by Bede
CHAPTER IX.
OF THE SICKNESS, DEATH, AND BURIAL OF THE HOLY MAN, AND HOW THE HOUSE IN WHICH HE DIED ESCAPED UNTOUCHED BY A FIRE.
THIS holy priest had now, by Divine Grace, ruled the church with great devoutness in preaching the Gospel 128 and with zealous piety about forty years, and during this time had, by his catholic doctrines, turned a multitude of persons to the purity of the Christian faith. The knowledge of God’s law spread every where; the holy name of Christ was heard in the mouths of all; charity of life was visible in their conduct, love of their heavenly country burnt in the breasts of all; on appointed days the whole people thronged to the church, and celebrated with great joy the proper feast-days of our Saviour; alms were distributed abundantly to the poor, from house to house; the word of God was every where preached daily, and at the canonical hours the clergy sung in the churches hymns of praise. “Blessed,” said they, “are the people who have these things: blessed are the people who have the Lord for their God!” For all lay down to rest in the beauty of peace, all took pleasure in the knowledge of truth, and delighted in the holiness of Christ’s religion. But when this holy preacher and priest, ripe in virtues as in years, was now thought fit to receive from the Lord the reward of his labours, he was taken with a violent fever in the city of Atrebata; the Divine mercy so regulating it that where he had laboured so zealously, he might from thence arrive at eternal felicity, and in the arms of his brethren render up his soul to his Creator. But God, in order to signalize the departure of his servant, The pillar of
light rests on
his house. caused a pillar of light to shine in the night from the top of the house in which the holy man was lying; and it seemed to remain there two hours, and to reach even up to heaven. When this was told to the man of God, he immediately saw that it portended his own death: and he called to him his sons, that by their prayers his soul might be commended to his Creator. Having bestowed on them the sweet counsel of paternal love, and the last words of charity, he was strengthened by the holy viaticum of Christ’s body and blood, and resigned his soul in the arms of his weeping brethren. O happy day for the holy priest! but most 129 sorrowful for all the people, thus suddenly abandoned by so great a spiritual pastor — abandoned only by his bodily presence, for his intercession in the spirit will never fail them, if they continue to follow his precepts, and the example of his holy life. The clergy and much people assembled together, to perform the last obsequies of the reverend man: there were also other officers of the church, priests and deacons: but, wonderful to say, amid the voice of the earthly singers, as some pious men relate, a song was heard in heaven, and when they approached the bier on which the body was placed, and which was lying with all funeral honours in the midst of them, they found themselves unable to move it. Not knowing what to do, nor which way to turn, they asked the pious arch-priest Scopilio, who had been private secretary to the man of God, whether he remembered to have heard him give any instructions about his burial, being apprehensive that this might have happened because they intended to bury him within the walls of the city. Scopilio answered, that he had often heard him say no one ought to be buried in a town, which should be the abode of the living, not the resting-place of the dead. By his advice, therefore, they determined to bury him without the walls in the oratory which he had himself built; and immediately they lifted the bier with the greatest ease, and carried the holy body with lamps and hymns of praise to the place, where they buried him with great honours near the altar of the oratory. A noble treasure, in truth, was it which they here deposited in the ground! and miracles of Divine power are wrought there even to this day, such as those who have seen can tell better than the pen of the historian. In process of time, the house in which God’s chosen servant died caught fire, and a certain holy woman, called Habita, saw Saint Vedast come and put out the fire. Thus the house escaped destruction, as did also the bed on which the man of God had died, that all men might see how exalted must be his happiness in heaven, inasmuch as even his 130 house and bed were not suffered to be burnt on earth; and by his exceeding merit, with the assistance of Divine Love, Miracles. former miracles are daily related, and new ones performed. Blessed was the city of Atrebata, for such an excellent protector! Its mouldering walls are ennobled by his righteous deeds: all its people should rejoice in his holy intercession, and offer everlasting praise to Almighty God, who gave them so renowned a teacher, by whose preaching they have learnt the way of truth, and by whose prayers, if they continue in the firmness of the faith, and in holiness of life, they will remain safe from all adversity, and will arrive at the glory of eternal happiness through our Lord Jesus Christ, who reigns for ever and ever with the Father and the Holy Spirit, God, through ages of ages! — Amen!
