[{"content":"","date":"16 septiembre 2026","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/articles/","section":"Articles","summary":"","title":"Articles","type":"articles"},{"content":" 1. Water # Water is a symbol of baptism because the Bible says it is!\nThe Apostle St. Peter wrote:\nto those who were disobedient long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built. In it only a few people, eight in all, were saved through water, and this water symbolises baptism that now saves you\n1 Peter 3:20-21\nThe Greek word that the Bible uses for baptism is baptizo, which means to immerse. But immerse in what?\nIn Biblical times, water was a symbol of purity—it was used for ceremonial washing, such as in Leviticus 15:13 and 2 Kings 5:14. Immersing yourself in water could make you ritually clean.\nBy the time of John the Baptist in the New Testament, people were being immersed in water so their sins could be forgiven. Jesus went along with this too; not because He needed forgiveness, but to act as an example for us to follow.1\nTherefore, baptizo went from meaning any type of immersion to specifically water immersion for the forgiveness of sins. This is why water became one of the main baptism symbols.\n2. The Cross # Early Christians associated baptism with Jesus’ death on the Cross. The Apostle St. Paul taught:\nOr don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?\nRomans 6:3\nFor Jewish people, touching a dead person made you ritually impure.2 Linking a ceremonially unclean thing to something pure, like water, shows how Jesus turned things upside down.3\nFor early Christians, the connection between Jesus’ death on the Cross and baptism could result in your actual death due to Roman persecution.4 So the symbolism would have felt very real!\nIf the Cross is a symbol of baptism, then by extension, the sign of the Cross is a Catholic baptism symbol too. It is a christening symbol because during the baptism, the parents and god-parents trace it on the child’s forehead.\n3. Oil # Whilst there’s no mention of being anointed with oil alongside baptism in the Bible, the practise is very ancient. The earliest descriptions of church baptisms mention it.\nwhen we come out of the font, we are thoroughly anointed with a blessed unction\nTertullian, early 3rd century.5\nSt. Hippolytus of Rome, from the early 3rd century, also describes how, before being immersed, they receive an oil of exorcism, and afterwards, they are anointed with an oil of thanksgiving.6\nSt. Cyril of Jerusalem, in the mid 4th century, description of baptism agrees closely with St. Hippolytus. He taught that the oil received after baptism is a symbol of Jesus receiving the Holy Spirit after He was baptised. 7\nThe word Christ means anointed one. As Jesus was anointed with the Holy Spirit, we are anointed with oil, which is a sign of the Holy Spirit.\nFor the early Church, the oil was an essential part of baptism. St. Theophilus of Antioch, in the late 2nd century, says:\nwe are called Christians on this account, because we are anointed with the oil of God 8\nToday, Catholics receive the oil at baptism, making it a Catholic baptism symbol.\n4. White robe # Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow. Psalm 51:7\nToday, whether at a christening or adult baptism, a white robe, dress, or clothes are typically worn. This has roots going way back to the earliest days of Christianity.\nRevelation 6:11 in the Bible mentions God’s people being given a white robe. St. Ambrose, in the late 4th century, also tells us that after baptism, a white robe was given, which symbolises how their sins had been washed away.9\n5. Light # Jesus spoke to them, saying: “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”\nJohn 8:12\nAs baptism symbolises Jesus’ death, it also symbolises His resurrection. As we go threw the water, we are raised with Christ to the light of life.\nThe early Christians understood this. St. Cyril of Jerusalem tells us that just before being baptised, the candidate would make a profession of faith. This included ”turning from the West to the East, the place of light.”7\nToday, Catholics, Orthodox and many Protestant baptisms include the giving of a baptism candle.\n6. Dove # The story of Noah’s flood in Genesis 8 tells us how he sent out a dove from the ark to see if land had begun to appear from the waters. There’s a lot of relevant imagery here—it’s no wonder the Apostle St. Peter connected this story with baptism (see 1 Peter 3:20-21)!\nSkipping forward to Jesus’ baptism, we see something similar:\nAs soon as Jesus was baptised, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descend like a dove and rest on him.\nMatthew 3:16.\nThese links weren’t missed by the early Church. St. Chrysostom, in the late 4th or early 5th century, taught that the dove represents purity and gentleness, and that we receive this by the Holy Spirit at baptism.\n7. Fish # Tertullian says:\nBut we little fishes, according to our Fish (ΙΧΘΥΝ) Jesus Christ, are born in the water, nor are we saved in any other manner than by remaining in the water.\nTertullian, late 2nd or early 3rd century.5\nI imagine you’re wondering what ΙΧΘΥΝ means? It is the ancient Greek word for fish. But it’s significant because Tertullian wrote in Latin—but when it came to writing fish, he suddenly goes to Greek.\nThis means he’s probably referencing something well known, as he doesn’t stop to explain it to his Latin audience.12 If you take each letter from ΙΧΘΥΣ, it forms an acronym for:\nἸησοῦς Xριστός Θεός Yἱός Σωτήρ\nin English: Jesus Christ God Son Saviour\nSo the wordplay predates Tertullian, going back to at least the 2nd century13, or possibly the 1st. 14\nAs fishes live in water, it’s obvious why Tertullian linked it to baptism and why it became a christening symbol.\n8. Baptismal font # As this is where most baptisms happen, this is probably the most obvious of baptism symbols.\nBut have you ever noticed where baptismal fonts are usually placed in churches?\nThey are at the entrance of the church. This symbolises that you enter the Church, spiritually and literally, by baptism!\nSources: # Aquinas, S.T., 2016. Catena Aurea. Commentary On The Four Gospels, Collected Out Of The Works Of The Fathers. Read Books Ltd. Numbers 19:11. Groenewald, J., 2003. The foundation, value and meaning of baptism in the New Testament. HTS: Theological Studies, 59(2), pp.367-383. Theissen, G., 1999. A theory of primitive Christian religion. SCM Press. Tertullian, early 3rd century. On Baptism. St. Hippolytus, early 3rd century. Apostolic Tradition. St. Cyril of Jerusalem, mid 4th century. Catechetical Lectures. St. Theophilus of Antioch, late 2nd century. The Apology to Autolycus. St. Ambrose, late 4th century. On the Mysteries. St. Chrysostom, late 4th or early 5th century. Homilies on Matthew. Morey, C.R., 1910. The origin of the fish-symbol. Rasimus, T., 2012. Revisiting the Ichthys: A Suggestion Concerning the Origins of Christological Fish Symbolism. In Mystery and Secrecy in the Nag Hammadi Collection and Other Ancient Literature: Ideas and Practices (pp. 327-348). Brill. Collins, J.J., 1983. Sibylline Oracles. The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, 1, pp.317-472. ","date":"16 septiembre 2026","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/article/baptism-symbols/","section":"Articles","summary":"","title":"Baptism Symbols: What Is the Symbol of Baptism \u0026 Christening?","type":"articles"},{"content":"Just a dude, y\u0026rsquo;know? Ha ha!!\n","date":"16 septiembre 2026","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/author/jack-newton/","section":"Authors","summary":"","title":"Jack Newton","type":"authors"},{"content":"Chris is a Catholic convert from England. After studying 2 years in California at Bible college, he worked in full-time ministry with Gerald Coates, the founder of a Christian network called Pioneer. In 2017 he converted to Catholicism and in 2019 married his French Catholic wife, Bérénice.\n","date":"14 septiembre 2026","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/author/chris-newton/","section":"Authors","summary":"","title":"Chris Newton","type":"authors"},{"content":"","date":"14 septiembre 2026","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/reviews/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Reviews","type":"tags"},{"content":"I had expected this to be a straightforward book review. Instead, one sentence sent me down a bibliographical rabbit hole.\nI loved Trustful Surrender to Divine Providence. It is short, severe in places, wonderfully freeing in others, and very similar in spirit to St. Alphonsus Liguori\u0026rsquo;s Uniformity with God\u0026rsquo;s Will. Its central message is simple: if God is really our Father, and if His Providence really governs our lives, then Christian peace cannot depend on everything going according to our own plans.\nThat message has stayed with me. I am giving the book 5/5 stars.\nBut there is a rather strange problem with the authorship printed on the cover.\nAn Oddity I Could Not Ignore # The modern English edition is normally attributed to Fr. Jean Baptiste Saint-Jure, S.J. and St. Claude de la Colombière, S.J. Saint-Jure lived from 1588 to 1657. St. Claude lived from 1641 to 1682.\nYet in the section attributed to Saint-Jure, the book quotes St. Alphonsus Liguori twice, once while discussing sickness and once while discussing death.\nThere is one rather obvious problem: St. Alphonsus was not born until 1696.\nSaint-Jure had been dead for nearly forty years.\nSo Saint-Jure certainly did not write those lines as they now appear.\nInitially I wondered whether the attribution on the book was simply wrong. The truth is more interesting.\nWho Actually Wrote Trustful Surrender to Divine Providence? # The book we now call Trustful Surrender to Divine Providence was not written as one book by Saint-Jure and St. Claude. It is a later compilation.\nThe introduction to the English text says quite openly that the first part was extracted from Saint-Jure\u0026rsquo;s much larger work, De la connaissance et de l\u0026rsquo;amour du Fils de Dieu, Notre-Seigneur Jésus-Christ, and that a further extract from the writings of St. Claude de la Colombière was added afterwards.\nSaint-Jure\u0026rsquo;s original work appeared in the seventeenth century. The Providence material is found in Book III, Chapter VIII. By the nineteenth century this chapter had taken on an independent life as a little devotional book. The French introduction recounts that Auguste Marceau encountered it at Nantes in 1842 and later had it reprinted at Lyon. A Jesuit bibliographical record for 1899 describes an edition of Saint-Jure\u0026rsquo;s De la divine Providence as a \u0026ldquo;4e édition, retouchée\u0026rdquo; — fourth edition, retouched. Editors were openly polishing the text a century before TAN existed.\nThat same French introduction is candid about what it did. It says the pages were extracted \u0026ldquo;almost textually\u0026rdquo; from Book III, Chapter VIII, and that the editors had introduced \u0026ldquo;quelques légères modifications plutôt matérielles\u0026rdquo; — a few slight, chiefly practical changes, with clearer divisions than earlier editions. We are not dealing with a photographic reproduction of a seventeenth-century manuscript. We are reading a devotional text that passed through generations of extraction, rearrangement, light editing, translation and republication.\nThe composite form is older than TAN, too. A French edition entitled Confiance en la Divine Providence: Secret de paix et de bonheur already contains everything we find in the English book: the Saint-Jure extract, the Alphonsus quotations, the Claude section and the closing exercise. It carries a Nihil Obstat from 1940 and an imprimatur from Sherbrooke dated 9 January 1954.\nBy 1961 an English translation by Professor Paul Garvin was being published by Alba House under the title The Secret of Peace and Happiness. The familiar TAN edition followed after a few stops in Canada:\nYear Edition 1961 Alba House, The Secret of Peace and Happiness, tr. Paul Garvin 1978, 1980 St. Raphael Editions, Sherbrooke, Quebec 1983 Issued in cooperation with TAN Books 1984 onward TAN, under the familiar Trustful Surrender to Divine Providence title Bibliographical records still list Garvin as the translator.\nSo the names on the cover are not fraudulent, but they are liable to give the wrong impression. Saint-Jure and St. Claude are the principal spiritual sources. They did not sit down together and write the present book.\nThere Is Even A Misattributed Chapter # This became still more interesting when I compared the modern book with an 1877 edition of Saint-Jure\u0026rsquo;s larger work.\nIn Book III, Chapter VIII, Saint-Jure has a Section X entitled Exercice particulier envers la Providence divine, or \u0026ldquo;A Particular Exercise Concerning Divine Providence\u0026rdquo;. It teaches the very exercise found in Chapter V of the modern English book: acts of faith in Providence, hope and confidence, esteem and love, followed by complete abandonment into the hands of God.\nYet the modern table of contents places Chapter V, \u0026ldquo;Exercise of Conformity to Divine Providence\u0026rdquo;, under Part Two: St. Claude de la Colombière.\nIn other words, at least one chapter in the modern arrangement is assigned to the wrong author. Chapter V is substantially Saint-Jure.\nThis is more than a theoretical question about bibliography. It tells us how the book reached us. What we possess is an edited devotional anthology whose internal boundaries became blurred during transmission.\nI found no evidence of some hidden or mysterious authorship behind the book. The paper trail is far more ordinary than that. It leads through a seventeenth-century Jesuit work, later Catholic extracts and reprints, an English translator, and modern publishers. The problem is untidy editorial history, not a secret author.\nSo Who Put St. Alphonsus Into Saint-Jure\u0026rsquo;s Text? # I cannot tell you with certainty.\nWhat can be said with certainty is that Saint-Jure did not do it. The dates make that impossible. And the interpolation was not introduced by TAN\u0026rsquo;s English edition either. The French tradition from which the English descends already contains the same lines — \u0026ldquo;Pour moi, dit saint Alphonse…\u0026rdquo; — so the Alphonsian material entered the little Providence booklet somewhere in its French editorial history, most likely during the nineteenth century, when the booklet was being extracted, reprinted and \u0026ldquo;retouched\u0026rdquo;. I have not found an accessible edition that lets me identify the exact editor and year. I would rather leave that question open than invent an answer.\nThere is, however, a lovely historical irony here. The influence appears to have originally travelled in the opposite direction. Research into the sources of St. Alphonsus\u0026rsquo;s Visits to the Blessed Sacrament has identified his use of an Italian version of Saint-Jure\u0026rsquo;s work. The Bibliothèque nationale de France catalogue even notes Saint-Jure\u0026rsquo;s text among the source materials published with a scholarly edition of Alphonsus.\nSo Saint-Jure influenced Alphonsus, and then at some later date an editor seems to have put Alphonsus back into Saint-Jure!\nDoes The Book Make God The Author Of Evil? # This is the part of the book that can trouble people most.\nSaint-Jure uses extraordinarily strong language about receiving misfortunes from the hand of God. Read quickly, some passages can sound as though a murderer, a thief, a persecutor or even the devil is merely a puppet, and that God Himself is therefore morally responsible for whatever evil takes place.\nThat would be contrary to Catholic teaching.\nBut it is also not what the book actually says when read as a whole.\nOnly a few paragraphs after some of its strongest statements, the book asks directly: How can God will or allow evil? It then says that God \u0026ldquo;is not and cannot be the author of sin\u0026rdquo; and distinguishes between the physical act itself and the moral evil introduced by the creature\u0026rsquo;s will. The sinful intention belongs to the sinner, not to God.\nThis is very close to the traditional distinction made by St. Thomas Aquinas. God is the first cause of the creature\u0026rsquo;s existence and power to act, while the defect which makes a freely chosen act sinful comes from the created will. Saint-Jure uses the old example of a man walking with a damaged leg: the power of movement is real, but the defect in the movement comes from the damaged leg.\nThe Catechism of the Catholic Church is especially helpful here:\nGod is in no way, directly or indirectly, the cause of moral evil.\nIt immediately adds that God permits moral evil because He respects the freedom of His creatures, and that in His Providence He knows how to bring good from it.\nBoth truths have to remain together.\nGod is not the author of sin. Yet sin does not create a hole in the sovereignty of God through which Providence suddenly disappears.\n\u0026ldquo;You Meant Evil Against Me, But God Meant It For Good\u0026rdquo; # The best explanation is already in Scripture.\nJoseph\u0026rsquo;s brothers freely chose to betray him and sell him into slavery. Their action was sinful. They were responsible for it. Yet years later Joseph could say to them: \u0026ldquo;You meant evil against me, but God meant it for good\u0026rdquo; (Genesis 50:20).\nNotice that Joseph does not say their evil intention was secretly good. He calls it evil. Neither does he say that because they sinned, God had therefore lost control of the story.\nThe Catechism uses precisely this example when explaining Providence. It then points to an even greater one: the Crucifixion. The rejection and murder of Jesus Christ was a terrible moral evil caused by human sin. Yet through that very event God brought about the redemption of the world.\nThe same pattern is visible in Job. Satan is really Satan. The men who raid Job\u0026rsquo;s property are real human agents. Their actions are not morally transferred to God. Nevertheless Job can look beyond these secondary causes and say, \u0026ldquo;The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.\u0026rdquo;\nThis, I think, is the key to reading Saint-Jure properly.\nIf another person sins against me, saying that I receive the suffering under God\u0026rsquo;s Providence does not mean the other person is innocent. It does not mean God approves of the sin. It does not mean evil has become good.\nIt means that the sinner is not sovereign.\nA man\u0026rsquo;s malice cannot finally place me outside the care of my Father. Even the devil is not God\u0026rsquo;s equal. The Catechism teaches that Satan can cause grave harm, but his activity is still permitted by Divine Providence.\nThat is a much more comforting doctrine than the idea that God is merely watching helplessly while His plan for my life is wrecked by somebody else\u0026rsquo;s sin.\nSurrender Is Not Passivity # There is another possible misunderstanding worth clearing up.\nTrustful surrender does not mean that we should refuse medicine, stay silent about abuse, ignore injustice, decline lawful help or sit around doing nothing while evil occurs.\nSaint-Jure himself says this.\nWhen speaking about sickness, the book tells us to accept what God permits while at the same time doing \u0026ldquo;all that is reasonable in our power to get well again\u0026rdquo;. The reason given is wonderfully simple: because God wishes it so.\nThis is not fatalism. Christian abandonment still requires us to perform our duties, use the means God has placed before us, protect those entrusted to us, resist sin and act with prudence. What we surrender is the final outcome.\nI can go to the doctor and surrender to Providence. I can defend somebody from injustice and surrender to Providence. I can report a crime and surrender to Providence. I can pray desperately for a particular outcome and still finish, with Our Lord, \u0026ldquo;not my will, but Thine, be done.\u0026rdquo;\nThat is much harder than passivity.\nWhy I Give It 5/5 # The editorial history is messy. I would prefer TAN, or any future publisher, to explain much more clearly which passages come from Saint-Jure, which come from St. Claude, and which were added by later editors or translators. The Alphonsus references especially ought to be footnoted rather than quietly left inside a seventeenth-century author\u0026rsquo;s text.\nNone of that has made me value the spiritual teaching any less.\nIn fact, understanding the Catholic theology behind it has made me appreciate the book more. It is not teaching that evil is good. It is teaching that evil is not sovereign. It is not asking us to call a sinner innocent. It is asking us to believe that even another person\u0026rsquo;s sin cannot frustrate the Providence of God.\nThat is the book\u0026rsquo;s great strength.\nMost of my anxiety comes from a quiet assumption that if I do not control events, everything may go terribly wrong. Trustful Surrender to Divine Providence attacks that assumption at the root. God is not merely present when life goes according to plan. He is still God when the plan collapses, when prayers seem unanswered, when somebody treats us unjustly, when illness comes, and when we simply cannot understand what He is doing.\nThis does not remove the Cross. It tells us whose hands the Cross is in.\nI would happily recommend this alongside St. Alphonsus Liguori\u0026rsquo;s Uniformity with God\u0026rsquo;s Will, with one qualification: read its deliberately forceful language in the light of the Church\u0026rsquo;s teaching on Providence, human freedom and the permission of evil.\n★★★★★ 5/5\nSources # English text of Trustful Surrender to Divine Providence (with the two Alphonsus quotations) French edition, Confiance en la Divine Providence (1954 imprimatur; 1940 Nihil Obstat; \u0026ldquo;almost textually\u0026rdquo; and \u0026ldquo;légères modifications\u0026rdquo; admissions) 1877 edition of Saint-Jure, De la connaissance et de l\u0026rsquo;amour du Fils de Dieu (Book III, ch. VIII, § X \u0026ldquo;Exercice particulier\u0026rdquo;) ARSI Jesuit bibliography (1899) recording the \u0026ldquo;4e édition, retouchée\u0026rdquo; TAN Books listing (tr. Prof. Paul Garvin) Vatican biography of St. Alphonsus Liguori Vatican biography of St. Claude de la Colombière Catechism of the Catholic Church, §§ 311–312 ","date":"14 septiembre 2026","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/article/trustful-surrender-to-divine-providence/","section":"Articles","summary":"","title":"Trustful Surrender to Divine Providence: Book Review","type":"articles"},{"content":"# The Tripartite Life of Patrick - Book One\n*Attributed to Tírechán (625-700AD), but likely late 9th century*\n1 “Populus qui sedebat in tenebris vidit lucem magnam,” that is, the people who sat in darkness beheld a great light, and “Et sedentibus in regione et umbra mortis lux orta est eis,” that is, upon those who dwelt in the land and in the shadow of death a light has arisen, and from this light came their illumination.\n2 The Holy Spirit, the Spirit nobler than every spirit, namely the Spirit who inspired the Church both of the Old Law and of the New Testament with the grace of wisdom and prophecy, it was this Spirit who spoke these words through the mouth of the prophet Isaiah, the son of Amos. Concerning whose praise Jerome says, that is, Saint Jerome says this in his praise: “Quod non tam dicendus est propheta quam evangelista,” that is, that he ought rather to be called an evangelist than a prophet, because of the clarity and fitness with which he proclaimed the tidings of Christ; for “ita enim universa Christi Ecclesiaeque mysteria ad lucidum prosecutus est ut non eum putes de futuro vaticinari, sed de praeterito historiam dicere,” that is, with such clarity did he set forth all the mysteries of Christ and of the Church that one would think he was not prophesying of future things but recounting a history of things already past. One of these clear predictions, which here is set forth in the manner of a declaration of the past, is this: “Populus qui sedebat in tenebris vidit lucem magnam,” the people who sat in darkness have seen a great light. This saying of the prophet has two contexts, according to the place where he had first said, “Primo tempore alleviata est terra Zabulon et terra Neptalim”, and after these words added, “Populus qui sedebat in tenebris vidit lucem magnam,” the people who sat in darkness have seen a great light. According to the historical sense, the people of Israel, taken captive by the Assyrians and sitting in the darkness of captivity, saw a great light, that is, the rays of redemption, namely Ezra, Nehemiah, Joshua, Zerubbabel, and the other leaders who led the people out of captivity. And “Et sedentibus in regione et umbra mortis lux orta est eis,” those who dwelt in the land and in the shadow of death, upon them a light arose, from which their illumination came. “Sedentibus,” that is, those who were settled, because they were fixed and immovable in evil; “in regione,” that is, in the plain of Shinar, where Babylon is; “in umbra mortis,” that is, in sin and in the temples of idols and images.\n3 According to the spiritual understanding, however, this passage is to be understood of the people of the Gentiles, who formerly sat in the darkness of ignorance and sin. “In regione,” that is, in the human will, each person bringing forth the delights of his own heart, and “in umbra mortis,” that is, in sin, which is the shadow in which they dwelt. “Vidit lucem magnam,” that is, they beheld a great light, namely the light of Christ and the Gospel preached by the apostles. Of himself Christ said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness”, and of the apostles he said, “You are the light of the world”. Christ, therefore, is the true light which enlightens every man that comes into this world, but the apostles are a light kindled by Christ; Christ is light without beginning, but the apostles are light with a beginning. It is fitting also to say that God is called Light, for John says that he is the true light through which the whole world is enlightened. For night lay upon the world until Christ, who is the Sun of righteousness, scattered his rays through the world, that is, through the apostles and their holy successors. Thus great darkness lay upon the hearts of the heathen until the Sun of Righteousness, Jesus Christ, poured out his radiance to enlighten the world through his apostles, his saints, and their righteous successors. One, then, of the rays and flames which the Sun of Righteousness, Jesus Christ, sent into the world, the ray and flame and precious stone and shining lamp which enlightened the western part of the world, was Sanctus Patricius Episcopus, that is, Saint Patrick, holy bishop, high bishop of the west of the earth and father of the baptism and faith of the people of Ireland, some account of whose earthly lineage, miracles, and wonders is set forth in the churches of Christians on the sixteenth day before the Kalends of April, according to the reckoning of the solar month.\n4 As for Patrick, then, his origin was among the Britons of Ail Clúade, that is, Dumbarton. His father’s name was Calpurnius, and he was an archpriest; the name of his grandfather was Potitus, and he was a deacon. His mother was named Concess; she was of the Franks and was a kinswoman of Martin. This holy Patrick, however, was born in Nemthor, and the flagstone on which he was born, if anyone commits perjury beneath it, pours forth water as though lamenting the false testimony, but if the oath is true the stone remains in its natural state.\n5 Now when the holy Patrick was born, he was brought to a blind, flat-faced youth to be baptised. Gornias was the priest’s name, and he had no water with which to perform the baptism. So, with the infant’s hand, he made the sign of the cross upon the earth, and a well of water burst forth from it. Gornias washed his face with that water, and his eyes were opened, and he read the order of baptism, though he had never learned letters. God worked a threefold miracle for Patrick in that place, namely, the well of water springing from the earth, the opening of the blind youth’s eyes, and his reading of the order of baptism without having known letters before then, and Patrick was baptised thereafter. Moreover, a church was founded over that well in which Patrick was baptised, and the well stands by the altar and has the form of a cross, as the wise relate. Thus in Nemthor that boy was reared, and he grew in good works and in the miracles which God worked through him, for from his childhood he had been endowed with God’s grace, even before he knew how to discern between good and evil and before he was able to trace the path of truth. As he himself declares in the Book of Epistles, saying, “And He had pity on my youth and ignorance, and He took care of me before I knew Him and before I could distinguish between good and evil, and He strengthened me and comforted me, as a father does his son.”\n6 Many miracles and wonders did God work through Patrick in his boyhood, but we shall declare only a few out of the many.\n7 Once upon a time Patrick was staying in his foster-mother’s house. The winter season came, so that a spate and flood of water filled his foster-mother’s dwelling, and the vessels and household gear were floating about, and the fire was extinguished. Patrick, however, cried out to his foster-mother, as is the custom of infants when they ask for food. Then his foster-mother said to him, “This is not what troubles us; there is something else that we would rather do than make food for you, when even the fire itself is not alive.” Nevertheless Patrick, when he heard these words, sought out a certain place in the house into which the water had not come, and he dipped his hand into the water, and five drops flowed from Patrick’s fingers, and from these he immediately made five sparks, and the fire blazed up and the water vanished. God’s name and Patrick’s were magnified by that miracle.\n8 At another time, when Patrick was playing among his foster-brothers, especially in the season of winter and cold, he gathered a lapful of icicles and carried them home to his foster-mother. Then his foster-mother said to him, “It would be better for us if you brought a bundle of firewood, so that we might warm ourselves by it, than what you have brought.” Then he said to his foster-mother, “Believe that it is within God’s power that even icicles should burn like firewood”; and quicker than speech, when the icicles were placed on the fire and when he breathed upon them, they immediately flamed like firewood. God’s name and Patrick’s were magnified by that miracle. Once, as Patrick and his sister Lupait were herding sheep, the lambs suddenly came to their mothers, as is their custom, to drink milk. When Patrick and his sister saw this, they ran quickly to separate them. The girl fell and struck her head against a stone, so that death was near to her. Now when Patrick returned, he saw his sister lying there, with death close upon her, and he grieved greatly, and at once he raised his sister up and made the sign of the cross over the wound, and healed her without any sickness. Nevertheless, the marks of the scar were still visible there, and then they came home together as though no harm had happened to them.\n9 At another time, when Patrick was with the sheep, a wolf carried one of them off from him. His foster-mother blamed him greatly for this. On the next day the wolf brought the sheep back whole to the same homestead; and that restitution was strange indeed, namely that it came from the wolf’s teeth, contrary to its usual food. When Patrick’s foster-mother saw that God’s grace was growing in him, shown in miracles and wonders, she loved him greatly, and she was unwilling to go anywhere without having him with her.\n10 Once upon a time his foster-mother went to milk the cow, and he went with her to drink a draught of fresh milk. Then the cow went mad in the byre and killed five other cows, for a demon had entered her. Great sorrow came upon his foster-mother, and she told him to bring the cows back to life. Then he restored the cows to life so that they were whole again, and he healed the mad one. Thus God’s name and Patrick’s were magnified thereby. Now the Britons held a great assembly, and he went to it with his foster-mother and foster-father. It came to pass that his foster-father died at the assembly. All fell silent at this. His kinsmen wept and his wife lamented, saying, “My boy, why hast thou allowed the man who was carrying thee to die?” But the boy, when he saw him, ran to his foster-father, put his arms around his neck, and said to him, “Arise, and let us go home.” At Patrick’s word he rose at once, and they went home together, completely restored.\n11 The children of the place where Patrick was reared were accustomed to bring honey from the combs to their mothers. Then his foster-mother said to Patrick, “Although every other child brings honey to his foster-mother, you bring none to me.” Patrick then took a vessel to the water, filled it, and blessed the water, so that it was turned into honey; and it healed every disease and every ailment to which it was applied, and they kept it as a relic.\n12 Once the reeve of the king, that is, of the Britons, came to inform Patrick and his foster-mother that they were to go and cleanse the hearth of the palace of Ail Cluaide. Patrick and his foster-mother went. Then an angel came to Patrick and said to him, “Make prayer, and that work will not be necessary for you.” Patrick prayed, and afterward the angel cleansed the hearth. Then Patrick said, “Though all the firewood in Britain be burned in this hearth, there will be no ashes from it on the morrow.” And this is still fulfilled.\n13 At another time, the reeve of the king, that is, of the Britons, came to Patrick’s foster-mother to demand tribute of curds and butter, but she had nothing to put toward the tribute. Then Patrick made curds and butter out of snow, and these were taken to the king. When they had been shown to the king, they were turned again into their natural state of snow. Then the king remitted the tribute to Patrick continually.\n14 Now this is the reason for Patrick’s first coming to Ireland. There were in exile seven sons of Fechtmaide, that is, seven sons of the king of Britain, and they went raiding in Armorica. It happened that some Britons of Strathclyde were travelling to their kinsmen, that is, to the Britons of Armorica; and during the raid Calpurnius, son of Potitus, Patrick’s father, and his mother Concessa, daughter of Ocbass of Gaul, were slain. Patrick was then taken captive in the raid, along with his two sisters, Lupait and Tigris. The seven sons of Fechtmaide then put to sea, with Patrick and his two sisters in captivity. They sailed around Ireland northwards, landed in the north, and sold Patrick to Miliuc son of Buan, king of Dál Araide. His two sisters were sold in Conaille Muirthemne, and he and his sisters knew nothing of one another. Now there were four men who bought him, one of whom was Miliuc; from this he received the name “Cothraige,” because he served four households. He bore four names: “Sucat,” the name given by his parents; “Cothraige,” when he was serving the four; “Magonius,” from Saint Germanus; and “Patricius,” that is, pater civium, from Pope Celestine. When Miliuc saw that he was a faithful servant, he bought him from the other three so that Patrick might serve him alone, and Patrick served for seven years in the manner of the Hebrews. He was entrusted with the herding of swine, and this was an error on the part of the one who so appointed him, for it was more fitting that Patrick should be a shepherd of sheep, that is, of the sons of life. This was later fulfilled in a mystical sense, namely, that he became the shepherd of the Church. And he endured many tribulations in the wilderness of Slemish.\n15 Patrick served him faithfully until the seventh year of his servitude had begun, according to the custom by which Hebrew slaves were accustomed to be set free and restored to liberty. He was assigned by his master to the feeding and guarding of a herd of pigs, which under his care increased in a remarkable way with fruitful offspring. Nor did the herd grow more in offspring and number than the swineherd meanwhile grew in virtues and merits, concerning which there exists clear testimony set forth from his own truthful mouth, as is evident from the book of his Epistles, where he says: “Every day I used to feed the cattle, and I prayed frequently during the day, more and more; and the love of God grew in me, and fear of Him, and faith, and the Spirit was increased; so that in one day I would pray up to a hundred times, and likewise at night; and I would also remain in the woods and on the mountain, and before dawn I was awakened to prayer; through snow, through frost, through rain I poured forth prayers; nor was there any sloth in me then. But now I see that at that time the Spirit was fervent within me.” Now when he says that the Spirit was fervent within him, without doubt it was the Spirit of sevenfold grace, who comforted him in adversities and invited and trained him for those arduous exercises of heavenly virtues and sublime works which he later practised, as he himself elsewhere indicates, saying: “I heard certain ones singing within me, and I did not know who they were.” And among the innumerable benefits bestowed upon him from heaven from childhood, not to be counted among the least is that most gracious condescension of the Lord, by which He deigned to visit and refresh him with daily apparitions and familiar conversations of the angel Victor, who used to comfort him in hardships, direct and instruct him in his actions, and teach and prescribe for him the manner of praying and fasting he was accustomed to do so.\n16 Moreover, near Mount Mis in Ultonia, the angel Trias Thaum. was accustomed to visit him frequently during the time of his servitude; where the footprints of him, appearing in the form of a bird, impressed upon the rock, are seen and frequented with great devotion and veneration by the people. Saint Patrick’s master, Milcho, had three children, one son and two daughters, who, on account of the great sweetness of character of the holy youth and the grace of God shining forth in all his actions, showed him every office of kindness and pursued him with an intimate affection of love; marvellously delighted with his conversation and presence, they often visited him, continually bringing what was necessary for the refreshment of his body. Toward them Patrick also responded with reciprocal affection, repaying temporal sustenance with spiritual nourishment. For he instructed them in the first principles of the Christian faith, and what he had learned under the teaching of the instructing angel he soon gently instilled into their ears and souls. While these things were being done secretly, Milcho saw a marvellous vision in his sleep. For he saw Patrick as though entering his house, and a flame going forth from his mouth, nostrils, ears, and eyes, and him entirely as if transformed into fire, threatening and striving to burn him up and consume him with a like fire. Yet he himself seemed to repel those flames from himself, so that they did him no harm, but turned to the right and burned his son and two daughters lying in one bed, and utterly reduced them to ashes, which ashes a strong wind seemed to lift up and scatter throughout the regions of Ireland. Terrified by this vision, Milcho summoned Patrick and begged him, if he were able, to explain the interpretation of the vision to him. Therefore, when the whole vision had been recounted in order, Patrick, enlightened by the Holy Spirit, said to Milcho: “The fire which you saw going forth from me is the faith of the most holy Trinity, by which I am wholly enkindled and illumined, and by whose preaching I shall afterwards strive to make others illumined and inflamed. But my preaching will not bear fruit in you; for you are obstinate. You will repel from your mind the light of heavenly grace that comes from you, and you will die in the darkness of unbelief. But your son and your two daughters will embrace the proclaimed truth of the faith, and the fire of the Holy Spirit, kindling them, will drive away from them every vice and sin; and after they have served the Lord in holiness and justice all the days of their life, and have come to rest in a holy end, their ashes and relics will be carried throughout Ireland and will cure very many diseases and infirmities.¹ Now this son of Milcho is Bishop Guasact, who is today at Granard in the region of Carbre; and the two daughters are two Emerias, who lie in Cluanbronaigh.\n17 And at that time the moment of the redemption of the man of God from his servitude was drawing near. For that pagan people were accustomed to grant freedom to slaves who had been manumitted in the seventh year of servitude, unless they themselves should willingly wish to serve longer. Milcho, however, devised every means by which he might keep Patrick in his service. And to this end he resolved to join to him a wife, even against his will; and he arranged that she should be shut in by night in the same place with him. Saint Patrick preached to the girl the faith of Christ, and the excellent fruit and beauty of Christian virtues, especially of chastity, prayer, and devotion. Therefore they passed the remainder of the night sleepless, persevering continuously in prayer.\n18 But when day dawned, and Patrick saw on the girl’s forehead a certain scar and the trace of a wound previously received, he asked her the cause and origin of the scar. She replied: \u0026ldquo;I, when I was a very small girl, was in Nemthor, my native town in Britain, and I struck my head severely against a stone, by which accident I received a deadly wound; but my brother, named Suchat, who was then present, marked my forehead with the sign of the cross, and immediately the wound was healed and I was restored to health.\u0026rdquo; Patrick, however, smiling, said: \u0026ldquo;I am your brother, who also healed you; and by the divine mercy it was brought about by goodness that we have now come together again after so great a separation and servitude as we have suffered. Then, extolling the divine mercy, they immediately withdrew to the wilderness and solitude.\n19 While Patrick was living in solitude, the angel Victor appeared to him; and commanding him to go to Italy to learn the Scriptures, he said: \u0026ldquo;Hasten, behold, your ship is ready.\u0026rdquo; But it was not nearby; rather, as he himself says in the book of the Epistles, it was perhaps two hundred thousand paces away, where a route had never been known. Patrick replied to him: \u0026ldquo;I do not think that the Lord whom I serve will grant me permission to depart.\u0026rdquo; The angel said: \u0026ldquo;Try whether He will grant you leave.\u0026rdquo; Patrick, however, complied with the angelic admonitions. But Milcho refused to grant permission to him who asked it, unless first the weight of gold, measured with a just balance, should be paid to his head. To him the holy youth replied: ‘My God is able to provide what you demand.’ And immediately he withdrew again into the wilderness, where an angel appeared to him in the form of a bird, in a place called Schirec Archaile, in which even to this day his footprints are seen impressed in the stone; and to him the angel reported Milcho’s reply. The angel then commanded him to watch on the following day for the tracks of a certain pig from the herd, warning him that in the hollow of the earth dug up by it he would find a certain mass of gold by which he might be redeemed from the hand of his cruel master. Patrick, obeying the angel’s instructions, found in the designated hollow a not inconsiderable weight of gold; and when he had offered it to his greedy master, having been granted the freedom he desired, he was permitted, free, to go wherever he wished.\n20 Patrick therefore, having been emancipated, joyfully set out on the journey to which he had been directed by angelic admonition. But Milcho, looking not to faith or uprightness, but chiefly to advantage, soon regretted that he had lost a slave so useful, and so necessary, he regretted having dismissed him. Wherefore, violating the agreement, he took care to pursue the one departing immediately and to bring him back home against his will. But it came about by God’s prompting that what he had wickedly conceived he was not able to carry out in deed. For Patrick, turning aside to the familiar solitude of the wilderness, could not be found by his pursuers. There was added also, as a sign and increase of his grief, the most just punishment of a heinous crime. For the gold which he had wickedly exacted as the price of freedom, shortly after granting liberty he could nowhere find.\n21 Patrick, however, with fear of servitude adding wings, running a great course, in the space of one day came from that place as far as the mouths of the river Boyne, where he met a certain man called Kienanus, surnamed the elder; who, by a wicked and unjust bargain, exchanging the vessel of election for a vessel of boiling, sold him to certain merchants for a bronze cauldron. But by a miracle that followed, it was made manifest and proved how unjust this trade had been. For when Kienanus carried the cauldron home and hung it on the wall, his hands so stuck fast to it, as if glued, that he could not draw them back by any force. And when his wife wished to help her husband, her fingers likewise stuck fast; and finally when the whole household ran together to help their master, the hands of them all became so stiff and clung to the cauldron that they could by no force be torn away, until at last, acknowledging the guilt of the crime they had committed, they were converted to repentance, and, the cauldron having been restored, they took care that Patrick should be given back his freedom.\n22 After these things Patrick returned to the sailors who were to carry him across to Britain; by them he was gladly received and admitted to the ship already about to set sail. The ship, committed to the ocean, began to be violently shaken by a great storm and to suffer the threat of a terrible shipwreck. But while the man of God was praying to his Lord, who commands the winds and the sea, soon the storm ceased. There followed a violent shaking and a storm; and with the winds blowing according to their prayers they made land in the desired port of Britain. When they had gone ashore, they found the region dry, empty, and deserted across vast stretches of land. Passing through this immense wilderness for a space of twenty-five days, and with their provisions failing, they began to be pressed by hunger to no small degree. Then their leader said to Saint Patrick: “Behold, Christian, we are worn out by hunger and close to death, unless provision for sustenance is made without delay. Since therefore the God whom you preach is powerful and merciful, pray that He may come to the aid of our misery and by some refreshment of food deliver us from present destruction.” Then the servant of Christ, firmly trusting in the Lord’s mercy, said: “You must believe with full and steadfast hearts in the God of heaven, who gives food to all flesh, that all things are possible; and I promise that by His generosity you shall be filled.”\n23 While Patrick was speaking these and similar words, and soon after was fervently praying to the Lord, who at the request of Moses once rained flesh like dust and manna from heaven upon Israel suffering hunger in the desert, so now, at the intercession of His faithful servant, He sent from heaven to these men perishing from hunger in the vast wilderness a herd of pigs and an abundance of wild honey. Refreshed by this provision, they escaped the danger of death and completed the journey they had undertaken through the wilderness. But the barbarous men, ungrateful for the saint’s benefit, sacrificed part of the pigs, given by the true God, to their idols. For this reason the holy man, unwilling to taste the flesh of those pigs, fasted for a full space of twenty days; and at length, by the gift of divine grace, it came to pass that he suffered no less hunger on the first day than on the last. Whereupon those pagans, seeing these things, began to proclaim and extol the power of God in His servant Patrick. Wonderful is God in His saints, whom He now glorifies with signs and wonders, and now allows to be afflicted by various adversities and temptations, so that they may know all their power to be His and that their strength comes from God. Therefore He also permitted His beloved servant, already made illustrious by signs and virtues, to be most grievously tempted by an angel of Satan. For while he was free from sleep, the tempter rushed upon him as he lay, and with the enormous weight of an oppressive stone so crushed and ground him down that he left him utterly deprived of the movement and function of all his limbs. Placed in these straits, unable to call upon anyone with his mouth, he invoked in spirit, once and again, the prophet Elijah to come to his aid. And Elijah, standing by him, freed him from all pressure and assault of the enemy, and his strength was restored to him completely. Yet throughout the whole remainder of his life he could not shake off the memory of this terrible event, as he himself relates in the book of his Letters. After so many adversities and hardships, Saint Patrick returned to his homeland, where he remained only three months; when behold, it pleased the Lord to test him with a new adversity. For other British raiders invaded and devastated his country and led him away captive.\n24 In this now third captivity he remained only two months, when it pleased divine goodness, with the eye of its mercy, to visit his hardships with the relief of alternating consolation. For the angel Victor came to him, who comforted him with assurance of his imminent deliverance and made him secure, and opened a way by which, going forth from bondage, he returned to his own people. Then Patrick returned to his homeland and friends, who begged him to remain with them henceforth, saying: “You have suffered many labours, adversities, and hardships up to this point; now rest, and stay among us, and no longer wander from land to land.” But he did not acquiesce in their counsels, on account of the many visions with which he was continually visited. For whenever he desired to take the rest of sleep, he seemed to see constantly before his eyes the island of the Irish, so that he perceived the speech and cry of children in the forest of Fochlad, saying: “Come, holy boy Patrick, and walk among us.”\n25 Moved by these and similar visions, and as the holy man was encouraged and stirred by the Holy Spirit toward the conversion of the Irish, having now reached his thirtieth year of age, he resolved first to set out for Rome, the citadel and teacher of Christian doctrine and faith, so that from the fountain of true wisdom and orthodox discipline he might draw the streams with which to water the dry hearts of the pagan people; for it was neither fitting nor permitted that he should present himself as a teacher of heavenly doctrine unless he had first acted as a disciple in the chief school of that same discipline. He therefore set out beyond the Iccian Sea until he came into Gaul, and onward as far as the Alps and the southern region of Italy, where he found Saint Germanus, at that time the most distinguished bishop of Europe; and with him he studied the ecclesiastical canons, after the manner of the Apostle Paul at the feet of Gamaliel, and there he served God in labours, fastings, chastity of life, contrition of heart, and love of God and neighbour.\n26 Afterwards Saint Patrick set out for Tours to Saint Martin, that he might tonsure him as a monk; for up to that day he had been shorn only in the manner of servants. But when he received the monastic tonsure from Saint Martin, he renounced all the cares and pleasures of the world and consecrated himself wholly to prayer and abstinence, so that he resolved never to eat meat. Yet on one occasion, being grievously tempted, he could not restrain himself until he had taken pork; and lest the other monks should be led astray by his example, he hid it beneath a cask. But after he had thus left the meat behind, there came to meet him a certain being having eyes both on his forehead and on the back of his head. But Patrick, looking more closely at him and greatly marvelling at his condition, asked him what such a monstrous form and appearance signified. He replied: “I am a servant of God, and with the eyes which are ordinarily placed on the forehead I see the ordinary actions of men; but with the eyes placed on the back of my head I see a monk hiding meat beneath a tub so that he may not be discovered.” And having said these things, he immediately disappeared. But Patrick, pierced with compunction of heart, fell to the ground and, pouring himself out in prayer like a great sinner, begged forgiveness for his offence. Then the angel Victor appeared to him, saying: “Arise, take courage, for the Lord has taken away your sin.” Therefore Saint Patrick, rising up, renounced from that time forward the eating of meat, so that during the whole remainder of his life he tasted no flesh. Yet he still humbly besought the Lord to show him by some evident sign that his guilt had been remitted. The angel therefore commanded that the meat be brought forth into the midst before the monks and thrown into water. Patrick did this, and the meat, when afterwards taken out of the water, was found to have been changed into fish. This sign Patrick was afterwards accustomed to recount frequently before his disciples, in order to encourage them to overcome the temptations of gluttony.