Verses 11 and 12. Now therefore you shall be cursed upon the earth, which has opened its mouth and received the blood of your brother from your hand. When you have tilled it, it shall not give you its fruits: a wanderer and a fugitive you shall be upon the earth.¹

VERS. 11. & 12. Nunc igitur maledictus eris super terram, quae aperuit os suum, & suscepit sanguinem fratris tui de manu tua. Cum operatus fueris eam, non dabit tibi fructus suos: vagus & profugus eris super terram.

MOREOVER, since Abel, killed by his brother Cain, was an illustrious figure of Christ the Lord killed by the Jews, and the curses which befell Cain prefigured the evils which were to befall the Jews — how Rupert sets forth this figure according to the allegorical interpretation, aptly indeed, piously, and lucidly, must be recalled in this place. He, therefore, in book 3 of the Commentary on Genesis, ch. 6, treating all the aforesaid words which God said to Cain, and applying them most fittingly to Christ's death wrought by the Jews, and to the calamities which befell the Jews on account of that murder, writes thus: 'And of him, of whom this history is woven, both the folly and the insolence, as great as no one could attain in words, is denoted; and by a worthy punishment the crime of fratricide is struck; and beyond the mystery which has now been made plain to all the world, it is prefigured in the Jews the killers of Christ. For truly, what he said then to the one lost Cain, "The voice of your brother's blood cries to me from the earth," is now rightly said of that people, there is no one who does not know. For what earth is there of which, not in figurative but in proper speech, it may rightly be said, that it opened its mouth and received from the hands of the Jews the blood of their brother? Surely it is the holy Church of Christ, an earth truly good, a fruitful earth, which, according to the Apostle, often drinking the rain that comes upon it, germinates herb useful to those by whom it is tilled, and thereupon receives blessing from God; just as, on the contrary, an earth bringing forth thistles and thorns is reprobate and near to cursing, whose end is unto burning. This earth, since it is rational, is so much more excellent than an inanimate and insensible earth, as the blood of this Abel [Christ], which it received, opening its mouth in a voice of exultation and confession, cries better than the blood of that Abel could cry: as the same Apostle who [was quoted] above says: "But you have come to Jesus the mediator of the new testament, and to the sprinkling of blood that speaks much better than Abel." For that blood, crying [for] only one man, accused a nefarious crime, and (which is true) announced something to come, yet was still hateful or intelligible to God alone; but this [blood], from the mouth of the faithful earth such as we...'⁵

CAETERUM quoniam Abel occisus a fratre Cain, illustris figura fuit Christi domini a Iudaeis occisi, & maledicta, quae acciderunt Cain, praesignificabant mala, quae Iudaeis eventura erant: quemadmodum hanc figuram secundum allegoricam interpretationem declaret Rupertus, apte scilicet pie, ac luculenter, commemorandum est hoc loco. Ille igitur in lib. 3. Commentar. in Genes. cap. 6. supradicta omnia verba, quae Deus dixit Cain pertractans, & ad Christi necem factam a Iudaeis, atque ad calamitates quae propter eam caedem Iudaeis contigerunt perbelle accommodans, ad hunc modum scribit: Et illius, de quo haec historia texitur, stultitia simul & procacitas, quantam nemo verbis consequi valeat, denotatur: dignaque poena scelus fratricidia percutitur; & praeter mysterium, quod nunc palam omni mundo factum est, ex Iudaeis interfectoribus Christi praesignatur. Nam re vera quod dixit tunc uni perdito Cain, Vox sanguinis fratris tui clamat ad me de terra, nunc illi populo recte dici, est nemo qui nesciat. Quae est enim terra, de qua non figurata, sed propria locutione recte dicatur, quod aperuit os suum, & susceperit de manibus Iudaeorum sanguinem fratris eorum? Nempe ipsa est Sancta Christi Ecclesia, terra utique bona, terra fructifera, quae iuxta Apostolum saepe venientem super se bibens imbrem, germinat herbam oportunam illis, a quibus colitur, & proinde accipit benedictionem a Deo: sicut e contrario terra proferens tribulos, & spinas; reproba est & maledicto proxima, cuius consummatio est in combustionem. Haec terra cum sit rationalis, tanto praestantior est terra inanimata & insensibili: quanto sanguis huius Abel, quem suscepit, aperiens os suum in voce exsultationis & confessionis melius clamat quam sanguis illius Abel clamare potuerit: sicut Apostolus idem qui supra dicit: Sed accessistis, inquit, ad novi testamenti mediatorem Iesum, & sanguinis aspersionem multo melius clamantem quam Abel. Nam ille sanguis clamando unius tantum hominis, nefarium scelus accusabat, & si (quod verum est) aliud futurum annunciabat, soli Deo adhuc odibilis vel intelligibilis erat: hic autem ex ore terrae fidelis quales nos

