A letter from Peter Damian (1063/1065)

Translated letter:

The queen of Sheba came to Jerusalem to hear the wisdom of Solomon. The empress Agnes came to Rome to hear the foolishness of a fisherman.(1) For as Paul says: Since the world did not recognize God through wisdom, it pleased God to have believers saved through the folly of preaching. She [the queen of Sheba], as sacred history testifies, arrived with a retinue and riches, camels carrying perfumes and infinite gold and precious jewels. The empress alone with her sister-in-law Hermesind,(2) equally enflamed by the fervor of the holy Spirit, as Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to the tomb not to anoint Christ’s body, but to wash his feet with their tears, not to seek the living among the dead, but to adore the traces of the resurrected. The carnal Solomon resolved knots of questions and mysteries of riddles for the queen of Sheba, our queen proposed nothing to be solved except the bonds of sins. For Solomon was a figure of Christ and expressed the person of our saviour as an image or prophecy. About him, indeed, it is said, that “he spoke three thousand parables and his songs were five thousand” [3Kgs.4:32-33]. Where swiftly is added that “he spoke also about trees from cedar, which is in Lebanon, to hyssop, which comes out of the wall, and he discussed flocks and birds and reptiles and fish.”

Which, of course, does not mean that he agrees in all things with our redeemer, who is free to treat these things with diligent consideration. He doubtless spoke three thousand parables, both through the mystic deeds/acts of the preceding fathers, and through allegorical oracles of the prophets or also through documents of the glittering gospel, while he discussed all things under the veil of figures, as if he counted three thousand parables in his words. When in the gospel Matthew says: “Jesus spoke all these things in parables to the crowds and without parables he did not speak to them” [Math.13:34]. Also whose songs are five thousand, since the chorus of virgins which are described under the quinary number, before his throne, as John says in the Apocalypse, accompanies the new song continually. Or since five are the wounds of the lord’s body, by which his triumphal victory is preached through the whole world, the songs are counted/reckoned under that number under which the wounds are held, through which the singular victory of eternal praise merited glory.

Whence as it is said in the Songs: “Arise, my beloved, my spouse, and come, my dove, in the openings of the stone and in the cave of the cliff” [Cant.2:13-14], further is added: “Show me your face, your voice sounds in my ears since your voice is sweet.” Indeed, since we do not treat these things exactly, but run through them swiftly and succinctly, let it suffice to say that since the stone may be Christ, the openings of the stone are doubtless the scars of the lord’s body. But since after the openings of this stone the sweet voice of the bride is enjoined to sound in the ears of the groom, what other than by the five wounds a pious soul or holy universal church is reminded to give the songs of praise under that quinary number, that might bring up the songs of that number in a certain way, as much as in itself it does not ignore the wounds sustained, it dedicates all the senses of its body to him, whom it sees wounded for him by so many wounds? Doubtless the five wounds of our senses are cured by the five scars of the lord’s body.

What however Solomon is said to have contended about the trees of cedar, which is in Lebanon, up to hyssop, which comes out of the wall, this is necessarily ascribed to spiritual understanding, since it could in no way be the surface of the letters. For hyssop is never seen to come out of walls, but to sprout from mountain stones. So our wall is that condition of our mortality, which divides us from contemplation of the maker as the obstacle of the hidden house, and compels us to fall into the depths more easily. “For the body that is corrupted weighs down the soul and the earthly habitation depresses the sense thinking of many things” [Sap.9:15]. The hyssop therefore comes out of this wall since it bursts from the fragility of our mortality, because it is always necessary to cut it off with the sword of penitence. Doubtless the inner parts of the viscera are purified by hyssop, through which the confession of sins is represented not unfittingly.

