HELP with Beza's Latin

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Christusregnat

Christusregnat

Puritan Board Professor
Hello Latin Scholars,

Anyone help with this translation? The context is Beza discussing the two kingdoms: the kingdom of God and the kingdom of the devil, and he says the following about the kingdom of the devil:

vel siqui sunt inter eos non usqueadeo amentes & insani, idcirco tantùm ut eum à quo sibi metuunt, vel à quo maximum not so mindless and insane, aliquod bonum expectant, sibi placatum ac propitium habeant. Hominescertè insani, qui sibi persuadere possint Deū in deligendis ac probandis amicis magis quàm ipsos homines caecutire.


Any help on translation?

Cheers,
 
give me a wee while - unless someone else comes through with a translation first...
I can understand some of it (she said, defensively) but it's easiest just to ask the expert when he comes in. He's trying out his new lawn mower at the moment
 
....even if there are some amongst them not so utterly senseless and insane as for that reason alone to regard Him [from whom they fear for themselves, or from whom they anticipate some very great blessing] as appeased and propitious towards themselves. Lunatics indeed, who are capable of convincing themselves that God is more dim-sighted than themselves in choosing and testing his friends!

I inserted the square brackets to make the grammar clearer - it's a convoluted sentence. Hope that helps
 
Jenny,

How about this cryptic phrase. I take it to be a figure of speech, but perhaps you can tell me more:



Sed timuisti scilicet ne parum ingeniosus videreris nisi quidpiā novi, tuo more, attulisses:

But you have evidently been afraid that you might not seem too clever unless you should have produce anything novel, as is your custom.

aut certè cum stipitibus & fungis tibi negotium fore credidisti.
Or else, in all events, you yourself have believed that the business of the courts of justice to be with logs and mushrooms.




It is the second sentence that I can't figure out; the part about the logs and mushrooms; any thoughts?

Cheers,
 
I'm on it! Only just seen it -this is my first time on here today.
Give me time to consult. Is it from the same text?
 
JennyG said:
I'm on it! Only just seen it -this is my first time on here today.
Give me time to consult. Is it from the same text?
Click to expand...

Jenny,

Thank you for your kindness and willingness to help out!

Indeed, all of the quotations from Beza that I have posted, and will be posting for some time, are from his book concerning the duty of civil magistrates to uphold the 1st Table of the Law, Concerning the Punishment of Heretics by the Civil Magistrate.

It is my current translation project.

My previous project has been completed, and is currently being sold, if you are interested.

God bless,
 
This is (I'm told) good Classical Renaissance Latin - in other words, even though written much later, the idiom is pretty faultless classical. The second sentence means something like:

...or you thought, for sure, you would have trouble with the logs and fungi

Negotium does mean business, but also by extension trouble or difficulty (the construction is the accusative + infinitive, fore being the future infinitive of sum)

It's not exactly a recognised figure of speech or proverb, but both stipes, stipitis and fungus, -i can be found in Plautus and/or Terence as insulting terms meaning "fool" or "blockhead", - (possibly in the case of fungus with connotations of "stick-in-the-mud"?)
Hopefully it makes sense in context!
 
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