...are, intercedes for the whole world, and excuses the sins of all, invites even those who shed it to penitence, openly announces the coming judgment to the impenitent. Upon this [earth], subject to the curse, this Cain is a wanderer and fugitive, more grievously than that [Cain] was upon the earth — on which he also first built a city, which he named after his firstborn Henoch: but neither is that clear according to the letter, that the earth did not give its fruits to him tilling it, but germinated thorns and thistles for him. But about this [Cain, the Jewish people] it is well enough known that, though it thinks it cultivates the Church of the Patriarchs and Prophets, by reading the same law and observing the same ceremonies as they, it does not give its fruits — that is, the usefulness which, imperfect though it was, it conferred before the Lord's passion, it can now confer on none, but on the contrary germinates thorns and thistles, since not only is no one justified, but he thereby accumulates his own damnation.⁶

sumus nos pro omni mundo interpellat, & universorum peccata excusat, ipsis quoque qui fuderunt illum ad paenitentiam invitat, impaenitentibus futurum iudicium palam annunciat. Super hanc, maledicto subiectus, vagus, & profugus est iste Cain, molestius quam fuit ille super terram, in qua civitatem quoque primus aedificavit, quam & vocavit ex nomine primogeniti sui Henoch: sed nec illud secundum litteram satis aperte constat, quod terra operanti illi non dederit fructus suos, sed spinas & tribulos germinaverit illi. De isto autem satis notum est, quia cum Ecclesiam Patriarcharum & Prophetarum se putet operari, legem eandem lectitando, & easdem ceremonias observando, quas & illi, non dat fructus suos, id est, utilitatem, quam imperfectam licet ante passionem dominicam conferebat, nulli conferre potest, sed e contrario spinas & tribulos germinat, dum non modo non iustificatur quis, verum etiam suam exinde damnationem accumulat.

MOREOVER, that it [the Jewish people] is a wanderer and fugitive upon this earth — that is, on account of Christ's Church — is manifest, that being fulfilled which, speaking of that people, [Christ] himself [said]: 'And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and be led captive into all nations.' This, I say, was done 'upon the earth,' that is, on account of Christ's Church. For the blood itself demanded that this be done, in the psalm, where, when it had said, 'God has shown me over my enemies: Slay them not, lest at any time my people forget,' — but what? 'Scatter them,' it says, 'in your strength.' Therefore, that this itself might avail to increase the memory, or knowledge, of the ruin among the peoples, Christ himself willed this people to be a wanderer and fugitive; because, namely, both their scattered captivity, and their captive Scripture with them, bear witness that this their brother whom they killed was just, and that the Christian faith invented none of these things which we preach. And so the letter too treats this matter manifestly, and strikes this [Cain, the Jew] no less evidently than that [Cain]; because that one was not so much a wanderer or fugitive upon the earth as not to have his own city, nor did the earth so refuse to give its fruits to him tilling it, or so germinate thorns and thistles for him, that he found no means to build a city. Thus far Rupert.⁷

PORRO quod vagus & profugus sit super hanc terram, id est, propter Christi Ecclesiam, manifestum est, impleto quod de illo populo loquens ipse: Et cadent, inquit, in ore gladii, & captivi ducentur in omnes gentes. Hoc, inquam, super terram, id est, propter Christi Ecclesiam factum est. Nam & ipse sanguis hoc, ut fieret, flagitabat in psalmo, ubi cum dixisset, Deus ostendit mihi super inimicos meos: Ne occidas eos, ne quando obliviscantur populi mei. Sed quid? Disperge ait, illos in virtute tua. Igitur ut hoc ipsum proficeret ad augendam memoriam, vel notitiam ruinae in populis, vagum & profugum hunc populum ipse Christus esse voluit, quia videlicet & eorum sparsa captivitas, & captiva cum eis ipsorum Scriptura perhibent testimonium, quod hic frater ipsorum quem occiderent iustus erat, & nihil horum quae praedicamus, fides Christiana confinxit. Itaque littera quoque de hoc negotio manifeste agit, nec minus evidenter istum, quam illum percutit Cain, quia nec ita vagus aut profugus fuit ille super terram, ut propriam civitatem non haberet: nec ita operanti fructus suos terra dare recusavit, vel spinas & tribulos adeo germinavit illi, ut sumptus ad aedificandam civitatem non inveniret. Hactenus Rupertus.