life of john picus earl of mirandola - The Center for Thomas More ...

A constant faith
[72]
What cause should
make us willing and
glad to die
22 Thomas More’s Life of John Picus
Godhead was before all time begotten of His Father, to Whom He is
also equal in all things, and Which of the Holy Ghost, God also, of
Him and of the Father coeternally 1 going forth (which three Persons
be one God) was in the chaste womb of our Lady, a perpetual virgin,
conceived in time; Which suffered hunger, thirst, heat, ⌐ cold, ¬ labour,
travail, and watch; 2 and Which at the last for washing of our spotty sin
contracted and drawn unto us in the sin of Adam,¦ for the sovereign
love that He had to mankind, in the altar of the cross willingly and
gladly shed out His most precious blood:–when the priest inquired
of him these things and such other as they be wont to inquire of folk
in such case, Picus answered him that he not only believed it but also
certainly knew it.¦ When that one Albertus,¦ his sister’s son, 3 a young
man both of wit, cunning, and conditions excellent, began to comfort
him against death and by natural reason¦ to show him why it was not to
be feared but strongly to be taken as that only thing which maketh an
end of all the labour, pain, trouble, and sorrow of this short, miserable,
⌐ deadly ¬ life, he answered that this was not the chief thing that should
make him content to die, because the death determineth the manifold
incommodities and painful wretchedness of this life; but rather this
cause should make him not content only but also glad to die, for that
death maketh an end of sin, inasmuch as he trusted the shortness of
his life should leave him no space to sin and offend. He asked also all
his servants’ forgiveness if he had ever before that day offended any of
them;–for whom he had provided by his testament eight years 4 before:
for some of them meat and drink,¦ for some money, each of them
after their deserving. 5 ¦ He showed also to the above-named Albertus
¦ 7 More omits proque reseranda ianua coeli, “and to open the gates of heaven” (CW 1:330, 331).
/ 12 More omits Et item illud, “And likewise the following” (CW 1:332, 333). / More omits
quem nominavimus inter huius vitae initia, “whom we mentioned at the beginning of this Life” (CW
1:332, 333). / 14 More omits Gianfrancesco’s claim that Alberto employs the same argument
here as that set forth by Alexander of Aphrodisias and Themistius as well as Averroes; he also
omits Gianfrancesco’s inquam, “I say” (CW 1:332, 333). / 25 More omits & tegumentum, “and
clothing” (CW 1:332, 333). / 26 More omits Et illud praeterea, “And moreover the following
incident” (CW 1:332, 333).
1. coeternally: This usage in the sense of “with equal eternity” antedates the earliest recorded in
OED (s.v. coeternally adv.).
2. hunger…watch: More changes the Latin word order and translates labores twice (CW 1:225).
3. his sister’s son: Alberto was the son of Caterina, Picus’ eldest sister.
4. eight years: “A mistranslation of the Latin ‘ante acto anno’…, presumably either because More
misread ‘acto’ as ‘octo’ or because there was such an error in More’s Latin text. Picus’ will was
actually dated September 1, 1493” (CW 1:225).
5. He asked…their deserving: This passage does not come until later in the Latin original (in the same
paragraph, following “…the heavens open”). In this passage, More omits certiores facti sumus, “we
were truly informed that” (CW 1:332, 333).
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