The ancient histories, with which also the Scripture of Daniel agrees, relate that Cyrus, king of the Persians, after allying with Darius, king of the Medians, destroyed the empire of the Babylonians and killed their last king, Balthazar, and razed and ransacked their capital. And therefore Cyrus, knowing that the kingdom of Israel had been entrusted to him by God, as soon as he defeated that kingdom that had captured the people of Israel and kept them in bondage, gave the Israelites permission to return to their homeland and to rebuild the house of their God, which had been set on fire. And not only did he proclaim by words that sentence of release to those present, but also he communicated it to those who were away in all the provinces of his kingdom by means of letters and testified through public voice that he who is the God of Israel was truly the maker of all kingdoms.

Therefore the Lord made Cyrus similar to his only-begotten Son, our God and Lord Jesus Christ. Just as Cyrus, after destroying the empire of the Chaldeans, freed the people of God, and sent them back to their homeland and ordered them to rebuild the temple, which had been set on fire in Jerusalem, taking care that his edict was proclaimed everywhere through letters, so that Jeremiah’s^[1] words might be fulfilled, through which he had predicted what would have happened in the future; so the mediator between God and humanity, after destroying all over the world the kingdom of the devil, called back from that tyranny his elect, who had been scattered, and now gathers them in his church.

In these words the great faith of the king and his great piety shine. His faith, certainly, because he understood that the people of Israel was the people of God before all nations. And his piety because without exception he allowed all who wanted to to go back to their homeland. And again his faith, because he testified that that same Lord God dwelled in heaven and was in Jerusalem and moved to Jerusalem together with all those who were coming back from Babylon. Is it not clearer than light that he conceived him not as a corporeal being that can be enclosed in a place but as a Spirit that is everywhere? Indeed Cyrus confessed that [God] was in Jerusalem and in the temple, without doubting that he also ruled the kingdom of heaven at the same time. So he believed that he reigned in heaven but was nevertheless on earth with his faithful, in order to direct their minds and hands to make the good works of salvation. In addition, all the words of this Scripture are fragrant with spiritual meanings. To whom is it not obviously clear that only those with whom God is can actually move from the confusion^[1] of sin to the works of virtue, as from the bondage of Babylon to the freedom of Jerusalem?

Therefore the basins, which are large vessels, signify the clear hearts of the simple, who do not know how to hide in themselves any covert thought but always declare with a pure tongue the things they have in their mind . . . The knives, which they used to cut and divide in a right measure the members of the victims, so that, after everything had been prepared according to the ritual, a part might be consumed on the altar by the holy fire and a part might be given to the use of those who had made the offering, indicate those in the church, who are renowned for the grace of discretion, who know perfectly how to distinguish the sacrifice of salvation, which is Christ. . . . The bowls, which are vessels for drinking, figuratively express those who are usually inebriated by a greater ardor of interior charity.