SS. Achathius and Pantaleon are not found in Jacobus de Voragine's
"Golden Legend." But below are the biographies of the twelve who are.
St. Barbara
Here beginneth the Life of S. Barbara.
In the time that Maximian reigned there was a rich man, a paynim, which
adored and worshipped the idols, which man was named Dioscorus. This
Dioscorus had a young daughter which was named Barbara, for whom he did
do make a high and strong tower in which he did do keep and close this
Barbara, to the end that no man should see her because of her great
beauty. Then came many princes unto the said Dioscorus for to treat
with him for the marriage of his daughter, which went anon unto her and
said: My daughter, certain princes be come to me which require me for
to have thee in marriage, wherefore tell to me thine entent and what
will ye have to do. Then S. Barbara returned all angry towards her
father and said: My father, I pray you that ye will not constrain me to
marry, for thereto I have no will ne thought. After this he departed
from her and went into the town where there was one making a cistern or
a piscine, for he had many workmen to perform this work, and also he
had tofore ordained how he should pay unto each of them their salary,
and after this he departed thence and went into a far country where he
long sojourned.
Then S. Barbara, the ancille of our Lord Jesu Christ, descended from
the tower for to come see the work of her father, and anon she
perceived that there were but two windows only, that one against the
south, and that other against the north, whereof she was much abashed
and amarvelled, and demanded of the workmen why they had not made no
more windows, and they answered that her father had so commanded and
ordained. Then S. Barbara said to them: Make me here another window;
they answered: Dame, we fear and dread to anger your father, which
commanded us to make no more ne we dare not therefore make no more. The
blessed maid said: Do and make that I command you, and I shall content
my father, and shall excuse you against him.
Then did they that she commanded to them, by of the manner that she
enseigned and showed them. When the holy S. Barbara walked and came
unto the cistern, she made with her finger toward the orient, a cross
with her thumb in the stone of marble, the which cross is there yet
unto this day, which every man may see that cometh thither by devotion.
And when she came unto the side whereas the water descended into the
said cistern, she blessed it, and made the sign of the cross, and
incontinent the water was hallowed, in which all they that were sick
received health, if they had perfect belief in God and in the blessed
maid. In this same cistern was this holy maid baptized of a holy man,
and lived there a certain space of time, in taking only for her
refection honeysuckles and locusts, following the holy precursor of our
Lord, S. John Baptist.
This cistern or piscine is semblable to the fountain of Siloe in which
he that was born blind recovered there his sight. It is also like to
the piscine named Robatyoa, in which the impotent by the word of God
was made whole. These piscines or pecines be fountains perpetual in
which all manner sick men, in whatsomever malady they were grieved or
tormented, that went therein received fully their health. In this
fountain is living water, and it is the water that the Samaritan
required of our Lord to have of the holy piscine.
On a time this blessed maid went upon the tower, and there she beheld
the idols to which her father sacrificed and worshipped, and suddenly
she received the Holy Ghost and became marvellously subtle and clear in
the love of Jesu Christ, for she was environed with the grace of God
Almighty, of sovereign glory and pure chastity. This holy maid Barbara,
adorned with faith, surmounted the devil, for when she beheld the idols
she scratched them in their visages in despising them all, and saying:
All they be made like unto you which have made you to err, and all them
that have affiance in you, and then she went into the tower and
worshipped our Lord. And when the work was full performed, her father
returned from his voyage, and when he saw there three windows, he
demanded of the workmen: Wherefore have ye made three windows? And they
answered: Your daughter hath commanded so. Then he made his daughter to
come afore him, and demanded her why she had do make three windows, and
she answered to him, and said: I have done them to be made because
three windows lighten all the world and all creatures, but two make
darkness. Then her father took her and went down into the piscine,
demanding her how three windows give more light than two. And S.
Barbara answered: These three fenestres or windows betoken clearly the
Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, the which be three persons and one
very God, on whom we ought to believe and worship. Then he being
replenished with furor, incontinent drew his sword to have slain her,
but the holy virgin made her prayer and then marvellously she was taken
in a stone and borne into a mountain on which two shepherds kept their
sheep, the which saw her fly. And then her father, which pursued after
her, went unto the shepherds and demanded after her. And that one,
which would have preserved her, said that he had not seen her, but that
other, which was an evil man, showed and pointed her with his finger,
whom the holy S. Barbara cursed, and anon his sheep became locusts, and
he consumed into a stone. And then her father took her by the hair and
drew her down from the mountain and shut her fast in prison, and made
her to be kept there by his servants unto the time that he had sent to
the judge for to deliver her to the torments. And when the judge was
advertised of the faith and belief of the maid he did her to be brought
tofore him. Her father went with her, accompanied with his servants
threatening her with his sword, and delivered her unto the judge, and
conjured him, by the puissance of his gods that, he should torment her
with horrible torments. Then sat the judge in judgment, and when he saw
the great beauty of S. Barbara, he said to her: Now choose whether ye
will spare yourself and offer to the gods, or else die by cruel
torments. S. Barbara answered to him: I offer myself to my God, Jesu
Christ, the which hath created heaven and earth and all other things,
and fie on your devils, which have mouths and cannot speak, they have
eyes, and cannot see, they have ears, and hear not, they have noses,
and smell not, they have hands, and may not feel, and they have feet,
and may not go, they that make them, be they made semblable to them,
and all they that have fiance and belief in them. Then became the judge
all wood and angry, and commanded to unclothe her and beat her with
sinews of bulls, and frot her flesh with salt, and when she had long
endured this, that her body was all bloody, the judge did do close her
in a prison unto the time that he had deliberated of what torments he
might make her die. And then at midnight descended a great light and
clearness into the prison in which our Lord showed him to her, saying:
Barbara, have confidence. and be firm and steadfast. for in heaven and
in the earth thou shalt have great joy for thy passion, therefore,
doubt not the judge, for I shall be with thee, and I shall deliver thee
from all thy pains that any shall make thee suffer, and incontinent she
was all whole. And then, when our Lord had said thus, he blessed her
and remounted into heaven. Then S. Barbara was greatly rejoiced by the
great comfort of our Lord. And on the morn, the judge commanded that
she should be brought tofore him, and when she was come he saw that her
wounds appeared not but she was all whole, and he said to her: Behold,
Barbara, the bounty of our gods, and how much they love thee, for they
have healed thy wounds. Then the blessed Barbara, martyr of Jesu
Christ, answered to the judge: Thy gods be semblable to thee, without
entendment how may they heal my wounds. They may not help themselves.
He that healed me is Jesu Christ, the Son of God, the which will not
have thee because thy heart is so indurate and hard with the devils.
Then the judge, replenished of ire, commanded that she should be hanged
between two forked trees, and that they should break her reins with
staves, and burn her sides with burning lamps, and after he made her
strongly to be beaten, and hurted her head with a mallet. Then S.
Barbara beheld and looked upward to heaven, saying: Jesu Christ, that
knowest the hearts of men, and knowest my thought, I beseech thee to
Ieave me not. Then commanded the judge to the hangman that he should
cut off with his sword her paps, and when they were cut off, the holy
saint looked again towards heaven, saying: Jesu Christ, turn not thy
visage from me. And when she had long endured this pain, the judge
comnnanded that she should be led with beating through the streets, and
the holy virgin the third time beheld the heaven, and said: Lord God,
that coverest heaven with clouds, I pray thee to cover my body, to the
end that it be not seen of the evil people.
And when she had made her prayer, our Lord came over her, and sent to
her an angel which clad her with a white vestment, and the knights led
her unto a town called Dallasion, and there the judge commanded to slay
her with the sword. And then her father all araged took her out of the
hands of the judge and led her up on a mountain, and S. Barbara
rejoiced her in hasting to receive the salary of her victory. And then
when she was drawn thither she made her orison, saying: Lord Jesu
Christ, which hast formed heaven and earth, I beseech thee to grant me
thy grace and hear my prayer, that all they that have memory of thy
name and my passion, I pray thee that thou wilt not remember their
sins, for thou knowest our fragility. Then came there a voice down from
heaven saying unto her: Come, my spouse Barbara, and rest in the
chamber of God my Father, which is in heaven, and I grant to thee that
thou hast required of me. And when this was said, she came to her
father and received the end of her martyrdom with S. Julian. But when
her father descended from the mountain, a fire from heaven descended on
him, and consumed him in such wise ehat there could not be found only
ashes of all his body. This blessed virgin S. Barbara received
martyrdom with S. Julian the second nones of December. A noble man
called Valentine buried the bodies of these two martyrs, and laid them
in a little town in which many miracles were showed in the louing and
glory of God Almighty. And S. Barbara, the holy martyr suffered passion
in the time of Maximian, emperor of Rome, and Marcian the judge. Whom
we pray and beseech to be our advocatrix unto Almighty God, that by her
merits he bring us after this short and transitory life into his glory
perdurable. Amen.
St. Blaise
Here followeth the Life of S. Blase, and first of his name.
Blase is as much to say as glosing, or it is said as belasius of bela,
which is habit,and syor, which is to say, little. And thus he is said
glosing by the sweetness of his word,meek by his habit of virtues, and
little by humility of manners and of conversation.
S. Blase was so sweet, holy and humble in manners, that the christian
men of Cappadocia of the city of Sebaste chose him to be a bishop. The
which when he was bishop saw that Diocletian the emperor made so many
persecutions to christian men that S. Blase sought and would dwell in
an hermitage in a ditch, in which place the birds of heaven brought to
him meat for to eat. And it seemed to him that they came to serve him
and accompany him, and would not depart from him till he had lift up
his hands and blessed them. And also sick men came to him and anon were
cured and healed. Now it happed that the prince of this region sent his
knights to hunt, and they could take nothing. But by adventure they
came unto the desert place where S. Blase was, where they found great
multitude of beasts which were about him, of whom they could take none,
whereof they were all abashed and showed this to their lord, the which
anon sent many knights for him, and commanded to bring him and all the
christian men with him. And that night Jesu Christ appeared to him
thrice, which said to him: Arise up and make to me sacrifice. Lo! here
be the knights that come to fetch thee at the commandment of the
prince. And the knights said to him: Come out from this place, the
president calleth thee. And S. Blase answered: My sons, ye be welcome,
I see now well that God hath not forgotten me. He went with them and
continually preached, and did many miracles tofore them.
There was a woman that had a son dying, in whose throat was a bone of a
fish athwart, which estrangled him, and she brought him tofore his
feet, praying him that he would make her son whole. And S. Blase put
his hand upon him and made his prayer to God that this child, and all
they that demanded benefits of health in his name, that they should be
holpen and obtain it, and anon he was whole and guerished.
Another woman there was that was poor which had a swine, which the wolf
had borne away, and she humbly prayed to S. Blase that she might have
again her swine. And he began to smile and said: Good woman anger thee
not, for thou shalt have again thy swine, and anon the wolf brought
again to the woman, which was a widow, her swine.
And anon after he was entered into the city, the prince commanded to
put him in prison, and after another day he made him to come tofore
him, whom he saluted by fair words, saying to him: Be thou joyful,
Blase, the friend of God. S. Blase answered to him: Be thou joyous
right good prince, but call not them gods whom thou worshippest, but
fiends, for they be delivered to fire perdurable with them that serve
and worship them. Then was the prince much wroth, and made to beat S.
Blase with staves, and after to put him in prison. Then said S. Blase:
O mad man, weenest thou by thy torments and pains to take away from me
the love of my God whom I have with me and is my helper? And when this
good widow, which by S. Blase had recovered her swine, heard thereof,
she slew it, and the head and the feet with a little bread and a
candle, she brought to S. Blase, and he thanked God and ate thereof,
and he said to her that every year she should offer in his church a
candle, and know thou that to thee and to all them that so shall do
shall well happen to them, and so she did all her life, and she had
much great prosperity. After this that the right cruel prince had
brought him tofore his gods, and in no wise might make him incline for
to adore to their gods, he made him to be hanged on a gibbet, and his
body to be torn with combs of iron, and this done he was remitted again
to prison. And there were seven women that siewed him, which gathered
up the drops of his blood, which women anon were taken, and constrained
to sacrifice to their gods. The which said: If thou wilt that we
worship thy gods, and that we do to them reverence, send them to the
water for to wash and make clean their visages, to the end that we may
more cleanlier worship them. Then the prince was right glad and joyous,
and anon sent them to the water, and the women took them and threw them
in the middle of the stagne or pond, and said: Now shall we see if they
be gods. And when the prince heard this he was out of his wit for
anger, and smote himself all wroth saying: Wherefore retained not ye
our gods that they should not have thrown them in the bottom of the
water? The ministers answered:Thou spakest shrewdly to the women, and
they cast them into the water. To whom the women said: The very God may
not suffer iniquity ne falseness, for if they had been very gods they
had well eschewed that they had not been thrown there, and had seen
what we would have done. Then the tyrant became wroth and did do make
ready lead molten and iron combs, and seven coats of iron burning as
hot as fire on that one side, and that other he did do bring smocks of
linen cloth and said to them that they should choose which they would.
And one of them that had two small children ran hardily and took the
smocks of linen cloth and threw them in the furnace for to go after
herself if she had failed. And the children said to the mother, leave
us not after thee, but right sweet mother, like as thou hast nourished
us with thy milk so replenish us with the realm of heaven. Then the
tyrant did do hang them, and with hooks and crochets of iron did do
tear their flesh and all to-rent it. Of whom the flesh was as white as
snow, and for blood they gave out milk. And as they suffered these
great torments the angel of God descended from heaven and comforted
them, and said to them: Have ye no dread, the worker is good that well
beginneth and well endeth, and who deserveth good reward shall have
joy, and for his work complete he shall have his merit, and for labour
he shall have rest, and that shall be the reward. Then the tyrant did
do take them down and did do throw them into the burning furnace, which
women, by the grace of God issued without taking harm, and the fire was
extinct and quenched. And the tyrant said to them, now leave ye your
art of enchantment and adore ye our gods. And they answered: Do that
thou hast begun, for we be now called to the kingdom of heaven. Then he
commanded that they should be beheaded; and when they should be
beheaded they began to adore God kneeling on their knees, saying: Lord
God which hast departed us from darknesses, and in to this right sweet
light hast brought us, and of us hast made thy sacrifice, receive our
souls, and make us to come to the life perdurable, and thus had they
their heads smitten off, and sith their souls went to heaven. After
this the prince made S. Blase to be brought before him, and said to
him: Hast thou now worshipped our gods or not? S. Blase answered: Right
cruel man I have no dread of thy menaces, do what thou wilt, I deliver
to thee my body whole. Then he took him and did him to be cast in to a
pond, and anon he blessed the water and the water dried all away, and
so he abode there safe. And then S. Blase said to him, If your gods be
very and true gods, let them now show their virtue and might and enter
ye hither. Then there entered into it sixty-five persons, and anon they
were drowned. And an angel descended from heaven, and said to S. Blase:
Blase go out of this water and receive the crown that is made ready of
God for thee. And when he was issued out of the pond the tyrant said to
him: Thou hast determined in all manners not for to adore our gods. To
whom S. Blase said: Poor caitiff, know thou that I am servant of God,
and I adore not the fiends as ye do. And anon then the tyrant did do
smite off his head, and S. Blase prayed to our Lord tofore his death
that whosoever desired his help from the infirmity of the throat, or
required aid for any other sickness or infirmity, that he would hear
him, and might deserve to be guerished and healed. And there came a
voice from heaven to him saying that his petition was granted and
should be done as he had prayed. And so then with the two little
children he was beheaded about the year of our Lord three hundred and
eighty seven.
St. Catherine of
Alexandria
Here followeth the Life of S. Katherine, virgin and martyr, and first
of her name.
Katherine is said of catha, that is all, and ruina that is falling, for
all the edifice of the devil fell all from her. For the edifice of
pride fell from her by humility that she had, and the edifice of
fleshly desire fell from her by her virginity, and worldly covetise,
for that she despised all worldly things. Or Katherine may be said as,
a little chain, for she made a chain of good works by which she mounted
into heaven, and this chain or ladder had four grees or steps which be:
innocence of work, cleanness of body, despising of vanity and saying of
truth, which the prophet putteth by order where he saith: Quis ascendet
in montem domini? Innocens manibus. Who shall ascend into the mountain
of our Lord? that is heaven, and he answereth: The innocent of his
hands, he that is clean in his heart, he that hath not taken in vain
his soul, and he that hath not sworn in fraud and deceit to his
neighbour. And it appeareth in her legend how these four degrees were
in her.
Katherine, by descent of line, was of the noble lineage of the emperors
of Rome as it shall be declared more plainly hereafter by a notable
chronicle, whose most blessed life and conversation wrote the solemn
doctor Athanasius, which knew her lineage and her life, for he was one
of her masters in her tender age ere she was converted to the christian
faith. And after, the said Athanasius, by her preaching and marvellous
work of our Lord, was converted also, which, after her martyrdom, was
made bishop of Alexandria, and a glorious pillar of the church by the
grace of God and merits of S. Katherine.
And as we find by credible chronicles, in the time of Diocletian and
Maximian was great and cruel tyranny showed in all the world, as well
to christian men as to paynims, so that many that were subject to Rome
put away the yoke of servage and rebelled openly against the empire.
Among whom the realm of Armenia was one that withstood most the tribute
of the Romans, wherefore they of Rome deputed a noble man of dignity
named Constantius, which was tofore others a valiant man in arms,
discreet and virtuous. The which lord, after he came in to Armenia,
anon subdued them by his discreet prudence, and deserved to have the
love and favour of his enemies, in so much that he was desired to marry
the daughter of the king which was sole heir of the realm, and he
consented and married her. And soon after the king her father died, and
then Constantius was enhanced and crowned king, which soon after had a
son by his wife named Costus, at the birth of whom his mother died.