\n27 Autissiodorum was the name of the city of which Saint Germanus was the chief and noble bishop; the island was called Aralanensis, in which Saint Patrick was being instructed by him. He was thirty years old when he came to Saint Germanus, and he devoted another thirty years to letters and disciplines, and afterwards in Ireland he devoted sixty years to preaching and to the instruction of the people. At a certain time, when Saint Patrick was in the Tyrrhenian Sea, he came to a place where there were three other Patricks. For these men were in a certain solitary cave between the mountain called Trias and the sea, and he asked them for permission to remain with them. They replied that they were unwilling to grant this unless he would draw water from a nearby spring. For in that place there was a certain beast which caused great harm to men. Patrick, however, consenting, came to the spring, and when the beast saw him it rejoiced, giving signs as if of joy, and showed itself gentle and tame toward him. After this, drawing the water, he carried it home with a blessing. Previously those three holy men used to receive three half-loaves sent from heaven as their daily provision; but then, by the indulgence of divine goodness, a fourth was immediately added after Patrick’s arrival. And he remained with them for seven years, and they formed among themselves a bond of spiritual friendship and brotherhood.\n28 Then, when Patrick was sixty years old, and had learned wisdom, an angel came to strengthen him, whose name was Victor, for he was a helper to him from the time he was in bondage with Miliuc and in everything else that befell him. He said to him: “It has been commanded to you by God to go to Ireland, to strengthen faith and belief, so that through the multitude of the Gospel you may reach the harbour of life; for all the Irish are calling you: it is fitting and right in their eyes that you should come to them.” After that Patrick took leave of Germanus, and he gave him his blessing, and a senior went across the sea with him from Germanus for his protection and testimony, Segetius by name, and a consecrated priest, and he was the one who was in charge of the ordering of the Church under the hand of Germanus.\n29 Patrick then went out upon the sea with nine men. At that time he landed on an island, and he saw a new house with a married couple dwelling in it, and he saw an old, withered woman on the threshold of the house, resting on her hands. “Why is the old woman like this?” said Patrick. “Her infirmity is great.” The young man answered him and said: “She is my foster-mother.” “If she is your mother,” said Patrick, “her virginity is as you see it, and her infirmity comes from that.” “What manner of speech is that?” said Patrick. “It is no wonder,” said the young man, “for we have been here since the time of Christ. Someone came to us from Him while He was among men on earth, and we made a feast for Him. He blessed our house and blessed us ourselves, and that blessing did not pass on to our children, and so we remain here without age and without decay until the Judgment, as was promised to us long ago. It was foretold to us,” said the young man, “that you would come, and God left us here until you should come to preach to the Gaels, and He left a sign for us, namely, that we should give you a staff.” “I will not accept it,” said Patrick, “until He Himself gives me the staff.” Patrick stayed three days and three nights with them, and afterwards went to Mount Hermon in the neighbourhood of the island. There the Lord appeared to him and commanded him to go and preach to the Gaels, and He gave him the staff of Jesus, saying that it would help him in every danger and in every unequal conflict in which he might be. And Patrick asked three boons of Him: that he might be at His right hand in the kingdom of heaven, that Patrick himself might be judge of the Gaels on Doomsday, and that as much gold and silver as the nine companions could carry should be given to the Gaels for believing.\n30 Now the chief who was in Rome at that time was Caelestinus, the forty-second successor of Peter. He sent Palladius, an archdeacon, with twelve men, to preach to the Gaels, for it belongs to Peter’s successor to bring benefit to Europe, just as Barnabas went forth from Peter to preach to the Romans. When Palladius came into the territory of Leinster, namely to Inver Dea, Nathi son of Garrchu opposed him and drove him away. Palladius baptized a few people in that place and founded three churches: Cell Fine, in which he left his books, the casket containing the relics of Paul and Peter, and the writing tablet on which he used to write; the House of the Romans; and Domnach Airte, in which are Sylvester and Solonius. As he was returning, sickness overtook him in the land of the Picts, and he died of it there. When Patrick heard this and knew that God had granted to him the apostleship of Ireland, he then went to Rome to receive ecclesiastical orders; and Caelestinus, abbot of Rome, was the one who conferred orders upon him, with Germanus and Amatho, king of the Romans, present with them.\n31 On the same day Auxilius was ordained, and Iserninus, and others of Patrick’s household. Then also the name Patricius was given to him, a name of power as the Romans understood it, namely, one who releases hostages. Thus he released the Gaels from their bondage and slavery to the Devil. And while the orders were being read out, three choirs responded to one another: the choir of the household of heaven, the choir of the Romans, and the choir of the children from the wood of Fochlad. This is what they all sang: “All we Irish beseech thee, holy Patrick, to come and walk among us and to free us.”\n32 Now when Patrick came from Rome he went to Inver Dea in Leinster. However, Nathi son of Garrchu came against him, and Patrick cursed him. Sinell son of Findchad, however, was the first who believed in God in Ireland through Patrick’s preaching; therefore Patrick bestowed a blessing upon him and upon his descendants. In those days these things were done as has been said. At that time there was a certain fierce heathen king in Ireland, namely Loegaire son of Niall, whose dwelling and royal stronghold were at Tara. In the fifth year of the reign of Loegaire son of Niall Patrick came to Ireland; in the eighth year of the reign of Lugaid he died. Patrick came in the eighth year of the reign of Theodosius, the forty-fifth from Augustus. Caelestinus was chief for eight years, as Gelasius says. This cruel king, namely Loegaire son of Niall, had wizards and enchanters who foretold by their sorcery and heathen practices what was to come. Lochru and Lucatmael were their chiefs, and they were the originators of that art of false prophecy. They foretold, then, that a prophet of an evil law would come over the sea to their land and teach, that a few would oppose him and a multitude would receive him, that he would find love and reverence among the men of Ireland, that he would cast kings and lords out of their dominion, that he would destroy all the images of idols, and that the practice he would introduce would abide in Ireland for ever and ever. Two or three years before Patrick’s coming they used to prophesy this:\n33 “Adze-head will come over a fierce sea; his mantle with a hole for the head, his staff crook-headed, his dish in the east of his house; all his household shall answer, ‘Amen, Amen.’ Adze-heads will come who will build cities, who will consecrate churches, pinnacled houses of song, many conical caps and a realm full of croziers.”\n34 “So,” said they, “when these signs come, our worship and our heathenism will be destroyed, and the faith and belief will be exalted.” And as it was prophesied and prefigured, so it came to pass and was fulfilled. Now when Patrick had completed his voyage and his ship made harbour at Inver Dea in Leinster, he brought his vessel to land. Then he resolved to go and preach to Miliuc. This seemed fitting to him, since he had once rendered service to Miliuc’s body, that he should now render service to his soul. So he turned his mast toward the land and went on a prosperous voyage eastward along the coast of Ireland until he anchored at Inver Domnann. He found no fish there and laid a curse upon it.\n35 He went to Patrick’s Island and sent to Inver Ainge. Nothing was found for him there, and so he laid a curse upon it also, and both places are barren.\n36 Then Benen came into his service, and Patrick slept among his household. All the sweet-smelling flowers that the gillie, Benen, found he would place in the cleric’s bosom. Patrick’s household said to Benen, “Do not do that, lest Patrick should awake.” But Patrick said, “He shall inherit my kingdom.”\n37 He went to Inver Boinde. He found fish there and bestowed a blessing upon it, and the estuary is fruitful. He found a wizard in that place who mocked the virginity of Mary. Patrick blessed the earth, and it swallowed up the wizard.\n38 Then Patrick went from Patrick’s Island, past Conaille and along the coast of Ulster, until he anchored at Inver Brennea. Then he went to Inver Slan, and the clerics hid their vessel in that place, and went ashore to put away their weariness and to rest. There the swineherd of Dichu son of Trichem found them, in the place where today Patrick’s Barn stands. When he saw the wise men and the clerics, he thought they were robbers or thieves, so he went and told his master. Thereupon Dichu came and set his dog upon the clerics. Then Patrick chanted the prophetic verse, “Do not hand over to the beasts the souls of those who confess you”, and the dog became silent. When Dichu saw Patrick, sorrow of heart seized him, and he believed, and Patrick baptized him. Thus he was the first in Ulster to receive baptism and faith from Patrick. Then Dichu offered the Barn to Patrick. Patrick said:\n39 God’s blessing on Dichu,\nwho gave me the Barn!\nMay he afterwards have\na heavenly home, bright, pure, and great.\nGod’s blessing on Dichu,\nDichu with a multitude of children.\nNo offspring or descendant of his\nshall die whose\u0026hellip; is not enduring.\n40 Patrick then went to preach to Miliuc, as he had said, and he took with him gold to move him to belief, for he knew that Miliuc was greedy for gold. Now when Miliuc heard that Patrick had arrived, he was unwilling to believe or to abandon the evil, heathen law in which he was abiding. He deemed it a shame to believe in his slave and to be subject to him. This was the counsel which the Devil taught him. He entered his palace with his gold and his silver, and he himself set fire to it and burned it with all his treasures, and his soul went to hell. Then Patrick stood still on the southern side of Slemish—there stands a cross in that place—and he saw the fire from afar. He was silent for the space of two or three hours. While he was sighing and groaning, this is what he said: “Yonder is the fire of Miliuc’s house,” says Patrick, “after he burned himself within his house, lest he should believe in God at the end of his life. He upon whom his destruction lies,” says he, “of him there shall be neither king nor crown prince, and in bondage shall his offspring and his seed abide for ever, and his soul shall not come out of hell until doom nor after doom.”\n41 And when he had spoken these words, he turned right-handwise and went back again into Ulster, until he came to Mag Inis, to Dichu son of Trichem; and there he stayed a long while sowing belief, until he brought all the Ulstermen by the net of the Gospel to the harbour of Life.\n42 Then Patrick went from the Barn southwards, that he might preach to Ross son of Trichem. It is he who dwelt at Derlus, to the south of Downpatrick; there stands a small town there today, namely Bright, where Bishop Loairn is, who dared to reproach Patrick for driving away a boy who was playing close by his church.\n43 Now while Patrick was going along his way, he saw a gentle youth herding swine. Mochae was his name. Patrick preached to him and baptized him, and tonsured him, and gave him a Gospel and a credence-table. He also gave him, at another time, a crozier that had been bestowed on them by God, that is, it fell from heaven with its head in Patrick’s bosom and its foot in Mochae’s bosom; and this is the Etech (“Winged Thing”) of Mochae of Noendruim. And Mochae promised a shaven pig every year to Patrick, and this is still offered.\n44 Now, when the high tide of Easter drew near, Patrick thought that there was no place fitter for the chief solemnity of the year, that is, for the celebration of Easter, than in Mag Breg, in the place where the chief seat of the idolatry and wizardry of Ireland was, namely, in Tara. Then they bade farewell to Dichu son of Trichem, put their vessel to sea, and went on until they anchored at Inver Colptha.\n45 They left their vessel in the estuary and went by land until they came to Ferta Fer Feicc, that is, the Graves of Fiacc’s Men, and Patrick’s tent was pitched in that place, and he kindled the paschal fire. Now it happened that this was the time at which the great festival of the heathen was celebrated, namely, the Feast of Tara. The kings, the lords, and the chiefs were accustomed to come to Tara, to Loegaire son of Niall, to celebrate that festival there.\n46 The wizards also, and the augurs, would come, so that they might prophesy for them. On that night, then, the fire of every hearth in Ireland was quenched, and it was proclaimed by the king that no fire should be kindled in Ireland before the fire of Tara, and that neither gold nor silver should be accepted as compensation from the one who should kindle it, but that he should go to death for his crime. Patrick did not know this, and even if he had known it, it would not have hindered him.\n47 As the folk of Tara were waiting there, they saw, at some distance from them, the paschal consecrated fire which Patrick had kindled. It lit up the whole of Mag Breg. Then the King said, “That is a breaking of a ban and a law of mine: go and find out who has done this.” “We see the fire,” say the wizards, “and we know that unless it is quenched on the night on which it was made, it will not be quenched until Doomsday. Moreover, he who kindled it will overcome the kings and lords of Ireland, unless he is restrained.” When the King heard that, he was greatly troubled. Then the King said, “This shall not be. But we will go,” says he, “and slay the man who kindled the fire.” Then the King’s chariots and horses were yoked, and they went at the end of the night to the Graves of Fiacc’s Men. “You should take care,” say the wizards, “not to go to the place where the fire was made, lest you show reverence to the man who kindled it; but remain outside, and let him be called out to you, so that he may judge that you are the King and that he is the subject, and we will dispute in your presence.” “It is good counsel,” says the King; “it shall be done as you say.”\n48 They came thereafter and unyoked their horses and their chariots before the Graves. Patrick was called out to them, and they made a rule that no one should rise up to meet him, lest he should believe in him. So Patrick arose and went forth, and saw the chariots and the horses unyoked. Then he chanted the prophetic verse, “Some trust in chariots and some in horses; but we trust in the name of the Lord our God”. They were waiting before him with the rims of their shields against their chins, and none of them rose up before him except one man only, in whom was a nature from God, namely Ere son of Deg. He is Bishop Ere, who is today in Slane of Mag Breg. Patrick bestowed a blessing upon him, and he believed in God and confessed the catholic faith, and was baptized; and Patrick said to him, “Thy city on earth shall be high and noble,” and Patrick’s successor is forever bound to [bend?] his knee before Ere’s successor after receiving his homage.\n49 Then each asked news of the other, Patrick and Loegaire. The wizard Lochru went in anger and uproar, with strife and questioning, against Patrick, and he went so far as to fall into blasphemy against the Trinity and the catholic faith. Patrick thereafter looked sternly upon him and cried with a loud voice to God, and this is what he said: “Lord, who canst do all things, on whose power all that exists depends, and who hast sent us here to preach Thy name to the heathen, let this ungodly man, who blasphemes Thy name, be lifted up, and let him die at once.” When he said this, the wizard was lifted into the air and immediately cast down again, and his brains were dashed upon the stone; he was broken in pieces and died in their presence. The heathen were struck with great fear.\n50 The king, then, was greatly enraged against Patrick and wished at once to kill him. Loegaire said this to his household: “Slay the cleric!” When Patrick saw this, the heathen rising up against him, he cried with a loud voice and said: “Let God arise, and let His enemies be scattered; let those also who hate Him flee before Him. As smoke vanishes, so let them vanish; as wax melts before the fire, so let the ungodly perish at the presence of God”. At once darkness came upon the sun, and a great earthquake and a trembling of weapons took place there. It seemed to them that the sky had fallen upon the earth; the horses fled in terror, and the wind hurled the chariots across the fields. And they rose up against one another in the assembly, so that each sought to slay the other, and fifty of them fell in that uprising through Patrick’s curse.\n51 The heathen fled from there in every direction, so that only three remained, namely Loegaire, his queen, and one of his household, and they were greatly afraid. And the queen, that is, Angas daughter of Tassach son of Liathan, came to Patrick and said to him: “O just and mighty man, do not destroy the king. The king shall come to thee and shall do thy will, and shall kneel and believe in God.” So Loegaire went and knelt before Patrick, and gave him a false peace.\n52 Not long thereafter the king summoned Patrick to speak with him apart, intending to kill him, but this did not come to pass. God revealed this to Patrick. Loegaire said to Patrick: “Come with me, O cleric, to Tara, that I may believe in thee in the presence of the men of Ireland.” And immediately he set an ambush on every path from the Graves of the Men of Ff ace to Tara, before Patrick, to kill him. But God did not permit this. Patrick went with eight young clerics, and Benen with them as a gillie, and Patrick blessed them before they went. A cloak of darkness came over them, so that none of them was seen as a man. Yet the heathen who lay waiting in the snares saw eight deer passing beneath the mountain, and behind them a fawn with a bundle upon its shoulder: this was Patrick with his eight, and Benen following them with his tablets upon his back.\n## The Deer\u0026rsquo;s Cry\n53 I bind myself today to a strong virtue, an invocation of the Trinity.\nI believe in a Threeness, with confession of a Oneness, in the Creator of the universe.\nI bind myself today to the virtue of Christ’s birth with his baptism,\nto the virtue of his crucifixion with his burial,\nto the virtue of his resurrection with his ascension,\nto the virtue of his coming to the Judgment of Doom.\nI bind myself today to the virtue of the ranks of Cherubim,\nin the obedience of Angels,\nin the service of Archangels,\nin hope of resurrection for reward,\nin the prayers of Patriarchs,\nin the predictions of Prophets,\nin the preachings of Apostles,\nin the faith of Confessors,\nin the innocence of holy Virgins,\nin the deeds of righteous men.\nI bind myself today to the virtue of Heaven,\nthe light of the Sun,\nthe brightness of the Moon,\nthe splendour of Fire,\nthe speed of Lightning,\nthe swiftness of Wind,\nthe depth of the Sea,\nthe stability of the Earth,\nthe firmness of Rock.\n54 I bind myself today to God’s virtue to guide me,\nGod’s might to uphold me,\nGod’s wisdom to direct me,\nGod’s eye to look before me,\nGod’s ear to hear me,\nGod’s word to speak for me,\nGod’s hand to guard me,\nGod’s way to lie before me,\nGod’s shield to protect me,\nGod’s host to secure me,\nagainst the snares of demons,\nagainst the seductions of vices,\nagainst the corruptions of nature,\nagainst everyone who wishes ill to me,\nafar and near,\nalone and in a multitude.\n55 I summon today all these virtues between me and these evils,\nagainst every cruel, merciless power that may come against my body and my soul,\nagainst the incantations of false prophets,\nagainst the black laws of heathenry,\nagainst the false laws of heretics,\nagainst the craft of idolatry,\nagainst spells of women and smiths and wizards,\nagainst every knowledge that denies the body and soul of man.\n56 Christ to protect me today against every poison,\nagainst burning, against drowning, against deadly wounds,\nso that I may receive a multitude of rewards.\nChrist with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me,\nChrist in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me,\nChrist at my right, Christ at my left,\nChrist in breadth, Christ in length, Christ in height,\nChrist in the heart of everyone who thinks of me,\nChrist in the mouth of everyone who speaks to me,\nChrist in the eye of everyone who sees me,\nChrist in the ear of everyone who hears me.\n57 I bind myself today to a strong virtue, an invocation of the Trinity.\nI believe in a Threeness, with confession of a Oneness, in the Creator of the universe.\n58 \u0026ldquo;Salvation is the Lord’s; salvation is the Lord’s; salvation is Christ’s\u0026rdquo;.\nMay your salvation, Lord, be always with us. Amen.\n59 hereafter Loegaire went at daybreak to Tara in grief and in shame, together with the few who had escaped with him.\n60 On the following day the men of Ireland went to Tara to carouse, for with them the Feast of Tara was a special day. As they were carousing and thinking of the conflict they had fought on the day before, they saw Patrick standing motionless in the middle of Tara, the doors being shut, as when Christ came into the dining room. For Patrick thought and said, “I will go so I might make manifest my readiness before the men of Ireland. It is not a candle under a vat that I will make of myself. So that I may see, who it is that will believe in me, and who will not believe.” No one rose up before him in the house except Dubthach Maccu Lugair, chief poet of the island of Ireland and poet of the king, and a stripling of his household named Fiacc. It is he, Fiacc, who is in Sleibte today. Now Dubthach was the first man who believed in God in Tara on that day. Patrick bestowed a blessing on him and on his descendants.\n61 Patrick, then, was summoned to the king’s couch, that he might partake of food and be tested in prophecy. Patrick did not refuse, because he knew what would come of it. The wizard Lucat-moel went to drink with him, for he intended to avenge upon Patrick what Patrick had done the day before to his comrade Lochru. So Lucat-moel put a drop of poison into the cup that stood at Patrick’s hand, to see what he would do with it. Patrick observed this, and he blessed the cup, and the liquor curdled. He then inverted the vessel, and out of it fell the poison which the wizard had put into it. Patrick again blessed the cup, and the liquor returned to its proper nature. Thereby the name of God and of Patrick was magnified. This is what Patrick recited over the cup: “Gaibiu anis, ibiu anis, fri sia tiathib ibiu lithu, in Christo Iesu, Amen”; that is, “whether we have knowledge of it or whether we have not, it shall be drunk in the name of Jesus Christ.”\n62 Then the hosts came until they were all assembled outside Tara on the plain. “Let us,” said Lucat-moel, “work miracles before the host in that great plain.” Patrick said, “What are they?” The wizard said, “Let us bring snow upon the plain, so that the plain may be white before us.” Patrick said to him, “I have no desire to go against God’s will.” The wizard said, “I will bring the snow upon the plain, even if you do not wish it.” Then he began the chants of wizardry and the arts of devilry, so that the snow fell until it reached men’s girdles. All the rest of the Irish saw this and marvelled greatly. Patrick said, “We see this. Put it away, if you can.” The wizard said, “I cannot do that until this hour tomorrow.” “By the judgment of my God,” Patrick said, “your power stands in evil, and not in good.” Patrick blessed the plain throughout the four quarters, and quicker than speech, at Patrick’s word, the snow vanished, without rain, without sun, and without wind.\n63 Then at the wizard’s incantation darkness came over the face of the earth. At this the hosts cried out. Patrick said, “Dispel the darkness.” The wizard said, “I cannot do so today.” Patrick prayed to the Lord and blessed the plain, and the darkness was banished and the sun shone, and all gave thanks.\n64 They remained for a long time in this contest in the presence of the king. And just as Nero said to Simon Magus and to Peter, so the king said to them, “Cast your books into water, and we will honour the one whose books come out unharmed.” Patrick replied, “I will do so.” But the wizard said, “I am unwilling to go with him to the ordeal of water, for he has water as a god.” The wizard said this because he had heard that Patrick used to baptise with water. And the king answered, “Cast them, then, into fire.” Patrick said, “I am ready.” But the wizard, unwilling, said, “This man, in alternate years, worships as a god now water and now fire.” “That will not be so,” Patrick said, “but since you say that I worship a god of fire, you shall go, if you are willing, apart into a house completely shut up, with a cleric of my household before you, my chasuble placed around you, and your wizard’s tunic placed around my cleric, and fire shall be set in the house, so that God may give judgment upon you there.” That counsel was then agreed upon by them, that is, by the men of Ireland around Loegaire.\n65 Then there came to Patrick the three children who were being held in hostage by Loegaire. They wept before Patrick. Patrick asked, “What is the matter?” “A prince’s pledge,” they said, “has been broken in the chief city of the Gaels, namely this: the house that is being built both for the wizard and for your servant is built thus, half of it fresh and half dry, the fresh half for the wizard and the dry for your servant.” Patrick placed his finger on the right cheek of each of the children, and he took a tear from the cheek of each child onto his left palm, and he breathed upon the tears and made three gems from them. The children swallowed the gems. “Three special gems,” Patrick said, “will be born from them,” namely Colum Cille, Comgall, and Finnian.\n66 Thereafter the house was built, one side of it dry and the other fresh. Then the wizard was sent into the fresh side, with Patrick’s chasuble placed around him. Then Benen was sent into the dry side, with the wizard’s tunic placed around him. The house was then closed around them, and a bar was set\u0026hellip; on it outside before the host, and fire was kindled within it. A great marvel came to pass there through Patrick’s prayer. The fresh half of the house was burned, and the wizard within it together with the chasuble, yet the fire did not harm the chasuble in the least. The dry half, however, in which Benen was abiding, was not burned, and Benen was preserved in the midst of the wizard’s tunic, and the tunic was burned so that it was reduced to ashes.\n67 The king was greatly enraged with Patrick for killing his wizard. He rose up and wished to kill him at once, but through Patrick’s intercession God did not permit it. Thereafter the anger of God fell upon the impious people, so that a great multitude of them perished, namely twelve thousand in one day.\n68 Patrick, however, said to Loegaire, “Unless you believe now, you shall die swiftly, for the anger of God will come upon your head.” When the king heard these words, great fear seized him. Then the king went into the assembly-house to his people. “As for me,” said he, “belief in God is better than what is threatened to me, namely, that I should be killed.” Thereupon Loegaire knelt before Patrick and believed in God, though he did not believe with a pure heart; and on that day many thousands believed. Then Patrick said, “Since you have believed in God and done my will, length of days shall be given to you in your kingdom; yet, as a reward for your former disobedience, there shall be neither king nor crown-prince descended from you, save Lugaid son of Loegaire,” because his mother had besought Patrick not to curse the child that lay in her womb. Patrick said this: “Until he opposes me, I will not curse him.” Then Lugaid took the kingdom and went to Achad Forchai. And he said, “Is not that the church of the cleric who declared that there would be neither king nor crown-prince from Loegaire?” After that, a fiery bolt was hurled from the sky against him and killed him, wherefore the place is called Achad Forchai, the Field of the Thunderbolt.\n69 Let the miracles extend thus far to this day.\n70 These are the miracles which the elders of Ireland declared and connected together by a thread of narration. Colum Cille, son of Fedlimid, first declared the miracles of Patrick and composed them. Thereafter followed Ultan, son of Conchobar’s descendant; Adomnán, grandson of Tinne; Eleran the Wise; Ciarán of Belach Duin; Bishop Ermedach of Clochar; Colmán Uamach; and the presbyter Collait of Druim Roilgech.\n71 This man, then, was a just man, with purity of nature like the patriarchs. A true pilgrim, like Abraham. Gentle and forgiving of heart, like Moses. A praiseworthy psalmist, like David. A treasury of wisdom, like Solomon. A vessel of election for the proclamation of truth, like Paul the Apostle. A man full of the grace and knowledge of the Holy Spirit, like John the child. A fair garden planted with virtues. A branch of a vine rich in fruitfulness. A bright fire, fervent in heat and warmth, kindling and inflaming charity in the sons of Life. A lion in strength and power. A dove in gentleness and simplicity. A serpent in prudence and shrewdness directed toward good. Gentle, humble, and mild toward the sons of Life; stern and unyielding toward the sons of Death. A laborious and devoted servant of Christ. A king in dignity and power, with authority to bind and to loose, to free and to enslave, to kill and to give life.\n72 But the day of his death drew near, and he received the communion from Bishop Tassach, that provision for the journey to eternal life which he had taken by the counsel of Victor. And then, after raising the dead, after converting many people to God, and after ordaining bishops and priests in the churches, when the whole order of the Church had been duly set in place and the whole of Ireland had been converted to the faith of Christ, in the one hundred and twenty-second year of his age he fell asleep unto eternal life, and so forth.\n","date":"1 enero 0890","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tirechan/the-tripartite-life-of-patrick-book-one/","section":"Writings","summary":"","title":"The Tripartite Life of Patrick - Book One","type":"writings"},{"content":"# The Life of Saint Wilfrid, Bishop of York\n*Stephen of Ripon (around 710AD) with 11th-12th century interpolations*\n## Preface: In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ begins the humble apology of Stephen the priest, writing about the life of Saint Wilfrid, a bishop worthy of God.\n1 By the greatness of your commands, O venerable lords, Acca the bishop and Tatberht the abbot, and by the weight of the whole community, I am overcome—would that I were as able to obey in deed as in intention. For this work is arduous, and the capacity of my understanding and eloquence is slight; yet even if it does not fully accomplish the ministry enjoined, it at least discharges the duty of obedience. For the greatest proof of my reverence towards you is that I have wished to devote more effort to your commands than I am able. But if I accomplish anything worthy of your choice, it will indeed be a gift of God, since there is no doubt that it must be brought to completion through the faith of those by whose exhortation it has been undertaken. For who does not understand that what you believe is to be fulfilled through me has been presumed upon your prayers? Indeed, it is a great gain and benefit to me even to recall this very thing—the bishop Wilfrid of blessed memory. For it is a perfect path to virtue to know what manner of man he was. Therefore, to speak briefly, believe everything that the speech of those reporting about him has proclaimed, and consider that you have heard but little of very great things; for I do not doubt that even they could not know all. I beseech, therefore, those who are to read this, that they give credence to what is said, setting aside the thousand stings of envy of the ancient enemy, and remembering what eloquence has thundered:\n2 “For valour always has rivals in plain sight, and lightning strikes the lofty mountain peaks.”\n3 Nor should they think that I have written anything with rash boldness, except what has been discovered and proven by the faithful; otherwise I would have preferred to be silent rather than to speak falsely. Let us proceed on the journey we have begun with your prayers.\n#### Here ends the preface of Stephen the priest\n## Chapter 1: Here begins the account of the birth of Saint Wilfrid and of a portent\n1 Thus, with God’s help and by his holy merits, the life of the blessed bishop Wilfrid I shall begin to write of him whom the Lord, according to the saying of the excellent teacher, foreknew and predestined and called, justified and glorified. For from the womb of his most devout mother God showed by a sign that he had been greatly sanctified, just as Jeremiah heard the Lord saying: “Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you; and before you came forth from the womb, I sanctified you, and I appointed you a prophet among the nations”. For when his mother, worn out by the pains of childbirth, lay in her house and women were gathered about her, the men standing outside suddenly saw that house as if it were on fire, and a flame rising up to heaven. All hurried from every side in alarm, wishing to quench the flame with water and to rescue people from the blaze. But the women came out to meet them from the house, saying: “Wait, stand firm and expect; look, just now a child has been born into this world for her.” They, being astonished and seeing the mighty works of God, recognised it—just as Moses saw the flame in the bush burning yet consuming nothing. And we, brothers, often read that the Holy Spirit has appeared in fire, because God is a fire, consuming sinners and enlightening the righteous. This light the Lord commanded not to be placed under a basket, but upon a lampstand; and through the blessed bishop Wilfrid it shone openly to nearly all the churches of Britain, as foretellings of things to come declared beforehand and the outcome of events afterwards proved.\n## Chapter 2: Concerning how in childhood he chose God\n1 When, therefore, he was of a boy’s age, obedient to his parents, dear to all, fair in appearance, of good disposition, gentle, modest, steadfast, desiring nothing vain in the manner of boys, but, according to the Apostle James, quick to hear, slow to speak, he humbly and skilfully ministered to all who came into his father’s house, whether noble companions or their servants, so that, according to the prophet, all might be taught by God. At length, however, in his fourteenth year he began in his heart to consider leaving his father’s lands and seeking heavenly gifts. For his stepmother, after the death of his own mother, was troublesome and harsh towards him; yet he obtained arms and horses and clothing for himself and her sons, in which he might suitably appear before royal courts. And when his father had blessed him, as Isaac blessed Jacob and Jacob his sons, that they might increase into many thousands of peoples, setting out on his journey, he went on until he found the queen of King Oswiu, named Eanfled, and, through noble men by whom he had formerly served in his father’s house, he was commended and presented to the queen. At once, with God’s help, he found favour in her sight; for he was of comely appearance and of very keen understanding, and she granted him what he had asked: that under her counsel and protection he might serve God. At that time a certain nobleman, one of the king’s companions, greatly beloved and faithful to him, named Cudda, resolving to despise worldly desires on account of an infirmity, namely paralysis, chose rather to embrace the monastic life under regular discipline on the island of Lindisfarne. The aforesaid queen carefully commended to him the boy who had newly come to her, that he might minister to him and serve God. For already, according to the queen’s command, having undertaken diligent service, he immediately became dear to his lord and to all the elders in the monastery as a son, and to his fellows as a brother, because he strove to fulfil the whole rule of life with inward love of heart, in humility and obedience; and he learned by heart the whole series of psalms and also some books. For though still a layman in outward condition, yet in heart circumcised from vices, he served God and deserved to receive a share of the blessing together with Samuel, ministering to Eli the priest.\n## Chapter 3: Concerning how he loved to see the threshold of Saint Peter, prince of the apostles.\n1 Then, after the passing of some years, at the prompting of the Holy Spirit, the desire to seek out and behold the see of the Apostle Peter, the prince of the apostles, and to attempt a path as yet untrodden by our people, arose in the heart of the aforesaid youth, believing that thereby every bond of stain might be loosed for him and that he might receive the blessedness of a blessing. This purpose he made known to his lord; who at once, being wise, recognised that it had been suggested by God, and gave his consent that his most beloved son should receive the source of all good. Then, with the counsel of his father and of Queen Eanfled, he was carefully commended by messengers to his own kinsman, King Erconberht of the people of Kent, and was honourably sent, that he might remain with him until he should find faithful companions of the journey making their way to the apostolic see. But the king, seeing the servant of God who had come to him, wonderfully loved him, since, according to his custom, he was ever occupied in prayers and fastings, in reading and in vigils. For the psalms, which he had previously read according to the revision of Jerome, he also committed to memory in the Roman manner according to the fifth edition. When the year had also turned, the king, in accordance with the queen’s request, for one wearied with the tedium of delay, found a certain noble leader of admirable ability, named Biscop Baducing, hastening to the apostolic see, and secured that he might be in his company. Accordingly, the servant of God, setting out with the blessing of his parents on his pilgrimage, like Jacob, and receiving in the end a blessing upon his journey, went his way. Amiable to all, keen in mind, vigorous in body, swift of foot, ready for every good work, he never drew his face into sadness, but cheerful and rejoicing, with a favourable voyage he came to the city of Lyons in Gaul. There he remained for some time with his companions, when the stern-minded leader departed from him, as Barnabas withdrew from Paul on account of John, who was surnamed Mark.\n## Chapter 4: Concerning how Bishop Dalfinus kindly received Saint Wilfrid\n1 Blessed be God, who defends and protects His servants and aids them through the help of the good! For in the aforesaid city there was Dalfinus, archbishop of holy memory, who set his eyes kindly upon the most gentle servant of God, Wilfrid, and graciously received him with his companions in hospitality, perceiving in his serene countenance what he bore in his blessed mind. And so he caused all things necessary for them to abound, as though they were his own, and wished to choose him as an adopted son for himself, saying to him: \u0026ldquo;If you remain with me in confidence, I will give you a good portion of Gaul to govern for life, and a maiden daughter of my brother as a wife, and I will have you as my adopted son, and you shall have me as a father, faithfully assisting in all things.\u0026rdquo; And Saint Wilfrid, the servant of God, answering wisely as he had been instructed, said: \u0026ldquo;I have vows to the Lord which I will fulfil, leaving, like Abraham, my kindred and my father’s house, that I may visit the apostolic see and learn the rules of ecclesiastical discipline for the increase of our people in serving God, desiring to receive from God what He has promised to those who love Him, saying: \u0026lsquo;Whoever shall leave father or mother and the rest shall receive a hundredfold and shall possess eternal life\u0026rsquo;. For now, if life accompanies me, with God’s help, if I live, returning again I shall see your face.\u0026rdquo; Hearing these things and others, the holy bishop understood truly that he was a servant of God and imbued with the Holy Spirit; and, having prepared what was necessary for him, he sent him forth in the peace of Christ, according to his will, with guides and resources to the apostolic see.\n## Chapter 5: Concerning how he came in blessed manner to Saint Peter the apostle\n1 The servant of God Wilfrid, therefore, came prosperously, rejoicing and giving thanks with his companions, to the long-desired see of the Apostle Peter, the prince of the apostles. As the most excellent teacher of the Gentiles, going up to Jerusalem to the disciples of the Lord, lest he should run or had run in vain, so also this most humble spark of our people, stirred by God, came from the ends of the earth to Rome to hear the wisdom of the rulers of the world. In the oratory dedicated to Saint Andrew the apostle, before the altar upon whose summit the four Gospels were placed, humbly bending the knee, he adjured in the name of the Lord God the apostle for whom he suffered, that through his intercession the Lord might grant him understanding in reading and eloquence in teaching the Gospels among the nations; and so it came to pass, as is attested by the testimony of many. For over many months, going about daily to the places of the saints for prayer, he found a teacher friendly to him, made faithful through God and the apostle, named Boniface, an archdeacon, one of the most wise counsellors. From him he learned perfectly the four Gospels of Christ and the reckoning of Easter, which the schismatics of Britain and Ireland had not known, and many other rules of ecclesiastical discipline; and Boniface the archdeacon diligently imparted these to him as to his own son. At length he presented him to the pope of blessed memory and marvellously set forth the whole cause of the journey of the youthful servant of God; who, placing his blessed hand upon his head, blessed him with prayer. Then the servant of God, setting out in the peace of Christ with the aid of the holy relics which he had found there, came again in due course to his father, the archbishop of the city of Lyons in Gaul.\n## Chapter 6: Concerning how he received from Bishop Dalfinus the form of the tonsure of the Apostle Peter, and concerning the martyrdom of the same Dalfinus\n1 Therefore, having found Archbishop Dalfinus safe and sound, the rejoicing son entered in to his father, and in order the servant of God Wilfrid related to him all the blessedness of his journey. The bishop gave thanks to God that the Lord had preserved his son both in going out and in returning. For he remained with him for three years and learned many things from very learned teachers; and the love between them grew more and more. And indeed the servant of God Wilfrid, desiring with longing to receive the form of the tonsure of the Apostle Peter, in the likeness of the crown of thorns which encircled the head of Christ, gladly received it from the holy Archbishop Dalfinus. Placing his holy hands upon his head, he considered in his heart that he might have him as his heir after him, if God should so will, something better being thereby provided for our people by God. For at that time a malevolent queen named Baldhild persecuted the Church of the Lord; and just as the most impious Queen Jezebel slew the prophets of God, so this woman, excepting priests and deacons, ordered nine bishops to be killed, of whom one was this Bishop Dalfinus, whom the leaders most wickedly commanded to come to them. But he, with an undaunted mind, knowing what was to befall him, came to the place of contest, and together with him the holy Wilfrid, the servant of God, though the bishop forbade it. And he, rejoicing, said: \u0026ldquo;Nothing is better for us than that father and son should die together and be with Christ\u0026rdquo;; and now the holy bishop was crowned with martyrdom. But when Saint Wilfrid, stripped and prepared for the palm of martyrdom, stood undaunted, the leaders asked, saying: \u0026ldquo;Who is this fair youth who prepares himself for death?\u0026rdquo; And it was said to them: \u0026ldquo;He is from beyond the sea, of the English people, from Britain.’ And they said again: \u0026ldquo;Spare him and do not touch him!\u0026rdquo; Behold, now our Saint Wilfrid was made a confessor, like John the apostle and evangelist, who sat unharmed in a vessel of boiling oil and drank deadly poison, and it did him no harm; concerning whom also, and James the apostle his brother, Jesus said: \u0026ldquo;You shall indeed drink the cup that I am to drink.\u0026rdquo;\n## Chapter 7: Concerning how he was invited by Alchfrith\n1 Then at that time Saint Wilfrid the confessor, after his father the bishop had been honourably buried, with manifold blessing and the aid of holy relics, boarding a ship, with the wind blowing according to the desire of the sailors, came prosperously to his own region into the harbour of salvation. But Alchfrith, who was reigning together with his father Oswiu, hearing that such a servant of God had come with his companions from the apostolic see, preaching the true Easter and having learned in full the discipline of the Church of Saint Peter the apostle, which the king greatly loved, at the urging of his faithful friend Cenwalh, king of the West Saxons, ordered that he should come to him. Therefore Saint Wilfrid, coming to the king who invited him, greeted him in peace, saying: \u0026ldquo;Jesus Christ, the Son of God, commanded His disciples and Peter the apostle, their chief: \u0026lsquo;Into whatever house you enter, say: Peace be to this house\u0026rsquo;. The foundations of this peace we ought first to establish within ourselves between body and soul, as the teacher of the Gentiles preached, saying: \u0026lsquo;Let the peace of Christ rejoice in your hearts\u0026rsquo;; then Jesus Christ commanded that we have peace between ourselves and our neighbours, saying: \u0026lsquo;Have salt in yourselves, and have peace with one another\u0026rsquo;.\u0026rdquo; And after he had finished the words of his preaching, the king, humbly prostrating himself at his feet, received the words of the chosen servant of God and asked his blessing; for it seemed to him as though an angel of God were speaking. Then he blessed him, and they began to converse together, the king questioning him wisely, as he was wise, concerning the various observances of the constitution of the Roman Church. And he, as one instructed, answered clearly and knowledgeably in all things. Afterwards the king adjured him by the Lord and by Saint Peter the apostle that he should remain with him, to preach the word of God to himself and to all his people, like a spiritual instrument sounding within him. And he, perceiving the king’s love towards him, consented to remain with him. For then their souls were wonderfully joined to one another, just as we read that the soul of David was knit to the soul of Jonathan.\n## Chapter 8: Concerning how Alchfrith gave him a monastery at Ripon\n1 Then, after the affection between them increased from day to day, Alchfrid first gave to Saint Wilfrid the confessor land of ten tributary holdings at Stanford, and a little later granted to him the monastery at Ripon, with land of thirty households, for the remedy of his soul; and he was appointed abbot. For just as the broad door of this world was being opened to him by the Lord and through Saint Peter the Apostle, so too there grew widely for him an open gate for almsgiving for the Lord to the poor, to orphans and widows, and to all those afflicted by the weakness of sickness, showing clearly what disposition he had borne in poverty. Behold now, brothers, see and marvel what a great good God grants to the king, who found a good pearl and immediately, without delay, bought it. And not only did King Alchfrid love Saint Wilfrid the abbot, but the whole people, noble and humble alike, regarded him as a prophet of God, as indeed he was.\n## Chapter 9: Concerning the fact that he was ordained priest by Bishop Aegilberht\n1 In those days, however, Bishop Aegilberht, having come from overseas, came to King Oswiu and to Alchfrith, his son, visited them, and Alchfrith the king informed him concerning the holy Abbot Wilfrid, who was coming from the Apostolic See, as had been reported to him by those who knew him well, saying, that he was a man humble and quiet, occupied in fastings and prayers, kindly, sober, modest, merciful, full of authority and the grace of God, chaste, prudent, not given to wine, teachable and teaching well, with speech pure and open. \u0026ldquo;Therefore I ask you, that you lay upon him the rank of the priesthood, and that he may be my inseparable companion.\u0026rdquo; But the bishop answered him in a prophetic spirit: \u0026ldquo;Such a one ought indeed to be made a bishop,\u0026rdquo; and in accordance with the command of the king he ordained him priest at Ripon. For just as David, a boy, was chosen by the Lord and, anointed by Samuel, received the gift of prophecy after many trials, so too the holy Wilfrid, as a priest, and after many blessings of the saints of God, received-God granting and preserving him in his difficulties-uncountably numeorous and varied gifts before God and men.\n## Chapter 10: Concerning the conflict of the priest Wilfrid against Bishop Colman about the calculation of Easter\n1 At a certain time, in the days of Colman, bishop of the metropolitan city of York, while Oswiu and Alchfrith his son were reigning, the abbots and priests and all ranks of ecclesiastical discipline, having assembled together in one place in the monastery which is called Streaneshalch, in the presence of the most devout abbess, the holy mother Hild, with the kings also present, and the two bishops Colman and Aegilberht, were inquiring concerning the observance of Easter, what was most correct: whether, according to the custom of the Britons and the Scots and of all the northern region, Easter should be observed from the fourteenth moon, when it falls on the Lord’s day, until the twenty-second, or whether it is better, according to the rule of the Apostolic See, that the Paschal Sunday be celebrated from the fifteenth moon until the twenty-first. Time was given to Bishop Colman first, as was fitting, to render an account before all who were listening. But he, answering with fearless mind, said: \u0026ldquo;Our fathers and their predecessors, clearly inspired by the Holy Spirit, as was Columba, ordained that Easter should be celebrated on the fourteenth moon when it falls on the Lord’s day, following the example of John the apostle and evangelist, who reclined upon the Lord’s breast at the supper and was called the beloved of the Lord. He celebrated Easter on the fourteenth moon, and we, like his disciples Polycarp and others, celebrate it with that same confidence, nor do we dare nor wish to change this on account of our fathers. I have set forth the judgement of our side; declare yours.\u0026rdquo; Then it was commanded by Bishop Aegilberht from overseas and by the priest Agatho that the priest and abbot Wilfrid should give, with eloquent speech in his own tongue, the reasoning of the Roman Church and of the Apostolic See. He, however, humbly, as was his manner, replying said: \u0026ldquo;This question was formerly most wonderfully examined and settled by our most holy and most wise fathers, three hundred and eighteen gathered together in one at Nicaea in Bithynia, who established among other judgements the nineteen-year cycle of the moon returning upon itself, which never shows that Easter should be celebrated on the fourteenth moon. This is the rule of the discipline of the Apostolic See and of almost the whole world, and thus our fathers said after many judgements: \u0026lsquo;A man who shall condemn one of these things, let him be anathema\u0026rsquo;.\u0026rdquo; Then King Oswiu, while the holy priest Wilfrid was silent, smiling, asked all, saying: \u0026ldquo;Tell me, which is greater in the kingdom of heaven, Columba or the Apostle Peter?\u0026rdquo; The whole synod with one voice and agreement replied: \u0026ldquo;This the Lord has judged, who said: \u0026lsquo;You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. And I will give to you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you will bind on earth shall be bound also in heaven, and whatever you wiil loose on earth shall be loosed also in heaven\u0026rsquo;.\u0026rdquo; Again the king wisely said: \u0026ldquo;He is the doorkeeper and the bearer of the keys, against whom I make no struggle of dispute and judgement in my life, nor do I consent to those who do so.\u0026rdquo; But Bishop Colman, hearing what ought to be done, since he despised the tonsure and the calculation of Easter on account of fear for his homeland, resolved to withdraw and to leave his see to be occupied by another more suitable, and so he did.