Therefore our Solomon “spoke about the trees,” namely men rooted among the groves of the sprouting church, “from the cedar which is in Lebanon, to the hyssop, which comes out of the wall,” that is from those holy candidates distinguished by the striving for justice to the sinners and the fallen and those converted at last to the laments of penitence. Here is what follows: “He discussed flocks,” namely those helpers of the saints, catholic men, “and birds,” men doubtless suspended through holy desires for higher things, “and reptiles and fish,” that is those who drag the breast of concupiscence through the land and who wander the floods through secular affairs. It is also said that “the wisdom of Solomon surpassed the wisdom of all those in the east and Egyptians” [3Kgs.4:30], since doubtless our redeemer surpassed the understanding of angels and men. “He had forty thousand stables of chariot horses and twelve thousand horsemen” [3Kgs 4:26]. What is construed by the quaternary number, unless the quartet[four horse team] of evangelists? And what by the duodenary, unless the senate of apostles is expressed? Through evangelical and apostolic doctrine, indeed, the Lord is carried through every latitude of the world. “For the chariot of God ten thousand, multiple thousands of those rejoicing, the Lord among them in holy Sinai” [Ps.67:18]. For since Sinai is interpreted mandate, it corresponds that the Lord is carried in them where there may be observation of heavenly mandates.

It is to be noted, however, that as the kingdom of David, who was worn down by so many pressures, signifies the Lord laboring up to now in the stadium of mortal life, so the glory of this incomparable Solomon prefigures that Lord after the end of the world ruling in the majesty of the paternal height. Whence it is said there that “it was not silver, nor was it thought of any worth in the days of Solomon” [3Kgs.10:21]. That doubtless, how it will be according to the letter, that silver could be believed at the time of Solomon not to have been at all, and therefore completely abolished from the earth, or at least that it had been of no worth or very little? For if it was of no worth, as was said, then a thousand talents of silver could not have been reckoned by weight of one egg. What is clearly to be believed, however frivolous, however inept it might seem, the text and order of words refutes.

Who after he first says: “It was not silver, nor in the days of Solomon, was it thought to be of any worth” immediately adds: “since the fleet of the king went through the sea for three years with the fleet of Hiram bringing from Tarshish gold and silver.” For why would that fleet carry the metal through so many marine distances, if it had almost no worth? And a little after it is said that “they offered him gold and silver vessels” [3Kgsa.10:2?]. Then it adds that “the four-horse team came out of Egypt for six hundred shekels of silver, and a horse for a hundred fifty” [3Kgs.10:29?]

Silver did not therefore lack worth, with which the vehicles of the horses were purchased. But by silver is represented the clarity of ecclesiastical preaching of which it is said: “The declarations of the Lord, pure declarations [are] silver” [Ps.11:7]. That namely the silver of holy preaching we shall consider of no worth, as I might say, nor shall we be partly unworthy, after we have been translated to the kingdom of the true Solomon from this calamity. For we do not then need the eloquence of preaching, where it is given to see face to face the king in the beauty of his glory, whom we are accustomed to hear certainly from the mouth of the preacher. As the Lord promises through the prophet saying: “Let no one say: Recognize the Lord, for all know me from the greatest to the least, says the Lord” [Jer.31:34].

But perhaps one would assert that the words of scripture violently bend us to our understanding and what Solomon seems to assert of himself he attributes especially to pertain to the savior in all things. Let the assertor of this objection say by what reason it can correspond to Solomon what he says as if of himself: “For God gave me what is true knowledge of these things that I might know the disposition of the orb of lands and the powers of the elements, the beginning and consummation and mean of times, the permutations of vicissitudes and changes of men, the courses of the year and dispositions of the stars, the natures of animals and wraths of beasts, to learn the force of winds and thoughts of men and whatever are hidden and unforeseen” [Sap.7:17-21]. For as we may be silent about other things meanwhile, how could Solomon know the thoughts of men when he himself says elsewhere to God: “You alone knew the hearts of all the sons of men” [2Chron.6:30]? But who learned all things hidden and unforeseen except our redeemer “in whose breast are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and learning” [Col.2:3]? Who truly learns through humanity what he knows naturally through divinity.

