The whole — the species, age, & garb of the Angels, when they give themselves under the eyes of men — is wont to be accommodated to those matters for which [purpose] they come announced, & [as] done, as I advised on ch. 12 of Tobit, question 18. So armed, then, & martial does S. Michael now appear. First, because [he] was being sent by God to Joshua [as] the herald of the war to be begun with the Canaanites. Already had the Israelites set foot in the promised land: but [they] had to go further: everything had to be seized: the inheritance had to be vindicated from unjust possessors — not by right & by law, but by iron & by hand. To Moses, says Rupert on Joshua, chapter 18, the Lord appeared in a flame of fire from the midst of a bush: but to this [Joshua], as a warrior-man standing & holding a drawn sword, foreshowing to each [of them] figures or forms befitting the property of the [things] that were to follow — namely to that [Moses], about to do splendid miracles, [the Lord] appeared as fire, as has already been said. I have seen, [he] says, the affliction of my people in Egypt, & I have heard its cry, & I have come down to free it [Exod 3:7]; [but] to this [Joshua], soon about to do bloody wars, [he appears] holding a drawn sword. Yet lest the true heirs should tremble in [their] minds, because the multitude of the enemies was huge, [their] ferocity greatest, [with] war-engines, & apparatus of every kind, & very many sinews [of war] — this [first cause] effects that [reassurance].
Secondly: S. Michael [appears so] to show him from whom [he] was present [as] Legate — [namely] the Lord, about to bring aid to them, [and] to be present in the war, indeed even to be [there] beforehand: [and to show] that under his Leadership the enemies were to be terrified, put to flight, & cut down. With great & erect spirit, then, would they all be. For the sword drawn in [his] hand threatens the enemies with utter destruction; but to the Israelites [it] promises most-certain salvation. For to this end we read of other drawn swords also in the Scriptures: Gen. 3, v. 24, for guarding Paradise against invaders; Num. 22, v. 23 & 31, for crushing Balaam in the crooked way; 1 Paralip. [1 Chron.] 21, v. 16, for striking Jerusalem, on account of David’s fault; 2 Machabees, last [chapter], for laying low the impiety of Nicanor, & [for] well-emboldening Judas Machabeus & all his companions. Psalm 149: to execute vengeance upon the nations, chastisements among the peoples. D. Jerome, book 1 against Jovinian: Jesus [Joshua] goes forth, [and] the prince of the host, holding a sword, meets him — that is, either showing himself [ready] to fight for the circumcised people, or cutting the glue of marriages. And likewise, as [it] had been commanded to Moses, [so] to this [Joshua it] is commanded: Loose thy sandal. For the place in which thou standest is holy ground.
III. That Joshua’s virtue & undaunted mind be proved, & be made manifest to all. For when — as will better be said afterwards — Joshua was alone, & to [him] alone, so unexpectedly, so prepared for battle, so great a warrior offered himself, [Joshua] did not blanch with fear, did not cry out, did not draw back [his] foot; but with intrepid countenance & step approached that [warrior]. Thus by the Lord [were] tempted & proved Abraham, Moses, [and] others. He who has not been tempted, what does he know? Ecclus. 34, v. 9 & 11. Rightly Masius: It can be reckoned, [he] says, that this [thing] which is here presented to Joshua is nearly twin to that which had appeared to Moses in the bush. For the reasoning of each is equal, & the counsel of God in both seems to be the same: that the spirit of each Commander — in Joshua himself,
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at the very beginning of the affairs to be conducted, be at once both strengthened with sure confidence, & kept back from insolent arrogance; since they understand [that] those arduous & difficult commands which they undertake are to be carried out by God’s counsel, nod, [and] power, not by their own strength & their own prudence. But that unlike species should be brought to them [severally], the reasoning of the unlike things to be done demanded. For Joshua, who would have to move perpetually amid the enemy, saw a most-valiant man, armed with a drawn sword, opportunely present & at hand for him. But Moses — for whom [it was], not so much with armed enemies, as with a savage people’s Lord [Pharaoh]; & even with the very natural elements, in Egypt, at the sea, in the vast wilderness, [that he] had to fight & wrestle his whole life — saw the bush [as] the people. Namely, [the people] of whom [Moses] himself would be the future Commander — [that they] would survive unharmed out of the midst of the flame of calamities & hardships, but with God present, & preserving the very bush in the [midst of the] burning. For thus R. Simeon son of Iohai [bar Yochai] — a writer among the Jews ancient with the first [i.e. very ancient], & a most subtle investigator of mysteries in the book Zohar; & following him, I think, R. Levi son of Gerson [Gersonides] — interpreted that vision of Moses. IV. Again, fol. 94.
IV. [Masius again, fol. 94:] That Joshua’s spirit be fortified beforehand against arrogance in the most-prosperous future course of affairs. Than which vice men can scarcely conceive another more detestable & more hateful to God. For if the worship of false gods is held [to be] the greatest crime — as [it] is, indeed the greatest — I do not see why you would sin more gravely & more basely if you ascribe to some vain image [the things] which have proceeded from God, than if [you ascribe them] to your very self.
V. The Archangel was showing how [he] would wish to defend & protect the Church — not only that old [Church], of which Joshua [was] Leader, but also the new, of which JESUS [is] Head. Beautifully [says] the author of the Opus imperfectum, hom. 48 on Matthew: The Evangelists say that the heresies are the nations [gentes]: for just as then, when all men were one people & [one] tongue, they were divided into very many nations: so also now, when the whole Christian people was one Church & one faith, they were divided through many heresies. And thus, then, all the nations were set under the principate of the malign princes, but one nation under the principate of Michael: so also now all the heresies have been made under the principate of the demons, but one [Church] remained under the principate of CHRIST, of which [Church] he says, on account of the Church: One is my dove, my perfect one [Cant 6:9]. And Pantaleo, oration 1: That great Leader of the army is a bountiful & munificent [servant] of God. With his most-divine [Lord], & with his Co-archangel Gabriel, [he is] blessing, strengthening, filling with grace, gladdening, & adorning & bedecking the hearts of the faithful — so that [he] is mightier than all the saints. For [he] leads to the light the whole created nature that is under the sun. But all his praisers [he] eminently snatches from various straits; & those who in every place devoutly invoked him, [he] frees from dangers — both those which are seen, & those which fall under [our] understanding. [He] gladdens the Churches of the faithful & orthodox peoples, guards the Commonwealth of the Romans, arms the Christ-loving Emperor against the Barbarians, renders the Christians victors, pursues the hostile enemies, preserves his servants from the calumnies of men; frees the pious from the molestations of those who persecute [them]; snatches from the huge waves of the sea those who invoke him; supplies the fertile abundance of [the earth’s] fruits; leads those who dwell in darkness; defends those to whom injury is done; consoles those who are faint-hearted; visits the sick; goes surety for sinners, drives off the assaults of the demons, extinguishes the flame of the vices; leads us on, that we may practice holiness; & all who with faith & desire eagerly celebrate his holy & venerable feast, [he] frees from every difficulty & harmful encounter, & gives [them] saving grace,
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—[and Michael], the Prince of God’s host, always leads [us] to a petition [that is] useful, & to the way of penitence, & procures for them the remission of sins, & numbers [them] in the station of the just in the kingdom of the heavens by the grace of CHRIST the most-clement God.
The sword, indeed, which [he] holds is — the Apostle being interpreter, Ephes. 6 — the word of God. But the sword is naked [drawn], no longer hidden in the sheath of the old law, not covered over by human fabrications & errors: never thrown from the hand, never slipping away: gleaming with constant unfolding [explanatione] against the phalanxes of the heresies & of all the vices, & with use — [showing that,] whatever our vain Novators most ineptly blab, [namely] that the Gospel has hitherto lain under the bench, [Michael] now carries it in [his] hands & before [our] eyes; as if S. Michael either could not hold his sword in [his] hand longer, from weariness & weakness, or would not, from sloth & wickedness. How, then, [does] the word of God abide forever? 1 Peter 1, verse 25 [Isa 40:8].
