Cornelius a Lapide

Verse 9. Your cheeks are beautiful as the turtledove's; your neck as jewels.

Your cheeks are beautiful as the turtledove's.

As if to say: Your chastity, O bride (that is, the Church and the faithful soul), and your virginal modesty shine forth in your cheeks, just as in the cheeks of the turtledove. In Hebrew it is תורים torim, that is, of turtledoves, in the plural; but the plural is put for the singular, whence our translator renders it "of the turtledove" following the Septuagint; the Chaldean and the Rabbis render torim as earrings, gems, necklaces, pearls, ornaments; R. Abraham, little chains that were fashioned in the likeness of the turtledove; others, little chains fashioned to resemble the turtledove, which, hanging down from the temples as far as the cheeks, wondrously adorned them. Hence Vatablus translates: "Your cheeks are lovely amid the little chains, and your neck amid the ornaments"; the Syriac: "Your cheeks are beautiful with ringlets, and your neck with a collar." But our translator renders it better: for the Hebrew תור properly signifies the turtledove, by onomatopoeia from the sound of its voice, which the turtledove utters in moaning; not an ornament or anything similar. Add that our translator and the Septuagint read in the Hebrew כתורים cattorim, that is, "as of turtledoves," not בתורים battorim, that is, "among turtledoves," or "little chains," or "ornaments resembling turtledoves." Finally, the cheeks of the bride are more fitly compared to turtledoves than to ornaments, because turtledoves are chaste, gentle (whence they also lack gall), modest and bashful, and they display this especially in their eyes and cheeks: "for in the cheeks is the seat of modesty," says Pliny, book XI, chapter XXXVII. Thus in chapter IV, 1, he says: "Your eyes are as doves" — for turtledoves are one species of dove.

First Sense (Full): Concerning Christ and the Church.

The bridegroom, through his companions, explains and commends in detail what he said to the bride in general: "O most beautiful among women." Hence he here depicts the beauty of her cheeks and neck, as if to say: Your face, though darkened by the sun, shines and gleams with the brilliance of silvered turtledoves. He alludes to that verse, Psalm LXVII, 14: "If you sleep among the midst of the lots, (you shall be as) the wings of a dove covered with silver." Gregory of Nyssa adds that, lest anyone, because he had compared the bride to a mare or a company of horses, and called her a shepherdess of kids, should therefore judge her wanton and dissolute, such as mares and kids are — to wipe away this impression, he likens her to the turtledove, which keeps perpetual fidelity to its mate, and is a symbol of chastity.

The common exposition of the Fathers is that by the beautiful cheeks is signified here the modesty and chastity of the bride, namely of the Church: for this is the first and greatest dowry of brides, and it shines forth chiefly in the blush and modesty of the cheeks. For the Church loves no other bridegroom than Christ; she thinks of and speaks of him alone, and when he is absent, she moans and sighs after him, like the turtledove. So Origen, Theodoret, Cassiodorus, Nyssen, St. Gregory, Philo, Bede, Justus, Aponius, Rupert, Anselm, St. Bernard, and St. Ambrose, sermon 3 on Psalm CXVIII. Hence the Septuagint render it as a question and exclamation: "How beautiful are your cheeks become, as the turtledove's!" — where Origen presses the phrase "are become," as if to say: the Church's cheeks at first, while she lived in paganism, were not beautiful; but after they received the kiss of the bridegroom in the washing of baptism, they became beautiful, because after Christ and through Christ chastity and virginity began to be cultivated. Here, then, is noted the great abundance of virgins and of the continent in the Church of Christ, through his teaching and example.

Hence Aponius takes the turtledove symbolically for Christ himself; for the Church strives to imitate his virginal modesty: so, as the turtledove, when its mate is absent, moans continually, so the Church continually moans and sighs after Christ, that she may enjoy him in heaven. Further, the Chaldean, translating in place of "turtledove" "an earring and a bridle of the jaw," judges that by it is signified the obedience of the Synagogue: "When," it says, "they went out into the desert, the Lord said to Moses: How beautiful is this people, that the words of the law may be given to them, and be as an earring in their jaws, that they may not depart from the good way, just as a horse does not depart when there is a bridle on its jaw!"

