Bede: HISTORIAM ECCLESIASTICAM GENTIS ANGLORUM

[1] Brittania Oceani insula, cui quondam Albion nomen fuit, inter septentrionem et occidentem locata est, Germaniae, Galliae, Hispaniae, maximis Europae partibus, multo interuallo aduersa. Quae per miliapassuum DCCC in Boream longa, latitudinis habet milia CC, exceptis dumtaxat prolixioribus diuersorum promontoriorum tractibus, quibus efficitur, ut circuitus eius quadragies octies LXXV milia conpleat. Habet a meridie Galliam Belgicam, cuius proximum litus transmeantibus aperit ciuitas, quae dicitur Rutubi portus, a gente Anglorum nunc corrupte Reptacæstir uocata, interposito mari a Gessoriaco Morynorum gentis litore proximo, traiectu milium L, siue, ut quidam scripsere, stadiorum CCCCL.

[1] Britain, an island of the Ocean, whose name once was Albion, is situated between the North and the West, lying opposite to Germany, Gaul, and Spain, the greatest parts of Europe, at a great interval. Which, for 800 miles in the direction of the North, is long, and has a breadth of 200 miles, except only for the more extended tracts of various promontories, by which it is brought about that its circuit completes 4,875 miles. It has to the south Belgic Gaul, whose nearest shore for those crossing is opened by the city which is called the Port of Rutubi, now corruptly by the nation of the Angles called Reptacaestir, the sea lying between from Gessoriacum, the nearest shore of the nation of the Morini, a crossing of 50 miles, or, as some have written, of 450 stadia.

A tergo autem, unde Oceano infinito patet, Orcadas insulas habet.

At its back, however, where it lies open to the infinite Ocean, it has the Orkney Islands.

Opima frugibus atque arboribus insula, et alendis apta pecoribus ac iumentis; uineas etiam quibusdam in locis germinans; sed et auium ferax terra marique generis diuersi; fluuiis quoque multum piscosis ac fontibus praeclara copiosis, et quidem praecipue issicio abundat, et anguilla. Capiuntur autem saepissime et uituli marini, et delphines, nec non et balenae; exceptis uariorum generibus concyliorum; in quibus sunt et musculae, quibus inclusam saepe margaritam omnis quidem coloris optimam inueniunt, id est et rubicundi, et purpurei, et iacintini, et prasini, sed maxime candidi. Sunt et cocleae satis superque abundantes, quibus tinctura coccinei coloris conficitur, cuius rubor pulcherrimus nullo umquam solis ardore, nulla ualet pluuiarum iniuria pallescere; sed quo uetustior, eo solet esse uenustior.

An island opulent in fruits and trees, and fit for the nourishing of flocks and draught-animals; in some places even sprouting vineyards; and the land is teeming with birds of diverse kinds both by land and by sea; likewise renowned for rivers very rich in fish and for copious springs, and indeed it especially abounds in salmon and eel. They very often take sea-calves and dolphins, and also whales; besides shellfish of various kinds; among which are mussels, in which they often find enclosed a pearl, the finest of every color—namely ruddy, purple, hyacinthine, and prasinous (leek-green), but most of all white. There are also whelks in more than sufficient abundance, by which the dye of scarlet color is prepared, whose most beautiful redness can grow pale by no heat of the sun nor injury of rains; but the older it is, the more it is wont to be beauteous.

Habet fontes salinarum, habet et fontes calidos, et ex eis fluuios balnearum calidarum omni aetati et sexui per distincta loca iuxta suum cuique modum accommodos. Aqua enim, ut sanctus Basilius dicit, feruidam qualitatem recipit, cum per certa quaedam metalla transcurrit, et fit non solum calida, sed et ardens. Quae etiam uenis metallorum, aeris, ferri, et plumbi, et argenti, fecunda, gignit et lapidem gagatem plurimum optimumque; est autem nigrogemmeus, et ardens igni admotus, incensus serpentes fugat, adtritu calefactus adplicita detinet, aeque ut sucinum.

It has brine-springs; it has also hot springs, and from them streams for hot baths, in distinct places, suitable to every age and sex according to each one’s manner. For water, as Saint Basil says, receives a fervid quality when it runs through certain kinds of metal, and becomes not only hot but even burning. This land also, rich in veins of metals—copper, iron, lead, and silver—produces jet-stone as well, in the greatest quantity and of the best; it is gemlike-black, and, burning when brought to fire, when ignited drives away serpents; warmed by rubbing, it holds fast things applied to it, just as amber does.

Erat et ciuitatibus quondam XX et VIII nobilissimis insignita, praeter castella innumera, quae et ipsa muris turribus, portis, ac seris erant instructa firmissimis.

It was also once adorned with 28 most noble cities, besides innumerable castles, which likewise themselves were equipped with the strongest walls, towers, gates, and bolts.

Et quia prope sub ipso septentrionali uertice mundi iacet, lucidas aestate noctes habet; ita ut medio saepe tempore noctis in quaestionem ueniat intuentibus, utrum crepusculum adhuc permaneat uespertinum, an iam aduenerit matutinum, utpote nocturno sole non longe sub terris ad orientem boreales per plagas redeunte; unde etiam plurimae longitudinis habet dies aestate, sicut et noctes contra in bruma, sole nimirum tunc Lybicas in partes secedente, id est horarum X et VIII; plurimae item breuitatis noctes aestate, et dies habet in bruma, hoc est sex solummodo aequinoctialium horarum; cum in Armenia, Macedonia, Italia, ceterisque eiusdem lineae regionibus longissima dies siue nox XV, breuissima VIIII conpleat horas.

And because it lies almost beneath the very northern vertex of the world, it has bright nights in summer; such that in the very middle time of the night it often comes into question for onlookers whether the evening twilight still remains, or the morning has already arrived, since, as it were, the nocturnal sun, not far beneath the earth toward the east, returns through the northern tracts; whence also it has days of very great length in summer, just as, on the contrary, nights in midwinter, the sun of course then withdrawing into the Libyan parts, that is, of 18 hours; likewise nights of very great shortness in summer, and it has days in midwinter, that is, of only six equinoctial hours; whereas in Armenia, Macedonia, Italy, and the other regions of the same line, the longest day or night completes 15 hours, the shortest 9.

Haec in praesenti, iuxta numerum librorum, quibus lex diuina scripta est, quinque gentium linguis, unam eandemque summae ueritatis et uerae sublimitatis scientiam scrutatur, et confitetur, Anglorum uidelicet, Brettonum, Scottorum, Pictorum et Latinorum, quae meditatione scripturarum ceteris omnibus est facta communis.

This at present, according to the number of the books in which the divine law is written, in the tongues of five nations, namely of the English, the Britons, the Scots, the Picts, and the Latins, scrutinizes and confesses one and the same knowledge of highest verity and true sublimity, which by the meditation of the scriptures has been made common to all the others.

In primis autem haec insula Brettones solum, a quibus nomen accepit, incolas habuit; qui de tractu Armoricano, ut fertur, Brittaniam aduecti, australes sibi partes illius uindicarunt.

At first, however, this island had as inhabitants only the Britons, from whom it received its name; who, brought over from the Armorican tract, as it is said, to Britain, claimed for themselves its southern parts.

Et cum plurimam insulae partem, incipientes ab Austro, possedissent, contigit gentem Pictorum de Scythia, ut perhibent, longis nauibus non multis Oceanum ingressam, circumagente flatu uentorum, extra fines omnes Brittaniae Hiberniam peruenisse, eiusque septentrionales oras intrasse, atque inuenta ibi gente Scottorum, sibi quoque in partibus illius sedes petisse, nec inpetrare potuisse. Est autem Hibernia insula omnium post Brittaniam maxima, ad occidentem quidem Brittaniae sita; sed sicut contra Aquilonem ea breuior, ita in meridiem se trans illius fines plurimum protendens, usque contra Hispaniae septentrionalia, quamuis magno aequore interiacente peruenit. Ad hanc ergo usque peruenientes nauigio Picti, ut diximus, petierunt in ea sibi quoque sedes et habitationem donari.

And when they had possessed the greater part of the island, beginning from the South, it befell that the nation of the Picts, from Scythia, as they say, having entered the Ocean in not many long ships, with the blast of the winds driving them around, came, beyond all the borders of Britain, to Ireland, and entered its northern shores; and, finding there the nation of the Scots, asked seats for themselves also in parts of that island, and were not able to obtain them. Now Ireland is, of all islands after Britain, the greatest, situated indeed to the west of Britain; but just as, toward the North, it is shorter, so, stretching itself far beyond that island’s bounds toward the south, it reaches as far as opposite the northern regions of Spain, although a great expanse of sea lies between. To this island, therefore, the Picts, coming by ship as far as this, as we have said, asked that seats and a habitation be granted to themselves there also.

Respondebant Scotti, quia non ambos eos caperet insula, ‘sed possumus,’ inquiunt, ‘salubre uobis dare consilium, quid agere ualeatis. Nouimus insulam aliam esse non procul a nostra contra ortum solis, quam saepe lucidioribus diebus de longe aspicere solemus. Hanc adire si uultis, habitabilem uobis facere ualetis; uel, siqui restiterit, nobis auxiliariis utimini.’ Itaque petentes Brittaniam Picti, habitare per septentrionales insulae partes coeperunt, nam austrina Brettones occupauerant.

The Scots answered that the island could not hold them both, ‘but we can,’ they say, ‘give you a salutary counsel as to what you may be able to do. We know there is another island not far from ours toward the rising of the sun, which we are wont often to gaze at from afar on clearer days. If you wish to go to this, you will be able to make it habitable for yourselves; or, if anyone should resist, make use of us as auxiliaries.’ And so, the Picts, making for Britain, began to inhabit the northern parts of the island, for the southern the Britons had occupied.

Cumque uxores Picti non habentes peterent a Scottis, ea solum condicione dare consenserunt, ut ubi res ueniret in dubium, magis de feminea regum prosapia quam de masculina regem sibi eligerent; quod usque hodie apud Pictos constat esse seruatum.

And when the Picts, not having wives, asked them from the Scots, they consented to give them on this condition only: that whenever the matter should come into doubt, they should elect for themselves a king from the female rather than the male royal lineage; which up to this day is agreed to have been observed among the Picts.

Procedente autem tempore, Brittania post Brettones et Pictos tertiam Scottorum nationem in Pictorum parte recepit; qui duce Reuda de Hibernia progressi, uel amicitia uel ferro sibimet inter eos sedes, quas hactenus habent, uindicarunt; a quo uidelicet duce usque hodie Dalreudini uocantur, nam lingua eorum daal partem significat.

As time proceeded, Britain, after the Britons and the Picts, received a third nation of the Scots in the part of the Picts; who, under the leader Reuda, having progressed from Hibernia (Ireland), either by amity or by iron vindicated for themselves among them the seats which they hold to this day; from which leader, to wit, they are called the Dalreudini even to this day, for in their tongue daal signifies a “part.”

Hibernia autem et latitudine sui status, et salubritate ac serenitate aerum multum Brittaniae praestat, ita ut raro ibi nix plus quam triduana remaneat; nemo propter hiemem aut faena secet aestate, aut stabula fabricet iumentis; nullum ibi reptile uideri soleat, nullus uiuere serpens ualeat; nam saepe illo de Brittania adlati serpentes, mox ut, proximante terris nauigio, odore aeris illius adtacti fuerint, intereunt; quin potius omnia pene, quae de eadem insula sunt, contra uenenum ualent. Denique uidimus, quibusdam a serpente percussis, rasa folia codicum, qui de Hibernia fuerant, et ipsam rasuram aquae inmissam ac potui datam, talibus protinus totam uim ueneni grassantis, totum inflati corporis absumsisse ac sedasse tumorem. Diues lactis ac mellis insula, nec uinearum expers, piscium uolucrumque, sed et ceruorum caprearumque uenatu insignis.

Ireland, moreover, both by the latitude of its situation and by the salubrity and serenity of its airs, greatly surpasses Britain, so that snow there rarely remains for more than three days; no one on account of winter either cuts hay in summer or builds stables for beasts of burden; no reptile is wont to be seen there, no serpent is able to live; for often serpents brought there from Britain, as soon as, with the ship nearing the land, they have been touched by the odor of that air, perish; nay rather, almost all things which are from that same island avail against poison. Finally, we have seen, for certain persons struck by a serpent, the scraped leaves of codices which had been from Ireland, and the very scraping cast into water and given to drink, immediately to have consumed and allayed all the force of the ramping poison, the whole swelling of the puffed-up body. An island rich in milk and honey, nor devoid of vineyards, of fishes and birds, but also remarkable for the hunting of stags and roes.

Haec autem proprie patria Scottorum est; ab hac egressi, ut diximus, tertiam in Brittania Brettonibus et Pictis gentem addiderunt.

This, moreover, is properly the fatherland of the Scots; having gone out from this, as we have said, they added a third nation in Britain to the Britons and the Picts.

Est autem sinus maris permaximus, qui antiquitus gentem Brettonum a Pictis secernebat, qui ab occidente in terras longo spatio erumpit, ubi est ciuitas Brettonum munitissima usque hodie, quae uocatur Alcluith; ad cuius uidelicet sinus partem septentrionalem Scotti, quos diximus, aduenientes sibi locum patriae fecerunt.

There is, moreover, a very greatest gulf of the sea, which in antiquity separated the nation of the Britons from the Picts, which from the west bursts forth into the lands for a long stretch, where there is a most fortified city of the Britons even to this day, which is called Alcluith; to whose gulf’s northern part, namely, the Scots, whom we have mentioned, arriving, made for themselves a place of a homeland.

[2] Uerum eadem Brittania Romanis usque ad Gaium Iulium Caesarem inaccessa atque incognita fuit; qui anno ab Urbe condita DCXCIII, ante uero incarnationis dominicae tempus anno LXmo, functus gradu consulatus cum Lucio Bibulo, dum contra Germanorum Gallorumque gentes, qui Hreno tantum flumine dirimebantur, bellum gereret, uenit ad Morianos, unde in Brittaniam proximus et breuissimus transitus est; et nauibus honerariis atque actuariis circiter octoginta praeparatis, in Brittaniam transuehitur, ubi acerba primum pugna fatigatus, deinde aduersa tempestate correptus, plurimam classis partem, et non paruum numerum militum, equitum uero pene omnem disperdidit. Regressus in Galliam, legiones in hiberna dimisit, ac DCtas naues utriusque commodi fieri imperauit; quibus iterum in Brittaniam primo uere transuectus, dum ipse in hostem cum exercitu pergit, naues in anchoris stantes tempestate correptae uel conlisae inter se, uel arenis inlisae ac dissolutae sunt; ex quibus XL perierunt, ceterae cum magna difficultate reparatae sunt. Caesaris equitatus primo congressu a Brittanis uictus, ibique Labienus tribunus occisus est.

[2] But the same Britain was inaccessible and unknown to the Romans down to Gaius Julius Caesar; who, in the year from the founding of the City 693, and indeed in the 60th year before the time of the Lord’s Incarnation, having served the rank of the consulship with Lucius Bibulus, while he was waging war against the nations of the Germans and the Gauls, who were separated only by the river Rhine, came to the Morini, whence the nearest and shortest crossing to Britain is; and, about eighty cargo-ships and swift galleys prepared, he is conveyed across into Britain, where, wearied at first by a bitter battle, then seized by an adverse tempest, he lost a very great part of the fleet, and no small number of soldiers, and indeed almost all the cavalry. Having returned into Gaul, he dismissed the legions into winter quarters, and ordered 600 ships to be made of both advantages; with which, conveyed again into Britain at the beginning of spring, while he himself advances with the army against the enemy, the ships standing at anchor, seized by a storm, were either dashed together among themselves, or driven upon the sands and broken up; of which 40 perished, the rest were repaired with great difficulty. Caesar’s cavalry in the first encounter was defeated by the Britons, and there the tribune Labienus was slain.

Secundo proelio cum magno suorum discrimine uictos Brittanos in fugam uertit. Inde ad flumen Tamensim profectus. In huius ulteriore ripa Cassobellauno duce inmensa hostium multitudo consederat, ripamque fluminis ac pene totum sub aqua uadum acutissimis sudibus praestruxerat; quarum uestigia sudium ibidem usque hodie uisuntur, et uidetur inspectantibus, quod singulae earum ad modum humani femoris grossae, et circumfusae plumbo inmobiliter erant in profundum fluminis infixae.

In the second battle, with great peril to his own men, he turned the conquered Britons to flight. Thence he set out to the river Thames. On its further bank, with Cassobellaunus as leader, an immense multitude of the enemy had taken position, and he had pre-barricaded the river’s bank and almost the whole ford, which lay under water, with very sharp stakes; the vestiges of the stakes are seen in the same place even to this day, and it appears to those inspecting that each of them, thick to the measure of a human thigh, and surrounded with lead, had been fixed immovably into the depth of the river.

Quod ubi a Romanis deprehensum ac uitatum est, barbari legionum impetum non ferentes, siluis sese abdidere, unde crebris eruptionibus Romanos grauiter ac saepe lacerabant. Interea Trinouantum firmissima ciuitas cum Androgio duce, datis XL obsidibus, Caesari sese dedit. Quod exemplum secutae, urbes aliae conplures in foedus Romanorum uenerunt.

When this was detected and avoided by the Romans, the barbarians, not bearing the assault of the legions, hid themselves in the woods, whence by frequent eruptions they grievously and often lacerated the Romans. Meanwhile the very strong city of the Trinovantes, with Androgius as leader, having given 40 hostages, surrendered itself to Caesar. Following this example, several other cities came into a treaty with the Romans.

Hisdem demonstrantibus, Caesar oppidum Cassobellauni inter duas paludes situm, obtentu insuper siluarum munitum, omnibusque rebus confertissimum tandem graui pugna cepit. Exin Caesar a Brittanis reuersus in Galliam, postquam legiones in hiberna misit, repentinis bellorum tumultibus undique circumuentus et conflictatus est.

With these same pointing it out, Caesar at length, by a heavy battle, took the stronghold of Cassobellaunus, situated between two marshes, fortified moreover by the screen of woods, and most densely furnished with all things. Then Caesar, returned from the Britons into Gaul, after he had sent the legions into winter quarters, was on every side surrounded and harried by sudden tumults of wars.

[3] Anno autem ab Urbe condita DCCXCVIII Claudius imperator ab Augusto quartus, cupiens utilem reipublicae ostentare principem, bellum ubique et uictoriam undecumque quaesiuit. Itaque expeditionem in Brittaniam mouit, quae excitata in tumultum propter non redhibitos transfugas uidebatur; transuectus in insulam est, quam neque ante Iulium Caesarem, neque post eum quisquam adire ausus fuerat, ibique sine ullo proelio ac sanguine intra paucissimos dies plurimam insulae partem in deditionem recepit. Orcadas etiam insulas ultra Brittaniam in oceano positas, Romano adiecit imperio, ac sexto, quam profectus erat, mense Romam rediit, filioque suo Brittanici nomen inposuit.

[3] In the year from the founding of the City 798, emperor Claudius, the fourth from Augustus, wishing to display to the republic a princeps useful to it, sought war everywhere and victory whencesoever. Therefore he set an expedition in motion into Britain, which seemed to have been stirred into tumult because deserters had not been returned; he was conveyed across to the island, which neither before Julius Caesar nor after him had anyone dared to approach, and there, without any battle or bloodshed, within a very few days he received a very great part of the island into surrender. He also added the Orcades islands, placed beyond Britain in the ocean, to the Roman imperium, and in the sixth month after he had set out he returned to Rome, and bestowed upon his son the name Britannicus.

Hoc autem bellum quarto imperii sui anno conpleuit, qui est annus ab incarnatione Domini XLVI; quo etiam anno fames grauissima per Syriam facta est, quae in Actibus Apostolorum per prophetam Agabum praedicta esse memoratur.

However, he completed this war in the fourth year of his own imperial rule, which is the year 46 from the Incarnation of the Lord; in that same year a most grievous famine came to pass throughout Syria, which is recorded in the Acts of the Apostles to have been foretold by the prophet Agabus.

Ab eodem Claudio Uespasianus, qui post Neronem imperauit, in Brittaniam missus, etiam Uectam insulam, Brittaniae proximam a meridie, Romanorum dicioni subiugauit; quae habet ab oriente in occasum XXX circiter milia passuum, ab austro in boream XII, in orientalibus suis partibus mari sex milium, in occidentalibus trium, a meridiano Brittaniae littore distans. Succedens autem Claudio in imperium Nero, nihil omnino in re militari ausus est. Unde inter alia Romani regni detrimenta innumera, Brittaniam pene amisit; nam duo sub eo nobilissima oppida illic capta atque subuersa sunt.

By the same Claudius, Vespasian, who after Nero ruled, having been sent into Britain, also subjugated to the dominion of the Romans the island Vecta, nearest to Britain on the south; which has from east to west about 30 miles, from south to north 12, in its eastern parts distant from the sea by six miles, in its western by three, from the southern shore of Britain. Succeeding, moreover, to Claudius in the imperium, Nero dared nothing at all in military affairs. Whence, among innumerable other detriments of the Roman realm, he nearly lost Britain; for two most noble towns there were captured and overthrown under him.

[4] Anno ab incarnatione Domini CmoLmoVIto Marcus Antoninus Uerus XIIII ab Augusto regnum cum Aurelio Commodo fratre suscepit; quorum temporibus cum Eleuther uir sanctus pontificatui Romanae ecclesiae praeesset, misit ad eum Lucius Brittaniarum rex epistolam, obsecrans, ut per eius mandatum Christianus efficeretur; et mox effectum piae postulationis consecutus est; susceptamque fidem Brittani usque in tempora Diocletiani principis inuiolatam integramque quieta in pace seruabant.

[4] In the year from the incarnation of the Lord 162 Marcus Antoninus Verus, the 14th from Augustus, received the rule together with his brother Aurelius Commodus; in whose times, when Eleutherius, a holy man, was presiding over the pontificate of the Roman church, Lucius, king of the Britons, sent to him a letter, beseeching that by his mandate he might be made a Christian; and soon he obtained the effect of his pious petition; and the Britons kept the faith they had received inviolate and entire, in quiet peace, down to the times of the emperor Diocletian.

[5] Anno ab incarnatione Domini CLXXXVIIII Seuerus, genere Afer Tripolitanus ab oppido Lepti, XVII ab Augusto imperium adeptus X et VII annis tenuit. Hic natura saeuus, multis semper bellis lacessitus, fortissime quidem rempuplicam, sed laboriosissime rexit. Uictor ergo ciuilium bellorum, quae ei grauissima occurrerant, in Brittanias defectu pene omnium sociorum trahitur.

[5] In the year from the Incarnation of the Lord 189, Severus, an African by race, a Tripolitanian from the town of Leptis, the 17th from Augustus, having obtained the imperium, held it for 17 years. He, savage by nature, ever provoked by many wars, governed the commonwealth indeed most bravely, but most laboriously. Therefore, victor of the civil wars, which had occurred to him as most grievous, he is drawn into the Britains by reason of the defection of almost all the allies.

Ubi magnis grauibusque proeliis saepe gestis receptam partem insulae a ceteris indomitis gentibus, non muro, ut quidam aestimant, sed uallo distinguendam putauit. Murus etenim de lapidibus, uallum uero, quo ad repellendam uim hostium castra muniuntur, fit de cespitibus, quibus circumcisis e terra, uelut murus exstruitur altus supra terram, ita ut in ante sit fossa, de qua leuati sunt cespites, supra quam sudes de lignis fortissimis praefiguntur. Itaque Seuerus magnam fossam firmissimumque uallum, crebris insuper turribus conmunitum, a mari ad mare duxit.

Where, after great and grievous battles had often been fought, when a part of the island had been recovered from the other untamed peoples, he thought it should be marked off from them not by a wall, as some suppose, but by a rampart. For a murus is made of stones, but a vallum, by which camps are fortified to repel the force of enemies, is made of turfs; these, cut away from the earth all around, are built up, as it were, into a wall high above the ground, with a ditch in front from which the turfs are taken, and above it stakes of the stoutest wood are set in front. And so Severus drew a great ditch and a most strong rampart, reinforced moreover with towers at close intervals, from sea to sea.

Ibique apud Eboracum oppidum morbo obiit. Reliquit duos filios, Bassianum et Getam; quorum Geta hostis puplicus iudicatus interiit, Bassianus, Antonio cognomine adsumpto, regno potitus est.

And there at the town of Eboracum he died of disease. He left two sons, Bassianus and Geta; of whom Geta, judged a public enemy, perished, and Bassianus, having assumed the cognomen Antoninus, obtained the kingdom.

[6] Anno incarnationis dominicae CCLXXXVI Diocletianus XXXIII ab Augusto imperator ab exercitu electus annis XX fuit, Maximianumque cognomento Herculium socium creauit imperii. Quorum tempore Corausius quidam, genere quidem infimus, sed consilio et manu promptus, cum ad obseruanda Oceani litora, quae tunc Franci et Saxones infestabant, positus, plus in perniciem quam in profectum reipuplicae ageret, ereptam praedonibus praedam nulla ex parte restituendo dominis, sed sibi soli uindicando; accendens suspicionem, quia ipsos quoque hostes ad incursandos fines artifici neglegentia permitteret; quam ob rem a Maximiano iussus occidi purpuram sumsit, ac Brittanias occupauit; quibus sibi per VII annos fortissime uindicatis ac retentis, tandem fraude Allecti socii sui interfectus est. Allectus postea ereptam Carausio insulam per triennium tenuit; quem Asclipiodotus praefectus praetorio obpressit, Brittaniamque post X annos recepit.

