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John saw in the Apocalypse virgin men who had not been defiled with a woman. For even if what is said about the virgins who make up the number one hundred and forty-four is interpreted allegorically, yet, for the sake of a pure and chaste manner of life, it does no harm to accept the literal text according to a straightforward reading. 1.384

In the book of catechesis entitled The Shepherd many things are revealed through women and virgins, of which some signify virtues and blessings, and others vices and punishments, which the reader will learn from the book. 1.385

Zach. V, 9-11: And I lifted up my eyes and saw; and behold, two women were coming out, and a wind was in their wings; and they had wings like the wings of a hoopoe; and they lifted up the measure between the earth and the heaven. And I said to the angel who was speaking in me: Where are they carrying the measure? And he said to me: To build a house for it in the land of Babylon and to prepare it, and they will set it there upon its prepared place. 1.386

And now, lifting up the eyes of the inner man as in the preceding visions, he saw two winged women coming out, and a wind was in their wings. Their wings were like the wings of the animal called the hoopoe. The women coming out in this way lifted up the previously interpreted measure, in the middle of which was the woman called lawlessness, and they lifted it up between the earth and the heaven. When these things were thus seen, ...I asked the angel who spoke in me: “Where are they carrying the measure? And he said to me: To build a house for it in the land of Babylon, and they will set it there upon its prepared place.” 1.387

We must consider who the two women are. See if they can be the two vices, either the moral one which consists in the transgression of the divine commandments, or the false opinion concerning what one must think, and the evil powers that activate them. 1.388

They were seen having wings filled with a spirit, that of which the Apostle writes: “in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience.” 1.389

Perhaps it is akin, being the evil thing in the aforementioned wings, to the unclean spirit cast out by Jesus from the man, which, having been cast out by Jesus, if it returns and finds the place from which it was cast out unoccupied and swept, having a very bad leisure and swept, with all the good things it had having been thrown out, takes with it seven other spirits more evil than itself, it enters and “dwells there, and the last state of that man becomes worse than the first.” 1.390

To show that the wings of the women are blameworthy, they were compared and likened to the wings of the hoopoe. For this animal is unclean, being a lover of corpses and human filth. For it feeds among the tombs and makes its nest for itself out of human dung, so that by laying eggs in the foul nest it may hatch and produce young ones like itself. 1.391

It has this name from watching over and observing human affairs. Women use it, when it has been cooked, for evil arts, that is, those used for ...lia and abortifacients, or the things that lead to an intemperate and amorous love-potion. 1.392

One must consider what this animal should be understood as allegorically, and see if it is possible. 1.393

It signifies either the devil, or the antichrist. But it should not be ruled out that it also refers to each of the heterodox. And the devil and the godless antichrist and the teaching of the heretics delights to feed around tombs, which are the same as the tombs allegorically “whitewashed on the outside, but inside full of all incontinence” and of similar reasonings that separate from God because they are crooked. For it is said in the all-virtuous Wisdom of Solomon: “Crooked

