{"id":"01KJR8Q6E2VZMAGSR1ZD2BNF6N","cid":"bafkreiadn2fa3dc2b3vl2ak53byliluhjgwkt3kugzyujf2bn3fsoqevsq","type":"text_chunk","properties":{"char_end":328153,"char_start":320153,"chunk_index":45,"chunk_total":89,"estimated_tokens":2000,"source_file_key":"confessions","text":"throughout other parts of the world following herein.\r\n\r\nThen didst Thou by a vision discover to Thy forenamed Bishop where the\r\nbodies of Gervasius and Protasius the martyrs lay hid (whom Thou hadst\r\nin Thy secret treasury stored uncorrupted so many years), whence Thou\r\nmightest seasonably produce them to repress the fury of a woman, but an\r\nEmpress. For when they were discovered and dug up, and with due honour\r\ntranslated to the Ambrosian Basilica, not only they who were vexed with\r\nunclean spirits (the devils confessing themselves) were cured, but a\r\ncertain man who had for many years been blind, a citizen, and well known\r\nto the city, asking and hearing the reason of the people's confused joy,\r\nsprang forth desiring his guide to lead him thither. Led thither, he\r\nbegged to be allowed to touch with his handkerchief the bier of Thy\r\nsaints, whose death is precious in Thy sight. Which when he had done,\r\nand put to his eyes, they were forthwith opened. Thence did the fame\r\nspread, thence Thy praises glowed, shone; thence the mind of that enemy,\r\nthough not turned to the soundness of believing, was yet turned back\r\nfrom her fury of persecuting. Thanks to Thee, O my God. Whence and\r\nwhither hast Thou thus led my remembrance, that I should confess these\r\nthings also unto Thee? which great though they be, I had passed by in\r\nforgetfulness. And yet then, when the odour of Thy ointments was so\r\nfragrant, did we not run after Thee. Therefore did I more weep among\r\nthe singing of Thy Hymns, formerly sighing after Thee, and at length\r\nbreathing in Thee, as far as the breath may enter into this our house of\r\ngrass.\r\n\r\nThou that makest men to dwell of one mind in one house, didst join with\r\nus Euodius also, a young man of our own city. Who being an officer of\r\nCourt, was before us converted to Thee and baptised: and quitting his\r\nsecular warfare, girded himself to Thine. We were together, about to\r\ndwell together in our devout purpose. We sought where we might serve\r\nThee most usefully, and were together returning to Africa: whitherward\r\nbeing as far as Ostia, my mother departed this life. Much I omit, as\r\nhastening much. Receive my confessions and thanksgivings, O my God, for\r\ninnumerable things whereof I am silent. But I will not omit whatsoever\r\nmy soul would bring forth concerning that Thy handmaid, who brought me\r\nforth, both in the flesh, that I might be born to this temporal light,\r\nand in heart, that I might be born to Light eternal. Not her gifts, but\r\nThine in her, would I speak of; for neither did she make nor educate\r\nherself. Thou createdst her; nor did her father and mother know what a\r\none should come from them. And the sceptre of Thy Christ, the discipline\r\nof Thine only Son, in a Christian house, a good member of Thy Church,\r\neducated her in Thy fear. Yet for her good discipline was she wont\r\nto commend not so much her mother's diligence, as that of a certain\r\ndecrepit maid-servant, who had carried her father when a child, as\r\nlittle ones used to be carried at the backs of elder girls. For which\r\nreason, and for her great age, and excellent conversation, was she,\r\nin that Christian family, well respected by its heads. Whence also the\r\ncharge of her master's daughters was entrusted to her, to which she gave\r\ndiligent heed, restraining them earnestly, when necessary, with a holy\r\nseverity, and teaching them with a grave discretion. For, except at\r\nthose hours wherein they were most temporately fed at their parents'\r\ntable, she would not suffer them, though parched with thirst, to drink\r\neven water; preventing an evil custom, and adding this wholesome advice:\r\n\"Ye drink water now, because you have not wine in your power; but when\r\nyou come to be married, and be made mistresses of cellars and cupboards,\r\nyou will scorn water, but the custom of drinking will abide.