\n## Chapter 11: Concerning the election of Wilfrid to the episcopate\n1 Then the kings, after some time, took counsel with the wise men of their people as to whom they should choose for the vacant see, someone who would be willing to follow the discipline of the Apostolic See himself and teach it to others, and who would be worthy in character, acceptable to God and pleasing to men. All replied with one agreement: \u0026ldquo;We have no one better or more worthy among our people than the priest and abbot Wilfrid, whom we have found wise in all things and to be such as the Apostle Paul, writing to Titus, taught: \u0026lsquo;A bishop must be blameless, as a steward of God: not arrogant, not quick-tempered, not given to wine, not violent, not quarrelsome, not pursuing shameful gain, but hospitable, kind, self-controlled, upright, holy, disciplined, holding firmly to the faithful word according to the teaching, so that he may be able both to encourage with sound doctrine and to refute those who oppose it\u0026rsquo;. All these things, according to the judgement of the apostle, he possesses, and therefore we choose him in full maturity to teach the law of God.\u0026rdquo; For that man who was chosen was thirty years of age, like John the forerunner of the Lord and the prophet Ezekiel. Then the kings and all the people also agreed to this choice, and the whole assembly commanded that the priest Wilfrid should receive the rank of bishop in the name of the Lord. But he at first refused, excusing himself that he was not worthy; in the end, however, he became obedient and did not wish to avoid the blessing of God. As they understood him to be then, so we still know him while he lives. For his speech was pure and clear, full of seriousness and integrity, full of gentleness and grace, dealing with the mystery of the law, the teaching of the faith, the virtue of self-control, and the discipline of righteousness, advising each person with different encouragement according to their character, so that he understood what to say, to whom, when, and how. Above all, his special duty was to devote himself to fasting, prayer, and vigils, reading the Scriptures; for he had a remarkable memory in books, studying the canons, imitating the examples of the saints, fostering peace among the brothers, maintaining humility and that love which surpasses all gifts, without which every virtue is nothing, caring for the poor, feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, welcoming strangers, redeeming captives, protecting widows and orphans, so that he might deserve to receive the reward of eternal life among the choirs of angels with our Lord Jesus Christ.\n## Chapter 12: Concerning the fact that he was ordained in Gaul\n1 The chosen Wilfrid spoke, saying: \u0026ldquo;O my lords, venerable kings, it is necessary in every way for us to consider carefully how, with your election and without objection from catholic men, I may, with God’s help, be able to come to the rank of bishop. For there are here in Britain many bishops, none of whom I accuse, although I truly know that some are Quartodecimans, as are the Britons and the Scots, or have been ordained by those whom the Apostolic See does not receive into communion, nor those who agree with schismatics. And therefore, in my humility, I ask you to send me with your support across the sea to the region of Gaul, where many catholic bishops are found, so that, without dispute from the Apostolic See, I, though unworthy, may be granted to receive the rank of bishop.\u0026rdquo; This plan pleased the kings greatly, and they prepared for him a ship and support of men and a large amount of money, so that he might arrive very honourably in the region of Gaul. And there at once a great assembly was held of no fewer than twelve catholic bishops, among whom was Bishop Aegilberht. All of them, because of his well-known faith, gladly and honourably ordained him publicly before all the people, and, seated on a golden chair according to their custom, they lifted him up, with only bishops carrying him with their hands into the oratory, no one else touching him, and singing hymns and canticles in choir. After some time, they sent him to the episcopal see of the city of York and instructed him, in the name of the Lord, to remain in the catholic faith, just as the Apostle Paul instructed Timothy his son to keep his calling, which he received through the laying on of hands.\n## Chapter 13: How the Lord delivered our bishop from the sea and from the hand of the pagans with his companions.\n1 While they were sailing from Gaul across the British sea with Bishop Wilfrid of blessed memory, and the clerics were singing and chanting the praise of God in choir for the voyage, a very strong storm arose in the middle of the sea, and contrary winds were against them, as with the disciples of Jesus on the Sea of Galilee. For when the south-east wind was blowing fiercely, the whitening crests of the waves drove them into the region of the South Saxons, which they did not know. The sea, leaving the ship and the men behind, withdrew from the land, uncovering the shore and retreating into the depths. But the pagans, coming with a great army, immediately set out to seize the ship, divide the money among themselves as plunder, carry off the captives into subjection, and kill those who resisted with the sword. To them our holy bishop, promising a large sum of money and wishing to ransom lives, spoke gently and peacefully. But they, fierce and hard-hearted like Pharaoh, unwilling to let the people of God go and arrogantly claiming that everything which the sea had cast upon the land was their own, while the chief priest of idolatry stood before the pagans on a high mound like Balaam, attempting to curse the people of God and to bind their hands with his magical arts. Then one of our bishop’s companions, hurling a stone from a sling in the manner of David, sent it into the forehead of the blaspheming magician, piercing it to the brain; and as he fell backwards, his lifeless body struck down, like Goliath in the sandy places, an uncertain death overtook him. Therefore the pagans prepared for battle and drew up their line against the people of God in vain. For the Lord fought for the few; just as Gideon, by the command of the Lord, with three hundred fighting men struck down one hundred and twenty thousand of the Midianites in a single attack, so also these companions of our holy bishop, well armed, brave in spirit though few in number—for there were one hundred and twenty men, the age of Moses—having made a plan and agreement that none should turn his back in flight from another, but that they should deserve either death with honour or life with victory, both of which are easy for God. Therefore Bishop Wilfrid, with his clergy, bending the knees of his legs and raising his hands again to heaven, sought the Lord’s help. For just as Moses, with Hur and Aaron supporting his hands, while Joshua fought against Amalek with the people of God, frequently calling upon the Lord’s protection, prevailed, so also here these few Christians put to flight the fierce and untamed pagans three times and struck them down with no small slaughter, with only five men, which is remarkable to say, killed on their side, while the great priest prayed to the Lord his God, who immediately commanded the sea to come before the full hour, earlier than it was accustomed. And when the pagans, with their king arriving, were preparing with all their strength for a fourth battle, then the sea, swelling with waves, filled all the shores, and the boat, lifted up, moved out into the deep; and, gloriously honoured by God, giving thanks to him, with the wind blowing from the south-west, they arrived safely at the harbour of Sandvich.\n## Chapter 14: Concerning the fact that Ceadda was meanwhile ordained to his see\n1 At that time, while the holy Bishop Wilfrid had not yet returned from overseas, King Oswiu, misled by envy through the prompting of the ancient enemy, was persuaded to allow another to take his see improperly, agreeing with those who had chosen the Quartodeciman party against the rule of the Apostolic See; and they appointed the servant of God, a most devout man and admirable teacher, coming from the island of Ireland, named Ceadda, while he himself was still unaware, and improperly set him in the episcopal see of the city of York against the canons. But when the holy Bishop Wilfrid arrived, the matter, as it had been wrongly done, did not remain hidden. For, returning to the monastic seat of his abbacy, he stayed humbly at Ripon for three years, except that he was frequently invited by King Wulfhere of Mercia to carry out various episcopal duties in his region with genuine goodwill. For the Lord raised up for him this most gentle king, who among other good deeds granted many stretches of land in different places to our bishop for the salvation of his soul, in which he soon established monasteries for the servants of God. King Ecgberht of Kent also summoned our bishop to himself, and there he ordained many priests, among whom was one Putta, who later received the episcopate, and not a few deacons. For Bishop Deusdedit died after Archbishop Honorius. Therefore, living honourably and dear to all, carrying out episcopal duties over many regions, returning to his own land with the singers Ædde and Æonan and craftsmen and instructors of almost every kind of skill, he greatly improved the organisation of the churches of God according to the Rule of Benedict. Thus in those regions, with God’s help, a great door against the enemies of the faith was opened to the holy bishop, just as it was to the Apostle Paul.\n## Chapter 15: Concerning the fact that he was restored again to his own see\n1 After three years had passed, Archbishop Theodore, coming from the region of Canterbury to the king of the Deirans and Bernicians, bringing with him the established judgements of the Apostolic See from where he had been sent, and at his first arrival in that region hearing from reliable witnesses of the matter wrongly carried out against the canons—that one bishop had dared, in the manner of a usurper, to seize the see of another bishop—took offence and ordered that Bishop Ceadda be removed from the see that was not his own. But that true and most gentle servant of God, then fully understanding the fault of having been ordained by the Quartodecimans into another man’s see, corrected it with humble repentance, confessing according to the judgement of the bishops, and with his agreement they established the holy Bishop Wilfrid in his proper see of the city of York. Then our holy bishop, according to the command of the Lord, did not repay evil for evil but good, as David did to Saul, who said: \u0026ldquo;I will not lay my hand upon the Lord’s anointed.\u0026rdquo; He knew that under King Wulfhere of Mercia, his most faithful friend, a place had been granted to him at Lichfield, ready for an episcopal see either for himself or to give to another whomever he wished. And so, after making a peaceful agreement with the true servant of God Ceadda, being obedient to the bishops in all matters, they duly ordained him through all the ecclesiastical ranks to the aforesaid see and, the king receiving him with honour, placed him in that location. There, living a blessed life and accomplishing many good works, in due time he departed on the path of his fathers, awaiting the day of the Lord at the coming judgement, which, as we believe, will be most gentle to him, as is fitting.\n## Chapter 16: Concerning the restoration of the basilica in the city of York\n1 Therefore, while the above-mentioned king was reigning, and Wilfrid of blessed memory had been established as metropolitan bishop of the city of York, the structures of the church of God in that city, first founded and dedicated to God by the holy Bishop Paulinus in the days of King Edwin, once most Christian, stood half-ruined in stone. For the aged roof, with its leaking covering, and the open windows, with birds nesting and flying in and out, and the walls, neglected and made dreadful by all the filth of rain and birds, remained. Seeing all these things, our holy bishop, like the prophet Daniel, was troubled in spirit within him, because he recognised that the house of God and of prayer had been made like a den of robbers, and he immediately planned to put it right according to the will of God. First, repairing the damaged roof, he skilfully covered it with pure lead, and by glazing the windows he prevented the entry of birds and rain, while through them the light still shone within. He also washed the walls and, according to the prophet, made them white as snow. He not only adorned the house of God and the altar within with various furnishings and vessels, but also, having acquired many lands for God, enriched it abundantly with worldly resources, removing poverty. Then the saying of God about Samuel and all the saints was fulfilled in him: \u0026ldquo;Those who honour me I will honour.\u0026rdquo; For he was dear and honourable to God and to all the people.\n## Chapter 17: Concerning the building of the basilica at Ripon and its dedication\n1 Therefore, as worldly resources increased, by God’s granting, so too did our bishop’s most ardent love for the virgin bride—the bishop being the friend of the eternal bridegroom, and the bride betrothed to one husband and born from the love of the mother of all good things. He adorned her, pure and chaste, self-controlled and modest, clothing her in varied virtues like flowers and ordering her beautifully, according to the prophet: “All the glory of the king’s daughter is within.” For just as Moses built the earthly tabernacle made by hand, according to the pattern shown to him by God on the mountain, to stir up the faith of the people of Israel in the worship of God, distinguished with various colours, so the most blessed Bishop Wilfrid wonderfully adorned the chamber of the true bridegroom and bride before the people, in the hearts of those who believe and confess the faith, with gold and silver and varied purple. For at Ripon he raised and completed a basilica built of dressed stone from the foundations in the ground up to the highest point, supported by various columns and porticoes.\n2 Afterwards, when the building had been completed, for the day of its dedication, the most Christian and devout kings Ecgfrith and Ælfwine, two brothers, were invited, and with abbots, officials, and sub-kings, and persons of every rank, they assembled together in one place; and consecrating the house, according to the most wise Solomon, dedicated to the Lord in honour of Saint Peter, the prince of the apostles, and offering the prayers of the people in it, they also dedicated the altar with its bases to the Lord, clothing it with purple woven with gold, and sharing in communion with the people, they completed everything according to the canons.\n3 And so the holy Bishop Wilfrid, standing before the altar and turning to the people, in the presence of the kings, clearly declared the regions which the former kings, for the sake of their souls, and on that day with the consent and subscription of the bishops and all the princes, had given to him; and likewise those holy places in different regions which the clergy of the Britons, fleeing the sword of the hostile army of our people, had abandoned. For it was a gift pleasing to God that the devout kings had granted so many lands to God for service to our bishop, and these are the names of the regions: near Ripon, and in Gaedyn, and in the region of the Dunutingas, and in Caetlevum, and in other places. Then, when the speech had been completed, the kings, rejoicing with all the people, held a great feast for three days and nights, noble in spirit against their enemies, humble with the servants of God. Our holy bishop also added, among other good things, for the adornment of the house of God, a certain work unheard of in our times. For he ordered the four Gospels to be written in pure gold on purple-dyed parchment for the good of his soul, and also commanded that a library for these books should be made entirely of pure gold and most precious gems, with craftsmen instructed to set the gems; all these things, and some others, are kept to this day in our church as a witness to his blessed memory, where his relics rest, and where his name is remembered without ceasing each day in prayers.\n## Chapter 18: Concerning the fact that he raised a child\n1 Wonderful is God in his saints and glorified in their works! Long ago in the Old Law we read that the servants of God performed various miracles through God; just as Elijah and Elisha, servants of God, raised the dead, so also the apostles of Christ, following the example of their master, according to his promise drove away all kinds of sickness in his name, and now in the same way by their successors, among whom is our holy bishop, those laid low by illness are healed to the glory of God. For on a certain day, when the holy Bishop Wilfrid was riding and travelling to carry out various duties of his episcopate, namely to baptise and to confirm people by the laying on of hands, among them a certain woman was found in a village which is called Tiddanufri, murmuring in bitter distress, worn down by grief and burden. For she had her firstborn child dead beneath her breast, wrapped in cloths and concealed, whose dead body she uncovered before the bishop among others to be confirmed, hoping in this way that he might be brought back to life. But our holy bishop, as soon as he understood that he was truly dead, paused for a little while, considering what should be done. Then the mother fell to the ground before him, weeping bitterly; she boldly implored him that in the name of his Lord God, with his holiness, he should raise her son and baptise him, and rescue him from the mouth of the lion. With these and other words she did not cease to urge him more and more by every appeal to his holiness, bending her knee and embracing his feet, kissing them and wetting them with most bitter tears, saying: \u0026ldquo;Most holy one, do not extinguish the faith of a bereaved woman, but help my belief; raise him and baptise him. For to you and to God he lives: do not doubt in the power of Christ!\u0026rdquo; Then that holy man, trusting without doubt in the power of Christ and hearing her faith like that of the Syrophoenician woman, after making a prayer and placing his hand upon the body of the dead child, at once he breathed again and received the spirit of life. And so, having been raised and baptised, he returned the child to his mother, and instructed her in the name of the Lord that she should give her son back to God for service at the age of seven years. But the ill-advised woman, persuaded by her husband and seeing the boy handsome, disregarded this and fled from her land. The bishop’s official, named Hocca, found him while he was hiding among the Britons and forcibly took him away and brought him to the bishop. The boy was called Eodwald, with the additional name ‘the bishop’s son’, and he lived in the service of God at Ripon until, during a great mortality, he died. O what great and wonderful mercy of God, who through his servant of venerable memory brought back to this life a little child who had died and was not baptised, so that, having been baptised, he might live in eternal life in the future blessedness.\n## Chapter 19: Concerning the victory of the king over the fierce Picts\n1 In those days King Ecgfrith, a devout man, together with the most blessed Queen Æthelthryth—whose body, having remained undefiled in life, is still shown to be incorrupt after death—being obedient in all things to Bishop Wilfrid, peace and joy followed among the people, and fruitful years and victories over enemies, with God’s help. For just as the young King Joash of Judah, while the high priest Jehoiada was still alive, pleased God and triumphed over his enemies, but after the priest’s death displeased God and his kingdom declined, so while King Ecgfrith lived in harmony with our bishop, according to the testimony of many, the kingdom was increased on every side through victorious triumphs; but when concord between them was broken and the above-mentioned queen separated from him and was dedicated to God, victory in the king’s days came to an end. For in the early years of his reign, while the kingdom was still young, the savage peoples of the Picts, with fierce spirit, despised the subjection to the Saxons and threatened to cast off the yoke of servitude; gathering from all sides countless tribes from the northern regions, like swarms of ants in summer rushing from their mounds, they built up an assault against the weakening kingdom. When this was heard, King Ecgfrith, humble among his people and bold against his enemies, at once prepared his cavalry army, knowing nothing of delay, and, like Judas Maccabeus trusting in God, with a small force of God’s people attacked a vast and almost invisible enemy together with the bold sub-king Beornhæth, and brought about a great slaughter of the people, filling two rivers with the bodies of the dead, so that, as it is said, men walked over them with dry feet and pursued the fleeing crowd, cutting them down; and, reduced to servitude, the peoples lay under the yoke of captivity until the day of the king’s death.\n## Chapter 20: Concerning the victory against the king of the Mercians\n1 Then after this victory King Ecgfrith, ruling justly and devoutly together with the aforesaid servant of God, strong like David in crushing his enemies, yet humble in the sight of God, and made by God more bold in breaking the pride of swelling peoples and fierce kings, always gave thanks to God in all things. For Wulfhere, king of the Mercians, with a proud spirit and insatiable heart, stirring up all the southern peoples against our king, intended not so much to wage war as to bring them under tribute in a spirit of servitude, without God’s guidance. But King Ecgfrith of the Deirans and Bernicians, firm in resolve, faithful in mind, taking counsel with his elders to defend his country and protect the churches of God, trusting in God under the guidance of his bishop, like Barak and Deborah, attacked the proud enemy with an equal force and, with God’s help, overthrew him with a small army; after killing countless men, he put the king to flight and divided his kingdom under tribute, and when he later died for whatever reason, he ruled for a further period in peace.\n## Chapter 21: Concerning the goodness of our bishop\n1 Therefore, just as under the devout King Ecgfrith the kingdom was extended to the north and south through victories, so under Wilfrid of blessed memory the kingdom of the churches was increased to the south over the Saxons and to the north over the Britons, Scots, and Picts, and he diligently carried out ecclesiastical duties, being dear and pleasing to all peoples. In all places he ordained many priests and deacons to assist him, and amid the changing tides of the world he steered the ship of the Church with moderation. For just as the wave of feasting did not overwhelm him, so abstinence did not cast him into pride, because at feasts he lived so temperately that he never drank alone, even the smallest cup, whether because of thirst in the heat of summer or weariness in the cold of winter, as is confirmed by the testimony of many. In vigils and prayers, in reading and fasting, who could be found equal to him? He also kept his body pure from his mother’s womb, as he testified before the faithful, without defilement, and he regularly washed it in blessed and consecrated water at night, both in summer and winter, until Pope John of blessed memory of the Apostolic See ordered that, on account of his age, he should be relieved of this practice. For this reason nearly all abbots and abbesses of monasteries either entrusted their possessions to him during their lifetime or wished to have him as their heir after their death; and secular leaders, noble men, entrusted their sons to him for instruction, so that they might either serve God, if they chose, or, when grown, be commended armed to the king if they preferred. All these things, however, stirred up a flame of envy and hatred in the hearts of many, with the devil at work. Yet our holy bishop, according to the teaching of the great apostle, bore the weapons of righteousness on the right hand and on the left, in prosperity and adversity alike, with equal patience, always giving gifts and offerings both to spiritual and to secular people so generously that no one equal to him could be found.\n## Chapter 22: Concerning the building of the house of God at Hexham\n1 Therefore, as the psalmist says, he clung continually to the Lord, placing his hope in him and offering his sweetest vows to the Lord, who granted him all things. For at Hexham, having obtained the land and received it in exchange from the holy Queen Æthelthryth, dedicated to God, he founded a house for the Lord, skilfully built in honour of the blessed Apostle Andrew; the depth of which, founded in the ground with wonderfully dressed stones and underground chambers, and above ground a many-sided structure supported by various columns and numerous porticoes, adorned with the imposing length and height of its walls and with winding passages of corridors, sometimes rising upwards, sometimes descending downwards in spiral turns, is beyond my small ability to describe in words, which the holy bishop himself, taught by the Spirit of God, devised to be made by his work; nor have we heard of any other house built like it on this side of the Alps. Moreover, while still living, Acca, bishop of blessed memory, by the grace of God—who could be sufficient to explain what great ornaments of this great house he made of gold and silver and precious stones, and how he adorned the altars clothed in purple and silk? But let us return to our subject.\n## Chapter 23: Of the boy healed when half-dead.\n1 While the masons were building the heights of the walls of this house, a certain young man from among the servants of God, having slipped from a projecting pinnacle of great height, fell downwards onto the stone pavement and was dashed to the ground; his legs and arms were broken, and with all his limbs shattered, he lay drawing his last breaths. The masons, according to the instruction of the holy bishop, quickly carried him out on a bier, weeping in prayer, thinking him dead; and immediately, the sign having been made, the whole household gathering together as one, and the man of God standing in the midst of the brethren, said: \u0026ldquo;Let us all with one accord ask God with full faith that He may send back the soul of this boy into his body, and that he may live, as was granted to the Apostle Paul\u0026rdquo;. Therefore, praying to God that the enemy of all good might not have the joy of triumph in this building, and bending their knees according to Elijah and Elisha, when prayer had been made by our holy bishop and the blessing given, he received the spirit of life, and the physicians binding the broken bones with cloths, he improved day by day, and is still alive, and his name is Bodhelm, giving thanks to God.\n## Chapter 24: Of the envy stirred up against our bishop and of his expulsion from his see\n1 The plotter, like a roaring lion according to the Apostle Peter, went about the fold of God, seeking an entrance day and night, ever watchful, desiring first to overcome the bravest soldier, so that the timid might more easily be defeated; taking up his accustomed weapons, he sought out frail vessels of women, through whom he has often defiled the whole world. For the queen of King Ecgfrith, named Iurminburg, at that time was tormented by envy at the prompting of the devil. For she had been changed from a she-wolf, after the killing of the king, into a lamb of God and a perfect abbess and most excellent mother of a household. Now from her quiver she sent forth poisoned arrows, a venomous woman, into the heart of the king, like the most impious Jezebel, slaying the prophets of God and persecuting Elijah, by the hearing of words, setting forth to him eloquently all the worldly glory of the holy bishop Wilfrid and his riches, as well as the multitude of monasteries and the greatness of the buildings and the innumerable company of companions adorned with royal garments and arms. With such darts the king’s heart having been wounded, both cunningly sought to despise the holy head of the churches unto his destruction and boldly to deprive him of the gifts of kings given for God; and for the aid of their madness they invited Archbishop Theodore with gifts, which blind even the eyes of the wise, like Balak inviting Balaam against the will of God. When the archbishop came to them, making plain what they were plotting in contempt of him, he consented—without any guilt of wrongdoing—to condemn him unjustly, which God forbid. For he alone ordained, in the absence of our bishop, three bishops found from elsewhere and not from those subject to that parish, newly and disorderly in his own places of episcopacy. When this was heard, our holy bishop approached the king and the archbishop, asking what the cause was that, without any fault of sin, he was being despoiled, in the manner of robbers, of his possessions given by kings for God. They replied with a notorious saying to our bishop before all the people, saying: \u0026ldquo;We ascribe to you no fault of any crime for harming you, yet we do not alter the judgements established concerning you\u0026rdquo;. But our bishop, not content with such a deceitful judgement, with the counsel of his fellow bishops chose rather the judgement of the Apostolic See, just as the Apostle Paul, condemned without cause by the Jews, appealed to Caesar. Then the holy bishop, turning from the royal tribunal, said to the flatterers rejoicing with laughter: \u0026ldquo;On this anniversary day, you who now laugh at my condemnation through envy will then weep bitterly in your confusion\u0026rdquo;. And so it happened according to the prophecy of the saint. For on that anniversary day the body of Aelfwine, the slain king, was brought to York; all the people, weeping bitterly, tore their garments and the hair of their heads, and his surviving brother reigned without victory until his death.\n## Chapter 25: How Winfrid was despoiled\n1 The bishop Wilfrid of blessed memory, preparing with his companions and clergy to board ships, leaving many thousands of his monks under the authority of bishops newly ordained, all of them serving and weeping and unceasingly beseeching the Lord that He might direct his journey according to His will. But the enemies of our bishop, mindful of their evils, thinking that he was sailing south to Quentavic, proceeding by that most direct route to the Apostolic See, sent ahead their messengers with gifts to King Theoderic of the Franks and to the impious duke Ebroin, that they might either condemn him to harsher exile or, his companions having been slain, strip him of all his possessions. But the Lord delivered him from the hand of his enemies, as from the hand of Herod. For at that time the holy bishop Winfrid, driven out from Lichfield, travelling by that same route, came into the hands of the aforesaid enemies, as into the jaws of a lion; he was immediately seized and stripped of all his money, and many of his companions having been killed, they wretchedly left the holy bishop at last naked. For they thought, as it was not so, that he was the holy bishop Wilfrid, having been led astray by the mistake of a single syllable.\n## Chapter 26: How he came by ship into Frisia\n1 For on the other hand our holy bishop, according to his desire, with a gentle breeze blowing from the west, turning the prows of the ships towards the east, until he arrived prosperously in Frisia with all his company, and there, finding the forces of the pagans, he was honourably received by their king Aldgisl. Then at once our holy bishop, with the king’s permission, preached the word of God daily to the pagans, declaring to them the true God, the almighty Father, and Jesus Christ His only Son, and the Holy Spirit co-eternal with Him, and he plainly taught one baptism for the remission of sins and eternal life after death in the resurrection. And his teaching was well received among the pagans; for at his coming there was at that time a more abundant yield than usual in fishing and in all produce, which they reckoned to the glory of the Lord whom the holy man of God preached. Then in that year, the preaching having been received, he baptised all the chiefs, except a few, and many thousands of the common people in the name of the Lord, and first there, according to the Apostle, he laid the foundation of the faith, which his son, brought up at Ripon, Wilbrord the bishop, now builds upon, labouring with much toil, whose reward remains for ever.\n## Chapter 27: Of the matter in which the king refused the price offered\n1 At the same time Ebroin, duke of Theoderic, king of the Franks, sent his messengers with letters to Aldgisl, king of the Frisians, greeting him with peaceful words and promising him on oath to give a bushel full of gold solidi, a wicked price indeed, if he should deliver to him Wilfrid the bishop either alive or the head of him when slain. And immediately the king, with us present and the messengers feasting before his people in the palace and all hearing, ordered the letters to be read; and after the document had been read, taking it into his hands, he tore it to pieces before all and threw it into the fire burning before him, saying to the bearers: \u0026ldquo;Declare to your lord that I speak thus: So may the Creator of all things, rending, overthrowing, and consuming into ashes, destroy the kingdom and life of one who perjures himself before his God and does not keep the covenant he has made!\u0026rdquo; Then the messengers, in confusion, the king not consenting to the crime, returned to their lord from whence they had come.\n## Chapter 28: How the two kings Daegberht and Berhther received him\n1 After our God-beloved bishop had wintered in Frisia and gained much people for the Lord, when spring came he pursued the journey he had begun, God assisting, towards the Apostolic See with his companions, coming to the king of the Franks named Daegberht, who received him with honour and with the greatest gentleness, according to his former merits towards him. For the aforesaid king in his youth, driven by hostile rulers into an exile of ruin, sailing to the island of Ireland, with God’s help arrived there. After a cycle of years, his friends and kinsmen, hearing from sailors that he was alive and flourishing in full manhood, sent their messengers to the blessed bishop Wilfrid, asking that he should invite him from Scotia and Ireland and send him to them as king. And thus our holy bishop accomplished it, receiving him as he came from Ireland and, enriched in every way and strengthened by the forces of his companions, sent him magnificently to his own land. And now the king, mindful of his benefits, earnestly requested that he should accept the greatest bishopric in his kingdom, pertaining to the city of Strasbourg; and when he was unwilling to accept it, he sent him with gifts and great presents and with his bishop Deodatus as guide to the Apostolic See. Proceeding therefore, the holy bishops, the Lord directing their way, came to Berhther, king of Campania, a humble and quiet man and one who trembled at the words of God; who, receiving strangers kindly according to the Lord’s command, declared to our holy bishop, saying: \u0026ldquo;Enemies of yours from Britain, sending messengers to me, greeted me with their words and promised me very great gifts, if I should seize you, as they said, fleeing as a bishop, and detain you as you were making for the Apostolic See. Refusing so wicked a thing, I said: \u0026lsquo;I was once in the days of my youth an exile driven from my country, living under a certain pagan king of the Huns, who entered into a pact with me by his god, an idol, that he would never betray me or hand me over to my enemies. And after some time messengers came to the pagan king at the word of my enemies, promising to give him on oath a bushel full of gold solidi, if he would hand me over to them for destruction; to whom, not consenting, he said: \u0026ldquo;Without doubt may the gods cut off my life if I commit this crime, breaking the pact of my gods\u0026rdquo;. How much more then I, who know the true God, will not give my soul to destruction for the gain of the whole world\u0026rsquo;\u0026rdquo;. Then therefore he sent our holy bishop and his companions with honour and escorts, as the Lord protecting him everywhere in his journey magnified him, to the long-desired Apostolic See with thanksgiving.\n## Chapter 29: How the most blessed Agatho, pope of the Apostolic See, together with the holy synod, received the writings of our bishop\n1 Therefore, when the God-beloved bishop Wilfrid had arrived prosperously with all his company at the aforesaid See, he made known the cause of his coming in the aforesaid city, because at that time Coenwald, a devout monk, sent by the holy Archbishop Theodore with his letters, had come to Rome, and the most blessed Agatho, pope of the Apostolic See, was not unaware of the dispute. Then, when the most holy bishops and presbyters, more than fifty, had assembled in the basilica of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, which is called Constantiniana, the most holy Agatho, thrice-blessed bishop of the holy catholic and apostolic Church of the city of Rome, said as they sat together:\n2 \u0026ldquo;I do not think it has escaped your holy brotherhood for what reason I have summoned you to this venerable assembly. For I desire that your reverence should know and should deliberate with me what kind of dissension has recently arisen in the churches of the island of Britain, where by the grace of God a multitude of the faithful has grown, which has been brought to us both by the report of those coming thence and by a series of writings.\u0026rdquo;\n3 Andrew, the most reverend bishop of Ostia, and John, bishop of Porto, said: \u0026ldquo;Indeed the ordering of all the churches depends upon the judgement of your apostolic authority, you who bear the office of the blessed Peter, prince of the apostles, to whom Christ the Lord, the creator and redeemer of all, entrusted the keys of binding and loosing. But with regard to that which has been enjoined upon us by your apostolic decree, in these past days, as we sat together with our fellow bishops and fellow servants, we have read through in detail all the writings which those sent from the island of Britain have brought to your apostolic pontificate, both those which were sent in the person of the most reverend Archbishop Theodore, formerly sent there from the Apostolic See, and also the reports together with the same writings brought by others against a certain bishop who, as they assert, is in flight, whom they supposed to have come here, as well as those which were presented by Wilfrid, the God-beloved bishop of the holy church of York, who, having been cast out from his see by the aforesaid most holy man, appealing to the Apostolic See has come thus far. In these, although they introduced many questions, we have found that he has not been convicted, according to the strictness of the holy canons, of any crimes and therefore not canonically deposed, nor have his accusers been able to prove by their own statements that he committed any offences for which he ought to have been degraded. Rather, we have perceived that he has maintained modesty, in that he did not involve himself in certain seditious disputes; but after he was driven from his see, making known the merits of the case to his fellow bishops, the aforesaid God-beloved bishop Wilfrid hastened from there to this Apostolic See, in which the Prince of the highest priesthood established his primacy, who by his blood redeemed the holy Church, our Lord Christ Almighty, and confirmed it by the authority of the prince of the apostles. Finally, it has been granted to the authority of your apostolate to determine what you command to be ordained in this matter.\u0026rdquo;\n4 Agatho, the most holy and thrice-blessed bishop of the holy catholic and apostolic Church of the city of Rome, said: \u0026ldquo;Wilfrid, the God-beloved bishop of the holy church of York, who is said to be before the doors of our secretarium, let him be admitted to our secretarium according to his request, with the petition which he is said to bring with him\u0026rdquo;.\n5 Wilfrid, the God-beloved bishop, when he had entered the venerable secretarium, said: \u0026ldquo;I beg your pontifical blessedness that you may receive the petition of my humility and command that it be read aloud before you\u0026rdquo;.\n6 Agatho, the most holy bishop, said: \u0026ldquo;Let the petition of Wilfrid, the God-beloved bishop, having been received, be read aloud before all\u0026rdquo;. And John the notary, taking it, read before the holy and apostolic council: \u0026ldquo;I have resolved that, since I know that from this place the standards of the sacred canons, diffused through all the churches of Christ throughout the whole world, have proceeded, handed down by apostolic preaching and received with full faith, from this source I confidently await that the judgement of justice for my humility may be preserved. For I do not doubt that your pontifical eminence has come to know, both from the representation of my lowliness and from what I have declared in person and have set forth in writing by way of a petition of satisfaction, presented to your apostolic sight at the very beginning of my arrival, that, finding in me, your suppliant, no canonical fault, certain invaders of my bishopric, by unlawful presumption, contrary to the standards and decrees of the sacred canons, in the assembly of Theodore, the most holy archbishop of the church of the Cantuarians, and of other bishops who then met with him, have attempted, in the manner of robbers, to invade and seize the see which for ten years and more I administered with the mercy of God, and have sat in that same see. And not only one, but three have advanced themselves as bishops in my church, although their promotion is not canonical. But what happened, that Theodore, the most holy archbishop, while I was still alive, in the see which, though unworthy, I administered, without the consent of any bishop, ordained three bishops by his own authority, my humility not consenting, it is more fitting to pass over than to demand, out of reverence for that same man; whom indeed, because he was sent from this seat of apostolic authority, I do not dare to accuse. But if it is clear that, contrary to the law of the regular sanctions, from the governance of the church over which, though unworthy, I presided, I have been driven out by hostile forces without the conviction of any crime and without fault of wrongdoing, without any guilt of offence which canonical severity punishes, and that, when driven from my former see, I did not appear turbulent to anyone nor inflamed with the question of sedition nor resist with ambitious disputes, but at once appealed to the aid of this most sacred see, having only protested to my fellow servants and fellow priests, the bishops of the same provinces, I departed. If indeed your apostolic eminence, together with the most holy bishops sitting with you, has foreseen that I am deprived, though convicted of no fault, I embrace with humble devotion what is decreed; but if I may also receive again my former bishopric, I follow and with all my strength revere the sentence pronounced by the Apostolic See, only that the invaders be driven from the former parishes of the church over which I, your unworthy servant, presided, by your synodal decree. And if it should again be foreseen to appoint bishops in the same diocese over which I presided, let it at least be commanded that such men be promoted with whom I may be able, peace and tranquil concord prevailing among us, to serve God in unity, so that each of us may know the rights of the church granted to him and may bestow vigilance upon those committed to him; so that, if it should so please the archbishop and my fellow bishops that the number of bishops be increased, they may choose such men from the very clergy of the church as may please the bishops assembled in synod, lest the church be harmed by outsiders and strangers. For whatever is confused and without order increases inextricable and endless dissensions, nor can that which is disputed ever be administered peacefully by anyone. For I trust that I shall render every service of devoted obedience to the apostolic decrees, to whose equity, casting aside all things, I have hastened with the full confidence of my mind.\u0026rdquo;\n## Chapter 31: Of the reply of Pope Agatho\n1 Agatho, the most holy and thrice-blessed bishop of the holy catholic and apostolic Church of the city of Rome, said: \u0026ldquo;The course of the petition which Wilfrid, the God-beloved bishop, has presented gives no small satisfaction to those who hear it, in that, although he acknowledges that he has been unjustly cast out from his episcopal see, he did not stubbornly resist those who were striving against him, nor did he prefer to repel force in a worldly manner, but, thinking humbly, sought the canonical assistance of our author, the blessed Peter, prince of the apostles; with supplication he promises that he will readily accept what is to be determined concerning him, nor does he doubt the pronouncement of the sentence, but embraces what is decided, declaring that he will receive it with whole faith, whatever our author the blessed Apostle Peter, whose ministry we discharge, shall have judged to be established by our mouth.\u0026rdquo;\n## Chapter 32: Of the reply of the synod\n1 The whole synod, which assembled together with the most holy and thrice-blessed Agatho, apostolic pope, determining among other things according to rule, said: \u0026ldquo;We establish and decree that Wilfrid, the God-beloved bishop, shall receive the bishopric which he lately held, the determination set forth above being preserved; and those whom he shall choose, with the consent of the council to be gathered there, as assistant bishops with whom he ought to live in peace, shall, according to the rule established above, be ordained bishops by the most holy archbishop, the others without doubt being expelled, who in his absence were irregularly appointed to the episcopate. If therefore anyone shall attempt with rash boldness to oppose these decrees of the synod, or shall not obediently receive them, or at any time whatsoever, whoever they may be or may have been, shall attempt to break them either wholly or in part, we judge that he is to be struck by this sanction by the authority of the blessed Peter, prince of the apostles: that, if he is indeed a bishop who shall attempt to violate this pious ordinance, he shall be deprived of the episcopal order and be liable to eternal anathema; likewise, if he be a presbyter or deacon or of a lower rank of the church; but if he be a cleric, monk, or layman of whatever condition, or a king, let him be made a stranger to the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, nor let him be found worthy to behold His dreadful coming. But if anyone shall receive with sincere devotion and full satisfaction these things which have been established and determined by us, shall hold them, carry them out, and lend assistance for their fulfilment, let him see the good things of the Lord in the land of the living and be a partaker of the right hand, possess eternal blessedness, and merit to hear that blessed voice with all the saints who have pleased the divine presence and have obtained eternal glory, hearing also for the obedience which God loves above all sacrifices, from the Judge of all, our Lord Jesus Christ: \u0026lsquo;Come, you blessed of my Father, receive the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world\u0026rsquo;\u0026rdquo;.\n## Chapter 33: Of the return of our bishop\n1 After many days had been spent there, they ordered the God-beloved bishop Wilfrid, in accordance with the command of the Apostolic See and by the instruction of the whole holy synod, to return to his country, to carry with him the written judgements of the Apostolic See, and to show them to the holy Archbishop Theodore and to King Ecgfrith. But our holy bishop, with unwavering faith, humbly obeying in all things the commands of the Apostolic See, as he had promised, went around the holy places for prayer over many days, and obtained from chosen men a great number of holy relics for the comfort of the churches of Britain, writing down the names of each, indicating to which saint each relic belonged, and acquiring many other good things, which it would now be too long to enumerate, for the adornment of the house of God according to his custom, and with the blessing of the Apostolic See and of the whole holy synod, joyful and rejoicing with all, he began, with God’s help, to return to his region and to come to his homeland.\n2 Therefore, as our holy bishop went on from the Apostolic See with the judgement of triumph, passing through Campania and crossing the mountains, he came into the region of the Franks, and there he found that his former faithful friend King Daegberht had recently been treacherously killed by the deceit of dukes and with the consent of bishops—God forbid. One of these, with a great army, came to meet him, wickedly planning in his heart, unless God had opposed him, either to strip all his companions of their goods or to reduce them to servitude or sell them into slavery or kill them if they resisted, and to keep our holy shepherd in distress in custody until the judgement of Duke Ebroin. And the bishop questioned him, saying with what confidence he had so rashly travelled through the region of the Franks: \u0026ldquo;You who are worthy of death, because you sent away our king into exile by your support, a destroyer of cities, despising the counsel of elders, oppressing peoples with tribute like Rehoboam the son of Solomon, scorning the churches of God together with their bishops; for these evils he paid the penalty, being slain, and his body lies buried\u0026rdquo;. But our holy bishop humbly replied to the bishop: \u0026ldquo;I speak the truth in Christ Jesus, and through the holy Apostle Peter I do not lie, that I helped, sustained, and raised up such a man, living in exile and dwelling in a foreign land, according to the command of God to the people of Israel, who were strangers in a foreign land, for your good and not for your harm, so that he might be a builder of cities, a comforter of citizens, a counsellor of elders, a defender of the churches of God in the name of the Lord according to His promise. O most upright bishop, what else ought you to have done, if an exile of our race and of royal stock had come to your holiness, than what I did in the Lord?\u0026rdquo; The bishop replied: \u0026ldquo;May the Lord guard your coming in and the rest, and: \u0026lsquo;Woe is me, a sinner, grant pardon, because, like the patriarch Judah, I see that you are far more righteous than I am. May the Lord be with you, and the holy Apostle Peter for your help\u0026rsquo;.\u0026rdquo;\n## Chapter 34: Of the matter in which the king despised the judgements of the Apostolic See\n1 Then, travelling over long stretches of land, and by God’s help crossing the vastness of the sea in a ship, he came safely with all his company to his own region, bringing the greatest joy, with life as his companion, to his subjects who were weary and crying out to God with tears, bearing the banner of victory, that is, carrying with him the judgement of the Apostolic See. He approached the king in peace, and humbly presenting to the king the written judgements of the Apostolic See with the consent and subscription of the whole synod, sealed with bulls and seals, he delivered them. Then, with all the princes dwelling there and also the servants of God summoned to the place of assembly to hear the saving counsels sent from the Apostolic See for the sake of the peace of the churches, after they had heard certain things read which were difficult for them and contrary to their will, some of them stubbornly rejected them, and moreover—what is more detestable—they slandered them to the destruction of their souls, saying that the writings sent from the Apostolic See for the salvation of those who obey had been obtained for a price. Then, by order of the king and his counsellors, with the consent of the bishops who held his bishopric, they decided that he should be taken into custody and kept for nine months without any honour. And now the king, as we have said, when the writings of the Apostolic See had been opened and read, did what is dreadful to say: becoming angry with his flatterers, he despised the judgements of the Apostle Peter, the prince of the apostles, who has from God the power of binding and loosing, and ordered that the holy servant of God, stripped of his goods, be kept apart in custody in his own single garment, and that all his followers be scattered through the crossroads of the roads, and he strictly commanded, swearing by his own safety, that none of his friends should approach him. But his queen, as mentioned above, took the chrismary of the man of God, filled with holy relics—which it horrifies me to recount—having removed it from him, and whether remaining in her chamber or travelling in her carriage, kept it hanging beside her; which turned out wholly for evil for the queen, just as for the Philistines, when they had put the people of Israel to flight and captured the ark of God, carrying the Holy of Holies through their cities.