"For whoever wants to save his life will lose it,
but whoever loses his life for me will save it." Luke 9:24
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Content Book 3
Warnings and instructions to the bishop
about how to eat and dress and pray,
and about how he should behave before meals,
at meals, and after meals, and likewise about his sleep
and how he should carry out the office of bishop
always and everywhere.
The Virgin's words to her daughter
about the opportune solution to the difficulties
meeting the bishop on the narrow path,
and about how patience is symbolized by clothing
and the Ten Commandments by ten fingers,
and the longing for eternity and the distaste for worldliness
by two feet, and about three enemies
to the bishop along his way.
A complete explanation to the bishop
from the Virgin about how he should exercise
his episcopal office in order to give glory to God,
and about the double reward for having held
the rank of bishop in a true way and about the double disgrace
for having held it in a false way,
and about how Jesus Christ and all the saints
welcome a true and up right bishop.
The Mother's words to her daughter about
the covetousness of bad bishops;
she explains in a long parable that many persons
through their good intentions attain the spiritual rank
that intemperate bishops reject despite having been called
to it in a physical sense.
Ambrose's words to the bride about the prayer
of good persons for the people; rulers of the world
and the church are compared to helmsmen,
while pride and the rest of the vices are compared to storms,
and the passage into truth is compared to a haven;
also, about the bride's spiritual calling.
Ambrose's words to the bride offering
an allegory about a man, his wife and his housemaid,
and about how this adulterer symbolizes a wicked bishop
while his wife symbolizes the church
and his housemaid the love of this world,
and about the harsh sentence on those more attached
to the world than to the church.
The Virgin's words to the bride
comparing a world-loving bishop to a bellows
full of air or to a snail lying in filth,
and about the sentence dealt out to such a bishop
who is the very opposite of Bishop Ambrose.
The Virgin's words to the bride
about her own perfection and excellence,
and about the inordinate desires of modern teachers
and about their false reply to the question
asked them by the glorious Virgin.
The Virgin's words to the bride
about how those who can see and hear and so forth
escape dangers by virtue of the sunlight and so forth,
but dangers befall those who are blind
and deaf and so forth.
The Virgin speaks to her daughter,
offering assurance about the words spoken to her;
and about the danger and approaching collapse of the church,
and about how, unfortunately, the overseers of the church
largely devote themselves nowadays to a life
of debauchery and greed and waste the goods of the church
in their pride, and about how the wrath of God
is aroused against such as these.
The bride's trusting words to Christ,
and about how John the Baptist offers assurance
to the bride that Christ speaks to her,
and about the happiness of the good rich man,
and about how an imprudent bishop is compared to a monkey
because of his foolishness and wicked life.
The bride speaks to Christ, pouring forth prayers
for the bishop mentioned above, and about the answers
that Christ, the Virgin, and Saint Agnes gave to the bride.
The Mother's words to the daughter
in which the words and deeds of Christ
are explained and wonderfully described as a treasure,
his divine nature as a castle, sin as bars, virtues as walls,
and the beauty of the world and the delight of friendship
as two moats, and about how a bishop ought to behave
with respect to the care of souls.
The Mother's words to her daughter,
using a marvelous comparison to describe a certain bishop,
likening the bishop to a butterfly,
his humility and pride to its two wings,
the three facades covering up the vices of the bishop
to the insect's three colors, his deeds to the thickness of its coloring,
his double will to the butterfly's two feelers,
his greed to its mouth, his puny love to its puny body.
The Mother's words to her daughter in which
another such bishop is allegorically described as a gadfly,
his wordy eloquence as flying, his two concerns as two wings,
his flattery of the world as a sting;
and about the Virgin's amazement at the life
of these two bishops; also, about preachers.
The Son's explanation to the bride that the damnation
of souls does not please God; also, about the
astonishing questions of the younger bishop to the older bishop,
and about the answers of the older bishop
to the younger one.
