Beadsmen are they who intercede with God for us;
Soldiers are they who protect our towns,
and defend our soil against an invading army.
Now toils the field-labourer for our subsistence,
and the worldly warrior must fight against our enemies,
and the servant of God must always pray for us,
and fight spiritually against invisible enemies.
Greater therefore is now the struggle of the monks
against the invisible devils that lay snares around us,
than may be that of the worldly men that struggle against fleshly (foes),
and visibly fight against the visible (enemies).
Then the worldly soldiers ought not to the worldly battle
compel the servants of God, away from the spiritual struggle;
because it will profit them more that the invisible enemies
may be overcome than the visible ones;
and it will be very harmful that they leave their service of the Lord,
and incline to the worldly struggle, that in no way concerns them.
Julian, the Apostate and the cruel Caesar,
would compel priests to worldly strife,
and eke the holy monks, and commanded to bring them to prison.
Then was Apollonius, the Egyptian abbot,
locked in the prison with his believing brethren.
But God's angel came to him, to the prison, by night
with a heavenly light, and unlocked the prison.
Moreover the centurion that locked them therein
came early in the morning with a great multitude,
and said that his house fell suddenly with an earthquake,
