Commentaria in Exodum
Third is the jasper, a most firm and green gem, and therefore somewhat like the emerald, says Isidore, book 16, chap. 7. The jasper suits Gad: for the tribe of Gad most bravely went before the other tribes to the promised land, and most bravely fought for them. For Gad in the Hebrew is the same as equipped, girded, armed, fortunate, Gen. 49:19.
Tropologically, the jasper signifies the fortitude of faith: whence in Apoc. it is assigned to St. Peter, who is the rock and foundation of the Church after Christ, and therefore happily this rock endures and will endure in his successors the Pontiffs. Augustus Caesar, sending Caius Caesar, the son of his daughter Julia, into Armenia, prayed the gods “that the grace of Pompey, the boldness of Alexander, and his own fortune might be granted him,” says Plutarch. Christ prayed for His own grace, fortitude and felicity, and by praying conferred them on St. Peter, and on his, nay His own, heirs.
19. IN THE THIRD ROW A LIGURE, AN AGATE, AND AN AMETHYST.—In the third row the first is the ligure, which others call lyncurium, and think to be a gem coagulated from the urine of the lynx: for lynx is lynx, and urion is urine; but Pliny rejects this, book 37, chap. 2, and says that if it were formed of such matter, it would be amber rather than a gem; and so Francis Rueus says the ligure is amber, not from the urine of the lynx, but distilling from the pine tree. Alcazar also, on Apocal. 21, note 31, thinks the ligure is electrum, or amber harder, more precious and rarer. But here not rows of amber but of gems are set.
It is uncertain, therefore, what the ligure is: yet it is likely to be the hyacinth. First, because St. Jerome so interprets it. Secondly, because the hyacinth is a most precious stone; whence it is not likely that it alone would be passed over here. Thirdly, because in Apoc. 21:20 the hyacinth is put for the ligure. Fourthly, the Septuagint first called it ligyrion, then Josephus and St. Jerome; and ligys to the Greeks signifies sweet, pleasant: but the hyacinth, as Pliny testifies, book 37, chap. 9, so feeds the eyes and ravishes them with its violet brilliance that it vanishes before it satisfies, and so does not fill the eyes, but almost does not touch them. Josephus also commends the ligure for its admirable beauty. What wonder, then, if that which is properly the hyacinth is called by antonomasia the ligure? This suits the tribe of Aser, which was richer and more delicate than the rest, Genes. 49:20. Hence also Rueus writes that it was the persuasion of some that hyacinths bring riches, which however a wise man will not readily believe.
Tropologically, the hyacinth signifies contempt of earthly things and love of heavenly: hence in the Apocalypse it fits Simon the Chananaean, who was of heavenly and most sweet manners. For the hyacinth is violet and of a heavenly colour, like the sapphire, and like the flower which is called the hyacinth.
The Emperor Titus, for his sweetness and benevolence, was called “the delight of the world”; being warned by friends that he promised more than he could perform, he answered: “No one ought to depart sad from a conversation with Caesar.” So Suetonius in his Life.
The Emperor Hadrian, as Dio testifies, was wonderfully courteous in conversation even with the humblest, and used to detest those who grudged him this pleasure of humanity, on the pretext that, as they said, the majesty of the prince must everywhere be preserved.
A notable example is that of a Religious who by his obedience and sweetness saved a brother who was wandering and inclined to apostasy, in the Lives of the Fathers. On the contrary, the tyrant Dionysius, entreated by Aristippus on behalf of a friend, did not admit his prayers: Aristippus, prostrating himself, began to embrace the feet of the king, and obtained his request. When someone reproved this as more abject than befitted a philosopher: “It is not I,” he said, “but Dionysius that is at fault, who has his ears in his feet”; Laertius is witness, book 2, chap. 8.
Second is the agate, so called from the river Achates in Sicily, near which it was first found, says Pliny; or, as others say, it is called achates, that is, sociable, because many figures and various colours are associated in it. For, as Isidore relates, book 16, chap. 11, it is black, having black and white circles joined and varied, and is like the haematite: its species is the coral-agate, which is sprinkled with golden drops. Anselm Boethius, an eminent physician and gem-cutter to the Emperor Rudolph II, writes, book 2 On Gems, chap. 96: “Every agate is a protection against pestilent poisons, and the stings of vipers and scorpions. For it refreshes the heart, and guards against every kind of contagion. An agate held in the mouth and detained in the hand plainly checks the thirst and the heat of those in fever (for all gems are cold and dry, as the same says chap. 66). It is told that the eagle places an agate in its nest to guard its young against the bites of venomous animals. Some write that the red agate sharpens the sight.” Of the agate they make rosary beads. It signifies the tribe of Issachar, situated among the middle of sinners, and its holiness, which therefore Moses praises, Deuter. 33:19. In the Apocalypse the chrysoprase answers to the agate, so called because it resembles in colour the juice of the leek; the same by its pallor approaches blackness, with golden drops intervening, whence it is akin to the coral-agate, and in the Apocalypse it is assigned to Jude Thaddeus: whose golden wisdom and sharpness (for this the chrysoprase symbolically and tropologically signifies) against heretics is evident from his epistle.
St. Pachomius knew the Origenists by their most foul stench, and threatened them with hell unless they repented and threw the books of Origen into the river, as is plain from his Life, chap. 44. So the monk Aphraates left the desert for the city to resist the Arians; and when the Emperor Valens rebuked him, saying that solitude was the proper place of monks, he answered: “Blame thyself, who hast cast fire into the house of God, not me, who have gone out to quench it”; Theodoret is witness in the Philotheus. So sharp against heretics were St. Jerome, St. Hilary, St. Athanasius and others.
Third is the amethyst, which is purple, rosy and violet, easy to engrave, and gently sends forth little flames. It is called amethyst from the Greek a- and methyein, to be drunken, with the privative a, because it is not drunken, that is, does not take the colour of wine entirely, or because it is believed to resist drunkenness. So Isidore and Pliny. It differs from the hyacinth in that the violet brilliance is diluted in the hyacinth, but in the amethyst is sparkling, says Pliny, book 37, chap. 9. The amethyst suits Zabulon, from whom some Apostles were descended, radiant with the heavenly splendour of virtues.
Tropologically, the amethyst signifies humility: whence in Apoc. it is given to Matthias, who by his name (for Matthias in Hebrew means gift of God) and being small in his own eyes, was never drunk with pride: hence, chosen by divine lot and vocation as Apostle in the place of Judas, he became great.
A certain old man was asked: What is humility? And answering he said: “Humility is a great and divine work; and the way of humility is this, that bodily labours must be undertaken, and that a man ascribe to himself the character of a sinner, and place himself in subjection to all.” And the brother said: “What is it to be subject to all?” The old man answered:
“This is to be subject to all, that one attend not to the sins of others, but always look at his own, and pray to God without ceasing.” In the Lives of the Fathers: A certain brother asked an old man, saying: Tell me one thing which I may keep, and live by it. And the old man said to him: “If thou canst bear and endure insult, this is great, and above all virtues.” Ibid., no. 83.
20. IN THE FOURTH ROW A CHRYSOLITE, AN ONYX, AND A BERYL.—In the fourth row the first is the chrysolite, which is partly of golden, partly of sea colour: whence in Hebrew it is called tharsis, that is, marine, says St. Jerome. This suits the tribe of Ephraim, which, having obtained the royal power in Jeroboam, held it a very long time.
Tropologically, the chrysolite signifies penance; whence in Apoc. it is assigned to Matthew, who was a penitent, and fervent with the love of Christ.
Excellently St. Gregory: “Very often,” he says, “a life fervent after sin is more pleasing to God than innocence torpid in security.” That this is true is plain in St. Matthew, Peter, Paul and others. Palladius relates in the Lausiac History, chap. 110, of a certain virgin who had fallen, that doing penance for 30 years she devoted herself to the service of the sick, the maimed and the mutilated, and so pleased God that it was revealed to a certain saint that she had pleased God more in penance than in virginity.
Second is the onyx, so called from the likeness of a human nail. This signifies Manasses, on account of the whiteness and humanity of his manners: whence also in Apoc. it is given to Philip. Of the onyx Anselm Boethius writes thus, book 2 On Gems, chap. 91, 92 and 93: “It is a sardonyx when a sard is joined to the onyx. A chalcedony, when the ruddy colour is absent and the black is distinct. An onyx, when black is present and the ruddy absent. For there are various kinds of onyxes. Some are wholly black, others with whiteness, with dusky, yellow, milky, bluish and horn colours, displaying a wonderful variety; all have bands or lines by which the colours are distinguished from one another. At times they are of such size that little columns can be made of them. For at Rome in the basilica of St. Peter six little columns of onyx are seen. Appian testifies that Mithridates, king of Pontus, had in his treasury two thousand cups of onyx. Under the onyx understand also the sardonyx and the chalcedony. For these too among the ancients were taken for the onyx. Onyx cups among the Romans were called myrrhine. The onyx does not take wax, and therefore is most suitable for seals.” The onyx and the sardonyx are today called nicolus by gem-cutters.