Commentaria in Genesim
So fortunate was Julius Caesar, even when with the utmost rashness he undertook the greatest affairs, and trusting to this fortune of his he overcame all dangers; hence, sailing from Macedonia to Brundisium at the most dangerous season of the year, to the frightened captain: “Fear not,” he said, “thou carriest Caesar and his fortune.” Well known is that saying of his: “I came, I saw, I conquered.” And what of his son? says Plutarch, in his book On the Fortune of the Romans, he who first bore the name of Augustus, and reigned 54 years (as monarch): did he not, when sending out his grandson to wage war, wishing for him the courage of Scipio, the favour of Pompey, and his own fortune, profess Fortune the maker of himself as of a notable work? She, to wit, imposed him on Cicero, Lepidus, Pansa, Hirtius and M. Antony, and by their victories, hands, glorious deeds, fleets, wars and armies raised him on high, and having cast these down, left him alone surviving them, the one who by their work had climbed to this pinnacle. For to Augustus both Cicero governed the republic by his counsels, and Lepidus served in war, and Pansa conquered, and Hirtius fell, and Antony practised his lusts: and Cleopatra herself I impute to the fortune of Caesar, against whom, as against a ledge of rock, so great a commander made shipwreck and was dashed to pieces, so that Caesar alone might remain.” He adds a wondrous omen of this. “When Antony and Caesar, who was afterwards Augustus, lived together on most familiar terms, and in their leisure often set up a contest at ball, dice, or with animals such as quails or cocks, they say Antony always went away beaten, and a certain one of his friends, who boasted of the art of divination, said freely to Antony, and warned him: What have you to do, my man, with that young man? why do you not flee him? you precede him in glory, you are older, you command more, you have gone through wars, you excel in experience; but your genius fears his genius, and your fortune, apart, flatters his great fortune, and unless you withdraw far, will pass over to him.”
So in this age Charles V the Emperor was fortunate, and on this account formidable to the Turks, and so the soldiers under Charles were unconquered, who, afterwards hired by Francis, king of France, changed their fortune with their prince. Casters of nativities attributed it to the fate of each man. Astrologers, to the stars, and to the lot of each and his future felicity or infelicity. The common people think these things happen by chance. For we here set aside human industry and prudence, which is often the cause of a happy outcome.
But I answer that God is the cause why these are fortunate and those unfortunate. For God is the Lord of all, who dispenses to each his own as He wills. And so as to this man He imparts genius, wealth, health, beauty, strength and other gifts of nature; but makes another stupid, poor, sickly, deformed, infirm: so likewise by His special providence He makes this man fortunate, that one unfortunate; and to that end He bends and tempers secondary causes. This is what the Psalmist says, Psalm 30, 16: “My lots are in thy hands.” And the Wise Man, Proverbs 16:33: “Lots are cast into the lap, but they are tempered by the Lord.” And Ecclesiasticus 33:11: The Lord “hath separated them (men) and changed their ways; of them He hath blessed and exalted, and of them He hath cursed and brought low, as the clay of the potter in his hand, to fashion it and dispose it: all His ways are according to His disposition.” Though therefore these effects are often casual and fortuitous in respect of the secondary causes, by which they are not foreseen, but happen apart from their intention and causality, as if by accident and by chance: yet in respect of God they are not fortuitous, but foreseen, provided for and ordained in themselves. Whence St. Augustine, book 1 of the Retractations, chapter 1, judged that the name of fortune should be rejected from the Christian mouth, namely in the sense of the Gentiles: for otherwise God, as He is naturing nature (to speak so with some philosophers), so is also fortuning fortune, that is, He Himself is the author of all fortune, as of nature; whence from these events we gather and know that there is a mind presiding over all things, ruling all these things, that there is providence, that there is God. For how otherwise would some be constantly fortunate in all their affairs, others unfortunate, unless because God constantly breathes felicity upon these, infelicity upon those? as Albert Hero rightly demonstrates, book 4 On Providence, chapter 6.
