from Lugdunum, as reported by Gregory of Tours, who, after passing his wicked sentence against Christ, brought about his own end with his own hand.

The various modes of death by which distinguished men have been taken are countless. For instance, the orator Quintus Catulus Lutatius, who was Marius’s colleague in the consulship and shared his triumph over the Cimbri, was—according to Valerius Maximus—confined in a room by Marius's order and killed by the fumes of burning charcoal. Similarly, Zoe, the wife of the martyr Nicostratus, who was led to the worship of Christ by Saint Stephen, died suspended by her hair and suffocated by smoke. The virgin Felicula, when she could not be turned from the Christian religion by any promises, died after being thrown into a latrine by order of Count Flaccus. In the same way, the holy Apostle Bartholomew, the son of a Syrian king, flew to heaven by the command of Astyages after being flayed over his entire body. Other notable men were pierced by arrows, beheaded, struck by lightning, burned, starved, undone by poison, crushed by stones, had their throats slit, or were drowned in water. For instance, Galeatius of Mantua (as recorded by Pontano) while wintering in Ticino, threw himself into the river as a joke at the command of a girl for whom he was dying of love. Finally, famous men killed by horses, falling from horses, slain by serpents, slaughtered by boars, torn apart by lions, mangled by dogs, and killed by the bites of other wild beasts are mentioned in the histories of those specific animals, to which I refer the reader.

The Mystical Interpretation of the Parts of Man

Now, all the parts of the human body, from the crown of the head to the heel, must be diligently weighed to see what secrets may be hidden within them. First, in the Holy Bible, hair signifies the thoughts of the soul; for just as the whole head is adorned with hair, so the soul is decorated with thoughts. Therefore, Saint Gregory expressed the cares of the present life—which sometimes hinder the soul from turning to divine reflections—through the image of hair growing imperceptibly over the brain. For this reason, Christ declared in the Gospels that the hairs of our head are numbered, signifying that God is the searcher of the human heart and its thoughts.

Furthermore, according to Saint Augustine, a woman’s hair denotes the superfluous possessions held by men. For this reason, monks and others who dedicate themselves to religious service to God shave their heads, leaving only a tiny portion of hair to show they have minimal concern for worldly affairs. Finally, through the "hair of God," Saint Augustine interprets the Holy Angels and all the just, of whom it is said, "The hair of his head was like white wool," or as it is said in the Apocalypse, He appeared with a white head. Augustine, in his letter to the Galatians, suggests that this signifies the antiquity of truth.

According to Goropius, in the original language the word for "head" was *Heet*, a term that denotes command, for the head is granted dominion over the entire body. Alternatively, it was called *Hoet* in the original tongue, adding the letter T, which carries the power of binding, because the head binds us to Almighty God. In another sense, it was also called *Huet*, a word signifying guardianship, since the head protects the entire person through its foresight.

Thus, since the head enjoys so many great prerogatives, it is no wonder that it is attributed to God, as read in Daniel, where it designates the essence of the divinity to which all things are subject. For this reason, in the Apocalypse, the Seraphim are said to veil the head of God to indicate the deep mysteries of God regarding His divinity and power.

The Psalmist also spoke of a "shadowed head," by which the divinity remaining hidden during the Passion of Christ is expressed. Yet a head "filled with dew and the drops of the night," as written in the Song of Songs, shows that the love of God is cooled within the Church by human crimes.

When, however, we read in Genesis