Et si illic ubi Dominus per creaturam subditam hominibus loquebatur, tanta provisione est munditia corporis requisita, ut qui verba Dei perciperent mulieribus mixti non essent; quanto magis mulieres, quae corpus Domini omnipotentis accipiunt, custodire in se munditiam carnis debent, ne ipsa inaestimabilis mysterii magnitudine graventur? Hinc etiam ad David de pueris suis per sacerdotem dicitur, ut si a mulieribus mundi essent, panes propositionis acciperent, quos omnino non acciperent, nisi prius mundos eos David a mulieribus fateretur? Tunc autem vir qui post admixtionem coniugis lotus aqua fuerit, etiam sacrae communionis mysterium valet accipere, cum ei iuxta praefinitam sententiam etiam ecclesiam licuerit intrare.
And if the purity of the body was there so earnestly required, where the Lord by means of a creature made subject to Him did speak unto men, that they which should hear the words of God should be free from women; how much more the women which receive the body of the Almighty Lord shall seek to preserve in themselves the cleanness of the flesh, lest they may take hurt by the very greatness of that inestimable mystery. Hereof also it is said by the priest unto David as touching his servants, that, if they were clean from women, they should eat of the Shew Bread, which otherwise they should no way be suffered to take, except David would first say that they were clean from women. Then, moreover, the man who hath been washed with water after the carnal knowledge of his wife may also receive the mystery of the holy Communion, when according to the judgment before laid down he may come also to the church.
final_alignments\Bede_Ecclesiastical_Book1.json