\n## Chapter 35: On the exhortation of his companions\n1 And the God-beloved bishop Wilfrid spoke to his companions, saying: \u0026ldquo;Keep in mind, and tell my brethren, the days of old: how we read in the Old Law that three patriarchs beloved of God, and Israel His firstborn, for four hundred years and more, from nation to nation and from one kingdom to another people, awaiting the promise and not despairing, passed through; and likewise Moses and Aaron and all the prophets of God endured various persecutions from men, hoping in the Lord. We read also in the New Testament that the great shepherd of the sheep and the head of the whole Church, Jesus Christ, was crucified by the Jews, and that His disciples were scattered, and afterwards throughout the whole world, together with their followers, were crowned amid various temptations, not forgetting the consolation which speaks to us as to sons, saying: \u0026lsquo;My son, do not neglect the discipline of the Lord, nor grow weary when you are reproved by Him; for whom the Lord loves He chastens, and He scourges every son whom He receives\u0026rsquo;. Therefore, brethren and my helpers in Christ, according to the excellent teacher, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses set over us, let us run with patience the contest set before us.\u0026rdquo;\n## Chapter 36: On the house illumined by God\n1 When, therefore, the discourse of consolation had been finished, the king’s officers, seizing the just teacher of God’s discipline and leading him like a sheep to the slaughter—he who did not open his mouth—set him before the prefect named Osfrid, who was in charge in the king’s town of Broninis, commanding him by the king’s word to keep our bishop in hidden places, darkened with dreadful gloom, carefully guarded, with none of his friends knowing—him who at that time, on account of the great merits of his faith, could be called the light of Britain. But the aforesaid earl, faithful to the king, pressed by his command, kept him under guard with watchmen in secret places, where the sun rarely shone by day, and no lamp was lit at night for honour. The guards, however, continually hearing the psalmody of the holy man of God and seeing, in the dark night, the house shining within as though it were day, struck with amazement instilled fear in all, telling of his holiness. O eternal light, Christ, who never forsakes those who confess you, but who are believed to be the true light, enlightening every man who comes into this world! You who, at the very beginning of the birth of your future servant, marked the hour at which he came forth from his mother’s womb with a fiery brightness, now in a cave of exceeding darkness, as he prayed, deigned to grant the light of angelic visitation, just as to your apostle Peter, when he had been bound in prison by the impious king Herod, the angel of the Lord stood by and a light shone in the dwelling; to you be glory and thanksgiving! Therefore, in that same period of time in which the king held him detained in custody without any honour, he promised him in no small measure part of the bishopric which he had previously held, and other gifts, if he would be willing to submit to his commands and decrees and choose to deny that the canonical statutes sent from the Apostolic See were true. To these things he replied humbly, yet with the confidence of apostolic authority, that he would sooner have his head cut off than ever wish to confess such a thing. Behold, a good will, which knows God, cannot be changed!\n## Chapter 37: On the woman who was healed\n1 Therefore, while our holy bishop remained patiently in the custody of the prison, he was made manifest by the powers of God, just as John the apostle and evangelist, when he had been confined by the emperor on the island of Patmos, beheld the mighty works of God. For at that time, as we have said, while our holy bishop was in distress, the wife of the prefect of this town was suddenly seized by illness, her whole body failing—stiff, cold in body, her eyes closed, and with foaming mouth she was senselessly drawing the last breaths of life from her chest. But her husband, seeing his wife immediately at the point of death, hastened and ran to our holy bishop, as the centurion to the Lord; bending the knee and lamenting his sins and confessing those committed against him by the king, he adjured him in the name of the Lord to come to the aid of one unworthy and of his dying wife. But our holy bishop, unmindful of wrongs, like Joseph brought out of prison, went to the one who begged for mercy. Standing over her, he sprinkled her face with blessed water, and, a prayer having been made, imploring the help of God, he moistened her mouth drop by drop with blessed water. Then, as she began to breathe again and drew long breaths, her eyes were opened and she received the sense of life and understanding; and after a little while, as her limbs grew warm, raising her head and moving her tongue, she spoke, giving thanks to the Lord. Thus, like Peter’s mother-in-law, healed, she ministered honourably to our holy bishop; and she, still living at that time, now a holy nun and mother of a household, named Æbbe, is accustomed to recount this with tears.\n## Chapter 38: On the fact that his chains fell from him\n1 For the aforesaid prefect did not dare to keep our holy bishop in his charge for long out of regard for the king, and, fearing the wrath of God because of his holiness, he preferred not to subject him to any insult. Sending messengers to the king, he said: “I adjure you by my life and your safety, do not compel me any longer to punish this holy and innocent bishop to my own ruin, for I would rather die than scourge him when he is guiltless.” When this was heard, the king, angered, ordered him to be led to his city of Dynbaerd, to a prefect named Tydlin, as being more severe, and commanded him to keep such a man and so great a bishop bound in fetters and handcuffs, separated apart from men. But he, compelled by the king’s command, ordered smiths to make iron chains, who, carefully measuring without cause upon the limbs of our holy confessor, began to fashion them—yet God resisted. For the chains were always either so tight and constricting that they could not be fitted around his limbs, or so wide and loose that they fell off from the feet of one preaching the Gospel and from the hands of one baptising. Therefore, becoming afraid, they kept the man of God without chains, though unwillingly, as he continually sang psalms and gave thanks to God—according to the Apostle to the Hebrews, saying that he endured a great contest of sufferings, being made a spectacle by reproaches and accepting the plundering of all his goods—and, with these things inflicted upon him by his own countrymen, they kept him apart until the time appointed by God.\n## Chapter 39: On the queen who was afflicted and healed\n1 Meanwhile the king, with his queen, travelling daily through cities and strongholds and villages, rejoicing and feasting, and moving about in worldly display, at a certain time came to a monastery called Coldaesburg, over which presided a most holy mother of a household named Æbbe, the most wise sister of King Oswiu. There the queen, on that very night, was seized by a demon, and, like the wife of Pilate, was tormented with many scourges, scarcely expecting to live until the next day. But when morning dawned, the most wise mother of the household came to the queen, and, seeing her limbs drawn together and tightly bound as one, and without doubt dying, went to the king and declared to him in a tearful voice how, according to her understanding, this miserable evil had come upon her, speaking boldly: “I know, and truly I know, that you have cast out Wilfrid, the bishop beloved of God, from his episcopal seat without any guilt of wrongdoing, and, driven into exile, he went to the Apostolic See, and, when he was to return from there with the writings of the Apostolic See—which has, with Saint Peter the apostle, the power of binding and loosing—you, in your folly, despising this, have despoiled him. Adding evil to evil, you have shut the holy man in prison. And now, my son, act according to your mother’s counsel: break his bonds, and the holy relics which the queen took from the neck of the despoiled man and has carried about through the cities to her own destruction, like the ark of God, send back to him by a faithful messenger. If you do not wish for what is best—for him to have the bishopric—then set him free, and let him depart from your kingdom with his companions wherever he wishes. Then, according to my faith, you shall live, and the queen will not die. But if you refuse this, with God as witness you shall not go unpunished.” Therefore the king, now obedient to his most chaste mother, allowed our most holy priest to be released with the holy relics and, with his companions gathered together, to depart freely from him, and the queen was healed.\n## Chapter 40: On how Berhtwald received him\n1 Therefore, when Wilfrid, the bishop beloved of God, set out with his companions, leaving the fields of his homeland and seeking the southern kingdoms in exile, the Lord, who is present with His saints in their trials, sent to meet him a man of noble birth and character, Berhtwald by name, son of the brother of Æthelred, king of the Mercians, gentle in disposition; and as soon as he saw such honourable men and heard, from our holy teacher revealing it, the reasons for their journey, he adjured him in the name of the Lord to remain with him, and earnestly requested that a portion of his land be granted for the servants of God to dwell in. But our holy leader, giving thanks to God that He had granted some comfort of rest, immediately founded in that territory, given for God’s sake, a small monastery, which his monks possess even to this day. Then, with the envy of the ancient enemy stirring, King Æthelred and his queen, the sister of King Ecgfrith, hearing that the man of God, driven from his homeland, was staying there and resting a little, forbade the noble man Berhtwald, on pain of his safety, to allow him to remain under him even for the space of a single day, on account of the incitement of King Ecgfrith. Then our bishop, driven out in hatred, though his monks remained there, went to the king of the West Saxons named Centwine, and stayed there for a short time because of the persecution that followed. For there the queen, sister of Queen Iurminburg, hated him with hostility, so that, on account of the friendship of the three aforesaid kings, he was again driven away and departed.\n## Chapter 41: How in Selsey he converted the pagans to God\n1 Why, then, should I delay further in words? When his custody had been relaxed, he had been driven from his own province, so that he was not permitted to have rest even in a foreign land, either beyond or on this side of the sea, wherever the power of Ecgfrith prevailed; but without ceasing he did not cease to stir up the persecution which he exercised against him in every region in which he intended to remain. But at that time a certain province of our people, still persisting in paganism, had continued until then, which, because of the multitude of its rocks and the density of its forests, had remained unconquered by other provinces; and to those pagans in the land of the South Saxons, with God directing his way and human help failing, our holy bishop fled. And when he had found their king, whose name was Æthelwalh, he set forth in order all the hardship of his exile. Immediately the king, under a bond of peace, promised him such friendship that none of his enemies, nor the threatening sword of a hostile warrior, should strike terror into him, nor should the greatness of gifts and presents annul the covenant of agreement made with him. But the holy man of God, rejoicing in words of consolation and giving thanks to God, first began gently to preach to the king and queen the word of God and the blessedness and greatness of His kingdom, as though giving milk without deceit. Then afterwards, with the king’s consent, God granting it, and at the exhortation of our holy bishop, the peoples to whom it had not previously been preached, and who had never heard the word of God, were gathered together. Therefore our holy bishop Wilfrid, standing in the midst of the pagans, according to the example of our Lord Jesus Christ and His forerunner, said: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand”, and: “Let each of you be baptised in the name of God the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit,” and so forth. For many months, with a wide-ranging discourse, elegantly setting forth from the beginning of the world the creation of almighty God, to the contempt of idolatry, and continuing up to the day of judgement, where eternal punishment is prepared for sinners and everlasting life for the elect of God, the preacher of the Gospel proclaimed all things in order with persuasive eloquence. Then indeed our holy bishop, sent by God, found favour in the sight of the king, and, according to the Apostle, a great door of faith was opened to him; and of the pagans of both sexes, some willingly, others compelled by the king’s command, forsaking idolatry and confessing almighty God, as through the blessed apostle Peter, many thousands were baptised in one day. For the king, made gentle and devout through the Lord, granted his own estate, in which he dwelt, as an episcopal seat, together with territories afterwards added of eighty-seven holdings in Selsey, to the holy new evangelist and baptiser, who had opened for him and all his people the way of eternal life; and there, his brethren having been gathered together, he founded a monastery for rest, which his dependants possess to this day.\n## Chapter 42: On Cædwalla when he became king\n1 In those days also, through our bishop, the people of the Church of God increased abundantly from day to day, and the glory of his name shone forth magnificently. There came a certain exile of noble birth from the deserts of Chiltern and Andred, named Cædwalla. He earnestly sought the friendship of our holy father, that he might be to him a faithful father in teaching and assistance, and that he himself might be an obedient son to him, promising this by a vow; and, this agreement having been made, with God as witness, they truly fulfilled it. For the holy bishop of Christ often aided and strengthened the distressed exile with various helps and supports, until, having grown strong and despising his enemies, he obtained the kingdom. And indeed, when Cædwalla was reigning, his enemies having been slain and overcome, and he held the whole sovereignty of the region of the West Saxons, he immediately humbly summoned to himself our bishop Wilfrid (who was rightly converting the pagan people in the land of the South Saxons to God and magnificently glorifying the name of the Lord) as his venerable father and most beloved above all. And when now our holy and venerable father had come, King Cædwalla at once appointed him as a chief counsellor in all his kingdom, just as Pharaoh king of Egypt appointed Joseph, brought out of prison, according to the prophet, saying: “He made him lord of his house, to teach his princes wisdom”. Then King Cædwalla, triumphant, with our holy bishop exalted through God, and having magnificently honoured his father with innumerable lands and gifts granted for God according to the desire of his soul, protected his kingdom unharmed with bold spirit, whether as victor by the sword or as a merciful giver of peace by treaty.\n## Chapter 43: On the reconciliation of our bishop and Archbishop Theodore\n1 At that same time also Theodore, archbishop by the grace of God, honouring, under the compulsion of fear, the authority of the Apostolic See from which he had been sent, did not delay long in entering into true friendship with our bishop Wilfrid, long exiled and despoiled. For when Archbishop Theodore, in his old age, was troubled by frequent illness, he invited Wilfrid and Eorcenwald, holy bishops, to himself in the city of London. When they had come, the archbishop wisely set forth the whole course of his life with confession before the Lord, saying: “And this especially presses upon me as a scruple, that I have committed wrong against you, most holy bishop, consenting to kings who, without cause of sin, stripped you of your own possessions and drove you into long exile—alas, for sorrow—though your subjects deserved otherwise; and now I confess to the Lord and to Saint Peter the apostle. And you, my fellow bishops, be witnesses for me, that I will by every means draw and compel all my royal friends and their princes everywhere, willing or unwilling, into friendship with you for the remission of my sin. For I know, according to the Lord’s revelation, that the end of my life is approaching after this coming year; and therefore I adjure you by God and Saint Peter to consent to me, that while I yet live I may appoint you as my successor and heir in my archiepiscopal see, because I have truly recognised you, among your own people, as most learned in all wisdom and in the judgements of the Romans.” Then Saint Wilfrid the bishop said: “May the Lord and Saint Peter the apostle grant you remission for all the dispute committed against me, and for your confession I will be your friend in prayer for ever. And now first send messengers with letters everywhere to your friends, that they may acknowledge our reconciliation in the Lord and that I was formerly despoiled though innocent, and that, through your adjuration in the Lord and according to the command of the Apostolic See, they may restore to me some part of my possession. Afterwards, God willing, we shall take counsel in a greater council, with your agreement, as to who is worthy to receive the episcopal see after you.”\n2 Then, after the archbishop had entered into an agreement of true peace, he sent letters to King Aldfrith of the Northumbrians, by which he adjured him, for the fear of the Lord and in accordance with the commands of the bishops of the Apostolic See, and for the redemption of the soul of King Ecgfrith, who had previously driven our bishop, innocent and stripped of all his possessions, from his homeland, that he should deign to be reconciled with him under a bond of peace for the salvation of many. Nor did the archbishop stir up only this king to concord, but he took care diligently to make friends for him everywhere, as though from former enemies. For he sent his letters to Ælfflæd, the holy virgin and abbess, in which, commending according to the authority of the Apostolic See, he urged that she should without doubt enter into peace with Saint Wilfrid the bishop. Likewise, adjuring Æthelred, king of the Mercians, in his own love and that of Christ, he instructed him to receive him, as he had previously intended in his mind, with the following words:\n3 “To the most glorious and most excellent Æthelred, king of the Mercians, Theodore, archbishop by the grace of God, eternal greeting in the Lord. Therefore let your most admirable holiness know, my most beloved son, that I have peace in Christ with the venerable bishop Wilfrid. And for this reason, dearest one, I admonish you with fatherly affection and command you in the love of Christ that you grant to his holy devotion, as far as your strength allows God granting it, your protection, as you have always done and as long as you live, because for a long time, deprived of his own possessions, he has laboured greatly in the Lord among the pagans. And therefore I, Theodore, a humble bishop in my old age, lay this before your blessedness, because the authority of the Apostolic See commends this, as you know; and that most holy man named above, in his patience, as Scripture says, has possessed his soul, and, humble and meek, following his Lord and Saviour, has awaited a remedy for the injuries unjustly inflicted upon him. And if I have found favour in your sight, although it may seem hard to you on account of the length of the journey, may my eyes see your pleasant face, and may my soul bless you before I die. Therefore act, my son, concerning that most holy man as I have entreated you, because if you obey your father, who is not far from departing from this world, it will greatly profit you for salvation. Farewell in peace, live in Christ, abide in the Lord, the Lord be with you.”\n4 Why should I say more? After King Æthelred, on account of the authority of the most blessed pontiffs—namely Agatho and Benedict and Sergius—holding the dignity of the Apostolic See, had willingly received our bishop in accordance with the canons, restoring to him many monasteries and territories of his own right, and holding him in the highest honour of dignity, he remained without ceasing a faithful friend to the end of his life.\n## Chapter 44: How King Aldfrith received our bishop\n1 It came to pass, therefore, after the course of many years had declined, while our holy leader was at times living honourably in exile, and while his monks had then been driven out into various places throughout the whole of Britain and, serving under foreign masters, were awaiting and expecting redemption from the Lord, that at last they heard of the downfall of a most wretched disaster: that Ecgfrith, king of the Northumbrians, had been slain and, with all the finest host of his army, overwhelmed by the nation of the Picts. After him reigned Aldfrith, a most wise king, who, in the second year of his reign, reverently invited our holy bishop Wilfrid back from exile to himself, according to the command of the archbishop; and first he granted him the monastery with its adjoining possessions at Hexham, and after an interval of time, according to the decree of the most blessed Agatho, bishop of the Apostolic See, and of the holy synod, he restored to him his own episcopal seat in the city of York and the monastery at Ripon with its revenues, the foreign bishops having been expelled from it. This he held securely for five years, in the joy of his subjects, having returned from exile like John the apostle and evangelist returning to Ephesus.\n## Chapter 45: On the stirring up of enmity between them\n1 For the instigators of ancient enmity, as though roused from the sleep of slumber, set in motion the sea of this world—calm in joy—towards a sorrowful shipwreck, with the storm of a whirlwind blowing from the bellows of envy, and rekindled the torch of discord that had been extinguished. For at one time peace and security and almost every joy of good things abounded between the most wise king and the aforesaid holy man; but at another time, when the cauldron of wickedness was boiling, it corrupted many, and thus again into concord and again into discord, living alternately in such change for many years, they remained, until at last, when the greatest flame of enmity had blazed forth, the holy man of God withdrew, driven out by King Aldfrith from the region of the Northumbrians. For the first cause of their disagreement, descending from an ancient origin, was that the church dedicated to Saint Peter the apostle was unjustly deprived of its lands and possessions. The second was that the aforesaid monastery, which had been granted to us as a privilege, was turned into an episcopal seat and forced to abandon the liberty which Saint Agatho and five kings had decreed that it should firmly and steadfastly possess. The third, moreover, was that he was compelled to obey the commands and decrees of Archbishop Theodore, sent from the Apostolic See—not meaning those canonical statutes which, at the beginning of his episcopate while he was living among us, or in the final period of his life, he had established, when he called all our churches together into canonical peace and unity, but rather those decrees which he had set in the middle period, when discord had arisen among us in Britain. Therefore our holy bishop, refusing these things, went to his faithful friend Æthelred, king of the Mercians, and he received him with great honour out of reverence for the Apostolic See; and he remained, living under the protection of God and of that king, in great honour in his bishopric, which the most reverend Bishop Sexwulf had formerly governed before his death.\n## Chapter 46: On the council at Aet-Swinapaeth\n1 Therefore King Aldfrith, together with the holy Archbishop Berhtwald and almost all the bishops of Britain, having assembled a synod in the field which is called Austraefelda, then sent envoys to the presence of Saint Wilfrid the bishop, humbly asking that he would deign to present himself before them, promising through their messengers that they would give an account of canonical statutes concerning the ancient dispute, if he would not refuse to come to their assembly. Why should I say more? But when he had come to the place where the synodal discussion ought to have been held, it did not turn out as had been promised to him; rather many and great disputes and controversies arose from them, especially from those bishops of the churches—though it is not doubted that this was done with the will of King Aldfrith and the agreement of certain abbots—who, urged on by greed, in no way desired to have peace in the churches, and, bringing forward many false accusations which they could prove by no truth, moreover affirmed that our holy bishop ought to be judged according to the statutes and commands of Archbishop Theodore. But he, understanding what they were arguing, replied humbly, saying that he agreed to their commands and judged that he was willing in all things gladly to obey their decrees according to the rule of the canons. Then, with many and stern words, he rebuked the stubbornness of their obstinacy, which for twenty-two years they had not feared to exercise in contentious resistance against apostolic authority, and he asked them with what face they dared to prefer or choose the decrees of Archbishop Theodore over the apostolic statutes, sent to Britain for the salvation of souls by the most holy popes Agatho and Benedict and the blessed Sergius, when those decrees had been established, as we have said, in a time of discord.\n## Chapter 47: How the plot against him was revealed\n1 Meanwhile, since no proper manner of speaking had been suitably arranged by them, one of the king’s attendants, very devoted to our bishop—whom he himself had nurtured from the cradle from earliest infancy—slipped out secretly from the king’s tent, disguising himself with the appearance of another, mingling among the surrounding crowds as though unknown, until he reached our bishop; and, laying open to him the nature of their judgement, he revealed it, saying: “By this deceit they are altogether attempting to ensnare you: that first you should confirm by a written declaration in your own hand that you will submit to whatever judgement they may determine and decree; so that, once you have been bound by this bond of obligation, you may in no way be able thereafter to change it. For this will indeed be the outcome of their judgement: that whatever you have ever been seen to possess in the land of the Northumbrians—whether in bishopric or in monasteries or in any matter—you must relinquish all; and whatever you had obtained in the kingdom of the Mercians under King Æthelred, you must surrender everything and, being compelled, leave it to the archbishop, for him to give to whom he wishes; and finally, condemning yourself, you are to depose yourself from your dignity of holiness by your own subscription.” Having said this, he immediately slipped away and departed.\n2 Then the holy man, of the highest virtue and constancy, hearing these things and understanding the scheme of deception, became more cautious about the repeatedly demanded subscription. They pressed him urgently to give an answer, and at times, threatening him, argued that if he would not promptly confess himself willing to submit to their judgement, he should know that he would quickly incur a sentence of condemnation. Answering them, he said: “First, hearing the judgement of the archbishop, if it accords with the statutes and rules of the holy fathers, I embrace with all the effort of my mind to submit to it.” But at last, since they could no longer conceal the matter for long, with many perceiving it, they first declared that they wished to strip the holy servant of God of all his possessions in such a way that he should have not even the smallest portion of a single dwelling, either in the kingdom of the Northumbrians or in that of the Mercians. At the harshness of this judgement, determined by the archbishop and the king, even those who were already his enemies were struck with horror, saying that it was impious to deprive so renowned a man, without any capital crime, of all his goods before the surrounding nations. At length, considering something more humane, they decided that only the monastery which he had built at Ripon, and had long ago given and entrusted to Saint Peter with all that belonged to it, and for which he had received a privilege from Pope Agatho for the abbot and the community dwelling there, should be restored to him—yet with this condition added: that he should firmly attest by a written declaration of his own hand that he would remain quietly there, that he would not pass beyond the bounds of the monastery without the king’s permission, nor undertake any priestly office, but should cast aside from himself his rank of honour—which is dreadful to say—pressing and compelling him strongly to this under witness of confirmation.\n3 When he heard this, our holy bishop Wilfrid, steadfast and fearless, spoke with raised voice, saying: “For what reason do you compel me to turn against myself the sword of such grievous calamity and miserable ruin—that is, the subscription of my own condemnation? Shall I not, without any charge of guilt, give offence to all who hear the report of my name, by which I have been called, though unworthy, with the title of bishop for nearly forty years? And was it not I who, after the death of the first leaders sent by Saint Gregory, rooted out the poisonous growths of the Scottish planting, and converted the whole people of the Northumbrians to the true Easter and to the tonsure in the form of a crown—whereas before they had shaved the back part of the head from the top—according to the rule of the Apostolic See? Or how did I, according to the custom of the primitive Church, instruct them in the modulation of chanting, with two choirs standing together, to sing with responsive antiphons? Or how did I establish the life of monks according to the Rule of our father Benedict, which no one had introduced there before? And now, how shall I myself pronounce against myself a sudden sentence of condemnation, apart from the consciousness of any wrongdoing? But concerning this newly arisen dispute, by which you have attempted to violate my state of sanctity, I confidently appeal to the Apostolic See; and whichever of you presumes to deprive me of my rank of dignity, let him, invited by me today, go with me there to judgement. For the wise men of Rome ought diligently to know for what fault you desire to degrade me, before I consent to these things for you alone.” Hearing this, the archbishop and the king said: “Now indeed, being made guilty, let him be condemned by us, because he has chosen their judgement rather than ours.” And the king, making this promise, added to the archbishop: “For I will do it, if you command, without delay or hesitation, that, compelled by the force of my army pressing upon him, he shall on this occasion confess himself ready to submit to our judgement.” But the other bishops of the council said: “It ought to be remembered that he has come here thus far on the faith of our promise, not daring otherwise; let us depart together and return to our homes in peace with a favourable journey.”\n## Chapter 48: Concerning his return to King Aethelred.\n1 After these discussions, therefore, the useless council was dissolved on both sides, and each, returning home, withdrew; and thus, with God protecting him, His servant, freed from the hands of his enemies, returned unharmed to the most faithful King Aethelred. Our holy bishop, however, proceeding onward, came to King Edilred, declaring to him the whole disturbance of harsh speech which had been brought by the bishops against his command. Then also questioning the king as to how or in what manner he had decided concerning the possession of the lands and his own resources which had been granted by him to the other; the king indeed replied: \u0026ldquo;I do not increase the disturbance by destroying the life of the monks, which has been dedicated to the church of the blessed Apostle Peter; but, it remaining in the same condition, I shall preserve, life accompanying it, what by the Lord’s favour has been maintained by me, until I shall first have sent my own messengers or written documents of property to Rome to enquire about these pressing matters, in what way, desiring what is right, I may be found safe.\u0026rdquo; Upon receiving this reply, rejoicing together, they parted, and each returned to his own affairs.\n## Chapter 49: Concerning our excommunication\n1 But the enemies, who were seizing for themselves the inheritance of our holy bishop, proclaiming that we were separated from the company of the faithful and those who took part with us, so utterly detested our communion that, if any of our abbots or priests, having been asked by a member of the faithful from the people, blessed his food set before him with the sign of the cross of God, they judged it to be cast out and poured away as though it were an idol-offering, and they ordered that the vessels from which our men ate should first be washed, as if defiled by filth, before they were touched by others.\n## Chapter 50: Concerning his voyage and his journey to Rome\n1 When this wretched and lamentable calamity came upon us and was made known, we cried out unceasingly to the Lord day and night, offering prayers with fasting and weeping together with all our subject congregations, until, being prepared, they boarded a ship with our holy bishop and, carried by the vessel, with the Lord going before them, they reached the southern shores. Then indeed, proceeding on foot across the land together, with the holy apostles assisting, having completed the long journey in safety, they came to the Apostolic See, where they stood presented, kneeling with bent knees, earnestly entreating and requesting that this account of their mission, although composed more with rusticity than adorned with eloquence, might, according to his customary mercy of piety, be received without disdain. \u0026ldquo;For we wish your dignity to know this,\u0026rdquo; they said, \u0026ldquo;that we have come to accuse no one out of envy; but only that, if anyone coming from elsewhere in your most blessed council should dare to bring forward any charge against us, we are ready, so far as we are able with your mercy assisting, either to refute it, if it be false, or to confess it, if it be true. Therefore, protected by the mercy of our Creator and of the prince of the blessed apostles, we have fled to this most glorious see as to a mother’s bosom, prepared to endure whatever your most blessed authority shall command.\u0026rdquo;\n2 Then, therefore, by the most blessed apostolic pope Pope John VI, our holy bishop Wilfrid, together with the most reverend priests and all the venerable clergy, was received with kindly favour; and, awaiting the responses of the glorious see, they remained for some days at rest in a lodging that had been voluntarily prepared. Meanwhile also, envoys sent by the holy archbishop Berhtwald, with their written accusations directed to the Apostolic See, arrived at the same time, humbly requesting that an audience for their mission, which they were discharging, might be granted to them by that most glorious see. Then indeed the most blessed apostolic pope Pope John VI, having assembled his fellow bishops from all sides and all the venerable clergy, came to the place of the synod; and, when the God-beloved Bishop Wilfrid had been presented with his venerable brethren, the document of his petition was first read aloud before the whole assembly, containing as follows:\n## Chapter 51: Concerning the document of his petition\n1 To the lord apostolic and thrice most blessed universal pope John, Wilfrid, a suppliant and humble servant of the servants of God, bishop. Let your holiness know that these are the causes for which I have now come for the third time from the farthest part of the earth to be assisted by this apostolic see and your most blessed presence: first, because the unity of apostolic men is always wont to be indivisible, so that those things which were decreed by your predecessor the most blessed Pope Agatho with most just and merciful judgements, your pious authority may confirm and strengthen, since it is not doubted by many that they profit unto salvation; and that your piety may deign to understand that in all the commands of your blessedness we are ready, humble and suppliant, to submit. For, disturbances having lately arisen in Britain on the part of those who, against the decrees of the aforesaid most blessed Pope Agatho and of his successors, the venerable fathers, were seizing for themselves the bishopric and monasteries and lands with all my possessions, I was compelled to appeal to this most holy apostolic see, calling them to account by almighty God and the blessed Peter, prince of the apostles, that, if anyone had any accusation against me, he should come together with me to your presence to be judged, as the writings of your blessed predecessor Pope Sergius decreed. Therefore I have taken care to offer the page of my humble petitions to your most glorious presence on account of the pressing necessity now known to you, and with these I presume to knock upon the ears of your customary clemency and kindness, containing this: that all the things of justice and piety which were unanimously decreed towards my humility by your most blessed predecessors, the apostolic lords, Saint Agatho and the elect Benedict and the blessed Sergius, you may deign, with bountiful goodwill of piety, to confirm. And with the deepest intention of the heart, not only I but also all the brethren who have come with me, beseeching your unbending authority, humbly request that, if any accusers against us should come from elsewhere, they may be brought forth by your command into the midst and set out the causes of their accusation; and if they are able to confirm even the smallest point, we are ready willingly to endure the fairness of your judgement. But if they have dared to bring only falsehoods to your most blessed authority, commended by false documents, let permission be given to us, as it shall please your holiness, to clear away those accusations. Likewise I, a suppliant and humble servant, beseech your holiness that by that same authority you may deign to command Ethelred, king of the Mercians, concerning the support of our life, which your most blessed predecessors, the apostolic lords Saint Agatho, Benedict, and Sergius, enjoined: that is, that those monasteries with the lands belonging to them, which were granted to me by the same King Ethelred and his brother Wulfhere or by others for the redemption of their souls, no one may presume, out of envy or wicked greed, to take away or seize contrary to your decrees and the will of the aforesaid king. And further I humbly and earnestly beg your kindness with insistent prayers, that all the things which your predecessor, often mentioned, the most blessed Agatho, had decreed in this apostolic see with the whole synod, you may entreat King Aldfrith of the Northumbrians to fulfil by most peaceful admonitions. But if perhaps this should seem hard to him on my account, let the bishopric of the city of York with many other monasteries depend upon your judgement, to whom you shall consider it most right to entrust their governance. Only let those two monasteries, the first which is called Ripon, and the other which is called Hexham, which were assigned under one privilege of this apostolic see by Saint Agatho, through the help of your petition be restored to us with all the lands and possessions belonging to them. And after these petitions I shall add this, that according to the statutes of the canons I shall always duly show veneration with brotherly charity to Archbishop Berhtwald, and I willingly promise that I shall do so, provided only that he himself fulfils the well-founded decrees of your predecessors, the most blessed Agatho and his successors, towards my humility.\n## Chapter 52: Concerning the fact that Pope John said that the writings of the predecessors should be reviewed\n1 After the account of our petition had been read and carefully heard by the most glorious men, they gave permission for us to return to our lodgings, and those men sent by the holy Archbishop Berhtwald with their writings to the apostolic see were also brought into their honourable presence. Hearing their many and great accusations against the man of God, Bishop Wilfrid, they promised that in due course they would steadfastly hear the examination of each charge in order, with both parties present, that is, the accusers and those making defence, and they then ordered them likewise to return home. Then the most blessed John, pope of the apostolic see, sitting with his fellow bishops in the place of the synod, said:\n2 \u0026ldquo;O holy synod, it is for us first to go through the canons of our most holy predecessors and to examine the writings formerly sent to this apostolic see from both sides concerning this same hostile deceit, and diligently to consider what the thrice most blessed Agatho determined in these matters, and after him what the elect Benedict and also my most holy predecessor Sergius resolved and caused to be remembered, as to what ought to be done by the apostolic see concerning this same matter for the kings and the holy archbishop. Then more easily, with both sides contending against one another in the presence of our brotherhood, with God’s help and that of Saint Peter, prince of the apostles, we may be able to recognise the light of truth, once falsehood, being blinded, has been extinguished, and to judge canonically according to the rule of the most holy earliest predecessors.\u0026rdquo; And this counsel of the most blessed John pleased the whole synod, and so they did.\n## Chapter 53:\n1 Therefore on a certain day the most blessed John, bishop of the apostolic see, and his most reverend fellow bishops, having been gathered into the holy council, ordered that chosen men of both parties, the accusers and the defenders, should be presented to the holy assembly, and at once it was so done. For the holy Bishop Wilfrid and his venerable priests and deacons were presented, humbly and suppliantly greeting the honourable faces, promising that with the deepest affection of the heart they would receive and fulfil the decrees of that apostolic see; and likewise the envoys of the holy Archbishop, coming according to the command of the most holy men, stood present. To them time was given for speaking, so that they might choose whichever single article of accusation they wished, first to speak against us, and afterwards to proceed in order to the others in the dispute. They replied, saying: \u0026ldquo;This is the first article of our accusation, that this present Bishop Wilfrid, stubbornly refusing, has despised the judgements of the holy Archbishop Berhtwald of the church of the Cantuarians and of all Britain, issued from this apostolic see, and the statutes set forth before the synod. We have delivered the statement of our side; you speak your defence.\u0026rdquo;\n2 Therefore our holy Bishop Wilfrid, standing, advanced in honourable old age, with his venerable brethren in the sight of the whole assembly, said: \u0026ldquo;Humbly and as a suppliant I beseech your most excellent holiness that you may deign to hear from me the truth of this matter as it was done. For I was sitting in council with my abbots and priests and also deacons; they sent to me one from the number of the bishops gathered there, questioning me with the words of the king and likewise of the archbishop, whether I would be willing to agree to the judgement of the archbishop alone, and whether I would be prepared to fulfil in every respect whatever he should decree in judgement or not. To him thus enquiring I replied: ‘It is necessary first to know what the decision of that judgement is, before we declare whether we are able to carry it out in practice or otherwise.’ But he affirmed that he did not know, and said that the archbishop was not willing in any way to reveal or make known to any of our party the outcome of the judgement, before we should confirm by the subscription of our own hand before the present council, confessing that we would choose to hold to his single judgement in all things and not turn aside from it either to the right or to the left. ‘Such a narrow constraint of restriction,’ I said, ‘I have never before heard to have been imposed by any man, that one should be bound by the bond of an oath to declare that he will carry out decrees, even if impossible, before he knows the force of the decision.’ Nevertheless there before the assembly I promised that in all the judgements of the archbishop, in those matters in which it is found to agree with the statutes of the holy fathers, the rules and canonical definitions, and is not at all at variance in any respect with the synod of Saint Agatho and of the other orthodox successors, we shall be found ready to submit with the whole effort of our mind.\u0026rdquo;\n3 This defence our holy bishop gave and fell silent. Then the holy synod replied: \u0026ldquo;Wilfrid, the God-beloved bishop, has set forth the protection of his defence in a canonical manner.\u0026rdquo; Then, speaking among themselves in Greek and smiling, while we remained silent, they began to say many things, and at last, speaking to the accusers, said: \u0026ldquo;You are not unaware, dearest brethren, that we have from the command of our canons this rule: whenever many charges are brought against clerics by accusers, and one of them, concerning which the case has first been argued, cannot be proved, they are no longer to be admitted to the others. But nevertheless, on account of the honour of the holy archbishop, sent forth from the authority of this apostolic see, and for the reverence of this most blessed Bishop Wilfrid, long despoiled by deceit, as they assert, with God and Saint Peter, prince of the apostles, revealing and making clear, we shall not neglect, without weariness, to examine fully all the articles over many days or months, desiring to bring the matter to an end.\u0026rdquo;\n4 After these words, when triumphal joy had arisen for our bishop with his brethren, permission having been given by the holy synod, they returned to their lodgings, preparing for the contest of the following days. But the others, on the contrary, confounded at the very beginning of the dispute, withdrew to their home; and the mists of falsehood, scattered by the blowing wind of wisdom, and the sun of truth shining forth through God’s help and Saint Peter, over the course of many days and months, he was declared free from every sinful offence and crime, purely and completely acquitted, and our holy bishop appeared approved. For through four months and seventy sessions of the most holy see, being tested as from a furnace of fire, with apostolic authority thus assisting, he escaped purified, to speak briefly: because at the holy Easter, on the third day, the synod of the thrice most blessed Agatho, established against the perversities of heretics with one hundred and twenty-five orthodox bishops, in which each one, for his own province and city, confessed the true faith and confirmed it with his subscription. This was read aloud before all the people in the Roman manner, in which writing it was found among other things: Wilfrid, the God-beloved bishop of the city of York, appealing to the apostolic see concerning his case and absolved by this authority in matters certain and uncertain, and placed with one hundred and twenty-five other fellow bishops in the synod in the seat of judgement, for all the northern part of Britain and the islands of Ireland, which were inhabited by the peoples of the Angles and Britons and also the Scots and Picts, confessed the true and catholic faith and confirmed it with his subscription. Therefore, when this was heard, all the wise citizens of Rome were astonished.\n5 Then Boniface and Sisentius and certain others, who had known him and seen him in the days of blessed memory Agatho, said that this present man was that God-beloved Bishop Wilfrid, whom the most blessed Agatho, having purified him from accusations and absolved him by apostolic authority, had formerly sent back to his own place, and whom now again—alas!—the snares of his persecutors had driven out from his own see. \u0026ldquo;He who for forty years and more has discharged the duties of the episcopate, and such an honourable old man, together with his venerable brethren, false-speaking accusers and men of feigned gravity, with audacious rashness—and, so to speak, one deacon and all the rest without any rank of ecclesiastical dignity—have dared to accuse before the assembly of the apostolic see so exalted a person. And therefore they are worthy to pay the penalty, to be worn down in the lowest confinement of a prison until the end of death.\u0026rdquo; And then the Roman men affirmed that they had spoken the truth.\n6 But the most blessed John, pope of the apostolic see, said: \u0026ldquo;The blessed Wilfrid, the God-beloved bishop, in whom we have found no imputation of crime after examining him so carefully through so many of our sessions, is to be known, by the authority of the blessed Apostle Peter, the prince of the apostles, who has the power of loosing and binding even from hidden sins, to be absolved; and what the blessed Agatho and the elect Benedict and the holy Sergius, bishops of the apostolic see, determined concerning him, the humility of our own insignificance also, with the consent of the whole synod, has decreed to confirm by written judgements sent to the kings and to the archbishop by the hand of the blessed Bishop Wilfrid, speaking in this manner:\n## Chapter 54:\n1 \u0026ldquo;To the most eminent lords, King Æthelred of the Mercians and King Aldfrith of the Deirans and Bernicians, Pope John. Concerning the growth of your distinguished religion, we rejoice, with the grace of God cooperating, perceiving in you a zeal for God, which, through the preaching of the prince of the apostles, with God enlightening your minds, you have received and effectively maintain; so that greater progress may increase our joy. But that which affects our minds and has grieved our fellow bishops and the whole Church is the report of an inextricable disagreement of certain persons, which, with the Lord’s favour, ought to be brought to correction, so that we may be proved before God, the judge of all, not as despisers of pontifical decrees but as sons of obedience who keep them. For formerly, under Agatho, our predecessor of apostolic memory, when Bishop Wilfrid, coming to this apostolic see, had appealed, in the presence of his opponents, who had earlier come here to accuse him, sent by Theodore of venerable memory, archbishop of the holy church of the Cantuarians, by command of this apostolic see, and by Hild, abbess of religious memory, bishops from various provinces, assembled here with the aforesaid holy pontiff, inquired regularly into what was said by the parties and determined it by sentence; and the successors of that holy pontiff, our predecessors, followed the same judgement. Nor is it recognised that Theodore, the bishop of venerable memory, who was sent from this apostolic see, opposed this, nor did he afterwards refer any accusation to this apostolic see; rather, as appears from his statements, he also obeyed the pontifical decrees. Therefore, with God’s help, provision must be made, and the disagreement must not continue in one place while unity remains among the other fellow bishops and peoples. And we have spoken of these past matters. We have also foreseen that it should be made known to your illustrious Christian dignity concerning present matters, that those who came here from the same island of Britain and brought accusations against Bishop Wilfrid, when he himself arrived with his brethren, turned back upon the accusers what they had accused. Their dispute we have caused to be conducted for some days before the assembly of the most reverend bishops and priests who are here present; among whom all things which the parties brought forward, whether in earlier or more recent writings, or which could be found here, or which were spoken verbally by the parties, having been carefully investigated, were brought to our knowledge, while the principal persons themselves, from whom the whole dispute arose, were not present, though it is necessary, if the dispute is to receive an end, that they should come and sit together. And therefore we admonish Berhtwald, bishop of the holy church of the Cantuarians, our most reverend brother, whom we have confirmed there as archbishop by the authority of the prince of the apostles, that he should convene a synod together with Bishop Wilfrid, and, the council being duly held, should cause Bishops Bosa and John to come to the synod, and should hear the statements of the parties and consider what each side is able to prove against the other. And if indeed, with God favouring, he is able to determine this regularly in the synod, it is pleasing to us and expedient for the parties; but if it should turn out otherwise, let him admonish them in synod, and by his admonitions let them come together to this apostolic see, each side considering what may benefit its own case, so that in a fuller council that may be examined and decided which until now has not been able to be settled, and that, by the grace of the Holy Spirit, those who came with discord may return in peace. But let whoever of them delays to come, or, which is to be abhorred, despises to come, know that he submits himself to deposition, and is to be cast out from here and not to be received there by any bishops or by the faithful. For he who is disobedient to his authority cannot be reckoned among his ministers and disciples. Therefore let your Christian and royal highness, for the fear of God and the reverence of the Christian faith and the peace which the Lord Jesus Christ gave to his disciples, give support and concurrence, so that these things which, by God inspiring, we have discerned may come to fulfilment, so that for such a religious endeavour a reward may be assigned to you in heaven, whereby both in this world, Christ protecting you, you may reign in safety and may have the blessed fellowship of his eternal kingdom. Therefore remember, dearest sons, what the most blessed Agatho and the other bishops of the Roman Church after him have decreed with one voice with us by apostolic authority concerning this same matter. For whoever, with bold rashness, despises this in respect of any person will not be unpunished by God, nor will he escape without harm from the bond laid upon him from heaven. May heavenly grace preserve your eminence in safety.