To this Solomon you came recently, o queen, not like her of Sheba with chariots and riders and elephants, but rather with tears, sighs, and laments. You are therefore truly the queen of Sheba. Sheba is interpreted humble or rural [from the field]. Truly from the field. You indeed descended into the field that you might join your hands to hands, and standing before the camps of Christ, fight not weakly against the enemy. You came, I say, not so that he might resolve the doubt, mystery and enigma for you, but so that the entrance of the heavenly kingdom might be open through the ministry of its simple key. You came humble to the humble, pauper to the pauper, and you came to adore the boy crying in the manger, as if with the rough-shod and rude shepherds of flocks. Truly to have seen you and what was around you was a spectacle to be wondered at and an example to be admired of the lord’s edification. Your dress was dark wool. The animal you rode, I call not a horse, but rather a mule or pony, was scarcely larger than a donkey. You exchanged your crown for a veil, purple for sackcloth, and the hands which were accustomed to bear the scepter, like a dove, are now roughened carrying the psalter. In truth, since “all the glory of the daughter of kings comes from within,” the beauty of sparkling jewels and of clothes glittering with gold, has now moved inside and the inner beauty of the spouse is lit within in the sight of the hidden beholder. To whom the spouse says “You are completely beautiful, my love,"

Original letter:

Regina Saba venit in Ierusalem audire sapienciam Salomonis. Imperatrix Agnes Romam adiit addiscere stulticiam piscatoris. Nam sicut Paulus ait: “Quia non cognovit mundus per sapienciam Deum, placuit Deo per stulticiam praedicacionis salvos facere credentes. Illa, sicut sacra testatur hystoria, ingressa est cum multo comitatu et diviciis, camelis quoque portantibus aromata et aurum infinitum nimis et gemmas preciosas. Ista vero cum Hermisindi cognata sua non dispari sancti Spiritus fervore succensa tamquam Maria Magdalene cum altera Maria veniunt ad sepulchrum, non ut corpus Iesu perungant fomentis aromatum, sed ut pedes eius fluentis irrigent lacrimarum. Non enim iam querunt viventem cum mortuis, sed adorantes tenent vestigia resurgentis. Carnalis plane Salomon reginae Saba questium nodos et mysteria reseravit enigmatum, nostra vero regina nil sibi solvi proposuit, nisi suorum vincula peccatorum. Salomon namque fuit figura Christi, et quaedam velut imago sive prophetia personam nostri salvatoris expressit. De illo quippe dicitur, quia “locutus est tria milia parabolas, et fuerunt carmina eius quinque milia.” Ubi presto subiungitur, quia “disputavit etiam super lignis a cedro, quae est in Libano, usque ad ysopum, quae egreditur de pariete, et disseruit de iumentis et volucribus et reptilibus et piscibus.”

Quae scilicet redemptori nostro non ambigit cuncta congruere, cui vacat haec diligenti consideracione tractare. Ipse nimirum tria milia parabolas est locutus, qui et per mistica patrum praecedentium facta, et per allegorica prophetarum oracula vel eciam per coruscantis evangelii documenta, dum sub figurarum velamine pene cuncta disseruit, quasi tria milia in verbis suis parabolas numeravit. Unde et in evangelio Matheus ait: “Haec omnia locutus est Iesus in parabolis ad turbas, et sine parabolis non loquebatur eis.” Cuius eciam carmina quinque milia sunt, quia chorus virginum, quae sub quinario numero describuntur, ante thronum eius, sicut Iohannes in Apocalipsi dicit, canticum novum iugiter modulatur. Vel quia quinque sunt vulnera dominici corporis, quibus per universum orbem triumphalis eius victoria praedicatur, sub eodem numero carmina supputantur, sub quo tenentur et vulnera, per quae victoria singularis laudis aeternae gloriam promeretur.

Unde cum in Canticis dicitur: “Surge, amica Mea, sponsa mea, et veni, columba mea, in foraminibus petrae, et in caverna maceriae,” protinus additur: “Ostende mihi faciem tuam, sonet vox tua in auribus meis, quia vox tua dulcis.” Sane quia non haec exacte tractamus, sed succincte celeriterque transcurrimus, sufficiat dicere, quia cum petra sit Christus, foramina petrae proculdubio sunt dominici corporis cicatrices. Sed cum post huius petrae foramina dulcis vox sponsae in sponsi auribus sonare praecipitur, quid aliud quam quinque vulneribus sub eodem quinario numero carmina laudum reddere pia quaelibet anima vel sancta universalis aecclesia commonetur, ut eiusdem quodammodo numeri carmina referat, quot pro se suscepta vulnera non ignorat, illique cunctos sui corporis sensus dedicet, quem totidem pro se sauciatum vulneribus videt? Quinque nimirum nostrorum sensuum vulnera, illis quinque dominici corporis cicatricibus sunt sanata.

