INCIPIT VITA. — De sua generositate et sanctitate.
Scripture's Witness to God's Mercy
The writer opens with Christ's words through Peter and illustrates from Scripture how God's mercy is given to people of every nation and condition, using Abraham, Joseph, and Job as examples of holiness amid both wealth and suffering.
As I set down in writing the life of the glorious King Edward, beloved of God, I will take my beginning from the words of the most blessed Peter, prince of the apostles. Marveling at the centurion's calling, he said: "In truth I have come to understand that God is not a respecter of persons, but in every nation, whoever fears God and does what is right is acceptable to him."✦ So then, in every nation and in every station of life, the Lord recognizes those who are his, and has mercy on whom he wills, and grants mercy to whomever is pleasing to him.✦ Reaching mightily from one end to the other, and ordering all things gently. For neither poverty, by its very nature, bestows holiness, nor do riches take it away; obscurity does not make the perfect person, nor does prominence make the base; freedom does not shut out paradise, nor does servitude open it. Abraham, the first of the patriarchs, is recorded as both wealthy and perfect, whose faith is held in wonder, whose obedience is held up to imitation, in the abundance of all things. Joseph, made lord of Egypt by the king, offered to the whole world an example of chastity. Holy Job — how wealthy he was, the stripping away of his riches proved; whom bodily affliction, the testing of his wife, and the reproach of his friends made more renowned through his patient endurance, openly displayed.
The Holy Lineage of Edward
From David's model of humble kingship, the text traces Edward's descent through Alfred, Edgar, and Ethelred, showing how holiness and royal dignity converge in his ancestry and the peace of his reign.
King David — there was no one richer, yet no one holier; no one more exalted, yet no one more humble — and he is buried among countless treasures, yet among the friends of God he is accounted more welcome than all the rest. So no one should be surprised that Edward our king is called both king and saint — someone we see as needy in the midst of riches, sober amid pleasures, humble under the purple, and a despiser of the world beneath a golden crown. Among all these things, he does not seem to have been born so much into a high station as into the holiest and most excellent of kings — those from whom he drew the substance of the flesh, from whom the whole line had the example of holiness. From the most famous and most Christian king Alfred — whom Pope Leo himself consecrated and anointed as king in the city of Rome — he was sixth in generation; but among those who reigned from his line, he was tenth in succession, and so he received the fruit of both numbers: one who bore the weight and heat of the day most vigorously, he possessed the sixfold perfection in the work of his life, and at evening deserved the denarius from the heavenly Master bestowing it.✦ After Alfred, then — as sons succeeded fathers, as brothers after brothers reigned — at last into King Edgar all happiness and all holiness seem to have been poured out together, who conquered all others in holiness just as he did in honor and in glory. At the rising of this king's son, angels are said to have sung, and to have promised peace for England in his time.✦ And so at one time as a heavenly oracle, at another as the fulfillment of that oracle, he was allotted a name shared with Solomon — 'the peaceful one' — for the condition of that kingdom, in reality and in name alike.✦ His son, the most vigorous King Ethelred, married Emma, daughter of Richard, most noble duke of Normandy, so that from the doubled holiness of both lineages a holier offspring might be born.
Edward's Noble Origin and Our Task
Praising the noble Normans allied by marriage, the text declares that Edward ennobled his generous blood by his life, and announces the plan to write about the beginning, progress, and end of his holiness.
For what sort of men were the renowned leaders of Normandy — the brother and nephew of this most glorious queen, that is, Richard and Robert — whose praiseworthy life and no less precious death make that clear. Sprung from this noble origin, our Edward ennobled his generous blood through both wisdom and the way he lived. But now we must carefully examine what the beginnings of his holiness were, what his progress was, and what his end was — and, for the edification of many, set them down in writing.
Read the original Latin
Gloriosi ac Deo dilecti regis Edwardi vitam litteris tradituri, ex verbis beatissimi Petri apostolorum principis sumamus exordium. Qui centurionis vocationem admirans: In veritate, inquit, comperi, quod non est personarum acceptor Deus, sed in omni gente qui timet Deum, et operatur justitiam, acceptus est illi. In omni itaque gente, in omni dignitate novit Dominus qui sunt ejus, et miseretur cui voluerit, et misericordiam praestat in quem sibi placuerit. Attingens a fine usque ad finem fortiter, et disponens omnia suaviter. Neque enim ex sui ipsius natura vel paupertas praestat, vel adimunt divitiae sanctitatem; neque perfectum obscuritas, nec claritas reprobum facit; nec claudit libertas, nec reserat servitus paradisum. Primus patriarcharum Abraham et dives scribitur et perfectus, cujus fides admirabilis, obedientia imitabilis, in rerum omnium copia praedicatur. Joseph dominus Aegypti constitutus a rege, universo orbi praebuit castitatis exemplum. Sanctus Job qualis in divitiis fuerit, earum probavit ademptio; quem morbus corporis, tentatio uxoris, amicorum exprobratio spectabili reddidit patientia clariorem.
