E06549: Aldhelm, in his prose On Virginity, names *Paul (the Apostle, S00008) as an exemplary virgin, and rejects the Revelation of Paul as an apocryphal text. Written in Latin in southern Britain, for the nuns at the monastery at Barking (south-east Britain), c. 675/686.

Aldhelm, prose On Virginity, 24

Paulus, dudum Saulus, vas electionis, tipicus Beniamin crepusculo devorans praedas, vesperi dirimens manubias, qui pithonissam necromantiae spiritu falsitatis fribula vaticinantem et ob hoc sumptuosas procerum opulentias affluenter cumulantem gazasque quaestuum diliciosas affatim locupletantem mutae taciturnitatis valvam labris procacibus opponere imperio terrente coegit quique – mirum dictu – quater senas in fundo maris profundo sospes transegit horas atque quinquies quadragenas acerrimo crudelitatis tormento una minus accepit, nonne ob purae integritatis praerogativam tertium polum peragrans supernorum civium arcana castis obtutibus contemplatur et caelestis militiae abstrusa ineffabili rerum relatu rimatur, licet revelatio quam dicunt Pauli in nave aurea florentis paradisi dilicias eundem adisse garriat? Sed fas divinum vetat catholicae fidei sequipedas plus quippiam, quam canonicae veritatis censura promulgat, credere et cetera apocriforum deleramenta velut horrisona verborum tonitrua penitus abdicare et procul eliminare orthodoxorum patrum scita scriptis decretalibus sanxerunt.

'PAUL, once (called) Saul, the vessel of election, a figural Benjamin "devouring the prey in the morning, in the evening dividing the spoils" [Gen. 49:27], who with a terrifying command compelled the sorceress to place a door of mute taciturnity in front of her insolent lips, when she was prophesying frivolities of falsehood through the spirit of necromancy, and for this reason piling up in abundance the sumptuous wealth of princes, and richly accumulating the delightful treasures of profit: (it was Paul) who – marvellous to relate – spent twenty-four hours unharmed on the deep bottom of the sea and received on five occasions forty stripes save one, in the severest torture of cruelty – does he not, because of the privilege of his pure integrity, traverse the third heaven contemplating the secrets of the heavenly citizens with chaste vision, and exploring the mysteries of the celestial army with (his) ineffable account of events, even though the so-called Revelation of Paul says foolishly that he came to the delights of Paradise in a golden ship? But divine law forbids the followers of the catholic faith to believe more, in any respect, than what the judgement of canonical truth promulgates, and the decrees of the orthodox fathers in decretal writings have sanctioned the utter rejection and complete banishment of the absurdities of the apocrypha as being a cacophonous thunder of words.'

Text: Ehwald, 1919, 256. Translation: Lapidge and Herren 1979, 81, lightly modified.