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

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50 Thomas More’s Life of John Picus
TWELVE RULES 1 OF JOHN PICUS EARL OF MIRANDULA,
PARTLY EXCITING, PARTLY DIRECTING A MAN IN
SPIRITUAL BATTLE
If We refuse the Way of Virtue for that° it is Painful, for the Like Cause
ought We to refuse the Way of Sin. 2
Whoso° to virtue esteemeth hard the way 3
Because we must have war continual
Against the world, the flesh, the devil, ⌐ that aye°
Enforce° themself to make us bond and thrall,° ¬
Let him remember that choose what may he shall
Even after the world, 4 yet must he need sustain°
Sorrow, adversity, labour, grief, and pain.
The Second Rule.
Think 5 in this wretched worldès busy woe 6
The battle more sharp and longer is I wis°
With more labour and less fruit also
In which the end of labour labour is:
⌐ And when the world hath left us after this
Void of all virtue: the reward when we die
Is nought but fire ¬ and pain perpetually. 7
7 for that because / 10 Whoso Whoever / 12 aye ever, always / 13 Enforce exert / thrall
slave / 15 sustain endure, suffer / 21 wis know
1. TWELVE RULES: Originally written in prose, Picus’ “Rules” are transformed by More into
poetry.
2. If We . . . Way of Sin: This sentence was originally a sidenote in the 1557 edition, published
after More’s death in 1535. Thus, it is an insertion by a later editor.
3. Whoso . . . the way: That is, “Whoever considers the way of virtue difficult…” The original reads:
si homini videtur dura via virtutis, “if the way of virtue seems hard to someone” (CW 1:372, 373).
4. choose . . . the world: In other words, “whatever life one chooses, even the pursuit of worldly
pleasures…” Such also is the sense of the Latin original: quamcunque elegerit vitam etiam secundum
mundum (CW 1:372).
5. Think: More’s rendering of the Latin recordetur, “let him remember” (CW 1: 372, 373). Throughout
the “Rules” More translates recordetur variously—as “think” as well as “let him remember”
(e.g., earlier in 50.14) and “consider” (as found below in 50.30). The recurrence of recordetur and
variations thereof underscores the meditative character of the “Rules.”
6. wretched . . . woe: More’s expansion of rebus mundi, “affairs of the world” (CW 1:372, 373).
7. And . . . perpetually: These three lines are More’s expansion of the Latin & tandem paena eterna,
“and, finally, eternal punishment” (CW 1:372, 373).
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