[6] In the year of the Lord’s Incarnation 286 Diocletian, the 33rd from Augustus as emperor, chosen by the army, held power for 20 years, and he created Maximian, surnamed Herculius, a partner of the imperium. In whose time a certain Carausius, indeed of very low birth, but ready in counsel and in hand, when he had been stationed to watch the shores of the Ocean, which the Franks and Saxons were then infesting, acted more to the ruin than to the advancement of the commonwealth, not in any part restoring to the owners the booty snatched from the pirates, but claiming it for himself alone; inflaming suspicion, because he also, by contrived negligence, allowed those very enemies to raid the borders; wherefore, ordered by Maximian to be killed, he took up the purple and occupied the Britains; and, having most bravely asserted and held them for 7 years, he was at length killed by the treachery of his associate Allectus. Allectus afterwards held for 3 years the island taken from Carausius; whom Asclepiodotus, praetorian prefect, crushed, and recovered Britain after 10 years.

Interea Diocletianus in oriente, Maximianus Herculius in occidente uastari ecclesias, affligi, interficique Christianos, decimo post Neronem loco praeceperunt; quae persecutio omnibus fere ante actis diuturnior atque inmanior fuit; nam per X annos incendiis ecclesiarum, proscriptionibus innocentum, caedibus martyrum incessabiliter acta est. Denique etiam Brittaniam tum plurima confessionis Deo deuotae gloria sublimauit.

Meanwhile Diocletian in the east, Maximian Herculius in the west, commanded that the churches be laid waste, that Christians be afflicted and put to death, in the tenth place after Nero; which persecution was more long-lasting and more inhuman than almost all previously carried out; for through 10 years, by burnings of churches, by proscriptions of the innocent, by slaughters of martyrs, it was carried on incessantly. Finally, even Britain then was exalted with very great glory of confession devoted to God.

[7] SIQUIDEM in ea passus est sanctus Albanus, de quo presbyter Fortunatus in Laude uirginum, cum beatorum martyrum, qui de toto orbe ad Dominum uenirent, mentionem faceret, ait:

[7] Indeed, therein Saint Alban suffered, of whom the presbyter Fortunatus, in the Praise of Virgins, when he was making mention of the blessed martyrs who were coming to the Lord from the whole orb, said:

Albanum egregium fecunda Britania profert.

Fecund Britain brings forth the distinguished Alban.

Qui uidelicet Albanus, paganus adhuc, cum perfidorum principum mandata aduersum Christianos saeuirent, clericum quendam persecutores fugientem hospitio recepit; quem dum orationibus continuis ac uigiliis die noctuque studere conspiceret, subito diuina gratia respectus, exemplum fidei ac pietatis illius coepit aemulari, ac salutaribus eius exhortationibus paulatim edoctus, relictis idolatriae tenebris, Christianus integro ex corde factus est. Cumque praefatus clericus aliquot diebus apud eum hospitaretur, peruenit ad aures nefandi principis confessorem Christi, cui necdum fuerat locus martyrii deputatus, penes Albanum latere. Unde statim iussit milites eum diligentius inquirere.

This Alban indeed, still a pagan, when the mandates of faithless princes were raging against Christians, received into hospitality a certain cleric fleeing persecutors; and when he observed him to devote himself to continuous prayers and vigils day and night, suddenly, being regarded by divine grace, he began to emulate the example of that man’s faith and piety, and, gradually taught by his salutary exhortations, having left the darkness of idolatry, he became a Christian with an undivided heart. And when the aforesaid cleric was lodging with him for several days, it came to the ears of the nefarious prince that the confessor of Christ—unto whom a place of martyrdom had not yet been assigned—was hiding with Alban. Whereupon he immediately ordered soldiers to seek him out more diligently.

Qui cum ad tugurium martyris peruenissent, mox se sanctus Albanus pro hospite ac magistro suo, ipsius habitu, id est caracalla, qua uestiebatur, indutus, militibus exhibuit, atque ad iudicem uinctus perductus est.

When they had arrived at the martyr’s hut, at once Saint Alban, for his guest and his teacher, having put on his attire—namely the caracalla with which he was clothed—presented himself to the soldiers, and, bound, was led to the judge.

Contigit autem iudicem ea hora, qua ad eum Albanus adducebatur, aris adsistere, ac daemonibus hostias offerre. Cumque uidisset Albanum, mox ira succensus nimia, quod se ille ultro pro hospite, quem susceperat, militibus offerre, ac discrimini dare praesumsisset, ad simulacra daemonum, quibus adsistebat, eum iussit pertrahi: ‘Quia rebellem,’ inquiens, ‘ac sacrilegum celare quam militibus reddere maluisti, ut contemtor diuum meritam blasphemiae suae poenam lueret, quaecumque illi debebantur supplicia, tu soluere habes, si a cultu nostrae religionis discedere tentas.’ At sanctus Albanus, qui se ultro persecutoribus fidei Christianum esse prodiderat, nequaquam minas principis metuit; sed accinctus armis militiae spiritalis, palam se iussis illius parere nolle pronuntiabat. Tum iudex: ‘Cuius,’ inquit, ‘familiae uel generis es?’ Albanus respondit: ‘Quid ad te pertinet, qua sim stirpe genitus?

It befell, moreover, that the judge, at the very hour when Alban was being led to him, was standing by the altars and offering sacrificial victims to the demons. And when he saw Alban, at once inflamed with excessive wrath, because he had of his own accord presumed to offer himself to the soldiers on behalf of the guest whom he had received, and to give himself over to danger, he ordered him to be dragged to the simulacra of the demons, by which he was standing: ‘Because you preferred to hide a rebel and a sacrilegious man rather than to return him to the soldiers, so that, as a contemner of the gods, he might pay the penalty merited by his blasphemy, whatever punishments were owed to him, you have to discharge, if you attempt to depart from the cult of our religion.’ But Saint Alban, who had of his own accord revealed to the persecutors that he was a Christian, by no means feared the threats of the ruler; but, girded with the arms of the spiritual militia, he was openly declaring that he was unwilling to obey his commands. Then the judge said: ‘Of what family or race are you?’ Alban replied: ‘What does it pertain to you, of what stock I was begotten?

sed si ueritatem religionis audire desideras, Christianum iam me esse, Christianisque officiis uacare cognosce.’ Ait iudex: ‘Nomen tuum quaero, quod sine mora mihi insinua.’ At ille: ‘Albanus,’ inquit, ‘a parentibus uocor, et Deum uerum ac uiuum, qui uniuersa creauit, adoro semper, et colo.’ Tum iudex repletus iracundia dixit: ‘Si uis perennis uitae felicitate perfrui, diis magnis sacrificare ne differas.’ Albanus respondit: ‘Sacrificia haec, quae a uobis redduntur daemonibus, nec auxiliari subiectis possunt, nec supplicantium sibi desideria uel uota conplere. Quin immo, quicumque his sacrificia simulacris obtulerit, aeternas inferni poenas pro mercede recipiet.’

but ‘if you desire to hear the truth of religion, know that I am now a Christian, and that I devote myself to Christian offices.’ The judge said: ‘I seek your name, which make known to me without delay.’ But he: ‘Alban,’ he said, ‘I am called by my parents, and I ever adore and worship the true and living God, who created all things.’ Then the judge, filled with wrath, said: ‘If you wish to enjoy the felicity of everlasting life, do not defer to sacrifice to the great gods.’ Alban replied: ‘These sacrifices, which are rendered by you to demons, can neither help those subject to them, nor fulfill the desires or vows of their suppliants. Nay rather, whoever shall have offered sacrifices to these images will receive the eternal punishments of hell as his recompense.’

His auditis, iudex nimio furore commotus, caedi sanctum Dei confessorem a tortoribus praecepit, autumans se uerberibus, quam uerbis non poterat, cordis eius emollire constantiam. Qui cum tormentis afficeretur acerrimis, patienter haec pro Domino, immo gaudenter ferebat. At ubi iudex illum tormentis superari, uel a cultu Christianae religionis reuocari non posse persensit, capite eum plecti iussit.

With these things heard, the judge, stirred by excessive fury, ordered the holy confessor of God to be beaten by the torturers, supposing that by blows—since he could not by words—he might soften the steadfastness of his heart. Although he was afflicted with the sharpest torments, he bore these things patiently for the Lord—nay rather, gladly. But when the judge plainly realized that he could not be overcome by torments, nor called back from the worship of the Christian religion, he ordered him to be punished with beheading.

Cumque ad mortem duceretur, peruenit ad flumen, quod muro et harena, ubi feriendus erat, meatu rapidissimo diuidebatur; uiditque ibi non paruam hominum multitudinem utriusque sexus, condicionis diuersae et aetatis, quae sine dubio diuinitatis instinctu ad obsequium beatissimi confessoris ac martyris uocabatur, et ita fluminis ipsius occupabat pontem, ut intra uesperam transire uix posset. Denique cunctis pene egressis, iudex sine obsequio in ciuitate substiterat. Igitur sanctus Albanus, cui ardens inerat deuotio mentis ad martyrium ocius peruenire, accessit ad torrentem, et dirigens ad caelum oculos, illico siccato alueo, uidit undam suis cessisse ac uiam dedisse uestigiis.

And when he was being led to death, he arrived at a river, which, by a wall and a sandbank, at the place where he was to be struck, was divided by a very rapid course; and he saw there no small multitude of people of both sexes, of diverse condition and age, who, without doubt by the instinct of divinity, was being called to the attendance of the most blessed confessor and martyr, and was so occupying the bridge of the river itself that he could scarcely cross before evening. Finally, with almost all having gone out, the judge had remained in the city without a retinue. Therefore Saint Alban, in whom there was a burning devotion of mind to arrive more swiftly at martyrdom, approached the torrent, and directing his eyes to heaven, with the channel immediately dried, he saw the water give way to him and grant a path to his footsteps.

Quod cum inter alios etiam ipse carnifex, qui eum percussurus erat, uidisset, festinauit ei, ubi ad locum destinatum morti uenerat, occurrere, diuino nimirum admonitus instinctu, proiectoque ense, quem strictum tenuerat, pedibus eius aduoluitur, multum desiderans, ut cum martyre, uel pro martyre, quem percutere iubebatur, ipse potius mereretur percuti.

When even the executioner himself, who was about to strike him, had seen this among the others, he hastened to meet him when he had come to the place destined for death, clearly admonished by a divine instinct; and, casting down the sword which he had held drawn, he fell at his feet, greatly desiring that, either with the martyr or in place of the martyr whom he was ordered to strike, he himself might rather merit to be struck.

Dum ergo is ex persecutore factus esset collega ueritatis et fidei, ac iacente ferro esset inter carnifices iusta cunctatio, montem cum turbis reuerentissimus Dei confessor ascendit; qui oportune laetus, gratia decentissima, quingentis fere passibus ab harena situs est, uariis herbarum floribus depictus, immo usque quaque uestitus; in quo nihil repente arduum, nihil praeceps, nihil abruptum, quem lateribus longe lateque deductum in modum aequoris natura conplanat, dignum uidelicet eum, pro insita sibi specie uenustatis, iam olim reddens, qui beati martyris cruore dicaretur. In huius ergo uertice sanctus Albanus dari sibi a Deo aquam rogauit, statimque, incluso meatu, ante pedes eius fons perennis exortus est, ut omnes agnoscerent etiam torrentem martyri obsequium detulisse; neque enim fieri poterat, ut in arduo montis cacumine martyr aquam, quam in fluuio non reliquerat, peteret, si hoc oportunum esse non uideret. Qui uidelicet fluuius, ministerio persoluto, deuotione conpleta, officii testimonium relinquens, reuersus est ad naturam.

While therefore he, from persecutor, had been made a colleague of truth and faith, and, the steel lying idle, there was a just hesitation among the executioners, the most reverent confessor of God ascended the hill with the crowds; which, conveniently delightful, with a most becoming grace, is situated about five hundred paces from the sand, painted, or rather everywhere clothed, with various flowers of herbs; on which there is nothing suddenly steep, nothing headlong, nothing broken off, whose sides, drawn far and wide in the manner of a level plain, Nature makes even—clearly rendering it, by the beauty implanted in it, long since worthy to be consecrated by the blood of the blessed martyr. On the summit of this, therefore, Saint Alban asked that water be given to him by God, and at once, the flow being shut in, a perennial fount sprang up before his feet, so that all might recognize that even the torrent had paid obedience to the martyr; for it could not be that on the steep summit of the mount the martyr would seek the water which he had not left in the river, if he did not see this to be opportune. Which river, to wit, its ministry discharged, its devotion completed, leaving the testimony of its duty, returned to its nature.

Decollatus itaque martyr fortissimus ibidem accepit coronam uitae, quam repromisit Deus diligentibus se. Sed ille, qui piis ceruicibus impias intulit manus, gaudere super mortuum non est permissus; namque oculi eius in terram una cum beati martyris capite deciderunt.

Beheaded, therefore, the most valiant martyr there received the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love Him. But he who laid impious hands upon the pious neck was not permitted to rejoice over the dead man; for his eyes fell to the ground together with the head of the blessed martyr.

Decollatus est ibi etiam tum miles ille, qui antea superno nutu correptus, sanctum Dei confessorem ferire recusauit; de quo nimirum constat, quia, etsi fonte baptismatis non est ablutus, sui tamen est sanguinis lauacro mundatus, ac regni caelestis dignus factus ingressu. Tum iudex, tanta miraculorum caelestium nouitate perculsus, cessari mox a persecutione praecepit, honorem referre incipiens caedi sanctorum, per quam eos opinabatur prius a Christianae fidei posse deuotione cessare. Passus est autem beatus Albanus die .X. Kalendarum Iuliarum iuxta ciuitatem Uerolamium, quae nunc a gente Anglorum Uerlamacæstir siue Uaeclingacæstir appellatur, ubi postea, redeunte temporum Christianorum serenitate, ecclesia est mirandi operis atque eius martyrio condigna extructa.

There was beheaded there at that time also that soldier who earlier, seized by a supernal nod, refused to strike the holy confessor of God; about whom it is certain that, although he was not washed in the font of baptism, yet he was cleansed by the laver of his own blood, and made worthy of ingress into the heavenly kingdom. Then the judge, smitten by so great a novelty of celestial miracles, immediately ordered a ceasing from persecution, beginning to render honor to the slaughter of the saints, through which he had previously supposed that they could cease from devotion to the Christian faith. But the blessed Alban suffered on the 10th day before the Kalends of July (June 22), near the city Verulamium, which is now by the nation of the Angles called Verlamacæster or Wæclingacæster, where afterwards, with the serenity of Christian times returning, a church of wondrous workmanship and worthy of his martyrdom was erected.

In quo uidelicet loco usque ad hanc diem curatio infirmorum, et frequentium operatio uirtutum celebrari non desinit.

In that very place, down to this day, the healing of the infirm, and the performance of frequent miracles, does not cease to be celebrated.

Passi sunt ea tempestate Aaron et Iulius Legionum urbis ciues, aliique utriusque sexus diuersis in locis perplures, qui diuersis cruciatibus torti, et inaudita membrorum discerptione lacerati, animas ad supernae ciuitatis gaudia perfecto agone miserunt.

At that time Aaron and Julius, citizens of the City of the Legions, suffered, as did very many others of both sexes in diverse places; who, tortured by diverse torments and lacerated by an unheard-of discerption of limbs, sent their souls to the joys of the heavenly city, their agony perfected.

[8] AT ubi turbo persecutionis quieuit, progressi in puplicum fideles Christi, qui se tempore discriminis siluis ac desertis abditisue speluncis occulerant, renouant ecclesias ad solum usque destructas, basilicas sanctorum martyrum fundant, construunt, perficiunt, ac ueluti uictricia signa passim propalant, dies festos celebrant, sacra mundo corde atque ore conficiunt. Mansitque haec in ecclesiis Christi, quae erant in Brittania, pax usque ad tempora Arrianae uesaniae, quae, corrupto orbe toto, hanc etiam insulam extra orbem tam longe remotam, ueneno sui infecit erroris; et hac quasi uia pestilentiae trans oceanum patefacta, non mora, omnis se lues hereseos cuiusque, insulae noui semper aliquid audire gaudenti, et nil certi firmiter obtinenti infudit.

[8] But when the whirlwind of persecution grew quiet, the faithful of Christ, who in the time of peril had hidden themselves in forests and deserts and in concealed caves, come forth into public, renovate the churches destroyed down to the very ground, lay the foundations, build, and complete basilicas of the holy martyrs, and, as it were, display everywhere victorious standards; they celebrate feast days, they consummate the sacred rites with a clean heart and mouth. And this peace remained in the churches of Christ which were in Britain until the times of Arian insanity, which, with the whole orb corrupted, infected even this island, so far removed outside the orb, with the poison of its own error; and with this, as if a way of pestilence had been opened across the ocean, without delay every plague of whatever heresy poured itself into the island, which is always rejoicing to hear something new, and holds firmly nothing certain.

His temporibus Constantius, qui uiuente Diocletiano Galliam Hispaniamque regebat, uir summae mansuetudinis et ciuilitatis, in Brittania morte obiit. Hic Constantinum filium ex concubina Helena creatum imperatorem Galliarum reliquit. Scribit autem Eutropius, quod Constantinus in Brittania creatus imperator, patri in regnum successerit; cuius temporibus Arriana heresis exorta, et in Nicena synodo detecta atque damnata, nihilominus exitiabile perfidiae suae uirus, ut diximus, non solum orbis totius, sed et insularum ecclesiis aspersit.

In these times Constantius, who, while Diocletian was living, was ruling Gaul and Hispania, a man of the highest mansuetude and civility, died in Britain. He left Constantine, his son by the concubine Helena, created emperor of the Gauls. Moreover, Eutropius writes that Constantine, created emperor in Britain, succeeded his father in the realm; in whose times the Arian heresy, having arisen, and in the Nicene synod detected and condemned, nonetheless sprinkled with the deadly virus of its perfidy, as we have said, not only the churches of the whole world but also those of the islands.

[9] Anno ab incarnatione Domini CCCLXXVII, Gratianus XL ab Augusto post mortem Ualentis sex annis imperium tenuit, quamuis iamdudum antea cum patruo Ualente et cum Ualentiniano fratre regnaret. Qui cum adflictum et pene conlapsum reipuplicae statum uideret, Theodosium Hispanum uirum restituendae reipuplicae necessitate apud Syrmium purpura induit, Orientisque et Thraciae simul praefecit imperio. Qua tempestate Maximus uir quidem strenuus et probus, atque Augusto dignus, nisi contra sacramenti fidem per tyrannidem emersisset, in Brittania inuitus propemodum ab exercitu imperator creatus, in Galliam transiit.

[9] In the year from the Incarnation of the Lord 377, Gratian, the 40th from Augustus, held the empire for six years after the death of Valens, although long before he had reigned with his uncle Valens and with his brother Valentinian. Seeing the condition of the republic afflicted and almost collapsed, he clothed Theodosius, a Spaniard, a man necessary for restoring the republic, with the purple at Sirmium, and at the same time put him in charge of the empire of the East and of Thrace. At that time Maximus—a man indeed strenuous and upright, and worthy of an Augustus, had he not, contrary to the faith of his oath, emerged by tyranny—was in Britain almost unwillingly created emperor by the army, and crossed over into Gaul.

Ibi Gratianum Augustum subita incursione perterritum, atque in Italiam transire meditantem, dolis circumuentum interfecit, fratremque eius Ualentinianum Augustum Italia expulit. Ualentinianus in orientem refugiens, a Theodosio paterna pietate susceptus, mox etiam imperio restitutus est; clauso uidelicet intra muros Aquileiae, capto atque occiso ab eis Maximo tyranno.

There he slew Gratian Augustus, frightened by a sudden incursion and contemplating crossing into Italy, after he had been entrapped by wiles; and he expelled his brother Valentinian Augustus from Italy. Valentinian, fleeing into the East, was received by Theodosius with fatherly pietas, and soon was also restored to the imperium; namely, with Maximus the tyrant shut within the walls of Aquileia, captured and killed by them.

[10] Anno ab incarnatione Domini CCCXCIIII Arcadius filius Theodosii cum fratre Honorio, XLIII ab Augusto regnum suscipiens, tenuit annos XIII. Cuius temporibus Pelagius Bretto contra auxilium gratiae supernae uenena suae perfidiae longe lateque dispersit, utens cooperatore Iuliano de Campania, quem dudum amissi episcopatus intemperans cupido exagitabat; quibus sanctus Augustinus, sicut et ceteri patres orthodoxi, multis sententiarum catholicarum milibus responderunt, nec eorum tamen dementiam corrigere ualebant; sed, quod grauius est, correpta eorum uesania magis augescere contradicendo, quam fauendo ueritati uoluit emundari. Quod pulchre uersibus heroicis Prosper rhetor insinuat, cum ait:

[10] In the year from the incarnation of the Lord 394 Arcadius, son of Theodosius, with his brother Honorius, the 43rd from Augustus, receiving the rule, held it for 13 years. In whose times Pelagius the Briton, against the aid of supernal grace, scattered far and wide the poisons of his perfidy, using as cooperator Julian of Campania, whom an intemperate desire for a bishopric long since lost was harrying. To whom Saint Augustine, as also the other orthodox fathers, responded with many thousands of Catholic judgments; yet they were not able to correct their madness; but, what is more serious, their frenzy, when reproved, chose rather to increase by contradicting than to be cleansed by favoring the truth. Which Prosper the rhetor gracefully intimates in heroic verses, when he says:

‘Contra Augustinum narratur serpere quidam
Scriptor, quem dudum liuor adurit edax.
Quis caput obscuris contectum utcumque cauernis
Tollere humo miserum propulit anguiculum?
Aut hunc fruge sua aequorei pauere Britanni
Aut hic Campano gramine corda tumet.’

‘Against Augustine it is told there creeps a certain
writer, whom devouring envy has long scorched.
Who has driven the wretched little serpent,
its head somehow covered in dark caverns,
to raise it from the ground? Either the sea-girt Britons
have fed this one with their own grain, or here he swells in heart with Campanian grass.’

[11] Anno ab incarnatione Domini CCCCVII, tenente imperium Honorio Augusto, filio Theodosii minoris, loco ab Augusto X.LIIII, ante biennium Romanae inruptionis, quae per Halaricum regem Gothorum facta est, cum gentes Halanorum, Sueuorum, Uandalorum, multaeque cum his aliae, protritis Francis, transito Hreno, totas per Gallias saeuirent, apud Brittanias Gratianus municeps tyrannus creatur, et occiditur. Huius loco Constantinus ex infima militia propter solam spem nominis sine merito uirtutis eligitur; qui continuo, ut inuasit imperium, in Gallias transiit. Ibi saepe a barbaris incertis foederibus inlusus, detrimento magis reipuplicae fuit; unde mox, iubente Honorio, Constantius comes in Galliam cum exercitu profectus, apud Arelatem ciuitatem eum clausit, cepit, occidit; Constantemque filium eius, quem ex monacho Caesarem fecerat, Gerontius comes suus apud Uiennam interfecit.

[11] In the year from the Incarnation of the Lord 407, while Honorius Augustus, son of Theodosius the Younger, held the empire, in the 54th place from Augustus, two years before the Roman irruption which was made by Alaric, king of the Goths, when the peoples of the Alans, Sueves, and Vandals, and many others with them, the Franks having been crushed, the Rhine having been crossed, were raging throughout all Gauls, in the Britains Gratian, a townsman, is created tyrant, and is slain. In his place Constantine, from the lowest rank of the soldiery, was chosen on account of the mere hope afforded by his name, without the merit of valor; who immediately, as soon as he seized the imperium, crossed into Gauls. There, often deluded by uncertain foedera with barbarians, he was rather to the detriment of the commonwealth; whence soon, by Honorius’s order, Constantius the count set out into Gaul with an army, and at the city of Arles shut him in, captured him, killed him; and Constans, his son, whom he had made Caesar from a monk, his own count Gerontius killed at Vienne.

Fracta est autem Roma a Gothis anno milesimo CLXIIII suae conditionis, ex quo tempore Romani in Brittania regnare cessarunt, post annos ferme CCCCLXX, ex quo Gaius Iulius Caesar eandem insulam adiit. Habitabant autem intra uallum, quod Seuerum trans insulam fecisse commemorauimus, ad plagam meridianam, quod ciuitates, farus, pontes, et stratae ibidem factae usque hodie testantur; ceterum ulteriores Brittaniae partes, uel eas etiam, quae ultra Brittaniam sunt, insulas iure dominandi possidebant.

But Rome was broken by the Goths in the 1164th year of its foundation, from which time the Romans ceased to reign in Britain, after almost 470 years since Gaius Julius Caesar went to the same island. They were dwelling, however, within the rampart which we have recorded that Severus made across the island, on the southern quarter, as the cities, the pharos, the bridges, and the strata (paved roads) made there to this day testify; moreover, they possessed the farther parts of Britain, and even those islands which are beyond Britain, by the right of dominion.

[12] Exin Brittania in parte Brettonum, omni armato milite, militaribus copiis uniuersis, tota floridae iuuentutis alacritate spoliata, quae tyrannorum temeritate abducta nusquam ultra domum rediit, praedae tantum patuit, utpote omnis bellici usus prorsus ignara; denique subito duabus gentibus transmarinis uehementer saeuis, Scottorum a circio, Pictorum ab aquilone, multos stupet gemitque per annos. Transmarinas autem dicimus has gentes, non quod extra Brittaniam essent positae; sed quia a parte Brettonum erant remotae, duobus sinibus maris interiacentibus, quorum unus ab orientali mari, alter ab occidentali, Brittaniae terras longe lateque inrumpit, quamuis ad se inuicem pertingere non possint. Orientalis habet in medio sui urbem Giudi, occidentalis supra se, hoc est ad dexteram sui, habet urbem Alcluith, quod lingua eorum significat petram Cluith; est enim iuxta fluuium nominis illius.