\u0026rdquo;\n## Chapter 55: How, when he was ordered to return to his homeland, he carried holy relics with him\n1 Therefore, after many months had been spent there, having been carefully examined almost daily in the dispute, at last he appeared entirely acquitted in victory. Now when our holy bishop wished to remain at the apostolic see and, in his old age, to crucify the world to himself and end his life there, the apostolic pontiff and the whole holy synod, strictly enjoining him, as one who had long ago promised obedience, commanded him in particular, by apostolic authority, as one fully absolved from certain and uncertain charges after long affliction, to return to his homeland and to carry written judgements to the kings and the archbishop, and to soothe the sorrow of his followers and renew the joy of his friends in the name of the Lord. But our holy bishop, knowing how to obey, together with his companions, went about the places of the saints, and, according to his custom, gathering holy relics by name from chosen men, and also obtaining other garments, purple and silken, for the adornment of churches, returned to his homeland with the blessing of the saints, travelling over plains and rough places, through fields and mountains on a long journey, until he reached the region of Gaul.\n## Chapter 56: On the protectors in our sickness and the coming of Michael\n1 Then therefore, as they were making their journey, our holy bishop, having been seized by a very great weakness of illness, was at first carried on horseback; but at last, borne in a litter in the hands of those who served him and wept and cried out to God, he was brought scarcely alive to the city of Meaux, with none doubting his death. For he had tasted no food or drink for four days and four nights, but lying in a trance, only his breath and warm limbs showed that he was alive. At length on the fifth day, at daybreak, behold, an angel of the Lord in a white garment appeared to our holy bishop, saying: \u0026ldquo;I am Michael, messenger of the Most High God, who has sent me to you to declare that years of life are added to you through the intercession of holy Mary, the Mother of God and ever-virgin, and through the tears of your subjects, which have reached the ears of the Lord. This shall be a sign to you, that from this day you shall be restored day by day and will be healed and will reach your homeland, and to you shall be restored the dearest of your possessions, and you shall finish your life in peace. Be ready also, for after the space of four years I will visit you again. Now indeed remember that you have built houses in honour of the holy apostles Peter and Andrew, but for holy Mary, the ever-virgin who intercedes for you, you have made none. You have this to amend, and you shall dedicate a house in her honour.\u0026rdquo; And after these words the angel of the Lord was taken up and departed from his sight. Therefore our holy bishop, rising as if awakened from sleep, sat up among the choirs of those singing and weeping, saying: \u0026ldquo;Where is our priest Acca?\u0026rdquo; Who, immediately called with joy, came, giving thanks to the Lord with all, because they had seen him sitting and speaking. Then, the brothers having been sent out of the house, with only his most faithful priest Acca—who now by the grace of God is a bishop of blessed memory—he revealed in order the whole vision, as we have said above. Straightway, the aforesaid holy priest, a man of keen understanding, perceived it, giving thanks to the Lord, that in this manner years of life had been added to our bishop through the intercession of holy Mary, the Mother of the Lord, and through the prayers of his subjects, just as fifteen years were added to Hezekiah, king of Judah, of which five were for the sake of David his father’s choosing, another five for the intercession of Isaiah the prophet in the temple of God, and another five for the goodness of the king himself and his weeping as he turned to the wall.\n## Chapter 57: How, on his return, he crossed the sea\n1 Then therefore our holy bishop, his hands and face having been washed, while all our people rejoiced with marvellous gladness and gave thanks, confessing with joy the life granted to him by the Lord, having taken a little food, was refreshed, his eyes enlightened according to Jonathan. And after a few days, as the same illness abated, they set out on their journey and came as far as the sea, the greatness of which they crossed by ship, and, with God’s help, found a safe harbour in the region of Canterbury. There, having found Archbishop Berchtwald, the messengers of our holy bishop spoke with him. And he promised to soften the harsh judgements formerly established in the synod, because, compelled by apostolic authority and alarmed and made fearful by letters sent through his messengers, he was reconciled sincerely and without pretence to our holy bishop, as the outcome of the matter proved. Then, with a great company of his abbots and with gifts, they were joyfully met near the city of London from the east. At last, however, our holy bishop came to King Ethelred, who had formerly ruled over the people of the Mercians, ever his most faithful friend, who indeed, for excessive joy, was weeping; and he greeted him most gently. Kissing and embracing one another, he was honourably received by his friend according to his custom. And he humbly presented to him the words of greeting sent from the apostolic see and the judgements decreed concerning him, sealed with bulls and seals. But he, when the letters of the apostolic see had at once been opened and read, prostrating himself upon the ground, obediently made his promise, saying: \u0026ldquo;Of the writings of this apostolic authority I will never in my life condemn even the smallest stroke of a single letter, nor will I consent to those who do so, but I will help, according to my strength, that they may be fulfilled.\u0026rdquo; And just as he had promised, so without doubt he accomplished it. For now, by God’s gift, an eternal reward shall be rendered to him for good. For immediately he invited Coenred, whom he had appointed king after him, to himself, and adjured him in the name of the Lord and in his own affection to obey the commands of the apostolic see. And he willingly promised to do so.\n## Chapter 58: How King Aldfrith perished on account of his contempt\n1 At length, after no long space of time, our holy bishop, having instructed his friend Æthelred, sent chosen messengers—Baldwin the priest and abbot, and the master Alfrith—to Aldfrith, king of the Northumbrians, who was known to him, saying to him: \u0026ldquo;Our holy bishop greets you with words of peace and asks of you that you grant him leave to come into your presence with letters of greeting from the apostolic see and with judgements concerning his case established by apostolic authority.\u0026rdquo; To these things the king at first replied nothing harsh or severe; but, having made an arrangement and appointed a day for returning to him again, he promised that he would then give an answer. But the brothers, according to the king’s command, returning to him a second time on the appointed day and asking what he would say in reply, the king answered them, as his counsellors persuaded him: \u0026ldquo;O brothers, both of you venerable to me, ask of me what is necessary for yourselves, and I will grant it to you out of respect for you. But concerning the matter of Wilfrid your lord, do not press me any longer from this day forward, because what my predecessors the kings and the archbishop with their counsellors determined, and what afterwards we with the archbishop sent from the apostolic see, together with almost all the bishops of our British nation, have judged—this, I say, so long as I live, on account of the writings of the apostolic see, as you say, I will never wish to change.\u0026rdquo; And afterwards he completely changed this judgement, and truly repented of it.\n## Chapter 59:\n1 Then indeed the messengers, bearing the sad news, departed from him, no longer seeing his face, and came to their lord. For divine vengeance did not delay, but, according to the prophecy of the bishop of the apostolic see, it strictly afflicted the king, bound in the chains of illness. And he at once, since he was most wise, recognising that he had been struck by apostolic authority, being led to repentance, confessed his sin committed against Bishop Wilfrid contrary to the judgements of the apostolic see, declaring and saying: \u0026ldquo;If by any means he could come to me alive at my invitation, I would at once amend my offence.\u0026rdquo; And yet he made a vow to God and to Saint Peter, that if he should rise healed from that illness, he would set all things right according to the desire of Saint Wilfrid the bishop and the judgement of the apostolic see. \u0026ldquo;But if, by God’s will, I shall have died, I command in the name of the Lord to my heir, whoever shall succeed me in the kingdom, that he make peace and concord with Bishop Wilfrid for the remedy of my soul and his own.\u0026rdquo; These words faithful witnesses heard and reported to us, among whom are Ælfflæd the abbess, a most wise virgin, who is truly the king’s daughter, and also Æthelburh the abbess, and many others have affirmed these things. But illness weighed upon the king, speech deserted him for many days, and at last he died; and after him Eadwulf reigned for a short time. To him our holy bishop, coming from exile with his own son, sent messengers from Ripon as to a friend; to whom he replied harshly and sternly, persuaded by his counsellors, saying: \u0026ldquo;By my salvation I swear, unless he departs from my kingdom within the space of six days, whichever of his companions I shall find shall perish by death.\u0026rdquo; And after these harsh words, a conspiracy having been made against him, he was driven from the kingdom, which he had held for two months; and in his place there reigned the royal boy named Osred, son of King Aldfrith, and he was made the adopted son of our holy bishop.\n## Chapter 60:\n1 In the first year of King Osred, Berhtwald, archbishop of the church of Canterbury and of almost all Britain, coming from the south, having by command of the apostolic see diligently invited the king of the Northumbrians with all his bishops and abbots and the princes of his whole kingdom to a synodal place concerning the case of blessed Bishop Wilfrid, and so it was done. For they were gathered together in one place near the river Nidd from the east: the king with his princes, and his three bishops with the abbots, and also the blessed abbess Ælfflæd, ever the best comforter of the whole province and an excellent counsellor; likewise Archbishop Berhtwald and Bishop Wilfrid came together on one and the same day. Then, when the king and the bishops with their princes were seated in the synodal place, the archbishop began to speak in this manner: \u0026ldquo;Let us pray to our Lord that He may grant the harmony of peace in our hearts through the Holy Spirit. For both I and the blessed Bishop Wilfrid have writings of the apostolic see, sent to my humility through messengers and likewise brought by himself; and we humbly beseech that they may be read in the presence of your reverence.\u0026rdquo; And the venerable lords gave permission, and before the synod, with all listening, both books were read from beginning to end.\n2 But after the reading, when all were silent, Berectfrid, second among the king’s princes, said to the archbishop: \u0026ldquo;We, since we are in need of interpretation, desire to hear what the apostolic authority says.\u0026rdquo; And the archbishop answered him, saying: \u0026ldquo;The judgements of the apostolic see, though expressed at length and with many turns of phrase, nevertheless show one single meaning concerning the same matter in both books; the sense of which I will set forth briefly. For the apostolic authority, which was first given to Peter the apostle and prince of the apostles, with the power of binding and loosing, has by its authority decreed concerning the blessed Bishop Wilfrid that, in my presence, though unworthy, and in that of all the assembled bishops of the churches of this province, laying aside ancient enmity for the salvation of souls, they should be reconciled in goodwill to the blessed Bishop Wilfrid. For to these my fellow bishops there is given a choice from the two judgements of the apostolic see, whichever they may wish to choose: either that they enter fully and completely into peace with Bishop Wilfrid and restore the portions of the churches which he formerly governed, as they shall have judged wisely together with me; or, if they should not wish this better course, that they all go together to the apostolic see and there be judged in a greater council. But if anyone, which God forbid, despising this, should be unwilling to fulfil either of these two, let him know that, if he be a king or a layman, he is excommunicated from the body and blood of Christ; but if he be a bishop or a priest, which is more detestable and dreadful to speak, he is to be deprived of every rank of ecclesiastical dignity.\u0026rdquo; These are the judgements of the apostolic see set forth briefly.\u0026rdquo; But the bishops, resisting, said: \u0026ldquo;What our predecessors once determined—Theodore the archbishop, sent from the apostolic see, and King Ecgfrith—and what afterwards in the field called Easterfield, together with us and almost all the bishops of our British nation, and in your most excellent presence, archbishop, with King Aldfrith, we judged—how is anyone able to change it?\u0026rdquo;\n3 Meanwhile the most blessed Abbess Ælfflæd spoke with her blessed mouth and said: \u0026ldquo;Truly in Christ I declare the testament of King Aldfrith in that illness by which he ended his life; who made a vow to God and to Saint Peter, saying: ‘If I live, I will fulfil all the judgements of the apostolic see, which before I refused to hear, concerning the blessed Bishop Wilfrid. But if I die, then say to my heir, my son, in the name of the Lord, that for the remedy of my soul he is to fulfil the apostolic judgement concerning Bishop Wilfrid.’\u0026rdquo; As she spoke these things, Berechtfrid, the aforesaid prince of the king, replying said: \u0026ldquo;This is the will of the king and of his princes, that we obey in all things the commands of the apostolic see and the injunctions of King Aldfrith. For when in the city which is called Bamburgh we were besieged and on every side surrounded by a hostile force and remained in the narrow confines of a rocky crag, having taken counsel among ourselves, if God should grant to our royal boy the kingdom of his father, we promised to God that we would fulfil what the apostolic authority commanded concerning the holy Bishop Wilfrid; and immediately after the vows, the minds of our enemies having been changed, all swiftly with an oath turned into friendship with us; the gates having been opened, we were freed from confinement, our enemies put to flight, and we received the kingdom.\u0026rdquo;\n4 After these words had been finished, the bishops, withdrawing apart from the others, began to take counsel among themselves, sometimes with the archbishop among them, and at other times the most wise virgin Ælfflæd; and the outcome of this holy council was such that all the bishops and the king with his nobles entered into a pure harmony of peace with Bishop Wilfrid, which they maintained among themselves until the end of his life, restoring to him two excellent monasteries, which are at Ripon and at Hexham, with all their revenues. And on that day all the bishops, kissing and embracing one another and breaking bread, received communion; and all the holy ones, giving thanks to God for this blessedness, returned in the peace of Christ to their own places.\n5 Wonderful is God in his saints, who for the love of the whole Church has crowned the souls of the bishops with saving peace. And this is the greatest blessedness on both sides, both of those who for long spans of years had held their possessions and willingly, for the sake of amendment, restored them in the peace of Christ to our bishop before their death, and of us, who, scattered through various exiles, were sorrowful, serving under foreign masters, and now, with all everywhere reconciled in peace with our lord, our most dear head, bearing the hope of life with the Lord, rejoicing and exulting, live in blessing.\n## Chapter 61: The joy of this world is mingled with sorrow, and all things look to their end\n1 For when the time which Michael the archangel had foretold drew near, our holy bishop, setting out from Hexham, was suddenly seized by such an illness that, as once in the city of Meaux, he was worn down, so that he endured an even more severe sickness. Then all the household, with deep sorrow of heart, taking up the accustomed weapons of prayer, sang and prayed unceasingly day and night, beseeching the Lord to grant him a respite of life, at least to speak and to set his house in order and divide his possessions, and not to leave us as orphans without abbots. The report of this mournful calamity spread far and wide, and all his abbots from their places and the hermits, hastening with swift course by day and night, doubting nothing according to human custom about his death, gathered from every side and, without hope whether present or absent, nevertheless came to him as though living. Entering the house, bending the knee and all with one mind in grief, they prayed the Lord to fulfil in them His promise, saying: \u0026ldquo;Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them, says the Lord\u0026rdquo;, and that He would grant some space of life to our bishop. And, God granting it, so it came to pass that he both ordered all our life in various places according to his desire under superiors chosen by himself, and distributed his substance, within and without, to God and to men according to his judgement, which before he had not accomplished. For from that day, as if awakened from sleep, recovering understanding and memory and the power of speech, he was restored to full health. We, giving thanks to God and gladdened with marvellous joy, each went his own way.\n## Chapter 62:\n1 Therefore our holy bishop, living in the joy of his people and in perfect peace, in the space of a year and a half after his illness fully and completely amended all those things which previously seemed to be lacking to him among men. For not long before his death of blessed memory, at Ripon, having invited to himself two abbots and very faithful brothers, eight in number altogether, he ordered the treasurer to open the treasury and to set out all the gold and silver with precious stones in their presence, and he commanded that it be divided into four parts according to his judgement; and he, without delay, obeying the command of the holy father, completed everything accordingly. But our holy bishop said to the faithful witnesses: \u0026ldquo;Know, my most beloved brothers, my intention, which long ago I had in mind—that I might again appeal to and visit the see of the Apostle Saint Peter, from which I was often delivered, and, God willing, that I might end my life there, and take with me one of the best of these four portions to offer gifts through the churches of the saints, and to carry offerings to the church dedicated to Saint Mary, the Mother of the Lord, and to offer gifts to Saint Paul the Apostle for my soul. But if God shall provide otherwise, as often happens to the aged, and the day of my death overtakes me, I command you, my faithful ones, in the name of Jesus Christ, that you send my gifts by messengers to the aforesaid churches. Of the other three portions, divide one among the poor of my people for the redemption of my soul; let the second portion be divided among the heads of the two aforesaid monasteries, so that with the gifts of kings and bishops they may be able to secure friendship. But the third portion distribute among those who have endured long exiles with me and to whom I have not given lands of estates, according to the measure of each, so that they may have the means to support themselves after me.\u0026rdquo; Again, on another occasion after some time, he said to faithful witnesses: \u0026ldquo;Brothers, remember that I appoint this Tatberht, a priest, my kinsman, who until now has been my inseparable companion, as head at Ripon, that he may share the governance with me as long as I live and possess it without dispute after my death. For this reason I declare these arrangements, that if Michael the archangel visits me, he may find me prepared; for many signs of my death are increasing.\u0026rdquo;\n## Chapter 63:\n1 After these discussions, according to the command of our holy bishop, when the signal had been given, the whole household of Hrypum was gathered together in one place. Upon entering, our holy bishop took his seat and began to speak, saying: \u0026ldquo;Our most reverend brother Caelinus, who for some time has been placed over you in due observance, has laboured greatly in the Lord and now desires to return to his former way of life and to the desert places, and to practise the contemplative life as before and to serve God alone; and I am unwilling to refuse him this any longer. Yet I admonish you to preserve faithfully the order of your rule of life until, God willing, I come to you again. For these two abbots of ours, Tibba and Eabba, now present, sent by King Ceolred of the Mercians, have urged me to consent to meet with him, and this on account of the condition of our monasteries which are in his kingdom; for he promises to order the whole of his life according to my judgement. And when I return to you again, God willing, if life accompanies me, I shall bring with me one whom I have found to be a man worthy to take the chief place of your community. But if, through my frequent illnesses, something else should happen by God’s providence, then whoever these witnesses who now sit beside me—Tibba and Eabba, abbots, Tatberht and Hadufrith, priests, and the master Aluhfrith—shall tell you upon their coming, receive him and appoint him as abbot, and render to him the obedience which you have promised to God and to me and have hitherto fulfilled, according to my command.\u0026rdquo; Kneeling and weeping, with their heads bowed to the ground, they promised to carry out all his commands; and as they lay prostrate in prayer, our holy bishop blessed them and commended them to the Lord, and from that day they did not see his face again.\n## Chapter 64:\n1 Therefore our holy bishop, proceeding with the peace and blessing of all, both the rulers and the subjects of the Northumbrians, made his way to the southern kingdoms, and there he found all his abbots rejoicing at his arrival. There he related in order to certain of them the aforesaid instructions, and to each of them, according to his measure, he either increased the livelihood of their monks with lands or gladdened their hearts with money, as though, by the spirit of prophecy, he were distributing his inheritance among his heirs before his death. At last they came to his monastery, which is situated at Undolum, in which he had formerly dedicated a church to the Apostle Andrew; and there he was immediately seized by the distress of illness, so that he understood that the end of this life was near to him, and in a few words he exhorted them to be mindful of all the good things which he had previously spoken. For he had already recounted the whole course of his life in remembrance to the priest Tatberht, namely his kinsman, on a certain day when they were riding along the road, as though foreknowing his death; and likewise he called to mind all the lands in various places which he had previously given to abbots or then ordered to be given, such as the monastery at Hagustaldesea, which he commanded to be given into the possession of the priest Acca, who after him, by the grace of God, became a bishop of blessed memory. After he had spoken a few things, he blessed them, as Jacob blessed his sons, and in peace, not with groaning or murmuring, he inclined his head upon the pillow of the bed and rested. But they in the choir, singing psalms day and night without ceasing and mingling them with weeping, continued until in Psalm 103 they came to that verse in which it says, \u0026ldquo;Send forth your spirit, and they shall be created, and you will renew the face of the earth\u0026rdquo;. Then our holy bishop gave up his spirit, and all were astonished, hearing at that hour a sound as if of birds arriving. With a cloud of witnesses confirming it, they received the appointed abbot, who for love of his father, our holy bishop, was accustomed to do many good works. For every day he arranged that a special Mass should be celebrated for him, and every week he ordained that the fifth day, on which he died, should be honoured with feasting like the Lord’s Day, and on the yearly day of his death he appointed, for all the days of his life, that all the tithes from the herds and flocks of his people should be distributed to the poor for the glory of God, besides those alms which every day he always gave by name, both for himself and for the soul of his bishop, to the needy and to God.\n## Chapter 65:\n1 Thus our Lord revealed our holy bishop, a great man and a faithful servant, as we believe, among His saints by the power of miracles to men. For on a certain day, when abbots coming from all sides were conveying the holy body of the bishop in a cart, and requested of them permission to wash the holy body and to clothe it carefully and honourably, as was fitting, they obtained leave to do so. Then a certain abbot, named Bacula, spread his shroud upon the face of the ground, and upon it the brethren placed the holy body, washing it with their own hands and clothing it in a churchly manner, and they carried it with hymns and songs, with the fear of God, to the appointed place; and above the house they again heard a sound as of birds settling, and immediately again flying off into heaven with the sweet movement of their wings. But those who were wise and were present there said that they were certain that the choirs of angels had come with Michael and were leading the soul of the holy bishop into paradise. Then, a tent having been set up outside, they washed the holy body and poured the water upon the ground there, and the dwellers of the cell afterwards raised a wooden cross on that spot, and there the Lord was accustomed to perform many miracles. But our brethren, clothing the holy body in linen garments and placing it in the cart, and singing psalms, set out on their journey and came as far as the monastery of Hrypum. Immediately the whole community came out to meet them with the holy relics. Almost no one refrained from tears and weeping. Raising their voices with hymns and songs, they brought him in among them, and in the basilica which our holy bishop had formerly built and dedicated in honour of Saint Peter the Apostle, they honourably laid to rest the body of the most holy man in the seventy-sixth year of his age. How many bishops and priests and deacons he ordained during the forty-six years of his episcopate, and how many churches he dedicated—who can reckon? His praise endures for ever. And the abbots, gathered together according to the command of our holy bishop, led forth Tatberht the priest as a worthy heir.\n2 Again therefore the aforesaid abbot gave his shroud, somewhat soiled by the feet of those ministering, wrapped up, to his servant boy, commanding him to take it to the abbess of our holy bishop, named Cynethryth, and to keep it for her in such a state until, God willing, he should return to her again. She, at first obeying the commands of the abbot, afterwards nevertheless ordered it to be washed. And when a certain weak and poor nun heard this, who for many years, like the man in the Gospel, had a withered and useless hand, she came to the abbess, and, bending her knee with tears, implored her, saying: \u0026ldquo;In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and for the soul of your holy bishop, grant me to wash my feeble limbs in this washing. For I believe with unshaken faith that my bent hand and arm, long withered, may God willing, by the mingling of the holy sweat, be healed in that washing.\u0026rdquo; But the devout abbess, fearing to refuse, granted permission according to her faith. She therefore immediately plunged her senseless hand into the warmed lye of the water, touched the shroud, and rubbing the trunk of her withered hand with the cloth, washed it. Then (why should I delay in words?) her fingers were straightened, her hand restored to life, her arm strengthened. By the touch of the shroud she was healed through faith, just as the woman in the Gospel named Moerisa was healed of a flow of blood when she touched the hem of Jesus’ garment both giving thanks to the Lord, they praised Him for His wonders.\n## Chapter 66:\n1 At another time also the Lord showed our holy bishop, His saint, wondrously praiseworthy, to men according to His custom. For when certain noble exiles, with an army, plundering on account of their grievance, had burned the aforesaid monastery at Undolum, where our bishop had entered upon the way of the fathers, except for one house in which our holy father died, they strove with careful effort to set it alight with firebrands and lamps, but in vain. For, contrary to nature, their fires were extinguished upon the thatched roof as though the torches had been soaked. At last, however, one of them, entering boldly, thinking to set fire more easily to the dry hay within, saw a young man standing there in white, holding in his hand a golden cross. And he, as soon as he saw him, struck with astonishment and beside himself, went out and said: \u0026ldquo;Let us depart from here: behold! the angel of the Lord defends this house.\u0026rdquo; And they withdrew from it.\n2 Then also, as is confirmed by the testimony of many, there was a great thorn hedge which surrounded the whole monastery, and when the flame, devouring it from one side, was blazing up, it burned on as far as the place where we said that a wooden cross had been set up at the spot of the bath. There, at the raising of the cross, that devouring fire immediately vanished. But from the other side of the monastery the burning fire, swiftly running along the dry thorn hedge, went around as far as the corner at some distance from the aforesaid house, and there, its light diminished, it was extinguished, that part of the hedge alone remaining untouched.\n3 The aforesaid evil men also perished, God taking vengeance. For some of the most noble among them, after an interval of time, while with their armies in broad daylight, were struck blind; seeing nothing, they were unwittingly surrounded on all sides by their enemies and were soon overthrown and slain, and only a few of their companions escaped, protected by the sign of the cross. By such a marvel, therefore, the holy man of God, Wilfrid, by his prayers avenged his wrongs.\n## Chapter 67: Concerning the sign of the circle\n1 Therefore, after our holy bishop had departed to the Lord, his abbots everywhere, with those subject to them, fearing the snares of their former enemies, said: \u0026ldquo;So long as the best head of our life lived, we often endured various trials from the kings and princes of Britain, all of which, through the holiness of the bishop and the wisdom of many, and with the help of his friends, he was accustomed always to bring to a fitting end; but now it is for us fully and perfectly to believe that our intercessor, by the sign of the holy cross, is made equal to the apostles of God, Peter and Andrew, whom he especially loved and to whom he dedicated his substance together with his dependants, and that he stands in the sight of God without ceasing as the protector of our defence.\u0026rdquo; And immediately a sign of this belief appeared in heaven. For on the anniversary day of our holy bishop, when bishops from all sides and abbots from the east and west, from the north and the south, had gathered together for the solemn day and assembled in one place, and were keeping vigils in the evening in the church where the body of our holy bishop rests, while certain brethren of duller understanding were at that hour standing outside, a sign appeared in the sky, the vision of which they kept silent about in turn until morning. On the next day, when they heard the report, they were greatly troubled, murmuring that it had not been revealed to them because of their sins. But relief and consolation for this concern soon followed. For when, the feast and supper of the solemnity having been completed, at the evening twilight the abbots with all the household went out for the prayer of Compline, immediately they saw in the sky a marvellous sign, that is, a white circle, surrounding the whole monastery, like a rainbow in daylight but without its varied colours. For the beginning of this white circle, starting from the corners of our basilica dedicated to Saint Peter, opposite the place where the body of our bishop rests, stretching towards the south and broadly encompassing the right side of the monastery, reached as far as the north. Then, with the circle completed, it rose upwards towards the south-east of the eastern sky and fixed its end. But we, adoring, will praise the Lord, who is wonderful in His saints, clearly understanding the wall of divine help around the vineyard of the household of the Lord, as the outcome of the matter plainly proved concerning us who feared. For since in all the kingdoms on this side and beyond the Humber our life was carried on under chosen abbots, as the brethren saw, there rushed together, as it were, certain bowmen drawing their bows and shooting arrows and turning them back upon themselves. But we will magnify in the name of the Lord.\n","date":"1 enero 0710","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/stephen-of-ripon/the-life-of-saint-wilfrid-bishop-of-york/","section":"Writings","summary":"","title":"The Life of Saint Wilfrid, Bishop of York","type":"writings"},{"content":"# On The Miraculous Things in Sacred Scripture\n## Book One: On the Pentateuch of Moses\n*Augustinus Hibernicus (655AD)*\n### Preface\n1 To the most venerable bishops and presbyters of cities and monasteries, especially those of Carthage, Augustine, ever your humble servant, sends his greetings in Christ.\n2 Bound by the command of my most blessed father, Eusebius, while he was still alive, and encouraged by you, my fellow Christians—above all, compelled by the authority of the most venerable master of the empire—I have composed three books on the Wonders of Holy Scripture, both of the Old and New Testaments. With the Lord’s guidance, I have endeavored to present a historical exposition in the greatest brevity possible. The boldness of this undertaking finds its justification in the authority of those who commanded it.\n3 For though I saw myself unequal to the task before me, I did not dare to resist the orders of my superiors or turn away to something else, knowing with absolute certainty that greater punishment awaits the disobedient who flee their commission than the reproach of critics who judge one unfit for the work assigned. Indeed, the prophet Jonah found greater peril in the waves of the sea when he tried to escape than he would have suffered from the reproach of his people, had he obeyed and carried out the command he feared.\n4 The prophet of the altar at Bethel, because he did not endure the hunger and thirst of his arduous journey as he had been commanded, soon after found death on the road as the punishment for his disobedience. But Jeremiah, though still a child and lacking both learning in letters and the wisdom of manhood when he was sent by the Lord to prophesy, received the knowledge he did not yet possess as a reward for his obedience.\n5 Therefore, I do not look to the poverty of my own limited abilities, but rather to the wise authority of those who have commanded me. For if you did not believe that even a small spark of light was in me, you would never have entrusted me with the intellectual labor of so great a work.\n6 In these volumes, the arrangement follows this order: the first book concerns the Pentateuch of Moses, the second the Prophets, and the third the New Testament. The chief aim of this entire work is to show that, in all matters where something seems to occur outside the course of daily affairs, God does not create a new nature, but rather governs the same nature that He established in the beginning.\n7 Furthermore, in this work, we have taken care to set aside, for now, the interpretation of figures and instead to present only the account and order of events as they occurred. This is because, in the passages where we have touched upon certain matters through historical narration, there exists a manifold depth of meaning. If we were to discuss each point in detail, we would burden the reader with many books and a more laborious work.\n8 We have particularly chosen to omit this aspect because those authors who have sought to explain these passages have devoted themselves to the mystical understanding of allegories—that is, to figurative exposition, which has been found within them.\n9 As for whether this work will endure or be lost, that depends on your judgment. From one of you—Bathanus, who follows after his father Manchinan—I have, if anything, received an addition to my understanding. And from another, as I believe, I have taken up the labor of this endeavor through the very words of his mouth.\n10 To all readers in general, my appeal and request is this: that they not grow weary of what is written before they have fully considered it, allowing no pretext for disdain before understanding has been reached.\n### Chapter 1: On God the Creator and the Order of Creation\n1 With the help of Almighty God, we desire to speak of the wonders of creation. And what beginning could be more fitting than to start with the very Creator of all things, of whom Scripture frequently testifies, saying:\n2 \u0026ldquo;He does great and unfathomable things, marvelous deeds without number\u0026rdquo;.\n3 Among all these wonders, the most fundamental act was when He created all things from nothing. The eternal and almighty Creator of all, ever remaining a Trinity in perfect unity, existed before all creatures without any loss of His power. Then, in order to reveal through creation the boundless goodness, power, and benevolence that He first possessed in Himself alone, He formed from the formless matter— which He Himself had previously created from nothing— the various kinds of all things, both visible and invisible. That is, He distinguished between the sensible and the insensible, the intellectual and the non-intellectual, assigning each its proper form and nature.\n4 This, as confirmed by the authority of the Book of Genesis, is shown to have been accomplished through the succession of six days, so that it is firmly declared that on the sixth day, God completed everything pertaining to the creation and order of the universe. For it is written:\n5 \u0026ldquo;And God completed all His works on the sixth day, and He blessed the seventh day, because on it He rested from all His works\u0026rdquo;.\n6 From this, we understand that God completed everything on the sixth day so that on the seventh, He did not cease from labor—since He never grows weary—but rather from the work of creation itself. Yet, when the Lord Jesus responded to the Jews questioning Him about the Sabbath rest, saying: \u0026ldquo;My Father is working even until now, and I am working\u0026rdquo;.\n7 We believe that God indeed completed all things on the sixth day and rested on the seventh, and yet we do not doubt that He continues to work even now. But how can it be understood that the same God both completed His work then and still works now? This requires deeper inquiry.\n8 For on the sixth day, He perfected the nature of creatures, yet He has never ceased to govern them. And on the seventh day, He rested from the work of creation, yet He never ceases from the task of sustaining and ruling over all things.\n9 Therefore, we must understand that God was then the Creator, but now He is the Governor of all things. Thus, even if we see something new arise in creation, we should not think that He is creating a new nature, but rather that He is governing what was already created. However, He is so powerful in governing His creation that when He brings forth what was hidden within the depths of nature, He may appear as if He were creating something new.\n10 It is through this extraordinary governance that, when things manifest themselves according to the will and power of the Governor in ways not seen in the ordinary course of nature, Scripture refers to them as wonders and miracles. Yet, since we will discuss these miracles more fully when we come to their proper place, let this truth remain fixed for now: after completing the creation of all natures, God rested from His work on the seventh day, but from that time onward, He has never ceased governing the whole of creation.\n11 Although all creation is said to have been established over the course of six alternating days, this alternation of days should not be understood as a passage of time. Rather, it signifies a succession of works. For the narrator of the historical account divides in words what God did not divide in the perfection of His work. Indeed, God created all things at once, for in a single act of His will, He ordained the manifold variety of all species. In this same act of will, He brought everything into existence simultaneously, without the passage of time, though from the very moment of their origin, He arranged for them to unfold over time.\n### Chapter 2: On the Different Sins of Rational Natures\n1 In the creation of all things, the spiritual creature was originally brought forth first, as an invisible reality. Then, so that what existed inwardly might also exist outwardly in God\u0026rsquo;s works, the bodily and visible creation was also brought into being. In this principal and universal division of all things, the Creator established two rational natures: one in the spiritual realm and the other in the corporeal—namely, the angels and humanity. And according to the distinction of their natures, He also assigned them different places of habitation: He granted heaven to the angels and earth to mankind.\n2 Once these were established, the sin of both rational natures followed—namely, that of the angels and of men. The transgression of the commandment committed by humanity is recounted in the historical account of the Book of Genesis. However, for those who reflect upon it, a significant question arises: why does Scripture remain silent regarding how the sin of the angels occurred, offering no explicit testimony about it?\n3 Although the prophet, speaking in the person of the king of Babylon, declares the words of that angelic ruin, saying: \u0026ldquo;I will sit upon the mount of the covenant, on the sides of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, and I will establish my throne in the north, and I will be like the Most High\u0026rdquo;, these words can most easily be understood with a historical interpretation regarding the king of Babylon—unless, perhaps, through a figurative interpretation, the words are transferred from the body to the head by way of allegory.\n4 Thus, the question raised in this passage is not resolved, since the cause of the fall, the sentence, and the punishment are not explicitly revealed in the Gospel’s historical account. Unless, as some believe, one might say that his original sin was in the seduction of man through the serpent, for which he had also received a sentence of condemnation, as the Lord said: \u0026ldquo;Cursed are you among all animals and all beasts of the earth; on your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life\u0026rdquo;.\n5 But far be it from us to think that an angel could incite man to sin on earth unless he himself had first sinned in heaven, as the Lord said: \u0026ldquo;I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven\u0026rdquo;. For how could he have envied human happiness unless he had first lost his own blessedness?\n6 Therefore, we must believe not only that the fall of the devil preceded the sin of man, but also that it came before the perfection of creation, which was completed on the sixth day. For when the Lord pronounces judgment on the damned at the end of time, He says: \u0026ldquo;Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire, which my Father has prepared for the devil and his angels\u0026rdquo;. But when was that fire prepared, if not at the completion of all creation?\n7 Unless, of course, we were to say that after the perfection of the sixth day, God created something else—which is impossible, lest we make Scripture, or rather ourselves, into liars. Thus, since a prison was prepared for him within that order of creation, his sin must have preceded those creatures in its origin. For as Scripture says: \u0026ldquo;He was a liar from the beginning, and he did not stand in the truth\u0026rdquo;.\n8 It remains, then, for us to explain the fall of the angels, the cause of which the Lord has left unspoken. Yet we cannot doubt that the angel, who was created as the highest of God\u0026rsquo;s creatures, fell. However, the true physician did not wish to reveal how the angelic wound occurred, since He did not intend to heal it afterward.\n9 And how he was cast out by the sentence of judgment is left unspoken, for in no way was he recalled through repentance. Yet the way in which man’s sin was committed is set forth, for it is not altogether despaired that he might obtain pardon. God chose rather to show how man was cast out, whom He later, in the end, called back to his former state. Nor did He hide how man received the sentence of punishment, from whom He did not refuse, at times, to accept satisfaction through the pardon of His mercy. Considering this difference between men and angels, the Apostle says: \u0026ldquo;For surely it is not angels He helps, but the seed of Abraham\u0026rdquo;. For when the merciful and compassionate Creator, abiding in the supreme and unchangeable substance of God the Father, willed to empty Himself in the form of a servant, He did not take on the nature of angels, but that of man. Yet even in this, a question arises: since God did not spare the angels when they sinned, yet granted pardon to sinful man by assuming human flesh, why then was the highest angel struck down with an irrevocable punishment, while man, though sinning and transgressing the command of his Creator, was later mercifully called to repentance—John, the Lord, and Peter all crying out: \u0026ldquo;Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand\u0026rdquo;?\n10 The angel, therefore, who was established in the highest order of honor, had no change to a more excellent state except by being confirmed through the contemplation of his Creator, so that he might remain in the state in which he was created. And for this reason, having fallen, he could in no way be recalled, since he had plunged from the most exalted height of his order. Man, however, still placed on earth, destined for the office of procreation and appointed to the consumption of food, would have received a transformation into a higher, better, and more spiritual life without experiencing death—if only he had remained obedient to the command for as long as he dwelled in this life. But sin seized him before he could reach that higher state, and so he immediately fell from his lower order—that is, from the immortality of his body—as the Lord said: \u0026ldquo;You are dust, and to dust you shall return\u0026rdquo;. Yet, through the mercy of the Creator, man is called back to that blessedness, which he had not yet attained when he sinned, through the Passion of the Lord. If he had fallen from it as the angel did, he would never have been recalled. For man will never reach that state again—that is, the immortality of his body—except after the death of all is fulfilled, when that blessedness to which we are recalled is restored through the resurrection.\n11 However, the restoration will not be to the same order or state from which the first man fell, but to another, even more exalted, as the Lord said: \u0026ldquo;They will be like the angels of God in heaven\u0026rdquo;. Furthermore, to the fullness of the devil’s sin was added the fact that, immediately after he sinned, he fell into the pit of despair. For if he had not despaired of obtaining pardon for his sin, he would never have sought to bring about the loss of salvation for man, who consented to him. Indeed, one who hopes for pardon from a previous sin in no way prepares to increase his guilt with another. Thus, through this despair, he not only found for himself the pit of destruction but also became the cause of man’s ruin by leading him into sin.\n12 Yet this serves to lessen man’s guilt: for not only did he not fall into transgression by himself, but he consented to the persuasion of the serpent. Moreover, he did not lead another rational creature into offense against God. Because of this, he more easily found the door of repentance open to him. But whoever does not enter through this door will be subject to the loss of eternal life. On the other hand, whoever washes away his sins through repentance will forever share in the blessedness of the angels.\n### Chapter 3: On Abel and Enoch Holding Primacy in Human Righteousness\n1 From the very beginning of humanity after original sin, God showed that people could sometimes obtain His mercy by choosing a few individuals to reveal His friendship. Over time, He gradually increased their number until He visited humanity with His presence, ultimately bringing light to the whole human race across the world with His coming. Among these few, the first was Abel, the leader of all human righteousness, and the second after him was Enoch, the most distinguished before the Flood. To these two, the highest standard of righteousness was entrusted at the very dawn of the world and its ultimate fulfillment. One, at the very start of injustice and at the beginning of the world itself, was taken by martyrdom, crowned in the triumph of his own blood. The other has not yet experienced death and has been reserved as a witness for the last days. But to Abel, the Lord Jesus Christ entrusted the primacy of human righteousness, saying: \u0026ldquo;From the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah\u0026rdquo;.\n2 In saying, \u0026ldquo;From the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah,\u0026rdquo; without adding the word \u0026ldquo;righteous\u0026rdquo; to Zechariah, Christ shows that Zechariah inherits Abel\u0026rsquo;s righteousness. A similar pattern is found in the genealogy of the Savior, where it is written, \u0026ldquo;Jesse begot David the king, and David the king begot Solomon\u0026rdquo;. Here, the title \u0026ldquo;king\u0026rdquo; is not repeated for Solomon, even though he inherited a greater dominion from his father. This indicates that Solomon possessed David\u0026rsquo;s kingdom by hereditary right and that the honor of kingship pertains more to David, as he was the first in his lineage to obtain the throne. Likewise, Abel held the primacy in human righteousness because he was the first to become righteous on earth. Therefore, just as heirs succeed their fathers by hereditary right, so do all the just follow in Abel\u0026rsquo;s footsteps, embracing every aspect of righteousness.\n3 And if he had fulfilled that command, he would certainly not have remained a virgin. And if God had preserved him from death, he would by no means have received the primacy of martyrdom. It was therefore fitting that the one who was first chosen as righteous on earth should preserve in himself the pattern of all righteousness, and that to him, as the first among men after the fall, should be granted the privilege of bearing the figure of the Savior, who is seen to be a virgin, a priest, and a martyr. But Enoch, without experiencing death, was kept apart from human society for nearly an entire age so that in him it might be shown how, if men had not sinned, they would, after begetting offspring, be transformed into spiritual life without dying. Yet, although he has been preserved for a long time and still lives, he will not be able to avoid the debt of death, which we have all inherited in Adam. Indeed, in this case, too, arises that question from which the occasion for writing about wonders seems to have been taken—namely, why his life has been extended for such an extraordinarily long time, seemingly beyond the limits of human nature. However, in this, no new nature is created for one man, but rather the original and universal condition of all men is maintained. For it is evident to those who consider the history of Genesis that it was implanted in man\u0026rsquo;s first state that he should not only live for a long time but even forever, unless the sting of sin had driven death beyond the boundaries of nature.