Part of Altar Piece St. Anne with Virgin Mary, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York www.metmuseum.org
In book 2, chapter 23, Molanus deals with examples of images which could lead to dangerous errors among the uneducated. The third motif Molanus criticises in chapter 23 of book two is another motif that was widespread in the Middle Ages, namely Archangel Michael weighing the souls. Many different images of all kinds of different media have survived deriving from both Northern and Southern Europe. An interesting aspect is the fact that several of these artworks either fully dedicated to Michael or him having a very prominent place in it, were commissioned by some of the most important people of their time and often of monumental sizes, such as the Last Judgement by Rogier van der Weyden in the Hotel Dieu in Burgundy. The prominence of this motif might also explain why Molanus did not feel the need to mention any specific example, assuming that his readers were familiar with it. Molanus’ critique centres around the premise that the decision of someone going to heaven or hell depends on the matter of someone’s good deeds outweighing their bad deeds. This idea would have been ascribed to Church Father Augustine, but Molanus explains that this is not correct and derives from a sermon from a much later author. He does not completely reject the idea of a certain balance between good and bad deeds, but the theory from which the motif derives, he considers not authentic. Interesting to this matter, is that Molanus himself was an expert on the work of Augustine, being one of the editors of the Opera Augustine, which was published in Antwerps in 1586.
“In the same way, some paint the archangel Michael with a balance, weighing on one plate the soul and on the other the virtues. Near the plate on which the soul is, they paint the devil trying to crush it as much as he can, while near the other Michael hinders the devil’s effort with the cross, which is his emblem, and seems to add to Christ’s weight. From this painting, some would easily conclude that those who will obtain eternal life, are those whose good deeds weigh more than the bad ones, and those whose bad deeds weigh more than the good ones will be abandoned to the devil. Such an opinion seems to be found in Augustine, but it is a sermon by some later author, originally placed at the time of the vigil of Pentecost. No doubt there will be a certain balance between good and evil, and all the two will be placed in a sort of balance. The scale which will be lowered at the same time as one or other is placed in it will indicate the merit of the worker. If it is the greater quantity of sins that carries it, they will drag into hell the one who has committed them; if, on the contrary, the good works are more numerous, they will resist with all their weight, will oppose the sins and will bring back from the very confines of hell to the abode of the living the one who is the author.”
“Rursus Michaëlem Archangelum pingunt nonnulli cum libra, ponderante in una statera anima, in altera vero eius virtutes ad stateram in qua est anima, appingunt potest. In altera veri statera, Michaël signo suo crucis impedit conatum diaboli, et ex merito passionis et crucis Christi videtur aliquid illi staterae superaddere. Ex hax autem pictura facile nonnulli colligerent, quod ii consequantur vitam aeternam, in quibus bona opera praeponderant malis, illi vero diabolo relinquantur in quibus mala bonis praeponderant. Quale quid habere videtur apud Augustinus recentioris cuisdam hominis sermo qui est primus in vigilia Pentecostes. Sic enim habet, erit ibi sine dubio compensatio bonorum malorumque et velur in statera posita utraque pars quae demerserit illa sibi eorum quo momentum vergitur operarium vendicabit. Si ergo malorum multitudo superauerit, operarium suum pertrahit ad gehennam; si vero maiora fuerint opera bonorum, summa vi obsistent et repugnabunt malis, atque operatorem suum ad regionem vivorum ex ipso etiam gehenna consinio conuocabunt.”
Molanus 1996, 187, n. 1.