After the death of whom Constantius returned to Rome to see the
emperor, and to know how his lordships were governed in those parts,
and in the meantime tidings came to Rome how that Great Britain, which
now is called England, rebelled against the empire. Wherefore, by the
advice of the consulate, it was concluded that Constantius, king of
Armenia, should go into Britain to subdue them; which addressed him
thither, and in short time after he entered into the land, by his
prowess and wisdom he appeased the realm and subdued it again to the
empire of Rome. And also he was so acceptable to the king of Britain,
named Coel, that he married his daughter Helen, which afterward found
the holy cross, and in short time he gat on her Constantine, which
after was emperor. And then soon after died Constantius. And
Constantine, after the death of King Coel, by his mother was crowned
king of Britain. And Costus, the first son of Constantius, wedded the
king's daughter of Cyprus, which was heir, of whom, as shall be
hereafter said, was engendered S. Katherine, which came of the lineage
of Constantius.
Now followeth the Life of S. Katherine.
In the year of our Lord two hundred, reigned in Cyprus a noble and
prudent king named Costus, which was a noble and seemly man, rich and
of good conditions, and had to his wife a queen like to himself in
virtuous governance, which lived together prosperously, but after the
law of paynims, and worshipped idols. This king, because he loved
renomee and would have his name spread through the world, he founded a
city in which he edified a temple of his false gods, and named that
city after his name Costi, which after, to increase his fame, the
people named it Fama Costi, and yet unto this day is called Famagosta;
in which city he and the queen lived in great wealth and prosperity.
And like as the fair rose springeth among the briars and thorns, right
so between these two paynims was brought forth this blessed S.
Katherine. And when this holy virgin was born she was so fair of visage
and so well formed Katherine in her members that all the people enjoyed
in her beauty, and when she came to seven years of age,anon after she
was set to school, where she profited much more than any other of her
age, and was informed in the arts liberal, wherein she drank
plenteously of the well of wisdom, for she was chosen to be a teacher
and informer of everlasting wisdom. The king Costus her father had so
great joy of the great towardness and wisdom of his daughter, that he
let ordain a tower in his palace, with divers studies and chambers, in
which she might be at her pleasure and also at her will, and also he
ordained for to wait on her seven the best masters and wisest in
conning that might be gotten in those parts. And within a while they
that came to teach her, they after that, learned of her and became her
disciples.
And when this virgin came to the age of fourteen years, her father kIng
Costus died, and then she was left as queen and heir after him, and
then the estates of the land came to this young lady, Katherine, and
desired her to make a parliament in which she might be crowned and
receive the homage of her subjects, and that such rule might be set in
her beginning, that peace and prospenty might ensue in her realm. And
this young maid granted to them their asking. And when the parliament
was assembled and the young queen crowned with great solemnity, and she
sitting on a day in her parliament, and her mother by her, with all the
lords each in his place, a lord arose by the assent of her mother, the
other lords, and the commons, and kneeled down tofore her, saying these
words: Right high and mighty princess, and our most sovereign lady,
please if you to wit that I am commanded by the queen your mother, by
all the lords and commons of this your realm, to require your highness
that it may please you to grant to them that they might provide some
noble knight or prince to marry you, to the end that he might rule and
defend your realm and subjects, like as your father did before you, and
also that of you might proceed noble lineage which after you may reign
upon us, which thing we most desire, and hereof we desire your good
answer. This young queen Katherine, hearing this request, was abashed
and troubled in her courage how she might answer to content her mother,
the lords, and her subjects, and to keep herself chaste, for she had
concluded to keep her virginity, and rather to suffer death than to
defile it. And then with a sad cheer and meek look she answered in this
wise: Cousin, I have well understood your request, and thank my mother,
the lords, and my subjects of the great love that they all have to me
and to my realm, and as touching my marriage, I trust verily there may
be no peril, considering the great wisdom of my lady my mother, and of
the lords, with the good obeisance of the commons, trusting in their
good continuance. Wherefore we need not to seek a stranger for to rule
us and our realm, for with your good assistance and aid we hope to
rule, govern, and keep this our realm in good justice, peace, and rest,
in like wise as the king my father held you in. Wherefore at this time
I pray you to be content and to cease of this matter, and let us
proceed to such matters as be requisite for the rule, governance and
universal weal of this realm. And when this young queen Katherine had
achieved her answer, the queen her mother, and all the lords, were
abashed of her of words and wist not what to say, for they considered
well by her words that she had no will to be married. And then there
arose and stood up a duke, which was her uncle, and with due reverence
said to her in this wise: My sovereign lady, saving your high and noble
discretion, this answer is full heavy to my lady your mother, and to us
all your humble liegemen, without ye take better advice to your noble
courage. Wherefore I shall move to you of four notable things that the
great God hath endowed you with before all other creatures that we
know, which things ought to cause you to take a lord to your husband,
to the end that the plenteous gifts of nature and grace may spring of
you by generation, which may succeed by right line to reign upon us, to
the great comfort and joy of all your people and subjects, and the
contrary should turn to great sorrow and heaviness. Now, good uncle,
said she, what be these four notable things that so ye repute in us?
Madame, said he, the first is this, that we be ascertained that ye be
come of the most noble blood in the world. The second, that ye be a
great inheritor, and the greatest that liveth of woman to our
knowledge. The third is, that ye in science, conning, and wisdom pass
all other, and the fourth is, in bodily shape and beauty there is none
like to you. Wherefore, madame, us think that these four notable things
must needs constrain you to incline to our request. Then said this
young Queen Katherine with a sad countenance: Now, uncle, sith God and
nature have wrought so great virtues in us, we be so much more bound to
love and to please him, and we thank him humbly of his great and large
gifts. But sith ye desire so much that we should consent to be married,
we let you plainly wit that like as ye have described us, so will we
describe him that we will have to Katherine our lord and husband, and
if ye can get such an one we will agree to take him with all our heart.
For he that shall be lord of mine heart and mine husband shall have the
four notable things in him over all measure; so farforthly that all
creatures shall have need of him, and he needeth of none. And he that
shall be my lord must be of so noble blood that all men shall do to him
worship, and therewith so great a lord that I shall never think that I
made him a king, and so rich that he pass all others in riches. And so
full of beauty that angels have joy to behold him, and so pure that his
mother be a virgin. And so meek and benign that he can gladly forgive
all offences done unto him. Now I have described to you him that I will
have and desire to my lord and to my husband, go ye and seek him, and
if ye can find such an one, I will be his wife with all mine heart, if
he vouchsafe to have me. And finally, but if ye find such an one I
shall never take none, and take this for a final answer. And with this
she cast down her eyes meekly and held her still. And when the queen
her mother and the lords heard this, they made great sorrow and
heaviness, for they saw well that there was no remedy in that matter.
Then said her mother to her with an angry voice: Alas, daughter, is
this your great wisdom that is talked so far? Much sorrow be ye like to
do me and all yours. Alas! who saw ever woman forge to her such a
husband with such virtues as ye do? For such one as ye have devised,
there was never none, ne never shall be, and therefore, daughter, Ieave
this folly, and do as your noble elders have done tofore you. And then
said this young Queen Katherine unto her mother, with a piteous
sighing: Madam, I wot well by very reason that there is one much better
than I can devise him, and but be by his grace find me, I shall never
have joy. For I feel by great reason that there is a way that we be
clean out of, and we be in darkness, and till the light of grace come
we may not see the clear way, and when it pleaseth him to come he shall
avoid all darkness of the clouds of ignorance, and show him clearly to
me whom my heart so fervently desireth and loveth. And if it so be that
he list not that I find him, yet reason commandeth me to keep whole
that is unhurt, wherefore I beseech you meekly, my lady mother, that ye
ne none other move me more of this matter, for I promise you plainly
that for to die therefore I shall never have other husband but only him
that I have described, to whom I shall truly keep me with all the pure
love of mine heart. And with this she arose, and her mother and all the
lords of the parliament, with great sorrow and lamentation, and taking
their leave, departed. And this noble young Katherine went to her
palace, whose heart was set afire upon this husband that she had
devised, that she could do nothing, but all her mind and intent was set
on him, and continually mused how she might find him, but she could not
find the means, how well he was nigh to her heart that she sought. For
he had kindled a burning love which could never after be quenched for
no pain ne tribulation, as it appeared in her passion.
But now I leave this young queen in her contemplation, and shall say
you as far as God will give me grace, how that our Lord by his special
miracle, called her unto baptism in a special manner, such as hath not
been heard of before ne sith, and also how she was visibly married to
our Lord, in showing to her sovereign tokens of singular love. Then,
beside Alexandria, a certain space of miles, dwelled a holy father, a
hermit in desert named Adrian, which had served our Lord continually by
the space of thirty years in great penance. And on a day as he walked
before his cell being in his holy meditations, there came against him
the most reverent lady that ever any earthly creature might behold, and
when this holy man beheld her high estate and excellent beauty, which
was above nature, he was sore abashed and so much astonished, that he
fell down as he had been dead. Then this blessed lady, seeing this,
called him by his name goodly and said: Brother Adrian, dread ye
nothing, for I am come to you for your good honour and profit. And with
that she took him up meekly, comforting him, and said in this wise:
Adrian, ye must go in a message for me into the city of Alexandria, and
to the palace of the queen Katherine, and say to her that the lady
saluteth her whose son she hath chosen to her lord and husband, sitting
in her parliament with her mother and lords about her, where she had a
great confiict and battle to keep her virginity, and say to her that
this same lord whom she chose is my son, that am a pure virgin, and he
desireth her beauty and loveth her chastity among all the virgins on
the earth. I command her, without tarrying, that she come with thee
alone unto this palace, whereas she shall be new clothed, and then
shall she see him, and have him to her everlasting spouse. Then Adrian
hearing this said dreadfully in this wise: Ah! blessed lady, how shall
I do this message? for I know not the city ne the way thither, and who
am I, though I knew it, to do such a message to the queen? For her
meiny will not suffer me to come to her presence, and though I come to
her she will not believe me, but put me in duresse as I were a faitour.
Adrian, said this blessed lady, dread ye not, for that my son hath
begun in her must be performed, for she is a chosen vessel of special
grace before all women that live, but go forth and ye shall find no
letting, and enter into her chamber, for the angel of my lord shall
lead you thither, and bring you both hither safely. Then he, meekly
obeying, went forth into Alexandria and entered into the palace, and
found doors and closures opening against him, and so passed from
chamber to chamber till he came into her secret study, whereas none
came but herself alone. And there he found her in her holy
contemplation, and did to her his message like as ye have heard,
according to his charge. And when this blessed virgin Katherine had
heard his message and understood by certain tokens that he came for to
fetch her to him whom she so fervently desired, anon she arose
forgetting her estate and meiny, and followed this old man through her
palace and the city of Alexandria, unknown of any person, and so into
desert. In which way as they walked she demanded of him many a high
question, and he answered to her sufficiently in all her demands and
informed her in the faith, and she benignly received his doctrine.
And as they thus went in the desert this holy man nad lost his way, and
wist not where he was and was all confused in himself, and said
secretly: Alas I fear me I am deceived, and that this be an illusion.
Alas! shall this virgin here be perished among these wild beasts? Now
blessed Iady, help me that almost am in despair, and save this maiden
that hath forsa':en for your love all that she had, and hath obeyed
your commandment. And as he thus sorrowed, the blessed virgin Katherine
apperceived and demanded him what him ailed, and why he sorrowed, and
he said: For you, because I cannot find my cell, ne wot not where I am.
Father, said she, dread ye not, for trust ye verily, that that good
lady which sent you for me, shall not suffer us to perish in this
wilderness, and then she said to him: What monastery is yonder that I
see, which is so rich and fair to behold? And he demanded of her where
she saw it, and she said: Yonder in the east, and then he wiped his
eyes and saw the most glorious monastery that ever he saw, whereof he
was full of joy, and said to her: Now blessed be God that hath endowed
you with so perfect faith, for there is that place wherein ye shall
receive so great worship and joy, that there was never none like, save
only our blessed Lady, Christ's own mother, queen of all queens. Now,
good Father Adrian, hie you fast that we were there, for there is all
my desire and joy. And soon after they approached that glorious place,
and when they came to the gate, there met them a glorious company, all
clothed in white and with chaplets of white lilies on their heads,
whose beauty was so great and bright that the virgin Katherine ne the
old man might not behold them, but all ravished fell down in great
dread. Then one more excellent than another spake first, and said to
this virgin: Katherine, stand up our dear sister, for ye be right
welcome, and led her farther in till they came to the second gate where
another more glorious company they came to the second gate where
another more glorious company met her, all clothed in purple, with
fresh chaplets of red roses on their heads. And the holy virgin seeing
them, fell down for reverence and dread, and they, benignly comforting
her, took her up and said to her: Dread ye nothing, our dear sister,
for there was never none more heartily welcome to our sovereign lord
than ye be, and to us all, for ye shall receive our clothing ard our
crown with so great honour, that all saints shall joy in you; Come
forth, for the Lord abideth desiring you. And then this blessed virgin
Katherine with trembling joy passed forth with them, like as she that
was ravished with so marvellous joy that she could not speak, and when
she was entered into the body of the church she heard a melody of
marvellous sweetness, which passed all hearts to think it, and there
they beheld a royal queen standing in her estate with a great multitude
of angels and saints, whose beauty and riches might no heart think, ne
no pen write, for it exceedeth every man's mind. Then the noble company
of martyrs with the fellowship of virgins, which led the virgin
Katherine, fell down flat tofore this royal empress with sovereign
reverence, saying in this wise: Our most sovereign Lady Queen of
heaven, Lady of all the world, Empress of hell, Mother of Almighty God,
King of bliss, to whose commandment obey all heavenly creatures and
earthly, liketh it you that we here present to you our dear sister,
whose name is written in the Book of Life, beseeching your benign grace
to receive her as your daughter chosen and humble handmaid, for to
accomplish the work which our blessed Lord hath begun in her. And with
that our blessed Lady said: Bring ye my daughter and when the holy
virgin heard our Lady speak, she was so much replenished with heavenly
joy that she lay as she had been dead. Then the holy company took her
up and brought her tofore our blessed Lady, to whom she said: My dear
daughter ye be welcome to me, and ye be strong and of good comfort, for
ye be specially chosen of my son to be honoured. Remember ye not how
sitting in your parliament ye described to you a husband, whereas ye
had a great conflict and battle in defending your chastity? And then
this holy Katherine kneeling with most humble reverence and dread said:
O most blessed Lady; blessed be ye among all women; I remember how I
chose that Lord which then was full far from my knowledge, but now
blessed Lady, by his mighty mercy and your special grace he hath opened
the eyes of my blind conscience and ignorance, so that now I see the
clear way of truth, and humbly beseech you most blessed Lady, that I
may have him whom my heart loveth and desireth above all things,
without whom I may not live. And with these words her spirits were so
fast closed that she lay as she had been dead, and then our Lady in
conforting her said: My dear daughter, it shall be as ye desire, but
yet ye lack one thing that ye must receive ere ye come to the presence
of my son; ye must be clothed with the sacrament of baptism, wherefore
come on my daughter for all things are provided. For there was a font
solemnly apparelled with all things requisite unto baptism.
And then our blessed Lady called Adrian the old father to her and said:
Brother, this office longeth to you for ye be a priest, therefore
baptize ye my daughter but change not her name, for Katherine shall she
be named and I shall be her godmother. And then this holy man Adrian
baptized her, and after, our Lady said to her: Now mine own daughter be
glad and joyful, for ye lack no thing that longeth to the wife of a
heavenly spouse, and now I shall bring you to my Lord my son which
abideth for you. And so our Lady led her forth unto the quire door
whereas she saw our Saviour Jesu Christ with a great multitude of
angels, whose beauty is impossible to be thought or written of earthly
creature, of whose sight this blessed virgin was I fulfilled with so
great sweetness that it cannot be expressed. To whom our blessed Lady
benignly said: Most sovereign honour, joy and glory be to you, King of
bliss, my Lord, my God and my son, Lo! I have brought here unto your
blessed presence your humble servant and ancille Katherine, which for
your love hath refused all earthly things, and hath at my sending
obeyed to come hither, hoping and trusting to receive that I promised
to her. Then our Blessed Lord took up, his mother and said: Mother,
that which pleaseth you, pleaseth me, and your desire is mine, for I
desire that she be knit to me by marriage among all the virgins of the
earth. And said to her Katherine, come hither to me. And as soon as she
heard him name her name, so great a sweetness entered into her soul
that she was all ravished, and therewith our Lord gave to her a new
strength which passed nature, and said to her: Come my spouse, and give
to me your hand. And there our Lord espoused her in joining himself to
her by spiritual marriage, promising ever to keep her in all her life
in this world, and after this life to reign perpetually in his bliss,
and in token of this set a ring on her finger, which he commanded her
to keep in remembrance of this, and said: Dread ye not, my dear spouse,
I shall not depart from you, but always comfort and strengthen you.
Then said this new spouse: O blessed Lord, I thank you with all mine
heart of all your great mercies, beseeching you to make me digne and
worthy to be thy servant and handmaid, and to please you whom my heart
loveth and desireth above all things. And thus this glorious marriage
was made, whereof all the celestial court joyed and sang this verse in
heaven: Sponsus amat sponsam, salvator visitat illam, with so great
melody that no heart may express ne think it.