CHAPTER X.
A HOMILY PREACHED TO THE PEOPLE ON THE ANNIVERSARY OF THE BIRTH OF ST. VEDAST.
The homily. REJOICE, my beloved brethren in the Lord, who have come together at this festival in honour of our holy father and protector, St. Vedast; and be joyful in the spirit, and praise from the bottom of your hearts the clemency of Jesus Christ our Lord, who, by the preaching of this holy priest hath deigned to bring us out of the errors of idolatry to a knowledge of His name: let us, then, with one consent follow the steps of so holy a teacher; let us not be degenerate sons of so great a father, but by noble conduct imitate the sanctity of his life. Let us, therefore, cast from us the works of darkness, and put upon us the armour of life, so that we may walk virtuously in the day: because the night of ignorance hath departed and the light of true science hath shone upon us, that we may be sons of light, and walk in all purity and 131 righteousness. The homily. Let no seeds of wickedness or malice be hidden in any of our hearts: for man sees the face, but God examines into the heart, nor can any thing be concealed from the eyes of His Omnipotence. Let us make ready ourselves in all goodness, that Vedast, our illustrious bishop and pious preacher, may rejoice to lead us on the last day before the tribunal of our Great Judge, so that, by the number of his children, his glory may be amplified, and we may earn the privilege of hearing that gracious sentence pronounced, “Come, ye blessed of my Father, enjoy the kingdom which hath been prepared for you from the beginning of the world!” He does not cease to help us daily in our earthly conflict by his pious prayers uttered from his heavenly country, desiring that we, his dearest children, begotten in Christ by his fatherly piety, may arrive at the glory of everlasting happiness. Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every one of you in order, according to the measure of his strength, bravely resist the promptings of the Devil, that he may become worthy the crown of victory which shall never fade, in company with our pious father. “For the affections of this world,” saith the apostle, “are not worthy to be compared to the future glory, which shall be revealed in us.” The Divine Love, therefore, hath willed that the time of our labour should be brief and the reward of it lasting, and that for tribulation which shall last but for a time, we shall rejoice in the recompense of glory everlasting. Now, we have heard, when the life of God’s beloved priest was read, what devotion he displayed in every excellence, how he chastened his body by rigorous abstinence, and strove to perform offices of charity to all men. Let us go on with all alacrity of mind, and with all our strength of body, following the traces of his holy life, that we may merit to be made partakers of the happiness in which he reigns with Christ. Let no carnal concupiscence or secular ambition impede our course: let us, by deeds of 132 piety, The homily. accelerate our course to the gates of the heavenly country, where the inhabitants of the eternal city are waiting for us, and the King himself, who wishes all men to be safe, is anxiously looking for our salvation with his holy saints. It is our duty to co-operate with Him in the work of our salvation; for He hath loved us to such a degree that he did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all. Let us love Him because He first loved us; let us do His will, because His will is our happiness: let us always keep in mind what was said by the Source of all Truth to a certain ri
ch man in the Gospel: “If you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments:” what are the commandments, save to fear God and to love our neighbour? “On these two commands hang all the law and the prophets!” Now, the love of our neighbour is proved in works of compassion. Whosoever hath the riches of this world, let him help the man who hath not. Whosoever possesseth the knowledge of learning, let him correct him who errs, as the Apostle James saith, “Whoso turneth one sinner from the error of his ways, covereth a multitude of his own sins.” It behoveth us to know, dearest brethren, that, in proportion to the number of souls any man has gained to God, so will be the reward which he shall receive from God. What exalted glory do you not imagine St. Vedast must have in the heavenly kingdom with Christ, who gained by his zealous preaching such an innumerable people to Christ on earth! Or, how great glory do you then trust that man’s soul must have among the angels, whose body