St. Augustine, The City of God
Book I (A.D. 413)
Preface—Explaining His Design in
Undertaking This Work.
The glorious city of God is my theme in
this work, which you, my dearest son Marcellinus,
suggested, and which is due to you by my promise. I have undertaken its defence against those who prefer their own gods to the
Founder of this city—a city surpassingly glorious, whether we view it as it
still lives by faith in this fleeting course of time, and sojourns as a
stranger in the midst of the ungodly, or as it shall dwell in the fixed
stability of its eternal seat, which it now with patience waits for, expecting
until righteousness shall return unto judgment, and it obtain, by virtue of its
excellence, final victory and perfect peace. A great work this, and an arduous;
but God is my helper. For I am aware what ability is requisite to persuade the
proud how great is the virtue of humility, which raises us, not by a quite
human arrogance, but by a divine grace, above all earthly dignities that totter
on this shifting scene. For the King and Founder of this city of which we
speak, has in Scripture uttered to His people a dictum of the divine law in
these words: God resists the proud, but gives grace unto the humble. But this,
which is God's prerogative, the inflated ambition of a proud spirit also
affects, and dearly loves that this be numbered among its attributes, to
Show pity to the humbled soul,
And crush the sons of pride.
And therefore, as the plan of this work we
have undertaken requires, and as occasion offers, we must speak also of the
earthly city, which, though it be mistress of the
nations, is itself ruled by its lust of rule.
Chapter
1.— Of the Adversaries of the Name of Christ, Whom the
Barbarians for Christ's Sake Spared When They Stormed the City.
For to this earthly city belong the
enemies against whom I have to defend the city of God. Many of them, indeed,
being reclaimed from their ungodly error, have become sufficiently creditable
citizens of this city; but many are so inflamed with hatred against it, and are
so ungrateful to its Redeemer for His signal benefits, as to forget that they
would now be unable to utter a single word to its prejudice, had they not found
in its sacred places, as they fled from the enemy's steel, that life in which
they now boast themselves. Are not those very Romans, who were spared by the
barbarians through their respect for Christ, become enemies to the name of
Christ? The reliquaries of the martyrs and the churches of the apostles bear
witness to this; for in the sack of the city they were open sanctuary for all
who fled to them, whether Christian or Pagan. To their very threshold the
blood-thirsty enemy raged; there his murderous fury owned a limit. Thither did
such of the enemy as had any pity convey those to whom they had given quarter,
lest any less mercifully disposed might fall upon them.
And, indeed, when even those murderers who everywhere else showed themselves pitiless came to those spots where that was
forbidden which the license of war permitted in every other place, their
furious rage for slaughter was bridled, and their eagerness to take prisoners
was quenched. Thus escaped multitudes who now reproach the Christian religion,
and impute to Christ the ills that have befallen their city; but the
preservation of their own life— a boon which they owe to the respect
entertained for Christ by the barbarians— they attribute not to our Christ, but
to their own good luck. They ought rather, had they any right perceptions, to
attribute the severities and hardships inflicted by their enemies, to that
divine providence which is wont to reform the depraved manners of men by
chastisement, and which exercises with similar afflictions the righteous and
praiseworthy—either translating them, when they have passed through the trial, to
a better world, or detaining them still on earth for ulterior purposes. And
they ought to attribute it to the spirit of these Christian times, that,
contrary to the custom of war, these bloodthirsty barbarians spared them, and
spared them for Christ's sake, whether this mercy was actually shown in
promiscuous places, or in those places specially dedicated to Christ's name,
and of which the very largest were selected as sanctuaries, that full scope
might thus be given to the expansive compassion which desired that a large
multitude might find shelter there. Therefore ought they to give God thanks,
and with sincere confession flee for refuge to His
name, that so they may escape the punishment of eternal fire— they who with
lying lips took upon them this name, that they might escape the punishment of
present destruction. For of those whom you see insolently and shamelessly
insulting the servants of Christ, there are numbers who would not have escaped
that destruction and slaughter had they not pretended that they themselves were
Christ's servants. Yet now, in ungrateful pride and most impious madness, and
at the risk of being punished in everlasting darkness, they perversely oppose
that name under which they fraudulently protected themselves for the sake of enjoying
the light of this brief life.
Chapter
2.— That It is Quite Contrary to the Usage of War, that the Victors Should
Spare the Vanquished for the Sake of Their Gods.
There are histories of numberless wars,
both before the building of Rome and since its rise and the extension of its
dominion; let these be read, and let one instance be cited in which, when a
city had been taken by foreigners, the victors spared those who were found to
have fled for sanctuary to the temples of their gods; or one instance in which
a barbarian general gave orders that none should be put to the sword who had
been found in this or that temple. Did not Æneas see
Dying Priam at
the shrine,
Staining the
hearth he made divine?
Did not Diomede
and Ulysses
Drag with red
hands, the sentry slain,
Her fateful
image from your fane,
Her chaste locks
touch, and stain with gore
The virgin
coronal she wore?
Neither is that
true which follows, that
Thenceforth the
tide of fortune changed,
And Greece grew
weak.
For after this they conquered and
destroyed Troy with fire and sword; after this they beheaded Priam as he fled
to the altars. Neither did Troy perish because it lost Minerva. For what had
Minerva herself first lost, that she should perish? Her
guards perhaps? No doubt; just her guards. For as soon as they were
slain, she could be stolen. It was not, in fact, the men who were preserved by
the image, but the image by the men. How, then, was she invoked to defend the
city and the citizens, she who could not defend her own defenders?
Chapter
5.— Cæsar's Statement
Regarding the Universal Custom of an Enemy When Sacking a City.
Even Cæsar
himself gives us positive testimony regarding this custom; for, in his
deliverance in the senate about the conspirators, he says (as Sallust, a
historian of distinguished veracity, writes) that virgins and boys are violated,
children torn from the embrace of their parents, matrons subjected to whatever
should be the pleasure of the conquerors, temples and houses plundered, slaughter
and burning rife; in fine, all things filled with arms, corpses, blood, and
wailing. If he had not mentioned temples here, we might suppose that enemies
were in the habit of sparing the dwellings of the gods. And the Roman temples
were in danger of these disasters, not from foreign foes, but from Catiline and his associates, the most noble senators and
citizens of Rome. But these, it may be said, were abandoned men, and the
parricides of their fatherland.
Chapter
7.— That the Cruelties Which Occurred in the Sack of
Rome Were in Accordance with the Custom of War, Whereas the Acts of Clemency
Resulted from the Influence of Christ's Name.
