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

Honour
Riches
[94]
42 Thomas More’s Life of John Picus
honours which therefore lift us up that they might throw us down;
how deadly these riches which the more they feed us the more they
poison us; how short, how uncertain, how shadow-like, false, imaginary
it is that all these things together may bring us, an though they flow
to us as we would wish them. Remember again how great things be
promised and prepared for them which, despising these present things,
desire and long for that country whose king is the Godhead, whose
law is charity, whose measure is eternity. Occupy thy mind with these
meditations and such other that may waken thee when thou sleepest,
kindle thee when thou waxest cold, confirm thee when thou waverest,
and exhibit the wings of the love of God while thou labourest
to heavenward, that when thou comest home to us (which with great
desire we look for) we may see not only him that we covet but also
such a manner one 1 as we covet. Farewell, and love God, Whom of
old thou hast begun to fear.¦ At Ferrara, the second day of July, ⌐ the
year of our Redemption, ¬ 1492.
⌐ The Interpretation of John Picus upon this Psalm, “Conserva Me Domine.”–
Conserva me Domine quoniam speravi in te. Dixi Domino: Deus meus es Tu,
quoniam bonorum meorum non eges. Sanctis qui sunt in terra ejus mirificavit
voluntates suas. Multiplicatae sunt infirmitates eorum postea acceleraverunt. Non
congregabo conventicula eorum de sanguinibus: nec memor ero nominum eorum
per labia mea. Dominus pars hereditatis meae et calicis mei: tu es qui restitues
hereditatem meam mihi. Funes ceciderunt mihi in praeclaris: etenim hereditas mea
praeclara est mihi. Benedicam Dominum qui tribuit mihi intellectum: insuper et
usque ad noctem increpuerunt me renes mei. Providebam Dominum in conspectu
meo semper, quoniam a dextris est mihi ne commovear. Propter hoc laetatum est cor
meum et exultavit lingua mea, insuper et caro mea requiescet in spe. Quoniam non
derelinques animam meam in inferno: nec dabis sanctum tuum videre corruptionem.
Notas mihi fecisti vias vitae : adimplebis me laetitia cum vultu tuo. Delectationes
in dextera tua usque in finem. ¬2
¦15 More omits Bigus te salutat, “Bigo sends you greetings” (CW 1:362, 363).
1. him…one: In these two cases where More has the third person, the Latin original has the
second (CW 1:362).
2. “This commentary on Psalm 15 (as it is in the Vulgate) is the only part of Picus’ commentary
on the Psalms to be printed in his Opera omnia…. More’s translation is also the first printing in
English of a psalm commentary. Indeed, such commentaries in Middle English are relatively
rare…” (CW 1:239).
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