Haec quidem sanctus vir ex magnae humilitatis intentione dicebat: sed nos credere decet nihil eum monachicae perfectionis perdidisse occasione curae pastoralis, immo potiorem tunc sumpsisse profectum de labore conversionis multorum, quam de propriae quondam quiete conversationis habuerat: maxime quia et pontificali functus officio domum suam monasterium facere curavit; et dum primo de monasterio abstractus, ad ministerium altaris ordinatus, atque Constantinopolim apocrisiarius ab apostolica sede directus est, non tamen in terreno conversatus palatio propositum vitae caelestis intermisit.
Thus it was this holy man spake, of a great and passing humility: but we should believe that he lost none of his monastical perfection by reason of his pastoral charge, nay rather that he gained greater advantage from the labour of the conversion of many than he had had with the private peace of his former conversation: chiefly because, even in the discharge of his priestly office, he was careful to order his house like a monastery; and when first he was taken out of the monastery and ordained to the ministry of the altar, being afterwards sent as legate from the see apostolic, to Constantinople he for all that, in the earthly princes palace, lived so that he never gave up his purpose of heavenly life.
final_alignments\Bede_Ecclesiastical_Book2.json