This was a glorious and singular marriage to which was never none like
before in earth, wherefore this glorious virgin, Katherine, ought to be
honoured, lauded, and praised among all the virgins that ever were in
earth. And then our blessed Lord, after this marriage, said unto the
blessed Katherine: Now the time is come that I must depart into the
place that I came from, wherefore what that ye will desire I am ready
to grant to you, and after my departing ye must abide here with old
Adrian ten days, till ye be perfectly informed in all my laws and will.
And when ye shall be come home ye shall find your mother dead, but
dread ye not, for ye were never missed there in all this time, for I
have ordained there one in your stead, that all men ween it were
yourself, and when ye come home, she that is there in your stead shall
void. Now fare well, my dear spouse. And then she cried with a full
piteous voice: Ah! my sovereign Lord God and all the joy of my soul,
have ye ever mine on me. And with that he blessed her and vanished away
from her sight. And then for sorrow of his departing she fell in a
swoon so that she lay still a large hour without any life, and then was
Adrian a sorry man, and cried upon her so long that at the last she
came to herself and revived and lift up her eyes and saw nothing about
her save an old cell, and the old man Adrian by her, weeping. For all
the royalty was voided, both monastery and palace, and all the
comfortable sights that she had seen, and specially he which was cause
of all her joy and comfort; and then she sorrowed, l mourned, and wept
unto the time that she saw the ring on her finger, and for joy thereof
yet she swooned, and after she kissed it a thousand sithes with many a
piteous tear, and then Adrian comforted her the best wise he could with
many a blessed exhortation. And the blessed virgin Katherine took all
his comforts and obeyed him as to her father, and dwelled with him the
time that our Lord had assigned her till she was sufficiently taught
all that was needful to her. And then she went home to her palace and
governed her holily in converting many creatures to the christian faith
of Jesu Christ, on whom all her joy was wholly set, and ever he was in
her mind, and so dwelled still in her palace, never idle, but ever
continued in the service of our Lord, full of charity, where awhile I
let her dwell fulfilled of virtues and grace, as the dear and singular
spouse of Almighty God.
And then in this meantime Maxentius, that was then emperor, and vicious
to God's law and cruel tyrant, considered the noble and royal city of
Alexandria, and came thither and assembled all the people, rich and
poor, for to make sacrifice to the idols, and the christian men that
would not make sacrifice he let slay. And this holy virgin was at that
time eighteen years of age, dwelling in her palace full of riches and
of servants, alone, without parents and kin, and heard the braying and
noise of beasts, and the joy that they made and sung, and marvelled
what it might be, and sent one of her servants hastily to inquire what
it was. And when she knew it, she took some of the people of her palace
and garnished her with the sign oi the cross and went thither, and
found there many christian men to be led to do sacrifice for fear of
death. Then was she strongly troubled for sorrow, and went forth
hardily to the emperor, and said in this wise: The dignity of thine
order and the way of reason have moved me to salute thee, if thou know
the creator and maker of heaven, and wouldst revoke thy courage from
the worshipping of false gods. And then she disputed of many things
with Cæsar tofore the gates of the temple. And then she began to say: I
have set my cure to say these things to thee as to a wise man,
wherefore hast thou now assembled this multitude of people thus in vain
for to adore the folly of the idols. Hast thou marvel of this temple
that is made with man's hands? Wonderest thou on the precious ornaments
which be as dust tofore the wind? Thou shouldst rather marvel thee of
heaven, and of the earth, and of all the things that be therein, and of
the sun, the moon, the stars, and of the planets that have been since
the beginning of the world, and shall be as long as it shall please
God; and marvel thee of the ornaments of heaven, that is to say, the
sun, moon, stars, and planets, how they move from the orient to the
occident and never be weary, and when thou shalt have knowledge of all
these things, and hast apperceived it, demand after, who is most
mightyof all, and when thou knowest him that is sovereign and maker of
all things, to whom none is semblable ne like, then adore him and
glorify, for he is God of gods, and Lord of lords. And when she had
disputed of many things of the Incarnation of the Son of God much
wisely, the emperor was much abashed and could not answer to her, but
at the last when he was come to himself, he said to her: O thou woman,
suffer us to finish our sacrifice, and after, we shall give thee an
answer. Then commanded he that she should be led to his palace and to
be kept with great diligence, and marvelled much of her great prudence
and of her great beauty, for she was right fair to behold, unto the
people. And after this the emperor came to the palace, and said to
Katherine: We have heard thy fair speech and be marvellously abashed of
thy wisdom, but we be so occupied in the sacrifices that we may not
entend to understand all things. And we demand thee, first, of what
lineage art thou? And the holy virgin Katherine said: Praise not
thyself over much, ne blame thyself also, for so do fools that travail
in vain glory. Nevertheless, I shall acknowledge to thee my lineage,
not for any avaunting but by humility. I am Katherine, daughter of
Costus the king, and howbeit that I was born in purple, and am informed
in the arts liberal, yet have I despised all things and have given me
wholly to our Lord Jesu Christ, and the gods that thou worshippest may
not help thee ne none other. O ye cursed adorers of such gods, for when
they be called in need they help not, in tribulation they succour not,
and in perils they defend not. And the king said: If it be so as thou
sayest, all the earth erreth and thou only sayest truth, and every word
ought to be confirmed by the mouth of two or three witnesses. If thou
wert an angel or a celestial virtue, yet thou oughtest not to be
believed when thou art but one frail woman. To whom she said: O
emperor, I beseech thee be not overcome with woodness, for in the
courage of a wise man is no trouble, for the wise man saith: If thou
governest thyself by good courage thou shalt be a king, and if thou
governest thee otherwise thou shalt be a servant. And thou, as I see,
ordainest to embrace us in thy mortal subtlety when thou labourest to
draw us by the ensamples of the philosophers.
And when the emperor saw that in no manner he could resist her wisdom,
he sent secretly by letters for all the great grammarians and
rhetoricians that they should come hastily to his pretorium to
Alexandria, and he should give to them great gifts if they might
surmount a maiden well bespoken. And then were there brought from
divers provinces fifty masters which surmounted all mortal men in
worldly wisdom. And then demanded they for what cause they were called
from so far parts, and the emperor answered and said: We have a maiden,
none comparable to her in wit and wisdom, which confoundeth all wise
men, and she saith that our gods be devils, and if ye surmount them by
honour I shall send you again into your country with joy. And one of
them had hereof despite, and said by disdain: This is a worthy counsel
of an emperor, that for one maid, young and frail, he hath done
assemble so many sages, and from so far countries, and one of our
clerks or scholars may overcome her. And the king said to them: I may
well by strength constrain her to sacrifice, but I had liefer that she
were overcome by your arguments.
Then said they: Let her be brought tofore us, and when she shall be
overcome by folly she may know that she never saw wise man. And when
the virgin knew the strife of the disputation that she abode, she
commended her all unto our Lord, and an angel came to her and said that
she should keep her firmly for she should not be vanquished, but she
should surmount them and send them to martyrdom. And when she was
brought tofore the masters and orators she said to the emperor: What
judgment is this to set fifty orators and masters against one maid, and
to promise to them great rewards for their victory, and compellest me
to dispute with them without hope of any reward? And God Jesu Christ,
which is very guerdon of them that strive for him, shall be only with
me, and he shall be my reward, for he is the hope and crown of them
that fight for him. And when the masters had said that it was
impossible that God was made man, ne that he had suffered death, the
virgin showed to them that the paynims had said it tofore that he was
made. For Plato said God to be all round and to be slain, and Sibyl
said thus, that the ilke God should be blessed and happy that should
hang on the cross. And when the virgin right wisely disputed with the
masters, and that she had confounded their gods by open reasons, they
were abashed and wist not what to say, but were all still. And the
emperor was replenished with felony against them, and began to blame
them because they were overcome so foully of one maid. And then one
that was master above all the others said to the emperor: Know thou,
sir emperor, that never was there any that might stand against us but
that anon he was overcome. But this maid in whom the spirit of God
speaketh hath so converted us that we cannot say anything against Jesu
Christ, ne we may not, ne dare not. Wherefore, sir emperor, we
acknowledge that but if thou mayest bring forth a more provable
sentence of them that we have worshipped hitherto, that all we be
converted to Jesu Christ. And when the tyrant heard this thing he was
esprised with great woodness, and commanded that they all should be
burnt in the midst of the city. And the holy virgin comforted them and
made them constant to martyrdom, and informed them diligently in the
faith, and because they doubted that they should die without baptism,
the virgin said to them: Doubt ye nothing, for the effusion of your
blood shall be reputed to you for baptism, and garnish you with the
sign of the cross, and ye shall be crowned in heaven.
And when they were cast into the flames of fire they rendered their
souls unto God, and neither hair ne clothes of them had none harm ne
were hurt by the fire. And when the christian men had buried them, the
tyrant spake unto the virgin and said: Ah! right noble lady virgin,
have pity of thy youth, and thou shalt be chief in my palace next the
queen, and thine image shall be set up in the midst of the city, and
shall be adored of all the people as a goddess. To whom the virgin
said: Leave to say such things, for it is evil to think it. I am given
and married to Jesu Christ, he is my spouse, he is my glory, he is my
love, and he is my sweetness, there may no fair words ne no torments
call me from him. And then he being full of woodness, commanded that
she should be despoiled naked and beaten with scorpions, and so beaten
to be put in a dark prison, and there was tormented by hunger by the
space of twelve days.
And the emperor went out of the country for certain causes, and the
queen was esprised with great love of the virgin, and went by night to
the prison with Porphyry, the prince of knights, and when the queen
entered, she saw the prison shining by great clearness, and angels
anointing the wounds of the holy virgin Katherine. And then S.
Katherine began to preach to the queen the joys of Paradise and
converted her to the faith, and said to her that she would receive the
crown of martyrdom, and thus spake they together till midnight. And
when Porphyry had heard all that she had said, he fell down to her feet
and received the faith of Jesu Christ, with two hundred knights. And
because the tyrant had commanded that she should be twelve days without
meat and drink, Jesu Christ sent to her a white dove which fed her with
meat celestial. And after this, Jesu Christ appeared to her with a
great multitude of angels and virgins, and said to her: Daughter, know
thy maker, for whom thou hast emprised this travailous battle; be thou
constant, for I am with thee.
And when the emperor was returned, he commanded her to be brought
tofore him, and when he saw her so shining, whom he supposed to have
been tormented bv great famine and fasting, and supposed that some had
fed her in prison, he was fulfilled with fury and commanded to torment
the keepers of the prison, and she said to him: Verily, I took never
sith meat of man, but Jesu Christ hath fed me by his angel. I pray
thee, said the emperor, set at thine heart this that I admonish thee,
and answer not by doubtable words. We will not hold thee as a
chamberer, but thou shalt triumph as a queen in my realm, in beauty
enhanced. To whom the blessed virgin Katherine said: Understand, I pray
thee, and judge truly, whom ought I better to choose of these two, or
the king puissant, perdurable, glorious and fair, or one sick,
unsteadfast, not noble, and foul? And then the emperor having disdain,
and angry by felony, spake: Of these two choose thee one, or do
sacrifice and live, or suffer divers torments and perish. And she said:
Tarry not to do what torments thou wilt, for I desire to offer to God
my blood and my flesh like as he offered for me; he is my God, my
father, my friend and mine only spouse. And then a master warned and
advised the king, being wood for anger, that he should make four wheels
of iron, environed with sharp razors, cutting so that she might be
horribly all detrenched and cut in that torment, so that he might fear
the other christian people by ensample of that cruel torment. And then
was ordained that two wheels should turn against the other two by great
force, so that they should break all that should be between the wheels,
and then the blessed virgin prayed our Lord that he would break these
engines to the praising of his name, and for to convert the people that
were there. And anon as this blessed virgin was set in this torment,
the angel of our Lord brake the wheels by so great force that it slew
four thousand paynims.
And the queen, that beheld these things, came from above and had hid
herself till then, descending anon and began to blame the emperor of so
great cruelty, and then the king was replenished with woodness when he
saw that the queen despised to do sacrifice, and did do first rend off
her paps, and after smite off her head. And as she wasled unto
martyrdom, she prayed Katherine to pray God for her, and she said to
her: Ne doubt thee nothing, well-beloved of God; for this day thou
shalt have the realm perdurable for this transitory realm, and an
immortal spouse for a mortal. And she was constant and firm in the
faith, and bade the tormentors do as was to them commanded. And then
the sergeants brought her out of the city and erased off her paps with
tongs of iron, and after smote off her head, whose body Porphyry took
away and buried it. The next day following was demanded where the holy
body of the queen was, and the emperor bade that many should be put to
torment for to know where the body was. Porphyry came then tofore them
all, and cried, saying: I am he that buried the body of the ancille and
servant of Jesu Christ, and have received the faith of God. And then
Maxentius began to roar and bray as a mad man, and cried, saying: O!
wretched and caitiff, lo! Porphyry, which was the only keeper of my
soul and comfort of all mine evils, is deceived; which thing he told to
his knights, to whom they said: And we also be christian and be ready
for to suffer death for Jesu Christ. And then the emperor, drunken in
woodness, commanded that all should be beheaded and that their bodies
should be cast to dogs, and then called he Katherine and said to her:
Howbeit that thou hast made the queen for to die by thine art magic, if
thou repent thee thou shalt be first and chief in my palace, for thou
shalt this day do sacrifice or thou shalt lose thine head. And she said
to him: Do all that thou hast thought; I am ready to suffer all. And
then he gave sentence against her, and commanded to smite off her head.
And when she was brought to the place ordained thereto, she lift up her
eyes to heaven praying, and said: O ! Jesu Christ, hope of and help of
them that believe in thee! O beauty and glory of virgins! Good king, I
beseech and pray thee that whosomever shall remember my passion, be it
at his death or in any other necessity, and call me, that he may have
by thy mercy the effect of his request and prayer. And then came a
voice to her, saying: Come unto me, my fair love and my spouse; lo!
behold the gate of heaven is open to thee, and also to them that shall
hallow thy passion, I promise the comfort of heaven of that they
require. And when she was beheaded there issued out of her body milk
instead of blood, and angels took the body and bare it unto the Mount
of Sinai, more than twenty journeys from thence, and buried it there
honourably, and continually oil runneth out of her bones which healeth
all maladies and sicknesses, and she suffered death under Maxentius the
tyrant, about the year of our Lord three hundred.
How Maxentius was punished for this felony and for others, it is
contained in the history of the invention of the holy cross, but
forasmuch as it was not known long after where this holy body was
become, there was great sorrow and lamentation among christian men,
saying: Alas ! the most clear light of our faith, of wisdom, and the
temple of the Holy Ghost, is gone from us, and besought God devoutly
that it might please him to show to them this holy relic, which after
came to knowledge in this manner.
In the desert about the Mount of Sinai there were many christian
hermits which were inflamed with great devotion toward this holy virgin
S. Katherine, wherefore by common assent they ordained a chapel in
which this holy virgin should specially remembered, which chapel was by
the Mount of Sinai, not far from the hill, fast by the place whereas
our Lord appeared in the bush to Moses. In which place the holy hermits
lived in great abstinence and devotion a glorious life. To whom on a
time the angel of God appeared and said: God hath beholden your
effectual devotion from heaven, therefore he hath granted to you this
grace that by you shall be found and known the holy body of the
glorious virgin S. Katherine, to his sovereign honour and glory. And
therefore arise ye up and follow me, and though it so be that ye see me
not, yet the shadow of the palm that I bear in mine hand shall never
depart from your sight. And then these hermits went forth and followed
the angel till they came to the place where unnethe any creature might
enter for straitness of the way and sharpness of the rocks; and when
they came to the top of the hill they saw not the angel, but they saw
evidently the shadow of the palm, that it seemed all the place had been
shadowed by the leaves of the palm, by which they came unto the place
where the body had lain one hundred and thirty years in a stone. And
her flesh was dried up for length of time, but the bones were so
compact and pure that they seemed to be kept by the cure of angels.
Then they took up with great joy and reverence this holy body and bare
it down into the chapel which they had made, and this was done by great
miracle, for the place where she lay in was so steep, thick, strait,
and so dangerous, that it seemed to man's reason impossible to come
thereto. And these holy men, after they had brought this body with
solemnity, ordained the feast of the invention of this holy body should
be solemnised, which is yet there kept and is about the time of the
Invention of the Holy Cross. Which place is greatly honoured, and our
Lord showeth there many miracles, and out of the bones floweth out oil
largely, by which many maladies be guerished. And it is said that
tofore the body was found that a monk went to the Mount of Sinai and
dwelled there by the space of seven years much devoutly in the service
of S. Katherine, and on a time as he prayed with great devotion that he
might have something of her body, suddenly there came a joint of one of
her fingers of her hand, which gift he took joyfully of our Lord. It is
read also that there was a man much devout to S. Katherine and oft
called on her to his and, and by length of time he fell in foul
thought, and lost the devotion that he had to the saint, and ceased to
pray to her; and as he was on a time in prayer he saw a great multitude
of virgins passing by him, among whom there was one more resplendissent
than the other, and when she approached him she covered her visage and
passed tofore him, her face covered. And he marvelled much of the
beauty of her, and demanded what she was, and one of the virgins said
that it was Katherine whom thou wert wont for to know, and because thou
knowest ne rememberest her not, she passed tofore thee with face
covered and without knowledge. It is to be noted that this blessed
virgin S. Katherine seemeth and appeareth marvellous in five things:
first, in wisdom, secondly, in eloquence, thirdly, in constancy,
fourthly, in cleanness of chastity, and fifthly, in privilege of
dignity. First she appeared marvellous in wisdom, in her was all manner
of philosophy. Philosophy is divided in three, in theory, in practice,
and in logic. Theory is divided in three, that is intellectual,
natural, and mathematical. The blessed Katherine had science
intellectual in knowledge of things divine, of which she used against
the masters, to whom she proved to be but one very God only, and
convanquished all the false gods. Secondly, she had science natural of
which she used in disputing against the emperor. Thirdly, she had
science mathematical, that is a science that be holdeth the forms and
the manner of things, and this science had she in despising the earthly
things, for she withdrew her heart from all earthly matter. She showed
to have this science when she answered to the emperor, when he demanded
who she was, and said: I am Katherine, daughter of king Costus, and how
she had been nourished in purple. And hereof used she when she enharded
the queen to despise the world and herself, and to desire the reign
perdurable. The practice is divided in three manners, in ethic,
economic, and politic. The first teacheth to inform manners and adorn
him with virtues, and that appertaineth to all men. The second teacheth
to rule and govern well his meiny, and that appertaineth to them that
have men to govern. The third appertaineth to the governors of cities,
for she teacheth to govern the peoples, the cities, and the commons.