hath so much honour among mankind! What cannot his pious prayers obtain in heaven, when on earth he performed such great miracles? But the zeal of his Gospel-preaching and the fervour of the love which glowed in his bosom, were greater than any miracles. See how manfully he sought to multiply the talents which he received from the Lord! Therefore shall he hear the Lord pronounce over him that happy 133 judgment, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant, The homily. for thou hast been faithful over a few things: I will make thee ruler over many things. Enter thou into the joy of the Lord thy God.” Small are the goods of this present life, in comparison of the goods which are to come; but whosoever labours faithfully in the former, shall rest happily in the latter. This holy saint, whom you have come together to honour, laboured for the salvation of many; wherefore on the day of judgment he shall receive the rewards of many. He chastened himself by rigorous abstinence, and benefited others by sedulous preaching; wherefore he is worthy to be praised by all men, according to the saying of Solomon, the wisest of men, “The memory of the just man shall be accompanied with praises, but the name of the wicked rotteth: whilst the life of the just shall be praised, the iniquity of the wicked, like dung, is detested by all men.” What greater happiness can there be than by a good life and conversation to earn from God the glory of eternal happiness, and to be praised by the mouths of all men? Let us consider daily with what assurance we can come before the tribunal of the Chief Judge, what good works we can carry with us; His justice will be no accepter of persons; but will render to every one according to his works: and he who labours the most in the works of the Lord, shall receive the most in the kingdom of God. Let each of us, in whatever vocation he is placed, strive therein to work out his own salvation. The door of the heavenly kingdom is open to all; but the quality of men’s merits will admit one man and reject another. How wretched must it be for a man to be shut from the glory of the saints, and to be consigned with the Devil to eternal flames! The burden of its sins sinks the soul into Tartarus; but the overflowing of God’s justice exalts it to heavenly glory. Let us throng frequently to the church of Christ: let us diligently hear therein the word of God; and what we receive in 134 the ear let us retain in our hearts, The homily. that we may bear the fruit of good works in patience, and with brotherly love may each study to assist the other. We have abundant bright examples of our Heavenly Father in every office of charity, in the fervour of faith, in the long-suffering of hope, and in the persevering in goodness displayed by the holy man, whom we so much honour and so much love. Let us, in all our conversation, follow his holy footsteps with all the energy of our minds; that, walking in the way of his life, we may be thought worthy with him to receive the glory of eternal happiness, through the aid of our everlasting King and Lord Jesus Christ, who liveth and reigneth with the Father and the Holy Spirit, God, world without end. Amen.
AN EPISTLE FROM BEDE TO ABBOT ALBINUS, RELATING TO HIS ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY
Translated by J. A. Giles
Bede, the Servant of Christ, to the most Beloved and Reverend Father Albinus, Health!
I HAVE thankfully received the testimonies of your love which you have condescended to send me by the hands of our venerable brother Nothelm the priest, and especially your letter, in which you have shown so much solicitude, this second time, to give me aid and information for my Ecclesiastical History, a work which I first undertook at your instigation. Wherefore also I have with great propriety sent it to you, as I was able to finish it, to be copied.* But I intend to repay you by forwarding to you another volume for the same purpose, as I find, also, is consistent with your own wishes, namely, that which I have lately published on the building of Solomon’s temple, and its allegorical signification. And I humbly beseech you, most loving father, and Christ’s servants who are with you, to intercede fervently with the righteous in behalf of my frailty; and to admonish those, to whom you shall show my work, to do the same. Fare you well, my good and ever loving father in Christ.
AN EPISTLE TO BISHOP EGBERT, CONCERNING ECCLESIASTICAL DISCIPLINE
Translated by J. A. Giles
Bede, the Servant of Christ, to the most Beloved the Right Reverend Bishop Egbert, Health!
