The Devil Arises

Ascendit leo de cubili suo, et praede gentium se levavit: egressus est de foco suo, ut ponat terram tuam in solitudinem. Civitates tuae vastabuntur remanentes absque habitatore. Iste est ut diximus, verus Nabuchodonosor, de quo et beatus Petrus Apostolus loquitur: 'Adversarius noster diabolus quasi leo rugiens circuit quaerens quem devoret.' Ascendit autem vel de abyssis in quas religandus est, et ne mittatur exorat: et praedo sive vastator gentium se elevavit, de quo dictum est: Omnium inimicorum suorum dominabitur, et qui gloriatur in conspectu Domini: Circuivi omnem terram, et conculcavi eam. Quis est enim quem diaboli venena non tangant, nisi ille solus qui potest dicere: Ecce venit princeps mundi istius, et invenit in me nihil? Iste crebro ponit omnem terram Ecclesiam, ut egressi de Ecclesia pugnent contra Ecclesiam De quibus loquitur Joannes Evangelista: Ex nobis exierunt, sed non fuerunt ex nobis, si enim fuissent ex nobis, permansissent utique nobiscum. Civitates vastantur terrae Judaeae, et haereticorim florent conciliabula. Si quis ergo fautor et auctor est perversorum dogmatum, hoc dici potest: Ascendit leo de cubili suo, et praedo gentium se levavit. Sanctus Hieronymus, Commentariorum In Jeremiam Propheta, Liber I

A lion has has gone up from his lair and a destroyer of nations has arisen, he has left his home that he might make your land a wasteland. Your cities shall be raised, left without inhabitant.' This is, as we said, the true Nebuchadnezzar, concerning whom the blessed Apostle Peter speaks: 'Our adversary the devil like a roaring lion roams around seeking whom he might devour.' He has gone up from the abyss in which he shall be bound and has entreated lest he be sent back, and so as a destroyer and devastator of nations he has arisen, about whom it is written, 'He shall rule over all his enemies.' And he glories in the presence of the Lord, ' I was roaming about the whole earth, tampling upon it.' Who indeed is not touched by the venom of the devil except the one who can say, 'Behold, the prince of this world comes and he discovers nothing in me'? This one is constantly oppressing all the land of the Church so that those who leave it fight against the Church. Of these John the Evangelist spoke: 'They have gone out from us, but they were not from us; if they were from us they would have remained with us.' The cities of the land of Judah are laid waste and the councils of the heretics flourish. And so if a man is a patron or author of perverse teachings one may say of him: 'A lion has has gone up from his lair and a destroyer of nations has arisen.' Saint Jerome, Commentary on Jeremiah, Book 1