Second Sense (Partial): Concerning Christ and the Holy Soul.

First, just as the turtledove admits only one mate, and when he dies, she lives out a widowed life in continual moaning and mourning: so the holy soul loves no bridegroom but Christ, and mourns his passion and death unceasingly, and sighs after him in heaven; wherefore she weeps for his absence, so that her cheeks are often wet with a shower of pious tears. For the turtledove is monogamous, and the female, having lost her mate, avoids clear waters, lest, seeing herself in the water, she be reminded of her mate. Widows are more frequent among turtledoves for this reason, that the males, as Aristotle reports, book IX of the History of Animals, chapter VII, are wont to die sooner, and are less long-lived. Hence that line of Virgil: "Nor will the turtledove cease to moan from the airy elm."

The turtledove, then, is a symbol, first, of monogamy; second, of widowhood; third, of fidelity. Hence Goropius Becanus, in his Saxonica, thinks that from the Hebrew תור tor, and the Latin turtur, is derived, by metathesis, the Cimbrian and Belgian trou, that is, fidelity, and trouwen, that is, to marry and to give the pledge of conjugal fidelity to one's spouse, as the turtledove gives it to its turtledove mate. There exists a coin of Heliogabalus, on which is seen a woman holding a turtledove, with this legend: "The fidelity of soldiers" — as if to say: as the turtledove is faithful to its mate, so let the soldier be faithful to his general. "The turtledove," says St. Gregory, "after it has once lost its mate, never joins itself to another, but always lives solitary and perseveres in moaning, because, not finding the one it loved, it seeks it: so also the holy soul, when it is absent from its bridegroom, does not withdraw from his love, but always pants and moans in longing for him; and while it does not find him whom it dearly loves — because it withdraws itself from every other love — it shows, as it were in the modesty of its cheeks, the chastity of its heart by its very outward bearing and act;" and St. Bernard, in the Manner of Living Well, to a Sister, chapter X: "Beautiful," he says, "are the cheeks, as the turtledove's. It is the nature of the turtledove that, if by chance it has lost its mate, it no longer seeks another. O bride of Christ, do you too become like this turtledove, and beyond Jesus Christ your bridegroom, you shall seek no other lover. O bride of Christ, be like the turtledove, and mourn day and night with longing for Jesus Christ your bridegroom, for he has already ascended into heaven, that we may one day merit to see his face at the right hand of the Father. Beautiful are your cheeks as the turtledove's. In the cheeks modesty is wont to dwell. Venerable sister, you have the cheeks of the turtledove, if out of reverence for Jesus Christ your bridegroom you do nothing against his will; you have the cheeks of the turtledove, if with love and reverence for Christ you set aside the things that displease him; you have the cheeks of the turtledove, if beyond Christ you love no other friend." St. Chrysostom has similar things, homily 8, On the Turtledove, volume V.

Second, that it may keep chastity, the turtledove loves solitude, and builds its nest in remote places, and there begets and rears its young, where they are far from and safe from the attack of enemies. The holy soul does the same. Hear St. Bernard, sermon 40: "It is altogether above you to be betrothed to the Lord of angels. Is it not above you to cleave to God, and to be one spirit with him? Sit, therefore, solitary as the turtledove; you have nothing to do with crowds, nothing with the multitude of others; forget even your own people, and your father's house; and the king shall desire your beauty. O holy soul, be alone, that you may keep yourself for him alone of all, whom out of all you have chosen for yourself. Flee the public, flee even your own household; withdraw from friends and intimates, even from him who ministers to you. Do you not know that you have a bashful bridegroom, one who by no means wishes to grant you his presence while others are present? Withdraw, then, but in mind, not in body; but in intention, but in devotion, but in spirit." And after a little: "You are alone, if you do not think of common things, if you do not seek after present things, if you despise what many admire, if you disdain what all desire, if you avoid quarrels, if you do not feel losses, if you do not remember injuries. Otherwise, even if you are alone in body, you are not alone."

