upon learning this,
at the instigation of the Devil (who unwillingly relinquished that
booty) came after him with an infernal fury, to carry him back with
them--by force, if necessary. But as they could not do this, out of
respect to the fathers, they tried to impede him through others--their
relatives, friends and acquaintances; and, adding persuasion to threats
(and, for a child so tender in years, but little effort sufficed),
they used all their energies to divert and dissuade him from his
holy purpose. But God our Lord, who gave him a man's strength--and,
in giving it to him, made him all the stronger by adding a gentle
force to his own tender will, caused him to persevere with such
constancy that he finally overcame these influences, saying that
he desired to be a son of God, since those who were not Christians
were slaves of the Devil. He offered other arguments, so ingenious
that they compelled those who were present to defend and aid him; and
earnestly reproving those who unreasonably opposed him, he constrained
them to leave him in peace. Thus he departed with his request granted,
and with holy baptism, with a satisfaction that words cannot express,
and greater than might be expected from a much older person and a more
developed reason. Again, a woman of rank had refused and fled from
baptism against the influences of God and our own persuasions--solely
concerned with the indissolubility of matrimony taught by our holy
law; for she maintained that it was hard that she could not abandon
a husband who displeased her, as was the custom among them. Finally
one of her brothers, who was seeking holy baptism, persuaded her to
accompany him, and so she did; but, when on the point of receiving
the sacrament, she withdrew without it, although her brother was
baptized. This weakness was a source to her of great confusion and
remorse, and consequently of renewed energy and effort (as it was
with the pope St. Marcellinus [87]); for on the following day she
returned to the church pierced with remorse for the wrong that she
had done, confessing herself to be foolish and lacking in sense,
and admitting that her withdrawal had been caused by silly fear. She
told the father that she was deeply grieved at what she had done, and
besought him, that, since now she had returned meek and submissive
to all the mandates of the holy gospel law, she might be granted
holy baptism--which she ardently desired, knowing that without
being a C