Etheldreda the Queen

ON ST. ETHELDREDA THE QUEEN, VIRGIN, ABBESS OF ELY IN ENGLAND. IN THE YEAR 679. PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.

On her cult, acts, and miracles, from a lengthy Manuscript volume of the History of Ely. Etheldreda the Queen, Virgin, Abbess of Ely in England (St.)

AUTHOR. D. P.

There flourished in the seventh century of Christ St. Etheldreda, Queen, Virgin, and Abbess of the monastery of Ely founded by herself, on account of her remarkable sanctity, wondrous chastity, and also the admirable incorruption of her body after death, very celebrated in the Church. She is found called by some Etheldrida, by others Ætheldritha, and Ediltrudis; commonly named Audrey, from the latest alteration of the Anglo-Saxon language, introduced by the Normans. Her deeds were briefly described by the Venerable Bede, in book 4 of the Ecclesiastical History of the English people, chapter 19. More fully they were set out by Thomas a Monk of Ely, The Life written by the Venerable Bede and Thomas a Monk of Ely, inserting in various places the words of Bede copied out, which we prefer to prefix to them separately, that they may show some light upon the larger Acts: because these were written, more than four centuries having elapsed after Bede's death. Those existed, and still exist, in the Cottonian Library at London, rich in Manuscript codices. Thence a transcript taken is possessed by the College of the English Benedictines at Douai: it is given from the Douai Transcript, whence a second copy R. D. Leander of St. John saw transcribed for our Bollandus; and sent both writings to Antwerp to be compared with one another. Bollandus did this diligently: but since the Douai Manuscript itself was not very happily written out, he could not without the help of the Cottonian original supply or correct the defects, perhaps many, admitted by the carelessness of copyists. No more could John Mabillon accomplish, who used the same

Douai transcript to publish the Life, as he did among the Acts of the Benedictine Saints of the 2nd century: whether Henry Wharton could accomplish something more, having obtained another transcript from the same Cottonian library, which he inserted into the first volume of his Anglia Sacra, as I lately received it after all these things were prepared for the press, will appear in the comparing during printing with ours.

[2] together with the hitherto unpublished history of the second Translation Meanwhile Henschenius, of blessed memory, finding the Life published at Paris, from whose now failing memory had slipped the transcript itself of the Douai transcript with which he had nevertheless used at the 17th of March, for St. Withburga, somehow having strayed from the place where he ought to have found it, had prepared the Paris edition, to be again subjected to our press, hoping by the kindness of the same Mabillon to obtain the book which he had here omitted to publish concerning the Translation of St. Etheldreda, and meanwhile, after his manner, illustrated the Life, and the book of miracles, with a preliminary Commentary. This I shall presently continue, after I have said that, our Manuscript coming forth from its hiding-places, not only was the opportunity given me of supplying the Prologue which Mabillon had omitted; and the book of the second Translation which Henschenius had wished for; but also a book of Miracles very lengthy, and the last of the other works of Thomas; where the Author, no less often than in the History, professing himself a monk of Ely; at number 103 reveals his own name, that it is Thomas; and at number 123 alleges the first book of the History, published on the virtues of the Virgin herself, so that we can now no longer doubt that the same is the Author of all, and the true title of the Codex, written thus. The Priory of Ely in the County of Cambridge, from the History of that Priory, written by a certain Thomas a Monk: whose authority is so much greater, as the matters themselves come nearer to his age; since he wrote before the end of the 12th century. Although even of the earlier part, namely the Life of the Saint herself, by the same author. Mabillon justly proclaims that the Author, Although he was far removed from the age of St. Etheldreda, is nevertheless altogether worthy of credit, as being grave and eloquent, who sets forth the cause and arguments of his work. For in chapter 33 he says: What in Bede and in English or Latin writings about our glorious Lady and Patroness Etheldreda was found written among us, according to the measure of our understanding we have woven together into one historically. Of the miracles, which preceded her age, he says in the book of the same, number 124, that some of them seem to extend into great volumes: which we lament have perished.

[3] The first book completed, the same Author wrote another book of the History of Ely, which from the same Douai codex we have, The same wrote also the rest of the history of the place down to 1163; and before it thus prefaces: As certain of our brethren importunely compelled me not to be idle from what I had begun, but to carry through the deeds of our Island, as I had promised… trusting in the comfort of my advocate Etheldreda… I hasten to set forth in one collected volume… those who restored the place; and their testaments, which I sought out scarcely and with the greatest labor, those I changed from the vernacular into Latin, and collected each one scattered in various places. These testaments or instruments, among which several diplomas of Kings, and Briefs of Pontiffs, are numbered, come to an end in Pope Adrian IV and Henry II. A book indeed worthy to see the light among the monuments of English antiquity, but not to be inserted into our work, unless perhaps some occasion should advise it, to add to some volume by way of a Corollary, so far as Wharton has not done it.

[4] The same I would say of the Chronicle of the Abbots and Bishops of Ely. That Chronicle was written, or begun to be written, in the year 1289; and is continued down to the year 1434, so that it is necessary that it was continued by several in succession. It is, moreover, in two parts. To the first part, after certain preliminaries, a beginning is made by a Booklet briefly reckoned, in which is contained the Genealogy and Life of Blessed Etheldreda and her sisters, and concerning the state of the church of Ely, from the time of the first foundation down to these our times. The other concerning the Pastors and Prelates ruling that Church, from the year of the Lord's Incarnation 1107 down to the present, says the Author, intending, as he prefaces, to write their acts, and also concerning certain miracles which through the merits of the glorious Virgin Etheldreda in our times were done by him from whom all good things proceed; which we shall thence describe at the end under the title of Analecta. from which, continued down to 1107 by the same Thomas The Author of the Monasticon Anglicanum mentions this collection, as to be found in the Cottonian Library; whence the same in the year 1691 Henry Wharton brought to light in volume I of the Anglia Sacra from page 593 to 686, where to each part he assigns its different Author. For the first indeed, beginning from the first exordium of Christianity in Britain, while Lucius reigned there in the year 156, and Augustine afterward preaching about the year 596, and soon passing to the times of the founding of Ely, and brought down to the change of the Abbatial title into the Episcopal; the first part, I say, of the History of Ely, and by three others down to 1544 the Analecta are given. he ascribes to the aforenoted Thomas, as though this one had reduced his own writings into a summary. But of the second part, under the title of continuation, from the year 1169, treating of the first two Bishops Hervey and Nigel, he calls the writer Richard Prior of Ely; of the third, proceeding down to 1388, he makes the author a

Monk, himself indeed also of Ely, but Anonymous. To these a fourth continuation, foreign to the Douai Manuscript, the same Wharton adds, continued by Robert Steward the last Prior of Ely down to the year 1544. These things premised, I pass to the Commentary of Henschenius thus set out.

G. H.

[5] On this 23rd of June is celebrated in the genuine Martyrology of Bede the memory of St. Ediltruda, Virgin and Queen in Britain: The memory of the Saint in the Martyrologies on the 23rd of June, whose body, when it had been buried for eleven years, was found incorrupt. The same exactly are read in the Martyrologies of Usuard, Ado, Rabanus, Notker, and other more recent ones, with the present-day Roman Martyrology; in which these words are added: Who, renowned for sanctity and miracles, passed to the Lord. But those who in these Martyrologies are said to have lain eleven years in burial, are asserted to have been sixteen in the Acts in Bede and in Thomas the monk; and in the History of the Church of Ely: likewise in Florence of Worcester, at the year 695, John Brompton in the Chronicle, page 741 and 791; and Capgrave, in his Legend; and finally in the Sarum Breviary printed at Paris in the year 1557: and the feast of this Translation is celebrated on the 17th of October in the said Breviary, as also in the older Sarum Breviary of the year

1499. and of the Translation on the 17th of October. And she is commemorated in the old Martyrology of Utrecht of the Church of St. Mary, augmented in England in the 12th century of Christ; and also in the Manuscript Florarium and the Martyrology printed at Cologne and Lübeck about the year

1490, and others more recent.

[6] We were in the year 1662 in the monastery of Jumièges in Normandy, and there we found an ancient Missal received as a gift about the year 1050 from Robert, formerly Abbot there, then Bishop of London, afterward Archbishop of Canterbury, which seemed written out about the year one thousand, for from that year the Paschal Table begins. Now in the said Missal on this 23rd of June were prescribed two Prayers, of which this was the first: Prayers from an old Missal, O God, ineffable founder of all things, who hast granted to thy servants the annual gladness of today's festivity in the venerable commemoration of thy bountiful and illustrious Virgin Etheldreda; we beseech thee, that, by her intervention, we may be able to overcome the harmful incitements of vices; and to thee the highest good, who art true light, the way and piety, divinely to attain. The other is of this kind. Almighty, most illustrious God, author of virtue and lover of virginity, who hast deigned to lead the blessed Etheldreda on this day to the joys of heaven; suppliantly we implore thy clemency, that, of her whose sacred solemnity we celebrate on the fields, we may rejoice in her patronage among the stars. Other Prayers are had in the cited Breviaries of the Churches of Sarum and Salisbury. It pleases [me] to add from the said Missal, what in the Preface of the Mass after the words "eternal God" are thus interposed. Who didst wondrously reform The Preface. the whole human race, seduced by the cunning of the ancient serpent, and depraved by the consent of the first parent, and for that expelled from the pleasantness of Paradise, through the Only-begotten; who therefore deigned to be born of an undefiled Virgin, that he might cleanse us from the contagion of all filth; and therefore willed to undergo the peril of death, that he might destroy the dominion of our slaughter: for the love of whom the blessed Virgin Etheldreda despised worldly joys, and gained the heavenly kingdoms; who, the marriage-beds of two Kings spurned, by the bond of perpetual chastity, and by desire of perennial glory, merited to be joined to thy only-begotten Son our Lord Jesus Christ: whose mercy we humbly entreat, that by the same Virgin's intercessions, the crimes of our frail life being expelled, we may merit to take the inheritance of the heavenly country. Through whom &c. In the old Sarum Breviary is prescribed a supplication directed to her, which it pleases [me] to set before the reader.

[7] Set amid the shipwreck of the present life and of the fluctuating world, Other suffrages sought we flee to the harbor of thy protection, most pious and most celebrated Virgin Etheldreda, that we may feel toward us the bowels of thy piety, who continually rejoice in thy presence. Look therefore, pious Mother and Lady, with pious regard upon the small but devout obedience of our service: and those whom the immensity of human frailty presses, may the venerable sublimity of thy virginity, which pleased the Spouse of Virgins, relieve and sustain. For we believe and trust that thou canst obtain from that same Spouse of thine, who desired thy beauty, whatever thou shalt ask: thou who, placed in the marriage-chamber of the eternal King, with the choirs of Virgins, it is certain dost exult over the palm of virginity. Succor, Lady; succor, mother of mercy Etheldreda, our misery; by the suffrages of thy prayers wipe away the stains of our crimes: and make those who serve thee such, that they may be able purely to serve thy integrity. May the guardianship of thy solicitude and protection always be present to thy flock, that as we continually rejoice in the incorruption of thy most sacred body and its presence, so we may also rejoice in thy constant assistance. Protect therefore, Mother, thy sons, Lady, thy servants: that they who profess themselves bound to thy memory and veneration may rejoice to have obtained the benefits of thy bounty and piety. Look, most benign Virgin Etheldreda, upon our straits, which by our merits we sustain; and by the merits and intercessions of thy sanctity, both appease the wrath of the Judge whom we have offended, and obtain the pardon which we have not merited. By thy prayers incline to mercy the justice of the strict but just examination: because, wherever the Lamb, who is the Spouse of Virgins, goes, thou, a Virgin, dost follow. Present, we beseech thee, to the supernal clemency our groans and sighs, that we may receive through thee the increase of the divine mercy, by which we may merit to rejoice with thee forever, thou asking, he bestowing, who crowned thee with the glory of integrity, through all ages of ages. Amen. These things there, with a singular affection toward St. Etheldreda: of whom also, as is had in the cited very ancient Missal, mention is made in the Canon of the Mass, for it is read thus: … Cecilia, Anastasia, Etheldreda, Gertrude, with all thy Saints.

[8] The Virgin died in the year of Christ 679; and so sixteen years earlier The error of the people of Trier about her dwelling among them, than St. Willibrord came into the diocese of Trier: by whom the monastery of Echternach, with the help of Saints Irmina and Adela, daughters of Dagobert King of Austrasia, was founded about the year 696, as Brower holds. Wherefore here he rightly thinks the same: that the memory of St. Ediltrudis among the people of Trier is to be ascribed to the same St. Willibrord; who, after the whole body of the Queen was found, in the presence of St. Wilfrid the Bishop, can be believed to have received from him, through friends coming from England, some part of the burial linens, likewise incorrupt, by whose touch great miracles were then done; and to have piously raised some oratory in the place where even now the fountain of St. Ediltrudis is named and celebrated, drawn forth by St. Willibrord himself through a miracle. For what the Trier Calendars hand down about her anchorite-life there, numbering her among their own Saints, is like that which the people of Antwerp say of St. Walburga, in the place where the same St. Willibrord dedicated an oratory to her, as was said on the 25th of February.

[9] Therefore, the things which I noted to be wrongly handed down about the aforesaid memory of the Saint being corrected or omitted; on account of the fountain drawn forth by St. Willibrord, and sacred to them. hear what the Trier poet, in Brower at the year 977, number 24, sings about the fountain.

The watered ground above the Lesura and the silent crags

(thus I understand the rivulet then called, which a little above Echternach mingles with the Sauer, different from the Our nearby it) While its walls shall stand known to the green Forest; namely in the German tongue the place is called Grünewald, by the testimony of Brower, perhaps where the maps mark Waldstorp above the aforesaid rivulet. Among the matted brambles and the hooked waste-grounds. In that place perhaps, when the more pleasant use of better water was absent, Willibrord, the chief glory of the land of Frisia, struck the weight of the underlying earth with his staff thrust in, and led forth a kindly fountain, and water fit for the Initiate flowed out. Now the fountain is held in price: and the drinker has his rewards, whether his belly ache, or he rejoice in a healthy breath of life. To this day the Virgin (Ediltrudis) lives, nor has her fame perished with the age.

A COMPENDIUM OF THE LIFE

From book IV of the History of Bede, chapter XIX. Etheldreda the Queen, Virgin, Abbess of Ely in England (St.) BHL Number: 2632

FROM A MANUSCRIPT, FROM BEDE.

[1] Now King Egfrid took a wife by the name of Edildrida, daughter of Anna king of the East Angles, of whom we have often made mention; a man well religious, and in all things excellent in mind and work: whom also another man before him had had as wife, namely a Prince of the Southern Gyrwas, by the name of Tonbert: but he, a little time after he had taken her, having died, she was given to the aforesaid King. When she had enjoyed his consort for twelve years, Ediltrudis in marriage remains a Virgin: yet she remained glorious with the perpetual integrity of virginity, as to me myself (when, this being a doubt that had arisen to some, I was inquiring whether it were so) Bishop Wilfrid of blessed memory reported, saying that he was a most certain witness of her virginity; so that Egfrid promised that he would give her many lands and much money, if he could persuade the Queen to use his marriage, because he knew that she loved no man more than him. Nor is it to be doubted that even in our age that could have happened, which in the preceding age was several times done, as faithful histories relate, by the gift of one and the same Lord, who promises to remain with us even to the end of the world. Matthew 18. For also the sign of the divine miracle by which the buried flesh of that woman could not be corrupted, is an indication that it endured incorrupt from male contact. She, long beseeching the King to permit her to leave the cares of the world, and to serve the true King Christ in a monastery only; where with difficulty at length she obtained it, she seeks a monastery: she entered the monastery of the Abbess Ebba, who was the aunt of King Egfrid, placed in the place which they call the city of Coludi, the veil of the religious habit being received from the aforesaid Prelate Wilfrid. But after a year she herself was made Abbess in the region which is called Elge: she becomes Abbess: where, a monastery being constructed, she began to be the Virgin Mother of very many Virgins devoted to God, both by the examples of the heavenly life, and by her admonitions. Of whom they relate that, from the time she sought the monastery, she would never use linen, but only woolen garments, and rarely wished to wash in warm baths, except on the approach of the greater solemnities, for example, of Easter, Pentecost, the Epiphany; and then last of all, the others having first been washed by her own service and that of her ministers, the rest of the handmaids of Christ who were there. Rarely also, except at the greater solemnities or more pressing necessity, she keeps an almost perpetual fast, did she ever eat more than once a day, if a graver infirmity had not prevented otherwise; and at the time of the morning Synaxis even to the rising of the day, she remained in the church intent on prayers. There are also those who say that by the spirit of prophecy she foretold both the pestilence by which she herself was to die; and also made known openly to all present the number of those who from her monastery were to be snatched from the world. she departs from life: She was snatched to the Lord, in the midst of her own, after seven years from the time she had taken the rank of Abbess: and, as she herself had ordered, she was buried nowhere else than in the midst of them according to the order in which she had died, in a wooden coffin.

[3] To her succeeded in the office of Abbess her sister Sexburga, whom Earconbert King of the men of Kent had had as wife: and when she had been buried sixteen years, it pleased the same sister Abbess that her bones be raised, and, placed in a new coffin, transferred into the church: and she ordered certain of the Brothers to seek a stone, of which they could make a coffin for this. Who, having boarded a ship (for that region of Elge is on all sides surrounded by waters and marshes, nor has it larger stones), came to a certain desolate little city, situated not far thence, which in the tongue of the Angles is called Grandacester; and soon they found near the walls of the city a coffin, most beautifully made of white marble, with a cover too of like stone most aptly fitted. After many years the body of the deceased is found incorrupt, Whence understanding that their journey had been prospered by the Lord, giving thanks, they carried it back to the monastery. And when the body of the holy Virgin and Spouse of Christ, the sepulchre opened, was brought forth into the light, it was found so incorrupt as if on the same day she had died, or been laid in the ground: as also the aforesaid Prelate Wilfrid, and many others, who knew, testify. But with more certain knowledge the physician

Cinfrid, who was present both at her dying, and at her raising from the tomb, was wont to relate; that she, fallen ill, had had a very great tumor under her jaw: And they ordered me, he says, to cut that tumor, so that the noxious humor which was within might flow out. While I did this, she seemed for two days to be somewhat better, so that many thought that she could be healed of the ailment. But on the third day, weighed down by the former pains, and at once snatched from the world, she changed all pain and death for perpetual salvation and life.

[4] And when after so many years her bones were to be raised from the sepulchre, and a tent being stretched above, all the Congregation, on this side of the Brothers, on that of the Sisters, stood around singing psalms, while the Abbess herself within with a few, about to raise and carry the bones, had entered; suddenly we heard the Abbess within with a clear voice proclaim; Glory be to the name of the Lord. And not long after they called me inside, and the wound made near death cured. the door of the tent being unbarred: and I saw raised from the tomb and placed on a little bed the body of the holy Virgin of God, like one sleeping. But also, the covering of the face being uncovered, they showed me also the wound of the incision, which I had made, cured; so that, in a wonderful manner, in place of the open and gaping wound with which she had been buried, there then appeared the very faint traces of a scar. But also all the linens, in which the body had been wrapped, appeared whole, and so new, that on that very day they seemed to have been wrapped about her chaste members. They relate, moreover, that when she was pressed with the aforesaid tumor and pain of the jaw or neck, she was much delighted with this kind of infirmity, and was wont to say: I know most certainly that I deservedly bear in my neck the weight of an ailment, in which, as a young girl, I remember I bore the superfluous weights of necklaces: and I believe that therefore the supernal piety wished me to be burdened with pain of the neck, that so it may absolve me from the guilt of superfluous frivolity, while now for me instead of gold and pearls, from the neck the redness of a tumor and a burning protrudes.

[5] But it happened that by the touch of those same garments, both demons were put to flight from possessed bodies, and other infirmities were several times cured: and the coffin in which she was first buried was, they report, of benefit to the health of several whose eyes ached: a who, applying their head to the same coffin and praying, b soon removed the trouble of pain or dimness from their eyes. They washed therefore the Virgin's body, and, clothed in new garments, brought it into the church; and placed it in the sarcophagus which had been brought, The Translation into a new coffin. where to this day it is held in great veneration. And in a wonderful manner the sarcophagus was found so fitted to the Virgin's body, as if it had been specially prepared for her: and the place too of the head, separately wrought, appeared most aptly shaped to the measure of her head. Now Elge is in the province of the East Angles, a region of about six hundred families, in the likeness of an island, either surrounded (as we have said) by marshes, or by waters; (whence also from the abundance of eels which are caught in those same marshes, it took its name) where the aforesaid handmaid of Christ desired to have a monastery, since from the province of those same East Angles she herself, as we have said before, drew the origin of her flesh. c

ANNOTATIONS. D. P.

printed; as useful as he is faithful in the Annotations; as he is everywhere intent on enervating all and every passage from which Catholics may be confirmed in their religion, and may recognize the vanity of the new superstition, contrary to the faith preached to their forebears; here lays great stress on the word "they report," as though Bede wrote it not by his own judgment, but despising the credulity of the common folk. But so evident is Bede's sense, who several times affirms miracles wrought through the Relics of the Saints, that to wish to prove [it] by examples would be to speak to those who have never read Bede. The Hymn described below in the more prolix Acts at number 741 will suffice. b Alfred, to explain the matter more clearly, uses this periphrasis: "But they fixed their head and eyes on it, and prayed at it (namely the coffin)." Here the malignant Scholiast rises with all his strength, accusing the King himself of the superstition which he could not dissemble. And in order to persuade that God alone, and always, and never the Saints, can be prayed to; he adduces a certain Homily on the Prayer of Moses, where Christians are admonished, in any difficulty always to invoke God; and What will it be, says the author, if we are unwilling to invoke Jesus? As though those who pray to the Saints The invocation of the Saints, do not through them always pray to God; and to wish to direct their prayers to them is to be unwilling to invoke Jesus. Otherwise we Catholics know and pray. To the same purpose he alleges a fragment of another Homily, among the Anglo-Saxons wont to be read on the feast of All Saints, because there he does not find their invocation expressed, either used or commended: nor does he notice what these words produced by him signify, "To all these aforesaid Saints, that is to the Angels and the men chosen of God, the honor of this day is celebrated in the faithful Church, to them in honor, to us a help, that we through their intercession may be assimilated to them." How does he wish a help to come to us from those whom he forbids to be invoked? Thus ends chapter 19 of book 3, and there follows the 20th, wholly translated into the following Life, the Saint's virginity praised in verses by Bede as it can be read at number 74; brought into conformity with the edition of Peter Francis Chifflet, accurate beyond the rest, whence it was possible to correct some errors of our transcript. Alfred omitted to translate that Chapter, because he distrusted his ability to render the Hymn with equal elegance in the Anglo-Saxon meter, nor was it altogether necessary for the History. and commended by miracles. In that place the editor, a Cambridge Academic, presents in Saxon, and from the membranes of his Academy, the beginning of a certain panegyrical and anniversary oration; Which, he says, in place of a public Homily our common folk (he cannot, namely, speak except contemptuously of the venerators of the Saints) was wont to imbibe, and which today will demonstrate with how great honor the English nation anciently held St. Ethildritha. This is its Latin version. We shall now write, however wonderful it exists, about St. Ethildritha, that English Virgin, who was with two husbands together, yet remained a virgin; as the miracles show which she more often works. Anna was her father called, King of the East Saxons; a man exceedingly Christian, as he attested by his very works; and his whole offspring was ennobled by God. Then Ethildritha was given in marriage to a certain Prince: yet he would not have her virginity destroyed by the marriage, but preserved her in purity. For God, since he is, can do all things that he will, and in many ways showed his power. Then the Prince died, since God had so willed. But she was given to Egfrid the King, and twelve years she remained a Virgin in the marriage of this King; as many miracles often testify to her glory and her virginity. Jesus she loved, who kept her undefiled; and she honored the ministers of God, of whom one was Wilfrid the Bishop, &c. Let those who hate virginity and continence read these monuments of English antiquity and faith: and let them recognize even unwilling, the miracles divinely wrought for the proof of both, you pseudo-evangelical little ministers, and blush if they could: I, as the older account, wished to prefix these to the Life, written after the middle of the 11th century.

THE MORE PROLIX ACTS

Authored by Thomas a Monk of Ely. From the Douai Manuscript, collated with the Paris and London editions. Etheldreda the Queen, Virgin, Abbess of Ely in England (St.) BHL Number: 2634, 2635, 2636, 2637, 2650

BY THOMAS OF ELY, FROM A MANUSCRIPT. PROLOGUE.

To the whole History of the Monastery of Ely, concerning the division of the work; and the situation, nature, and fortune of the island of Ely. A

[1] When I considered the excellence of the island of Ely, and turned over in my mind those things which, on account of the merits of the holy Virgins resting in it, have been conferred and recorded, the admirable works; and the events of the island, and the deeds of the Great; I turned my mind to those things which, less through the series of years and times; About to write the entire History of Ely, and the renowned deeds of the Kings and Lords of the island, or which are inserted scatteredly or confusedly in the English style, and the good deeds and miracles of the Saints, men and women, there serving God as soldiers, I have attempted to set forth according to order in this History: for among us things of this kind, collected in order and at the same time written historically, are as yet by no means had (except the Life and Miracles of the Saints resting there) from Histories, from Chronicles, from English and Latin writings, from testaments, from the report collected of the faithful. Whence I began to set down some things, lest those which are worthily to be proclaimed should remain unwritten, as if unknown or consumed by age and abolished. or rather to prepare material for one about to write, For the long-awaited

Philosopher or good Historiographer, when he shall have tried to turn his pen to it, in many things will not find material. And if perhaps anyone should try to reproach this little work; we pray that he apply the hand of those distilling myrrh, and take up the work of a poet, that it may be left in memory to posterity, if he shall have set it forth.

[2] For the rest, let no one complain, I pray, of the badness of the writing, and the prolixity of the treatment; knowing that in brief, as if suddenly, the deeds of very many and the times cannot be comprehended, unless the Reader were rather to grow weary and weighed down. For also the region of the Angles, though it be one land, several ruled in it through provinces under various fortune: he asks for an attentive reader, and it happened that for the profit of ruling first to Dukes, then to Kings, one and the same Britain was subject. But unless the Reader diligently attends to the flexible series, treating now of one, now of another kingdom, and the names of Kings variously, he will not easily perceive the order. Therefore I have undertaken to divide the History into two books distinctly through Chapters, and to narrate each thing in its own place and in whose times they happened. The first book consists of the situation of the island, and of the glorious Queen Etheldreda, and divides the work into two books; and of the holy Virgins succeeding her, and by what misfortunes the island was subjected even to the entrance of the Monks into Ely. But the second of the times of the Monks at Ely, and of the liberty of the place, and how the church was renewed, and of the siege of the Normans, even to the times of the Bishops, which is now. And since to such a narration the solicitude and grace of the Brothers provoked me, I deem it necessary to commend to one volume the memorable work of charity and what we have experienced; that the purity of charity, inserted into the work, may shine forth the more readily, distinguished with a beautiful variety, and so I will make a beginning, invoking God the cooperator of all things.

[3] All illustrious Nobles strive earnestly to adorn and magnify their own town, and some intend to commend to letters worthy of memory the state of the province and the deeds of their ancestors; which is rightly done. beginning from the name of the place, But we, following the deeds of our forebears, before the History proceeds further within, it seems of fitting order to begin the narration with the name of the place: because Ely, the greatest of stagnant Islands it is called, which we begin to proclaim worthy of every title, magnificent in wealth and towns, equally praiseworthy in woods, vineyards, and waters, most fertile in every fruit, offspring, and germ. But we say that Ely b in English means… that is, the Island of eels, from the abundance of those which are caught in those same marshes, it took its name; named from eels: as Bede, most eloquent of the Angles, teaches; which, the name being changed for the better, is now called Ely, namely the worthy c house of God, to which its name befits it. Among the cities and regions of England most comely and most renowned, famous for miracles, glorious for Relics, it seems to offer a useful and quiet dwelling, and, that I may truly confess, fortified with a strong and warlike band of men, ready in spirit and arms to resist enemies …

[4] Of domestic animals, of the wild beasts of the woods, of the birds, most of whose praises being passed over of the many and great fish which round about are often caught in the waters which are called seas, how great an abundance there is there we would say, were it not that in the second book of this work, according to the series, where it is read that the island was subdued by the Normans, each thing were there recounted. And what more? Within, the soil is exceedingly rich and joyful, most pleasant in the loveliness of gardens and groves, distinguished by the hunting of wild beasts, not moderately fertile in pastures of cattle and beasts of burden, and surrounded on all sides by very great fish- bearing rivers. d For it is not an island of the sea, but inaccessible by the overflowings of pools and by marshes. he defines the situation and bounds, It could be reached by ship: but since for those wishing to go there it was once perilous for ships; now, a way being made through the marshy reed-bed, e it is crossed on foot. The island extends, in length, seven miles, from Contingelade f even to Littleport or to Abbotsdelf, but now called Bishopsdelf; and in breadth four, that is from Cherchewere g even to the sea of Straham, with the adjacent islands round about, besides Doddington, h which is also an island, in which there are little villages, and groves with insular appurtenances, with other inhabitants not without seed i.e. fertile, with most rich pastures. There is named also to the aforesaid island Chatteris, where there is an Abbey of Nuns; and the district i of Whittlesey, and the Abbey of Monks of Thorney. k

[5] But the island is now said to be in the County of Cambridge, of two hundreds: l but it is one with appendages The island now belonging to the County of Cambridge, which are outside: And by these bounds it is contained, according to what anciently it is reported and recognized to consist of within itself (that is, from the middle of the bridge of Detro even to Upwere, m and from Bishopsdelf) even to the river near Burch which is called Niën n in the Province of the Gyrwas (and the Gyrwas are all the Southern Angles, dwelling in the great marsh, in which is the island of Orlii) but more truly, according to Bede's attestation, it is of the Province of the East Angles, situated at the entrance of that same Province. but once to the Province of the East Angles: But anciently (as is reported) there was a village at Cratendune, that is the valley of Crat, situated a mile distant from the city which now is, where iron utensils, and coins of the ancient Kings, are often found: and that there was for a long time a habitation of men there, is shown by several indications. But after the God-beloved Etheldreda, the island having been received by right of dowry from Tonbert her first husband, chose there a dwelling, near the channel of the flowing water o in a higher place she set her dwellings; where formerly a church was raised by St. Augustine, there thereafter, a city being built, it is rather and more comely inhabited. For in the primitive Church of the nascent faith and Christianity, in honor of Mary ever

Virgin, a monastery had been built there by Blessed Augustine, Apostle of the Angles: of which work King Ethelbert was the first founder: in which he established ministers, fulfilling the office of God; whom the army of King Penda, devastating the homeland and the neighborhood, afterward put to flight thence, and changed the place into a solitude. overthrown by King Penda, By such founders, then, the monastery of Elge was first founded, as we read in old writings.

[6] Although the blessed Etheldreda, after the long desolation, here merits her primacy, where, Christ preserving, even to the present a church is held, it was restored by Etheldreda, which we know was afterward made an Episcopal see, and to be the Metropolis of the province itself. For the island is exceedingly free from the judgment and power of all, in that neither a Bishop nor a minister of any exaction, without the advocation of the Brothers, may intrude himself, or presume to disturb the property of the Saint: which through privileges and charters in their proper places we shall more fully insert; deeming it worthy first to treat the History of the famous island, which flourished and flourishes, Christ being its patron, by the presence, benefits, and miracles of the holy women, namely Etheldreda, Withburga, Sexburga, and Ermenilda: by whose suffrages it happily rejoices. There are contained there also the Relics of very many Saints, men and women, who after them, serving Christ, had succeeded in the church, even to the times of the Danes, namely Inguar p the pagan King and his companions: who, the inhabitants partly slain, partly put to flight, and again overthrown by the Danes. utterly overthrew the place. There are, moreover, in the bosom of the island twelve churches, with field villages and small insular settlements, which from of old belong to the monastery, as chapels to a mother church; nor outside the monastery were cemeteries made at the churches except late. But at Ely from the whole island the bodies of the dead were buried. q

ANNOTATIONS D. P.

A This Prologue, torn from the rest of the body, Wharton presents in his Preface at number XLVIII, with which we compared it. a It had been written "three," against the express assertion of the Author here; but so it seemed to the copyist to be done, who was about to place between the two books the book of Miracles, although manifestly of a different Author. b Y or Ey, to the Angles, is an Island; namely from the shape of an egg, cut off on all sides, which to the Belgians compounded [is] Eyland, as it were oval land: to the same too an eel is called Ael, to the Angles Eel. It is also called and written Elige, and contractedly Elge, as it were Elgey, or Eligey, that is, the Eely island. See the annotations of Henschenius to Chapter 5, letter O. c Because "Eli" in the Gospel, Matthew 27, is read interpreted "My God." d It would be worth the trouble to read Camden in the Iceni, describing the situation, nature, fertility, and pleasantness of the region. e Malmesbury teaches it to be the way to Schamville, where St. Felix, Bishop of the East Angles, placed his first See: which village is distant 3 miles to the East of the Monastery, or English miles, which taken together equal one league of an hour's walk.

I would not dare to vouch that all the proper names were correctly expressed by the copyists, since elsewhere too frequent errors appear, to be discreetly supplied or emended, that the weariness of Readers may be consulted. But in the names of places there is a peculiar difficulty, since they have either ceased to be in use, or are not expressed in the maps, as here Contingelade, the Western boundary of the island, in respect to Littleport the Eastern boundary, and 4 miles distant from Ely, to which it lies on the North. g Neither is this name found: but it seems to have its name from the Cara river, grazing the Western side of the island, and mingling itself with the Ouse at Erith; whence even to Straham, better Stratham, otherwise Stretham, the breadth here mentioned is found, and here is the Southern limit of the island. h It is best expressed in the map of the County of Huntingdon, as also Chatteris, of which below, and Mepal, similar islands, elsewhere not so expressed. i This is distant, in the manner of an island, two miles from Peterborough, twelve miles from Ely.

sureties of the King's peace, or Judges, concerning whom see Spelman in his Glossary.

p To Saxo Grammaticus Ivarus, to others Inguar, son of Reiner, of him who first subdued England, his army slain in Ireland, he was captured, in punishment for the faith overthrown, newly introduced to the Danes, of which faith his son too was a bitter enemy.

The whole fortune of the island down to the year 1289 I find thus described at the front of the Chronicle: There were at Ely and lived Nuns, for 189 years; afterward secular Clerics, for 100 years; then Abbots, for 139 years: and in the year of the Lord 1289 from the change of the Abbey into a Bishopric there passes a space of 180 years.

Now since we are about to divide these Acts into fewer chapters, receive here the titles of the old division, with reference to our division.

THE OLD DIVISION

Here ends the first book of the history of the island of Ely into the life of the most Blessed Virgin Etheldreda and how she built a church there, and by whom it was destroyed.

After this first book, as the Author Thomas calls it, there follows in the Douai transcript, and also in the Cottonian codex, a second Book, which the general Prologue promises will be about the times of the Monks at Ely, and about the liberty of the place; and how the church was renewed; and about the siege of the Normans, even to the times of the Bishops, which is now. But there is interposed, On the second Translation of St. Etheldreda the Virgin, with the rest of the Virgins, which was made by Richard the Abbot, the tenth and last, after whom (as is in the Chronicle) in the Year of the Lord 1108, in the 9th year of King Henry the First, was made the transmutation of the Abbey into a Bishopric, by Pope Paschal in the 10th year of his Pontificate. There follows then a very lengthy Book of miracles, and finally the second Book of the History of the island of Ely, and how the church was restored or by whom dedicated. Chapter I. How the Church of Ely was restored by St. Ethelwold, King Edgar commanding. II. How King Edgar, certain men asking, refused to give the same place. III. How Blessed Ethelwold bought the whole island of Ely from King Edgar. IV. How King Edgar gave St. Etheldreda Hatfield. V. How Blessed Ethelwold bought Hendon, Hill, Nicham, and Wilburton. VI. How Blessed Ethelwold bought seven hides in Stretham. And so on, without other title, it treats of the rest of the possessions acquired for the place of Ely by the same Holy Bishop, or acquired by the Abbots, or liberally donated by others. From here indeed, the style changed, there follows a mere Chartulary, before which is set the Charter of King Edward, concerning all that the church of Ely possesses; which the Privilege of Pope Victor confirms, concerning all the liberty of the place. This is Victor II, Roman Pontiff from the year 1054 to 1057. Thence indeed one ascends upward to the charters of King Edgar, and the series of them is drawn down even to St. Thomas of Canterbury and the year about 1163. After these things begin the Chronicles of the Abbots and Bishops of Ely, to which is prefixed a brief Chronology, from the year of the Lord 156, in which Lucius, the illustrious King of the Britons, having heard the fame of Christianity, sent Letters to Pope Eleutherius: where, when it had been said that in the year of the Lord's Incarnation 870 the church of Ely was burned by the Pagans, and in the year 970 Blessed Ethelwold, Bishop of Winchester … renewed it when destroyed, expelled the Presbyters thence, introduced Monks, and a religious man, by name Brithnod, he ordained Abbot over them … who in the tenth year of his rule was martyred by Queen Elstritha. These things, I say, having been said, the Author adds, And holy Religion flourished, under the rule of holy Abbots, a hundred thirty and nine years: then, the change of the Abbey into a Bishopric being indicated, There begins a booklet briefly reckoned, in which is contained the Genealogy and Life of Blessed Etheldreda and her sisters, and concerning the state of the church of Ely down to these our times; and it begins in this manner: Anna King of the East Angles, son of Eny, of royal stock &c., as may be read in the Monasticon Anglicanum, volume 1, page 87 toward the end up to 93; and there follow the deeds of the individual Abbots, and then of the Bishops: but written by different Authors, as in the preliminary Commentary I noted from Wharton. To me it seems fitting, to the first Book of the History of Ely, or the Acts of St. Etheldreda, to subjoin the beginning of the second Book; and the acquisition of the individual estates being dismissed, with the subsequent Chartulary, to continue the same Book through the Deeds of the Abbots, although perhaps of a writer other than Thomas; that so the second Translation may follow in order, made in the time of the last Abbot Richard; and then the Book of miracles. The History of the second Translation, moreover, is found under these titles. The Book of Miracles, moreover, runs under these titles, to which our numbers here expressed correspond. The Prologue to the miracles of St. Etheldreda. THE FIRST BOOK. On the life & death of the Saint, the raising of her incorrupt body and her miracles, and the fortune of the place even to the Monks introduced thither. CHAPTER I. The royal lineage of the Saint, her pious adolescence, her marriage with Tonbert the Prince.

CHAPTER I.

[7] The Angles, according to a the old histories, in the time of the Prince Martian, a hundred fifty-six years before the coming of the blessed Augustine and his companions into Britain (which is now called England), were carried over; The Angles invade Britain: who had come from three most valiant peoples of Germany, that is, the Saxons, Angles, and Jutes. Of the origin of the Jutes are the men of Kent; of the Saxons, the East Saxons; b but of the Angles, that is from that homeland which is called Angulus, c the East Angles arose, and obtained, the name allotted, the Eastern part of that island (which to this day in the tongue of the Angles is called Eastangle), and possess it by the cord of inheritance. From whose stock the Royal lineage of many provinces drew its origin: from the first Kings of the East Angles from whom the most exalted Virgin Etheldreda was to be propagated in the flesh, who, as wonderful for exceptional sanctity as notable for Royal dignity, happily shone forth. Which appears more loftily, when, proving each thing from Bede or the histories, numbering the Kings of the province, we undertake thus to weave the origin of the blessed Virgin. Now there was a King of East Anglia, Redwald by name, formerly in Kent imbued with the Sacraments of the Faith, but in vain: for, led astray by his wife, he had his latter state worse than his former. But though ignoble in deed, yet by birth he was noble, namely the son of Tytilus, whose father was Wuffa, d from whom the Kings of the East Angles are called Wuffings. To the aforesaid Redwald succeeded Eorpwald his son: who, at the persuasion of Edwin, King of the Northumbrians, first received the Faith of Christ and the Sacraments with the same province: but not after a long time he was slain. Whose brother Sigebert, a man in all things most Christian and most learned, when he gained the kingdom, led the province, having been engaged for three years in error, to the right faith and the works of justice through e St. Felix the Bishop. He, become familiar to him while exiled in Gaul, came to England with him after the death of Eorpwald, f and is made Bishop of the East Angles, the See being received in the City of Dummoc; which by his preaching, from long iniquity and unhappiness, according to the sacrament of his name, he freed.

[8] Meanwhile the same King, the affairs of the kingdom left, and committed to his kinsman Egric, who before too held a part of that same Kingdom; entered the Monastery which he had made for himself in Betricheswurde; g and, the tonsure received, he served the eternal King devoutly for a long time. While he did this, after the death of Sigebert and Egric, it happened that the nation of the Mercians, led by a King Penda by name, went out to war against the East Angles. Who, when they saw themselves to be inferior in war, asked Sigebert to come with them into the battle to strengthen the soldiery. But he being unwilling and refusing, plucking him unwilling from the monastery, they led him into the contest; hoping that the soldiers' spirits would tremble less; that less, the once most strenuous Leader being present, they could contemplate flight. But the holy man, not unmindful of his profession, while he was surrounded by a rich army, would have only a staff in his hand; and was slain together with King Egric, and their whole army, the Pagans pressing, was slaughtered or scattered. These things were done in the year from the Incarnation of the Word of God six hundred thirty-seven. h But there was made successor * of their kingdom Anna, Anna the father of Etheldreda succeeds: son of Eni, i of royal stock, a most excellent man and begetter of most excellent offspring, of the aforesaid Etheldreda and her sisters, as the following declares. Who, the Kingdom gained, adorned the monastery which the man of the Lord Furseus (of whom wonders are read) had received from the aforesaid King Sigebert in the camp which in the tongue of the Angles is called Cnobheresburch—King Anna of that province adorned it with many buildings and gifts.

CHAPTER II.

[9] King Anna therefore gloriously obtained a wife worthy of so great a spouse, not unequal in birth, and exceedingly excellent in manners, many years before he gained the Kingdom. Their life and manners God enriched with so abundant a blessing, that through the increase of virtues they always lifted their minds to things above; assiduously expending the office of serving the poor of Christ, they clung to their ministries; and devoted to such exercises of works, they are enriched with a noble succession of carnal offspring. There were born to them children, whom a praiseworthy life and a death no less precious commend; two sons, his six children: Aldulf and holy Jurmin; and four daughters; namely the firstborn Sexburga, an incomparable woman; Ædelberga, Etheldreda, and Withburga; who, for the Lord's sake spurning the enticements of the flesh, among the prudent virgins merited to have oil in their vessels. But Aldulf, that he was the son of King Anna, as in the present work is woven, is shown by certain indications; also according to Bede and the histories, if we attend, it is proved. k But Jurmin, whom the sanctity of his life and the merit of justice commend as blessed, as in the Deeds of the Pontiffs of England is read, is reported to have been the brother of the Virgin Etheldreda.

[10] But now what were the beginnings of the aforesaid women, what their progress, what their end, is to be diligently examined. For this mother, from whom so great an offspring came forth, was the daughter of Hereric, nephew of King Edwin of the Northumbrians, and her name was Hereswitha. l For in the Life of the holy Virgin Milburga m it is read: Sexburga, n the elder daughter of King Anna, is given in marriage to Earconbert King of the men of Kent, the sister of the holy Virgin Etheldreda, whose mother was called Hereswitha. Nor is any other at that time in the whole history of the Angles, nor in the English or Latin Chronicles, found who was reckoned by such a name, except this mother of the holy women, (whom Bede without doubt asserts to be the mother of King Aldulf) of whom in the Annals we read written.

[11] The King of the East Angles Ædelwold being dead, there succeeded Aldulf. Whose mother Hereswitha, sister p of St. Hilda the Abbess, whose father was Hereric, whose father was Ædfrid, whose father was Edwin. q For she (as Bede testifies) had by another man a daughter by name Sederrida, r who remained a holy virgin. Book 3, chapter 8. But Sexburga (as is premised) married a man in the fifth year of her father's reign, Earconbert King of the men of Kent: but another daughter, Ædelberga, s beloved of God, kept the glory of perpetual virginity in great continence in Francia. For at that time, there being not yet many monasteries constructed in the region of the Angles, many from Britain, for the sake of the monastic life, were wont to go to the monasteries of the Franks; but also their daughters, to be instructed, and to be joined to the heavenly Spouse, they sent to the same; chiefly in Brie, and in Chelles, and in the monastery of Andelys: t among whom was the aforesaid Sedrida, daughter of the wife of Anna King of the East Angles, begotten of another man; and a natural daughter of the same King, Ædelburga, serving the Lord in the place which is called Brie. But Withburga, v the younger of the daughters, despising the children of Kings and the honors of parents, after the killing of her father, chose a humble place in her paternal province, at Dereham, wishing to live solitarily. These, as the series befits, though weaving them briefly, the Reader will find sufficiently in proper volumes about each. Ibid.

CHAPTER III.

[12] The blessed then and glorious Virgin Etheldreda, among the East Angles, in a famous place x called Exning, St. Etheldreda piously brought up: of most noble parents, as the venerable Doctor and most truthful Historiographer Bede testifies, was the daughter of Anna, King of the East Angles, begotten of a mother by the name of Hereswitha (as was said above). And so, nobly exalted by the lineage of her stock, she adorned her nobility with merits and the glory of sanctity. For in her very infancy, living well in the eyes of all, she always grew for the better, foreshowing something in herself to come by the gift of God. Etheldreda grew, fore-chosen by God, of good disposition, grown up at home, as that age is wont, with the abundance of her parents; troublesome to no one ever, but gentle, sweet to all and mild. But this is exceedingly wonderful and praiseworthy, that from the very rudiments of infancy, giving herself to sobriety and modesty, now accompanying her parents'

footsteps, now alone frequenting the thresholds of the church, the idle pursuits of girls neglected, she rejoiced assiduously to entreat God. The parents wonder that their daughter delights in such studies, understanding her rather to be endowed with the ampler grace of God and the greater gift of virtues. For not embracing the wantonness of the world, but rather to consummate the course of the present life in virginity, she chose and strove to live piously, holily, and religiously; so that of her, in an age now weaker, the saying of the Wise One might appear, A spotless life is the age of old age. Wisdom 4:9.

CHAPTER IV.

[13] And when the blessed Virgin, by the progress of a praiseworthy life, had passed the years of childhood; and herself now grown up appeared marriageable, and, fame spreading it, the sanctity of her mind and the beauty of her body was far and wide celebrated; very many approach, and admiring the excellence of the virgin's form, follow the titles of virginal purity with distinguished praise. For her beauty pleased innumerable Princes, and her comely face moved them to maidenly embraces. She sighed for the marriage-chamber of God alone, to whom her virginal chastity she had solemnly sung as an epithalamium, and in continual song, sweated before God in the perpetual holocaust of her flesh. Meanwhile, the supernal Judge providing, the Virgin Etheldreda is arranged for a festive marriage, and brought to the marriage-chamber solemnly festive with various instruments. Nor was this done that her modesty might be harmed, but that, the greater the patience proved in this contest, the more ample and precious she might be crowned with the victory of Martyrdom.

married to the Prince Tonbert, At length she is asked in marriage by Tonbert, Prince of the Southern Gyrwas: y who set his mind to be shaped into love of the Virgin, and asks that she be granted by her father the King to be joined to him in his marriage. The faithful King assents to the votive desire of the young man asking, and intends to satisfy him. Hearing this, she greatly shudders, long refuses, long denies, as one who with every desire wished to fulfill her life in virginity.

[14] But the authority of her parents conquers, nay, the Divine providence changes the resolve of her mind, which foreknew that she was to be crowned, by the burden of marriage, with a more glorious laurel of chastity. She is betrothed therefore most splendidly z two years before the killing of her father, bound though in the conjugal life to the bond: (as is written found) she received the island of Elge from the same spouse of hers as a dowry: which done, she remains perpetually a virgin. Behold what, unusual to the world, every man wonders at, that any virgin betrothed to a man should remain unspotted: but let it be ambiguous to no one in the thought of men, that with God it is most easy that whatever his regard chooses is best done. Betrothed therefore, she merited to imitate the Mother of the Lord, that she might be unconquered by the concupiscence of the flesh, holy in body and spirit. For when amid the dotal tablets the incorrupt virgin was pressed by the straits of corruptible life, by heavenly desires daily she was crowned with an ineffable martyrdom. And although she was given by her father as bride to a husband (if indeed he is to be called a husband, who inflicted no damage on her chastity), yet intent on frequent prayers and the fruits of alms in all justice and sanctification, not in unchastity or the pride of life did they lead their days: for each knew that, according to the sanctions of the laws, from an equal vow marriages would be more holy.

[15] But he, a little time after (as Bede testifies) he had received her, having died, although for the merit of chastity he received the crown of life from the Lord; yet in the fellowship of the virgin, as is reported by truthful people, that just man, elected and constituted always as a witness to the conjugal virginity to abide, lived under the marital yoke nearly three years: in whose union not by the commixture of flesh was there one body, she remains a Virgin, but (as is believed) in Christ there was one mind, while both held the Apostle's counsel, nor yet did any dissension or discord ever intervene. And although the Virgin piously wept the loss of her companion, she rejoiced rather that she was freed in the liberty of Christ from the yoke of marriage, hoping thus to have escaped the impediments of the world. Hence with prayers and alms she offers herself to God as incense, smells of tears and aromas, re-echoes Christ and the heavens: and since scarcely or never can any woman be found who is not subject to the enticements of concupiscence; this one came beautifully to the nuptials, but ignorant of the marital business, by tireless prayers obtained with God that he might keep her unspotted. But it is not to be doubted that, in our age, that could have happened which in the preceding age was several times done, as faithful histories relate.

CHAPTER X.

[16] Some ask in what page or history is found, what Bede in testimony of Tonbert and that spouse of his and Etheldreda asserted several times was done, as faithful histories relate; namely, what man and woman, living in marriage, persevered unspotted from one another. To whom, before all and above all blessed women, we set down the Mother of our Lord with her husband as having kept a chaste marriage (as the sacred Gospels give us indications), the singular Virgin Mary, by the example of the Mother of God, and others whose commemoration the holy Church venerates. But some, for the assertion of this matter, strenuously contend to hear proof from elsewhere. Whence diligently inquiring into the volumes of books, desiring to perceive their example, but rather in the customary way in the book which they call the Conferences of the Fathers, aa applying their study, it happened that they found before their hands the desired and long-sought example, which we suitably adduce to the series of the narration. Two certain of the Fathers asked God to show them to what measure they had attained. And there came to them a voice saying: That in that village which is in Egypt, there is a certain secular man Eucharistus by name, and his wife is called Maria; you have not yet attained to their measure. Rising up, those two old men came into that village: and inquiring, they found his cell. And the old man, seeing them, prepared a table: and put water in a basin to wash their feet. And they said to him: We will taste nothing unless thou tell us thy manner of life.

[17] Then he with humility said to them: I am a Shepherd of sheep, and this is my wife. and of two married couples in Egypt, But when those elders persevered, asking him to declare all things to them, and he himself was unwilling to tell; they said to him: God sent us to thee. Hearing this word he was afraid, and said: Behold, we have these sheep from our parents: and whatever God grants us from them, we make of it three parts, one part of the poor, another for the receiving of strangers, but the third for our own use. And from the time I took her as wife, neither have I been defiled, nor she; but she is a virgin: but each of us, separated from the other, we sleep. And indeed by night we put on sackcloth, but by day our garments; and up to now no man has known these things. And when those Fathers had heard these things, divinely indicated. they were amazed, and departing glorified God. But this example, from the authority of books, on account of its antiquity, is not unprofitably set down, so that those who read that Tonbert and his spouse Etheldreda in marriage and after, Bede teaching, kept the robe of chastity, may, in these matters (as was said) not distrust that it was several times done. And since God is not a respecter of persons, but in every nation, in every order, in every degree, in every dignity the Lord knows who are his; and whom he predestined, them he justified; so that neither poverty, nor riches take away sanctity, nor obscurity make perfect, nor charity make reprobate.

CHAPTER VI.

[18] For Felix, Bishop of the East Angles, of whom it was premised, when he had presided over the same province with Pontifical rule for eighteen years, there at Dummoc ended his life in peace in the twelfth year of the reign of King Anna. Now this place is said to be at the entrance of the island of Ely, The passing & burial of St. Felix the Bishop, where there was a great and famous monastery, in which a not small congregation of monks, built by a certain venerable man Diton-Lugting by name, observed the order of the holy Rule under the Abbot Wereferd. For in English it is read that holy Felix first founded an old Monastery at Soham and a Church at Reedham: but a cruel and impious nation of Pagans, coming from Denmark, raging against all the borders of England, the aforesaid place and everything round about depopulating with sword and flame, afterward changed into a solitude. Whence when the place was for a long time emptied of Divine worship, in the time of King Cnut the Relics of the most holy Confessor Felix were translated into the Monastery of Ramsey, and laid up with worthy honor. bb But to write of this Confessor of the Lord the very series of the narration had demanded, who washed King Anna and his whole house with the same province (as the histories relate) with the wave of baptism, and imparted salutary teachings.

ANNOTATIONS D. P.

a In Bede, book 15 recte 1, chapter 1, in the Cambridge edition of the year 1643, the year is assigned as 449, and there agree the Anglo-Saxon Chronologer, the Calendars of Malmesbury, of Westminster; and elsewhere others, by one year only before the reign of Marcian, substituted for Theodosius the Younger, who died on July 29 in the year 450; so that before the coming of St. Augustine and his companions, who landed in the year 597, only 148 years are to be counted. b There are added by Bede the Meridian Saxons and the West Saxons. c He seems to indicate that part of the Duchy of Schleswig, at the entrance of Denmark, which to this day is called Angeln: not from the Latin Angulus "corner", but from the fishing trade, for in the native tongue of the nation a hook is called Angil. To the Angles, moreover, there are added by the same Bede the Midland Angles, the Mercians, and the whole offspring of the Northumbrians: and from all of them arose the celebrated Heptarchy. d Thus nearly they reigned. Wuffa, in Bede book 2 chapter 15, this Wuffa about the year 575 began this kingdom; to whom succeeded Tytilus about the year 582, Redwald about the year 593, Eorpwald about the year 624, but the reckoning of those Kings is almost uncertain. e The Acts of St. Felix the Bishop, collected from various sources, we gave on the 8th of March; and there we treated of the baptism of Eorpwald: and of Sigebert, inscribed in the English Martyrologies on the 27th of September. f Dommoc, or Dummac, to others Dunwich, a maritime city of the province of Suffolk. Of the see thence translated to Elmham, Thetford, and at last Norwich we treated in his Life. g Others assign the year 642, some the year 652, so uncertain is the reckoning of these Kings. h Mabillon expunged the relative "aforesaid," because he did not find it named before. I would rather believe that, by a careless copyist, some words above fell out, at the sign *, where the particle "but" refers to certain preceding things there wanting, which could be thus supplied: His father was Anna, son of Eni. Now Eni had a brother, King of East Anglia, Redwald by name; the others having died without a successor, he held the right to his kingdom. i The Life and Miracles of St. Furseus you have on the 16th of January: and in the Life at number 35 it is said; that from Ireland through the Britons he was carried over into Saxony, where, honorably received by Sigebert, King of the East Saxons, he softened barbarous hearts with the word of the Lord. By the name of Saxons, therefore, the author comprehends also the Angles, others call them Anglo-Saxons. Furthermore I marked dots … where I expunged as superfluous the words, "the King of that province Anna." k Jurmin, known in the History of Ely published in the Monasticon Anglicanum, but in the place here cited in Malmesbury page 20 is called German Germanus, and is said in Alford to have died with his father Anna, in the war with Penda King of the Mercians, in the year 654; yet nowhere is found a day of cult, which whether he ever had any, I strongly doubt, on account of this Author's silence, who would otherwise not have kept silent about it. The same in the book of miracles, number 62, is similarly called Blessed. l Hereswith then Balthild Queen of France, sprung from Anglo-Saxony, and made then in it English Martyrology of Wilson of the first edition on the 23rd of September, whom Ferrarius, Saussay in the Gallican Martyrology, and Alford followed. m The Life of St. Milburga we gave on the 23rd of February, but that one which is here cited we did not have. n Sexburga, after the death of her husband, Abbess in the monastery of Sheppey built by herself, thence going to St. Etheldreda her sister, succeeded her, the second Abbess of Ely. Of her we treated on the 13th of February at the Life of St. Ermenilda her daughter: about to treat more fully at her Natal day, the 6th of July, then adding, both from here and from the Monasticon Anglicanum, page 88, certain things not to be despised. o Anna being dead, there succeeded his brothers Ædelher and Ædelwold, but after this Anna's son Aldulf, about the year 664, of whom below it is treated. p St. Hilda, Abbess of Whitby, is venerated on the 15th of December. Of her and the said monastery it was treated on the 8th of February, at the Life of St. Elfleda, who succeeded her. q Edwin, created King of Northumbria in the year 617, slain and held a Martyr on the 12th of October of the year 633, inscribed in the English Martyrology on the 4th of October. He is known in the year 583, so that he could have been the great-grandfather of Hereswith. r Sederrida, to others Setruda, Abbess of Brie in Gaul, now the monastery of St. Fara, some of whose Acts we gave on the 10th of January. s Ædelberga or Edilburga, also Abbess of Brie, is venerated on the 7th of July. t The monastery of Andelys on the Seine, at the fourth mile above Rouen, has long ago been extinct; yet in that place, even now called Andely, Mabillon asserts that another Benedictine convent has recently been built. v The Acts of St. Withburga we gave on the 17th of March. x Æreninge, in the History of Ely Erninge, is in the county of Suffolk, and the Hundred of Lackford, on the borders of the Cambridge territory. y The Gyrwas, says Camden in the Iceni and the County of Cambridge, comprehend the marshy region in four Counties, Cambridge, Huntingdon, Northampton, and Lincoln; and the Gyrwas, as some interpret, are Marsh-dwellers. Hence the Southern Gyrwas occupied territories in the Huntingdon and Northampton lands, with the island of Ely. z Therefore in the year 652. aa In Cassian, namely, Conference 14, chapter 7: but there the following history is narrated a little differently, the names of both spouses being suppressed; and to John the Abbot alone the man is said to have confessed the truth of the matter. Other examples in this work the Reader will be able to find: at least there could be added here, as most known to all, Pulcheria and Marcian the Augusti.

bb Most things are explained at the Life of St. Felix on the 8th of March. CHAPTER II. The Kings of the East Angles, and others. The marriage of St. Etheldreda with King Egfrid.

