Page:Aelfric's Lives of Saints Vol 2.djvu/129

 Beadsmen are  they  who  intercede  with  God  for  us;

Soldiers are  they  who  protect  our  towns,

and defend  our  soil  against  an  invading  army.

Now toils  the  field-labourer  for  our  subsistence,

and the  worldly  warrior  must  fight  against  our  enemies,

and the  servant  of  God  must  always  pray  for  us,

and fight  spiritually  against  invisible  enemies.

Greater therefore  is  now  the  struggle  of  the  monks

against the  invisible  devils  that  lay  snares  around  us,

than   may   be    that    of   the    worldly   men   that   struggle    against fleshly  (foes),

and visibly  fight  against  the  visible  (enemies).

Then the  worldly  soldiers  ought  not  to  the  worldly  battle

compel the  servants  of  God,  away  from  the  spiritual  struggle;

because it  will  profit  them  more  that  the  invisible  enemies

may be  overcome  than  the  visible  ones;

and it  will  be  very  harmful  that  they  leave  their  service  of  the  Lord,

and   incline    to    the  worldly  struggle,  that    in    no  way  concerns them.

Julian, the  Apostate  and  the  cruel  Caesar,

would compel  priests  to  worldly  strife,

and eke  the  holy  monks,  and  commanded  to  bring  them  to  prison.

Then was  Apollonius,  the  Egyptian  abbot,

locked in  the  prison  with  his  believing  brethren.

But God's  angel  came  to  him,  to  the  prison,  by  night

with a  heavenly  light,  and  unlocked  the  prison.

Moreover the  centurion  that  locked  them  therein

came early  in  the  morning  with  a  great  multitude,

and said  that  his  house  fell  suddenly  with  an  earthquake,