\" By this\r\nmethod of instruction, and the authority she had, she refrained the\r\ngreediness of childhood, and moulded their very thirst to such an\r\nexcellent moderation that what they should not, that they would not.\r\n\r\nAnd yet (as Thy handmaid told me her son) there had crept upon her\r\na love of wine. For when (as the manner was) she, as though a sober\r\nmaiden, was bidden by her parents to draw wine out of the hogshed,\r\nholding the vessel under the opening, before she poured the wine into\r\nthe flagon, she sipped a little with the tip of her lips; for more her\r\ninstinctive feelings refused. For this she did, not out of any desire\r\nof drink, but out of the exuberance of youth, whereby it boils over in\r\nmirthful freaks, which in youthful spirits are wont to be kept under by\r\nthe gravity of their elders. And thus by adding to that little, daily\r\nlittles (for whoso despiseth little things shall fall by little and\r\nlittle), she had fallen into such a habit as greedily to drink off her\r\nlittle cup brim-full almost of wine. Where was then that discreet old\r\nwoman, and that her earnest countermanding? Would aught avail against\r\na secret disease, if Thy healing hand, O Lord, watched not over us?\r\nFather, mother, and governors absent, Thou present, who createdst, who\r\ncallest, who also by those set over us, workest something towards the\r\nsalvation of our souls, what didst Thou then, O my God? how didst Thou\r\ncure her? how heal her? didst Thou not out of another soul bring forth a\r\nhard and a sharp taunt, like a lancet out of Thy secret store, and with\r\none touch remove all that foul stuff? For a maid-servant with whom she\r\nused to go to the cellar, falling to words (as it happens) with her\r\nlittle mistress, when alone with her, taunted her with this fault, with\r\nmost bitter insult, calling her wine-bibber. With which taunt she, stung\r\nto the quick, saw the foulness of her fault, and instantly condemned and\r\nforsook it. As flattering friends pervert, so reproachful enemies mostly\r\ncorrect. Yet not what by them Thou doest, but what themselves purposed,\r\ndost Thou repay them. For she in her anger sought to vex her young\r\nmistress, not to amend her; and did it in private, either for that the\r\ntime and place of the quarrel so found them; or lest herself also should\r\nhave anger, for discovering it thus late. But Thou, Lord, Governor\r\nof all in heaven and earth, who turnest to Thy purposes the deepest\r\ncurrents, and the ruled turbulence of the tide of times, didst by the\r\nvery unhealthiness of one soul heal another; lest any, when he observes\r\nthis, should ascribe it to his own power, even when another, whom he\r\nwished to be reformed, is reformed through words of his.\r\n\r\nBrought up thus modestly and soberly, and made subject rather by Thee\r\nto her parents, than by her parents to Thee, so soon as she was of\r\nmarriageable age, being bestowed upon a husband, she served him as her\r\nlord; and did her diligence to win him unto Thee, preaching Thee unto\r\nhim by her conversation; by which Thou ornamentedst her, making her\r\nreverently amiable, and admirable unto her husband. And she so endured\r\nthe wronging of her bed as never to have any quarrel with her husband\r\nthereon. For she looked for Thy mercy upon him, that believing in Thee,\r\nhe might be made chaste. But besides this, he was fervid, as in his\r\naffections, so in anger: but she had learnt not to resist an angry\r\nhusband, not in deed only, but not even in word. Only when he was\r\nsmoothed and tranquil, and in a temper to receive it, she would give an\r\naccount of her actions, if haply he had overhastily taken offence. In\r\na word, while many matrons, who had milder husbands, yet bore even in\r\ntheir faces marks of shame, would in familiar talk blame their husbands'\r\nlives, she would blame their tongues, giving them, as in jest, earnest\r\nadvice: \"That from the time they heard the marriage writings read to\r\nthem, they should account them as indentures, whereby they were\r\nmade servants; and so, remembering their condition, ought not to set\r\nthemselves up against their lords.