And David struck them from the twilight even unto the evening of the next day: and there escaped not a man of them, except four hundred young men, who rode upon camels, and fled.
All Commentaries on 1 Samuel 30:17 Go To 1 Samuel 30
Bede
AD 735
It is a rule of the church to ask through its teachers about those who escape from the heretics and flee to it. They ask who they were before, what they thought about the faith, where they will travel in spirit in the future and when they recognized that they opposed the heresies with all their mind and began to approve of the catholic faith. Then, once they have been reconciled, the church applies to them the sacraments of the catholic faith. This procedure is followed so that they may not seem to cast what is holy to the dogs or pearls before swine. The church asks, “To whom did you listen and from what body of Christians or to which body of Christians did you arrange to come?” Whoever truly wishes to escape the snares of the heretics must answer, “I confess that I was concealed in sins, sold to the heretics as I listened to them. But my teacher abandoned me, after he had filled me with his errors. When the heretics were waging war against the church, my teacher saw that I was less suitable for this battle because of some defect in my tongue or talent. He did not want, moreover, to take me with him into such a great conflict, inasmuch as we had sallied forth from the south, that is, from the light, had promised that our doctrine was complete and vivifying through the breath of the Holy Spirit, had led not a few Gentiles into our sect and had disturbed the very faith of the church in large measure.”