Third, the turtledove, by its mourning, represents a soul that is not dissolute and intemperate, but composed alike in merits and in speech, grave, temperate, devoted to prayer and compunction; which restrains gluttony and lust by temperance, anger by patience, faintheartedness by fortitude, etc.: so the three Fathers in Theodoret. For the turtledove's song is a lament; hence the voice of St. Magdalene, bewailing her sins, was the voice of the turtledove: hence the moaning turtledove signifies the meditative soul, which moans and mourns her own faults and those of others, and the hardships of this our pilgrimage and exile. Hence too the turtledove is a symbol of wisdom: for "the heart of the wise is where there is sorrow; the heart of fools, where there is mirth," Ecclesiastes VII, 5; hence also the proverb: "The flesh of the turtledove is food for the wise;" for, as Aldrovandi teaches in his Turtledove, the flesh of the turtledove yields not a thick but a thin humor, which is easily converted into subtle animal spirits: for these are well-suited and altogether serve meditation and contemplation. Hence again the meditative turtledove is a type of providence, which premeditates and looks forward to the future, as Pierio attests in his Hieroglyphics; whence that verse, Jeremiah VIII, 7: "The turtledove, and the swallow, and the stork have observed the time of their coming."

Fourth, St. Bernard, sermon 40, takes the cheeks for right intention, which Christ compared to the eyes, Matthew VI, 22; now the cheeks surround and support the eyes; hence Cicero, in On the Nature of the Gods: "The cheeks," he says, "protect the eyes set beneath them from the lower side, and gently project. And they are two, because in intention two things must be considered, namely the matter and the cause, that is, what you intend, and for the sake of what you intend." Hear Pliny, book XI, chapter XXXVII: "Below the eyes are the cheekbones, which the ancients called genae, forbidding by the interdict of the Twelve Tables that they be scratched by women; this is the seat of modesty: there blushing is most shown; below them, the cheeks, indicating cheerfulness and laughter;" and a little before: "The heavier birds blink with the lower eyelid; the same wink, a membrane closing in from the corners. Doves and similar birds (such as turtledoves) blink with both, etc. The ancients called the outer border of the upper cheek the cilium, whence also 'supercilia.' This, once parted by any wound, does not grow back together." Such altogether is intention, just as are chastity and virginal modesty.

Third Sense (Principal): Concerning Christ and the Blessed Virgin.

Beautiful cheeks note the surpassing purity and modesty of the Blessed Virgin, who, like the turtledove, continually moaned over the death of the turtledove, that is, of her beloved Christ: for, as St. Jerome says, book I Against Jovinian: "The turtledove, a most chaste bird, always dwelling in high places, is a type of the Savior." Hence she herself also, for her Son, at the Purification, offered a pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons, Luke II, 24, and with Joseph her husband kept chastity, not only conjugal but also virginal, and after his death, widowed virginity.

Hence she is compared to the bee: for bees know no carnal union, but conceive and bring forth their offspring as virgins, just as the Blessed Virgin in a wondrous manner united in herself virginity and fecundity, or motherhood. Hear St. Ambrose, book I On Virgins: "Virginity is worthy to be compared to bees, so laborious, so chaste, so continent. The bee feeds on dew, knows no intercourse, composes honey; dew also, for the virgin, is the divine word, because, like dew, the words of God descend. The virgin's modesty is her unstained nature; the virgin's offspring is the fruit of the lips, void of bitterness, fertile in sweetness."

