Folio 30r - the wind, continued. Item de accipitre; Of the hawk. Beatus Gregorius de acciptre quomodo plumescat; The blessed Gregory on the hawk and how it moults
Folio 30r Translation is the flame of love. From there comes the purity of truth. The south wind blows from a tranquil quarter, because God reposes in tranquility of character. There he finds nourishment; there he finds rest. There is to be found peace of mind; there, too, the refreshment of contemplation. The south wind signifies the grace of the Holy Spirit. The breath of the wind represents the beneficence of the Holy Spirit; its heat represents love. It comes therefore, whenever the grace of the Holy Spirit grows within in a man's mind. It rises whenever that grace withdraws from the mind. God, it is said, will come from the south. The Devil from the north; God from the south. The Devil lives in the darkness of ignorance; God delights in the tranquility born of love of one's fellow-man. The cold of the north wind causes the pores of the flesh to close tightly; the heat of the south wind opens them up again. For what cold avarice holds back in a tight fist, bountiful charity offers as alms in open hands. If old wings carry the soul down to hell, new wings carry it up to the heavenly things it longs for. For the sins of the soul weigh it down; its virtues raise it up. Next, of the hawk The hawk is a bird armed rather with spirit than with claws, having great courage in its small body. It gets its name, accipiter, from accipiendo, accepting - that is, a capiendo, taking to itself. For it greedily seizes other birds. For that reason it is called accipite, meaning one who seizes by force. Therefore Paul says: 'You suffer if a man take of you' (Corinthians 2, 11:20); but while he means to say 'siquis rapit, if any man seizes something from you by force', he says 'siquis accipit, if any man take'. It is said that the hawk is lacking in parental care towards its young, for when it sees that they are able and trying to fly, it does not feed them but beats them with its wings, throws them from the nest and forces them from a tender age to catch prey for themselves lest, when they are fully grown, they should become lazy. It takes care lest in their childhood they grow idle, or are given up to pleasure, or grow weak from inactivity, or learn to expect food rather than to seek it for themselves, or abandon their natural vigour. Hawks stop bothering to feed their young in order to make them bold enough to seize food for themselves. The blessed Gregory on the hawk and how it moults
Folio 30r - the wind, continued. Item de accipitre; Of the hawk. Beatus Gregorius de acciptre quomodo plumescat; The blessed Gregory on the hawk and how it moults | The Aberdeen Bestiary | The University of Aberdeen