CHAPTER VII.

[19] But as time succeeded, the aforesaid King Anna, The piety of King Anna in name indeed and dignity preeminent in England, was yet not lifted up into human glory; but more deeply recognizing the goodness of God in himself, diligently meditated not to be high-minded: and although he was King lofty on the throne, he showed himself equal to his household, humble to the Priests, pleasing to the people. Wonderful was his devotion about the worship of God, wonderful his solicitude in building churches. For he had been a father of orphans, and a judge of widows, and a strong defender of his homeland: to whose protection anyone, not bearing the ambushes and incursions of enemies, fled: which to show the magnificence of so great a King I have proposed to write, that I may come to the broader history. Now it happened, when Kenwalla, who succeeded his father Cynegils a in the kingdom, refused to receive the faith and Sacraments of the heavenly kingdom: also in conversion as of King Kenwalla, but afterward also lost the power of his earthly kingdom. The sister of Penda, King of the Mercians, whom he had married, being repudiated, he took another wife; and therefore, attacked by war, was deprived of his kingdom by that one: and when he had found protection in no one, he withdrew to the King of the East Angles, whose name was Anna, with whom exiled for three years, he came to know the faith, and received the truth. For also he himself with whom he was exiled, was a good King, and happy with good and holy offspring, namely the father of the blessed women, about whom chiefly this work treats. King Kenwalla was baptized in that same province by Felix the Bishop: whom from the sacred font King Anna received, by whose aid afterward he returned to Wessex, and powerfully obtained his paternal kingdom from his enemies. When this, by celebrated report, was made known throughout the whole world of the Angles, some admiring King Anna's zeal and affection toward God, others praising his sanctity, struck a treaty with him from everywhere.

[20] Mercia alone, still breathing and panting after the seat of the East Angles, threatened destruction: and his death in the year 654. and its King, supported by forces of warriors, attacked them to subdue them. King Anna, hastening to meet him, is slain by the same Penda King of the Mercians in the nineteenth year of his reign, and from the Incarnation of the Lord six hundred fifty-four: whom his brother Ædelher succeeded in the kingdom. He, made friend of Penda the King, then received the rule under him to reign. There is in that same province a place, commonly called Blideburch, b in which the body of the venerable King Anna was buried, and even to this day is venerated by the pious devotion of the faithful. There too is buried his son acceptable to God, Jurmin, but he was afterward translated to Betrithesworde (which now they call St. Edmund's), and honorably placed. Hereswith and Hilda retire to Chelles. These matters of East Anglia being troubled, the Queen, after the death of her King, despising the world, withdrew as a pilgrim in Gaul into the monastery of Chelles, and there subject to regular disciplines, awaited the eternal crown. To whom, coming afterward, Hilda her sister also, her homeland left, emulated her example, in the same monastery wishing to lead a pilgrim life for the Lord; but recalled to her homeland after a year by Bishop Aidan, d she led the monastic life in great abstinence of life.

[21] After these things, in the following year, the perfidious King of the Mercians Penda, the slayer of Sigebert, Egric, Oswiu overcomes Penda. Anna Kings of the East Angles, and also of Edwin and Oswald e Kings of the Northumbrians, equipped with thirty legions and as many most noble Dukes, went up into Bernicia to subdue King Oswiu. f Whom he, with Elfrid his son, having only one legion, but trusting in Christ as leader, met. For another son of his, Egfrid, at that time, in the province of the Mercians with the Queen of that same King, Cyneswith, g was held a hostage; who was to receive in marriage the holy Virgin Etheldreda, of whose life and Virtues this book is suitably woven. But also the son of King Oswald, h Odiwald, who ought then to have been an aid to them, was on the side of the adversaries; and had been their leader to fight against his homeland and his uncle, though at the very time he had withdrawn himself, and awaited the outcome of the peril in a safe place. And the contest begun, i the Pagans were put to flight and slain, the thirty Dukes of the King, and those who had come to his aid almost all killed; among whom Edelher, brother of Anna King of the East Angles, who reigned after him, the very author of the war, was slain. Then King Oswiu, for the victory conferred upon him, offered to God twelve possessions for the building of monasteries, and his daughter Edelfled k to be consecrated in perpetual virginity. This war King Oswiu in the thirteenth year of his reign with great benefit to both peoples completed: he founds a monastery & consecrates his daughter to God. for he freed his nation from the hostile depopulation of the Pagans, and converted the very nation of the Mercians and the neighboring provinces, the perfidious head being cut off, to the grace of the Christian faith.

[22] But four years after, the Dukes of that nation rebelled against him, Ædelwald the brother of King Anna, Wulfhere, son of Penda, being raised to be King, whom they had secretly kept: and so with their King, they joyfully served Christ. Who, taking a wife, the daughter of King Earconbert and Sexburga, sister of the venerable Virgin Etheldreda, by name Ermenilda, l of whom he begot the holy virgin Werburga, and reigned seventeen years, as we read in Bede. But King Ædelher of the East Angles being slain, as was premised, the third brother by the name of Ædelwald received the Kingdom; a good man and a true worshiper of God, just as Anna his brother, walking in faith and holy works. To whom when the King of the East Saxons Swithelm m frequently came up by reason of their fellowship, he exhorted him with friendly and as it were brotherly counsel, that, the vanity of idols left, he should believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Who, his friends favoring, believed, and was baptized by Cedd Bishop of the Mercians, n who then had come into the province of the East Angles: whom from the wave of baptism the same King of that nation of the East Angles, brother of King Anna of the same, received, and he reigned five years. After whom Anna's son, namely the brother of the Virgin Etheldreda, of whom we have already spoken, received the Kingdom, Adulf; the son King Adulf; whose daughter Redburga, Abbess at Repton, sent to the servant of God Guthlac o a leaden coffin and a linen cloth, in which the same man of God after death might be placed and wrapped.

CHAPTER VIII.

[23] But the aforesaid Duke of the Gyrwas, Tonbert, not after a long time, St. Etheldreda in the island of Ely, living piously from the time he had taken Etheldreda as wife, departed from this unstable life; and soon she, as after a shipwreck the shore being regained, descended to her own home in Ely; and in that island, removed from this world more by the assemblies of those who frequented [her], strives to serve Christ the Lord; for the rest fleeing the vain honors of the world, always desiring silence and an utterly ignoble life, as afterward appeared. But that place, by the difficulty of access, and surrounded here and there by trees, having waters from the brow of the hill thin but irrigating, as in a desert she began to dwell with herself; and those whom she knew to be of special religion, she joined to herself exceedingly in friendship. For she weakened her body with vigils, abstinence from foods, continual psalmody, and with her whole intention panted after heavenly things. Exercised in such offices, Etheldreda intends nothing sweeter, nothing more delightful, than to exult in the Lord, that she may please him to whom she had approved herself. Her venerable devotion grew daily, and more and more her holy desire was kindled by the fire of the Holy Spirit. So in her custom had instituted a nature, that with certain restraints of frugality she held in check her carnal desires. What more? Now by the judgment of God, the first labor ended, again to the blessed Virgin a contest heavier than the former is committed, that the palm of her virginity might appear to the world more excellently.

[24] For at the same time Egfrid, in the borders of the North among the Angles held the rule, of which the city of York holds the chief place of the kingdom. This King, illustrious and noble, is inflamed into love of the Virgin, he confers innumerable riches, and promises manifold dowries: and while he was arranging to commend uncertain honors, the more vehement petition of the Prince became to her a burden rather than an honor: then he assails her parents with persistent petitions. For she who could not longer struggle against their will; though unwilling, at last yielded to the wishes of those asking. So (what she did not hope) in the sixth year after the death of her father, p by the unanimous will of her parents, in the time of Ædelwald her uncle, who after the blessed Anna… and his other brother by name Edelher reigned, she is compelled to marry Egfrid King of the Bernicians, she is again given in marriage to another man, namely King Egfrid, son of Oswiu King of the Northumbrians, whose father was Edelfrid, whose father Edelric. He obtained the Kingdom after Aelle, who ruled the kingdom of the Deira most strenuously for thirty years: to whose name Blessed Gregory, when he found English boys placed in the Roman forum, alluding said: Alleluia, the praise of God the Creator ought to be sung in those parts. Now the same King Oswiu had a holy brother, the Martyr of God Oswald, who before him held the kingdom for nine years, and the others whom the Chronicle enumerates; and one sister by name Ebba, under whose tutelage the Queen pleasing to God, Etheldreda, the diadem of the kingdom laid aside, afterward put on the habit of sacred Religion, and observed and learned the things which belong to monastic institution. But the aforesaid King begot sons and daughters, as the history of the Angles relates; and appointed his son Elfrid King over the province of the Deira; but Egfrid the younger, whom he had loved with an inmost affection, he took to himself as partner of the Kingdom over the province of York, that is of the Bernicians, since, depressed by the heaviness of body, he with difficulty protected the rights of the kingdom.

[25] Now Egfrid was a young man of about thirty years, pleasant in speech, civil in manners, a man strenuous in arms, very closely bound to the friendships of Wilfrid. And as in the fourth * book of the histories of England it is read, King Egfrid took a wife by name Etheldreda, daughter of Anna King of the East Angles, a man well religious, and in all things excellent in mind and work; whom also another man before him had had as wife, namely a Prince of the Southern Gyrwas, of whom we have made mention above: she nevertheless would have resisted, if she could have striven against it. So the Virgin, daughter of Sion, was led to the citizens of Babylon, but by the burning of its furnace was not at all scorched. A day is appointed to be consecrated to nuptial solemnities, on which the King betrothed to himself the daughter of a King. So Etheldreda marries, with manifold splendor and the various dancing of those rejoicing, the venerable King, sighing rather for the nuptials of the heavenly Spouse. with the resolve of Virginity, For heavenly love kept her holy resolve from the desire of the flesh, and if the Royal glory conferred anything on them not inglorious, whereby as the daughter of a King she might appear more glorious, it pleased her rather, for her condition, to be in fine linen and purple, than in luxury and pride by which she might fall.

For in the court, where the other virgins dwelling are wont to burn with carnal desires, this one was kindled with the burning of him on whom the Angels desire to look. And so for many years bound to a husband, by divine overshadowing she always remained untouched.

[26] by the counsel of St. Wilfrid, At that time, King Egfrid being devoted to holy works with his Queen Etheldreda, at the same time Bishop Wilfrid being made obedient in all things; peace and joy among the people, and fruitful years and victories over enemies, God helping, followed, as in the Life of the same Confessor of the Lord is read.

But also the Queen's soul soon was bound to the Saint of God in the love of Christ; and from those things which by the bond of marriage belonged to her, with him she took care to share. For having obtained Hexham, the Queen herself, beloved of God, Etheldreda, built a house to the Lord in honor of Blessed Andrew the Apostle, supported by various columns and many porticoes, which is more fully understood by sight or hearing. But when about each thing we wander too widely, we delay the purpose of the work too long; yet, the cause of knowledge ascertained, as the matter proves, we make it known.

[27] There had come with her several faithful men and women, and of St. Oswin. from the province of the East Angles, among whom a magnificent man of special authority was Oswin by name, a monk of great merit, and forsaking the world with pure intention of the heavenly reward: worthy that the Lord should specially reveal his secrets, worthy that ears be lent to his narration: for he too had come with the same Queen Etheldreda from the province of the East Angles, and was the first of her ministers and the prince of her household. It became such and so great a Queen to have a custodian and provider of her people, whose life among men was of wonderful sanctity, and before the internal witness of great merit: who knew how to be even amid the wavering honors of the world, but never to be absent in soul from the heavenly secrets. For after the conversion of this his bountiful and distinguished Queen, he so stripped himself of the things of the world, after which he was thought to cling; that, clothed only in the habit, with an axe and adze in his hand, he came to the monastery of the most reverend Cedd Bishop of the Mercians; and signified that he was entering the monastery not for idleness, as some [do]. Where, for the reverence of his devotion, he was held among the Brothers, and made a great friend to the holy Bishop, heard heavenly troops coming over him before his death. I pass over very many things, lest I seem in the narration of single matters to exceed my subject.

[28] She lives holily, This too I will say, returning to my subject, that the King, so gladdened in marriage to the Queen, soothes her with continual speeches, but does not soften her with desires. Beholding her pious conduct and devotion, he wonders that, exalted to the throne of the Kingdom, she in no way changed the gravity of manners which she had been wont to have. For she often passed the night sleepless, the day without nourishment of foods; and, as I will now confess, she continued days and nights in prayer: and when after the manner of married people she had lain in the Royal bed, scarcely had she compressed sleep when to her accustomed prayers she fled, nor was she wont to return to the bed thereafter, as from Bede's words is afterward taught. For the Holy Spirit, whose habitation she had prepared her heart, freed the dwelling of his inhabitation from all corruption, whence the strong Virgin, amid adversities and prosperities, stood fixed and undaunted; so that neither did violence break her, nor did the love of Princes restrain her from the services of the highest King; for the love of whom the Queen Etheldreda proposed in the vow of virginity rather to pass this life, than to be violated by another's lust. Yet she was joined to the King by the law of marriage, not by carnal conjunction: but the wicked plunderer grieves, and groans that in the former contest he was laid low: whence against her again he rises more sharply. Therefore he adds sharper goads to Egfrid, and vehemently incites his fierce spirit to prepare for union with the Virgin: and now with cunning craft he tries to seduce her whom by the public conversation of the marriage-chamber he could not violate: and her who by common usage could not be bent to conjugal union, he hoped to incline to carnal enticements by the coverings of discipline. But God benignly disposes to glory, what the ancient enemy strives to turn to ruin: and as the Virgin had obtained the first victory from him, so he thinks to obtain also the second from the virginal body.

CHAPTER IX.

[29] And lest anyone, doubting the Queen's continence, detract from so great a virtue; let him know, in those times this was published and believed through all England, so that very many asserted it as certain of fact. The King, I say, smitten (as it is right to believe) by some heavenly virtue, terrified in himself was amazed; he did not touch the most blessed Queen unchastely, nor grieve her, nor inflict any annoyance: since not as a Queen or an equal, but as a Lady in all things he venerated her. He becomes a husband, in mind not in flesh, in name not in deed: she becomes a wife, not in mind, nor in flesh; in name only, not in deed. Yet he desires the debt from his wife, but neither by prayers nor by promises could he incline her mind to his will. At last he approached St. Wilfrid both himself and through friends, and often met with him, praying and beseeching, nor can she be moved from her resolve by prayers, and often met with him, praying and beseeching, and trying to allure him by the promise of the greatest gifts, that he might persuade the Queen to abandon her resolve of virginity and give him her assent, which is also to be explained afterward in Bede's words. He saw her constant familiarity with the blessed Prelate, was formed by his exhortations, emulated him in the charity of Christ: hence the King in vain wearies the herald of God with rewards, for never did he wish to persuade the Virgin to marriage, nor she to yield to the King. When she had enjoyed his consort for twelve years (as is written in the book of Sermons of Bede the Presbyter) she yet remained glorious with perpetual integrity of virginity. Book 4, chapter 19. A wonderful thing! a wonderful grace of God! The Virgin remains in the marriage-chamber, accessible by the secret of God alone. The knowledge of this wonderful matter, how the Queen Etheldreda made effeminate the manly strength of her former husband, and by what art of the Holy Spirit she escaped the concupiscence of the other that assailed her; truly the temple sanctified to himself by God in the virginal body he did not permit to be violated by the nuptial law, nor did innocence devoted to justice, overcome, consent to the contagion. And so the Royal Virgin of the Lord, Etheldreda, shines forth, a Queen renowned in God and the world.

[30] For Wilfrid, being a favorer of the virginal vow, with the sagacity of a vigilant mind took care lest by any inconstancy of a womanly mind the Virgin should change her vow from its intention, but takes counsel about obtaining a divorce with St. Wilfrid, and at some time, overcome, submit her mind to earthly enticements. But he dissembled providently and prudently, as though favoring the King, and promising the efficacy of his desire in persuading the Queen; fearing lest, as happened, on account of a matter of this kind he should have him offended. And while about such matters, as was thought, the holy Pontiff intended to address the Queen, he strove to treat of the sweetness of the heavenly life: and so, endowed with the virtue of God, through the counsel of the holy Prelate she gave assent to the King in no way: and the blessed man by his industry brought it about, that she rather sought a divorce, so that, having obtained liberty, she might leave the world, and might happily cling to the marriage-chambers of the eternal King. Obeying his admonitions, and suggestions, the Virgin most dear to Christ (since indeed, by the merit of Religion, true charity had bound him to her) soon appeared to satisfy his desire. But by divine disposition she had come thither for the aid of many, familiar also with St. Cuthbert, and piously and mercifully strove to bestow help on all: where, while she stayed, she admitted into the bond of friendship ministers of holy religion, men and women, by whose counsel and fellowship she thought to be advanced into all holiness, and to be cherished by the protection of their merits: especially that those suitable for such a business, for the cleanness of life and honest conduct, were to be gathered into familiarity from the assembly and the monastic order, she asserted: among whom the most holy Prelate Wilfrid, of whom at present it is treated; but another, distinguished with the beauty of holiness of life, the most blessed Cuthbert the Anchorite, not yet a Bishop, she exhibited in favor and love, and devoutly ministered to him very much of the abundance of her goods.

[31] Moreover, an excellent and distinguished gift, namely a Stole and a Maniple of similar material, she gives him a Stole and a Maniple, of gold and precious stones, with her own (as is reported) hands, skilled in the art of gold-weaving, she made; and destined it to be offered to him for a blessing, out of regard for inward love, which in token of the veneration of both are kept at the Church of Durham, and to certain persons asking are still shown as of great dignity, as some of ours have several times beheld. For justly and piously the Virgin honored the Virgin, the beloved honored the beloved with such a service; that he should use these only when standing in the sight of the King the Lord, and might more easily present her memory among the sacred rites of the Holy of Holies in the solemnities of the Mass, and for her appease the Lord of Majesty with pious entreaty. This we do not at all find in Bede, but for the testimony of all we thought it should be written. Not only these, however, whom we have mentioned, but innumerable far and wide, knowing the blessedness of the holy Queen to be less than fame had spread, desired to obtain her acquaintance and conversation at once, and adorned [her] with the liberality of various gifts. She was amiable to all, sweet in speech, comely in aspect, adorned with the virtue of exceptional modesty and the highest chastity; loving the right, caring for no sweet things except the heavenly. She frequently went to the Church of God, continually gave herself to prayer: whence her life became a discipline to very many, because for this nature bore her, and her will exercised her, and grace preserved her.

ANNOTATIONS. G. H.

he does not indicate that he is venerated there as a Saint, much less a day of cult: nor in any old or new Calendar of the Angles hitherto is he found. c Betruthesworde, a Saxon word, seems to be "the Villa of Faustinus" to the ancients. Hence Malmesbury, treating of this church of St. Edmund, says, There lie two Saints, German (this Jurmin) and Botulf, whose deeds I do not remember to be had either there or elsewhere, except that the first is held to be the brother of St. Etheldreda. The Acts of St. Botulf we gave on the 17th of June. d St. Aidan, Bishop of Lindisfarne, is venerated on the 31st of August, having died in the year 651. e St. Oswald, King of the Northumbrians, is venerated as a Martyr on the 5th of August, slain in the year 642. f Of Oswiu, King of the Bernicians, son of St. Oswald, we treated among the Passed-over at the day 15, on which in the English Martyrology of the second edition he is inscribed as a Saint, which Alford followed. The kingdom of the Northumbrians was, from the death of St. Oswald, divided, and the kingdom of the Bernicians Oswiu held: but Oswin, of the stock of St. Edwin, King of the Deira, slain by Oswiu in the year 651, is venerated as a Martyr on the 20th of August. g Cyneswith the Queen, wife of Penda, whose daughters Saints Kineburga and Kineswith were reported by us on the day 6th of March. h Odiwald or Edilwald, made King of the Deira in the place of St. Oswin. i In the year 655. k The Life of St. Edelfled or Elfled we gave on the 8th of February, where it was treated of Oswiu the father. l The Acts of St. Ermenilda we gave on the 13th of February, and of St. Werburga on the 3rd of February: and at her Acts we treated fully of Wulfhere, a Christian and most pious King. m Swithelm reigned from the year 661 to the year 664. n The Life of St. Cedd or Ceddi we gave on the 7th of January, in which this baptism of Swithelm is treated. o The Acts of St. Guthlac we illustrated on the day 11th of April, in which at number 33 these things are narrated, and it is Egburgh who is here called Redburga. p In the year of Christ 660. q We gave on the 24th of April the Life of St. Wilfrid by Eadmer, in which at number 30 is had the confirmation of Etheldreda in the resolve of virginity. r Richard Prior of Hexham adds, "she gave it as a perpetual alms to St. Wilfrid." s The Acts of St. Owin we gave on the 4th of March. t On the day 20th of March we illustrated the Acts of St. Cuthbert. * Chapter 19. CHAPTER III. The monastic life in the monastery of Coldingham, and her departure thence.

CHAPTER X.

[32] For who could worthily recount, in how great a performance of good things the Virgin under the marital yoke lived, Free from the yoke of matrimony, sufficiently exhausted by the temptations and heats of the flesh, and yet not overcome? She bore the bond of marriage as exceedingly heavy, desiring to be dissolved and to be with Christ. She weighs, therefore, all glory as slippery; knowing the heavenly life alone, by the spirit of understanding, to be perennial, she desires most longingly to live solitarily. For she knew that it could rarely be the case for anyone, who amid the riches of the world seeks the liberty of the mind: and that the mind with difficulty reaches things above, which, not unburdened of the lower, does not advance. Whence with innumerable sighs she tried to shake off the yoke of the kingdom, ardent to fly to Christ and to rest in Christ. And when for so many years she was held by the law of marriage, unwilling to defer longer what she had long conceived in mind; but the day and hour carefully noted; not secretly but openly, not rarely but frequently she asks the King her husband, to be permitted to leave the cares of the world, and to serve in a monastery the true King Christ only. The Prince resists when he hears, nor easily yields; and asserts that he must grievously grieve, if it should ever happen to bear a divorce from his beloved wife, although he had never been joined to her after the manner of married people.

[33] The Queen asks again what she had asked; with weepings and long-lasting entreaties she insists the more importunately, the more difficult she believed it to obtain what she asked. But she transferred all her desire to those above: most ardent in the love of the heavenly Spouse, she opportunely begged his protection; and the more grievously from what she desired to be snatched, the more closely and fervently she intends to entreat him by whom she knew she was to be snatched. Neither the daily flattering services of her people, nor the solemn pomps, nor the great opulence of things, could recall her from her resolve. she departs to the monastery of Coldingham: But the King at last, overcome by her importunate prayers, though unwilling, yet dismissed her unconquered. She indeed, rejoicing greatly at the King's concession and permission, though with difficulty and late obtained, with many provisions prepared with her, the noble Virgin and powerful Queen, entered the monastery of St. Ebba the Abbess (who was the aunt of King Egfrid, and sister of St. Oswald the Martyr and Oswin the Kings) placed in the place which they call the city of Coludi; the veil of the religious habit being received, from the aforesaid Prelate Wilfrid: whom many men and women following from the kingdom subjected themselves to churches for the Lord; as Owin, the Steward of her household, deservedly dear to God, hearer of the heavenly secrets, following the footsteps of his Lady, not forgetting what he had been, sought again the monastic life, as we recalled above. But also many, knowing from afar the conversion of so great a Virgin and Queen, renounced the world, or exercised themselves more abundantly in good works.

[34] So Etheldreda, having entered the monastery, offered herself a living sacrifice to God; all that are of the world she forsook, spurned, and cast far from her heart. Moreover, instead of the Royal diadem, she is overshadowed by a humble veil; instead of fine linen and purple, she is clothed in black garment and rough. and is clothed in the religious garment. Then indeed first the renowned Queen believed herself to reign, when to the service of Christ she went out free from the Kingdom; so that not only laying aside the royal ornaments, did she confer her substance on God; but for his love taking up the rule of monastic religion, she subjected her own will and flesh to holy obedience; where, as long as she lived, while tempted, weak, she was found perfect. Deservedly happy, deservedly glorious, proved, she is glorified by the passion of obedience, established under holy discipline. So much, exercising the worship of the Divinity, for the sweetness of divine contemplation, was she delighted to be separated from human assemblies; that while she sat in the guise of Martha, she gave herself supremely to the quiet of Mary. There grew in her the fame of goodness, and there increased in her the devotion of religion, above all the companions of that congregation: where through the space of a year she learned that the yoke of the Lord is sweet, and his burden light. In which place also she grasped such a summit of holy conversation, showed such an example of perfect humility; that in her life one might understand a teaching expressed, if anyone should seek a document of holy instruction. And truly, I say, now happy the Virgin is adorned with twin triumphs. For betrothed to two husbands, first namely to a Duke, and again to a King, but by the virtue of God she was frustrated of the marriage of both. And behold it happened, that, because in the resolve of virginity she always bore an unconquered mind, she could never be corrupted by the violence of two husbands. He himself protected Etheldreda from the flame of corruption, who rescued the three children from the furnace of the fire of Babylon.

[35] But the Queen Etheldreda, as was determined, now subjected to the monastic disciplines rejoiced; but King Egfrid, who to her undefiled union had long been devoted, not lightly bearing the divorce of his beloved spouse, beyond measure soon began to be saddened at her departure, and to be sorrowful. Whence by the suggestion and instigation of his people, he tried to snatch her from the monastery, To be brought back by force by King Egfrid, although now covered with the veil of sanctity. And without delay, to the monastery where the holy Virgin dwelt, with fury and uproar he hastily went up. This heard, the Mother of the congregation Ebba suggests that from flight alone there would be protection, and advised that the wilderness be sought for the protection of flight. There, fortified by the virtue of God, until the persecution ceased, she remained: and roused by the divine spirit, she strove henceforth to act so that the Virgin might delay; nor to rest, until she should come to her own home in Ely: there by the virtue of God she resolved that she could avoid the Charybdis of incontinence. Furthermore she who had been the Lady of the Kingdom a few days before, and despising the earthly rule had entered the monastery; is now made the handmaid of the handmaids of Christ, occupying the last services of the ministries. For in such things the God-devoted Virgin delighted, having that always before her eyes: The greater thou art, humble thyself in all things. Ecclesiasticus 3:20.

[36] But, the prosperity of the desired quiet being granted by the divine gift, the ambushes of the enemy were not lacking: whence is proved most truly in her the Apostle's testimony, that, All who wish to live piously in Christ will suffer persecution. 1 Timothy 3:12. For the King presses on, desiring to resume her in marriage; not omitting to pursue, if perhaps he might be able to seize her. But the religious woman, groaning and anxious now with a doubled fear, compelled fled the sweet hiding-places, and went out, and to the Lord more earnestly commended her chastity. And departing secretly from the precinct of the place, with two handmaids of God, Sewenna and Sewara, b she went to and ascended an eminent hill nearby, Coldeburchhevet, she flees to a hill soon surrounded by waters: which in Latin is called the Head of Coldeburg. But God, who commands the winds and the sea, and they obey him, does not forsake those who hope in him. By his command, we believe, it happened that the sea, going out of its channel, now pouring out its waters manifoldly, surrounded the place into which the sacred Virgins had ascended; and, as we have received from the inhabitants of the place, for seven continuous days, without food and drink, standing in prayer, it hid them; and (what is wonderful to say) forgetting its accustomed returns, as long as the King was tarrying there or near the place, the water so stood, to show to all the Virgin's merit: and the water was for help and for protection, and as it were the water was not for harming or destroying. The handmaid of Christ, fortified by such protection, escaped the threats of the King, nor felt any injury from him. For the Lord brought aid… the Lord, the pitier of the needy; and protected the unarmed Spouse with the shield of his clement right hand. For in a moment the secret place, and suddenly fortified, was made by the grace of God; so that on one side of the mountain there was from the middle a high cut-off rock, and the sea's waves, the bay being drawn back a little, showed a level plain; so that not even for escaping the enemy was the vast solitude of the wilderness sought. The fame of this matter and so great a miracle spread everywhere: and those feared who saw or heard, knowing God to be continually her protector.

[37] And when they had long been on the topmost point of the rock and surrounded on all sides by a multitude of waters, whence, the King having departed, but the King had by no means found a part where he could attack them; at length, no less marveling at the deed, turned to stupor, he withdrew from the place, returned to York; nor thereafter did he hold the Confessor of the Lord Wilfrid in his secrets, or honor [him] with affection as before, but long bore wrath against him under a silent breast; and, the hour awaited, for a cause of this kind, expelled him from the See of his Bishopric: at last, when he was deprived of all confidence of being able to return to the union of the holy Queen, he joined Ermenburga to himself in marriage. But the Nuns, dwelling on the top of the rock, when, exceedingly burning with the dryness of thirst, they were oppressed; she obtains a fountain there by prayers. Ebba, the venerable Abbess, admonishes Etheldreda to entreat the Lord Christ, that he grant them a taste of water in this necessity of thirst, who from a rock gave drink to his people in the desert. And, prayer being poured out more earnestly to the Lord, with the utmost devotion of mind, a most clear fountain of water at once burst forth beside her; and at her prayers what by nature it did not have, by the grace of God the dry rock poured out waters, which sufficed for their use, nor failed in necessity: and to this day it does not cease to flow, whence those taking drink gave thanks to God; and to the sick they still afford most healthful remedies.

[38] Moreover, a thing memorial, and beyond the rest wonderful, is; that the prints of her feet, as she ascended and descended, infused in the side of the mountain, as in warm wax, She leaves the prints of her feet in the rock; are even now shown, to the praise of our Lord Jesus Christ. For in this deed, if diligently we attend, we can weigh four marvels worthy enough of wonder: one, that mercifully God protected them from the oppression of the King; another, that the sea poured out its waters for their fortification, as for a wall: the third, that the rough rock in their thirst gave them waters; the fourth, that the hardness of the stone, as if forgetful of its nature, its manner being changed, could soften at the touch of her foot. This we did not take from the writings of Bede, but whoever knows the place of Coludi, with assertion of this matter are witnesses: for the blessed man could not have remembered or heard or set in writing all things one by one, which about all the Saints throughout England in his time were done; but except those things which were long and much published by religious and truthful persons, he had not arranged to commend to letters. These things thus done, we return to our subject. But how much from there by labors or fatigues the blessed Virgin was worn out, until she had come to Ely, whither she was tending, is proved from the following.

CHAPTER XII.

[39] Of this woman dedicated to God, Etheldreda, let no one distrust; let no one fear, that, a Virgin kept after kingly husbands, she remained undefiled. For betrothed indeed she remains a Virgin, as was said long ago. From the Lord was this done: but since in these days either in no way or scarcely is it proved among married people, hence we are astonished, and it is wonderful in our eyes.

By the assertion also of the most holy Wilfrid, Archbishop of York, a Virgin by the testimony of Saints Wilfrid & Bede, and of the renowned

Kinefrid, and of others truthful, but also by the common attestation of the common people, as Bede the saint had learned, he wrote, also giving an outstanding testimony of her virginity, thus commending it, saying: That when to some it had come into doubt about this Spouse of Christ and Virgin, the question presses one inquiring whether this was so; the same Pontiff Wilfrid of blessed memory reported, saying, that he was a most certain witness of her integrity; so that Egfrid had promised that he would give her lands and much money, if he could persuade the Queen to use his marriage, because he knew that she loved no man more than him. Book 4, chapter 19. It is worthy to proclaim the chastity of that so sacred Virgin, who was to him both a companion in adversities, and an inseparable comrade in prosperities. As each may receive it as it pleases:

I, that she cured the lame in her life, that she even enlightened the blind, and that in the name of Jesus she healed innumerable, from the attestation of pious persons I have ascertained, and by the witness of scripture it happened to me to know. For she is the Virgin most sacred and one of the number of the prudent, who knew not the marriage-bed in fault; nor did she go out with Dinah daughter of Jacob, to see the women of a foreign region; nor, oppressed by Shechem son of Hamor, did she ever yield to corruption, because she was founded upon the firm rock.

[40] Nothing at all of an earthly thing's appearance pleased her, worthy of the palm of Martyrdom: but the kingdom of the world and the adornment of the age she despised, for the love of the Lord Jesus Christ, whom in mind and with a pure heart above all things she loved, by whom now is rendered to her the crown of justice. And although she did not endure martyrdom in the time of peace, yet she is adorned with the glory of martyrdom; since fighting with vices and concupiscences, she continually bore the cross of the Lord in her flesh. I hope most certainly and trust that she is most acceptable to those who washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb, and most sweetly sing a new song before the throne of God. For if under Nero or Diocletian it had then been permitted to fight; without doubt she would of her own accord have mounted the rack, of her own will thrown herself into the fires, never feared to have her members cut off with irons or plates. But indeed against all pains and torments, to which for the most part human weakness has yielded, she would so, not departing from the confession of the Lord, immovable, have stood firm; that, glad in ulcers, rejoicing in torments, she would have laughed at any of them amid the torments. But although she did not bear these, she fulfilled without blood a martyrdom. But what passions of human pains did she not endure for the hope of eternity, hunger, vigils, nakedness, care for the sick, solicitude for those in peril? because she had loved only the sweetness of the heavenly life on earth, so that in comparison with it whatever adverse and prosperous things of the world grew cheap.

CHAPTER XIII.

[41] It is a thing much spoken of, and handed down to us by the report of our elders, which every province in which it had happened is wont to recite and remembers as though it were yesterday's. So the Spouse of the Lord Etheldreda was compelled to change the place where for Christ she had set herself, and to seek another dwelling, by the harassment of King Egfrid her former spouse. And taking with her the aforesaid handmaids of God, Sewenna and Seware, she withdrew from the place and province; holding the Lord's precept: If men shall persecute you in one city, she sets out into the territory of Lincoln, flee into another; and coming to the river which is called Humber, whose channel being crossed by the impulse of a light breeze, into the harbor of Winteringham c she was prosperously carried. Matthew 10:15. But thence about ten stadia, turning aside to a little village, in the manner of an island, almost surrounded by marshes, named Alftham, with the aforesaid girls she sought and received lodging: and there staying a few days, since on account of the marks of her merits she could not be hidden, she built a Church to the Lord: in which place through her suffrages frequent benefits are afforded to the inhabitants. Thence the blessed Virgin took up her journey, as one of the pilgrims of Christ, in humble garb, that not only in mind but also in habit she might humble herself for the Lord. Not by the straight path by which she was tending, but rather off the way she walked; and lest, pursued, she might be seized by those lying in wait, she went hiding, willing to reveal her secret to none, or to expose to anyone the cause of her departure. And when she walked, the heat of the sun burning, and exceedingly fatigued by unaccustomed labor, she scarcely could stand: she diligently sought a place of shade and pleasantness, where she could cool her bosom flowing with sweat, and refresh her wasting members with new strength; nor is she long frustrated of her wish, but by swift efficacy she gained her desire. And advancing with slow foot, by the disposing of God's grace, near at hand a place fit for her necessities showed itself, clothed with verdant beauty, suitable for those passing by to rest, planted with a wonderful plain; so that one would think it rather leveled by industry, sprinkled on all sides with flowers of various colors. She greatly aims for the desired place, sees it delightful, judges it restful, perceives wondrous breaths to breathe sweetly from the odors of the herbs. Delighted with whose pleasantness, the holy Mother desired to rest a little, to relieve herself a little; that, the vigor of her wasting members repaired, she might supply the rest of the journey. At last she placed herself, and slept; and there only rested, where weariness had compelled her to rest.

[42] And exceedingly wonderful is what I relate, of which I desire to impart to you knowledge, which let no one of the hearers doubt to be true. where her staff grew into a tree. And when, awakened from sleep, after a little she had risen; she found the staff of her journey, which she had before fixed at her head, dry and long withered, now clothed with green bark, had put forth leaves, and leaves had come forth: which she, beholding, was amazed with wonder, and for such a deed, from her inmost heart, with her companions praising God, she blessed [him]. But by no means esteem this as fabricated: all the provincials indeed know and assert it as most true. This we do not find in the histories, but compelled by such necessity we do not leave it unrecorded: and all the things which Jesus did, which are not written in the books of the Gospels, if afterward they are mentioned by anyone, can they not therefore be proved to be true? So that wood grew indeed, and became an ash tree, the greatest of all the trees of that province, which several of ours have still seen. That place was called, even to this present day, Edeldredestone, which in Latin sounds the Resting-place of Etheldreda. There was also there made a Church in honor of the blessed Virgin, to the praise of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is venerable in his Saints.

CHAPTER XIV.

[43] Nor long after the venerable death of Etheldreda, the monastery of Virgins which was situated at Coludi, she having departed, the church about to be burned in which she received the habit of Religion, was consumed by flames through the fault of carelessness. Yet that it happened by the malice of those dwelling in it, and especially of those who seemed to be the greater, all who knew it could easily perceive, which here we by no means pass over. But the admonition of the Divine piety was not lacking to those to be punished, by which, corrected, through fasts, weepings, and prayers, they might turn away from themselves the wrath of the just Judge, after the manner of the Ninevites. For there was in that same monastery a man of the race of the Scots, Adamnan d by name, leading a life, in continence and prayers, much devoted to God. He, occupied by night with vigils and psalms, suddenly saw standing by him a certain one of unknown face; by whose presence when he was terrified, he said… to him not to fear, and addressing him as with a familiar voice; Well dost thou, he said, in the time of nocturnal quiet, not to indulge in sleep, but to be intent on vigils and prayers, and assiduously to entreat God. Surveying this whole monastery in order, just now I inspected the beds of each; and no one, except thee alone, occupied with the health of his soul I found; but all without exception, men and women, either are torpid with idle sleep, it is revealed to St. Adamnan, or are awake for sins. Virgins dedicated to God, the reverence of their profession despised, adorn themselves in the manner of brides to the peril of their state, or procure for themselves the friendship of external men: whence deservedly for this place and its inhabitants vengeance from heaven, with raging flames, has been prepared.

[44] Which he soon took care to indicate to the Mother of the congregation, by name Ebba, who (as we have said) had received the God-worthy Etheldreda into Religion, and had nurtured and taught her as an adoptive daughter. But she, deservedly troubled by such a presage, said: Why didst thou not sooner wish to reveal to me this which thou hadst ascertained? He answered: I feared, out of reverence for thee, lest perhaps thou be too disturbed: but yet thou shalt have this consolation, that in thy days this plague will not come upon [you]. as indeed it happened after the death of St. Ebba. This vision being made known, the inhabitants of the place for a little while, for a few days, began to fear, and to chastise themselves, their crimes intermitted. But after the death of that Abbess, they returned to their former filth, nay, did more wicked things: and when they said, Peace and security; suddenly with the penalty of the aforesaid vengeance they were punished. Alas, the grief! for the indication of that swift overthrow had been, that they did not deserve to be aided by the fellowship of the most gracious Virgin; frustrated of whose presence, acting impiously and perversely, they remained incorrigible, so that neither converted by divine admonition, nor pricked by the devotion of the venerable Etheldreda, on account of the enormity of their crimes, they lost both themselves and the place, as Bede records, we recognize: but remember, you who read or hear, that not without very great grief and fear have I written this: for always the expectation of good things is the loss of the worst.

ANNOTATIONS G. H.

monastery then was under the Kings of the Northumbrians in the province of Mercia, now annexed to Scotland; six leagues distant from English Berwick: to which the neighboring promontory even now is commonly called Ebberhead, that is the Head of Ebba, well known enough to navigators. b In the History of Ely Selbenna and Selbera. c In the territory of Lincolnshire, Lindsey, under the Kings of the Mercians. d The Life of St. Adamnan, described by Bede, we illustrated on the day 31st of January.

CHAPTER IV.

The Acts of the Saint in the monastery of Ely, where, as Abbess, she shines with miracles.

CHAPTER XV.

[45] Meanwhile the Virgin of the Lord Etheldreda, after a year from the time she had received the veil of sanctity, through innumerable perils of journeys and various labors, returns to her own in Ely, She comes into the island of Ely, into her own possession, which from Tonbert her first husband, by right of dowry, nay, divinely predestined to her and to be possessed perpetually, she had received; and with her the aforesaid handmaids of God, continually clinging to her; who, partakers of her toils, while she was in the kingdom, and while she traversed various hiding-places, endured manifold perils with her. And so the habitation of that same place fell to Etheldreda, the handmaid of Jesus Christ, by lot: and there, received with due honor, she possessed the island, and disposed of it freely as her own right; which forever, under Christ as Prelate, with the gift of graces she illustrates and holds. There followed her a praiseworthy man a, Huna by name, a holy Priest; who gave her admonitions of salvation, and set forth the institutions and acts of the Saints, of whom in what follows it is to be said. But now to designate beforehand the dignity and name of the place is opportune, that the reader may more easily perceive how or by whom it was to be repaired. Nor indeed, according to the obstinacy of some, is Elge of the province of Cambridge; b but in truth

(as Bede teaches) of the East Angles, called by Royal dignity and greatness, of about six hundred families, in the likeness of an island, surrounded either by marshes, or by waters which are called seas. Whence also from the abundance of Eels c which are caught in those same marshes, it took its name, which, the name changed for the better, is called Ely, namely the worthy house of God, to which its name befits it: or as some explain from two Hebrew words, Elge: since El is said to be God, Ge earth, which together sounds the earth of God. For worthily is the island marked with such a name, which from the beginning of Christianity and the faith in England soon began to believe and worship the Lord Jesus: where the aforesaid handmaid of Christ desired to have a monastery, who from the province of those same East Angles herself (as we have said before) drew the origin of her flesh: there too by the spirit of prophecy and great miracles, to all dwelling far and wide, her life became renowned.

[46] And because the Sun of justice the Lord had illustrated her with the splendor of his brightness, she receives various girls: and that she might shine to all upon the mountain, had placed the perfection of her virtues, her happy merits being shown forth, several strove to live under her, and also handed over their daughters to be formed by her. To whom, while many proceed, by her example, they began to be kindled with desire of eternal life; and subjected themselves, under her tutelage, to the service of almighty God: among whom the Virgin of the Lord Werburga, daughter of Ermenilda, the holy daughter of her own sister holy Sexburga, came, and from her received and learned the rule of religion. So, seeing the blessed Mother the peoples running to her in rivalry, she praised the Lord; and to the advancement of the soul she exhorted each one, saying that the figure of this world passes away, and that that is the true life which is earned by the inconvenience of the present life. For there was not yet in the island at that time but one church, made by Blessed Augustine Apostle of the Angles, she builds a church but afterward destroyed to the ground by the army of the perfidious King Penda: which the lover of God Etheldreda, after a long desolation, strove with all her might to renew and restore: and when it was rebuilt as at first in honor of the holy Mother of God Mary, it shone with innumerable signs and virtues, God daily working. At last she most comely adorned the site of the place with monastic buildings: but the remains of the former foundation being dissolved, all things are prepared anew. But the place enjoys continually such great liberty and free dignity, that by no King of England or of a neighboring nation was it opposed, or, for any debt of right, slandered, but was held and stood as a free region. But Wilfrid the Pontiff alone, whom the Virgin Queen had held beloved and chosen above all in the Kingdom, she then employed as provider for her necessities, and he administered there the Episcopal jurisdiction, by whom she (as in Bede is read) was made Abbess.

[47] and she obtains immunity for it. It was therefore decreed, with fitting reason, by all the chief men of England at that time, both secular and ecclesiastical, that for the island of Elge (which the same religious woman had possessed for a dowry, but now had given over to divine service) neither by the King, nor by the Bishop, should the liberty of the place be diminished, or for the future broken: which was confirmed by the Authority of many Apostolic Pontiffs is proved from the Privilege of Pope Victor, e as we shall fully insert in their places, f first necessarily attending to complete the history of the begun work. For the most devout Etheldreda herself, after a little, by the aids of her aforesaid brother King Aldulf, a greater monastery being built there, the Virgin Mother of very many Virgins devoted to God, began to be a model by the examples of life and by admonitions; for whose uses she first wholly constituted the island, and through her beloved Wilfrid destined it to be corroborated at Rome by the Apostolic nod, that, without any want, those living in the Lord's service might remain in due order, without the disquiet of any exaction of ministry.

[48] How right are the dispositions of God the Creator! A Virgin is set over Virgins, just as on the Cross of Christ's passion the Virgin was committed to the Virgin; that, living to the Virgin, they may reign together with the Lord, heaped with hundredfold fruit. Nor indeed think that there is less virtue in the multitude of those conversing there, who conquered sex and the world for God's sake; than you know to be of those who anciently removed themselves from human assemblies. For all there is one and the same rule, She founds a monastery in the year 673 common to both sexes. their chief virtue and first their obedience, the love of divine worship, and to guard the comeliness of the house of God with all observance. In the English and Latin Chronicles it is had, that in the year from the Incarnation of the Lord six hundred seventy-three, Etheldreda began the buildings at Ely; and in a short time gathered an assembly of both sexes fearing God, under the path of the regular life, as Bede wrote: saying, in the translation of that same Virgin dedicated to God, that the whole congregation, on this side of the Brothers, on that of the Sisters, singing psalms, stood around her sepulchre. Whence it is understood that men and women in the same monastery led a celibate life, and that it was long preserved in the church, as she herself had established (until the Danes overthrew the place and homeland) we recognize: which also at Coludi and in many churches of the Angles then was, the history of the Angles testifies.

CHAPTER XVI.

[49] But the holy Wilfrid of the Lord, not unmindful of the blessed Virgin, nor excluding himself from the reciprocity of her love, when he had learned that she had descended to Ely, hastily flies thither: matters are treated of the soul's profit, of the state of mind, of the quality of conduct: she is consecrated Abbess, then in the office of Abbess he consecrated her and the flock there gathered, constituted the place by his disposition, and showed himself solicitous in all things: where she led a life useful not only to herself, but also to all existing there, for some time: from whom she had very much counsel of ruling and the solace of life. The blessed Virgin was made drunk by the meditation of the heavens, putting forth a generous hand of alms, loving the continuation of prayers, exercising the frequency of vigils: which from Bede's words seems more fully set forth.

[50] From the time says he she sought the monastery, she would never use linen, but only woolen garments; and rarely wished to wash in warm baths, she ministers to all, except on the approach of the greater solemnities, for example of Easter, Pentecost, Epiphany, likewise last of all, the others having first been washed by the service of her men and women ministers, the rest of the handmaids of Christ who were there; for she who was washed in heart, had no need to be washed in body. Book 4, chapter 19.

And the flock committed to her she both protected with assiduous prayers, and by most healthful admonitions provoked to heavenly things: and (what is more) what she taught was to be done, she herself first showed by doing. And so the pious Mother nursed the sweet offspring of Christ with sweetness, in perpetual charity drawing all with her most ardently to the crown of glory; to whom she exhibited a form of humility and meekness, and admonished them to exercise the virtues of abstinence, a minister of her life. For rarely, and she goes before in word and work, except at the greater solemnities or more pressing necessity, did she eat more than once a day, fleeing as an immense pestilence the intemperate satiety of the belly. And if a graver infirmity had not prevented, in the time of the synaxis, even to the rising of the day, in the church after Matins, she remained intent on prayers. How many bendings of the knees then, how many contritions of the inmost heart she sent forth, the receiver of her prayers knows, the possessor and helper of her unblemished virginity.

CHAPTER XVII.

[51] But King Wulfhere of the Mercians, son of Penda, had at that time departed this life, who first in that kingdom received the faith and the laver of holy regeneration, and in his whole nation destroyed the worship of demons, and ordered the name of Christ to be preached everywhere in his kingdom, and built churches in many places: moreover that famous monastery of Medeshamstede, now called Burch, g he much enriched with possessions and ornaments through Sexulf, h who was the first Abbot and founder of that same place, and afterward Bishop of the Mercians, under the same King. Whose Queen Ermenilda, daughter of Earconbert King of the men of Kent and of Queen Sexburga, she receives St. Werburga her niece, bore him a Virgin of great virtues, St. Werburga; who, her father being dead, renounced the world, and, to take up the habit of holy conversation, entered the monastery of her maternal aunt, namely the blessed Etheldreda, where, God working, she wrought many miracles. Now the brothers of King Wulfhere were i Etheldred, who after him governed the scepters of the Kingdom: another, Penda, who held the kingdom of the Southern Angles, but by the betrayal of his wife at the very time of the Paschal feast was slain very wickedly; the third, Merewald, who in the Western quarter of the Mercians held the Kingdom. To whom his holy Queen k Ermenburga, daughter of King Ermenred, bore three daughters, St. Milburga, St. Milgidra, and St. Mildrida; and one son, Merewin by name, a boy of exceptional sanctity.

CHAPTER XVIII.

[52] For in that same monastery, to the venerable Abbess Etheldreda, of various dignity and age very many had gathered, and many nobles of both sexes desiring to live under her rule. And when certain magnificent men and noble matrons, or any of younger age, the deeds of the world renounced, asked to be received, although the more difficult constitutions of the church were set before them, and they recognized the labors of monastic discipline to be grave, since there especially the severer discipline burned hottest; not moved by these terrors did they ask to live by easier laws, but rather there, men and women received, forestall all obedience, so that they never refused and fled any constitution however arduous and difficult. Of whom holy Huna, her Presbyter, a man of great humility, made his profession in the place; and in a short time, by the exercise of virtues, shone forth perfect, powerful in fastings, conspicuous in humility, firm in faith, he had easily equaled the old monks in zeal of religion: whence by several, even by the Mother of the Congregation herself, he was held worthy of the greatest honor and love.

[53] But also the mother of Saints, Sexburga, sister of the same most blessed Mother Etheldreda, considering the desolation to come in the kingdom, and St. Sexburga her sister. as she had received the oracle from an Angel of God, conceived to grasp a poorer life, and to bring herself under the power of another: thinking it incongruous to be set over others, when she herself had not first learned to be subject. The Mother therefore summons her daughters, the Abbess the nuns her consorts in

Christ; and discloses to them her will and vow, saying: To you, O daughters, I leave Jesus as guardian, and his holy Angels as groomsmen; moreover my daughter Ermenilda I appoint to you as mother, that your hearts may be animated by her admonitions, and by salutary disciplines instructed for heavenly things. But I, to visit East Anglia, on whose shores I was born, intending to be formed by the tutelage of my glorious sister Etheldreda, and to be guided by her regular teachings, indeed to share in her labors, to partake of her rewards. Then, when she had providently and honestly provided for them the necessities, she came even to Ely, and at her coming the whole island rejoices; the Queen receives the Queen, the sister introduces the sister with dancing: they pour out abundantly tears for joy, from true charity between them gladness is doubled: for, delighted with heavenly sweetness, by mutual consolation in turn they profit. That rich woman came, from prelacy to subjection, from magistracy to discipleship, seeking from the blessed sister a model of discipline and humility, as Paul at the feet of Gamaliel. The blessed sisters, allied to one another in the unity of faith, through all things diligently following the way of God's commandments, intend to consummate a course pleasing to God; and they advanced in holy virtues, and grew even to the end of their life.

CHAPTER XIX.

[54] Hence the miracles increase, the signs are multiplied; She shines with miracles; and to declare more loftily the merits of the Virgin Etheldreda, the hand of the Almighty is stretched out. Meanwhile, while she exercised herself from day to day in greater advances of virtues, endowed with an incredible power of putting demons to flight from possessed bodies, she did unheard-of signs each day; not only present nor by word only, but absent too sometimes, her name being invoked; many were daily snatched from various deaths; and in a wonderful manner she was frequented by the peoples, venerated by all, loved by all. By the spirit of prophecy, both the pestilence by which she herself was to die she had foretold, and by the spirit of prophecy she predicts the death of her own. and also the number of those who from her monastery and from the world were to be snatched, openly to all present she had made known, whose minds she admonished more fervently to spurn earthly things and to seek heavenly. Nor was the Virgin's prediction proved as vain, since each, to whom in the monastery she had foretold her own departure, after a small interval of time, rested in the sleep of peace. But the most blessed Etheldreda, who had sent before the virginal sheaves to be laid up in the supernal dwelling, and that she herself might follow, to be crowned with an immortal diadem in heaven, last of all a most grievous pain seized. Now she established the monastery of Elge, in which (as we have said) she ruled most honorably the virginal choirs under regular discipline for seven continuous years. So the bountiful Virgin, about to bring forth to God an offspring of Virgins, taught by the Holy Spirit, took up the monastery to be ruled, which by her presence stands perpetually consecrated: and as then in the body she illustrated [it] with sanctity of life, so also now after death by divine virtue. Of her indeed very many distinctions are reported, nor could they be hidden: yet some she hid while she avoided boasting, nor did she allow them to come into the knowledge of men: as one who, having surpassed human substance, trampling the glory of the world by the conscience of virtue alone, was cherished, heaven being witness. That this is true, even from those things which were ascertained to us, and could not lie hidden, we can estimate.

[55] At the same time Wilfrid the Archbishop, who here three years before suffered exile, as Bede wrote. For a dissension having arisen between him and King Egfrid, l driven by him from the See of his Bishopric, She cherishes St. Wilfrid the exile, thence setting out for Rome. at Ely he stayed with the most blessed Etheldreda; where then, and as often as necessity demanded, as long as he lived, he administered the rights of the Episcopal office. Thence, the aids of the journey being prepared, he went to Rome, where by the judgment of Pope Benedict and very many he was found worthy to be in the Bishopric. He returned to Britain, made the province of Sussex believe in Christ. He brought moreover from Rome for the fortification of certain monasteries privileges; which hitherto diligently and with solicitude preserved, are known to confer great firmness on the places. He received also from the same a privilege over the monastery of Elge, as the distinguished Mother Etheldreda had wished and had asked of him, so that by the authority of St. Peter against the incursions of the wicked it might stand more securely. And it happened, while he stayed there, in the same year (as in the Chronicles is read) Etheldreda, who had long foretold her end, is announced to have departed from the world: for after a few days, a messenger coming, he heard of her falling asleep.

ANNOTATIONS G. H.

for both the first derivation from the Greek and the last from the Hebrew, as they are aptly devised to the letter, so are they inept for the truth of onomatopoeia. d In the history of Ely it is said that in the year 607 it was founded at Cradundere by King Ethelbert, in which St. Augustine established Initiates fulfilling the office of God. The Life of St. Ethelbert the King we gave on the 24th of February, and of St. Augustine on the 26th of May. e There is extant sent to St. Edward the Confessor King, in whose time Victor sat, from the 13th of April of the year 1054 to the 28th of July in the year 1057. f Namely in the other book, where we found it, beyond the text reported in the Monasticon, augmented with these words, Be it done, be it done. It pleases, it pleases. Do you approve? We approve. Let this be stable. Be it done, be it done, be it done, as if from the mouth of some Roman Synod approving all. g Burg or Peterborough, in the territory of Northampton from the domain of the Gyrwas, of which we have treated several times. h Of Sexulf we treated among the Passed-over at the day 27th of February. i Etheldred the King among the Passed-over at the day 4th of May we honor, as a holy man, but we do not judge him adorned with Ecclesiastical cult. k In the Life of St. Werburga on the 3rd of February and in others Domneva, daughter of Ermenred, is called the mother of these Saints, as we said at the Life of St. Milburga on the 23rd of February; of St. Milypidra or Milgitha or to others Mildwida, we treated on the 17th of January; of St. Mildrida or Mildreda we will treat on the 13th of July. l Bede, book 4, chapter 12, describes a comet appearing in the month of August of the year 678, and subjoins to it the expulsion of St. Wilfrid. m Here there is some error, and in the place of Benedict St. Agatho the Pope is to be set, as the Life of St. Wilfrid has at number 37, and under him in the year 680 he subscribed to a Council held at Rome, and after the death of St. Agatho, St. Leo II sat, and then Benedict II.

CHAPTER V.

The illness, death, miracles, St. Sexburga the Abbess.

CHAPTER XX.

[56] So when the time pressed, in which the Lord would lift up the Spouse beloved by him, A tumor & pain of the neck exempted from the bonds of this toilsome life, to the ineffable joy of the heavenly homeland; she was pressed by a certain tumor of the jaw and pain of the neck, so that, fallen ill, she had a very great tumor under the jaw. And the inconvenience of the ailment growing graver, her body, to be relieved with softer nourishments, is laid prostrate on the bed: for that tumor added very much the incitements of a sharper pain; but nonetheless, intent on her accustomed prayer, she gives thanks to God, who scourges all whom he loves, that he may correct them. The household grieves; for the groaning people fears to lose their Lady, the virginal company their excellent Mother, the poor the bestower of alms, the Clergy the fruitful worker of virtues. And when she was pressed with the aforesaid tumor, she was much delighted with this kind of infirmity, embracing it with all eagerness, as the delights and ornaments of glory, and was wont to say; I know most certainly, that I deservedly bear in my neck the weight of an ailment, in which, as a young girl, I remember I bore superfluous… weights of necklaces. she recognizes it given for the necklaces worn: For my youthful age put it upon me, that I was wont to adorn my neck with necklaces: whence to the divine piety I render praises and thanks, that pain comes forth there where I was wont to display a delightful brightness. And I believe that therefore the supernal piety wished me to be burdened with pain of the neck, that so I may be absolved from the guilt of superfluous frivolity; while now for me, instead of gold and pearls, from the neck the redness of a tumor and a burning protrudes.

CHAPTER XXI.

[57] So when the most precious Virgin, amid the most splendid triumphs of a precious life, rendered glory to God, it being cut, somewhat relieved, and burned to see the most serene face of her Author; neither was her service defrauded of its reward, nor her long expectation of its heavenly recompense. But, the inconvenience of her members now more and more pressing, they strive to seek the help of a physician; or, if they could, by mitigating to take away the importunity of the pain. A certain physician is summoned by the bystanders, Kinefrid by name, that through him the virginal distress might be tempered. He orders that tumor to be cut, that the noxious humor which was within might flow out: which while he did, she seemed for two days to be somewhat more lightly, so that many thought that she could be healed of the ailment, and could now decline death by such a remedy. For the humor flowed out, the burning for two days somewhat receded: all rejoice, but their sudden joys, unforeseen, the providence of God terminated. For since for the most part the third day is wont to be graver for the wounded, and to generate a more prolonged distress for the afflicted; the Lord, wishing his Virgin to reign together with him in the heavens, on the third day, weighed down by the former pains, feeling temporal death imminent upon her, ordered the whole Congregation to come to her; now designating the time and hour of her calling, as before she had foretold the certain day.

