and no cunning can deceive or lie hidden from the vision of the wise one. Concerning the first we ask: Be exalted, Lord, in your power ⁷, so that you may save powerfully; and then, giving thanks, we will sing and chant your powers ⁸. But concerning wisdom it is said in Jeremiah 23:5: A king will reign and will be wise.

But he is called Lamb on account of meekness in suffering; and of God, because in the passion he was sacrificed to God. Concerning meekness it is said in Jeremiah 11:19: I am like a meek lamb that is carried to the victim. Isaiah 53:7: Like a sheep he will be led to slaughter, and he will not open his mouth. But he is a sacrifice of God, by whose blood, being marked, we are freed from the destroying Angel. This is the lamb who was sacrificed in the figure of the ram by Abraham in place of his son Isaac ⁹. This is the lamb who was slain for all the elect from the origin of the world ¹⁰. This is the lamb who according to morning was sacrificed in the members that preceded his coming, who is commanded to be sacrificed ¹¹; according to evening in himself, and in his own who are offered to God after his coming. This is the lamb who does not receive the name of lamb in vain, because lamb is said from recognizing. John 10:14 says: I know my sheep, and my sheep know me. This is the lamb whom all the little lambs follow in fleece. For this is the nature of the male lamb, that all whom he generates follow the generating lamb in the goodness of wool and fleece. And this was signified in Judges 6:36 and following, where it is read that the sign concerning the descent of dew that appeared in the fleece flowed down into the bowl and was derived to the threshing floor; for the grace that was in the deity of Christ, and the treasure of goodness, flowed down into his humanity, that is, into the bowl, and was poured out on the threshing floor, that is, in the Church. Thus therefore he is Lamb of God.

Son of the Father: in this it is shown that he obediently paid the debt for us, so that the payment might have authority and utility; if it had not had authority from obedience to the Father, it could have been rejected by the Father. But now, because it proceeded from obedience to the Father, it was acceptable to the Father. Philippians 2:8 and 9: Made obedient, namely to the Father, unto death, even the death of the cross. On account of which God also exalted him and gave him a name that is above every name. Hence, going to satisfaction, he says in Matthew 26:39: Not as I will, but as you, namely, will. For this was the refreshment of his heart, that he should perfect the will of the Father. John 4:34: My food is that I do the will of him who sent me, and perfect his work. This obedience was for him the necessity of all works and sufferings. Luke 2:49: Did you not know that it is necessary for me to be in the things that are my Father's? In these things, therefore, in our sanctifier consists the perfect mode of sanctification, so that he might perfect sanctification powerfully, wisely, patiently, and usefully.

18. [Marginal label: The work of redemption.] You who take away the sins of the world, have mercy on us. Here the work of sanctification is touched, which consists in three things, namely the operation of redemption, of gratification, and of glorification; and this is indicated by the three verses that are introduced here in order.

Now two things are touched in the first, namely the perfection of redemption and the imploring of mercy. The perfection of redemption is described in two ways, namely from the side of the redeemer and from the side of the debt from which we are redeemed.

Concerning the first he says: You who take away. And this, according to Priscian, has to be expounded as this: because you take away, that is, you have that from which you may take away, that is, remove so that it may not exist; and you have the ability to do this from this, because you have the capacity of paying an infinite good for an infinite debt, that is, the oil of anointing from which the whole debt of the widow of the prophet, that is, the Church, was paid. Proverbs 21:20: A desirable treasure and oil are in the dwelling of the just. From this treasure the widow was absolved ¹².

Sins of the world. This signifies that from which the Church is absolved. But the sin of the world is original sin, which infects the whole world through the privation of original justice. Although it was one in origin, nevertheless it has been multiplied in the vicious offspring, because it both infects all and each one in many ways; and therefore it is said in the plural, sins of the world. Psalm 50:7: Behold, I was conceived in iniquities, and in sins my mother conceived me. Wisdom 12:10 and 11: Their nation is wicked, and their malice is natural, and the thought of them could not be changed forever. For their seed was cursed from the beginning. Therefore he took away this sin by removing it when he paid Adam's debt. Genesis 31:39: Whatever perished by theft, you demanded from me. Psalm 129:7: With him there is copious redemption. Hosea 13:14: From the hand of death I will free them; from death I will redeem them. Hence John 1:29: Behold the Lamb of God, behold him who takes away the sins of the world.

The imploring of God's mercy is added when it is said: Have mercy on us, so that, namely, redemption may avail for us in that which infects us from the sin of the world. For this evil would have consumed all being born without grace, as is said in Ephesians 2:3: We were by nature children of wrath, because we would have been consumed by wrath unless the mercy of redemption had paid for us. Lamentations 3:22: The mercies of the Lord, because we have not been consumed; because his compassions have not failed. For the compassions that pay for all do not fail. Wisdom 6:8: For God, who is ruler of all, will not withdraw the person of anyone, because he himself made the small and the great, and equally he has care for all, because he paid for all.

