The Golden Ring

Quomodo intelligendum est quod ait Circulus aureus in naribus suis, mulier pulchra et fatua? Hoc est, si circulum aureum in naribus porci infixeris, ille dum pergit terram vertere ac fodere naso, immergit circulum aureum in volutabrum luti, et tunc perdit circulis aureus decorem quem habuit. Similiter ergo mulier fatua, si habet pulchritudinem vultus, vel si accipiat ornamenta inaurium, monilium simul et vestimentorim, sordidat pulchritudinem vultus, et amittit decorem, si se coeno libidinis coinquinare diligit, et adulteriis corrumpit. Spiritualiter autem quomodo intelligenda est haec sententia? Quicunque sacras Scripturas intente meditatur, et jugiter perscrutatur divina eloquia, accipit ornamentum scientiae; quod si male vivendo corrumpit, et destruit quod intelligit, circumulum aureum habet in naribus, sed more suis terram fodiendo coinquinat et luto immergit, quia ornatum per quem notitiam Scripturarum accepit, immunda actione sordidavit. Talis anima, pulchra mulier et fatua est; pulchra quidem per scientiam; sed dedita carnalibus delectationibus, fatua est per actionem. Honorius Augustodunensis, Quaestiones Et Ad Easdem Responsiones In Duos Salomonis Libros, Caput XI Source: Migne PL 172.318a-b

How should it be understood when it is said, 'A golden ring in the nose is a woman who is beautiful and foolish.' 1 That is, if you attach a golden ring to the snout of a pig, when he goes off to turn up the earth and dig in it with his snout, he covers the golden ring with the filth of the mud, and so he ruins the beauty of the golden ring which he has. Similar, therefore, is a foolish woman, if she has a beautiful appearance, or if she receives gilded ornaments, and likewise necklaces and clothes, and she defiles the beauty of her appearance and casts down the charm of them, delighting to foul herself in feasts of lust and to corrupt it with adulteries. But spiritually how should this be understood? Whoever meditates intently on the Scriptures and with it studies the divine words, he receives the ornament of knowledge, which if he corrupts with bad living, so he ruins what he understands. He has the golden ring in the nose, but his conduct befouls it with his digging in the earth and covering it in mud, whence the ornament which he received by his knowledge of the Scriptures is spoiled by unclean action. Such a soul is a beautiful and foolish woman, certainly beautiful by knowledge, but given over to carnal delights it is made foolish by action. Honorius of Autun, Questions and Answers on Two Books of Solomon, Chapter 11 1 Prov 11.22