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

Handwritten marginalia in Latin, likely in a humanist cursive hand.
pho? sepriany?

A bundle of myrrh

Obrer? da? roms?

The little ones of Babylon

A hand-drawn sketch in the left margin depicts a stylized plant or branch with leaves, possibly representing a palm or myrrh branch.

Handwritten marginalia
The little ones of Babylon?

we shall find that it does not fit in the least; and if, in the second, it will immediately expel the pernicious thoughts by itself. For, established by long possession and most strongly strengthened by constant exercise, and placed, as it were, on a royal throne, it will not allow the mind to be led astray by external and adventitious illusions. We have commented on this as philosophers; but what shall we say as Christian philosophers? Surely, we should not doubt that Christ will not permit Sathanas Satan to mock the mind that exercises itself in contemplating his passion. That mind, with Solomon in the Song of Songs Canticorum Canticis, has often sung that verse: "My beloved is to me a bundle of myrrh, he shall abide between my breasts." But the matter we are pursuing will also be more conveniently and readily clarified if we consider the objects of those powers of the soul from which we said vices have their origin. The object of the sensory appetite is a particular good; the object of the will is the universal good; the object of reason is the truth. For it is the same power as the intellect, but one acts in a fixed manner, the other in a mobile manner. Therefore, if we retain Christ both in the superior part of the soul and in the imagination—since he himself is the best of particular goods, and he is the same universal good as God is, and also the truth itself—it will happen that the sensory appetite and the will will reject the false good that offers itself to be desired, and reason, wandering to perceive intellectual truth, will not go astray. For the defect of the due rule is easily repaired with the help of healed reason, and because of the constant imagination of Christ, it rejects the good that appears to the purified internal senses. And likewise, it is rejected by the will, by whose consent sin is completed. And thus we cut off and crush the heads of sins before they are perfected, most steadfastly obeying the Psalmigraphus Psalmist, who warned us to dash the little ones of Babylon against the rock.

That the thought or imagination of the crucified Christ is the seminary of all virtues. Chapter 9.

Since it is most certain that Christ is the head of the church and that all virtues, and whatever perfection can be desired both in our nature and grace, have been conferred upon him even while he carried a body subject to death by his own will, it follows that just as members lose their strength and die when the head is removed, so we who are the mystical members of the head, Christ, languish when that is lost, and we die spiritually. And just as through the benefit of the head, virtues are transmitted to the rest of the body—just as from the higher and more dominant part where Galenus Galen placed the seat of the mind, and before him the Latin Varro Varro, who, writing to Cicero, says that it was given this name because the senses and nerves take their beginning from there—in no other way do we obtain whatever perfection and virtue resides and appears in us through the help of Christ. We are able, however (even though we are distracted from the head by our own demerits), to be joined to him again by intervening grace, if we do not resist the Holy Spirit, and if we come to the head itself with the greatest speed we can. We do not go there with fleshly feet or by moving our limbs, but with internal and pious affections, and especially by the constant contemplation of his most bitter death for the sake of our salvation. By this, we are rendered as if conformed to him and, hearing in some part the evangelical precept, we carry the cross—if not our own entirely, then at least Christ's, with Simon the Cyrenaean Cyrenaeo. If we do not sustain it by works, exiles, prisons, or swords, we do so by pious affection, by suffering internally, lest we consign this most stupendous mystery—which is above the grasp of all minds—to ungrateful oblivion. By performing this duty, we are rendered fit to participate in those graces and virtues that are in him, since his soul pours into our souls and his body into our bodies those virtues of which we were capable, as Thomas Aquinas explains in the final part of his Summa Theologica Theological Summa. From this, it also happens that we are disposed to acquire all virtues, even in one moment, if we retain Christ in our minds. For just as to Christ the man, because of the union of the divine nature with the human, all virtues and all grace are granted, so the virtues of Christ are derived into us according to our capacity, if we are joined to him through tireless meditation and the intimate affection of love. And there is no need for many labors to accomplish this; it is not necessary to go to the Indians, nor to search the Erythraean shores. We can find him wherever we are. Indeed, we are borne toward him by a certain natural movement, unless a perverse will