[De contemptu mundi]

of all, would have been snatched by the angels into heaven: and would have filled the places of the cast-down angels, namely of Lucifer and his accomplices. Some doctors even opine and in disputing say: that the men who are now being damned: and from that time until now and to the end of the age are damned and to be damned: would not have been brought into light at all. But (do not seek things higher than yourself reference to Ecclesiasticus 3:22) these things are to be left to divine judgment: and are not to be discussed by us, little men, who are shaken and threshed day by day in the whirlwinds and storms of the world: when God, the creator of all, has hidden those things in the secret cabinet of his heart: and has also revealed them to his elect: whence I do not doubt: that by his divine goodness and wisdom he has both made and disposed all things well. And thus ends the first chapter.

The second chapter follows: concerning the ejection of man from paradise: And concerning the site and condition of paradise: in what place historiographers and doctors say it is situated.