Bede : Responding Anna, No, my lord, she said, etc. The Church from the gentiles, responding, said, No, O priest of Judea, consider not burdened by sins she who has already been purified by the font of baptism and the participation of the sacred body and blood, having become the inner temple of Christ. For I delight in the law of God according to the inner man (Romans VII); nor am I any longer sinful, but yet I am your exceedingly unhappy servant; whom I justly call Lord, for you preceded me in a time of such ancient election. Who has delivered me from this body of death? The grace of God through Jesus Christ (Ibid.); at whose sacred feet I lay prostrate, pouring out my soul, melted by the fire of love, in the sight of His piety through tears. — Commentary on Samuel Bede : Do not consider your servant as one of the daughters of Belial, etc. Do not compare me to souls deceived by diabolical fraud; for I, doing penance from the heart for my sins, have renounced Satan and all his works and pomps: moreover, I have willingly accepted the very sweet yoke of Christ, which the proud one long ago cast off from his neck, for which he also deserved to be called Belial, meaning without yoke. — Commentary on Samuel Gregory the Dialogist : 34. As if to say: She who speaks to you of the goods of eternal life does not deserve to be despised as an idolater. She also asserts that she is His handmaid, so that he might recognize from the name of her ministry that she desires to serve him for eternal gains. It follows: "Because out of the multitude of my grief and sorrow I have spoken until now." As if she spoke more openly and said: Recognize from this that I have nothing from an evil spirit, because I come to speak out of much pain of persecution, and I do not abandon the urgency of preaching, conquered by no sufferings. The sorrow of Anna can also be referred to the affection of holy Church, and her grief to her passion. Indeed, she spoke out of the multitude of sorrow, she who brought forth the word of preaching to the perishing Jewish people out of the feeling of compassion. As Paul implies, saying: "I speak the truth in Christ Jesus, I do not lie, my conscience bearing witness to me in the Holy Spirit, that there is great sadness in me, and continual sorrow in my heart: I wished that I myself might be anathema from Christ for my brethren, who are my kinsmen according to the flesh, who are Israelites" (Rom. 9:1-2 ff.). But let him who implies that he speaks out of the multitude of sorrow say whether he speaks out of multitude: "From the Jews five times I received forty lashes minus one, three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned" (2 Cor. 11:24). But holy Church, patiently enduring adversities, humbly manifesting the virtue of her innocence and her truth, persuaded certain priests of Judea by speaking the good of her preaching. Therefore it is also added: ... — Commentary on 1 Kings, Book 1, Chapter 1