All the spoiling, then, which Rome was
exposed to in the recent calamity— all the slaughter, plundering, burning, and
misery— was the result of the custom of war. But what
was novel, was that savage barbarians showed themselves in so gentle a guise,
that the largest churches were chosen and set apart for the purpose of being
filled with the people to whom quarter was given, and that in them none were
slain, from them none forcibly dragged; that into them many were led by their
relenting enemies to be set at liberty, and that from them none were led into
slavery by merciless foes. Whoever does not see that this is to be attributed
to the name of Christ, and to the Christian temper, is blind; whoever sees
this, and gives no praise, is ungrateful; whoever hinders any one from praising
it, is mad. Far be it from any prudent man to impute
this clemency to the barbarians. Their fierce and bloody minds were awed, and
bridled, and marvellously tempered by Him who so long
before said by His prophet, I will visit their transgression with the rod, and
their iniquities with stripes; nevertheless my loving-kindness will I not
utterly take from them.
Chapter
8.— Of the Advantages and Disadvantages Which Often
Indiscriminately Accrue to Good and Wicked Men.
Will someone say, Why,
then, was this divine compassion extended even to the ungodly and ungrateful?
Why, but because it was the mercy of Him who daily makes His sun to rise on the
evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. Matthew
5:45 For though some of these men, taking thought of this, repent of their
wickedness and reform, some, as the apostle says, despising the riches of His
goodness and long-suffering, after their hardness and impenitent heart,
treasure up unto themselves wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of
the righteous judgment of God, who will render to every man according to his
deeds: Romans 2:4 nevertheless does the patience of God still invite the wicked
to repentance, even as the scourge of God educates the good to patience. And
so, too, does the mercy of God embrace the good that it may cherish them, as
the severity of God arrests the wicked to punish them. To the divine providence
it has seemed good to prepare in the world to come for the righteous good
things, which the unrighteous shall not enjoy; and for the wicked evil things,
by which the good shall not be tormented. But as for the good things of this
life, and its ills, God has willed that these should be common to both; that we
might not too eagerly covet the things which wicked men are seen equally to
enjoy, nor shrink with an unseemly fear from the ills which even good men often
suffer.
There is, too, a very great difference in
the purpose served both by those events which we call adverse and those called
prosperous. For the good man is neither uplifted with the good things of time,
nor broken by its ills; but the wicked man, because he is corrupted by this
world's happiness, feels himself punished by its unhappiness.
Yet often, even in the present distribution of temporal things, does God
plainly evince His own interference. For if every sin were now visited with
manifest punishment, nothing would seem to be reserved for the final judgment;
on the other hand, if no sin received now a plainly divine punishment, it would
be concluded that there is no divine providence at all. And so of the good
things of this life: if God did not by a very visible liberality confer these
on some of those persons who ask for them, we should say that these good things
were not at His disposal; and if He gave them to all who sought them, we should
suppose that such were the only rewards of His service; and such a service
would make us not godly, but greedy rather, and covetous. Wherefore, though
good and bad men suffer alike, we must not suppose that there is no difference
between the men themselves, because there is no difference in what they both
suffer. For even in the likeness of the sufferings, there remains an unlikeness
in the sufferers; and though exposed to the same anguish, virtue and vice are not the same thing. For as the same fire causes gold to
glow brightly, and chaff to smoke; and under the same flail the straw is beaten
small, while the grain is cleansed; and as the lees are not mixed with the oil,
though squeezed out of the vat by the same pressure, so the same violence of
affliction proves, purges, clarifies the good, but damns, ruins, exterminates
the wicked. And thus it is that in the same affliction the wicked detest God
and blaspheme, while the good pray and praise. So material a difference does it
make, not what ills are suffered, but what kind of man suffers them. For, stirred
up with the same movement, mud exhales a horrible stench, and ointment emits a
fragrant odor.
Chapter
9.— Of the Reasons for Administering Correction to Bad
and Good Together.
What, then, have the Christians suffered
in that calamitous period, which would not profit every one
who duly and faithfully considered the following circumstances? First of all,
they must humbly consider those very sins which have provoked God to fill the
world with such terrible disasters; for although they be
far from the excesses of wicked, immoral, and ungodly men, yet they do not
judge themselves so clean removed from all faults as to be too good to suffer
for these even temporal ills. For every man, however laudably he lives, yet
yields in some points to the lust of the flesh. Though he do not fall into
gross enormity of wickedness, and abandoned viciousness, and abominable
profanity, yet he slips into some sins, either rarely or so much the more
frequently as the sins seem of less account. But not to mention this, where can
we readily find a man who holds in fit and just estimation those persons on
account of whose revolting pride, luxury, and avarice, and cursed iniquities
and impiety, God now smites the earth as His predictions threatened? Where is
the man who lives with them in the style in which it becomes us to live with
them? For often we wickedly blind ourselves to the occasions of teaching and
admonishing them, sometimes even of reprimanding and chiding them, either
because we shrink from the labor or are ashamed to offend them, or because we
fear to lose good friendships, lest this should stand in the way of our
advancement, or injure us in some worldly matter, which either our covetous
disposition desires to obtain, or our weakness shrinks from losing. So that,
although the conduct of wicked men is distasteful to the good, and therefore
they do not fall with them into that damnation which in the next life awaits
such persons, yet, because they spare their damnable sins through fear,
therefore, even though their own sins be slight and venial, they are justly
scourged with the wicked in this world, though in eternity they quite escape
punishment. Justly, when God afflicts them in common with the wicked, do they
find this life bitter, through love of whose sweetness they declined to be
bitter to these sinners.
If any one
forbears to reprove and find fault with those who are doing wrong, because he
seeks a more seasonable opportunity, or because he
fears they may be made worse by his rebuke, or that other weak persons may be
disheartened from endeavoring to lead a good and pious life, and may be driven
from the faith; this man's omission seems to be occasioned not by covetousness,
but by a charitable consideration. But what is blame-worthy is, that they who
themselves revolt from the conduct of the wicked, and live in quite another
fashion, yet spare those faults in other men which they ought to reprehend and
wean them from; and spare them because they fear to give offense, lest they
should injure their interests in those things which good men may innocently and
legitimately use—though they use them more greedily than becomes persons who
are strangers in this world, and profess the hope of a heavenly country. For
not only the weaker brethren who enjoy married life, and have children (or
desire to have them), and own houses and establishments, whom the apostle
addresses in the churches, warning and instructing them how they should live,
both the wives with their husbands, and the husbands with their wives, the
children with their parents, and parents with their children, and servants with
their masters, and masters with their servants—not only do these weaker
brethren gladly obtain and grudgingly lose many earthly and temporal things on
account of which they dare not offend men whose polluted and wicked life
greatly displeases them; but those also who live at a higher level, who are not
entangled in the meshes of married life, but use meagre food and raiment, do
often take thought of their own safety and good name, and abstain from finding
fault with the wicked, because they fear their wiles and violence. And although
they do not fear them to such an extent as to be drawn to the commission of
like iniquities, nay, not by any threats or violence soever; yet those very
deeds which they refuse to share in the commission of they often decline to
find fault with, when possibly they might by finding fault prevent their
commission. They abstain from interference, because they fear that, if it fail
of good effect, their own safety or reputation may be damaged or destroyed; not
because they see that their preservation and good name are needful, that they
may be able to influence those who need their instruction, but rather because
they weakly relish the flattery and respect of men, and fear the judgments of
the people, and the pain or death of the body; that is to say, their
non-intervention is the result of selfishness, and not of love.
