ough my own people do not acknowledge me: "A
prophet is without honor in his own country." Are we not from one
stock, and have we not one God for our Father? As He has said: "He
that is not with me is against me, and he that gathereth not with me
scattereth." Is it not agreed that one pulleth down and another
buildeth? I seek not my own.

Not to me be praise, but to God, who hath put into my heart this desire
that I should be one of the hunters and fishers whom, of old, God hath
announced should appear in the last days. I am reviled--what shall I
do, O Lord? I am greatly despised. Lo! thy sheep are torn around me,
and plundered by the above-mentioned robbers, aided by the soldiers of
Coroticus: the betrayers of Christians into the hands of the Picts and
Scots are far from the charity of God. Ravening wolves have scattered
the flock of the Lord, which, with the greatest diligence, was
increasing in Ireland; the sons of the Irish and the daughters of kings
who are monks and virgins of Christ are too many to enumerate.
Therefore the oppression of the great is not pleasing to thee now, and
never shall be.

Who of the saints would not dread to share in the feasts or amusements
of such persons? They fill their houses with the spoils of the
Christian dead, they live by rapine, they know not the poison, the
deadly food, which they present to their friends and children; as Eve
did not understand that she offered death to her husband, so are all
those who work evil: they labor to work out death and eternal
punishment.

It is the custom of the Christians of Rome and Gaul to send holy men to
the Franks and other nations, with many thousand solidi, to redeem
baptized captives. You who slay them, and sell them to foreign nations
ignorant of God, deliver the members of Christ, as it were, into a den
of wolves. What hope have you in God? Whoever agrees with you, or
commands you, God will judge him. I know not what I can say, or what I
can speak more of the departed sons of God slain cruelly by the sword.
It is written: "Weep with them that weep." And again: "If any member
suffers anything, all the members suffer with it." Therefore the
Church laments and bewails her sons and daughters, not slain by the
sword, but sent away to distant countries, where sin is more shameless
and abounds. There free-born Christian men are sold and enslaved
amongst the wicked, abandoned, and apostate Picts.

Therefore I cry out with gri