Hence Origen gathers that, anointing Christ with the nard of devotion, of preaching, of holy actions, through this very anointing she receives the fragrance of Christ and breathes it forth, namely the grace of the Holy Spirit, and the greater fragrance of spiritual doctrine, as well as of holiness of life. But Gregory of Nyssa explains the to autou, that is, "of him," namely of Christ, thus, as if the bride were saying: Out of all the virtues that I behold in myself, which all, like many kinds of spices, make one ointment of nard, I arrive at the knowledge of the most perfect virtue of God, and I communicate and breathe that same knowledge to others. But Theodoret explains it thus, as if she said: From these my virtues I have attained the knowledge of God, but only by scent, that is, a slight and thin knowledge. Finally, the three Fathers in Theodoret explain it thus, as if she said: My virtues, which are as it were the nard of God, exhibit to me the likeness of God, who by nature is inaccessible, whose likeness and mark I bear, as his image and likeness; wherefore, while by my conduct I bear back his likeness, I represent him in myself, as an exemplar in an image.

First Sense (Full): Concerning Christ and the Church.

Properly, by the neck, which is subjected to burden and yoke, as well as to the head, is signified the subjection and obedience of the Church, by which she obeys Christ the bridegroom and the laws of God in all things — which does not so much burden her as adorn her, like a necklace, according to that verse, Proverbs I, 8 and 9: "Hear, my son, the instruction of your father, and forsake not the law of your mother: that grace may be added to your head, and a chain to your neck." See what was said there. Hence, just as the neck is not rigid, but twistable and turnable in every direction the head commands, and therefore round: so too the obedient one is agile and adaptable to every work that a superior commands. Hear Aristotle, book IV On the Parts of Animals, chapter X: "The neck is possessed for the sake of the windpipe; since it protects it, and also the gullet, and guards them in its embrace. This, in other animals, is flexible and made up of vertebrae; but in the wolf and the lion it is rigid with a continuous bone. For nature willed the neck to serve them more for strength than for other uses." Hence the Chaldean renders it: "And how beautiful are their backs, that they may bear the burden of my precepts, and be upon them as a yoke upon the neck of an ox, which plows with the plow, and sustains itself and its master." So also Theodoret and others generally.

Hence, first, in Scripture — and indeed among the pagan authors too — a flexible, submissive neck denotes one who is obedient; but a hard neck, one who is rebellious and stubborn. Hence that verse, Isaiah XLVIII, 4: "I knew that you are hard, and your neck is an iron sinew, and your forehead brass."

Second, just as the neck is in the middle between the head and the body, and receives the influence and spirit of the head, and conveys them into all the members, and connects and subordinates them to the head: so too obedience joins subjects to their superior, and conveys his precepts and counsels, spirit and virtue, into them.

Third, just as the neck contains the windpipe, by which we draw vital breath, and the gullet, by which we send food into the stomach: so obedience breathes life and vital spirit into the mind, and supplies food — not bodily, but spiritual — to the will, which is, as it were, the stomach of the soul. Hear Aristotle, book I History of Animals, chapter XII: "The neck, which is between the chest and the face, whose front part is the throat, and the back part the gullet, and as much of the neck itself as is cartilaginous, occupying the front position, transmitting voice and breath, is named the windpipe; but as much as lies inwardly, fleshy, before the spine, is called the gullet; and the outer back part of the neck is called the nape." The same author, book III On the Parts of Animals, chapter III: "The neck," he says, "lies beneath the head in those animals that have it: for not all have it, but only those to which belong those parts for whose sake the neck was made, that is, the throat, and what is called the gullet; the throat is given for the sake of breath, for by it animals draw breath and give it back, both in breathing in and breathing out: wherefore those that lack a lung also lack a neck, as the race of fishes: the gullet is that by which food and drink are swallowed; and so those that lack a neck do not have a distinct gullet."

