COPY OF THE LETTER OF THE MOST BLESSED AND APOSTOLIC POPE OF THE CHURCH OF THE CITY OF ROME, BONIFACE, ADDRESSED TO THE MOST ILLUSTRIOUS EDWIN, KING OF THE ENGLISH. (625 A.D.)

To Edwin, the illustrious king of the English, Bishop Boniface, servant of the servants of God.

Human speech can never explain the power of the most high God, consisting as it does in its own invisible, unsearchable, and eternal greatness, so that no wisdom can comprehend or express how great it is. Yet, in His goodness, He opens the doors of the heart so that He Himself may enter, and by His secret inspiration pours into the human heart a revelation of Himself. So we have undertaken to extend our pastoral responsibilities so far as to declare to you the fullness of the Christian faith, so that we may bring to your notice the Gospel of Christ, which our Saviour has bidden us preach to all the nations, and so that the means of salvation may be put before you. Thus the goodness of the Divine Majesty who, by his word of command alone, made and created all things, both heaven and earth, the sea and all that is in them, ordaining the orders in which they subsist, and who, by the counsel of the co-eternal Word in the unity of the Holy Spirit, has made man in His own image and likeness, fashioning him out of clay, has also granted him the high privilege and distinction of placing him over all things, so that if he keeps within the bounds of God's commands, he may be granted eternal life. This God, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, an undivided Trinity, is adored and worshipped through faith and confession unto salvation by all the human race, from the rising to the setting of the sun, as the Maker of all things and its own Creator. To Him also the greatest empires and the powers of the world are subject, because it is by His disposition that all rule is bestowed. It has pleased Him therefore, in His mercy and loving-kindness towards all His creation to melt, by the fire of His Holy Spirit, the frozen hearts of races even in the far corners of the earth to knowledge of Himself, and that in a marvellous manner.

We suppose that your Majesty is fully aware of what has been accomplished by the mercy of the Redeemer in the enlightenment of our illustrious son King Eadbald and the nations which are subject to him, for your lands are close to one another. We confidently trust that, through the mercy of heaven, this wonderful gift will also be conferred upon you and more especially as we learn that your illustrious consort, who is indeed one flesh with you, has been enlightened by the gift of eternal life through the regeneration of holy baptism. So we have undertaken in this letter to exhort your Majesty with all' affection and deepest love, to hate idols and idol worship, to spurn their foolish shrines and the deceitful flatteries of their soothsaying, and to believe in God the Father Almighty and in his Son Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit, so that you may be freed from the devil's fetters and, by the power of the holy and undivided Trinity, become a partaker of eternal life.

The great guilt of those who cling to the pernicious superstitions of idolatrous worship is seen in the damnable form of their gods. Of these the psalmist says, '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; and those who put their trust in them therefore become like them.' How can they have power to help anyone, when they are made from corruptible material by the hands of your own servants and subjects and, by means of such human art, you have provided them with the inanimate semblance of the human form? They cannot walk unless you move them, but are like a stone fixed in one place, and, being so constructed, have no understanding, are utterly insensible, and so have no power to harm or help. We cannot understand in any way how you can be so deluded as to worship and follow those gods to whom you yourselves have given the likeness of the human form.

So you should take upon you the sign of the holy cross, by which the human race has been redeemed, and cast out of your hearts the accursed wiles and cunning of the devil, who is the jealous foe of the works of God's goodness. Then set your hand vigorously to the task of breaking and destroying the gods which up till now you have fashioned from material substances. In fact the very destruction and decay of those things which have never had the breath of life nor could by any means acquire understanding from their makers, should show you clearly the worthless nature of what you have worshipped up to now. You may certainly consider yourselves who have received the breath of life from the Lord to be better made than they. For Almighty God has appointed your descent through many ages and countless generations, from the first man he created. So come to theknowledge of Him who created you and breathed into you the breath of life, who sent His only-begotten Son for your redemption and to save you from original sin, so that He might deliver you from the power of the devil's perversity and wickedness, and bestow heavenly rewards upon you.

Accept the teaching of the preachers and the gospel of God which they proclaim to you, so that, as we have often said, you may believe in God the Father Almighty and in Jesus Christ His Son and the Holy Spirit, the indivisible Trinity. Then when you have put to flight devilish thoughts and driven from you the temptations of the venomous and deceitful foe, having been born again by water and the Holy Spirit, may you through his bountiful aid dwell with Him in whom you have believed, in the splendour of eternal glory.

We are sending you the blessing of your protector, St Peter, chief of the apostles, in the form of a robe embroidered with gold and a garment from Ancyra, asking your Majesty to accept these gifts in the same spirit of goodwill as that in which they were sent by us.

...the third Rome...