Part 5

And after, Saint Brandon sailed southward three days and three nights, and on the Friday they saw an island, and then Saint Brandon began to sigh, and said: "I see the island wherein Saint Paul the hermit dwelleth and hath dwelled there forty years without meat and drink ordained by man's hand." And when they came to the land, Saint Paul came and welcomed them humbly. He was old and foregrown[38] so that no man might see his body. Of whom Saint Brandon said, weeping: "I see a man that liveth more like an angel than a man, wherefore we monks may be ashamed that we live not better." Then Saint Paul said to Saint Brandon: "Thou art better than I, for our Lord hath shewed to thee more privities than he hath done to me; wherefore, thou oughtest to be more praised than I."

To whom Saint Paul said: "Some time I was a monk of Saint Patrick's abbey in Ireland and was warden of the place whereas men enter into Saint Patrick's Purgatory, and on a day there came one to me and I asked him what he was, and he said: 'I am your abbot, Patrick, and charge thee that thou depart from hence tomorn early to the sea-side, and there thou shalt find a ship into which thou must enter, which God has ordained for thee, whose will thou must accomplish.' And so the next day I arose and went forth, and found the ship, in which I entered, and, by the purveyance of God, was I brought into this island the seventh day after. And then I left the ship and went to land, and there I walked up and down a good while, and then, by the purveyance of God, there came an otter, going upon his hinder feet, and brought me a flint stone and an iron to smite fire with, in the two foreclaws of his feet, and also, he had about his neck great plenty of fish, which he cast down before me and went his way. And I smote fire, and made a fire of sticks, and did seethe the fish, by which I lived three days. And then the otter came again and brought me fish for other three days, and thus he hath done this fifty-one years, through the grace of God. And there was a great stone out of which our blessed Lord made to spring fair water clear and sweet, whereof I drink daily. And thus have I lived one and fifty years. I was forty years old when I came hither, and am now an hundred and eleven years old, and abide till it please our Lord Jesu Christ to send for me; and if it pleased Him, I would fain be discharged of this wretched life."

And then he bade Saint Brandon to take of the water of the well and to carry it into his ship, "for it is time that thou depart, for thou hast a great journey to do, for thou shalt sail to an island which is forty days' sailing hence, where thou shalt hold thine Easter like as thou hast done tofore, whereas the tree of birds is. And from thence thou shalt sail into the Land of Behest, and shalt abide there forty days, and after return home into thy country in safety."

And then these holy men took leave each of other, and they wept both full sore, and kissed each other. Then Saint Brandon entered into the ship, and sailed forty days even south, in full great tempest, and on Easter Even they came to their procurator, which made to them good cheer, as he had beforetime. And from thence they came to the great fish whereon they said matins and mass on Easter Day, and when the mass was done, the fish began to move and swam forth fast into the sea, whereof the monks were sore aghast which stood upon him, for it was a great marvel to see such a fish, so great as all a country, for to swim so fast in the water, but, by the will of our Lord, this fish set all the monks aland in the Paradise of Birds, all whole and sound, and then returned to the place he came from. And then Saint Brandon and his monks thanked our Lord of their deliverance of the great fish, and kept their Eastertide till Trinity Sunday, like as they had done beforetime.

And after this they took their ship and sailed east forty days, and at the forty days' end it began to hail right fast, and therewith came a dark mist which lasted long after, which feared Saint Brandon and his monks, and they prayed to our Lord to keep and help them. And then anon came their procurator and bade them to be of good cheer, for they were come into the Land of Behest.

And soon after, that mist passed away, and anon they saw the fairest country eastward that any man might see, and it was so clear and bright that it was a heavenly sight to behold, and all the trees were charged with ripe fruit, and herb full of flowers. In which land they walked forty days, but they could not see none end of that land, and there was always day and never night, and the land temperate, ne too hot ne too cold.

And at the last they came to a fair river, but they durst not go over, and there came to them a fair young man, and welcomed them courteously and called each by name, and did great reverence to Saint Brandon. And he said to them: "Be ye now joyful, for this is the land that ye have sought, but our Lord will that ye depart hence hastily, and He will show you more of His secrets, when ye come again into the sea, and our Lord will that ye lade your ship with the fruit of this land, and hie you hence, for ye may no longer abide here, but thou shalt sail again to thine own country, and soon after thou comest home thou shalt die. And this water that thou seest here departeth the world asunder, for on that other side of this water may no man come that is in this life. And the fruit that ye see here is always thus ripe every time of the year; and always it is here light as ye now see. And he that keepeth our Lord's hests at all times shall see this land or he pass out of this world."

And then Saint Brandon and his monks took of that fruit as much as they would, and also took with them great plenty of precious stones, and then took their leave, and went to ship weeping sore because they might no longer abide there. And then they took their ship and came home into Ireland in safety, whom their brethren received with great joy, giving thankings to our Lord, which had kept them all these seven years from many a peril and brought them home in safety, to whom be given honour and glory, world without end. Amen.

And soon after, this holy man, Saint Brandon, waxed feeble and sick and had but little joy of this world, but ever after his joy and mind was in the joys of heaven. And in a short time after, he, being full of virtues, departed out of this life to everlasting life, and was worshipfully buried in a fair abbey, which he himself founded, where our Lord shewed for this holy saint many fair miracles. Wherefore let us devoutly pray to this holy saint that he pray for us to our Lord that He have mercy on us; to whom be given laud and honour and empire, world without end. Amen.

Translated by William Caxton

THE LIFE OF SAINT MARGARET[39]

_Here followeth the glorious life and passion of the blessed virgin and martyr Saint 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 heart, 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 Saint 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, wherefore 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 he 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: "O 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 Theoteinus 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, Saint 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.