[12] Then Britain, in the region of the Britons, having been despoiled of every armed soldier, of all military forces in their entirety, of the whole alacrity of flourishing youth—which, carried off by the temerity of the tyrants, never thereafter returned home—lay open only to plunder, as being entirely ignorant of all use of war; finally, suddenly, by two transmarine peoples, vehemently savage, the Scots from the northwest, the Picts from the north, for many years it is astonished and it groans. We call these peoples “transmarine,” not because they were situated outside Britain, but because they were remote from the part of the Britons, with two inlets of the sea lying between, of which one from the eastern sea, the other from the western, breaks far and wide into the lands of Britain, although they cannot reach to one another. The eastern has in the midst of itself the city of Giudi, the western above itself, that is, to its right-hand, has the city Alcluith, which in their language signifies the Rock of Clyde; for it is next to the river of that name.

Ob harum ergo infestationem gentium Brettones legatos Romam cum epistulis mittentes, lacrimosis precibus auxilia flagitabant, subiectionemque continuam, dummodo hostis inminens longius arceretur, promittebant. Quibus mox legio destinatur armata, quae, ubi insulam aduecta, et congressa est cum hostibus, magnam eorum multitudinem sternens, ceteros sociorum finibus expulit; eosque interim a dirissima depressione liberatos, hortata est instruere inter duo maria trans insulam murum, qui arcendis hostibus posset esse praesidio; sicque domum cum triumpho magno reuersa est. At insulani murum, quem iussi fuerant, non tam lapidibus quam cespitibus construentes, utpote nullum tanti operis artificem habentes, ad nihil utilem statuunt.

On account, therefore, of the infestation of these nations, the Britons, sending legates to Rome with epistles, with tearful entreaties were demanding aid, and were promising continual subjection, provided only that the imminent enemy might be warded off farther away. To whom an armed legion is soon dispatched, which, when conveyed to the island and when it engaged with the enemies, laying low a great multitude of them, drove the rest from the allies’ borders; and, them meanwhile freed from the most dire oppression, it exhorted them to build between the two seas across the island a wall, which might be a defense for warding off the enemies; and thus it returned home with great triumph. But the islanders, constructing the wall which they had been ordered, not so much with stones as with sods, since they had no artificer of so great a work, set up one useful for nothing.

Fecerunt autem eum inter duo freta uel sinus, de quibus diximus, maris, per milia passuum plurima; ut, ubi aquarum munitio deerat, ibi praesidio ualli fines suos ab hostium inruptione defenderent. Cuius operis ibidem facti, id est ualli latissimi et altissimi, usque hodie certissima uestigia cernere licet. Incipit autem duorum ferme milium spatio a monasterio Aebbercurnig ad occidentem in loco, qui sermone Pictorum Peanfahel, lingua autem Anglorum Penneltun appellatur; et tendens contra occidentem terminatur iuxta urbem Alcluith.

Moreover, they made it between the two straits or sea-bays, of which we have spoken, for very many miles; so that, where the defense of waters was lacking, there by the protection of a rampart they might defend their borders from the inrush of enemies. Of this work done there, that is, of a very broad and very high rampart, even to this day the most certain vestiges may be seen. It begins at a distance of nearly two miles to the west from the monastery of Aebbercurnig, in a place which in the speech of the Picts is called Peanfahel, but in the tongue of the English Penneltun; and, stretching toward the west, it ends near the city of Alcluith.

Uerum priores inimici, ut Romanum militem abisse conspexerant, mox aduecti nauibus inrumpunt terminos, caeduntque omnia, et quasi maturam segetem obuia quaeque metunt, calcant, transeunt; unde rursum mittuntur Romam legati, flebili uoce auxilium inplorantes, ne penitus misera patria deleretur, ne nomen Romanae prouinciae, quod apud eos tam diu claruerat, exterarum gentium inprobitate obrutum uilesceret. Rursum mittitur legio, quae inopinata tempore autumni adueniens, magnas hostium strages dedit, eosque, qui euadere poterant, omnes trans maria fugauit, qui prius anniuersarias praedas trans maria nullo obsistente cogere solebant.

But the former enemies, when they had perceived that the Roman soldiery had departed, soon, borne in by ships, burst into the borders, and cut down everything, and, as if a ripe crop, they reap whatever meets them, they trample, they pass through; whence again legates are sent to Rome, imploring aid with a tearful voice, lest the wretched fatherland be utterly destroyed, lest the name of the Roman province, which among them had shone for so long, be cheapened, overwhelmed by the improbity of foreign nations. Again a legion is sent, which, arriving unexpectedly at the season of autumn, dealt great slaughters of the enemy, and drove all who were able to escape across the seas—those who before were wont to gather anniversary plunders across the seas with no one resisting.

Tum Romani denuntiauere Brettonibus non se ultra ob eorum defensionem tam laboriosis expeditionibus posse fatigari; ipsos potius monent arma corripere, et certandi cum hostibus studium subire, qui non aliam ob causam, quam si ipsi inertia soluerentur, eis possent esse fortiores. Quin etiam, quia et hoc sociis, quos derelinquere cogebantur, aliquid commodi adlaturum putabant, murum a mari ad mare recto tramite inter urbes, quae ibidem ob metum hostium factae fuerant, ubi et Seuerus quondam uallum fecerat, firmo de lapide conlocarunt; quem uidelicet murum hactenus famosum atque conspicuum, sumtu puplico priuatoque, adiuncta secum Brittanorum manu, construebant, VIII pedes latum, et XII altum, recta ab oriente in occasum linea, ut usque hodie intuentibus clarum est; quo mox condito dant fortia segni populo monita, praebent instituendorum exemplaria armorum. Sed et in litore oceani ad meridiem, quo naues eorum habebantur, quia et inde barbarorum inruptio timebatur, turres per interualla ad prospectum maris conlocant, et ualedicunt sociis tanquam ultra non reuersuri.

Then the Romans declared to the Britons that they could no longer weary themselves with such toilsome expeditions for their defense; rather they admonish them to snatch up arms, and to undertake the zeal of contending with the enemies, who could be stronger than they for no other cause than if they themselves were unstrung by inertia. Moreover, because they thought that this too would bring some advantage to the allies whom they were compelled to abandon, they set a wall of solid stone from sea to sea in a straight course between the cities which had been made there out of fear of the enemies, where also Severus once made a rampart; which wall, namely, to this day famous and conspicuous, at public and private expense, with a band of the Britons joined with them, they were building, 8 feet wide and 12 high, in a straight line from east into west, as is clear to beholders even to this day; and, this soon constructed, they give brave counsels to the sluggish people, they provide exemplars of arms for instruction. But also on the shore of the ocean to the south, where their ships were kept, because from there too an inrush of the barbarians was feared, they set towers at intervals for the prospect of the sea, and they bid farewell to their allies as though not going to return any farther.

Quibus ad sua remeantibus, cognita Scotti Pictique reditus denegatione, redeunt confestim ipsi, et solito confidentiores facti, omnem aquilonalem extremamque insulae partem pro indigenis ad murum usque capessunt. Statuitur ad haec in edito arcis acies segnis, ubi trementi corde stupida die noctuque marcebat. At contra non cessant uncinata hostium tela; ignaui propugnatores miserrime de muris tracti solo adlidebantur.

When they were returning to their own, the Scots and Picts, the denegation of a return having been learned, forthwith themselves return, and, made more confident than usual, seize, in place of the indigenes, the whole northern and extreme part of the island up to the wall. In response to these things a sluggish battle-line is set on a high position of the citadel, where, with trembling heart, benumbed, it was wasting away day and night. But on the contrary the hooked missiles of the enemy do not cease; the cowardly defenders, most miserably dragged from the walls, were dashed to the ground.

Quid plura? relictis ciuitatibus ac muro fugiunt, disperguntur. Insequitur hostis, adcelerantur strages cunctis crudeliores prioribus.

What more? With the cities and the wall abandoned, they flee, they are scattered. The enemy pursues; the slaughters are accelerated, more cruel for all than the former ones.

Sicut enim agni a feris, ita miseri ciues discerpuntur ab hostibus; unde a mansionibus ac possessiunculis suis eiecti, inminens sibi famis periculum latrocinio ac rapacitate mutua temperabant, augentes externas domesticis motibus clades, donec omnis regio totius cibi sustentaculo, excepto uenandi solacio, uacuaretur.

For just as lambs by wild beasts, so the wretched citizens are torn to pieces by the enemies; whence, cast out from their mansions and little possessions, they were tempering the imminent danger of famine for themselves by mutual brigandage and rapacity, augmenting foreign calamities with domestic tumults, until every region was emptied of the support of all food, except for the solace of hunting.

[13] ANNO dominicae incarnationis CCCCXXIII, Theodosius iunior post Honorium XLV ab Augusto regnum suscipiens, XX et VI annis tenuit; cuius anno imperii VIII Palladius ad Scottos in Christum credentes a pontifice Romanae ecclesiae Celestino primus mittitur episcopus. Anno autem regni eius XXIII, Aetius uir inlustris, qui et patricius fuit, tertium cum Simmacho gessit consulatum. Ad hunc pauperculae Brettonum reliquiae mittunt epistulam, cuius hoc principium est: ‘Aetio ter consuli gemitus Brittanorum;’ et in processu epistulae ita suas calamitates explicant: ‘Repellunt barbari ad mare, repellit mare ad barbaros; inter haec oriuntur duo genera funerum, aut iugulamur, aut mergimur.’ Neque haec tamen agentes quicquam ab illo auxilii impetrare quiuerunt, utpote qui grauissimis eo tempore bellis cum Blaedla et Attila regibus Hunorum erat occupatus; et quamuis anno ante hunc proximo Blaedla Attilae fratris sui sit interemtus insidiis, Attila tamen ipse adeo intolerabilis reipuplicae remansit hostis, ut totam pene Europam, excisis inuasisque ciuitatibus atque castellis, conroderet.

[13] IN THE YEAR of the Lord’s incarnation 423, Theodosius the Younger, after Honorius, receiving the reign as the 45th from Augustus, held it for 26 years; in the 8th year of his imperium Palladius is sent as the first bishop to the Scots believing in Christ by Celestine, the pontiff of the Roman church. Moreover, in the 23rd year of his reign, Aetius, a most illustrious man, who was also patrician, held the consulship for the third time with Symmachus. To him the poor little remnants of the Britons send a letter, whose beginning is this: ‘To Aetius, thrice consul, the groans of the Britons;’ and in the continuation of the letter they explain their calamities thus: ‘The barbarians drive us to the sea; the sea drives us to the barbarians; between these arise two kinds of funerals: either we are throttled, or we are drowned.’ Yet, although making these appeals, they were not able to obtain any help from him, inasmuch as at that time he was occupied with most grave wars with Bleda and Attila, kings of the Huns; and although in the year immediately before this Bleda, the brother of Attila, was slain by treachery, Attila himself nevertheless remained so intolerable an enemy of the commonwealth that he gnawed away almost all Europe, with cities and forts cut down and invaded.

Quin et hisdem temporibus fames Constantinopolim inuasit; nec mora pestis secuta est; sed et plurimi eiusdem urbis muri cum LVII turribus conruerunt; multis quoque ciuitatibus conlapsis, fames et aerum pestifer odor plura hominum milia iumentorumque deleuit.

Nay, in those same times famine invaded Constantinople; without delay a pestilence followed; and very many of the walls of that same city collapsed with 57 towers; with many cities likewise fallen, famine and the pestiferous odor of the airs destroyed many thousands of human beings and of beasts of burden.

[14] INTEREA Brettones fames sua praefata magis magisque adficiens, ac famam suae malitiae posteris diuturnam relinquens, multos eorum coegit uictas infestis praedonibus dare manus, alios uero numquam, quin potius confidentes in diuinum, ubi humanum cessabat auxilium, de ipsis montibus, speluncis, ac saltibus continue rebellabant; et tum primum inimicis, qui per multos annos praedas in terra agebant, strages dare coeperunt. Reuertuntur ergo inpudentes grassatores Hiberni domus, post non longum tempus reuersuri; Picti in extrema parte insulae tunc primum et deinceps quieuerunt, praedas tamen nonnumquam exinde et contritiones de Brettonum gente agere non cessarunt.

[14] Meanwhile the Britons, their afore-said famine afflicting them more and more, and leaving to posterity a long-lasting fame of its malice, compelled many of them, their forces overcome by hostile marauders, to give their hands in surrender; but others never did so—rather, confident in the divine where human aid failed, from the very mountains, caves, and forest-glades they kept up continuous rebellion; and then for the first time they began to inflict slaughters on the enemies who for many years were driving plunder in the land. Therefore the impudent depredators, the Hibernians, return home, only to return again before long; the Picts in the farthest part of the island then for the first time, and thereafter, grew quiet, yet they did not cease from that quarter now and then to carry on raids and devastations upon the people of the Britons.

Cessante autem uastatione hostili, tantis frugum copiis insula, quantas nulla retro aetas meminit, affluere coepit; cum quibus et luxuria crescere, et hanc continuo omnium lues scelerum comitari adcelerauit; crudelitas praecipue, et odium ueritatis, amorque mendacii, ita ut, siquis eorum mitior et ueritati aliquatenus propior uideretur, in hunc quasi Brittaniae subuersorem omnium odia telaque sine respectu contorquerentur. Et non solum haec saeculares uiri, sed etiam ipse grex Domini eiusque pastores egerunt; ebrietati, animositati, litigio, contentioni, inuidiae, ceterisque huiusmodi facinoribus sua colla, abiecto leui iugo Christi, subdentes. Interea subito corruptae mentis homines acerba pestis corripuit, quae in breui tantam eius multitudinem strauit, ut ne sepeliendis quidem mortuis uiui sufficerent; sed ne morte quidem suorum, nec timore mortis hi, qui supererant, a morte animae, qua peccando sternebantur, reuocari poterant.

However, with the hostile devastation ceasing, the island began to overflow with such great supplies of crops as no former age remembers; along with which both luxury began to increase, and the plague of all crimes forthwith hastened to accompany this; cruelty especially, and hatred of truth, and love of mendacity, so that, if anyone of them seemed gentler and in some measure nearer to truth, against this man, as though the subverter of everything in Britain, all hatreds and weapons were hurled without regard. And not only did secular men do these things, but even the very flock of the Lord and its shepherds, submitting their necks, having cast off the light yoke of Christ, to ebriety, animosity, litigation, contention, envy, and the other crimes of this sort. Meanwhile men of corrupted mind were suddenly seized by a bitter pestilence, which in a short time laid so great a multitude of them low that the living were not even sufficient for burying the dead; but not even by the death of their own, nor by the fear of death could those who survived be called back from the death of the soul, by which, through sinning, they were being laid low.

Unde non multo post acrior gentem peccatricem ultio diri sceleris secuta est. Initum namque est consilium, quid agendum, ubi quaerendum esset praesidium ad euitandas uel repellendas tam feras tamque creberrimas gentium aquilonalium inruptiones; placuitque omnibus cum suo rege Uurtigerno, utSaxonum gentem de transmarinis partibus in auxilium uocarent; quod Domini nutu dispositum esse constat, ut ueniret contra improbos malum, sicut euidentius rerum exitus probauit.

Whence, not long after, a keener vengeance upon the sinful nation followed for its dire crime. For a counsel was entered upon—what ought to be done, where protection should be sought—to avoid or to repel such savage and so very frequent irruptions of the northern gentes; and it pleased all, together with their king Uurtigern, that they should call the nation of the Saxons from transmarine parts to their aid; which is evident to have been arranged at the nod of the Lord, that an evil might come against the wicked, as the outcome of things more plainly proved.

[15] ANNO ab incarnatione Domini CCCCXLVIIII Marcianus cum Ualentiniano XLVI ab Augusto regnum adeptus, VII annis tenuit. Tunc Anglorum siue Saxonum gens, inuitata a rege praefato, Brittaniam tribus longis nauibus aduehitur, et in orientali parte insulae, iubente eodem rege, locum manendi, quasi pro patria pugnatura, re autem uera hanc expugnatura, suscipit. Inito ergo certamine cum hostibus, qui ab aquilone ad aciem uenerant, uictoriam sumsere Saxones.

[15] In the year from the Incarnation of the Lord 449, Marcian, with Valentinian, the 46th from Augustus, obtained the rule, and held it for 7 years. Then the nation of the Angles or Saxons, invited by the aforesaid king, is conveyed to Britain in three long ships, and in the eastern part of the island, at the command of the same king, receives a place of abiding, as if about to fight for the fatherland, but in truth about to conquer it. Therefore, battle having been joined with the enemies, who had come from the north to the battle-line, the Saxons took the victory.

Quod ubi domi nuntiatum est, simul et insulae fertilitas, ac segnitia Brettonum; mittitur confestim illo classis prolixior, armatorum ferens manum fortiorem, quae praemissae adiuncta cohorti inuincibilem fecit exercitum. Susceperunt ergo, qui aduenerant, donantibus Brittanis, locum habitationis inter eos, ea condicione, ut hi pro patriae pace et salute contra aduersarios militarent, illi militantibus debita stipendia conferrent.

When this was reported at home—both the fertility of the island and the sluggishness of the Britons—a more extended fleet was immediately sent thither, bearing a stronger band of armed men, which, joined to the cohort sent ahead, made the army invincible. Therefore those who had arrived received, the Britons donating it, a place of habitation among them, on this condition: that these should serve as soldiers against adversaries for the peace and safety of the fatherland, and that those should confer the due stipends to the men serving.

Aduenerant autem de tribus Germaniae populis fortioribus, id est Saxonibus, Anglis, Iutis. De Iutarum origine sunt Cantuarii et Uictuarii, hoc est ea gens, quae Uectam tenet insulam, et ea, quae usque hodie in prouincia Occidentalium Saxonum Iutarum natio nominatur, posita contra ipsam insulam Uectam. De Saxonibus, id est ea regione, quae nunc Antiquorum Saxonum cognominatur, uenere Orientales Saxones, Meridiani Saxones, Occidui Saxones.

Moreover, there had arrived from the three stronger peoples of Germania, that is, from the Saxons, the Angles, the Jutes. Of Jutish origin are the Cantware and the Victuarii, that is, the tribe which holds the island Vecta (Wight), and that which even to this day in the province of the West Saxons is called the nation of the Jutes, situated opposite that same island Vecta. From the Saxons, that is, from the region which is now surnamed of the Old Saxons, came the East Saxons, the South Saxons, the West Saxons.

Porro de Anglis, hoc est de illa patria, quae Angulus dicitur, et ab eo tempore usque hodie manere desertus inter prouincias Iutarum et Saxonum perhibetur, Orientales Angli, Mediterranei Angli, Merci, tota Nordanhymbrorum progenies, id est illarum gentium, quae ad Boream Humbri fluminis inhabitant, ceterique Anglorum populi sunt orti. Duces fuisse perhibentur eorum primi duo fratres Hengist et Horsa; e quibus Horsa postea occisus in bello a Brettonibus, hactenus in orientalibus Cantiae partibus monumentum habet suo nomine insigne. Erant autem filii Uictgilsi, cuius pater Uitta, cuius pater Uecta, cuius pater Uoden, de cuius stirpe multarum prouinciarum regium genus originem duxit.

Moreover, as for the Angles, that is, from the country which is called Angulus, and which from that time until today is reported to remain deserted between the provinces of the Jutes and the Saxons, there sprang the East Angles, the Middle Angles, the Mercians, the whole progeny of the Northumbrians, that is, of those nations which inhabit to the north of the river Humber, and the other peoples of the Angles. Their first leaders are said to have been the two brothers Hengist and Horsa; of whom Horsa, later slain in war by the Britons, has to this day in the eastern parts of Kent a monument distinguished by his own name. They were the sons of Wihtgils, whose father was Witta, whose father Wecta, whose father Woden, from whose stock the royal race of many provinces has drawn its origin.

Non mora ergo, confluentibus certatim in insulam gentium memoratarum cateruis, grandescere populus coepit aduenarum, ita ut ipsis quoque, qui eos aduocauerant, indigenis essent terrori. Tum subito inito ad tempus foedere cum Pictis, quos longius iam bellando pepulerant, in socios arma uertere incipiunt. Et primum quidem annonas sibi eos affluentius ministrare cogunt, quaerentesque occasionem diuortii, protestantur, nisi profusior sibi alimentorum copia daretur, se cuncta insulae loca rupto foedere uastaturos.

No delay, therefore: with the cohorts of the aforesaid nations competing to flow together into the island, the people of newcomers began to grow great, so that they were a terror even to the natives who had invited them. Then suddenly, a treaty for a time having been entered with the Picts, whom by warring they had already driven farther off, they begin to turn their arms against their allies. And at first indeed they compel them to supply rations to them more abundantly; and seeking an occasion of divorce, they protest that, unless a more lavish abundance of provisions be given to them, they will, the treaty being broken, devastate all the places of the island.

Neque aliquanto segnius minas effectibus prosequuntur. Siquidem, ut breuiter dicam, accensus manibus paganorum ignis, iustas de sceleribus populi Dei ultiones expetiit, non illius inpar, qui quondam a Chaldaeis succensus, Hierosolymorum moenia, immo aedificia cuncta consumsit. Sic enim et hic agente impio uictore, immo disponente iusto Iudice, proximas quasque ciuitates agrosque depopulans, ab orientali mari usque ad occidentale, nullo prohibente, suum continuauit incendium, totamque prope insulae pereuntis superficiem obtexit.

Nor do they follow up their threats with any the less effect. For indeed, to speak briefly, a fire kindled by the hands of the pagans sought just vengeance for the crimes of the people of God, not unequal to that which once, kindled by the Chaldeans, consumed the walls of Jerusalem—nay, all the buildings. For thus also here, with an impious victor acting—nay, with a just Judge disposing—devastating whatever cities and fields were nearest, from the eastern sea to the western, with no one hindering, it continued its conflagration, and covered almost the whole surface of the perishing island.

Ruebant aedificia puplica simul et priuata, passim sacerdotes inter altaria trucidabantur, praesules cum populis sine ullo respectu honoris, ferro pariter et flammis absumebantur; nec erat, qui crudeliter interemtos sepulturae traderet. Itaque nonnulli de miserandis reliquiis in montibus conprehensi, aceruatim iugulabantur; alii fame confecti procedentes manus hostibus dabant, pro accipiendis alimentorum subsidiis aeternum subituri seruitium, si tamen non continuo trucidarentur; alii transmarinas regiones dolentes petebant; alii perstantes in patria trepidi pauperem uitam in montibus, siluis, uel rupibus arduis suspecta semper mente agebant.

Public and private buildings alike were collapsing, everywhere priests were butchered among the altars, prelates with their peoples, without any regard for honor, were alike consumed by iron and flames; nor was there anyone to commit the cruelly slain to burial. And so some of the pitiable remnant, seized in the mountains, were slaughtered in heaps; others, worn out with hunger, proceeding forth, gave their hands to the enemies, about to undergo eternal servitude in return for receiving subsidies of food—if, that is, they were not immediately butchered; others, grieving, sought transmarine regions; others, persisting in their fatherland, anxious, spent a poor life in the mountains, woods, or on steep crags, with a mind always suspicious.

[16] AT ubi hostilis exercitus exterminatis dispersisque insulae indigenis, domum reuersus est, coeperunt et illi paulatim uires animosque resumere, emergentes de latibulis, quibus abditi fuerant, et unanimo consensu auxilium caeleste precantes, ne usque ad internicionem usquequaque delerentur. Utebantur eo tempore duce Ambrosio Aureliano, uiro modesto, qui solus forte Romanae gentis praefatae tempestati superfuerat, occisis in eadem parentibus regium nomen et insigne ferentibus. Hoc ergo duce uires capessunt Brettones, et uictores prouocantes ad proelium, uictoriam ipsi Deo fauente suscipiunt.

[16] But when the hostile army, after exterminating and dispersing the island’s indigenous people, had returned home, they too began little by little to resume strength and spirit, emerging from the hiding-places in which they had been concealed, and with unanimous consent praying for heavenly aid, lest they be everywhere destroyed unto extermination. At that time they made use of Ambrosius Aurelianus as leader, a modest man, who alone, by chance, of the Roman nation had survived the aforesaid tempest, his parents having been slain in the same, bearing the royal name and insignia. Therefore, under this leader the Britons take up strength, and, challenging the victors to battle, they receive victory, God himself favoring.

Et ex eo tempore nunc ciues, nunc hostes uincebant, usque ad annum obsessionis Badonici montis, quando non minimas eisdem hostibus strages dabant, XLmo circiter et IIIIo anno aduentus eorum in Brittaniam. Sed haec postmodum.

And from that time now the citizens, now the enemies were winning, up to the year of the siege of Mount Badon, when they were dealing no small slaughters to those same enemies, in about the 44th year of their arrival in Britain. But these things later.

[17] ANTE paucos sane aduentus eorum annos heresis Pelagiana per Agricolam inlata, Seueriani episcopi Pelagiani filium, fidem Brittaniarum feda peste commaculauerat. Uerum Brittanni, cum neque suscipere dogma peruersum gratiam Christi blasphemando ullatenus uellent, neque uersutiam nefariae persuasionis refutare uerbis certando sufficerent, inueniunt salubre consilium, ut a Gallicanis antistitibus auxilium belli spiritalis inquirant. Quam ob causam collecta magna synodo quaerebatur in commune, qui illic ad succurrendum fidei mitti deberent; atque omnium iudicio electi sunt apostolici sacerdotes Germanus Autissidorensis et Lupus Trecasenae ciuitatis episcopi, qui ad confirmandam fidem gratiae caelestis Brittanias uenirent.