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παρθένων ἀνδρῶν μὴ μολυνθέντων μ̣ετὰ γυναικὸς ὁ Ἰωάννης εἶδεν ἐν τῇ Ἀποκαλύψει. Εἰ γὰρ καὶ ἀνάγεται τὰ περὶ τῶν παρθένων τῶν συμπληρούντων τὸν ἕκατον τεσσαράκοντα τέσσαρα ἀριθμόν, ἀλλ' οὖν ἁγνῆς καὶ σώφρονος διαγωγῆς ἕνεκα, οὐ λυπεῖ ἐκδέξασθαι τὸ ῥητὸν κατὰ πρόχειρον. 1.384 Φέρεται ἐν τῇ βίβλῳ τῆς κατηχήσεως τῇ Ποιμένι ἐπιγεγραμμένῃ πολλὰ διὰ γυναικῶν καὶ παρθένων δηλούμενα, ὧν τὰ μὲν ἀρετὰς καὶ εὐλογίας δηλοῖ, τὰ δὲ κακίας καὶ κολάσεις, ἃς ὁ ἐντυχὼν ἐκλήμψεται ἀπὸ τοῦ βιβλίου. 1.385Zach. V, 9-11: Καὶ ἦρα τοὺς ὀφθαλμούς μου καὶ εἶδον· καὶ ἰδοὺ δύο γυναῖκες ἐκπορευόμεναι, καὶ πνεῦμα ἐν ταῖς πτέρυξιν αὐτῶν· καὶ αὗται εἶχον πτέρυγας ὡς πτέρυγας ἔποπος· καὶ ἀνέλαβον τὸ μέτρον ἀνὰ μέσον τῆς γῆς καὶ ἀνὰ μέσον τοῦ οὐρανοῦ. Καὶ εἶπα πρὸς τὸν ἄγγελον τὸν λαλοῦντα ἐν ἐμοί· Ποῦ αὗται ἀποφέρουσιν τὸ μέτρον; Καὶ εἶπεν πρός με· Οἰκοδομῆσαι αὐτῷ οἰκίαν ἐν γῇ Βαβυλῶνος καὶ ἑτοιμάσαι, καὶ θήσουσιν αὐτὸ ἐκεῖ ἐπὶ τὴν ἑτοιμασίαν αὐτοῦ. 1.386 Καὶ νῦν ἐπάρας τοὺς ὀφθαλμοὺς τοῦ ἔσω ἀνθρώπου ὡς ἐν ταῖς προλαβούσαις ὀπτασίαις, εἶδεν δύο γυναῖκας ἐκπορευομένας ἐπτερωμένας, καὶ πνεῦμα ἦν ἐν ταῖς πτέρυξιν αὐτῶν. Ἦσαν δὲ αἱ πτέρυγες αὐτῶν ὡς πτέρυγες ζῴου τοῦ καλουμένου ἔποπος. Αἱ οὕτως ἐκπορευόμεναι γυναῖκες ἀνέλαβον τὸ προηρμηνευμένον μέτρον, οὗ ἐν μέσῳ ἡ καλουμέν̣η ἀνομία γυνὴ ἐτύγχανεν, καὶ ἀνέλαβον αὐτὸ ἐν μέσῳ τ̣ῆς̣ γῆς καὶ τοῦ οὐρανοῦ. Τούτων οὕτω τεθεωρημένων, ···επυθόμην τοῦ λαλοῦντος ἐν ἐμοὶ ἀγγέλου· «Ποῦ ἀποφέρουσιν τὸ μέτρον; Καὶ εἶπέν μοι· Οἰκοδομῆσαι αὐτῷ οἰκίαν ε᾿̣ν̣ γῇ Βαβυλῶνος, καὶ θήσουσιν αὐτὸ ἐκεῖ ἐπὶ τὴν ἑτ̣οιμα̣σίαν αὐτοῦ.» 1.387 Ἐπιστατέον τίνες αἱ δύο γυναῖκές εἰσιν. Ὅρα εἰ δύνανται αἱ δύο κακίαι εἶναι ἤτε ἠθικὴ ἡ κατα`̣ παράβ̣ασιν τῶν θείων ἐντολῶν συνισταμένη ἢ ἡ ψευδὴς περὶ τῶν φρονητέων δόξα καὶ αἱ ἐνεργοῦσαι αὐτὰς πονηραὶ δ̣υ̣ν̣άμεις. 