1. EPISTOLA AD ALBINUM ABBATEM. ESIDERATISSIMO et reverendissimo patri Albino, Beda Christi famulus, salutem! Gratantissime suscepi munuscula tuæ dilectionis, quæ per venerabilem fratrem nostrum Nothel. mum presbyterum mittere dignatus es, et maxime lit teras, quibus me jam se cunda vice in ecclesiastica gentis nostræ historia, ad quam me scribendam jamdudum instigaveras, creber adjuvare atque institutere curasti. Propter quod et ipse tibi rectissime eandem historiam, mox ut consummare potui, ad transscribendum remisi. Sed et aliud, quod te partim desiderare comperi, volumen tibi vice remunerationis æque ad transscribendum destinavi, videlicet, illud quod de structura templi Salominis atque allegorica ejus interpretatione nuper edidi. Teque, amantissime pater, supplex obsecro, ut pro mea fragilitate cum his, qui tecum sunt, famulis Christi, apud pium Judicem sedulus intercedere memineris : sed et eos, ad quos eadem nostra opuscula pervenire feceris, hoc idem facere monueris. Bene vale, semper amantissime in Christo pater optime. I. AN EPISTLE TO ABBOT ALBINUS, RELATING TO HIS ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. EDE, the Servant of Christ, to the most Beloved and Reverend Father Albinus, Health! I have thankfully received the testimonies of your love which you have condescended to send me by the hands of our venerable brother Nothelm the priest, and especially your letter, in which you have shown so much solicitude, this second time, to give me aid and information for my Ecclesiastical History, a work which I first undertook at your instigation. Wherefore also I have with great propriety sent it to you, as I was able to finish it, to be copied. But I intend to repay you by forwarding to you another volume for the same purpose, as I find, also, is consistent with your own wishes, namely, that which I have lately published on the building of Solomon's temple, and its allegorical signification. And I humbly beseech you, most loving father, and Christ's servants who are with you, to intercede fervently with the righteous Judge in behalf of my frailty; and to admonish those, to whom you shall show my work, to do the same. Fare you well, my good and ever loving father in Christ. II. EPISTOLA AD EGBERTUM ANTISTITEM. DE DISCIPLINA ECCLESIASTICA. The cause why Beda wrote. Exhortation concerning me quoque, ob commune legendi studium, ad tuum accire colloquium. Quod si ita, Deo volente, posset impleri, non opus esset tibi hæc per literas scripta dirigere; cum possem liberius ore ad os loquens quæcunque vellem, sive necessaria ducerem, secreta tibi allocutione suggerere. Verum quia hoc ne fieret, superveniens, ut nosti, corporis mei valetudo prohibuit; agere tamen quod potui, erga dilectionem tuam fraternæ devotionis intuitu, curavi, mittendo, videlicet, per literas quod corporaliter veniendo per collocutionem nequiveram. Precorque te per Dominum, ne harum apices literarum arrogantiæ supercilium esse piceris, sed obsequium potius humilitatis ac pietatis veraciter esse cognoscas. sus Exhortor itaque tuam, dilectissime in Christo anlife and doc- tistes, sanctitatem, ut gradum sacrosanctum, quem trine. tibi Auctor graduum et spiritualium largitor charismatum committere dignatus est, sacrosancta et opera the same place, to have me near you to converse with, for the same purposes of study, common to us both. If this wish could, by God's favour, be accomplished, there would be no need of my communicating with you at present by letter, since I could then more freely in private conversation say to you, face to face, whatever I wished or deemed expedient. But since the state of my health has, as you know, become such as to prevent this from coming to pass, I have yet, with brotherly devotion, in return for your affection, sent you by letter what I was not able to communicate in person. And I pray you by the Lord, not to consider the point of this letter to be fraught with arrogance and vanity, but as the true submission of humility and pious affection. I therefore exhort your Holiness, my beloved Bishop in Christ, to confirm both by holy life and by holy teaching, the sacred dignity which God, the Author of dignities and Giver of spiritual gifts, hath bestowed |