[17] A FEW years, to be sure, before their arrival, the Pelagian heresy, brought in through Agricola, son of the Pelagian bishop Severian, had befouled the faith of the Britains with a foul pest. But the Britons, since they were neither willing in any wise to accept the perverse dogma by blaspheming the grace of Christ, nor sufficient to refute by disputation the slyness of that nefarious persuasion, find a healthful counsel: to seek from Gallican prelates aid for a spiritual war. For which cause, a great synod having been gathered, it was sought in common who ought to be sent thither to succor the faith; and by the judgment of all were chosen apostolic priests, Germanus of Autissiodorum (Auxerre) and Lupus, bishop of the city of the Tricasses (Troyes), who should come to Britain to confirm the faith of heavenly grace.

Qui cum promta deuotione preces et iussa sanctae ecclesiae suscepissent, intrant oceanum et usque ad medium itineris, quo a Gallico sinu Brittanias usque tenditur, secundis flatibus nauis tuta uolabat. Tum subito occurrit pergentibus inimica uis daemonum, qui tantos talesque uiros ad recuperandam tendere populorum salutem inuiderent; concitant procellas, caelum diemque nubium nocte subducunt; uentorum furores uela non sustinent; cedebant ministeria uicta nautarum; ferebatur nauigium oratione, non uiribus; et casu dux ipse uel pontifex fractus corpore, lassitudine ac sopore resolutus est. Tum uero, quasi repugnatore cessante, tempestas excitata conualuit, et iam nauigium superfusis fluctibus mergebatur.

Who, when with ready devotion they had undertaken the prayers and commands of the holy Church, enter the Ocean; and up to the middle of the journey—which stretches from the Gallic gulf as far as the Britains—with favorable breezes the ship was flying safe. Then suddenly there meets them as they go a hostile force of demons, who begrudged that men so great and of such quality were tending to recover the salvation of the peoples; they stir up tempests, they withdraw sky and day beneath a night of clouds; the furies of the winds the sails do not sustain; the ministrations of the sailors, overcome, were giving way; the vessel was being borne by prayer, not by strengths; and by chance the leader himself, or pontiff, broken in body, was loosened by weariness and sleep. Then indeed, as if the resister having ceased, the storm, aroused, grew strong, and now the vessel was being submerged by the waves pouring over.

Tum beatus Lupus omnesque turbati excitant seniorem elementis furentibus obponendum; qui periculi inmanitate constantior, Christum inuocat, et adsumto in nomine sanctae Trinitatis leui aquae aspergine fluctus saeuientes obprimit, collegam commonet, hortatur uniuersos, oratio uno ore et clamore profunditur; adest diuinitas, fugantur inimici, tranquillitas serena subsequitur, uenti e contrario ad itineris ministeria reuertuntur, decursisque breui spatiis pelagi, optati littoris quiete potiuntur. Ibi conueniens ex diuersis partibus multitudo excepit sacerdotes, quos uenturos etiam uaticinatio aduersa praedixerat. Nuntiabant enim sinistri spiritus, quod timebant, qui imperio sacerdotum dum ab obsessis corporibus detruduntur, et tempestatis ordinem, et pericula, quae intulerant, fatebantur, uictosque se eorum meritis et imperio non negabant.

T hen the blessed Lupus and all the alarmed rouse the elder to be set against the raging elements; who, all the more steadfast by the enormity of the danger, invokes Christ, and, a light sprinkling of water taken up in the name of the Holy Trinity, suppresses the raging waves, admonishes his colleague, encourages all; prayer is poured forth with one mouth and outcry; divinity is present, the enemies are put to flight, serene tranquillity follows, the winds on the contrary return to the ministries of the journey, and, the short spaces of the sea having been run through, they obtain the repose of the longed-for shore. There a multitude assembling from diverse parts welcomed the priests, whom even an adverse vaticination had foretold would come. For the sinister spirits were announcing what they feared—who, by the command of the priests, while they are driven out from possessed bodies, were confessing both the course of the tempest and the dangers which they had brought in, and did not deny that they had been conquered by their merits and command.

Interea Brittaniarum insulam apostolici sacerdotes raptim opinione, praedicatione, uirtutibus impleuerunt; diuinusque per eos sermo cotidie non solum in ecclesiis, uerum etiam per triuia, per rura praedicabatur; ita ut passim et fideles catholici firmarentur, et deprauati uiam correctionis agnoscerent. Erat illis apostolorum instar et gloria et auctoritas per conscientiam, doctrina per litteras, uirtutes ex meritis. Itaque regionis uniuersitas in eorum sententiam promta transierat.

Meanwhile the island of the Britains the apostolic priests swiftly filled with reputation, with preaching, with virtues; and the divine discourse through them was proclaimed daily not only in the churches, but also at the crossroads, through the countryside; so that everywhere both the faithful Catholics were being strengthened, and the depraved recognized the way of correction. There was to them, in the likeness of the apostles, both glory and authority through conscience, doctrine through letters, virtues from merits. And so the entirety of the region had readily passed over into their view.

Latebant abditi sinistrae persuasionis auctores, et more maligni spiritus, gemebant perire sibi populos euadentes; ad extremum, diuturna meditatione concepta, praesumunt inire conflictum. Procedunt conspicui diuitiis, ueste fulgentes, circumdati adsentatione multorum; discrimenque certaminis subire maluerunt, quam in populo, quem subuerterant, pudorem taciturnitatis incurrere, ne uiderentur se ipsi silentio damnauisse. Illic plane inmensa multitudo etiam cum coniugibus ac liberis excita conuenerat, aderat populus expectator, futurus et iudex, adstabant partes dispari condicione dissimiles; hinc diuina fides, inde humana praesumtio; hinc pietas, inde superbia: inde Pelagius auctor, hinc Christus.

Hidden away were the authors of the sinister persuasion, and in the manner of the malignant spirit, they were groaning that the peoples escaping were perishing to them; at last, a long-pondered plan having been conceived, they presume to enter the conflict. They come forth conspicuous in riches, gleaming in dress, surrounded by the adulation of many; and they preferred to undergo the hazard of a contest rather than to incur the shame of silence among the people whom they had subverted, lest they should seem to have condemned themselves by silence. There, plainly, an immense multitude, even with wives and children, had assembled, roused; the people was present as spectator, and to be judge; the parties stood by, dissimilar with unequal condition; on this side divine faith, on that human presumption; on this side piety, on that pride: on that side Pelagius the author, on this Christ.

Primo in loco beatissimi sacerdotes praebuerunt aduersariis copiam disputandi, quae sola nuditate uerborum diu inaniter et aures occupauit, et tempora; deinde antistites uenerandi torrentes eloquii sui cum apostolicis et euangelicis imbribus profuderunt; miscebatur sermo proprius cum diuino, et adsertiones molestissimas lectionum testimonia sequebantur. Conuincitur uanitas, perfidia confutatur; ita ut ad singulas uerborum obiectiones errare se, dum respondere nequiit, fateretur; populus arbiter uix manus continet, iudicium tamen clamore testatur.

First, in the first place, the most blessed priests offered to their adversaries the opportunity of disputation, which by the mere nakedness of words for a long time vainly occupied both ears and time; then the venerable prelates poured forth torrents of their eloquence with apostolic and evangelic showers; their own discourse was mingled with the divine, and testimonies of the readings followed the most troublesome assertions. Vanity is convicted, perfidy is confuted; so that at each objection in words he confessed himself to be erring, since he was unable to reply; the people, the arbiter, scarcely restrains its hands, yet it attests its judgment with a shout.

[18] TUM subito quidam tribuniciae potestatis cum coniuge procedit in medium, filiam X annorum caecam curandam sacerdotibus offerens, quam illi aduersariis offerri praeceperunt; sed hi conscientia puniente deterriti, iungunt cum parentibus preces, et curationem paruulae a sacerdotibus deprecantur; qui inclinatos animo aduersarios intuentes, orationem breuiter fundunt, ac deinde Germanus plenus Spiritu Sancto inuocat Trinitatem; nec mora, adherentem lateri suo capsulam cum sanctorum reliquiis collo auulsam manibus conprehendit, eamque in conspectu omnium puellae oculis adplicauit, quos statim euacuatos tenebris lumen ueritatis impleuit. Exultant parentes, miraculum populus contremescit; post quam diem ita ex animis omnium suasio iniqua deleta est, ut sacerdotum doctrinam sitientibus desideriis sectarentur.

[18] THEN suddenly a certain man of tribunician power, with his spouse, steps forth into the midst, offering to the priests his daughter, 10 years old, blind, to be cured; but they ordered that she be offered to the adversaries; yet these, deterred with a punishing conscience, join prayers with the parents, and beseech the cure of the little girl from the priests; who, beholding their opponents with spirits inclined, briefly pour forth a prayer, and then Germanus, full of the Holy Spirit, invokes the Trinity; without delay, he grasps with his hands the little capsule with relics of the saints, which, torn from his neck, was clinging at his side, and he applied it, in the sight of all, to the girl’s eyes, which, immediately emptied of darkness, the light of truth filled. The parents exult, the people tremble at the miracle; after which day the iniquitous persuasion was so blotted out from the minds of all, that they followed the doctrine of the priests with thirsting desires.

Conpressa itaque peruersitate damnabili, eiusque auctoribus confutatis, atque animis omnium fidei puritate conpositis, sacerdotes beatum Albanum martyrem, acturi Deo per ipsum gratias, petierunt, ubi Germanus omnium apostolorum diuersorumque martyrum secum reliquias habens, facta oratione, iussit reuelli sepulchrum, pretiosa ibidem munera conditurus; arbitrans oportunum, ut membra sanctorum ex diuersis regionibus collecta, quos pares meritis receperat caelum, sepulchri quoque unius teneret hospitium. Quibus depositis honorifice atque sociatis, de loco ipso, ubi beati martyris effusus erat sanguis, massam pulueris secum portaturus abstulit, in qua apparebat, cruore seruato, rubuisse martyrum aedem, persecutore pallente. Quibus ita gestis, innumera hominum eodem die ad Dominum turba conuersa est.

And so, with the damnable perversity suppressed and its authors confuted, and the minds of all composed by the purity of faith, the priests sought Blessed Alban the martyr, about to render thanks to God through him; where Germanus, having with him the relics of all the apostles and of various martyrs, when prayer had been made, ordered the sepulcher to be pried open, intending to lay up precious gifts there; judging it opportune that the members of the saints gathered from diverse regions—whom heaven had received equal in merits—should also have the hospitality of one sepulcher. These having been laid down with honor and associated, from the very place where the blood of the blessed martyr had been poured out he took away a mass of dust, intending to carry it with him, in which it appeared, with the gore preserved, that the shrine of the martyrs had reddened, the persecutor paling. With these things thus done, an innumerable crowd of men on the same day was converted to the Lord.

[19] UNDE dum redeunt, insidiator inimicus, casualibus laqueis praeparatis, Germani pedem lapsus occasione contriuit, ignorans merita illius, sicut Iob beatissimi, afflictione corporis propaganda; et dum aliquandiu uno in loco infirmitatis necessitate teneretur, in uicina, qua manebat, casula exarsit incendium; quod consumtis domibus, quae illic palustri harundine tegebantur, ad eum habitaculum, in quo idem iacebat, flabris stimulantibus ferebatur. Concursus omnium ad antistitem conuolauit, ut elatus manibus periculum, quod inminebat, euaderet; quibus increpatis moueri se fidei praesumtione non passus est. At multitudo omnis desperatione perterrita obuiam currit incendio.

[19] WHENCE, as they were returning, the insidious enemy, with casual snares prepared, by the occasion of a slip crushed Germanus’s foot, unaware that that man’s merits, like those of most blessed Job, were to be propagated by affliction of the body; and while for some time he was held in one place by the necessity of infirmity, in the neighboring little hut where he was staying a fire flared up; which, the houses there being consumed, which in that place were roofed with palustrine reed, was borne, with gusts spurring it on, toward the dwelling in which the same man lay. The concourse of all flocked to the prelate, that, lifted up by hands, he might escape the danger which was threatening; but, having rebuked them, by a presumption of faith he did not allow himself to be moved. But all the multitude, panic‑stricken by desperation, runs to meet the fire.

Sed ut Dei potentia manifestior appareret, quicquid custodire temtauerat turba, consumitur; quod uero iacens et infirmus defenderat, reserato hospitio sancti uiri, expauescens flamma transiliuit, ultra citraque desaeuiens; et inter globos flammantis incendii incolume tabernaculum, quod habitator inclusus seruabat, emicuit. Exultat turba miraculo, et uictam se diuinis uirtutibus gratulatur. Excubabat diebus ac noctibus ante tugurium pauperis uulgus sine numero; hi animas curare, hi cupientes corpora.

But in order that the power of God might appear more manifest, whatever the crowd had attempted to guard is consumed; but what, lying and infirm, he had defended—when the hospice of the holy man was unbarred—the flame, taking fright, leaped across, raging beyond and on this side; and amid the masses of the flaming conflagration the tabernacle, unharmed, which the inhabitant, shut within, was keeping, flashed forth. The crowd exults at the miracle, and rejoices that it has been overcome by divine virtues. An innumerable common folk kept vigil by day and by night before the poor man’s hut: these to care for souls, those eager for the healing of bodies.

Referri nequeunt, quae Christus operabatur in famulo, qui uirtutes faciebat infirmus; et cum debilitati suae nihil remedii pateretur adhiberi, quadam nocte candentem niueis uestibus uidit sibi adesse personam, quae manu extensa iacentem uideretur adtollere, eumque consistere firmis uestigiis imperabat. Post quam horam ita, fugatis doloribus, recepit pristinam sanitatem, ut, die reddito, itineris laborem subiret intrepidus.

They cannot be recounted, the things which Christ was operating in the servant, who, infirm, was doing virtues; and since he permitted no remedy to be applied to his debility, on a certain night he saw a person, gleaming in snowy garments, present to him, who, with hand outstretched, seemed to lift him as he lay, and commanded him to stand on firm footing. After that hour, thus, with the pains put to flight, he recovered his pristine health, so that, with the day restored, he undertook the labor of the journey intrepid.

[20] INTEREA Saxones Pictique bellum aduersum Brettones iunctis uiribus susceperunt, quos eadem necessitas in castra contraxerat; et cum trepidi partes suas pene inpares iudicarent, sanctorum antistitum auxilium petierunt; qui promissum maturantes aduentum, tantum pauentibus fiduciae contulerunt, ut accessisse maximus crederetur exercitus. Itaque apostolicis ducibus Christus militabat in castris. Aderant etiam quadragesimae uenerabiles dies, quos religiosiores reddebat praesentia sacerdotum, in tantum, ut cotidianis praedicationibus instituti, certatim populi ad gratiam baptismatis conuolarent.

[20] Meanwhile the Saxons and the Picts undertook war against the Britons with their forces joined, whom the same necessity had drawn together into the camp; and since, in their alarm, they judged their own side to be almost unequal, they sought the aid of the holy prelates; who, hastening the promised arrival, conferred so much confidence upon the fearful that a very great army was believed to have joined. And so, with apostolic leaders, Christ was soldiering in the camp. The venerable days of Lent were also at hand, which the presence of the priests rendered more religious, to such a degree that, instructed by daily preachings, the peoples flocked in rivalry to the grace of baptism.

Nam maxima exercitus multitudo undam lauacri salutaris expetiit, et ecclesia ad diem resurrectionis dominicae frondibus contexta conponitur, atque in expeditione campestri instar ciuitatis aptatur. Madidus baptismate procedit exercitus, fides feruet in populo, et conterrito armorum praesidio, diuinitatis expectatur auxilium. Institutio uel forma castitatis hostibus nuntiatur, qui uictoriam quasi de inermi exercitu praesumentes, adsumta alacritate festinant; quorum tamen aduentus exploratione cognoscitur.

For the greatest multitude of the army sought the wave of the salutary bath, and a church, woven with fronds, is put together for the day of the Lord’s resurrection, and, on a field campaign, it is fitted in the likeness of a city. The army goes forth dripping with baptism; faith seethes in the people; and, the defense of arms being dismayed, the aid of divinity is expected. The institution or form of chastity is announced to the enemies, who, presuming victory as if over an unarmed army, having taken up alacrity, hasten; yet their approach is learned by exploration.

Cumque, emensa sollemnitate paschali, recens de lauacro pars maior exercitus arma capere et bellum parare temtaret, Germanus ducem se proelii profitetur, eligit expeditos, circumiecta percurrit, et e regione, qua hostium sperabatur aduentus, uallem circumdatam mediis montibus intuetur. Quo in loco nouum conponit exercitum ipse dux agminis. Et iam aderat ferox hostium multitudo, quam adpropinquare intuebantur in insidiis constituti.

And when, the Paschal solemnity having been passed, the greater part of the army, fresh from the laver, was attempting to take up arms and prepare war, Germanus professes himself leader of the battle, chooses the expeditious (light troops), runs through the surroundings, and, over against the quarter where the advent of the enemies was expected, he beholds a valley encircled by mountains in the midst. In which place the leader of the column himself composes a new army. And already the fierce multitude of the enemies was at hand, whom those stationed in ambush were watching to draw near.

Tum subito Germanus signifer uniuersos admonet, et praedicat, ut uoci suae uno clamore respondeant; securisque hostibus, qui se insperatos adesse confiderent, alleluiam tertio repetitam sacerdotes exclamabant. Sequitur una uox omnium, et elatum clamorem repercusso aere montium conclusa multiplicant; hostile agmen terrore prosternitur, et super se non solum rupes circumdatas, sed etiam ipsam caeli machinam contremescunt, trepidationique iniectae uix sufficere pedum pernicitas credebatur. Passim fugiunt, arma proiciunt, gaudentes uel nuda corpora eripuisse discrimini; plures etiam timore praecipites flumen, quod transierant, deuorauit.

Then suddenly Germanus, the standard-bearer, admonishes all and proclaims that they should answer his voice with a single shout; while the enemies were “secure,” trusting that they had come upon them unexpected, the priests cried out alleluia, repeated a third time. One voice of all follows, and the enclosed halls of the mountains, the air reverberating, multiply the lifted clamor; the hostile column is laid low by terror, and they tremble at not only the cliffs surrounding them overhead, but even the very machinery of the sky itself; and it was believed that the swiftness of their feet scarcely sufficed for the panic inflicted. They flee everywhere, they throw away their arms, rejoicing that they had snatched even their naked bodies from peril; moreover, in their fear many, headlong, were swallowed by the river which they had crossed.

Ultionem suam innocens exercitus intuetur, et uictoriae concessae otiosus spectator efficitur. Spolia colliguntur exposita, et caelestis palmae gaudia miles religiosus amplectitur. Triumphant pontifices hostibus fusis sine sanguine; triumphant uictoria fide obtenta, non uiribus.

The innocent army beholds its vengeance, and becomes an idle spectator of the victory granted. The spoils, set forth, are gathered, and the religious soldier embraces the joys of the celestial palm. The pontiffs triumph, the enemies routed without blood; they triumph, a victory obtained by faith, not by forces.

Conposita itaque insula securitate multiplici, superatisque hostibus uel inuisibilibus, uel carne conspicuis, reditum moliuntur pontifices. Quibus tranquillam nauigationem et merita propria et intercessio beati martyris Albani parauerunt, quietosque eos suorum desideriis felix carina restituit.

Therefore, the island, composed with manifold security, and the enemies, whether invisible or conspicuous in flesh, having been overcome, the pontiffs set about their return. For them a tranquil navigation was prepared both by their own merits and by the intercession of the blessed martyr Alban, and a happy keel restored them, safe, to the desires of their own.

[21] NEC multo interposito tempore nuntiatur ex eadem insula Pelagianam peruersitatem iterato paucis auctoribus dilatari; rursusque ad beatissimum uirum preces sacerdotum omnium deferuntur, ut causam Dei, quam prius obtinuerat, tutaretur. Quorum petitioni festinus obtemperat. Namque adiuncto sibi Seuero, totius sanctitatis uiro, qui erat discipulus beatissimi patris Lupi Trecasenorum episcopi, et tunc Treuiris ordinatus episcopus, gentibus primae Germaniae uerbum praedicabat, mare conscendit, et consentientibus elementis, tranquillo nauigio Brittanias petit.

[21] And with not much time interposed, it is reported from the same island that the Pelagian perversity is again being dilated by a few authors; and again the prayers of all the priests are carried to the most blessed man, that he might protect the cause of God, which he had previously maintained. He promptly obeys their petition. For, with Severus joined to himself, a man of entire sanctity, who was a disciple of the most blessed father Lupus, bishop of the Tricasses, and then at Trier ordained as bishop, preaching the Word to the peoples of First Germany, he boards the sea, and the elements consenting, with a tranquil voyage he makes for the Britains.

Interea sinistri spiritus peruolantes totam insulam Germanum uenire inuitis uaticinationibus nuntiabant; in tantum, ut Elafius quidam, regionis illius primus, in occursu sanctorum sine ulla manifesti nuntii relatione properaret, exhibens secum filium, quem in ipso flore adulescentiae debilitas dolenda damnauerat. Erat enim arescentibus neruis contracto poplite, cui per siccitatem cruris usus uestigii negabatur. Hunc Elafium prouincia tota subsequitur; ueniunt sacerdotes, occurrit inscia multitudo, confestim benedictio et sermonis diuini doctrina profunditur.

Meanwhile sinister spirits, flying through the whole island, were announcing by unwilling vaticinations that Germanus was coming; to such an extent that a certain Elafius, the first of that region, hastened to the encounter of the saints without any report of a manifest messenger, exhibiting with him his son, whom a lamentable debility had condemned in the very flower of adolescence. For with the sinews drying and the knee contracted, to him, through the dryness of the leg, the use of a footstep was denied. This Elafius the whole province follows; the priests come, an unknowing multitude runs to meet them, forthwith benediction and the doctrine of the divine word are poured forth.

Recognoscunt populum in ea, qua reliquerat, credulitate durantem; intellegunt culpam esse paucorum, inquirunt auctores, inuentosque condemnant. Cum subito Elafius pedibus aduoluitur sacerdotum, offerens filium, cuius necessitatem ipsa debilitas etiam sine precibus adlegabat; fit communis omnium dolor, praecipue sacerdotum, qui conceptam misericordiam ad diuinam clementiam contulerunt; statimque adulescentem beatus Germanus sedere conpulit, adtrectat poplitem debilitate curuatum, et per tota infirmitatis spatia medicabilis dextera percurrit, salubremque tactum sanitas festina subsequitur. Ariditas sucum, nerui officia receperunt, et in conspectu omnium filio incolumitas, patri filius restituitur.

They recognize the populace persisting in the belief in which he had left it; they understand the blame to be of a few, they inquire after the authors, and, once found, they condemn them. When suddenly Elafius falls at the priests’ feet, offering his son, whose necessity the very debility pleaded even without prayers; there arises a common grief of all, especially of the priests, who transferred the compassion they had conceived to the divine clemency; and at once the blessed Germanus compelled the youth to sit, he handles the ham, bent by debility, and with his healing right hand runs along through all the spaces of the infirmity, and swift health follows the health-giving touch. The dryness received back sap, the nerves their functions, and in the sight of all, soundness to the son, the son to the father is restored.

Inplentur populi stupore miraculi, et in pectoribus omnium fides catholica inculcata firmatur. Praedicatio deinde ad plebem de praeuaricationis emendatione conuertitur, omniumque sententia prauitatis auctores, qui erant expulsi insula, sacerdotibus adducuntur ad mediterranea deferendi, ut et regio absolutione, et illi emendatione fruerentur. Factumque est, ut in illis locis multo ex eo tempore fides intemerata perduraret.

The peoples are filled with astonishment at the miracle, and in the hearts of all the Catholic faith, having been inculcated, is made firm. Then the preaching is turned to the populace concerning the emendation of the prevarication; and by the judgment of all, the authors of the depravity, who had been expelled from the island, are brought to the priests to be conveyed to the inland parts, so that both the region might enjoy absolution and they might enjoy emendation. And it came to pass that in those places, from that time onward, the undefiled faith endured for a long time.

Itaque, conpositis omnibus, beati sacerdotes ea, qua uenerant, prosperitate redierunt. Porro Germanus post haec ad Rauennam pro pace Armoricanae gentis supplicaturus aduenit, ibique a Ualentiniano et Placidia matre ipsius summa reuerentia susceptus, migrauit ad Christum. Cuius corpus honorifico agmine, comitantibus uirtutum operibus, suam defertur ad urbem.

And so, everything having been set in order, the blessed priests returned with the same prosperity with which they had come. Furthermore, after these things Germanus arrived at Ravenna to supplicate for the peace of the Armorican people, and there, received with the highest reverence by Valentinian and his mother Placidia, he migrated to Christ. Whose body, with an honorable procession, the works of virtue accompanying, is borne to his own city.

Nec multo post Ualentinianus ab Aetii patricii, quem occiderat, satellitibus interimitur, anno imperii Marciani VIo, cum quo simul Hesperium concidit regnum.

And not long after, Valentinian was slain by the satellites of the patrician Aetius, whom he had killed, in the 6th year of Marcian’s imperium, with whom at the same time the Hesperian kingdom collapsed.