\n### Chapter 4: On the Fact That Only Earthly Animals Were Destroyed in the Flood\n1 In the course of time, as men, after original sin, advanced toward offending God through their own pursuits and fell into forgetfulness of their Creator—so much so that through immense sin and great bodily stature, giants arose—God prepared to cleanse the wickedness of the whole earth with water. And when He found one man perfect in his generation, namely Noah, the son of Lamech, He revealed to him alone the mystery of His plan. He commanded him to build an ark over a long period of time so that either, by this act, he and his household might be saved from the impending destruction, or those who saw the coming doom and feared it might be moved to repentance for their sins.\n2 But when that judgment was stubbornly and negligently despised, God, provoked by their offense, suddenly brought about the destruction of the entire world, covering all the land with water. He wiped out everything that could live only on land—both humans and other creatures—by means of the water that He commanded to descend from heaven, except for those that were enclosed in the ark. However, all creatures that could live in the water were untouched by that plague; only the land animals were destroyed.\n3 At this point, an inquiry arises that requires a solution for those who question it with keen discernment: \u0026ldquo;Why do land animals suffer more than aquatic ones as part of the punishment of mankind, when they have committed no greater sins?\u0026rdquo; Yet in the sin of the first man, the earth from which he had taken and eaten was immediately cursed. For through the divine oracle it was declared: \u0026ldquo;Cursed is the ground because of you\u0026rdquo;.\n4 It should be noted that the very animals that fed on the cursed earth could not themselves be free from the curse, especially since the earth, along with its creatures, had been cursed. Another question therefore arises: \u0026ldquo;Why did God not also curse the waters when He pronounced the curse on Adam?\u0026rdquo; The answer is simple: it was not water that man drank in disobedience to the Lord’s command, but the fruit of the earth that he ate. Beyond this reasoning, God also spared the waters from Adam’s curse because He had prepared them to wash away that very curse, as was done in the Flood, and as is now granted through Baptism; for in water and the Holy Spirit, all human sins, both of the body and of the soul, are cleansed. Aquatic creatures, indeed, are not subject to the punishment of the curse, for they did not partake in it. And so the Lord, when He had cast off the curse of human death by rising again, did not eat the flesh of land animals but of those from the waters. To confirm His resurrection before the disciples, He took and ate a piece of broiled fish and a honeycomb.\n### Chapter 5: How did the animals that can neither live solely on land nor solely in water survive the flood?\n1 The question arises concerning animals that can neither live solely on land nor solely in water, such as otters, seals, and many species of birds that seek their food in the water but rest, sleep, and nourish themselves on dry land. If they had been enclosed within the ark, they would not have been able to survive without access to water; but if they had remained outside, with the waters covering everything, where would they have found rest? Thus, as I have said before, the question is debated whether God, by His power, tempered their nature during the time of the flood so that they could survive either entirely in water or entirely on dry land. However, since God chose to preserve Noah and his household by means of the ark rather than by an act of power, why would He have preserved these creatures by a miracle? Or could it be that some rocky refuges existed for them? But how could such places have provided relief when all the mountains were covered by water, exceeding them by fifteen cubits? Or perhaps the roof of the ark could have served as a resting place for them? For though the ark measured three hundred cubits in length, thirty in height, and fifty in width, its roof was contracted on all sides into a single cubit-wide space, forming a stable surface. Could it be that this space, designed to preserve those inside safely, might also have served as a refuge for creatures wandering over the depths?\n### Chapter 6: Concerning the bursting forth of the waters of the flood\n1 The account of the breaking forth of the waters of the flood is given as follows: \u0026ldquo;All the fountains of the great deep were broken up, and the floodgates of heaven were opened, and rain fell upon the earth for forty days and forty nights\u0026rdquo;. Later, it is stated: \u0026ldquo;The fountains of the deep were closed, and the rain from heaven was restrained\u0026rdquo;.\n2 We are prevented by the limitations of our knowledge from explaining this matter with a fixed and definitive conclusion. Nevertheless, let us present in an impartial manner whatever interpretations the learned have been able to propose, without granting greater authority to any particular opinion over another. Regarding these accounts, we allow the freedom to assess and either accept or reject each viewpoint individually.\n3 A question arises concerning whether rivers existed before the flood, flowing from springs. There is no definitive statement in the account of creation as to whether they were formed or not, except that a single spring rose from the earth and was divided into four streams, which watered the regions. Unless, perhaps, one might argue that from this one spring, all other fountains throughout the whole expanse of the earth also gushed forth even then—so that mentioning that one great original spring would be sufficient to account for them all individually.\n4 Or were they indeed not present before the flood, until that exceedingly great eruption of waters caused the veins of all the fountains to break forth, even in places where they had not existed before—something we still observe happening even now? However, it is not said that these were fountains of the earth, but rather fountains of the deep: \u0026ldquo;And the fountains of the deep were broken up\u0026rdquo;. Yet this statement about fountains can be understood in a general sense. For from where else could the earth have received water unless the deep, lying beneath it, supplied veins of springs through hidden channels? Therefore, the fountains of the deep may also be called the fountains of the earth.\n5 But those who interpret it this way must explain what follows shortly after, when, upon the completion of the forty-day deluge, it is stated: \u0026ldquo;And the fountains of the great deep were closed, and the rain from heaven was restrained\u0026rdquo;. If the fountains that now flow across the earth were opened during the flood, how can it be said that they were closed again? Unless, perhaps, not all fountains are meant to have been closed—only those specifically through which the waters of the flood were made to pour forth. Yet, they also assert that this statement applies only to that particular time.\n6 For the sources that had been closed—since that unprecedented eruption was restrained—subsequent reasoning confirms that they were later opened, as the waters advanced and then receded. After all, to where would they have returned, if not to where they had come from? Thus, the waters had burst forth through opened springs, which were later closed to stop the eruption. But when the waters were called back once more, even the springs that had been sealed were reopened. For how could the waters, which could not have entered while the gates were shut, have flowed back unless the openings had been unsealed?\n7 Regarding the statement, \u0026ldquo;And the floodgates of heaven were opened, and rain fell,\u0026rdquo; this question requires no less careful consideration, as it has been examined through various interpretations by different scholars. Some believe that these floodgates were opened in the clouds, which are often referred to as \u0026ldquo;heaven\u0026rdquo; in the divine Scriptures—for example: \u0026ldquo;And the heavens shall give rain, and the earth shall yield its fruit\u0026rdquo;; \u0026ldquo;He gave them the bread of heaven\u0026rdquo;; \u0026ldquo;The birds of heaven may dwell there\u0026rdquo;; and \u0026ldquo;The birds of heaven have nests where they may rest\u0026rdquo;. Therefore, those aforementioned scholars interpret the floodgates of heaven as formations within the clouds, allowing rain to fall—just as even today, the whole world acknowledges that such a process takes place through the clouds. But at that time, Holy Scripture recalls that the floodgates of heaven were opened because an immense outpouring of rain occurred, far beyond the usual amount.\n8 Others, however, say that these floodgates were originally established in that highest firmament, which God created in the beginning to divide the waters above from the waters below. They hold that God prepared those upper waters for this very purpose. In this arrangement of both the higher and lower waters, they perceive a symbolic foreshadowing of the sacred ministry of Baptism: the heavenly rain represents the Holy Spirit, while the waters of the abyss signify the baptismal water. Just as the upper and lower waters cleansed the sins of the first world, so too does the Holy Spirit, along with the water, wash away the transgressions of our former life.\n9 However, since in this work we have chosen to focus on the literal understanding of events rather than a figurative interpretation, let us proceed with what directly pertains to the matter at hand.\n10 Thus, those who believe that the waters of the firmament were set in place to bring forth the Flood also hold that rain did not exist in the world before the Flood. They are led to this conclusion by the fact that the rainbow was established in the clouds only after the Flood. They reason from the nature of created things themselves, arguing that if rain had ever fallen before the Flood under clear skies, the rainbow—formed by sunlight interacting with moist, serene clouds—would have appeared then as well. Indeed, the rainbow is always produced by the sun and humid clouds, and it can sometimes be seen at night by the light of the moon in clear, moist conditions.\n11 Thus, in the earliest age of the newly created world, it was possible for the earth to be nourished solely by the morning and evening dew, without any disturbances in the atmosphere or rainfall. Just as that first age produced humans who lived long lives and enjoyed robust health, so too could the world itself have remained undisturbed, producing abundant fruits suitable for sustenance. Then, from the second age onward, just as human life began to be marked by turmoil, so too did the world become subject to storms and turbulent seasons. Even today, in the land of Egypt, fertility does not come from seasonal rains but rather from the moisture of the earth itself, the favorable conditions of the air, and the periodic flooding of the Nile.\n12 However, how this inquiry should be regarded with certainty is for learned and faithful Catholic scholars to determine.\n### Chapter 7: On the Recession of the Waters of the Flood\n1 Let us present, without presuming upon our own authority, the opinions of learned and insightful teachers regarding the recession of the waters of the Flood. This question presents an intricate problem for those who study it with keen minds. When the waters of the Flood covered the entire expanse of the earth, did they leave any space unoccupied? And if they did not leave such a space, then when they receded, what did they fill?\n2 On this matter, concerning the waters that flowed down from the floodgates of heaven, there are two principal opinions among scholars. Some hold that these waters were drawn back through those same floodgates, just as dry clouds customarily draw moisture from the sea to produce rain. In the same way, the vast region of the firmament above could have recalled the waters it had sent down from the clouds. For Scripture says, \u0026ldquo;The waters receded and returned\u0026rdquo;. But where did they return to, if not from where they had come?\n3 If, then, from that lofty firmament— as we have said according to the estimation of some— the waters had flowed down from above and left the space they had occupied, and if they were later recalled there, what wonder is it that they would fill again the very spaces they had abandoned? Or, if we grant that the same great mass of rain was produced from the clouds, what contradiction is there for those who reason intelligently, if that same water was drawn back into the clouds— just as we observe in the daily course of nature, where rain falls from the clouds and is later taken up again?\n4 However, those who deny that rain existed before the Flood hold a different view regarding the retreat of the waters. For while they claim that the waters were poured out from the firmament, they nevertheless insist that they returned only to the clouds. Moreover, they say that the excess water, which had come from above, still continues to generate turbulent movements in the air and different atmospheric hemispheres. By means of alternating cycles, the same cloudy air now releases moisture into the lower parts of the world— that is, upon the earth and the sea— and now draws it back up again from those very places, namely the sea and the land. This is similar to how, in the human chest, breath follows a reciprocal motion, being exhaled and then drawn back in, so that it may be inhaled again.\n5 Amid these various opinions and the many complexities of learned teachers, we hold firmly to this truth: whatever waters had come from above, the wind sent by God dried them up so that the land would be exposed. For it is written: \u0026ldquo;The Lord sent a wind over the earth, and the waters receded\u0026rdquo;. Whether the wind gathered the dispersed waters into the clouds or they returned to the expanse of the upper firmament, let the learned determine with certainty.\n6 As for the waters that had poured forth abundantly from the broken fountains of the abyss, by the Lord’s command they returned again through the very channels from which they had come. Yet, even here, a common question arises for us—one that seemed to have been settled in other matters. If, when they flooded the earth, the waters had left some space unfilled, then when they receded, what did they occupy?\n7 Others explain this question in the following way: by God\u0026rsquo;s command at that time, the sea, departing from its usual boundaries, was able to rise through the opening of those fountains, overflowing with an extraordinary flood and spreading across all the land. Then, it could either reclaim what it had lost or even deposit its excess into the spaces of the earth, which belonged to the lower waters. For the land, which always absorbs the waters that lie above it, is accustomed to draw them back into itself unless they come from springs. And indeed, we see that even very small things can grow into something much greater, without violating the natural order.\n8 Nor is it contrary to the nature of the earth for it to continually consume the waters that lie upon it, especially since God has granted even His saints the power to do this—just as He gave it to Elijah and Elisha in the form of a small cloud. Moreover, the sea customarily expands beyond its ancient boundaries, reducing and cutting away portions of the land, as even elderly men still living in our time affirm that they have witnessed.\n9 Thus, over time, islands have formed in places where, as many assert, there were none when the world was first created. This occurs when nearby headlands are severed from the mainland by the encroaching sea. From this, we understand that the wild animals now enclosed within these islands were not transported there by human effort, but were rather discovered on the land when the islands became separated from the mainland.\n10 For who, for instance, would have transported wolves, deer, wild boars, foxes, badgers, hares, and squirrels to Ireland? Or how could it be that, if these domestic animals had once escaped from the hands of those who brought them, they would now be seen roaming the forests in such numbers? Yet some authors claim that these species of wild beasts and animals are generated by the land itself, believing that the creatures now enclosed within islands were not descended from those saved in the Ark, but rather sprang forth from the earth itself.\n11 However, even if someone were to accept this explanation—regarding the retreat of the floodwaters—as sufficient and reasonable, the question still remains unresolved in our minds. Indeed, with the daily rising and receding of the ocean, this question continually resurfaces. Just as we do not know from where these floodwaters come or to where they retreat, so too do we remain ignorant of how the waters of the great flood receded.\n12 For this daily inundation occurs unfailingly every twenty-four hours, from time to time, in a cyclical pattern. Moreover, the alternating phases of Ledo and Maline follow a regular sequence. Ledo brings six hours of rising waters and six hours of recession, whereas the great Maline swells for five hours and then withdraws, uncovering the shores for seven hours.\n13 This demonstrates such great harmony with the moon that, before the moon is born, it always begins three days and twelve hours earlier; and after the beginning of the new moon, it similarly continues for another three days and twelve hours. Likewise, before the full moon, it begins three days and twelve hours earlier and completes its course at the same interval after reaching its full phase. Each season—spring, summer, autumn, and winter—has six Malinas according to lunar reckoning, meaning that a common year contains a total of twenty-four, except in embolismic years, which have twenty-six Malinas. Additionally, during the midpoint of each of the aforementioned seasons, particularly at the equinoxes, and at other times when either day or night reaches its course’s end, the usual increase in inundation heightens even more significantly. However, after these intervals, there is always an equally long period of receding waters.\n14 However, the reason for the persistence of this inundation and its retreat remains hidden from our understanding; yet even for those who do not comprehend it, human knowledge provides no lesser benefit. For whoever desires true wisdom should hasten toward the eternal kingdom, where there is no ignorance, and in the meantime, let him say with the great teacher of the nations: \u0026ldquo;For we know in part, and we prophesy in part\u0026rdquo;. Indeed, all things we possess we scarcely know in part. The surface of the earth, on which we labor, are nourished, live, and are sustained, is visible to our eyes, yet how it itself is sustained remains unknown to us. The sun is given for our service by day, but what benefit it accomplishes during the night is concealed from our knowledge. Who can fully comprehend the reasons for the moon’s waxing for fifteen days and waning for the same duration? We are permitted to observe the swelling tides of the sea, yet we are deprived of understanding its retreat.\n15 Within ourselves, we know and remember the day of our birth, but we do not know the day of our death, even though we are certain it will come. Even the physical things we see, we can only partially understand. Thus, we know in part as long as we remain in this world. But if we reach that light of the Father of lights, there will be nothing in creation that we do not understand. However, to return to our subject concerning this great flood, which is such a marvelous work of God, it is clear that nothing has been done against nature, for nothing appears to have been added that God did not create in the beginning, except that the sea’s waters have gathered in greater abundance than usual, drawn together along with the rains. I do not assert any of this with absolute authority, nor do I wish to be contentious in defending a particular view; but if someone with greater understanding perceives these matters more clearly, perhaps their insight will also be pleasing to me. For I have merely conveyed in these small writings what I have learned from the teaching of various masters. If anything here appears faulty or lacking in sound reasoning, the error is mine, not theirs.\n### Chapter 8\n1 The question concerning the course of the sun and moon during the flood, as well as the boundaries and their recurrence, though widely debated by many, is clarified by the very passage of the year in which the flood took place, showing that nothing in the usual functioning of the heavenly lights or stars was altered. For Noah entered the ark with all who belonged to him on the seventeenth day of the second month. After one hundred and fifty days, on the twenty-seventh day of the seventh month, the ark came to rest on the mountains of Armenia. On the first day of the tenth month, the mountain peaks became visible. On the first day of the first month, the waters began to dry up. And after the full course of the year had passed, on the twenty-seventh day of the second month, the dry land was revealed; on this day, by the command of the Lord, Noah and his whole household left the ark. From these indications, it is most clearly shown that, in all matters concerning the completion of the year\u0026rsquo;s cycle, in the functioning of the heavenly lights, and in the fulfillment of days and nights, nothing appears to have been diminished. For if the course of the heavenly lights—namely, the sun and moon—had been in any way disrupted, the alternation of days and nights would have first been disturbed, and then the entire cycle of the year would have been hindered. But since the yearly cycle returns undisturbed, it is evident that the course of the heavenly lights in the preceding year was not disrupted.\n### Chapter 9: On the Dispersion of Languages\n1 Now that the universal cleansing of the whole world by water had been completed under God\u0026rsquo;s guidance, and the land had once again been revealed by His command, the descendants of Noah—the sole righteous man at that time—went forth from the ark and quickly multiplied, destined to fill all the regions of the world. But before they were divided across all the lands, an impious and arrogant thought crept into their hearts: they resolved, by common agreement, to magnify their own name rather than that of God, their Creator, by constructing a most magnificent tower that would reach to heaven. In doing so, they sought to ensure that their fame would be celebrated by all generations to come, across every rule and throughout the entire span of the world’s history, as an indelible monument to their own glory.\n2 But because of this recklessness and arrogant presumption, God was once again offended, and through the shared guilt of all humanity, He did not wish to destroy the entire nation utterly by an indiscriminate massacre of all, as He had recently done among men—especially since no righteous person was found to remain. However, at that time, when all the people still spoke one language, He divided the tongues of all who had come for such a work into different languages. By the most just judgment of the righteous Judge, those who had scorned God with the swelling pride of their arrogance would indeed feel punishment in the most fragile part of their nature—their speech. And this did not happen only to those fathers themselves, but the condition of such punishment extended through all their descendants, so that those who had sought an everlasting reputation for their posterity would instead find, through all the ages to come, the lasting consequence of that presumption upon their descendants.\n3 Later, this division of languages also occurred by God\u0026rsquo;s design so that the mystery of the Holy Scriptures would be preserved in the language of one chosen people among many until the appointed time. When, at the predetermined moment, He willed to reveal the mystery of His plan to all nations, He sent the Holy Spirit from on high, bringing knowledge of all languages to the ministers He had foreordained for this sacrament. The same wonders of God, which had been proclaimed up to that point in one language, were now preached at His first coming through the Apostles as a consecration of all tongues. Thus, those whom God had gathered in Jerusalem at that time from all nations, as a testimony to this event, said, \u0026ldquo;We have heard them speaking in our own tongues the mighty works of God\u0026rdquo;. In this way, the humility of the Apostles, through the gift of the Holy Spirit, gathered together what the arrogant presumption and vain desire for glory had scattered. Many authorities agree that the number of these languages was seventy-two, because it is said that an equal number of fathers had assembled for the building of that tower in the land of Shinar, which is now Babylon.\n4 Thus, the Lord is said in the Gospel to have chosen seventy-two disciples, apart from the chief Apostles, through whom the same Gospel would later be preached to all nations. In prefiguration of this, the spirit of Moses was also distributed among the seventy elders, and to two others who remained in the camp—namely, Eldad and Medad—the gift of the spirit of prophecy was granted. As their hereditary successors, seventy wise men, descended from the lineage of Israel, were sent to King Ptolemy Philadelphus of Alexandria by the high priest Eleazar and the other leaders of the Jewish people at that time, and they translated the Scriptures of the ancient Law into the Greek language.\n5 In the time of the New Testament, however, the preeminence among all languages was given to three—Hebrew, Greek, and Latin—because the title of Christ’s cross was written in these three languages, as testified by the authority of the Gospel. Yet, in this, God did nothing against the natural order of human speech that He had once established by dividing and confounding the languages of men; for the nature of speech itself remains unchanged in humanity, except that different customs cause languages to diverge from one another, not by nature, but by habit. For a Latin or a Greek who is raised among barbarian nations speaks in a barbarous manner, while, conversely, the son of a barbarian who is taught by Greeks or Latins speaks with refined eloquence. From this, it is understood that God did not change human nature or create something new within them, but only divided the modes and forms of speech among different peoples.\n### Chapter 10: On the Punishment of Sodom\n1 After a long period of time had passed, five cities situated on the border of Arabia and Palestine—Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboiim, and Zoar—enjoyed the habitation of extremely fertile land and the abundance of all things. However, they were found guilty of improper indulgence in luxury and greed in the gathering of wheat, and so they opened the way for the Lord’s vengeance. Thus, fire and sulfur rained down upon them, and the entire region, along with its inhabitants, animals, and cities, was consumed in flames. It was fitting that those who had offended God with a shared determination should perish together by the same outpouring of judgment. Those who burned with unnatural lust in defiance of human custom were consumed by a punishment that was not earthly but rather the outpouring of heavenly fire. And those who had not only committed their sin but had also openly proclaimed it were consumed by a public punishment to match their infamous way of life. This punishment has not abandoned their land even to this day, serving as a warning of the torment that awaits those who commit such deeds.\n2 Between the two primary punishments seen in the world—the Flood and the destruction of Sodom—this distinction is observed: the earth appears to have been punished by one through water and by the other through fire. In the Flood, the earth was submerged by the dew of heaven and the waters of the abyss, whereas in the destruction of Sodom, it was condemned by a fiery downpour and an outpouring of sulfur. In the case of the Flood, the earth was uncovered again after the course of a single year, but in the case of Sodom, the land still remains desolate. The first punishment was for natural wickedness among men, while the second was for the invention of lust contrary to nature. Yet in the punishment of Sodom, God is seen to have done nothing against nature, for as the air above burned with fiery wrath, so too was the flame of their perverse desire kindled.\n### Chapter 11: On Lot’s Wife Being Turned into a Pillar of Salt\n1 Lot, the servant of God, was rescued from the destruction of sinners through the intervention of angels. However, his wife, who was commanded not to look back, was turned into a pillar of salt when she disobeyed and looked behind her. This happened so that, since her gaze was not free from the guilt of complicity, she could not escape death, even though she had been spared from the fire due to her association with a righteous man. But while we affirm that nothing in God\u0026rsquo;s creation exists contrary to nature and that everything is always governed by its inherent nature, we must ask: how, then, was the human body\u0026rsquo;s nature maintained when Lot’s wife was turned into a pillar of salt?\n2 No one can doubt that the nature of salt exists within the human body, as is evident from the salinity of tears. As physicians explain, tears flow from an agitated gall, and their salty nature—conceived within the hidden workings of nature—is perceptible even in their taste. This salinity is present not only in tears but also in phlegm and in the sputum expelled by coughing, demonstrating that the nature of salt is infused throughout the human body. Therefore, when the Almighty Governor of all things wills to transform an entire being into one of its component elements, He spreads throughout the whole what was previously contained in a small part.\n3 For this reason, when He chose to turn Lot’s wife into a pillar of salt, the tiny portion of salt naturally present in her flesh permeated her entire body. Thus, the One who completed the creation of all things on the sixth day did not mix different natures together, but rather preserved each one according to the order in which He originally established it.\n### Chapter 12: On Sarah, a Ninety-Year-Old Woman, Giving Birth to a Son\n1 Around the same time, Sarah, the barren wife of Abraham—who had been chosen from among many nations to be a friend of God—gave birth to a son named Isaac when she was already ninety years old. Throughout her entire life until that point, she had been unable to conceive. However, this was most fitting because the son she bore prefigured Christ, who would be born of a virgin without any desire of human passion. Thus, it was appropriate that she did not give birth at the usual age for women—between twelve and forty-nine—but beyond the limits of that custom. In this way, the child would not only be born beyond the age of fifty, when childbirth naturally ceases, but even at the age of ninety, when the desire for pleasure has also ended. And although this was contrary to the usual course of events, it was not against nature, for while it is uncommon for an elderly woman to give birth, it is not against nature for a child to be conceived in a woman\u0026rsquo;s womb at any time.\n### Chapter 13: About the Well That Hagar Saw When She Was Cast Out with Her Son\n1 When her son was born and weaned, the servant Hagar was cast out along with her son Ishmael, who was the firstborn. Wandering through the wilderness, she ran out of water and, as she and the boy were dying of thirst, she wept. But when an angel spoke to her and said, \u0026ldquo;The Lord has heard the voice of the boy,\u0026rdquo; her eyes were opened, and she saw a well in the wilderness.\n2 Regarding this well, it is reported in such a way that either it is revealed as having sprung forth from the earth at that moment, or, if it had already been there, Hagar’s eyes were opened at that time so that she could see what she previously had not been able to perceive.\n### Chapter 14: The Ram That Abraham Offered in Place of His Son\n1 In order to make it clear to all that Abraham remained steadfast in his friendship with God, the Lord commanded him to offer his son Isaac—who was already grown—as a burnt offering on one of the mountains that He had designated. Abraham obeyed without hesitation and quickly set out for the place that God had shown him. Taking his son with him, he was on the verge of sacrificing him when an angel called out and told him not to harm the boy. At that moment, he saw a ram caught by its horns in the thicket. Following the angel’s instruction, he immediately offered the ram as a burnt offering in place of his son.\n2 But the presence of this ram in the wilderness raises a question: where did it come from? Some assert that it was brought forth from the earth at that very moment, just as God caused animals to be born from the earth at the beginning of creation. However, since we do not say that God created anything from the earth after the sixth day, perhaps we should believe that an angel transported the ram from elsewhere—just as an angel took Philip away from the Ethiopian eunuch and placed him in Azotus, or as an angel is said to have carried Habakkuk to Babylon to bring food to Daniel in the lions’ den.\n### Chapter 15: Concerning Jacob and Joseph; Why One Was Buried in the Promised Land and the Other in Egypt\n1 After Isaac begot his sons Jacob and Esau, Jacob became the father of the twelve patriarchs. Out of jealousy, ten of his brothers sold Joseph into slavery in Egypt. Yet, even in a land of exile and captivity, Joseph became a source of salvation to the nations he encountered. He was entrusted with the administration of the entire Egyptian kingdom and given authority over the land of Egypt.\n2 Because of this, he invited his father Jacob and all his household to come to Egypt. Jacob lived there for sixteen years, and as the day of his death approached, he made his son Joseph swear an oath to carry his body to the burial place of his ancestors—the land of the promise. There, Abraham and Isaac lay with Sarah and Rebekah, and where Leah had also been laid to rest.\n3 Joseph fulfilled this solemn oath through his actions, for he had his father\u0026rsquo;s body carried to the ancestral tomb. Yet, when he himself later died in Egypt, he did not immediately wish to be taken to his ancestral tomb after death. Instead, he accepted a burial place in Egypt for the time being and commanded that his bones be carried away when the people left Egypt, saying, \u0026ldquo;Carry my bones with you from here\u0026rdquo;.\n4 Why, then, was one (Jacob) immediately transported to the tomb of Abraham in the Promised Land, while the other (Joseph) was buried in Egypt, to be carried away at a later time? Jacob never intermarried with foreign women, except for those who had come with him from Mesopotamia. For this reason, he was immediately taken in his entirety to his ancestral tomb after death. But Joseph, having taken Asenath, the daughter of Potiphera, the priest of Heliopolis, as his wife, was mixed with foreign blood. Therefore, after his death, he was laid to rest in foreign soil.\n5 Why, then, did he later wish to be brought to the Promised Land, when he had first been buried in Egypt? As a prophetic man, Joseph foresaw that the Egyptian people, devoted to idolatry, would at some point seek to worship him—he who had been the source of their earthly prosperity and had saved them from the danger of famine. And indeed, they did so. Near Joseph’s tomb, they set up the image of an ox, since the ox is a helper to men in agriculture. This is also why, when the Israelites in the wilderness sought to worship an idol, they did not make any other kind of statue but a calf—that is, an ox—primarily because Joseph had been worshiped in Egypt near his tomb in this way.\n6 To prevent himself from becoming the object of Egyptian idolatry, Joseph, foreseeing the future exodus of the Israelites, said, \u0026ldquo;God will surely visit you, and you shall carry my bones from here with you\u0026rdquo;. I have included this explanation here—not because it should be counted among the miracles—but so that I would not leave such a great span between Abraham and Moses without mentioning something worthy of remembrance.\n### Chapter 16: Moses and the Bush at Horeb\n1 After the death of Joseph, the Egyptian nation began to oppress the people of Israel under the harshest yoke of slavery. They even ordered that their male infants be cast into the river to prevent the Israelites from increasing too greatly, and they commanded various forms of execution for them.\n2 During this time, Moses, the son of Amram, was born—a man of the Levite lineage. He rose up to avenge his people, and when he saw an Egyptian striking an Israelite, he killed him. When news of this event reached the king of Egypt, Moses fled from the land and spent forty years in exile, tending sheep in the land of Midian.\n3 When the appointed time of the promise made to the patriarchs had arrived, as he was leading his flock through the pastures, he saw a burning bush on Mount Horeb that was not consumed by the fire. As he approached to investigate why the bush burned yet was not consumed, the Lord called to him from the midst of the bush, saying: \u0026ldquo;I am the Lord, the God of your fathers\u0026rdquo;.\n4 \u0026ldquo;I will send you to Egypt, so that you may deliver their offspring from the yoke of oppression\u0026rdquo;. In this terrifying vision, the first thing that appears to us in our study is how the fire seemed to burn, yet the thing in which it burned was not consumed. If, therefore, the fire drew its sustenance from the material, why was the thing from which it grew not consumed? And if the flame that was visible did not arise from this material, why was it necessary for it to appear in the bush? It is said that there is a certain kind of shrub that, the more it burns, is not only not consumed but is rather purified through the burning.\n5 Regarding this type of wood, Saint Jerome, in his explanation of the wooden altar that was shown in a vision of the Lord in the book of Ezekiel, says that it has a color similar to flax. However, while describing its nature, he refrains from naming it. If, therefore, the fire shown to Moses burned in the bush of such a tree, what wonder is it that it was in no way consumed? The nature of both fire and wood is preserved: for fire naturally burns wood, and yet the wood, though burning, is naturally not consumed by the fire.\n6 Or rather, in that bush, the fire did not appear as the enemy of the tree, but rather as the fire of which it is said: \u0026ldquo;He makes his angels spirits, and his ministers a flaming fire\u0026rdquo;. The incorporeal fire, then, is revealed in the bush. And because it was shown to a corporeal man, it was necessary that it be manifested through some corporeal material.\n### Chapter 17: On the Two Signs: The Hand Turned to the Bosom and the Staff Changed into a Serpent\n1 As Moses journeyed to Egypt, he was granted a double sign so that, in accordance with the testimony of three witnesses—himself and the two signs—the word might be confirmed. The staff, which Moses had carried in his hand as a shepherd of sheep, became a serpent when cast upon the ground. Likewise, when he placed his hand into his bosom, it became leprous the first time, but when he returned it to his bosom a second time, it was restored to health.\n2 However, there does not appear to be anything contrary to nature in what happened to his hand or the staff. For leprosy and health are conditions naturally inherent in human flesh, as is often demonstrated through alternating occurrences. Yet, the remarkable frequency and immediacy of this transformation—wherein the same hand appeared whole, then leprous and white, and once more whole in a single moment—presents to the observer a most extraordinary miracle.\n3 Thus, the staff turning into a serpent and the serpent being restored to wood poses a challenge for those who seek to understand nature. However, since both—the staff and the serpent—are clearly said to have originated from the earth, it follows that what is drawn from the same substance can, by the power of God, be transformed from one into the other.\n4 But if we were to concede that all things made from the earth can be changed into one another—so that an animal could turn into a tree, bread into a stone, or a human into a bird—then nothing would be able to remain firmly within the boundaries of its own nature. We would seem to be granting credibility to the ridiculous fables of magicians who claim that their ancestors flew through the ages in the form of birds. And in doing so, we would no longer regard God as the governor of nature but as one who changes natures—which is unthinkable. God forbid that we should believe He created something new after the first establishment of all natures, something that does not retain its own proper nature. For there is nothing new under the sun, nor can anyone say, \u0026ldquo;See, this is new\u0026rdquo;.\n5 For this reason, many learned teachers say that the true staff, which always remained a branch in the hands of Moses, was transformed into the form of a serpent only in an imaginary sense, as a sign—especially since it was needed solely for the purpose of displaying a sign. For if it had truly been a serpent, then it would have remained a serpent even after the sign had been given. Indeed, it was truly a staff, the same one Moses used to strike Egypt with plagues. It was never changed into a serpent but always remained a staff. With this staff, the sea was divided, and the rock was struck in Horeb and Kadesh.\n6 Therefore, if that serpent appeared only as an imaginary sign, why did it swallow the other serpents of the magicians before Pharaoh? Learned scholars can easily respond to this objection by saying that the magicians’ serpents were also imaginary. Thus, the illusion of a divine sign was able to consume what had been produced through the diabolical incantations of the magicians. According to this reasoning, the staff was not truly transformed into the nature of a serpent but was only changed in appearance as a sign. For there is nothing in the nature of a tree that could make it into a serpent. And so, except at the moment of the sign, what was naturally a staff was only seen as a serpent in a special, symbolic way.\n### Chapter 18: On the Water Turned into Blood\n1 Thus, as Moses went forth into Egypt, he performed signs before Pharaoh as the Lord had commanded him. He proclaimed God\u0026rsquo;s decree to the king, demanding that he release the people of Israel. However, the king obstinately refused to obey the command of God. Consequently, at the Lord’s bidding, ten plagues struck the land of Egypt.\n2 First, he struck the waters and turned them into blood, so that all the water throughout Egypt was transformed. This change brought death to the creatures that lived within the waters and inflicted severe suffering upon the people through thirst and devastation.\n3 This first act of divine retribution befell the Egyptians and their king appropriately. For just as they had ordered the infants of God’s people to be cast into the river, so too was the very water of that river turned into blood—bringing destruction to those who drank it and punishment to those who refrained.\n4 Moreover, it is necessary to consider, in accordance with the purpose of this work, how God, the governor of nature, altered the water into blood by His divine power while still preserving the natural order. Water, therefore, as the fundamental substance of all liquids, undergoes constant transformation in the service of various things, being naturally and ceaselessly drawn into the nourishment and sustenance of each individual nature. When it is taken up by the vine, it is changed into the taste and color of wine. When it ascends through the lofty branches of the olive tree, this same water produces the richness of oil. When gathered by bees into honeycombs, it becomes the sweetness of honey. When processed through the strength of palm trees, it brings forth dates, and when pressed, it attains the pleasantness of palm wine. When assigned as food for various animals, it is distinguished into different kinds of blood within the same flesh.\n5 Indeed, in nourishing offspring, it is transformed into milk—white in color and of the most delightful sweetness—within the udders. Meanwhile, in the rest of the body’s flesh, it takes on the red hue of blood. Furthermore, there are many types of blood within the same flesh—up to twenty-three, according to natural philosophers—among which they identify urine, seed, black and red bile, saliva, tears, and various other substances. Water, through its daily interactions with different things, prepares all these according to their nature.\n6 What, then, prevents a mind of understanding from accepting that what normally takes a long time can be accomplished in an instant by the command of the Almighty Governor? Water being turned into blood is not contrary to nature; rather, what it usually accomplishes over time through various processes, it now achieves immediately at the Lord’s command within itself.\n### Chapter 19: Concerning the Other Plagues of Egypt\n1 Regarding the other plagues by which God, through Moses—and Moses, through Aaron—punished Pharaoh, his land, and his servants, the simple account of these plagues clearly shows that nothing exceeded the limits of nature. For even though they occurred in greater numbers than usual at that time, frogs always originate from water; gnats arise from the dust in the summer heat of the sun; locusts and flies, driven by the sun’s intense heat, gather from all directions; cattle meet their natural end through various causes of death; dust, when disturbed, often darkens the clear sky; and the infected air generates blisters and, later, ulcers in both humans and animals. Hail and lightning fall from clouds that are frozen and violently agitated; and the absence of light impairs sight, so that the darkness grows more oppressive the farther the light withdraws. Moreover, death, which was first sown in Adam, reigns over all his descendants, and through it, the firstborn of all in Egypt were struck down with greater severity.\n2 But although all these things are naturally occurring, they befell the Egyptians in the form of plagues, coming upon them both suddenly and in greater measure than usual to curb their stubbornness. The sequence of these plagues increased not only in their variety but also in the agency by which they were brought about. The first three plagues were accomplished through Aaron. When he first struck the water, it immediately turned into blood. Then, when he stretched out the same staff over the water once more, a flood of frogs covered the land. And when he stretched out his staff over the dust of the earth for the third time, gnats swarmed forth. These three plagues, therefore, were brought about by Aaron.\n3 The next three plagues are administered through the word of Moses. For at his command, locusts and flies appear, and the death of livestock follows. However, the next three plagues are not merely ordered by word but are summoned through the actions of Moses. Indeed, Moses took ashes from the furnace and scattered them toward the sky, and boils with festering sores broke out on both people and animals, spreading like dust throughout all the land of Egypt. Then, stretching out his staff toward the heavens, he called forth an extraordinary downpour of hail and lightning upon the earth. Again, Moses extended his staff toward the sky, and there came thick darkness—so dense that it could be felt—which lasted for three days and three nights, bringing terror over the land.\n4 However, the final plague was not carried out by Aaron or even by Moses, but rather by the angel of the Lord, who passed through Egypt and struck down all the firstborn of the Egyptians.\n5 Thus, whenever a punishment arises from the earth, it is carried out through Aaron, a minister of lower rank. When the punishment concerns flying creatures or the death of livestock—beings that move as though they fly over the land—it is enacted by the command of Moses. But when chastisement is summoned from the lofty clouds, it is invoked by Moses raising his hand to the heavens. And when the decree of human death is dispensed by God, it is entrusted not to a man but to an angel—so that those who had remained unshaken by the scourges afflicting their possessions might at last be moved by the grievous loss of their own firstborn and come to revere the common destruction that followed.\n6 The plagues, moreover, encompassed every aspect of creation—earth, water, living creatures, air, fire, clouds, the heavens, and even the angels—demonstrating that the entire universe is armed against those who rebel and defy God. Just as all creation turns against those whom God intends to punish, so too does all creation aid those whom He chooses to help. Indeed, the Red Sea itself was divided for these two peoples: for one, it marked the end of all oppression; for the other, the beginning of utter destruction.\n### Chapter 20: On the Retreating and Dried-Up Red Sea\n1 When the Egyptians, worn down by so many plagues, were finally compelled to release the Israelite people, they soon regretted their decision. Driven by this renewed determination, Pharaoh and his entire army pursued them, seeking to bring them back into slavery. The Israelites, finding themselves trapped by the narrow confines of the Red Sea, saw Moses stretch out his staff over the waters. At once, the waters of the Red Sea parted, and as the people entered, walking on dry ground, the path widened before them.\n2 Then God sent a strong wind, which blew throughout the night, turning the divided sea into dry land. Between the two groups, He placed a cloud—darkness for the Egyptians but a pillar of light for the Israelites—so that the pursuing army could not overtake them. Though Pharaoh’s forces entered the sea after Israel, what had become a path of salvation for one became a trap for the other. The cloud stood between them, casting darkness over the Egyptians, preventing them from reaching the Israelites, while illuminating the path through the depths for God’s people.\n3 At dawn, the Israelites, now safe from both the sea and their enemies, reached the wilderness beyond. But the entire army of Pharaoh, without even a single survivor to bring word of their fate, was swallowed by the returning waters, sinking into the depths as the sea resumed its natural course.\n4 From this extraordinary miracle of God, one particular aspect concerns our present discussion—how the retreating and dried-up sea was sustained. However, we do not find this difficult to explain, with God’s help, for we often observe frozen waters when ice forms on the surface of lakes. What naturally occurs when the wind and rain subside, allowing the lower air to freeze the waters, happened then by divine command, as God sent an icy wind that instantly drove back the sea. But just as the sea was dried up at His command, so too, at His word, it melted and returned to its fluid state, covering the land once more.\n5 As for the retreat of the sea, we have already noted that we observe a similar phenomenon daily in the tidal ebb and flow of the ocean. From this, we can infer that just as the sea naturally recedes from the shore each day, so too, though in an entirely different and supernatural manner, God caused it to withdraw from its own shores at that moment.\n### Chapter 21: On the Harmonious Song of the Children of Israel\n1 Considering the immense power that the Lord displayed in delivering them, the children of Israel, led by Moses, all together sang a harmonious song to the Lord. Here, a truly astonishing miracle took place, worthy of great wonder: all of them—elders and children alike, people of every age—moved by the same divine breath, sang in perfect harmony as if with one voice, without any prior instruction, uttering the same words in unison.\n2 Yet, in this instance, anyone who inquires into nature can rest assured: this was not the result of human ingenuity or practice but of the divine Spirit, who inspired both the hearts and voices of the singers. However, even among these singers, the same Spirit is not seen to have acted against nature, for breath and voice naturally move the tongue and lips to form words. What they could have achieved through effort and study, the Lord granted them in an instant—the ability to sing a harmonious song as one. The very One who had just opened the depths of the sea before them now guided their tongues and minds to utter such a song.\n### Chapter 22: On the Waters Made Sweet at Marah\n1 After departing from the barren wilderness of birds, the Israelites, exhausted from three continuous days of travel, tormented by burning thirst, came to Marah, where they found waters that were unbearably bitter. Unable to drink them because of their salinity, they found no relief for their thirst. But the Lord showed Moses a piece of wood, and when he cast it into the water, its bitterness was transformed into sweetness. The people, refreshed by its pleasant taste, were relieved of the burning thirst that had wearied them unceasingly until that moment.\n2 But how can one who studies nature explain as natural the fact that, in an instant, bitter waters became sweet merely by contact with a piece of wood? What kind of wood could possess such a nature or such an extraordinary sweetness that, when dipped just once into the bitter stream, it immediately turned the water pleasant and drinkable? If someone were to cast a honeycomb into bitter water today, would not the honeycomb itself become bitter rather than the water becoming sweet?