Pretiosa margarita novella de thesauro, ac pretiosissimo philosophorum lapide : artis huius divinae typus, et methodus: collectanea ex Arnaldo, Rhaymundo, Rhasi, Alberto, et Michaele Scoto

must be held by all Christians for any lawful and honest reason, not so that they may hoard gold, but so that they may have the means to succor all the needy.

Lacinius. Why then do our people, following the footsteps of the ancients, command us the same thing, affirming that through its publication the ruin of the world will come? I also remember having read in John of Rupescissa, a theologian, someone commanding such things: Beware (he says), all in whose hands these things of ours have arrived, that they do not reach the hands of the infidels, I pray, because the faith of Jesus Christ would collapse.

Bonus. Ah, ah, ah. May I be allowed to exclaim thus against these senseless men: O Janus looking backward, whom no stork has pecked a reference to Persius, mocking those who lack self-awareness, oh miserable, demented ones. Does the faith of Jesus Christ, God, need gold and gems? Does it need weapons? When it was raised up through spears, through fires, with the whole world opposing it, and it receives increase all the more as it is attacked. But let us dismiss these men (if I may be permitted to speak thus for now), who are more endowed with testicles than with hearts. Is it not plain that they act against the command of the Lord, who taught that what we have freely received we should also freely give? Let them say, I pray, what utility hidden wisdom brings to the human race? What do hidden gems bring? What is a buried and hidden treasure? And finally, what would be the use of a lamp? What advantage? What utility? If it is placed under a bushel and not upon a candlestick, as was taught by Christ the Savior. But I believe they, out of innate greed, not out of Christian piety, bury the talent of the Lord, since what they say seems to be laziness rather than piety.

Lacinius. I myself know very many who fear so much that their books might be revealed, and they keep them so cautiously that they do not even read them themselves, since they are ignorant, nor do they allow others to read or see them, since they are envious and malicious, thinking that upon their opening or display, the stone would immediately go out from them into the public, and walk and dance through all the streets and squares.