[22] INTEREA Brittaniae cessatum quidem est parumper ab externis, sed non a ciuilibus bellis. Manebant exterminia ciuitatum ab hoste derutarum ac desertarum; pugnabant contra inuicem, qui hostem euaserant, ciues. Attamen recente adhuc memoria calamitatis et cladis inflictae seruabant utcumque reges, sacerdotes, priuati, et optimates suum quique ordinem.

[22] Meanwhile, in Britain there was indeed for a short while a cessation from external foes, but not from civil wars. The destructions of the cities, thrown down by the enemy and left deserted, remained; the citizens who had escaped the enemy were fighting against one another. Yet, with the memory still recent of the calamity and the inflicted disaster, kings, priests, private persons, and the optimates (nobles) each somehow kept his own order.

At illis decedentibus, cum successisset aetas tempestatis illius nescia, et praesentis solum serenitatis statum experta, ita cuncta ueritatis ac iustitiae moderamina concussa ac subuersa sunt, ut earum non dicam uestigium, sed ne memoria quidem, praeter in paucis et ualde paucis ulla appareret. Qui inter alia inenarrabilium scelerum facta, quae historicus eorum Gildus flebili sermone describit, et hoc addebant, ut numquam genti Saxonum siue Anglorum, secum Brittaniam incolenti, uerbum fidei praedicando committerent. Sed non tamen diuina pietas plebem suam, quam praesciuit, deseruit, quin multo digniores genti memoratae praecones ueritatis, per quos crederet, destinauit.

But as those men departed, when there succeeded an age unacquainted with that tempest and having experienced only the state of present serenity, all the governances of truth and justice were so shaken and overthrown that—I will not say a vestige of them—no, not even a memory appeared anywhere, except in a few, and very few. Who, among other deeds of unspeakable crimes, which their historian Gildas describes in plaintive discourse, added this also: that they would never commit the word of faith, by preaching, to the nation of the Saxons or Angles dwelling with them in Britain. Yet divine piety did not desert His people, whom He foreknew; rather, He destined for the aforesaid nation much more worthy heralds of truth, through whom it might believe.

[23] SIQUIDEM anno ab incarnatione Domini DLXXXII Mauricius ab Augusto LIIII imperium suscipiens XX et I annis tenuit. Cuius anno regni X Gregorius, uir doctrina et actione praecipuus, pontificatum Romanae et apostolicae sedis sortitus rexit annos XIII, menses VI, et dies X. Qui diuino admonitus instinctu anno XIIII eiusdem principis, aduentus uero Anglorum in Brittanniam anno circiter CL, misit seruum Dei Augustinum et alios plures cum eo monachos timentes Dominum praedicare uerbum Dei genti Anglorum. Qui cum iussis pontificalibus obtemperantes memoratum opus adgredi coepissent, iamque aliquantulum itineris confecissent, perculsi timore inerti, redire domum potius, quam barbaram, feram, incredulamque gentem, cuius ne linguam quidem nossent, adire cogitabant, et hoc esse tutius communi consilio decernebant.

[23] Indeed, in the year from the Incarnation of the Lord 582, Maurice, succeeding to the empire in the 54th from Augustus, held it for 21 years. In the 10th year of whose reign, Gregory, a man preeminent in doctrine and action, having obtained the pontificate of the Roman and apostolic see, ruled 13 years, 6 months, and 10 days. He, admonished by a divine instinct, in the 14th year of the same prince, but about the 150th year from the advent of the Angles into Britain, sent the servant of God Augustine and many others with him, monks fearing the Lord, to preach the word of God to the nation of the Angles. Who, when—obeying the pontifical commands—they had begun to undertake the aforesaid work, and had already completed a little of the journey, stricken with inert fear, were thinking rather to return home than to approach a barbarous, wild, and unbelieving nation, whose tongue they did not even know; and by common counsel they determined that this was the safer course.

Nec mora, Augustinum, quem eis episcopum ordinandum, si ab Anglis susciperentur, disposuerat, domum remittunt, qui a beato Gregorio humili supplicatu obtineret, ne tam periculosam, tam laboriosam, tam incertam peregrinationem adire deberent. Quibus ille exhortatorias mittens litteras, in opus eos uerbi, diuino confisos auxilio, proficisci suadet. Quarum uidelicet litterarum ista est forma:

No delay: they send Augustine back home—whom he had arranged to be ordained as bishop for them, if they should be received by the English—that he might obtain from blessed Gregory by humble supplication that they ought not to undertake so perilous, so laborious, so uncertain a peregrination. To whom he, sending exhortatory letters, persuades them, trusting in divine aid, to set out into the work of the word. Of which letters, namely, this is the form:

Gregorius seruus seruorum Dei seruis Domini nostri.

Gregory, servant of the servants of God, to the servants of our Lord.

Quia melius fuerat bona non incipere, quam ab his, quae coepta sunt, cogitatione retrorsum redire, summo studio, dilectissimi filii, oportet, ut opus bonum, quod auxiliante Domino coepistis, impleatis. Nec labor uos ergo itineris, nec maledicorum hominum linguae deterreant; sed omni instantia, omnique feruore, quae inchoastis, Deo auctore peragite; scientes, quod laborem magnum maior aeternae retributionis gloria sequitur. Remeanti autem Augustino praeposito uestro, quem et abbatem uobis constituimus, in omnibus humiliter oboedite; scientes hoc uestris animabus per omnia profuturum, quicquid a uobis fuerit in eius admonitione conpletum.

Because it would have been better not to begin good things than to turn back in mind from those that have been begun, with utmost zeal, most beloved sons, you ought to complete the good work which, with the Lord assisting, you have begun. Let not therefore the toil of the journey, nor the tongues of evil-speakers, deter you; but with all urgency and all fervor, bring to completion the things you have initiated, with God as author; knowing that a great labor is followed by the greater glory of eternal recompense. But to Augustine, your superior as he returns, whom also we have appointed abbot for you, obey humbly in all things; knowing that this will be in all ways profitable to your souls, whatever shall have been fulfilled by you at his admonition.

Omnipotens Deus sua uos gratia protegat, et uestri laboris fructum in aeterna me patria uidere concedat; quatinus etsi uobiscum laborare nequeo, simul in gaudio retributionis inveniar, quia laborare scilicet uolo. Deus uos incolumes custodiat, dilectissimi filii.

May Almighty God protect you by his grace, and grant me to see the fruit of your labor in my eternal fatherland; so that, although I cannot labor with you, I may be found together in the joy of the retribution, since I indeed wish to labor. May God keep you safe and sound, dearest sons.

Data die X Kalendarum Augustarum, imperante domino nostro Mauricio Tiberio piissimo Augusto anno XIIII, post consulatum eiusdem domini nostri anno XIII, indictione XIIII.

Given on the 10th day before the Kalends of August, under our lord Maurice Tiberius, most pious Augustus, reigning in the 14th year, in the 13th year after the consulship of that same our lord, indiction 14.

[24] MISIT etiam tunc isdem uenerandus pontifex ad Etherium Arelatensem archiepiscopum, ut Augustinum Brittaniam pergentem benigne susciperet, litteras, quarum iste est textus:

[24] That same venerable pontiff also then sent letters to Etherius, archbishop of Arles, that he might kindly receive Augustine as he was proceeding to Britain; the text of which is as follows:

Reuerentissimo et sanctissimo fratri Etherio coepiscopo Gregorius seruus seruorum Dei.

To the most reverend and most holy brother Etherius, fellow-bishop, Gregory, servant of the servants of God.

Licet apud sacerdotes habentes Deo placitam caritatem religiosi uiri nullius commendatione indigeant; quia tamen aptum scribendi se tempus ingessit, fraternitati uestrae nostra mittere scripta curauimus; insinuantes latorem praesentium Augustinum seruum Dei, de cuius certi sumus studio, cum aliis seruis Dei, illic nos pro utilitate animarum auxiliante Domino direxisse; quem necesse est, ut sacerdotali studio sanctitas uestra adiuuare, et sua ei solacia praebere festinet. Cui etiam, ut promtiores ad suffragandum possitis existere, causam uobis iniunximus subtiliter indicare; scientes quod, ea cognita, tota uos propter Deum deuotione ad solaciandum, quia res exigit, commodetis. Candidum praeterea presbyterum, communem filium, quem ad gubernationem patrimonioli ecclesiae nostrae transmisimus, caritati uestrae in omnibus commendamus.

Although among priests possessing charity pleasing to God, religious men need the commendation of no one; yet, since a fitting time for writing has presented itself, we have taken care to send our writings to your fraternity; making known the bearer of these presents, Augustine, a servant of God, of whose zeal we are certain, whom, with other servants of God, we have directed thither for the profit of souls, the Lord aiding; whom it is necessary that Your Holiness hasten to help with sacerdotal zeal, and to offer him your own solaces. To whom also, that you may be more prompt to give suffrage, we have enjoined to set forth to you the cause with exactness; knowing that, these things known, you will, for God’s sake, with your whole devotion lend aid for comforting, because the matter requires it. Candidus moreover the presbyter, our common son, whom we have sent for the governance of the little patrimony of our Church, we commend in all things to your charity.

Deus te incolumem custodiat, reuerentissime frater.

May God keep you unharmed, most reverend brother.

Data die X Kalendarum Augustarum, imperante domino nostro Mauricio Tiberio piissimo Augusto, anno XIIII, post consulatum eiusdem domini nostri anno XIII, indictione XIIII.

Given on the 10th day before the Kalends of August, when our lord Maurice Tiberius, most pious Augustus, was reigning, in the year 14, after the consulship of that same our lord in the year 13, in indiction 14.

[25] ROBORATUS ergo confirmatione beati patris Gregorii, Augustinus cum famulis Christi, qui erant cum eo, rediit in opus uerbi, peruenitque Brittaniam. Erat eo tempore rex Aedilberct in Cantia potentissimus, qui ad confinium usque Humbrae fluminis maximi, quo meridiani et septentrionales Anglorum populi dirimuntur, fines imperii tetenderat. Est autem ad orientalem Cantiae plagam Tanatos insula non modica, id est magnitudinis iuxta consuetudinem aestimationis Anglorum, familiarum DCrum, quam a continenti terra secernit fluuius Uantsumu, qui est latitudinis circiter trium stadiorum, et duobus tantum in locis est transmeabilis; utrumque enim caput protendit in mare.

[25] Strengthened therefore by the confirmation of the blessed father Gregory, Augustine, with the servants of Christ who were with him, returned to the work of the Word, and arrived in Britain. At that time King Aedilberct in Kent was most powerful, who had extended the bounds of his dominion as far as the border of the very great river Humber, by which the southern and northern peoples of the English are divided. Now on the eastern region of Kent there is the not-small Isle of Thanet, that is, of a size according to the custom of the reckoning of the English, of 600 families, which is separated from the mainland by the river Wantsum, which is of a breadth of about three stadia, and is fordable in only two places; for each end of it stretches into the sea.

In hac ergo adplicuit seruus Domini Augustinus, et socii eius, uiri, ut ferunt, ferme XL. Acceperunt autem, praecipiente beato papa Gregorio, de gente Francorum interpretes; et mittens ad Aedilberctum mandauit se uenisse de Roma, ac nuntium ferre optimum, qui sibi obtemperantibus aeterna in caelis gaudia, et regnum sine fine cum Deo uiuo et uero futurum sine ulla dubietate promitteret. Qui, haec audiens, manere illos in ea, quam adierant, insula, et eis necessaria ministrari, donec uideret, quid eis faceret, iussit. Nam et antea fama ad eum Christianae religionis peruenerat, utpote qui et uxorem habebat Christianam de gente Francorum regia, uocabulo Bercta; quam ea condicione a parentibus acceperat, ut ritum fidei ac religionis suae cum episcopo, quem ei adiutorem fidei dederant, nomine Liudhardo, inuiolatum seruare licentiam haberet.

In this island, therefore, the servant of the Lord Augustine made landfall, and his companions, men, as they report, about 40. Moreover, at the instruction of the blessed Pope Gregory, they received interpreters from the nation of the Franks; and sending to Aedilberct he sent word that he had come from Rome, and bore a most excellent message, which to those obeying him promised without any doubt eternal joys in the heavens, and a kingdom without end with the living and true God. He, hearing these things, ordered that they remain in that island which they had approached, and that the necessities be ministered to them, until he might see what he would do for them. For even before this the report of the Christian religion had come to him, inasmuch as he also had a Christian wife of the royal race of the Franks, by name Bercta; whom he had received from her parents on the condition that she have licence to keep inviolate the rite of her faith and religion with a bishop, whom they had given to her as a helper of the faith, by name Liudhard.

Post dies ergo uenit ad insulam rex, et residens sub diuo, iussit Augustinum cum sociis ad suum ibidem aduenire colloquium. Cauerat enim, ne in aliquam domum ad se introirent, uetere usus augurio, ne superuentu suo, siquid malificae artis habuissent, eum superando deciperent. At illi non daemonica, sed diuina uirtute praediti, ueniebant crucem pro uexillo ferentes argenteam, et imaginem Domini Saluatoris in tabula depictam, laetaniasque canentes pro sua simul et eorum, propter quos et ad quos uenerant, salute aeterna, Domino supplicabant.

After some days, therefore, the king came to the island, and, sitting under the open sky, ordered Augustine with his companions to come there to his conference. For he had taken care that they not enter any house to him, using an ancient augury, lest by their arrival, if they had anything of malefic art, they might overcome and deceive him. But they, endowed not with demonic but with divine power, came bearing a silver cross as a standard, and an image of the Lord Savior painted on a tablet, and, chanting litanies for their own and for the eternal salvation of those for whose sake and to whom they had come, they supplicated the Lord.

Cumque ad iussionem regis residentes uerbum ei uitae una cum omnibus, qui aderant, eius comitibus praedicarent, respondit ille dicens: ‘Pulchra sunt quidem uerba et promissa, quae adfertis; sed quia noua sunt et incerta, non his possum adsensum tribuere, relictis eis, quae tanto tempore cum omni Anglorum gente seruaui. Uerum quia de longe huc peregrini uenistis, et, ut ego mihi uideor perspexisse, ea, quae uos uera et optima credebatis, nobis quoque communicare desiderastis, nolumus molesti esse uobis; quin potius benigno uos hospitio recipere, et, quae uictui sunt uestro necessaria, ministrare curamus; nec prohibemus, quin omnes, quos potestis, fidei uestrae religionis praedicando societis.’ Dedit ergo eis mansionem in ciuitate Doruuernensi, quae imperii sui totius erat metropolis, eisque, ut promiserat, cum administratione uictus temporalis licentiam quoque praedicandi non abstulit. Fertur autem, quia adpropinquantes ciuitati, more suo cum cruce sancta et imagine magni regis Domini nostri Iesu Christi hanc laetaniam consona uoce modularentur: ‘Deprecamur te, Domine, in omni misericordia tua, ut auferatur furor tuus et ira tua a ciuitate ista, et de domo sancta tua, quoniam peccauimus.

And when, at the king’s command, as they sat they were preaching to him the word of life, together with all who were present, his companions, he replied, saying: ‘Fair indeed are the words and promises which you bring; but because they are new and uncertain, I cannot grant assent to these, abandoning those which for so long a time I have kept with all the nation of the English. Yet because from afar you have come hither as peregrines, and, as I seem to myself to have perceived, you have desired to communicate to us also those things which you believed to be true and best, we do not wish to be troublesome to you; nay rather we take care to receive you with kindly hospitality, and to supply the things necessary for your sustenance; nor do we forbid you to associate, by preaching, all whom you can to the religion of your faith.’ He therefore gave them a dwelling in the city of Dorvernum, which was the metropolis of all his dominion, and, as he had promised, he did not withhold from them the license of preaching together with the administration of temporal sustenance. It is reported, moreover, that as they were approaching the city, after their custom, with the holy cross and the image of the great King, our Lord Jesus Christ, they were modulating with concordant voice this litany: ‘We beseech you, O Lord, in all your mercy, that your fury and your wrath be taken away from this city, and from your holy house, because we have sinned.’

Alleluia.’

[26] AT ubi datam sibi mansionem intrauerant, coeperunt apostolicam primitiuae ecclesiae uitam imitari; orationibus uidelicet assiduis, uigiliis ac ieiuniis seruiendo, uerbum uitae, quibus poterant, praedicando, cuncta huius mundi uelut aliena spernendo, ea tantum, quae uictui necessaria uidebantur, ab eis, quos docebant, accipiendo, secundum ea, quae docebant, ipsi per omnia uiuendo, et paratum ad patiendum aduersa quaeque, uel etiam moriendum pro ea, quam praedicabant, ueritate animum habendo. Quid mora? Crediderunt nonnulli et baptizabantur, mirantes simplicitatem innocentis uitae, ac dulcedinem doctrinae eorum caelestis.

[26] But when they had entered the lodging given to them, they began to imitate the apostolic life of the primitive Church; serving with assiduous prayers, vigils, and fastings, preaching the word of life to those whom they could, despising all things of this world as though alien, receiving only those things which seemed necessary for sustenance from those whom they taught, themselves in all things living according to the things they taught, and having a mind prepared to suffer every adversity, or even to die, for the truth which they preached. What delay? Not a few believed and were baptized, marveling at the simplicity of their innocent life, and the sweetness of their celestial doctrine.

Erat autem prope ipsam ciuitatem ad orientem ecclesia in honorem sancti Martini antiquitus facta, dum adhuc Romani Brittaniam incolerent, in qua regina, quam Christianam fuisse praediximus, orare consuerat. In hac ergo et ipsi primo conuenire, psallere, orare, missas facere, praedicare, et baptizare coeperunt; donec, rege ad fidem conuerso, maiorem praedicandi per omnia, et ecclesias fabricandi uel restaurandi licentiam acciperent.

Now there was near the city itself, to the east, a church made of old in honor of Saint Martin, while the Romans still inhabited Britain, in which the queen, whom we have said was Christian, was accustomed to pray. In this, therefore, they themselves too at first began to meet, to sing psalms, to pray, to celebrate Masses, to preach, and to baptize; until, the king having been converted to the faith, they received greater license for preaching everywhere, and for building or restoring churches.

At ubi ipse etiam inter alios delectatus uita mundissima sanctorum, et promissis eorum suauissimis, quae uera esse miraculorum quoque multorum ostensione firmauerant, credens baptizatus est, coepere plures cotidie ad audiendum uerbum confluere, ac, relicto gentilitatis ritu, unitati se sanctae Christi ecclesiae credendo sociare. Quorum fidei et conuersioni ita congratulatus esse rex perhibetur, ut nullum tamen cogeret ad Christianismum; sed tantummodo credentes artiori dilectione, quasi conciues sibi regni caelestis, amplecteretur. Didicerat enim a doctoribus auctoribusque suae salutis seruitium Christi uoluntarium, non coacticium esse debere.

But when he himself also, among others, delighted by the most spotless life of the saints and by their sweetest promises, which they had confirmed to be true by the showing-forth of many miracles, believed and was baptized, more began daily to flock together to hear the word, and, with the rite of paganism left behind, to join themselves by believing to the unity of the holy Church of Christ. The king is reported to have so congratulated their faith and conversion that he nevertheless compelled no one to Christianity; but only embraced the believers with a closer love, as fellow-citizens to himself of the heavenly kingdom. For he had learned from the teachers and authors of his salvation that the service of Christ ought to be voluntary, not coerced.

Nec distulit, quin etiam ipsis doctoribus suis locum sedis eorum gradui congruum in Doruuerni metropoli sua donaret, simul et necessarias in diuersis speciebus possessiones conferret.

Nor did he delay to grant even to his own teachers a place for their see, congruent to their rank, in his metropolis at Doruuernum, and at the same time to confer necessary possessions in various kinds.

[27] INTEREA uir Domini Augustinus uenit Arelas, et ab archiepiscopo eiusdem ciuitatis Aetherio, iuxta quod iussa sancti patris Gregorii acceperant, archiepiscopus genti Anglorum ordinatus est; reuersusque Brittaniam misit continuo Roman Laurentium presbyterum et Petrum monachum, qui beato pontifici Gregorio gentem Anglorum fidem Christi suscepisse, ac se episcopum factum esse referrent; simul et de eis, quae necessariae uidebantur, quaestionibus eius consulta flagitans. Nec mora, congrua quaesitui responsa recepit; quae etiam huic historiae nostrae commodum duximus indere.

[27] Meanwhile the man of the Lord Augustine came to Arles, and by Aetherius, archbishop of the same city, in accordance with the commands of the holy father Gregory which they had received, he was ordained archbishop for the nation of the Angles; and, having returned to Britain, he sent straightway to Rome Laurence the presbyter and Peter the monk, to report to the blessed pontiff Gregory that the nation of the Angles had accepted the faith of Christ, and that he himself had been made bishop; at the same time also beseeching his counsel concerning those questions which seemed necessary. Without delay he received answers suitable to the inquiry; which also we have judged it expedient to insert into this our history.

I. Interrogatio beati Augustini episcopi Cantuariorum ecclesiae: De episcopis, qualiter cum suis clericis conuersentur, uel de his, quae fidelium oblationibus accedunt altario; quantae debeant fieri portiones et qualiter episcopus agere in ecclesia debeat?

1. Interrogation of blessed Augustine, bishop of the church of Canterbury: Concerning bishops—how they should conduct themselves with their own clerics, and concerning those things which by the oblations of the faithful accrue to the altar; how great the portions ought to be made, and how the bishop ought to act in the church?

Respondit Gregorius papa urbis Romae: Sacra scriptura testatur, quam te bene nosse dubium non est, et specialiter beati Pauli ad Timotheum epistulae, in quibus eum erudire studuit, qualiter in domo Dei conuersari debuisset. Mos autem sedis apostolicae est ordinatis episcopis praecepta tradere, ut omni stipendio, quod accedit, quattuor debeant fieri portiones; una uidelicet episcopo et familiae propter hospitalitatem atque susceptionem, alia clero, tertia pauperibus, quarta ecclesiis reparandis. Sed quia tua fraternitas monasterii regulis erudita, seorsum fieri non debet a clericis suis in ecclesia Anglorum, quae auctore Deo nuper adhuc ad fidem perducta est, hanc debet conuersationem instituere, quae initio nascentis ecclesiae fuit patribus nostris; in quibus nullus eorum ex his, quae possidebant, aliquid suum esse dicebat, sed erant eis omnia communia.

Gregory, pope of the city of Rome, replied: Sacred Scripture attests—which it is no doubt that you know well—and especially the epistles of blessed Paul to Timothy, in which he strove to instruct him how he ought to conduct himself in the house of God. Moreover, the custom of the Apostolic See is to hand down precepts to ordained bishops, that of every stipend which accrues four portions ought to be made: one, namely, for the bishop and his household on account of hospitality and reception; another for the clergy; a third for the poor; a fourth for the churches to be repaired. But because your fraternity, trained by the rules of the monastery, ought not to be set apart from your clerics in the Church of the English, which, God being its author, has but recently been led to the faith, you ought to establish that conversation (way of life) which was among our fathers at the beginning of the nascent Church; among whom none of them said that anything of the things which they possessed was his own, but all things were common to them.

Siqui uero sunt clerici extra sacros ordines constituti, qui se continere non possunt, sortiri uxores debent, et stipendia sua exterius accipere; quia et de hisdem patribus, de quibus praefati sumus, nouimus scriptum, quod diuidebatur singulis, prout cuique opus erat. De eorum quoque stipendio cogitandum atque prouidendum est, et sub ecclesiastica regula sunt tenendi, ut bonis moribus uiuant, et canendis psalmis inuigilent, et ab omnibus inlicitis et cor et linguam et corpus Deo auctore conseruent. Communi autem uita uiuentibus iam de faciendis portionibus, uel exhibenda hospitalitate, et adimplenda misericordia nobis quid erit loquendum?

If there are indeed clerics who are constituted outside the sacred orders, who cannot keep continence, they ought to take wives, and to receive their stipends from outside; because even about those same fathers of whom we have spoken above, we know it is written that it was divided to each, according as each had need. Their stipend too must be considered and provided for, and they are to be held under ecclesiastical rule, that they may live with good morals, keep vigil in the singing of psalms, and, from all illicit things, preserve both heart and tongue and body, with God as Author. But for those living a common life, what will there be for us now to say about making the portions, or exhibiting hospitality, and fulfilling mercy?

Cum omne, quod superest, in causis piis ac religiosis erogandum est, Domino magistro omnium docente: ‘Quod superest, date elemosinam, et ecce omnia munda sunt uobis.’

Since everything that remains is to be disbursed in pious and religious causes, with the Lord, the Master of all, teaching: ‘What remains, give as alms, and behold, all things are clean for you.’

II. Interrogatio Augustini: Cum una sit fides, sunt ecclesiarum diuersae consuetudines, et altera consuetudo missarum in sancta Romana ecclesia, atque altera in Galliarum tenetur?

2. Question of Augustine: Since there is one faith, are there diverse customs of the churches, and is one custom of the Masses kept in the holy Roman Church, and another held in Gaul?

Respondit Gregorius papa: Nouit fraternitas tua Romanae ecclesiae consuetudinem, in qua se meminit nutritam. Sed mihi placet ut, siue in Romana, siue in Galliarum, seu in qualibet ecclesia aliquid inuenisti, quod plus omnipotenti Deo possit placere, sollicite eligas, et in Anglorum ecclesia, quae adhuc ad fidem noua est, institutione praecipua, quae de multis ecclesiis colligere potuisti, infundas. Non enim pro locis res, sed pro bonis rebus loca amanda sunt.

Pope Gregory replied: Your brotherhood knows the custom of the Roman church, in which it remembers itself to have been nourished. But it pleases me that, whether in the Roman, or in the Gallic, or in whatever church you have found anything that might be able more to please almighty God, you should carefully choose it, and into the church of the Angles, which is still new to the faith, by a principal institution, you should infuse what you were able to collect from many churches. For it is not things for places, but places for good things that are to be loved.