1.388 Ὤφθησαν δὲ πτέρυγας ἔχουσαι πνεύματος πεπληρωμένας, ἐκείνου περὶ οὗ γράφει ὁ Ἀπόστολος· «Ἐν οἷς ποτε καὶ ὑμεῖς περιεπατήσατε κατὰ τὸν αἰῶνα τοῦ κόσμου τούτου, κατὰ τὴν ἐξουσίαν τοῦ ἀέρος, τοῦ πνεύματος τοῦ νῦν ἐνεργοῦντος ἐν τοῖς υἱοῖς τῆς ἀπειθείας.» 1.389 Τάχα δὲ συγγενές ἐστιν, φαῦλον ὂν τὸ ἐν ταῖς ἐκκειμέναις πτέρυξιν, τῷ ἀκαθάρτῳ πνεύματι τῷ ἐκβαλλομένῳ ὑπὸ Ἰησοῦ ἀπὸ τοῦ ἀνθρώπου, ὅπερ ἐκβληθὲν ὑπὸ Ἰησοῦ, ἐὰν ὑποστρέψαν εὕρῃ σχολάζοντα καὶ σεσαρωμένον τὸν τόπον ἀφ' οὗ ἐξεβλήθη, σχολὴν χειρίστην ἔχοντα καὶ σεσαρωμένον, ἀποβληθέντων πάντων ὧν εἶχεν καλῶν, παραλαμβάνει πνεύματα ἕτερα ἑπτὰ πονηρότερα αὐτοῦ, εἰσέρχεται καὶ «κατοικεῖ, καὶ γίνεται τὰ ἔσχατα τοῦ ἀνθρώπου ἐκείνου χείρονα τῶν πρώτων». 1.390 Πρὸς παράστασιν τοῦ ψεκτὰς εἶναι τὰς πτέρυγας τῶν γυναικῶν, παρεβλήθησαν καὶ ὡμοίωνται ταῖς τοῦ ἔποπος πτέρυξιν. Ἀκάθαρτ̣ον δ' ἐστὶν τοῦτο τὸ ζῷον, νεκρῶν φίλον ὂν καὶ σκυβάλων ἀνθρωπίνων· νέμεται γοῦν ἐν τοῖς μνήμασιν καὶ νεοσσιὰν ἑαυτῷ ποιεῖ ἐκ κόπρου ἀνθρωπίνης, ἵνα ᾦα θεὶς ἐν τῇ νοσερᾷ καλιᾷ ἐπῳάσῃ καὶ νεοσσοποιήσῃ νεοττοὺς ὁμοίους αὐτῷ. 1.391 Ἔσχεν δὲ τὴν προσηγορίαν ταύτην ἀπὸ τοῦ ἐποπτεύειν κ̣αὶ ε᾿̣φορᾶν τὰ ἀνθρώπινα. Χρῶνται δὲ αὐτῷ αἱ γυναῖκες πεφθέντι εἰς κακοσχολίας, ἤτοι τὰς παραλαμβανομένας εἰς̣ ····λια καὶ φθόρια, ἢ τὰ ἀγώγιμα εἰς φίλτρον ἀκόλαστον κα̣ὶ ἐραστικόν. 1.392 Σκοπητέον τί τὸ ζῷον τοῦτο κατ' ἀναγωγη`̣ν ἐκλα̣βεῖν δεῖ, καὶ ὅρα εἰ δυνατόν. 1.393 Ἢ τὸν διάβολον σημαίνει, ἢ τὸν ἀντίχριστον. Οὐκ ἀπογνωστέον δὲ καὶ τῶν ἑτεροδόξων ἕκαστον. Χαίρει δὲ καὶ ὁ διάβολος καὶ ὁ ἀντίθεος ἀντίχριστος καὶ τῶν αἱρετικῶν ὁ λόγος νέμεσθαι περὶ μνήματα, τὰ αὐτὰ ὄντα τοῖς τάφοις κατὰ ἀλληγορίαν «τοῖς ἔξωθεν κεκονιαμένοις, ἔσωθεν γέμουσιν πάσης ἀκρασίας» καὶ τῶν παραπλησίων λογισμῶν χωριζόντων ἀπὸ Θεοῦ διὰ τὸ εἶναι σκολιοί. Εἴρηται γὰρ ἐν τῇ παναρέτῳ Σοφίᾳ τοῦ Σαλωμῶνος· «Σκολιοὶ