And these three sciences had the blessed Katherine. First, she had in
herself all honesty of manners; secondly, she ruled her meiny laudably,
which was left to her, thirdly, she informed wisely the emperor. Logic
is divided in three, in demonstrative, in probable, and in sophistical.
The first pertaineth to philosophers, the second to rhetors and
logicians, and the third to sophisters, and these three sciences had
Katherine in her, for she disputed with the emperor. Secondly, she was
marvellous in eloquence, for she had fair speech in Katherine preaching
as it appeared in her predications, she was right sharp in rendering
reason, as when she answered to the emperor, she had sweet words in
drawing the people to the faith, as it appeared in Porphyry and the
queen, whom she drew to the christian faith by sweetness of her fair
speech. She had right virtuous word in overcoming, as it appeared in
the masters whom she vanquished so puissantly. Thirdly, she was
marvellous in constancy, for she was most constant against the
threatenings and menaces, for she despised them all and answered to the
emperor: Tarry not to do the torments that thou hast purposed, for I
desire to offer to God my blood, and make an end of that thou hast
conceived in thy courage, I am ready to suffer all. Secondly, she was
firm when great gifts were offered to her, for she refused all, and
said to the emperor when he promised to hold her as second lady in his
palace, and she said: I.eave to say such things, it is felonous to
think it. Thirdly, she was constant in the torments that were done to
her. Fourthly, she was constant in cleanness of chastity, for she kept
chastity among those things that chastity is wont to perish. For there
be five things in which chastity may perish, that is in pleasance of
riches, convenable opportunity, flowering youth, freedom without
constraint, and sovereign beauty. And among all these things the
blessed Katherine kept her chastity, for she had great plenty of riches
as she that was heir of rich parents; she had convenable leisure to do
her will, as she that was lady of herself, and conversed all day among
her servants which were young of age; she had freedom without any that
governed her in her palace, and of these four it is said before, and
she had beauty, so much that every man marvelled of her beauty.
Fifthly, she was marvellous in privilege of dignity, for certain
special privileges were in some saints when they died, like as the
visitation of Jesu Christ was in S. John the Evangelist, the flowing of
oil in S. Nicholas, the effusion of milk for blood that was in S. Paul,
the preparation of the sepulchre that was in S. Clement, and the
hearing and granting of the petitions that was in S. Margaret, when she
prayed for them remembering her memory. All these things together were
in this blessed virgin S. Katherine as it appeareth in her legend. Then
let us devoutly worship this holy virgin and humbly pray her to be our
advocatrice in all our needs bodily and ghostly, that by the merits of
her prayers we may after this short and transitory life come unto the
everlasting bliss and joy in heaven whereas is life perdurable. Quod
ipse præstare dignetur qui cum patre et spiritu sancto vivit et regnat
deus per omnia secula seculorum. Amen.
St. Christopher
Here followeth of S. Christopher and first of his name.
Christopher tofore his baptism was named Reprobus, but afterwards he
was named Christopher, which is as much to say as bearing Christ, of
that that he bare Christ in four manners. He bare him on his shoulders
by conveying and leading, in his body by making it lean, in mind by
devotion, and in his mouth by confession and predication.
Of S. Christopher.
Christopher was of the lineage of the Canaanites, and he was of a right
great stature, and had a terrible and fearful cheer and countenance.
And he was twelve cubits of length, and as it is read in some histories
that, when he served and dwelled with the king of Canaan, it came in
his mind that he would seek the greatest prince that was in the world,
and him would he serve and obey. And so far he went that he came to a
right great king, of whom the renomee generally was that he was the
greatest of the world. And when the king saw him, he received him into
his service, and made him to dwell in his court. Upon a time a minstrel
sang tofore him a song in which he named oft the devil, and the king,
which was a christian man, when he heard him name the devil, made anon
the sign of the cross in his visage. And when Christopher saw that, he
had great marvel what sign it was, and wherefore the king made it, and
he demanded of him. And because the king would not say, he said: If
thou tell me not, I shall no longer dwell with thee, and then the king
told to him, saying: Alway when I hear the devil named, I fear that he
should have power over me, and I garnish me with this sign that he
grieve not ne annoy me. Then Christopher said to him: Doubtest thou the
devil that he hurt thee not? Then is the devil more mighty and greater
than thou art. I am then deceived of my hope and purpose, for I had
supposed I had found the most mighty and the most greatest Lord of the
world, but I commend thee to God, for I will go seek him for to be my
Lord, and I his servant. And then departed from this king, and hasted
him for to seek the devil. And as he went by a great desert, he saw a
great company of knights, of which a knight cruel and horrible came to
him and demanded whither he went, and Christopher answered to him and
said: I go seek the devil for to be my master. And he said: I am he
that thou seekest. And then Christopher was glad, and bound him to be
his servant perpetual, and took him for his master and Lord. And as
they went together by a common way, they found there a cross, erect and
standing. And anon as the devil saw the cross he was afeard and fled,
and left the right way, and brought Christopher about by a sharp
desert. And after, when they were past the cross, he brought him to the
highway that they had left. And when Christopher saw that, he
marvelled, and demanded whereof he doubted, and had left the high and
fair way, and had gone so far about by so aspre a desert. And the devil
would not tell him in no wise. Then Christopher said to him: If thou
wilt not tell me, I shall anon depart from thee, and shall serve thee
no more. Wherefor the devil was constrained to tell him, and said:
There was a man called Christ which was hanged on the cross, and when I
see his sign I am sore afraid, and flee from it wheresoever I see it.
To whom Christopher said: Then he is greater, and more mightier than
thou, when thou art afraid of his sign, and I see well that I have
laboured in vain, when I have not founden the greatest Lord of the
world. And I will serve thee no longer, go thy way then, for I will go
seek Christ. And when he had long sought and demanded where he should
find Christ, at last he came into a great desert, to an hermit that
dwelt there, and this hermit preached to him of Jesu Christ and
informed him in the faith diligently, and said to him: This king whom
thou desirest to serve, requireth the service that thou must oft fast.
And Christopher said to him: Require of me some other thing, and I
shall do it, for that which thou requirest I may not do. And the hermit
said: Thou must then wake and make many prayers. And Christopher said
to him: I wot not what it is; I may do no such thing. And then the
hermit said to him: Knowest thou such a river, in which many be
perished and lost? To whom Christopher said: I know it well. Then said
the hermit, Because thou art noble and high of stature and strong in
thy members, thou shalt be resident by that river, and thou shalt bear
over all them that shall pass there, which shall be a thing right
convenable to our Lord Jesu Christ whom thou desirest to serve, and I
hope he shall show himself to thee. Then said Christopher: Certes, this
service may I well do, and I promise to him for to do it. Then went
Christopher to this river, and made there his habitacle for him, and
bare a great pole in his hand instead of a staff, by which he sustained
him in the water, and bare over all manner of people without ceasing.
And there he abode, thus doing, many days. And in a time, as he slept
in his lodge, he heard the voice of a child which called him and said:
Christopher, come out and bear me over. Then he awoke and went out, but
he found no man. And when he was again in his house, he heard the same
voice and he ran out and found nobody. The third time he was called and
came thither, and found a child beside the rivage of the river, which
prayed him goodly to bear him over the water. And then Christopher lift
up the child on his shoulders, and took his staff, and entered into the
river for to pass. And the water of the river arose and swelled more
and more: and the child was heavy as lead, and alway as he went farther
the water increased and grew more, and the child more and more waxed
heavy, insomuch that Christopher had great anguish and was afeard to be
drowned. And when he was escaped with great pain, and passed the water,
and set the child aground, he said to the child: Child, thou hast put
me in great peril; thou weighest almost as I had all the world upon me,
I might bear no greater burden. And the child answered: Christopher,
marvel thee nothing, for thou hast not only borne all the world upon
thee, but thou hast borne him that created and made all the world, upon
thy shoulders. I am Jesu Christ the king, to whom thou servest in this
work. And because that thou know that I say to be the truth, set thy
staff in the earth by thy house, and thou shalt see to-morn that it
shall bear flowers and fruit, and anon he vanished from his eyes. And
then Christopher set his staff in the earth, and when he arose on the
morn, he found his staff like a palmier bearing flowers, leaves and
dates.
And then Christopher went into the city of Lycia, and understood not
their language. Then he prayed our Lord that he might understand them,
and so he did. And as he was in this prayer, the judges supposed that
he had been a fool, and left him there. And then when Christopher
understood the language, he covered his visage and went to the place
where they martyred christian men, and comforted them in our Lord. And
then the judges smote him in the face, and Christopher said to them: If
I were not christian I should avenge mine injury. And then Christopher
pitched his rod in the earth, and prayed to our Lord that for to
convert the people it might bear flowers and fruit, and anon it did so.
And then he converted eight thousand men. And then the king sent two
knights for to fetch him to the king, and they found him praying, and
durst not tell to him so. And anon after, the king sent as many more,
and they anon set them down for to pray with him. And when Christopher
arose, he said to them: What seek ye? And when they saw him in the
visage they said to him: The king hath sent us, that we should lead
thee bound unto him. And Christopher said to them: If I would, ye
should not lead me to him, bound ne unbound. And they said to him: If
thou wilt go thy way, go quit, where thou wilt. And we shall say to the
king that we have not found thee. It shall not be so, said he, but I
shall go with you. And then he converted them in the fatth, and
commanded them that they should bind his hands behind his back, and
lead him so bound to the king. And when the king saw him he was afeard
and fell down off the seat, and his servants lifted him up and releved
him again. And then the king inquired his name and his country; and
Christopher said to him: Tofore or I was baptized I was named Reprobus,
and after, I am Christopher; tofore baptism, a Canaanite, now, a
christian man. To whom the king said: Thou hast a foolish name, that is
to wit of Christ crucified, which could not help himself, ne may not
profit to thee. How therefore, thou cursed Canaanite, why wilt thou not
do sacrifice to our gods? To whom Christopher said: Thou art rightfully
called Dagnus, for thou art the death of the world, and fellow of the
devil, and thy gods be made with the hands of men. And the king said to
him: Thou wert nourished among wild beasts, and therefore thou mayst
not say but wild language, and words unknown to men. And if thou wilt
now do sacrifice to the gods I shall give to thee great gifts and great
honours, and if not, I shall destroy thee and consume thee by great
pains and torments. But, for all this, he would in no wise do
sacrifice, wherefore he was sent in to prison, and the king did do
behead the other knights that he had sent for him, whom he had
converted. And after this he sent in to the prison to S. Christopher
two fair women, of whom that one was named Nicæa and that other
Aquilina, and promised to them many great gifts if they could draw
Christopher to sin with them. And when Christopher saw that, he set him
down in prayer, and when he was constrained by them that embraced him
to move, he arose and said: What seek ye? For what cause be ye come
hither? And they, which were afraid of his cheer and clearness of his
visage, said: Holy saint of God, have pity of us so that we may believe
in that God that thou preachest. And when the king heard that, he
commanded that they should be let out and brought tofore him. To whom
he said: Ye be deceived, but I swear to you by my gods that, if ye do
no sacrifice to my gods, ye shall anon perish by evil death. And they
said to him: If thou wilt that we shall do sacrifice, command that the
places may be made clean, and that all the people may assemble at the
temple. And when this was done they entered in to the temple, and took
their girdles, and put them about the necks of their gods, and drew
them to the earth, and brake them all in pieces, and said to them that
were there: Go and call physicians and leeches for to heal your gods.
And then, by the commandment of the king, Aquilina was hanged, and a
right great and heavy stone was hanged at her feet, so that her members
were much despitously broken. And when she was dead, and passed to our
Lord, her sister Nicæa was cast into a great fire, but she issued out
without harm all whole, and then he made to smite off her head, and so
suffered death.
After this Christopher was brought tofore the king, and the king
commanded that he should be beaten with rods of iron, and that there
should be set upon his head a cross of iron red hot and burning, and
then after, he did do make a siege or a stool of iron, and made
Christopher to be bounden thereon, and after, to set fire under it, and
cast therein pitch. But the siege or settle melted like wax, and
Christopher issued out without any harm or hurt. And when the king saw
that, he commanded that he should be bound to a strong stake, and that
he should be through-shotten with arrows with forty knights archers.
But none of the knights might attain him, for the arrows hung in the
air about, nigh him, without touching. Then the king weened that he had
been throughshotten with the arrows of the knights, and addressed him
for to go to him. And one of the arrows returned suddenly from the air
and smote him in the eye, and blinded him. To whom Christopher said:
Tyrant, I shall die to-morn, make a little clay, with my blood
tempered, and anoint therewith thine eye, and thou shalt receive
health. Then by the commandment of the king he was led for to be
beheaded, and then, there made he his orison, and his head was smitten
off, and so suffered martyrdom. And the king then took a little of his
blood and laid it on his eye, and said: In the name of God and of S.
Christopher! and was anon healed. Then the king believed in God, and
gave commandment that if any person blamed God or S. Christopher, he
should anon be slain with the sword.
Ambrose saith in his preface thus, of this holy martyr: Lord, thou hast
given to Christopher so great plenty of virtues, and such grace of
doctrine, that he called from the error of paynims forty-eight thousand
men, to the honour of christian faith, by his shining miracles. And
Nicæa and Aquilina, which long had been common at the bordel, under the
stench of lechery, he called and made them serve in the habit of
chastity, and enseigned them to a like crown of martyrdom. And with
this, he being strained and bounden in a seat of iron, and great fire
put under, doubted nothing the heat. And all a whole day during, stood
bounden to a stake, yet might not be through-pierced with arrows of all
the knights. And with that, one of the arrows smote out the eye of the
tyrant, to whom the blood of the holy martyr re-established his sight,
and enlumined him in taking away the blindness of his body, and gat of
the christian mind and pardon, and he also gat of thee by prayer power
to put away sickness and sores from them that remember his passion and
figure. Then let us pray to S. Christopher that he pray for us, etc.
St. Cyriacus
Here beginneth the Life of S. Ciriacus, Martyr.
Ciriacus was ordained deacon of Marcellus, the pope, and was taken and
brought to Maximian the emperor, and was commanded that he and his
fellows should delve the earth and should bear it on their shoulders
unto the place that he made. And there was S. Saturninus whom Ciriacus
and Sisinnius helped for to bear. And after, Ciriacus was put and
enclosed in prison, and at the last was presented tofore the provost.
And as Apronianus led him, suddenly came a voice with light from heaven
which said: Come ye blessed of my Father, etc. And then Apronianus
believed, and made himself to be baptized, and came to the provost
confessing Jesu Christ. To whom the provost said: Art not thou made
christian? Which answered: Alas! for I have lost my days. The provost
answered: Truly now thou losest thy days, and commanded to smite off
his head. And when Saturninus and Sisinnius would not make sacrifice,
they were tormented with divers torments and at the last were beheaded.
And the daughter of Diocletian, named Arthemia, was tormented of the
devil, and the devil cried within her and said: I shall not go out
tofore that Ciriacus the deacon come; and then was Ciriacus brought to
her, and then said the devil: If thou wilt that I issue and go out,
give me a vessel where I may enter in, and then answered Ciriacus: Lo!
here is my body, enter therein if thou mayst, and he said: Into thy
vessel I may not enter, for it is signed and closed on all sides, but
if thou cast me out here I shall make thee soon come into Babylon. And
when he was constrained to go out, Arthemia cried and said: I see the
God that Ciriacus preacheth, and when he had baptized her, and had
grace of Diocletian and of Serena his wife, he dwelled and lived surely
in a house that he gave him. Then came there a message from the king of
Persia to Diocletian, praying him that he would send him Ciriacus, for
his daughter was tormented of a devil. And then, by the prayers of
Diocletian, Ciriacus went gladly with largo and smaragdo, with all
things necessary in the ship, in to Babylon. And when they came to the
daughter, the devil cried to him through the mouth of the maiden: O
Ciriacus, thou art weary of travel, and he said: I am not weary, but am
governed overall by the help of God. And the devil said: Nevertheless,
I have brought thee thereas I would have thee. And Ciriacus said: Jesu
Christ commandeth thee that thou go out. And then the devil issued out
and said: O name terrible that constraineth me; and the maid was then
made whole, and was baptized with father and mother, and much other
people. And they offered to him many gifts, but he would take none, and
abode there forty-five days, fasting on bread and water, and at the
last he came to Rome. And after two months Diocletian was dead, and
Maximian succeeded to the empire, and was wroth with Arthemia his
sister, and took Ciriacus and bound him with chains, and commanded to
draw him tofore his chair. This Maximian may be called and said the son
of Diocletian, because he succeeded him, and had his daughter to wife,
which was called Valeriana; and after, he commanded to Carpasius his
vicar, to constrain Ciriacus and his fellows to do sacrifice, or else
slay them bv divers torments. And he took Ciriacus and threw pitch
molten and burning hot on his head, and hung him in the torment named
eculee, and after, he did do smite off the head of Ciriacus, and also
beheaded his fellows, about the year of our Lord three hundred. And
Carpasius gat the house of S. Ciriacus, and in despite of christian men
he made a bath in the same place where Ciriacus baptized, and there
bathed, and made banquets in eating and drinking. And suddenly he with
nineteen fellows died there, and therefore the bath was closed up. And
the paynims began to dread and honour christian men.