[58] But also, as much as the harshness of the sickness permitted, then being worse she transfused the sweetness of heavenly doctrine in which she abounded, and the words of eternal life; admonishing them never to put down their minds from the supernal, and to taste, sighing, the sweet food of heavenly joy in the love of Christ, which, while still dwelling in the flesh, they could not perfectly apprehend. For giving such admonitions of salvation, after the Viaticum received she piously dies she no longer suffered to hear or to speak, except what is the charity of Christ. For with her whole soul and strength, anticipating the face of Christ her beloved spouse, she begged with hymns and psalms, that he order her spirit to be received by the holy Angels: then with the Body and Blood of the Lord she fortified her departure: him also she entreated more attentively, to be propitious continually over the inhabitants of the place, and a perpetual guardian. While these things were done, she was straightway snatched from the world, commending her spirit into the hands of the Creator; and (as is written in the book of histories of Bede the Presbyter) she changed all pain and death for perpetual salvation and life. It happened, while she departed from the world, that the monastery of Ely was turned into a sadness not small of desolation and grief. For a huge grief and weeping of the Brothers and Sisters arose, who could not undeservedly long bewail most bitterly their Lady and Patroness: but the holy and glorious Virgin, led out of the prison-house of the flesh, to the embraces of the eternal King, into the heavenly chamber was introduced, following the footsteps of the Lamb among the throngs of Virgins. The fires of the flesh now conquered, her blessed soul rejoices with his Angels, to whom the heavens lay open, who merited to foreknow and foretell the joys to be approached. For from the desert of the present world, with the choirs of Angels accompanying on this side and that, all beautiful, all immaculate she ascended: whom the daughters of Sion, seeing her most blessed, proclaimed, and the Queens praised her.

[59] The Virgin Etheldreda was snatched to the Lord, in the midst of her own, on the 23rd of June in the year 679, on the ninth day before the Kalends of June recte July, after seven years, from the time she had received the rank of Abbess: and equally (as she herself had ordered) nowhere else than in the midst of her own, according to the order in which she had died, she was buried in a wooden coffin. But she passed over in the year from the Incarnation of the Lord six hundred seventy-nine, from the muddy abyss of this world, to the joys of the heavenly kingdom, under the Kings of the Angles, namely her brother Aldulf of the East Angles, and Lothar son of Sexburga of the men of Kent: and at the right hand of Christ her spouse happily placed, for all of us in the sight of the highest Father an assiduous intercessor she stands. How happy art thou, blessed Virgin, who living incorrupt, knowest not to be corrupted even when buried! Now a certain glory of the life of resurrection shines, transformed thou hast part of Christ rising. For also a sign of the divine miracle, At the incorrupt body various are healed: by which the buried flesh of that same woman (as Bede testifies) could not be corrupted, is an indication that from male contact she endured incorrupt. At last, after her death, while her bones rested in the tomb of the sepulchre, she is not lacking of signs, but soon shone everywhere celebrated by the frequency of miracles. For various persons laboring with adverse health of body, when they faithfully demanded aid at her tomb; health being restored to them, they zealously praised the great works of Christ. Some, held by a sharper disease, are admonished in sleep to go quickly to her mausoleum: whither the sooner they had come, the benefits of heavenly healing they merited there to obtain. Hence are put to flight various passions and demons, the suppliants are heard, through our Lord Jesus Christ: who with God the Father and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, unto ages of ages, Amen.

CHAPTER XXII.

[60] About this time St. Huna the Priest existed, she is buried by Huna the Presbyter who is reported to have been of the order of monks and presbyters of the bountiful Etheldreda. He (as is reported), with that venerable Congregation, in tears and great groaning; but also a multitude of common people of various condition and age had gathered, which in her life had experienced very many benefits, celebrated the obsequies of that same holy Mother; and buried her not in carved stone or in arches encircled with gold; but (as he had received command from her) in the cemetery of the church beside her own people. And after her venerable death, he did not remain in the church, renowned for miracles after death: but withdrew into the same marsh near Ely, to a certain small island, which by his name is called Huneia, choosing a solitary life, that, given only to quiet, he might serve the Lord as a soldier; where, as long as he lived, he led a glorious life, which shone far to all: to whose tomb many, for the sake of recovering health, coming, most testify to have recovered their health by his merits. Which certain persons learning, secretly transporting his Relics, the sarcophagus afterward broken, laid them at Thorney, hoping from the Lord by his patronage grace and mercy. b

CHAPTER XXIII.

[61] In the year in which the Lord advanced his venerable Virgin Etheldreda, to the perennial glory of the heavenly life, from this corruptible life; a wonderful and admirable thing happened concerning a certain minister of hers, which Bede understood was to be narrated for the salvation of many. Book 4, chapter 22. So between Egfrid King of the Northumbrians, formerly the spouse of that same Virgin, The Saint's minister captive among enemies, and Etheldred King of the Mercians, a grave battle being joined near the river Trent, where Alwin brother of King Egfrid was slain, whose sister Estrida the aforesaid King Etheldred had had as wife; among others of his soldiery, a young man by name Ymnia was slain, who, the day and the following night, lay like one dead: at last, his spirit recovered, he revived; as he could, he bound his wounds; then he raised himself, and began to go: but quickly seized by men of the hostile army, and to his Lord, namely a Count of King Etheldred, he was brought. But he, receiving him, took care of his wounds; and when he began to grow well, lest he flee, ordered him to be bound, but he could not be bound: but soon as those who had bound him began to go away, his bonds were loosed. Meanwhile the Count began to wonder and to ask why he could not be bound. He answered: I have a brother by name Tunna, a Presbyter and Abbot of a Monastery, in the city which from his name is called Tunnacester; c who, thinking me slain, makes frequent Masses for me: and if I were now in another life, there my soul through his intercession would be loosed from punishments. as often as his brother said Mass for him But while he could not be held by bonds, he sold him at London to a certain Frisian: but neither by him, when he was led thither, could he in any way be bound; but at the hour when Masses were made, he was loosed. And when he who had bought him had seen that he could not be confined by bonds, he granted him the faculty of redeeming himself if he could. But he, by an oath that he would return, or send him money for himself, came to Kent to Lothar the King, who was the son of the sister of St. Etheldreda the Queen (because he himself too had once been a minister of that same Queen, that is a cup-bearer), and asked and received from him the price of his redemption, and sent it for himself to his Lord as he had promised. Who afterward returning to his brother, all the comforts which had come to him in adversities, he is loosed from bonds and therefore released, in order he related. And he learned, from his report, that especially at those times his bonds had been loosed, at which the solemnities of Masses had been celebrated for him; but also that other advantages came to him in his peril; and prosperity, through his brother's intercession and the offering of the saving Host, had been granted to him from heaven, he understood.

CHAPTER XXIV.

[62] Many hearing these things from the aforesaid man were kindled with faith and devotion of piety, and to pray, or to do alms, or to offer victims to God, for the deliverance of those who in faith departed from the world: for he understood that the saving Sacrifice availed for the everlasting redemption of soul and body. But by no means shall we think this to be wondered at,

whence the devotion of many is excited, which from Bede's little works to this work we have thought should be inserted, if we attend to the grace of God conferred manifoldly upon the holy Queen: whose devotion this man exhibiting in a mystery, having contemplated what is to be avoided or what is to be done, that he might be more devoted to God emulated [her]. And not only this man of whom the present discourse is, but innumerable men and women, dwelling in her fellowship, when they were placed on the throne of the Kingdom or in Religion, by her example and admonitions, the delights and enticements of the world spurned, by the performance of their manners pleased the Lord: to the imitation of the Saint, as from the preceding Chapter her Presbyter and Monk St. Huna, distinguished in life and sanctity; and another certain man, Owin by name, a Monk, but tutor and prince of her household, privy to her secrets, and hearer of the heavenly secrets, as above we related. But also a man deservedly of outstanding sanctity, was the keeper of her fields (as lately was shown by a divine vision) by the name of St. Ælgot at Betrithesworde, which is the village of the blessed Martyr Edmund, resting in body: of whom in what follows nothing is to be kept silent. For the prudent virgin of Christ Werburga, at Ely under the rule of the Abbess Etheldreda, as also St. Werburga. duly (as we have mentioned above) consecrated to the divine service… duties, anticipated all the services of the monastery, showed herself inferior to all, toward the needs of all expended the bowels of a wounded charity. Whose sanctity when the aforesaid King Etheldred her uncle had learned, he took her thence, and set her as Abbess by right over certain monasteries of Virgins, namely Hanbury and Tritingeham. e

CHAPTER XXV.

[63] Therefore after the glorious passing of the blessed and glorious Etheldreda, by which from this wretched life of mortals, desiring to be dissolved and to be with Christ, she migrated to her immortal Spouse, in whose sight always the death of his Saints is precious; St. Sexburga elected Abbess of Ely, the divine providence salubriously providing for the salvation of men, there was substituted in the rule of souls, in the monastery of Ely, under the observance of the regular life, her sister devoted to God, Sexburga; not so much sister by the kindred of flesh, as by the imitation of good work, whom Earconbert King of the men of Kent had had as wife. She, by divine disposition, after her sister's death, by the Sisters elected and beloved, merited to preside in the office of Abbess, and along the path of justice she followed her sister's examples. And when, to the Lord's flock, by her own and her sister's example (who, dead in flesh, lived with God by the attestation of good works), she was busy and zealous rather to profit than to preside; moved by divine zeal and solicitous, she resolves to translate the Saint's body to the church. with herself she long deliberates and arranges to raise the bones of the glorious Virgin, from the place where she had first been buried: for her burial was held celebrated. Whence, with her people, the frequency of miracles increasing and in a manner demanding it, she appointed a day, on which they might so revisit the treasure, to place it more honorably and decently in the church of the blessed Mother of God Mary, and to transfer it to be more gloriously laid in a new coffin, when now she had been buried sixteen years. The celibate women praise the word which they hear, and standing nearby rejoice according to their wish.

ANNOTATIONS. G. H.

CHAPTER VI.

The incorrupt body of St. Etheldreda is translated.

CHAPTER XXVI.

[64] So it pleased the aforesaid Abbess, as was said, For the raising of the body, reverently to collect from the earth the Relics of her sister, whom Christ, by the testimony of many signs, made known to the world as to be proclaimed with glory and reverence: and she ordered certain of the Brothers to seek a stone, of which they could make a coffin: and she directs them to seek outside a sepulchral stone, suitable for the renewed burial of so great a Virgin: because within, the island could by no means have one suitable for such a need. For that region of Elge, from the nature of the place, is on all sides surrounded with waters and marshes, nor does it have larger stones in itself unless they come from elsewhere. Who, immediately a ship being boarded, putting in, a came to a certain little city, a stone is sought, at that time desolate, situated not far thence, which in the tongue of the Angles is called Grantchester. And while exceedingly solicitous they walked about, soon they found near the walls of that city a coffin, most beautifully cut of white marble, in a place which to this day is called Ermenswurche, b that is "the Work of the wretched." and not without a miracle the Sarcophagus is found, Each one wonders, the neighbors deny that they had a stone of this kind in that place, or had ever seen it: and approaching nearer, they asserted that it had not been placed there by anyone, but rather by God's command had been placed there from heaven for their use: for no stone of such nature or quantity was found there: it could indeed be named, but not seen. Nevertheless, the whole region of England in those times seemed to have been either utterly devoid of marble stone still: but in our days both to have it, and that it can abundantly be found in it, the buildings of notable works everywhere demonstrate.

[65] A cover also of similar material, color, and suitable quantity and quality they find, and without any distance or dissonance of the congruent parts, most like the sarcophagus, in which also a comely whiteness of the aforesaid color becomingly shone forth. But they, rejoicing beyond measure at the find, with a cover fitting it: whence also they understand their journey prospered by the Lord and their business hastened, giving thanks to God for all his benefits, as quickly as possible with a favorable wind carried it back to the monastery. But Sexburga, the more gladdened by the benefit of the divine gift, blessed God, who alone does great wonders. At last they unload the keels of their welcome burden, and the desired mausoleum, nor long sought, is conveyed to the place. The hour is noted, celebrated in memory, and exultation (as we believe) is made in the Heavens, when honor is exhibited to the Saints on earth. and the miracles increase. The people of the country run together from everywhere, a very great crowd of the sick flocked together: wearied by fevers, and oppressed by whatever inconvenience, at her tomb, caught in a light sleep, by her aiding merits, having obtained health, they rejoiced: to the various inconveniences of others she gave aid, whose vows the purity of faith accompanied. This indeed greatly raised the spirits of Blessed Sexburga, that she might draw her out of the old burial, and place her in the church to be laid up; whom, long shut in the earth, the goodness of Christ saves and preserves against nature.

CHAPTER XXVII.

[66] And when, on the appointed day, after so many years, the body of the holy Virgin and Spouse of Christ, the bones, were to be raised from the tomb, and to be buried more decently in the basilica; a very great part of the devout people had flocked together, to the holy solemnities of this Translation. And since such a matter ought to be confirmed by the testimony of very many, In the presence of St. Wilfrid the Bishop, the aforesaid Prelate St. Wilfrid, who to Blessed Etheldreda (as long as to Egfrid King of the Northumbrians, only in name and not in conjugal work, though by the Sacrament of marriage, she was betrothed) was most familiar and a most truthful witness of her perpetual virginity, and to her had imposed the consecrated veil of the religious habit under the tutelage of the Abbess Ebba, aunt of King Egfrid, at the city of Coludi; and when she had been established in the rule of souls, in the monastery of Ely, as Bede asserts, with assiduous familiarity in all her need a diligent and solicitous helper had stood by; both was present at this so beautiful and rightly to-be-regarded spectacle, and to this unwonted miracle by his presence and authority conferred a great weight of credibility, and innumerable who knew and were present testified to that very thing: but also among the rest, for the fuller certainty of the matter and the evidence of the truth, the physician Kynefrid, and with Kynefrid the physician, who as he was present at her dying, so also at her raising from the tomb was personally present, that he might be a witness to this so wondrous and, for its rarity, precious miracle; mindful indeed of the incision, which he had once made in her body; who was wont to relate, that she, fallen ill, had had a very great tumor under the jaw.

[67] So, the shade of a tent being fitted and decently arranged above, when the whole Congregation, on this side of the Brothers, on that of the Sisters, singing psalms, stood around her sepulchre, the mound thrown down the pit is dug out, and the case is raised from the dust. But the Abbess herself, St. Sexburga, the door of the burial opened, with a few, the incorrupt body is raised, as one about to raise and carry the bones, enters: and after a short interval, suddenly from within we heard her with a great voice proclaim; Glory be to the name of the Lord most high; and that these things might be made manifest, under the proof and presence of witnesses, even not long after they called me in, c the door of the tent unbarred, and I saw raised from the tomb, and placed on a little bed, the body of the holy Virgin like one sleeping: and when her body, the sepulchre opened, was brought forth into the light, it was found so incorrupt, as if on the same day she had died or been laid in the ground. A stupendous and unwonted miracle, and to be proclaimed for all ages! The most holy Virgin Etheldreda, making void, God commanding, nature, because she had kept her flesh while living free from lust, was found after death free from corruption: and although through the courses of sixteen years she had lain hidden, covered in the earthly dust, as if sweetly sleeping in a bed, as if from the resurrection she flourished again wholly alive, and presents the appearance of one sweetly resting in a bed, in nothing liable to the corruption of human custom; nay, all beautiful, all comely, all whole she was found.

[68] And the covering of the face being uncovered, they showed also me the wound of the incision, which I had made, cured: so that, in a wonderful manner, in place of the open and gaping wound with which she was buried, the very faint traces of a scar then appeared. Who ever heard such a thing? or who saw the like of this? The wound, which had festered in the jaw while she lived, the long burial rendered incorrupt and whole; the flesh of other dead, buried, is dissolved, this one's, living, dissolved by a tumor, after burial is repaired: the bodies of others are destroyed, this one's wound after death is restored: the wound also restored the nature of others is consumed by rottenness, to this one's wound gaping in the jaw a heavenly healing is applied. But those present, venerate the wonders of God, find no foulness in the scar, but a portion allied to the new grace of glory. For that glorious throat, which they had expected to have vanished into ashes, the virtue and power of God had wholly restored. But neither does it seem stupendous and to be wondered at, if we consider the omnipotent grace of the Lord, by which all things whatsoever he willed, he did in heaven and on earth; and mercifully bestowed the merit on the Virgin, that she might not only decline from unlawful things for his love, but also despise that which she could lawfully use, namely the consort of an earthly and carnal spouse. Distinguished, therefore, is the virtue of God to be proclaimed, and his piety in all, who kept the bush burning from combustion, who kept Daniel in the lions' den unharmed from their bites; beyond the manner of the human condition, by a certain prerogative, glorified the corruptible flesh in the Virgin, incorruption now conferred.

CHAPTER XXVIII.

[69] At last with much reverence they raised it, and diligently clothed it in new garments, it is placed in the sarcophagus: suitable for preserving so great a treasure, brought it into the church, with great and manifold devout exultation of those rejoicing, and placed it in the sarcophagus which had been brought. In which, resting, it awaits the return of the Lord her spouse, that he may reform the body of her humility; conformed to the body of his brightness. And in a wonderful manner in this place by no means… is it to be kept silent, as if made to her measure, but often solemnly and unceasingly to be proclaimed, that such aptitude and congruous equivalence to that same mausoleum the divine grace conferred, and the sarcophagus was found so fitted to the Virgin's body, as if it had been specially prepared for her; so that neither did the quantity of the stone in its capacity exceed the quantity of the holy body, nor within itself, as too little containing, uselessly confine it: and the place too of the head, separately most aptly shaped, appeared. For the measure, God disposing, was provided, to which also its own cover joins itself the dimension no less equalized: but the stone placed on top shows how precious a pearl lies hidden within: beyond or short of the measure it does not overhang, within or above it does not differ, whence so great a gladness should waver. You will find no joint, where stone is connected to stone by cement. There appears nowhere a trace by which you could investigate any join: so was the cover united to its vessel, that there is no likeness of division: of two one stone is made, and so for a testimony of virginal integrity it is reunited. It is sometimes natural, from one stone to divide two; but we have heard of no craftsman who naturally joined two into one. And besides truly that craftsman is wonderful, whose command all nature serves, and from whose will even unwonted things do not disagree.

[70] For he who in the desert brought forth waters from the rock for the sons of Israel, himself ordered, for the service of the Virgin, that one stone be made from two. By no means can it be opened, nor can it by any art be dissolved, which the heavenly hand of the Artificer polished, and with an indissoluble cement, the material being witness, solidified: since God prepared in it a pleasant and notable marriage-chamber, where in flesh florid, incorrupt, the Virgin awaits the day of the heavenly nuptials. the miracle renewed which was once done for St. Clement. This is that incomparable treasure of the wisdom of God, which the creating omnipotence shut up undefiled and fortified with its own seal, lest it be laid open further to human sight. Nor undeservedly. For what woman anywhere, bound to any spouse by the marital law, so conquered the fire of bodily pleasure, as the most blessed Virgin Etheldreda, who, having obtained two Spouses, kept the most entire modesty of chastity? These and innumerable other benefits of piety his mercy affords to his faithful, who once for his Martyr Clement prepared a dwelling in the manner of a marble temple, whose obsequies we read were celebrated with Angelic service. The form of the body becomes conformed to the form of the sepulchre. By almost the same prerogative of the most blessed Virgin Etheldreda, to whom a sepulchre, Christ granting it, was prepared, by Angelic (as we trust) patronage was unexpectedly found. And since it is held unknown by what cutters it was shaped, or by what craftsmen polished; it is not an obstacle to opine, the faith being safe, that these too are offices of the heavenly ministries.

CHAPTER XXIX. CHAPTER XXX. CHAPTER XXXI.

[71] So the excellent body of the most precious Virgin and notable Queen Etheldreda was translated, In the year 679, on the 17th of October, namely in the year from the Incarnation of the Lord six hundred d seventy-nine, on the sixteenth day before the Kalends of November, and was placed in the church of the blessed ever-Virgin Mary, which she herself had built from the foundations, where to this day it is held in the greatest veneration, to the praise of our Lord Jesus Christ, who chose and fore-chose her that she might be the temple and dwelling of the Holy Spirit. Many distinctions of her deeds too were at that time published, which, Scripture being witness, were gloriously done; nor is it incongruous thence to add. But all the linens, in which the venerable body was wrapped, appeared so whole and so new, that on that very day they seemed to have been wrapped about her chaste members. not without new miracles at the linens, But it happened that by the touch of those garments both demons were put to flight from possessed bodies, and infirmities were several times cured. The dropsical come and are healed, and those afflicted with various passions through her merits are freed. Nor undeservedly indeed does she who triumphed over spiritual powers in her flesh, rightly cure bodily infirmities in the sick. * But also through the wooden coffin in which the precious Virgin had been buried, with the former coffin, some report that sight was restored to those whose eyes ached: who, applying their head to the same coffin and praying, soon removed the trouble of pain or dimness from their eyes. But of the place and the former burial-place. in which this Virgin's body had been first buried, a most clear fountain of water arises, and even forever does not cease to flow; whence if any sick take it in drink, or are sprinkled with it, they are recorded to recover to their former vigor.

[72] Now therefore, since in extending the matter we have introduced some delays, and the labor of study is very grievous especially to the weak; the work demands a due end, it is permitted to fix the pen, since by the help of God's grace we have set out the promised work. But let the unpolished speech of the writer e merit pardon, even if it merited not to hope for reward. Even though the elegance of words has not sounded, yet we have fulfilled the votive desires. But whoever shall read through the work dedicated to her, The prayer of the author concluding this part. or to the reader the glorious Virgin will lend a sober ear. Have compassion on the wretched lot of those whom thou shalt regard as devoted to thee, blessed Mother, aid them with thy prayers, and may the future immortality follow the good contest of thy poor worshiper, whose genius sweated for thy praise: let his labors be dedicated to Christ, thou interceding: his tongue shall resound thee, as long as it shall dwell a pilgrim in this body: and do thou at least protect him in the last examination, that he may enjoy the participation of heavenly glory. Nay rather, extend thy merits to all placed in affliction, and may thy faithful through thy holy suffrages merit the joys of eternal life, through him who assigned thee to himself as spouse, Jesus Christ, the Son of the Virgin and Spouse of Virgins, the Redeemer of the world and Lord, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, God, through all ages of ages. Amen.

ANNOTATIONS G. H.

the Translation was made in the year 695 (which Wharton too notes), namely since, from the death, or the year 679, in which it is here wrongly placed, the years elapsed are above indicated as Sixteen, as also Bede above has. Meanwhile in his and others' Martyrologies only eleven years are noted, and so the Translation would have happened in the year 690. e Indeed the speech everywhere gapes: yet I have not presumed to correct or supply it.

CHAPTER VII.

Bede praises the Saint in verse and prose: St. Sexburga dies: Saints Ermenilda and Werburga succeed.

CHAPTER XXXIII.

[73] So, diligently and solicitously giving our effort to the desire of the Brothers, we have taken care to satisfy them: what in Bede, inserted into the History of Bede and in the English or Latin writings about our glorious Lady and Patroness Etheldreda was found written among us, according to the measure of our understanding we have woven together into one historically: also what in meter he himself recounted about her, now to add is fitting. Book 4, chapter 20. For thus he wrote; It seems opportune to insert into this history a Hymn of virginity, which many years ago, in praise and proclamation of that same Queen and spouse of Christ, in elegiac meter we composed; and to imitate the custom of holy Scripture, whose renowned poems of history, these too it is established to have been composed in meter and verse.

[74] [Here follows Bede's elegiac hymn, an alphabetical acrostic. Rendered into prose-English:] Bountiful God the Trinity, who governest all the ages; Now favor my beginnings, bountiful God the Trinity. Let Maro resound wars, let us sing the gifts of peace; a hymn on virginity, Let us sing the gifts of Christ; let Maro resound wars. For me chaste songs, not the rape of foul Helen: Wantonness shall be for the lustful, for me chaste songs. I speak of supernal gifts, not the battles of wretched Troy: Those in which earth rejoices, supernal gifts I speak. Behold, the high God enters the womb of the venerable Virgin; in which they excelled, That he may free men, behold, the high God enters. A woman, a Virgin, brings forth the parent of the world, devoted: Mary the gate of God, a woman, a virgin, brings forth. St. Mary the Mother of God The friendly company rejoices over the Virgin mother of the Thunderer, Shining in virginity, the friendly company rejoices. Whose honor begot from the chaste Virgin many Virginal flowers, whose honor begot.

The Virgin Agatha, burned with fires, smites, ceases not: And Eulalia brings forth, burned with wild fires: and several others The chaste Thecla overcomes the wild beasts for the height of her mind: Euphemia overcomes the rushing wild beasts, chaste. Glad, Agnes laughs at swords, stronger than iron: Cecilia, glad, laughs at the hostile swords. Great is the triumph that flourishes in the world through sober hearts, The love of sobriety flourishes much in the world.

[75] Now too the Virgin has blessed our excellent times, and more recently St. Etheldreda Etheldreda, exceedingly excellent, our times too: Sprung from an excellent father, and renowned by royal lineage: More noble in the Lord she is, sprung from an excellent father. Thence she receives the glory of a Queen and scepters beneath the stars; Remaining more above the stars, thence she receives glory. Why dost thou, bountiful one, seek a husband, already given to the highest spouse? The Spouse Christ is present, why, bountiful one, dost thou seek a husband? Now I believe thou followest the Mother of the eternal King, That thou too mayest be a mother of the ethereal King. The spouse dedicated to God had reigned twice six years, And in a monastery is the spouse dedicated to God. Wholly consecrated to heaven, where she flourished in lofty deeds, She rendered up her soul, wholly consecrated to heaven. The bountiful flesh of the Virgin is buried twice eight Novembers, her body found incorrupt for 16 years. Nor does the bountiful flesh of the Virgin rot in the chamber. O Christ, it is of thy work that her very garment too in the sepulchre

Shines inviolate, O Christ, it is of thy work. The dropsy and the black disease depart for the honor of the sacred garment, The diseases flee, the dropsy and the black depart. Zeal rages in the enemy who once had conquered Eve: The Virgin triumphs exulting, zeal rages in the enemy. Behold, O spouse of God, what glory is thine on earth: What awaits in heaven, behold, O spouse of God. Glad gifts thou takest, shining with festive torches: Behold the Spouse comes, glad gifts thou takest: And new songs thou playest with sweet-sounding plectrum, A spouse, thou exultest in hymn, and new with sweet sound. No one separates thee from the company of the high-throned Lamb; Whom by affection he had borne, no one separates from the High-throned.

CHAPTER XXXIV.

[76] What in the book of the Kings of England the most learned Bede published, in plain speech or in meter, about the most sacred Queen Etheldreda, we have set in order: now also what about her in the book on the Times, which for the profit of many he composed, though briefly, yet under the same sense he recorded, it is not fitting to pass over. [But in the year of the Lord's Incarnation six hundred seventy-eight… (according to what Bede teaches) a universal Synod b was celebrated at Constantinople, The same in the book on the Times praises her continence, in the times of Pope Agatho, under the Prince Constantine, the Legates of the Apostolic See and one hundred fifty Bishops being present. In which year, namely, the holy and perpetual Virgin of Christ Etheldreda, daughter of Anna King of the Angles, both given first to another most magnificent man as wife, and after him to King Egfrid as wife, who for twelve years kept the marital bed incorrupt, after being a Queen, the sacred veil being taken, becomes a Virgin religious: and without delay, also a Mother of Virgins, and a pious nurse of Saints, a place being received for building a monastery, which they call Elge: whose various merits her dead flesh too testifies, which after sixteen years of burial, with the garment in which she was wrapped, is found incorrupt. But the series of the histories, and elsewhere where he treats of the Synod of Constantinople, reckoning with the greatest study, we have found even in Bede that the aforeshown year of the death of the bountiful Virgin was the same in which Theodore Archbishop of Canterbury, hearing that the faith of the Church at Constantinople was much troubled by heresy (of which we have now spoken), desiring that the Churches of the Angles, over which he presided, should remain immune from such a thing; while there reigned in the Kingdoms of the Angles, Egfrid of the Northumbrians, namely the former husband of holy Etheldreda herself; Etheldred, King of the Mercians; and Aldulf, King of the East Angles, the brother of this woman dedicated to God; and Lothar, King of the men of Kent, her nephew: in whose presence c, a council of very many Bishops and Doctors being collected, as the aforesaid Pope Agatho had commanded, that he should diligently inquire of each what faith they were of, he found the unanimous consent of all in the Catholic faith.

CHAPTER XXXV.

[77] So holy Etheldreda, when by a sudden change she was snatched from this frail body; St. Sexburga the Abbess having died, her sister Sexburga, a precious heroine, succeeded in the rule of the monastery (as has already been said), and instructed the Lord's flock there by the teaching and form of true religion. For this advanced her greatly to the increase of virtue, that she found the body of the aforesaid Virgin Etheldreda so whole and undefiled, as if it had been buried on the same day, which she had thought, through the space of very many years, to be demolished and consumed. And when through the turning courses of many years, untiring, she panted for the heavenly kingdom, she began to be grievously ill, and foresaw the day of her calling to be imminent. She, placed in the midst of her own, fortified her departure with the sacrosanct mysteries of Jesus Christ, with purity of faith commended her spirit into the hands of the Creator, and so in a good old age closed her last day. She was buried in a fitting place after her most blessed sister, where the merits of her virtues do not cease to flourish: and her praises always take increase, as is narrated in the book of her. d

CHAPTER XXXVI.

[78] But the monastery of Elge, of the comfort of a Mother and aid, God providing, who disposes all things sweetly for the salvation of men, Saints Ermenilda is not long deprived. For by the unanimous vow and consent of the whole Congregation, St. Ermenilda, after the death of Blessed Sexburga, succeeded in her place. She, the ambition of all dominion neglected, the Virgins over whom she presided being commended to Christ, following her most holy Mother, to the poverty of Christ which she had desired, she herself, poor, came: and while she shunned to be honored among men, she received, among God and among men, ampler honor: where, worthily received by all, she was made Mother of the whole Congregation. In English indeed we read that Sexburga in the Church of Sheppey, which e she had built, received from Blessed Theodore the Archbishop the veil of sanctity, and there her daughter Ermenilda under her afterward took up the rule of Religion, the height of the Kingdom spurned: who, when she had prepared her journey to Ely, set up her daughter Werburga in her own place in the office of Abbess, as she had long desired. But she passed, full of sanctity and justice, to the heavenly kingdoms, and with her maternal aunt, namely holy Etheldreda, rests buried beside her mother. Her precious death testifies of how great sanctity and piety she was, which the book of her life more fully teaches.

CHAPTER XXXVII. CHAPTER XXXVIII.

[79] So the Spouse of the Lord Werburga, when she presided over certain churches, as was said above, and St. Werburga; after the death of her beloved mother, by the right of Prelacy received also the monastery of Elge. Yet she chose, by Divine foreknowledge and will, to rest in body in the monastery of Hanbury: in which place the pearl of God, with due reverence buried, by many indications of signs proves herself to live in the heavenly glory. Whence at length to Chester, f where she now rests, she was translated. For her, after her death, blessed women whose names the knowledge of God alone knows, but to us unknown, under the observance of the Regular life, kept the place of Elge in honor and sanctification even to the devastation wrought by the Danes. But after the departure of Saints Etheldreda, Sexburga, Ermenilda, and Werburga, the Church of Elge was by no means idle from the work of God: under whom the regular vigor remained. nay, the virtue of divine worship, under the rule of the blessed women, not growing tepid, but more and more in it growing fervent with the fervor of regular discipline and the keeping of the monastic profession, through many turning courses of years, flourished. But also the churches and monasteries which were anywhere in England, although over the various provinces different Kings presided, and frequent wars succeeded one another under various fortune, the grace of the supernal mercy preserved in peace and security and the increase of the Christian law. But the wicked enemy of the human race, not enduring the times of such great serenity (since, lacking the appetite of a good will, he ceases not to envy good men), infected with his accustomed malice, stirred up wrath and a cloudy storm in all the borders of England.

ANNOTATIONS G. H.

this translation nothing is said in the Life on the 3rd of February, namely written before it; but we added some things from Capgrave: that one John Brompton in the Chronicle asserts, made in the year 875, when the people of Hanbury, loosed from fear of the Danes, transferred the body to Chester, as to a safe place.

CHAPTER VIII.

The incursions of the Danes. The island and monastery of Ely devastated. The Nuns and Clerics slain.

CHAPTER XXXIX.

[80] But in the year from the Incarnation of the Lord eight hundred sixty-six, while there reigned King Etheldred of the West Saxons, The Danes burst in in the year 866 a great fleet of Pagans under King Inguar, with his two Brothers Evulf and Hasden, with his colleague Ubba by name, three Kings accompanying them, in all things like him in all deceit and malice, Hosten, Bagseg and Guthrum, and with their strength; with a very great retinue of Dukes and Nobles (whom to enumerate is burdensome, but in the Chronicle they are described) with an innumerable multitude of brave warriors, came from Denmark into Britain, and in the kingdom of the East Angles, into East Anglia, which is called Eastangle, wintered: where Edmund, acceptable to God, a cultivator of the Christian faith, held the rule. All these were persecutors of the Christians, so cruel by natural ferocity, that they know not to be softened by the evils of men: without any pity they feed on the torments of men; and according to the prophecy of the Prophet, that from the North comes all evil, the North-wind blowing, from the icy seats of their birth that same wicked nation leaped forth, blew sudden and death-bearing whirlwinds into all the borders of Britain, now by sea now by land going about, with flames and iron depopulating everything: and unless it had been hindered by divine mercy, it attempted to bring the whole borders of Britain to extermination: and because it knew them to be cultivators of the law of God, it strove utterly to destroy them or to subject them to servitude. Jeremiah 1:14. With the worshipers of Christ it would not have peace: whence the monasteries, the Divine judgment permitting, all from their very foundations razing, with slaughters and burnings it devastated.

[81] and then Northumbria, These things were done in the first year of the reign of the aforesaid King Etheldred, son of Edelwlf. Then in the second year the aforesaid nation, savage and impious, from the East Angles migrated to the city of York: there for the most part all nearly the assemblies of the Northumbrians, the two Kings Osbrith and Aelle being slain, destroyed, fell: c but those who escaped, made peace with the Pagans. But in the third year after, the aforesaid army of the Pagans, leaving the Northumbrians, came to Mercia; Mercia, and went to Nottingham, d and there wintered. To whom coming there, Burthred King of the Mercians made peace: whom after seven years, the peace broken, they compelled to desert his kingdom, and to go to Rome against his will, and subjected the Kingdom of the Mercians to their Dominion. The places of the Saints and the monasteries of the handmaids and servants of God, everywhere plundering, they burned. And again in the fourth year it returned to York, and there for a year remained. But in the fifth, through Mercia it crossed to the East Angles, and in a place which is called Thetford e wintered: in which year too the glorious King Edmund of that same province (as in the Chronicle is read) by the aforesaid Pagan King Inguar was martyred: f and so, the King slain, and invading East Anglia, the Pagans, exceedingly glorying, subjected that whole region to their dominion. In which (as the following insinuates) year too the church of Ely was burned with fire, all who were within being killed.

[82] These things thus done, the aforesaid King Ederedus, supported by the help of God, they are cut down by King Ederedus of all who then presided over England, alone could resist. He, having gathered a not small army at Æsemdum, attacked the enemy, where for a long time fiercely was fought on both sides. In which place the Pagans, by divine judgment not bearing the assault of the Christians, one of the two Kings of the Pagans, Ubba, and five Counts, were slain, and many thousands of them fell slain. So King Bagseg fell, Sidroc the elder Count, Sidroc the younger Count,

Osbert Count, Prene Count, Harald Count, and their whole army was turned to flight: but in the same year King Ederedus departed from this life, whom his brother Elwredus succeeded: who, sharp of wit, by Bald and John most learned Monks was so instructed that in a short time he had the knowledge of all books, and translated the whole New and Old Testament into the speech of the English nation. These things, if anyone wish to know more fully, he will find each in order in the Chronicle.

CHAPTER XL.

[83] So after, by divine permission, the aforesaid nation of barbarians by hostile invasion all things… plundered, The same having devastated all England devastated the goods of the Angles, consumed with fire, defiled the precincts of the monasteries with diabolical rage; at last it came to the notice of the inhabitants of Ely. Every age everywhere, every condition of both sexes, led by the love of living, preferred to suffer here and there by fleeing the loss of their substance, than to engage with the bands of the enemy's ferocity. For the island of Ely was by no means exempt from this common tribulation and misery; having attacked Ely, especially since the marshes and waters by which it is surrounded extend into the sea, and from those very waves of the seething sea the access of any ships to that same island is not difficult. Into this was once carried that same nation with many ships, thinking to occupy a place emptied of defenders. The outlet of the place it presses by entreaties and also by ambushes, that it might either conquer the inhabitants, or, wearied by the siege, receive them in surrender, or compel them to leave the place: against whom the fiercer natives of the inhabitants strive to resist. For it happened, when they were subjecting the neighboring region to their dominion, they are routed by the inhabitants gathered for defense. that many of the Angles of noble stock betook themselves to the island: yet fearing lest perhaps to so great a multitude any misfortune should occur, although they bore a hand vigorous in war, and it was believed sufficient for these affairs, and sometimes they prevailed over other Barbarians: an embassy being sent everywhere they call the neighbors to aid, and joining to themselves a chosen band of armed men, they more quickly lay the enemy low to destruction and utterly destroy them.

[84] But returning in greater number By this means, then, freed from oppression for a while, they seemed to breathe again, but they were not able to exult in this liberty so very long: but the aforesaid assembly of the malignant, with stronger force, an army being gathered, with their King, a very great throng of soldiers rushing on, raging with a spirit of frenzy, burst in upon them, invades, and lays low. Very many of the inhabitants, slain on the head with levers, whose corpses were forbidden to be given to solemn burial, were cast forth as food for beasts and birds. But coming at length to the monastery of Virgins, they make an indiscriminate slaughter of all. which the glorious Virgin and spouse of Christ Etheldreda had built, alas for the grief! it invades, profanes the holy things, tramples and plunders: the sword of the rabid is stretched out against the milky and consecrated necks; the company of nuns is slaughtered as an innocent victim; and whatever Brothers and Sisters of holy desire it finds, without any consideration of humanity, it slays in a headlong massacre. And so, the monastery which the true cultivator of Christ Etheldreda had built, with the Virgins, and ornaments, and Relics of the Saints, men and women, burned, the city too despoiled and burned, enriched by the abundance of plunder, and taking away all the movables and utensils of that same place, the enemies of the Lord returned to their own.

CHAPTER XLI.

[85] There was among those bands of most ferocious enemies a certain satellite of the devil, more savage and cruel than the others, breathing slaughter and blood, a follower of avarice, a truculent seeker of others' goods. He, while he beheld the tomb of the God-beloved Virgin Etheldreda, thinks a treasure was laid up therein. He interposes no delay; and soon with the battle-axe The one breaking open the Saint's tomb, in hope of finding a treasure in it, which he bore in his bloody hands, the marble vessel, in which the virginal body rested, with frequent blows he strikes on the side; that, namely, it being broken open, he might greedily seize the moneys which he falsely believed hidden within; not knowing, unhappy man, how speedy a time of divine animadversion was imminent, in which, about to pay the penalty, he was miserably to be snatched from the midst. O most wretched pirate, ignorant of the worship of the Deity, desirous of earthly gain, about to fall by an unhappy chance! Who, while he burns fatally with the torches of corruptible money, does not fear to disturb the virginal and incorruptible treasure. With all the force of the striker the sepulchral stone is struck, in which, as in a marriage-chamber, the perennial spouse of Christ rests. The blows are multiplied, a hole is made, which remaining is seen to this day. Which done, there is no delay of the heavenly vengeance: his eyes torn out, he expires. but immediately, his eyes divinely torn from his head, he there ended his sacrilegious life. Seeing which, the rest did not presume further to disturb the bountiful clod body of the Virgin.

[86] At last with iron and flame they consume all things, nor can anything be left over which the impious hand of the barbarians does not destroy. Almost the whole Clergy is slaughtered, Certain returning afterward restore the place as best they can, each one surviving is led into captivity. And so the place miserably lay, utterly desolate of the worship of the divine office and of fear; no one who might fulfill the ministry remained, the song of praise and gladness is taken away, the voice of grief everywhere sounds and of misery. From those Clerics, finally, who begged for their life k, after some years eight returned: of whom some in decrepit age, the courses of many years passed, reached even to the time of King Edred. These, with unhappy effort. as they could, in the time of so great a calamity repairing the porches of the church, paid the divine service.

But others succeeding to them as Clerics, after the manner of the perverse, given to pride and avarice, not Canons, nay, leading an irreligious life, fell into error and rashness, the reverence of honesty despised. Whose insolence God, for the merit of the holy Virgin, with wonderful indignation dissipated, and by just examination condemned: of whom in its place it is to be said. These things too were done in the year of the Lord's Incarnation eight hundred seventy; but the hundred ninety- sixth from the time blessed Etheldreda was made Abbess at Ely.

CHAPTER XLII.

[87] l So the aforesaid King Alwred, after his brother held the kingdom most strenuously twenty- eight years and a half; but most laboriously assailed, Kings succeed, Alfred, namely by that Pagan nation by which his brother had been assailed, which he and his sons, aided from heaven, ground down and destroyed. By this one truly England, even to this day, under one King was increased, and his son reigned in his stead, Edward called the elder. m He much more widely than his father extended the borders of the kingdom, Edward the elder, since he obtained and possessed cities and towns and very great provinces, which the Danes had for a long time possessed, and received several Kings into surrender. Moreover two Kings, namely the brothers of King Inguar, Ewlf of Halsden, after very many years he slew, n and with them many thousands of Pagans fell slain. After many things excellently done, in the twenty-fourth year of his reign, passing from this life, he left the helm of the Kingdom to his son Edelstan: Edelstan, which he held most strenuously for sixteen years. o After whom his brother Edmund succeeded, to whom his Queen Edrida bore two sons, Edwin and Edgar. And when she had borne Edgar, St. Dunstan heard on high the voices of those singing psalms and saying: p Peace of the Angles, now that the boy has been born in the time of our Dunstan. Edgar, This is the genealogy of the most noble King Edgar, the King of the Angles, founder of many monasteries and renowned restorer, who restored the church of Ely more gloriously and enriched it with possessions: which it is unworthy to pass over hereafter. Edmund. King Edmund the aforesaid too, when he had held the Kingdom magnificently for seven and a half years, q is killed, and carried to Glastonbury, is buried by Blessed Dunstan the Abbot: and soon the next heir Edred, succeeding his brother, held the Kingdom nine years and six weeks.

ANNOTATIONS G. H.

a What the state of the Kings of Denmark was in this 9th century, especially in the earlier part of this century, we said on the 3rd of February at the Life of St. Anscar, Apostle of the Danes, §7 and following. From those these were begotten: whose Leaders, says Huntingdon book 5 page 148, were Hinguar and Ubba, men most strenuous, but most cruel. Sojourning therefore in winter in Eastangle, they received from them a truce and horses: and Westminster adds, who were foot, were made horsemen. Brompton says the said Hinguar and Hubba were born of a father Lothebroc, of royal stock, perhaps Inguar the elder, of whom we treated at the Life of St. Anscar. Brompton adds, that they landed at the village of Rodham in the province of Norfolk. b "Danubia" too Hoveden wrote at this year 866, whom our author copied; and it seems the Angles of their age opined that the northern peoples proceeded from Pannonia, and from the Danube, by which they had dwelt, called their acquired kingdom Danubia, which then was contractedly called Dania Denmark. The contrary rather ought to have been believed; as it is established that the Goths, now Swedes, setting out from the North, established Gothia for themselves at the Danube in the 4th century.

CHAPTER IX.

The punishment of the Canons rashly handling the sacred body and her incorrupt garments, in the time of King Edred.

CHAPTER XLIII.

[88] But in his time a wonderful thing, and to hearers very stupendous, happened at Ely concerning the Priests dwelling there, which one of them, Alfelm by name, under the person of another concerning himself, who had consented to their error and crime, asserted, wrote, which here under silence we do not pass over. * In times not far removed from this age, among the English nation, while Edred reigned, when, the zeal of charity growing cold, and the yoke of iniquity growing hot; the monasteries of the British world, almost all from their very foundations, either by the vengeance of almighty God lay throughout the whole province, with half-ruined (alas the sin!) walls, desolate; or, if any had remained whole in the old cities, were occupied for a very long time by Canons of both sexes, in name, not in dignity; it happened too that the monastery of Elge, which is situated in the island in which the holy virgin Etheldreda rests, with her sister by name Sexburga, and her venerable niece Ermenilda, passed under their Dominion. Whose Archpriest, Provost, and Master, The Archpriest proposed to open the Saint's sepulchre: by the instigation of a demonic fraud, dared to violate the sepulchre of the holy Virgin, though not with impunity, yet in this manner. As a certain approaching solemnity of that aforesaid most powerful saint's day drew near, he called together the rest of the Priests and Clerics over whom he presided, with whom, having entered the basilica, to them he said: I wish without doubt to know whether the venerable Virgin Etheldreda even now remains whole in flesh, as the sacred writings of the venerable Bede relate in the history of the English nation; or whether anything at all of her remains in the monument, in which she was once buried—of her little body: since to me it does not seem probable, but rather I believe that there is nothing in the sarcophagus. the others dissuading him from attempting it, Who, answering the ill-fated Master, said: How hast thou dared to conceive in mind a crime, that thou shouldest in any way think to open the mausoleum of the undefiled Virgin? Shall we not all hastily by a wicked death have to end our life, unless thou quickly desist from so unlawful a presumption? To whom he immediately answered: I believe that if a Virgin so holy, as of old, were lying in the present basilica; through her God would have done very many miracles here.

[89] Then one of the Priests said to him: Therefore, Teacher, dost thou utter such speeches, because, newly coming to this island from another province, thou hast by no means seen the miracles of virtues, which the Founder of things wrought, innumerable, through the merits of this holy Virgin. Of which, from many, I will relate to thee very few, one of whom relates miracles which a little before thou camest here were wrought. A certain matron dwelt in a certain village near this one, who for about six years was so contracted, by an intolerable disease and paralysis, all the framework of her members loosed, that she could in no way direct her hand to her mouth, nor imprint the venerable saving sign of the Cross on her own forehead, nor rise from her couch a without the help of her handmaids. She, after she had spent much money on physicians, in a paralytic of 6 years, and had received from them no remedy of cure, by the regard of the supernal clemency, came to this hall, eight servants carrying her: in which when she watched at night, she merited to recover health, and walking on her own feet returned to her own, praising and glorifying the omnipotence of God.

[90] in a mute man of 7 years A certain youth too, through seven courses of years, lived at that time in a certain village which the inhabitants of that place call Bradford: who likewise, as he was led by his parents to this temple, immediately the bonds of his tongue were loosed, and he spoke with correct words; saying before all the bystanders: Let us return, brothers, to our lodging; since through the merit of the blessed Virgin Etheldreda, God who creates all things bestowing it, I am cured. A certain girl, finally, blind from the beginning of her birth, after ten years of space passed, in those days happily was carried to the walls of this temple. She, soon as she entered the basilica, received the healing of her eyes; a blind girl of 10; and began to wonder at the bright and shining machine of this world, and the ruddy radiance of the sun which she had never before seen; magnifying God the author of things, who had created all the wonders which she beheld. A certain young man too, having a withered hand, with a withered hand, came to the most sacred tomb of this bountiful Virgin; which immediately, the little sinews of his arm extended, with me standing by, he was able to open, his strength recovered: which seeing, the people who were present blessed the Lord who created all things.

[91] A certain Priest too dwelt in this monastery, and the handmaid of a Presbyter, who compelled his own little maidservant to gather herbs in the garden, on the Lord's day before Terce. She, when she had seized a huge stake, in order to fulfill her Lord's command quickly; her hand so firmly clung to the wood which she held greedily, and with which she wished unlawfully to pluck out the herbs, that no man by any effort could separate the stake from the woman's hand. She, while she was tormented with immense torment, the wretches being able to expend no other aid, cut the stick on both sides of her hand, and so it remained five years. These years completed, the hinge of heaven turning, punished for the violation of the Lord's day it happened that we, about to feast, on a certain day came together to the house of the aforesaid Priest. Whom, when we had beheld tormented beyond measure, grieving exceedingly that the work of God should perish, with one accord we said to the feasting Presbyter: Before we take food, let us together lead this little woman to this temple; suppliantly entreating the Author of all created things, that he deign to have mercy on her, through the glorious intervention of the holy Virgin Etheldreda. He, answering all, and cured at the tomb. rejoicing, said to the Brothers: May almighty God for such useful counsel place you in the heavenly kingdom, where the Saints enjoy perpetual light. They, having entered the basilica, soon as they asked the Lord, from the extended hand of the maidservant leaped the wood, which now, the flesh consumed, clung to the frameworks of the bones: and so the woman received the divine medicine, and the assembly of Clerics returned to the feast, giving thanks and praises to Christ the Savior.

CHAPTER XLIV.

[92] Wherefore I warn thee, Master, that from bold and unlawful beginnings thou quickly cease. He nonetheless tenacious of his purpose, But if thou wilt not believe my words, first thou shalt die a fitting death, and then, condemned to everlasting torments, unhappily, thou shalt lie under perpetual torments, and the worms of Tartarus and the infernal fires. He, twice and thrice admonished by the prudent old man, would not cease from the most wicked attempt: but called together four young men of the Clerical Order, whom he easily led into ruin and condemnation, the crime being perpetrated. * For there was in the chest in which rested the holy Virgin, a certain little crack, he approaches the crack, once made by a sacrilegious Norman, which (as a certain old man related to us, that he learned it from the very Priests who saw these things) had been made by the Pagans dissipating the worship of Christ. For the Normans, cruel peoples, formerly, just as they plundered very many provinces of the Angles and of the Franks, plundered nonetheless the island of Elge. Who, after they had depopulated all the Clergy, the Nuns, and the people with iron and fire, slaying boys and old men by a cruel death, led the young captives and youths to foreign regions. Of whom one savage Norman dared to approach the sepulchre of the excellent Virgin, who, carrying a small battle-axe in his hand, three and four times striking the marble chest in which she lay, hoping to find immense money, immediately as he made a small little window, lost his eyes and his life. From those Clerics, finally, who from the monastery of Elge b begged for their life, after some years, eight returned to that same place. Of whom some now advanced in decrepit age, the courses of many years passed, related to the aforesaid old man, at that time a youth, as is written in this little codex.

[93] and through it palpates the body, and others after him: Why do I pursue with superfluous words? To this the unhappy Presbyter with his accomplices in crime came, who, taking little twigs c of fennel with which the whole surface of the pavement had been covered, and placing each of them in the hole of the sarcophagus, after their d Master all dared to feel the little body of the holy Virgin. Then the Priest said: Now, the scruple of ambiguity removed, I know without doubt, that still in this tomb rests the holy Virgin, so remaining whole in flesh. Then the old man, who before forbade [it], said to him: Shortly thou shouldest know more, that thou shalt lie struck by the vengeance of God. Who again said, holding for a trifle the predictions of the old man; Now I wish to see whether her garments even now remain whole. He sent through the hole of the chest a candle stuck to a twig, the candle burning above the unconsumed garments, he being nothing moved, which contained the blessed members of the Saint: but he could see no more within than if he were blinded in both eyes. But the burning candle (as they report) fell upon the Saint, and so long burning over the sacred garments remained, until it was wholly consumed, the flame fearing to touch them. Yet all who were present beheld the light of the candle, which through the hole came forth from the sepulchre; and fearing exceedingly lest whatever lay hidden within be burned, they said to the Priest, the author of the whole crime; It would be better for thee not to have been born, than to commit so great a crime. Because not even for this did he cease from the evil of his cruel mind's purpose: he violently seizes them, and from them cuts off a particle; for taking part of the twig, he sharpened it at one end, which again splitting with the point of a knife, he fixed in the garments of the most holy Virgin, four times folding it round, and with all the effort of all who were present, drew it even to the hole: and because they had no injury, he began to wonder. Who immediately seized a huge sword, and thence cut off a small particle, by the persuasion of the demons, the rest of his accomplices, namely the four aforesaid young men, drawing the very garment upward and holding it with all their strength. Which, after it was violated by the touch of the wicked, so was withdrawn from their unclean hands (as the Presbyter related, who was a partaker of this crime), as if two most strong soldiers drew it back within the tomb, and as if the holy Virgin herself, still living, said to them; Have neither God's nor my grace, because you have dared to corrupt my shroud.

[94] What more? Soon a great plague seized the house of that Priest, which struck his wife and all his children with a swift death, but soon he is punished by his own and his family's swift death, and utterly uprooted his whole offspring. Him too, migrating to another place, after a few days it led down to hell, since he did not purge by penance the crime committed. But also of those four abettors divine vengeance more quickly slew two; as also two companions, the third, though he was instructed in literary, Ecclesiastical, and Priestly offices, was immediately so turned to madness, that whatever he knew he forgot, as if he had learned nothing at all; and still living paid the penalties of so great a crime, the third becomes mad: since each month he loses his sense, the vigor of his mind failing, the moon repeating the age which it then had. e But the fourth was the aforementioned Presbyter Alfelm, who himself too, seized by a grave sickness, the fourth by paralysis remained nearly eight months a paralytic; until his parents, sad and grieving, to whom he was an only [son], brought him with very many gifts to the body of the most blessed Virgin. Who, while there they watched that very night, promising by the Sacraments satisfaction, the sick man merited to recover their health, the Saint being invoked he is healed. through the intercession of the bountiful Virgin Etheldreda; and in the morning glorifying the Redeemer of the world, glad they returned to their dwelling. Behold what the rash presumption of one unfaithfully doubting generated; behold what unjust action justly merited. Let any unworthy handlers of sacred f Relics have from this a lesson, that they ought not to presume it except with cleanness of heart and humility.

CHAPTER XLV.

[95] But neither did the church thus cease from the dominion of the wicked Presbyters, But the church remained under Canons but under their shipwrecking governance, even to the twelfth year of the reign of the glorious King Edgar, it fluctuated. * The excellent King of the Angles, the aforesaid Edred, in the tenth year… of his reign fell ill and g died: whose brother, I mean Edwin, namely the son of King Edmund and of holy Edrigydra the Queen, h received the kingdom; four years of his reign completed, he died, and at Winchester in the new monastery was buried. Whose kingdom his brother Edgar, i elected by all the people of the Angles, in the sixteenth year of his age received (he too of the stock of Cynegils the excellent King, who first of the Kings of the West Saxons received the faith of Christ from St. Birinus) k decently instructed by Blessed Dunstan, established just laws for the Kingdom of the Angles, even to the 12th year of King Edgar, and enjoyed a most tranquil kingdom at all times: he also renewed and enriched the destroyed churches, the dirges of the Clerics cast out from the monasteries, to the praise of God gathered companies of monks and nuns, as is taught also in the following work. Now, putting an end to these things, I have avoided excessive prolixity; for it is time that the beginning of the following book be arranged, and that meanwhile the strength of speaking be repaired by silence.

ANNOTATIONS G. H.

on the medicine for the face, a poem attributed to Ovid, thus mentioned, It was useful too to add fennel to the fragrant myrrhs; Five scruples of fennel are made ready, nine of myrrh. d This passage I restore from the Cottonian Epitome in Wharton page 602, although the Manuscripts had thus: Taking little sacks of fennel, with which arranged… after three days all the masters: which made no sense. e Mabillon "how much" quantum, better our transcript "how great" quantam, and the Cottonian Epitome simply "which" quam, but perhaps the new moon or full moon is understood, at whose recurrence those whom they call Lunatics are wont to be more grievously afflicted, namely epileptics and others similar. f I deleted, because it was superfluous, the word "of Virgins." g In the year 955, Edred being dead, Edwin succeeds. h This one we have not yet found inscribed in any Calendar. i Edgar began to reign in the year 955. k St. Birinus is venerated on the 3rd of December.

THE SECOND BOOK.

On the restoration and state of the church of St. Etheldreda under the Abbots, and her second translation.

PROEM

Of the same Thomas, Monk of Ely.

[1] About to collect in this book the old charters, In the preceding work it was shown how at Ely St. Etheldreda, and after her, those following [her] built, or there, pleasing God, lived, or by whom that place was to be desolated, since it appears. At last, certain of our brethren importunely compelling me not to be idle from what I had begun, but to carry through the deeds of our Island, as I had promised.

And now in so great a business, though I be found less sufficient, in strength and senses small, yet trusting in the comfort of my advocate Etheldreda, torpor at length shaken off, thus I hasten to carry out what is asked; and to set forth in one collected volume, whether greater or lesser things, rendered from the vernacular into Latin, as the matter demands, especially those who restored the place, and their testaments, which I sought out scarcely and with the greatest labor, and changed them from the vernacular into Latin: but each one scattered in various places at last I collected. Which, inserted with the testimony of many; though they be by no means known even to us, we offer summaries to others: for sweet often and pleasing is knowledge, even to read again known things, and the mind delights to have them repeated in its ear.

[2] And since we see the fictions of the Gentiles or the ravings of the Stoics composed with the utmost study, and so about to supply what is wanting in the Life of St. Ethelwold, and publicly celebrated; it is worth the trouble to record the deeds of the Saints, by whose merit sanctity shone: of whose college the Confessor of the Lord Ethelwold, stood out in doctrine and sanctity: who restored our church destroyed by the Danes, and there did great and worthily-to-be-recorded things; which are not fully set out in the book of his Life: a which, when the excellent and prudent man, Hervey, he proposes to follow a work similar to that of Bishop Hervey. the first Bishop of Ely, as he had ascertained things worthy of relation, caused to be translated from English into Latin; and so, the work completed, he named the book "Of the lands of St. Edelwold": but that book consists of the time of the monks, fully announcing their prosperities or adversities.

ANNOTATIONS D. P.

