Commentaria in Isaiam
so the fairest bride in the Canticles is compared to the dawn and the morning star, chapter 6: “Who is she,” he says, “that cometh forth as the morning rising?” And Ecclesiasticus 50:6, of Simon the son of Onias, says: “As the morning star in the midst of a cloud, and so on, so did he shine in the temple of God.”
Balthasar, then, is called here “Lucifer,” first, because he had an illustrious and splendid empire, so that its brightness, majesty and glory seemed not so much earthly as heavenly and starry. Second, because he was a monarch, and among men and kings stood out and shone like Lucifer among the stars, says Cyril. For this is what the Poet sings of Lucifer or Hesperus:
Hesperus, who shinest, a fire more pleasing than any in heaven.
That is, the most pleasing star: for the ancients thought the stars fiery. Again, the course of Lucifer is firm, steady and perpetual; as if to say: As incredible as it is that the morning star should fall from heaven, so incredible it seemed that Balthasar could be cast down from his royal throne, height, majesty and glory.
Third, because, as the morning star shines first, and when the sun comes does not appear; so the first was the monarchy of the Babylonians, which soon vanished when Cyrus, that is the sun, came: for Cyrus in Persian signifies the sun, says Herodotus. Fourth, because the Chaldean kings had light and fire, which they worshipped as a god, borne before them, as if they were suns and gods, whom the morning star preceded. The Roman Emperors afterwards imitated the same; for they had fire carried before them, as Herodian testifies, because fire is a symbol of sovereignty, felicity, power and glory. So Holofernes, as the Septuagint have it, Judith chapter 10, when he went out to Judith to the front of the tent, lamps preceded him for honour’s sake: for the sun had already risen, so that there was no need of lamps for light. For this reason the Chaldean kings were the first to put upon their heads a crown marked with rays, to bear the appearance of the radiant sun. Hence they also wished to be called and saluted by the name of the Sun, as Cyrus was called, as if you said sun. So by God the son of Manue was called Samson, that is, little sun, a small sun, who indeed shone upon the Hebrews as a saving sun from heaven amid the darkness of the afflictions with which they were oppressed by the Philistines, and by his fortitude dispersed and drove them off. Balthasar, therefore, is called “Lucifer” because a shining fire, going before him with a radiate crown like the sun, accompanied him, as the morning star goes before the sun, says Sanchez. Fifth, because, as the morning star rising in the morning becomes Hesperus at setting, so also Balthasar; as if to say: How, O Balthasar! thou who in thy rising didst shine like the morning star, in thy setting art turned into Hesperus, nay hast as it were fallen from heaven to earth?
Wherefore aptly St. Bernard, sermon 3 on the vision of Isaias, chapter 6: “Why,” he says, “dost thou hasten to rise in the morning like Lucifer? why dost thou glory over the stars, whom thou seemest at times to outshine? Brief altogether will be thy glorying: the sun of justice follows, whom thou with vain pretence didst boast thyself to be, by whose heat and splendour alike thou shalt be reduced wholly to nothing and perish. How much better was John the Baptist as a Lucifer, who, going before the sun of justice, Christ, strove rather to burn than to shine? It would have been good for thee to be a fire-bearer rather than a light-bearer.” How then, O Lucifer! art thou made a night-bearer, nay a gallows-bird? How hast thou fallen from heaven into mire, from the highest to the lowest, from life to death, from glory to Gehenna? See the same St. Bernard, sermon 17 on the Canticles, which is entirely on the casting down of Lucifer.
I say, second, that Balthasar is also compared to Lucifer, that is, the devil: for he was called Lucifer because he shone in grace and glory in heaven like the star called “lucifer”; but by his fall he became dark as Hesperus: for Balthasar imitated the pride of Lucifer, whence also, punished with a like penalty, he went down to hell: for this descent does not suit a star. In a poetic figure, therefore, he here graphically depicts the fall of the devil, and under it as a type understands literally the fall of Balthasar, as is wont to be done in parables.