Hence, just as the cheeks signify the virgins in the Church, so the neck denotes monks and religious, whose profession is obedience, according to that verse: "Put your neck under the yoke, and let your soul receive instruction," Ecclesiasticus LI, 34. "Put your foot into her fetters, and your neck into her chains. Put your shoulder under it, and be not wearied by its chains," the same, chapter VI, verse 25. And: "Bind them upon your heart, and put them about your neck," Proverbs VI, 21. For just as a chain encircles and embraces the whole neck, so obedience embraces the whole religious, and all his actions, and his whole life, so that he may do nothing except what is pleasing to his superior. Moreover, just as a chain woven of pearls contains very many pearls, so obedience contains all the virtues. "Obedience alone is the virtue that implants the other virtues in the mind, and guards them once implanted," says St. Gregory, Morals XXXV, chapter X. Wherefore obedience is the crown and garland of all the virtues.

Further, in place of "ornaments" the Septuagint render hormiskous, which, first, St. Ambrose, sermon 3 on Psalm CXVIII, translates "ribbons," as if to say: Obedience does not so much weigh down the neck of the obedient and the religious as redeem it, and, like a chain, adorns and crowns it; hence "religion" is said from "binding again," because it binds again to God the mind that had before been torn from God by sin; and what is nobler than to be bound and joined to God?

Hear St. Ambrose: "Your neck is as ribbons. Carry the yoke of Christ; it is sweet, if you consider it an ornament of your neck, not a burden; lift up, then, your eyes to the Lord your God, and seek God, and you shall find him. Raise up your neck; you wear ribbons, not chains. Even dumb animals rejoice in trappings, and seem to prefer being adorned to being bare. The cheeks, as the turtledove's, shall display the marks of modesty; the ribbons of the neck shall raise up the confidence of liberty: for the yoke of Christ is light, and therefore the neck is not weighed down by it, but lifted up."

Hence Origen, homily 2 of the four, takes by "ribbons" the obedience of Christ even unto death: for this encircled his whole life, that is, surrounded and adorned it; he therefore judges that the obedience of the Church is compared to the obedience of Christ: "Great," he says, "is the praise of the bride in this, great the glory of the Church, when the imitation of her obedience follows closely upon the obedience of Christ, whom she imitates."

But Gregory of Nyssa derives the hormiskous, that is, "ribbons," from hormous, that is, "harbors," because chains are curved like a harbor, which has the shape of a crescent moon; whence Panormus is named, the noble city of Sicily, as if to say "every harbor," or "a harbor in every respect," because ships from every side come together and flow into it. Obedience, then, is for the religious like a harbor, which grants him security against all dangers and temptations, so that with a quiet and tranquil conscience he may spend his whole life in gladness. Wherefore Climacus, step 4: "Obedience," he says, "is the perfect denial of one's own soul and one's own body, a voluntary death, a life without care, a voyage without loss, a burial of the will, a way of humility, and, as it were, as if one made a journey while sleeping." And the same author adds: "To live in obedience is nothing other than to lay one's own burden upon the shoulders of others, to swim borne up upon the arms of others, and to be sustained in the waters so that we do not drown, but cross without danger this great sea of this life, and indeed by the shortest voyage." The cause a priori is that the obedient one is ruled by God: for God has set up superiors over him, through whom he governs him. But who would fear to go astray, with God governing and leading, nay commanding? Well known is that saying of Christ: "He who hears you, hears me," Luke X, 16.

Second Sense (Partial): Concerning Christ and the Holy Soul.

The neck, that is, the state of subjection, admonishes the soul, first, of obedience, which she owes to God and to superiors; second, of humility; third, of patience: for these two are the companions, indeed the supports, of obedience, without which it cannot stand; so St. Ambrose, book On Isaac and the Soul, chapter IV: "The soul is praised," he says, "in that, a heavenly precept illuminating her, she is now beautiful, now lovely, so that she may be seen to display the beauty of chastity, and to raise up the ribbons of her neck, on which are the marks of patience and humility." Wherefore our holy father Ignatius, in the rules of modesty, ordains that our men walk with the neck somewhat bent, that by this bearing they may show forth humility and modesty: "Let the head," he says, "be held upright, with a moderate inclination forward, bending to neither side. Let them keep the eyes cast down for the most part." So walked Christ the Lord, of whom Nicephorus writes thus, book I, chapter XL: "His neck was gently bowed, so that his bodily bearing was not too erect and stretched upward."

