A Poverty of Scripture

Debemus enim Scripturam sanctam, primum secundum litteram intelligere, facientes in ethica quaecumque praecepta sunt. Secundo juxta allegoriam, id est, intelligentiam spiritualem. Tertio secundum futurorum beatitudinem. Vos autem primam, inquit, et secundam contemnentes diem, spiritualia vobis quaedam figmenta componitis sine fundamento, et parietibus tectum desuper imponentes. Nec hoc sunt haeretici, de quibus, et ad quos dicitur, impietatis fine contenti: sed legerunt foris legem Dei de Ecclesia recedentes, et singulis dogmatibus suis, quae perverso corde simularent, confessiones et testimonia sociare conati sunt: sive sacrificaverunt de fermento, super quo in Evangelio dicitur: 'Cavete vobis a fermento,' id est, doctrina Pharisaeorum. Et haec fecerunt non errore, sed studio: non fortuita voluntate, sed majorum charitate plenissima. Unde ultionem super his comminatur Dominus: 'Dabo' inquiens, 'vobis stuporem dentium,' qui Graece γομφιασμὸς dicitur. Si quis enim secundum Ezechiel, uvam acerbam comederit, stupebunt dentes ejus: ut non bene Scripturarum sanctarum testimoniis abutentes, comedentesque ea immatura et absque sua dulcedine, perdant robur dentium: ne possint dura commolere, et in alvum toto corpori profutura transmittere. Hunc stuporem dentium ciborumque penuriam dabo et in cunctis urbibus, atque in omnibus locis vestris, ut patiamini famem sermonis Dei, et ejus panis qui de coelo descendit , et de quo in Psalmis scriptum est: 'Panem angelorum manducavit homo'  Quae universa feci, non ob crudenlitatem et saevitiam, ut haeretici calumniantur, truculenti et tristis judicii, sed ut converteremini ad me, juxta illud quod scriptum est: 'Frustra percussi filios vestros, disciplinam non recepistis' Sanctus Hieronymous, Commentariorum In Amos Prophetam, Liber II Cap IV

For we should first understand Sacred Scripture according to the letter, attending to whatever ethical precepts we find there. Secondly according to the allegorical sense, that is, the spiritual understanding. Thirdly according to the future state of beatitude. You disdaining the daylight of the first and the second, it says, have arranged certain spiritual parts  without foundation, and from above you would place a roof on such walls. And not here are heretics, concerning which, and to whom this is said, content to end their impiety, but they read outside the law of God, withdrawing from the Church, and to each of their own teachings, which their perverse hearts imitate, they try to associate confessions and witness, as if they offer in sacrifice the leaven 1 concerning which in the Gospel it says, 'Beware the leaven,' that is, 'of the Pharisees.' 2 And these things they do not by error but with a will, not by accident, but full of great zeal. Whence the Lord threatens vengeance on them. 'I shall give,' He says, 'to you numbness of teeth.' 3 which in Greek is γομφιασμὸς. For, according to Ezekiel, if someone eats the bitter grape his teeth are numbed, 4 and since they have made poor use of the witness of Sacred Scripture, eating indeed things immature and without sweetness, destroying the sense of their teeth, so they are not able to chew hard things, which should be sent into the stomach for the sake of the future body. This stupor of teeth and food is a poverty I shall give into every city, it says, and into every one of your places 3 that you suffer the famine of the word of God, and His bread which descends from heaven, 5 of which in the Psalms is written, 'Man ate the bread of angels'. 6 Which things I did, not out of cruelty and savagery, as the heretics calumniate, truculent and fearful of judgement, but that you be converted to me, according to what is written, 'Vainly I have struck your sons, discipline you have not received.'7 Saint Jerome, Commentary on Amos, Book 2, Chap 4   1 Amos 4.4 2 Mt 16.6 3 Amos 4.6 4 Ez 18  5 Jn 6.35 6 Ps 77.15  7 Jer 2.30