Not only in the borders of the East Saxons, but also in the remote parts of Britain, the holy Prelate Adelwold took care to gather Monks to the service of almighty God. For there is a certain famous island, situated in the parts of the East Angles, surrounded by marshes and waters in the manner of an island, whence also from the abundance of eels, which are caught in those same marshes, it received the name Elige: in which region and Miracles of St. Etheldreda, Queen and perpetual Virgin, and of her sisters; but at that very time it was destitute and given over to the royal exchequer. This place, then, the servant of Christ, for the love of so great Virgins, began greatly to venerate: and a price of no small money being given, he bought it from King Eadgar, establishing in it a not small flock of Monks; over whom he ordained as Abbot Brithnod, his Provost; and he most decently renewed the site of that same place with monastic buildings; and most abundantly enriched it with possessions of lands, and confirmed by a Privilege of eternal liberty, commended it to the almighty Lord. In this brief summary almost the whole is contained which Thomas undertook to do in the present book, descending to all the particulars. Yet he is more restricted in this first chapter than he was afterward when writing the book of miracles, and taking his beginning from the restoration of Ely: wherefore I have rather from there given it here, with additions [ ] by which the amplifications may be distinguished from the more contracted text.

CHAPTER I.

The restoration of the monastery of Ely and its liberty, fortified by the privilege of King Edgar.

[3] It remains now to write about the repair of the island of Ely [which I think was excellent and outstanding among the innumerable benefits of signs which the Lord deigned to work through his venerable Virgin Etheldreda, the monastery of Ely. how Edgar, the most powerful of the Kings of the Angles, admonished by a divine oracle, restored the church of Ely, adorned it with gifts, enriched it with possessions, gave it to eternal liberty, in short commended the whole to God; whose frequent overthrow, the Pagans formerly bursting in, made the place without worship, for a hundred years less one, the worshipers being slain. Which place, watery, fish-bearing, wooded and fertile, since it seems to offer a useful and quiet dwelling;] merited to have as its first teacher of monastic discipline, over which the first Abbess was St. Etheldreda, the holy and venerable and glorious Virgin and Queen Etheldreda: [who, establishing a monastery of the Handmaids of God, placed there another paradise; and bringing heaven to earth and earth to heaven, so changed place with place, that one distinguished the other, while each possesses the citizens of the other. to whom succeeded her sister St. Sexburga, To whom succeeded in spiritual teaching her spiritual Mother, her sister St. Sexburga, wife of Earconbert King of the men of Kent, and mother of the holy Virgin Ercongota: and to her succeeded another daughter of hers, Ermenilda, wife of Wulfhere King of the Mercians, and mother of St. Werburga the Virgin. her niece St. Ermenilda, But Ermenilda, taken from the flesh to Christ, her daughter the aforesaid Werburga received the monastery of Elge to be ruled, her grandniece St. Werburga, as I remember to have gathered from old writings.

[4] After whose death the blessed Mothers and women, whose names the knowledge of God alone knows, but to us wholly unknown, under the observance of the regular life, kept the place in honor and sanctification, and others even to the times of the Danes. even to the times of the Danes: who there, the inhabitants partly slain, partly put to flight, overthrew the dwellings.] The desolation of which place, presenting the extermination of the ancient religion, from heavenly liberty into human servitude had passed; and even to the times of King Edgar served the royal exchequer. a [But God, who at all times, and for every thing provides his own congruity; suffered neither the place under contempt, nor the Saint, longer to be without worship: but publishing the glory of those resting there through the fame of their virtues, raised up a King for the time and a Bishop for the King, and each most apt for his disposition. That Edgar, then, the peaceful King of England; and that Ethelwold, the excellent Pontiff of Winchester, in a different office indeed, but with an equal vow walking in the law of God; subjugated the whole homeland no less to Religion than to dominion: the one by commanding, the other by preaching. In whom most aptly corresponded to one another both the Kingdom and the Priesthood: while what pleased the one, the other would corroborate, and on every state of affairs, counsel being taken, neither dissented, but each consented. So by this grace of his King the magnificent Bishop Edelwold, exalted, girded all the strength of his spirit to the various operation of sanctity; now beginning new things, and completing them; now finishing things begun by others, but not perfected; now reforming monasteries destroyed in various places.] In whose time the monastery of Ely, famous for miracles and glorious for Relics, but as a public monastery, without worship and reverence, lay open to every passerby.

[5] But two of the King's magnates, namely Sigedwold a Bishop, denied to two who sought it for themselves: by nation a Greek; and Thurstan by race a Dane, having seen the situation of the place, sought it more by cupidity than by devotion: and when with equal ambition they contended, and twice among them about obtaining it it was frequently treated; lest one should insult over the contempt of the other, or envy at his obtaining it; a certain man interposed himself in the middle, who was of the King's privy counsel, by name Wlstan of Dalham. And he, instigated more by the divine nod than led by human affection, lest to either of them should yield the effect of his greedy petition, approached the King with this speech: My Lord King, since to thy safety and thy honor and kingdom we all ought to provide, none of us advises that the petition of these be acquiesced in: for the place is holy, and celebrated, and unworthy of such possessors: whose ancient dignity (lest thou be forced to sin in ignorance) in few words I will not delay to set forth to thee if thou command: and he set forth to the King in order the dignity of the place, and the sanctity of the Relics, and whatever other things, either described by Bede, or by fame published, had hitherto lain hidden from the King. b [And with such weight the Holy Spirit pricked the King's mind by the eloquence of the wise man; that of the desired possession neither of the greedy ones should be held possessor; but one and the same repulse both envious avarice, and bitter envy, would suffer.

[6] So the presumptuous confidence of obtaining being cut off, immediately the glorious King Edgar, and he undertakes to restore it, summoning Blessed Edelwold, conferred with him about preparing the monastery of Ely; saying that he had a will to gather Brothers there, by whose service the highest Lord and the holy Relics might be venerated with worthy veneration; promising that he would enrich the same monastery with lands and gifts, and with a privilege of eternal liberty; he asked that that man of God might be a cooperator of so great a purpose, and that, concerning the establishing of Monks there, he would confer his effort with him. So the man of God understood that the Holy Spirit was working in the King: and giving thanks to God, in whose hand are the hearts of Kings, he did not delay to hasten the good work, but diligently renewed the aforesaid monastery: the Clerics expelled, c he gathered Monks there, and ordained Brithnod as Abbot over them; and many lands, and enriches it with estates bought and received as gifts. both bought by himself from the King, and given freely by the King himself, with various gifts and ornaments, and confirmed by a privilege of royal authority, he commended wholly to God and St. Edeldreda: also very many other lands bought from others he added to the church, which to number one by one is a business of the idle. d He conferred also on the church some ornaments, namely several copes, but one of notable work. He gave also in gold and silver many precious and great things, which by the vicissitude of times and misfortunes, dragged from the church, are utterly consumed.

[7] Not long after these things the Pontiff Blessed Ethelwold, often to be named with reverence, He also redeems from King Edgar the jurisdiction of the whole island, is filled with the Holy Spirit, providing and guarding against future deceitful evils, which through the vicissitudes of things and the changes of kingdoms are wont to arise on earth; again he approached the King Edgar; and an agreement being made with him, he bought from him anew the whole adjacent region of the aforesaid island; namely twenty hides e of land, which the King had within the Island; but also the dignity and soke f of seven and a half hundreds; namely two within the island, but five in the province of the East Angles, and five hides at Meldreth, and three and a half hides at Hernungeforde, and twelve hides at Northwold; in exchange being given sixty hides, which he himself by the gift of his Lord King Edelstan had had at Hertingeham; and a price equivalent to a hundred pounds being given, with a golden Cross of wonderful work polished and filled with Relics: which the glorious King, in confirmation of his gifts and the liberty of the place, with a wondrous Gospel-book g, gratefully offered upon the altar of St. Etheldreda at Ely. These lands, then, bought from the King, with all the royal customs and corroborated with a privilege of eternal liberty, St. Ethelwold offered to God and St. Etheldreda, and he obtains its charter, as the subsequent privilege of the King will declare, which therefore here seems to be set down, that it may be clear to all with how great firmness it rests on God its foundation. h

[8] By the governance of almighty God, who rules the scepters of all Kings, nay, who equally governs the reins of the whole age and of every creature by indissoluble rule, supported by his nod and grace, I Edgar, King of the beloved island of Albion, the scepters of the Scots, the Welsh and the Britons and all the regions round about being subject to us, enjoying quiet peace, who is solicitous to preserve the worship of God; I am occupied more studiously and solicitously about adding to the praises of the Creator of all; lest by our inertia and in our days, his service should seem to grow tepid more than is right; but flocks of Monks and Nuns in this our time, by his help who has deigned to promise to remain with us even to the end of the world, we desire to rise up everywhere in our kingdom, the deserted monasteries, the service of God anciently failing, now reviving, living under the rule of holy Benedict the Abbot: that by their prayer and by flourishing religion and the holy service of God we may be able to have God himself as a peaceful Ruler.

Whence pondering by heart the frequent admonitions of the venerable Bishop Edelwold, I desire to honor with this privilege and copious goods the monastery, he relates how the monastery was restored, which, situated in the region of Ely, is recognized to have been anciently dedicated to the honor of St. Peter the Prince of the Apostles, and adorned with the Relics and miracles of the bountiful Virgin Etheldreda, whose venerable life is set forth in modern ways in the history of the Angles; who also with an incorruptible body, hitherto laid in a white marble mausoleum, endures. At last the place, the service of God failing, in our age was subject to the royal exchequer: but our privy counselor Edelwold, and lover of God, holding the diocese of the city of Winchester the Bishopric, having given us sixty cassates i, in the village which by the inhabitants is called Heartingas, by his counsel and aid, exchanged the aforesaid place with its appendages. And augmenting the exchange, three villages, which are called by these names, Meldreth, Earnungaford, Northwold; and he immediately placed there many Monks, by my counsel and aid, faithfully serving God by the regular rule: over whom he set a certain Brithnod, a wise and well-mannered man, by the right of Provost. k

[9] In which affection I, exceedingly rejoicing, and gladdened for the love of Christ and St. Peter, and increases its endowment from his own, whom under God I chose as my patron, and of holy Etheldreda the Virgin beloved of God and of her holy lineage resting there; and for the souls of my Fathers the ancient Kings, I will liberally to augment that exchange with these gifts, my counselors being witnesses; that is, ten thousand eels, which every year in the village which is called Wellan, are rendered for the dispensation to the Brothers for victuals, now and henceforth I grant: and within the marshes the secular causes of two hundreds and outside the marshes of five hundreds in Wicamlawan l in the province of the East Saxons, benignly I bestow, sanctioning them for the Brothers' necessities: nay also all the causes or corruptions of transgressions of the just law in secular matters of all lands or villages duly belonging to the aforesaid monastery, and establishes its liberty, and which in the future age the providence of God shall bestow on the aforesaid place, whether by purchase or donation, or by any acquisition, let the secular causes stand, to be amended by so clement an examination of the Brothers, ministering what is necessary for the victuals and clothing of the place and those remaining there. Moreover, besides, every coin of the commonwealth, in the Province of Granteceaster Grantchester, to be rendered to the Brothers by perpetual right I decree. And let this Privilege be free as our gift, devoutly offered to God, and to his aforesaid saints for the remedy of our souls, as we have said, that no King nor Prince or any powerful person of any rank, hereafter by obstinate tyranny presume to infringe anything of these; if he does not wish to have the curse of almighty God, and of his Saints and mine and of my fathers, for whom we wish all these things to be held free with eternal liberty forever. Amen.

[10] This Privilege of this donation and liberty we caused to be written, in the year 970; in the year of the Incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ nine hundred seventy, in the thirteenth Indiction, in the thirteenth year equally of my reign, in the royal village which by a famous name is called by the inhabitants Wlfamere; not secretly in a corner but openly under the open sky; most evidently the chief men of all my kingdom knowing it. o

Whose names indeed are here below ordered to be inserted for testimony hereafter. subscribing, after the King indeed I Edgar the King with a benign mind granted this to be bestowed on God and corroborated it by royal sublimity.

I Dunstan p the Archbishop corroborated it. the Archbishops I Oscitel q the Archbishop consolidated it.

I Ethelwold the Bishop confirmed it. and the Bishops; Alfstan r the Bishop consigned it. I Osulf the Bishop confirmed it. I Wlfrick the Bishop acquiesced. I Minsyge s the Bishop corroborated it. I Alfunold the Bishop confirmed it. I Alfunold the Bishop consolidated it. I Oswold t the Bishop acquiesced. I Byrsthelm u the Bishop confirmed it. I Æadlin the Bishop consigned it. I Alfric the Bishop consolidated it. I Colfsige the Bishop corroborated it. ✠ Alfrid the queen. Alfric x the Abbot. Astyis the Abbot. Osgar the Abbot. Alfstan the Abbot. Æthelgar the Abbot. after the Queen indeed, the Abbots, Cynneward the Abbot. Burceytell the Abbot. Æaldred the Abbot. Ordbright the Abbot. Siferd the Abbot. Martin the Abbot. ✠ Æthelstan the Duke. Alfhere the Duke. the Dukes Alfeag the Duke. Ordgar the Duke. Athelwyne the Duke. Ostar the Duke. Malcolm the Duke. Birhtnocht the Duke. Eadulf the Duke. ✠ Birhtfed minister. Eanulf minister. Alfunne minister. Ethelneard minister. Wulstan minister. and the chief men of the Kingdom. Alfuneard minister. Alfune minister. Nulfgeat minister. Osulp minister. Osweard minister. Leofa minister. Birhric minister. Allfige minister. ✠ Wlff minister. Asulff minister. Heanric minister. Hringulf minister. Leofran minister. Ffrana Sigerd minister. Leofric minister. Eadric minister. Wulfold minister. Alffige minister.

Hroold minister. ✠ Durstan minister. Ofgod minister. Gota minister. Ffrithegiste minister. Durferd minister. Durgod minister. Offerth minister. Oskytell minister. Syserthe minister. Durkytell minister.

[11] By these witnesses, therefore, and several others, of all the Dignities and chief men of my Kingdom, these things too are known to have been established and accomplished: The same are rendered in English, which also in our customary speech we ordered to be described in this same document, so that they might sound in the ears of the common people, lest they seem to be mixed with any scrupulosity; but by the royal authority or power given to us by God may every contradiction be utterly annulled. "Gode almig nam" &c., that is "In the name of almighty God"; whence it appears from the very original, where at length too the English version was written, that these are transcribed. In the chartulary there are two other charters of the same King; Two other charters of the same King. one over the village of Lintune, or rather, as in the text, Ætlintune, which begins: For all the patrimonies of the ages are left to uncertain heirs of grandchildren; and all the glory of the world, the term of life approaching, reduced to nothing grows faint. Therefore, instead of earthly possessions of perishable things, let us gain the ever-abiding profits of the eternal homeland, the Lord being our patron. Wherefore &c. The other is over the village of Stoche, and begins, Tearfully and strongly detesting the sins of the titillating age. Both charters, at the beginning and end, and so also of the mark of time, lack all date, as also the other Instruments reported in the same chartulary.

ANNOTATIONS D. P.

the excellent Pontiff, as a lamp burning and shining, in the people of God shone: who, since he was endowed with the ornaments of all virtues and the examples of good works, and had undertaken to rule the church of God; was not only beginning from the foundations, others which were destroyed or deserted, he renewed by diligently restoring, and placed the household of the highest father of the family under the rule of holy conversation in all places. Among which also the Ely monastery &c. b Again there, but briefly, the following: which when the King heard, he was kindled with divine fervor; and to the aforesaid men, to give what they had asked, he not only denied; but also said he would magnify that same place. So more fully from the book of miracles receive the rest. c In the Chronicle of the Abbots it is said that the Clerics who consented to receive the Monastic habit he received as Monks; those refusing, he expelled from the monastery. d It is added in the book of miracles, "since they are contained in their own volume elsewhere." Namely in this very book 2, of which only the beginning, interpolated with these interjections, we now give to light, the publication of the rest of the charters and possessions we reserve to another… reserving to its proper place and time. In the same book of miracles too, the following being omitted, there is a transition to the charter of King Edgar, that the King's magnificence may be made known to readers. e A hide is called land sufficient for the cultivation of one plow per year; others call it a yoke and a carucate of land: of which word most fully Cangius in his Glossary and, whom he in part copies, Spelman. f By the institution of King Alfred all England is divided into Counties, and these are divided into Hundreds, that is districts of a hundred villages, which the King's own Charter calls "Centuariatus"; in which the dignity and soke, that is the right of holding a Court, or of administering justice, belongs to him to whom the King shall have granted it. See the aforesaid Spelman and Cangius. g Namely a Text of the Gospels for solemn Masses, as even now in monasteries and ancient churches they are had. h Meanwhile the Douai copyist omits it, because he had already written it in the books of miracles: whence we give it here collated with the Monasticon Anglicanum, page 93. i A cassate or cassata, land sufficient for feeding one family, with a "casa," that is a house (whence the name is taken), the same as a Hide.

after St. Dunstan of Canterbury, is venerated on the 29th of February, where we gave his Life: passed over by Godwin, became known to us from the Life of St. Dunstan: others will become known from elsewhere, and perhaps from the Anglia Sacra or Ecclesiastica, of which we now have two Volumes published by Henry Wharton in the year 1691. x Elfric, Abbot of St. Alban's of Canterbury, in the year 993 was made Archbishop. To seek the monasteries of the rest of the Abbots more laboriously there is no leisure. y "Iñ." Seems to me to be put for "interfui" I was present, but that the Queen and several others have a ✠ prefixed to their name, I think happened because, being illiterate, they had to write their name with another's hand. z The Monasticon, on account of the omitted subscriptions, thus continues: These things too established we ordered to be described also in our customary speech.

CHAPTER II.

On other estates acquired for the monastery by St. Ethelwold, and the acts of Brithnod the first Abbot.

[12] After Blessed Ethelwold had renewed the aforesaid monastery, as was said; A wood given by the King for the uses of the monastery, the glorious King Edgar, as he had promised, began to venerate and enlarge the place, and desiring to fulfill his vow, forty hides of land, in the district which is called Hetfelde, which a certain powerful man, Ordermer by name, and his wife Balde, when they died, left to him, he offered to God and St. Etheldreda with a charter: so that, because it was a woodland region, there the Brothers might be able to have material for the work of the church, and enough wood thence for fulfilling their uses. This land, therefore, as long as the King lived, the Brothers held without dispute: but the King being dead, and the state of the kingdom being disturbed, and the bond of the land being broken, there arose powerful men, namely Egelwin, who was surnamed Alderman, b which is understood as Prince or Count, he being dead, the Monks about to lose, and his brothers; and they laid claim to that land, saying, that their father Edelstan Alderman, for his patrimony which was in the province which is called Cevene, had exchanged that land: but King Edgar by violence had deprived him of both lands. So their claim being narrated and shown, the claimants prevailed; and the reverence of the holy church being set aside, invading the same land they claimed it for themselves. But the Brothers, seeing that they could in no way have lacked that land without great detriment, inasmuch as they had no other wood whence they could fulfill their uses; they redeem the injury by an exchange made. sought out the aforesaid Egelwin; and an agreement being made with him, the oft-mentioned land, namely Hethfeld, they bought from him, giving for it two lands which Wlstan of Dalham, when he died, gave to St. Etheldreda, namely thirty hides in Hemmugeford, and six in Winmugetune; adding also at Gilling five hides, which Wlwin the Cook and his wife Ælfled in many ways, the people being witness, lost by transgression. These things were done in the place which is called Glohthere, before Alfer Alderman and Adelwin and Hluric Child, which is understood "boy," and before the whole assembly which was with them. And that this agreement might be firm and indissoluble, Ægelmer Child, and Alwold, two Optimates of England, were the sureties and witnesses of this matter.

[13] Since, as Truth testifies; if anyone wishing to build a tower, With the same St. Ethelwold bought Lundune with appendages, first sitting reckons the costs which are necessary, whether he has enough to complete it; lest, after he has laid the foundation, and could not complete it, all who see begin to mock him, saying; This man began to build, and could not finish: the venerable Prelate Ethelwold, a disciple of Truth, having his confidence, not in gold nor in silver, but in the Lord Jesus Christ; the work which he began, he strove more diligently to finish, and that he might enlarge the aforesaid monastery, took care to acquire innumerable lands. Luke 14:28. For he bought from Leneric of Brandon, son of Ædelfert, twelve hides; namely the manor which is called Lundune with appendages, namely Hill and Nicham and Wilburton, a hundred gold pieces being given and a most excellent steed; and he gave back to him the land of Bessingtune, which the wife of the same Leneric, called Ælfled, had before sold to him. This purchase and agreement, then, was made in the territory which is called Cambridge, before the better men of that same province. But afterward, time having passed and King Edgar being dead, and he vindicates the purchase from a claim, the King being dead. the same Leneric attempted, by crafty cunning, to annul all the agreement which he had made with the Bishop, if he could: but lawful men, Ædric Bufus and Leofric of Berle and Sinerch Vecors, who were present at this matter and had been witnesses, rendered him convicted.

[14] Thus the right was preserved, which by the subsequent privilege, c as an incitement to virtue and a testimony of his deed, the aforesaid King had set forth to all posterity, lest any power should dare anything against his constitution: which he willed to be written not only in Latin but also in the common tongue, and to be corroborated by an awesome imprecation; Many other things acquired by the same, both of which it pleased [us] to insert in the present volume, because there was neither leisure to show the royal charter itself to all, nor was it fitting to be hidden from men: but what through it concerning that land could not be done, through this concerning it ought to be made known. There follows: How Blessed Ethelwold bought seven hides in Stretham. Of more than thirty other possessions, both acquired by the Bishop and Abbot himself, and given by the King, long histories are subsequently woven, less pertaining to St. Etheldreda: which omitted, to the Chronicle of Ely I add for a conclusion, that, all the lands being collected which he himself within the waters and marshes and the marsh of Ely acquired, and gave to God and St. Etheldreda, or given by the King. there were found sixty hides. Likewise the aforesaid King gave St. Etheldreda forty hides of land, in the district which is called Ætfeld. He himself also gave St. Etheldreda the manor of Sudbourne, on this condition, that he himself should translate the rule of St. Benedict from Latin into English, which the same Bishop offered to St. Etheldreda. The same King gave his cloak of notable purple, woven all over with gold in the manner of a cuirass, there: of which an infula chasuble-band was afterward made. He gave also from his chapel caskets e and phylacteries, with the Relics of some Saints, The Abbot Brithnod also notable vestments. From the same Chronicle, moreover, receive the deeds of the Abbots of Ely, by the same Thomas, if not written, at least promised in this second book.

[15] But the aforesaid Abbot Brithnod, given by the aforesaid King, by blessed Dunstan the Archbishop, and Ethelwold the Bishop of Winchester, consecrated to the church of Ely, instituted the flock of the Lord discreetly and solicitously under regular governance. He was of exceptional prudence and the highest abstinence, and in carrying out affairs skillfully intent; now laying new foundations in the place, and adding not small estates. he makes 4 silver images of the Saints He himself made images of the blessed Virgins, and wove them with gold and silver and gems most preciously, and beside the altar set two on the right and two on the left: which, both stripped at the Dedication f of King William, and the better ornaments of the church taken away, only bare wood one can still behold. Likewise in the time of that Abbot, the Cross of Christ g uttered words in the protection of the Monks at Winchester, saying, Far be it that this be done, far be it that this be done, namely that persons introduced be expelled from the churches and the expelled be restored.

[16] Meanwhile the aforesaid Abbot then so manfully pressed on with the church: which with the utmost intention, he restores the church; once overthrown by the Danes, he labored to raise to perfection, for in part fallen, as new, not without great labor he completed: and then the roofs being repaired which had been consumed by fire, the temple again built, no less excellent or eminent than before appeared, at last by the entreaty of the Brothers, both the Abbot and the Bishop

Ethelwold obtained a day of Dedication from the most blessed Archbishop of Canterbury Dunstan, the time being assigned the day after h the Purification of holy Mary, with whom many

Pontiffs and Pastors of churches, to celebrate so festive a solemnity, gathered.

[17] First they filled the workshops of the monastery with blessings, and after the blessing of the monastery, and by their authority the place, and what by the liberality of any of the faithful had been conferred there, consigning in writing, the privileges of the most excellent King Edgar being applied, with which they confirmed all things. After these things they began the Dedication in blessings of sweetness, at the head of the church placing the title of blessed Peter the Prince of the Apostles, and in the Southern part the memorial of the holy Mother of God ever Virgin Mary, and solemnly celebrating the exultant day, he celebrates the Dedication on the 3rd of February. according to the rite of the Dedication of a temple, in hymns and blessings they blessed the Lord: and so after the venerable offices of the holy Masses, eating and drinking in the Lord, for seven continuous days they kept the feast; and then in… great gladness each one returned to his own. The same Abbot translated the body of holy Wythburga from Dereham to Ely. i But the aforesaid Brithnod, because he alone did not suffice to attend to all things, with the concord of the Brothers, an honest man from among them, Leo by name, he set as his fellow-soldier on the outside, he takes on Brother Leo as Provost. and committed to him the provostship of the household affairs. He by his industry began to measure the bounds of the region of Elge, and showed by how great authority the place rests. He also made a silver Cross, which is called the Cross of Provost Leo, in which the form of the body of Christ, by the skill of the craftsman hollowed out, contained the Relics of Saints Vedast k and Amand, which Nigel the Bishop carried away from the church.

[18] The aforesaid Abbot was martyred in this manner. In the year 981, the Queen seen by chance, engaged in her sorceries, In the year from the Incarnation of the Lord nine hundred eighty-one, at a certain time it happened that Abbot Brithnod was going to the court of King Edelred, for the affairs of the church, on this side of Goldesdane l through the wood by which the New Forest went: where, as is reported, for the uses of nature he sought more remote places, and while seen taking care (as he was a simple man and of great modesty) he looked around on every side, and by chance came upon the Queen under a certain tree, named Aelfritha, engaged in her sorceries. Who, seeing him, not without grief and great fear, groaned that she was perceived in such acts, for she was held most skilled in the mechanical art, m as is reported. But the man of the Lord, troubled exceedingly by such matters, withdrew thence as quickly as possible; and coming to the King's court, magnificently received, he the more quickly fulfilled the affairs of his church: and the munificence of the King performed and cheered, he set out to return to his own way: betrayed by the same, who feared. and lest he avoid the Queen, though abhorring [her], he came down to her hall, which though by chance he found utterly empty of all: yet quickly his arrival became known to that Queen. But she asked that with haste he come to her alone; and sent word that she had some things to be treated secretly with him concerning the salvation of her soul.

[19] To him, having entered, she spoke many enormities of wantonness too favorably and shamelessly; he is solicited to fornication in vain; trying with prayers and promises, like the shameless woman to holy Joseph, to allure him, if she could, to herself by the knots of incontinence, thinking by malignant fraud to mingle the Saint of God with herself in crime: since she had feared to be uncovered by him from the malice which she found him to be exercising. He with strength and words resists; denies and abhors. Whence, moved into fury, summoning maidservants from her wicked household, and because she conceived grief she bore iniquity, she ordered the blessed man to be put to death, unwilling that he be a survivor whom she doubted would be sometime the betrayer of her crimes. She devises how she might destroy him, the body being kept free from a wound, and secretly killed, and no injury appearing. She admonishes them to heat a pair of points n in the fire, and to press them under the armpits of the holy Abbot until they drive out his spirit. This done, they cry out within, as if terrified by such a misfortune. Whence the ministers of the Abbot, and those who had come with him, run up: the Monks hear from them that he was overtaken by a sudden death and groan. But they, grieving exceedingly at the event, as if suddenly dead, he is carried to Ely to be buried. and emitting mournful voices, placing the body of their Lord on a vehicle, carried it to Ely to their church: and finding no indication of a wound in him, they gave it to burial.

[20] So the first Abbot of the holy church of Ely was martyred, suffocated by the machinations of a little woman, preferring rather to fall into the hands of man, The Queen, repenting of her crimes, reveals the deed, than to forsake the law of the Lord: whose soul, with all the Saints always to reign, merited eternal joys in heaven. But of the Queen no one presumed even to mutter anything sinister, or to bring up an evil word. This word could have lain hidden from all longer, except that the same Queen, of her own crimes, of her benefits, and unspeakable works, pricked by the mercy of God, and especially of the death of the glorious King Edward o her firstborn

recte stepson, whom she confessed to have killed, and founds a monastery. openly before all, circumvented by her ambushes, that her own son Ethelred might be raised to be King unjustly; for whom she made a monastery of nuns at Wherwell from her wealth, where all the days of her life she remained in grief and penance, and by what death she killed Brithnod the Abbot of Ely, as was foreshown, groaning and anxious she showed: in which place both in goods and in possessions she afterward conferred many benefits.

ANNOTATIONS G. H.

975, on the 8th of July, when we shall treat of him more fully: but the kingdom was disturbed, the Optimates being divided into parties; while the better wished the firstborn of the deceased to reign by his testament, namely Edward II likewise a Saint; but his stepmother Elfdritha for her son Ethelred, though only seven years old, was busy to advance. Of which see, if you please, Alford in the Annals, and more briefly Baronius at the aforenoted year, number 11. b Elsewhere I find this title interpreted "Elder Duke": but from the force of the name it is nothing else: but how widely the dignity of Aldermanry extends, see in Cangius. c It seems that this ought first to have been inserted in [its] place, the aforementioned Privilege of Edgar. d Mariscus, a boggy and marshy estate, such as is the whole region, which, intersected by several streams, comes under the name of the Island of Ely. e Capsis for capsa casket occurs also in the deeds of St. Alban in Cangius; so that this seems to be an idiom of the Angles. By Dedication I understand the coronation, made at the end of the year 1066. Below at number 29 it is more fully explained how the Monks scraped together all the gold and silver to redeem their liberty. g In the order of Miracles this is the 40th. h If the Dedication was made on a Sunday, as it is permitted to presume, it was made in the year 978, which, the first from the restoration, had the Dominical letter F: for it was not a work of small effort. i Of whose origin and integrity it is read, says the Author, that Withburga &c. as you will find printed from here at her Natal day, the 17th of March in our collection, and also the fuller history of her translation taken from the book of Miracles, miracle 41: these we omit here. But this translation, made in the year 974, could have preceded the Dedication of the new church, nor ought this to seem absurd, since in the 4th year of the work begun, doubtless so great a part of it was completed as was necessary to the Monks for celebrating the divine Office decently. k Saints Vedast and Amand are venerated on the 6th of February, where at §9 concerning the Relics of St. Vedast this passage could be added. l Let the English investigate the place, nowhere noted in the alphabetical maps of Speed for his Topography of England. m Cangius acutely observes from Politian, that of the Mechanical art one is the "thaumaturgic," producer of wonders: and hence Magicians were perhaps called Mechanics by some: thus it becomes clear what at the 29th of April at the first Life of St. Hugh of Cluny, number 16, escaped us, how, when he had denied a kiss to a certain Monk, the latter confessed: that he was a Mechanic, and stained with the deceits of necromancy: which, that it suited Alfritha too, we here first learn. n By "styles" I understand, or also longer hair-pins, that the little women might use, as their own and ready weapons, for the crime. o Nay rather, her stepson: but St. Edward was killed in the year 978, on the 18th of May, where we gave his brief Acts, and at numbers 10 and 13 it is treated of the penance of the Stepmother, when he, in the year 1001 recognized a Martyr, with solemn pomp was translated to Shaftesbury. p The day the Monks neglected to note, and although, the cause of his death revealed, they began to name him Saint and Martyr, they decreed no cult to him, nor were they solicitous about raising his bones; perhaps lacking the miracles which would advise it, whence nowhere yet is he found inscribed in the Calendars of the Saints.

CHAPTER III.

On the following four Abbots.

[21] So the first Abbot Brithnod being dead, the Bishop Ethelwold, The 2nd Abbot Elsin brings the body of St. Wendrida the Virgin. by command of King Ethelred, set in his place another by name Elsin and blessed him. He was very dear and honored to the said King: but most of all assiduous about the utility of his church. Whence, desiring to augment his place more loftily, the Relics of the holy Virgin Wendreda, he brought from the village of Marche into Ely, and placed them in a shrine of gold and stones decently fitted. And indeed over all these things he approached the King, and at a fixed price bought from him nineteen cassates in Cadenhostretele and Lynton: for whose possession the same Abbot conferred on the same King a weight of purest gold, according to the great weight of the Romans. b After these things, when the same King had closed his last day, there succeeded him in the kingdom c Edmund his son, surnamed Ironside: who, relying on the help of God, boldly against the army of the Danes met them at the mountain which is called Assendun, d where he was fulfilling the office of a strenuous soldier and good Commander, so as to trample all the enemies at once, were it not for the ambushes of the perfidious Duke Edric: and almost the whole body of the Nobility of the Angles was there slain, who in no war ever received a greater wound than there: which, brought into the battle-line against the Danes, is lost. where Edwod the Bishop of Lincoln, formerly Provost of Ramsey, and Wulsi e the Abbot, who had gathered to entreat the Lord for the soldier waging war, were slain. And the Brothers of Ely, as is the custom of the church, who had come thither with the Relics, were laid low; and the Relics of the bountiful Virgin Wendreda, which they had brought with them, were taken away, nor even now have they been restored to the church. For it is reported then, that by Cnut himself they were taken away, and laid up at Canterbury.

[22] Nor long after these things, King Edmund, returning to London, is slain by the guile of the aforesaid Edric, transfixed with an iron spit in his secret natural parts, f while he sat in a privy: and he was buried with his grandfather Edgar at Glastonbury, his sons g and brothers thinking that no portion of the kingdom could they preserve by arms, h but Cnut by all the people of the Angles is raised into the kingdom. Within two years three Kings presided over England, i so that what holy Dunstan said to King Edelred in the word of the Lord might be fulfilled, k whose Queen Ælgiva, by another name Emma, Under the same Queen Emma bestows many things on the church of Ely. the same King Cnut took as wife: who, as in his time she adorned the church of Ely with honors and gifts, so also under this one she intended to augment it. A notable purple too, encircled all over with gold-fringe, she made; and in parts, with gold and precious gems in wondrous work, as with panels, adorned it: so that scarcely another anywhere of such work and price is found: for that work seems to surpass its material. And to the rest of our Saints she gave a silk cloth to each one, though of lesser price, interwoven with gold and gems, which are found among us to this day. She made also vestments of the altar, a great pall of green color, notable with golden plates; that on the face of the altar through a solemn day it might more loftily appear: which, seen from above, with a blood-red splendor, along the length of the altar to its horns, reaching even to the ground, with a gold-fringe having the height of a foot, affords a spectacle of great beauty and price. The aforesaid Abbot Elsin, after much glory and many possessions acquired for the church, died, when he had sat thirty-eight years, and was buried beside his predecessor in the church in the year from the Incarnation of the Lord … l

[23] There succeeded Leofwin To him succeeded Leofwin, who, cast out by his own, with Egelnod the Archbishop of Canterbury, seeking the Pallium, went to Rome: m where in the sight of Pope Benedict, n he purged himself of the crimes objected against him, and so merited to be received into the favor of his own. He, when he had sat three years, o died, and there succeeded him Leofric, the Provost of that place. These two Abbots Alwin p the Bishop of Elmham blessed, Leofric, both King Cnut commanding, and the whole Convent asking it. He in the seventh q year of his rule died.

[24] Leoffin, To whom succeeded Leoffin: who, by command of King Cnut, by Egelnod the Archbishop of Canterbury at Walewyt was consecrated. He conferred notable ornaments on his church, namely a splendid Alb with an Amice, and a Surplice r with a Stole and Maniple, of gold and stones interwoven, who defines the fixed [rents to be received from the villages per year:] and a red Infula of wondrous work, which below and above with flowers extended behind, as with a certain panel-work, is fortified with gems and gold. He also established, by the nod and favor of the King, s consigning the fixed rents, which through the year would suffice the church for food: Shelford pays the farm of two weeks, Stapleford of one, Little Bury of two, Cirrippelawe of two, Hanteston of one, and Newton of one, Meldreth of two, Quantesdene of two, Costes of one, and Cotenhan of one, and Winelyngham of one, Gittone of two, and Hornygeseye of two, Steterheworch of two, Balsham of two,

Cathenho of four days, Swaffham of three days, Spaldewyt of two weeks, Somersham of two, Bluntisham of one, Colne of one, Hertherst of one, Drinlestond of one, Ratelesdone of two, Barking of two, Nedinag of one, Wederniagcsete of one, Brecham of two, Quæulham of two, Thorp and Deresam of two, Northwold of two, Speteswelle of two, but Merham for conveying the farm of the church from Northffolte, and for receiving those entering from the monastery: and these things, if some should contribute less in their times than these statutes, the island deputed for this should supply the rest.

[25] In the time of King Cnut, Alwin Bishop of Elmham, and he receives to himself the Bishop of Elmham, his See given up. but formerly a Monk of Ely, by the command of that same King at Betrychesword first introduced a band of Monks, in the year from the Incarnation of the Lord one thousand twenty; and according to the Chronicle of Marian, t some from Holm, some from Ely he placed there; and conferred on them aids abundantly, Count Turchill v hindering the aid, and set over them an Abbot by name Wino. The Presbyters too who there lived disorderly, either in the same place he raised to the summit of religion, or, other things being given them, into other places he changed them; and after many benefits conferred on sacred places, at last his own Bishopric being left, x returning to the contemplative quiet in the monastery of Ely, there to the end of his life he remained. The aforesaid Abbot Leoffin, when he had done many advantages for his church, died in the second year of King Edward, y and from the Incarnation of the Lord one thousand forty-four, z fifteen years he presided over the church: he was buried in the church beside his predecessors.

ANNOTATIONS. D. P.

Essex: but of the battle there fought, and how Edric, falsely crying out that Edmund was dead, turned the now-victorious Angles to flight, read in Huntingdon, or from him in Alford. e Thus also Hoveden, but it is to be sought of what monastery this one was Abbot.

the gaping sense seems somehow to be supplied: nor even so is it clear enough: since the boys, by their age, could decide nothing about the kingdom by themselves, and remained in the power of Cnut, who preferred to send them away than to kill them, at least in England under the eyes of their mother, whom he had taken as wife. i Ethelbert Ethelred, Edmund, Cnut.

Since thou hast aspired to the kingdom through the death of thy brother, whom thy ignominious mother killed, the sword shall not depart from thy house, raging against thee all the days of thy life, killing of thy seed, until thy kingdom be transferred into a foreign kingdom, whose rite and language thy nation knows not: where it is supposed that Ethelred would have other sons, to die in the Danish war, of whom no notice is had among the historians. l It must be that this was the year 1019, since we have already read Brithnod slain in 981.

m Therefore in the year 1020, in which Alford has Adelnoth subscribing at number 8, and says he set out for Rome, and brought the arm of St. Augustine into England. n Namely Benedict VIII, who sat from the year 1012 to [10]24. o A brief Chronicle, prefixed to the booklet on the Life of St. Etheldreda, at the front of the Chronicle of the Abbots and Bishops, gives Leofwin 12 years but wrongly, since below his successor is said to be ordained by Bishop Alwin; and so before this one left the Bishopric in the year 1028: it seems therefore that Leofwin died in the year 1024. Wharton notes that the same was called by another name Oskitel, and that this is established from the Register of Ely; but his death is noted in the Obituary on the 26th of November. [p] Aldwin of Elmham, who, since he first began to sit in the year 1021, could not have consecrated Leofwin, unless on his return from Rome: but Elmham or North Elmham is a little town of Norfolk, whence the seventh from Aldwin, William Galsagus, transferred the See to Thetford, and his successor Herbert to Norwich, where it remains to this day. q In the aforesaid brief Chronicle 11 years are noted; but it must be that he died in the year 1030, who in that year already had a successor. r Superale, Superarium, and Superaneum, seem to Cangius to signify what we now call a Surplice, the uppermost Clerical garment of linen cloth. They call it the Bishop's Cotta, and have it, not with loose, but with closed sleeves. s "Firma" is everywhere taken for an estate or village let, and the annual price of the letting itself. Here, according to the History of the Abbots of St. Alban, they call a Firma 40 shillings: and so the men of St. Alban say in Cangius: We have from our manors 53 firmae, as many as there are weeks in the year. t Marian Scotus, born (as he himself says) in the year 1028, who died in 1086, wrote indeed a Chronicle, but as it is had published, it touches English affairs rarely: but at the year 1020 it has nothing similar. The Author, therefore, had it interpolated in England and alleges it as not genuine. v Turkill the Dane came with a fleet into England in the year 1009, by the testimony of Simeon of Durham; and in the year 1013 defended London with King Egelred against Cnut: who in the year 1021 expelled him with his wife Edith from England. x Alford teaches that this was done in the year 1028. y This is St. Edward the Confessor, of whom above, crowned in the year 1043, on the very day of Easter, the 3rd of April. z Therefore ordained (as I said above) in the year 1030 or the following: and so the numbers noted in the Brief Chronicle are convicted of error, which would defer this Abbot's death.

CHAPTER IV.

On three other Abbots of Ely.

[26] Wilfric the 6th Abbot So that Leoffin being dead, the same King took his kinsman Wilfric as Abbot, to the aforesaid monastery, anew from the monastery at Winchester, and there caused him to be blessed by Stigand b the Archbishop of Canterbury, in the second year of his reign, but from the Incarnation of the Lord one thousand forty-four. In the time of this Abbot, the village of Æstre is granted to a certain man to hold for the time of his life. The same Abbot bought the manor of Bercham for twenty-five marks of gold. he bestows various estates against right on his brother, He had a certain Brother by name Gudmund whom he loved too carnally, to whom without title and the testimony of subscription he handed over the subscribed manors (and this not openly, lest it become known to the Monks), namely a part of Marham with the care of the village of Livermere, Nachentum from Chalt, Bedensdene, Terboldesham. He, when he had closed his last day, the aforesaid brother Gudmund by no means relinquished the aforesaid lands; but an agreement being made with Abbot Turstan who had succeeded him, that as long as he lived he should hold them. But quickly, the Normans obtaining c the kingdom, a certain soldier of theirs, Hugh of Mustord, invaded those same lands, and to this day has detained them from the church.

[27] After the death of Abbot Wilfric, who sat twenty-two years; Thurstan substituted for him, Stigand the Archbishop of Canterbury took to himself the Abbacy of Ely and very many Bishoprics and Abbacies, and conferred them on what persons he wished. By his suggestion King Harold d caused the aforesaid

Turstan to be blessed by the same Stigand in the year of the Lord one thousand sixty- six. Stigand the Archbishop favoring, munificent toward the church of Ely, The aforesaid Stigand made one chasuble of inestimable workmanship and price, which he conferred on the church of Ely, than which no chasuble in the kingdom was esteemed richer and more precious: which afterward by King William was taken away, and laid up in the treasuries of Winchester. He also made a great cross silvered all over above, with an image of our Lord Jesus Christ to the magnitude of his form; and an image of similar work of the holy Mother of God and of St. John the Evangelist made of bronze, which Nigel the Bishop and many other things afterward took away from the church.

[28] The aforesaid Abbot Turstan at Wychford… was born, and in the church of Ely from childhood, both in English and in Latin sufficiently instructed; in whose time King Harold, son of Duke Godwin, by the army of William Duke of Normandy, cousin of King Edward, is killed; and with him the Great men of England on the feast of St. Calixtus e the Pope, in the year of the Lord one thousand sixty-six. he receives this fugitive with much nobility, Then the same William, Duke of the Normans, being victor, on the day of the Lord's Nativity, namely on the second day Monday, at Westminster was consecrated King of England, by Aldred the Archbishop of York, because Stigand the Archbishop of Canterbury, by Pope Alexander as a schismatic, f was suspended. Whence the same Stigand, fleeing from the face of King William, came to Ely: at whose command Egfrid, whom he had formerly set up as Abbot of St. Alban's, with the treasure of that church and the relics of that same Saint, g came into the island of Ely. Likewise, through fear of the aforesaid King, nobles of England fled to Ely, among whom was Hereward, h a strenuous man, and long, fortified by the strength of the place, they rebelled against the King. Whence the King, moved with grave indignation, therefore the church's estates are confiscated by the Normans: ordered all the goods of the church to be plundered, and by the counsel of William i Bishop of Hereford and his other counselors, whatever goods of the aforesaid church which were outside, he divided among his Soldiers.

[29] So the Monks of Ely, knowing the evils which were being done with their goods, until in the year 1074 the Monks redeemed their liberty at a great price. grievously grieved, and counsel being taken approached the King at Warwick, namely in the seventh year from the time when they stirred up sedition against him; and, that they might obtain his favor with the liberty of their place and the restoration of their goods, they gave the King a thousand marks; for which all that was in the church of gold and silver, namely Crosses, altars, shrines, gospel-books, chalices, patens, basins, buckets, little baskets, cups, gold and silver dishes, moreover the image of holy Mary with her child sitting on a throne wonderfully made, which Abbot Elsin had made of gold and silver; likewise the images of the holy Virgins with much ornament of gold and silver, the Monks despoiled, to pay the aforesaid sum of money.

[30] These things happening in the time of the aforesaid Abbot Turstan, Thurstan being dead the same Abbot completed his days, and was placed with his fathers, in the year of the Lord one thousand seventy-one, k and in the fifth year of the rank he had taken; while the aforesaid William reigned. Who, the death of the aforesaid Abbot known, sent to Ely: and whatever best in ornaments and various things he had learned to have been there, he ordered to be carried to his treasury. Likewise a great weight of gold and silver, again the treasury is plundered by the King. which had been found at Wynteworth, whence the Brothers thought to repair the demolished vessels of the altar and the damages of the place; the notable chasuble too, which Archbishop Stigand had conferred on them, as was said, he took from St. Etheldreda and placed in his treasuries at Winchester, whereof the church to this day has lacked it.

[31] Then the same King William set Theodwin, a Monk of Jumièges well enough known to the Courts of Normandy, as Abbot of Ely, Theodwin the 8th Abbot restores many things, who would not undertake the Abbacy, unless first the King recalled to it whatever he had taken thence. So the ecclesiastical spoils being restored, he undertook the Abbacy of Ely: who caused a cope of snowy whiteness very notable to be prepared, and one panel before the altar of gold and silver of admirable work: in whose middle a throne with an image of the Lord, and round about images of silver wholly gilded, and here and there zones adorned with precious stones. This, above the riches of the region of England, was esteemed outstanding, which Nigel afterward as Bishop broke up, and took every precious thing from the church. The aforesaid Abbot, after two years and a half, but, not yet consecrated, he dies dies without the consecration of an Abbot, in the year of the Lord one thousand seventy-four: and leaving Godfrid a Monk, who had clung to him as an inseparable companion, as a kind of Vicar, in his place; who for nearly seven years remained a faithful Procurator of that same church, doing no less, than if he had been Abbot, serving its utility. He himself obtained from the King that he should have all the possessions of the Abbacy renewed.

[32] So in the year one thousand eighty there was made a discussion of the liberty of the Abbacy of Ely, a Vicar Godfrid being left, which had been neglected for fourteen years by the defense of King William. At which discussion were present four Abbots, and very many Sheriffs and approved Soldiers, Frenchmen and Angles too from four

Counties, namely Essex, Hertford, Huntingdon, and Bedford. Now the venerable quittance of this liberty is, by whose efforts the liberty is restored to the monastery, that the holy Queen possess her own most entirely from the beginning, as is proved by the privileges of Kings Edgar, Eadelred, Edward: because these things of the Saints, and especially of Ethelwold, restored, redeemed by abundant bargaining, and against the malignantly resisting written and proclaimed an imprecation of damnation. This most valid discussion and most cautious institution, lest by any calumny it could be disturbed, the provident and benevolent industry of the King girded itself, corroborating it with precepts, confirming it with edicts, augmenting it with benefits, and fortifying it with his charters. m The aforesaid Procurator Godfrid caused those things which he had found in the treasuries of his church to be described. He himself by King William was translated to the rule of the Church of Malmesbury, without consecration, in the year of the Lord one thousand eighty-one. o

ANNOTATIONS D. P.

the same who reformed the Ely one, St. Ethelwold, had transferred to Monks: the new one, before, Edward the Elder the King had founded, between the years 901 and 922 in which he reigned. b Stigand, Confessor of St. Edward the King, Bishop of Winchester, ordained by his command in the year 1043 (as Godwin holds), only in the year 1052 was translated to the Archbishopric; so that here one must recognize a prolepsis. c In the year 1066, when the Abbot had already died: whom Wharton notes from the Register of Ely as worn out with grief immediately after the lands were alienated. d Harold, Edgar the nephew of the deceased King by his brother being excluded, and William Duke of Normandy, to whom the kingdom had been promised, obtains it, supported by some right himself too, if he had as mother the sister of King Cnut, and if he descended from the daughter of King Ethelred in a continuous series of birth. e That is the 14th of October. f As being the occupier of another's See, Robert the legitimate Archbishop being expelled, and given the Pallium by the Antipope Benedict. g St. Alban, the Protomartyr of England, is venerated on the day 22nd, to whose Acts Henschenius added Analecta, in the 2nd chapter of which he refuted the fictions on which the pretension of the men of Ely rests, who claim his body or a notable part of it for themselves. h This Hereward's strenuousness in the year 1070, together with the time of the besieged monastery of Ely, Brompton indicates, when he says that, shut up there, together with Markat (to others Margar) Count of Northumbria and Egelwin Bishop of Durham, when these surrendered to the King, he himself manfully led out his own: or, as Simeon of Durham writes, through the marshes with a few he escaped. i William sat, consecrated at the very beginning of Henry the Conqueror recte William the Conqueror, down to the year 1186 recte 1086: whom, being by race imitator. Yet more than is had here the Author promises in the first Prologue of the whole work, number 2, as if about to treat fully of the siege of the Normans, which he ought to have done here. k Nay rather, after the year 1070. For in this year, when King William led the Prelates and Magnates of the Angles captive: from which captivity Thurstan, having returned, subscribed to a synod at Windsor on the feast of Pentecost, as Wharton notes, who also observes that Thomas erred in the same way in noting the death of the successor, who is known to have subscribed in the year 1175 to the Council of London. l "Seventy" had been written, but "eighty" is to be restored, where that matter is thus noted. In the year from the Incarnation of the Lord one thousand eighty, in the eleventh Indiction, the Epact 26, on the fourth day before the Nones of April, was made the discussion of the liberty of the Abbacy of Ely, &c., in the same words as here. m There are extant in the Manuscript Chartulary nine diplomas pertaining hereto. There, after the first diploma of William, is read, What and how much the King's Exactors found in the church, although so greatly impoverished, and what accrued to them from the time Godfrid took the Abbacy into custody. o Here again was renewed the error corrected above, and it was written "seventy-one."

CHAPTER V.

The Acts of the last two Abbots.

[33] Simeon, Prior of Winchester, brother of Walkelm a the Pontiff of that same church, is delegated as Abbot of the church of Ely: Simeon the 9th Abbot who, against the custom and dignity of the place and the King's precept, the sons of the Church not knowing it, received the blessing from Remigius the Bishop of Lincoln. King Edward recte Edgar established, and Pope Victor confirmed, that the Abbots of Ely, without the obedience of subjection, by whatever Bishop they preferred, should be ordained. he founds a new church: Which liberty the preceding Abbots even to his times used. Yet in his own Ordination he obtained this condition, that he should not claim this right against the Bishops b for the following Abbot. So having obtained the place of his office, he enlarged his past efforts with new works: namely raising the church of Ely on a new foundation, and with all effort rebuilt the rest of the workshops. d …

[34] In his time all Scotland rebelled against King William: for which reason he himself ordered a guard of forty soldiers to be had in the island: he is compelled to maintain the King's soldiers: whence the Abbot hired retainers too; and girded with arms many of the freeborn who clung to him: and he had, by custom, according to the King's command, the aforetaxed number of soldiery, within the hall of the church, taking food from the hand of the Cellarer and stipends: which intolerably vexed the place. Nor long after the King hastened into France; where he burned the town of Mantes, f and all the churches in it and two Recluses: but on the very return g he died, and was buried at Caen. [William the First being succeeded, the second of the same name doubles the burden.] He presided over the nation of the Angles twenty years and six months: whom his son William Rufus succeeded: who violently exacted from the churches the due service which his father had imposed: but from the Abbacy of Ely, without diminution, four times twenty Soldiers; namely forty of those whom his father had ordered to be kept in the Island for guard, this one now from debt compels to be prepared by him for an expedition. For which the Abbot, groaning, and invoking God as judge for those things which they had done to him, when he had completed seven years in the Abbacy, was made incapable of himself; and could intend nothing because of his languor for seven continuous years: but the servants of the Abbot himself, and the rest in whom he trusted, the head being weakened, withdrew to their own place; and he was left alone languishing and wasting away. Hence the Abbot tries to restore the relaxed discipline, But one of them, whom the Abbot raised from the depths, seeing his Lord to be a burden to all and despised, usurped a certain part of the land for his food from the right of the church. Many others too plundered many things, whose descendants even to this day testify that they hold [it] from the gift of Abbot Symeon.

[35] At last the Abbot devises with himself to blunt the pride of his own people: he called to himself the Judges of the kingdom, that they in his place might protect the goods of the church against the enemies. And soon entering they inquire into the treasuries, afflict many with insults, by the aid of secular judges: and appoint for the Monks a provision, though scanty; namely that each year there be given for the work of the Brothers, for their clothing, seventy pounds, for their kitchen sixty pounds, and for fat two hundred pigs, which are fed in the court, and all the cheese and butter; with this exception, what is in the farm of the provosts; and each week seven measures h of grain, and ten measures i of malt, for the lights of the monastery, especially of the church, with the burial of the village; to whose discretion the economy was committed, and all whatever pertains to St. Bothulf with the festivity; and if there be so much of wine, they will always have in the twelve-Lesson feasts k a charity-portion and on the Sabbath; but if not, they will have half a portion of mead, l and so the outsiders, until the death of that very Abbot, dispose all things of the monastery, within and without, at their pleasure. So constrained by straits, Abbot Symeon, with great burden to the Monks. passing the hundredth year of his age, and in the thirteenth year of his rule, from the Incarnation of the Lord one thousand ninety-three, m on the day of St. Edmund migrated to the Lord; and the monastery he left after his death his office, widowed of his and the other Abbots' presence for seven years, and saddened it even to the year of the Lord 1100.

[36] Then the Abbacy of Ely is given to Richard a Monk of Bec n by King Henry, brother of the aforesaid King William Rufus, Richard the 10th Abbot is ordained in the year 1100, succeeding him in the kingdom; for he in the year of the Lord one thousand one hundred, on the Nones of August, on the Lord's Day, at Westminster, by Maurice Bishop of London, was consecrated King, and by Thomas of York was crowned: and on the same day of his consecration he gave the Abbacy of St. Edmund to Robert, son of Hugh Count of Chester; and the Abbacy of Ely to Richard son of Gilbert the Count; each of whose parents, descending from royal stock, dedicated illustrious offspring under the Monastic garb in the monastery of Bec. after some contention with the Bishop of Lincoln, So when, in the course of time, the aforesaid Richard, by the aforesaid King, had been promoted to the rule of the church of Ely, him first assails Robert Bishop of Lincoln; saying that it was of his right, that he should bless him as Abbot; to which right he alleged that his predecessor Symeon obeyed his predecessor

Remigius. But Richard, protesting that there had been violence against Symeon and an undue blessing of him, by the right of his church and by very great authority defended himself from his blessing; fearing lest he incur a curse for a blessing, if against his right he should suffer himself to be blessed. o

[37] he is accused before the King by rivals; After the Episcopal conflict, Royal wrath assailed him, by the instigation of rivals, accusing him as to three things; namely that he came too pompously to the King's Court; that he would not in all things obey the King's precepts; that a certain jester of his, reviling him, he basely cast out of his house. For these things the King expelled him from his Abbacy, and ordered his Staff to be rendered to himself, who, appealing to Rome, the Staff at the church of Ely, by the leave of the brethren, about to withdraw, set down: and so, oppressed by the King, the Abbot goes to Rome, and in the presence of Pope Paschal set forth the cause of his necessity. By whom received into favor, and held in great veneration, obtaining what he had asked, by the Apostolic authority to the church of Ely he was p restored: where he built his church, begun by his predecessor. and ordered to give up his office he flees to Rome, Into which church he translated the body of St. Etheldreda into view, from the old church and the place in which holy Sexburga had placed it; where, built by St. Ethelwold, and thence, the cause won, returning he completes the work of the new church, but afterward destroyed, renewing the church, he left it undefiled, unmoved and not in view, and not lying hidden under the earth, but eminent above, as he found it, he left q… He translated likewise also the body of St. Witburga, whom from that day he began with singular devotion to venerate, and would have made a silver case if he had lived long.

[38] he treats of changing the Abbacy into a Bishopric, For other occupations in various ways retarded [him] from this work; and especially that he strove to quash the calumnies of the Bishops of Lincoln, about changing the monastery of Ely into a Bishopric. He indeed was the first to treat this matter secretly with the King: whose favor having obtained, he directed messengers to the Apostolic [See] in the same year on this matter. The same Abbot, from Bishop Ranulph of Durham, the village of Hadeham, which he had violently taken away through the Clerics of the Church of London, according to the determination before the King removed, as the King's Charter s shows. He himself in the seventh year of his rule, t falling into his bed, and seeing holy Withburga nearby standing before him, but he dies in the midst of the business. died; and on the morrow in the monastery was buried: but the messengers who went to Rome, hearing of their Lord's death, abandoned the business.

[39] Now it is clear what beginning the church of Ely had, There were therefore Ely [people under Abbots for 139 years] from the first foundation even to the times of the Bishops. For from the time in which it first began to have Monks, that is from the tenth time of the reign of King Edgar even to the ninth year of the reign of King Henry the First, that is for a hundred thirty-nine years, it had these Abbots succeeding one another in turn: Brithnod, Elsin, Leoswin, Leoffric, Leaffin, Wlfric, Turstan, Theodwin, Simeon, and Richard; who, not bearing the oppression of his house, refuted the calumnies of rivals by just pleading, and, supported by the authority of Kings and Apostolic Pontiffs, manfully removed his own from the enemies; showing openly that his church, from the time that the monastery was there built, first by holy Augustine the Apostle of the Angles, namely through the blessed King Ethelbert; then under the most blessed Etheldreda and the holy women succeeding her, and now also in the time of the Abbots, stood free, endowed with no yoke of subjection; always free from the subjection of the Bishop of Lincoln. but whomever they wished or chose, an Archbishop or Bishop, they called for the consecration of their things: but that the Bishop of Lincoln had no right thence or ought to exact any, became known, by the many testimonies of privileges which are adduced. But because Ely is seen to be on the border of his parish, thinking it, but falsely, [due] to himself, he strives by assiduous actions to subject it: whence also after many things contumeliously inflicted, the leader of the Lord's Flock, Abbot Richard, prudently deliberated with himself, to advance the place itself into greater dignity, and utterly to blunt the cunning of the malignant men, and obtained secretly from the King that he change it into a Bishopric; yet not he himself, but he who had succeeded him, accomplished the business.