The Virgin's words to her daughter
praising the life and order of St. Dominic,
and about how he turned to the Virgin
at the hour of his death, and about how in modern times
few of his friars live by the sign of Christ's passion
given them by Dominic, but many of them live by the mark
of incision given them by the devil.
The Mother's words to her daughter
about how friars would now listen and in fact do listen
sooner to the devil's voice than to that of their father Dominic,
about how few of them follow in his footsteps now,
about how those seeking the episcopate for worldly honor
and for their own comfort and freedom do not belong
to the rule of St. Dominic, about the terrible condemnation of such men,
and about the condemnation
experienced for one such episcopate.
The bride's reply to Christ about how
she is afflicted by various useless thoughts,
and about how she cannot get rid of them,
and Christ's reply to the bride about why God permits this,
and about the usefulness of such thoughts and fears
with respect to her reward, provided she detests
the thoughts and has a prudent fear of God,
and about how she should not make light of
venial sin lest it lead to mortal sin.
The Mother's words to the daughter
about how the talent represents the gifts of the Holy Spirit,
and about how St. Benedict added to the gifts
of the Holy Spirit given to him, and about how the Holy Spirit
or the demonic spirit enters the human soul.
The Mother's words to her daughter,
showing the greatness and perfection of the life
of St. Benedict by means of a comparison;
also, the soul that bears worldly fruit is represented
as a fruitless tree, the pride of mind as flint,
and the cold soul as crystal; and about three noteworthy sparks
arising from these three things,
i.e., from the crystal, the flint, and the tree.
The Mother's words to her daughter about a monk
with a harlot's heart in his breast,
and about how he apostatized from God through
his own will and greed and his desertion
of the angelic life.
The answer of God the Father
to the bride's prayers for sinners,
and about three witnesses on earth and three in heaven,
and about how the whole Trinity bears witness to the bride,
and about how she is his bride through faith,
like all those who follow the orthodox faith
of the holy church.
To the prayers of the bride for infidels,
Jesus Christ replies that God is glorified
through the evil of evil men, although not
by their own power and volition; he illustrates this for her
by means of an allegory in which a maiden represents
the church or the soul and her nine brothers represent
the nine orders of angels, the king represents Christ,
while his three sons represent the three states of mankind.
The Mother's lament to her daughter that
the most innocent lamb, Jesus Christ,
is neglected by his creatures in modern times.
Christ's explanation to the bride
of the ineffable mystery of the Trinity,
and about how diabolical sinners obtain God's mercy
through contrition and a will to improve,
and his response as to how he has mercy on everyone,
both Jews and others, and about the double judgment,
that is, the sentence for those who are to be condemned
and for those who are to be saved.
The bride's prayer to the Lord for Rome,
and about the vast multitude of holy martyrs resting in Rome,
and about the three degrees of Christian perfection,
and about a vision of hers and how Christ appears to her
and expounds and explains the vision to her.
The Virgin instructs the bride about knowing
how to love and about four cities where four loves are found
and about which of these is
properly called perfect love.
The bride's praise for the Virgin containing
an allegory about Solomon's temple
and the unexplainable truth of the unity
of the divine and human natures, and about how the temples
of priests are painted with vanity.
Saint Agnes's words to the bride
about the love the bride should have for the Virgin,
using the metaphor of flowers, and the glorious Virgin's description
of God's boundless and everlasting kindness
as compared to our lack of kindness and ingratitude,
and about how the friends of God should not
lose their peace in the midst of hardship.
Christ's words to the bride offering
the admirable allegory of a doctor and king,
and about how the doctor symbolizes Christ,
and about how those whom people think will be condemned
are frequently saved while those whom people
or worldly opinion think will be saved are condemned.
The Virgin's words to the bride that show
in an allegory how God the Father chose her
from among the saints to be his mother
and the port of salvation.
The Son's words to the bride showing
through the example of two men how he judges
by the interior and not by the exterior.
The Mother's words to her daughter
symbolizing the soul by a ring and the body by a cloth,
and about how the soul should be purified through
discretion and the body should be cleansed
but not killed by abstinence.