I have 2 questions regarding this passage from Abp. Rabanus Maurus’ book, Expositio in Librum Iudith. I am working from a critical edition by Adele Simonetti. This is a copy/paste from an OCR.
Sicut enim acumen ingenii plurimum prodest in his qui, timendo Deum, sinceritatem fidei catholicae humiliter servant, ita plurimum obest in illis qui, spernentes Dei timorem superbiendo, sectas nocivas contra fidem componere non formidant.
My translation follows:
In fact, just as an innate acumen benefits very many among these who, by fearing God, humbly preserve the integrity of Catholic faith, so also it harms very many among those who, spurning the fear of God by being proud, do not fear to organize harmful divisions against the faith.
Question 1: What exactly does “in his qui…” modify? One grammar tells me that it can modify an adjective since it denotes the source from which a thing is taken (i.e. many from among these). I tend to want to think that the “innate acumen” or “acumen of character” might come “from among these,” though that seems less likely grammatically. Or it could be adverbial and denote in what context the benefit (prodest) is taking place.
Question 2: “sectas nocivas” seems to be a modifier without anything to modify. So I turned “sectas” into a noun. Maybe it would make more sense as “secandos nocivos?” What am I missing here, or did Rabanus make a “typo?”
Thank you Bedwere. Those answers are quite helpful.
For some reason Perseus does not return an answer when searching for ‘secta’. You have to enter secta0, secta1, or secta2. Glossa does seem to return an answer. Whitaker’s Words only returns the participle form of seco. Thanks for pointing out a bit more how Perseus works.
I’m still struggling to learn to choose a definition when the form of a word matches multiple roots as in plurimum (adv) vs plurimum (n). Did you make the distinction because (as I see now), prodest takes either a dative or can be intransitive?
My revised translation with Bedwere’s solutions incorporated:
In fact, just as an innate acumen is very advantageous among these who, by fearing God, humbly preserve the integrity of the Catholic faith, so also it is very harmful among those who, spurning the fear of God by being proud, are not afraid to organize harmful sects against the faith.