Bede's Ecclesiastical History of EnglandBede, the Venerable, Saint
History
Bede's Ecclesiastical History of England
Bede, the Venerable, Saint
England -- Church history -- 449-1066
“_To the illustrious lady his daughter, Queen Ethelberg, Boniface,
bishop, servant of the servants of God._ The goodness of our
Redeemer has in His abundant Providence offered the means of
salvation to the human race, which He rescued, by the shedding of
His precious Blood, from the bonds of captivity to the Devil; to
the end that, when He had made known His name in divers ways to
the nations, they might acknowledge their Creator by embracing the
mystery of the Christian faith. And this the mystical purification
of your regeneration plainly shows to have been bestowed upon the
mind of your Highness by God’s gift. Our heart, therefore, has
greatly rejoiced in the benefit bestowed by the bounty of the
Lord, for that He has vouchsafed, in your confession, to kindle a
spark of the orthodox religion, by which He might the more easily
inflame with the love of Himself the understanding, not only of
your illustrious consort, but also of all the nation that is
subject to you.
“For we have been informed by those, who came to acquaint us with
the laudable conversion of our illustrious son, King Eadbald, that
your Highness, also, having received the wonderful mystery of the
Christian faith, continually excels in the performance of works
pious and acceptable to God; that you likewise carefully refrain
from the worship of idols, and the deceits of temples and
auguries, and with unimpaired devotion, give yourself so wholly to
the love of your Redeemer, as never to cease from lending your aid
in spreading the Christian faith. But when our fatherly love
earnestly inquired concerning your illustrious consort, we were
given to understand, that he still served abominable idols, and
delayed to yield obedience in giving ear to the voice of the
preachers. This occasioned us no small grief, that he that is one
flesh with you still remained a stranger to the knowledge of the
supreme and undivided Trinity. Whereupon we, in our fatherly care,
have not delayed to admonish and exhort your Christian Highness,
to the end that, filled with the support of the Divine
inspiration, you should not defer to strive, both in season and
out of season, that with the co-operating power of our Lord and
Saviour Jesus Christ, your husband also may be added to the number
of Christians; that so you may uphold the rights of marriage in
the bond of a holy and unblemished union. For it is written, ‘They
twain shall be one flesh.’(223) How then can it be said, that
there is unity in the bond between you, if he continues a stranger
to the brightness of your faith, separated from it by the darkness
of detestable error?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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