Quod autem Salomon super lignis a cedro, quae est in Libano, usque ad ysopum, quae egreditur de pariete disputasse dicitur, hic necessario ad spiritalem remittimur intellectum, cum nullatenus stare valeat superficies litterarum. Ysopus enim nequaquam de parietibus egredi, sed de saxosis cernitur montibus germinari. Paries itaque noster ipsa mortalitatis nostrae condicio est, quae nos a contemplacione conditoris velut abditae domus obstaculum dividit, et in ima proclivius declinare compellit. “Corpus enim, quod corrumpitur, aggravat animam, et deprimit terrena inhabitacio sensum multa cogitantem. Ex hoc ergo pariete ysopus egreditur, quia de fragilitate nostrae mortalitatis erumpit, quod semper necesse est ferro paenitenciae resecari. Ysopo nimirum purificantur intima viscerum, per quam non incongrue designatur confessio peccatorum.

“Disputavit” igitur noster Salomon “super lignis,” hominibus videlicet intra germinantis aecclesiae nemora radicatis, “a cedro quae est in Libano, usque ad ysopum, quae egreditur de pariete,” id est ab ipsis emmentibus sanctis nitore iusticiae candidatis usque ad peccatores et lapsos atque ad paenitenciae demum lamenta conversos. Hinc est quod sequitur: “Disseruit et de iumentis,” sanctorum scilicet adiutoribus, catholicis viris, “et de volucribus,” hominibus nimirum per sancta desideria ad superna suspensis, “et de reptilibus et piscibus,” hoc est de his, qui pectus concupiscenciae per terram trahunt et qui per secularium negociorum fluenta vagantur. Dicitur eciam, quia “praecedebat sapiencia Salomonis sapienciam omnium orientalium et Egypciorum,” quia nimirum redemptor noster superat intellectum et angelorum et hominum. “Habebat ille quadraginta milia praesepia equorum currilium et duodecim milia equestrium.” Quid per quaternarium numerum, nisi quadriga prestruitur evangelistarum? Et quid per duodenariumnisi senatus exprimitur apostolorum? Per doctrinam quippe evangelicam et apostolicam vectatur Dominus per omnem latitudinem orbis terrarum. “Currus enim Dei decem milia multiplex milia laetantium, Dominus in illis in Syna in sancto. Nam quia Syna mandatum interpretatur, constat in eis tantummodo vectari Dominum, ubi fit caelestium observacio mandatorum.

Notandum autem, quia sicut regnum David, qui tot est pressuris attritus, Dominum designat in mortalis adhuc vitae stadio laborantem, sic Salomonis istius incomparabilis gloria praefigurat eundem Dominum post mundi finem in paterni culminis maiestate regnantem. Unde illic dicitur, quia “non erat argentum, nec ullius precii putabatur in diebus Salomonis.” Quod nimirum, quomodo iuxta litteram stabit, ut credi valeat tempore Salomonis argentum vel penitus non fuisse, ac per hoc omnino de terra deletum vel nullius perexilis saltim precii constitisse? Nam si nullius erat precii, sicut dicitur, ergo mille talenta argenti ne unius quidem ovi poterant appendio supputari. Quod sane credi, quam frivolum, quam videatur ineptum, ipse revincit textus et ordo verborum. Qui postquam praemittit: “Non erat argentum, nec ullius precii putabatur in diebus Salomonis,” praesto subiungit: “quia classis regis per mare cum classe Hyram semel per tres annos ibant Tharsis deferens inde aurum et argentum.” Cur enim per tot marina discrimina metallum hoc classis illa deferret, quod precium penitus non haberet? Et paulo post dicitur, quia “offerebantur ei vasa aurea et argentea.” Deinde subinfertur, quia egrediebatur quadriga ex Aegypto sexcentis siclis argenti, et equus centum quinquaginta.”