St. Dionysius
Here followeth the Life of S. Denis, and first of his name.
Denis is as much to say as hastily fleeing, or Denis is said of dia,
which is as much to say as two, and nysus, which is to say lift up, for
he was lifted up after two things, that is, after the body and after
the soul. Or Denis may be said of Diana, that is Venus, the goddess of
beauty, and of sios, that is to say God, as who saith, he is fair to
God; or as some say he is said of Dionisia, that is, after Isidore, a
precious stone black, which is good against drunkenness. He was hasty
in fleeing the world by perfect renunciation. He was lift up by
contemplation of things within forth, he was fair to God by beauty of
virtues. He profited to sinners against drunkenness of vices, and he
had many names tofore his conversion, for he was called Areopagita, for
the street that he dwelled in. He was called Theosophus, that is to say
wise to God. Also of the wise men of Greece, he is said unto this day
Pterigiontuvrani, that is to say, the wing of heaven, for he flew
marvellously with the wing of spiritual understanding into heaven. Also
he was said Macarius, that is, blessed. Also he was said of his country
lonicus. Ionica, as saith Papias, is one of the languages of Greeks. Or
Ionices be said a manner of round pillars. Or Ionicum is said a foot of
versifying which hath two syllables short and twain long. By which he
is showed that he was wise and knowing God by inquisition of things
privy and hid, wing of heaven by love of things celestial, and blessed
by possession of everlasting goods. By other things it is showed that
he was a marvellous rhetorician by eloquence, a sustainer and a bearer
up of the church by doctrine, short to himself by humility, and long to
others by charity. S. Austin saith in the eighth book of the City of
God that Ionique is a kind of philosophers, Italian, which be towards
Italy, and lonian which be of the parts of Greece, and because that
Denis was a sovereign philosopher he was named Ionicus. And Methodius
of ConstantinopIe indited his life and his passion in Greekish tongue,
and Anastasius in Latin, which was a writer of the Bible of the church
of Rome, as Hincmar, bishop of Rheims, saith.
Of S. Denis.
S. Denis Areopagite was converted to the faith of Jesu Christ of S.
Paul the apostle. And he was called Areopagite of the street that he
dwelled in. And in that street called Areopage was the temple of Mars,
for they of Athens named every street of the gods that they worshipped
in the same, and that street that they worshipped in the god Mars, they
called Areopage, for Areo is to say Mars, and pagus is a street, and
where they worshipped Pan, they named Panopage, and so of all other
streets. Areopage was the most excellent street, because that the noble
men haunted it, and therein were the scholars of the arts liberal, and
Denis dwelled in that street, which was a right great philosopher. And
forasmuch as the plant of wisdom of the deity was in him he was called
Theosophus, that is to say, knowing God. And one Apollophanes was his
fellow in philosophy. There were also Epicureans, which said that all
felicity of man was in only delight of the body. And Stoics, which held
opinion that it was in the only virtue of courage. And then on the day
of the passion of our Lord when darkness was upon the universal world,
the philosophers that were at Athens could not find in causes natural
the cause of that darkness. And it was no natural eclipse, for the moon
was then from the sun, and was fifteen days old, and so was in a
perfect distance from the sun, and nevertheless an eclipse taketh not
away the light in the universal parts of the world, and it may not
endure three hours long. And it appeareth that this eclipse took away
all the light, by that which S. Luke saith that, our Lord suffered in
all his members; and because that the eclipse was in Heliopolis, in
Egypt, and Rome and in Greece. And Orosius saith that it was in Greece,
and in the end of Asia the less, and saith that when our Lord was
nailed to the cross there was a right great trembling and earthquave
through the world. The rocks were cut asunder, and the mountains
cloven, right great floods fell in many parts, more than they were wont
to do, and that day, from the sixth hour unto the ninth hour, the sun
lost his sight throughout all the lands of the universal world. And in
that night there was no star seen in all Egypt, and this remembereth
Denis to Apollophanes, saying in his epistle: The world was dark
commonly of obscurity of darkness, and after the only diameter returned
purged, and when he had found that the sun might not suffer such
heaviness, and that we may not have knowledge in our courage, ne
understand yet the mystery of this thing by our conning and wisdom.
And, O Apollophanes, mirror of doctrine, what shall I say of these
secrets and hid things? I attribute and put them to thee as to a mouth
divine, and not as to understanding ne speech human. To whom he said: O
good Denis, these be the mutations of divine things, and in the end it
is signified all along, the day and the year of the annunciation that
Paul our Doctor said to our deaf ears, and by the signs that all men
cried, which I remembered, I have found the very truth and am delivered
from the leash of falseness. These be the words of Denis that he wrote
in his epistle to Polycarp, and to Apollophanes, saying: We were, we
twain, at Heliopolis, and we saw the moon of heaven go disordinately,
and the time was not convenable. And yet again from the ninth hour unto
evensong time, at the diameter of the sun established above all natural
ordinance, that eclipse we saw begin in the east and coming unto the
term of the sun. After that returning again, and not purged of that
default, but was made contrary after the diameter. Then Denis and
Apollophanes went to Heliopolis in Egypt by desire to learn astronomy.
And after, Denis returned again. That the said eclipse took away the
light from the universal parts of the world, it appeareth that Eusebius
witnesseth in his chronicles, which saith that he hath read in the
dictes of the Ethnicians that there was in Bithynia, which is a
province of Asia the less, a great earth shaking, and also the greatest
darkness that might be, and also saith that in Nicene, which is a city
of Bithynia, that the earth trembling threw down houses. And it is read
in Scholastica Historia that the philosophers were brought to this,
that they said that: The God of nature suffered death, or else the
ordinance of nature in this world was dissolved, or that the elements
lived, or the God of nature suffered, and the elements had pity on him.
And it is said in another place, that Denis saith: This night signified
that the new very light of the world should come. And they of Athens
made unto this God an altar, and set this title thereupon: This is the
altar of the God unknown. And on every altar of their gods the title
was set above in showing to whom that altar was dedicated, and when the
Athenians would make their sacrifice unto this unknown God, the
philosophers said: This God hath no need of none of our gods, but let
us kneel down tofore him and pray unto him devoutly, for he requireth
not the oblations of beasts but the devotions of our courages. And
after, when the blessed S. Paul came to Athens, the Epicurean
philosophers and Stoics disputed with him. Some of them said: What will
this sower of words say? And others said that he seemed a shower of new
gods that be devils. And then they brought him into the street of the
philosophers, for to examine their new doctrine, and they said to him:
Bringest thou any new tidings? We would know what thou hast brought to
us. For the Athenians entended to none other thing but to hear some new
things. And then when S. Paul had beholden all their altars he saw
among them the altar of God unknown, and Paul said: Whom honour ye that
ye know not, him show I to you to be very God that made heaven and
earth. And after, he said to Denis, whom he saw best learned in divine
things: Denis, what is he, that unknown God? And Denis said: He is
verily a God which among gods is not showed, but to us he is unknown,
and to come into the world and to reign without end. And Paul said: Is
he a man only, or spirit? And Denis said: He is God and man but he is
unknown, because his conversation is in heaven. Then said S. Paul: This
is he that I preach, which descended from heaven, and took our nature
human, and suffered death and arose again the third day.
And as S. Denis disputed yet with S. Paul, there passed by adventure by
that way a blind man tofore them, and anon Denis said to Paul: If thou
say to this blind man in the name of thy God: See, and then he seeth, I
shall anon believe in him, but thou shalt use no words of enchantment,
for thou mayst haply know some words that have such might and virtue.
And S. Paul said: I shall write tofore the form of the words, which be
these: In the name of Jesu Christ, born of the virgin, crucified and
dead, which arose again and ascended into heaven, and from thence shall
come for to judge the world: See. And because that all suspicion be
taken away, Paul said to Denis that he himself should pronounce the
words. And when Denis had said those words in the same manner to the
blind man, anon the blind man recovered his sight. And then Denis was
baptized and Damaris his wife and all his meiny, and was a true
christian man and was instructed and taught by S. Paul three years, and
was ordained bishop of Athens, and there was in predication, and
converted that city, and great part of the region, to christian faith.
And it is said that S. Paul showed to him that he saw when he was
ravished into the third heaven, like as S. Denis saith and showeth in
divers places, whereof he speaketh so clearly of the hierarchies of
angels, and of the orders and of the dispositions and offices of them,
so that it is not supposed that he learned of any other, but only of
him that was ravished into the third heaven, and had seen all things.
He flourished by the spirit of prophecy like as it appeareth in an
epistle that he sent to John the Evangelist, in the isle of Patmos, to
which he was sent in exile, whereas he prophesied that he should come
again, saying thus: Enjoy thou verily beloved, very wonderful and to be
desired, right well beloved, thou shalt be let out from the keeping
tbat thou hast in Patmos, and shalt return unto the land of Asia, and
thou shalt make there the following of thy good God,and the good works
of him, and shalt deliver them to them that shall come after thee. And,
as it is seen and showed in the book of the names divine, he was at the
dying of the blessed Virgin Mary. And when he heard that Peter and Paul
were imprisoned at Rome under Nero, he ordained a bishop under him, and
came for to visit them. And when they were martyred and passed to God,
and Clement was set in the see of Rome, after a certain time he was
sent of the said Clement into France, and he had in his company
Rusticus and Eleutherius, and then he came with them to Paris and
converted there much people to the faith, and did do make many
churches, and set in them clerks of divers orders. And then he shone by
so great heavenly grace that, when the bishops of the idols moved by
strife the people against him, and the people came for to destroy him,
anon as they had seen him they left all their cruelty, and kneeled down
at his feet, where they had so great dread that they fled away from him
for fear.
But the devil which had envy, and saw every day his power minished and
destroyed, and that the church increased and had victory of him, moved
Domitian the emperor in so great cruelty that he made a commandment
that whosomever might find any christian man, that he should constrain
them to do sacrifice or torment them by divers torments. And then he
sent the provost Fescennius of Rome to Paris against the christian men.
And found there the blessed Denis preaching, and made him cruelly to be
beaten, bespit and despised, and fast to be bounden with Rusticus and
Eleutherius, and to be brought tofore him: And when he saw that the
saints were constant and firm in the acknowledging of our Lord, he was
much heavy and sorrowful. Then came thither a noble matron, which said
that her husband was foully deceived of these enchanters, and then anon
the husband was sent for, and he abiding in the confession of our Lord,
was anon put to death. And the saints were beaten cruelly of twelve
knights, and were straightly bounden with chains of iron, and put in
prison. The day following, Denis was laid upon a gridiron, and
stretched all naked upon the coals of fire, and there he sang to our
Lord saying: Lord thy word is vehemently fiery, and thy servant is
embraced in the love thereof. And after that he was put among cruel
beasts, which were excited by great hunger and famine by long fasting,
and as soon as they came running upon him he made the sign of the cross
against them, and anon they were made most meek and tame. And after
that he was cast into a furnace of fire, and the fire anon quenched,
and he had neither pain ne harm. And after that he was put on the
cross, and thereon he was long tormented, and after, he was taken down
and put into a dark prison with his fellows and many other christian
men. And as he sang there the mass and communed the people, our Lord
appeared to him with great light, and delivered to him bread, saying:
Take this, my dear friend, for thy reward is most great with me. After
this they were presented to the judge and were put again to new
torments, and then he did do smite off the heads of the three fellows,
that is to say, Denis, Rusticus, and Eleutherius, in confessing the
name of the holy Trinity. And this was done by the temple of Mercury,
and they were beheaded with three axes. And anon the body of S. Denis
raised himself up, and bare his head between his arms, as the angel led
him two leagues from the place, which is said the hill of the martyrs,
unto the place where he now resteth, by his election, and by the
purveyance of God. And there was heard so great and sweet a melody of
angels that many of them that heard it believed in our Lord. And
Laertia, wife of the foresaid provost Lubrius, said that she was
christian, and anon she was beheaded of the wicked felons, and was
baptized in her blood, and so died.
And Virbius his son, which was a knight at Rome under three emperors,
came afterward to Paris and was baptized, and put himself in the number
of the religious. And the wicked paynims doubted that the good
christian men would bury the body of Rusticus and Eleutherius, and
commanded that they should be cast into the river Seine. And a noble
woman bade them to dine that bare them, and whilst they dined, this
lady took away the bodies and buried them secretly in a field of hers,
and after, when the persecution was ceased, she took them thence, and
laid them honourably with the body of S. Denis. And they suffered death
about the year of our Lord four score and sixteen, under Domitian. The
years of the age of S. Denis four score and ten.
On a time when Regulus the holy bishop sang mass at Arles, and
rehearsed the names of the apostles in the canon, he added and joined
thereto the blessed martyrs Denis, Rusticus, and Eleutherius, which so
said, many supposed that they yet lived, and marvelled why he so
rehearsed their names in the canon. And they so wondering, there
appeared upon the cross of the altar three doves sitting, which had the
names of the saints marked and written on their breasts with blood,
which diligently beholding, they understood well that the saints were
departed out of this world. And Hincmar, bishop of Rheims, saith in an
epistle which he sent to Charles that, this Denis that was sent into
France was Denis Areopagite as afore is said, and the same saith
Johannes Scotus in an epistle to Charles, lest by the reason of the
counting of the time should be said against, as some would object.
About the year of our Lord eight hundred and thirty-two, in the time of
Louis, king of France, the messengers of Michael, emperor of
Constantinople, among other things, brought to Louis, son of Charles le
Grand, the books of S. Denis of the hierarchy of the angels, translated
out of Greek into Latin, and were received with great joy, and that
same night were nineteen sick men healed in his church.
About the year of our Lord six hundred and forty-three, like as it is
contained in a chronicle, Dagobert, king of France, which reigned long
tofore Pepin, began to have from his childhood great reverence to S.
Denis, for when he doubted in that time the ire of his father Clothair,
he fled anon to the church of S. Denis. And when this holy king was
dead, it was showed in a vision unto a holy man that, the soul of him
was ravished to judgment, and that many saints accused him that he had
despoiled their churches. And as the wicked angels would have had him
to the pains, the blessed Denis came thither, and by him he was
delivered at his coming, and escaped from the pains, and peradventure
the soul returned to the body and did penance. King Clovis discovered
the body of S. Denis not duly, and brake the bone of his arm and
ravished it away covetously, and anon he became out of his mind. Then
let us worship Almighty God in his saints, that we, by their merits,
may amend ourselves in this wretched life, that we may after this life
come into his sempiternal bliss in heaven. Amen.
St. Erasmus
Here followeth the Life of the holy Bishop and Martyr, S. Erasmus.
The holy man, S. Erasmus, was come of noble and of great kindred, and
he was not only gentle by his birth but also in deed and conditions.
In the time that Diocletian the emperor reigned, which was a great
persecutor of Christ's people, then came this holy man S. Erasmus in
the land of Campania, which was under the jurisdiction of the said
Diocletian, and there this holy man preached to the people the word of
God, and taught unto them the christian faith, and he baptized them in
the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Then was this
holy man chosen and made bishop of all the land of Campania, and
preached and taught the people how they should serve God and love him,
and avoid sin. Then it came to the knowledge of the emperor that S.
Erasmus had converted all the land of Campania into his belief and to
his God that he called Jesu Christ, that was born of a pure virgin that
hight Mary. Then was the emperor sore troubled, and sent forth his
knights for this holy man, S. Erasmus, and commanded them that they
should constrain him to forsake his God that he called Jesus Christ,
and if he would not do that, then they should torment him with the
greatest pain that they could imagine. So it happened that they found
this holy man, and they bound him as though he had been a thief or a
manqueller, and brought him before the judge, and with a fell and
spiteful mood the judge said to him: Thou rude and unbelieving man,
wherefore cost thou with thy devilish works convert all the people from
their belief to thy belief, and to thy God? Wherefore believest thou
not upon the same god that Diocletian and we believe upon? I tell thee
for truth if thou wilt not forsake and deny thy God, that thou namest
Jesus Christ, and pray to the wise god, we will hang thee so horribly
that all the veins of thy body shall break. Then answered the good S.