\" And when they, knowing what a\r\ncholeric husband she endured, marvelled that it had never "},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KJR8NK5DAD726FMQ6JCHGZ5R","peer_label":"confessions","peer_type":"text","predicate":"derived_from"},{"peer":"01KJR8M0JHPZXCPKJ34HTYXSWW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KJR8RA9T3CW6J0K5FTRZQ2GR","peer_label":"god","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"deity","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T21:55:11.348Z"}},{"peer":"01KJR8RCVSJ0EAE7WYK04A0GT8","peer_label":"narrators mother","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T21:55:11.348Z"}},{"peer":"01KJR8RBD9ATFEX9H5JFT38XZG","peer_label":"blind man","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T21:55:11.348Z"}},{"peer":"01KJR8RBFPDK0CCAWXRTYKGYXK","peer_label":"ambrosian basilica","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"religious_building","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T21:55:11.348Z"}},{"peer":"01KJR8RBK5WP2W02SDPDJVEK2Y","peer_label":"gervasius and protasius","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"martyrs","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T21:55:11.348Z"}},{"peer":"01KJR8RBBPAFNRFHKAK2W49PCX","peer_label":"empress","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T21:55:11.348Z"}},{"peer":"01KJR8RCXTC8848JT8J4TB057J","peer_label":"africa","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"geographic_region","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T21:55:11.348Z"}},{"peer":"01KJR8RCB8BGV6AXM9D5SPXQVE","peer_label":"decrepit maid-servant","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T21:55:11.348Z"}},{"peer":"01KJR8RCD5HDF1PYN0MRG42Q8E","peer_label":"christian house","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"organization_or_concept","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T21:55:11.348Z"}},{"peer":"01KJR8RCB8QZK2PTCNQW1NDSR8","peer_label":"ostia","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"place","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T21:55:11.348Z"}},{"peer":"01KJR8RD0EBYX1HYA3BXFARTPW","peer_label":"narrators mothers husband","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T21:55:11.348Z"}},{"peer":"01KJR8RD6P0JN8B4ZK1D4X7QDR","peer_label":"maid-servant cellar","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T21:55:11.348Z"}},{"peer":"01KJR8RDHTSSV47NJC9RCTQVBF","peer_label":"vision","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"entity","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T21:55:11.348Z"}},{"peer":"01KJR8RDTFNVZAXDVV0APWQBF6","peer_label":"taunt","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"entity","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T21:55:11.348Z"}},{"peer":"01KJR8RDGK27PX035V4CV7TGH4","peer_label":"marriage writings","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"document","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T21:55:11.348Z"}},{"peer":"01KJR8RBC9WY0QCC4MHVKN42NR","peer_label":"euodius","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T21:55:11.348Z"}},{"peer":"01KJR8RDR20516SD940KXD5JHF","peer_label":"love of wine","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"entity","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T21:55:11.348Z"}},{"peer":"01KJR8RDWJHNSCEGJFKBETKV4F","peer_label":"narrators mothers love of wine","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"entity","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T21:55:11.348Z"}},{"peer":"01KJR8RE3NHKGCQMZN61A3RCWB","peer_label":"narrator","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"entity","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T21:55:11.348Z"}},{"peer":"01KJR8RE9JZBM0MCAADCQRA72D","peer_label":"matrons","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"entity","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T21:55:11.348Z"}},{"peer":"01KJR8RGGHR4MJ203BC47KGXTX","peer_label":"milder husbands","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"entity","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T21:55:11.348Z"}},{"peer":"01KJR8RGVBY08WS8H5Y0MRA3FS","peer_label":"indentures","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"entity","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T21:55:11.348Z"}}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-03-02T21:54:24.834Z","ts":"2026-03-02T21:55:12.580Z","edited_by":{"method":"system","user_id":"01KJ60XQBHJ0GBGTP9X8HXAPPM"}}