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

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Twelve Weapons of Spiritual Battle
The death at our hand° and unaware.
The fear of impenitent departing. 1
Eternal joy, 2 eternal pain.
The nature and dignity 3 of man.
The peace of a good mind.
The ⌐ great ¬ benefits of God.
The ⌐ painful ¬ cross of Christ.
The witness of martyrs and example of saints.
⌐ The Twelve Weapons have we more 4 at length Declared as Followetb.
The Pleasure Little and Short.
Consider well the pleasure that thou hast,
Stand it in touching or in wanton sight,
In vain smell or in thy licorous° taste,
Or finally, in whatsoever delight
Occupied is thy wretched appetite:
Thou shalt it find, when thou hast all cast°,
Little, simple, short and suddenly past.
The Followers Grief and Heaviness.
Any good work if thou with labour do,
The labour goeth, the goodness doth remain:
If thou do evil with pleasure joined thereto,
The pleasure which thine evil work doth contain
Glideth 5 his way, thou must him not restrain:
The evil then in thy breast cleaveth behind
With grudge of heart and heaviness of mind.
1 at our hand imminent, looming / 16 licorous greedy, lecherous / 19 cast considered, reckoned
1. The fear . . . departing: The Latin is Suspitio impaenitentiae, “The suspicion that you will not repent”
(CW 1:376, 377).
2. joy: The Latin is praemium, “reward” (CW 1:376, 377).
3. nature and dignity: More reverses the order of the Latin dignitas & natura (CW 1:376).
4. we more: Campbell and Reed point out a possible play on words—“We More” (EW 386).
5. Glideth: The OED lists this as the earliest recorded usage in the sense of “slip away” or “elude
one’s grasp” (s.v. glide v. 5b).
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