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X. How Pope Boniface, by letter, exhorted the same king to embrace the faith. [Circ. 625 A.D.]
CHAP. X.
AT this time he received a letter from Pope Boniface exhorting him to embrace
the faith, which was as follows:
COPY OF THE LETTER OF THE MOST BLESSED AND APOSTOLIC POPE OF THE CHURCH OF THE
CITY OF ROME, BONIFACE, ADDRESSED TO THE ILLUSTRIOUS EDWIN, KING OF THE ENGLISH.
"To the illustrious Edwin, king of the English, Bishop Boniface, the servant of
the servants of God. Although the power of the Supreme Deity cannot be expressed
by the function of human speech, seeing that, by its own greatness, it so
consists in invisible and unsearchable eternity, that no keenness of wit can
comprehend or express how great it is; yet inasmuch as His Humanity, having
opened the doors of the heart to receive Himself, mercifully, by secret
inspiration, puts into the minds of men such things as It reveals concerning
Itself, we have thought fit to extend our episcopal care so far as to make known
to you the fulness of the Christian faith; to the end that, bringing to your
knowledge the Gospel of Christ, which our Saviour commanded should be preached
to all nations, we might offer to you the cup of the means of salvation.
"Thus the goodness of the Supreme Majesty, which, by the word alone of His
command, made and created all things, the heaven, the earth, the sea, and all
that in them is, disposing the order by which they should subsist, hath,
ordaining all things, with the counsel of His co-eternal Word, and the unity of
the Holy Spirit, made man after His own image and likeness, forming him out of
the mire of the earth; and granted him such high privilege of distinction, as to
place him above all else; so that, preserving the bounds of the law of his
being, his substance should be established to eternity. This God,—Father, Son,
and Holy Ghost, the undivided Trinity,—from the east unto the west, through
faith by confession to the saving of their souls, men worship and adore as the
Creator of all things, and their own Maker; to Whom also the heights of empire
and the powers of the world are subject, because the pre-eminence of all
kingdoms is granted by His disposition. It hath pleased Him, therefore, in the
mercy of His loving kindness, and for the greater benefit of all His creatures,
by the fire of His Holy Spirit wonderfully to kindle the cold hearts even of the
nations seated at the extremities of the earth in the knowledge of Himself.
"For we suppose, since the two countries are near together, that your Highness
has fully understood what the clemency of our Redeemer has effected in the
enlightenment of our illustrious son, King Eadbald, and the nations under his
rule; we therefore trust, with assured confidence that, through the
long-suffering of Heaven, His wonderful gift will be also conferred on you;
since, indeed, we have learnt that your illustrious consort, who is discerned to
be one flesh with you, has been blessed with the reward of eternity, through the
regeneration of Holy Baptism. We have, therefore, taken care by this letter,
with all the goodwill of heartfelt love, to exhort your Highness, that,
abhorring idols and their worship, and despising the foolishness of temples, and
the deceitful flatteries of auguries, you believe in God the Father Almighty,
and His Son Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost, to the end that, believing and
being released from the bonds of captivity to the Devil, you may, through the
co-operating power of the Holy and undivided Trinity, be partaker of the eternal
life.
"How great guilt they lie tinder, who adhere in their worship to the pernicious
superstition of idolatry, appears by the examples of the perishing of those whom
they worship. Wherefore it is said of them by the Psalmist, 'All the gods of the
nations are devils,' but the Lord made the heavens.' And again, 'Eyes have they,
but they see not; they have ears, but they hear not; noses have they, but they
smell not; they have hands, but they handle not; feet have they, but they walk
not. Therefore they are made like unto those that place the hope of their
confidence in them.' For how can they have power to help any man, that are made
out of corruptible matter, by the hands of your inferiors and subjects, and on
which, by employing human art, you have bestowed a lifeless similitude of
members? which, moreover, unless they be moved by you, will not be able to walk;
but, like a stone fixed in one place, being so formed, and having no
understanding, sunk in insensibility, have no power of doing harm or good. We
cannot, therefore, by any manner of discernment conceive how you come to be so
deceived as to follow and worship those gods, to whom you yourselves have given
the likeness of a body.
"It behoves you, therefore, by taking upon you the sign of the Holy Cross, by
which the human race has been redeemed, to root out of your hearts all the
accursed deceitfulness of the snares of the Devil, who is ever the jealous foe
of the works of the Divine Goodness, and to put forth your hands and with all
your might set to work to break in pieces and destroy those which you have
hitherto fashioned of wood or stone to be your gods. For the very destruction
and decay of these, which never had the breath of life in them, nor could in any
wise receive feeling from their makers, may plainly teach you how worthless that
was which you hitherto worshipped. For you yourselves, who have received the
breath of life from the Lord, are certainly better than these which are wrought
with hands, seeing that Almighty God has appointed you to be descended, after
many ages and through many generations, from the first man whom he formed. Draw
near, then, to the knowledge of Him Who created you, Who breathed the breath of
life into you, Who sent His only-begotten Son for your redemption, to save you
from original sin, that being delivered from the power of the Devil's perversity
and wickedness, He might bestow on you a heavenly reward.
Hearken to the words of the preachers, and the Gospel of God, which they declare
to you, to the end that, believing, as has been said before more than once, in
God the Father Almighty, and in Jesus Christ His Son, and the Holy Ghost, and
the indivisible Trinity, having put to flight the thoughts of devils, and driven
from you the temptations of the venomous and deceitful enemy, and being born
again of water and the Holy Ghost, you may, through the aid of His bounty, dwell
in the brightness of eternal glory with Him in Whom you shall have believed.
We have, moreover, sent you the blessing of your protector, the blessed Peter,
chief of the Apostles, to wit, a shirt of proof with one gold ornament, and one
cloak of Ancyra, which we pray your Highness to accept with all the goodwill
with which it is sent by us."