\n3 From this, it is understood that the wood did not, by its own nature, make the water sweet, but rather, by the command of the Creator and Governor of nature, the water was transformed in taste. For the same is true of the staff with which Moses struck the Red Sea, as well as when it was used to strike the river, the sky, and the earth, bringing plagues upon the land of Egypt. That rod itself had no inherent natural power when Moses or Aaron raised it to perform these signs—whether to turn the river’s water into blood, to summon gnats from the dust, or to bring darkness from the sky. If anyone other than Moses, acting without God’s command, had struck the sea with that rod, the waters of the deep would certainly not have obeyed. And if someone were to strike the waters again by chance, they would certainly never turn into blood.\n4 Likewise, that tree through which the bitter water at Marah was made sweet—if someone were to dip it into bitter liquid, and God did not command as He did the first time, then surely it would not transform the bitterness into a pleasant taste.\n5 From this, we must understand that God did not command these pieces of wood, or even the dust from the furnace, to be involved in these miracles because their natural properties or their own power brought about the effects. Rather, through these elements, He intended to foreshadow future mysteries. It is for a wise teacher, through figurative interpretation, to discern what these things now signify in the growth of the Church.\n6 Since we have established that the wood itself did not naturally cause these effects, it remains for us to explain how they occurred by nature. Whatever is discovered in anything through human effort, no matter how long the process, is not drawn from some foreign nature through human ingenuity. Instead, it already lies hidden within nature’s depths, waiting to be revealed by diligent effort and refined by the assistance of another element.\n7 And what is accomplished through human effort or the long cultivation of things, nature itself performs by God’s will when necessity demands it. Therefore, sailors frequently confirm that bitter or even extremely salty waters can be turned into a sweet taste. They do this by filtering the water through soil of the finest earth, which, by this method, is also purified and often used to quench their thirst. Likewise, the clouds draw up salty vapors from the sea, yet when they rain, they provide fresh water for earthly needs. This happens because the defect of salinity, which the water has absorbed within itself, is removed through its passage into the earth or the clouds.\n8 Similarly, fresh water, when drawn through the ashes of marine plants, acquires a salty taste, even stronger than that of the ocean. This transformation is naturally inherent in water itself, but it occurs more swiftly by the command of the Creator than by the efforts of human diligence and the processes of material elements.\n9 Through the aid of one substance, human effort or the very operation of a thing can alter the surface properties of nature. However, the Creator and Governor of all things reveals a hidden nature within a substance itself—one that would otherwise have required another medium to be made manifest. Just as bitter water, when purified through soil or clouds, reveals the sweetness hidden within its own nature, so too, by the command of the Almighty Governor of nature, it is transformed by itself, without the assistance of any other element.\n### Chapter 23: On the Manna That Rained from Heaven\n1 So, when they entered the wilderness, this people—about six hundred thousand foot soldiers ready for battle, not counting the mixed multitude, that is, the countless and diverse crowd that had come up from Egypt with them—was sustained by God for forty years with manna, that is, the bread from heaven. Indeed, the Psalmist later recalled this bread, saying, \u0026ldquo;He gave them bread from heaven; man ate the bread of angels\u0026rdquo;. It always descended at night, except on the night of the Sabbath, and with the dew, appearing around the camp with the whiteness of snow. For Scripture says it was \u0026ldquo;like coriander seed, and of the color of bdellium, white like snow\u0026rdquo;. However, it could not endure the rising sun but melted away at once. Yet, conversely, when gathered and ground in a mill, it withstood the heat of fire when baked into bread. And if anyone kept some of it until the morning of the next day, it became infested with worms—except for the portion stored in a full gomor measure inside the Ark, which remained whole and sound for a long time. In this wondrous and necessary sign, beyond those aspects that pertain to symbolic interpretation, there are matters that aid the minds of the diligent, requiring the enlightenment of explanation through the Lord\u0026rsquo;s guidance.\n2 The first question to consider is whether it is truly bread and how it is called the bread of angels. If that food is described as having nothing of an earthly nature, how can men, who are still on earth and subject to carnal vices, be sustained by it? For the Psalmist, as we have mentioned, writes in the verse that this bread is heavenly, given from the clouds along with the rain. These clouds, as we have previously said, are called \u0026ldquo;heavens\u0026rdquo; in the Scriptures. That food is called the bread of angels not because the angels, who do not require food, were nourished by it, but because such a gift was provided through the ministry of angels, just as the Law and other things were given to the people, which were ordained through angels in the hand of the Mediator. How, then, could it have sustained men of any kind unless it contained something earthly in its substance? But how can manna, which rained down from the clouds, be shown to have an earthly substance unless perhaps the lower part of the air itself retains some earthly nature? For how could it have borne the bodies of flying birds if the air did not contain some degree of earthly solidity? Therefore, that substance, along with the clouds supported by the nature of the earth itself, also congeals into snow and hail, which nearly attain the hardness of stones.\n3 What, then, is so difficult for perceptive minds to accept if, just as clouds can form hailstones, they could also produce grains of manna? Especially since, when it descended to the earth, it would vanish like hail melting upon the ground if the rising sun found it, dissolving as if it were dew akin to it. Thus, it is possible that manna, generated within the lower regions of the air, provided sustenance to earthly men. Indeed, this lower part of the air is even called \u0026ldquo;earth\u0026rdquo; in divine Scripture, as seen in Psalm 148, where all creatures are exhorted by the prophetic spirit to praise the Lord, their Creator. After describing those things that pertain to the adornment of the higher heavens, the passage moves to the lower parts of the air, saying, \u0026ldquo;Praise the Lord from the earth,\u0026rdquo; continuing on to \u0026ldquo;all that fulfill His word\u0026rdquo;. Behold, the Prophet has called the denser air, thickened with clouds and vapors, \u0026ldquo;earth,\u0026rdquo; even before reaching the mention of the lower terrestrial regions that follow. Therefore, it was in this upper part of the earth, where hail and snow are formed, that manna was generated and, through the ministry of angels, was provided as food for the inhabitants of the lower part of the earth. From this, it is clear that God did not seek sustenance for His people outside of nature but prepared it from the earth. Not that God could not have provided them with ordinary bread daily, even in the wilderness, but rather, by feeding them from the clouds, He taught them that \u0026ldquo;man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God\u0026rdquo;. For just as He commanded nature to sustain man with bread, so too, if He so willed, He could provide for them from anything whatsoever—just as He then gave them sustenance from the rain of the clouds.\n### Chapter 24: The Rock Struck in Horeb\n1 The same people, thirsting in the wilderness, asked for relief through drink. Therefore, Moses, their leader, at God\u0026rsquo;s command, struck the rock in Horeb with his staff, and water flowed from the rock. Here, the investigator of nature is perplexed as to how the nature of water can be hidden within hard stone. But does he not understand how, in the beginning, stones were formed from water—he who does not doubt that the nature of crystal, when snow remains frozen for a long time, hardens into the unchangeable solidity of stone? Especially when we often observe clumps of earth not arising from the soil itself but from the initial growth of moss on the tops of trees or cliffs, in which we later find small stones produced by the infusion of rain and the transformation of the moss into soil. We have also seen certain clayey lands, habitually covered by the flow of passing waters, turned into the hardness of stone. Among these, we even notice harder stones, as if from an earlier age, embedded in the very soil that had previously contained them.\n2 Just as we now see that certain concave oyster shells, once embedded in soft earth, have become incorporated into the natural hardness of stones, so too with other objects that the sea, over long ages, has cast upon the land. These often bear layers of accretions that appear not to have been lifted from the gravel of the sea but to have been concretely formed by the very quality of the marine moisture and the hardened outer surface of these bodies. Many marine creatures are also enclosed in shells of the same age, whose hardness surpasses that of most stones. From all these clear observations, any learned person would not deny that stones are now generated solely from water, and some from both water and earth, as the nature and consistency of tear-stone marble also indicate. Indeed, nature frequently transforms liquid into the hardness of stone, and likewise, it is seen to dissolve stone back into liquid. Moreover, as the history recorded in the book of Job relates, stone, when melted by heat, turns into liquid metal; but this could not occur unless it first became fluid in nature. Furthermore, every metal, no matter how hard, though it may not initially appear to be of a liquid nature, melts when subjected to fire. Since it is thus proven that the nature of stones is generated from the moisture of water, what prevents the reverse from happening—that by the will of God, the supreme governor, stone may be transformed into water, so that nature hastens to return to its original state—especially when God commands water to be drawn from the rock for His people?\n### Chapter 25: On the Sons of Moses and Why They Were Deprived of the Priesthood\n1 After these events, the kinsman of Moses, having brought Zipporah, the wife of Moses, along with his two sons, caused Moses to hasten through the wilderness to meet them. Although he was a Gentile, by his counsel, when they reached the camp, captains over thousands, hundreds, fifties, and tens were appointed among the people of God. However, a question arises regarding the sons of Moses—why they did not inherit their father’s leadership over the people and were even deprived of the priesthood, when the Psalmist declares, “Moses and Aaron among His priests”. Yet, this question is resolved by reasoning, since the sons of Moses were born of a Gentile mother during his time of wandering. Thus, it is written concerning Moses when he had his firstborn: “And he called his name Gershom, saying, ‘For I have been a stranger in a foreign land’”.\n### Chapter 26: On the Fast of Forty Days\n1 Meanwhile, at God\u0026rsquo;s command, Moses fasted for forty days, and after delivering God\u0026rsquo;s people from Egypt through the ten plagues, on the fiftieth day from the celebration of the Passover in Egypt, he brought down the law of the Ten Commandments from Mount Sinai, inscribed on two stone tablets. However, when he saw the people\u0026rsquo;s sin, he shattered the tablets at the foot of the mountain in his anger. Then, after the same number of tablets, made of the same material, were restored, he fasted again for forty days and, through God\u0026rsquo;s gracious gift, was deemed worthy to receive the same commandments once more. Yet during this time, contrary to the usual human condition, he suffered no weariness from such prolonged fasting, nor did he consume any earthly food, for he was sustained by communion with God\u0026rsquo;s word, enabling him to endure such an extended period without nourishment.\n### Chapter 27: On the People Demanding Meat\n1 Furthermore, a portion of the faithless people, inflamed with desire for meat, murmured against God, preferring the flesh pots of Egypt to the heavenly manna. When Moses found the matter unbearable, the Lord said, \u0026ldquo;Sanctify the people for tomorrow, for I will satisfy them with meat for a whole month\u0026rdquo;. But Moses, stirred by human weakness, replied, \u0026ldquo;Six hundred thousand foot soldiers make up this people, not counting the countless multitude—will an immense number of sheep and oxen be slaughtered for them, or will all the fish of the sea be gathered together to satisfy such a vast crowd?\u0026rdquo;. And so, to prevent anything conceived in Moses\u0026rsquo; frail human mind from being used to feed the people, God acted according to His own power and will.\n2 A wind sent by the Lord came forth and carried over the sea quails, bringing them to the camp, where they flew at a height of two cubits above the ground around the camp, covering as much distance as a person could travel in a day. He introduced the ortygometra (a species of quail), which the people gathered and ate for a whole month, that is, for thirty days. But punishment followed the unbelievers for their murmuring. For in that place, before the people departed, those who had craved meat were struck down by the Lord’s wrath and buried there. Certainly, in this, nothing new or contrary to nature was provided by the Lord, who seems to have simply made available to His people, in their time of need, a species of bird that He had long ago created and hidden in some remote corner of the world. Although the Book of Wisdom states, \u0026ldquo;They saw a new kind of bird\u0026rdquo;, this means that it was newly revealed, not newly created. What God had formed in the beginning along with the rest of creation, He now provided for His people in their time of necessity. Nevertheless, He sent the quails again for this purpose, which, when previously given together with the manna, had caused no harm to those who ate them. This was done so that no one might think that eating the birds alone had brought about the people\u0026rsquo;s death apart from their sin of murmuring. For even in this punishment, He preserved those who ate with a clear conscience, and when the quails were previously given alongside the manna, they caused no harm to the entire multitude.\n### Chapter 28: On Moses’ Ethiopian Wife and the Leprosy of the Complaining Miriam\n1 Later, because of Moses\u0026rsquo; Ethiopian wife, Aaron and Miriam spoke arrogantly against him, even though The words of the Holy Spirit describe him as the meekest of all the people living on earth at that time. However, when God summoned only those three to the Tabernacle, Aaron was rebuked by the Lord’s words but was spared from punishment due to the anointing oil. Miriam, on the other hand, was stricken with leprosy, her body becoming white as snow, and was therefore commanded to remain outside the camp. Yet, when Moses prayed on her behalf, she was healed and restored on the seventh day.\n2 Regarding this Ethiopian wife of Moses, scholars hold two differing opinions. One view suggests that he married her while he was in Pharaoh’s household in Egypt and that she waited for him throughout his long period of wandering until he left Egypt at the age of forty. Another view holds that Moses took an Ethiopian wife when he returned to Egypt after his exile and that she accompanied him through the wilderness. Some also argue that Zipporah was called an Ethiopian, based on historical records that describe another Ethiopia to the north of the Red Sea, where the ancient Ethiopians once lived. Ecclesiastical history states that this region was adjacent to part of India. Additionally, the Canonical Chronicles of Eusebius report that the Ethiopians, having risen from the Indus River, eventually settled near Egypt. From this, it is understood that the land where the first Ethiopians dwelled could have been called Ethiopia. If Moses took his wife from that region, she would naturally have been referred to as an Ethiopian.\n### Chapter 29: On Korah, Dathan, and Abiram\n1 Korah, the son of Izhar, from the tribe of Levi, the cousin of Moses and Aaron, along with Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, and On, the son of Peleth from the tribe of Reuben—along with two hundred and fifty men, leaders of the assembly who were called by name at the time of counsel—rose up in arrogant pride against Moses and Aaron. Korah sought to claim the priesthood for himself, while the others contended for leadership over the people.\n2 However, when Korah attempted to offer a burnt sacrifice to God without His command, a fire from heaven consumed him and those who followed him at the time of the offering. And as for those who exalted themselves and began to resist the ordination of God, the earth opened beneath their feet and, gaping wide, swallowed them into the underworld.\n3 In this, it is clearly shown that both sentient and non-sentient creatures obey the command of God. Just as living beings swiftly respond to His command, so too do inanimate things, as if they were alive, carry out what is commanded. Yet, even though the earth executed this act of judgment as if it were a living thing, nothing in it happened contrary to its nature. For the earth is undeniably recognized as having a kind of insensible life, by which trees and plants grow and visibly move upon it. Just as pulsating veins course through living flesh, so too do flowing streams of water run through the earth. By this insensible life, at God\u0026rsquo;s command, the earth opened its mouth, and in serving as an instrument of divine punishment, it swallowed up the dwellings of the sinful men.\n### Chapter 30: The Plague That Struck the People When Moses Fled to the Tabernacle\n1 On the following day, the entire people rose up against Moses and Aaron, as if they were guilty of bloodshed, and sought to kill them in vengeance. But both of them—Moses and Aaron—fled to the Tabernacle of God, and once again, a heavenly fire raged against the rebellious people. Then, at Moses\u0026rsquo; command, Aaron took a censer, filled it with fire from the altar, and went out among the people; and the plague did not pass beyond the place where he stood between the living and the dead.\n2 Thus, with just governance on both sides, those who had burned inwardly with the fire of anger against their righteous leaders were outwardly consumed by the flames of divine justice. Yet those whose hearts had mercifully forgiven the faults of their neighbors were shielded by Aaron’s presence, and the fire sent from heaven did not dare to touch them. That day, the fire consumed fourteen thousand people.\n### Chapter 31: The Rod of Aaron That Blossomed\n1 Those who were more severely burdened by the guilt of rebellion still remained. However, after the turmoil had subsided, so that everyone might clearly know whom the Lord had chosen for the priesthood, Moses commanded that the leaders of each of the twelve tribes bring forth their staffs, each inscribed with their respective names. For the tribe of Levi, he received Aaron’s staff, bearing his name. These he placed overnight before the Lord in the Tabernacle.\n2 The next morning, Aaron’s staff had sprouted buds and displayed blossoms of almond flowers, making it evident that God had chosen him above all others for the priesthood. Yet, even in this, the staff did not perform anything contrary to nature.\n### Chapter 32: The Rock Struck Twice at Kadesh\n1 After some time, the people, suffering from thirst at Kadesh in the Wilderness of Zin, raised a bitter complaint against Moses and Aaron. When this matter was brought before the Lord by Moses, God commanded that the rock be struck with a staff. However, Moses, disturbed by the people\u0026rsquo;s persistent unbelief, wavered in his own faith in God\u0026rsquo;s command. In the presence of the assembly, he and Aaron struck the rock twice, and water gushed forth abundantly, quenching the people\u0026rsquo;s thirst. Yet, because of this act, Moses was denied entry into the Promised Land.\n2 Previously, at Horeb, the rock was struck only once, and there the people\u0026rsquo;s lack of faith alone was noted. However, at Kadesh in the Wilderness of Zin, the rock was struck twice, revealing not only the unbelief of the people but also the wavering faith of their leader.\n### Chapter 33: The Bronze Serpent\n1 Once again, the people murmured against God, and in response, the Lord sent fiery serpents among them, which burned with their venomous breath and struck down many of the grumblers. Terrified by the punishment and moved to repentance, the survivors cried out to Moses and pleaded with the Lord to remove the plague from them.\n2 In His mercy, the Lord commanded Moses to fashion a bronze serpent and set it high on a staff before the people. As soon as it was raised, those who looked upon it were healed of their wounds caused by the serpents.\n3 However, just as we previously mentioned regarding the staff and the tree that made the bitter water sweet, salvation did not come from the serpent itself but from obedience to the Lord’s command. Whatever He ordained at that time was the source of healing for the people. Yet, the events of this history were but a foreshadowing—the true power of salvation is now found in Christ and His Church.\n### Chapter 34: Balaam and His Donkey\n1 Balak, the son of Zippor, when he learned that Israel had entered his land, sent messengers to summon Balaam, a soothsayer, so that he might curse the people of Israel. As Balaam was traveling, seated on his donkey, the animal saw an angel standing in a narrow path with a drawn sword and, out of fear, stopped three times, even after being beaten. Finally, after being struck even more severely, the donkey, like a distressed servant, spoke in human language. As soon as the donkey spoke, Balaam’s eyes were opened, and he saw the angel.\n2 In this extraordinary sign, although the donkey uttered words appropriate to the situation, it did not speak from its own mind or intent. Rather, the Lord—of whom it is said, \u0026ldquo;And the Lord opened the mouth of the donkey\u0026rdquo;—not only caused its mouth to open for speech but also directed its tongue and palate to form words. The donkey had no awareness of what it was saying or even that it was speaking at all. In the same way, those who speak under the influence of a foreign spirit are often unaware of what they say while speaking and retain no memory of it once they come to their senses.\n3 But He who often revealed His ways of speaking both in the clouds and in fire also guided the tongue of a mute animal to form words, as if striking a harp with His hand. From this, we understand that the Lord changed nothing in the nature of the donkey, but rather, through the air passing from its mouth—even without the animal\u0026rsquo;s own awareness—He restrained the prophet’s ignorance. This was to show that the Spirit of the Lord, even when speaking through a person, should not lead them to arrogance, since they would frequently find that He also speaks through inanimate things, through a brute, mute, and even subordinate animal. For the Spirit of God blows where He wills, even if it does not align with the will of the one speaking.\n4 Likewise, Saul, though he had come with wicked intent, incited by malice to kill the prophets, was seized by the Spirit of the Lord and found himself prophesying among those he had come to persecute. In the same way, Balaam, though brought to curse, and fully intending to do so, was unable to pronounce a curse upon God\u0026rsquo;s people. Instead, he was compelled by the Spirit of the Lord—against his own will—to bless them.\n5 Thus, Balaam was permitted by the Lord to come for two reasons: first, so that his own folly would be refuted by a mute animal, and second, so that the coming of Christ, who was to be the Savior of the nations, might be written in the Law of God through a prophet of the Gentiles.\n6 Throughout Israel’s entire journey, the pillar never failed to go before them by day, nor did the pillar of fire ever cease to appear before the people at night. By this, they were both shielded from the cold of the night and given light amid darkness. Likewise, they were protected from the heat of the sun during the day under the cloud. Truly, the Lord, the guardian of Israel, protects His people so that neither the sun burns them by day, nor does the moon strike them by night.\n### Chapter 35: Moses Ascends Mount Abarim\n1 In the fortieth year after the Israelites had left Egypt, during their forty-second encampment in the plains of Moab by the Jordan, the people settled there. It was at this time that Moses proclaimed Deuteronomy, which means the repetition of the Law. Later, after appointing Joshua, the son of Nun from the tribe of Ephraim, as his successor to lead the people, Moses, following the Lord’s command, ascended alone to Mount Abarim—also called Mount Nebo. There, at the age of one hundred and twenty years, with his teeth still firm, his eyesight undimmed, and his body intact, he fulfilled the common destiny of all humanity.\n2 As wise men have observed, no one was made aware of either his death or his burial for two reasons. First, so that no one might see that face—once radiant from conversing with the Lord—now dimmed by the sorrow of death. And second, so that the people of Israel, had they known the location of his tomb, would not venerate it. For this same reason, he is believed to have taken away with him the staff by which he had performed signs, lest it too be worshiped, just as the Israelites later worshiped the bronze serpent he had made.\n3 Moses\u0026rsquo; life is divided into three periods of forty years. For forty years, he lived in Egypt, learning in Pharaoh’s household from his infancy. For another forty years, he was an exile from Egypt, dwelling in the house of the priest of Midian. And for the final forty years, he led the people through the wilderness.\n4 Now that we have completed the historical narrative drawn from the Pentateuch, it is fitting that we conclude the first book here, concerning the wonders of God. The second book, which will focus on prophecy, will begin with Joshua, the son of Nun, and the crossing of the Jordan.\n","date":"1 enero 0655","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/augustinus-hibernicus/on-the-miraculous-things-in-sacred-scripture-book-one/","section":"Writings","summary":"","title":"On The Miraculous Things in Sacred Scripture - Book One","type":"writings"},{"content":"# Exposition of the Christian Faith - Book One\n## Prologue\n1 The Queen of the South, as recorded in the Book of Kings, visited to hear Solomon\u0026rsquo;s wisdom. Similarly, King Hiram sought to test Solomon. Following these ancient examples, your revered Majesty has decided to listen to my confession of faith. But I am no Solomon, and my wisdom is not extraordinary. Your Majesty is not just the ruler of a single nation; you are the Augustus, the ruler of the entire world, who has commanded that the Faith be presented in a book, not for your instruction, but for your approval.\n2 Why, august Emperor, should your Majesty need to learn the Faith that you have devoutly and lovingly followed since your earliest childhood? As Scripture says, \u0026ldquo;Before I formed you in your mother\u0026rsquo;s womb, I knew you, and before you were born, I sanctified you.\u0026rdquo; Sanctification comes not from tradition, but from inspiration; thus, cherish the gifts of God. What no man has taught you, God has surely given and inspired.\n3 Your sacred Majesty, as you prepare for war, has requested a book expounding the Faith, knowing that victories are achieved more by the commander\u0026rsquo;s faith than by the soldiers\u0026rsquo; valor. Abraham led three hundred and eighteen men into battle and returned with the spoils of countless enemies. By the power of the sign of our Lord\u0026rsquo;s Cross and Name, he overcame the might of five kings and their armies, avenged his neighbor, and secured victory and the ransom of his brother\u0026rsquo;s son. Similarly, Joshua the Son of Nun, when he could not defeat the enemy with the strength of his entire army, overcame them with the sound of seven sacred trumpets, in the place where he saw and recognized the Captain of the heavenly host. In preparation for victory, your Majesty, as Christ\u0026rsquo;s loyal servant and defender of the Faith, has asked me to set forth this Faith in writing.\n4 Truly, I would prefer to take on the duty of encouraging others to keep the Faith rather than arguing about it; the former involves sincere confession, while the latter can lead to reckless assumptions. However, since Your Majesty does not need encouragement and I cannot excuse myself from my duty of loyalty, I will embark on a bold yet humble endeavor—not so much to reason and debate about the Faith, but to gather a multitude of witnesses.\n5 Of the Acts of Councils, I shall let that one be my chief guide which three hundred and eighteen priests, appointed, as it were, after the judgment of Abraham, made (so to speak) a trophy raised to proclaim their victory over the infidel throughout the world, prevailing by that courage of the Faith, wherein all agreed. Verily, as it seems to me, one may herein see the hand of God, forasmuch as the same number is our authority in the Councils of the Faith, and an example of loyalty in the records of old.\n## Chapter 1\n1 Now, this is the declaration of our Faith: we affirm that God is One. We neither separate His Son from Him, as the heathen do, nor deny, with the Jews, that He was begotten of the Father before all worlds and later born of the Virgin. Nor do we, like Sabellius, confuse the Father with the Word, claiming that the Father and the Son are one and the same Person. Nor do we, like Photinus, believe that the Son first came into existence in the Virgin\u0026rsquo;s womb. We also reject the view of Arius, who believed in multiple diverse Powers, thereby implying the existence of more than one God, similar to the heathen. For it is written: \u0026ldquo;Hear, O Israel: the Lord your God is one God.\u0026rdquo;\n2 For \u0026ldquo;God\u0026rdquo; and \u0026ldquo;Lord\u0026rdquo; are names of majesty and power, as God Himself says: \u0026ldquo;The Lord is My name\u0026rdquo;, and as the prophet declares elsewhere: \u0026ldquo;The Lord Almighty is His name.\u0026rdquo; Therefore, He is both God and Lord, either because His rule is over all, or because He sees all things and is universally revered.\n3 If, then, God is One, the name and the power of the Trinity are also one. Christ Himself says: \u0026ldquo;Go, baptize the nations in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.\u0026rdquo; Notice, it is in the name, not in the names.\n4 Moreover, Christ Himself says: \u0026ldquo;I and the Father are One.\u0026rdquo; He said \u0026ldquo;One\u0026rdquo; to emphasize that there is no separation of power and nature. But He also said \u0026ldquo;We are\u0026rdquo; so that you may recognize the distinction between Father and Son, understanding that the perfect Father begot the perfect Son, and the Father and the Son are One not by confusing their Persons, but by their unity of nature.\n5 Therefore, we affirm that there is one God, not two or three Gods, as the impious heresy of the Arians wrongly claims with its blasphemies. The Arian heresy wrongly asserts that there are three Gods by dividing the Godhead of the Trinity. However, the Lord, in instructing to baptize the nations in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, has shown that the Trinity is of one power. We confess the Father, Son, and Spirit, recognizing in the perfect Trinity both the fullness of Divinity and the unity of power.\n6 As the Lord says, \u0026lsquo;Every kingdom divided against itself shall quickly be overthrown.\u0026rsquo; Now, the kingdom of the Trinity is not divided. Therefore, if it is not divided, it is one, for that which is not one is divided. The Arians, however, falsely portray the kingdom of the Trinity as something that could be easily overthrown by division against itself. But truly, since it cannot be overthrown, it is clearly undivided. For no unity is divided or torn asunder, and therefore neither age nor corruption has any power over it.\n## Chapter 2\n1 Not everyone who says to Me, \u0026lsquo;Lord, Lord,\u0026rsquo; shall enter into the kingdom of heaven\u0026rsquo;, as Scripture says. Therefore, august Sovereign, faith must not be merely a matter of performance, for it is written, \u0026ldquo;The zeal of your house has devoured me.\u0026rdquo; Let us, then, with faithful spirit and devout mind, call upon Jesus our Lord, believing that He is God, so that whatever we ask of the Father, we may obtain in His name. For the Father\u0026rsquo;s will is that He be entreated through the Son, and the Son\u0026rsquo;s will is that the Father be entreated.\n2 The grace of His submission aligns with our teachings, and His powerful acts are consistent with this. For whatever the Father does, the Son also does in the same way. The Son performs the same actions and does them in a similar manner, but it is the Father\u0026rsquo;s will that He be approached regarding what He plans to do. This is so you may understand that it’s not that He cannot do it differently, but that there is a single power being displayed. Therefore, the Son of God truly deserves to be adored and worshiped, for by the power of His divinity, He has established the foundations of the world and has shaped our affections through His submission.\n3 Therefore, we should believe that God is good, eternal, perfect, almighty, and true, as we find Him described in the Law, the Prophets, and the rest of the holy Scriptures. For without these attributes, there would be no God. God, being God, must be inherently good, as fullness of goodness is of His nature. He who created time cannot be confined by it, nor can God be imperfect, for anything lesser than perfection lacks what is needed to be equal to something greater. This, then, is the teaching of our faith—that God is not evil, that nothing is impossible with God, that God transcends time, and that no being is above God. If I am mistaken, let my adversaries prove it.\n4 Since Christ is God, He is inherently good, almighty, eternal, perfect, and true; for these attributes are inherent to the essential nature of the Godhead. Therefore, let our adversaries deny the Divine Nature in Christ—otherwise, they cannot deny to God what is proper to the Divine Nature.\n5 To prevent anyone from falling into error, let us consider the signs given to us by holy Scripture, by which we may know the Son. He is called the Word, the Son, the Power of God, and the Wisdom of God. He is the Word because He is without blemish; the Power because He is perfect; the Son because He is begotten of the Father; the Wisdom because He is one with the Father, one in eternity, one in Divinity. The Father is not one Person with the Son; there is a clear distinction between Father and Son that arises from generation. Therefore, Christ is God of God, Everlasting of Everlasting, and Fulness of Fulness.\n6 These are not merely names, but signs of power manifested in works. While there is the fullness of Godhead in the Father, there is also the fullness of Godhead in the Son—not diverse, but one. The Godhead is not confused, for it is unity; it is not manifold, for in it there is no difference.\n7 Moreover, if, as it is written, all those who believed had one soul and one heart; if everyone who clings to the Lord is one spirit, as the Apostle has said; if a man and his wife are one flesh; if all we mortal men, in terms of our general nature, are of one substance; if this is what the Scripture says about created beings, that though they are many, they are one, who cannot in any way be compared to Divine Persons, then how much more are the Father and the Son one in Divinity, with whom there is no difference either of substance or of will!\n8 For how else shall we say that God is One? Divinity allows for plurality, but the unity of power excludes numerical quantity, since unity is not a number, but rather the principle of all numbers.\n## Chapter 3\n1 The oracles of the prophets bear witness to the close unity that holy Scripture declares exists between the Father and the Son in their Godhead. For thus says the Lord of Hosts: \u0026ldquo;Egypt has labored, and the merchandise of Cush and the Sabeans, men of stature, shall come over to you and be yours; they shall follow you; they shall come over in chains and bow down to you. They will plead with you, saying: \u0026lsquo;Surely God is in you, and there is no other, no God besides you.\u0026rsquo; Truly, you are a God who hides yourself, O God of Israel.\u0026rdquo;\n2 Listen to the words of the prophet: \u0026ldquo;In You,\u0026rdquo; he says, \u0026ldquo;is God, and there is no God beside You.\u0026rdquo; How does this align with the teaching of the Arians? They must deny either the Divinity of the Father or the Son unless they firmly believe in the unity of the same Divinity.\n3 \u0026ldquo;In You,\u0026rdquo; he says, \u0026ldquo;is God\u0026rdquo;—because the Father is in the Son. For it is written, \u0026ldquo;The Father, who abides in Me, Himself speaks, and the works that I do, He Himself also does.\u0026rdquo; Furthermore, we read that the Son is in the Father, saying, \u0026ldquo;I am in the Father, and the Father in Me.\u0026rdquo; Let the Arians, if they can, refute this kinship in nature and unity in work.\n4 There is, therefore, God in God, but not two Gods; for it is written that there is one God. There is Lord in Lord, but not two Lords, as it is likewise written: \u0026ldquo;Serve not two lords.\u0026rdquo; The Law says: \u0026ldquo;Hear, O Israel! The Lord your God is one God.\u0026rdquo; Moreover, in the same Testament, it is written: \u0026ldquo;The Lord rained from the Lord.\u0026rdquo; It is said, \u0026ldquo;The Lord sent rain from the Lord.\u0026rdquo; Similarly, in Genesis, you may read: \u0026ldquo;And God said\u0026rdquo; — and God made, and further down, \u0026ldquo;And God made man in the image of God.\u0026rdquo; Yet it was not two gods, but one God who made man. In both instances, the unity of operation and name is upheld. Surely, when we read \u0026ldquo;God of God,\u0026rdquo; we do not speak of two Gods.\n5 Again, in the forty-fourth Psalm, the prophet not only calls the Father God but also proclaims the Son as God, saying: \u0026ldquo;Your throne, O God, is forever and ever.\u0026rdquo; And further on: \u0026ldquo;God, even your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness above your fellows.\u0026rdquo; This God who anoints, and the God who in the flesh is anointed, is the Son of God. For who are the fellows of Christ in His anointing except those who are in the flesh? You see, then, that God is anointed by God, but in being anointed by taking upon Himself the nature of mankind, He is proclaimed the Son of God, yet without breaking the principle of the Law.\n6 So again, when you read, \u0026ldquo;The Lord rained from the Lord,\u0026rdquo; acknowledge the unity of the Godhead, for unity in operation does not allow for more than one individual God, as the Lord Himself has shown, saying: \u0026ldquo;Believe Me, that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me; or believe Me for the sake of the works themselves.\u0026rdquo; Here, too, we see that the unity of the Godhead is signified by unity in operation.\n7 The Apostle, careful to prove that there is one Godhead of both Father and Son, and one Lordship, lest we should fall into any error, whether of heathen or Jewish ungodliness, showed us the rule we ought to follow, saying: \u0026ldquo;One God, the Father, from whom are all things, and we in Him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and we through Him.\u0026rdquo; Just as in calling Jesus Christ Lord, the Apostle did not deny that the Father was Lord, likewise, in saying \u0026ldquo;One God, the Father,\u0026rdquo; he did not deny true Godhead to the Son. Thus, he taught not that there was more than one God, but that the source of power was one, since Godhead consists in Lordship, and Lordship in Godhead, as it is written: \u0026ldquo;Know that the Lord, He is God; it is He who has made us, and not we ourselves.\u0026rdquo;\n8 Therefore, \u0026ldquo;in You is God\u0026rdquo;, by unity of nature, and \u0026ldquo;there is no God beside You\u0026rdquo;, by reason of personal possession of the Substance, without any reserve or difference.\n9 Again, Scripture speaks in the Book of Jeremiah of One God, yet acknowledges both Father and Son. Thus we read: \u0026ldquo;He is our God, and in comparison with Him none other shall be accounted of. He has revealed all the ways of teaching and given them to Jacob, His servant, and to Israel, His beloved. After these things, He appeared upon earth and conversed with men.\u0026rdquo;\n10 Indeed, the prophet speaks of the Son, for it was the Son Himself who conversed with men, and this is what he says: \u0026ldquo;He is our God, and in comparison with Him none other shall be accounted of.\u0026rdquo; Why do we even question Him, when such a revered prophet unequivocally states that there\u0026rsquo;s none like Him? How can we compare anyone else when divinity is singular? This confession comes from a people deeply rooted in faith, not in the art of debate.\n11 Come, Holy Spirit, aid Your prophets, in whom You habitually reside, and in whom our faith rests. Should we trust the intellectuals of this age if we do not trust the prophets? But where are these wise individuals, where are the scholars? When our humble farmer planted figs, he discovered mysteries beyond the philosopher\u0026rsquo;s grasp, for God often uses the simple to baffle the wise. Should we listen to the Jews? After all, God was once revealed among them. Yet, they reject the cornerstone of our faith, for they do not recognize the Father since they deny the Son.\n## Chapter 4\n1 Nature itself attests to the Oneness of God, as the cosmos is unified. Our faith proclaims the existence of one God, as both the Old and New Testaments affirm. The unity of the Spirit, wholly pure, is confirmed by the singular act of Baptism, performed in the name of the Trinity. The prophets declare, the apostles comprehend, the voice of the singular God. The Magi too believed in this one God, offering gold, frankincense, and myrrh at Christ\u0026rsquo;s birthplace, acknowledging His Kingship with gold, worshiping Him as God with incense, and foreseeing His burial with myrrh. Gold symbolizes royalty, incense divinity, and myrrh burial.\n2 What, then, was the significance of the symbolic gifts presented in the humble stable, if not to reveal the distinction between the divinity and humanity in Christ? He is perceived as a man, yet worshipped as the Lord. He lies wrapped in swaddling clothes, yet radiates amidst the stars; the manger displays His humble birth, while the stars declare His sovereignty. It is His humanity that is wrapped in garments, while His divinity receives the service of angels. Thus, the dignity of His inherent majesty remains intact, and His genuine embrace of human flesh is affirmed.\n3 This is the essence of our faith. In this manner, God ordained that His presence be acknowledged by all. So did the three children believe, and they did not feel the flames into which they were cast. These flames, intended to consume unbelievers, proved harmless as dew to the faithful. For those whose hearts were steadfast in faith, the flames ignited by others turned cold, as the power of torment was rightfully vanquished in the face of faith. For among them was the One in the guise of an angel, offering comfort, so that within the Trinity\u0026rsquo;s unity, the Supreme Power might be glorified. God was exalted, the Son of God manifested in the angel of God, while the children were vessels through which holy and spiritual grace resounded.\n## Chapter 5\n1 Now, let us delve into the debates of the Arians concerning the nature of the Son of God.\n2 They argue that the Son of God is unlike His Father. To attribute such dissimilarity to a human would be considered an insult.\n3 They claim that the Son of God had a commencement in time, yet He Himself is the originator and controller of time and all within it. As humans, we aspire beyond temporal constraints. We originated at a certain point and anticipate an existence beyond time. We long for immortality—so how can we deny the eternity of God\u0026rsquo;s Son, whom God proclaims to be inherently eternal, not bestowed with eternity by grace?\n4 They argue that He was created. But who would equate an author with his creations, and suggest that he is what he has brought into being?\n5 They reject His goodness. Their blasphemy serves as its own condemnation, leaving no room for hope of pardon.\n6 They deny His true status as the Son of God, and they deny His omnipotence. Although they acknowledge that all things are created through the Son\u0026rsquo;s agency, they attribute the ultimate source of creation to the power of God. Yet, what is power if not the perfection of nature?\n7 Moreover, the Arians refute the unity of the Son with the Father in divinity. Then let them nullify the Gospel and silence the voice of Christ. For Christ Himself declared: \u0026ldquo;I and the Father are one.\u0026rdquo; This assertion does not stem from me; it is the declaration of Christ. Is He deceitful, that He should utter falsehoods? Is He unjust, that He should assert what He is not? However, we will address these matters individually and in more depth, at their appropriate junctures.\n8 Given that the heretic asserts that Christ is dissimilar to His Father and endeavors to uphold this through intricate argumentation, we must turn to Scripture: \u0026ldquo;Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ; for in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.\u0026rdquo;\n9 They concentrate all the potency of their arguments in dialectical dispute, which philosophers themselves acknowledge as lacking the power to establish truth and serving only to tear down. However, it was not through dialectic that God chose to rescue His people; for the kingdom of God thrives on the simplicity of faith, not on wordy disputes.\n## Chapter 6\n1 The Arians claim that Christ is dissimilar to the Father; we reject this notion. In fact, we recoil in horror from such a statement. However, I do not wish for your esteemed Majesty to rely solely on argument and our debates. Let us turn to the Scriptures, to the teachings of the apostles, prophets, and Christ Himself for guidance. In essence, let us seek the counsel of the Father, whose honor these individuals claim to defend, to ascertain if the Son is deemed inferior to Him. Yet, to denigrate the Son does not bring honor to the Father. It cannot please the Father if the Son is considered inferior instead of equal to Him.\n2 I humbly beseech your revered Majesty to permit me, if only briefly, to address these individuals directly. Yet, whom shall I select as a reference? Eunomius? Or Arius and Aëtius, his mentors? For while there are many names, there is one shared disbelief, steadfast in malevolence but fractured in demeanor; unified in deception yet fostering discord in joint endeavor. However, I fail to comprehend why they cannot unite in consensus.\n3 The Arians disavow Eunomius as an individual, yet they cling to his disbelief and follow in the footsteps of his wrongdoing. They claim that he has overly propagated the writings of Arius. Indeed, an abundant dissemination of error! They commend the one who issued the directive but reject the one who carried it out! Hence, they have now splintered into various factions. Some adhere to Eunomius or Aëtius, while others follow Palladius, Demophilus, Auxentius, or those who continue in this vein of disbelief. Still, others align with different instructors. Is Christ, then, divided? No; rather, those who separate Him from the Father, with their own hands, sever themselves apart.\n4 Seeing that men who do not agree with one another have all conspired against the Church of God, I will refer to those I must answer as heretics. For heresy, like some mythical hydra, has grown strong from its wounds; although often cut down, it has risen again, destined to meet its destruction in flames. Or, like a fearsome and monstrous Scylla, divided into many forms of disbelief, it presents a façade of being a Christian sect. However, those unfortunate souls whom it finds adrift in the chaos of its unholy waters, amidst the wreckage of their faith, it, surrounded by beastly monsters, tears apart with the cruel fangs of its blasphemous teachings.\n5 This monstrous cavern, your esteemed Majesty, reputedly strewn with concealed dens, and the entire vicinity thereof, where the cliffs of disbelief reverberate with the cries of her dark hounds, we must navigate with ears guarded. For it is written: \u0026ldquo;Hedge your ears about with thorns,\u0026rdquo; and again: \u0026ldquo;Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers,\u0026rdquo; and furthermore: \u0026ldquo;A man who is a heretic, after the first reproof, avoid, knowing that such a one is perverted, and sins, being self-condemned.\u0026rdquo; Therefore, like wise navigators, let us set the sails of our faith on the course where we can pass most securely, and once more follow the shores of the Scriptures.\n## Chapter 7\n1 The Apostle asserts that Christ is the image of the Father, for he refers to Him as the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. Note \u0026ldquo;firstborn,\u0026rdquo; not \u0026ldquo;first-created,\u0026rdquo; so that He may be understood to be both begotten by His nature and first by His eternity. In another passage, the Apostle also proclaims that God appointed the Son heir of all things, through whom He also made the worlds, who is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His being. The Apostle designates Christ as the image of the Father, yet Arius claims He is unlike the Father. Then why is He called an image if He bears no resemblance? People do not desire their portraits to be dissimilar to them, yet Arius argues that the Father is unlike the Son and implies that the Father has begotten one unlike Himself, as if incapable of generating His likeness.\n2 The prophets proclaim: \u0026ldquo;In Your light we shall see light,\u0026rdquo; and again: \u0026ldquo;Wisdom is the radiance of eternal light, the spotless mirror of God\u0026rsquo;s majesty, the image of His goodness.\u0026rdquo; Consider these profound descriptors! \u0026ldquo;Brightness,\u0026rdquo; because in the Son, the Father\u0026rsquo;s glory shines brightly; \u0026ldquo;spotless mirror,\u0026rdquo; because the Father is revealed in the Son; \u0026ldquo;image of goodness,\u0026rdquo; because it is not one body seen reflected in another, but the entirety of the Godhead\u0026rsquo;s power manifested in the Son. The term \u0026ldquo;image\u0026rdquo; instructs us that there is no distinction; \u0026ldquo;expression\u0026rdquo; signifies that He is the exact representation of the Father\u0026rsquo;s essence; and \u0026ldquo;brightness\u0026rdquo; proclaims His eternity. Truly, the image is not of a physical visage, not one composed of colors, nor crafted in wax, but purely derived from God, emanating from the Father, drawn from the source itself.\n3 Through this image, the Lord revealed the Father to Philip, saying, “Philip, whoever sees Me sees the Father as well. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me?” Indeed, whoever looks upon the Son sees a portrait of the Father. Pay attention to what kind of portrait is being referred to. It is Truth, Righteousness, the Power of God: not silent, for it is the Word; not unfeeling, for it is Wisdom; not empty or foolish, for it is Power; not lifeless, for it is Life; not dead, for it is the Resurrection. Thus, you see that while an image is mentioned, it signifies the Father, of whom the Son is the image, since no one can be their own image.\n4 I could present more from the testimony of the Son; however, to avoid the appearance of excessive self-assertion, let us consult the Father. For the Father declared, \u0026ldquo;Let us make man in Our image and likeness.\u0026rdquo; The Father addresses the Son in \u0026ldquo;Our image and likeness,\u0026rdquo; yet you claim that the Son of God is unlike the Father.\n5 John declares, \u0026ldquo;Beloved, we are children of God, and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be: but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him.\u0026rdquo; What utter madness! What shameless obstinacy! We are humans, and to the extent possible, we shall resemble God. Do we dare to deny that the Son is like God?\n6 Indeed, the Father has proclaimed: \u0026ldquo;Let us make man in Our image and likeness.\u0026rdquo; At the inception of the universe itself, as I understand, the Father and the Son coexisted, and I perceive one creation. I heed the One who speaks. I recognize the One who acts, yet I read of one image, one likeness. This likeness pertains not to diversity but to unity. Therefore, whatever you claim for yourself, you appropriate from the Son of God, for indeed, you cannot be in the image of God except through the aid of the image of God.