ANNOTATIONS D. P.

being deprived, who, even after he had occupied the Metropolis of Canterbury, continued to hold the Cathedra of Winchester, and ordained Bishop in the year 1070, according to Godwin, sat until 1097. b Below at number 36 he is excused as not of his own accord, but by violence induced to receive his ordination from him: and this is in which the Author complains that liberty was violated. c The expenses necessary for so great an undertaking, after the treasure spent for the liberty to be redeemed, the providence of the secular economists could supply, of whom below. d There followed certain miracles of St. Etheldreda, done in this Abbot's time, which in the order of miracles in the following book are 11, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10, in almost the same words preserved in summary, wherefore it seemed good to omit them here. e The same he had done before under Abbot Turstan, the rebels being subdued who had kept themselves in the island for seven years; but these first forty so modestly lived in the sacred place, using the same dining-room and equally running together to the Offices in the church; that, the liberty granted to the island, as they departed thence, the Monks, following them with tears as their brothers, caused their emblems and names, with the name of one Monk, to be painted in their refectory, there where they had been wont to sit, as we found written and painted at the end of the Chartulary. f To Simeon of Durham Mathum, to William of Jumièges, book 7 of the History of the Normans, chapter 44, Medunta, commonly Mantes on the Seine between Paris and Rouen, nearer to those than to the latter: the cause of the wrath against the French was the aid rendered by them to Robert rebelling against his father: but two recluses, others also call holy Anchorites: wherefore I correct what was here written, "Recluses" feminine. g He died at Rouen in the year 1087, on the 9th of September.

read elsewhere. i Brasium, is grain soaked in water, and then dried, from which, ground up, beer is brewed: whence Brasiare and Brasiator, in modern usage braxare, braxator to brew, brewer; but it is made mostly from barley, spelt, oats, although wheaten Brasium too is found. k That is, on the feasts of twelve Lessons (for so many the Monastic Office numbers, while the Roman Order consists of only nine) a double measure of wine will be given. l Medo, a drink made of water and honey, and apt to supply the lack of wine at table. m Wharton, on the faith of the Annals of Winchester, judges that Symeon died in the year 1094, and so was created Abbot in 1082. n Of the illustrious monastery of Bec in Normandy, it was treated more fully at the Lives of Saints Lanfranc and Anselm, Archbishops of Canterbury, taken thence, given on the 28th of March and the 21st of April. o There are extant in the Chartulary several Royal charters, by which Henry orders the cause to be examined, Richard to be consecrated by St. Lanfranc, and the liberty of St. Etheldreda to be preserved. p Wharton notes that he was easily received into favor by the King when he, by rumor running ahead, had learned how Richard, whom he believed would support him, the Archbishop acting for the King, had refuted all his calumnies (so the King's men spoke) as Ralph de Diceto writes: but he had been deposed by Anselm, as Wharton notes, in the year 1102 in the Council of London, held about the feast of St. Michael. q Here in summary was narrated the Translation of Saints Etheldreda and Witburga, of which presently I subjoin a whole chapter. r The cause of the new institution was alleged, because the Bishopric of Lincoln was of such magnitude, that for accomplishing those things which are of the Episcopal office one Bishop could in no way suffice. s It pleases [me] to transcribe this as a specimen of the others: Henry King of the Angles, to Maurice Bishop of London, and to Hugh of Bothel Sheriff of Hereford-shire, and to all his faithful, both clerics and laymen, greeting. Know that Richard Abbot of Ely has won his suit against Ranulph, Bishop of Durham, concerning the manor of Haddam, in my court of Rumesy, before me and my Barons, to the Lordship of St. Peter, and of the Blessed Virgin of God Edeldreda of Ely, and of the Monk Brothers there serving God. I will therefore and command, that the Abbacy of Ely itself hold and have in lordship that aforesaid manor of Haddam, quietly and without calumny, henceforth… and forever: the subscribed witnesses being Ralph the Bishop of Lincoln, and William Giffard Bishop of Winchester, and John Bishop of Bath, and Ralph Bishop of Chichester. t Of Christ 1107. v Hence it is clearly established that the Author, if he himself was not Thomas, yet still lived in the time of the Abbots, and is different from him who continued the History of the Bishops, from which we shall give the Analecta of miracles. Now receive the History of the aforesaid translation, from book 1 of the History of Ely, less aptly subjoined in the Manuscript.

CHAPTER VI.

The translation of the holy women Etheldreda, Sexburga, Ermenilda.

[40] Under William the First, the church flourishing again, While the glorious and illustrious King of the Angles William the first, of the race and nation of the Normans, reigned, and held singularly the monarchy of the whole kingdom, the Tetrarchs being long ago destroyed; after many perils of wars, peace of the Church being restored in the borders of the Angles, as after a tempest serenity following, the state of the Church began from day to day to advance, and the devotion of the faithful in the worship of religion always to grow from good to better. Meanwhile the monastery of Ely, once the habitation of Nuns, but, the barbarians invading, almost wholly overthrown; the monastery of Ely, which King Edgar & Bishop Ædelwold restore, which, God willing and mercifully providing, is now distinguished with glory and honor, dignity, liberty, and very many goods, through Blessed Ædelwold, the venerable Bishop of Winchester, and through the counsel and aid of the notable King Edgar, the royal munificence going before, and the Pontifical prudence being busy, had long ago been made a habitation of Monks; destitute of its own Pastor, it received a certain Winchester Monk, Symeon by name, for the merit of his life the Prior of the Church, a religious man indeed and intent on divine studies, as Father of the Monastery. it received Simeon as Abbot, Who, loving the beauty of the house of God, and striving to augment rather than diminish the monastic and interior affairs, and to expend all things in ecclesiastical uses; touched by the spirit of counsel and fortitude, to the honor of God devoutly disposed to build a temple to the Lord and to Blessed Ætheldreda, as another Solomon, in the time of peace: since indeed the old oratory, who began to build a larger church: both for the frequency and number of the Brothers there serving God, and of the peoples coming, seemed small, as too little capacious and inconvenient. So the religiously solicitous man, and prudently provident, the necessary expenses being prepared, what he had piously conceived in thought, more effectively (as appeared in the effect) began as it were to bring to birth in operation.

[41] So the aforesaid venerable man, the first founder of that same church, having entered the way of all flesh (who, as though living in the same body, even dead, left to posterity his image as an example of himself), there succeeded to him departing in the burden of Pastoral care, that he might spiritually raise up the seed of his brother, the venerable Father Richard; noble by race, whom his successor Richard but nobler by the nobility of his manners, from the very time of his childhood bound to regular discipline in the religious monastery of Bec. He, of his predecessor, the first founder of the church, both holding the place and the office, and imagining in himself the example of good operation, as though he aspired to a mirror set before his face to contemplate; began to sweat over the construction of the begun work, applied his zeal, and that the most laborious work might more quickly be consummated, gave all the effort he could and as much as was permitted. striving to complete it, But through the envy of the ancient enemy, who over-sows tares and disturbs concord, a controversy having arisen between him and Henry the King of the Angles, the work was for a while intermitted, not abandoned. For because he was unwilling to render undue things in unjust exactions and burdens to Caesar, except what are Caesar's; that what are God's, he might render to God; it behooved the same venerable man, oppressed by the King, to go to Rome, and in the presence of the venerable Pope Paschal, who at that time presided over the Roman Church, to make known the cause of his necessity. By whom received into favor, and held in great veneration, obtaining what he had asked: fortified with the privileges of Apostolic authority, against the envy and malice of the assailants, and received into the favor and benevolence of the King, to the monastery of Ely, with great gladness both of those receiving and of the one received, he was restored. He, having experienced Blessed Etheldreda most merciful in his necessities, of his work, made it the most beautiful in the whole kingdom, begun by his predecessor, was by no means forgetful; but that he might more studiously press on to complete that work, and give himself only to this work, he applied all his zeal spiritually: and with such fitting form and size, as much as he could while he lived, he built the church begun by his predecessor: and how the Abbot was aided by God's help in his vows, so that, if fame envy not, and (as being lying) by the just title of truth not detract from the truth, in that same kingdom, among all churches, whether anciently built, or renewed in our time, by a certain composed order, and by the privilege and grace of subtle artifice, by beholders deservedly it may seem to be preferred.

[42] Here let it be permitted me to interpose and explain how also under such a Bishop no small increase accrued: Its various increases, for Hugh of Northwold, ordained in the year 1229, built a new work of the church toward the East from the foundations, which is called the Presbytery: which work indeed he completed in 17 years: about which work he spent five thousand pounds and 350 pounds, 18 shillings, 8 pence, besides robes. He also established anew a wooden tower toward the Galilee, that is the porch, (commonly Galerie Gallery) of which see Cangius. Godwin reduces the aforenoted expenses to the value of French gold pieces 16950. together with a new tower Then in the year 1321 there fell the tower above the choir, of which fall it is treated below in the Analecta to the miracles, number 172: for which, when a new and ampler one was built from the foundations, and led up to the upper story over six years— [I have pleased to reproduce both here, together with an indication of the monastery adjacent to that same side; on whose Northern part Simon de Langham, in the year 1361 consecrated Bishop, dedicated a new parish church of the holy Trinity; that hence you may understand the monastery stood between the greater Cathedral, and the lesser Parish church. These things interjected,

I return to the old history, which thus proceeds.]— led up; there was begun, upon the aforesaid stone work, that artificial wooden structure of the new bell-tower, imagined with the highest and wonderful genius of mind, on which over twenty years are said to have been spent 2046 pounds, 6 shillings, 11 pence. But whether it burned by fire, or by some other chance fell away, I do not ascertain; now certainly with the stone tower alone it stands, supported by eight columns of greatest mass, at which the church spreads itself into a cross. Likewise above another greater tower which rises after the propylaeum forecourt of the church before the gate, it seems to have been erected on high of far greater mass but of wood, in whose place, after the fire of the year [13]4, and another ampler one. of which among the Miracles number 32, was placed that spire which is now seen. There was then, when the former tower fell, the Bishop Simon de Montacute, and in that very year he had laid the first stone of the new chapel of St. Mary in the Northern part of that church: which work, with how much labor, expense, and elegance, over 28 years and 13 weeks, a certain simple Monk continued, is fully described in the History; and is represented in the Schematic drawing of the Northern side, An iconography of the whole work. which the Monasticon Anglicanum exhibits to us, together with the Southern side, lest the piety toward the church of Ely (says the Author published in 1655) and the magnificent structure of the same, now soon to be buried in its own ruins, should not become known to posterity.

[43] So Abbot Richard, desiring with the utmost desire, and deliberating in his time to translate the most sacred body of the most sacred Virgin, from the old church into the new, from a small into a greater and more beautiful one; remembering that Joseph too had translated his father's body, for greater reverence, from Egypt into the land of Canaan; lest so illustrious a lamp and lantern should lie hidden under a bushel, but, as though placed upon a candlestick, under the presence of witnesses and the frequency of peoples, should become known to all and shine; he appointed a day, namely the sixteenth b day before the Kalends of October, on which her first translation also, he chooses the 16th of September as together with the new one, might be celebrated. So the man of great and liberal spirit, to corroborate this solemnity with solemn and most pontifical authority, first the venerable and most religious man, Anselm the Metropolitan of Canterbury, with the reverence which was due and became him, invited; St. Anselm and many Prelates being invited to it, that, for the debt of his office, joining to himself from his suffragans those whom he judged more religious, as many as he wished, he himself would deign to exhibit his presence, very many men of Pontifical dignity and Order being also invited, and Abbots, and religious Monks and other ecclesiastics, to the highest Pontiffs, if not in dignity, in merits not undeservedly to be equaled, not to say preferred. There were invited by him both the Nobles of the kingdom and the Optimates, and the Nobles. that they might come to so joyful a festivity, and with those rejoicing might themselves also rejoice. But some being occupied with either private or public business or necessities, some destined by the divine providence, and apt and very necessary for accomplishing such and so great a matter, most devoutly flocked together; among whom the praiseworthy man Herbert Bishop of Norwich, Adelwin of Ramsey, Richard Abbot of St. Alban's, Gunther of Thorney, Wydo Abbot of Pershore, Nicholas Archdeacon of Lincoln, Geoffrey Treasurer of Winchester, and innumerable other men of great honesty and authority. These, approaching the tomb So a procession being orderly arranged, to the tomb of the holy and reverend Virgin they reverently approach, most white of Parian marble, as became virginal whiteness. In this, once prepared for her by Angelic services, and by divine grace offered to those seeking, her most blessed sister Queen Sexburga, in which for 16 years from death her body had been laid incorrupt, after sixteen years of burial, having found her most solid clod body, in whole body and garments milky and undefiled, with clamorous wonder and praise-resounding blessing to heaven, laid [her] up: whence now this accrued to her for greater glory, that no one presumed to open her tomb, no one to inspect [it]. For once, the Pagans bursting into this place, one made a hole, who soon was deprived of his eyes and his life; afterward a rash Presbyter as it were Provost of the monastery, and which no one had touched with impunity; into that hole thrusting a split twig by twisting it into a fold, drew out part of the garment, and with greater madness cut it off, which suddenly the hand of her lying within with vigilant indignation drew back to herself. The tempter still added to send in a candle fixed to the twig, but the candle, falling upon the sacred body, wholly burned up, and injured nothing; but the presumer with his house perished. These things too, since in the miracles of that same Virgin they are more fully set out, let us return to the narration.

[44] At last with immense devotion they take up the sacrosanct body of the Virgin, they translate her from the former place carrying it out of the old church from the place to which she had been translated… and where the most blessed Sexburga had placed [her]; where also the Venerable Father Ædelwold, afterward, restoring and renewing the destroyed church, left it most certainly untouched, unmoved, and unbeheld, not lying hidden under the earth but eminent above, as he found it; whence now also into the church with praises and songs they bear it. So the Spouse of the Lord Ætheldreda was translated into the new temple, untouched and unbeheld; and with the worthy praise of one singing psalms, to another [tomb prepared for her behind the altar,] behind the authentic altar, a chamber being prepared, placed. At last, as was fitting, a sermon being held to the people about so great a Saint, and in so great a solemnity, and the venerable Bishop Herbert, a most eloquent man, about the life and death and miracles of the blessed Virgin, and the admirable incorruption of her sacred body, exhorting the people to a sign of the highest joy and gladness for the things which were done in the tabernacles of the just; there was no one in so great a multitude who, suffused with heavenly grace, would or could restrain himself from tears. But this only, of the many things which happened in the translation, to the eternal memory of the most sacred Virgin Queen Ætheldreda we shall report, which innumerable of the faithful still surviving, and our Fathers who saw and were present, narrated to us, whose report and authority of life and honesty of manners has instructed us, that of the fact no one may distrust. not without miracles, For then are renewed the ancient miracles, which are read to have happened by the intervention of the blessed body of Stephen the Martyr. For there were made thunders of a tempest, and such lightnings, that almost all the windows of the church were broken by the horrid strokes, and frequent fires fell upon the pavement before the holy bodies: and it was wonderful that fire fell without the effect of its nature; and changed its quality, among wood and straw and the other dry materials, so that whatever of this kind fell into the church remained harmless. This indeed a great miracle, that Saint working it, and with a vast crash of heaven: so happened; that, according to the opinion of some, by a heavenly terror she showed that it displeased her to be so publicly handled; and yet in this her indignation, that no one might be injured, at her nod the signs of heaven served.

[45] Rare therefore was anyone there, whose thought did not bid him stretch forth something great by these things, whose horror on one side he feared to see, on the other rejoiced to escape. Anselm too, the Archbishop, far placed in Kent, seeing heaven shaken with so great a crash; I know, he said, that our Brother Richard, because it displeased the Virgin for her face to be beheld. Abbot of Ely, today has translated his Saints, and irreverently handled them; nor do I doubt that this intemperance is a token of a sorrowful omen. Nor did his judgment deceive him; for rare of those who were then present and had beheld holy Etheldreda face to face, passed a whole year. Wherefore, dearest Brothers, by you, who not momentarily but continually recall the memory of so great a Virgin, in the sight of the presence of the sacred body, justly and holily; both we must pray and more attentively entreat, that he deign to suffuse us and you with the dew of his supernal grace, who, for the thirsting people, made water flow from the rock in abundance, Moses striking [it], to whom be praise, honor, and glory through all the ages of ages.

[46] So Ætheldreda the Virgin being decently placed, as a chief one, opposite the greater altar; the leader of so great a flock, Richard, with the elders communicated to the Church, that on the same day now a second time, c on which first the translation of the blessed Virgin Ætheldreda had been made, Sexburga's translation preceding; on the 17th of October are translated the bones a translation should also be made of the holy women resting there. And opening the sepulchres of the mother and daughter, which St. Æthelwold had sealed with lead on either part, namely of Sexburga the holy Queen, and of the praiseworthy and celebrated Ermenilda, by the prerogatives of so many proclamations, they find their clods bodies, after the manner of the human condition, of Saints Sexburga & Ermenilda. to have decayed, and to their mother earth to have paid their tributes. So finding in a clean shroud the body of Blessed Sexburga, separately the bones, and separately the dust, both alike in single shrines made of wood, in a stone monument, as the blessed Æthelwold had left it, toward the East at the feet of St. Ætheldreda they solemnly laid them; but the Relics of the most holy Ermenilda, on the bare pavement of the sepulchre, without covering, the Abbot found so laid by Blessed Æthelwold: which also collecting in a most clean cloth, and the dust by itself wrapping, he placed in her former mausoleum; and to the South, at the right of St. Ætheldreda, with no dissimilar diligence he placed [it]; and again sealed each mausoleum with lead… d But the Saints were translated in the year of the incarnate Word one thousand one hundred six, on the day on which once Blessed Ætheldreda was translated, namely with most decent ordering; that of all there might be one solemnity, of whom there was one faith, one Christ, and one charity. f

Here the pious Virgin Ætheldreda asks her wedded Duke That he would now permit her to be called the Spouse of Christ. Here the King promises the Pontiff gifts for his consort, If he can join her to himself in sacred marriage. The Prelate brings the King's commands to the blessed Etheldreda; She says: Let him yield me to serve Christ. This the Queen with the Prelate asks of her lordly Duke: Who, though unwilling, consents, and sorrowful even at these things. When the Virgin perceived the King's desired edict, She seeks this temple, accompanied by virginal troops. Here the Queen is consecrated to the supernal God as Spouse, Despising the vain pomps of the kingdom with her husband. expressed in paintings in the old church. The blessed Virgin comes to the peoples accompanying [her] at Elge, After these things to be consecrated Abbess to the blessed flock. The bountiful one, powerful in sacred merits and perennial honor, The comely Ætheldreda had built this citadel of the temple. The undefiled flesh of the bountiful Virgin is now beheld, Though buried for four times four years. The Physician wonders at the wound healed in the throat. The venerable body is borne to the temple of the Virgin, These walls of the sacred temple retain the mausoleum Of the untouched Virgin, over whom she presided seven years, And this people, beholding the miracles, glorifies God. May praise and honor remain to the Lord Christ through the ages.

ANNOTATIONS D. P.

a The Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy was reduced to a Tetrarchy and at last converted into a Monarchy in the time of Alfred, King of both Saxons and Angles, both Eastern and Western, the Kings of the Mercians being extinguished in the year 875, and in the following year those of the Northumbrians. b Since that day, the 16th of September in the year 1106, under the course of the Dominical letter G, was the Sunday 19th after Pentecost, because Easter had been on the 25th of March.

to have been subscribed to paintings representing her Life in parts, before the renovation of the Church; as making no mention of the second translation: nay, because they are not rhythmic, I would dare to opine that they were made before the Danish incursions, and perhaps not long after the first translation.

THE MIRACLES OF ST. ETHELDREDA

Authored by the same Thomas, Monk of Ely. From the same Douai copy. Etheldreda the Queen, Virgin, Abbess of Ely in England (St.)

BHL Number: 2638

BY THOMAS, FROM A MANUSCRIPT. PROLOGUE.

[1] Since the royal and prophetic mouth, the organ of the Holy Spirit sounding, says; Praise the Lord in his Saints, for wonderful and glorious he works wonders in them; great need we have of constancy and necessity of mind, that we may most ardently love their manners and life, Because it befits us to imitate the Saints,

by loving most devoutly venerate, by venerating most studiously imitate; for then in them we shall be able worthily to praise the omnipotence of the divine Majesty, now aided by the mercy of brotherly sweetness, we shall merit to respond to their just acts by the betterment of our conversation. Psalm 150; Ecclesiasticus 15:9. For since, as Scripture says, praise is not comely in the mouth of a sinner; how can we proclaim worthy praises to God, we who, the narrow path of rectitude forsaken, through the snared and wide spaces of the tortuous ways, leading to the deep pit of precipitation, by the true correction of manners, still daily run about? we who to the dire wounds of sins apply no fruitful medicine of penance; but, the gore already flowing, delightfully in them almost rot away? Accordingly from the spacious and death-bearing paths of this field, to the narrow track, by which the end is reached to its proper goal, let us irreversibly pass over; and the wounds of our crimes, salutary medicines diligently applied, let us strive perfectly to cure, and, holding in our hands burning lamps, as we said above, through all the footsteps of the Saints let us labor to follow; that both we may be able to become fit to render the due praises to almighty God; and to their society in the heavens, whom we imitate on earth, after the course of mortal life, we may merit to attain. Whose virtues and signs, and therefore it helps to read their miracles; which for the most part are wont to lift up the minds of hearers from the lowest to the highest, most diligently, if they are not in our keeping, we ought to inquire into; and, found, lest they slip from memory, most sagaciously to insert in books, and them, by the zeal of frequent reading, vigilantly to lay up in the cabinet of our breast; nor yet to confine them within domestic walls, but to the praise and glory of the deity and to the edification of posterity to publish far and wide: that, while anyone shall have learned that, by so many rays of signs, the merits of the preceding Just ones shone, from their imitation the prosperities of the world, which are full of bitterness, with all the solicitude of the heart they may reject and trample, and to the sweetness of eternal life with thirsting breasts unfailingly pant.

[2] Wherefore, although we are slow in genius, unlearned in eloquence, the Author proposes to collect the deeds as if compelled by the command of brotherly charity, nay, by the help of the holy Breath, who blows and abundantly the waters flow from the dry, having great confidence, the illustrious and stupendous distinctions of miracles, which through the venerable and glorious and perpetual Virgin Etheldreda, most noble and most powerful Queen of the Angles, after her most holy passage from the valley of Jericho to Mount Sion, at the tomb of St. Etheldreda: at her saving tomb, the divine power cooperating, were wrought, are read in the old documents; a new style dictating, we have sweated to commend them to new pages; lest with age at length they too perish in oblivion. But we believe that there were many more than are found, which either by the negligence of the torpid writers of that age, were by no means committed to letters; or, described, perished among the rest, the rage of the Pagans depopulating the churches and monasteries. But because not only from the excellence of a more abundant and more approvable life are the merits of any Saints to be weighed (for the virtue of merits precedes, which and how holily she lived, the heavenly operation of signs follows, the faith of those asking aiding: which if they be not, yet there will not therefore be no merits, which merits without doubt can be without miracles; but miracles by no means without merits) how justly and holily, how piously and humbly this notable Queen and most devout… Handmaid of Christ lived, how, wonderful, nay, of virginal modesty not only of the flesh, which is of many; but also of the mind, which is of few, with integrity, not without the strong persecution of a hidden martyrdom, under the wings of the Lord protected, she perpetually flourished, is clear from the writings of Bede, from the words of the venerable Bede the Presbyter, a man on all sides most learned, anyone, even ignorant, will be able evidently to recognize: who briefly the sum of her life, which no darkness of vices could interpolate, and the splendor of the divine light irradiated, in prose speech most clearly described; and subjoined a hymn of virginity composed in elegiac meter, by which her, sprung from chaste seed and royal lineage, with great and sweet-sounding praises, for the unfading flower of continence both spiritual and corporal, he loftily extols.

[3] For what, in the sanctity of life, is more pleasing and more delightful to the grace of the Creator of all mortals, witnesses of her exceptional virginity, what to the Angelic and all the choirs of the heavenly Court more familiar and delightful, what among all the degrees of virtues more excellent or perfect than the twin purity of virginity? If yet it be supported by the aids of the other virtues, for nobility is kin to dignity, and glory to holy virginity; itself, fortified by spiritual protection, the flame-vomiting and death-bearing fiery arms of raging lust powerfully shatters and grinds; and itself, prevented by the love of the immortal King, with the muddy and truculent princes of general uncleanness warlikely fighting, in sweat carries back the victorious signs to its Author. Virginity, as the trumpet of one of the Apostolic [men] most clearly sounds, is the queen of all virtues, the possession of all good things, the trophy of faith, the victory over enemies, and the security of eternal life. Blessed therefore will he be who, reaching its citadel, the other virtues supplying [aid], can be cast down by no machinations. This, the renowned aforesaid offspring of King Anna, from the very rudiments of infancy, kindled with the fire of divine fervor, and betrothed with the ring of the heavenly Spouse, embracing it with all her desires; even amid the very fellowships of nuptial unions (which is wonderful to say) with inflexible firmness of mind, kept with a double spouse. to the end and humbly adorned with the rest of the virtues, preserved [it]: nay, the King, God, the Son of God the Father, desiring her beauty, introduced her into his ineffable marriage-chamber; where with a hundred forty-four thousand virgins, in most sweet harmonies of consonant melody, she ever modulates a new song.

[4] Nor let it seem incredible to anyone that through so many courses of revolving years, bound by the lawful bonds of matrimony, she remained an undefiled virgin: because indeed the virtue of the omnipotence, which protected three boys of the Jewish race unharmed from the flame-vomiting and horrible fires of the furnace, kept this one too untouched from the heats of carnal ardor. Her flesh, afterward incorruptible, testifies that she is truly a perpetual Virgin: To which the integrity of the body too attests, the precious linens too testify, which surround her sacrosanct body, which thus to this day remain new and whole, as at that hour in which they were wrapped about the Virgin's members. Whence it is plainly given to be understood, that with the incomprehensible grace of the Redeemer of the world, who deigned to be born of a virginal womb, no virtue is more pleasing and more excellent than virginity; which, by the gift of heavenly clemency, after death keeps the flesh free from every stain of corruption. So, beholding diligently and admiring the illustrious height of the manners and life of such and so great a Virgin and Queen, according to the affection of our mind let us magnificently venerate [her], and by venerating, if by the flower of virginal chastity we are not able, at least by the continual mortification of vices let us imitate [her]; that in her, who prepared herself a pleasant dwelling for the Holy Spirit, we may be able to proclaim with worthy praises the greatness of eternal piety, and to ascend to the blessedness of the heavenly kingdom; for which, the summit of earthly rule with corruptible riches as refuse despising, she sought a monastery; and there, casting off white or purple or many-colored silken garments, woven with shining gems, with a dark and cheap garment, consecrated to God she covered herself: whence now, joined to the fellowships of the Saints, she enjoys a robe of inestimable brightness, crowned with the unfading laurel of beauty. O how happy, how joyful are those exchanges, by which, for things perishing, things ever abiding, for earthly things, heavenly things are heaped up!

[5] But now, because too great an utterance of words is wont to bring weariness to hearers, The conclusion of the Prologue. let us close our preamble, such as it is; committing this little work of our mediocrity to teachers and upright intellects, and suppliantly entreating, that, attentively examining it, whatever they find superfluous or gaping, they cut away and supply, approve and defend; lest from our sweat the tooth of ever-barking envy have matter whence, gnashing and cackling, it may be able to mock our simple understanding. But certain things being premised, we have placed that at the very front of the narration of the first miracle, how, the Pagans invading and desolating the monastery, which in the famous island of Ely, in the year of the Lord's Incarnation six hundred three, this clear lamp of the Angles, and most bright gem of the Virgins of paradise, had built, a certain one of them, for the unspeakable rashness of his contumacy, struck by heavenly wrath, perished. a So, an end being given to such a preface of ours lacking the charm of words, let us begin with the beginning of those things which follow.

a The punishment of the Barbarian violating the sepulchre, prolixly narrated in book 1, number 85, here seems to be promised, and perhaps was written, but omitted by the transcriber. * Is it the trumpet of St. Gregory?

CHAPTER I.

A Monk cured of a fever: injuries inflicted on the church several times avenged.

[6] Manifold is the necessity of sinning, a which no one placed in this frail life will be able fully to avoid. For from the time the transgression of our first parent introduced the stain of corruption into our pristine incorruption; To human proclivity to sin, the very necessity of sinning is somehow turned for us into a nature, the grace of not being able to sin reserved to him alone who received the fullness of the spirit beyond measure, and of whose fullness we all rejoice to have received, to whom, and to him alone, befits that Prophetic saying; Who did no sin, and guile was not found in his mouth. 1 Peter 2:22. It is necessary, therefore, that man, either from his frail condition, or from the manifold snare of the ancient serpent, sometimes by sinning succumb, and it is necessary [and] inevitable. For we feel (as the Apostle says) in our members a law, resisting the law of our mind, and the Angel of Satan does not cease to buffet us. Romans 7:21. But that amid so many perils of suspected death, the whirlwind of despair may not involve us, to the defect of our weakness no small consolation the divine mercy conferred. For if from the pit of perpetrated crime, rising again through penance, we stand, we ought in no way to despair of mercy in our misery; the remedy of penance comes to the rescue: but rather to raise the edge of our mind confidently in hope of the desired salvation. Which two, namely the fear and reverence of God, how acceptable to the divine piety, and how effective of our salvation they were, was shown from heaven to a certain man.

[7] For it happened that a certain monk of the monastery of Ely, Azo by name, was grievously ill: to whom, a sick Monk wishing that time for doing it be given him, who, the matter of the disease growing strong, is led to the cell of the infirm, and become incapable of himself, began to lie down. At length the heat of the infirmity so by degrees boiled in him, that the strength of his pristine vigor the force of the pain utterly destroying, left him no hope of recovering health. He held it therefore in doubt, lest perhaps his day of death should be at hand, by which from this dwelling he should be transferred to his homeland: for he knew the necessity of death, which was lacking to no mortal, to be imposed as much on himself as on all. Of which hour, however uncertain, now as if certain of the effect, he referred it to the opinions of his mind by frequent meditation. But because he distrusted his own merits, he suppliantly implored for himself the suffrage of the blessed Virgin Ætheldreda, he invokes the Saint; that for his life a space of milder penance, which by his own impotence he had not merited to obtain of himself, by the intercession of so great a mediatrix with the divine clemency he might obtain. So placed in great anxiety both of mind and of body, while on this side by the goads of thoughts, and on that of pains, he was miserably driven; the slumber of a little rest crept upon him. And behold a certain matron, praiseworthy with sober beauty, standing by him, thus addressed the languishing one. Dost thou, she said, son, know me?

To whom he, partly trembling at the novelty of the unwonted vision, By no means, he said, Lady. and is ordered by her appearing, To whom she: I, she said, am Ætheldreda, whom a little before, in the trial of so great a tribulation, thou didst invoke for thy protection; who, according to what thou hadst asked, went to God for thee as a mediatrix: through whom to thy body, the heat of the fevers being gradually extinguished, thy pristine health in a short time will be restored. Certain admonitions, therefore, to my dearest sons I will transmit by thy service, in which I grieve with maternal piety that their accustomed devotion toward me and the Lord has gradually grown torpid. Whence, therefore, also with this persuasion in my stead address them, that at least to the service of God henceforth with fear and reverence, devoted, they may apply themselves; and so over those things which they shall know to be expedient for them, let them not, I say, beseech me as those about to ask, but, with a certain authority of one commanding, with firm hope of obtaining, confidently command. to admonish others to place their confidence in her, and he recovers. These things heard, then, from the sleep by which he was held, he immediately awakes: to whom, recovering more and more day by day, his pristine health, according to the oracle of the divine voice, is restored entirely. So putting away all the obstinacy of a stubborn mind, and to the vital admonitions of so great a mother filially obeying, in the service of God and of her, the sacrifice of our devotion let us season with fear and reverence, without torpor. For truly, without the cooperating grace of God, in no good of the soul can the human mind profit: and therefore it is worth the trouble to invoke the suffrage of the divine piety and of our aforesaid patroness; that what by our own virtue we do not attain, by the aiding merit of so great a Virgin and the divine grace bestowing it, we may merit to obtain. b …

[8] When long the nation of barbarians, coming from Denmark, devastated England everywhere with arms and burnings; at last, the divine clemency providing, it failed in strength, and to its native soil was at some time compelled to return, King Edgar being dead, who had expelled the Danes, and to leave the occupied places, especially in the days of the venerable King Edgar; to such a degree that, if any residue were found, either it was cut down by swords, or oppressed by various torments. By the precept and authority of this King the holy Pontiff Æthelwold brought back and reformed the monastery of Ely into its ancient religion, and enriched the place with possessions obtained both by purchase and by acquisition. and had had Ely restored, He also procured the village of Dunham, which is a most fertile village and very near the monastery. First he agreed for two hides with Leofric and his wife Siffleda for fifteen pounds at Cambridge; and through Leoffwin a Monk of the Church and Provost, he paid before several witnesses. Meanwhile King Edgar put off the man i.e. died; he being dead, the aforesaid Leofric, an enemy of God and deceiver of men, and his wife, made void all the pact made with the Bishop, and sometimes offered to the Bishop and Abbot Brithnod part of the money, he who had sold Dunham, which they affirmed to have received from him, but sometimes denied that they owed him anything at all, and so they thought to recover by guile the land… which they had sold: but the church in all things with its witnesses always convicted them.

[9] So when, in that season in which the King, as we said, had died, they long put us off and wearied [us]; and by unjustly reclaiming it hindered it from being cultivated, no one within a very long space of time either plowed that land, nor sowed in it, nor in any way cultivated it: and so all cultivation went to ruin. So God, seeing with how great injuries and how great tribulations that seducer afflicted his servants; had mercy on their labor, by whose mercy the holy Church of Ely recovered what it unjustly lost: for as in the psalm it is written: The just cried out, and the Lord heard them, and delivered them from all their tribulations. While these things were done, and that wretched man trusted to retain more freely and more securely the holy Church's property taken away, and the right of holy Ætheldreda, and ceased not to afflict the servants of God; by divine vengeance blazing up, basely and miserably he perished in revenge of the Virgin of Christ: he basely perishes. and is fulfilled in him that which is read in Solomon; The just shall rejoice, but the impious shall fall into evil. Psalm 33:18; Proverbs 24:16 These things from the book of lands, which book they call the book of St. Ædelwold, c we have received, that those who shall read or hear this, may dread to alienate or diminish the goods of the holy Virgin Ætheldreda, for judgment had whoever did such things.

[10] Another miracle follows, which, though of similar circumstance, The same dared by another at Brandon, yet of dissimilar outcome is proved to have happened. But our Brothers were present and most certainly knew the matter, and composed it in English in the said book of holy Ædelwold, but now, changed into Latin, we desire to bring it to the knowledge of all; and for the caution of many, if it be attentively heard, we believe it should be narrated. But at a certain time, when the coroners d of England had gathered at London; a certain Withgar, with goods and possessions not moderately enriched, offered to Bishop Æthelwold for sale five hides at Brandon and Hivermere. Which when the Bishop and Abbot had heard, they gave him for the land twenty pounds; fifteen then before the testimony of many venerable [men], but a hundred shillings they sent him afterward through the aforesaid Leofwin Provost of the Church, and Wine of Wincheford a most approved man: who gave him the same money at Brandon, before the testimony of the whole Hundred in which that land lies. But in that season, in which King Edgar departed from this life, a certain Ingulf by name, by force and unjustly took Brandon from God and holy Ætheldreda. O wretched and unhappy man, not long, as thou thinkest, wilt thou be able to retain what thou plunderest; and thence the more quickly art thou to pay most grievous penalties: for it is written, There is no wisdom, there is no prudence, there is no counsel against God. Proverbs 21:30 he is similarly punished: For that the virtue of God and the merit of the blessed Virgin might be made manifest, from that day on which he thus invaded the church's property, he tasted nothing of food or drink: for his heart was breaking without delay: and so it came about that he who, living, had unjustly seized what was God's, dying could not retain it; but lost himself and it together with his life.

[11] But his wife and his sons, he being dead, invaded the same land likewise; but just as they gave no honor to God nor to blessed Ætheldreda, likewise his wife and children, nor spared their own souls; so divine vengeance blazed up against them, and within one year all miserably perished. Then Siward, Brother of Ingulf, groaning exceedingly at their destruction and guarding against [it] for himself, began to dread the judgment of the Lord, and although against the will of very many, and especially against the will of Egelwin, surnamed Alderman, that very land he offered to holy Ætheldreda and freely relinquished; and concerning these things is well fulfilled what in Proverbs is read: The house of the impious shall be destroyed, the tabernacles of the just shall flourish: but the Lord destroyed the house of this impious man, so that his seed shall not remain forever in his sight, because he had hated the holy Church and the most blessed Ætheldreda without cause. Proverbs 14:11 But God the inspector and judge of all, who reckons the injuries of his own and his benefits, and many others injurious to the Saint. showed that the evil received losses thence, whence they thought advantages would come to them, as in this one it became openly known. But not only this one, but (to say more truly, and as is widely clear to all) whoever of the region, whether prince or powerful, diminished or alienated that same place in dignity or in goods, from the time the Virgin Ætheldreda was taken from the prison of the flesh, were most direly tormented in body, and are proved always to have ended their life with a wretched end. These things are stupendous and exceedingly to be feared: for let no one doubt or mock what we narrate, so as to intend to perpetrate the like; but rather, punished by the pressures of others, taught, let him learn not to offend the Virgin of God by injuries, but to please [her] by services.

ANNOTATIONS G. H.

there followed two Chapters, on the restoration of the monastery and the privilege of King Edgar, which I have transferred hence to book 2 of the history of Ely, for the sake of more convenient order.

c Of this book the Prologue to book 2 of the History treats, where also consequently we read the ample history of this controversy; and how the widow of Leoflu Leoflin when dead, was compelled to compensate the injuries inflicted, the Bishop mercifully remitting part.

CHAPTER II.

A possessed man freed; the mute given speech; the vexers of the Monks punished.

[12] To these things, Brothers, Christ the Lord works so often the distinctions of his works through his Saints, that the faith of hearers may profit from hearing, and ardent affection may loose devout mouths into divine praises. Under Abbot Simeon Whence upon us, whose life and tongue Christ has delegated to his ministry, it is incumbent in the present either by our zeal to transfer his deeds into the knowledge of many, or vehemently to accuse our sloth before him. That, therefore, we may commend our memory before God, let us report what among us, who dwell in the church of Ely, he deigned to work. For while there presided over us the Abbot of holy memory Symeon, our company and place in manners and in walls profited not a little: discipline notably restored for, by reason of the following change of persons and the royal burdens, the place was grievously disturbed; and if anything of regular strictness, by reason of secular violence and the Ruler's absence, had grown tepid; that holy man, having obtained the office of Pastor, by devout solicitude reformed: and found among us a good flock, the good pastor, whose voice it hastened to hear, its quiet restored to it. And when toward its pastor the affection of the most humble flock breathed again, and the sacred Order flourished again in its cultivators; to so great alacrity the hand of the Lord was not lacking, but met the most glad workers with applauses of wondrous deeds. For when the place within and without profited by a double building, and now the intention of the father and sons sweated under the office of Martha and Mary; wonders began to be done before the citizens of heaven, a part of whom Father Symeon had brought from the Winchester Church, a part he had found at Ely.

[13] So the ancient enemy, seeing the concord of the Brothers conspired against him, the demon envying; and the bulwarks of virtues daily growing up against him, began to assail the walls of their manners with manifold cunning: and not easily finding by what he might enter, at last exercised this malice against the soldiery of Christ, so as to persuade a certain youth, Edwin by name, at first standing with silent thought at Compline, the youth led away from the choir before the Abbot and the rest, to go out of the choir, before the Office of that Hour was completed. Whom, going out while all were amazed, he immediately cruelly seized, turning his whole mind into fury, to such a degree that he struck his master Siteard, following him, with a seized board, he assails: unless the provident strenuousness of the man had opposed greater strength to him. Now there was one there of the Winchester Monks, a Godric by name, a man of great sanctity, and for his veneration brought to the Monks of Ely by the Abbot as an example of Religion. To him God frequently opened spiritual eyes, and by many revelations had made him illustrious, nor was it necessary, for any of his words, to seek another witness than his life; all knowing him to have as it were an enemy, a lying tongue.

[14] He therefore, as he afterward related, saw a certain mouse, like a boy, strongly holding the cowl of the youth with its hand, whom, by the Abbot's command and violently dragging him after itself: which the outcome of the matter proved to be a damned spirit. And without delay, the synaxis finished, the Abbot and Convent going out to the first entrance of the cloister, see the demoniac youth raging against all, threatening savage things, insulting with reproaches, and amid the arms of those restraining him, trying to injure some with blows of his feet and bites of his teeth. led to the Saint's tomb, But the Abbot, calling aside by his nod some of the elder and saner Brothers, briefly broke the nocturnal silence with a colloquy: We know not, he said, who can better aid him, than that Lady whose servant he is: to whom presented, he will, as we believe, quickly recover health. Go therefore, and under strict custody leading him, before the tomb of our Lady diligently watching, demand her suffrage. So the Brothers with the Brother, as fleeing to a mother, almost the whole night in expectation of the divine mercy kept vigil.

[15] But the youth, nay the demon in the youth, not bearing the presence of the sacred body, with greater horror for a while behaved himself, now crying out, now tearing his tunic with his teeth, he is freed by an evacuation, and not a little vexing those by whose diligence he was kept from his malignant acts. And so vexed, he passed the night, until, by the merits of that holy Virgin, he slept a little, recovered his senses, and after a little cast out his vexer through a foul evacuation: for after sleep the youth, come to himself, announced to his keepers, that he now was sound in mind and was for the rest wholly recovered, except that a loosening of the bowels tormented his intestines, and he needed a secret exit. Led therefore to the necessary place, he immediately suffered so great an effusion, as if all his entrails were pouring out: and after the fury of mind was cast out, with a horrible stench: so great a stench of the belly is cast out, that through all the nearest workshops scarcely was the air tolerable, the corrupted breath spreading through all corners, its smoke scarcely escaping anywhere: nor was that uncleanness less than the madness had been before; but each assault became equal in violence, the one in the excess of mind horrible, the other in the flux of the belly wonderful: as if that most wicked spirit either were wholly turned into dung, or carried the very latrines with itself, being cast out.

[16] But the servant of the Lord, freed by the hand of the Lady, to others as an example. such things about himself being narrated to him… was astonished, as if not knowing what he had done; teaching by his example, how great is the reverence of the sacred convent: whose presence the crafty tempter feared, for assailing the Brother; finding outside it the sheep, so the wolf assailed [it]. These things, that Brother bidding [us], we would [not] have written, unless it were feared that the occasion of tempting him be given to the malignant insidiator, and he should think it referred to his reproach, what is to be referred to the heavenly praise. Hence, therefore, the series of this narration measures its end, that among sound memories the power of holy Etheldreda may be honored, and the common prayer most devoutly frequented; and no Monk in the lawful hours stray outside the Convent; whose soldiery is so terrible to him, as a battle-line of camps set in order, for the adversary readily meets one everywhere; and if he find any little sheep wandering beyond the due limits, he violently assails it, exceedingly rejoicing.

[17] To this miracle succeeded another, which, heard, ought graciously to infuse divine gifts into benign minds, Two mutes, the Saint being invoked, this celebrated in a different manner, but with equal glory. Two from birth the human speech condemned to be mute: of whom one is called Ulf, the other Ælred; their conceived understanding they could not demonstrate by the office of the tongue, having an obstructed harmony of voice, and possessing their rationality not in the efficacy of voice, but in nature alone. Which also Dialectic defines of such persons: there was in them only the aptitude of reason, by which it says any man to be born apt for speaking, even if the faculty of speaking has never been present to him. And so, that to the aptitude the faculty might accrue, each of these, at a different time indeed, but with equal mind, came to the body of St. Etheldreda, with affections more than with voices, supplicating for the gift of voice.

[18] Nor was the Spouse of the Lord lacking to the holy devotion; but to the praise of Christ and her own, to Ulf she restored full eloquence; but to Ælred she willed human instruction to profit; and as boys are instructed by syllables to full speech, they are aided in different ways.

so that man, gradually taught human words, then expressed full reasonings.

In both, therefore, it was shown what our Saint could do, and what she willed, while in the one she signified how much she loved her servants, whose works she would choose as cooperating to complete the miracle. For she could with the utmost ease have restored the same in the same way to each, unless she had delegated this chief way of consulting to one of them: in which she also followed the Lord Savior himself, who, able to cure the eyes of the blind by speech alone, by a mystical dispensation preferred to reform them to the light with clay and spittle. Many other things too are of this kind, which attribute to this our Lady, in the quality of this deed, not power, but a similar dispensation.

[19] She acts to salutarily terrify others, Narrating the praises of the Lord, and his virtues, and the wonders which he did in holy Etheldreda, we have become a wonder to ourselves, who dare to invade so great matter, most worthy of rhetorical declamation or an angelic voice, with insipid elocution: but us in this matter consoles the simplicity of the Apostles, who, the Orators and Philosophers despised, were instituted to preach the faith of Christ and the salvation of the world; to whose teaching all discipline is subjected, lest in the wisdom of word the Cross of Christ be made void. Whence rather here let the faithful hearer attend to things than to words; and the sublime deed, which will be simply narrated, with his whole mind both venerate and revere. And though there be many documents which could repress those rashly invading the lands of the Saints and the minds of any powerful persons: yet especially in the unexpected and unheard-of death of Picot the Sheriff, it is plainly learned how salutarily to each his own be rendered; and, content with his own, let no one transgress the ancient bounds which his fathers set.

[20] To this Picot, then, by race a Norman, in mind a Getulian, c the County of Cambridge by chance had fallen. He obtained at last, a famished lion, which Picot the Sheriff of Cambridge a wandering wolf, a crafty fox, a muddy sow, a shameless dog, the food which he had long desired; and as though the whole County were one corpse, he claims the whole for himself, occupies the whole; and as though, an insatiable beast, about to transmit the whole into his belly, he admits no consort in his portion; not God, not an Angel, not any of the Saints, nor finally that most holy and most renowned Etheldreda, who had hitherto possessed very many lands or villages, by the donation and concession of former Princes, in that very County. He is approached several times by some, saying that it was not expedient for him to mutilate the portion of the Virgin, to diminish her liberty, to put his sickle into another's harvest; that he ought to be content with his own, mindful of the dog and the common proverb, lest while he wills the whole, he lose the whole. To whom he answered: Who is that Etheldreda, of whom you say that I have occupied her lands? I know not Etheldreda, and the lands I will not give up.

[21] pertinaciously detaining the Saint's lands, Dost thou hear this, Lord, and art silent? How long, O God, shall the enemy reproach? Not to us, Lord, not to us; but the enemy has reproached thee, Lord, and the foolish man has provoked thy name. Look upon thy testament, and forget not the voices of thy enemies, who said to possess the sanctuary of God by inheritance: for he said in his heart, God has forgotten: he has turned away his face, that he may not see to the end. Dost thou hear this, Lord, and art silent? Rise up therefore, Lord, and crush the arm of the sinner and the malign one: His sin is sought and is not found. Hear, O islands, and attend, O peoples from afar, what for the Lady of the Island of Ely her Spouse, the Lord of the whole earth, did. His sin is sought, he suddenly disappeared, and is not found. By whom sought? By him from whom nothing lies hidden. By whom is he not to be found? By no man at all, since today it is unknown whither he came, why he fled, or how it happened: whether with Dathan and Abiron he descended alive into hell, or with Nebuchadnezzar, made a beast, into destruction wholly departed, or in any other way, to be damned, perished without end. But one thing for certain we know, that in our borders he no more appeared, but for perpetuity wholly disappeared: to him be glory, who gave victory over the enemy.

[22] But that man, most wicked among the people, thinking to destroy the inheritance of the Lord, a minister of the same Picot, Gervase, as dust which the wind casts from the face of the earth, as we have prefaced, was taken from the midst. He alone imitated him who with all his unspeakable college fell from heaven into Tartarus: for he had followers of the mind of his heart. Among whom one filled with malice, ignorant of good, Gervase by name, an artificer of wrath, an inventor of crime, confounded right and wrong: to whom his Lord, the aforesaid Picot, as to one more faithful than the rest, for his depravity had committed the business of the whole Sheriffdom. He was very hostile to the men of St. Etheldreda; and as though he had undertaken a special war against her, he assailed all her possession with whatever burden he could. Whoever therefore, by any cause burdened by him, had set before him the name of the Saint, that he might press [him] more sparingly; him he bound, him he condemned, him he frequently called to a suit, him he cruelly handled.

[23] But the Abbot, bearing ill the daily complaints of his men, by the Saint invoked against him, ordered the Convent to sing seven psalms before the tomb of the holy Virgin, to obtain mercy from her. And without delay: the Abbot himself is called to a suit, and a day and place for holding the disputation are appointed. So while the Brothers were solicitous in prayer, the Abbot undertakes his journey. And now set on the way, he hears that the rebel pleader has ended his life by a wretched death. The series of which matter was thus, that on that night, on whose following day the Abbot was to come thither, St. Etheldreda, with her two sisters, in the manner of an Abbess, with a Pastoral staff, stood by him, most like one angry, and with a terrible voice in this manner rebuked him: Art thou that one who, my men, of whom I am patroness, me being despised, hast so often vexed, nor yet from the disquieting of my Church dost desist? Have therefore this for a reward, that others through thee may learn not to vex the household of Christ. and struck by her sisters in a vision, And she took the staff which she bore, and grievously its point in the place of his heart, as though about to pierce him through, inserted. Then her sisters St. Withburga and St. Sexburga with the hard goads of their staves pricked him.

[24] But he, with a terrible groan and a horrible cry, disturbed the whole surrounding household; all hearing him saying; Lady, have mercy. This heard, the servants run up, inquire the cause of the pain: there is an uproar around the one lying there: and he to them: Do you not see, he said, St. Etheldreda departing, how she has transfixed my breast with the point of her staff, her holy sisters doing the like? Behold, again to pierce me, he wretchedly expires. she returns; and now I shall die, when she has pierced me anew. And these things said, he expired. This being so completed, the household goes to meet the Abbot, the matter is narrated, the Abbot returns, and through the whole country the rumor is spread. There arises a fear of the Saint among all the neighbors, and for a long time no one of the Nobles, judges, Ministers, and of men of whatever power dared anything against the Ely possession, the holy Virgin manfully protecting her things everywhere. In which it appears how wonderful is God in his Saints, who lives and reigns through all ages of ages. Amen.

ANNOTATIONS D. P.

CHAPTER III.

The men of Ely experiencing the efficacious patronage of the Saint, a mortality calmed and a tower preserved from fire.

[25] To sing the mercies of the Lord forever, we are admonished by Prophetic words. Psalm 88:2 Whence, lest we be proved ungrateful for God's benefits, Of the Brothers brought from Winchester by Simeon, it befits us perpetually to praise and glorify him who mortifies and gives life, humbles and raises up; and in this matter, which though less learnedly we touch, his indignation and grace, his judgment and truth incessantly let us extol: for that what we narrate was done in the time of the aforesaid Symeon, the pious report of the faithful commends. He, contumeliously reproached by the Monks, because he unduly received the blessing from the Bishop of Lincoln, against the custom of the place (as we mentioned above); his wrath dissembled, not laid to sleep, when there he found a flock pious and good, and given to divine studies; thought he had done nothing unless he should commit the offices of the place to outsiders brought from elsewhere. And when this could in no way reasonably be done, he obtained from the King, that, corroborated by his authority, he should bring ten Monks from Winchester; to whom, as he thought, both exterior and interior ministries he subjected. Whence the church, having suffered inconveniences hitherto grievously, mourning, grieves, as is taught from what follows.

[26] But one of these, by name Godric… endowed with religion and piety, one excellent man, Godric, like a star shining among clouds, obtained the care of the Church for his veneration; and alone, in all things studying the divine will, not ferocity or domination, as is the manner of outsiders, savored the things of Christ, and continually served with vigils through the nights, with psalms and meditation through the days, wholly. But at the hour of a certain night, after the accustomed vigils of the Brothers, amid the very sighs of his heart and the frequent devout entreaties of prayers, when his aged limbs, dragging them too far from the due rest of the flesh, he wearied, his strength failed, and rather sitting than lying he slept, and to him, whether waking or in his sleep, such a vision was shown. Put into an excess of mind, he suddenly sees himself snatched into heaven. That what we narrate is true, as that Brother who had seen it, now surviving, declared, let it be doubtful to no one of the faithful. He saw, then, the venerable man, things very pleasant and worthy of memory, full of all joy; namely the mercies which the Lord did and showed to us. snatched into ecstasy,

But it is wont to happen that many great things, among men as it were not grave, are esteemed less cautiously and not to be corrected; meanwhile before the eyes of the judge, with how great subtlety of animadversion they are examined, that they were by no means light (as is gathered from this matter), but utterly displeased, by certain indications of things even from heaven sometimes is revealed. But the equity of the judge, while by our fault he is provoked to vengeance, the same one's goodness turns the strictness of severity into the mildness of gentleness: which Pope Gregory of holy memory insinuates, saying; The severity of the King the mercy of the Redeemer changed into mildness. Now let us hear how the matter was done.

[27] That man, on the highest throne of heaven, before the tribunal of the glory and majesty of God, he sees the Saint entreating against a plague threatened upon her monastery; as it seemed to him, is set: by whom stood the Queen, with starry brightness but groaning and anxious for her servants and sons, wholly poured out in prayers, suppliantly entreated the mercy of the Thunderer. Then at a distance he beholds a certain person, having a bow in hand with an arrow drawn, sent by the Lord toward the Church to strike: but moved by the prayer of his beloved Virgin, the merciful Lord, whom he had before directed to take vengeance, now ordered to be recalled. And immediately … recalled, he laid down the weapon from the slaughter. a These things seen, vehemently disturbed through sleep, he awoke; and pondering the order of the vision, with himself with a groan he turned it over; and understood it to have been sent for nothing but to disperse this one whom he beheld: about this too he believed he must supplicate God with tears, but many being seized by death or disease, that he who mercifully spared Nineveh, might not deny us pardon for our sin. At the same time several from the Monastery were snatched into the sleep of death, some grievously sickened; a great part of the brothers lay languid in the house of the infirm, now near to death through the languor of the body. Whence there arises a great fear in all, when they beheld a colleague either dead or dying before them; and, if anyone was pressed by the same plague, by mutual confession he hastened to wipe away the rust of his sin.

[28] And it happened, while thus expeditiously all vigilantly intended toward their salvation; while he also presses on with his own prayers, that, according to custom, the said Brother with grief and tears, for the salvation of the Brothers, and for the help of the place, utterly afflicted himself before God, until he obtained grace from God and the suffrage of Blessed Etheldreda. And while on the following night, ever-watchful in praying, untiring he stood by, such things in his sleep again he merited to behold. So the Lord added again to reveal to him his great works, and he saw, and behold, around the greater altar, where the bodies of the blessed Virgins lie hidden, lifting up his eyes, there as it were forms of human beings, in the appearance of women, rose from their tombs, clothed in the religious habit, bearing staves in their hands: which indeed he judged to be our holy Ladies, Etheldreda, Wythburga, Sexburga, and Ermenilda. he sees the same with her sisters comforting the sick, Thence proceeding through the choir into the Cloister, they thus came even to the house of the infirm. Following them with slow foot, he conceived to stay there for three or four hours. But that Lady and Advocate of ours, after God and his Mother the comfort and sole hope, like a Mother always bearing pious bowels toward her sons, around through the house went to the bed of each, the head with her hand to the pillow most sweetly touched, and with the edges of her cloak and the sleeve wiped away whatever of dust or squalor there was.

[29] who declared herself their Patroness, To these, returning by the same [way], he prepared to stand in their way, though timid: but, disturbed by the brightness of their faces, scarcely at last did he dare to proceed; and what they were, or what they then went round through the workshops, all in the peril of death laboring, that they might declare, suppliantly he asks. Of whom one, known well enough by yesterday's vision, preceding the others, as though dissembling, drew near to him, and with these words began to address him: I, whom thou beholdest, am Etheldreda, the mistress of this place: for your excesses before God an assiduous intercessor, whom amid the Choirs of the Blessed entreating the Majesty of God in the middle of the past night thou didst merit to contemplate: and now to the house of the infirm I have proceeded, with my beloved Sisters, in this plague of death together to bring them the aids of health. Which said, he himself leaped from sleep, all are found to have recovered together: and the heavenly vision disappeared. And behold it happened that all who languished from various infirmities, suddenly recovered; and those whose languor was like unto death, the merit of holy Etheldreda recalled all together to life. But in the morning the Abbot and scarcely a few escaping that peril, rising at dawn, hasten to the infirmary, where by the lot of death the sick were in peril: but now, by the grace of God, walking through the hall, glorifying God, for their safety and health, he beheld: and of whom late there was no confidence of breathing again, now wholly a remedy without diminution of strength is applied, better than before. Then they remembered the word which was said to them, of the Brother who had narrated the vision, wondering over all that had happened.

[30] Still something else happened, and this no less wonderful as a miracle. For the Abbot and the Brothers exceedingly desired the event of the matter, for a monument of chastisement, that it might become known to posterity, to be described. There was present then a certain Monk, Gocelin b by name, most eloquent; throughout England the lives, and the same night, ignorant of the matter, Gocelin, miracles, and deeds of the Saints, men and women, in Histories, in Prose, he set out by composing. But when that other one, by the will of God, the eye of his heart enlarged, penetrated the heavenly secrets; then this one, not indulging in the sleep of sloth, at the same moment and hour, about a Prose of Etheldreda, whose beginning is, "To Christ the King be glory," c by chance was intent; in which also is brought in a Verse, "She stands at the right, the Queen, a lofty intercessor, she gives these miracles to the earth." Which, by the divine inspiring will, still ignorant of the deed, he so figuratively received the miracle to be composed: and when he brought it forth in public, he writes a Prose about the Saint which is thereafter taken up to be sung, all gave thanks to God and holy Etheldreda; and thereafter, for the memory of her veneration, decreed the prose to be sung. In this whole matter three things to be remembered are seen; first, lest God and our Lord, provoked sometime by our evils, be compelled to punish: second, that, hoping in his mercy, we may not fail, neither in prosperities nor in adversities.