Accordingly this seems to me to be one
principal reason why the good are chastised along with the wicked, when God is
pleased to visit with temporal punishments the profligate manners of a
community. They are punished together, not because they have spent an equally
corrupt life, but because the good as well as the wicked, though not equally
with them, love this present life; while they ought to hold it cheap, that the
wicked, being admonished and reformed by their example, might lay hold of life
eternal. And if they will not be the companions of the good in seeking life
everlasting, they should be loved as enemies, and be dealt with patiently. For
so long as they live, it remains uncertain whether they may not come to a
better mind. These selfish persons have more cause to fear than those to whom
it was said through the prophet, He is taken away in his iniquity, but his
blood will I require at the watchman's hand. Ezekiel 33:6 For
watchmen or overseers of the people are appointed in churches, that they may
unsparingly rebuke sin. Nor is that man guiltless of the sin we speak of, who,
though he be not a watchman, yet sees in the conduct of those with whom the
relationships of this life bring him into contact, many things that should be
blamed, and yet overlooks them, fearing to give offense, and lose such worldly
blessings as may legitimately be desired, but which he too eagerly grasps.
Then, lastly, there is another reason why the good are afflicted with temporal
calamities— the reason which Job's case exemplifies: that the human spirit may
be proved, and that it may be manifested with what fortitude of pious trust,
and with how unmercenary a love, it cleaves to God.
Boethius, The Consolation of Philosophy
Introduction to Boethius
(from
http://www.san.beck.org/Boethius1.html#11)
Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius was born about A.D. 480 into an aristocratic Roman family which had been Christian for a century. It was said that he studied for eighteen years in Athens under the influence of the Neo-Platonist Proclus and his disciples, but Proclus died in 485. The father of Boethius had been consul of Rome in 487 but died shortly after that. Boethius was raised by Symmachus who later became his father-in-law when he married his daughter Rusticiana.
The lifetime goal of Boethius was to translate the complete works of Aristotle and all the dialogues of Plato, showing by his commentaries that the two could be harmonized, because they agree at philosophically decisive points. He did translate into Latin Porphyry's introduction to Aristotle's Categories and all of Aristotle's works on logic, which later had a great influence on the history of medieval philosophy, these being the most available works of Aristotle or Plato in Latin. He also translated from Greek into Latin the geometry of Euclid, the music of Pythagoras, the arithmetic of Nicomachus, the mechanics of Archimedes, and the astronomy of Ptolemy. He could explain a sun-dial and a water-clock.
In 510 Boethius became consul under the Ostrogoth Theodoric who had become king of Italy. Although Theodoric was an Arian Christian, Boethius wrote Theological Tractates on the trinity attempting to explain with logic the unity of God as substance and the three divine persons in terms of relation, and to describe the Christ as both human and divine by defining substance, relation, and nature.
About 520 Theodoric appointed Boethius the master of the offices, heading all the government and court services. In 522 Boethius reached the height of his fortune as his two sons became consuls together.
A 35-year schism between Rome and Constantinople had been resolved in 519, and apparently Theodoric was fearful of the Eastern emperor. The senator Albinus was accused of having written a letter to Emperor Justin, and Boethius openly came to his defense. Boethius was charged with treason and also with practicing magic or sacrilege.
In political life Boethius had often stood up for justice at his own risk. He and Saint Epiphanius had persuaded Theodoric to remit by two-thirds the tax his nephew Odoacer had imposed on the farmers of Campania. The eloquence of Boethius had rescued Paulinus from the intriguers in the palace. He had criticized the Goths Conigastus and Trigulla, and he had sided with the culture of the larger Roman empire against the Gothicizing circle of Cyprian. Now the "honorable" Basilius and Opilio were saying that Boethius had treasonous designs.
Boethius was locked up in Pavia three hundred miles from Rome while a sentence was passed against him and confirmed by the Senate, probably under pressure from Theodoric. While Boethius was in captivity and deprived of the use of his library, he wrote The Consolation of Philosophy. In 524 a strong cord was tied so tightly around his head that his eyes bulged out; then he was beaten with a club until he died. Shortly after that his father-in-law, the senator Symmachus, was taken from Rome to Ravenna and also executed.
The historian Procopius wrote how Theodoric was stricken with guilt soon after this when the head of a large fish was served him, reminding him of the head of Symmachus. Terrified he caught a chill, which piles of blankets could not smother. He lamented the wrongs he had done against Symmachus and Boethius and died in 526.
The Consolation of Philosophy became one of the most popular books throughout the middle ages. It was translated into Old, Middle and Elizabethan English by Alfred the Great, Chaucer, and Queen Elizabeth respectively.
The Pi and Theta represent the first letters of Greek words describing philosophy from the practical to the theoretical. The Eleatic school of philosophy was founded by Parmenides a little before Socrates and emphasized the unity of being. The Academics were those who studied at the Academy founded by Plato. The Epicureans followed the philosophy of Epicurus (341-270 B.C.) which believed in maximizing pleasure and minimizing pain. The Stoics included Zeno of Citium, Epictetus, and Marcus Aurelius. Anaxagoras was condemned for impiety and exiled from Athens about 450 B.C. Socrates was executed by the Athenians in 399 B.C. Zeno of Elea was tortured for challenging the tyranny of Nearchus about 440 B.C. Canius was executed by Caligula in A.D. 40. Seneca was forced to commit suicide by Nero in A.D. 65, and Soranus was condemned to death by Nero in 66.
PHILOSOPHIAE CONSOLATIO
THE CONSOLATION OF PHILOSOPHY
by Boethius
Translated by Sanderson Beck
I. "Songs Which Once I Wrote"
1. A Woman Comes and Sends Away Muses
II. "Alas, How Immersed in the Deep"
2. She Attends to the Author
III. "Then with Night Dispelled"
3. Philosophy Accepts Challenges
IV. "Everyone Clear in an Orderly Age"
4. Political Intrigues
V. "O Builder of the Starry Orbit"
5. His Emotional Disturbance
VI. "When with Severe Rays of the Sun"
6. Philosophy Diagnoses Him
VII. "Stars Concealed"
I
Songs which once I wrote in flourishing description,
tearful, alas, I am forced to form into gloomy measures.
Look how the torn Muses dictate to me writing,
and elegies bathe my face with real tears.
Not even terror could overcome these
from proceeding as our companions along the way.