19. [Marginal label: The work of gratification.] You who take away the sins of the world, receive our deprecation. Here the work of gratification is touched. And two things are said, namely the capacity of gratification in Christ, and the imploring that the benefit of gratification may be derived to us.

The capacity is touched when it is said: You who take away the sins of the world, that is, who have the capacity of taking away from the infinite riches of your graces. World here is taken somehow otherwise than before. For previously it was said to be the collection of the universality in the origin in which it was vitiated; but here world is said to be the very universality of multiplied human beings, and the sin of that world is actual sin, for which the blood of the Lamb also satisfied. And because actual sins are many both in all and in individuals, therefore he says: You who take away sins, etc. Hebrews 9:26: But now once at the consummation of the ages he has appeared for the destitution of sin through his sacrifice, because unless the blood of Christ intercedes, no one will be able to satisfy for his own sin. Isaiah 53:12: He himself bore the sins of many and prayed for the transgressors. 1 Peter 2:24: Who himself bore our sins in his body upon the tree; for he bore nothing except the punishment by suffering for us.

The imploring follows: Receive our deprecation. Deprecation, as Augustine says, is prayer for evils to be removed, and the sense is: Receive in your passion, by which you paid the punishment for us, our deprecation by which with heart, mouth, and work we ask that our evils be removed from us, because otherwise they cannot be removed. Psalm 62:1: Hear, O God, my prayer when I pray; rescue my soul from fear of the enemy. For what is ours is not received except in what is yours. Daniel 3:39 and 40: But may we be received in a contrite soul and a spirit of humility; as in a holocaust of rams and bulls,... so may our sacrifice be made, namely in the penance of sins, so that it may be received by you and please you, Lord. For Ambrose added this to the words of Daniel.

20. [Marginal label: The work of glorification.] You who sit at the right hand of the Father, have mercy on us. Here the work of glorification is touched. For to sit belongs to one resting after the labor of redemption; but to sit at the right hand of the highest Father belongs to one reigning, that is, in equality with the reigning Father. For he sits there in the highest and most powerful things: in the highest things for reigning, in the most powerful things for enjoying. Colossians 3:1 and 2: Where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God, savor the things that are above, not the things upon the earth. But because he ascended there to prepare a place for us, so that where he himself is we may be with him, as is said in John 14:3, therefore we implore mercy, so that we may be freed from exile and be placed with him in the kingdom, saying: Have mercy on us, with mercy taking away every misery of this exile and establishing us in eternal felicity. Hebrews 9:24: For Jesus did not enter into holy things made by hand, examples of the true things, but into heaven itself, so that he may now appear before the face of God for us. Genesis 40:14: Remember me when it will be well for you, so that you may suggest to Pharaoh that he bring me out from this prison. Psalm 141:8: Lead my soul out of custody, that I may confess your name. Job 17:3: Free me, Lord, and set me beside you.

21. [Marginal label: Holy is said in many ways.] For you alone are holy. Here the cause of those things that have been said about the Son in redeeming, gratifying, and glorifying is touched: for because he is holy, he redeems; because he is Lord, he bestowed graces. And because he is Most High, therefore he places the exalted in glory.

Therefore he says: For, as if he were saying: You take away the sins of the world because you alone are holy. And the exclusive diction that is placed there makes an exclusion with respect to essence, and not with respect to person; and therefore the Father is not excluded from holiness, nor is the Holy Spirit. For since holy has many intentions, for a thing is called holy as clean, formed, and stained with blood, it is not said of those equivocally, but through analogy to one. For holy according to the first and principal account is said of a thing stained with blood. Hence laws are sanctified by blood and are sanctioned; and what is clean from transgression of the law is clean by this holiness. And what is made firm by the pouring out of blood is confirmed. And therefore every mode of sanctification first arises from the pouring out of blood; and therefore holy is derived from sanguino, as, are. [Marginal label: The redeemer alone is called holy.] Therefore in this way our redeemer alone is called holy, because he alone confirmed the testament of redemption by his own blood. Hence Hebrews 9:22: Without the shedding of blood there is no remission. Zechariah 9:11: You also, in the blood of your testament, have sent your prisoners out of the pit in which there is no water.

Then he is also holy who alone was always, is, and will be perfectly clean. For Dionysius says that holiness is perfect cleanness free from every stain. Luke 1:35: What will be born from you will be called holy, the Son of God. Matthew 1:20: What has been born in her is from the Holy Spirit. He is also alone strong and firm, who never wavered in virtue and never yielded in temptation. Exodus 15:11: Who is like you among the strong, Lord? Who is like you, magnificent in holiness, terrible and praiseworthy, doing wonders? But a certain Philosopher says that holiness is a virtue making one know the things that are just toward God. Thus again by antonomasia he alone is holy, because, as is said in John 1:18: No one has ever seen God; the only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he himself has explained him, because he alone knew the secrets. Wisdom 10:10: He gave him the knowledge of holy things, honored him in labors, and completed his labors. Thus therefore he alone, holy, was able to redeem by blood, to cleanse by the cleanness of blood, and to overcome death by the strength of blood; and he also was able to overcome him who had the empire of death. And because he alone searches the bosom of the Father's secrets, he was able to teach and reveal the secrets of God.

