Page:The Net of Faith.pdf/145

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The nearest resemblance to Chelc̄icky̍'s net of faith in treatment and motif which we could find is contained in the noted Hortus deliciarum of the Abbess Herrade of Landsberg⁴ which reproduces pictorially an idea founded on the Book of Job (41:1ff),⁵ and of which Māle traces the seminal thought back to St. Jerome in the 5th century, and thence down through St. Gregory the Great,⁶ St.Odo of Cluny,⁷ and Bruno of Asti,⁸ to Honorius d'Autun who thus describes the symbolism:

Leviathan, the monster swimming in the sea of the world: that is Satan. God has thrown the line into that sea. The cord of that line is the human genealogy of Christ; the hook is the divinity of Christ; the bait is his humanity. Attracted by the scent of his flesh, Leviathan wants to snap him, but the hook tears apart his jaw.⁹

This symbolism is portrayed on the miniature of the Hortus deliciarum, reproduced on the next page.

 

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4 Straub and Keller, Hortus deliciarum, pl.xxiv, quoted by Emile Māle, infra.

5 Canst thou draw out Leviathan with an hook? or his tongue with a cord which thou lettest down? Canst thou put an hook into his nose? or bore his jaw through with a thorn?. . .

6 Migne, ed., "Patrologiae cursus completus," vol.76: Sancti Gregorii Moralium libri in Job, col.489.

7 Migne, ed., "Patrologiae" vol.133: Sancti Odonis . . . Moralium libri xxxv, p.490,D: . . .Sed Leviathan iste hamo captus est, quia in redemptore nostro dum per satellites suos escam corporis momordit, divinitatis illum aculeus perforavit. Hujus hami linea Christi est genealogia.. . . Sicut per nares insidiae, ita per circulum divinae virtutis omnipotentia designatur. . .

(Continued on next page).