“I account myself indeed unworthy of the sacred office,” Moses said, “but if the exigencies of the state require my bearing it, it shall not be by Lucius laying his hand on me, for it has been filled with blood.” When Lucius told him that it was his duty to learn from him the principles of religion and not to utter reproachful language, Moses replied, “Matters of faith are not now in question: but your infamous practices against the brethren sufficiently prove that your doctrines are not Christian. For a Christian is not a striker, reviles not, does not fight, for it becomes not a servant of God to fight. But your deeds cry out against you by those who have been sent into exile, who have been delivered up to the flames. These things which our own eyes have beheld are far more convincing than what we receive from the report of another.” As Moses expressed these and like sentiments, his friends took him to the mountain, that he might receive ordination from the bishops who lived in exile there. Moses having been consecrated, the Saracen war was terminated, and so scrupulously did Mavia observe the peace thus entered into with the Romans that she gave her daughter in marriage to Victor the commander-in-chief of the Roman army. Such were the transactions in relation to the Saracens.”[162] The fame of Moses continued. In the _Itinerary of Willibald_ (_c._ 750) we read that, after his return from Palestine, he was received by Pope Hadrian in Rome at a time when St. Boniface was asking for help on his mission to evangelise the Germans. The Pope, in his desire to persuade Willibald to undertake the task, referred to Moses the hermit, famous for innumerable miracles in the desert, “who was torn away from the solitary life he was leading at the request of Queen Mania to the Roman emperor, and placed as bishop over the nation of the Saracens, and in a short time he won to Christ that most fierce nation, and clothed them in the fleece of lambs.”[163] The name of Moses was inscribed in the Roman Martyrology on Feb. 27. “In Egypt the feast of Moses, a venerable bishop, who at first lived a solitary life in the desert, and then, at the request of Mauvia, queen of the Saracens, being made bishop, converted that most ferocious nation in great part to the faith, and made glorious by his merits rested in peace.”[164] Moses was followed in the see of Pharan by Natyr, a disciple of Silvanus, who was a strict ascetic. CHAPTER XI THE WRITINGS OF THE HERMITS THE writings of the hermits from the fifth century onwards throw light on the aspirations and the attitude of mind of these men of the desert, to whom the interests of ordinary mankind were as nothing. Foremost among these writings are those of Nilus, a man of learning who, after occupying a high position at Constantinople, visited the hermits, with whom he remained. His _Narrationes_ contain valuable information on heathen sacrifice at the time.[165]