[Rationale divinorum officiorum]

We must examine the divine scriptures in ethics according to the letter. Secondly, according to allegory, that is, the spiritual understanding. Thirdly, according to the blessedness of the future. Historia History is the signification of things according to the deed, namely, how each thing is done literally, referring in plain speech to how the Israelite people are narrated to have made the tabernacle for the Lord after being saved from Egypt. And it is called history from histrion actor, which means to gesticulate; thus, actors are called gesticulators, as if they were historiones tellers of history.

Allegoria Allegory is when one thing sounds in the letter and another in the spirit, as when through one deed another is understood. If that thing is visible, it is simply allegory; if it is invisible and heavenly, then it is called anagoge leading upward. It is also allegory when, through strange speech, a strange state is signified, as when the presence of Christ or the sacraments of the Church are signified by words or mystical things. For example: "A rod shall go forth from the root of Jesse," which clearly sounds like the birth of the Virgin Mary from the lineage of David, who was the son of Jesse. By mystical words, as when through the people freed from Egyptian servitude by the blood of the lamb, the Church is signified as being snatched from demonic servitude by the passion of Christ. And it is called allegory from aleon Greek for "strange" and gore Greek for "sense", as if to say "strange sense."

Tropologia Tropology is the conversion to morals, or moral speech looking towards correction and the reformation of customs, either mystically or openly. Mystically, as in: "At all times let your garments be white and let oil not depart from your head," that is, let your works be clean and let charity never depart from your mind. And there: "It is necessary that David slay Goliath in us," that is, humility slaying pride. Openly, as in: "Break your bread for the hungry," and there: "Let us not love in tongue nor in word, but in deed and in truth." Moreover, it is called tropology from tropos conversion and logos speech, as if to say "converted speech."

Anagoge Anagoge is said to be from ana upward and goge leading, as if to say "leading upward." Whence the anagogic sense is called that which leads from visible things to invisible, as the light made on the first day signifies an invisible thing, that is, the angelic nature made in the beginning. Anagoge, therefore, is the sense of locutions leading to higher or heavenly things, namely, to the Trinity, to the orders of angels, and concerning the future reward and the future life which is in heaven, argued by either clear or mystical words: clearly, as in: "Blessed are the clean of heart, for they shall see God"; mystically, as in: "Blessed are those who wash their stoles, etc., that they may have power in the tree of life and enter through the gates into the city," which clearly sounds like: "Blessed are those who cleanse their thoughts, that they may have power to see God, who is the way, the truth, and the life, and through doctrine—that is, the example of the fathers—may enter into the kingdom of heaven."

Similarly, Iherusalem Jerusalem is understood historically as that earthly city which pilgrims seek; allegorically, the militant Church; tropologically, every faithful soul; anagogically, the heavenly Jerusalem or homeland. Other examples of these can be seen in the lessons which are said on Holy Saturday, as it is said there in the sixth lesson: "In this..."

"...work, often different senses are applied to the same thing, and one passes from one sense to another, as the diligent reader will be able to see clearly. For just as no one is prohibited from using different exceptions or defenses, so too [no one is prohibited] from using different expositions for the praise of God, provided the faith is safe. However, it must be confessed that a variety of multiple rites is found in divine worship. Almost every church has its own observances and abounds in its own sense. Nor is it considered reprehensible or absurd to venerate God and His saints with various harmonies or modulations and different observances, since the Church Triumphant itself is surrounded by the variety of the prophets, and in the administration of the ecclesiastical sacraments themselves, variety might be removed by the right of custom. Whence, according to Augustine, we have received some things of ecclesiastical institutions in the divine office in the scriptures, some confirmed by apostolic tradition or writings by successors, and others which, although their institution is unknown, are approved by the use of custom, by which rite or observance is due. Therefore, the reader’s mind should not be moved if perhaps in this little work he reads what he does not know to be observed in his own church, or does not find whatever is kept there. For we do not follow the special customs of every single place, but the common and more usual rites. We do not labor to hand down common knowledge for a particular place, nor would it be possible for us to search out the particulars of every place. It is decreed, therefore, for the salvation of our soul and for the utility of reading, to inscribe and direct the secret mysteries of the divine offices here in a clear style, as it will be possible, and to elucidate and explain to the marrow those things which have seemed necessary to ecclesiastical men through the intelligence of daily use, just as we are known to have acted faithfully long ago regarding those things which concern secular judgments in the Speculum Iudiciale Judicial Mirror, though established in a different state.

Nevertheless, one must diligently consider that there are many customary observances regarding divine offices themselves which refer to neither a moral nor a mystical understanding by institution. But they are known to have been adopted, some because of necessity, some because of the difference between the Old and New Law, some because of their convenience, and some because of the greater celebration and reverence of the offices themselves. Whence, as blessed Augustine says: "Such things are varied in countless ways by the diverse customs of different places, so that the reasons which men have followed in establishing them can scarcely or never be found." Indeed, this book is described by the name Rationale Reason/Justification. For just as in the rational of judgment which the high priest of the Law wore upon his breast, there was manifestation and truth, so here the reasons for the varieties in divine offices and their truth are described and manifested, which prelates and priests of the Church ought to faithfully observe in the shrine of their breast. And just as there was a stone in that, in whose splendor the sons of Israel acknowledged that God would be propitious to them, so the devout reader, from the splendor of this reading, in the mysteries of the divine offices...