How Pope Boniface, by letter, exhorted the same king to embrace the faith. [Circ. 625 A.D.]
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."