Page:Anglo-Saxon version of the Hexameron of St. Basil.djvu/57

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ADMONITIO AD FILIUM SPIRITUALEM.


INCIPIT PROLOGUS.

Basilius[1] se eadiga. be þam we ær awriton. wæs swiðe halig bisceop. on Cessarean[2] byrig. on Greciscre ðeode. God lufigende swiðe. on clænnesse wunigende. on Cristes ðeowdome. manegra munuca fæder. munuchades him sylf. he wæs swiðe gelæred. and swyðe mihtig lareow. and he munuc regol gesette. mid swyðlicre drohtnunge. swa swa ða Easternan and ða Greciscean munecas. libbað hyra lif. Gode to lofe wide, he wæs ær Benedictus.[3] ðe us boc awrat.[4] on Ledenre spræce. leohtre be dæle. ðonne Basilius. ac he tymde swa ðeah. to Basilies tæcinge.[5] for his trumnysse. Basilius awrat ane wundorlice boc. be eallum Godes weorcum. ðe he geworhte. on six dagum. "Exameron" gehaten. swiðe deopum andgite. and he awrat ða lare. ðe we nu willað. on Englisceum[6] gereorde secgean. ðam he his recceað. heo gebyrað to munecum. and eac to mynecenum ðe regollice libbað. for hyra drihtnes lufe.[7] under gastlicum ealdrum. Gode ðeowiende. gehealdenre clænnysse. swa swa Cristes ðegenas. campiende wið deoflu. dæges and nihtes.

I. Basilius cwæð ða on his boclican lare. Gehyr ðu min beam. ðines fæder mynegunge. and ðin eare ahyld to minum wordum nu. and mid geleaffullre heortan. hlyst hwæt ic secge. Ic wylle ðe secgan. and soðlice læran ðæt gastlice

  1. "Cæsarea in Cappadocia." For an account of St. Basil see "Cave's Lives of the Fathers," and "St. Hieronumus in Catalogo Scriptorum Ecclesiæ," cap. cxvi. St. Basil was born A.D. 328, and died A.D. 379.
  2. Junius here reads "Cesarean."
  3. Benedict, founder of the Benedictine Order, was botn A.D. 480, and died about 540. For an account of his life and miracles see the 2nd book of the Dialogues of Gregory the Great, (in the Antwerp edition of his Works,) p. 25, or his Life by L' d'Acherius, &c.
  4. Ælfric here probably alludes to his making of a digest of the rules of St. Benedict for the abbey of Eynsham.
  5. The other MS. here reads "Basilius."
  6. "Englisceum," both MSS. give this reading, but "Engliscum" would be more strictly grammatical.
  7. Junius here reads "dryhtnes."