\n## Chapter 8\n1 It is evident, then, that the Son is not dissimilar to the Father. Thus, we can more readily confess that He is also eternal, for He who is like the Eternal must indeed be eternal. However, if we affirm the eternal nature of the Father while denying it for the Son, we essentially assert a distinction between them, as the temporal contrasts with the eternal. Both the Prophet and the Apostle declare the eternal nature of the Son, and the Old and New Testaments abound with testimony to His eternity.\n2 Let\u0026rsquo;s examine them sequentially. In the Old Testament, among numerous testimonies, it is stated: \u0026ldquo;Before me no god was formed, nor shall there be any after me.\u0026rdquo; I won\u0026rsquo;t provide my interpretation here, but I\u0026rsquo;ll ask plainly: Who is the speaker of these words — the Father or the Son? Indeed, whichever perspective you adopt, you\u0026rsquo;ll either be persuaded or, if you\u0026rsquo;re a believer, enlightened. So, who then utters these words — the Father or the Son? If it\u0026rsquo;s the Son, He declares, \u0026ldquo;Before Me no god was formed\u0026rdquo;; if it\u0026rsquo;s the Father, He asserts, \u0026ldquo;Nor shall there be any after Me.\u0026rdquo; One has none preceding, the other has none following; as the Father is revealed in the Son, likewise the Son is revealed in the Father. Whenever you mention the Father, you inherently reference His Son, for no one fathers themselves; and when you speak of the Son, you acknowledge His Father, as no one can be their own offspring. Thus, neither can the Son exist without the Father, nor the Father without the Son. Consequently, the Father is eternal, and so is the Son.\n3 \u0026ldquo;In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God.\u0026rdquo; Notice, \u0026ldquo;was,\u0026rdquo; \u0026ldquo;was,\u0026rdquo; \u0026ldquo;was,\u0026rdquo; and \u0026ldquo;was\u0026rdquo; repeated four times. Where did the blasphemer find any indication that He was not? Furthermore, John, in another passage — in his Epistle — refers to That which was in the beginning. The duration of the \u0026ldquo;was\u0026rdquo; is boundless. No matter how extensive a period you imagine, the Son still \u0026ldquo;was.\u0026rdquo;\n4 In this concise passage, our fisherman has blocked the path of all heresy. That which existed in the beginning transcends time, unbounded by any commencement. Let Arius, therefore, cease his arguments. Furthermore, that which was with God is not merged or confused with Him but is distinguished by its immaculate perfection as the Word dwelling alongside God; thus, let Sabellius remain silent. \u0026ldquo;And the Word was God.\u0026rdquo; This Word, therefore, doesn\u0026rsquo;t pertain merely to spoken words but signifies celestial excellence, thus rebutting Photinus\u0026rsquo; doctrine. Moreover, the fact that He was with God in the beginning demonstrates the indivisible unity of the eternal Godhead in the Father and the Son, to the disgrace and discomfiture of Eunomius. Finally, since all things are declared to have been made by Him, He is clearly revealed as the author of both the Old and New Testaments, leaving no foothold for the assaults of the Manichaeans. Thus, the adept fisherman has ensnared them all in a single net, rendering them powerless to deceive, although they are unprofitable catch.\n## Chapter 9\n1 Tell me, you heretic — for the Emperor\u0026rsquo;s remarkable leniency allows me this brief opportunity to address you, not because I wish to engage in dialogue with you or am eager to hear your arguments, but because I am willing to expose them — tell me, I ask, was there ever a moment when God Almighty was not the Father, yet still was God? You remain silent on the matter of time. Well and astutely evaded! Indeed, if you introduce time into the argument, you will indict yourself, as you must concede that there was a period when the Son did not exist, even though the Son governs and creates time. He cannot have come into being after His own creation. Therefore, you must necessarily recognize Him as the sovereign and architect of His creation.\n2 I do not contend, you reply, that the Son did not exist before time; however, when I refer to Him as Son, I affirm that His Father existed prior to Him, for, as you assert, a father precedes his son. But what does this imply? You reject the notion that time preceded the Son, yet you suggest that something preceded the Son\u0026rsquo;s existence — some entity within time — and you depict certain stages of generation occurring in between, implying that the generation from the Father was a temporal process. If He commenced being a Father, then initially He was God, and subsequently He became a Father. How, then, is God immutable? For if He was initially God and then became a Father, it follows that He has undergone change due to the subsequent and later act of generation being added.\n3 May God protect us from such madness; for we introduced this question solely to refute the impiety of the heretics. The devout spirit affirms a generation that transcends time, thus declaring the Father and the Son to be co-eternal, and does not assert that God has ever undergone change.\n4 Therefore, let Father and Son be revered together, just as they are united in their divinity; let not blasphemy separate those whom the intimate bond of generation has united. Let us honor the Son, so that we may honor the Father also, as stated in the Gospel. The Son\u0026rsquo;s eternal existence embellishes the majesty of the Father. If the Son has not existed from eternity, then the Father has experienced alteration; however, since the Son is eternal, it follows that the Father has never changed, as He is perpetually immutable. Therefore, those who deny the Son\u0026rsquo;s eternity would inadvertently suggest that the Father is subject to change.\n## Chapter 10\n1 Now, consider another argument that vividly demonstrates the eternity of the Son. The Apostle asserts that God\u0026rsquo;s Power and Godhead are eternal, and he declares that Christ is the Power of God — as it is written that Christ is the Power of God and the Wisdom of God. Therefore, if Christ is the Power of God, it logically follows that, since God\u0026rsquo;s Power is eternal, Christ Himself is also eternal.\n2 You cannot, then, heretic, construct a false doctrine based on the pattern of human procreation, nor can you gather material for such a task from our conversation, for we cannot fully grasp the vastness of the infinite Godhead, \u0026ldquo;in whose greatness there is no end\u0026rdquo;, with our limited language. If you were to attempt to explain a person\u0026rsquo;s birth, you would inevitably refer to a specific moment in time. Indeed, the Divine Generation transcends all things; it extends far beyond, soaring high above all comprehension and emotion. As it is written: \u0026ldquo;No one comes to the Father except through Me.\u0026rdquo; Whatever, therefore, you conceive regarding the Father — even His eternity — you can only grasp it through the Son\u0026rsquo;s assistance. No understanding can reach the Father except through the Son. \u0026ldquo;This is My beloved Son,\u0026rdquo; the Father declares, \u0026ldquo;in whom I am well pleased.\u0026rdquo; Note the word ‘is’ — He who is, what He is, forever. Hence, David is inspired to say: \u0026ldquo;O Lord, Your Word abides forever in heaven\u0026rdquo; — for that which abides does not fail in existence or in eternity.\n3 Do you inquire how He can be a Son if He does not have a Father existing before Him? I ask you in return: when or how do you suppose the Son was begotten? As for me, the understanding of the mystery of His generation is beyond my grasp — my mind falters, my voice falters — and not just mine, but even the angels\u0026rsquo;. It surpasses Powers, surpasses Angels, surpasses Cherubim, Seraphim, and all beings with feeling and thought, for it is written: \u0026ldquo;The peace of Christ, which surpasses all understanding.\u0026rdquo; If the peace of Christ exceeds all understanding, how much more wondrous must His generation be, which is beyond all understanding?\n4 Therefore, like the angels, cover your face with your hands, for it is not granted to you to peer into these surpassing mysteries! We are allowed to understand that the Son is begotten, not to argue about the manner of His begetting. I cannot deny the one; as for the other, I am hesitant to delve into, for if Paul declares that the words he heard when caught up into the third heaven were not to be spoken, how can we elucidate the mystery of this generation from and of the Father, which we cannot hear or comprehend with our understanding?\n5 If you insist on applying the rule of human generation to constrain me, so that you may assert that the Father existed before the Son, then consider whether examples drawn from the generation of earthly beings are appropriate to illustrate the Divine Generation. If we speak according to what is customary among men, you cannot deny that, in humanity, changes in the father\u0026rsquo;s existence occur before those in the son\u0026rsquo;s. The father is the first to grow, to enter old age, to experience grief, to shed tears. Therefore, if the son comes after him in time, he is older in experience than the son. If a child is born, the parent cannot escape the shame of begetting.\n6 Why take such pleasure in that line of questioning? You hear the name of the Son of God; either abolish it or acknowledge His true nature. When you hear mention of the womb, understand it as the truth of undeniable begetting. When His heart is spoken of, understand that here is God\u0026rsquo;s word. When His right hand is mentioned, confess His power. When His face is described, acknowledge His wisdom. These words are not to be interpreted as when we speak of bodies, when we speak of God. The generation of the Son is beyond comprehension; the Father begets without any physical process, yet from Himself and in incomprehensibly ancient times, He has begotten true God from true God. The Father loves the Son, but you question His nature anxiously; the Father delights in Him, yet you, like the Jews, regard Him with hostility; the Father knows the Son, yet you, like the pagans, insult Him.\n## Chapter 11\n1 You inquire whether it is conceivable that He who is the Father could not be prior in existence. I challenge you to indicate when the Father existed while the Son did not; demonstrate this, gather it from either argument or evidence in Scripture. If you rely on arguments, you have surely been instructed that God\u0026rsquo;s power is eternal. Furthermore, you have encountered the Scripture which states: \u0026ldquo;O Israel, if you will listen to me, there shall be no new god in you, neither shall you worship a foreign god.\u0026rdquo; The first of these commands signifies His eternity, while the second indicates His possession of an identical nature, so that we cannot believe Him to have come into existence after the Father, nor can we suppose Him to be the Son of another Divinity. For if He did not exist eternally with the Father, He would be a new God; if He is not of the same Divinity as the Father, He would be a foreign God. Yet He is not subsequent to the Father, for He is not a new God; nor is He a foreign God, for He is begotten of the Father, and because, as it is written, \u0026ldquo;He is God above all, blessed forever\u0026rdquo;.\n2 If the Arians consider Him to be a foreign God, why do they worship Him, when it is written: \u0026ldquo;You shall worship no foreign God?\u0026rdquo; If they do not worship the Son, let them openly confess it, and the matter is settled — so that they do not deceive anyone with their pretense of religion. This, then, is the testimony of the Scriptures. If you have any others to present, it is your responsibility to do so.\n3 Let us now delve deeper and draw the truth to a conclusion through reasoning. Although arguments typically yield to human testimony, nevertheless, heretic, argue as you may. You assert that experience teaches us that the being which begets is prior to that which is begotten. I reply: Follow our common experience across all its aspects, and if the rest align with this, I do not oppose your request for this point to be granted; but if there is no such alignment, how can you expect agreement on this single point when you lack support in all other aspects? Since you appeal to what is customary, it follows that when the Son was begotten of the Father, He was a young child. You have witnessed Him as an infant, crying in the cradle. As the years passed, He progressed from strength to strength — for if He shared in the frailty of begotten things, He must also have experienced not only the weakness of birth but also the weakness of life.\n4 Perhaps you are driven to such folly as to not hesitate in attributing these things to the Son of God, measuring Him, as you do, by the standard of human frailty. What if, while you cannot deny Him the title of God, you are inclined to prove Him, due to His weakness, to be a man? What if, while you scrutinize the Person of the Son, you are casting doubt on the Father, and while you hastily pass judgment on the Former, you include the Latter in the same condemnation!\n5 If we suppose, borrowing from the customary process of human generation, that the Divine Generation has been confined within the constraints of time, then it logically follows that the Father bore the Son in a physical womb and endured the burden while ten months passed. But how can generation, as it typically occurs, occur without the involvement of the other sex? You observe that the common pattern of generation was not the origin, and you believe that the processes of generation, which are governed by certain necessities to which bodies are subject, have always existed. You request the customary pattern, while I inquire about the distinction of sex; you insist on the assumption of time, while I focus on the sequence; you investigate the end, while I consider the beginning. Surely, it is the end that relies on the beginning, not the other way around.\n6 You claim that everything that is begotten has a beginning, and therefore, because the Son is the Son, He must have a beginning and came into existence within the bounds of time. Let this be accepted as the declaration of their own lips; as for me, I acknowledge that the Son is begotten, but the remainder of their assertion fills me with horror. Man, do you acknowledge God and diminish His honor with such slander? May God deliver us from this madness.\n## Chapter 12\n1 The next objection is as follows: If the Son does not possess the characteristics that all sons have, then He is not a Son. May the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit forgive me, for I would pose this question with all reverence. Surely the Father exists and endures forever; likewise, created things are as God has ordained them. Is there any among these creatures that is not subject to the constraints of place, time, or the fact of having been created, or to some originating cause or creator? Certainly not. Then, is there any among them of which the Father has need? To suggest such a thing would be blasphemy. Therefore, cease to attribute to the Godhead what is only appropriate to created beings, or if you insist on forcing the comparison, consider where your wickedness leads. God forbid that we should even glimpse its end.\n2 We uphold the response dictated by piety. God is Almighty, and thus the Father requires none of those things, for in Him there is no alteration, nor any room for such assistance as we require, we whose weakness is sustained by such means. But He who is Almighty, clearly He is uncreated, and not bound to any place, and transcends time. Before God, there was nothing — indeed, even to speak of anything being before God is a serious sin. If you concede that in the essence of God the Father there is nothing implying a need for sustenance, because He is God, it follows that nothing of this kind can be imagined to exist in the Son of God — nothing that suggests a beginning or growth, since He is truly God from truly God.\n3 Since we do not find the usual order prevailing, be satisfied, Arian, to believe in a miraculous generation of the Son. Be content, I say, and if you do not believe me, at least respect the voice of God saying, \u0026ldquo;To whom will you compare me? Or who is my equal?\u0026rdquo; and again: \u0026ldquo;God is not human, that he should lie, not a human being, that he should change his mind.\u0026rdquo; Indeed, if God works mysteriously, considering that He does not accomplish any work or shape anything or bring it to completion through the labor of hands or in any course of days, for He spoke, and they were made; He commanded, and they were created, why should we not believe that He, whom we acknowledge as a Creator, working mysteriously, discerning it in His works, also begot His Son in a mysterious manner? Indeed, it is fitting that He should be seen as having begotten the Son in a unique and mysterious manner. Let Him who possesses unrivaled majesty also have the glory of a mysterious generation.\n4 Not only does Christ\u0026rsquo;s generation from the Father demand our wonder, but His birth from the Virgin also does. You claim that the former is similar to the way in which we humans are conceived. I will demonstrate — indeed, I will compel you yourself to confess — that the latter also bears no resemblance to the manner of our birth. Tell me, how was it that He was born of Mary? With what law did His conception in a Virgin\u0026rsquo;s womb comply? How could there be any birth without the seed of a man? How could a maiden become pregnant? How could she become a mother without experiencing the usual intercourse between wives and husbands? There was no visible cause — and yet a son was begotten. How, then, did this birth occur under a new law?\n5 If, then, the usual process of human generation was not observed in the case of the Virgin Mary, how can you insist that God the Father should beget in the same manner as you were begotten? Surely the common process is determined by the distinction of sex, for this is inherent in the nature of our flesh. But where there is no flesh, how can you expect to find the frailty of flesh? No one questions someone who is superior to oneself; to believe is enjoined upon you, without permission to question. For it is written, \u0026ldquo;Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.\u0026rdquo; Language is inadequate to describe not only the generation of the Son, but even the works of God, for it is written: \u0026ldquo;All His works are done in faithfulness.\u0026rdquo; His works, then, are done in faithfulness, but not His generation? Indeed, we question what we do not see, we who are commanded to believe rather than inquire about what we see.\n## Chapter 13\n1 It will be asked: In what manner was the Son begotten? As one who is eternal, as the Word, as the brightness of eternal light, for brightness comes into existence instantly. This example is from the Apostle, not from me. Do not think, then, that there was ever a moment when God was without wisdom, any more than there was ever a time when light was without radiance. Do not judge divine matters by human standards, Arian, but believe the divine where you do not find the human.\n2 The heathen king saw in the fire, alongside the three Hebrew children, the form of a fourth, resembling an angel, and because he perceived that this angel excelled all others, he deemed Him to be the Son of God, whom he had not read about, but in whom he believed. Similarly, Abraham saw three and worshiped one.\n3 When Peter saw Moses and Elijah on the mountain with the Son of God, he was not confused about their nature and glory. He didn\u0026rsquo;t ask them what he should do but instead turned to Christ. Although he was ready to honor all three, he waited for instructions from Christ alone. However, because he mistakenly thought that he should set up three tabernacles for the three of them, God the Father corrected him with a powerful voice, saying, \u0026ldquo;This is My dearly beloved Son: listen to Him.\u0026rdquo; In other words: Why do you consider your fellow servants equal to your Lord? This is My Son. Moses is not My Son, nor is Elijah My Son, but This is My Son. The Apostle quickly understood the rebuke; he fell on his face, humbled by the Father\u0026rsquo;s voice and the glorious beauty of the Son. However, the Son, who always lifts up those who have fallen, raised him up. Then he saw only the Son of God, for the servants had withdrawn, making it clear that He alone was the Lord and the only one entitled to be called Son.\n4 What, then, was the purpose of that vision? It didn\u0026rsquo;t signify that Christ and His servants were equal but revealed a mystery: it demonstrated that the Law and the Prophets, in harmony with the Gospel, declared the Son of God, whom they had foretold, to be eternal. Therefore, when we hear of the Son coming forth from the womb and the Word from the heart, let us believe that the Son was not created by hands but begotten of the Father—not the work of a craftsman, but the offspring of a parent.\n5 Therefore, He who said, \u0026ldquo;This is My Son,\u0026rdquo; did not say, \u0026ldquo;This is a creature of time,\u0026rdquo; nor \u0026ldquo;This being is of My creation, My making, My servant,\u0026rdquo; but \u0026ldquo;This is My Son, whom you see glorified.\u0026rdquo; This is the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, who appeared to Moses in the burning bush, about whom Moses says, \u0026ldquo;He Who is has sent me.\u0026rdquo; It was not the Father who spoke to Moses in the bush or in the desert, but the Son. It was of this Moses that Stephen said, \u0026ldquo;This is he who was in the assembly in the wilderness with the Angel.\u0026rdquo; This, then, is He who gave the Law, who spoke with Moses, saying, \u0026ldquo;I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob.\u0026rdquo; This, then, is the God of the patriarchs, and this is the God of the prophets.\n6 It is of the Son, therefore, that we read. Let your mind understand the reading and your tongue confess it. Discard arguments where faith is required; let dialectic be silent, even in its own schools. I am not concerned with what philosophers say; I am interested in what they do. They sit desolate in their schools. Witness the victory of faith over argument. Those who engage in subtle disputes are abandoned daily by their followers, while those who believe with simplicity grow in number each day. Not philosophers but fishermen, not masters of dialectic but tax-gatherers, are now finding credence. The former, through indulgence in pleasures and luxuries, have burdened themselves with the cares of the world; the latter, through fasting and mortification, have freed themselves from it. Thus, sorrow begins to attract more followers than pleasure.\n7 Now let\u0026rsquo;s examine how far Arians and pagans differ. The pagans invoke gods who are of different sexes and unequal in power; the Arians assert a Trinity where there is also inequality of power and diversity of Godhead. The pagans claim that their gods came into existence at some point in time; the Arians falsely declare that Christ began to exist within time. Have they not all steeped their impiety in the vats of philosophy? However, while the pagans exalt what they worship, the Arians insist that the Son of God, who is God, is a mere creature.\n## Chapter 14\n1 It is now evident, as I believe, your sacred Majesty, that the Lord Jesus is neither unlike the Father nor one who began to exist in the course of time. We still need to refute another blasphemy and demonstrate that the Son of God is not a created being. Here is the quickening word that we read for our guidance, for we have heard the passage where the Lord says: \u0026ldquo;Go into all the world and preach the Gospel to all creation.\u0026rdquo; He who says \u0026ldquo;all creation\u0026rdquo; excludes nothing. How, then, do those who call Christ a creature stand? If he were a creature, could he have commanded that the Gospel should be preached to himself? Therefore, he is not a creature, but the Creator, who entrusts to his disciples the task of teaching created beings.\n2 Christ is not a created being; as the Apostle has said, “created beings are given over to futility.” Is Christ subject to futility? Moreover, the same Apostle states that “creation groans in labor pains even until now.” So, does Christ share in this groaning and suffering—He who has freed us miserable mourners from death? The Apostle also says, “Creation shall be set free from the slavery of corruption.” Therefore, we see a significant difference between creation and its Lord: creation is enslaved, but “the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.”\n3 Who was the first to fall into the error of declaring that the One who created and made all things is a creature? Did the Lord, I would ask, create Himself? We read that all things were made by Him, and without Him, nothing was made. So, did He make Himself? We read—and who can deny it?—that God made all things in wisdom. If so, how can we suppose that wisdom was made in itself?\n4 We read that the Son is begotten, as the Father says: \u0026ldquo;I brought you forth from the womb before the morning star.\u0026rdquo; We read of the first-born Son, of the only-begotten—first-born because there is none before Him; only-begotten because there is none after Him. Again, we read: \u0026ldquo;Who shall declare His generation?\u0026rdquo; Generation, mind you, not creation. What argument can be brought against testimonies so great and mighty as these?\n5 Moreover, God\u0026rsquo;s Son reveals the distinction between generation and grace when He says: \u0026ldquo;I go up to My Father and your Father, to My God and your God.\u0026rdquo; He did not say, \u0026ldquo;I go up to our Father,\u0026rdquo; but \u0026ldquo;I go up to My Father and your Father.\u0026rdquo; This distinction signifies a difference, as the Father who is Christ\u0026rsquo;s is our Creator.\n6 Additionally, He mentioned, \u0026ldquo;My God and your God,\u0026rdquo; clarifying that while He and the Father are unified, the Father shares the same nature with Him. We, on the other hand, begin to see God as our Father through the Son\u0026rsquo;s role, not because of our inherent nature, but due to grace — it appears He\u0026rsquo;s directing our attention to the coexistence of both divine and human natures in Christ — the divinity inherited from His Father and the humanity from His Mother. The divine nature precedes all existence, while the human nature is derived from the Virgin Mary. Initially, speaking as the Son, He referred to God as His Father, and then, speaking from His human perspective, acknowledged Him as God.\n7 Throughout the Scriptures, we consistently find evidence that when Christ refers to God as His God, He does so from His human perspective. For instance, in His cry, \u0026ldquo;My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?\u0026rdquo; He experiences suffering in His human nature. Likewise, when He says, \u0026ldquo;From My mother\u0026rsquo;s womb You are My God,\u0026rdquo; it is a reference to His human birth. Indeed, when He declares, \u0026ldquo;From My mother\u0026rsquo;s womb You are My God,\u0026rdquo; He is expressing that the One who has always been His Father becomes His God from the very moment He is born from His Mother\u0026rsquo;s womb.\n8 Considering that we find in the Gospels, the writings of the Apostles, and the Prophets references to Christ as begotten, how could the Arians have the audacity to claim that He was created or made? They should have reflected on where they have encountered descriptions of Him as created or made. It\u0026rsquo;s been clearly demonstrated that the Son of God is begotten of God, born of God. Let them, therefore, carefully consider where they have encountered the idea that He was made, since He was not made God, but rather born as God, the Son of God. Later, according to His human nature, He was indeed made man of Mary.\n9 When the appointed time arrived, God sent His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law. Note carefully: His Son, not one among many, not shared with another, but uniquely His own. By calling Him His Son, the Apostle indicates that the Son\u0026rsquo;s nature entails eternal generation. The Apostle confirms that He was later made of a woman, signifying not the making of His divinity but the assumption of a human body — made of a woman by taking on flesh, made under the Law by obeying the Law. The former, the spiritual generation, predates the Law; the latter occurs after the Law.\n## Chapter 15\n1 The heretics\u0026rsquo; habitual citation of the Scripture that \u0026ldquo;God made Him both Lord and Christ\u0026rdquo; is without merit. Let these uninformed individuals read the entire passage and grasp its meaning. As it is written, \u0026ldquo;God made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.\u0026rdquo; It was not the divine nature but the human flesh that was crucified. Indeed, this was possible because flesh can be crucified. Therefore, it does not logically follow that the Son of God is a created being.\n2 Let’s address that passage they misuse—let them understand the meaning of the words, “The Lord created Me.” It is not “the Father created,” but “the Lord created Me.” The flesh acknowledges its Lord, while praise reveals the Father; our created nature recognizes the first and loves and knows the latter. So, who can fail to see that these words point to the Incarnation? The Son speaks of Himself as created in relation to His humanity when He says, “Why are you seeking to kill Me, a man, Who have told you the truth?” He is referring to His human nature, in which He was crucified, died, and was buried.\n3 Moreover, there\u0026rsquo;s no doubt that the writer expressed as past what was yet to come; for this is the nature of prophecy, to speak of future events as though they were already happening or had already occurred. For instance, in the twenty-first Psalm, you have read: \u0026ldquo;Fat bulls of Bashan have surrounded me,\u0026rdquo; and again: \u0026ldquo;They divided my garments among them.\u0026rdquo; The Evangelist demonstrates that these words were spoken prophetically about the time of the Passion. To God, future events are already present, and for Him, who knows all things beforehand, they are as if they were already done and over with, as written: \u0026ldquo;Who has made the things that are to be.\u0026rdquo;\n4 It\u0026rsquo;s no surprise that He declares His position to have been established before all worlds, considering that Scripture tells us He was foreordained before all times and ages. The passage you\u0026rsquo;ve cited reveals how the words in question serve as a genuine prophecy of the Incarnation: \u0026ldquo;Wisdom has built her house; she has set up seven pillars. She has prepared her meat and mixed her wine; she has also set her table. She has sent out her servants, and she calls from the highest point of the city, \u0026lsquo;Let all who are simple come to my house!\u0026rsquo;\u0026rdquo; Indeed, in the Gospel, we witness the fulfillment of all these things after the Incarnation. Christ revealed the mysteries of the Holy Supper, sent out His apostles, and proclaimed with a loud voice, \u0026ldquo;If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink.\u0026rdquo; What follows in the Gospel corresponds to what came before, and we see the entire narrative of the Incarnation succinctly presented through prophecy.\n5 Numerous other passages could easily be identified as prophecies of this nature regarding the Incarnation, but I won\u0026rsquo;t dwell on them extensively in order to avoid making the treatise overly verbose.\n## Chapter 16\n1 Now, I will specifically ask the Arians whether they consider \u0026ldquo;begotten\u0026rdquo; and \u0026ldquo;created\u0026rdquo; to be synonymous. If they assert they are the same, then they deny any distinction between generation and creation. Consequently, they would have to concede that there is no difference between us, Christ, and the elements, as we are all created. However, even in their great folly, they would not dare to make such a claim.\n2 Moreover — though it\u0026rsquo;s foolish to grant what is untrue — I inquire of them: if, as they believe, there is no distinction in the terms, why do they not invoke Him whom they worship by the superior designation? Why do they not embrace the word of the Father? Why do they reject the honorable title and instead employ a disparaging name?\n3 If, as I believe, there is indeed a distinction between \u0026ldquo;created\u0026rdquo; and \u0026ldquo;begotten,\u0026rdquo; then when we encounter the assertion that He is begotten, we certainly won\u0026rsquo;t interpret \u0026ldquo;begotten\u0026rdquo; and \u0026ldquo;created\u0026rdquo; as synonymous terms. Therefore, let them acknowledge Him as begotten of the Father, born of the Virgin, or let them explain how the Son of God can be both begotten and created. A single nature, especially the Divine Essence, rejects internal conflict.\n4 But let\u0026rsquo;s set aside our personal opinions for now. Instead, let\u0026rsquo;s turn to Paul, who, inspired by the Spirit of God and foreseeing these debates, pronounced judgment against pagans in general and Arians in particular. He declared that they were condemned by God\u0026rsquo;s judgment for worshiping the creature rather than the Creator. Indeed, you can find it written: \u0026ldquo;God gave them over to the cravings of their hearts, that they might dishonor their bodies among themselves, they who exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever.\u0026rdquo;\n5 Thus, Paul forbids me from worshiping a creature and reminds me of my obligation to serve Christ. Therefore, it logically follows that Christ is not a created being. The Apostle, identifying himself as Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, would not worship anything created. How, then, could he consider himself a servant of Christ if he believed that Christ was a created being? Let these heretics cease either to worship Him whom they label a created being or to refer to Him as a creature whom they pretend to worship. By pretending to be worshippers, they might actually fall into greater impiety. A domestic enemy is worse than a foreign one, and their use of the name of Christ to dishonor Him only compounds their guilt.\n6 What better interpreter of the Scriptures could we possibly seek than that teacher of the Gentiles, that chosen vessel — selected even from among the persecutors? He who once persecuted Christ now confesses Him. Certainly, Paul was more acquainted with the wisdom of Solomon than Arius ever could be, and he was deeply versed in the Law. Therefore, based on his reading, Paul did not assert that Christ was created, but rather that He was begotten. For Paul had read, \u0026ldquo;He spoke, and they were made; He commanded, and they were created.\u0026rdquo; I ask, was Christ made with a mere word? Was He created by a command?\n7 Indeed, how could there be any created nature in God? God\u0026rsquo;s nature is uncompounded; nothing can be added to Him. Only the divine is inherent in His nature. He fills all things, yet He Himself is not confused with anything; He penetrates all things, yet He Himself cannot be penetrated. He is present in all His fullness simultaneously, in heaven, on earth, in the deepest depths of the sea. He is invisible to the eye, His speech cannot be fully expressed, His essence cannot be fully comprehended. He is followed by faith, adored with devotion. Thus, every title that excels in spiritual depth, in expressing glory, honor, and power, rightfully belongs to God.\n8 Since the Father is well pleased with the Son, believe that the Son is worthy of the Father, that He came from God, as He Himself affirms, saying: \u0026ldquo;I came from God, and I have come\u0026rdquo; and again: \u0026ldquo;I came from God.\u0026rdquo; He who proceeded and came forth from God can possess no attributes except those that are proper to God.\n## Chapter 17\n1 Therefore, Christ is not just God, but very God — very God from very God, so much so that He Himself is the Truth. If we ask His name, it is Truth; if we inquire about His inherent status and dignity, He is truly the very Son of God, God\u0026rsquo;s own Son, as it is written, \u0026ldquo;He did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all.\u0026rdquo; \u0026ldquo;He gave Him up,\u0026rdquo; that is, in regard to His flesh. His status as God\u0026rsquo;s own Son declares His divinity; His being truly God demonstrates that He is God\u0026rsquo;s own Son. His compassion is the pledge of His humility, His sacrifice, of our salvation.\n2 To prevent anyone from misinterpreting the Scripture that God gave Him up, the Apostle himself has said elsewhere, \u0026ldquo;Peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for our sins,\u0026rdquo; and again: \u0026ldquo;Even as Christ loved us and gave Himself for us.\u0026rdquo; Therefore, if He was given up by the Father and gave Himself up willingly, it\u0026rsquo;s evident that the action and the will of the Father and the Son are one.\n3 Therefore, if we investigate His inherent superiority, we find it lies in His being begotten. To deny that the Son of God is begotten of God is to deny that He is God\u0026rsquo;s own Son. Denying Christ as God\u0026rsquo;s own Son would classify Him with the rest of mankind, as no more a Son than any other person. However, if we examine the unique characteristic of His generation, it is this: that He came forth from God. In our human experience, when something comes out, it usually implies that something already exists, and what is said to come out appears to emerge from hidden and inward places. However, even in the brief passages presented to us, we observe the unique characteristic of the Divine Generation. The Son does not seem to have come forth from any specific place, but rather as God from God, a Son from a Father. He did not have a beginning in the course of time; He came forth from the Father by being born, as He Himself, who was born, said: \u0026ldquo;I came forth from the mouth of the Most High.\u0026rdquo;\n4 If the Arians do not acknowledge the nature of the Son, if they do not believe the Scriptures, let them at least believe in the mighty works. To whom does the Father say, \u0026ldquo;Let us make man,\u0026rdquo; if not to His true Son? In whom else could He recognize His Image, if not in one who is truly His? A son by adoption is not the same as the true Son, and the Son would not say, \u0026ldquo;I and the Father are one,\u0026rdquo; if He were not truly the same as the Father. Therefore, when the Father says, \u0026ldquo;Let us make,\u0026rdquo; the one speaking is true. How could the one who creates be anything but true? Shouldn\u0026rsquo;t the honor given to the one who speaks also be given to the one who creates?\n5 How could the Father commend His will to Him for perfect cooperation, and His works for perfect realization, unless He knew Him to be His true Son? The Son works the works that the Father does, and the Son gives life to whom He wills, as it is written. Therefore, He is equal in power and free in His will. Thus, unity is maintained, as God\u0026rsquo;s power lies in the fact that the Godhead is proper to each Person, and freedom is not found in any difference, but in the unity of will.\n6 When the apostles, caught in a storm at sea, witnessed the waters rising around their Lord\u0026rsquo;s feet and saw His fearless stride on the water amidst the raging waves, and when the ship, battered by the waves, found peace as soon as Christ entered it, and they observed the waves and winds obeying Him — even though they did not yet fully believe in their hearts, they acknowledged Him to be God\u0026rsquo;s true Son, saying, \u0026ldquo;Truly, you are the Son of God.\u0026rdquo;\n7 Similarly, consider the confession of the centurion and those with him when the foundations of the world shook at the Lord\u0026rsquo;s Passion — and this, heretic, you deny. The centurion declared, \u0026ldquo;Truly, this was the Son of God.\u0026rdquo; It is \u0026ldquo;said the centurion\u0026rdquo; — not \u0026ldquo;says the Arian.\u0026rdquo; The centurion, with blood-stained hands but a devout mind, affirms both the truth and the eternity of Christ\u0026rsquo;s generation. And you, O heretic, deny its truth and reduce it to a matter of time! I wish you had only stained your hands rather than your soul! But you, unclean in both deed and intent, seek the death of Christ, as far as you can, by considering Him as insignificant and weak. Moreover, this is an even worse sin: although the Godhead cannot be wounded, you strive to kill not His body, but His glory in Christ.\n8 We cannot doubt that He is truly God, whose genuine divinity even executioners believed in and demons confessed. We don\u0026rsquo;t need their testimony now, but it carries more weight than your blasphemies. We have summoned them as witnesses to shame you, while also citing the words of God so that you might believe.\n9 The Lord declares through Isaiah: \u0026ldquo;In the mouth of those who serve Me, a new name shall be called, which shall be blessed over all the earth. They shall bless the true God, and those who swear on earth shall swear by the true God\u0026rdquo;. Isaiah spoke these words when he saw God\u0026rsquo;s glory, and it is plainly stated in the Gospel that he saw the glory of Christ and spoke of Him.\n10 Listen again to what John the Evangelist wrote in his Epistle: \u0026ldquo;We know that the Son of God has appeared and has given us understanding, so that we may know the true God. And we are in him who is true — even in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life\u0026rdquo;. John calls Him the true Son of God and the true God. Therefore, if He is the true God, He is surely uncreated, without any trace of falsehood or deceit, possessing no confusion within Himself, nor any unlikeness to His Father.\n## Chapter 18\n1 Exactly, Christ is God of God, Light of Light, truly God of truly God; begotten of the Father, not made; of one substance with the Father.\n2 Yes, indeed, our forefathers, guided by the Scriptures, affirmed this, and they also believed that impious doctrines should be explicitly condemned in their decrees. This was to ensure that the disbelief of Arius would be exposed and could not disguise itself with deception or camouflage. Indeed, those who are afraid to express their thoughts openly attempt to conceal them with false appearances. Like the censor\u0026rsquo;s rolls, the Arian heresy is not explicitly named but is indicated by the condemnation pronounced against it. This is so that those who are curious and eager to hear about it may be protected from falling into error, knowing that it is already condemned before they hear it. This is done with the intention that they might believe.\n3 The decree states that anyone who claims there was a time when the Son of God did not exist, or that He did not exist before He was born, or who says He was created out of nothing, or is of a different substance or essence, or that He is capable of changing, or that there is any shadow of turning with Him — these people are declared accursed by the Catholic and Apostolic Church.\n4 Your sacred Majesty has agreed that those who preach such doctrines are justly condemned. It was not by human decision or counsel that three hundred and eighteen bishops convened, as I previously explained in detail, but rather so that the Lord Jesus might demonstrate, through the sign of His Name and Passion, that He was present among those gathered in His name. The number three hundred was a sign of His Cross, and the number eighteen was a sign of the Name Jesus.\n5 This was also the teaching of the First Confession at the Council of Ariminum, and of the Second Correction after that Council. The letter sent to Emperor Constantine attests to the Confession, and the Council that followed confirms the Correction.\n## Chapter 19\n1 Arius, therefore, claims: \u0026ldquo;There was a time when the Son of God was not.\u0026rdquo; But Scripture states: \u0026ldquo;He was,\u0026rdquo; not \u0026ldquo;He was not.\u0026rdquo; Furthermore, St. John wrote: \u0026ldquo;In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning.\u0026rdquo; Observe how often the verb \u0026ldquo;was\u0026rdquo; appears, whereas \u0026ldquo;was not\u0026rdquo; is nowhere to be found. Whom, then, are we to believe? St. John, who lay on Christ\u0026rsquo;s bosom, or Arius, wallowing in the outpouring of his own inner turmoil?—so wallowing that we might understand how Arius, in his teaching, showed himself to be like Judas, receiving a similar punishment.\n2 For Arius\u0026rsquo; bowels also gushed out—decency forbids saying where—and he burst asunder in the midst, falling headlong and defiling those foul lips with which he had denied Christ. Arius was torn apart, just as the Apostle Peter said of Judas: because he bought a field with the price of evil-doing, and falling headlong he burst asunder in the midst, and all his bowels gushed out. It was no accidental manner of death, as similar wickedness was met with similar punishment, so that those who denied and betrayed the same Lord might likewise undergo the same torment.\n3 Let us move on to further points. Arius says: \u0026ldquo;Before He was born, the Son of God did not exist.\u0026rdquo; But Scripture says that all things are maintained in existence by the Son\u0026rsquo;s power. How, then, could He, who did not exist, bestow existence upon others? Again, when the blasphemer uses the words \u0026ldquo;when\u0026rdquo; and \u0026ldquo;before,\u0026rdquo; he certainly uses terms that denote time. How, then, can the Arians deny that time existed before the Son, yet claim that things created in time existed before the Son, given that the very words \u0026ldquo;when,\u0026rdquo; \u0026ldquo;before,\u0026rdquo; and \u0026ldquo;did not exist once\u0026rdquo; imply the concept of time?\n4 Arius claims that the Son of God came into being out of nothing. But then how is He the Son of God—how was He begotten from the womb of the Father—how do we read of Him as the Word spoken from the abundance of the heart, except for the purpose of believing that He came forth, as it is written, from the Father\u0026rsquo;s innermost, unapproachable sanctuary? A son is referred to as such either through adoption or by nature; we are called sons through adoption. Christ, however, is the Son of God by His true and eternal nature. So, how can He, who fashioned all things out of nothing, Himself be created out of nothing?\n5 Anyone who does not know where the Son is from does not truly have the Son. Because the Jews did not know His origin, they did not have the Son. This is why the Lord said to them, \u0026ldquo;You do not know where I came from,\u0026rdquo; and also, \u0026ldquo;You have neither recognized who I am nor known my Father. Whoever denies that the Son is from the Father does not know the Father, from whom the Son originates; and likewise, they do not know the Son because they do not know the Father.\u0026rdquo;\n6 Arius says: \u0026ldquo;[The Son is] of another Substance.\u0026rdquo; But what other substance is elevated to equality with the Son of God, so that simply by virtue of it, He is the Son of God? Or what right do the Arians have to criticize us for speaking, in Greek, of the οὐσία, or in Latin, of the Substantia of God, when they themselves, by saying that the Son of God is of another Substance, affirm a divine Substantia?\n7 However, if they wish to dispute the use of the words \u0026ldquo;divine Substance\u0026rdquo; or \u0026ldquo;divine Nature,\u0026rdquo; they can easily be refuted, for Holy Scripture often speaks of οὐσία in Greek or Substantia in Latin, and as we read, St. Peter urges us to become partakers in the divine Nature. But if they insist that the Son is of another Substance, they contradict themselves with their own words. They both acknowledge the term Substance, which they fear, and they place the Son on the same level as the creatures they claim to elevate Him above.\n8 Arius calls the Son of God a creature, but not like the rest of the creatures. Yet, what created being is not different from another? Man is not like an angel, earth is not like heaven, the sun is not like water, nor is light like darkness. Arius\u0026rsquo; preference, therefore, is empty—he has only masked his deceitful blasphemies with a sorry dye, aiming to deceive the foolish.\n9 Arius declares that the Son of God may change and waver. How, then, is He God if He is changeable, when He Himself has said: \u0026ldquo;I am, I am, and I do not change\u0026rdquo;?\n## Chapter 20\n1 However, now I must confess the confession of the Prophet Isaiah, which he makes before declaring the word of the Lord: \u0026ldquo;Woe is me, my heart is stricken, for I, a man of unclean lips, and living in the midst of a people of unclean lips, have seen the Lord of hosts.\u0026rdquo; Now, if Isaiah said \u0026ldquo;Woe is me,\u0026rdquo; upon looking upon the Lord of hosts, what shall I say of myself, who, being a man of unclean lips, am compelled to discuss the divine generation? How can I dare to speak of things that fill me with fear, when David prays for a guard over his mouth concerning matters he understands? Oh, that one of the Seraphim would bring a burning coal from the celestial altar to cleanse my unclean lips with its fire, taking it with the tongs of the two testaments!\n2 Since then the Seraph came down in a vision to the Prophet, while You, O Lord, in revealing the mystery, have come to us in the flesh, do not by any deputy or messenger, but by Yourself, cleanse my conscience from my secret sins, so that I, once unclean but now made clean by Your mercy through faith, may sing in the words of David: \u0026ldquo;I will make music to You upon a harp, O God of Israel, my lips shall rejoice in all my song to You, and so too shall my soul, whom You have redeemed.\u0026rdquo;\n3 And so, O Lord, as we turn away from those who slander and hate You, come to us and sanctify the ears of our sovereign ruler, Gratian, and all others who may read this little book. Cleanse my ears as well, so that no traces of the unbelief they have heard remain. Purify our ears thoroughly, not with water from a well, river, or stream, but with words that cleanse like water, clearer than any water, and purer than any snow—Your words: \u0026ldquo;Though your sins are as scarlet, I will make them white as snow.\u0026rdquo;\n4 Moreover, there is a Cup, which You use to purify the hidden chambers of the soul, a Cup not of the old order, nor filled from a common vine—a new Cup, brought down from heaven to earth, filled with wine pressed from the wondrous cluster, which hung in fleshly form upon the tree of the Cross, even as the grape hangs upon the vine. From this Cluster, then, comes the Wine that gladdens the heart of man, uplifts the sorrowful, is fragrant with, and pours into us the ecstasy of faith, true devotion, and purity.\n5 With this Wine, therefore, O Lord my God, cleanse the spiritual ears of our sovereign Emperor. Just as people, when uplifted by common wine, find love for rest and tranquility, cast out the fear of death, feel no injuries, seek not what belongs to others, and forget their own concerns, may he, too, be filled with Your wine, loving peace. May he be confident in the joy of faith, never knowing the death that comes from unbelief. May he show loving patience, have no part in the wrongdoings of others, and hold the faith more dearly than family and children, as it is written: “Leave all that you have, and come, follow Me.”\n6 With this Wine, Lord Jesus, purify our senses so that we may adore and worship You, the Creator of all things visible and invisible. Indeed, You cannot help but be invisible and good, You who have granted invisibility and goodness to the works of Your hands.\n","date":"1 enero 0378","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/ambrose/exposition-of-the-christian-faith-book-one/","section":"Writings","summary":"","title":"Exposition of the Christian Faith - Book One","type":"writings"},{"content":"","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/author/ambrose/","section":"Authors","summary":"","title":"Ambrose","type":"Doctor of the Church"},{"content":"","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/author/augustine-de-hipona/","section":"Authors","summary":"","title":"Augustine de Hipona","type":"Doctor of the Church"},{"content":"","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/author/augustinus-hibernicus/","section":"Authors","summary":"","title":"Augustinus Hibernicus","type":"Theologian"},{"content":"","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/authors/","section":"Authors","summary":"","title":"Authors","type":"authors"},{"content":"","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/categories/","section":"Categories","summary":"","title":"Categories","type":"categories"},{"content":"","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/","section":"Catholica","summary":"","title":"Catholica","type":"page"},{"content":"","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/series/","section":"Series","summary":"","title":"Series","type":"series"},{"content":"","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/author/stephen-de-ripon/","section":"Authors","summary":"","title":"Stephen de Ripon","type":"Bishop"},{"content":"","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Tags","type":"tags"},{"content":"","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/author/tirechan/","section":"Authors","summary":"","title":"Tirechán","type":"Bishop"},{"content":"","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/writings/","section":"Writings","summary":"","title":"Writings","type":"writings"}]