ouls.
Whensoever he was addressed for the exposition of profound questions or
difficult cases, always, according to the custom of his lowliness, did
he answer: "I know not, God knoweth "; but when great necessity
compelled him to certify the word of his mouth, he always confirmed it
by attesting his Judge. So excellent was he in the spirit of prophecy
that he foretold divers future things even as if they were present;
things absent he well knew, and whatsoever fell from his lips, without
even the smallest doubt did that come to pass. So evidently did he
foretell of the saints which for an hundred years thereafter would be
born in Hibernia, but chiefly in Momonia and Conactia; that he showed
even their names, their characters, and the places of their dwelling.
Whomsoever he bound, them did the divine justice bind; whosoever he
loosed, them did the divine justice loose; with his right hand he
blessed, with his left hand he cursed; and whom he blessed, on them
came the blessing of the Lord; whom he cursed, on them came the
heavenly malediction; and the sentence which issued from his lips,
unshaken and fixed did it remain, even as had it gone forth of the
eternal judgment-seat. Whence doth it plainly appear, that this holy
man being faithful unto God, was with Him as one spirit. Yet though in
his manifold virtues he equalled or excelled all other saints, in the
virtue of lowliness did he excel even himself; for in his epistles he
was wont to mention himself as the lowest, the least, and the vilest of
all sinners; and little accounting the signs and the miracles which he
had wrought, he thought himself to be compared not to any perfect man;
and being but of small stature, he used often to call himself a dwarf.
And not seldom, after the manner of the Apostle Paul, he toiled with
manual labor, fishing, and tilling the ground; but chiefly in building
churches, to the which employment he much urged his disciples, both by
exhortation and example. Nevertheless, right earnestly did he apply
himself unto baptizing the people and ordaining the ministers of the
church. Three hundred bishops and fifty did he consecrate with his own
hand; seven hundred churches did he endow; five thousand clerical men
did he advance unto the priestly rank. But of the other ministers whom
he appointed unto the inferior orders, of the monks and the nuns whom
he dedicated unto the divine service, God alone knoweth the number.

CHAPTER CLXXXVI.