The causes why God makes men so unequal in this matter: the first is, that He may show Himself the absolute Lord of all. The second, that in the universe the degrees and fortunes of men may be unequal: for this belongs to the variety and beauty of the universe. The third, that men may from these things recognise God, and ask them of no other than God. Whence God promised the Jews, if they kept the law, this felicity in earthly goods, that a rude people might be led by this hope to the law and worship of God: again, He made the Patriarchs fortunate, that the Gentiles, enticed by the hope of this felicity, might recognise and worship the same God. The fourth, that those who are fortunate may use their felicity for the glory of God and the help of others: that the unfortunate may have in their infelicity matter of virtue, modesty and
32. SEPARATE ALL THE SHEEP.—Note, from this place to the end of the chapter the Hebrew is intricate and prolix, which our Interpreter has therefore touched on clearly and briefly, as in compendium, rendering not so much word for word as the sense.
Whence note secondly, that not two covenants, as some will have it, but one only of Jacob with Laban is recounted here to the end of the chapter; for this the connection of covenant and event demands, and the historical sequence of the whole chapter. This covenant, then, was this: that all the young of the sheep and goats of Laban, which Jacob fed, thereafter to be born, if they were of one colour, namely wholly white or wholly black, should fall to Laban:
patience. And for this cause God makes the greater part of men not wholly fortunate, nor wholly unfortunate, but in some things fortunate, in others unfortunate; and weaves and tempers their life out of felicity and infelicity with wonderful variety. The fifth, that the faithful, seeing that the pious are often unfortunate and the impious fortunate, may know that all earthly things are indifferent, and learn to despise this earthly felicity and to aspire to the true, heavenly and eternal one, to which Christ leads us by word and example. For, as St. Augustine says, On True Religion, chapter 10: “The whole life of Christ was a discipline of morals.” For Christ taught that all the goods of the world, which He despised, are to be despised; and showed that all the evils, which He endured, are to be endured: so that neither in those should felicity be sought, nor in these infelicity feared.”
Note that, although among Christians many good men might be born sprinkled and of various colours, or dusky, that is, blackish, such as are partly white and partly black, they would fall to Jacob. So St. Jerome, Lipomanus, Pererius. And for this reason Laban handed over to Jacob to pasture only the sheep and goats of one colour, supposing that from them young of a like single colour would be born, and so all would fall to himself, but to Jacob nothing or little, and that only by chance and accidentally. But the remaining sheep and goats of different colours he took away from Jacob and separated, and kept for himself both them and all their young, whether they were born of one colour or of many.
DUSKY, SPOTTED, AND VARIEGATED—“Dusky” is brown or blackish, in which whiteness is mixed with blackness so that it appears partly white, partly black; “spotted,” in Hebrew talu, is what has large white or black spots; so that even the pious, though unhappy by nature, are nevertheless all happy, and will be so supernaturally, because God through this unhappiness directs them to a contempt of the world, to true wisdom, to the glory of patience and fortitude, and at last to eternal happiness. So then, “to them that love God all things work together unto good,” even adversities; “the man who hath not walked in the counsel of the ungodly, etc. Whatsoever he shall do shall prosper.” And so in pious and supernatural matters we find that holy men, especially those who commit themselves wholly to God and ever ask to be directed by him in their works, for the most part have happy success, besides the merit of virtue and labour.
Wherefore it is prudent counsel that, when about to teach, to preach, to hear confessions, to convert souls, etc., we unite ourselves to God in all things, and pray that he himself direct our mind, hand, feet, and all our ways and acts, saying: “Look upon thy servants, O Lord, and let the brightness of the Lord our God be upon us, and direct thou the works of our hands over us.” Thus God directed and prospered Abraham, Isaac and Jacob here.
30. AT MY COMING—at my presence, that is, on my account, as the Chaldee renders it. See how great prosperity just and holy men bring to the houses of their masters, even of the wicked.
32. GO ROUND—Drive your sheep and goats round in a circle, that we may together review them all and separate the single-coloured from the many-coloured: whence the Hebrew is ebor, that is, I will pass over, and will review with you all the flocks (1).