VI. This apparition also avails to show how S. Michael is prepared to guard not only the universal Church, but also us [as] individuals. To us in this life the enemies are the Canaanites, the flesh, the world, & the demon. With naked [drawn] sword that [Michael] stands, to help us [as we are] making an assault upon them: to turn away all their appetites; & to cut them down utterly, & lay [them] low. Only let us follow that Leader, & his Angels, readily. But in the very agony of death, at the beginning of the other life, how [great] is that [Michael’s] sword our need? I said, on Tobit chapter 8, question 5, [that] to some [it] has seemed [that] swords are a horror to the demons. And even to this day the most-superstitious Jews seem to believe that — among whom, as [Ernst] relates in his Flagellum, fol. 80: “Ernst, once a Jew, now a Christian; a crone comes daily to the beds of women in childbed, who, when [she] has purified [swept] the bedchamber with certain charms, beats through all its corners with a sword, as if [she] would thus drive out or stab through all the demons.” But the true sword, at which the demons tremble — by which in this & the other age they are warded off, driven away, &, so to say, slaughtered & butchered — is that sword of Saint Michael: by which long ago [they were] driven from heaven, & forced into the foulest hiding-places; by which [they were] cast out & routed from Canaan; by which [they were], often of old & now, exterminated from the souls of very many, [and] even from the bodies of some, & grievously wounded through. Whence, applying these [things] to the second coming of CHRIST the Lord, Rupert in the cited place [says]: Secondly, [he] says, the children of Israel
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being circumcised, [he] is present, holding a drawn sword, [namely] the prince of the Lord’s host — because, that is, at our second [state], that is, [when we are] changed by the resurrection of [our] bodies, the hand of the Lord shall seize judgment, [and] as Judge (I say) of the living & the dead CHRIST the Son of God shall appear. Who also, in the Song of Deuteronomy, says of this very sword: if I whet my sword like lightning, & my hand shall seize judgment, I will render vengeance to my enemies [Deut 32:41]. Nor indeed [will] the prince of the Lord’s host [be] alone, but they too, with whom [he] shall come to judgment — the elders of his people, [as] judiciary [officers] — shall have swords in their hands. Whence also the Psalmist sings: The exultations of God in their throat, & two-edged swords in their hands [Ps 149:6]. The very nations upon which vengeance is to be executed, or the peoples among whom the chastisements are to be made, are figured by the city Jericho, of which [the text] straightway subjoins.
VII. Finally, this apparition of S. Michael proposes to us a certain mode & method of fighting. For, first, we ought to be men [viri]. From the man [vir], says Tullius [Cicero], is virtue [virtus]. Let this [virtue] be in our minds; let it be vigorous in [our] thoughts, words, & all deeds. Let us not be effeminate either through delights, or through inertia & languor, lest the old reproaches fall back upon us — concerning which the same Cicero, in book 1 On Duties [says]: For you young men bear womanish spirits. Origen advises, hom. 11 on Numbers, [that] sons rather than daughters are begotten by holy men. 2. To stand [stare] [we] likewise ought — because the military word station [statio] indicates most of all what is proper to good soldiers. Concerning which, sermon 25, S. Ambrose, & often Tertullian — most of all at the end of the book On Prayer [De Oratione], where [he] concludes with these words: If the station takes its name from a military example (for we are also God’s soldiery), assuredly no joy, or sadness, coming upon the camp, breaks off the soldiers’ stations. For joy will administer discipline more freely, sadness more anxiously. The first [thing], says S. Chrysostom on Ephes., hom. 23, of those who are set in an ordered battle-line is that they know how to stand rightly, & from that many [good things] come to pass. Therefore [he] says much about that which is standing. Elsewhere too saying, Stand, Watch. And again, so stand in the Lord. And again, he who thinks himself to stand, let him see that he fall not. And again, that, with all things laid down [and] finished, [we] stand. [He] does