Ex singulis ergo quibusque ecclesiis, quae pia, quae religiosa, quae recta sunt, elige; et haec quasi in fasciculum collecta apud Anglorum mentes in consuetudinem depone.

Therefore, from each and every church choose the things that are pious, that are religious, that are right; and lay these, as if gathered into a fascicle, into custom in the minds of the English.

III. Interrogatio Augustini: Obsecro, quid pati debeat, siquis aliquid de ecclesia furtu abstulerit?

3. Question of Augustine: I beseech, what ought he to suffer, if anyone has taken away anything from the church by theft?

Respondit Gregorius: Hoc tua fraternitas ex persona furis pensare potest, qualiter ualeat corrigi. Sunt enim quidam, qui habentes subsidia furtum perpetrant, et sunt alii, qui hac in re ex inopia delinquunt; unde necesse est, ut quidam damnis, quidam uero uerberibus, et quidam districtius, quidam autem lenius corrigantur. Et cum paulo districtius agitur, ex caritate agendum est, et non ex furore; quia ipsi hoc praestatur, qui corrigitur, ne gehennae ignibus tradatur.

Gregory replied: Your fraternity can weigh this from the persona of the thief, how he may be able to be corrected. For there are some who, having resources, perpetrate theft; and there are others who in this matter delinquent through indigence; whence it is necessary that some be corrected by damages, some indeed by beatings, and some more strictly, while others more mildly. And when it is handled a little more strictly, it must be done out of charity, and not out of fury; because this is bestowed upon him who is corrected, lest he be delivered over to the fires of Gehenna.

Sic enim nos fidelibus tenere disciplinam debemus, sicut boni patres carnalibus filiis solent, quos et pro culpis uerberibus feriunt, et tamen ipsos, quos doloribus adfligunt, habere heredes quaerunt; et quae possident, ipsis seruant, quos irati insequi uidentur. Haec ergo caritas in mente tenenda est, et ipsa modum correctionis dictat, ita ut mens extra rationis regulam omnino nihil faciat. Addes etiam, quomodo ea, quae furtu de ecclesiis abstulerint, reddere debeant.

For thus indeed we ought to hold discipline with the faithful, just as good fathers are wont toward their carnal sons, whom both for faults they strike with blows, and yet they seek to have as heirs those very ones whom they afflict with pains; and the things which they possess they keep for those whom they seem, in anger, to pursue. This charity, therefore, is to be held in the mind, and it itself dictates the measure of correction, such that the mind does absolutely nothing outside the rule of reason. You will also add how they ought to render those things which they have removed by theft from the churches.

Sed absit, ut ecclesia cum augmento recipiat, quod de terrenis rebus uidetur amittere, et lucra de uanis quaerere.

But let it be far away that the church should receive back with increase what it seems to lose from terrestrial things, and seek lucre from vanities.

IIII. Interrogatio Augustini: Si debeant duo germani fratres singulas sorores accipere, quae sunt ab illis longa progenie generatae?

4. The Question of Augustine: Whether two full brothers ought to take each a sister, who have been generated from them in a long progeny?

Respondit Gregorius: Hoc fieri modis omnibus licet; nequaquam enim in sacris eloquiis inuenitur, quod huic capitulo contradicere uideatur.

Gregory replied: This may by all means be done; for by no means is anything found in the sacred utterances that would seem to contradict this chapter.

V. Interrogatio Augustini: Usque ad quotam generationem fideles debeant cum propinquis sibi coniugio copulari? et nouercis et cognatis si liceat copulari coniugio?

5. Question of Augustine: Up to which generation ought the faithful to be coupled in conjugal union with their relatives? and whether it is permitted to be coupled in conjugal union with stepmothers and cognates?

Respondit Gregorius: Quaedam terrena lex in Romana repuplica permittit, ut siue frater et soror, seu duorum fratrum germanorum, uel duarum sororum filius et filia misceantur. Sed experimento didicimus ex tali coniugio sobolem non posse succrescere. Et sacra lex prohibet cognationis turpitudinem reuelare.

Gregory replied: A certain earthly law in the Roman republic permits that either a brother and a sister, or the son and daughter of two brothers-german (full brothers), or of two sisters, be mingled in marriage. But by experience we have learned that from such a conjugal union offspring cannot spring up. And the sacred law forbids to reveal the turpitude of cognation.

Unde necesse est, ut iam tertia uel quarta generatio fidelium licenter sibi iungi debeat; nam secunda, quam praediximus, a se omni modo debet abstinere. Cum nouerca autem miscere graue est facinus, quia et in lege scriptum est: ‘Turpitudinem patris tui non reuelabis.’ Neque enim patris turpitudinem filius reuelare potest. Sed quia scriptum est: ‘Erunt duo in carne una,’ qui turpitudinem nouercae, quae una caro cum patre fuit, reuelare praesumserit, profecto patris turpitudinem reuelauit.

Whence it is necessary that now the third or fourth generation of the faithful ought lawfully to be joined to one another; for the second, which we have said above, must in every way abstain from itself. But to have intercourse with a stepmother is a grave crime, because also in the Law it is written: ‘You shall not reveal the turpitude of your father.’ For neither can a son reveal the father’s turpitude. But because it is written: ‘The two shall be in one flesh,’ whoever shall have presumed to reveal the turpitude of a stepmother, who was one flesh with the father, has assuredly revealed the father’s turpitude.

Cum cognata quoque miscere prohibitum est, quia per coniunctionem priorem caro fratris fuerit facta. Pro qua re etiam Iohannes Baptista capite truncatus est, et sancto martyrio consummatus, cui non est dictum, ut Christum negaret, et pro Christi confessione occisus est; sed quia isdem Dominus noster Iesus Christus dixerat: ‘Ego sum ueritas’; quia pro ueritate Iohannes occisus est, uidelicet et pro Christo sanguinem fudit.

To mingle with a kinswoman also is prohibited, because through the prior conjunction she has been made the flesh of your brother. For which reason John the Baptist too was beheaded and consummated in holy martyrdom—he to whom it was not said that he should deny Christ, nor was he slain for the confession of Christ; but because this same our Lord Jesus Christ had said: ‘I am the Truth’; since John was slain for the Truth, plainly he shed his blood also for Christ.

Quia uero sunt multi in Anglorum gente, qui, dum adhuc in infidelitate essent, huic nefando coniugio dicuntur admixti, ad fidem uenientes admonendi sunt, ut se abstineant, et graue hoc esse peccatum cognoscant. Tremendum Dei iudicium timeant, ne pro carnali dilectione tormenta aeterni cruciatus incurrant. Non tamen pro hac re sacri corporis ac sanguinis Domini communione priuandi sunt, ne in eis illa ulcisci uideantur, in quibus se per ignorantiam ante lauacrum baptismatis adstrinxerunt.

But because there are many in the English nation who, while they were still in unbelief, are said to have been admixed to this nefarious conjugal union, when they come to the faith they must be admonished to abstain and to recognize that this is a grave sin. Let them fear the dreadful judgment of God, lest for carnal dilection they incur the torments of eternal cruciation. Yet they are not to be deprived of the communion of the sacred body and blood of the Lord on this account, lest those things seem to be avenged in them in which they bound themselves through ignorance before the laver of baptism.

In hoc enim tempore sancta ecclesia quaedam per feruorem corrigit, quaedam per mansuetudinem tolerat, quaedam per considerationem dissimulat, atque ita portat et dissimulat, ut saepe malum, quod aduersatur, portando et dissimulando conpescat. Omnes autem, qui ad fidem ueniunt, admonendi sunt, ne tale aliquid audeant perpetrare. Siqui autem perpetrauerint, corporis et sanguinis Domini communione priuandi sunt; quia, sicut in his, qui per ignorantiam fecerunt, culpa aliquatenus toleranda est, ita in his fortiter insequenda, qui non metuunt sciendo peccare.

For in this time the holy Church corrects certain things through fervor, tolerates certain things through mansuetude, dissimulates certain things by consideration, and thus bears and dissimulates, so that often it restrains the evil that opposes by bearing and dissimulating. But all who come to the faith are to be admonished, lest they dare to perpetrate such a thing. If any, however, shall have perpetrated it, they are to be deprived of the communion of the body and blood of the Lord; because, just as in those who have done it through ignorance the fault is to be tolerated in some measure, so in the case of those who do not fear to sin knowingly, it is to be vigorously pursued.

VI. Interrogatio Augustini: Si longinquitas itineris magna interiacet, ut episcopi non facile ualeant conuenire, an debeat sine aliorum episcoporum praesentia episcopus ordinari?

6. Interrogation of Augustine: If a great remoteness of the journey lies in between, such that the bishops are not easily able to convene, should a bishop be ordained without the presence of other bishops?

Respondit Gregorius: Et quidem in Anglorum ecclesia, in qua adhuc solus tu episcopus inueniris, ordinare episcopum non aliter nisi sine episcopis potes. Nam quando de Galliis episcopi ueniunt, qui in ordinatione episcopi testes adsistant? Sed fraternitatem tuam ita uolumus episcopos ordinare, ut ipsi sibi episcopi longo interuallo minime disiungantur, quatinus nulla sit necessitas, ut in ordinatione episcopi pastores quoque alii, quorum praesentia ualde est utilis, facile debeant conuenire.

Gregory replied: And indeed, in the Church of the English, in which as yet you alone are found to be bishop, you cannot ordain a bishop otherwise than without other bishops. For when do bishops come from Gaul, to stand by as witnesses in the ordination of a bishop? But we wish Your Fraternity to ordain bishops in such a way that the bishops themselves are by no means separated from one another by a long interval, so that there may be no need that, at the ordination of a bishop, other pastors also—whose presence is very useful—should have to convene, but may readily come together.

Cum igitur auctore Deo ita fuerint episcopi in propinquis sibi locis ordinati, per omnia episcoporum ordinatio sine adgregatis tribus uel quattuor episcopis fieri non debet. Nam in ipsis rebus spiritalibus, ut sapienter et mature disponantur, exemplum trahere a rebus etiam carnalibus possumus. Certe enim dum coniugia in mundo celebrantur, coniugati quique conuocantur, ut qui in uia iam coniugii praecesserunt, in subsequentis quoque copulae gaudio misceantur.

Therefore, when, with God as author, bishops have thus been ordained in places near to one another, in all respects the ordination of bishops ought not to be done without three or four bishops being aggregated. For indeed, in spiritual matters themselves, in order that they may be disposed wisely and maturely, we can draw an example from carnal matters as well. For surely, while marriages are celebrated in the world, the married are convoked, so that those who have already gone before on the way of marriage may be mingled also in the joy of the subsequent union.

Cur non ergo et in hac spiritali ordinatione, qua per sacrum ministerium homo Deo coniungitur, tales conueniant, qui uel in prouectu ordinati episcopi gaudeant, uel pro eius custodia omnipotenti Deo preces pariter fundant?

Why, then, also in this spiritual ordination, by which through sacred ministry a man is conjoined to God, should not such men convene as either rejoice at the promotion of the ordained bishop, or likewise pour forth prayers to Almighty God for his custody?

VII. Interrogatio Augustini: Qualiter debemus cum Galliarum atque Brittaniarum episcopis agere?

7. Augustine’s Question: In what manner ought we to deal with the bishops of Gaul and of Britain?

Respondit Gregorius: In Galliarum episcopis nullam tibi auctoritatem tribuimus; quia ab antiquis praedecessorum meorum temporibus pallium Arelatensis episcopus accepit, quem nos priuare auctoritate percepta minime debemus. Si igitur contingat, ut fraternitas tua ad Galliarum prouinciam transeat, cum eodem Arelatense episcopo debet agerc, qualiter, siqua sunt in episcopis uitia, corrigantur. Qui si forte in disciplinac uigore tepidus cxistat, tuae fraternitatis zelo accendendus est.

Gregory replied: Over the bishops of Gaul we grant you no authority; for from ancient times in the days of my predecessors the bishop of Arles received the pallium, whom we ought by no means to deprive of the authority received. If therefore it should happen that your Fraternity go over to the province of Gaul, you ought to deal with that same bishop of Arles as to how, if there are any vices in the bishops, they may be corrected. If he perchance should be tepid in the vigor of discipline, he must be kindled by the zeal of your Fraternity.

Cui etiam epistulas fecimus, ut cum tuae sanctitatis praesentia in Galliis, et ipse tota mente subueniat, et quae sunt Creatoris nostri iussioni contraria, ab episcoporum moribus conpescat. Ipse autem extra auctoritatem propriam episcopos Galliarum iudicare non poteris; sed suadendo, blandiendo, bona quoque opera eorum imitationi monstrando, prauorum mentes ad sanctitatis studia reforma; quia scriptum est in lege: ‘Per alienam messem transiens falcem mittere non debet, sed manu spicas conterere et manducare.’ Falcem enim iudicii mittere non potes in ca segete, quae alteri uidetur esse commissa; sed per affectum boni operis frumenta dominica uitiorum suorum paleis expolia, et in ecclesiae corpore monendo et persuadendo, quasi mandendo conuerte. Quicquid uero ex auctoritate agendum est, cum pracdicto Arelatense episcopo agatur, ne praetermitti possit hoc, quod antiqua patrum institutio inuenit.

C To whom also we have made epistles, that when the presence of your sanctity is in the Gauls, he likewise may come to aid with his whole mind, and may restrain from the morals of the bishops the things that are contrary to the injunction of our Creator. But you yourself will not be able to judge the bishops of the Gauls beyond your own authority; rather, by persuading, by coaxing, by also showing good works for their imitation, reform the minds of the depraved to pursuits of sanctity; because it is written in the Law: ‘Passing through another’s harvest he ought not to send in the sickle, but with his hand to rub the ears and to eat.’ For you cannot send the sickle of judgment into that standing grain which seems to have been entrusted to another; but by the affection of good work strip the Lord’s grain of the chaff of their vices, and in the body of the Church, by warning and persuading, convert, as it were by chewing. Whatever, moreover, must be done by authority, let it be transacted with the aforesaid bishop of Arles, lest that which the ancient institution of the fathers established be able to be omitted.

Brittaniarum uero omnes episcopos tuae fraternitati committimus, ut indocti doceantur, infirmi persuasione roborentur, peruersi auctoritate corrigantur.

But we entrust to your fraternity all the bishops of the Britains, so that the unlearned may be taught, the weak may be strengthened by persuasion, and the perverse may be corrected by authority.

VIII. Interrogatio Augustini: Si pregnans mulier debeat baptizari? aut postquam genuerit, post quantum tempus possit ecclesiam intrare?

8. Interrogation of Augustine: Whether a pregnant woman ought to be baptized? or after she has given birth, after what length of time she may be able to enter the church?

aut etiam, ne morte praeoccupetur, quod genuerit, post quot dies hcc liceat sacri baptismatis sacramenta percipere? aut post quantum temporis huic uir suus possit in carnis copulatione coniungi? aut, si menstrua consuetudine tenetur, an ecclesiam intrare ei liceat, aut sacrae communionis sacramenta percipere?

or also, lest it be anticipated by death, after how many days is it permitted for what she has borne to receive the sacraments of sacred baptism? or after how much time may her own husband be joined to her in carnal copulation? or, if she is held by the menstrual custom, is it permitted for her to enter the church, or to receive the sacraments of sacred communion?

aut uir suae coniugi permixtus, priusquam lauetur aqua, si ecclesiam possit intrare? uel etiam ad mysterium communionis sacrae accedere? Quae omnia rudi Anglorum genti oportet haberi conperta.

or a man mingled with his own spouse, before he is washed with water, whether he can enter the church? or even approach the mystery of sacred communion? All which things ought to be held as ascertained for the untrained English nation.

Respondit Gregorius: Hoc non ambigo fraternitatem tuam esse requisitam, cui iam et responsum reddidisse me arbitror. Sed hoc, quod ipse dicere et sentire potuisti, credo, quia mea apud te uolueris responsione firmari. Mulier etenim pregnans cur non debeat baptizari, cum non sit ante omnipotentis Dei oculos culpa aliqua fecunditas carnis?

Gregory replied: This I do not doubt that your fraternity has been asked, to which I even judge that I have already rendered a response. But this, which you yourself have been able to say and to feel, I believe, because you have wished it to be made firm with my response with you. For why should a pregnant woman not be baptized, since before the eyes of Almighty God there is no culpability in the fecundity of the flesh?

Nam cum primi parentes nostri in paradiso deliquissent, inmortalitatem, quam acceperant, recto Dei iudicio perdiderunt. Quia itaque isdem omnipotens Deus humanum genus pro culpa sua funditus extinguere noluit, et inmortalitatem homini pro peccato suo abstulit, et tamen pro benignitate suae pietatis fecunditatem ei subolis reseruauit. Quod ergo naturae humanae ex omnipotentis Dei dono seruatum est, qua ratione poterit a sacri baptismatis gratia prohibere?

For when our first parents had transgressed in paradise, they lost, by the right judgment of God, the immortality which they had received. Since therefore the same omnipotent God was unwilling utterly to extinguish the human race for its fault, he both took away immortality from man for his sin, and yet, by the benignity of his piety, reserved to him the fecundity of offspring. What therefore has been preserved to human nature by the gift of the omnipotent God—by what rationale could it be prohibited from the grace of sacred baptism?

In illo quippe mysterio, in quo omnis culpa funditus extinguitur, ualde stultum est, si donum gratiae contradicere posse uideatur.

Indeed, in that mystery, in which all guilt is utterly extinguished, it is very foolish if the gift of grace should seem able to be contradicted.

Cum uero enixa fuerit mulier, post quot dies debeat ecclesiam intrare, testamenti ueteris praeceptione didicisti, ut pro masculo diebus XXXIII, pro femina autem diebus LXVI debeat abstinere. Quod tamen sciendum est, quia in mysterio accipitur. Nam si hora eadem, qua genuerit, actura gratias intrat ecclesiam, nullo peccati pondere grauatur; uoluptas ctenim carnis, non dolor in culpa est.

But when a woman has brought forth, after how many days she ought to enter the church you have learned by the precept of the Old Testament: that for a male she ought to abstain for 33 days, but for a female for 66 days. Yet it should be known that this is taken in a mystery. For if at that same hour in which she has given birth she enters the church to give thanks, she is burdened by no weight of sin; for it is the pleasure of the flesh, not the pain, that is in fault.

In carnis autem commistione uoluptas est; nam in prolis prolatione gemitus. Unde et ipsi primae matri omnium dicitur: ‘In doloribus paries.’ Si itaque enixam mulierem prohibemus ecclesiam intrare, ipsam ei poenam suam in culpam deputamus. Baptizare autem uel enixam mulierem, uel hoc quod genuerit, si mortis periculo urguetur, uel ipsam hora eadem, qua gignit, uel hoc, quod gignitur, eadem, qua natum est, nullo modo prohibetur; quia sancti mysterii gratia, sicut uiuentibus atque discernentibus cum magna discretione prouidenda est; ita his, quibus mors inminet, sine ulla dilatione offerenda; ne dum adhuc tempus ad praebendum redemtionis mysterium quaeritur, interueniente paululum mora, inueniri non ualeat, qui redimatur.

But in the commixture of flesh there is pleasure; for in the prolation of offspring there is groaning. Whence it is said also to that first mother of all: ‘In pains you shall bear.’ If, therefore, we forbid a woman who has given birth to enter the church, we reckon her very penalty as guilt to her. But to baptize either the woman who has given birth, or that which she has brought forth, if she is pressed by peril of death—either herself at that same hour in which she brings forth, or that which is brought forth at the same hour in which it is born—is in no way forbidden; because the grace of the holy mystery, just as for those living and discerning it must be provided with great discretion, so for those upon whom death is impending it must be offered without any delay; lest, while time is still being sought to offer the mystery of redemption, with a little delay intervening, there fail to be found one to be redeemed.

Ad eius uero concubitum uir suus accedere non debet, quoadusque, qui gignitur, ablactatur Praua autem in coniugatorum moribus consuetudo surrexit, ut mulieres filios, quos gignunt, nutrire contemnant, eosque aliis mulieribus ad nutriendum tradant, quod uidelicet ex sola causa incontinentiae uidetur inuentum; quia, dum se continere nolunt, despiciunt lactare, quos gignunt. Hae itaque, quae filios suos ex praua consuetudine aliis ad nutriendum tradunt, nisi purgationis tempus transierit, uiris suis non debent admisceri; quippe quia et sine partus causa, cum in suetis menstruis detinentur, uiris suis misceri prohibentur; ita ut morte lex sacra feriat, siquis uir ad menstruatam mulierem accedat. Quae tamen mulier, dum consuetudinem menstruam patitur, prohiberi ecclesiam intrare non debet, quia ei naturae superfluitas in culpam non ualet reputari; et per hoc, quod inuita patitur, iustum non est, ut ingressu ecclesiae priuetur.

To her intercourse indeed her own husband ought not to approach, until the one who is begotten is weaned. A depraved custom, moreover, has arisen in the morals of the married, that women disdain to nourish the sons whom they beget, and hand them over to other women for nourishing, which plainly seems to have been invented from the sole cause of incontinence; because, while they are unwilling to contain themselves, they despise to lactate those whom they beget. These therefore, who by a depraved custom hand over their own sons to others for nourishing, ought not to be mingled with their husbands, unless the time of purgation has passed; indeed because even without the cause of childbirth, when they are detained in their customary menstruations, they are prohibited to be mingled with their husbands; to such a point that the sacred law strikes with death, if any man approaches a menstruating woman. Yet a woman, while she suffers the menstrual custom, ought not to be prohibited to enter the church, because the superfluity of nature cannot be reckoned to her for fault; and on account of this which she suffers unwillingly, it is not just that she be deprived of entrance to the church.

Nouimus namque, quod mulier, quae fluxum patiebatur sanguinis, post tergum Domini humiliter ueniens uestimenti eius fimbriam tetigit, atque ab ea statim sua infirmitas recessit. Si ergo in fluxu sanguinis posita laudabiliter potuit Domini uestimentum tangere, cur, quae menstruam sanguinis patitur, ei non liceat Domini ecclesiam intrare? Sed dices: Illam infirmitas conpulit; has uero, de quibus loquimur, consuetudo constringit.

For we know that a woman, who was suffering a flux of blood, coming humbly behind the Lord, touched the fringe of his garment, and at once her infirmity departed from her. If, therefore, while placed in a flux of blood, she was laudably able to touch the Lord’s garment, why should she who suffers the menstrual flow of blood not be allowed to enter the Lord’s church? But you will say: That one an infirmity compelled; these, however, of whom we speak, a custom constrains.

Perpende autem, frater carissime, quia omne, quod in hac mortali carne patimur ex infirmitate naturae, est digno Dei iudicio post culpam ordinatum. Esurire namque, sitire, aestuare, algere, lassescere ex infirmitate naturae est. Et quid est aliud contra famem alimenta, contra sitim potum, contra aestum auras, contra frigus uestem, contra lassitudinem requiem quaerere, nisi medicamentum quidem contra egritudines explorare?

Weigh, moreover, dearest brother, that everything which in this mortal flesh we suffer from the infirmity of nature has been ordained by the worthy judgment of God after the fault. To hunger, to thirst, to swelter, to be cold, to grow weary are from the infirmity of nature. And what else is it to seek aliments against hunger, drink against thirst, breezes against heat, a garment against cold, repose against weariness, except indeed to explore a medicament against sicknesses?

Feminae itaque et menstruus sui sanguinis fluxus egritudo est. Si igitur bene praesumsit, quae uestimentum Domini in langore posita tetigit, quod uni personae infirmanti conceditur, cur non concedatur cunctis mulieribus, quae naturae suae uitio infirmantur?

Therefore, for a woman, the menstrual flow of her own blood is likewise a sickness. If, then, she presumed well who, being placed in languor, touched the Lord’s garment—what is conceded to one ailing person—why should it not be conceded to all women who are made infirm by the vice of their nature?

Sanctae autem communionis mysterium in eisdem diebus percipere non debet prohiberi. Si autem ex ueneratione magna percipere non praesumit, laudanda est; sed si perceperit, non iudicanda. Bonarum quippe mentium est, et ibi aliquo modo culpas suas agnoscere, ubi culpa non est; quia saepe sine culpa agitur, quod uenit ex culpa; unde etiam cum esurimus, sine culpa comedimus, quibus ex culpa primi hominis factum est, ut esuriamus.

But the mystery of holy communion ought not to be prohibited to be received on those same days. If, however, out of great veneration she does not presume to receive, she is to be praised; but if she has received, she is not to be judged. For it is the mark of good minds, even there in some way to acknowledge their faults, where there is no fault; because often, without fault, that is done which comes from fault; whence also when we are hungry, we eat without fault, for whom by the fault of the first man it has been brought to pass that we should be hungry.

Menstrua enim consuetudo mulieribus non aliqua culpa est, uidelicet quae naturaliter accedit. Sed tamen quod natura ipsa ita uitiata est, ut etiam sine uoluntatis studio uideatur esse polluta, ex culpa uenit uitium, in quo se ipsa, qualis per iudicium facta sit, humana natura cognoscat. Et homo, qui culpam sponte perpetrauit, reatum culpae portet inuitus.

For the monthly menstrual custom is not any fault for women, namely that which comes naturally. Yet the fact that nature itself is so vitiated that it seems to be polluted even without any exertion of the will—this vice comes from a fault, in which human nature may recognize itself, what sort it has been made by judgment. And the human being, who of his own accord perpetrated the fault, unwillingly bears the guilt of the fault.