Non ergo precio carebat argentum, quo vehicula redimebantur equorum. Sed argento designatur claritas aeccleslasticae praedicacionis, de qua dicitur: “Eloquia Domini, eloquia casta argentum.” Quod videlicet sanctae praedicacionis argentum, nullius, ut ita loquar, precii reputabimus, nec aliquatenus erimus eius indigui, postquam ad veri Salomonis regnum ex hac fuerimus calamitate translati. Non enim tunc praedicacionis indigemus eloquio, ubi datur in decore suo regem gloriae facie ad faciem cernere, quem utique consuevimus ex ore praedicatoris audire. Sicut per prophetam pollicetur Dominus dicens: “Nemo dicet: Agnosce Dominum, omnes enim cognoscent me a maximo usque ad minimum, dicit Dominus.”

Sed forte quis asserat, scripturae verba nos ad nostrum intellectum violenter inflectere, et quod Salomon de se videtur asserere, ad salvatorem perhibeat specialiter per omnia pertinere. Dicat itaque huius obieccionis assertor, qua Salomoni valeat racione competere, quod quasi de se dicit: “Deus enim michi dedit horum, quae sunt scienciam veram, ut sciam disposicionem orbis terrarum et virtutes elementorum, inicium et consummacionem et medietatem temporum, vicissitudinum permutaciones et commutaciones hominum, anni cursus et stellarum disposiciones, naturas animalium et iras bestiarum, vim ventorum et cogitaciones hominum et quaecumque sunt absconsa et improvisa didici.” Nam ut de caeteris interim sileamus, quomodo nosse potuit Salomon hominum cogitaciones, cum ipse Deo alibi dicat: “Tu solus nosti corda omnium filiorum hominum?” Sed et quis absconsa omnia et improvisa didicit, nisi redemptor noster “in cuius pectore sunt omnes thesauri sapienciae et scienciae absconditi?” Qui profecto per humanitatem didicit, quod per divinitatem naturaliter novit.

Ad hunc ergo Salomonem tu nuper, o regina, venisti, non ut illa Sabeorum in curribus et equitibus et elefantis, sed in lacrimis pocius, gemitibus ac lamentis. Tu ergo veraciter es regina Saba. Saba siquidem interpretatur humilis vel campestris. Et bene campestris. In campum quippe certaminis descendisti, ut manus manibus conseras, et pro castris Christi stans, non enerviter cum hoste confligas. Venisti, inquam, non ut enigmatum tibi mysteria scrupulosa dissolveret, sed ut per simplicis clavicularii sui ministerium regni caelestis aditum reseraret. Venisti humilis ad humilem, pauper ad pauperem, et quasi cum peronatis et incultis gregum pastoribus adorare venisti puerum in praeseplo vagientem.

Vidisse nempe tunc te et quaeque circa te mirandum valde spectaculum et imitandum salvatoris erat aedificacionis exemplum. Vestis enim pulla et lanea. Is, cui insidebas, non dicam equiis, sed pocius burdo vel burricus, vix mensuram desidis excedebat aselli. Mutaveras enim coronam velo, purpuram sacco, et manus, quae in modum columbae gestare consueverat sceptrum, attrita iam erat portare psalterium. Revera, quia “omnis gloria filiae regum ab intus,” vernancium decor ille gemmarum et coruscancium auro vestium cultus iam ad interiora migraverat, et in occulti speculatoris obtutibus interior sponsae species relucebat. Cui sponsus: “Tota,” inquit,“pulchra es, amica mea,

Historical context:

Parts of this letter are included among Peter's biblical commentaries on 3 Kings, see PL145 c.116, 116-17, 120. The whole letter also appears as De fluxa mundi gloria et saeculi despectione, PL145, c.807-20. The letter is a treatise about the benefits of the spiritual life Agnes has chosen, and about her as a model for others.  A translation of the full letter can be found in The Letters of Peter Damian, trans. Owen Blume, in the Fathers of the Church, medieval continuation (Catholic University of America:  2014).

Scholarly notes:

(1) This is a pun on his own epithet, "Peter the sinner," peccator, and Saint Peter the fisherman, pescator.
(2) Hermesind was the widow of Agnes's brother, William V/VII (+1058), not the brother of the same name, William VI/VIII, for whom Agnes later interceded with the pope. Peter Damian wrote a letter of spiritual counsel to Hermesinde about pride and the building of an edifice that would stand, ep.136 (Epistolae, 1198.html)  . If Hermesinde came to Rome with Agnes, she did not remain in the same house; Peter mentions a visit she made with him to Agnes in ep.124. 

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