And the references to the animals and wild beasts becoming tame and laying aside their fierce and untameable nature through His sojourn here will be allegorically understood of men's rough and wild ways and fierce characters being changed by Christ's teaching from irrational savagery. They must certainly be allegorically understood, especially (d) if one understands the root of Jesse mentioned by the prophet, and the rod, figuratively, and expounds in an intelligible way, "Justice shall be the girdle of his loins, and truth the girdle of his reins." For if one can only interpret this allegorically it follows that one must treat the passages that refer to the animals necessarily in a figurative way as well.