Atque ideo feminae cum semet ipsis considerent, et si in menstrua consuetudine ad sacramentum dominici corporis et sanguinis accedere non praesumant, de sua recta consideratione laudandae sunt; dum uero percipiendo ex religiosae uitae consuetudine eiusdem mysterii amore rapiuntur, reprimendae, sicut praediximus, non sunt. Sicut enim in testamento ueteri exteriora opera obseruantur, ita in testamento novo non tam, quod exterius agitur, quam id, quod interius cogitatur, sollicita intentione adtenditur, ut subtili sententia puniatur. Nam cum multa lex uelut inmunda manducare prohibeat, in euangelio tamen Dominus dicit: ‘Non quod intrat in os, coinquinat hominem; sed quae exeunt de ore, illa sunt, quae coinquinant hominem.’ Atque paulo post subiecit exponens: ‘Ex corde exeunt cogitationes malae.’ Ubi ubertim indicatum est, quia illud ab omnipotente Deo pollutum esse in opere ostenditur, quod ex pollutae cogitationis radice generatur.

And therefore, when women consider with themselves, and if, in the menstrual custom, they do not presume to approach the sacrament of the Lord’s body and blood, they are to be praised for their right consideration; but when, by receiving, they are carried away by love of the same mystery from the habit of a religious life, they are not to be repressed, as we have said before. For just as in the Old Testament outward works are observed, so in the New Testament, not so much what is done outwardly as that which is thought inwardly is attended to with solicitous intention, so that it may be punished by a subtle judgment. For although the Law forbids many things to be eaten as unclean, yet in the Gospel the Lord says: ‘Not what enters into the mouth defiles a man; but the things which go out of the mouth, these are what defile a man.’ And a little after, expounding, He subjoined: ‘From the heart go out evil thoughts.’ Where it is abundantly shown that that is demonstrated by Almighty God to be defiled in deed which is generated from the root of a polluted thought.

Unde Paulus quoque apostolus dicit: ‘Omnia munda mundis, coinquinatis autem et infidelibus nihil est mundum.’ Atque mox eiusdem causam coinquinationis adnuntians subiungit: Coinquinata sunt enim et mens eorum et conscientia.’ Si ergo ei cibus inmundus non est, cui mens inmunda non fuerit; cur, quod munda mente mulier ex natura patitur, ei in inmunditiam reputetur?

Whence Paul the apostle also says: ‘All things are clean to the clean, but to the defiled and the unbelieving nothing is clean.’ And straightway, announcing the cause of that same defilement, he subjoins: ‘For both their mind and their conscience are defiled.’ If, therefore, food is not unclean to him whose mind has not been unclean; why should that which a woman with a clean mind suffers by nature be reckoned to her as uncleanness?

Uir autem cum propria coniuge dormiens, nisi lotus aqua, intrare ecclesiam non debet; sed neque lotus intrare statim debet. Lex autem ueteri populo praecepit, ut mixtus uir mulieri, et lauari aqua debeat, et ante solis occasum ecclesiam non intrare; quod tamen intellegi spiritaliter potest. Quia mulieri uir miscetur, quando inlicitae concupiscentiae animus in cogitatione per delectationem coniungitur; quia, nisi prius ignis concupiscentiae a mente deferueat, dignum se congregationi fratrum aestimare non debet, qui se grauari per nequitiam prauae uoluntatis uidet.

But a man sleeping with his own spouse ought not to enter the church unless washed with water; yet neither, even washed, ought he to enter immediately. Moreover, the Law commanded the ancient people that a man mingled with a woman both should be washed with water, and should not enter the church before the setting of the sun; which, nevertheless, can be understood spiritually. For a man is mingled to a woman when the mind is conjoined in thought through delectation to illicit concupiscence; because, unless first the fire of concupiscence defervesce from the mind, he ought not to esteem himself worthy of the congregation of the brethren, who sees himself weighed down by the nequity of a perverse will.

Quamuis de hac re diuersae hominum nationes diuersa sentiant, atque alia custodire uideantur, Romanorum tamen semper ab antiquioribus usus fuit, post amixtioncm propriae coniugis, et lauacri purificationem quaerere, et ab ingressu ecclesiae paululum reuerenter abstinere Nec haec dicentes culpam deputamus esse coniugium; sed quia ipsa licita amixtio coniugis sine uoluntate carnis fieri non potest, a sacri loci ingressu abstinendum est; quia uoluntas ipsa esse sine culpa nullatenus potest. Non enim de adulterio uel fornicatione, sed de legitimo coniugio natus fuerat, qui dicebat: ‘Ecce enim in iniquitatibus conceptus sum, et in delictis peperit me mater mea.’ Qui enim in iniquitatibus conceptum se nouerat, a delicto se natum gemebat; quia portat in ramo umorem uitii, quem traxit ex radice. In quibus tamen uerbis non amixtionem coniugum iniquitatem nominat, sed ipsam uidelicet uoluntatem amixtionis.

Although diverse nations of men feel diversely about this matter, and seem to observe other things, nevertheless the usage of the Romans from the more ancient times has ever been, after the commixture with one’s own spouse, both to seek the purification of the laver and to abstain a little reverently from the ingress of the church. In saying these things we do not reckon marriage to be a fault; but because that licit commixture of spouse cannot be done without the will of the flesh, one must abstain from the ingress of the sacred place; since the will itself by no means can be without fault. For he who said, “Behold, in iniquities I was conceived, and in delicts my mother bore me,” had been born not of adultery or fornication, but of legitimate marriage. For he who knew himself conceived in iniquities lamented that he was born in a delict; because he bears in the branch the moisture of vice which he drew from the root. Yet in these words he does not name the commixture of spouses an iniquity, but, namely, the will itself of the commixture.

Sunt etenim multa, quae licita ac legitima, et tamen in eorum actu aliquatenus fedamur; sicut saepe irascendo culpas insequimur, et tranquillitatem in nobis animi perturbamus; et cum rectum sit, quod agitur, non est tamen adprobabile, quod in eo animus perturbatur. Contra uitia quippe delinquentium iratus fuerat, qui diccbat: ‘Turbatus est prae ira oculus meus.’ Quia cnim non ualet nisi tranquilla mens in contemplationis se lucem suspendere, in ira suum oculum turbatum dolebat; quia, dum male acta deorsum insequitur, confundi atque turbari a summorum contemplatione cogebatur. Et laudabilis ergo est ira contra uitium, et tamen molesta, qua turbatum se aliquem reatum incurrisse aestimabat.

There are indeed many things that are licit and legitimate, and yet in their performance we are in some measure befouled; just as often, by being angry, we pursue faults and disturb the tranquility of mind within us; and although what is being done is right, nevertheless it is not approvable that in it the spirit is perturbed. For he had been angry against the vices of delinquents who said: “My eye has been troubled because of anger.” For only a tranquil mind avails to suspend itself to the light of contemplation; in anger he lamented his eye to be troubled, because, while he follows evil deeds down below, he was forced to be confounded and disturbed from the contemplation of the highest things. And thus anger against vice is laudable, and yet burdensome, by which, being troubled, he judged that he had incurred some guilt.

Oportet itaque legitimam carnis copulam, ut causa prolis sit, non uoluntatis; et carnis commixtio creandorum liberorum sit gratia, non satisfactio uitiorum. Siquis uero suam coniugem non cupidine uoluptatis raptus, scd solummodo creandorum liberorum gratia utitur, iste profecto siue de ingressu ecclesiae, seu de sumendo dominici corporis sanguinisque mysterio, suo est iudicio relinquendus; quia a nobis prohiberi non debet accipere, qui in igne positus nescit ardere. Cum uero non amor ortandi subolis, sed uoluntas dominatur in opere commixtionis, habent coniuges etiam de sua commixtione, quod defleant.

It behooves, therefore, that the legitimate carnal copulation be for the cause of progeny, not of will; and that the commixture of flesh be for the sake of creating children, not a satisfaction of vices. But if anyone uses his own consort not carried off by the cupidity of pleasure, but solely for the sake of begetting children, this man indeed, whether about the entry of the church, or about taking the mystery of the Lord’s body and blood, is to be left to his own judgment; for he who, placed in the fire, does not know how to burn ought not by us to be forbidden to receive. But when not the love of begetting offspring, but the will dominates in the work of commixture, spouses have even from their own commixture something to bewail.

Hoc enim eis concedit sancta praedicatio, et tamen de ipsa concessione metu animum concutit. Nam cum Paulus apostolus diceret: ‘Qui se continere non potest, habeat uxorem suam,’ statim subiungere curauit: ‘Hoc autem dico secundum indulgentiam, non secundum imperium.’ Non enim indulgetur, quod licet, quia iustum est. Quod igitur indulgere dixit, culpam esse demonstrauit.

For holy preaching concedes this to them, and yet at that very concession it strikes the mind with fear. For when the Apostle Paul said: ‘He who cannot contain himself, let him have his own wife,’ he at once took care to subjoin: ‘But this I say according to indulgence, not according to command.’ For one does not indulge what is permitted on the ground that it is just. Therefore what he said he indulges, he showed to be a fault.

Uigilanti uero mente pensandum est, quod in Sina monte Dominus ad populum locuturus prius eundem populum abstinere a mulieribus praecipit. Et si illic, ubi Dominus per creaturam subditam hominibus loquebatur, tanta prouisione est munditia corporis requisita, ut, qui uerba Dei perciperent, mulieribus mixti non essent: quanto magis mulieres, quae corpus Domini omnipotentis accipiunt, custodire in se munditiam carnis debent, ne ipsa inaestimabilis mystcrii magnitudine grauentur? Hinc etiam ad Dauid de pueris suis per sacerdotem dicitur, ut si a mulieribus mundi essent, panes propositionis acciperent, quos omnino non acciperent, nisi prius mundos eos Dauid a mulieribus fateretur.

With a vigilant mind indeed it must be weighed, that on Mount Sinai the Lord, about to speak to the people, first commands that same people to abstain from women. And if there, where the Lord was speaking through a creature subject to men, such provision required purity of the body, so that those who would perceive the words of God were not mixed with women: how much more ought women, who receive the body of the almighty Lord, to keep purity of the flesh in themselves, lest they be burdened by the very greatness of the inestimable mystery? Hence also it is said to David concerning his youths, through the priest, that if they were clean from women, they might receive the loaves of proposition, which they would by no means receive, unless David first acknowledged them to be clean from women.

Tunc autem uir, qui post amixtionem coniugis lotus aqua fuerit, etiam sacrae communionis mysterium ualet accipere, cum ei iuxta praefinitam sententiam etiam ecclesiam licuerit intrare.

Then, however, the man who, after commixture with his spouse, has been washed with water, is also able to receive the mystery of sacred communion, since for him, according to the pre-defined sentence, it has likewise been permitted to enter the church.

VIIII. Interrogatio Augustini: Si post inlusionem, quae per somnium solet accedere, uel corpus Domini quislibet accipere ualeat: uel, si sacerdos sit, sacra mysteria celebrare?

9. The Question of Augustine: Whether after an illusion, which is wont to occur through a dream, anyone may be able to receive the Body of the Lord: or, if he be a priest, to celebrate the sacred mysteries?

Respondit Gregorius: Hunc quidem testamentum ueteris legis, sicut in superiori capitulo iam diximus, pollutum dicit, et nisi lotum aqua ei usque ad uesperum intrare ecclesiam non concedit. Quod tamen aliter populus spiritalis intellegens sub eodem intellectu accipiet, quo praefati sumus; quia quasi per somnium inluditur, qui temtatus inmunditia, ueris imaginibus in cogitatione inquinatur; sed lauandus est aqua, ut culpas cogitationis lacrimis abluat; et nisi prius ignis temtationis reciderit, reum se quasi usque ad uesperum cognoscat. Sed est in eadem inlusione ualde necessaria discretio, quae subtiliter pensari debet, ex qua re accedat menti dormientis; aliquando enim ex crapula, aliquando ex naturae superfluitate uel infirmitate, aliquando ex cogitatione contingit.

Gregory replied: The testament of the Old Law, as we have already said in the preceding chapter, declares such a one polluted, and does not grant him to enter the church unless washed with water until evening. Yet the spiritual people, understanding it otherwise, will take it under the same intellect which we have set forth: for he is as if mocked through a dream, who, tempted by impurity, is contaminated in thought by real images; but he must be washed with water, that he may wash away the faults of thought with tears; and unless first the fire of temptation has receded, let him recognize himself guilty, as it were, until evening. But in the same illusion discretion is very necessary, which must be weighed subtly—whence it comes upon the mind of the sleeper; for sometimes it happens from drunken surfeit, sometimes from the superfluity or infirmity of nature, sometimes from thought.

Et quidem cum ex naturae superfluitate uel infirmitate euenerit, omnimodo haec inlusio non est timenda; quia hanc animum nescientem pertulisse magis dolendum est, quam fecisse. Cum uero ultra modum appetitus gulae in sumendis alimentis rapitur, atque idcirco umorum receptacula grauantur, habet exinde animus aliquem reatum, non tamen usque ad prohibitionem percipiendi sancti mysterii uel missarum sollemnia celebrandi; cum fortasse aut festus dies exigit, aut exhiberi mysterium (pro eo, quod sacerdos alius in loco deest) ipsa necessitas conpellit. Nam si adsunt alii, qui implere ministerium ualeant, inlusio pro crapula facta a perceptione sacri mysterii prohibere non debet; sed ab immolatione sacri mysterii abstinere, ut arbitror, humiliter debet; si tamen dormientis mentem turpi imaginatione non concusserit.

And indeed, when it has occurred from a superfluity of nature or infirmity, in every way this illusion is not to be feared; because it is more to be lamented that the unknowing mind has borne this than that it has done it. But when, beyond measure, the appetite of gluttony is carried away in taking foods, and therefore the receptacles of humors are burdened, from this the mind has some reatus (liability), yet not to the point of a prohibition of receiving the holy mystery or of celebrating the solemnities of the masses; since perhaps either a festal day requires it, or necessity itself compels that the mystery be exhibited (because another priest is lacking in the place). For if others are present who are able to fulfill the ministry, the illusion made on account of crapulence ought not to prohibit from the perception of the sacred mystery; but from the immolation of the sacred mystery he ought, as I judge, humbly to abstain; provided, however, that it has not shaken the mind of the sleeper with a base imagination.

Nam sunt, quibus ita plerumque inlusio nascitur, ut eorum animus, etiam in somno corporis positus, turpibus imaginationibus non fedetur. Qua in re unum ibi ostenditur ipsa mens rea, non tamen uel suo iudicio libera, cum se, etsi dormienti corpore, nihil meminit uidisse, tamen in uigiliis corporis meminit in ingluuiem cecidisse. Sin uero ex turpi cogitatione uigilantis oritur inlusio dormientis, patet animo reatus suus; uidet enim, a qua radice inquinatio illa processerit, quia, quod cogitauit sciens, hocpertulit nesciens.

For there are some for whom an illusion is for the most part generated in such a way that their mind, even when the body is placed in sleep, is not defiled by base imaginations. In which matter one thing is shown there: the mind itself is guilty (mens rea), yet not free even by its own judgment, since, although with the body asleep it remembers to have seen nothing, yet in the body’s vigils it remembers to have fallen into ingluvies, that is, into gluttony. But if indeed the illusion of the sleeper arises from the shameful cogitation of the one awake, his guilt is evident to the mind; for it sees from what root that defilement proceeded, because what he thought knowingly, this he endured unknowingly.

Sed pensandum est, ipsa cogitatio utrum suggestione an delectatione, uel, quod maius est, peccati consensu acciderit. Tribus enim modis impletur omne peccatum, uidelicet suggestione, delectatione, consensu. Suggestio quippe fit per diabolum, delectatio per carnem, consensus per spiritum; quia et primam culpam serpens suggessit, Eua uelut caro delectata est, Adam uero uelut spiritus consensit; et necessaria est magna discretio, ut inter suggestionem atque delectationem, inter delectationem et consensum iudex sui animus praesideat.

But it must be weighed whether the thought itself has happened by suggestion or by delectation, or—what is greater—by consent to sin. For in three ways every sin is fulfilled, namely by suggestion, by delectation, by consent. Suggestion, to be sure, comes through the devil; delectation through the flesh; consent through the spirit. For also the serpent suggested the first fault, Eve, as flesh, was delighted, but Adam, as spirit, consented; and great discretion is necessary, so that between suggestion and delectation, between delectation and consent, the mind, judge of itself, may preside.

Cum enim malignus spiritus peccatum suggerit in mente, si nulla peccati delectatio sequatur, peccatum omnimodo perpetratum non est; cum uero delectare caro coeperit, tunc peccatum incipit nasci; si autem etiam ex deliberatione consentit, tunc peccatum cognoscitur perfici. In suggestione igitur peccati semen est, in delectatione fit nutrimentum, in consensu perfectio. Et saepe contingit, ut hoc, quod malignus spiritus seminat in cogitatione, caro in delectationem trahat; nec tamen anima eidem delectationi consentiat.

For when the malign spirit suggests a sin in the mind, if no delectation of the sin follows, the sin is in no wise perpetrated; but when the flesh begins to take delight, then the sin begins to be born; if, however, it also consents out of deliberation, then the sin is recognized to be perfected. In the suggestion, therefore, is the seed of the sin; in the delectation there is made the nutriment; in the consent, the perfection. And it often happens that what the malign spirit sows in cogitation, the flesh draws into delectation; nor yet does the soul consent to the same delectation.

Et cum caro delectare sine animo nequeat, ipse tamen animus carnis uoluptatibus reluctans, in delectatione carnali aliquo modo ligatur inuitus, ut ei ex ratione contradicat, ne consentiat; et tamen delectatione ligatus sit, sed ligatum se uehementer ingemiscat. Unde et ille caelestis exercitus praecipuus miles gemebat dicens: ‘Uideo aliam legem in membris meis repugnantem legi mentis meae et captiuum me ducentem in lege peccati, quae est in membris meis.’ Si autem captiuus erat, minimc pugnabat; sed et pugnabat; quapropter et captiuus erat, et pugnabat igitur legi mentis, cui lex, quae in membris est, repugnabat. Si autem pugnabat, captiuus non erat.

And since the flesh cannot take delight without the mind, yet the mind itself, resisting the pleasures of the flesh, is in some way unwillingly bound in carnal delectation, so that by reason it contradicts it, lest it consent; and yet it is bound by delectation, but it groans vehemently that it is bound. Whence also that chief soldier of the heavenly army was groaning, saying: ‘I see another law in my members repugnant to the law of my mind and leading me captive in the law of sin, which is in my members.’ But if he was captive, by no means was he fighting; and yet he was fighting; wherefore both he was captive and he was fighting, therefore against the law of the mind, to which the law that is in the members was repugnant. But if he was fighting, he was not captive.

Ecce itaque homo est, ut ita dixerim, captiuus et liber; liber ex iustitia, quam diligit, captiuus ex delectatione, quam portat inuitus.

Behold, therefore, the man is, so to speak, captive and free; free by justice, which he loves, captive by the delectation which he carries unwillingly.

[28] HUCUSQUE responsiones beati papae Gregorii ad consulta reuerentissimi antistitis Augustini. Epistulam uero, quam se Arelatensi episcopo fecisse commemorat, ad Uergilium Aetherii successorem dederat; cuius haec forma est:

[28] HITHERTO the responses of blessed Pope Gregory to the consultations of the most reverend bishop Augustine. But the letter, which he mentions that he made to the bishop of Arles, he had given to Vergilius, the successor of Aetherius; of which this is the form:

‘Reuerentissimo et sanctissimo fratri Uergilio coepiscopo Gregorius seruus seruorum Dei.

‘To the most reverend and most holy brother Vergilius, co-bishop, Gregory, servant of the servants of God.

Quantus sit affectus uenientibus sponte fratribus inpendendus, ex eo, quod plerumque solent caritatis causa inuitari, cognoscitur. Et ideo, si communem fratrem Augustinum episcopum ad uos uenire contigerit, ita illum dilectio uestra, sicut decet, affectuose dulciterque suscipiat, ut et ipsum consolationis suae bono refoueat, et alios, qualiter fraterna caritas colenda sit, doceat. Et quoniam sacpius euenit, ut hi, qui longe sunt positi, prius ab aliis, quae sunt emendanda, cognoscant; siquas fortasse fraternitati uestrae sacerdotum uel aliorum culpas intulerit, una cum eo residentes subtili cuncta inuestigatione perquirite, et ita uos in ea, quae Deum offendunt, et ad iracundiam prouocant, districtos ac sollicitos exhibete, ut ad aliorum emendationem et uindicta culpabilem feriat, et innocentem falsa opinio non affligat.

How great an affection is to be expended upon brothers coming of their own accord is known from this, that they are generally wont to be invited for the cause of charity. And therefore, if it should happen that our common brother Augustine the bishop come to you, let your love receive him, as is fitting, affectionately and sweetly, so that it both refresh him by the good of his consolation, and teach others how fraternal charity ought to be cultivated. And since it more often happens that those who are placed far away learn first from others the things that are to be emended; if perchance he bring to your brotherhood any faults of priests or of others, sitting together with him, seek out all things with subtle investigation, and thus show yourselves strict and solicitous in those things which offend God and provoke to wrath, so that for the amendment of others both punishment may strike the culpable, and false opinion may not afflict the innocent.

Deus te incolumem custodiat, reuerentissime frater.

May God keep you safe, most reverend brother.

Data die X Kalendarum Iuliarum, imperante domino nostro Mauricio Tiberio piissimo Augusto anno XIX, post consulatum eiusdem domini anno XVIII, indictione IIII.’

Given on the 10th day before the Kalends of July, under the rule of our lord Maurice Tiberius, most pious Augustus, in year 19, after the consulship of the same lord in year 18, in indiction 4.’

[29] PRAETEREA idem papa Gregorius Augustino episcopo, quia suggesserat ei multam quidem sibi esse messem, sed operarios paucos, misit cum praefatis legatariis suis plures cooperatores ac uerbi ministros; in quibus primi et praecipui erant Mellitus, Iustus, Paulinus, Rufinianus; et per eos generaliter uniuersa, quae ad cultum erant ac ministerium ecclesiae necessaria, uasa uidelicet sacra, et uestimenta altarium, ornamenta quoque ecclesiarum, et sacerdotalia uel clericilia indumenta, sanctorum etiam apostolorum ac martyrum reliquias, nec non et codices plurimos. Misit etiam litteras, in quibus significat se ei pallium direxisse, simul et insinuat, qualiter episcopos in Brittania constituere debuisset; quarum litterarum iste est textus:

[29] Moreover the same Pope Gregory, to Bishop Augustine, because he had suggested to him that the harvest for himself was indeed great, but the workers few, sent along with his aforesaid legates several cooperators and ministers of the word; among whom the first and chief were Mellitus, Justus, Paulinus, Rufinianus; and through them, in general, all the things which were necessary for the cult and ministry of the Church—namely sacred vessels, and vestments for the altars, ornaments also of the churches, and sacerdotal as well as clerical garments, even relics of the holy apostles and martyrs, and likewise very many codices. He also sent letters, in which he signifies that he had directed the pallium to him, and at the same time intimates in what manner he ought to establish bishops in Britain; of which letters this is the text:

‘Reuerentissimo et sanctissimo fratri Augustino coepiscopo Gregorius seruus seruorum Dei.

‘To the most reverend and most holy brother Augustine, fellow-bishop, Gregory, servant of the servants of God.

Cum certum sit pro omnipotente Deo laborantibus ineffabilia aeterm regni praemia reseruari; nobis tamen eis necessc est honorum beneficia tribuere, ut in spiritalis operis studio ex remuneratione ualcant multiplicius insudare. Et quia noua Anglorum ecclesia ad omnipotentis Dei gratiam eodem Domino largiente, et te laborante perducta est, usum tibi pallii in ea ad sola missarum sollemnia agenda concedimus, ita ut per loca singula XII episcopos ordines, qui tuae subiaceant dicioni, quatinus Lundoniensis ciuitatis episcopus semper in posterum a synodo propria debeat consecrari, atque honoris pallium ab hac sancta et apostolica, cui Deo auctore descruio, sedc percipiat. Ad Eburacam uero ciuitatem te uolumus episcopum mittere, quem ipse iudicaucris ordinare; ita duntaxat, ut, si eadem ciuitas cum finitimis locis uerbum Dei receperit, ipse quoque XII episcopos ordinet, et metropolitani honore perfruatur; quia ei quoque, si uita comes fuerit, pallium tribuere Domino fauente disponimus, quem tamen tuae fraternitatis uolumus dispositioni subiacere; post obitum uero tuum ita episcopis, quos ordinauerit, praesit, ut Lundoniensis episcopi nullo modo dicioni subiaceat.

Since it is certain that for those laboring for Almighty God the ineffable rewards of the eternal kingdom are reserved; nevertheless it is necessary for us to bestow on them the benefits of honors, so that, in the study of spiritual work, from remuneration they may be able to toil more abundantly. And because the new Church of the English has been brought to the grace of Almighty God, the same Lord granting and you laboring, we grant to you the use of the pallium in it for the sole purpose of performing the solemnities of the Masses, on this condition: that through the several places you ordain 12 bishops, who shall be subject to your jurisdiction, to the end that the bishop of the city of London should always in future be consecrated by his own synod, and receive the pallium of honor from this holy and apostolic see, which, with God as author, I serve. But to the city of York we wish you to send a bishop, whom you yourself shall judge to ordain; only thus, that if that same city with neighboring places shall have received the word of God, he also shall ordain 12 bishops, and enjoy the honor of a metropolitan; because to him also, if life shall be his companion, we are disposed, with the Lord favoring, to bestow the pallium—whom nevertheless we wish to be subject to the disposition of your fraternity; but after your death let him preside over the bishops whom he shall have ordained, in such a way that he be in no manner subject to the jurisdiction of the bishop of London.