You alone are Lord. And therefore he alone can gratify by conferring graces; for thus he possesses in abundance graces and virtues and riches of beautiful and good things, from which he makes us rich in every grace. John 1:16: From his fullness we have all received, and grace for grace. Zechariah 4:7: He will equal grace to his grace.

22. You alone are Most High. And therefore he alone can exalt and glorify. Psalm 8:6: You have crowned him with glory and honor, and you have established him over the works of your hands. Ecclesiasticus 15:5 and 6: The robe of glory will clothe him. He will treasure pleasantness and exultation upon him.

Jesus Christ. He always adds these names, because from them is signified to us the mutual passing-about of the natures in Christ, from which he both can and ought to save. And concerning the Savior made human it is said in Habakkuk 3:18: But I will rejoice in the Lord, and I will exult in God my Jesus. But concerning the human being deified it is said in Canticles 4:10: The scent of your ointments is above all spices.

23. [Marginal label: The Holy Spirit is the bond and agreement and love and delight of the Father and the Son.] With the Holy Spirit. Here the proper thing of the Holy Spirit is touched. And two things are touched, namely the proper thing of the person, and that which belongs to the three in unity of essence.

The proper thing of the person is touched in three things: in the preposition noting association, in the act of the person that notes spiration, and in the appropriation of the person with respect to sanctification. For the Holy Spirit is the bond and agreement and love and delight of the Father and the Son, as Augustine says. And he is the bond that connects the whole mystical body with the head. Ephesians 4:16: From whom the whole body, compacted and connected through every joint of supply, according to operation in the measure of each member, makes the increase of the body. Agreement, however, is, as Hilary says, that in which the Father and the Son agree and make us agreeing ones and exterminate schisms. 1 Corinthians 1:10: Let all of you say the same thing, and let there not be schisms among you. But the one Spirit, inspiring all, supplies the sense of this agreement. And he is the love of the Father and the Son, by which they bind us to themselves and love one another. Hosea 11:4: I will draw them in the cords of Adam, in the bonds of charity. He is the delight of the Father and the Son, by which they console us, so that we may delight in them and not in others. Psalm 36:4: Delight in the Lord, and he will give you the petitions of your heart. Therefore the relation of the preposition notes this and this sort of association.

But he is called Spirit because he breathes, namely life, and understanding of truth, and the elevation of intention toward heavenly things. Concerning the first it is said in John 6:64: It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. Concerning the second it is said in Job 32:8: As I see, the spirit is in human beings, and the inspiration of the Most High gives understanding. Concerning the third it is said in Ezekiel 1:20 and 21: For the Spirit of life was in the wheels. With those going they went, and with those standing they stood. For the wheels are hearts changeable in the service of God.

Holy: because he is the perfecter of holiness in every mode in which we spoke before. Acts 2:3: He rested over each of them.

The Holy Spirit in the symbol of the Nicene synod: "I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy Catholic Church, etc.": that is, in the Holy Spirit sanctifying the Church generally and universally.

24. [Marginal label: What does Amen signify?] In the glory of God the Father. Amen. This regards the unity of essence in the three persons. But it is said in glory because the three persons are in one and the same glory, which is the brightness of eternal radiance; yet it is called of God the Father because in the Father is the principle of the whole divinity, and the Son has from the Father that he is in glory, and the Holy Spirit has from the Father and the Son that he is in glory. Romans 11:36: From him, and through him, and in him are all things. To him be honor and glory forever. There the Gloss says that from him is said on account of the Father, who is the origin and principle not from a principle. But through him is said on account of the Son; the preposition through notes a middle cause, and thus it belongs to the Son, who is the principle from whom, with the Father, is the Holy Spirit; and he himself has this from the Father, that the Holy Spirit is from him. In him is said on account of the Holy Spirit, who is the principle from both principles, namely the Father and the Son, in whose goodness every creature is contained.

But what is added in the singular, To him be honor and glory, regards the unity of essence; and thus there is one honor of the three, and one single glory of the three. Philippians 2:11: Let every tongue confess that the Lord Jesus Christ is in the glory of God the Father.

But what is added, Amen, although sometimes it is interpreted let it be, as in the Psalm ¹³, where we have: All the people shall say: Let it be, let it be, the Hebrew speech has Amen, amen. Sometimes, however, amen is the same as truly, adverbially. John 6:32: Amen, amen, I say to you. Sometimes, however, it is the same as true, or truth. Apocalypse 3:14: Thus says the Amen, the faithful and true witness. Here, nevertheless, it is the same as true, and is the response of the unlearned person to the things that have been sung; and it is as if the people were saying: Amen, that is, what you have sung is true. 1 Corinthians 14:16: Otherwise, if you have blessed with the spirit, how will one who fills the place of the unlearned person say Amen over your blessing?

Therefore to this point the first part of the Mass is ended, which is called the Introit, and the acclamation of the people, and the consolation of the liberator in the angelic voice.