Three Books on the Death of Christ and Self-Reflection, and Two Books on the Study of Divine and Human Philosophy

He revealed to the world the end of the ancient law, which had not been fully disclosed before, having parted the shadows and veils, teaching that the highest Trinity consists of three persons

Trinity
Law

in the unity of the divine essence. It will be granted to the most purified minds both to behold and to possess this Trinity. He taught that two things are necessary to attain this: the love of God and of one's neighbor, upon which the whole law hangs, and from which, as from a perennial fountain, the streams of all good works flow. But as others have devised various things for their own benefit and taught others so that these two things could be more easily and abundantly attained, and as I pondered and meditated on the same, it became clear to me, first through the warnings of my uncle, Giovanni Pico, and then by experience, that this has the greatest power: if we were to constantly recall the death of Christ to memory, and were to think from time to time of our own death, which is to come and arrives with very swift speed. We deemed it worthy to insinuate this same thing to others, thinking that those things which are good in themselves and have contributed many aids to some cannot fail to please men of sound mind if they are made public, nor can it fail to displease them if they remain silent. A clear reason also supports us, since from one, true love is born, than which no force in man is more powerful; from the other, fear, than which no force is more restraining. These two are especially necessary for us, since after the sin of the first parent, the human mind is snatched and torn here and there by the sensory part, which always desires the fuel of corrupt nature against the spirit. This sensory part is divided into appetite, to which love belongs, and irascibility, to which fear belongs. The primary affection is that. Since these are brutish and devoid of reason, and are deceived in an extraordinary way, it seems opportune, nay necessary, that they be restrained by two bridles, as it were. Therefore, I judged that to check the petulance and unbridled lust of the one, and the savagery and ferocity of the other, one must propose what is to be loved, and to the other, what is to be feared, so that neither may the one desire something harmful for the sake of the wholesome, nor may the other dread the good as if it were evil, but rather, with equal concord, may they serve and obey reason. Therefore, we have destined three books to this purpose: in the first, we will show that it is most profitable that the soul meditate on Christ crucified, and that it set him as a pattern for itself by which it may direct all its works, lest it go astray in its desiring. In the second, this same thing

1 / 8
Death of Christ
Death of self

Love
Fear

Sensibility
Appetite
Irascibility

Partition