Worm

WORM, Vermis, Vermiculus. When the Scripture would represent to us the Meanness and Weakness of human Nature, it compares it to a Worm of the Earth, because indeed nothing in the World is found to be more contemptible Psal. xxii. 6. Isai. xli. 14.than this Creature. I am a worm, and no man, a reproach of men, and despised of the people. Words which the Son of God has applied to himself, to express the State of Humiliation to which he was reduced. Fear not, thou worm Jacob, ye Hebrews, that are humbled as the Worms of the Earth; Noli timere vermis Jacob.

The Worm of the damned dies not, Isai. lxvi. 24. Mark ix. 43, 45.says our Saviour, after Isaiah; and the Fire that burns them shall never be quenched. See what is before said on the Article FIRE.

These Expressions of a Worm that gnaws and never dies, are taken from Carrion exposed to the Birds of the Air, and to Worms and Maggots; which is sometimes consumed by Fire, for preventing the Stench and Corruption of the Air: Eccles. vii. 19.Vindicta carnis impii, ignis & vermis.

No one has any Doubt about the Worms and the Fire that consume Carrion and Carcasses that are exposed; but there are great Disputes, about the Nature of that Worm that gnaws the Damned. Origen thought,¹ that this was only a metaphorical Fire. St. Ambrose² expressly denies, that this Worm is real and corporeal. He maintains, that it is only Remorse of Conscience, which gives the Sinner no Respite: Neque vermis est corporalis ---vermis est, eo quod animæ peccata mentem rei rei sensumque compungunt, & quædam excedunt viscera conscientiæ. St. Jerome acknowledges,³ that it is the Opinion of many, that this Worm consists only in the gnawing of the Conscience. Thomas Aquinas⁴ has embraced this Opinion, and has been followed by several of the Schoolmen.

But St. Austin,⁵ having carefully examined both these Sentiments, and weighed the Reasons that are brought on both sides, without condemning those who believe the Flames to signify only the acute Pains of the Damned; declares himself however at last for that Opinion which holds that both are real and corporal: Ergo tamen facilius est ut ad corpus dicam utrumque pertinere, quam neutrum. St. Chrysostom, Cyril of Alexandria, Theophylact, Prosper, in his third Book of the Contemplative Life, Anselm, Hugh of St. Victor, declare themselves to be of the same Opinion. St. Bernard,⁶ in his Books of Consideration, expresses himself in a manner that is favourable to each Sentiment. He observes plainly, that this Worm is Remorse of Conscience; but at the same time he speaks of its biting, and of its nourishment, as of a thing real and sensible. He says, speaking of an evil Conscience; Hic est vermis qui non moritur, memoria præteritorum, semel injectus vel potius innatus, per peccatum, hæsit firmiter, nequaquam deinceps evellendus, nec cessat rodere conscientiam, eáque pastus, escâ utique inconsumptibili, perpetuat vitam. Horreo vermem mordacem, & mortem vivacem.

It must be confessed, that it is not easy to comprehend how a Worm can act upon a Soul separate from the Body; but is it impossible for God to effect, that in the Presence of a Worm, immortal and insatiable, the Soul should be afflicted and tormented, as it would be if this Worm was to act upon a Body to which it was united by the Will of the Creator? The Action of the Body upon the Soul, which animates it, is not more immediate than what might be, by the Will of God, the Action of a Worm upon a Soul, which deserves that God should make it suffer the Torment of a Worm always gnawing, always living, always greedy, and never satisfied.

Vermiculus is taken for Scarlet. Moses often makes use of this Term in his Enumeration of the Stuffs and Colours employed in making the Veils of the Tabernacle of the Covenant. The Hebrew Isai. i. 18.Words Tolahat Shani, which the Vulgate has translated by Coccum bis tinctum, or Vermiculum, and which the Septuagint⁷ have rendered by a Colour red as Scarlet, properly signifies the Worm of the Coccus. Tolahat certainly signifies a Worm, and Shani a particular Worm; as if it were said, the Worm called Shani. Tolahat alone can only denote a Worm in general; but Shani, even alone, signifies a deep red Colour. Tho’ your Sins were as Scarlet, (the Shanim) yet they should become as white as Snow, says Isaiah. And the Cant. vi. 3.Spouse in the Canticles says to his Spouse, Thy Lips are like a Thread of Scarlet, of Shani.

As the Word Shani may signify two, or double,⁸ St. Jerome, in some Passages has taken it for Wool twice dyed, Coccum bis tinctum: And the Septuagint, for a Stuff of two Threads; but it is better to understand it of the Worm called in Latin, Coccus, and in Arabic, Kermes, or Karmes; whence comes the Word Crimson, because they make use of these little Worms to dye this Colour. The Kermes, or Coccus, is a small round Shell, membranous, thin, smooth, and shining; of a reddish brown Colour, mixed with a whitish Ash-Colour, about a quarter of an Inch Diameter, generally divided into two equal Cavities, the greatest of which is full of an almost infinite number of little oval Eggs, very red, or Vermillion; and the smaller Cavity is full of a kind of Liquor which is red likewise, and not much different from Blood. This Cod or Shell grows upon a kind of green Oak, that grows only to the Height of a Shrub.

These Shrubs are found in Palestine, in Provence, in Languedoc, in Spain, in the Isle of Crete, and elsewhere.⁹ They loosen these Cods or Shells from the Leaves to which they are fastened, and the Worms of which they are full come out of the Hole made by taking them from the Leaf; they separate these little Animals from the Shells with a Sieve, and put them together by pressing them lightly, and make them into Balls of the Bigness of a Pullets Egg. They were formerly much used for the dying of Crimson; but they are now not so much in use, since the Invention of Cochineel. The Original of the Kermes is from a kind of Gnat or Worm, biting the green Oak to receive its Nourishment from it, and making there a kind of Blister, or Bladder, in which it lays its Eggs, which become red as we have before described. Then, if they have time enough, they hatch, and produce a prodigious quantity of little Gnats of a red Colour, which creeping here and there upon the Shrub, that supplied the place of a Matrix to them, they leave thereon against the Year following the Rudiments of those Grains or Pods we mentioned before.

Vermiculatus is found in the Canticles i. 10. Murenulas aureas faciemus tibi vermiculatas argento. We will make you Bracelets of Gold spotted with Silver; according to the Letter, worm-eaten with Silver. For Vermiculari signifies to be worm-eaten; and in a figurative Sense, to be inlaid, studded, spangled, or spotted. The Hebrew has it,¹⁰ Collars of Gold, with Holes of Silver; or, Borders of Gold, with Studs of Silver: The Septuagint, We will make you Figures with Points of Silver. St. Jerome,¹¹ in his Letter to Marcella, a Roman Lady, describes those Collars called Murenulæ. He says, they were made of Silver Threads or Rings, interwove one within another. They probably gave them the Name of the Muræna, or Lamprey, because of the Variety of Colours, and the Holes or Eyes that were represented thereon, as we see upon the back of a Lamprey.

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