Erasmus meekly and softly, and said: Almighty God, that made all
things, hath wrought heaven and hell and all that is therein, him will
I not forsake for no thhlg that can or may be done to me, for his
goodly grace hath given to me such grace, and to other his chosen
friends, that he was made man and hath tasted and suffered the bitter
death for me and for all sinners. As the judge heard that of this holy
man, he swelled upon him for anger, and made him for to be beaten upon
his head, and spitting upon his blessed face, and besprinkled on him
with foulness that he seemed a leprous man. When this tyrannous judge
saw that this good S. Erasmus thus patiently suffered, and that always
he thanked our Lord Jesu Christ of all then went he in great cruelness
and did that holy man to be beaten so cruelly with leaden malles, that
all his veins must break and burst, of which he cared nothing, for he
suffered it heartily, thinking for Christ's sake. Then commanded the
cruel judge that this holy man should be put into a deep pit, that was
full of snakes, adders, paddocks, and other worms, and after that he
did take brimstone and oil, and did seethe it, and did do cast this
holy man therein, and he lay therein as he had lain in cold water,
thanking and louing God. When this unmerciful judge saw that this no
thing him perished, then waxed he more angry, and took sodden pitch and
oil, and did put it in to his holy mouth, sitting alway in the pit or
furnace, thanking and louing God. Then rose there so great tempest of
thundering and lightning, that the fumace burned that S. Erasmus sat
on, and he no thing grieved nor hurt, but all the other cruel people
that were by were burned up with the same fell weather. When the
emperor heard this he was so angry that for wrath he did make great
chains and bolts of iron, and smote it about his holy neck, and did him
so to be cast into the foresaid pit that was full of worms, for that
they should eat this holy man Erasmus. Then came there an angel from
God and did light all the pit and did slay all the worms. And then was
this holy Erasmus throughly whole, and fulfilled greatly with the grace
of God, and against the will of the evil people he came again out of
that pit, and went again and preached the word of God so long, till the
cruel emperor Diocletian died, and then came another emperor, that
hight Maximian, and he was much worse than was Diocletian; and when
this Maximian heard of the life of this holy Erasmus, then he did him
to be taken and would have made him to forsake his God and his belief.
And when he saw that he would not change his belief, then he did do
this good man to be put into a pan seething with rosin, pitch,
brimstone lead, and oil, and did pour it into his mouth, for which he
never shrinked. And when this cruel emperor saw that this pain hurt him
no thing, then made he a cloak of metal as brass or copper, and made it
glowing hot, and put it upon his holy body. And as soon as that cloak
had touched his holy body the cloak burned and consumed all the evil
and wicked people that were by. By which miracle many folk were turned
unto the christian faith. Then appeared to him the angel of God, and
comforted him in his great tribulation, and made him whole and strong,
and carried him thence, and said to him: O Saint Erasmus, the most
chosen friend of God, be strong in thy tribulation, for through thy
great martyrdom shall many come to the eternal life, therefore believe
steadfastly in God and forsake him not. When S. Erasmus heard this, he
went again gladly and preached and converted much people unto the
christian belief, more than ever he did before. And when the emperor
understood this, he pursued the holy man still, and ordained for him a
coat of iron, and he commanded that it should be made glowing hot, and
so put it upon the naked body of the holy man. And when they had found
S. Erasmus preaching, they took him and said: If thou wilt not forsake
thy God and thy false belief, and pray and worship our god, we will put
on thy naked body this burning coat. Then answered the good Erasmus and
said: My Lord and my God hath for me so much done and suffered more
than I have deserved. Wherefore I will suffer all that I may suffer for
him, for he hath deserved it so highly against me and against all
sinners, therefore I tell you for certain that I will never forsake
him, suffer all that I may suffer for his holy name, and I commit me
wholly to his holy grace. Then they with great wrath put this burning
coat upon his blessed naked body. Then he kneeled down and called
meekly upon God and said: O Almighty God, have mercy upon me. And
forthwith burst the burning harness from his blessed body and burned
all them that so wrathfully would have punished him, by the which
miracle many a man was converted and was christened of S. Erasmus. Then
appeared to him again the angel of God and said: O Erasmus, God 's
champion, thou shalt go again into Campania, and there shalt thou
suffer passing great pain, and God commandeth thee to convert there
much people, and what thing thou desirest of him to thy soul's health,
it shall be granted. Then kneeled S. Erasmus meekly down and said: O
Almighty God, Father of heaven, thy will be fulfilled in me. Then went
he again gladly into the land of Campania and there preached he again
the word of God, and converted many folk to the christian faith. Then
then this emperor Maximian did do take this holy man, and let him be
brought before him, and he commanded him to be led to the false gods,
and he should worship them. And when this holy man came before the
false gods, then might they no longer stand, but fell down and brake
all in pieces, and consumed into ashes or dust. And when this came to
the knowledge of the emperor then was he sore aggrieved, and then he
ordained a tun to be cast full of iron nails, and did this holy man to
be put therein naked, and closed it fast, and let it fall down from a
high hill. And then came the angel of God and comforted this holy man
and holp him out of the tun and made him whole, and said to him: O
Erasmus the very chosen servant of God, cease not, but go and preach
again, and take heed of no pain. Which commandment he meekly obeyed.
Then the emperor did do take him again, and commanded his teeth to be
plucked out of his head with iron pincers. And after that they bound
him to a pillar and carded his skin with iron cards, and then they
roasted him upon a gridiron, and as he lay he spake to the tormentors
merrily: I lie here better than I am worthy, for I lie upon a bed well
strewed with sweet roses, and I see the light everlasting, the Son of
God, sitting on the right hand of his Father. Then spake the cruel
emperor. As this is a very tarrier of time, and he mocketh us and our
gods, he deserveth to be brought to the most cruel death that we can
for him imagine. Then took they this holy man and did put him in a deep
pit that was full of stench. And then this fell and cruel emperor took
counsel what martyrdom and pain that they might do to this holy man to
bring him to death. Then found they in their minds that they vvould
bring this holy man to death though they should martyr and pain him a
year long, and so they did before and after every Sunday, with new pain
the heaviest and sharpest that they could for him imagine. When the
emperor had thus taken his shrewd counsel, then took they this holy
Erasmus out of that stinking pit, and did smite sharp nails of iron in
his fingers, and after, they put out his eyes of his head with their
fingers, and after that they laid this holy bishop upon the ground
naked and stretched him with strong withes bound to horses about his
blessed neck, arms, and legs, so that all his veins and sinews that he
had in his body burst. Then let they him lie in the field that the
beasts should eat him. Then came a voice from heaven, and said: O
Erasmus lift up thine eyes, the crown of everlasting life is ready for
thee. And with that he lift up his holy eyes unto heaven, and he saw
the everlasting joy open, and said: O God, where hast thou been?
blessed be thy name. Then was the holy man whole and sound, and an
angel brought him a purple cloth from heaven, and commanded him that he
should go again and preach the word of God, which he did more strongly
than he did before. And when the emperor with his false council
understood this, he waxed out of his wit for anger, and called with a
loud voice like as he had been mad, and said: This is the devil, shall
we not bring this caitiff to death? Then found he a counsel for to make
a windlass, and that was upon the last Sunday of the year, and they
laid this holy martyr under the windlass all naked upon a table, and
cut him upon his belly, and wound out his guts or bowels out of his
blessed body. But when this cruel emperor saw that they could not bring
this holy man to death with all these pains and torments, they chained
and bolted him hands and feet with great irons, and with great woodness
cast him into a foul stinking pit, and let it be shut with great iron
bolts, so that he would never more see him. Then appeared to him an
angel of God with great clearness and said: O Erasmus stand up. And
forthwith fell from him all his irons and bands, and he was brought
into a town called Fremyana, and there he raised a child from death to
life which was a gentleman's child, the father hight Anastasius, by the
which miracle many thousands of people were converted to the christian
faith; in which town this holy man abode seven days, preaching the word
of God and strengthened the people in the christian belief. And when
the hour was come that this holy bishop and martyr of God should depart
out of this world, then was preferred a Ioud voice perfectly, coming
from heaven saying 0 Erasmus, my true servant, thou hast done me true
service, wherefore come with me and go and enter into the bliss and joy
of thy Lord, and I promise thee and all people that think upon thy
great pain and call upon thy holy name, and thee sue and worship every
Sunday, what that they ask of me in thy name for the weal of their
souls, I shall grant it. Now come, my true and chosen friend, be glad
and comforted with mine ascension. I will that thou arise with me and
come sit upon the right hand of my Father. Then was this holy man right
glad and joyful, and he cast his eyes upward to heaven, with lifting up
his hands, and there he saw, a clear shining crown come from heaven
upon his blessed head. Then gave he louing and thanking to Almighty God
with bowing his head and kneeling, and both his hands upward to heaven,
and meekly said: O Lord in thy hands yield I my spirit, and this Sunday
receive my soul into thy peace and rest. And with saying these words he
yielded up his ghost, which was seen with many men s eyes, shining
clearer than the sun, and how that he was received of the holy angels,
and was led through the height of heaven into the uppermost plan of
heaven: there he standeth with God, with all the holy company, and is
there a true helper to all them that call truly to S. Erasmus for
ghostly health, which joy and ghostly health let us pray that he for us
all of our Lord God may obtain.
St. Eustace
Here followeth the Life of S. Eustace, and first of his name.
Eustace was named tofore his baptism Placidus, which is as much as to
say as pleasant to God. And Eustace is said of eu, that is to say,
good, and statics, that is, fortune, therefore Eustace is, as it were,
good fortune. He was pleasant to God in his conversation, and after, he
held him in good works.
Of S. Eustace.
Eustace, which first was named Placidus, was master of the chivalry of
Trajan, the emperor, and was right busy in the works of mercy, but he
was a worshipper of idols. And he had a wife of the same rite, and also
of the deeds of mercy, of whom he had two sons, which he did do nourish
after his estate. And because he was ententive to the works of mercy,
he deserved to be enlumined to the way of truth.
So on a day, as he was on hunting, he found an herd of harts, among
whom he saw one more fair and greater than the other, which departed
from the company and sprang into the thickest of the forest. And the
other knights ran after the other harts, but Placidus siewed him with
all his might, and enforced to take him. And when the hart saw that he
followed with all his power, at the last he went up on a high rock, and
Placidus approaching nigh, thought in his mind how he might take him.
And as he beheld and considered the hart diligently, he saw between his
horns the form of the holy cross shining more clear than the sun, and
the image of Christ, which by the mouth of the hart, like as sometime
Balaam by the ass, spake to him, saying: Placidus, wherefore followest
me hither? I am appeared to thee in this beast for the grace of thee. I
am Jesu Christ, whom thou honourest ignorantly, thy alms be ascended up
tofore me, and therefore I come hither so that by this hart that thou
huntest I may hunt thee. And some other say that this image of Jesu
Christ which appeared between the horns of the hart said these words.
And when Placidus heard that, he had great dread, and descended from
his horse to the ground. And an hour after he came to himself, and
arose from the ground, and said: Rehearse again this that thou hast
said, and I shall believe thee. And then our Lord said: I am Jesu
Christ that formed heaven and earth, which made the light to increase,
and divided it from darkness, and established time, days, and hours.
Which formed men of the slime of the earth, which appeared on earth in
flesh for the health of the lineage human, which was crucified, dead,
buried, and arose the third day. And when Placidus heard this, he fell
down again to the earth, and said: I believe, Lord, that thou art he
that made all things, and convertest them that err. And our Lord said
to him: If thou believest, go to the bishop of the city and do thee be
baptized. And Placidus said to him: Lord, wilt thou that I hide this
thing from my wife and my sons? And our Lord said to him: Tell to them
that they also make them clean with thee. And see that thou come again
to-morrow hither that I appear again to thee, and may show to thee that
which shall come hereafter to thee. And when he was come home to his
house, and had told this thing to his wife in their bed, she cried: My
Lord! and said: And I saw him this night that is passed, and he said to
me: To-morn thou, thy husband, and thy sons, shall come to me. And now
I know that it was Christ. Then they went to the bishop of Rome at
midnight, which baptized them with great joy, and named Placidus,
Eustace, and his wife, Theospis.
And on the morn Eustace went to hunt as he did tofore, and when he came
nigh to the place he departed his knights as for to find venison. And
anon he saw in the place the form of the first vision, and anon he fell
to the ground tofore the figure, and said: Lord, I pray thee to show to
me that which thou hast promised to me thy servant, to whom our Lord
said: Eustace, thou that art blessed, which hast taken the washing of
grace, for now thou hast surmounted the devil, which had deceived thee,
and trodden him under foot, now thy faith shall appear. The devil now,
because thou hast forsaken him, is armed cruelly against thee, and it
behoveth thee to suffer many things and pains. For to have the crown of
victory thou must suffer much, because to humble thee from the high
vanity of the world, and shalt afterward be enhanced in spiritual
riches, thou therefore fail not, ne look not unto thy first glory. For
thee behoveth that by temptations thou be another Job, and when thou
shalt so be humbled, I shall come to thee, and shall restore thee unto
thy first joy. Say to me now whether thou wilt now suffer and take
temptations, or in the end of thy life? And Eustace said to him: Lord,
if it so behoveth. command that temptation to come now, but I beseech
thee to grant to me the virtue of patience. To whom our Lord said: Be
thou constant, for my grace shall keep your souls. Then our Lord
ascended into heaven, and Eustace returned home and showed all this to
his wife.
After this, a few days, the pestilence assailed his servants and his
knights, and slew them all, and in a little while after, all his horses
and his beasts died suddenly, and after this, some that had been his
fellows, seeing his depredation, entered into his house by night and
robbed him, and bare away gold and silver, and despoiled him of all
other things. And he, his wife, and children thanked God, and fled away
by night all naked, and because they doubted shame, they fled into
Egypt. And all his great possessions came to nought by ravin of wicked
people. Then the king and all the senators sorrowed much for the master
of the chivalry, which was so noble, because they might hear no tidings
of him. And as they went they approached the sea, and found a ship, and
entered into it for to pass, and the master of the ship saw the wife of
Eustace was right fair, and desired much for to have her. And when they
were passed over, he demanded his reward for their freight, and they
had not whereof to pay, so that the master of the ship commanded that
the wife should be holden and retained for his hire, and would have her
with him. And when Eustace heard that, he gainsaid it long. Then the
master of the ship commanded his mariners to cast him in the sea, so
that he might have his wife, and when Eustace saw that, he left his
wife much sorrowfully, and took his two children and went weeping, and
said: Alas! woe am I for you, for your mother is delivered to a strange
husband. And thus sorrowing he and his children came to a river, and
for the great abundance of water he durst not pass that river with his
both sons at once, which were then young. But at the last he left one
of them on the brink of the river, and bare over that other on his
shoulders, and when he had passed the river, he set down on the ground
the child that he had borne over, and hasted him for to fetch that
other that he had left on that other side of the river. And when he was
in the midst of the water, there came a wolf and took the child that he
had borne over, and fled withal to the woods. And he then, all
despaired of him, went for to fetch that other, and as he went, there
came a great lion and bare away that other child, so that he might not
retain him, for he was in the middle of the river. And then he began to
weep and draw his hair, and would have drowned himself in the water if
the divine purveyance had not letted him. And the herdmen and ploughmen
saw the lion bearing the child all alive, and they followed him with
their dogs, so that by divine grace the lion left the child all safe
without hurt. And other ploughmen cried and followed the wolf, and with
their staves and falchions delivered the child whole and sound from his
teeth without hurt. And so both the herdmen and ploughmen were of one
village, and nourished these children among them. And Eustace knew
nothing thereof, but weeping and sorrowing, saying to himself: Alas!
woe is me! for tofore this mishap I shone in great wealth like a tree,
but now I am naked of all things. Alas! I was accustomed to be
accompanied with a great multitude of knights, and I am now alone, and
am not suffered to have my sons. O Lord, I remember me that thou
saddest to me: Thee behoveth to be tempted as Job was, but I see that
in me is more done to than was to Job. For he lost all his possessions,
but he had a dunghill to sit on, but to me is nothing left, he had
friends which had pity on him, and I have none but wild beasts, which
have borne away my sons. To him was his wife left, and my wife is taken
from me and delivered to another. O good Lord, give thou rest to my
tribulations, and keep thou so my mouth that mine heart decline not
into words of malice, and be cast from thy visage. And thus saying and
wailing, in great weeping, went into a street of the town, and there
was hired for to keep the fields of the men of that town, and so kept
them fifteen years. His sons were nourished in another town, and knew
not that they were brethren; and our Lord kept the wife of Eustace, so
that the strange man had not to do with her ne touched her, but died
and ended his life.
In that time the emperor and the people were much tormented of their
enemies, and then they remembered of Placidus, how he many times had
fought nobly against them, for whom the emperor was much sorrowful, and
sent out, into divers parts, many knights to seek him, and promised to
them that found him much riches and great honour. And two knights,
which had been under him in chivalry, came into the same street where
he dwelled, and anon as Placidus saw them, he knew them, and then he
remembered his first dignity and began to be heavy, and said: Lord, I
beseech thee to grant to me that I may sometime see my wife, for as for
my sons I know well that they be devoured of wild beasts. And then a
voice came to him and said: Eustace, have thou good affiance, for anon
thou shalt recover thine honour, and shalt have thy wife and thy
children. And anon he met with these knights, and they knew him not,
but demanded of him if he knew any strange man named Placidus, and had
a wife and two children. And he said: Nay, yet he had these home to his
hostel, and he served them. And when he remembered of his first estate
he might not hold him from weeping. Then he went out and washed his
face and returned for to serve them. And they considered and said that
one to that other, how that this man resembleth much unto him that we
seek, and that other answered: Certainly he is like unto him; now let
us see if he have a wound in his head that he gat in a battle. Then
they beheld, and saw the sign of the wound, and then they wist well it
was he that they sought. Then they arose and kissed him and demanded of
his wife and children, and he said that his sons were dead, and his
wife was taken away from him. And then the neighbours ran for to hear
this thing, because the knights told and recounted his first glory and
his virtue. And they said to him the commandment of the emperor, and
clad him with noble vestments. Then after the journey of fifteen days
they brought him to the emperor. And when he heard of his coming he ran
anon against him, and when he saw him he kissed him. Then Eustace
recounted tofore them all by order that which had happened to him. And
he was re-established unto the office to be again master of the
chivalry, and was constrained to do the office as he did tofore.