Sit uero inter Lundoniae et Eburacae ciuitatis episcopos in posterum honoris ista distinctio, ut ipse prior habeatur, qui prius fuerit ordinatus; communi autem consilio, et concordi actione quaeque sunt pro Christi zelo agenda disponant unanimiter; recte sentiant, et ea, quae senserint, non sibimet discrepando perficiant.

But let there indeed be henceforth between the bishops of the city of London and of York this distinction of honor: that he be held as prior who shall have been ordained earlier; moreover, by common counsel and concordant action let them unanimously dispose the things that are to be done for the zeal of Christ; let them think rightly, and let them bring to completion the things which they have judged, not by disagreeing with one another.

Tua uero fraternitas non solum eos episcopos, quos ordinauerit, neque hos tantummodo, qui per Eburacae episcopum fuerint ordinati, sed etiam omnes Brittaniae sacerdotes habeat Deo Domino nostro Iesu Christo auctore subiectos; quatinus ex lingua et uita tuae sanctitatis et recte credendi, et bene uiuendi formam percipiant, atque officium suum fide ac moribus exsequentes, ad caelestia, cum Dominus uoluerit, regna pertingant. Deus te incolumem custodiat, reuerentissime frater.

But your Fraternity shall have subject, with God our Lord Jesus Christ as author, not only those bishops whom it shall have ordained, nor only those who shall have been ordained through the bishop of York, but also all the priests of Britain; in order that from the tongue and life of your holiness they may receive the form of right believing and of living well, and, executing their office in faith and morals, may attain to the heavenly kingdoms, when the Lord shall will. May God keep you unharmed, most reverend brother.

Data die X. Kalendarum Iuliarum, imperante domino nostro Mauricio Tiberio piissimo Augusto anno XVIIII, post consulatum eiusdem domini anno XVIII, indictione IIII.

Given on the day 10 of the Kalends of July, our lord Maurice Tiberius, most pious Augustus, reigning, in the year 19, after the consulship of the same lord in the year 18, indiction 4.

[30] ABEUNTIBUS autem praefatis legatariis, misit post eos beatus pater Gregorius litteras memoratu dignas, in quibus aperte, quam studiose erga saluationem nostrae gentis inuigilauerit, ostendit, ita scribens:

[30] But as the aforesaid legates were departing, the blessed father Gregory sent after them letters worthy of remembrance, in which he openly shows how studiously he has kept watch for the salvation of our people, writing thus:

‘Dilectissimo filio Mellito abbati Gregorius seruus seruorum Dei.

‘To the most beloved son, Abbot Mellitus, Gregory, servant of the servants of God.

Post discessum congregationis nostrae, quae tecum est, ualde sumus suspensi redditi, quia nihil de prosperitate uestri itineris audisse nos contigit. Cum ergo Deus omnipotens uos ad reuerentissimum uirum fratrem nostrum Augustinum episcopum perduxerit, dicite ei, quid diu mecum de causa Anglorum cogitans tractaui; uidelicet, quia fana idolorum destrui in eadem gente minime debeant; sed ipsa, quae in eis sunt, idola destruantur; aqua benedicta fiat, in eisdem fanis aspergatur, altaria construantur, reliquiae ponantur. Quia, si fana eadem bene constructa sunt, necesse est, ut a cultu daemonum in obsequio ueri Dei debeant commutari; ut dum gens ipsa eadem fana sua non uidet destrui, de corde errorem deponat, et Deum uerum cognoscens ac adorans, ad loca, quae consueuit, familiarius concurrat.

After the departure of our congregation which is with you, we have been rendered very anxious, because it has not befallen us to hear anything about the prosperity of your journey. When therefore almighty God shall have brought you to the most reverend man, our brother Augustine the bishop, tell him what I have long, pondering with myself, discussed concerning the cause of the Angles; namely, that the fanes of idols ought by no means to be destroyed in that same people; but the idols themselves, which are in them, should be destroyed; let holy water be made, let it be sprinkled in those same fanes, let altars be constructed, let relics be placed. For if those same fanes are well constructed, it is necessary that they be changed over from the cult of demons into the service of the true God; so that, while the people itself does not see those same fanes of theirs destroyed, it may lay aside error from its heart, and, coming to know and adoring the true God, may more familiarly flock to the places to which it has been accustomed.

Et quia boues solent in sacrificio daemonum multos occidere, debet eis etiam hac de re aliqua sollemnitas immutari; ut die dedicationis, uel natalicii sanctorum martyrum, quorum illic reliquiae ponuntur, tabernacula sibi circa easdem ecclesias, quae ex fanis commutatae sunt, de ramis arborum faciant, et religiosis conuiuiis sollemnitatem celebrent; nec diabolo iam animalia immolent, et ad laudem Dei in esu suo animalia occidant, et donatori omnium de satietate sua gratias referant; ut dum eis aliqua exterius gaudia reseruantur, ad interiora gaudia consentire facilius ualeant. Nam duris mentibus simul omnia abscidere impossibile esse non dubium est, quia et is, qui summum locum ascendere nititur, gradibus uel passibus, non autem saltibus eleuatur. Sic Israelitico populo in Aegypto Dominus se quidem innotuit; sed tamen eis sacrificiorum usus, quae diabolo solebat exhibere, in culto proprio reseruauit, ut eis in suo sacrificio animalia immolare praeciperet; quatinus cor mutantes, aliud de sacrificio amitterent, aliud retinerent; ut etsi ipsa essent animalia, quae offerre consueuerant, uero tamen Deo haec et non idolis immolantes, iam sacrificia ipsa non essent.

And because in the sacrifice of demons they are wont to slaughter many oxen, some solemnity ought also in this matter to be transmuted for them; so that on the day of the dedication, or of the natal day of the holy martyrs, whose relics are placed there, they make tabernacles for themselves around those same churches, which have been converted from shrines, out of branches of trees, and celebrate the solemnity with religious banquets; and let them no longer immolate animals to the devil, but to the praise of God let them slaughter animals for their eating, and render thanks to the Giver of all for their satiety; so that while some outward joys are reserved for them, they may be able more easily to consent to inner joys. For with hard minds it is beyond doubt that it is impossible to cut off everything at once, since even he who strives to ascend to the highest place is raised by steps or paces, not by leaps. Thus to the Israelitic people in Egypt the Lord indeed made himself known; but nevertheless he reserved for them, in his own cult, the usage of sacrifices which they were wont to offer to the devil, so that he commanded them to immolate animals in his own sacrifice; in order that, changing their heart, they might lose one thing of the sacrifice and retain another; so that, even if the very animals were those which they were accustomed to offer, yet by immolating these to the true God and not to idols, they would no longer be the same sacrifices.

Haec igitur dilectionem tuam praedicto fratri necesse est dicere, ut ipse in praesenti illic positus perpendat, qualiter omnia debeat dispensare. Deus te incolumem custodiat, dilectissime fili.

Therefore it is necessary that your love tell these things to the aforesaid brother, so that he, being present there on the spot, may weigh how he ought to dispense everything. May God keep you unharmed, most beloved son.

Data die XV. Kalendarum Iuliarum, imperante domino nostro Mauricio Tiberio piissimo Augusto anno XIX, post consulatum eiusdem domini anno XVIII, indictione IIII.

Given on the 15th day before the Kalends of July, when our lord Maurice Tiberius, most pious Augustus, was reigning in the 19th year, in the 18th year after the consulate of that same lord, in the 4th indiction.

[31] QUO in tempore misit etiam Augustino epistulam super miraculis, quae per eum facta esse cognouerat, in qua eum, ne per illorum copiam periculum elationis incurreret, his uerbis hortatur:

[31] At that time he also sent to Augustine an epistle concerning the miracles which he had learned had been done through him, in which he exhorts him, lest he incur the danger of elation through their abundance, with these words:

Scio, frater carissime, quia omnipotens Deus per dilectionem tuam in gentem, quam eligi uoluit, magna miracula ostendit; unde necesse est, ut de eodem dono caelesti et timendo gaudeas, et gaudendo pertimescas. Gaudeas uidelicet, quia Anglorum animae per exteriora miracula ad interiorem gratiam pertrahuntur; pertimescas uero, ne inter signa, quae fiunt, infirmus animus in sui praesumtione se eleuet, et unde foras in honorem tollitur, inde per inanem gloriam intus cadat. Meminisse etenim debemus, quia discipuli cum gaudio a praedicatione redeuntes, dum caelesti magistro dicerent: ‘Domine, in nomine tuo etiam daemonia nobis subiecta sunt,’ protinus audierunt: ‘Nolite gaudere super hoc, sed potius gaudete, quia nomina uestra scripta sunt in caelo.’ In priuata enim et temporali laetitia mentem posuerant, qui de miraculis gaudebant; sed de priuata ad communem, de temporali ad aeternam laetitiam reuocantur, quibus dicitur: ‘In hoc gaudete, quia nomina uestra scripta sunt in caelo.’ Non enim omnes electi miracula faciunt, sed tamen eorum nomina omnium in caelo tenentur adscripta.

I know, dearest brother, that almighty God through your charity has shown great miracles among the nation which He willed to be chosen; whence it is necessary that, about that same heavenly gift, you both rejoice with fear, and, rejoicing, be afraid. Rejoice, namely, because the souls of the English are drawn by outward miracles to inward grace; but be afraid, lest amid the signs that are done a weak mind be lifted up in the presumption of itself, and that from the place where it is raised outwardly into honor, from there through vain glory it fall inwardly. For we ought to remember that when the disciples returned from preaching with joy, while they were saying to the heavenly Master: ‘Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name,’ they straightway heard: ‘Do not rejoice over this, but rather rejoice, because your names are written in heaven.’ For they who rejoiced over miracles had set their mind on private and temporal gladness; but they are called back from the private to the common, from the temporal to the eternal gladness, to whom it is said: ‘In this rejoice, because your names are written in heaven.’ For not all the elect work miracles, yet the names of them all are held enrolled in heaven.

Ueritatis etenim discipulis esse gaudium non debet, nisi de eo bono, quod commune cum omnibus habent, et in quo finem laetitiae non habent.

For indeed, there ought not to be joy for the disciples of truth, except about that good which they have in common with all, and in which they have no end of joy.

Restat itaque, frater carissime, ut inter ea, quae operante Domino exterius facis, semper te interius subtiliter iudices ac subtiliter intellegas et temet ipsum quis sis, et quanta sit in eadem gente gratia, pro cuius conuersione etiam faciendorum signorum dona percepisti. Et si quando te Creatori nostro seu per linguam, siue per operam reminisceris deliquisse, semper haec ad memoriam reuoces, ut surgentem cordis gloriam memoria reatus premat. Et quicquid de faciendis signis acceperis, uel accepisti, haec non tibi, sed illis deputes donata, pro quorum tibi salute collata sunt.

It remains therefore, dearest brother, that among the things which, with the Lord operating, you do outwardly, you always judge yourself inwardly with subtlety and understand with subtlety both who you yourself are, and how great the grace is in that same nation, for whose conversion you have also received gifts of signs to be performed. And if at any time you recall that you have transgressed against our Creator either by tongue or by deed, always call these things back to memory, so that the memory of guilt may press down the rising glory of the heart. And whatever concerning signs to be performed you may receive, or have received, reckon these as given not to you, but to those for whose salvation they have been conferred upon you.

[32] MISIT idem beatus papa Gregorius eodem tempore etiam regi Aedilbercto epistulam, simul et dona in diuersis speciebus perplura; temporalibus quoque honoribus regem glorificare satagens, cui gloriae caelestis suo labore et industria notitiam prouenisse gaudebat. Exemplar autem praefatae epistulae hoc est:

[32] The same blessed Pope Gregory at the same time sent also to King Aedilberht a letter, together with very many gifts in diverse kinds; also striving to glorify the king with temporal honors, rejoicing that to him the knowledge of heavenly glory had come by his own labor and industry. Moreover, the exemplar of the aforesaid epistle is this:

Domino gloriosissimo atque praecellentissimo filio Aedilbercto regi Anglorum Gregorius episcopus.

To the most glorious and most preeminent lord and son, Aedilberht, king of the English, Gregory, bishop.

Propter hoc omnipotens Deus bonos quosque ad populorum regimina perducit, ut per eos omnibus, quibus praelati fuerint, dona suae pictatis inpendat. Quod in Anglorum gente factum cognouimus, cui uestra gloria idcirco est praeposita, ut per bona, quae uobis concessa sunt, etiam subiectae uobis genti superna beneficia praestarentur. Et ideo, gloriose fili, eam, quam accepisti diuinitus gratiam, sollicita mente custodi, Christianam fidem in populis tibi subditis extendere festina, zelum rectitudinis tuae in eorum conuersione multiplica, idolorum cultus insequere, fanorum aedificia euerte, subditorum mores ex magna uitae munditia, exhortando, terrendo, blandiendo, corrigendo, et boni operis exempla monstrando aedifica; ut illum retributorem inuenias in caelo, cuius nomen atque cognitionem dilataueris in terra.

For this reason the omnipotent God leads sundry good men to the governance of peoples, that through them He may bestow upon all over whom they shall have been set the gifts of His pity. This we have learned to have been done in the nation of the Angles, over which your glory has therefore been placed, that by the goods which have been granted to you, heavenly benefits also might be furnished to the nation subject to you. And therefore, glorious son, guard with a solicitous mind the grace which you have received from divinity; hasten to extend the Christian faith among the peoples subjected to you; multiply the zeal of your rectitude in their conversion; persecute the cults of idols; overthrow the edifices of temples; build up the morals of your subjects from great purity of life—by exhorting, frightening, coaxing, correcting, and by showing examples of good work—so that you may find that Retributor in heaven, whose name and knowledge you will have spread upon earth.

Ipse enim uestrae quoque gloriae nomen etiam posteris gloriosius reddet, cuius uos honorem quaeritis et seruatis in gentibus.

For he himself will render the name of your glory even more glorious for posterity, whose honor you seek and preserve among the peoples.

Sic etenim Constantinus quondam piissimus imperator Romanam rempuplicam a peruersis idolorum cultibus reuocans omnipotenti Deo Domino nostro Iesu Christo secum subdidit, seque cum subiectis populis tota ad eum mente conuertit. Unde factum est, ut antiquorum principum nomen suis uir ille laudibus uinceret, et tanto in opinione praecessores suos, quanto et in bono opere superaret. Et nunc itaque uestra gloria cognitionem unius Dei, Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti, regibus ac populis sibimet subiectis festinet infundere, ut et antiquos gentis suac reges laudibus ac meritis transeat, et quanto in subiectis suis etiam aliena peccata deterserit, tanto etiam de peccatis propriis ante omnipotentis Dei terribile examen securior fiat.

Thus indeed Constantine, once the most pious emperor, recalling the Roman commonwealth from the perverse cults of idols, subjected it together with himself to the omnipotent God, our Lord Jesus Christ, and turned himself with the subject peoples wholly to him in mind. Whence it came to pass that that man, by his own praises, outstripped the name of the ancient princes, and by as much as he surpassed his predecessors in reputation, by so much also he surpassed them in good work. And now, therefore, let your glory hasten to infuse the knowledge of the one God, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, into the kings and peoples subject to yourself, so that you may surpass the ancient kings of your nation in praises and merits, and by how much you shall have wiped away, in your subjects, even others’ sins, by so much the more may you become secure concerning your own sins before the terrible examination of the omnipotent God.

Reuerentissimus frater noster Augustinus episcopus in monasterii regula edoctus, sacrae scripturae scientia repletus, bonis auctore Deo operibus praeditus, quaeque uos ammonet, libenter audite, deuote peragite, studiose in memoria reseruate; quia, si uos eum in eo, quod pro omnipotente Deo loquitur, auditis, isdem omnipotens Deus hunc pro uobis exorantem celerius exaudit. Si enim, quod absit, uerba eius postponitis, quando eum omnipotens Deus poterit audire pro uobis, quem uos neglegitis audire pro Deo? Tota igitur mente cum eo uos in feruore fidei stringite, atque adnisum illius uirtute, quam uobis diui nitas tribuit, adiuuate, ut regni sui uos ipse faciat esse participes, cuius uos fidem in regno uestro recipi facitis et custodiri.

Our most reverend brother Augustine, bishop, instructed in the rule of the monastery, filled with the science of sacred Scripture, endowed with good works by God as author—whatever he admonishes you, willingly hear, devoutly carry out, diligently store in memory; because, if you hear him in that which he speaks on behalf of almighty God, that same almighty God more swiftly hears this man interceding for you. For if, which far be it, you postpone his words, when will almighty God be able to hear him for you, whom you neglect to hear for God? Therefore with your whole mind bind yourselves with him in the fervor of faith, and aid his endeavor by the virtue, which divinity has granted to you, that he himself may make you to be participants of his kingdom, whose faith you cause to be received and to be kept in your kingdom.

Praeterea scire uestram gloriam uolumus, quia, sicut in scriptura sacra ex uerbis Domini omnipotentis agnoscimus, praesentis mundi iam terminus iuxta est, et sanctorum regnum uenturum est, quod nullo umquam poterit fine terminari. Adpropinquante autem eodem mundi termino, multa inminent, quae antea non fuerunt; uidelicet immutationes aeris, terroresque de caelo, et contra ordinationem temporum tempestates, bella, fames, pestilentiae, terrae motus per loca; quae tamen non omnia nostris diebus uentura sunt, sed post nostros dies omnia subsequentur. Uos itaque, siqua ex his euenire in terra uestra cognoscitis, nullo modo uestrum animum perturbetis; quia idcirco haec signa de fine saeculi praemittuntur, ut de animabus nostris debeamus esse solliciti, de mortis hora suspecti, et uenturo Iudici in bonis actibus inueniamur esse praeparati.

Moreover we wish your glory to know that, just as we recognize in Sacred Scripture from the words of the Lord Omnipotent, the terminus of the present world is already at hand, and the kingdom of the saints is about to come, which can by no end ever be terminated. But as that same terminus of the world draws near, many things are imminent which previously were not; namely mutations of the air, and terrors from heaven, and storms against the ordination of the seasons, wars, famines, pestilences, earthquakes in places; which, however, will not all come in our days, but after our days all will follow. You therefore, if you learn that any of these are occurring in your land, let your mind be in no way perturbed; because for this reason these signs of the end of the age are sent ahead: that we ought to be solicitous for our souls, wary of the hour of death, and that we may be found prepared for the coming Judge in good deeds.

Haec nunc, gloriose fili, paucis locutus sum, ut cum Christiana fides in regno uestro excreuerit, nostra quoque apud uos locutio latior excrescat, et tanto plus loqui libeat, quanto se in mente nostra gaudia de gentis uestrae perfecta conuersione multiplicant.

These things now, glorious son, I have spoken briefly, so that, when the Christian faith has grown in your kingdom, our discourse with you may likewise grow broader, and it may be the more a delight to speak, the more the joys in our mind multiply over the perfect conversion of your nation.

Parua autem exenia transmisi, quae uobis parua non erunt, cum a uobis ex beati Petri apostoli fuerint benedictione suscepta. Omnipotens itaque Deus in uobis gratiam suam, quam coepit, perficiat, atque uitam uestram et hic per multorum annorum curricula extendat, et post longa tempora in caelestis uos patriae congregatione recipiat. Incolumem excellentiam uestram gratia superna custodiat, domine fili.

However, I have sent small gifts, which will not be small to you, since by you they will have been received with the benediction of the blessed apostle Peter. Therefore may Almighty God perfect in you His grace which He has begun, and both here extend your life through the courses of many years, and after long times receive you into the congregation of the heavenly fatherland. May supernal grace keep your Excellence unharmed, lord son.

Data die X. Kalendarum Iuliarum, imperante domino nostro Mauricio Tiberio piissimo Augusto anno XVIIII, post consulatum eiusdem domini anno XVIII, indictione IIII.

Given on the 10th day before the Kalends of July, under the rule of our lord Maurice Tiberius, most pious Augustus, in year 19, in the 18th year after the consulship of that same lord, in indiction 4.

[33] AT Augustinus, ubi in regia ciuitate sedem episcopalem, ut praediximus, accepit, recuperauit in ea, regio fultus adminiculo, ecclesiam, quam inibi antiquo Romanorum fidelium opere factam fuisse didicerat, et eam in nomine sancti Saluatoris Dei et Domini nostri Iesu Christi sacrauit, atque ibidem sibi habitationem statuit et cunctis successoribus suis. Fecit autem et monasterium non longe ab ipsa ciuitate ad orientem, in quo, eius hortatu, Aedilberct ecclesiam beatorum apostolorum Petri et Pauli a fundamentis construxit, ac diuersis donis ditauit, in qua et ipsius Augustini, et omnium episcoporum Doruuernensium, simul et regum Cantiae poni corpora possent. Quam tamen ecclesiam non ipse Augustinus, sed successor eius Laurentius consecrauit.

[33] But Augustine, when in the royal city he received, as we have foretold, the episcopal seat, recovered there, supported by royal aid, a church which he had learned had been made there by the ancient workmanship of Roman faithful, and he consecrated it in the name of the Holy Savior God and our Lord Jesus Christ, and in the same place he established a habitation for himself and for all his successors. He also made a monastery not far from the city itself to the east, in which, at his exhortation, Aedilberct built from the foundations a church of the blessed apostles Peter and Paul, and enriched it with diverse gifts, in which the bodies both of Augustine himself and of all the bishops of Dorovernum, and likewise of the kings of Kent, might be placed. Which church, however, not Augustine himself, but his successor Laurentius consecrated.

Primus autem eiusdem monasterii abbas Petrus presbiter fuit, qui legatus Galliam missus demersus est in sinu maris, qui uocatur Amfleat, et ab incolis loci ignobili traditus sepulturae; sed omnipotens Deus ut, qualis meriti uir fuerit, demonstraret, omni nocte supra sepulchrum eius lux caelestis apparuit, donec animaduertentes uicini, qui uidebant, sanctum fuisse uirum, qui ibi esset sepultus, et inuestigantes, unde uel quis esset, abstulerunt corpus, et in Bononia ciuitate iuxta honorem tanto uiro congruum in ecclesia posuerunt.

The first abbot of that same monastery, however, was Peter the presbyter, who, sent as a legate to Gaul, was drowned in the bay of the sea which is called Amfleat, and by the inhabitants of an obscure place was given over to burial; but Almighty God, in order to demonstrate of what merit the man had been, made a heavenly light appear every night above his sepulcher, until the neighbors who saw, taking notice that the man who was buried there had been holy, and investigating whence or who he was, took away the body, and in the city of Bononia placed it in a church according to an honor congruous to so great a man.

[34] HIS temporibus regno Nordanhymbrorum praefuit rex fortissimus et gloriae cupidissimus Aedilfrid, qui plus omnibus Anglorum primatibus gentem uastauit Brettonum; ita ut Sauli quondam regi Israeliticae gentis conparandus uideretur, excepto dumtaxat hoc, quod diuinae erat religionis ignarus. Nemo enim in tribunis, nemo in regibus plures eorum terras, exterminatis uel subiugatis indigenis, aut tributarias genti Anglorum, aut habitabiles fecit. Cui merito poterat illud, quod benedicens filium patriarcha in personam Saulis dicebat, aptari: ‘Beniamin lupus rapax, mane comedet praedam et uespere diuidet spolia.’

[34] In these times there presided over the kingdom of the Northumbrians a most stalwart king and most desirous of glory, Aedilfrid, who more than all the chiefs of the Angles devastated the nation of the Britons; so that he seemed comparable to Saul, once king of the Israelite people, except only this, that he was ignorant of the divine religion. For no one among tribunes, no one among kings, made more of their lands, the natives having been exterminated or subjugated, either tributary to the nation of the Angles or made habitable. To him with merit that saying, which the patriarch, blessing his son, spoke in the persona of Saul, could be fitted: ‘Benjamin a rapacious wolf; in the morning he will eat the prey, and in the evening he will divide the spoils.’

Unde motus eius profectibus Aedan rex Scottorum, qui Brittaniam inhabitant, uenit contra eum cum inmenso ac forti exercitu; sed cum paucis uictus aufugit. Siquidem in loco celeberrimo, qui dicitur Degsastán, id est Degsa lapis, omnis pene eius est caesus exercitus. In qua etiam pugna Theodbald frater Aedilfridi cum omni illo, quem ipse ducebat, exercitu peremtus est.

Whence, moved by his advances, Aedan, king of the Scots, who inhabit Britain, came against him with an immense and strong army; but, defeated, he fled with a few. For indeed, in a most celebrated place, which is called Degsastan, that is, Degsa’s Stone, almost all his army was cut down. In which battle also Theodbald, brother of Aedilfrid, was slain with all that army which he himself was leading.

Quod uidelicet bellum Aedilfrid anno ab incarnatione Domini DCIII, regni autem sui, quod XX et IIII annis tenuit, anno XI, perfecit; porro anno Focatis, qui tum Romani regni apicem tenebat, primo. Neque ex eo tempore quisquam regum Scottorum in Brittania aduersus gentem Anglorum usque ad hanc diem in proelium uenire audebat.

Which war indeed Aedilfrid brought to completion in the year from the Incarnation of the Lord 603, and in the 11th year of his reign, which he held for 24 years; moreover, in the first year of Phocas, who then held the pinnacle of the Roman realm. Nor from that time did any of the kings of the Scots in Britain dare to come into battle against the nation of the Angles down to this day.