4. Let us now take the second character also of the dove sent forth from the ark, that is to say, in the time of the deluge, when all the abysses broke forth; when the cataracts of heaven were opened upon the earth, on account of the wickedness of men which they daily practised before the Lord; as said Moses, “And the Lord God saw that the wickednesses of men were overflowing upon the earth, and that all of them were remembering for evil from the beginning of their days; and He said, I will destroy man whom I have made from off the face of the earth, from man even unto cattle, and from the creeping thing even unto the fowls of the air.”15 Gen. vi. 5–7. Therefore in the time of the flood the dove is sent forth from the ark, when the waters were violently rushing with all their force upon the earth.
IV. Sumamus jam nunc et secundam personam columbae ex arca emissae; diluvii scilicet tempore, quando omnes abyssi proruperunt, quando cataractae coeli patefactae sunt super terram, propter facinora hominum quae quotidie exercebant coram Domino, sicut Moyses dixit: Et vidit Dominus Deus redundare nequitias hominum super terram, et quod omnes in malum recordarentur a principio dierum suorum, 1209Cet dixit: Perdam hominem quem feci, a facie terrae, ab homine usque ad pecus, et a reptili usque ad volatilia coeli (Gen. VI, 5-7). Emittitur ergo tempore cataclysmi columba ex arca, aquis violenter toto orbe terram infestantibus.