Hear also the three Fathers in Theodoret: "The neck is made beautiful as with ornaments. For your neck is not of iron, so that it cannot bend on account of pride, but on account of modesty it can easily be turned, like ornaments wrought of gold: the goodness and purity of which gold your humility imitates by an unfeigned simplicity. But if the ornament signifies humility in no way feigned, as it has been said that the neck of the bride of Christ is commended as with ornaments, it indicates both the multitude of virtues and the humility folded within each single virtue. For just as an ornament is first cast by the craftsman in a straight shape, and then is bent round into a circle, fitted for use: so a man perfected in virtue, though upright through the complete governance of his life, is bent through humility by sympathizing with others, and lets himself down." They then add that the neck is reason: "Corresponding to the neck girded about with humility is the reason of the mind, which, just as the neck joins the head to the rest of the body, so itself connects the mind with the senses, while, from the habit of the virtues, it applies the mind through actions to the senses, and again, according to the rule of the virtues, leads the senses back to the mind. Likewise it is bent through humility, while it is not lifted up by its own dignity, but is brought low by the abasement of dust and matter."

For this reason religious put the scapular upon their neck, just as in the old law the priests put the ephod upon their neck, which admonishes both of obedience and patience, just as an ornament hanging from the neck admonishes virgins of chastity, and men of nobility and manly virtue. For "monile" is so called for this reason, because it admonishes of virtue. For it was first wont to be given to freeborn youths on account of some outstanding deed; hence Ovid, Metamorphoses X: "He gives gems to the fingers, gives long necklaces to the neck."

So too the Greek hormiskos, that is, "ornament," alludes to hormê, that is, "impulse" and "impetus," because it instills that impulse into men and manly women toward splendid works of virtue; just as the Hebrew חרוז charuz, that is, "ornament" or "chain," alludes to חרוץ charutz, that is, "ready," "vigorous," "keen for heroic deeds": for to such a one are due the ornament and the chain. Hence T. Manlius received the surname Torquatus from the chain which he stripped from the Gaul he had slain at the Anio, as Livy attests.

Again, upon soldiers, for a deed valiantly performed, a golden chain was placed on the neck by the general, and thence they were called torquati, and they were of two kinds, simplares and duplares. "There were torquati duplares, torquati simplares," says Vegetius, book II: "to whom a solid gold chain was the reward of valor; and he who had earned it obtained, besides praise, sometimes two rations — the duplares two, the simplares one." Thus St. Agnes gloried in being adorned with a chain and ornaments by Christ her bridegroom, when, to the son of the prefect of the city who sought her hand in marriage, she answered with indignation: "Depart from me, fuel of sin, food of death, for a bridegroom far nobler and richer than you has betrothed me with a pledge; who, since he is king of heaven and earth, has adorned me with a garment of gold, and has decked my ears with priceless pearls, and my nec-

Third Sense (Principal): Concerning Christ and the Blessed Virgin.

All these things already said apply eminently, above all others, to the Blessed Virgin. Moreover Rupert takes the ornament of the neck for the silence of the Blessed Virgin: "Just as," he says, "ornaments guard the chaste breasts of matrons — whence they are also called monilia, because they guard the breast, lest any stranger, that is, any shameless man, lay his hand upon it — so too your neck guards your words, not only that nothing idle or harmful, or disordered, may break out through your voice; but also that your very good, your secret, the divine mystery entrusted to you, may not lightly find a way or a voice, so that a foreign ear — or some daughter, although she may seem to be a daughter of Jerusalem, who perhaps would not know how to guard such pearls as they ought to be guarded on account of the swine, and especially on account of Herod and his accomplices — should understand it. Truly, therefore, most beautiful of women, most beautiful in your cheeks, most beautiful in your neck, that is, in the most fitting restraint both of your eyes and of your words."