And then he counted how many knights there were, and saw there were but
few as to the regard of their enemies, and commanded that all the young
men should be gathered in the cities and towns, and it happed that the
country where his sons were nourished should make and send two men of
arms. Then all the inhabitants of that country ordained these two young
men, his sons, most convenable above all others for to go with the
master of the chivalry; and then when the master saw these young men of
noble form and adorned honestly with good manners, they pleased him
much and ordained that they should be with the first of his table.
Then he went thus to the battle, and when he had subdued his enemies to
him, he made his host to rest three days in a town, where his wife
dwelt and kept a poor hostelry. And these two young men, by the
purveyance of God were lodged in the habitation of their mother,
without knowing what she was. And on a time about midday, as they spake
that one to that other of their infancy, and their mother, which was
there, hearkened what they said much attentively, so that the greatest
said to the less: When I was a child, I remember none other thing, save
that my father which was master of the knights, and my mother, which
was right fair, had two sons, that is to say, me and another, younger
than I, and was much fair. And they took us and went out of their house
by night, and entered into a ship for to go I wot not whither. And when
we went out of the ship our mother was left in the ship, I wot not in
what manner, but my father bare me and my brother, and sore weeping.
And when he came to a water he passed over with my younger brother, and
left me on he bank of the water, and when he returned a wolf came and
bare away my brother. And ere my father might come to me, a great lion
issued out of the forest, and took me up and bare me, to the wood, but
the herdmen that saw him took me from the mouth of the lion, and was
nourished in such a town as ye know well, ne I could never know what
happened to my brother, nor where he is. And when the younger heard
this he began to weep and say: Forsooth, like as I hear, I am thy
brother, for they that nourished me said that they had taken me from a
wolf. And then they began to embrace and kiss each other, and weep.
And when their mother had heard all this tbing, she considered long in
herself if they were her two sons, because they had said by order what
was befallen them. And the next day following she went to the master of
the chivalry and required him, saying: Sir, I pray thee command that I
may be brought again to my country, for I am of the country of the
Romans, and here I am a stranger. And in saying these words she saw n
him signs, and knew by them that he was her husband, and then she might
no longer forbear, but fell down at his feet and said to him: Sir, I
pray thee to tell of thy first estate, for I ween that thou art
Placidus, master of the knights, which otherwise art called Eustace,
whom the Saviour of the world hath converted, and hast suffered such
temptation and such, and I that am thy wife was taken from thee in the
sea, which nevertheless have been kept from all corruption, and haddest
of me two sons Agapitus and Theospitus. And Eustace hearing this, and
diligently considered and beheld her, anon knew that she was his wife,
and wept for joy and kissed her; and glorified much our Lord God, which
comforteth the discomforted. And then said his wife: Sir, where be our
sons? And he said that they were slain of wild beasts, and recounted to
her how he had lost them. And she said: Let us give thankings to God,
for I suppose that like as God hath given to us grace each to find
other, so shall he give us grace to recover our sons. And he said: I
have told thee that they be devoured of wild beasts; and she then said:
I sat yesterday in a garden and heard two younglings thus and thus
expounding their infancy, and I believe that they be our sons, demand
them and they shall tell to thee the truth. Then Eustace called them,
and heard their infancy and knew that they were his sons. Then he
embraced them and the mother also, and kissed them also. Then all the
host enjoyed strongly of the finding of his wife and children, and for
the victory of the barbarians. And when he was returned, Trajan was
then dead, and Adrian succeeded in the empire, which was worst in all
felonies. And as well for the victory as for the finding of his wife
and children, he received them much honourably and did do make a great
dinner and feast. And on the next day after, he went to the temple of
the idols, for to sacrifice for the victory of the barbarians. And then
the emperor seeing that Eustace would not do sacrifice, neither for the
victory, ne for that he had found his wife and children, warned and
commanded him that he should do sacrifice. To whom Eustace said: I
adore and do sacrifice to our Lord Jesu Christ, and only serve him. And
then the emperor, replenished with ire, put him his wife and his sons
in a certain place, and did to go to them a right cruel lion, and the
lion ran to them and inclined his head to them, like as he had
worshipped them, and departed. Then the emperor did do make a fire
under an ox of brass or copper, and when it was fire-hot he commanded
that they should be put therein all quick and alive. And then the
saints prayed and commended them unto our Lord, and entered into the
ox, and there yielded up their spirits unto Jesu Christ. And the third
day after, they were drawn out tofore the emperor, and were found all
whole and not touched of the fire, ne as much as an hair of them was
burnt, ne none other thing on them. And then the christian men took the
bodies of them, and laid them in a right noble place honourably, and
made over them an oratory. And they suffered death under Adrian the
emperor, which began about the year one hundred and twenty in the
calends of November.
St. George
Of S. George, Martyr, and first the interpretation of his name.
George is said of geos, which is as much to say as earth, and orge that
is tilling. So George is to say as tilling the earth, that is his
flesh. And S. Austin saith, in libro de Trinitate that, good earth is
in the height of the mountains, in the temperance of the valleys, and
in the plain of the fields. The first is good for herbs being green,
the second to vines, and the third to wheat and corn. Thus the blessed
George was high in despising low things, and therefore he had verdure
in himself, he was attemperate by discretion, and therefore he had wine
of gladness, and within he was plane of humility, and thereby put he
forth wheat of good works. Or George may be said of gerar, that is
holy, and of gyon, that is a wrestler, that is an holy wrestler, for he
wrestled with the dragon. Or George is said of gero, that is a pilgrim,
and gir, that is detrenched out, and ys, that is a councillor. He was a
pilgrim in the sight of the world, and he was cut and detrenched by the
crown of martyrdom, and he was a good councillor in preaching. And his
legend is numbered among other scriptures apocryphal in the council of
Nicene, because his martyrdom hath no certain relation. For in the
calendar of Bede it is said that he suffered martyrdom in Persia in the
city of Diaspolin, and in other places it is read that he resteth in
the city of Diaspolin which tofore was called Lidda, which is by the
city of Joppa or Japh. And in another place it is said that he suffered
death under Diocletian and Maximian, which that time were emperors. And
in another place under Diocletian emperor of Persia, being present
seventy kings of his empire. And it is said here that he suffered death
under Dacian the provost, then Diocletian and Maximian being emperors.
Here followeth the Life of S. George Martyr.
S. George was a knight and born in Cappadocia. On a time he came in to
the province of Libya, to a city which is said Silene. And by this city
was a stagne or a pond like a sea, wherein was a dragon which envenomed
all the country. And on a time the people were assembled for to slay
him, and when they saw him they fled. And when he came nigh the city he
venomed the people with his breath, and therefore the people of the
city gave to him every day two sheep for to feed him, because he should
do no harm to the people, and when the sheep failed there was taken a
man and a sheep. Then was an ordinance made in the town that there
should be taken the children and young people of them of the town by
lot, and every each one as it fell, were he gentle or poor, should be
delivered when the lot fell on him or her. So it happed that many of
them of the town were then delivered, insomuch that the lot fell upon
the king's daughter, whereof the king was sorry, and said unto the
people: For the love of the gods take gold and silver and all that I
have, and let me have my daughter. They said: How sir! ye have made and
ordained the law, and our children be now dead, and ye would do the
contrary. Your daughter shall be given, or else we shall burn you and
your house.
When the king saw he might no more do, he began to weep, and said to
his daughter: Now shall I never see thine espousals. Then returned he
to the people and demanded eight days' respite, and they granted it to
him. And when the eight days were passed they came to him and said:
Thou seest that the city perisheth: Then did the king do array his
daughter like as she should be wedded, and embraced her, kissed her and
gave her hls benediction, and after, led her to the place where the
dragon was.
When she was there S. George passed by, and when he saw the lady he
demanded the lady what she made there and she said: Go ye your way fair
young man, that ye perish not also. Then said he: Tell to me what have
ye and why weep ye, and doubt ye of nothing. When she saw that he would
know, she said to him how she was delivered to the dragon. Then said S.
George: Fair daughter, doubt ye no thing hereof for I shall help thee
in the name of Jesu Christ. She said: For God's sake, good knight, go
your way, and abide not with me, for ye may not deliver me. Thus as
they spake together the dragon appeared and came running to them, and
S. George was upon his horse, and drew out his sword and garnished him
with the sign of the cross, and rode hardily against the dragon which
came towards him, and smote him with his spear and hurt him sore and
threw him to the ground. And after said to the maid: Deliver to me your
girdle, and bind it about the neck of the dragon and be not afeard.
When she had done so the dragon followed her as it had been a meek
beast and debonair. Then she led him into the city, and the people fled
by mountains and valleys, and said: Alas! alas! we shall be all dead.
Then S. George said to them: Ne doubt ye no thing, without more,
believe ye in God, Jesu Christ, and do ye to be baptized and I shall
slay the dragon. Then the king was baptized and all his people, and S.
George slew the dragon and smote off his head, and commanded that he
should be thrown in the fields, and they took four carts with oxen that
drew him out of the city.
Then were there well fifteen thousand men baptized, without women and
children, and the king did do make a church there of our Lady and of S.
George, in the which yet sourdeth a fountain of living water, which
healeth sick people that drink thereof. After this the king offered to
S. George as much money as there might be numbered, but he refused all
and commanded that it should be given to poor people for God's sake;
and enjoined the king four things, that is, that he should have charge
of the churches, and that he should honour the priests and hear their
service diligently, and that he should have pity on the poor people,
and after, kissed the king and departed.
Now it happed that in the time of Diocletian and Maximian, which were
emperors, was so great persecution of christian men that within a month
were martyred well twenty-two thousand, and therefore they had so great
dread that some renied and forsook God and did sacrifice to the idols.
When S. George saw this, he left the habit of a knight and sold all
that he had, and gave it to the poor, and took the habit of a christian
man, and went into the middle of the paynims and began to cry: All the
gods of the paynims and gentiles be devils, my God made the heavens and
is very God. Then said the provost to him: Of what presumption cometh
this to thee, that thou sayest that our gods be devils? And say to us
what thou art and what is thy name. He answered anon and said: I am
named George, I am a gentleman, a knight of Cappadocia, and have left
all for to serve the God of heaven. Then the provost enforced himself
to draw him unto his faith by fair words, and when he might not bring
him thereto he did do raise him on a gibbet; and so much beat him with
great staves and broches of iron, that his body was all tobroken in
pieces. And after he did do take brands of iron and join them to his
sides, and his bowels which then appeared he did do frot with salt, and
so sent him into prison, but our Lord appeared to him the of same night
with great light and comforted him much sweetly. And by this great
consolation he took to him so good heart that he doubted no torment
that they might make him suffer. Then, when Dacian the provost saw that
he might not surmount him, he called his enchanter and said to him: I
see that these christian people doubt not our torments. The enchanter
bound himself, upon his head to be smitten off, if he overcame not his
crafts. Then he did take strong venom and meddled it with wine, and
made invocation of the names of his false gods, and gave it to S.
George to drink. S. George took it and made the sign of the cross on
it, and anon drank it without grieving him any thing. Then the
enchanter made it more stronger than it was tofore of venom, and gave
it him to drink, and it grieved him nothing. When the enchanter saw
that, he kneeled down at the feet of S. George and prayed him that he
would make him christian. And when Dacian knew that he was become
christian he made to smite off his head. And after, on the morn, he
made S. George to be set between two wheels, which were full of swords,
sharp and cutting on both sides, but anon the wheels were broken and S.
George escaped without hurt. And then commanded Dacian that they should
put him in a caldron full of molten lead, and when S. George entered
therein, by the virtue of our Lord it seemed that he was in a bath well
at ease. Then Dacian seeing this began to assuage his ire, and to
flatter him by fair words, and said to him: George, the patience of our
gods is over great unto thee which hast blasphemed them, and done to
them great despite, then fair, and right sweet son, I pray thee that
thou return to our law and make sacrifice to the idols, and leave thy
folly, and I shall enhance thee to great honour and worship. Then began
S. George to smile, and said to him: Wherefore saidst thou not to me
thus at the beginning? I am ready to do as thou sayest. Then was Dacian
glad and made to cry over all the town that all the people should
assemble for to see George make sacrifice which so much had striven
there against. Then was the city arrayed and feast kept throughout all
the town, and all came to the temple for to see him.
When S. George was on his knees, and they supposed that he would have
worshipped the idols, he prayed our Lord God of heaven that he would
destroy the temple and the idol in the honour of his name, for to make
the people to be converted. And anon the fire descended from heaven and
burnt the temple, and the idols, and their priests, and sith the earth
opened and swallowed all the cinders and ashes that were left. Then
Dacian made him to be brought tofore him, and said to him: What be the
evil deeds that thou hast done and also great untruth? Then said to him
S. George: Ah, sir, believe it not, but come with me and see how I
shall sacrifice. Then said Dacian to him: I see well thy fraud and thy
barat, thou wilt make the earth to swallow me, like as thou hast the
temple and my gods. Then said S. George: O caitiff, tell me how may thy
gods help thee when they may not help themselves! Then was Dacian so
angry that he said to his wife: I shall die for anger if I may not
surmount and overcome this man. Then said she to him: Evil and cruel
tyrant! ne seest thou not the great virtue of the christian people? I
said to thee well that thou shouldst not do to them any harm, for their
God fighteth for them, and know thou well that I will become christian.
Then was Dacian much abashed and said to her: Wilt thou be christian?
Then he took her by the hair, and did do beat her cruelly. Then
demanded she of S. George: What may I become because I am not
christened? Then answered the blessed George: Doubt thee nothing, fair
daughter, for thou shalt be baptized in thy blood. Then began she to
worship our Lord Jesu Christ, and so she died and went to heaven. On
the morn Dacian gave his sentence that S. George should be drawn
through all the city, and after, his head should be smitten off. Then
made he his prayer to our Lord that all they that desired any boon
might get it of our Lord God in his name, and a voice came from heaven
which said that it which he had desired was granted; and after he had
made his orison his head was smitten off, about the year of our Lord
two hundred and eighty-seven. When Dacian went homeward from the place
where he was beheaded towards his palace, fire fell down from heaven
upon him and burnt him and all his servants.
Gregory of Tours telleth that there were some that bare certain relics
of S. George, and came into a certain oratory in a hospital, and on the
morning when they should depart they could not move the door till they
had left there part of their relics. It is also found in the history of
Antioch, that when the christian men went over sea to conquer
Jerusalem, that one, a right fair young man, appeared to a priest of
the host and counselled him that he should bear with him a little of
the relics of S. George. for he was conductor of the battle, and so he
did so much that he had some. And when it was so that they had assieged
Jerusalem and durst not mount ne go up on the walls for the quarrels
and defence of the Saracens, they saw appertly S. George which had
white arms with a red cross, that went up tofore them on the walls, and
they followed him, and so was Jerusalem taken by his help. And between
Jerusalem and port Jaffa, by a town called Ramys, is a chapel of S.
George which is now desolate and uncovered, and therein dwell christian
Greeks. And in the said chapel lieth the body of S. George, but not the
head. And there lie his father and mother and his uncle, not in the
chapel but under the wall of the chapel; and the keepers will not
suffer pilgrims to come therein, but if they pay two ducats, and
therefore come but few therein, but offer without the chapel at an
altar. And there is seven years and seven lents of pardon; and the body
of S. George lieth in the middle of the quire or choir of the said
chapel, and in his tomb is an hole that a man may put in his hand. And
when a Saracen, being mad, is brought thither, and if he put his head
in the hole he shall anon be made perfectly whole, and have his wit
again.
This blessed and holy martyr S. George is patron of this realm of
England and the cry of men of war. In the worship of whom is founded
the noble order of the garter, and also a noble college in the castle
of Windsor by kings of England, in which college is the heart of S.
George, which Sigismund, the emperor of Almayne, brought and gave for a
great and a precious relique to King Harry the fifth. And also the said
Sigismund was a brother of the said garter, and also there is a piece
of his head, which college is nobly endowed to the honour and worship
of Almighty God and his blessed martyr S. George. Then let us pray unto
him that he be special protector and defender of this realm.
St. Giles
Here followeth the Life of S. Giles, and first the interpretation of
his name.
Giles in English, and Egidius in Latin. And it is said of E, that is
without, and geos, that is the earth, and dya, that is clear or godly.
He was without earth, by despising of earthly things, clear by
enlumining of science, divine or godly by love,which assembleth the
lover to him that is loved.
Of S. Giles.
S. Giles was born in Athens, and was of noble lineage and royal
kindred. And in his childhood he was informed in holy lettrure. And on
a day as he went to the church, he found a sick man which lay all sick
in the way and demanded alms of S. Giles, which gave him his coat. And
as soon as he clad him withal he received full and entire health. And
after that, anon his father and his mother died, and rested in our
Lord, and then S. Giles made Jesu Christ heir of his heritage. On a
time as he went to the church a man was smitten with a serpent and
died, and Giles came against this serpent, and made his orison, and
chased out of him all the venom. There was a man which was demoniac in
the monastery with other people, and troubled them that heard the
service of God. Then Giles conjured the devil that was in his body, and
anon he issued out, and anon he was all whole.
