Biblia Sacra (Gutenberg Bible)

...that speech which he had composed against Demosthenes, and it was being read to the applause and admiration of all, he sighed and said: "What if you had heard the beast himself resounding his own words?"

Rubricated initial 'N' in red with blue penwork flourishes extending into the left margin.

Nor do I say this because there is anything in me such as you might wish to hear from me, or that you might wish to learn: but so that your ardor and your zeal for learning, even without us, might be proven by itself. A docile mind is praiseworthy even without a teacher. We do not consider what you find, but what you seek. Wax is soft and easy to mold, even if the hands of the artist and the sculptor cease; yet, by its virtue, it is whatever it can be. The Apostle Paul boasts that he learned the law of Moses and the prophets at the feet of Gamaliel, so that, armed with spiritual weapons, he might afterward teach confidently. "For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but powerful to God for the destruction of fortresses, destroying thoughts and every height exalting itself against the knowledge of God, and taking captive every intellect to the obedience of Christ, and ready to subdue every disobedience." He writes that Timothy was instructed in the holy scriptures from infancy and exhorts him to the study of reading, that he might not neglect the gift which was given to him through the laying on of hands of the presbytery. He commands Titus that, among the other virtues of a bishop, which he described in a short sermon, he should not neglect the knowledge of the scriptures, saying he should hold to the faithful word which is according to doctrine, that he may be able to exhort in sound doctrine and to refute those who contradict it.

Rubricated initial 'S' in blue with red penwork flourishes extending into the left margin.

Sanctified rusticity, to be sure, only benefits itself, and as much as it builds up the church of Christ by the merit of its life, so much does it harm if it does not resist those who destroy it. The prophet Malachi, or rather the Lord through Malachi, questioned the priests concerning the law. To such an extent is it the office of a priest to answer those who inquire about the law. And in Deuteronomy we read: "Ask your father, and he will announce to you; your elders, and they will tell you." In the 118th Psalm: "Your justifications were delightful to me in the place of my pilgrimage." And in the description of a just man, when he compares him to the tree of life that is in paradise, he adds this among other virtues: "In the law of the Lord is his will, and in his law he will meditate day and night." Daniel, at the end of his most holy vision, says that the just shall shine like stars, and the "intelligent"—that is, the learned—like the firmament. You see how much just rusticity and learned justice differ from each other. Some are compared to the stars, others to the heavens. Although, according to the Hebrew truth, both can be understood of the learned. For thus we read among them: "But those who are learned shall shine like the splendor of the firmament, and those who instruct many to justice like the stars into perpetual eternities." Why do I call the Apostle Paul the "chosen vessel"? Because he was the vessel of the law and the storehouse of the holy scriptures. The Pharisees are stunned at the Lord's teaching and marvel at Peter and John, how they know the law when they have not learned letters. For whatever daily exercise and meditation in the law is accustomed to grant others, the Holy Spirit suggested to them. And they were, according to what is written, "taught by God." The Savior had completed twelve years, and sitting in the temple, questioning about the questions of the law, he teaches more by asking prudent questions. Unless perhaps we call the rustic fathers and the rustic John ignorant, both of whom could say: "And if I am unskilled in speech, yet not in knowledge." John, a rustic, unlearned fisherman. And whence that voice, I beseech you: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." Logos Word/Reason in Greek signifies many things.