Once the glory of my happy and green youth,
they now console my fate of gloomy old age.
For hurried unexpected age comes with evils,
and sorrow has ordered her time to come in.
From the head unseasonable gray hairs are spreading,
and slack skin trembles on an exhausted body.
Human death is lucky which in sweet years itself
does not intrude and comes when often called by sorrows.
Alas, how it turns aside the wretched by a deaf ear
and cruelly refuses to close weeping eyes!
While fortune may have favored by wrong trust in easy goods
a sad hour nearly overwhelmed my head;
now because the clouds have changed their deceitful face
vicious life is dragged out by unwelcome delays.
Why did you so often consider me happy, friends?
Whoever has fallen, that one was not in a steady position.
1
While I was silently thinking over these things in myself
and noting mournful complaints by a pen's service
there stood over head visions for me,
a woman of very majestic appearance,
with eyes shining and sharp beyond common human health,
from vivid color and of inexhaustible vigor,
yet so mature in age as almost to be believed of our time,
the height of doubtful determination.
For at one time she held herself to common human measure,
while at another time in height she actually
seemed to strike the heaven of the highest summit;
which when her head was raised higher even penetrated heaven
and was frustrating the observation of the humans looking.
Her clothes with the finest threads were by delicate skill
from the imperishable material of perfection,
which, as I have since learned from her coming out,
she wove herself with her own hands;
just as it usually does smoky pictures,
a kind of fog of neglected antiquity covered their form.
On the lowest border of these a Greek Pi was embroidered,
while on the highest a Theta could be read,
and between both letters could be seen
in the manner of stairs a kind of marked grade,
by which the ascent should be
from the lower to the higher element.
However the hands of some violent ones had torn this dress
and had taken away whatever particulars each could.
At any rate in her right hand were books,
while in the left she was carrying a scepter.
When she saw the poetic Muses standing by our bed
and dictating words for my tears,
upset for a little while and inflamed with wild lights:
"Who," she asked, "allowed the actress harlots
to approach this sick person?
These sorrows not only have not encouraged any cures,
but they actually nourish them further with sweet drugs.
For these are the ones
who with the unproductive thorns of passion
kill the fertile crop of reason with its fruits
and accustom human minds to stress;
they do not liberate.
"Now if your allurements had drawn off someone profane,
as it is usual with you in the crowd,
I would think it bringing in less annoyance,
since then none of our work would be harmed;
while this one has been nurtured
in Eleatic and Academic studies.
But rather depart, Sirens pleasant all the way into ruin,
and leave him to caring and healing by my Muses."
That sad chorus reprimanded by this
cast a gloomier look on the ground
and having confessed shame by a blush went out the door.
But I, whose sight immersed by tears may have been dimmed
so that I could not distinguish
who this woman of such imperious authority might be,
was astounded, and I fixed my sight on the earth
to wait in silence for what action would begin next.
Then personally approaching
she sat down on the farthest part of my bed
and observing my face heavy from mourning
and so cast down by gloom,
about the disturbance of our mind
the complaint is in these verses:
II
"Alas, how immersed in the deep of the ruined
a mind is dull and by proper light abandoned
stretches to go into external darkness
as often as it is enlarged by terrestrial breezes
guilty care arises in immensity!
Once this one was free to the open heaven
accustomed to going into ethereal movements
he was perceiving the lights of the rosy sun,
seeing the constellations of the cold moon
and wherever a star winding practices
its wandering returns through various orbits
the victor was having counted with numbers;
why and again from where do the noisy winds
stir up causes from the sea's surface,
what spirit turns the stable world
or why does the western constellation on the wave
falling rise red from the east,
what in truth would moderate the calm hours
so that it may adorn the land with rosy flowers,
who gives so that in a full year the fertile
autumn may flow into the loaded grapes
it is the custom to examine and so to report
various causes of a secret nature:
now it is neglected by the exhausted light of the mind
and the neck pressed by heavy chains
and bearing under a burden the sloping face
it is compelled, alas, to perceive the dull earth.
Rule of Saint Benedict
(Adapted
from the website of the Order of Saint Benedict, http://www.osb.org/rb/text/toc.html#toc)
Today, women
monastics outnumber men by more than two to one. Thus, the even-numbered
chapters below have been adapted for a women's community. The odd-numbered
chapters are for a men's community such as Saint Benedict would have known. Mr.
J. Frank Henderson edits a website that provides information about the history,
dissemination and use of the Rule of Benedict adapted for and by women. Several
contemporary scholarly and literary translations of the Rule into English
exist, but the Leonard
Doyle translation used here is familiar to generations of US and other
English-speaking monastics from its widespread and long term use in refectories
and chapter rooms.
Chapter 1: On the Kinds
of Monks
It is well known that there are
four kinds of monks.
The first kind are the Cenobites:
those who live in monasteries
and serve under a rule and an Abbot.
The second kind are the
Anchorites or Hermits:
those who,
no longer in the first fervor of their reformation,
but after long probation in a monastery,
having learned by the help of many brethren
how to fight against the devil,
go out well armed from the ranks of the community
to the solitary combat of the desert.
They are able now,
with no help save from God,
to fight single-handed against the vices of the flesh
and their own evil thoughts.
The third kind
of monks, a detestable kind, are the Sarabaites.
These, not having been tested,
as gold in the furnace (Wis. 3:6),
by any rule or by the lessons of experience,
are as soft as lead.
In their works they still keep faith with the world,
so that their tonsure marks them as liars before God.
They live in twos or threes, or even singly,
without a shepherd,
in their own sheepfolds and not in the Lord's.
Their law is the desire for self-gratification:
whatever enters their mind or appeals to them,
that they call holy;
what they dislike, they regard as unlawful.
The fourth kind
of monks are those called Gyrovagues.
These spend their whole lives tramping from province to province,
staying as guests in different monasteries
for three or four days at a time.
Always on the move, with no stability,
they indulge their own wills
and succumb to the allurements of gluttony,
and are in every way worse than the Sarabaites.
Of the miserable conduct of all such
it is better to be silent than to speak.
Passing these over, therefore,
let us proceed, with God's help,
to lay down a rule for the strongest kind of monks, the Cenobites.
Chapter 2: What Kind of
Person the Abbess Ought to Be
An Abbess who is worthy to be
over a monastery
should always remember what she is called,
and live up to the name of Superior.
For she is believed to hold the place of Christ in the monastery,
being called by a name of His,
which is taken from the words of the Apostle:
"You have received a Spirit of adoption ...,
by virtue of which we cry, 'Abba -- Father'" (Rom. 8:15)!
Therefore the Abbess ought not to
teach or ordain or command
anything which is against the Lord's precepts;
on the contrary,
her commands and her teaching
should be a leaven of divine justice
kneaded into the minds of her disciples.
