| Keywords |
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| ID |
3537 |
| Text |
In Ezram et Neemiam libri III (725 - 731) Bede |
| Quotation |
Vnde merito dolent sanctificationem suam abominationibus gentium esse coinquinatam et quod
grauius est principes etiam a quibus corrigi debuerant primos errasse fatentur notandumque
diligenter atque in exemplo operis trahendum quod ea quae principes peccauerunt et plebem sibi
commissam peccare fecerunt aeque principes alii qui sanius subponebant corrigere satagunt; uerum
quia per se ipsos nequeunt referunt ad pontificem, id est archiepiscopum, suum causam cuius
auctoritate flagitium tam graue tam multifidum tam diutinum expietur.
Nulli autem dubium quin uxores alienigenae hereses et superstitiosas philosophorum sectas
figuraliter exprimant quae cum in ecclesiam incaute admittuntur multum saepe semen sanctum
catholicae ueritatis et purae actionis suis contaminant erroribus sed et peccata omnia quibus ethnici
solent pollui dum christiani non erubescunt imitari quasi per uxores alienigenas degenerant a semine
sancto uerbi dei quo fuerant generati dicente apostolo iacobo, voluntarie genuit nos uerbo ueritatis, et
quasi profanam de filiabus exterorum subolem procreant dum illecebras errantium secuti peruersos
ex his actus in cunctorum notitiam proferunt. |
| Translation |
Thus they rightly grieve that their holiness had been polluted by the detestable actions of the Gentiles and, what is worse, they acknowledge that even the leaders by whom they ought to have been corrected were the first to have gone astray. And it should be carefully noted and used as an example of good works that while some leaders sinned and caused the common people who were entrusted to them to sin, other leaders who were of more wholesome view for their part do their best to correct those sins; but because they cannot do this themselves they refer the matter to their pontifex (i.e. their archbishop) through whose authority so grave, so manifold, and so long-lasting a sin can be expiated. No one can doubt, in fact, that the foreign wives figuratively stand for the heresies and superstitious sects of philosophers, which, when they are recklessly admitted into the Church, often greatly contaminate the holy seed of catholic truth and pure action with their errors. But so long as Christians are not ashamed to mimic all the sins by which heathens are typically polluted,it is as if they degenerate through foreign wives from the holy seed of God’s word in which they were born, as the apostle James says: Of his own will he has begotten us by the word of truth. And so long as they follow the allurements of erring men and display the sinful behaviour they have learnt from these for all to see, they are like ones who create profane offspring from the daughters of foreigners. (Trans. DeGregorio, pp. 138-9) |
| Quotation source |
Lib. 2 (lin. 1589) |
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| Comment |
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