according to the instruction of Gregory, the faithful pope.
Be glory and praise to the benevolent Creator,
who delivered our fathers from their foes,
and disposed them to baptism by means of His preachers. Amen.
ITEM ALIA. AHITOPHEL AND ABSALOM.
[N.B. This Homily is really distinct from the foregoing, but is not recognised as such in the Table of Contents.]
It is now also to wit that we very often punish
wicked robbers and treacherous thieves,
but they shall have no reward from Almighty God,
but rather the everlasting torments for their cruelty,
because they lived by rapine, like savage wolves,
and oftentimes snatched away from the righteous their subsistence.
Would that at least the miserable man would bethink himself,
and confess his sins with true contrition,
at least when he is in bonds and is led to death,
even as the thief did, who hung condemned
with the Saviour Christ, and said to him with faith,
'Lord and Master, have pity on me when Thou comest into Thy kingdom.'
The Saviour answered him, 'Verily I say unto thee,
now to-day thou shalt be with Me in Paradise.'
Thus earned the wicked thief,
in his death-throes, the eternal life with Christ,
because he believed in Christ, and besought His mercy.
Evilly doeth he to himself who provides for himself fraudulently,
and he shall be the companion of robbers, whom men punish ignominiously.
The deceiver concealeth his deeds from man,
