_The Penitence of Asycus the Bishop._
And over this church Saint Patrick placed one of his disciples named
Asycus, who was both in habit and demeanor a monk, the first bishop.
And he, at the advice of the saint, instituted therein a college of
monks, the which he governed with the privileges of an abbot. But this
man, on a certain time, while he ought to have spoken the truth,
backsliding with a slippery tongue, uttered forth a falsehood. And
immediately he set himself against his own face, and in the bitterness
of his sorrow banished he himself, and, flying from human-kind,
remained in solitude, and abided he there seven years beheld of none.
And his monks sought him long time; and at the end of the seventh year
they found him in the depth of a valley, and they strove even by force
to bring him thence unto his church, and to compel him as a bridegroom
unto the bosom of his spouse. But the bishop in nowise yielded unto
them, accounting himself no longer worthy to exercise the priestly
office; since from his mouth had issued a purposed falsehood, the which
the sacred canons define to be sacrilege in the mouth of a priest.
Whereby it is to be considered how deeply should they repent who of
their own fault have fallen into the heaviest offences, when this holy
man so deeply repented of, and so strictly atoned for, one falsehood
alone. Alas! what hearts of clay do they bear unto the resistance of
sin, but what hearts of stone unto repentance! For many men, wicked,
sinful, abandoned in their lives (the which cannot be observed without
grief), take on themselves the cure of souls, and think to wash away
the guilt of others with their own denied hands; who, being themselves
bound with the chain of mortal sin, desire to loose others' bonds, and
thus heap on themselves increased offence. These men, being placed
under the spiritual control, can repent of and atone for their own
guiltiness, but, when seated in the pastoral chair, bound are they to
account for the faith of all those who are entrusted to their charge.
Since, then, the words of a priest must be either a truth or a
sacrilege, terrible is the judgment on those priests whose tongue is
defiled with falsehoods and with perjuries. Thus much let us show, as
speaking by digression, how earnestly not only crimes and evil deeds,
but even falsehoods, are to be avoided by all Christian men, and
especially by the pastors of souls. Now let us return unto the thread
of our sacred story. The aforementioned monks, unwilling to separate
from Saint Asycus, continued with him even unto the end of his life;
and after he was buried, building there a monastery, served they the
Lord in holiness and in truth.