Rex David, quo nemo ditior sed nemo sanctior, quo nemo sublimior sed nullus humilior, et inter thesauros innumeros sepelitur, et inter amicos Dei caeteris gratior computatur. Nemo proinde miretur si Edwardus noster et rex dicatur et sanctus, quem cernimus et in divitiis egenum, et in deliciis sobrium, in purpura humilem, et sub corona aurea saeculi contemptorem. In quibus omnibus non tam altus videtur esse natus, in sanctissimis et excellentissimis regibus ex quibus traxit materiam carnis, totius habuerunt exemplum sanctitatis. A famosissimo quippe et Christianissimo rege Aluredo, quem omnium regum Angliae sanctus Leo papa in ipsa urbe Roma consecravit et unxit in regem, generatione sextus; inter eos vero qui ex ejus stirpe regnaverunt successione decimus, utriusque numeri sortitus est fructum, qui robustissime portans pondus diei et aestus, habuit in operis perfectione senarium, et ad vesperam meruit coelesti patrefamilias largiente denarium. Post Aluredum igitur nunc filiis patribus succedentibus, nunc fratribus post fratres regnantibus, in regem tandem Edgarum omnium felicitas simul et sanctitas videtur esse transfusa, qui omnes sicut sanctitate ita et honore vicit et gloria. In hujus ortu referuntur angeli cecinisse, et Angliae pacem ejus temporibus promisisse. Quocirca tum pro coelesti oraculo, tum pro ipsius effectu oraculi, commune cum Salomone sortitus est nomen, pacificum regni illius statum re simul et nomine. Hujus filius rex strenuissimus Ethelredus Emmam Richardi nobilissimi ducis Normannici filiam duxit uxorem, ut ex duplicata utriusque generis sanctitate soboles sanctior crearetur.
Quales namque fuerunt inclyti Normanniae duces gloriosissimae hujus reginae frater et nepos, Richardus scilicet et Robertus, laudabilis eorum vita et mors nihilominus pretiosa declarat. His Edwardus noster natalibus ortus, generosum sanguinem et sapientia nobilitavit et vita. Sed jam qualia fuerint sanctitatis ejus primordia, qualis progressus, quis finis diligenter inspiciendum, et ad multorum aedificationem stylo ducimus illustrandum.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Acts.10.34-Acts.10.35 — Then Peter opened his mouth and said, "Truly I understand that God is not one who shows partiality. Acts.10.35 — but in every nation the one who fears him and works righteousness is acceptable to him
- ↩Rom.9.15-Rom.9.16 — For he says to Moses, 'I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.' Rom.9.16 — So then, it does not depend on the one who wills or the one who runs, but on God who shows mercy.
- ↩Matt.20.1-Matt.20.16 — For the kingdom of heaven is like a man, a master of a house, who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. Matt.20.2 — And when he agreed with the workers for a denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard. Matt.20.3 — And going out about the third hour, he saw others standing in the marketplace, idle. Matt.20.4 — and to them he said, 'You also go into the vineyard, and whatever is right I will give you.' Matt.20.5 — But he went out again about the sixth and ninth hour, and did the same. Matt.20.6 — And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing around, and he said to them, 'Why are you standing here all day idle?' Matt.20.7 — They answered him, 'Because no one hired us.' He said to them, 'You also go into the vineyard.' Matt.20.8 — And when evening had come, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, 'Call the workers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last and going to the first.' Matt.20.9 — And when those hired about the eleventh hour came, they each received a denarius. Matt.20.10 — And when the first came, they supposed that they would receive more; and they also received each a denarius. Matt.20.11 — But when they received it, they grumbled against the master of the house. Matt.20.12 — saying, 'These last ones worked one hour, and you made them equal to us, who bore the burden of the day and the scorching heat.' Matt.20.13 — But he answered one of them and said, 'Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius?' Matt.20.14 — Take what is yours and go. But I want to give to this last one the same as I give to you. Matt.20.15 — Or is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with what is mine? Or is your eye evil because I am good? Matt.20.16 — So the last will be first, and the first will be last.
- ↩Luke.2.13-Luke.2.14 — And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, Luke.2.14 — Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased.
- ↩1Chr.22.9 — Behold, a son shall be born to you; he shall be a man of rest, and I will give him rest from all his enemies on every side. For Solomon shall be his name, and I will give peace and quiet to Israel in his days.
Aelred of Rievaulx, Vita Sancti Edwardi Regis et Confessoris companion
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