Third, that we may glorify him, who breathes as he wills, and on whom he wills, and as much as he wills. To him be glory through the ages of ages. Amen.

[31] But in these days William the Earl of Warenne, d The Abbot sees the soul of the robber dragged to punishment. violently detained certain villages and lands of Etheldreda from the Brothers of Ely: whence, often rebuked by the Abbot, and not corrected, he closed his day by a wretched death. And when this happened very far from the island of Ely, and the Abbot at night in the dormitory, meditating heavenly things, lay quiet, he heard suddenly the soul of the Earl, carried by demons, with a distinct and recognizable voice cry out: Lord, have mercy; Lord, have mercy. And immediately on the morrow in the Chapter, to all the Brothers he narrated what he had heard, and that that Earl was dead. He had certainly heard no others than rumors yet: but after the third or fourth day his wife, sending a hundred shillings for his soul to the Church of Ely, declared that to have been the very hour of his death, which the Abbot had indicated. But his hundred shillings, neither the Abbot nor any of the Brothers deigned or dared to receive, not thinking it safe to possess a damned man's money. But of his [kin] no one afterward existed, fearing or guarding against the fault of the damned kinsman: but on his plunders the more freely they think to cling, because the same evildoer robber possesses the goods of the Church and the Sanctuary of God in inheritance, so that with his wicked father he may mourn in eternal punishments, who claims the right of God and St. Etheldreda temporally and detains it for himself.

[32] So in the year of the Lord's incarnation one thousand one hundred eleven, from the passing of the bountiful Virgin Etheldreda four hundred thirty-second, The tower burning by lightning but from the beginning of the Bishopric the fourth, the night of the second day Monday now beginning, there were made great thunders and horrid lightnings even to the middle of the night; and the tower of St. Peter, which is situated at the gate of the Church of Ely, from its topmost summit, was kindled by the fire of lightning: but, the mercy of God coming to aid, and the merits of the Saints supporting, it was wonderfully snatched from the fire: wonderfully snatched, I say: because it is an unusual thing, that fire kindled from lightning was at any time also extinguished. For also the men who, to rescue the tower, in the midst of the flame had ascended by ladders, the beams and men are saved neither the seething fire, nor the glowing iron which they handled with bare hands, nor the lead dripping over their heads and backs, injured anything: some even held burning coals in their hands, nor were they burned. Let this fire be compared with the Babylonian fire, which, the frail materials being kindled, naturally produced harmful forces from the subjected fuels. This fire, fallen from the very firmament, a greater miracle than that of the Babylonian furnace. with a horrible crash and a powerful conflagration burned the forces of its nature, with a lightning-stroke vehemently flashing flame, consuming wood and metals, nor injuring men: but that one the Babylonian of so much inferior power, as heavenly things differ from earthly, which, through long intervals and dry materials, scarcely consumed, spared only three men, attesting its power indeed by a great miracle, but shown in a small number. But this fire, the beams rushing in, was made tractable, since it spared neither iron nor the very stones; nor now was the burning fanciful, but most true, which in solid materials and in firm bodies wrought opposite effects, in the one withdrawing what would harm. Let it please, therefore, in both cases the divine miracle and the virtue of God… let the whole succession of the age celebrate together, by which almost the like losses both the beams in the tower escaped, and the three men in the furnace.

ANNOTATIONS D. P.

did this after the year 1180, and so was one century younger than the one here treated of: yet it is to be seen whether many Lives ought not to be ascribed to this elder one, which otherwise would be ascribed to the younger. c It is to be wished that this Prose may emerge from elsewhere into the light. d Ethelred Abbot of Rievaulx, among the 10 writers of England, column 369, among the children of Matilda and the Pious King Stephen names William Earl of Warenne and Boulogne; and Simeon of Durham there, column 275, narrates how William de Waren the Earl, having set out with St. Louis to the holy war, in the year 1148 (rather 1147), who was observing the rear-guard of the Christian army, was intercepted by the Pagans and perished. These things indeed concern the same person: yet not the one here treated of, as being dead long before in England. e "Damned in soul," says the title of this Chapter: yet it can be doubted whether the soul, heard imploring the Lord's mercy, was snatched to more than the punishments of Purgatory. f But it is established that the Bishopric was erected in the year 1108, but the saint died in 679; the error of the copyist, therefore, was to be corrected, who for 1111 read 1109, and wrote it out at length "nine." g It seems that there fell out from the copyist an indication of the Sunday or Week, in respect to which here it is called the 2nd day Monday.

CHAPTER IV.

A captive loosed from his chains by Saints Benedict and Etheldreda.

[33] Still, in praise of the most blessed Virgin Etheldreda, recording a matter newly done, worthy of relation, In the year 1116 not undeservedly sweet to hearers, useful to those retaining it, perhaps profitable to those still not knowing it, we wish to make known. In the time of Henry King of the Angles, Duke of the Normans, in the sixteenth year of his reign in England, the tenth of his County in Normandy, the tenth in the Province of the Church of Ely, there was a certain man in the village which is called Catarich, by name Brithstan. He, in the whirlwinds of the world, as is the manner of men, born to adversities also, and in the same from childhood nourishment even to perfect age customarily brought up, by the shameful nets of the world then began more and more to be ensnared, a penitent usurer, to such a degree that from unhappy usuries was acquired, nor at all from elsewhere did nourishments for his sustenance come. In which shameful deeds when his life had very long been engaged, he fell into so great a sickness of his body, that at last he seemed near to death. And when he was held by so intolerable an infirmity for some time, inspired by divine grace (as the outcome of the matter proved), wishing by a vow to become a monk, he faithfully promised that he would consign himself, under the Monastic habit, to the holy Virgin Etheldreda in her monastery, as much as remained to him of surviving life. And without delay: all that he had collected into one and taken with him, desiring to fulfill his promise, he most devoutly went to the monastery of the Virgin, the Lord Hervey the Bishop of that place at that time governing the pastoral care; he asked mercy of the Monks, handing himself and his goods to their power.

[34] But, alas the grief! that wicked one, by whose envy Adam fell from paradise, will by no means cease to envy his posterity even to the last who is to come. But God, but hindered by a Royal minister, who mercifully and sweetly disposes all things, always, as it were, makes good out of evils and better out of goods. So a rumor being heard by many of the aforesaid man, desiring to take the habit of Religion; a certain minister of King Henry, but especially a servant of the devil, Robert by name, and surnamed Malanteis, following the teaching of his master, who always lies and deceives, came, and lest that man should put on the habit of Religion, by the Royal nod forbade [it]; saying, that he was a thief, that he had the King's money in robbery and was hiding it; and that, to escape the judgment and penalty of this crime, not for the cause of eternal salvation, he sought to become a Monk. he is accused by a calumny of embezzlement, What more? Sent at last under sureties, he is led to judgment, Ralph Basset sitting at the tribunal, all the provincials too being gathered at Huntingdon, as is the custom in England; there was present too the aforenamed Lord Hervey Bishop of Ely, with the Abbots Reynald of Ramsey, and Robert of Thorney, and also many Monks and Clerics.

[35] Not to protract it longer; that accused man is presented, the crimes falsely imposed on him are renewed: he did not deny the deeds done, what he had not done he could not confess. and he is condemned; On the contrary, of lying he is charged, derided, afflicted with reproaches. After very many insults inflicted on him without merit, as Susanna they prejudged him: he with all his possession is decreed to be handed to the power of the King. Then, bound under custody and led to London, he is thrust into a dark prison, and there bound strongly and contumeliously with iron chains heavy enough, he is constrained for no small time by the torments of hunger and cold for a long while. But placed in such misery, who, shut up in prison, according to his power and knowledge, so grave a necessity compelling, he asked the divine help to be present to him. But because his merits he believed to be very small, or, to say it better, none; he distrusted to obtain this of himself: St. Benedict, to whose precepts (as was said) he had vowed to subject himself; and St. Etheldreda the Virgin, in whose monastery he had foreseen he would do this same thing, with weeping heart and the voice he could, he incessantly called upon. So hence loaded and bound with iron, he invokes Saints Benedict and Etheldreda, hence tormented with cold, thence wearied with fasting, a wretched life—he who certainly would prefer to die than to live unhappily—for five whole months mourning in darkness he sustained; and seeing that no human help at all was present to him, St. Benedict and St. Etheldreda with continual groans, sighs, sobs, and sometimes tears, ruminating with heart or mouth, he ceased not to call upon.

[36] What more? On a certain night, when the bells through the city were rung for the nocturnal praises, and he in the prison, when amid the other straits he had for three continuous days abstained from all food; now almost failing with fastings, and utterly despairing of the body's restoration, repeated with a tearful voice the names of the aforesaid Saints. But God, clement and merciful, and by the same, appearing in a great light, who, the maker of all goodness, remains unfailing, who spurns no one placed in necessity, chooses no one for power or riches; at last to the groaning one showed his mercy, offered abundantly, and, for the augmentation of desire and that, obtained, it might be more loved, delayed. For there are present to him crying out St. Benedict and St. Etheldreda, with her sister Sexburga. He indeed, fearing that the unusual prevenient light, which preceded the Saints, was present; with his own hand opened his eyes: but the Saints coming with that light, St. Etheldreda thus spoke to him: Why, she said, Brithstan, dost thou so often beat upon us with tears? why dost thou move us with such great cries?

[37] He indeed, now weakened by fasting, when he had heard himself called by name, as if restored in an excess of mind, and filled with joy for so great a miracle, could answer nothing at all. Then the Saint, subjoining, says: I am Etheldreda whom thou hast so often invoked: here with me is present St. Benedict, under whose habit thou didst vow to serve God, and from whom thou hast many times sought help. Dost thou wish to be freed? Hearing this voice, his spirit revived, and as if waking from sleep, he said: My Lady, if in any way I can live, I would wish to go out from this execrable prison. But now I see myself so afflicted with various straits, that, all the strength of my body lost, I have no further hope of escaping. his fetters broken, he is freed, To whom the Saint; Not so, she said, as thou sayest, does the order of reason demand, but rather thee, granted life, in my church, as thou didst propose, I wish, thy whole surviving life, consigned to me. Then the holy Virgin, turning to Blessed Benedict; Come, she said, Lord Benedict, do what is commanded by the Lord. At these words the venerable man Benedict, approaching the man bound with fetters, put his finger into the iron ring, in the middle between the two fetters; and as if with a light effort drawing the fetters, them now broken by God's nod, from the feet of the bound man, he himself feeling nothing, drew off.

[38] But when he had removed them from him, from his hand, as if indignant, he cast them; the keepers roused by their sound, and a very great beam of the loft so strongly he struck, that by the sound of so great a stroke the keepers, who lay upon the loft, terrified, were awakened. Who, fearing that the bound had escaped, with lights kindled, came hastily to the prison: but finding the doors wholly whole and made fast, with keys applied they entered. But seeing the one whom they had left bound, loosed; the more they wondered: and to those asking about so great a sound which they had heard, or who had made it, and who had loosed the fettered one; a certain other man bound in the prison with him, the latter being silent, answered: I know not, he said, what persons with a very great light entered the prison, and with this my companion spoke many things, what they said or did to him, [him] they did; but ask him who knows better. And turning to him they said: Tell us, what didst thou hear. And he: St. Benedict, he said, with

St. Etheldreda and her Sister Sexburga, were present here; the fetters from my feet they took away: but if you do not believe me, at least believe your eyes.

[39] and they announce it to the Queen: But they, the miracle seen, nor doubting of it, in the morning announced [it] to Queen Matilda, who then by chance was in the same city. She immediately one of the Chaplains of the Court, Ralph by name, that he might inquire whether the things heard were true or not, sent to the prison. Coming, and seeing how those fetters had been broken, hearing also through his companion of the three persons, who with a light had entered the prison, of the words which they had spoken, of the sound which they had made; and perceiving that these things had undoubtedly happened divinely, the Chaplain sent by her leads out the captive: he began abundantly to weep: and turning to Brithstan he said, Brother, I am a servant of St. Benedict and St. Etheldreda, in their fear speak with me: but he answered: If thou art a servant of the aforesaid Saints, good is thy coming. But these things which thou seest or hearest wrought about me, know to be true, not magic. But Ralph, taking him, to the presence of the Queen and the many of the Nobles of the land who were present, rejoicing and weeping, led [him].

[40] Meanwhile that rumor, swifter than any bird, flying through the whole city of London… reached the ears of almost all the citizens. who, going round through the city's churches, Then the citizens everywhere raise cries to heaven; every sex and age in common bless the Lord; and to the Court, where they had heard him led, they run: very many pour out tears of joy, the rest wonder at what they see or hear. But the Queen, filled with joy for the novelty of so great a miracle, orders, through all the monasteries of the city, the bells to be rung and by every Convent of the ecclesiastical Order praises to be sung to God. And when he visited very many devout churches of the city, giving thanks to God, from the abundant joy of his liberation; a great crowd through the streets followed and preceded him, and as a new man each one desired to see [him]. But when he had come to the Basilica of Blessed Peter which is called Westminster, b the Abbot of that place

Gilbert, he is honorably received at Westminster, a man learned in liberal letters and divine, with all the flock of monks led a procession out of the monastery to meet him: for he said, If the Relics of any dead man ought to be festively received in a church; much more let us honorably receive living Relics, namely this man, for of a dead man, where his spirit is, we, still placed in this frail life, doubt: but of this one, that by God, who does nothing unjustly, in our presence he was visited and freed, we are not ignorant.

[41] then led to Ely by the Bishop, These things completed, the Queen hoped to have the fetters in her own discretion: but from them he would by no means be separated, until to the monastery of St. Etheldreda Virgin and Queen he might carry them, by whose intervention he knew himself redeemed from the chains. So the Queen, the reason heard, brought no violence upon him; but ordered him to be honorably conveyed to the aforesaid place. Whom, going out of the city, young men were astonished and old men, Virgins wondered and widows, innumerable peoples of both sexes beheld, giving thanks to almighty God. Nor less, when he came to the aforesaid monastery, there he hangs up his fetters. the Bishop and all the Brothers to meet him, praising God and St. Etheldreda their intercessor, with a procession proceeded. And there he fulfilled his purpose, receiving the habit of a Monk: but the fetters with which he had been bound, hung in the same church before the altar, as a memorial of so great a miracle, for the spectacle of the people they placed, to the praise of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be honor and glory through the ages of ages.

[42] Another miracle too, which through the merits of the same glorious Virgin who pleased the Spouse of Virgins by the integrity of mind and body, in the aforesaid church was done, Tormented with an intolerable toothache, for its greatness is not to be passed over in silence. So it happened that a certain man, the carnal brother of the Provost of that same place, was so tormented by a grievous and intolerable pain of the teeth, that neither the refreshment of food, nor any perception of sleep, could profit him. Beset by the straits of this torment, the wretched man almost was at the point of death, and his head c, for excessive burning, toward the jaw whence the pain had come, he frequently put into water, that even thus the savagery of that fury might be mitigated, and for a moment some little rest might be possessed. the iron breaking with which the tooth was to be extracted, But although by this industry he bore that disquiet less troublesomely; yet no remedy could thence come to him. These at last and other things, to obtain health, in vain labored at, he directed his way to the church of Ely; and from a smith who dwelt there, and was skilled in the experience of this kind of art, the tooth, the matter of the pain, he uncovered: but the same instrument, broken, sprang back. So in anger, for the broken instrument, and the zeal of all aid frustrated, vehemently kindled, the iron from his hands to the ground he cast, ordered the sick man to go out, until he himself should fit an iron which might radically extirpate the matter of his languor. Who, having gone out, what to do, whither to turn, anxious he hesitated.

[43] At last touched by a salutary counsel, to the divine medicine of mercy he betook himself; knowing and faithfully believing that through this, if it deigned to be present, he could be saved from all trouble of sickness. So recalling to memory how Blessed Etheldreda a little before had freed a certain captive from his fetters, fleeing to the Saint's church how the same fetters, through her glorious merits, the divine virtue had broken, how pious and how powerful in this business she had been, to her church with quick step he hastened, full of devotion; the fetters, before the altar hanging in reverence to her, not once but often he kisses; and entreated exceedingly that the piety and also the power of the holy Virgin be declared to him, in the straits and necessity of so great a pain. John 16:24 There was fulfilled and shown, what the true and highest truth, for confirming the minds of the faithful, had foretold, Ask and you shall receive, knock and it shall be opened to you: for to this knocker the gate of the divine mercy was opened, as the outcome of the matter in the sequel declared. by the touch of the aforesaid fetters he is healed. At last with immense devotion the fetters being often kissed, in which the divine virtue and the merit of the glorious Virgin appeared; the ring which was between the fetters he moved to his jaw, the tooth thence touched; and, what is wonderful to say, after the touch so great an abundance of sweat from his body flowed, that you would by no means doubt that he was most copiously suffused with water. What from this deed is to be perceived, except that with the sweat also the trouble of the pain, through the merits and intercessions of Blessed Etheldreda, at once departed? But he, giving thanks to God and the glorious Virgin, to God working, and the Virgin imploring; with health and gladness returned to his own, publishing all around the benefits of the divine piety toward him.

ANNOTATIONS. D. P.

CHAPTER V.

A letter of Ralph to the men of Ely concerning his cure, when in peril from a deadly quinsy and limping.

[44] To his benign Lords and Brothers, the daily ministers of the virtuous Virgin and most powerful Lady St. Etheldreda, Master Ralph writes to the men of Ely, Ralph, a miserable sinner, and by the gift of the Winchester a school called a Monitor of true salvation, eternal joy. Since for his many benefits, to the Virgin of Christ, the son of the Virgin Mother, and to the holy Virgin also Etheldreda, I owe very many acts of thanks; behold what is to me more wonderful to see, more joyful, and more recent; but also to obey your command humbly I have deemed it chief, and according to the capacity of my memory, attesting that I wander in nothing from the truth, by all that is sacred. That powerful one, who needs no informer of crimes, an avenger, with all sincerity, whose gaze surveys all dark, remote, and secret things, singularly even penetrating most evidently the hiding-places of our hearts, with me, about me, as my guilt against him was in brief speech, yet in sense he might amplify all the habituation of evil, and all the disuse of good. For what does the simulation of good or the dissimulation of evil avail, when from neither does good fruit proceed? What too avail good works done for earthly gain, or for earthly glory; when the Prophet declares that Virgins, defiled in mind, trust in words of lying, while they often boast that to be the temple of the Lord, which is the brothel of Tartarus.

[45] So he who is believed by the Argives, as it is narrated… the beholder of all from us, seized by the disease of the felon, my littleness's rebellion despising and casting down, from the support of his right hand (so that I manifestly felt it) suddenly deprived me, as if immediately handed over to a tyrannical power. For I who just now was sound in all my members, just now threateningly betrayed my strength to my Brothers, just now proudly walked, just now contumaciously breathed against my neighbors (but this change is of the right hand of the Most High), immediately in all my members sickened, and sickening felt the excessive weakness of myself, and weakened to the ground I fell, and falling scarcely did not breathe out my soul. The disease, which they commonly call the felon, c with its venomous gall grievously seized me wretched, and seized blew through [me]; so that that lethal tumor extended on all sides, on the right and on the left shoulder, on the back and breast like a wineskin protruded; and from my human chin as it were ox- dewlaps hung. The internal force of the poison was sufficiently noted by the external lividness of the skin: and useless in my whole body. and while outside that pestilence too horribly swelled, within too dangerously swelling (alas! how great a heap of misery!) it constricted the fistulas, arteries of the throat, and the ways of the neck; and left passage neither for voice nor for food. A matter of tearful recollection, that poison of the worst kind crept into my tongue, swelled my tongue, so that it filled my palate, and miserably distended my gaping jaws; mouth, ears, eyes, nostrils, hands, feet, deserted by their offices, lay as if buried: shins, thighs, kidneys, sides, belly, the several entrails were grievously tormented by their anxieties: the pain of the intestines was betrayed by urine of bloody color and fiery heat. My nocturnal vision, yet not of one closing his eyes, not of one sleeping, was this; that a long rope was bound to this most wretched tongue, and thence drawn high.

[46] This dice I played for four days. There visited me, summoned and most longed-for of my brothers, Nicholas; others too visited me: in possession of my mind but finding me without voice, without sight, without hearing, without every sense, without motion of the members, unknown to me they withdrew, as I afterward learned from those same reporting it; and while my flesh as if dead was pressed by the evils; my mind, yet somehow living, itself felt the troubles of the body, itself was distressed, by its conscience was fiercely accused, promised God repentance and satisfaction, if only so great a scourge could be of pious chastisement, and not yet of just damnation. So lamenting within, both for the offense of God, and for the affliction of myself; although mute and tongueless, yet with panting, and a sighing heart, by the virtue of the holy Cross I besought the Lord for my salvation, the chief Saints being severally invoked, who, victor of death, on the third day rose from the dead, whose voice the dead hear. I besought also the most powerful Mother of the Lord, by the compassion of the Lord's death, through whose soul a sword passed, who from the very claws of the devil snatched Theophilus d the Archdeacon, the bond restored; the Archangel e too with the rest of the Angels, who, the prince of the heavenly army, the provost of paradise, and victor of the dragon, will come to the aid of the people of God. I besought too for myself that Baptist, who plucks up and disperses, and builds and plants, by preparing the way of the Lord; and the Prince of the Apostles with the rest of the Apostles, against whom the gates of hell do not prevail. But also with the Protomartyr, and our precious Lord Edmund the King, and the rest of the Martyrs, the blessed Martyr and Bishop of the city of Sebaste, Blaise, to whom by the Lord was conferred the power of curing any diseases of the throat. f Called upon too was… by my groans the virtue of the Father of Tours, g with the rest of the Confessors, who is equal to the Apostolics, and the excellent raiser of three dead. Nor was she passed over with the rest of the Virgins, to whom were forgiven many sins, because she loved much, h by whose tearful prayers another four-days-dead man revived.

[47] Thus and thus I sought consolers, and there were no deliverers. And behold the tribulation growing heavy: St. Etheldreda's memory at last coming to mind, namely because, the Lord being offended, I had likewise offended all. Meanwhile, destitute of all hope, and disturbed by very great pain, I had no refuge: when there came to the aid of my mind, though stupid, the most elegant piety of St. Etheldreda, who now by a recent miracle illumined the nocturnal darkness of a prison, mercifully and powerfully freed a fettered man, the iron fetters with that ease with which she would waxen ones broke up; loosed, free, and giving thanks, with joy and honor to her holy sepulchre she sent [him]. his wife joining her vows, Whose pious, quick, and prodigious help when I ardently and confidently desired; likewise also my companion wife, to whom me he joined through a Priest, who joined Tobias to Sarah through the Archangel, vowed my service to the pious savioress St. Etheldreda, to whom she had already pre-vowed herself, snatched by her holy merits from the confine of death itself. I by the office of mind alone, she of mind and mouth, both vowed the same.

[48] Let God be praised through all, and the virtuous friend of God St. Etheldreda, by whose merits the Lord had mercy on me. For after prayers and vows, in the front part almost on the right side my wretched tongue began to be ruptured, he believed himself healed, the tumor broken and the tongue purged; there flowed down venomous gore, and now through that ruin of the tongue, as through the opening of a fountain, that poison flowing everywhere was derived, which had blown through the tongue itself, the jaws, the throat, and the neck (as you remember was already aforesaid), abundantly flowed forth, through the languid lips, that most foul of all salivas. I shudder to confess, and you perhaps to hear, that serpentine corruption, than which none is fouler, collected over the whole palate, since the jaws could not spit it out with the gall, how others' fingers cast it out, pressed out the extracted tongue, scraped and washed [it], not otherwise than the chins of cattle are handled by butchers. But these too, but grieving that he limped, the number of days passing, the pitch at last expressed, and the senses recovered, the body gradually confirmed, the heart by degrees confirmed, when now there was a sure hope of rising and of walking (behold a double evil) it was made void. For, all the veins being utterly stiff or "forgotten", my shin to the thigh was miserably bent back. My limping very many days continued.

[49] I, wretched, ungrateful, and unfaithful, noted the quality of my heart in the limping of my body: new vows, new prayers I repeated. O Lady of greatest power, St. Etheldreda, who didst show mercy to the four-days-dead Lazarus, do [so] also to the lame: grant that I may be able to approach the sacred light of thy oratory to render thanks, he renewed his vows, and tending toward the Saint and the other thresholds of the Saints, both beyond the sea and on this side, for accomplishing which may their sanctity aid me: which by the reiterated benefits of the most holy Lady would be turned to praises. Rejoicing, therefore, that health was repaid to me, I set out for Ely as was fitting. But near the village of Kenteford, l when now the lofty building of the sacred House presented itself to be beheld, lest it lie hidden from the nocturnal darkness of my ignorance, by whose virtue health had returned to me, behold above in the clouds, to the Companions of my journey a splendid appearance of a full moon appeared; it was a miraculous appearance of a full moon which the companions saw, and here and there scattered lamps, and not imitating the form of its size, yet its splendor. There shone so clear this apparition, above where is the holy sepulchre of our blessed Lady, and her holy Companions, about the first hour of the day on the 12th day before the Kalends of August, when now it was not the term of the full-moon, but m of the conjunction, the sun leaving among the Nabathaeans n in their parts the third moon, regulated by no Epacts. But last, as from the East, a bright brightness was seen by me, the companions amazed and pointing it out, yet not so great to me as to them: he himself too refreshed, for neither did St. Benedict's vision wholly shine, if from the whole world to certain heavenly lamps, from the Saints of the Lord to criminous servants, a proportion may be adapted.

[50] But I, vehemently wondering, as a man is wont about unwonted things, and that to the unworthy heavenly things shone, for the sign of so great a benefit gave ampler thanks, though wearied by the unaccustomed labor of the journey, my feet blistered as they were, now creeping, now sustained by the hands of companions or by a staff: yet on the same day even to Ely I came, but as soon as I touched the sacred island, and at the entrance of the church wholly made firm. which namely the presence of the holy Virgins consecrates, my soles made firm, all my limbs refreshed, as if having suffered no weariness, no injury, and as if another or differentiated from myself, without the support either of companions or of a staff, my companions wondering and myself wondering I went before; I went to the monastery, the sacred threshold with tears less than I ought, prostrate on the ground, I wetted; to my most precious Savioress St. Etheldreda I presented myself as her eternal servant, giving thanks. But because to give thanks is to render grateful service; it remains, O dearest Brothers, who, seeing me make a surrender of myself to your Lady, have adopted me as a Brother; it remains that you bestow on me brotherly care, that you aid me with your prayers, that she, about to receive those perfect thanks, who restored to me sound members, may restore also a sound mind: which would that he might deign to grant, to whom with his Saints is salvation, honor, and dominion, unto ages of ages. Amen.

ANNOTATIONS D. P.

of an Oedipus here to find some sense: but also the whole letter, no less than the throat, which is described as cured while swelling, compels one rather to divine than to understand. c "Fellon" or "Felon" properly is said of one wickedly perfidious, whence the crime of Felony, which by I know not what metaphor seems here to be transferred to signify a quinsy, or rather a throat-swelling. d The conversion and salvation of Theophilus the Vice-domain steward, not Archdeacon, see, if you please, on the 4th of February, on which he is reported as a Saint. e Namely Michael, according to the titles which the Church attributes to him in the Office of his feast. f Examples see on the 3rd of February, on which he is venerated.

believed the sister of Lazarus, and confused with the sinner of the Gospel. Her name is placed in the Litanies at the head of the holy Virgins. i It seems hence to be understood, and from the lunation noted below to be confirmed, that the matter happened in the same year 1116, in which that miracle had been done. k I see indeed an error, but not yet another word which I may aptly make to succeed.

the conjunction of sun and moon, or the time of the new moon. But by the reckoning of the Arabs, which the Christians too followed even to the Gregorian reform of the Calendar, in the year 1116 it was reckoned and called New Moon on the 21st of July, according to the cycle of Epacts: but in truth the third moon ought to have been numbered, nay the fourth to be reckoned begun: and this is what he says, that the sun had left the third moon, regulated by no Epacts, that is, abstracting from the Rule of Epacts which then failed by three days. n The Nabathaeans, Eastern peoples in Arabia Petraea.

CHAPTER VI.

Two dying men suddenly recover, an apparition of the Saint going before.

[51] That too it is unworthy to cover with silence, that a certain soldier the ineffable mercy of God, through Blessed Etheldreda, Destitute of all his members, a sick man, restored to health. He, dwelling not far from the monastery of St. Edmund in his own possession in the village which is called Berningeham, by certain occasions, perhaps unknown to him, fell into a sickness, and the trouble gradually growing strong, came to his bed. Who, when by the physicians, unable to cure him, nay at last despairing of him, he was left (to be silent about the other troubles of the members) he utterly lost sight and hearing, and also the faculty of speaking. Whom when his wife and his children and the household of servants had seen afflicted with so unwonted and to many unheard-of a sickness; who had long since put away every kind of joy, then from over-abounding sadness, I do not say gladness, but execrating its very memory, assumed a more mournful habit (so to say), not so much in body as in mind. And when in such suffering, or, to say it better, in such death, fifteen days and as many nights, without any sign of betterment, he was held; all that time anyone who saw it would think it to be one of the houses of the Egyptians, when they lost their firstborn; except that here there was more wailing and grief; for by all his neighbors (for they loved him) he was bewailed.

[52] But when all his household now had greater solicitude about his burial, than hope about his restoration; some wondering at the magnitude of the sickness, while he is mourned as one about to die, others asking for the health of the sick man, and all compassionating the laborer and grieving his departure; the Lord, who wisely provides all things, piously disposes about his mercy. For on a certain night the most holy Virgin Etheldreda in the village of St. Edmund to a certain matron, neither well awake, nor wholly asleep, appeared: whom, whether she was sleeping, while she inquired; she said that she, just now roused from sleep, was awake. To whom the Virgin:

Tomorrow, she said, after the sun is presented to the earth, the Saint appears to a matron ignorant of all things; and through the market of things for sale, perhaps for some business calling, thou shalt walk; thou shalt hear some complaining to one another about a man, Leminer by name, who in the village which is called Berningeham is held by a grave sickness: whose complaint when thou hast heard, an inquiry being made who he is, or by what sickness he is burdened, thou shalt say to them: Go, make a wick, a and with the same gird about the bed in which he lies in a circuit, namely from the head through the right part to the feet, through the left to the feet, then from the feet through the left to the head; and afterward putting wax upon the wick, make a candle: and what she wishes done for his health he indeed, if he so far recovers, let him carry the same candle into the island of Ely, to the church of the Virgin Etheldreda, or send it by some faithful messenger, that through her prayers he may recover from this infirmity.

[53] But the matron thinking, who he was who spoke with her by night of a matter unknown to her, unwilling to leave her in doubt, the Virgin answered her thoughts, saying: I am Etheldreda, who rest in Ely; and doubting nothing of these things which I say, confidently do what I command thee. Saying these things she disappeared. But in the morning, the woman mindful of the secrets which had been divinely revealed to her, she bids her tell those who will meet her in the market. quickly rose: and wishing to prove whether the things were true… which she had heard, to the market, perhaps for other business but for that especially, she went. And when through the market, a little while inspecting the things for sale, she walked, attending with her ears spread for the voices of various people, whether she might hear anything of the aforesaid; certain men, not well enough known to her, thus speaking to one another she heard. Alas! alas! Leminer, our friend, is dying. Whom approaching, by inquiring she said to them; What are the words which you confer to one another? or whence do you show forth such great sadness in your faces? Who, diligently to the woman all in order, what had happened to the often-mentioned man, as if compassionately narrating the manner, and the time of the infirmity showed; asking, if she knew any useful counsel in such a business, to indicate it.

[54] These, the things heard, being believing, But she, as if taught by a good Master, said; Late, she said, when after the day's labor, as is the manner of laborers, I had given my limbs to rest; the noble Virgin Etheldreda appeared to me, not perfectly sleeping, and those things which you say she narrated in order; adding, what now has been proved, that when to the market today I came, you conferring about this matter I would find. And the woman added: Go as quickly as possible to the house of the sick man, make a wick, his bed with it gird; making a candle, by the same or by another, to the Church of the aforesaid Virgin send [it], that through her prayers he may, God being propitious, be better. These things to you I pronounce not on my part, but by the blessed Virgin's command. But they, on this side knowing the excessive anxiety of the sick man, on that hearing the vision of the Virgin divinely brought through the woman, the command which they had received … … to fulfill, to the house of the one lying sick without delay return. What more? The man, of whom we speak, the liberty of all his members lost; deprived of the office of his eyes, or tongue, and also of his ears, lay. But the aforesaid men coming, desiring to fulfill what they were ordered, hasten to make a wick, and the little bed by encircling bind.

[55] Wonderful to say! A thing stupendous and incredible to hear, while they accomplish what was bidden, unless from the relation of these who personally saw it I had learned it, I am about to say. Not yet wholly, though they hastened enough, desiring the sick man's health, had they girded the bed; and behold, he who lacked light, opening his eyes looked upon them; he who before could not speak, asked what they were doing by encircling the bed. But they, astonished with wonder and as if raised from death with joy, as standing in ecstasy, long, as if from him they had borrowed the privation of speech, were silent. But come to themselves, for they had gone out of themselves, how much of wonder, speech is restored to the sick man: who, understanding the matter, with more joy they had, their tongue, much less mine, could in no way explain. For they, when they wished to begin to bring forth words, the sick man, hearing them not speaking, but jubilant, understood that they wished, but could not, to speak. But another who I know not whence had come urging, and asking what they were doing; at last the apparition of the Virgin Etheldreda, and the command, and also the revelation made to the woman to whom she had appeared, that, to fulfill that same command, they were now girding the bed; in the same girding about to make a candle to the honor of holy Etheldreda, they indicated in order.

[56] But he, hearing these things, and to God according to his power, and soon healed, and to his holy Virgin helper, with a devout mind giving thanks, said: God, who to King Hezekiah, by augmenting his life, that he might grant him a time of penance, took away the infirmity; he himself, by his piety and the prayers of his handmaid, restored me to health. Wherefore make the candle hastily: because to the church of the Virgin Etheldreda I desire to run quickly. The candle made, the man, the health of all his members recovered, rose from the bed; and to the church of the holy Virgin, carrying the candle with him, glad and cheerful he went. When he had come thither, upon the altar he placed the candle: and a prayer not small being made, the votive candle he himself carries. tears meanwhile abundantly flowing, breathing a little, the servant of the blessed Virgin Etheldreda from a pure heart he vowed himself; reporting to all who wished to hear all that had happened to him.

[57] Wonderful is the glory of St. Etheldreda, which flowed from the highest fountain of sanctity, many times into many Provinces flowed forth, Another in the Province of Arundel, and the whole England by her island illustrated. For this island of Ely, affording hospitality to the holy Body, brought, by reason of its assiduous virtues, its fame most well-known to all the parts of England, which, translated even into foreign regions, daily brought many from the most remote places to her veneration. Among these a certain soldier, Robert de Alta-Ripa of High-bank, indeed in earthly things suitably enriched, and for the knowledge of his probity in the province of Arundel b held great, sick to death, in this manner proved the power of our Saint, that by a grave disease he was struck by the divine judgment. And when his whole bed was so turned in his infirmity, that by the long duration of languishing he was turned into weariness and contempt to all his own; rare was he who endured his trouble. So, his memory alone surviving, he wholly lay a corpse; nor was anything else awaited, except only the consummation of death which remained. At last a certain woman persuaded him to make a vow of a light to our place; narrating to him of the virtues of the Saint, that easily health through her mercy he could obtain.

[58] So after the departure of the woman, three days having passed, he began grievously to complain with himself, by the Saint invoked both because he neither died nor recovered, and because his household so despised him. Then, dissolved into tears: O, he said, most holy Virgin Etheldreda, if the things which are narrated of thee are true, make me feel thy suffrage: and I henceforth the state of my life will order for the better, and thy thresholds with thy honor devoutly will seek. Now there was a house in which he lay all of stone, and having windows far distant from the ground. And when that man, thinking of his health, weary with laboring lay; suddenly a certain person, bearing a maidenly appearance, through the window enters, lit up with the whiteness of garments like snow. and the same appearing, he is ordered to go to Ely: Whose sudden entrance and unwonted beauty had made the man's senses not a little solicitous, bringing to him silent and doubtful thoughts, how without a ladder and noise she had come to him from outside. Nor does the Virgin delay to address the man, suspended by many estimations; I am, she said, that Etheldreda, whose aid thou thinkest will profit thee: nor in this thy cause will thy judgment be deceived, but quickly thou shalt obtain what thou hast desired. Cease therefore further to hold various opinions of me: but knowing it true what is told thee, correct thy life as thou hast proposed, and first seek my church of Ely with a light. Then to St. James of Galicia Compostela hasten to go; whence returning, henceforth what thou doest wisely attend.

[59] These things said, the Virgin disappeared; and he, immediately feeling himself cured of every disease, and suddenly recovering, with a vehement cry and most entire voice his servants he calls together, asks for his shoes, and indicates that he wishes to go to the church. They, thinking he was delirious, Sign, they say, Lord, sign thy breast with the sign of the cross of Christ, by which the more quickly from this madness thou mayest be freed: for what hast thou and shoes to do, who so long hast languished? behold thy shoes have been given elsewhere, because we despaired they would serve thee. Yet if we knew this mercy done to thee, that thou couldst use shoes, quickly thou wouldst have what thou askest. For thy sudden recovery makes thy speech seem insane: the household astonished, he asks for shoes, except that thy sober gesture seems to promise a certain incredible hope, under some fear. To whom he: Do not, he said, esteem the mercy of God a frenzy; but quickly bringing what I ask, wait, until from the Church I return and narrate to you what I have seen.

[60] So the shoes are prepared, he goes to pray, reports the vision to the Priest, confesses his sins, and with wonderful speed accomplishes the journey. takes penance, returns home, narrates the promise; the hearers rejoice, friends run up, all praise God and St. Etheldreda. Then an honest setting-out is prepared; and with such alacrity he took up the journey to this church of Ely, that the swiftness of the one going scarcely could any of his servants equal: and at last coming hither, after his prayer, the order of the matter, led into the chapter, before all of us he narrated, received fraternity, and about to proceed to the rest, rejoicing departed. These things too that man, most well-known in his province, made elsewhere most well-known, to the praise and glory of almighty God, with whom St. Etheldreda lives in the palace of heaven: may she in the space of this life cherish us with her holy solace, until our conversation be in the heavens, through all ages of ages. Amen.

ANNOTATIONS D. P.

of measuring the sick, it has often been treated in the lives of the Saints, especially the British ones: nay, even towns in peril from an enemy or pestilence we read measured thus. b The Duchy of Arundel, with the eponymous town in Sussex, took its name from the Arun river flowing through it, not far from the Ocean on the southern side of England near Chichester, situated.

CHAPTER VII.

The Saint seen in her church, and honored with Angelic song; a captive loosed; a treasure not carried off with impunity.

[61] To the most excellent Senate of the Church of Ely, the noble Fathers, of the township of Clare, a the unworthy conservator of their Capitol, b Osbert. The splendor of the blessed and glorious

Virgin Etheldreda, The Procurator of Clare writes to the men of Ely who through the various parts of the world flashes with various virtues and signs, presents to you a new gladness of spiritual exultation, and magnifies her glorious solemnity declared to the world. The matter is open, worthy of relation and precious; which a man of authority and grace, the Lord Osbert, reported to me, prior of the Church of Daventry, c whose excellent life and form of manliness is preeminent in the house of the Lord, to have heard from the Prior of Daventry, and whose religious conversation is an exemplar to the faithful of sighing for heavenly things. For he is a Monk of Cluny from days of old; and first as a Canon shone in the church of the field of Bromfield, in d whose neighborhood happened the sublimity of the history to be retained in memory for your convents. For a long time, moreover, dividing alms, from the sober congregation of St. Virgin Milburga, e the elder was wont to refresh a multitude of Clerics from the fragments: of whom a certain Religious woman is a witness of this relation. But their companions on the way became those to whom the glory of the blessed Virgin the Lord deigned to reveal from on high.

[62] In the province of the Imbri a church of wood was anciently built, which by blessed Anna, which in a certain old church of that Saint, King of the East Angles, is said once to have been constructed. He was the carnal father of Etheldreda the glorious Virgin, and founded the aforesaid basilica in passing. For he had gone beyond the bounds of his kingdom at the desire of certain friends, that with the sweet affection of kinship more familiarly he might visit them, and with his presence the Western parts for some time might satisfy. On his return… he built this church, afterward overflowing with heavenly miracles; which, placed on the border of the Britons and the Angles, took its name from the blessed Virgin Etheldreda: for it is even today called her church, and in the same, to the honor of God, she herself is invoked by the faithful.

[63] But when the household of a certain memorable soldier, namely Herbert de Furcis of the Forks, a pious woman about to pray in passing thither, turned aside through the open country of this place, so that from one lodging to another the soldiers should tend; a certain matron, who had been wont to educate his children, for the sake of praying wished to enter: but she could not persuade her companions, that any one should wish to proceed with her to the house of prayer, and on the altar of the mind immolate to the Lord the calves of holy devotion. She, however, touched by the grace of the Holy Spirit, and eager to fulfill her own desire, enters, that she may wholly slaughter herself in a holocaust.

[63] The woman, having slipped in within the door, quickly checked her step: for here a wonderful terror struck her, and there a heavenly vision comforted her. For she considers before the Altar a preeminent Virgin bent upon prayer, she saw her praying before the altar whose so comely was the appearance and so beautiful the beauty, that it could not be explained by human speech, who in her hand … with the other held forth a psalter, and in the other bore a lighted taper. So with such instruments the Virgin inserted herself into the sacred prayers, when the woman draws nearer to her, and about the knowledge of her name diligently inquires: Who art thou, she said, glorious

Lady? what art thou? and whence so conspicuous with such splendor? with a psalter and taper in her hands; Declare to me for Christ's sake thy celebrated name, thou whose so comely and distinguished face I behold. To whom the splendid Virgin returned an answer, and did not delay to soothe her with affable sweetness. Since thou art busy to recall to me the love of God, and through it seekest all knowledge of me, Etheldreda the sacred Virgin is my name, whose integrity of virginity is joined to the heavenly Spouse: but what God has deigned to show thee, strive to reveal to no one. These things said, the noble Heroine was silent, and the woman as long as she wished prayed. The Virgin prayed, watching before the altar in the sanctuary, the woman prayed prostrate outside the Choir on the pavement, whether it be pavement, or floor, the secret of devout prayer ministered to her. As long as the woman was in the church, she saw the heavenly Person: but when she went out she left her within. And returning to her companions, who awaited her on the way, she exhorts them to hasten what was left of the journey.

[64] But, the horses mounted and they nimbly made ready, they suddenly hear from the church heavenly harmonies resounding in the air, and thence returning to her companions of life, and a supernal melody solemnly sounding with Angelic voices. What is this, they say, which we hear? what is so great a sweetness, which we are not wont to draw in with our ears? Some sweetness of supernal harmony is mingled, which God perhaps has deigned to reveal to our minds. Then the woman, nurse of the soldier's offspring, O, she said, wretched and unhappy ones! O infants and slothful! you, through your carelessness and inertia, would not behold the wonders of the Lord, which by his grace it happened to me in the church a little before to behold. when with them she had heard the heavenly melody: For I saw in it Blessed Etheldreda, a distinguished Virgin, and radiant with the ineffable beauty of a heavenly ray; whose psalter and burning taper I beheld, with the glory of so great a contemplation I rejoice to be marked: but there the pipes of heavenly organs sound forth, where a dense abundance of miracles is wont to overflow through her. They, made sad and mournful beyond measure, deliberate to return to the aforesaid Etheldreda, if perhaps the glorious face of the blessed Virgin they might behold. which, when they returned thither, ceased to be heard, But to the Basilica, running with continuous step, the oracle of the heavenly entrance they did not merit, nor did they merit to draw in the sweetness of the heavenly Angels. So it was taken from them on every side what they had desired; nor did they merit to behold the glory of God within, nor further to be present at the Angelic hymns.

The beasts again made ready, they take up the journey, and when they had progressed a little farther from the church, the heavenly melody at once they perceive on the way: and in the same manner as before a second time they return, and the nearer to the church was their approach, the greater diminution of the supernal harmony was felt; but frustrated of their desire they return. heard up to three times by them departing, Then having progressed a little they are a third time refreshed by the heavenly sweetness, and wonder at the heard sweetness of the Angelic voice; and returning they hasten to the place where the melody resounded in the air, and hoping for a fuller concord of tones, they perceive the Province empty of the nectared sweetness.

[65] But understanding that God was cruelly exasperated by their sin, they weep with humble bitterness of heart, they themselves grievingly related it to the aforesaid Prior. because, wretched, they had offended the divine piety. What more? even to nearly dense night they had spent the day, and going and returning they lost the harmony of the heavenly organs, nor did the long-desired light shine for them. So they go, whither the journey calls them, to the lodging, and proclaim the wonderful grace of the merits of the holy Virgin Etheldreda with God. The venerable Osbert,

Prior of the church of Daventry, while he still divided alms to the poor of St. Milburga the Virgin, learned this truly from their mouth, to whom God partly granted to hear this, and partly denied: of whose testimony tears made faith, and long sighs recalled more deeply from the depth of the heart. For of their faith the excellent man did not waver; whom he had also from the cell of Christ's poverty more frequently refreshed before, and of whose truthful relation he did not doubt.

[66] … A certain peddler, about to transact the business of his affair at Coventry, i carried various wares thither in a wheeled vehicle. A merchant of Ely, returning from Coventry, The man's name was Aldan, and he is recognized to be still surviving, an inhabitant Burgess. And when, from the fair returning home, he passed by the Castle of Kenilworth; immediately by a certain man he is seized, most tightly his hands behind his back are bound, to the castle he is led, and there with a knotted cord his head is girt, and tightened even to the pressing-out of blood, a most grievous ransom is demanded of him, nor yet does he promise [it]: for he was poor, seized and direly tortured for the sake of ransom, and preferred to put his life in peril than his faith. But his torturers, his hands being most tightly joined, loosed the binding of his head; promising harder things, unless quickly he should declare the price of himself. To whom he; All things, he said, mine and myself you have: I prefer to die, than to promise under faith what I cannot pay.

[67] And while they pressed with many threats, deliberating what they should do with him, he began anxiously to think of the virtues of St. Etheldreda, the Saint invoked, he is loosed from his bonds; and especially how she freed Brithstan. So he prayed by thought rather than by voice, saying in his heart: O holy! O holy! O pious Lady mine, most famous Virgin Etheldreda! As thou didst free Brithstan, free me wretched also from the bonds and from these men. And in a wonderful manner he felt his hands most sweetly loosed, and all the pain of the bonds removed, to be mitigated. The man exults at the heavenly help; and through the midst of his enemies he slips away unseen, and animated by greater hope thought with himself, that by the same virtue his present enemies could, lest they see him, be blinded, since by them, unknowing, he could thus be loosed. So standing among them, the day still most clear, instinct with divine boldness, through the midst of them he passed; and to the wood, which was distant thence almost half a mile, no one seeing, he fled.

[68] And that the Lord might show that human industry against the divine power can do nothing; even into the wood; then at last he opened the eyes of the enemies, when, as he entered the wood, scarcely could his hinder parts be seen. Seeing which, they pursue the fleeing captive with horrid cries; and the prey of God, with dogs sent to the tracks, they try to hunt. So the dogs run, the robbers run, the noise sounds behind the back of the fleeing one, the wood rings to the cry, Echo resounds from the valleys. But he who had given the captive the protection of fleeing, granting him a safe solace of escaping, found in the density of the wood a hollow oak, whose hollowness, tending to the top, two or three men most widely could hold. So, the man being wearied by running, fear administers strength repaid: where, hidden in the hollow oak, he eludes his pursuers, and now into the offered hiding-place receiving himself, in the inner parts of the tree he was kept. But the dogs in vain barking around the oak, the wearied pursuers leave off the despaired-of labor, and recalling their dogs, transmit a signal of their return to the escaped fugitive. But he immediately rising from his hiding-place, giving thanks to the merits of St. Etheldreda, with what haste he could returned to his native soil, and narrated these things everywhere.

[69] But Abbot Symeon having entered the way of all flesh, what damages the outsiders inflicted on the church, or what evils happened, or what their own committed, Abbot Simeon being dead. in [its] place we reveal; that it may continually become known among the nations. Indeed, at the Abbot's death seven Monks still surviving of his own, whom he had brought thither, were sad, troubled, and trembling seized them. For they were intent on this, that there nothing would be safe for those remaining further, or that their own industry would prevail much, nor at their nod henceforth all things either stand or be regarded; and they had now prepared more quickly to return to Winchester. The Monks brought by him from Winchester, But lest they return empty and void, they feared to be charged with shame; and kindled by the goads of envy, at the same time inflamed by the heat of cupidity, to demolish all things and destroy them more avidly they try. Where they in no way profited; they propose at least some things as least. So they intend simulated words, multiply crafty arguments, with guile heap up guile; under pretext of praying at the body and as if they were intent on works of justice, the Abbot's body now placed in the church, they assert that they both wish and ought more earnestly to pray for him; but the Monks of the place, lying for the Pastor and Abbot at the obsequies, by nods and signs they impudently compel to withdraw from the church, and to go to food.

[70] they carry off all the most precious things; The doors then meanwhile being barred, they hide themselves within; to the best and choicest goods, as madmen, they leap, and seize and take for themselves: namely garments very much adorned, silk cloths, and a curtain very precious and noble, than which none more precious round about could be esteemed or found: for its workmanship appeared all woven with gold. But also phylacteries, with the Relics of many Saints irreverently extracted from the shrines; moreover the head of the most blessed Confessor of the Lord Botulf, together with his larger bones; the chest violently broken open, with themselves they hide and detain: and so, these things and all whatever they could plunder being taken, with much silver and gold their packs filled, ready to withdraw they do not delay. And it was done. For on the fourth day, rejoicing as if for the greatness of the plunder and with victory over the conquered enemies, with swift course to Guildford k they prosperously came. There received in lodging and for a long time giving themselves to feasts and drunkenness, a great fire being kindled in the midst, the flames suddenly bursting forth, the whole house was set on fire. When those guests saw this, but in the lodging they lose everything, they fled outside, able to bring no aid to the perishing house, and leaving all their own things within: where, by the judgment of God, in revenge of their fraud, utterly all were burned up; lest with them to Winchester, from the great abundance of spoils, they should carry off even anything at all; which, as unfaithful servants and wicked enemies, they had taken away from the Lord and the most Blessed Virgin Etheldreda; but they are burned by fire, and reduced to ashes.

[71] And when among their own in the Monastery, what was done on the way, or what had befallen them, was announced and detected; the men of Winchester, afflicted likewise, and at Winchester, as they had deserved, they are chastised. groaning much over the deed, were rendered [so]; and by proper corrections the authors of this matter, and the excess of the unspeakable transgression they undertook to strike; and with a cruel examination the audacity of the undue presumption they by no means omitted to chastise. This word there and among our elders is published even to this present day, and with credible assertion they narrated to us; that posterity may learn that always there comes a loss of goods, in the administration of outsiders.

ANNOTATIONS D. P.

founded in the territory of Northampton about the year 1066, see the Monasticon Anglicanum, page 672. It is a town between Northampton and Warwick, distant from Ely about 26 leagues. d The site of the church of Bromfield I have not yet ascertained. e Of the monastery of St. Milburga at Wenlock, in the diocese of Hereford, Henschenius treats at her day, the 23rd of February. f By "Imbri" I believe are here meant the inhabitants of the Humber river, beyond the Lincoln diocese subject to that of York, whom we otherwise call Northumbrians. g I expunge the word "instrumentis" instruments, lest it disturb the sense, probably wrongly assumed here from the following line, where it occurs again. h The beginning was read thus, "Super ita gestum est quod narramus," which has no sense; and if it were read entire it would perhaps regard the title, "How a captive freed escaped." i Coventry, Conventria, in the County of Warwick, Episcopal, under the Archbishop of Canterbury. k I would believe the place was not far from the Ely district: yet there is no leisure to investigate more laboriously, but it pleases [me] to leave that care to the English; by whom, taught these and other things, we will gladly supply any defect.

CHAPTER VIII.

A girl, admonished by a triple vision to visit the Saint's sepulchre, and punished for disobedience by the loss of her right eye, is enlightened at it.

[72] In the second year of the consecration of the Lord and our Father Nigel, a Venerable Pontiff of the holy Church of Ely, on the eighth day before the Ides of June, at the hour of the day toward evening, In the year 1135 a quite celebrated miracle became known, at the sepulchre of the blessed Virgin Etheldreda. For a beautiful Virgin, noble in fame and birth, and (as they report who knew her) conspicuous in manners, and praiseworthy in honesty, seeing only with her left eye, her right being utterly taken from her, at the vigils of the sacred Virgin merited to be enlightened, and drew the colors of things with both lights: which, how it happened by a sacred revelation, a girl of Cirencester, the title by a true relation will explain. From the province of the Mercians, in an old city by the name of Cirencester, b the aforesaid girl, born of renowned parents, shone forth. Who, bereft early of her father, now grown up, accompanying her mother passed over to the West Saxons. There her mother, having obtained a second marriage, is joined to the side of a certain illustrious man, Ranulph by name, in the famous town of Wallingford, to be embraced by the faithful for the celebrated memory of benefits; who, from that he was rather corpulent, educated at her stepfather's in Essex, took the surname Grossus [Fat] from his fatness. Among the wealthy not inferior to the rest, he instituted the Virgin, as a daughter, to shine with the honesty of modesty, and to aspire to opulent revenues by the comeliness of manners.

[73] She, on a certain night, while at night she lay down, terrified by a vision, struck by a certain Saint appearing to her by night, began grievously to be ill. For with a vivid color and piercing eyes to her a splendid Heroine appeared, c whose inexhaustible vigor of strength she felt. She, standing by the bed, struck her, half-waking, sharply in the face, so that from her nostrils a more profuse wave of blood leaped, and by its flooding stained the touched garments: and striking her right side with great effort, moved and inflamed with grim eyes, addressing her in nothing, reverently departed. And the Virgin, awakened from sleep, likewise and from the dream, soon is consumed by a most grievous languor, and the whole household is disturbed at her adverse health.

Approaching nearer they understand the related vision, conjecturing the image in the blood of truth. And because through Solomon it is said, The rod and correction shall give wisdom, but the child who is left to his own will confounds his mother; God perhaps deigned to instruct her by such a scourge, lest afterward she should be subject to the peril of losing her virginity. Proverbs 29:15 So for the custody of humility in this manner bodily damages were inflicted on the Virgin.

[74] The day following that same night was the sixth day Friday, on which Christ fought with the devil for the world.

There came a testimony of so great an infirmity, but on the eighth day after, if it were within her means; that with speed she should make her testament. The Virgin through the whole week is burdened, even to the day which Ethnic custom marked among the Gentiles with the name of Jove Thursday. On this, while her spirit failed with pains, she diligently seeks the ministers of the Church: and confession made and the Lord's Sacraments faithfully received, among the hands of her own immediately she fell mute. When on the same night again, which precedes the following light e on which man was created, there is present a noble person, clad in white garments, namely a woman of imperious authority. Ho, thou, she said, by the same again appearing Remburgis, dost thou wake, or sleep? And when she, wholly tongueless, made no measures of reply, but turned to the wall as if dissolved into death lay; the aforesaid Heroine again added, and called her by her own name a second time: Why, she said, Remburgis, dost thou give no answers? No daughter of any Caesar in the world, no offspring of any reigning Consul is preeminent, who would not gladly receive my voice, and, diligently questioned, would answer.

[75] She heard all these things, but the Virgin could not answer. Then she a third time, Awake, Remburgis, she said, awake; for I see thee oppressed by a wonderful stupor. cured to some extent as it seemed to her, And the distinguished Heroine turning afterward to her; Too much, she said, too much I wait, I weave too great delays in speaking: and bringing forth a flower, which she took from her bosom, she put it quickly into the girl's mouth. Voice and tongue are immediately restored to her, and yet she is not awakened from sleep. And the woman; Dost thou recognize, she said, O Remburgis, the face of her who confers words with thee? Knowest thou who I am? whence, and why I have come? Or art thou able to feel? With this medicine which I carry about, I will restore thy sick flesh. To whom the maiden: I feel, she said,

Lady, I feel. So, the grace of God mediating, she is ordered to seek full health at the tomb of St. Etheldreda; I recover. Then the Noble woman, a Heroine and herself equally praiseworthy; Justly through me, she said, dost thou obtain a remedy, thou who bearest a body, the right side struck, burdened: livid, my blows make the face pale with wasting, and thy livid side dries up in pain. Therefore my Lady, the Virgin and Queen distinguished, Etheldreda, sent me, who could no longer bear thy mother's tears; and to thee, for a medium, destined an antidote. And slipping from the high hinge of the heavens, from her to thee for salvation through me is transmitted this medicine; and she commands thy presence to be set before her, henceforth to be rescued from perilous chances. Thy mother had continually beaten, from the first day of the infirmity, at the gate of the clemency of Etheldreda the most sacred Virgin; and her singularly alone, before the other Saints, by prayers and tears she had bent to the abundance of piety.

[76] I give thanks, the younger one brought in, because nothing of adversity has settled in my body: the diseases have departed, the strength has returned, and the languor which had occupied my body has withdrawn. The burden, she said, and meanwhile by the triple touch of the one appearing more relieved, still heavy and the trouble thou sufferest, nor so as thou thinkest dost thou wholly recover: but be, daughter, patient a little while, and bear, and thou shalt wholly be cured of the same languor. And she moved her hand sweetly to her side, and into the pierced part

without pain twisted it, and on the outside even to the elbow lightly handled the body with the tips of her fingers. Then the young virgin: There is nothing of peril, she said, O Virgin: behold I am, Lady, safe and wholly strong, my adverse health now driven away. The disease, she answered, grave, is cut off from thee, but not yet is perfect health restored. The woman drew back to herself her right hand, and again thrust [it] in, that she might relieve her; and a work similar to the former she performed, and counted a second time after the first. Now, said Remburgis, O Lady, I have recovered, restored to health entirely: and she, This cure, she said, will be near done, the medicine heaped up. So what twice before she had done, in the name of the holy Trinity for the rest she supplies, and her hand from her heart, and from the inner parts the arm she removes; and anoints with ointment the side which had been cut, and to the former health anointed reforms it. She admonishes more urgently again, that she go to the sepulchre of the blessed Virgin, nor in expediting the journey weave delays.

