The Society for Ancient Languages
Week Eight
English Translation |
BEDAE VENERABILIS LIBER I |
THE VENERABLE BEDE BOOK I |
| Roboratus ergo confirmatione beati patris Gregorii Augustinus cum famulis Christi qui erant cum eo, rediit in opus verbi, pervenitque Brittaniam. Erat eo tempore rex Aedilberet in Cantia potentissimus, qui ad confinium usque Humbrae fluminis maximi quo meridiani et septentrionales Anglorum populi dirimuntur, fines imperii tetenderat. | Therefore having been strengthened by the encouragement of the blessed father Gregory, Augustine returned to the work of the word, and entered Britain, with the servants of Christ who were with him. At that time Ethelbert was a most powerful king in Kent, who had extended the borders of his kingdom all the way to the boundary of the greatest river Humber, by which the southern and northern peoples of the English are divided. |
| Post dies ergo venit ad insulam rex, et residens sub divo, iussit Augustinum cum sociis ad suum ibidem advenire colloquium. Caverat enim ne in aliquam domum ad se introirent, vetere usus augurio, ne superventu suo, si quid maleficae artis habuissent, eum superando deciperent. At illi non daemonica, sed divina virtute praediti veniebant, crucem pro vexillo ferentes argenteam, et imaginem Domini Salvatoris in tabula depictam, laetaniasque canentes, pro sua simul et eorum propter quos et ad quos venerant salute aeterna, Domino supplicabant. Cumque ad iussionem regis residentes, verbum ei vitae, una cum omnibus cui aderant eius comitibus praedicarent, respondit ille dicens: "Pulchra sunt quidem verba et promissa quae adfertis; sed quia nova sunt, et incerta, non his possum adsensum tribuere, relictis eis quae tanto tempore cum omni Anglorum gente servavi. Verum quia de longe huc peregrini venistis, et ut ego mihi videor perspexisse, ea quae vos vera et optima credebatis, nobis quoque communicare desiderastis, nolumus molesti esse vobis: quin potius benigno vos hospitio recipere, et quae victui sunt vestro necessaria, ministrare curamus: nec prohibemus quin omnes quos potestis fidei vestrae religionis praedicando societis." Dedit ergo eis mansionem in civitate Doruvernensi, quae imperii sui totius erat metropolis, eisque ut promiserat, cum administratione victus temporalis, licentiam quoque praedicandi non abstulit. | Therefore after several days the king came to the island, and sitting out in the open, told Augustine with his associates to come to talk to him therein. For he was careful, having held an ancient superstition, that Augustine not come to him in any house, lest if Augustine had knowledge of the black arts, with his sudden arrival he would deceive by having overpowered Ethelbert. But they came not endowed with demonic force but with divine strength, carrying for a standard a gold cross, and the image of the Lord Savior depicted on a table, singing litanies, praying to God for both their own eternal salvation and those people that on account of them they had come there. And when they, sitting down according to the bidding of the king, preached the word of life to him and to all his escorts who were present, he responded saying: "The words and promises which you bring forth are indeed fair, but because they are new, and uncertain, I am unable to ascribe belief to them, having forsaken those thing which for such a long time I have observed with all the people of the English. But yet because you strangers come here from so far off, and as I seem to have discerned that you desire to communicate to each of us such things you believe to be true and good, we do not wish for you to be troubled: rather in fact to receive you with courteous hospitality, and we care to supply those things which are necessary for your way of life: nor do we prohibit you from all those whom you are able to share your faith by preaching of your religion. Therefore he gave to them a lodging in the city of Canterbury, which was the chief city of his entire kingdom, and as he promised to them, with provision of temporal livelihood, and did not withhold the license of preaching as well. |