Then Giles doubted the peril of the world, and went secretly to the
rivage of the sea, and saw there mariners in great peril and like to
perish in the sea. And he made his prayer, and anon the tempest ceased,
and anon the mariners came to land and thanked God. And he understood
by them that they went to Rome, and he desired to go with them, whom
they received into their ship gladly, and said they would bring him
thither without any freight or hire. And then he came to Arles, and
abode there two years with S. Cezarien, bishop of that city, and there
he healed a man that had been sick of the fevers three years. And
after, he desired to go into desert, and departed covertly, and dwelled
there long with a hermit that was a holy man. And there by his merits
he chased away the sterility and barrenness that was in that country,
and caused great plenty of goods. And when he had done this miracle he
doubted the peril of the glory human, and left that place, and entered
farther into desert and there found a pit, and a little well, and a
fair hind, which without doubt was purveyed of God for to nourish him,
and at certain hours ministered her milk to him.
And on a time servants of the king rode on hunting, and much people and
many hounds with them. It happed that they espied this hind, and they
thought that she was so fair that they followed her with hounds, and
when she was sore constrained she fled for succour to the feet of S.
Giles, whom she nourished, and then he was much abashed when he saw her
so chauffed, and more than she was wont to be. And then he sprang up
and espied the hunters. Then he prayed to our Lord Jesu Christ that
like as he sent her to him, to be nourished by her, that he would save
her. Then the hounds durst not approach her by the space of a stone
cast, but they howled together, and returned to the hunters, and then
the night came, and they returned home again and took nothing. And when
the king heard say of this thing he had suspicion what it might be, and
went and warned the bishop, and both went thither with great multitude
of hunters, and when the hounds were on the place whereas the hind was,
they durst not go forth as they did before, but then they all environed
the bush for to see what there was, but that bush was so thick that no
man ne beast might enter therein for the brambles and thorns that were
there. And then one of the knights drew up an arrow follily for to make
it afeard and spring out, but he wounded and hurt the holy man, which
ceased not to pray for the fair hind. And after this the hunters made
way with their swords and went into the pit, and saw there this ancient
man, which was clothed in the habit of a monk, of a right honourable
figure and parure, and the hind Iying by him. And the king and the
bishop went alone to him, and demanded him from whence he was, and what
he was, and why he had taken so great a thickness of desert, and of
whom he was so hurt; and he answered right honestly to every demand;
and when they had heard him speak they thought that he was a holy man,
and required him humbly pardon. And they sent to him masters and
surgeons to heal his wound, and offered him many gifts, but he would
never lay medicine to his wound, ne receive their gifts, but refused
them. And he prayed our Lord that he might never be whole thereof in
his life, for he knew well that virtue should profit to him in
infirmity. And the king visited him oft, and received of him the
pasture of health. And the king offered to him many great riches, but
he refused all. And after, he admonished the king that he should do
make a monastery, whereas the discipline of the order of monks should
be, and when he had do make it, Giles refused many times to take the
charge and the crosier. And at the last he was vanquished by prayers of
the king and took it.
And then king Charles heard speak of the renown of him, and impetred
that he might see him, and he received him much honourably, and he
prayed him to pray for him; among other things because he had done a
sin so foul and villainous that he durst not be shriven thereof to him
ne to none other. And on the Sunday after, as S. Giles said mass and
prayed for the king, the angel of our Lord appeared to him, and laid a
schedule upon the altar where the sin of the king was written in by
order, and that was pardoned him by the prayers of S. Giles, so that he
were thereof repentant and abstained him from doing it any more, and it
was adjoined to the end that, who that required S. Giles for any sin
that he had done, if he left it that it should be pardoned to him. And
after the holy man delivered the schedule to the king, and he confessed
his sin and required pardon humbly.
Then S. Giles returned thence with honour, and when he came to the city
of Nemausense, he raised the son of a prince that was dead. And a
little while after he denounced that his monastery should be destroyed
of enemies of the faith. And after he went to Rome and gat privileges
of the pope to his church, and two doors of cypress, in which were the
images of SS. Peter and Paul, and he threw them into the Tiber at Rome,
and recommended them to God for to govern. And when he returned to his
monastery he made a lame man to go, and found the two doors of cypress
at the gate of his monastery, whereof he thanked God that had kept them
without breaking in so many adventures as they had been, and sith he
set them at the gates of the church for the beauty of them, and for the
grace that the church of Rome had done thereto. And at the last our
Lord showed to him his departing out of this world, and he said it to
his brethren, and admonished them to pray for him, and so he slept and
died goodly in our Lord. And many witness that they heard the company
of angels bearing the soul of him into heaven. And he flourished about
the year of our Lord seven hundred.
St. Margaret
Here followeth the glorious Life and passion of the Blessed Virgin and
Martyr S. Margaret, and first of her name.
Margaret is said of a precious gem, or ouche, that is named a margaret.
Which gem is white, little and virtuous. So the blessed Margaret was
white by virginity, little by humility, and virtuous by operation of
miracles. The virtue of this stone is said to be against effusion of
blood, against passion of the heart, and to confortation of the spirit.
In like wise the blessed Margaret had virtue against shedding of her
blood by constancy, for in her martyrdom she was most constant, and
also against the passion of the heare, that is to say, temptation of
the devil. For she overcame the devil by victory, and to the
confortation of the spirit by doctrine, for by her doctrine she
comforted much people, and converted to the faith of Christ.
Theoteinus, a learned man, wrote her legend.
The holy S. Margaret was of the city of Antioch, daughter of
Theodosius, patriarch and prince of the idols of paynims. And she was
delivered to a nurse for to be kept. And when she came to perfect age
she was baptized, wherefor she was in great hate of her father.
On a certain day, when she was fifteen years of age, and kept the sheep
of her nurse with other maidens, the provost Olybrius passed by the way
whereas she was, and considered in her so great beauty and fairness,
that anon he burned in her love, and sent his servants and bade them
take her and bring her to him. For if she be free I shall take her to
my wife, and if she be bond, I shall make her my concubine. And when
she was presented tofore him he demanded her of her lineage, name and
religion. And she answered that she was of noble lineage, and for her
name Margaret, and christian in religion. To whom the provost said: The
two first things be convenient to thee, that is that thou art noble,
and art called Margaret which is a most fair name, but the third
appertaineth nothing to thee, that so fair a maid and so noble should
have a God crucified. To whom she said: How knowest thou that Christ
was crucified? He answered: By the books of christian men. To whom
Margaret said: O what shame is it to you, when you read the pain of
Christ and the glory, and believe one thing and deny another. And she
said and affirmed him to be crucified by his will for our redemption,
and now liveth ever in bliss. And then the provost, being wroth,
commanded her to be put in prison. And the next day following commanded
that she should be brought to him, and then said to her: O good maid,
have pity on thy beauty, and worship our gods, that thou mayest be
well. To whom she said: I worship him that maketh the earth to tremble,
whom the sea dreadeth and the winds and creatures obey. To whom the
provost said: But if thou consent to me I shall make thy body to be all
to-torn. To whom Margaret said: Christ gave himself over to the death
for me, and I desire gladly to die for Christ. Then the provost
commanded her to be hanged in an instrument to torment the people, and
to be cruelly first beaten with rods, and with iron combs to rend and
draw her flesh to the bones, insomuch that the blood ran about out of
her body, like as a stream runneth out of a fresh springing well. They
that were there wept, and said: O Margaret, verily we be sorry for
thee, which see thy body so foul, and so cruelly torn and rent. O how
thy most beauty hast thou lost for thy incredulity and misbelief. Now
believe, and thou shalt live. Then said she to them: 0 evil
counsellors, depart ye, and go from me, this cruel torment of my flesh
is salvation of my soul. Then she said to the provost: Thou shameless
hound and insatiable lion, thou hast power over my flesh, but Christ
reserveth my soul. The provost covered his face with his mantle, for he
might not see so much effusion of blood, and then commanded that she
should be taken down, and to shut her fast in prison, and there was
seen a marvellous brightness in the prison, of the keepers.
And whilst she was in prison, she prayed our Lord that the fiend that
had fought with her, he would visibly show him unto her. And then
appeared a horrible dragon and assailed her, and would have devoured
her, but she made the sign of the cross, and anon he vanished away. And
in another place it is said that he swallowed her into his belly, she
making the sign of the cross. And the belly brake asunder, and so she
issued out all whole and sound.
This swallowing and breaking of the belly of the dragon is said that it
is apocryphal.
After this the devil appeared to her in likeness of a man for to
deceive her. And when she saw him, she went to prayer and after arose,
and the fiend came to her, and took her by the hand and said: It
sufficeth to thee that thou hast done, but now cease as to my person.
She caught him by the head and threw him to the ground, and set her
right foot on his neck saying: Lie still, thou fiend, under the feet of
a woman. The devil then cried: O blessed Margaret, I am overcome. If a
young man had overcome me I had not recked, but alas! I am overcome of
a tender virgin; wherefore I make the more sorrow, for thy father and
mother have been my good friends. She then constrained him to tell why
he came to her, and he answered, that he came to her to counsel her for
to obey the desire and request of the provost. Then she constrained him
to say wherefore he tempted so much and so often christian people. To
whom he answered that naturally he hated virtuous men, and though we be
oft put aback from them, yet our desire is much to exclude them from
the felicity that they fell from, for we may never obtain ne recover
our bliss that we have lost. And she then demanded what he was, and he
answered: I am Veltis, one of them whom Solomon closed in a vessel of
brass. And after his death it happed that they of Babylon found this
vessel; and supposed to have founden great treasure therein, and brake
the vessel, and then a great multitude of us devils flew out and filled
full the air alway, awaiting and espying where we may assail rightful
men. And when he had said thus, she took off her foot and said to him:
Flee hence, thou wretched fiend. And anon the earth opened, and the
fiend sank in. Then she was sure, for when she had overcome the master,
she might lightly overcome the minister.
Then the next day following, when all the people was assembled, she was
presented tofore the judge. And she not doing sacrifice to their false
gods, was cast into the fire, and her body broiled with burning brands,
in such wise that the people marvelled that so tender a maid might
suffer so many torments. And after that, they put her in a great vessel
full of water, fast bounden, that by changing of the torments, the
sorrow and feeling of the pain should be the more. But suddenly the
earth trembled, and the air was hideous, and the blessed virgin without
any hurt issued out of the water, saying to our Lord: I beseech thee,
my Lord, that this water may be to me the font of baptism to
everlasting life. And anon there was heard great thunder, and a dove
descended from heaven, and set a golden crown on her head. Then five
thousand men believed in our Lord, and for Christ's love they all were
beheaded by the commandment of the provost Olybrius, that time in
Campolymeath the city of Aurelia. Then Olybrius, seeing the faith of
the holy Margaret immoveable, and also fearing that others should be
converted to the christian faith by her, gave sentence and commanded
that she should be beheaded. Then she prayed to one Malchus that should
behead her, that she might have space to pray. And that got, she prayed
to our Lord, saying: Father Almighty, I yield to thee thankings that
thou hast suffered me to come to this glory, beseeching thee to pardon
them that pursue me. And I beseech thee, good Lord, that of thy
abundant grace, thou wilt grant unto all them that write my passion,
read it or hear, and to them that remember me, that they may deserve to
have plain remission and forgiveness of all their sins. And also, good
Lord, if any woman with child travailing in any place, call on me that
thou wilt keep her from peril, and that the child may be delivered from
her belly without any hurt of his members. And when she had finished
her prayer there was a voice heard from heaven saying, that her prayers
were heard and granted, and that the gates of heaven were open and
abode for her, and bade her come into the country of everlasting rest.
Then she, thanking our Lord, arose up, and bade the hangman accomplish
the commandment of the provost. To whom the hangman said: God forbid
that I should slay thee, virgin of Christ. To whom she said: If thou do
it not thou mayest have no part with me. Then he being afraid and
trembling smote off her head, and he, falling down at her feet, gave up
the ghost.
Then Theotinus took up the holy body, and bare it into Antioch, and
buried it in the house of a noble woman and widow named Sincletia. And
thus this blessed and holy virgin, S. Margaret, suffered death, and
received the crown of martyrdom the thirteenth kalends of August, as is
founden in her story; and it is read in another place that it was the
third ides of July. Of this virgin writeth an holy man and saith: The
holy and blessed Margaret was full of the dread of God, sad, stable,
and worshipful in religion, arrayed with compunction, laudable in
honesty, and singular in patience, and nothing was found in her
contrary to christian religion, hateful to her father, and beloved of
our Lord Jesu Christ. Then let us remember this holy virgin that she
pray for us in our needs, etc.
St. Vitus
Here follow the Lives of SS. Vitus and Modestus, and first the
interpretation of their names.
Modestus is as much to say as attemperate which is one of the cardinal
virtues, and two extremities go round about every virtue, and the
virtue abideth in the midst. And the extremities of wisdom be treachery
and folly; the extremities of attemperance be the accomplishment of all
fleshly desires, and to do after his will; the extremities of strength
be feeble courage and folly; and the extremities of justice be cruelty
and default. And therefore Modestus was attemperate by means of virtues
that were in him. Vitus is said of vita, that is, life. S. Austin, in
libro de Trinitate deviseth of three manners of life, that is the life
doing, that appertaineth to active life; a life idle that appertaineth
to idleness; and a life spiritual which appertaineth to life
contemplative, and this great manner of living was in him. Or Vitus is
as much to say as virtue or right virtuous.
Of S. Vitus and S. Modestus.
S. Vitus was a child much noble that suffered martyrdom in the age of
twelve years. His father beat him oft, because he despised the idols,
but neither for beating ne smiting he would never worship them. When
Valerian the provost of Lucca heard say hereof, he made him to come
tofore him, and when S. Vitus would not do sacrifice for him ne for his
words, he did do beat him with great staves. But the hands of them that
beat him became dry and the hands of the provost also, in such wise
that they might not bewield them. Then said the provost: Alas! alas! I
have lost mine hands. Then said to him the child Vitus: Call thy gods
and pray them that they help thee if they may. Then said the provost:
Mayst thou heal me? The child answered: I may well heal thee in the
name of my Lord Jesu Christ, and anon he made his prayer and healed
him. Then said the provost to his father: Chastise thy son, to the end
that he die not an evil death. Then his father brought him again to his
own house, and made come to him harps, pipes and all manner instruments
that he might have, and after did do come maidens for to play with him,
and made him to have all manner of delights that he might get, to
mollify and change his heart. And when he had been shut and enclosed in
a chamber one day, there issued a marvellous odour and sweet savour,
whereof his father and the meiny marvelled, and when the father looked
in to the chamber, he saw two angels sitting by his son, and then said
he: The gods be come into mine house, and anon after these words he was
blind. Then assembled all the city of Lucca at the cry of the father,
and the provost Valerian came also, and demanded what it was that was
happed to him. And he said to him: I have seen in my house the gods all
so shining and bright as fire, and because I might not suffer the
clearness, I am become blind. Then led they him to the temple of Jove
and promised unto him a bull, with horns of gold, for to have again his
sight. But when he saw it availed him nothing, he required his son that
he would pray for him, and anon he made his prayer unto God, and anon
he was all whole. Yet for all that he would not believe in God, but
thought how he might put his son to death. Then appeared the angel to a
servant that kept him, whose name was Modestus, and said to him: Take
this child and lead him unto a strange land. And anon he found a ship
ready and entered therein, and so went out of the country. An angel
brought meat to them, and he did many miracles in the country where he
was.
Now it happed that Diocletian, son of the emperor, had a wicked spirit
in his body, and said openly that he would not go out till the child of
Lucca named Vitus was come. Anon he sought all about the country, and
after, when he was found, he was brought to the emperor. Then he
demanded if he might heal his son; he answered: I shall not heal him,
but our Lord shall. And anon he laid his hand on him and he was all
whole, so that the devil left him. Then said Diocletian: My child, take
counsel in thy works and do sacrifice unto our gods to the end that
thou die not an evil death. And Vitus answered that he would never do
sacrifice to their gods, and anon he was taken and put into prison with
Modestus his servant, and they laid mill-stones upon their bodies. And
anon the mill-stones fell off, and the prison began to shine of great
light. And when it was told to the emperor they were taken out of
prison, and after, S. Vitus was cast in to a fire burning, but by the
might of God he issued out whole and safe without suffering of any
harm. Then was there brought a terrible lion for to devour him, but
anon by the virtue of the faith he became meek and debonair. After, the
emperor made him to be hanged on a gibbet with Modestus and Crescentia
his nurse, which always followed him. Then anon the air began to
trouble and thunder, the earth to tremble, the temples of the idols to
fall down and slew many. The emperor was afeard and smote himself on
the breast with his fist saying: Alas ! alas ! a child hath overcome
me. Then came an angel that unbound them and they found themselves by a
river, and there resting and praying rendered their souls unto our Lord
God, whose bodies were kept of eagles, and afterward, by the revelation
of S. Vitus, a noble lady named Florentia took the bodies and buried
them worshipfully. They suffered martyrdom under Diocletian about the
year of our Lord two hundred and eighty-seven.
It happed afterward that a gentleman of France bare away the heads and
put them in a church which is a mile from Lusarches, named Fosses, and
closed them in a wall unto the time that he might set them more
honourably. But he died ere he might perform it, so that the heads were
there whereas no man living knew where they were. It happed so after,
that there was certain work in that church, and when the wall was
broken where the heads lay and were discovered, the bells of that
church began to sound by themselves. Then assembled the people to the
church and found a writing which devised how they had been brought
thither, and then they were laid more honourably and set, than they
were tofore; and there then were showed many miracles. Then let us pray
to these glorious saints that it may please them to pray to God for us
in such wise that we may by their merits and prayers come to the glory
of heaven, to which bring us the Father and Son and Holy Ghost. Amen.
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