[77] The virgin favors the Virgin according to her wish: whatever sits in the judgment of the one commanding: I am ready, she promises to do what is commanded; she said, to carry out what thou commandest, and to be presented to the sacred dwelling of the blessed Queen. Go, said the Person a third time; do not delay, what is enjoined upon thee do not leave undone. Remember, how great excellence is preeminent in the Queen, whose goodness has restored thee to health, and when to her thou comest she will perfectly repair thee. The Virgin subjoins a word more alacritously offered, that she would by no means of her own accord frustrate what she had promised, if only a Companion be present, who would bring her aid. Of what kind, she said, O Virgin, dost thou seek to be helped by protection? She answered, I am a powerless girl, destitute of a father's solace, but then, pleading that she was not her own mistress, subject to my mother's command, nor without her nod is it permitted to be subjected to another's counsel. These words of her answering the Brother silently and more attentively caught, but the voice or habit of the one speaking he could neither hear nor see, standing beside her bed, mercifully condescending to the chances and fortune of his sister. This image of truth, then, the mind by no means falsely dreams, which without hesitation to the works of virtues the effect of the heavenly judgment compels. But that woman, rendering a person full of authority, with such words addresses the Virgin, showing a countenance more severe than usual. I bring commands, she said, and I propose flatteries and threats, she is rebuked for her delay, I allege the necessities from which thou art to be rescued. The Queen has commanded, let the commands be fulfilled. Etheldreda the most holy Virgin is this my Heroine, in whose stead the admonition is made, although uttered by another's voice.

Now why dost thou hold out an excuse, and oppose error, nor hasten thy journey to her, whose abundant grace has prevented thee? What her virtue and merit is, by this sign impressed upon thee thou shalt know; nor wilt thou quickly unlearn the custom whose truth, once experienced, thou shalt feel. She rebukes with words more bitterly, with threatening countenance reproaches; and she is deprived of the use of her right eye. and while she shows this thing difficult for her, from the displayed wrath she renders… her more cautious: and seizing the eyelid over which the right eyebrow rises, she drew it over the pupil, and subjoined words of this kind threateningly: Because of the salutary admonitions which thou neglectest, and the compositions of useful medicines which thou shunnest by oblique faith, thy right eye shall be turned aside, so that it lack sight in human affairs: nor wilt thou find the prerogative of the former light before thou go to the holy Virgin of God Etheldreda.

[78] These things thus prefaced, the Heroine disappeared. Then the girl, awaking, joined tears, companions of modesty, making faith in the truth of the vision; nor could she be tormented more by pain than by shame. But this mercy of grace to be proclaimed, not a die of fortune, although to the praise and glory of God it took the visible light from the girl, The same Saint appears a third time, preserved entire the liberty of her soul. So in the salt-sea of misfortune while she fluctuates, as on the solid ground of wisdom she uses the instruments of wisdom: reason tempered the blindness, discretion mingled the confidence of good hope; so that she neither fell from the good of virtues, nor did despair of the failing eye weary her. As more honestly suffices, the virgin covers the inconvenience for eight days. When on the fifth day toward evening the day is closed, and from the confine of night the sixth light begins; her companions place themselves at rest, and she herself in her bedroom is disposed for quiet. So there came a third time she who had come anew, and calls the girl by her own name: Remburgis, said the Person, again I have returned: behold, solicitous about thee, to thee again I have come. She, at these words, become close to the wall, gathered the lordly Matron to her seat.

[79] When suddenly a certain woman of middle stature, to the female sex bearing female habit, with grim countenance composes a truculent edict, together with another lesser one, filled with harshnesses and full of threats. What, she said, O detestable youth, having dared so great a wickedness, hast thou so often disregarded the command of my Lady intimated to thee? How, with worn-down brow, wast thou not ashamed to postpone, what so great a Queen commanded thee to do? How to so great a madness in the stupor of mind art thou rolled down, that thou shouldst be a prevaricator against the law, specially assigned to thee? who, about to chastise her disobedience, What the blessed Virgin

Etheldreda commanded thee to do, why has the inertia of a depraved mind delayed to fulfill? But notable by the blemish of inconstancy and frivolity, thou hast fled the balance of reason by the verdict of thy indiscretion. Thou shalt experience the proofs: I will therefore carry out the fitting vengeance, my Lady commanding; and which may more abundantly answer to thy deserts, reaching to the ruin of the indignation incurred. does not suffer herself to be entreated by the greater one Then the Heroine who had come first, She, she said, minister of so great a Virgin and bearer of the message's staves, set mercy before justice, and the scourge of so great vengeance suspend. Take away the rod, that she may feel the sentence changed. I cannot, she said, defer what thou suppliest; nor dare I leave undone, what thou askest to be remitted. The incorruptible Virgin commanded the negligence to be punished for the transgression; but, seeming to fix a nail in her head, she disappears. and through this thou mayest perceive the judgment of strict severity and the cause. The lordly Person groaned, hearing these things, a second time for the girl and a third interceding. And when her petition was frustrated and inefficacious, nor could the woman of lesser form be bent by so great prayers to pardon: the avenger of the fault soon by the hairs seized her: and seizing an iron nail of wonderful length, which by her she had had hidden before, between the eye in the head she cruelly and the brain fixed [it], and her with intolerable pain perforated. I have accomplished, she said, the enjoined command, obeying the will of my

Empress. This she said, and disappeared.

[80] Then that praiseworthy Heroine, instilling a drop of salvation-bearing liquor more swiftly than the iron nail, expelled all torment from her head, The greater one cures her again, and the torn-out iron sprang back farther from her neck. And Remburgis being made whole again, from destruction is saved by heavenly medicine. This matter, radiant all over with the splendor of virtues, is commended by divine testimony. But soothing her with bland speeches, the imperial Person who had come as the girl's curer with the greatest authority cries out: For it is an illustrious matter, of which I am made to thee a foreteller, often now for a long time nourished concerning thy advancement and health, cheerfully thou shouldst have rendered, what from thee with torments is extorted. and animates her to undertake the journey, Performed by the color of grace rather than by fear, the command from blessed Etheldreda, that no longer thou delay: but to her, by thyself, as thou canst, go: for indeed thou shalt not experience this artisan of thy health, unless thy good mother aid the worker. Visit that place, which with our Lady likewise we inhabit, and with the presence of our bodies adorn. There when thou shalt be, between the glorious Virgin and Queen's mausoleum and sepulchre, on the Northern part decently placed, with a taper kindled watching, with sweet slumber gently thou shalt sleep; and waking from sleep, thou shalt receive the sight, which for so many days thou lackest: nor anywhere do I forbid thee to drink the liquor of strong drink, until thou stand at the place often remembered.

[81] My care about the heaviness f that arose, the yesterday's cup of water at the door of the chamber, by a certain stumbling-block of death, made to be emptied: but if thou hadst gulped the draught which thou hadst conceived in thy mouth, and thy throat had not vomited out the poison which it drew, in the vessel of death which lay hidden, to an eternal ruin to thee it would have lain open. With a fist between the shoulder-blades thee too I struck, and from such destruction freed thee. Do therefore the best thing and salutary for thee, threatening death unless she obey. that thou persevere to go quickly to the Virgin, whose command made thou hast so often heard. Let the image of the vision firmly cleave, whence the joyful memory of the matter recede not. The day, drawing its name g from the Armed One Mars: Tuesday, in this country by no means let it lead thee to evening, if thou art busy to obtain the promised health. But if thou shalt tarry, not going out of the town, nor let the flame of devotion tend to increase; when the love in thee will be less vehement, the impulse of her who gave the command will grow tepid toward thee, nor shalt thou breathe toward better health

through her, nor shalt thou reach the desired health: but, what more grievously presses upon thee to hear, with swift arms unexpected death will snatch thee, and thee snatched from this body will dash down.

[82] So the girl sets out on the way with her mother and brother; The appearance of the image at these words vanished, and awakened from sleep she rose: the revelation she makes known to her mother, and that she hasten the journey more urgently she prays. All that she had seen quickly become known, and the mother and daughter accomplish the desired things. There came too unexpectedly the brother of the Virgin, received with a votive office, who had been absent from the province for a long time: he prepares the expenses and hastens the journey, and on the day on which a time is fixed for her, to the island of Ely it is more quickly reached. It is notably to be observed that the girl reported to have happened to her, under that same light on which to St. Etheldreda she took up the way of her advancement: as her faith fervently burned in her breast, so in her body the swiftness of entire health came; except, however, that her right eye could not open. But on that journey never did sleep creep upon her, and at the Saint's sepulchre lightly fallen asleep, but continual vigilance long wearied her exercised eyes. At last coming to the sepulchre of the most sacred Virgin, and around the evening solemnities standing by it with devout vigils; while from the Northern quarter, as had been commanded her, with a lamp kindled the Virgin lay down, it happened that on the pavement she gently slept. She had revealed a little before to the elder Religious of the church, what had befallen her, and the blindness of the eye with the tumor which oppressed her, and the punishment inflicted by the supernal hand was more grievous to her shame; since base blood did not infect her birth, and the straitness of family means darkened the name of nobility.

[83] So when the glorious young woman had conceived a little quiet, soon awakened by blood flowing from her nose, and under the sepulchre of the most Sacred Virgin and distinguished Queen Etheldreda had placed her neck; by an unexpected event immediately from her right nostril blood leaped out, and so compelled her to be more quickly awakened from sleep: so that the sleeve of the linen with which she was clothed, applied, stanched the waves of the flowing blood, lest the pavement the noxious superfluity should touch. And with the greatest devotion crying out more loftily, Thanks, she said, to thee, most-shining Virgin, venerable and glorious Queen: because, as I judge, temporal things I see, she declares the eye restored to her. which closed had hitherto been the instruments of seeing. And placing the taper which she held in her hand against the wall, with her left she closed her left eye, and with her right hand to her right [eye] she extended a certain sign, by this purposing to prove more certainly how approvable was the effect of the sacred revelation. The faithful who were present were amazed, because about one hour before they had seen above a turbid and swollen orb [eye], and now they contemplate it splendid, The miracle being published and all the deformity calmed. The cry of all is raised to the stars, the voice of popular gladness dances, an infinite fame does not cease to summon to the church those whom the love of the Queen and Virgin from various parts of the kingdom to the praise and glory of God there gathered. There is set before the sacred table of Christ the splendid and comely virgin: and now her face, by the alacrity and the comeliness of the countenance, more subtly changed, she reports to all wishing to know what the divine grace had wrought in her; and, just as we have woven the order of the aforesaid matter, she clearly explained.

[84] We therefore, good Jesus, in these and the other wonders of thine, praise thee as God, confess thee Lord of heaven and earth, the Te Deum laudamus is sung, who dost so far and wide glorify the merits of thy blessed Spouse and most entire Virgin Etheldreda, that to all beholding and hearing they appear gracious. But the Hymn which we have aforementioned, the Precentor solemnly began, the whole congregation of the Church alacritously, with spiritual joy and tears, following the great works of God. It is to be known that it faithfully fits all, that just as the revelations were made to her on these three days toward evening, which drew their name from the appellation of Jove Thursday; so under this h hour of evening devotion, she merited to attain to the increase of health. and the girl returns home safe. She, pouring out more abundant tears more largely, and at the sacred Virgin's mausoleum persisting in prayers, leave being received, returned to her own, cheering her own by the health divinely reformed for her. From that day, the young woman, weakened in light, emerged i… who in an instant found the grace of cure. But perhaps the gracious Virgin of Christ, and celebrated Queen Etheldreda, in our time has secretly exhibited such things to us, but in so clear a light no such solemn miracle in the modern series has she shown.

ANNOTATIONS D. P.

about to avenge the injuries inflicted on the Monks: so that two Virgins, handmaids of the Virgin Etheldreda, profess themselves in this narration, in many places exceedingly obscure, and probably inserted into this book, as by another… it had been written, just as we have already seen two Epistles, reported with nothing changed of the style. d I would believe is understood the sixth day Friday of the greater Holy week, which in that year 1135, in which Easter was to be celebrated on the 7th of April, concurs with the 5th of the same; unless from the progress it appeared that is understood the sixth day Friday which preceded by two weeks the 6th of June, then a Thursday; and so here is noted the 17th of May. The forming of man indeed is noted in various Martyrologies on the 25th of March; but here it seems simply to be understood the sixth day Friday following another preceding one. f Thus I write by conjecture for that which the copy had "de grande." g What is this day "of the Armed One"? I understand "of the Star" or read "of the Armed One" Armati, masc., and suspect that Tuesday the day of Mars is noted. h Which namely was also a Thursday: for at the beginning of the chapter the miracle is said to have been done on the 8th day before the Ides of June, which in that year 1135, the Dominical letter F running, was the fifth day Thursday. i In this epilogue too there would be need of an Oedipus, certain words being lacking and the sense of others disturbed, for here was written "in ista tantæ."

CHAPTER IX.

Health conferred on various persons: the treason of Ranulph, the Curator (or rather tyrant) of the men of Ely in place of the Bishop, detected, but the injury not repaired.

[85] The wife of a certain Geoffrey of Burwell suffered an erysipelas, a which the Latins call a carbuncle, in her throat. The lethal tumor of this abscess, the Physicians despairing or absent, A lethal abscess cured was cured in this way, that, St. Etheldreda invoked, the woman spat it out utterly.

[86] This matter, that b a certain languishing man returned to life, a wonderful matter, a matter truly to be proclaimed, has the testimony of all the men of Ely, a pilgrim from Colchester to the Saint has [its] proclamation. A certain man, a citizen of Colchester, c with almost his whole household had gone to the place of holy Etheldreda. And he, after his prayer and the other things which he sought as the cause of his coming, about to take up his journey of return the next day, received lodging at the house of the father of our doorkeeper Nicholas. But in the middle of the night, struck with a most grievous passion, without voice, to his wife expostulating with her about her husband's sudden swooning, and with a wretched lamentation compelling strangers even to weeping, the whole night even to the first hour of the following day he so lay; when behold, others being solicitous about his burial, the wife alone, who grieved more because she loved more, seeks the Saint's tomb, and before all pours out such complaints against the Lady Saint: O Holy one! O Lady! What have I sinned against thee, that thou hast taken my husband from me? To honor thee, we came: and to those venerating thee thou hast become unfaithful, hast become cruel. Hast thou laid an ambush for us, that in the place of thy jurisdiction thou shouldst render us evil for good, and shouldst dare to vex us alone of so great a people? Why didst thou not at least spare us, until we had come into our own land, and with due honor I might be able my husband, he is restored whole, among friends and acquaintances, to lead to his sepulchre? Alas for me, wretched! If we knew thou wouldst do this, we would never have come to thy place. Either therefore my husband thou wilt restore to me, or I will narrate thy cruelty everywhere. So while the woman, reviling, was so working; the most pious Saint roused the man, now to be buried, as from sleep, and to the wonder of all restored him sound. He, with his own and a great frequency of people, giving thanks to God, immediately sought again the Body of the holy Virgin; and that he had been freed by the merits of St. Etheldreda from a most grievous disease, he acclaimed to all: and at last departing with the Saint's leave, he promised that he would come every year with an offering.

[87] A woman swollen with dropsy had her belly stretched out in the manner of one pregnant: a dropsical woman is healed, who, while we beheld, approaching the holy tomb, a prayer being poured out, vomited there so much humor, that, for the stench and for the foulness, the Priest with incense, except with straw thrown over [it], could not go round the altar. So the belly being loosened, all that disease is driven off, and the woman is cured.

[88] That the operation of the divine Virgin's power in all things everywhere may be praised, and in all her ways, which are mercy and truth, By Bishop Nigel both in sparing and in punishing she may be glorified, who uses well the good and the evil; a matter done in the province of Ely, profitable to posterity, among the miracles of the blessed Virgin Etheldreda, as a great and stupendous miracle, we have thought worthy to insert into this little work: in which indeed most evidently it is given to understand, with how equal a balance of justice, as to the penitent she is wont to give pardon, so to the impenitent to inflict vengeance. For then indeed the church of Ely, under an honest Pastor honestly conversing, could not lack diabolical envy, but that, among the rest of the Kingdom's misfortunes, which now everywhere had multiplied, it too should have a part of the tribulation. For also by envious and malignant certain men, who desired to dispense the goods of the Monks, the Monks being cast down from their own power, a cruel accusation was prepared.

[89] There was in the company and service of the same Bishop of Ely the aforementioned Cleric Ranulph, an apostate from a Monk, who, formerly the practice of Monastic Religion being abandoned, Ranulph appointed Procurator, the order and habit which he had taken at Glastonbury, like a dog to the vomit, in body and heart returned into Egypt, who at last of all things pertaining to the Bishop, as he had desired, being made Procurator, now esteemed himself not under the Lord Bishop or in the Lord's stead, but in all things made himself most like to him and now above him had exalted himself; nor did he gather the dispersed, but strove to disperse the gathered. He was, though not in name, yet by the proof of the matter, the Catiline of our time: of rustic and ignoble stock, from infancy and in very infancy prone to any vices; a most wicked man, established in greater age, he becomes readier for crimes. And when he wholly conducted the administration of the Bishopric committed to him; a slippery man and of an inconstant mind, as being ineffectual, he began all things, brought nothing but crime to effect. Shunning the company of the honest, he had about him crowds of shameful deeds as of bodyguards: and that the estates of the Ely Monks and the rights of their possessions, and their power, he might usurp, by malign whisperings he often circumvented the Bishop; and unless the Divine mercy hindered it, Religion and the Monks, long placed there by the holy Fathers, he attempted to bring to extermination. To which he trusted he had in great part obtained the favor of his Lord, and was known to have utterly applied his consent. Whence neither could he speak anything peaceably to them, since from then and thenceforth he plotted indignation and wrath against them.

[90] Meanwhile, the affairs of the Kingdom pressing, which rendered the Bishop continually disquieted, and long impelled him to stay outside the Monastery, he stirs up the Bishop against the Monks. so that scarcely after many days he returned home: it happened that he went out and the crowds followed him. He had made for his companions a feast, as it were a feast of the King: and they sat to eat and drink, and rose up to play. Among them several evil ones mingled with good ones reclined: pseudo (so to say) Collaterals. These approach the Lord Bishop with whisperings and frauds continually, trying solicitously, that him against the innocent Monks they might stir to wrath and hatred. Yet against them they devised a counsel, by which, not thinking rightly, they strove to assert; that it was not necessary for the Lord Bishop to consult the Monks in anything; nor that they ought to assist him in the ministry of the altar, or the dedication of churches, as sons of the church; that he may remove them from his counsels, but neither in the disputations of suits, or for executing the rights of the place, that they ought at all to be present, he said: whereas (especially at their nod) rightly and canonically by their spiritual Father all the greatest and least things depend, and to him pertain all the rights of the church. Especially since, according to the Laws and Decrees, it is permitted to each to stand for the Commonwealth; and the law of nature, that each ought to stand for what is his own, ought [not] to be without the presence of the sons of his own Church, as from the twenty-second Chapter of the Carthaginian Council e it is proved, that void will be the sentence of a Bishop, unless by the consent of his Clerics it be confirmed and their presence.

[91] And truly, not of any Clerics whatever is this understood, whom he ought to have had as his intimates: but those who are of the bosom of their own See, whether they be Monks, or Canons or Scholars, that is secular Clerics: for these are reckoned generally by this name, as many as are constituted within the sacred Orders. But customarily the Ely Monks, with their Bishop, are known both to have a more eminent place, and in the other Episcopal places, by due custom in spiritual things, to hold access: in that they indeed are not created by him, but he rather, on the contrary, of them is proved to have been created and constituted; which to have happened otherwise, does not occur to memory. Yet he was greatly incited, so that, if a tumult had not arisen among the people, he had now hoped that they would be wholly put outside his jurisdiction: and so, irritated by the assiduous evil-speakings of Ranulph, he commits the affairs of the Monks to him, not indeed discussing their present cause, whom he did not deem worthy even of a hearing, [but] of their crimes informed by him.

[62] He makes the Prior William suspect to him, There was acting at that time in the priorship of the church of Ely the venerable Monk William, whom in the first year of the Bishopric that same Bishop had appointed Prior; who in ecclesiastical rule, and approved in monastic conversation, within and without useful and faithful to his Lord, and to the Brothers approvable, had stood out. So fearing such a one, the deadly Ranulph, to forestall himself in his Lord's favor; deprived [him] of the governance of exterior things by a malign craft, taking upon himself in the affairs of the Brothers a tyranny; not fearing God, nor honoring the Saints, to whose service those Brothers were ascribed. So the Prior and the Monks being proscribed from their own power, he immediately devises various exactions; he ejects the due servants, intrudes new ones, and vexes the Monks, not such as would serve but would lie in wait. He changes offices, takes away aids, diminishes victuals, detains revenues, bars exits, with palisades and hedges and guards every path he blocks, lest from the inflicted violence a complaint could go out to the public. And so those, seeing themselves thus imprisoned, patiently sustained the scourge of the Lord in expectation of mercy, with prayers and fastings approaching the bodies of the Saints, in whose patronage they trusted; and it was the Vigil of St. Leonard f the Confessor, when this affliction had come upon them.

[93] And so that whole year passed; and the Monks suffering the utmost want, a true precursor of Antichrist; about to suffer in the following year the great wrath of God, that Ranulph grew insolent on their goods: and to the Ely Monks, for two years miserably afflicted, the Hand of the Lord now prepared to come to meet them, that that nefarious tyrant, whom no mercy broke, the Divine vengeance might forestall. But the aforesaid man Ranulph, impious and unfaithful, and in many sacraments and judgments of the church secretly a heretic, although he had not been publicly convicted; set his mouth against heaven, and forbade the festivities of the Saints deservedly to be venerated to be celebrated; and against the office of piety and the debt of humanity, a cruel and inhuman man, in his time brought near the times of Antichrist by his… malice anticipating, but at last relapsed into extreme want; to the dead he often denied their Anniversaries; to no one did he grant them if he did not sell them; into whom by the just judgment of God all the bilge of vices had so flowed together, that a certain brother of his, to himself not dissimilar, with a certain concubine of his whom he preferred to others, after the example of Herod who had brought in the wife of his brother Philip, as though lawfully and publicly abused [her]: and, the forehead of a harlot made for himself, so great an excess and incest, in his own brother he did not rebuke; and he himself in idleness, not on his own, but on another's goods, accustomed to live magnificently and softly; while he knew no measure, … uncertain things for certain, war for peace he desired, as one whose soul desires had occupied, lust had enervated, pride had invaded, another's food had fattened. Who, in so great an abundance of things, brought to the utmost (as afterward appeared) want, disposed all things inconsiderately and improvidently, envied all faithfully serving the Bishop.

[94] Deservedly therefore given over to a reprobate sense, he began from day to day to raise himself above himself swollenly, because, a conspiracy being formed, and as it were toward the North with that first author of his ruin to set his seat, and, aspiring in a manner to obtain the Kingdom of the Angles, to conspire with his satellites. For a malign thought had occupied his mind, and he received the first judgment of his damnation from the obstinacy of his heart, that an unheard-of blindness should bring his public ignominy into the knowledge of all. So blinded by the divine judgment, two of his intimates being summoned, of whom one by a certain presage was called Henry the Pilgrim (understood from the faith i.e. estranged from faith), the other was called Ralph the Burgundian (from the interpretation of his very surname, for the slaughter of the Normans, since the Allobroges are faithless, and he faithless) what and how great a business he was turning in his mind he revealed to them; how great glory, fame, dignity they could easily acquire; long declaiming he insinuated. They praised so great a purpose, and promise him allied forces in all things, and to this detestable counsel all the worst men they secretly allure to themselves: then whoever had dilapidated his patrimony, or plundered another's inheritance, or had contracted a great debt, or in judgment had been convicted, or had escaped judgment as a defendant; nearest and most intimate clung to them, and they thought no one worthy of their friendship, except him whom they had found marked with the infamy of some crime.

[95] At last there is made an Assembly of them in the church of Stretham, and execrable oaths being given on both sides against the country, and for the destruction of all the Franks Normans g, both clerics and laymen, several induced by entreaty, and hired by price, in the village of Stretham h arms horrible to see of various kinds he caused to be made; and a change of government, that what he had perversely conceived, more perversely if it were permitted he might fulfill. Counsel being often communicated also with his accomplices over this, but a council held by chance and without the spirit of counsel, made insane he began to dispose of the Kingdom, to designate the future King, to distinguish at his pleasure Bishoprics and Counties, to the adversaries of liberty and peace as though for liberty and peace to promulgate laws; to promise things which he neither had nor in any way could have, that he might so befool them. He brings an example from the Histories of antiquity: how few have often occupied, disturbed the whole Commonwealth of the Romans; how great slaughters they have made, and how few have often triumphed over a very great multitude: of whom some, compelled by fear, some allured by love, some seduced by simplicity, some overcome by ambition, professed themselves ready to go into death and into prison for love of him and for his favor.

[96] But he, desirous of glory, animated to the execution of so great a matter by the favor of flatterers, as though he already sat on the throne of the Kingdom, vainly glories. He had even destined his own Bishop to death, He went daily through the village and island of Ely pompously; and those whom either he disdained, or despaired of having as companions of his treason, he frequently i accused, burdened with offices, despoiled of moneys, and afflicted with many troubles. And so the detestable homicide, the betrayer of his country and execrable, who from others' damages heaped wealth for himself, from all the worst men called companions. That Lord of his, whose favor and benevolence he so long abused, with the bands of his satellites he disposed to kill: who raised him needy from the dust, and lying lifted him from the dunghill, and made him sit with princes. Often with him at the table, from a gold and silver cup, beside his side he drank wine, to whom cruelly, like another Judas, he prepared to give to drink the poison of death. but he himself voluntarily taking flight But the divine grace resisting his so perverse purpose, he fell into the pit which he made: and at last the divine disposition uncovered the counsel of iniquity, and he fell from the hope of his vanity.

[97] And that it may be clear with how reasonable a deliberation God provides all things; on the same vigil of St. Leonard, on which two years before that Ranulph had exalted himself over the affairs of the Monks, the most wicked treason began to be revealed. For a certain hidden horror at the savagery of so great a purpose had invaded him: and because he did not sufficiently trust the faith of his own, and thought so great a matter among so many privy to it could not be concealed, nor did he see that a time fit for such undertakings had yet come; taking what he could, by flight he consulted his safety, when one of the accomplices had disclosed all, and left the whole cause to his own. Which one of his own, Ralph the Burgundian, learning, fearing lest another should forestall him in the revelation of the crime, and at the same time thinking that by this detection he would obtain the favor of the Lord Bishop, and the impunity of his limbs; driving him not the fervor of penance, but the stench of his fault; suddenly thrust himself into the Monastery, and to the Body of holy Etheldreda fled. And without delay the rumor is borne to the ears of the Bishop: he wonders, runs up, hears the cause, is turned into stupor: nor could now so great a rumor be concealed, which then had happened for the salvation of the whole people. So the Monks, by the merits of St. Etheldreda, their Lady and Advocate, by [her] patronage freed from the cruel tyrant, exult with great dancing, extol God and his bountiful Virgin with praises, the counsel of Achitophel being at last detected and divinely befooled. punishment is taken of the rest. Ranulph escapes by flight, and those privy to the treason by divine revelation are seized, and convicted: of the laymen some are hung on a gibbet, the clerics suffer the damnation of perpetual exile. O how wonderful, by the merit of Blessed Etheldreda, the vengeance of the divine operation! He whom a little before all venerated as a Lord, feared as a tyrant, his conscience trembling, a wanderer and fugitive, like another Cain, fratricide perpetrated, dwelt on the earth; not to die once, but to suffer seven vengeances like Cain, so that whoever found him would seem to kill him, and by punishment always as it were reborn, without death he might die.

[98] At last the Bishop, come to himself, terrified by such great misfortunes, because he had unduly raised his hand against the Monks, his sheep; perceiving them to be innocent, Hence the Bishop seemed to promise better things, and that he himself had been cruelly exasperated against them utterly; to the Prior and Convent the power of their affairs, but by no means full, restored; some and the better of their things being retained by himself which he wished: and when long the injurer ought to have ceased from injuring, and to have corrected his former error by a perfect amendment, and thenceforth to have excluded himself from all error; made forgetful of the divine vengeance on his own [men], and of the peril of his own escape, and to restore some of the things taken away, and of the unjust strictness on the subject flock; he proposed to change their affairs for the better, and to enlarge, as he asserted, those which (the Monks resisting and in no way assenting to him) he had indeed diminished and lessened; he by no means willed, of the possessions, of the goods of the place, according to the statutes of the church and the decrees of the Laws, either an equal division or to them a just portion to grant, or to establish. For everywhere his cruelty had become known, which on the pitiable Monks, not justly, but with little sincerity. not duly he had exercised. Fearing therefore lest he suffer the damages of his savagery, agents prepared and necessary for this found, he obtained that the accustomed possessions of the Monks, and (as he had said) enlarged by his donation, he caused to be confirmed by a Roman privilege; nay, that to the Romans he might thrust his fame, plant his acquaintance, acquire favor.

ANNOTATIONS D. P.

CHAPTER X.

Various sick persons cured, the Saint being invoked, or even herself appearing to them.

[99] A woman blind for 4 years While our Lord Nigel the Bishop was still surviving, a certain woman of Cottenham a suffered blindness for four years. She, coming to the feast of St. Etheldreda, the whole night even into the day before her body kept vigil. So when morning came she began more vehemently to be intent on prayer; at the Saint's body she is enlightened. and after a little, giving thanks, she cried out that she had recovered her sight somewhat, and the privation began gradually to be turned into a habit of sight; and night being expelled, a most clear light thrust itself upon her. Which, that it might be proved by the bystanders, there were thrown to her obols and farthings of various coinage: whose characters she most certainly, all seeing, distinguished. It is known therefore that she without doubt had recovered her sight, and after the solemn conceptions of thanks, which the clergy and people acclaimed, she who had come with a guide, without a guide sought her own home.

[100] A feast of the Saint enjoined by a Priest Very few are the things which we narrate: nor let the hearer expect that all the deeds of this Saint can be retained either by our memory, or collected by [our] eloquence. For we, as slight and weak, burdened with so great matter, would now have yielded to the weight undertaken, unless the piety of the holy Virgin tempered her grace to our ventures: whence also in what follows, as in the past, we need the reader's benevolence; that to the rest which press on we may be able to weave a fitting relation. For there occurs a delightful mention of a miracle, which the pious ears with a gracious exultation will be able to soothe. For a certain Priest commanded the feast of St. Etheldreda to be solemnly observed: of which command a certain b contemner of his Parishioners, undertook to do some work. Nor does the divine vengeance delay to punish the fault: a certain man violating [it by working,] but a detestable misfortune followed the detestable venture: for a fall is ready for a fall. A cause to him, improvident… and a headlong passage through a certain hedge presented itself, into which suddenly rushing, by a very sharp stake he was transfixed below his vertebrae: whence, violently shaking himself out, the stake being broken, a fragment within his body stuck, and grievously injured he departed.

[101] So the pain grew daily, and, a scar drawn over, it had now begun to rot within. he falls upon a stake; When behold, not knowing what was within him, he calls together physicians, and some succeeding others, he is more vexed than helped. And so he led a whole year in great misery: until, the festivity of the holy Virgin returning, he is persuaded by his own to be carried to the tomb of the Saint whom he had offended, if perhaps, what he had so long conceived, he might at least then bring forth. So he is conveyed thither, and the whole night and day asks mercy, nor obtains it; and then, now become without hope, he prepares to return home. And when on the way a pleasant plain occurred, the anxious man began this church to look at piously with weeping eyes, and with few words poured out this prayer: Most benign Lady, if thou wouldst show in me wretched the bounty of thy virtue, a fragment of which secretly cleaving to his body, every year thy festivity most devoutly I would observe. Remit therefore to me what I have sinned against thee: let it suffice thee for vengeance what I have borne, and have mercy on me. Which said, he immediately felt a certain wonderful itching in the place of the wound: after the vow made, leaps out of its own accord. and so long there he began to scratch, until, the skin broken, the fragment of the stake with much gore leaped out of his body. So rejoicing, and wondering that the cast-out fragment was the cause of his suffering, he returns at once to the church, gives thanks to the Saint, reports the event, and afterward returns to his province, carrying with him the wood, a testimony of so great a miracle, to the proclamation of St. Etheldreda.

[102] Let us not think that the holy Virgin, in the place of her rest alone, Of a Dalmatic, made from the Saint's tunic, worked miracles of health, who deigns mercifully to be present everywhere to those invoking her: whose sanctity, that it may more widely become known, even from her garments joyful great works have come forth. For we have a certain old Dalmatic, which either she herself made, or in which her body was wrapped, or which had been her tunic, while still a Queen she lived in a secular habit. This, then, as if conscious of so great a dignity, followed certain traces of sanctity, and by its touch alone conferred a remedy on many languishing: whence also piece by piece almost the whole, the faithful seeking some part thereof, was divided. And that we may narrate some distinction of it, our Brother Brithmacius, a dying boy wrapped [in it,] coming into the house of a certain William surnamed Flandrensis the Fleming, had the same tunic with him with other Relics, because c he had the care of a bridge, and by preaching sought the aids of the faithful. But a boy, still lying in a cradle, was there sick almost to death, the host's son. And when now he could not move himself, most like one dead, he saddened his father and mother not a little. So that Brother of ours, approaching, suddenly recovers. ordered the body to be wrapped in that tunic: and before he had said the Lord's prayer over him a third time, first one, then the other foot the boy drawing to himself, and at last moving himself wholly: he rose, ate, and on the third day received fullest health. These, then, and similar things spread the Saint's fame far and wide.

[103] The writer himself sick to death, Since God works innumerable distinctions, through the merits of his Saints, in whatever way through the regions of the world, the great works of his power; there are many which, by the negligence of modern writers, are by no means commended to the memorial page, to be reiterated: of which injury they especially are charged who are delegated to the office of literary science. Lest therefore of such offense I be accused as a crime by rivals, a certain miracle which happened at the present time, in myself, Thomas by name, by the merits and intercession of Blessed Etheldreda, according to my capacity, to her praise and glory, I have thought worthy to set forth to all. So, the divine grace dispensing, which scourges every son whom it loves,

I was tormented by the intolerable straits of a grave sickness. For, continually seething with the burning of acute fevers, I was deprived of the vigor of all my body's strength. Hence, the goads of various passions agitating, hence the groans of pain scarcely permitting me to breathe, often I was almost led to the jaws of death. What more? This thankless life, wretched, anxious, I drag, Leading languors, goads, torments, pains.

So placed in the very destruction of death, wearied by the loss of anguish and torment, I despaired utterly of any remedy of life. The Brothers gather, become timid about the funeral; They bewail the languishing one, suffering various diseases.

[104] So the sickness growing strong, and every sense of the body languishing, and fortified with the last [rites,] as if suffocated I scarcely could form very few words: and since I had no confidence of breathing, so far I cleansed myself more solicitously by the laver of sincere Confession, with contrite heart receiving the Viaticum, that I might become more secure after the passage of this life. Then the other things which are to be administered to a dying man I begged to be administered to me continually. But the Brothers deferred till the morrow, cherishing me with the solace of some recovery: with whose salutary counsel I, acquiescing, not distrusting the free gift of God He who spurns not those believing in him, having hope,

Who cherishes the wretched, consults, hears them.

For, frustrated almost of the breath of life, all my hope

I confirmed in the Lord, whose abundant mercy of piety protects the desolate with [its] protection. So having this only refuge, I ran to the patronage of Blessed Etheldreda the Virgin. So weeping I implored her aid, with pure devotion seeking a remedy; that she might intercede for me with the highest Physician, that he might restore me, gladdened, to my pristine health; lamenting and sighing with countless groans to her, whom I addressed with sobs of this kind.

[105] O Etheldreda, our special Lady, who flourishest in body with the prerogative of integrity, he invokes St. Etheldreda;

bestowing on all the benefits of bounty, who seek thee with the confidence of inmost devotion: hear me, a most wretched sinner, with difficulty oppressed by the burden of languor, to thy asylum humbly fleeing, thy solace specially requesting. Hold out to me a salvation-bearing aid of healing, by which the anxieties of my ulcers may be relieved, by which

I am wearied even to weariness of life, preferring to die than longer to sustain this torment. Do not, most clement Mother, forsake me desolate: but clemently deign to visit me half-alive, snatching [me] from this lamentable death, that by thy abundant piety from this valley of pain and misery I may be able to breathe again. For thou art my, after God and his Mother, sole patroness, singular advocate and Lady: in thee stands my hope, firm and continual: which things I earnestly demand, let them in no way lack the efficacy of petition. Behold I constitute thee mediatrix between me and God: if by thy intervention he shall grant me a space of living; I will amend my ill-spent life for the better hereafter.

[106] And without delay, the circle of eight days being passed, from the time I began to languish in the infirmary, and after seeing in a dream a Mass heard, I was rapt into such a dream. At daybreak I seemed to be present in a certain company of a procession, where resounded the most sweet modulation of the Convent; with alternating hymns with the jubilation of the voice. Cheered by the harmony of this melody, immediately I felt present to me the propitious suffrages of our blessed Advocate Etheldreda. So the procession of this company finished, a Mass is begun with solemn celebration, which I heard assiduous with pure intention of heart. Moreover, amid the proclamation of the Gospel d message, for consecrating the Lord's body, I looked into a certain altar of Parian marble, conspicuous with radiant gems and gold. So after the celebration of the Masses, e looking toward my little bed, he beholds his bed cleansed by the Saint, I saw a certain matron most beautiful to see, having a religious habit, who with great diligence cleansed the bed, with her sleeve wiping away the refuse and contagions of dust, going round the cloths and the coverlet. The bed cleansed the Heroine disappeared: whom I recognized most certainly to be Blessed Etheldreda the Virgin, since I had attentively asked her as my propitiatrix.

[107] Meanwhile waking from sleep I awoke, and vehemently wondering in what place I had been, and the Brothers rejoicing I called the Brothers who were there present, relating to them in order the vision which had happened to me. Who, such things heard, for my cheering, joyfully giving thanks to God and my deliverer, and firmly asserting me to be made whole, broke into this voice, saying: Blessed be thou, God, in thy wonders, who, by the prompting and prayers of Blessed Etheldreda, dost not refuse mercifully to come to the aid of thine, of those trusting in thee. For from that hour I began from day to day to recover, and to almighty God and his holy Virgin to pay the vows of prayers, who by her grace enriched me with the light of this life. Let no one therefore, derogating from the Saint, refuse to believe this miracle, since in this page about myself I have taken care to insert it, that God may be magnified in his glorious Virgin. Let us praise therefore the Lord, wonderful in deeds, he asserts himself healed. venerating with dances his Spouse and Virgin, with signs and virtues through the world. Let us exhibit, I say, to her the glory of devout veneration, that she may have eternal memory of us in the heavens with herself: which may the Lamb grant us, the Spouse of Virgins, to whom be praise, honor, and dominion, through the infinite ages of ages.

Amen.

[108] A certain little Monk among us, by the name of John, To a boy Monk, of wonderful simplicity and innocence, a boy of twelve years, was sick. He, struck in his whole body with a most evil ulcer, which through all his members made an itching to swarm; took away his office and motion; nor could he imprint on himself the sign of the Cross, and could not take food or drink by himself; but by the hands of his companions and servants food was brought to him. He had invoked with continual meditation the aid of Blessed Etheldreda, and mercy from God his salvation: sick to death but those who were about him had now utterly despaired of his health. And while his heart was anxious, here from the affliction of the flesh, here from the fear of death, he took sleep, lying in the house of the infirm. On a certain day at noon, suddenly there was seen by him a woman, covered with the veil of sanctity, standing by, who professed herself to be his lady Etheldreda, the Saint appearing in a dream, saying; O wretched one, long now by infirmity grievously bound thou art held, nor yet dost recover: thou shalt be able by God's help to receive from thy infirmity thy former health, but not here entirely. To St. Edmund do not delay to go, soon there thou shalt be cured presently. And approaching to him, the edges of her cloak as if wiping away the sweat, and from above casting off all the dust from him: she heals him, and sends him to St. Edmund. to the church afterward she withdrew. Whom curiously attending, he followed from afar, until coming to the shrine there he watched to pray. And when, as it seemed, he lowered his head to supplicate, he vomited out all the poison by which he was tormented: and afterward waking, made whole, he narrated in order what he had seen, to the praise of God and his bountiful Virgin Etheldreda: and not long after these things coming to St. Edmund, that Martyr of God he entreated, that by his merits he might obtain the revealed remedy which… she who had appeared to him in the vision had promised him.

[109] We recall to memory a wonderful matter, which the faithful people knows well enough and remembers. In Ely there dwelt a young man, a foreigner, A possessed young man Richard by name, who (as was thought) bore the virtue of mildness and patience in his countenance, but concealed a vice in his mind, which kind of men scarcely or by no means avoids shameful deeds. He, through much trouble of body, incurred madness of mind, becoming wholly a demoniac. He broke chains and fetters, could be held by no binding. But why or how this came upon him we know not, but by the judgment of God and a just one we profess. And when for a long time, by this his misery, day and night he disturbed men and terrified all around; by a furious demon, through fields, through pits hiding, he now spurns the company of men. And on one night, while he was more urged by the goad of his madness, by crying out and running about in the street, he roused all everywhere from the quiet of night. So while he wandered through the darkness of night, in the way there stood to meet him a certain Religious woman, of a most white countenance, whose brightness had illumined the darkness of the dark night with the splendor of her light; saying to him, Wretched man, however much thou exaltest thyself by disturbing others and thyself with most wretched vexation, I compassionate exceedingly thy weakness. To this he: Who art thou, he said, Lady? Make known to me thy name, and me in the destruction of so great a peril for Christ help.

[110] To wonderful things more wonderful succeed; she answered, I am Etheldreda, by the Saint appearing to him he is freed. the mistress of this place, whom by long prayers thou hast asked for aid: and approaching she wrapped the head of the languishing one with the sleeve of her virginal garment of the religious habit which she used, signing him with the seal of the holy Cross, and said: Go, and give thanks to God, who has freed thee from this infirmity and from the power of the enemy. And immediately that person disappeared: and the sick man, trusting in the health granted, ran to the church, and ever-watchful in prayers passed the remaining space of the night; the people, about to come thither in the morning, with joy he awaited, magnifying and praising God, [and] narrated to all; how the blessed most clement Etheldreda had met him and how he was rescued from the enemy and from the peril of death.

ANNOTATIONS D. P.

c Of that bridge or rather causeway, which over the Ouse, flowing past the eastern side of the city, is laid down, leading to the city, through the marshes almost one league long, of which below at number 141. d I think is understood the Angelic Hymn, Gloria in excelsis Deo &c. e The copy: "Premissarum": hence it was doubtful to me whether I should believe that part of the Mass to be understood which precedes the Canon: but since not even thus was the sense convenient enough, I believed it should be imputed to the copyist that "Pre," in place of "Post," was read.

CHAPTER XI.

The Bishop, plunderer of the monastery of Ely, with his accomplices is punished: the obtained conversion of disorderly Monks, the revealed body of St. Algot.

[111] But in those days the father of the family Nigel,

Bishop of Ely, fell ill, and the languor was so vehement, Bishop Nigel being ill, that scarcely a little breath remained in him: but first in one matter how great the misfortune of the plague, and how sad for us thereupon would proceed, I afterward show. A woman quite poor dwelt in Ely, sustained by the alms of the Brothers, [who] under the appearance of religion living, with vigils and much abstinence subdued her body from its desire. So on a certain night in sleep it seemed to her, as if in the church she stood at the door, which looks toward the altar of Blessed Etheldreda, and entered in order to supplicate the Lord and the Saints resting there. When she looked toward the Saints, she saw from above the altar a religious woman proceed, and through the steps to her come forth, her head lift up and with her eyes look, saying to her; Dost thou see, good woman, how here all things go to ruin, and there is none who considers? But she had carried under her cloak a staff, which raising on high, before her she said: With this staff I extinguished the enemies and dispersers of the goods of this place: forthwith by God's command, to the pious woman St. Witburga appears, about to punish him; those who survive likewise with it I will crush, in revenge of the bountiful Virgin Queen Etheldreda. To this the woman answered: My Lady, thy name and who thou art declare, that I may truly know of whom I have heard such things. And she: I am, she said, Withburga, whose virginity the Lord deigned to join to the heavenly Spouse, sister of the most sacred Etheldreda: but what thou hast heard and seen confidently narrate; and when to pray in the morning thou shalt come hither thou shalt have meeting thee the monk Augustine, to him thou shalt reveal my last secrets.

[112] At these things the woman, greatly terrified, from sleep rose; and, as had been shown her, the aforesaid monk she found at her entrance coming to meet her, who for three years miserably languishing, and to him the order of her vision she narrated. He, when he heard, vehemently was amazed, and said: Undoubtedly to these things I give faith: nor do I wonder if ill befall us, because in the wastings of his house we always offend. And not long after, the Paschal festivity coming, the Bishop, sitting in the church, oppressed by a strong infirmity, scarcely somewhat by the medicines of physicians could be relieved; and so for three continuous years he was carried in a chair by the hands of retainers, deprived wholly of the middle of his body: yet in confession and entreaty to God he continually persevered even to the last time of his life. But neither thus was he converted, that he might do good to Jacob and to the house of Judah: but he died in the year of the Lord's Incarnation one thousand one hundred sixty-six, but of his Bishopric the thirty- sixth, on the third b day before the Kalends of June, on the sixth day Friday at the ninth hour: and on the Lord's Day after, by the venerable William, a Monk of Norwich c and Bishop, he was buried and honorably placed in the church of Blessed Etheldreda, at last he dies in the year 1130 (recte 1166), the Abbess of this place, beside the altar of the holy Cross, in the year of Henry the Younger King of the Angles the seventeenth. But the Monks there bewailed d their bereavement, wept the death of the Father, and grieved exceedingly; with prayers and tears unanimously praying God, that he would not leave them orphans, but send them the Holy Spirit the consoler and defender, and provide a worthy Pastor for his house and a fit Prelate.

[113] So when the Lord had struck the strong and powerful, the proud and arrogant, and gave all the like adversaries of his beloved Virgin Etheldreda into stupor; though before his accomplices had miserably perished, and their ignorance into hissing and into ruin to all round about (as in the preceding chapter is expressed) who had thought iniquity, and treated a most evil counsel against her, whom by name to express I deferred; e whence by some I am charged with lying. For I was too bitter in the indignation of my spirit, fearing to bring forth, by recalling, the miseries of men which by their faults they had incurred; since it rather befitted me to have a groan than contempt. Yet lest we be judged to have received the grace of God unworthily, the Prior and Sacrist, and several others. both of the Monks within, and without of the laymen, who acquiesced in the most evil counsel, as the Virgin of God had shown through sleep, we designate; the foremost indeed Tombert the Prior, and the Sacrist Ralph, whom the Lord had given as watchmen to the house of Israel. Then the Constable Adam, as the blessed Virgin had foretold, perished: of whom horrible things were seen, and after his death shown: to whom Alexander the Butler succeeded in peril, struck by a sharp trouble at the time of his betrothal, so that long, even to death, there was for him no voice nor sense: no one doubted him struck by the Saint.

[114] Then William of Seldford … f and Henry the Pilgrim, depressed in the middle part of his body, with Ralph Olof, quite destructively for three years. But afterward Ralph Olof, who invaded this house, and was always a favorer in dispersing and snatching the many possessions and goods of the place; now indeed by the judgment of God was overtaken suddenly by a disease, a blister rising under his nipple, Richard de S. Paul, which the Physicians call a carbuncle, whence cut he could not be cured. Then Richard de S. Paul incurred a stumbling-block of pain, and so wonderfully languished, that by his kinsmen wholly and acquaintances he was despised. But William the Archdeacon, in the very church of holy Ætheldreda, when on a certain night against the same his Lord Bishop he pleaded, William the Archdeacon, suddenly before all at once was made deaf and tongueless. What more? By the Monks into the infirmary he is carried, and through a week wearied by manifold loss of sickness, without motion of body on the ninth day he expired.

[115] So we recall the many evil deeds of this house, The Bishop being buried, which the common people incessantly recall: we, lest we bring importunity on the reader, omit: but at last the Bishop, likewise sitting in the same church, in which he treated with those to whom he had unduly dispersed the possessions of the Saint; grievously began to be ill. Thence scarcely the breath of life remaining in him, he is carried out lifeless; that he who hears ought not to distrust, that truly the Lord renders vengeance on the enemies of his bountiful Virgin Etheldreda. To him for the sake of visiting had gathered many, and at his correction the due proclamations of devotion to God in his Saints they exhibited with zeal of devotion. At last, he being snatched from the prison-house of the flesh, the Monks their Father's body, with the greatest grief and weeping, the Monks too pay penalties, in a fitting place of his most honorable hall gave to burial. He being buried, his son … g Richard, continually an adversary of the church of Ely, to the King beyond the sea quickly went up, fearing that evil was prepared for him, if anyone whom the church might send should forestall him: before whom, accusing the Monks in many things, he rendered the King so far exasperated, narrating of them very many sinister and dishonest things, that the Lord King, sending to England, ordered by a certain Cleric of his, that William the Priest and Prior of Ely be deposed from his ministry, and the Monks proscribed of all goods.

[116] There came a certain man ill at Ely, William by name, of the district of Northampton, Wretchedly bent over, from his early age held by a miserable infirmity, namely bent over in his whole body, and was not seen ever to be able to raise himself, nor to look upward, and scarcely gradually from the ground his own was able to walk, supported by the support of staves. But going up thither, from the Monks he took provision: but before and after food, to the most blessed Virgin of God Etheldreda for some time he perpetuated his days in prayer. And when that man over her venerable sepulchre kept vigil one day by praying, at the sepulchre he is rescued. he slept a little: and immediately, sound and erect, he rose; crying and saying, that by St. Etheldreda he was rescued from his languor, living afterward a long time in body.

[117] Many things are known to suit this history, which though it should happen difficult for the greatest of Poets to express; The Author professing his affection toward the Saint, especially one unskilled and of an unknown tongue is in no way able to grasp. But hoping in the Lord God, who makes the tongues of infants eloquent, and opened the mouth of the brute animal; I believe that in the resurrection I shall have a part with my most benign mistress

Etheldreda; she, I say, after God and his most pious Mother, will always be to me a refuge and a remedy of pain, who educated me and brought me to this day of light, and had mercy on me grievously bewailing my sins and crimes, by which I merited wrath and the darkness of exile; whose glory I have raised as a booklet and as it were a new testament into a title, and the knowledge of her virtues and a lantern I have exalted from under the bushel on high, and his zeal of setting forth her great works, and those things scattered I gathered into one, not my own zeal dictating, but God's grace inspiring and aiding. But this I do not say, as exalting my voice, or esteeming myself something. My virtue has forsaken me and the light of my eyes, and it is not with me; and All day my words were execrated against me, in that it is said to me every day, Where is thy God? where is thy hope? or where is thy Etheldreda, whom thou hast promised continually to bring thee aid? in what has she profited or now profits? this one thou praisest and venerwith, lovest and reverest, with heart and mouth alike and with the titles of writings thou art busy to commend. whatever some may snarl; Sing on then thy song, and let the memory of it be to thee. Thy writings or sayings we do not receive, we despise, we reject.

[118] But while we recall these things, broken from the intention of our course we rebound: he narrates that to a certain Rhetor, now we ask the reader's grace, that his pious eye attend to what is set down. For when the nation of England, too greatly on both sides seditious, everywhere devastating, burning, slaughtering, raged, the nobles are expelled from their seats, the inhabitants, afflicted with many slaughters, are compelled to die, fugitive through fields and castles, scarcely a few by hiding in churches freed themselves; whence a certain Rhetor, Vilian by name, when his foot had not found rest; at Ely, the Lord Nigel administering the Pontificate, with innumerable others he landed; a man of admirable knowledge, second to none in grammar, to be preferred to any of the Latins, in objecting and rendering reasons most eloquent, in every science most ready. Whose wisdom quickly ascertained, with great veneration he was received. the master of the monastery of Ely, He taught then

Grammar first beyond the sea and the Arts which they call liberal; Philosophy too and Rhetoric in his city of London, the head of England; and in the course of time Theology: the Monks experiencing that his discourses shone with sophistic charm, and his sayings adorned with rhetorical figures. The elders indeed he was wont to teach amid familiar colloquies, and from these promoted several most decently to the Scriptures; but the younger ones of them he compelled to learn: on whom may God deign to have mercy. Especially more urgently and diligently two before the rest he gave effort to form, his two dearer disciples were: and to honest things to vow, depraved things to flee, the defilements of the world to avoid he admonished; whom he knew as sons, until he advanced them to perfection, urgently taught; whose souls to the Lord by exhorting he strove to lead. But their names I do not insert, because I have as many witnesses in their life, as have known the monastery of Ely.

[119] These both, converted from childhood, in the monastery were received: of whom one, of whom one wholly disorderly, who was younger in age, had first begun to live there, puffed up in mind, proud and vain; whom neither the strictness of the Order could tame, nor the rigor of discipline scarcely could; and as much as he had grown in age, so much he abounded in vices; the fear of God despised, and the reverence of the holy habit, wholly he is carried headlong: since he was in honor, namely of maternal innocence, he did not understand; he is compared to senseless beasts, and is made like to them. He always rejoiced in great things, envious, turbulent, irascible, impudent in speech, he pursued discord, sowed contentions among the Brothers; disturbing the whole Congregation so far, that he could scarcely be tolerated by anyone. at last seriously converted to penance was; And when he had led his life through every crime, so that he was held most notorious in shameful deeds; at last at some time, pricked by God's mercy, he is turned to penance; trying to wash the filth of his former crimes with fountains of tears; and not even able to lift his eyes to heaven, nor to invoke the name of the Lord, but only continuing in groans, as though buried alive, now in a manner rendered the lowing of his heart and a groan: and so the hope of health, which before he had despaired of, through the grace of God now he presumes. And although under negligence he had spent his time, yet the Virgin of God Etheldreda with his whole mind he loved; and into devotion to her by ardor kindled, of her life and virtues a booklet by his labor he published.

[120] while the other most holily died, But the other, who in age preceded that one, but in time of conversion was later, at the same time in the monastery had lived; humble in mind, placid in countenance, most studious in sacred Scripture, and from the grace divinely conferred on him with much knowledge was strong: of many things which that other did not know, he was wont to edify. And indeed in age a young man, but in manners advanced, in the rule of holy conversation strongly binding himself, he led a life given to simplicity and prayer; and what he had learned the venerable Etheldreda had led, in all things he frequented. And when in the fear of the Lord he had grown, so that even by outsiders and unbelievers the hardness of his life was praised, immediately to the ministry of the Priesthood he was elected. To whom after his Ordination, because his departure was not far off, by a revelation it was indicated. And behold, overtaken by a fever he came to the last.

[121] But he appeared not long after his death to the now-mentioned negligent companion, appearing to him, as it were in a certain place of the monastery in the porch of Blessed Paul. To him in the vision considering, and long amazed about him, whether he had died; he, with placid countenance, as he was of wonderful simplicity and innocence, by soothing with alacrity answered; Do not fear, esteeming me dead: I live and am very glad. having indicated to him the Saint seen in heaven, These things considering, and understanding that Brother that it was by no means a phantom which he had seen, nothing cautious about the dead, he took him by the hand, and familiarly made [him] sit together. The matter is wonderful which I narrate, and to the present infirmity of men very joyful; and what had secretly been done, the divine piety would not have hidden from us. Still to these he added other things too: for he said: I was in heaven before the sight of the divine Majesty, where I also contemplated the most holy Virgin Etheldreda, holding a book in her hand, before the highest God bending suppliantly her knees; moreover her, rendering acts of thanks, with her own mouth often the said brother express by name; because for a testament of her glory and a perpetual memory the same published a book. praying for him, on account of the booklet composed about her. These things saying, the vision disappeared: but the Brother who had seen these things is faithful, in whose words we do not distrust, [and] he designated it in writing; which scarcely late I acquired, and to this page hastened to insert; that all may reconsider and understand, with how great charity and sweetness our venerable Advocate Etheldreda embraces and cherishes those loving her, and in her service devoutly assisting. Blessed be God, who chose for himself such a handmaid, that we may exult and rejoice in her, and be satisfied from the breasts of her consolation. Amen.

[122] Neither will I keep silent this, which is recorded to have happened by the testimony of very many. The same appearing to a pious peasant, A certain man dwelt in the village of Grectune, and without abundance of goods; yet for faith and goodness in that neighborhood he was held conspicuous. For he acquired his daily food for his family by the labor of his hands, going out from morning to his work; and so he remained at his work even to evening. In the sweat of his brow he ate his bread; that, his body worn with hunger, his mind, not wanton with delights, more ready might meditate heavenly things. Hence, on a certain day resting in his bed, while neither wholly oppressed by sleep, nor plainly awake; he saw through a dream a man standing by him, clothed in shining garments: who, by his hand lightly shaking, roused him, and exhorted him to wake, saying; Rise quickly, and in the morning as quickly as thou canst hasten to St. Edmund; do not delay; for the Lord Ording the Prior of that place i diligently inquire: whom summoned such commands thou shalt deliver.

[123] Saluting him in the name of the Lord, thou shalt say, he bids him show the body of St. Algot, that hither to pray to the church of this village he come, and in such a place of the same cemetery, shown and designated, the most blessed man Algot, once the farmer of the venerable Queen Etheldreda, of whom above in the first k book, namely, on the virtues of that Virgin published, I made mention l, still unknown to men, whom shut under the turf finding, from the earth let him bring forth, and where he may be in veneration let him place [him]. of her farmer, Awakened from sleep, the vision which he had seen he turned over in his mind, rose, to St. Edmund hastened, there before the Abbot led, as he had received the command in his sleep, in order he declared, which the Abbot hearing glorified the Lord, that by himself and in his times he would wish his Saint to be manifested; and to himself he would have fulfilled the vision divinely given without delay, but, the cares of occurring misfortunes pressing, for some time he wished to defer; whence it happened that by much solicitude forestalled and impeded, the business afterward he by no means fulfilled. m

ANNOTATIONS D. P.