Jan. 10 - May 11 - Sept. 10
Let the Abbess always bear in
mind
that at the dread Judgment of God
there will be an examination of these two matters:
her teaching and the obedience of her disciples.
And let the Abbess be sure
that any lack of profit
the master of the house may find in the sheep
will be laid to the blame of the shepherd.
On the other hand,
if the shepherd has bestowed all her pastoral diligence
on a restless, unruly flock
and tried every remedy for their unhealthy behavior,
then she will be acquitted at the Lord's Judgment
and may say to the Lord with the Prophet:
"I have not concealed Your justice within my heart;
Your truth and Your salvation I have declared" (Ps. 39[40]:11).
"But they have despised and rejected me" (Is. 1:2; Ezech. 20:27).
And then finally let death itself, irresistible,
punish those disobedient sheep under her charge.
Chapter
3: On Calling the Brethren for Counsel
Whenever any important business
has to be done
in the monastery,
let the Abbot call together the whole community
and state the matter to be acted upon.
Then, having heard the brethren's advice,
let him turn the matter over in his own mind
and do what he shall judge to be most expedient.
The reason we have said that all should be called for counsel
is that the Lord often reveals to the younger what is best.
Let the brethren give their
advice
with all the deference required by humility,
and not presume stubbornly to defend their opinions;
but let the decision rather depend on the Abbot's judgment,
and all submit to whatever he shall decide for their welfare.
However, just as it is proper
for the disciples to obey their master,
so also it is his function
to dispose all things with prudence and justice.
In all things, therefore, let all
follow the Rule as guide,
and let no one be so rash as to deviate from it.
Let no one in the monastery follow his own heart's fancy;
and let no one presume to contend with his Abbot
in an insolent way or even outside of the monastery.
But if anyone should presume to do so,
let him undergo the discipline of the Rule.
At the same time,
the Abbot himself should do all things in the fear of God
and in observance of the Rule,
knowing that beyond a doubt
he will have to render an account of all his decisions
to God, the most just Judge.
But if the business to be done in
the interests of the monastery
be of lesser importance,
let him take counsel with the seniors only.
It is written,
"Do everything with counsel,
and you will not repent when you have done it" (Eccles. 32:24).
Chapter
4: What Are the Instruments of Good Works
1. In the first place, to love
the Lord God with the whole heart, the whole soul, the whole strength.
2. Then, one's neighbor as oneself.
3. Then not to murder.
4. Not to commit adultery.
5. Not to steal.
6. Not to covet.
7. Not to bear false witness.
8. To honor all (1 Peter 2:17).
9. And not to do to another what one would not have done to oneself.
10. To deny oneself in order to follow Christ.
11. To chastise the body.
12. Not to become attached to pleasures.
13. To love fasting.
14. To relieve the poor.
15. To clothe the naked.
16. To visit the sick.
17. To bury the dead.
18. To help in trouble.
19. To console the sorrowing.
20. To become a stranger to the world's ways.
21. To prefer nothing to the love of Christ.
Jan. 19 - May 20 - Sept. 19
22. Not to give way to anger.
23. Not to nurse a grudge.
24. Not to entertain deceit in one's heart.
25. Not to give a false peace.
26. Not to forsake charity.
27. Not to swear, for fear of perjuring oneself.
28. To utter truth from heart and mouth.
29. Not to return evil for evil.
30. To do no wrong to anyone, and to bear patiently wrongs done to oneself.
31. To love one's enemies.
32. Not to curse those who curse us, but rather to bless them.
33. To bear persecution for justice's sake.
34. Not to be proud.
35. Not addicted to wine.
36. Not a great eater.
37. Not drowsy.
38. Not lazy.
39. Not a grumbler.
40. Not a detractor.
41. To put one's hope in God.
42. To attribute to God, and not to self, whatever good one sees in oneself.
43. But to recognize always that the evil is one's own doing, and to impute it
to oneself.
44. To fear the Day of Judgment.
45. To be in dread of hell.
46. To desire eternal life with all the passion of the spirit.
47. To keep death daily before one's eyes.
48. To keep constant guard over the actions of one's life.
49. To know for certain that God sees one everywhere.
50. When evil thoughts come into one's heart, to dash them against Christ
immediately.
51. And to manifest them to one's spiritual guardian.
52. To guard one's tongue against evil and depraved speech.
53. Not to love much talking.
54. Not to speak useless words or words that move to laughter.
55. Not to love much or boisterous laughter.
56. To listen willingly to holy reading.
57. To devote oneself frequently to prayer.
58. Daily in one's prayers, with tears and sighs, to confess one's past sins to
God, and to amend them for the future.
59. Not to fulfill the desires of the flesh; to hate one's own will.
60. To obey in all things the commands of the Abbot or Abbess even though they
(which God forbid) should act otherwise, mindful of the Lord's precept,
"Do what they say, but not what they do."
61. Not to wish to be called holy before one is holy; but first to be holy,
that one may be truly so called.
62. To fulfill God's commandments
daily in one's deeds.
63. To love chastity.
64. To hate no one.
65. Not to be jealous, not to harbor envy.
66. Not to love contention.
67. To beware of haughtiness.
68. And to respect the seniors.
69. To love the juniors.
70. To pray for one's enemies in the love of Christ.
71. To make peace with one's adversary before the sun sets.
72. And never to despair of God's mercy.
These, then, are the tools of the
spiritual craft.
If we employ them unceasingly day and night,
and return them on the Day of Judgment,
our compensation from the Lord
will be that wage He has promised:
"Eye has not seen, nor ear heard,
what God has prepared for those who love Him" (1 Cor. 2:9).
Now the workshop
in which we shall diligently execute all these tasks
is the enclosure of the monastery
and stability in the community.
Chapter
5: On Obedience
The first degree of humility is
obedience without delay.
This is the virtue of those
who hold nothing dearer to them than Christ;
who, because of the holy service they have professed,
and the fear of hell,
and the glory of life everlasting,
as soon as anything has been ordered by the Superior,
receive it as a divine command
and cannot suffer any delay in executing it.
Of these the Lord says,
"As soon as he heard, he obeyed Me" (Ps. 17[18]:45).
And again to teachers He says,
"He who hears you, hears Me" (Luke 10:16).
Such as these, therefore,
immediately leaving their own affairs
and forsaking their own will,
dropping the work they were engaged on
and leaving it unfinished,
with the ready step of obedience
follow up with their deeds the voice of him who commands.
And so as it were at the same moment
the master's command is given
and the disciple's work is completed,
the two things being speedily accomplished together
in the swiftness of the fear of God
by those who are moved
with the desire of attaining life everlasting.
That desire is their motive for choosing the narrow way,
of which the Lord says,
"Narrow is the way that leads to life" (Matt. 7:14),
so that,
not living according to their own choice
nor obeying their own desires and pleasures
but walking by another's judgment and command,
they dwell in monasteries and desire to have an Abbot over them.