§ 1. I REMEMBER hearing you say last year, when I spent a few days in your monastery for purposes of study, that you would wish, this year also, when you should arrive at the same place, to have me near you to converse with, for the same purposes of study, common to us both. If this wish could, by God’s favour, be accomplished, there would be no need of my communicating with you at present by letter, since I could then more freely in private conversation say to you, face to face, whatever I wished or deemed expedient. But since the state of my health has, as you know, become such as to prevent this from coming to pass, I have yet, with brotherly devotion, in return for your affection, sent you by letter what I was not able to communicate in person. And I pray you by the Lord, not to consider the point of this letter to be fraught with arrogance and vanity, but as the true submission of humility and pious affection.
§ 2. I therefore exhort your Holiness, my beloved Bishop in Christ, to confirm both by holy life and by holy teaching, the sacred dignity which God, the Author of dignities and Giver of spiritual gifts, hath bestowed upon you. For neither of these is complete without the other: if the bishop whose life is pure, omits the duty of teaching, or the good teacher neglects to practise what is right. But he who faithfully does both, is that servant who shall with joy await the coming of the Lord, hoping soon to hear “Well done, good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things; enter thou into the joy of the Lord.” But if any one, which God forbid, shall receive the rank of bishop, and shall take no pains, either by a righteous life, to save himself from evil, or his people by punishing and admonishing them; what shall happen to him when the Lord comes at an hour that he knew not of, is declared plainly in that Gospel sentence, addressed to the unprofitable servant, “Cast him into outer darkness: where shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
§ 3. In particular, I advise your fatherly sanctity to abstain in your pontifical dignity from idle confabulations, and revilings, and other pollutions of the unrestrained tongue; and to occupy your tongue and mind in divine preachings and meditations on Scripture, and particularly in reading the epistles of the Apostle St. Paul to Timothy and Titus, and in the words of the blessed Pope Gregory, wherein he hath spoken much and curiously of the life and the faults of rulers, in his book of the Pastoral Rule, and in his homilies on the Gospel, that your language should always be seasoned with the salt of wisdom, elevated above the common diction, and more worthy of the Divine ear. For, as it is unbecoming that the holy vessels of the altar should ever be profaned by vulgar use and vile services, so is it in every respect untoward and lamentable, that he who is ordained to consecrate the Lord’s sacraments upon the altar, should at one moment stand ministering to the Lord at such ceremonies, and then, leaving the church, with the same mouth and the same hands, with which he had before been handling sacred things, should suddenly talk of trifles or do what will gi
ve the Lord offence.
§ 4. Purity of tongue, as well as of conduct, is best preserved, not only by sacred reading, but also by intercourse with those who are devout servants of our Lord; so that if my tongue begins to run wild, or evil deeds suggest themselves to me, I may be sustained by the hands of my faithful brethren and preserved from falling. If this be expedient to all God’s children, how much more so to men of that rank, who have not only the care of their own salvation, but also that of the church committed to their charge? as we find it written, 2 Cor. xi. 28. “besides those things that are without, that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches. Who is made weak, and I am not made weak? Who is scandalized and I burn not?” I do not say this from any suspicion that you act otherwise; but because it is noised abroad concerning some bishops, that they have no men of religion or continence near them; but rather such as indulge in laughter and jests, revellings, and drunkenness and other temptations of an idle life, and who rather feed their bodies with carnal food than their minds on the heavenly sacrifice. Such, if you should meet with any, I would wish you to correct by your holy authority, and advise them to have such witnesses of their conversation, both by night and day, as may suffice to benefit the people, by actions worthy of the Lord, and by suitable exhortations, and so further the spiritual labours of the bishops themselves. For read the Acts of the Apostles, and you will see by the narrative of Saint Luke, what companions Paul and Barnabas had with them, and what works they themselves wrought, wherever they went. For as soon as they entered a city or a synagogue, they sought to preach the word of God, and to disseminate it on every side. This, I would wish you also, beloved friend, to make your aim; for to this duty you were elected, to this you were consecrated, that with great virtues you should preach the Gospel, by the aid of him who is the Prince of all virtue, Jesus Christ our Lord. You will accomplish this, if, wherever you arrive, you gather together the inhabitants, lay before them the words of exhortation, and in the character of leader of the celestial warfare, set an example of life together with all who may have come with you.