not, therefore, speak absolutely of some station, but of that which is rightly ordered. And those expert in military matters know how much it is to know [how] to stand. For if, among boxers, & those who wrestle, this is enjoined before other [things], namely to stand — much more in wars, & in military matters. He who stands upright, stands not routed, & dissolute, nor inclined to anything. Accurate & exact rectitude is discerned in the standing. Wherefore those who are truly upright, stand. But those who do not stand, will not have been upright, but dissolute & routed. He does not stand who lives in delights, who is wanton & lustful, who is avaricious & greedy for money, but is inclined [downward]. He who knows [how] to stand from this same station, as from a certain foundation, [will find] whatever pertain to the wrestling easy & ready. Hence the Apostle, Ephes. 6, verse 14: stand, [he] says; & verse 11: Put on the armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the snares of the Devil. He who has thus already stood will attain a station in the heavens everlasting, Psalm 23 [24], verse 3. And since the impious will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the counsel of the just, Psalm 1, verse 5 — [the just man] will himself stand always, oppressed by no anguish, afflicted by no solicitude.
3. The sword also is necessary to us — & that both ours, & drawn from the sheath, & in our hands. The sword, as the Apostle taught us above, is the word of God, which becomes ours when, through faith & the true obedience of our life, we apply it to ourselves. [It] is drawn from the sheath when we do not hold its knowledge & science shut & hidden, [nor] reserve [it] for ourselves alone, & our chambers & books, but bring [it] forth for the glory of God & the utility of [our] neighbor — so that the Canaanite [hosts] of heresies, & the ranks of the vices, may be unstrung with dread & fear, driven into flight, [and] slain with utter slaughter [occidione occidantur]: [and] on the contrary [that] the true Israel be defended, [that] the true & Catholic faith conquer, [and that] everywhere holy discipline of morals, chastity, piety, charity, [and] innocence may triumph. But truly indeed this saving sword ought not to be drawn forth by tongue & word only, but much more to be held by hand & work [deed], as S. Chrysostom excellently teaches, hom. 3 & 5 on 1 Corinthians. Cassian, [under]
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—Cassian [says the like], toward the end of the last Conference; S. Brigid, book 6, ch. 15; Maximus of Tyre, oration 15; Seneca, epistle 20 — which is the first of book 3 — where [he speaks] thus: Philosophy teaches to do, not to speak; & it exacts this, that each live by his own law, that [his] life not dissent from [his] speech, [and] that [his] life itself be, within itself, of one color, without the dissension of all [its] actions. This [is] indeed always [necessary], but with these times of so many raging errors & crimes [it is] most necessary. Since with the sword [there] be present the whole panoply which the Apostle enjoins, Ephes. 6, v. 11 & following: Put on the armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the snares of the Devil, since for us the wrestling is not against flesh & blood, but against the principalities & powers, against the rulers of the world of these darknesses, against the spiritual [hosts] of wickedness in the heavenly [places]. Therefore take up the armor of God, that, being placed [in it], you may resist in the evil day, & in all things stand perfect. Stand, therefore, having girt your loins in truth, & put on the breastplate of justice, & shod your feet in the preparation of the Gospel of peace; in all [things] taking up the shield of faith, in which you may extinguish all the fiery darts of the most-wicked one. And take up the helmet of salvation, & the sword of the Spirit (which is the word of God).
Lastly, if anyone should say — [i.e.] should think this Angelic apparition [to be] the sketched image of that Angel who appeared to CHRIST the Lord as [he was] entering the last agony with death, Luke 22, verse 43 — [that person] would be deceived.
(Translator’s note: the book prints “QVÆSTIO XLVII” again here, duplicating the number of the preceding question; by content-sequence this is the forty-eighth question. From here the printed question-numbers run one behind the true count.)