Assuredly such as these are living up to that maxim of the Lord
in which He says,
"I have come not to do My own will,
but the will of Him who sent Me" (John 6:38).
But this very obedience
will be acceptable to God and pleasing to all
only if what is commanded is done
without hesitation, delay, lukewarmness, grumbling,
or objection.
For the obedience given to Superiors is given to God,
since He Himself has said,
"He who hears you, hears Me" (Luke 10:16).
And the disciples should offer their obedience with a good will,
for "God loves a cheerful giver" (2 Cor. 9:7).
For if the disciple obeys with an ill will
and murmurs,
not necessarily with his lips but simply in his heart,
then even though he fulfill the command
yet his work will not be acceptable to God,
who sees that his heart is murmuring.
And, far from gaining a reward for such work as this,
he will incur the punishment due to murmurers,
unless he amend and make satisfaction.
Chapter
6: On the Spirit of Silence
Let us do what the Prophet says:
"I said, 'I will guard my ways,
that I may not sin with my tongue.
I have set a guard to my mouth.'
I was mute and was humbled,
and kept silence even from good things" (Ps. 38[39]:2-3).
Here the Prophet shows
that if the spirit of silence ought to lead us at times
to refrain even from good speech,
so much the more ought the punishment for sin
make us avoid evil words.
Therefore, since the spirit of silence
is so important,
permission to speak should rarely be granted
even to perfect disciples,
even though it be for good, holy edifying conversation;
for it is written,
"In much speaking you will not escape sin" (Prov. 10:19),
and in another place,
"Death and life are in the power of the tongue" (Prov. 18:21).
For speaking and teaching belong
to the mistress;
the disciple's part is to be silent and to listen.
And for that reason
if anything has to be asked of the Superior,
it should be asked
with all the humility and submission inspired by reverence.
But as for coarse jests and idle
words
or words that move to laughter,
these we condemn everywhere with a perpetual ban,
and for such conversation
we do not permit a disciple to open her mouth.
R(ule of) B(enedict), written
anywhere between A.D. 530 and 560, is not an entirely original document. It
depends in great measure on the rules and traditions of Christian monasticism
that existed from the fourth century to the time of its writing. Scholars note
that rules and writings like those of St. Pachomius
(fourth-century Egypt), St. Basil (fourth-century Asia Minor), St. Augustine (fourth- and
fifth-century North Africa), Cassian
(fifth-century southern Gaul) stand behind RB and at times are clearly evident
in the text. The most important source for RB, however, is the Rule of the
Master (RM), an anonymous rule written two or three decades before
Benedict's Rule. Not infrequently, especially in RB's Prologue and first
seven chapters, Benedict copied extensively from the Rule of the Master.
Benedict picked up the monastic tradition and even copied from its documents
(as was customary at the time); but he also corrected and altered the tradition
in significant ways.
Selections
above from Saint Benedict's Rule for Monasteries, translated from the
Latin by Leonard J. Doyle OblSB, of Saint John's Abbey, (© Copyright
1948, 2001, by the Order of Saint Benedict, Collegeville, MN 56321). Adapted
for use here with the division into sense lines of the first edition that was
republished in 2001 to mark the 75th anniversary of Liturgical Press.
Doyle's translation is available in both hardcover
and paperback
editions.
Benedict's Rule: A
Translation and Commentary by
Terrence G. Kardong, O.S.B. is the first line-by-line
exegesis of the entire Rule of Benedict written originally in English.
This full commentary -- predominately literary and historical criticism -- is
based on and includes a Latin text of Regula Benedicti
(Liturgical Press). Hardcover, 664 pp., 6 x 9, ISBN 0-8146-2325-5, $59.95.
RB 1980 in Latin and
English with Notes is a modern,
scholarly translation ed. by Timothy Fry, OSB (Liturgical Press, 1981), 672 p.,
$39.95. The translation by itself is also available in paperback,
$2.95.
Compare Rule of St. Columba (http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/columba-rule.html), Irish Monasticism
Even if it did not quite "save civilization", Ireland was one of the monastic centers of Europe in the early middle ages. In fact the Church in Ireland was dominated by monasteries and by monastic leaders. Other Irish monks became missionaries and converted much of Northern Europe St. Columba (521 -597) and his followers converted Scotland and much of northern England. Columba did not leave a written rule. But the following rule, attributed to him, was set down much later. It does reflects the spirit of early Irish Monasticism.
From A. W. Haddan and W. Stubbs, Councils and Ecclesiastical Documents Relating to Great Britain and Ireland II, i (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1873), pp. 119-121.
This text is part of the Internet Medieval Source Book. The Sourcebook is a collection of public domain and copy-permitted texts related to medieval and Byzantine history.
Venerable Bede (c. 672-735):
Ecclesiastical History of the English
Nation, Book I
PREFACE
TO THE MOST GLORIOUS KING CEOLWULPH, BEDE, THE SERVANT OF CHRIST AND PRIEST
FORMERLY, at your request, most readily transmitted to you the Ecclesiastical History of the English Nation, which I had newly published, for you to read, and give it your approbation; and I now send it again to be transcribed and more fully considered at your leisure. And I cannot but recommend the sincerity and zeal, with which you not only diligently give ear to hear the words of the Holy Scripture, but also industriously take care to become acquainted with the actions and sayings of former men of renown, especially of our own nation. For if history relates good things of good men, the attentive hearer is excited to imitate that which is good; or if it mentions evil things of wicked persons, nevertheless the religious and pious hearer or reader, shunning that which is hurtful and perverse, is the more earnestly excited to perform those things which he knows to be good, and worthy of God. Of which you also being deeply sensible, are desirous that the said history should be more fully made familiar to yourself, and to those over whom the Divine Authority has appointed you governor, from your great regard to their general welfare. But to the end that I may remove all occasion of doubting what I have written, both from yourself and other readers or hearers of this history, I will take care briefly to intimate from what authors I chiefly learned the same.