So, Lamentations 2:1, Jerusalem laid waste by the Chaldeans is said to be cast down from heaven to earth. In a like figure altogether Ezechiel, chapter 28, under the type of the Cherubic angel, describes the glory and fall of the king of Tyre; for he was himself as another Cherub: so also Balthasar was as a second Lucifer. So Virgil says: “Another Achilles is now born to Latium,” namely Turnus, and again:
Then shall there be another Tiphys, and another Argo to carry him:
“Argo,” that is, any ship; “Tiphys,” that is, any pilot and helmsman.
I assert, therefore, that as in parables there is first the truth of the parable itself, that is, of the story, or of the thing narrated parabolically; and second there is the truth of the thing signified by the parable, which is the literal sense of the parable itself: so in this figure the pride and fall of Lucifer are described like a parable, but by it is literally understood the pride and fall of Balthasar. That this is the sense, the context itself teaches, and the Fathers unanimously, such as St. Augustine, Cyprian, Tertullian, Athanasius and others, whom Arias Montanus cites here. To this Christ alluded, Luke 10:18, saying: “I saw Satan like lightning falling from heaven.”
Mystically, there is signified here the mystical ruin of the devil, which took place at the dawn, that is, at the beginning of his creation and of the world. Hence the Syriac has: How art thou fallen from heaven? howl, in the morning (at daybreak) thou hast fallen; and the Antiochene Arabic: How hast thou fallen from heaven upon the earth at dawn, in the morning hast thou fallen? Moreover Christ took from him dominion over men and over the Church. Hence it is said in Scripture that that accuser of the brethren is now cast out, and bound in chains by Christ; indeed Forerius thinks this the literal sense of this passage.
Verse 13. I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God. St. Damascene, book 2 On the Faith, chapter 4, holds that this proud demon was created in the air and set over earthly things. Second, St. Jerome holds that Lucifer was made in the firmament, and from there wished to ascend into the empyrean heaven: “Either before he fell from heaven he said these things, or after he fell from heaven. If still placed in heaven, how did he say: I will ascend into heaven? But because we read: The heaven of heaven is the Lord’s; being in heaven, that is, in the firmament, he desired to ascend into the heaven where the throne of God is; not by humility but by pride. But if he speaks these words after he fell from heaven, we must understand arrogance, that even cast down he does not rest, but still promises himself great things; that he may be not among the stars, but above the stars of God.” But the common opinion is that Lucifer and all the angels were created in the empyrean heaven. So, from Strabo and Bede, the Master of the Sentences, book 2, distinction 2; Janilius, at the beginning of the Hexaemeron; Hugh, Summa of Sentences, tract 2, chapter 1; St. Thomas, part 1, question 61, article 4, and others. For explanation, therefore, note: as in parables some things suit more, indeed only, the letter, that is, the parable; others more the thing signified by it: so here too. For the star of Venus, which was in its own heaven, is feigned parabolically to have desired to ascend to the highest heaven above all the stars; because she was worshipped by the Saracens as a deity. Hear St. Jerome in the Life of St. Hilarion: “Hilarion,” he says, “came to Elusa on a day when the annual solemnity had gathered the whole people of the town into the temple of Venus. They worship her on account of Lucifer, to whose cult the nation of the Saracens is given.” And Theodoret in the History of the Fathers, chapter 26, testifies that Simeon Stylites converted the Ishmaelites from the worship of Venus to the worship of Christ: “Breaking the images,” he says, “and renouncing the orgies of Venus (for from ancient times they had received the cult of this demon), they receive the divine Sacraments.” Hence Mahomet also in the Koran ordained for his people the worship of the star which they call Cubar, that is, Lucifer. This star is therefore feigned to have aspired to deity, because Lucifer, that is, the devil, aspired to the heaven of divinity and equality with God, and wished to ascend into it: so also the king of Babylon, as another Lucifer, was not indeed so mad as to wish properly to fly into heaven; but he aimed at the highest throne of glory, majesty and honour, even divine, which is properly heaven: for he wished to be held and worshipped as a god; hence, explaining, he adds: “I will be like the most High,” that is, in the honour and reverence with which God is worshipped in heaven: for this only, nothing else, do all these parabolic and hyperbolic exaggerations signify. For tyrants, wishing to be worshipped as gods, and thereupon as suns, and therefore abolishing all other gods, in fact invaded the very throne of God, and wished as it were to ascend into heaven, and to thrust God from his throne, or at least to sit with him on the same throne. By a like hyperbole Callimachus says: