CHAPTER XXXVII

OF THE HARLOT WHOM A SUBDEACON DROVE OUT OF THE CHURCH

A CERTAIN old man said: There was a harlot who was so beautiful and so rich that all princes flocked unto her. One day she went into the church and desired to pass inside the gates, but a subdeacon who was standing at the door would not allow her to do so, and he said, “Thou art not allowed to enter into the house of God, because thou art an unclean woman.” Now whilst they were striving together, the Bishop heard the sound of the noise, and he went out to see [what was the matter]. And the harlot said unto him, “He would not permit me to go into the church,” and the Bishop said to her, “Thou art not permitted [to do so] because thou art unclean.” Then having repented within herself, she said, “I will never play the whore again.” And the Bishop said unto her, “If thou wilt strip thyself of all thy possessions, I shall know of a certainty that thou dost repent”; then she brought her possessions, and the Bishop took them, and divided them in the fear of God among the needy. And the woman went into the church, and wept and said, “If it hath happened to me thus in this world, what would have happened to me in the next?” And she repented, and became a chosen vessel.