My principal authority and aid in this work was the learned and reverend Abbot Albinus; who, educated in the Church of Canterbury by those venerable and learned men, Archbishop Theodore of blessed memory, and the Abbot Adrian, transmitted to me by Nothelm, the pious priest of the Church of London, either in writing, or word of mouth of the same Nothelm, all that he though worthy of memory, that had been done in the province of Kent, or the adjacent parts, by the disciples of the blessed Pope Gregory, as he had learned the same either from written records, or the traditions of his ancestors. The same Notheim, afterwards going to Rome, having, with leave of the present Pope Gregory, searched into the archives of the holy Roman Church, found there some epistles of the blessed Pope Gregory, and other popes and returning home, by the advice of the aforesaid most reverend father Albinus, brought them to me, to be inserted in my history. Thus, from the beginning of this volume to the time when the English nation received the the faith of Christ, have we collected the writings of our predecessors and from them gathered matter for our history; but from that time till the present, what was transacted in Church of Canterbury, by the disciples of St. Gregory or their successors, and under what kings the same happened, has been conveyed to us by Nothelm through the industry of the aforesaid Abbot Albinus. They also partly informed me by what bishops and under what kings the provinces of the East and West Saxons, as also of the East Angles, and of the Northumbrians, received the faith of Christ. In short I was chiefly encouraged to undertake this work by the persuasions of the same Albinus. In like manner, Daniel, the most reverend Bishop of the West Saxons, who is still living, communicated to me in writing some things relating to the Ecclesiastical History of that province, and the next adjoining to it of the South Saxons, as also of the Isle of Wight. But now, by the pious ministry of Cedd and Ceadda, the province of the Mercians was brought to the faith of Christ, which they knew not before, and how that of the East Saxons recovered the same, after having expelled it, and how those fathers lived and died, we learned from the brethren of the monastery, which was built by them, and is called Lastingham. What ecclesiastical transactions took place in the province of the East Angles, was partly made known to us from the writings and tradition of our ancestors, and partly by relation of the most reverend Abbot Esius. What was done towards promoting the faith, and what was the sacerdotal succession in the province of Lindsey, we had either from the letters of the most reverend prelate Cunebert, or by word of mouth from other persons of good credit. But what was done in the Church throughout the province of the Northumbians, from the time when they received the faith of Christ till this present, I received not from any particular author, but by the faithful testimony of innumerable witnesses, who might know or remember the same, besides what I had of my own knowledge. Wherein it is to be observed, that what I have written concerning our most holy father, Bishop Cuthbert, either in this volume, or in my treatise on his life and actions, I partly took, and faithfully copied from what I found written of him by the brethren of the Church of Lindisfarne; but at the same time took care to add such things as I could myself have knowledge of by the faithful testimony of such as knew him. And I humbly entreat the reader, that, if he shall in this that we have written find anything not delivered according to the truth, he will not impute the same to me, who, as the true rule of history requires, have laboured sincerely to commit to writing such things as I could gather from common report, for the instruction of posterity.
Moreover, I beseech all men who shall hear or read this history of our nation, that for my manifold infirmities both of mind and body, they will offer up frequent supplications to the throne of Grace. And I further pray, that in recompense for the labour wherewith I have recorded in the several countries and cities those events which were most worthy of note, and most grateful to the ears of their inhabitants, I may for my reward have the benefit of their pious prayers.
BOOK I
CHAPTER I
OF THE SITUATION OF BRITAIN AND IRELAND, AND OF THEIR ANCIENT INHABITANTS
BRITAIN, an island in the ocean, formerly called Albion, is situated between the north and west, facing, though at a considerable distance, the coasts of Germany, France, and Spain, which form the greatest part of Europe. It extends 800 miles in length towards the north, and is 200 miles in breadth, except where several promontories extend further in breadth, by which its compass is made to be 3675 miles. To the south, as you pass along the nearest shore of the Belgic Gaul, the first place in Britain which opens to the eye is the city of Rutubi Portus, by the English corrupted into Reptacestir. The distance from hence across the sea to Gessoriacum, the nearest shore of the Morini, is fifty miles, or as some writers say, 450 furlongs. On the back of the island, where it opens upon the boundless ocean, it has the islands called Orcades. Britain excels for grain and trees, and is well adapted for feeding cattle and beasts of burden. It also produces vines in some places, and has plenty of land and waterfowls of several sorts; it is remarkable also for rivers abounding in fish, and plentiful springs. It has the greatest plenty of salmon and eels; seals are also frequently taken, and dolphins, as also whales; besides many sorts of shellfish, such as muscles, in which are often found excellent pearls of all colours, red, purple, violet, and green, but mostly white. There is also a great abundance of cockles, of which the scarlet dye is made; a most beautiful colour, which never fades with the heat of the sun or the washing of the rain; but the older it is, the more beautiful it becomes. It has both salt and hot springs, and from them flow rivers which furnish hot baths, proper for all ages and sexes, and arranged according. For water, as St. Basil says, receives the heating quality, when it runs along certain metals, and becomes not only hot but scalding. Britain has also many veins of metals, as copper, iron, lead, and silver; it has much and excellent jet, which is black and sparkling, glittering at the fire, and when heated, drives away serpents; being warmed with rubbing, it holds fast whatever is applied to it, like amber. The island was formerly embellished with twentyeight noble cities, besides innumerable castles, which were all strongly secured with walls, towers, gates, and locks. And, from its lying almost under the North Pole, the nights are light in summer, so that at midnight the beholders are often in doubt whether the evening twilight still continues, or that of the morning is coming on; for the sun, in the night, returns under the earth, through the northern regions at no great distance from them. For this reason the days are of a great length in summer, as, on the contrary, the nights are in winter, for the sun then withdraws into the southern parts, so that the nights are eighteen hours long. Thus the nights are extraordinarily short in summer, and the days in winter, that is, of only six equinoctial hours. Whereas, in Armenia, Macedonia, Italy, and other countries of the same latitude, the longest day or night extends but to fifteen hours, and the shortest to nine.
This island at present, following the number of the books in which the Divine law was written, contains five nations, the English, Britons, Scots, Picts, and Latins, each in its own peculiar dialect cultivating the sublime study of Divine truth. The Latin tongue is, by the study of the Scriptures, become common to all the rest. At first this island had no other inhabitants but the Britons, from whom it derived its name, and who, coming over into Britain, as is reported, from Armorica, possessed themselves of the southern parts thereof. When they, beginning at the south, had made themselves masters of the greatest part of the island, it happened, that the nation of the Picts, from Scythia, as is reported, putting to sea, in a few long ships, were driven by the winds beyond the shores of Britain, and arrived on the northern coast of Ireland, where, finding the nation of the Scots, they begged to be allowed to settle among them, but could not succeed in obtaining their request. Ireland is the greatest island next to Britain, and lies to the west of it; but as it is shorter than Britain to the north, so, on the other hand, it runs out far beyond it to the south, opposite to the northern parts of Spain, though a spacious sea lies between them. The Picts, as has been said, arriving in this island by sea, desired to have a place granted them in which they might settle. The Scots answered that the island could not contain them both; but "We can give you good advice," said they, "what to do; we know there is another island, not far from ours, to the eastward, which we often see at a distance, when the days are clear. if you will go thither, you will obtain settlements; or, if they should oppose you, you shall have our assistance." The Picts, accordingly, sailing over into Britain, began to inhabit the northern parts thereof, for the Britons were possessed of the southern. Now the Picts had no wives, and asked them of the Scots; who would not consent to grant them upon any other terms, than that when any difficulty should arise, they should choose a king from the female royal race rather than from the male: which custom, as is well known, has been observed among the Picts to this day. In process of time, Britain, besides the Britons and the Picts, received a third nation the Scots, who, migrating from Ireland under their leader, Reuda, either by fair means, or by force of arms, secured to themselves those settlements among the Picts which they still possess. From the name of their commander, they are to this day called Dalreudins; for, in their language, Dal signifies a part.