Translated by William Caxton

PIOUS TALES

A MIRACLE OF GOD'S BODY

A MIRACLE OF THE VIRGIN

THE TRANSLATION OF SAINT THOMAS OF CANTERBURY

A MIRACLE OF GOD'S BODY[40]

There was a man beyond the sea, a miner who lived in a city and who sought under the earth for the stones out of which men get silver and gold. He worked and dug in the hill, and a dreadful thing happened to him: a large part of the mine fell down, closing him in. His fellows, who were loyal to him, believed that he was dead, so they took counsel together and went to tell his wife. This woman bewailed her husband sorely (would God there were many such women!). She helped his soul in all ways by giving alms and offerings. She offered for his sake at the altar a pitcher full of wine and a fair loaf, also, every day during a whole twelve months, except on one day. Few such women we find now, who are so kind to their husbands, but this wife with all her power wrought for him both day and night.

It happened at the end of the twelve months that his fellows went to the hill and came to the very place where they had left their companion at work. They began right there and, piercing through, found the man in good estate, alive, without any injury or wound. Each one was filled with amazement, and there was good reason why the men should be in doubt as to how he had lived all that year. Then he told them how he had lived there alone. "I have lived a gracious life through the courtesy of my wife, who every day has sent me wine and bread, except on one day, when I ate nothing."

They led the man in to the town and told the miracle everywhere through the city and through the country. At last it happened that he mentioned the name of the day when he fasted, and his wife said the same thing,—the day she made no offering was Good Friday. Now you may hear how a devout deed of alms will feed a man, and so you may understand that God is always pleased with good offerings.

In spite of this tale, trust not your wives, nor your children, but make your offerings yourselves. So kind a woman as I have told about does not live now, you may be sure. And no clerk who reads this will ever find one of such good deeds. You men who are now present and hear about the sacrament, know that the sacrament on the altar has power over all things, as I have shown to the ignorant but not to the learned, for the clerks know it well. Let us pray our Creator that our Saviour, the Sacrament, will save us body and soul, and grant that we may love Him and be His forever.

Translated by M. H. S.

A MIRACLE OF THE VIRGIN[41]

Lord, Maker of all things, Almighty God in majesty, that ever, without beginning, wert and art and shall be, grant us both strength and opportunity so to serve Thy pleasure that we may, through Thy grace, dwell with Thee for ever and aye!

We ought to bear well in mind those miracles of our Lady which are written in true story, showing how helpful she ever is to mankind. Once upon a time it happened in a city,—hearken well and ye may hear,—when Jews were wont to be together among Christians, Christians dwelt in one half of the city, and the Jews were forced to live in one street. The Christian children had made for themselves a pleasant place in a field, and there a Jew's child often played with them. The child's father took no heed of this and never cast an eye upon him, therefore the child came and went whenever he chose to play. So often did they play together that the Jew's son learned their games and was just like one of the Christian children, loved and welcomed by them.

At one Easter time, which the Christians kept with great solemnity, a beautiful minster had been completed in the midst of the city, and to it the Christian folk went to hear both matins and mass, as, by Christian rule, is usual for both the high and the low. Every one in best array, both husbands and wives, attended. The children followed their fathers, as they were wont, and the Jew's child with right good cheer was happy to go with them. When he was well within the church, he thought he had never been so glad as he was at that seemly sight, such as he had never seen before—both lamps and tapers burning brightly, altars wonderfully ornamented, and beautifully wrought gold images of many good saints.

In a chair sat a comely Queen, all decorated with gold; upon her arm she bore a blissful Babe, in kingly crown as He should be. The child looked long at that Lady and at that blissful Babe, and noted how people told their beads before them, as Christian folk do. The Jew's child felt such pleasure in all the sights he saw and thought them all so sweet, that he was almost ravished with joy. When high mass of the day was done, the priest bade all men kneel down; the Jew's child took heed of this and knelt among the Christians. Although he was pushed about by the crowd, he was not afraid, and he spared no pains until he too received the sacrament. Of such a child no one took notice. When all things were brought to an end, and every Christian drew towards home, the Jew, seeking his child throughout the town, saw him come from the church. He asked his son where he had been while he had sought him all that day, and the boy told the whole story of what he had done and seen. The father then waxed mad with anger and said at once, "Thou gettest thy reward"; and going to his hot oven that gleamed as does a glowing coal, he cast the child into it, intending to burn him to ashes. With the mouth-stone he sealed the oven, and thought that the truth would not be revealed.

When his mother heard this, in the very place where she stood she fell into a frenzy and for woe became as if mad. Always crying out, she went tearing her hair, in every street in that city, now up, now down, everywhere, and folk wondered about her and felt great pity. The mayor and the bailiffs of the town, when they heard that cry, halted her and made inquiry as to why she cried so wildly and put people in such fear and sorrowed so, especially on Easter Day. As soon as she could cease weeping, this woful mother answered, "Sirs, ye have this city to keep; as lords ye must needs execute law. Alas! alas! I am destroyed, and must have help of you; I pray for a just judgment; my cause I shall prove before you. My husband has burned my child—shut him up in a glowing oven! Go, see, sirs, and I will give you gold enough."

Both mayor and bailiffs, together with the people, went to the Jew's oven, and as soon as they had arrived, the mayor commanded, "Put down the stone." Then every man might easily see how the oven roof, that was round, was in appearance like glowing glass from roof to ground. The child sat there whole and sound, not harmed in hand nor hair, amidst the coals which were all about, just as if he sat in a cool arbor. The child's mother, when she saw that, thought she had never been so glad; into the oven she started towards him, and soon had him out with her. And all the people present there wondered at that strange sight and praised God with good intent, for a miracle is more than man's might. They asked him, with one consent, how it was that he had had no harm among the brands that burned so brightly, and the child answered at once: