Mirror of Sinners on the Contempt of the World, Composed by the Blessed Bernardinus

A large decorative initial 'V' contains floral and foliate patterns.

See that you walk carefully, not as the unwise, but as the wise: redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Therefore, do not become foolish, but understand what the will of God is. Ephesians 5. The Apostle Paul, conscious of the counsels of God, knowing that the delights of the heavenly fatherland are infinite—which the eye has not seen, nor the ear heard, nor have they entered into the heart of man because of their number or magnitude—frequently invites us to them through the Gospel and elsewhere through the Holy Scriptures. And knowing that evil spirits are all the more solicitous to hinder us on this narrow and arduous path which leads to eternal life, the more noble and pleasant the delights to which we are called, he exhorts us with the aforementioned words to look carefully all around us, saying: "See that you walk carefully," that is, lest we deviate from the royal road which leads to heavenly joys and fall into the hands of enemies. He well adds: "redeeming the time." For if we duly and well, as we ought, consider the tearful, miserable, and damnable course or state of the world and of the present time, then truly we know that the days are evil. For with hidden faith, we perceive that the whole world is already wandering. And according to blessed John in his epistle: "It is placed in the wicked one." And this, alas, must be said with sorrow: it is so in the heads as in the members, in the clergy as in the seculars, in the old as in the young, in the masculine as in the feminine gender, and thus, alas, the way of all flesh is corrupted. This is well touched upon by Saint Bernard, saying: "There is nothing but base love in this world, nor secure faith, because pride, or avarice, or luxury, and so on, have contaminated all things that exist." And Bernard adds: "For law has departed from the priests, justice from the princes, counsel from the elders, religion from the clerics, love from parents, obedience from children, faith from the people, reverence from subjects, chastity from virgins, modesty from the married."

Handwritten note in Latin script:
The world is placed in the wicked one.

Handwritten note at bottom: lep? II, 1: 956