Ireland, in breadth, and for wholesomeness and serenity of climate, far surpasses Britain; for the snow scarcely ever lies there above three days: no man makes hay in the summer for winter's provision, or builds stables for his beasts of burden. No reptiles are found there, and no snake can live there; for, though often carried thither out of Britain, as soon as the ship comes near the shore, and the scent of the air reaches them, they die. On the contrary, almost all things in the island are good against poison. In short, we have known that when some persons have been bitten by serpents, the scrapings of leaves of books that were brought out of Ireland, being put into water, and given them to drink, have immediately expelled the spreading poison, and assuaged the swelling. The island abounds in milk and honey, nor is there any want of vines, fish, or fowl; and it is remarkable for deer and goats. It is properly the country of the Scots, who, migrating from thence, as has been said, added a third nation in Britain to the Britons and the Picts. There is a very large gulf of the sea, which formerly divided the nation of the Picts from the Britons; which gulf runs from the west very far into the land, where, to this day, stands the strong city of the Britons, called Aicluith. The Scots, arriving on the north side of this bay, settled themselves there.
CHAPTER II
CAIUS JULIUS CAESAR, THE FIRST ROMAN THAT CAME INTO BRITAIN
BRITAIN had never been visited by the Romans, and was, indeed, entirely unknown to them before the time of Caius Julius Caesar, who, in the year 693 after the building of Rome, but the sixtieth year before the incarnation of our Lord, was consul with Lucius Bibulus, and afterwards while he made war upon the Germans and the Gauls, which were divided only by the river Rhine, came into the province of the Morini, from whence is the nearest and shortest passage into Britain. Here, having provided about eighty ships of burden and vessels with oars, he sailed over into Britain; where, being first roughly handled in a battle, and then meeting with a violent storm, he lost a considerable part of his fleet, no small number of soldiers, and almost all his horses. Returning into Gaul, he put his legions into winter quarters, and gave orders for building six hundred sail of both sorts. With these he again passed over early in spring into Britain, but, whilst he was marching with a large army towards the enemy, the ships, riding at anchor, were, by a tempest either dashed one against another, or driven upon the sands and wrecked. Forty of them perished, the rest were, with much difficulty, repaired. Caesar's cavalry was, at the first charge, defeated by the Britons, and Labienus, the tribune, slain. In the second engagement, he, with great hazard to his men, put the Britons to flight. Thence he proceeded to the river Thames, where an immense multitude of the enemy had posted themselves on the farthest side of the river, under the command of Cassibellaun, and fenced the bank of the river and almost all the ford under water with sharp stakes: the remains of these are to be seen to this day, apparently about the thickness of a man's thigh, and being cased with lead, remain fixed immovably in the bottom of the river. This, being perceived and avoided by the Romans, the barbarians not able to stand the shock of the legions, hid themselves in the woods, whence they grievously galled the Romans with repeated sallies. In the meantime, the strong city of Trinovantum, with its commander Androgeus, surrendered to Caesar, giving him forty hostages. Many other cities, following their example, made a treaty with the Romans. By their assistance, Caesar at length, with much difficulty, took Cassibellaun's town, situated between two marshes, fortified by the adjacent woods, and plentifully furnished with all necessaries. After this, Caesar returned into Gaul, but he had no sooner put his legions into winter quarters, than he was suddenly beset and distracted with wars and tumults raised against him on every side.
The Adventures of
Beowulf
an Adaptation from the Old English
by Dr. David Breeden
(From http://www.lone-star.net/literature/beowulf/beowulf.html)
PROLOGUE
Early History of the Danes
Listen:
You have heard of the Danish Kings
in the old days and how
they were great warriors.
Shield, the son of Sheaf,
took many an enemy's chair,
terrified many a warrior,
after he was found an orphan.
He prospered under the sky
until people everywhere
listened when he spoke.
He was a good king!
Shield had a son,
child for his yard,
sent by God
to comfort the people,
to keep them from fear--
Grain was his name;
he was famous
throughout the North.
Young princes should do as he did--
give out treasures
while they're still young
so that when they're old
people will support them
in time of war.
A man prospers
by good deeds
in any nation.
Shield died at his fated hour,
went to God still strong.
His people carried him to the sea,
which was his last request.
In the harbor stood
a well-built ship,
icy but ready for the sea.
They laid Shield there,
propped him against the mast
surrounded by gold
and treasure from distant lands.
I've never heard
of a more beautiful ship,
filled with shields, swords,
and coats of mail, gifts
to him for his long trip.
No doubt he had a little more
than he did as a child
when he was sent out,
a naked orphan in an empty boat.
Now he had a golden banner
high over his head, was,
sadly by a rich people,
given to the sea.
The wisest alive can't tell
where a death ship goes.
Grain ruled the Danes
a long time after his father's death,
and to him was born
the great Healfdene, fierce in battle,
who ruled until he was old.
Healfdene had four children--
Heorogar, Hrothgar, Halga
the Good,
and a daughter who married
Onela, King of the Swedes.
Hrothgar Becomes King of the Danes
After Hrothgar became king
he won many battles:
his friends and family
willingly obeyed him;
his childhood friends
became famous soldiers.
So Hrothgar decided
he would build a mead-hall,
the greatest the world had
ever seen, or even imagined.
There he would share out
to young and old alike
all that God gave him
(except for public lands and men's lives).
I have heard that orders
went out far and wide;
tribes throughout the world
set to work on that building.
And it was built, the world's
greatest mead-hall.
And that great man
called the building
"Herot," the hart.
After it was built,
Hrothgar did what he said
he would: handed out gold
and treasure at huge feasts.
That hall was high-towered,
tall and wide-gabled
(though destruction awaited,
fire and swords of family trouble;
and outside in the night waited
a tortured spirit of hell).
The words of the poet,
the sounds of the harp,
the joy of people echoed.
The poet told how the world
came to be, how God made the earth
and the water surrounding,
how He set the sun and the moon
as lights for people
and adorned the earth
with limbs and leaves for everyone.
Hrothgar's people lived in joy,
happy until that wanderer of the wasteland,
Grendel the demon, possessor of the moors,
began his crimes.
He was of a race of monsters
exiled from mankind by God--
He was of the race of Cain,
that man punished for
murdering his brother.
From that family comes
all evil beings--
monsters, elves, zombies.
Also the giants who
fought with God and got
repaid with the flood.
end of episode one