nd shameful intercourse? I am not unacquainted with
the Christian books: nay, I have met with many volumes in mine own
country, and have heard the discourses of many Christians. What, is it
not written in one of your books, 'Marriage is honourable, and the bed
undefiled'? and, 'It is better to marry than to burn'? and again,
'What God hath joined together, let not man put asunder'? Do not your
Scriptures teach that all the righteous men of old, patriarchs and
prophets, were wedded? Is it not written that the mighty Peter, whom
ye call Prince of the Apostles, was a married man? Who, then, hath
persuaded thee to call this defilement? Methink, sir, thou strayest
utterly away from the truth of your doctrines."

"Yea, Lady," said he, "all this is even as thou sayest. It is
permitted to all who will to live in wedlock, but not to them that have
once made promise to Christ to be virgins. For myself, ever since I
was cleansed in the laver of Holy Baptism from the sins of my youth and
ignorance, I have resolved to present myself pure to Christ, and how
shall I dare break my covenants with God?"

Again quoth the damsel, "Let this also be thy pleasure, as thou wilt.
But fulfil me one other small and trivial desire of mine, if thou art
in very truth minded for to save my soul. Keep company with me this
one night only, and grant me to revel in thy beauty, and do thou in
turn take thy fill of my comeliness. And I give thee my word, that,
with daybreak, I will become a Christian, and forsake all the worship
of my gods. Not only shalt thou be pardoned for this dealing, but thou
shalt receive recompense from thy God because of my salvation, for thy
Scripture saith, 'There is joy in heaven over one sinner that
repenteth.' If, therefore, there is joy in heaven over the conversion
of a sinner, shall not great recompense be due to the causer of that
conversion? Yea, so it is: and dispute it not. Did not even the
Apostles, the leaders of your religion, do many a thing by
dispensation, at times transgressing a commandment on account of a
greater one? Is not Paul said to have circumcised Timothy on account
of a greater dispensation? And yet circumcision hath been reckoned by
Christians as unlawful, but yet he did not decline so to do. And many
other such things shalt thou find in thy Scriptures. If then in very
sooth, as thou sayest, thou seekest to save my soul, fulfil me this my
small desire. And although I seek to be joi