CHAPTER XII.

Miracles wrought at the Saint's fountain; the Cross spoke for the Monks.

[124] All the miracles and benefits of virtues, which at Ely, by the grace of Jesus Christ the Lord, Out of many written more prolixly, one is reported, the merits of the holy Virgins there supporting, are known to have happened; were done for the consolation of the simple, that, seeing their good works, they may glorify the Father who is in heaven: of which some inserted, are seen to extend into great volumes, that the experienced remedies of aids may not be hidden in another generation; but the sons who shall be born and arise, may not forget the works of God, and may seek his commandments. Thence therefore our discourse takes its beginning, lest any faithful one refuse to believe, whence the hand of the writer will not turn from the path of truth: but what Queen Etheldreda, in many mercies, the clemency of God granting, was wont to perform, in the generation of those seeking her, seeking the face of the God of Jacob, this one of many I intend to designate.

[125] that a poor dropsical man, In the province of Northampton a certain man quite poor, yet illustrious for the goodness of his merits, dwelt, who, overtaken by infirmity, mourned long and languished: for the poison in him, leaping through all his members, by the inflation in the manner of a wineskin had stretched [him], and so far had depressed him, that he could neither stand nor walk, lie down or sit. But this infirmity, as the outcome of the matter proved, was not unto death, but to prove his patience, that the glory of God and the merit of the bountiful Virgin might be manifested in him. And while incessantly thus tormented he was vexed; by the increase the trouble was renewed to him, and by the constancy the old trouble always existed. And when on a certain night in his bed to rest he had placed himself after long sighs; after the manner of the afflicted, especially of those weeping, with difficulty and with heaviness he took sleep, and of health now utterly he could despair; as one whom the force of pain had rendered empty; Christ however alone with tearful voices he assiduously invoked. But God the hearer of all did not spurn nor despise the entreaty of the poor man: he visits the sick, refreshes with aid, consoles him in his tribulation; and in a vision, through the person of a certain venerable woman, deigned to show that he could from his infirmity receive a remedy; who professed to him the works of remedy and cure thus, saying: O man, at Ely, believe me, is thy health, and the expulsion of thy wretched infirmity: thither hasten quickly, and the sooner thou shalt rejoice in the health offered.

[126] That man rose immediately, the voice perceived, when he had come thither at the hour of dinner, turning over with himself the vision which he had seen, lest perhaps it be true what he had perceived in his sleep. The heroine added to the former still such things, comforting him; for she said; There the glorious Spouse of God Etheldreda, undefiled in all her body, flourishes; and continually with signs and prodigies wonderfully shining, the people flocking there languishing of any disease she renders whole. Cheered by such things, he believed these to be shown him by God; and comforted to a better hope, he began to exult, and the enjoined journey, though to his languid limbs burdensome and grievous, confidently took up. But it happened that to the hall of the aforesigned church he came then, at the hour at which the daily nourishments the Brothers and the refreshment of the body were invited to receive; at which especially the entrances and exits are wont to be observed and guarded. and therefore was rejected by the doorkeeper, Nonetheless yet in a moment at the door he found one of the keepers, ready with haste to close it, and intent to make it fast with bars: to whom he, crying out, emitting a sob rather than a voice, asks him to permit him to enter a little. Who, refusing, indignant at the wretched and unkempt man; attacking him moreover as importunate, furious with wrath, gave him a slap and bade him depart.

[127] He insists with prayers, asking and entreating, for God and the love of his lady St. Etheldreda, and more importunately protesting, at least that it be permitted him to go up to the fountain of the bountiful Virgin. But that servant, harsh and cruel, admitted at last to the Saint's fountain, at the misery of the poor man stirred to wrath rather than to piety: yet, because he had offended a pilgrim, if to the ears of his lords such things had come, he feared to suffer thence a graver harm, saying; Behold the door is open, but there is no water-jar at the well, nor hast thou wherewith to draw, and the well is deep. But he persists in prayer, that at least he might be able to enter to adore, and to come even to the well. At last, though by the unwilling keeper admitted, he entered; looked about everywhere; and, what was wonderful, without a guide—he who had never before been in that place— first to prayer as if acquainted, then to the fountain proceeded. To him looking about, and not having a bucket, the vein of the fountain suddenly bursting forth to meet [him] at the mouth of the well, ministered service to the servant of God, and offered itself, to say it more truly, to be tasted; and obtaining its water not without a miracle which over the end of the hall round about irrigating with its waters, exhibited an apt and large water of medicine; which drawing with his hand, thence his whole body he suffused, often the name of St. Etheldreda and her aid invoking. When moreover he had tasted, and from all his members it, sprinkled, flowed down; he felt immediately lighter himself and began to hope for better things; for the swelling inflation wholly subsided.

[128] He gives thanks to God and his bountiful Virgin Etheldreda, but the fierce and wicked servant, and being sprinkled the swelling subsided: shaking the door, awaiting his return, with vociferation compelled him to go out; asking, whether, satisfied, he had drunk all the fullness of the fountain. But what had been done he heard, and hearing refused to believe. At last when the poor man before him had brought a cup of water, he understood and believed, and that he might more certainly experience [it], to the fountain he ran, which round about he found to have overflowed: whence of the deed he himself becomes a witness. So the man drank of this water, as we have shown, washed, and came now glad and cheerful, [who shows the wondering doorkeeper the fountain bubbling over the mouth of the well,] and to the aforesaid servant of the church what had happened he announced; and how, coming, neither a bucket, nor any drawing-vessel at the fountain he found. He went therefore outside, and proclaims everywhere the grace of God, wonderfully wrought in him through his savioress Etheldreda always most pious. But thither, coming with hope, they often experienced remedies of pains, the dropsical take drink thence and are cured, the blind wash and see, as in the following chapter is had, to the praise of the most holy Virgin Etheldreda.

[129] But this water is a living fountain, and the impulse of a river continually gladdening the city of God which the long resting of the bountiful clod body of the Virgin Etheldreda had consecrated. For not at first there, but where now the Bishop's stall is made, in the midst of her own, in that place where the Saint had once been buried: according to the order in which she had died, in the cemetery in the bosom of the earth more deeply, in a wooden chest she had been buried: where, the virtues growing famous, blessed Wilfrid assisting, and the physician Kinefrid, and also the surrounding circle of brothers and sisters, with her garments and body she was seen wholly undefiled, as Bede narrates in the History of the Angles. Thence with great joy, into the church of the blessed ever-Virgin Mary, which she herself had founded, she was translated by Sexburga her sister, and beside the altar placed, where for many times reverently placed, namely for four hundred and thirty-five years, even to the nineteenth year of the peaceful King of the Angles Henry; in which Abbot Richard placed her in the new monastery, as a Lady and chief one more eminently, behind the authentic altar a chamber being prepared. But in the aforesaid place, where, as we have said, long had rested the Virgin of God, the Monks made a pit in the manner of a cistern, living waters by her merits continually flowing, namely of cures; and in her name healing the languishing assiduously.

[130] But to those same waters neighbors and friends bring a certain little woman, a woman born blind is enlightened there: long blinded of the light of her eyes; of the mercy of the holy Virgin granted to innumerable they admonish [her] to fear nothing, to have firm hope, herself with mouth and heart to pray. Who, giving faith to the words of her kinsmen, prayed more intently; and immediately her prayer was heard. She came therefore led by another, approached the fountain crying and invoking the suffrage of the most pious Etheldreda, waters her face with tears, then her face together and her eyes she washes from the waters of that fountain; she saw clearly, and rejoiced greatly. So she renders thanks to God for all his benefits, and to her patroness Etheldreda: returns home without a guide, she who had come blind in grief and mourning.

[131] Lately in the summer time, while the Brothers in the choir at the hour of Prime were celebrating the divine service, a girl plunged into the same, this happened which I narrate; I too am a witness of this matter. So to the aforesaid fountain, with a crowd of those running up, a certain young woman came to draw water: but those resisting her on all sides strongly, striking with their elbows, compelled her to go back. Yet with an impulse she threw herself into the midst of the gathered people to be pressed down. And while to forestall the rest and not slower with the water taken to withdraw she tries, the vessel which she had held, by a chance befalling, slipped from her hand, and she herself too after [it], falling, followed. This learned, the bystanders, and over the water-jar quarreling with one another, ceased from the quarrel, fleeing far off crying, Holy Etheldreda, help: and they saw her hold her head to the bottom of the fountain downward, but her feet upward, where for a long time, for two or three hours, immersed she remained.

[132] after 2 or 3 hours, No one came meanwhile to rescue [her]: until Stephen and Richard, two clerics sitting near at the book, ran up; and her, doubting that she had been killed in the water, bewailing unanimously, Alas! alas! by the feet drew out; wondering not only that, for so great a space in the pool she had lain having suffered nothing of evil, nay through the virtue of St. Etheldreda appeared unharmed. And so the Lord kept her in the depth of the whirlpool unharmed, as Daniel once in the lions' den; she is drawn out safe. lest the waters, by Christ sanctified to the glory of his Beloved, by the shedding of precious blood, be contaminated with the mark of reproach, from which are wont to arise many benefits. Venerable truly is that place, through the suffrages of our propitiatrix Etheldreda, putting various miseries to flight from the sick, and from the fullness of her fountain, by tasting or sprinkling, healing the troubles of bodies. Magnify it with me; or rather, we who shall be filled… with her good things, the Temple of God is wonderful in equity, let us cry out to God with the marrow of the heart; and let us say to the Savior; Thou Lord of all, who hast no need, preserve this house immaculate forever,

Lord. Amen.

[133] In the time of the glorious King Edgar, the Clerical order in certain places was conducted with such great confusion, The Monks introduced in place of the Clerics that not only did it have nothing more excellent than the life of the secular, but also lay far inferior in upright arts. About which matter the Pastors of the Churches were troubled, but rather Edelwald the Prelate of Winchester, and Ulstan b of Worcester, approaching Dunstan as their proper Primate, set forth the ill deeds, and seek the counsels of correction. But he, against the unspeakable men, bringing forth the sentence of his authority, Either canonically, he said, one must live, or from the churches one must go out: whence it came about that the Clerics of very many churches, while they despised to be corrected by the condition proposed to them, by the authority of the Pontiff were expelled, and Monks introduced. Who, the King c being approached, or those whom the King's favor had made near, their adversaries complain, accuse Dunstan of injuries, declare themselves lovers of virtue, and pray that in the presence of the King it be debated. So Dunstan, unwilling to go against those things which reasonably were demanded, a council being compelled to assemble, came to Winchester: where by the sentence of the whole council over the adversaries he took the victory. 130 (recte 134) There was present at so great a controversy Brithnod, the first Abbot of the holy Church of Ely, with the rest of the more Religious crowd, who awaited help from heaven not from earth, from God not from men. And when the enemies of the Lord saw nothing remaining to them by right, using the aid of the King and the Princes, and before the King they debate for the clerics: they turn to prayers, by which they demand of the Bishop, that the persons introduced be expelled from the churches, the expelled be restored. So, the man of God doubting and offering no answer to the things asked, a wonderful thing and unheard-of for ages happened. Behold, the figure of the Lord's body, cut of stone, fixed on the banner of the Cross, and placed in a higher part of the house, expressing human modes of speech, but the stone effigy of the Crucified pronounces the sentence for the Monks. the voices of all silenced, saying; Far be it that this be done, Far be it that this be done. At which voice the King and all the elders, terrified almost to the breathing out of the spirit, with clamor alike and praise fill the hall. Then the most blessed Dunstan the Archbishop, and St. Edelwold the Father and Patron of the Monks, from the see of his Bishopric and from Ely had expelled them, and had placed Monks in both d; and St. Oswald the Prelate of Worcester similarly from his own see ejected the clerics, and established Monks. These against the Clerics were the strongest defenders of the Monks. Also of good memory the Duke Brithnod, e and Elwin Count of the East Angles, with his brother Edwold, in the sight of the King constantly resisted them; and said that they could by no means bear that the Monks be ejected from the churches, who had held all religion in the kingdom. f

[135] Thus the hostile party of those envying the good, by the virtue of God was cast forth, so that in them is fulfilled what is read in the Psalms, But the countenance of the Lord is upon those doing evil, that he may destroy their memory from the earth: and on the contrary of these it is well said, The just cried out and the Lord heard them, and from all their tribulations he freed them: that those who are in the house of God, in prosperities and adversities, may learn to have firm hope in the Lord, because he who makes the tongues of infants eloquent, Thus reported Brithnot the Abbot, who was present. and works all things together for those loving him

for good, commanded this immovable element to utter speeches in protection of his faithful, to the glory of his name; who has done all things whatsoever he willed in heaven and on earth, and disposes all things sweetly. Psalm 33:17 & 18. So each of these, for the unheard-of and unexpected event, extol God with praises everywhere and bless [him]. At last each one returns home hastily, to proclaim gratefully what he had seen and heard. Of this admirable matter too privy and a hearer of heavenly gifts, a truthful witness made, Abbot Brithnod, when to his own at Ely he returned, blessed God in his works, who does not forsake those presuming on himself, and humbles those glorying in their own virtue, where his name is invoked over us, who does great wonders alone … g

ANNOTATIONS D. P.

of Durham in his Chronicle thinks this controversy was conducted in the year 975. Namely, King Edgar being dead, and the chief men debating about establishing a successor, as was said above, the Prince of the Mercians Wulfere, as the same Simeon says, and very many chief men of the kingdom, blinded by great gifts, expelled the Abbots with the Monks from the monasteries in which the peaceful King Edgar had placed them, and introduced Clerics with their wives; but what they had done by force: the adversaries of the Monks seem to have wished to maintain in the assembly before the new King, nay to have urged that universally those Monks be expelled, the Clerics be brought back. d Nay rather, they had already done it under Edgar. e The aforecited Simeon refers the slaying of this Brithnod, fighting against the Danes near Maldon, to the year 1191 recte 991, the same does Thomas in book 2 of the History of Ely, and at the same time indicates to us his own age, protracted to nearly the end of the 12th century if not beyond. But it will be a pleasure in its time to read the Acts of the most strenuous and most religious man, there set out fully enough, as also of his wife Ælfled, of whom now besides the name scarcely anything survives; though Thomas there says, that the English histories commend his (Brithnod's) life and deeds with no small praises—all now lost. f The same Simeon calls Ethelwin the friend of God and his brother Elfwold, and when he had said that they uttered the same words in the assembly, he adds, that an army afterward being gathered, they defended the monasteries of the East Angles with the greatest strenuousness; but this perhaps they did before the aforesaid assembly, the affairs in the kingdom being not yet pacified. g There follows "How the body of Blessed Withburga the Virgin was carried away to Ely," as may be read in our March at the day 17, page 606.

CHAPTER XIII.

Other miracles of various kinds wrought at Ely.

[136] The great works which God works in his Saints, it especially befits to be made known: A merchant nefariously intercepted, whence a miracle of the holy Virgin Etheldreda, our Lady and Advocate, very stupendous, we report, which we know happened in the knowledge of very many. There was a certain soldier, Adam a by name, a kinsman of the Bishop of Ely Nigel, renowned indeed by race, but wholly quite inflamed with the torch of cupidity and avarice. For it happened that a concourse of peoples was gathered at the fairs of Northampton, and in rivalry merchants with their merchandise thither ran. and forced by torments to write himself a debtor, Among whom that most malign spy running up, a merchant of the city of London, a certain rich and noble man, named Ranulph, the asserter of this matter, seized, bound with thongs, beat with fists and cudgels, and led off to Ely to be tortured: where for a week quite most bitterly with the torments of torture he afflicts and torments him, always demanding of him moneys of treasure. Who, when mangled he now almost fainted, professed to render money, which he had not nor owed, that even thus for the hour he might be able to escape the torment; and the cruelty suspended meanwhile he might be snatched to life of an hour.

[137] Then he ceased to afflict the wretched man with torments, though cruel and harsh; and to leave his son as a hostage; and so allowed him to go home, only that by an oath he should promise to give the moneys demanded of him, moreover should leave him his son as a hostage for himself. Whom he receiving, with threats and reproaches continually terrifies; now to tear out his eyes, now to cut off his hands and feet he threatens. And behold one day, to him earnestly crying, Holy Etheldreda, help me: about the sixth hour, a woman covered with the veil of sanctity appeared in the chamber; who asserted that she was she whom he was invoking, namely blessed Etheldreda; saying; Do not henceforth fear the threats or hands of this executioner: the Saint invoked receives the same man, fearing the worst. for tomorrow at this same hour thou shalt be freed, to the glory of God and my exaltation. And indeed the holy Virgin's promise the outcome of the matter proved: when at the aforesaid hour of the following day, that profane man, turned to madness, by a demon is wholly seized, so that scarcely among the hands of friends and kinsmen could he be held. Now he is made more to be feared from his fury, than before he had been from his cruelty. Whence, counsel at last being held, those who were present loose the said boy from his chains, and dismiss him free: who coming to his father narrates the event, they bless the Lord and St. Etheldreda their deliverer.

[138] To this succeeds a wonderful relation, proved by the testimony of many. Of the King of the Angles Stephen b the Bishop of Ely Nigel had at some time incurred the offense, The Crucifix of Ely sold to a Jew, which he could in no way appease except by giving money: wherefore the remains of the treasures, which the happy liberality of the ancients had there conferred on the holy Virgin Etheldreda for the adornment of the house of God, [and which he himself had almost consumed and poured out into coin. Something of it he pledged to a Jew for a hundred marks. But among the rest the Cross of good memory Edgar the King, to a certain Jew of Cambridge, Ninus by name, he committed in the same manner. This he himself one day to friends and neighbors into the midst brought forth, on account of the greatness of its beauty and the inestimableness of its price: and beholding the work, those who were present, excellent and of distinguished skill the artifice, at once they wonder very much. But one of them, as the Jews are of a perfidious mind and perverse, continually indignant at the glory of the Cross, prepares to injure the image of gold affixed to the Cross, stretches snares, in heart envies, contrives injury; and, a knife seized, that very image of the Lord assailing, pricked it in the eye; and immediately a thin stream of blood leaping out drew a line farther; and as though from the very wound poured forth, scattering drops widely and minutely, it wetted the lower part of the wood, and stained it with its own redness. Very wonderful is it and astonishing, and to every nation unheard-of, that from the nature of bronze and the hardness of gold… blood is proved to have flowed forth. For this prodigy could have lain hidden perpetually: but, detected by the Jews themselves, God willed it to be made manifest: whence it happened that reverently thenceforth with the utmost fear they kept [it], if they had admitted anything against the sign of the Cross or against the figure of the Lord our God.

[139] It happened that a devouring pestilence of fevers wasted the Londoners, and slew them consumed. Yet those whom by the merit of their sins God scourges, Fevers raging at London, that he may admonish them of justice; his rich and copious clemency of mildness cures, that even thus the slothful and contemners he may provoke to the giving of thanks. So to the aforesaid citizens, very many, through his Virgin Etheldreda, celebrated and of undoubted merit, he held out a hand of healing. For on that night in sleep, to a certain smith of that same city, agitated by fevers, through a vision appeared Etheldreda. She taught him, a command applied, that, having taken a denarius which he was to find on his anvil, the Saint bids rings to be fabricated he should buy steel of its value, and according to the quantity of the mass should fabricate as many rings as he liked: of which whatever any of the fevered should carry, either within the third day would expire, or as quickly as possible would recover. These things thus enjoined, the heavenly mistress disappeared: but the smith, waking, the more sharply committing to memory the teaching, rose; and what he had heard, he found; and as he was instructed, useful for putting them to flight: he did not neglect to work: and those who lay down with fevers, the grace which was divinely promised to accompany the rings, with ocular faith experienced. But in this matter it is wonderful to say, that until the pestilence ended, as often as material was lacking whence more rings might be wrought, to the measure of the former iron from heaven it was supplied.

[140] About that time, a certain young man of London, Brithmer, surnamed of Averhelle, struck by the violence of the common disease, took up a journey, a young man having stolen one of them, about to go to the thresholds of the blessed Virgin Etheldreda in prayers, that he might obtain the refreshment of health. On the way he heard that three rings of the aforesaid virtue were held by I know not what woman: of which one received from her he took. The next night, rushing in, a certain c shaven [man], the sleeping sick one between the shoulder-blades with a knotted club so strongly struck, that he almost dashed out his eyes: seeming through sleep to be sharply chastised, the second night somewhat more cruelly, but the third from shoulder to shoulder with a spit of iron transfixed him; so that, waking, as if he had grown stiff, he remained unbending: and this was nothing else than the illusion of a mind aggravated by the disease. He undertook yet again to go, until he came to the island: where, willing, unwilling (since now bloodless, now dying), he turned aside into a certain house, and on a couch spread sat down. at Ely he is healed. And when, bent down a little, he had slept, he rose sound and cheerful; and as if he had not before felt the fevers, with many eels d he refreshed himself, hungry; nor were other foods at hand. Hastening thence to the monastery of Blessed Etheldreda, for the benefit of sanctity received, to God and the Virgin he gave thanks. e

[141] St. Edmund appearing to a farmer, Neither is this to be covered with silence, which the well-known relation of many proves. In the time of the Pontiff Hervey, St. Edmund to a certain farmer of Exning f in a vision appeared, and rousing him thus addressed him: Good man, what I say diligently attend [to], what thou hearest undoubtedly believe, what is commanded efficaciously fulfill: and rising, to the Bishop of Ely hastily go up: and to him in my name thou shalt say, that he prepare for me a way, by which to my Lady the most blessed Etheldreda on foot I may be able to go. But he soon at Ely, as he had been bidden, to the Bishop hastened, and the command which he had received to him announced. he admonishes a causeway to be laid through the marshes to Ely. Who, when he heard such things, for joy wept; and if perhaps he could fulfill this, of several he inquired. And when a business advantageous to many no one presumed to undertake, a certain Monk of that same church, John by name, approaching, by nature, word, and countenance most simple, before the Bishop offered himself; saying that this work he both wished to undertake, and with God's aid could accomplish. Who afterward, ordered by the Bishop himself, from the land of Soham g began to measure, and to lay the reed-bed into a way; the channels too of the rivers he furnished with little bridges: and so that man beloved of God, in a short time profiting, the work divinely provided fulfilled, made a way of a path through the impassable parts of the marshes; all wondering, and blessing God.

[142] A certain matron dwelt in a certain neighboring village, whom a dire sickness which in Greek is Paralysis, A woman paralytic in her whole body, in Latin the Dissolution of the members, held miserably, having seized [her], having held her intolerably distorted. She could neither lead her hand to her mouth, nor paint the Cross on her forehead, nor from the place where she had sat down by herself rise: but to her mouth by the hands of those serving her was brought food, by them she was raised, by them carried: for of this most bitter passion, from the frailty of the humors, always either in her whole body or in part befalling and with tormenting savagery the frameworks of the members had withered; and all nature corrupted, the useless body remained. the physicians profiting nothing, Hence great grief of her kindred, and grave mourning and sorrow of the household.

The physicians fly to her, take gifts, prepare antidotes, by using which the constricted nature could be relaxed. The impotent magnitude of the raging passion overcame the medicinal power: for the obscurity of the place profited nothing, nor the application of plasters. I will not run through each detail: briefly I will say. No medicines at all profited her. What then remained? Except that, devoutly turning herself to the divine mercy, she should ask help from the heavenly physician.

[143] Now six years in such tormenting trouble she had passed, after six years of disease, she bids herself be carried to Ely; now wholly the hope of recovering health had perished: and behold, by the regard of the supernal clemency she calls together her household, and to the venerable basilica of the heavenly gem Etheldreda she commands herself to be carried. Soon by command conveyed by eight retainers, before the Virgin's sacred sepulchre she herself is set down, and with devout mind diligently brings forth her vows. She cries out [to] the glorious merits of the glorious Spouse of Christ, supplicates her sweetest patronage, resounds again the voice of groaning, tears water her face, the whole day is passed in prayer. Hence the sun is plunged into the dark waves of the Ocean, and pale Night, succeeding, covers the whole earth.

Nor does the woman spare tears poured from the depths: nay rather she weeps more, weeping more urgently prays, that the disease distorting the limbs of her body may flee.

What more? The tearful sighs of the wretched woman move the immense piety of the eternal King, where, confidently invoking the Saint, nay the most pious suffrages of the excellent Virgin: and behold, in the space of that same night flees all contraction of the sinews, returns the natural motion of the members, the pain of the sickness vanishes, the vigor of health is present; Nature rejoices, while so great a plague being put to flight, each member is restored to its proper offices.

[144] O how sweet and useful, to run together to the unfailing fountain of clemency! O how salvation-bearing and life-giving, always to seek the grace of the powerful medicine! suddenly she rises strong, Plainly to be praised is the intention of those piously approaching the thresholds of the Saints: for thence grows up a twofold utility, since both the soul overwhelmed by the mass of vices is relieved, and the infirmity of the body, if there be any, is very often driven off. So she rose, who had been carried paralytic, from all constriction of paralysis loosed, the crowd of beholders standing around and amazed. The church is filled with voices, alternately sound the proclamations of praises, all beholding. there is raised to heaven the cry of those praising: they cry, Be to the Lord glory, praise, and honor. They solemnly extol the mellifluous patronage of the heavenly pearl, through which had been restored the unexpected health to the little matron. Hence with joy and gladness there is a return to her own.

ANNOTATIONS D. P.

CHAPTER XIV.

There are cured, a mute young man, a contracted girl, a withered hand: a perjurer against St. Etheldreda is punished.

[145] Another at the same time, …

A miracle shone forth, which under the veil of taciturnity to lie hidden seems unworthy. There is a village called Bradford, A young man mute for seven years, in which there was a certain youth, by what chance uncertain, for seven years lacking the office of the tongue. The parents are amazed, wonder at their sad fortune, grief torments the inmost parts of their hearts, frequent for them is mourning and sorrow. At last, learning, how great miracles in the Ely monastery were divinely done, thither, the faith now of the silence to be damned being conceived, with quick foot they lead their mute offspring: and entering with great contrition of heart, the mercy of God through their mouths with tears they roll: prayers are added to prayers: within faith, without the voice cries aloud the mercy to be given. They ask, that they may receive; seek, that they may find; led by his parents to the Saint, they knock at the door of clemency, until to them it be opened. Nor did the event delude their faith and hope. For amid the very prayers and tears, the mute little tongue began to be loosed, and with the natural plectrum governing, the youth uttered these words: Let us return, he said, O most sweet parents, to the dwellings of our home; since, by the merits of the most blessed Virgin Etheldreda, to me, as it sounds in your ears, the organs of my lost voice have been restored.

[146] At this hearing of the voice, The sad hearts of the weeping parents rejoice. There is amazement and joy to all who were present, while they heard the mouth modulate little words which before they had known to have been wholly mute. Hence alternately, the company of the clergy singing psalms, The strains of hymns shake the summits of the temple, The voice touches the stars, praise re-echoes to the All-powerful; he receives speech openly in the church. Who is glorious in the Saints, wonderful in his power, works wonders everywhere. O gem in the crown of the Spouse most resplendent! O distinguished Queen Etheldreda! wonderfully marked with the integrity of perpetual virginity, the Spouse of Christ and comely, wounded with ordered charity. Behold, in the sky shines forth a Virgin whiter than Lebanon, Uncorrupted by man, consecrated to the supernal Spouse. Her therefore let us venerate, venerating let us entreat, that in the praise of the divine Majesty our torpid, nay mute, lips she may open; and our black consciences without comeliness, by her merits she may make white; lest we remain outside, while the Spouse shall have entered to the nuptials.

[147] A girl of ten years, blind from birth, Nor will I suffer that to lie hidden under the bolt of silence, which the ancient page shows to have happened through that time: for it is exceedingly outstanding, joyful, stupendous and admirable, and not a frequent miracle. A mother, bringing forth a daughter into the dark light of this world, had poured forth [her] blind.

Unhappy birth! unhappy wholly and origin, When without the common light one is born to the world.

The father grieves, the mother moans, the kindred mourn for so great a misfortune. Already she had reached the tenth year of her age without knowing the light, and she is led by her parents to the church of the blessed Virgin, so that by obtaining her intercession she might deserve to be freed from the reproach of blindness. A wondrous thing! Not yet, as she entered with her guides, had she crossed the threshold of the basilica, led there by her own people, and behold, mercy looked down from heaven—everywhere mighty, everywhere bountiful, never failing, ever inexhaustible. The magnificent intercessions of the Bride of Christ stoop down to the little band of kinsfolk of the sighing girl: the swiftest aids of divine mercy come forth (so to speak) to meet those entering: the pious devotion of those coming in is received by the encounter of heavenly tenderness, and she who was blind from her mother's womb is enriched by the sudden gift of sight. She stopped, brought out of darkness into the light, dumbfounded, she is enlightened. Marveling at the gleaming, radiant heights of the temple. All who were present watch, and together they praise Christ and bless him.

[148] But neither would I pass over in silence the fact that, in the course of the same time, one of the hands of a certain young man had withered, which, being clenched, could in no way be opened. A hand dry and clenched, What the wretched man should do, where he should turn, how he might seek a remedy, he did not know. At last, because the honey-sweet fame of the paradise-gem, the Virgin Etheldreda, flew resounding far and wide, with eager step he came to her basilica, and with faith going before him He enters, hastens to the tomb, prostrates himself, prays; his face suffused with tears, he implored the intervention of the Bride of Christ. Why should I linger long? The golden star of heaven hears his prayers and groans, shining before God in the order of Virgins, who with wondrous and ineffable sweetness sing forever a new harmonious song. And so, with natural vigor returning, he is restored to natural strength and use, the tightened sinews are loosed, the dry hand is opened, and with the force of the pain perishing, they are fully restored to their proper functions. A multitude of people was present, And with light, with palms stretched toward the stars, From their whole heart they offer songs of praise to Christ, through whom this heavenly dove, for the title of chastity, indeed for the merit of all holiness, gleams in the world with so great a light of miracles.

[149] Now it came to pass, in the one thousand one hundred and fifty-fourth year from the Incarnation of the Lord, that Stephen de Scalla, In the year 1154 a certain man bound to the Monks by a lease, who by succession from his father, in the name of the Monks of Ely, held two hides and a half and nine acres with one church, by an annual lease and seven Sceppas, had withheld his lease from the aforesaid Monks for two years. And since, in case of pressing necessity, fatherly help ought not to be wanting to sons, Lord Nigellus, who at that time held the Bishopric of the Church of Ely, having heard the complaint of his Monks and learned of the injury, decreed that the aforementioned man should be bound by the bond of anathema, unless on the next Sunday of Palms he had given satisfaction to the monks. and being required to pay it, But on the aforesaid day Stephen, coming into the presence of the Bishop at Ely, asserted that he had fallen into such great and so violent poverty that he was in no way able to repay the said lease for the past. Now the lease that was due to be paid was in those days assessed at forty marks.

[150] The Monks too at that time would have restored to themselves their own land, but pleading poverty, if they themselves or any of their men could have distinguished it. But since age itself consumes the world itself and the things that are of the world, on account of the antiquity of the time—the fixed boundaries having been broken and the limits altogether rooted out—the aforesaid land was wholly unknown to the Monks themselves. Wishing, however, to provide for themselves and their church in the future, [it is released on this condition, that he restore the rooted-out boundaries of his fief,] having taken counsel with the Bishop and the Brothers, they granted that they would remit to Stephen himself the whole debt of that two-year period, on this condition interposed: that he should make his land plain to them, and that, promising to render his lease annually to the monks themselves, he should establish the same land under a pledge of surety. Stephen agreed, pledged, and indeed swore, placing his right hand upon the altar of the holy Cross, with the Lord's Body itself set there and many Relics of the Saints, that the land which he himself possessed in Scelford in the name of the Monks—namely, two hides and a half with the church and with nine acres—he would cause to be made plain to the Monks themselves, by himself and by his men, as surely as he could; and concerning the annual rendering of the lease he established the same land under surety: that if also there should be any remainder of the same land which neither he nor his men could distinguish, he himself would supply it from the military fief which he possessed in Scelford under the Bishop: and this indeed with the Bishop assenting.

[151] To these things Robert de Cuniglave, and Hedbald de Scalle, having given sureties, he promised to point it out, and William son of Robert, the aforesaid Knights of Stephen, by the giving of their faith promised that they would give their Lord no counsel that he should draw back from this agreement: and that, if it should be necessary, the Monks would plead this matter together with them against Stephen. Now the witnesses of this matter are: Nigellus the Bishop, William de Laventona the Archdeacon, David Archdeacon of Buckingham, Richard of St. Paul, and several others. And when the Paschal solemnity was completed, Alexander the Prior, and William the Archdeacon, and most of the Monks, gathered at the church of All Saints in Schelford. Stephen also was present, with his men remaining in the same village: he gives his oath together with his men; and indeed, with Stephen himself commanding, there swore Richard the Priest and the whole township of Stephen, that they would in no way conceal the truth concerning the oft-mentioned land, which they had learned by the account of their predecessors or in any way whatsoever. And these same were present as witnesses to the oath: William the Archdeacon, Nicholas the Chaplain of Cambridge, and several others. This indeed is the land which Stephen and the swearers asserted to be of the fief of the Monks: the church with thirty-seven acres, Huntingestoste, from the cemetery up to the middle of Stephen's barn, and other small parcels of lands which it is long to enumerate.

[152] But neither Stephen nor his swearers, but using bad faith and perjured, as they had pledged, showed the fief, but are held guilty of perjury: whence the Monks still have a claim against him, first because he assigned no meadow to the described land, though the aforesaid village has the best meadows; second, because eighteen acres, in which the church is encircled—which formerly had only nine—he had counted among the demesne lands; third, because five acres, in which there are dwelling-plots, he reckoned among the lands to be cultivated: he is punished with an incurable affliction of the feet. lastly, because from the royal fief he added fifty-two acres, which ran counter to his oath. Without delay, divine vengeance followed the perjury which the same Stephen had knowingly presumed to the heap of his own damnation: for he fell into a grievous and intolerable affliction of the feet, and could be cured by no physician at all: and thus he grew old in an unhappy life in the same disease, and closed the day of his final light.

[153] There was a certain young girl, born a little on this side of St. Albans, named Edeliva: who, A girl accustomed to work on feast days, as she herself taught by her own account, ever wickedly bent on diligent works, paid no regard at all to the solemnities of the Saints. Because she, to the injury of God and his Saints, had plied with sinister deeds her hands skilled in needle and weaving, by the most just judgment of divine vengeance she was struck in her left hand. For when she had gone out by night into the courtyard, her arm being bent back toward her shoulder in the manner of a snake, punished by the distortion of her arm and the contraction of the left hand, the ends of the joints of her curved fingers being twisted back into the palm, the thumb which was pressed into the very palm sat fixed there, with the nails almost growing inward through the whole of that time, they had closed up. Her hand with the arm, dead like a stone, contracted in this manner, had withered for two years and a half. She has the Saint visibly before her on the road to Ely, But when she had approached the thresholds of the Saints for the sake of obtaining health; when she had long knocked; at last at Huntingdon she reclined for the sake of rest. There the Virgin Etheldreda appearing to her as she slept: "Hey there," she said, "young woman, go where you had purposed." For she had said in her mind that she would by no means return to her own parts until she had made supplication to the Virgin Etheldreda in the presence of her body. But the girl, answering, alleged her fear of the impending rains. To her the Virgin: "Let nothing hold you back from going."

[154] But coming into the monastery of Ely before the Virgin, seized by a certain ecstasy and long troubled, now she slept, now she awoke crying out; and very often she called upon St. Etheldreda, as if entreating, where, half-waking, her fingers are stretched out. now that she would pull, now that she would pull more gently. For the very stretching of the joints was exceedingly distressing: since pain is the medicine of pain. Partly while sleeping, partly while waking, at last the hand together with the arm was wholly restored. So it came to pass, Neighbors are present as witnesses of the infirmity, that the renowned helper healed the dry hand with the dew of her merits, the dead hand with the quickening of prayers, the contracted hand with the rectitude of her justice. On the morrow of this miracle there was present a certain Priest well enough known, and with him others, neighbors of those places from which the maidservant had set out: who, although they were making a journey amid prayers, were nonetheless divinely shown forth as opportune witnesses of the disease.

[155] and the Monk who had applied to her the shackles offered there: This too makes for the credibility of the matter: that certain Monks were present at the very entrance of the poor girl; one of whom, with certain fetters which long ago Blessed Etheldreda had broken when leading back from prison a certain man who had been bound, pressed hard upon the hand of the suffering woman: but she asserted that he was pressing it in vain, because the hand had grown insensibly numb. But a certain piece of the fetters being thrust under one of the fingers, with God's tenderness preparing the way, the divine power (for nothing else could have done it) reduced it to a straight condition: and soon, her mind (as I said) being alienated, drawn rather than led to the body of the Virgin, she brought horror by her gesture upon those touching her. It is established that God wondrously and powerfully uses the ministry of malice in the executions of his justice. Hence it is credible that a malignant spirit had mortified this part of the little woman: and thus too was driven out the demon that had invaded her, but feeling itself about to be removed, out of its insatiable cruelty, it assailed the wretched woman (insofar as it was permitted) and shook her more savagely. Therefore what was done in this matter—for the punishment of rashness and for the terror of audacity, what for the glory of virginal holiness and the commendation of mercy—it is fitting for any pious person to behold: for miracles and signs are wrought, both that they may enlighten unbelievers, and that they may make certain those doubtful in faith, and that they may rouse the lukewarm or those dead in sins.

NOTES OF D. P.

A I delete it, because they make no sense under "by his obtaining." a What a hide is I have said at chapter 1, book 2, letter e. Acra, in Flemish Acker, in Latin is Ager (field): but among the English it is taken more narrowly for a jugerum (acre) of land. b Sceppa, a fixed quantity of grain, salt, or any other dry material—namely, as much as can be held in one larger spoon; from Scheppen, to take with a spoon. c The autograph has maternum (motherly). d In that year 1154, when Easter had to be celebrated on April 4, Palm Sunday fell on March 28. e In the time of Henry I, says Du Cange, a Mark seems to have been only the weight of 6 shillings and one penny. f Dirationare (to deraign) is to assert the contrary by reasoning, or to destroy by reasoning what has been asserted. So the Author of the Glossary proves at length in volume 1 of the Monasticon Anglicanum. g Villatica (township) seems to be taken for the men of the village itself. h Calumnia is a suit contested before judges. i Mansura is a house, building, dwelling. k I suspect that by the name "Albania" is understood the village called Wittlesey, as it were "Whitening Island," which is distant from Ely four leagues toward the west, and gives its name to the neighboring dyke and lake. l We read that this was done at number 37; and at number 43 we saw those very fetters applied for the curing of a toothache.

CHAPTER XV.

A man denying his debt to the monastery, compelled to repent: the Saint's glove suspended on a sunbeam before her bridegroom Tombert.

[156] Possessing the lands of the monastery in fief, It came to pass after the death of Stephen de Scallum that his son William, while he did not bridle the impulse of his youthful spirit, fell into rashness; and the rent which had been annually paid both by his father Stephen and by Stephen's predecessors to the Monks of Ely, from a certain land in Scelford, of the fief of the church of Ely and of the Monks, which he had held from the Monks themselves by hereditary right in whatever manner—this same William contrived, more than enough unjustly, to take away from the Monks. For he ascribed the same rent to the alms of his predecessors, and refusing to pay the canon (dues), as though it had been conferred on the said church by his predecessors as alms: whereas rather that land, from the ancient donation of Kings, had always belonged to the fief of the Monks, and his predecessors had violently occupied it against justice. He therefore began to withdraw their annual pension, and did not cease to disquiet them with constant vexations. to the great inconvenience of the Monks; And when the Monks, over so manifest an injury, had often appealed to the King and the executors of royal justice, William would be bent neither by royal command nor by the rigor of justice to satisfy the law. Whence the Monks, greatly saddened—since the greatest part of their victuals depended on the said rent—incessantly invoke the help of God and of their patroness Etheldreda: and because they perceived that human counsel was in every way wanting to them, taking hope as their companion, with unanimous assent they fled to the help of divine mercy.

[157] But as time went on, the outcome of the matter attested the effect to the prayers of the suppliants. For it happened, brought back to himself by his own grave peril, by the vengeance (as we believe) of the heavenly King, that he incurred the indignation of the earthly King, on account of a certain crime, to such a degree that he dreaded for himself the sentence of condemnation, and the loss of earthly honor together with the destruction of his life equally threatened him. And so, with the friends of the oft-mentioned William daily pressing him, and reminding him with continual recollection of the injury inflicted on the servants of God—as though he were enduring the impending adversity on account of the audacity of so presumptuous a rashness—at last, led by penitence, he yielded to sounder counsel. Coming therefore with his kinsmen and friends to Ely, to seek mercy; in the presence of Lord Geoffrey the Bishop and of the whole Convent, with both clergy and people hearing, he humbly confessed his fault; promising that he would thenceforth render to the same Monks the due pension at the appointed terms, without any vexation; and concerning the withheld tax, which had grown to nearly thirty marks, he freely offers to make reparation to the house. he would submit himself in all things to the mercy of the Lord Bishop and of the Monks. But because faith granted to words is generally more easily lent through the security of an oath, what he had promised by word of mouth he confirmed by oath, in the common hearing.

[158] Finally the author relates, Let the faithful hearer take note of what I here record, lest he refuse to believe what is wont to be reported by the attestation of many, and we bring it forth to notice as received, that we may rejoice it has sounded in pious minds: A certain Brother of ours, now aged and senior, whose maturity or honesty of character would not allow him either to fabricate falsely the things which are here inserted, or, as if it were a fiction, to assert them deceitfully: for he is faithful, and is accustomed to relate, calling God to witness in this matter. For he had said: When I was younger, of lesser age, what he had heard from a senior Brother, in the house of my father—my father himself being skilled in letters—he, an assiduous meditator, diligently and carefully read the expositions of the Scriptures, and also the deeds and Lives of the Saints: whom I also saw, and many times heard, affectionately discoursing on these things to those who wished to know them. Moreover he had such skill in speaking, such love by God's grace of persuading what he had begun, that those present heard more gladly the things that were said by him than they followed in action the things they could hear and understand; while, occupied about such matters, he did not grow lukewarm. But nonetheless, accustomed by diligent study to benefit others, he attempted to accomplish this task in such a manner.

[159] Now it happened on a certain day that he, having a book in his hand, that his parent had read from the Acts of the Saint, written in the English tongue, read in it openly and distinctly, so that those present, or anyone arriving, fully grasped and understood in their own language what he was reading. But I, a youth, as I said, and not yet of advanced age, standing at a distance, listened in suspense: and giving attentive heed (as is the custom of little ones, to attend more eagerly to new and unknown things, and to lend an ear more readily), I wished to apply my mind to these things; so that what I conceived to be memorable and worthy of relation, I might retain by heart in my mind, and might be able sometimes to share with others as an example. For what he was then reading, I understood to have been the life of the most sacred Virgin Etheldreda, the beloved Bride of Christ: which, as if soothing himself with the sweetness of inner pleasantness, he recited, so as to bring it forth openly. And meanwhile, as I kept my eye continually on his mouth, after many things he came in his reading to how the Lord God wondrously revealed the devotion of the same Blessed Etheldreda, and disposed to make her merit public; which we now attend to set down with our pen in her praise and glory.

[160] that her bridegroom Tombert, once angry with her, When she was given in marriage, according to the divine ordinance which He instituted from the beginning, that a man should leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife, and likewise the wife should do toward her husband; and she dwelt together in one house with her Bridegroom Tombert, an illustrious man; it chanced that an occasion of no slight quarrel or disturbance arose between them. But, I believe, this happened by the will and providence of the Lord, not by the instigation of the enemy and malign fraud, in order to shake their unity and thus to separate them at variance—as is wont to happen in many cases; but rather that the height of the merits of both might be made plain, on account of his command being deferred, and their glory, being manifested, might appear to the world. While she persevered in holiness and justice before God, and was within in her chamber with her maidservants and girls, doing some work of weaving, the Bridegroom came in upon her; and concerning some business of usefulness, as upon a wife who owed it, he laid upon her something either by suggesting it, or took care to lay it on by asking. Which she, by prudent reasoning, for the place and time, believed should be omitted, or made known that it should be deferred. At which he, moved, threatened a slap: inasmuch as exercising lordship over her, was stirred up to such a degree that, with anger undisguised, nor able to restrain his spirit, he straightway burst forth into threats, and asserted that he would give her a slap or inflict the punishment of a blow, because she had not obeyed his commands.

[161] But she, being a woman of pious mind and much simplicity, lowered her face before the cloud of the storm, who, humbly enduring it, set forth no bitter reply, nor, as if fearing the slap or injury, avoided it by fleeing: rather she intended through patience to turn aside the force of so great a disturbance, bearing in mind that saying of the Gospel: "In your patience you shall possess your souls." Luke 21:19 Indeed, having heard this, as has been determined beforehand, she at once, by divine instinct and providence, both lowered her face and prayed the Lord inwardly in her heart, she suspended her glove on a sunbeam: and the glove, taken off and at the same time rolled up, she without hesitation placed upon a sunbeam, which shone brightly nearby from the window; and she allowed it to lie there as if pressed upon it, as long as she wished. There it was held farther off, as if fixed upon something solid, or some hard material substance: which was a great spectacle to all, and could be marvelous; especially since it had never happened to anyone before from the beginning of the age to see or hear such a thing.

[162] We find written in the Old Testament that at Joshua's command the sun prolonged the delay of the day in heaven, a miracle hitherto unheard of: until he should triumph over his enemies. Similarly, Abbot Mucius, when he wished to visit a certain man who was at his last, and the day had almost passed, said to the sun: "In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, stand still in your course": at whose voice the sun stood still, and did not set before the man of God reached the village. But these things were done in ancient times: whereas what we have said was done through the most blessed Etheldreda is unusual and unheard of: nor before did it ascend into the heart of man, nor did it become known to befall anyone, that either something heavy, or something light however small, could be pressed upon or supported by a sunbeam. This being seen, that bridegroom of the most blessed Virgin, moved by which the man asked that it be forgiven him, a prudent man and greatly profiting in God, admiring the novelty of so great a thing and beholding it for a long time, was astounded; and he both saw and believed her to be a handmaid of God and devoted to God. Then, considering from the depth of his heart his own harshness and hardness, the humility and meekness of his wife, he testified that he had sinned, that he was guilty, because he had devised to do so cruel an insult. But she rather attributed what she had endured to her own fault, not to his wickedness.

[163] But in a wondrous and inestimable manner, in this deed, divine goodness wished to insinuate of what great merit His beloved Bride was in His sight, she in turn asking to be forgiven; so that it might be designated in this work how great an honor she ought to be held worthy of. At last, with the utmost reverence, he begs her to remit the offense of this fault, and that grace might stand firm between them mutually (as before). Which she at once, at the voice of the one asking, kindly granted, and pardoned the man the daring of his rashness; and the glove, inflexibly fixed, she took back for herself, and—as if it were set and bound upon a beam-support or material strength—she rolled it up, took it, and again reverently put it on her hand; praising and blessing Christ the Lord, who mercifully willed this and commanded it so to be done.

[164] Now, my Brothers, often turning over in my mind this little work, which I am eager to lay open to the notice of your love, my spirit greatly seething, and vehemently astonished thereat, at last I hesitated; pondering whether I should openly announce an unexpected word, an unheard-of word; and turning over the thought that the same thing made the author doubt whether to write this here, that the ears of detractors, judging it as if empty of truth or frivolous, would mock, and would shake out laughter rather than cheerfulness of mind. Meanwhile, as I wavered about these things for some days, it happened that at night, weighed down by sleep, I was resting in bed. And behold, a voice suddenly, as if from someone standing by, glided down to me, and began to address me thus with these words: "Be not anxious about the matter which you have impressed on the page, nor become doubtful thereof. Be certain and faithfully believe that, just as you have written it with your pen, so it happened of old in fact and was true." Having heard this and learned such a token, I sprang up from sleep, in sleep he is assured that the matter so happened. debating with myself whether this was truly a dream or a phantasm. Yet I judged, thinking, that it proceeded from a deed of God and of His Saint: and I blessed the name of His Majesty, rejoicing greatly in these things which were said to me. This indeed happened in the days of the venerable Virgin, while life accompanied; and as we have passed through in writing, now at the last time, by the divine nod, it has become known, revealed to you through writing.

NOTES OF D. P.

ANALECTA

From the manuscript Chronicles of the Bishops of Ely. Etheldreda the Queen, Virgin Abbess of Ely in England (St.)

FROM THE MANUSCRIPT CHRONICLE.

§. I. From the continuation of Richard the Prior.

[165] When Hervey had died, who in the year 1108 had been made Bishop from Abbot, after he had sat for twenty-two years; Nigellus, requested as Bishop by the people of Ely, King Henry, in the third year after, in the year of Christ 1133, granted to the Monks at their petition that they should elect no other, but a certain Clerk of his, Nigellus the Treasurer. Therefore in the third year of the death of his predecessor he was consecrated by William, Archbishop of Canterbury, on the Kalends of October… This man, fearing that the successor of Henry, King Stephen, was offended—for the reason that he was instigating the seditious of the country against him (for the King had ordered his men to plunder the goods of the Bishop everywhere)—groaned that he was guilty of so great a danger, and assiduously implored with tearful voices the mercy of God and the intercession of Blessed Etheldreda; that she who does not cease mercifully to come to the aid of her own in every tribulation, might sometime, for the love of her Lord Jesus Christ, deign to be present to him, in the crisis of the present tribulation. And indeed he perceived that what he begged with devout affection was conferred upon him with swift effect, through the merit of the holy Virgin. he is fined a great sum, For when for a long time no one dared bring word about him to the King, by chance there had come to the Bishop a certain most eloquent Clerk, illustrious by birth, honored by the King and greatly loved, named Richard de Ponte-cardi. He undertook the business on behalf of the Bishop, brought it to the King, and brought what he had presented to its effect; he obtained that he should come safely and without doubt to the presence of the King; and he established whatever peace or condition he could with him: which was also done… yet under the payment of money, namely of three hundred marks of silver.

[166] In order that he might scrape these together from every side, even with the sacred vessels sold off, helpers in scraping it together or the Monks compelled to redeem them, his authors and helpers were Jocelin and Osbert, Clerks, both enemies of God and of St. Etheldreda: who did not cease to plunder, diminish, and alienate her goods, and took care to inflict on them the wound of inestimable damage, which they also cruelly fulfilled in many things. And indeed Jocelin, the leader of the war, supreme in counsel, cunning in wit, first in deceit, second to none in villainy; after by night he had presumed with rash daring to break into the tomb of the Virgin Etheldreda, as it is read that "every violent plundering is accomplished with tumult": they despoil and violate the tomb of the Saint and he himself, wholly borne along by fury, boldly invaded, was the first to set his hand to it; gold, silver, precious stones, all the ornament he threw down with axe and adze; reproachfully he beseeches the servants appointed in the crime, to fulfill without delay the commands of the Lord Bishop; not knowing, wretched man, that suddenly, by divine power, in vengeance for the sacred Virgin Etheldreda, he was about to pay the gravest penalties. Isa. 9:5 For, unexpectedly seized by an excessive pain of the feet, which the physicians call in Greek "podagra" (gout), he is utterly deprived of walking, and long worn down by such a misfortune, impatiently bearing the correction from heaven, he refused even then to understand so as to do well, nor did he turn back from the error of his depraved custom, in which he had luxuriously consumed by his living the time of his Priesthood, and had wholly squandered the substance of his Provostship in pride and abuse: whence he ended his life in poverty and distress.

[167] And not only he, but as many as were accomplices, whose Leader is smitten with gout and poverty, were by no means pricked with compunction over their rashness: whence now the memory of them has perished with a noise, which I shall describe fully in the proper places. But another of the counsel of the malevolent, William de Scelford the Count, ready for crime in all things, rashly advanced upon the bier with mattocks, with mallets, with the tools of smiths, and was himself the second to lay hand on it, and carried off the bronze thence, but soon grieved most bitterly for the deed. For though he was very rich and lacked nothing; as also all his companions; by chance he came into such poverty that he did not even have the necessities of life: and with all that was his consumed, he knew not what to do, where to turn. At last, after long and much asking, he scarcely deserved to be received into the Monastic life by the Brothers at Ely: where, persisting in grief and tears, and vigils, and prayers, he groaned over his guilt, and filled the remaining span of life with true repentance.

[168] Then Prior Thumbert, and the Secretary Ralph, consenting to the wicked counsel; also the Prior and Secretary not opposing them. who ought to have set themselves as a wall for the house of Israel, but deceived by favor and human grace, had obeyed the Bishop in the desires of his soul (when God was rather to be obeyed than men)—because they pleased men, they were confounded, since God despised them, as the wondrous outcome made plain. For suddenly they felt at once the vengeance of God the just judge and the punishment of their guilt, and were vexed with the tribulation of the wicked and with pain, that is, made infirm; nor was there anyone to help. Of these the elder, smitten with the incurable disease of Paralysis, is deprived of almost all movement of his limbs and of the function of his tongue; the other, seized with a deadly wound, on account of the excessive anguish of his pain, his face began to swell; which had turned the whole jaw into pus, and the gravity of the affliction had dissolved into a wound. And so, continually groaning in their torments, the languor renders both useless: and when no experience of the physicians availed them, far and fatally tormented, they ended their life in a grievous death, with God and St. Etheldreda as avenger, because they had set evils against her in return for good, and hatred for the love with which she had nourished and exalted them, while they, despising her, scorned her.

[169] In the time of the aforesaid Bishop, the most pious King of the English, Stephen, died, He, having bought the royal Treasury for his son, whom his kinsman Henry succeeded in the kingdom, whom he had chosen as his heir after himself… Now he collected too much bronze, gold, and silver for the expenses of the soldiers, to assault Toulouse, a city of Aquitaine. But Bishop Nigellus, seeing the Lord King to be in need of money in so great an undertaking, accepted a hire, and from him an office among the Courtiers, namely the Treasury, which he bought for four hundred pounds for his son, named Richard, brought up at the monastery in Ely, a youth of great cunning and prudence, by whom and through whom that house was harmed with no small adversities. He sells to the Bishop of Lincoln the Saint's pall given by Queen Emma: And since he did not have wherewith to repay, he took clothing and vessels and whatever was desirable from the house of St. Etheldreda; saying that the things which were there always sufficed him. Moreover he took also the pall of excellent workmanship of gold and gems, which Queen Emma had offered as a covering for the tomb of the holy Virgin; and, against the will of the Monks, he pledged it to the Bishop of Lincoln for money: which likewise on another occasion he had transferred along with other goods of the church; but the Monks, out of their poverty, lest so great an ornament should be defrauded from the place, had redeemed it.

[170] It happened therefore at that time that the Bishop of Lincoln went to Rome on the business of his Church, while Lord Pope Eugenius held the Pontificate; to whom, in order to catch his favor, he wished to offer the same pall. which, when Pope Eugenius had ordered to be returned, But when the Lord Apostolic Pope saw it, and looking at it more closely in the clear light, marveling at the value of so great a vestment, he understood that it was from some famous and ancient church. He inquired whence such an ornament came: and when he had ascertained that it was from Ely, under Apostolic threat he ordered that, every excuse removed, it be carried back there to its own place. Therefore, the necessary matters being completed, on account of which the Bishop was compelled to approach the Roman summits, he returned to England, bringing back the pall which he had carried with him, desiring to work the gold out of it. And he found goldsmiths and gold-founders who would fulfill his wish concerning the work. They set their hands to it, apply shears, prepare to cut the precious gold-fringe, in vain he strives to cut off the gold from it: but it grew hard as stone or bronze against the sharpest iron tools. They tried again and again: but their effort becomes vain: for we say and trust that it had to happen by the will of the holy Virgin. For the Monks then with groaning lamented that the veil of their Mother had been taken away, and, the price being paid, they received back what they had unjustly lost, giving her thanks for all her benefits.

[171] Afterward the aforesaid Bishop was suspended by Pope Adrian for the goods of his Church being dispersed, and by the same Pope was released from the sentence of suspension, he is also compelled to restore the other things taken away. at the prayers and request of King Henry and of the Archbishops and Bishops of England, yet on this condition: that in the presence of Theobald, Archbishop of Canterbury, he should promise under oath to restore the goods of his Church, on account of which he deserved the sentence of suspension, and to recall to the church the alienated and taken-away things… Likewise Thomas, Bishop of Canterbury, commanded the aforesaid Bishop to restore to the Monks the Sacristy of Ely, which he had handed over to a certain married Clerk. §. II. From the continuation of the Anonymous of Ely.

[172] To the aforesaid Bishop succeeded Geoffrey Ridel, Under the new Bishop the bier of the Saint is restored Archdeacon of Canterbury… He redeemed many ornaments alienated by his predecessor, and two sides of the bier of St. Etheldreda, and he most beautifully restored a part of the tomb made of silver. The fourth from this Geoffrey, another Geoffrey de Burgh, the sixth Bishop, consecrated in the year 1225,… caused a great part of the tomb with the bier of St. Etheldreda to be gilded; and for making the crest he gave a great and very costly silver disc. And when the sixteenth Bishop, John Hotham, held the See, Brother Alan of Walsingham, in the year 1321 made Sacrist from Subprior, administered this office until the 25th day of the month of October in the year of the Lord 1341, for nearly twenty years: in whose time… on the night before the feast-day of St. Ermenilda, after Matins had been sung in the chapel of St. Catherine—because the Convent did not dare to sing them in the choir on account of the imminent ruin—a procession having been made to the biers in honor of St. Ermenilda, and the tower falling upon the choir and the Convent returning into the dormitory, with scarcely a few Brothers having entered their little beds; behold, suddenly and unexpectedly the bell-tower fell upon the choir, with so great a crash and din that it was thought an earthquake was happening, yet harming and crushing no one in the ruin. Another marvelous thing also happened, to be ascribed rather to a miracle than to nature: that in that horrible ruin and very great collision of stones, by which almost the whole village of Ely trembled, that beautiful and great structure, his Mausoleum remains intact. rising above the tombs of the holy Virgins, by God's protection and by the merits of His beloved Virgin Etheldreda, as is hoped, was preserved from all injury and fracture, whence to Christ be glory.

[173] From this event, exceedingly damaging and lamentable, Alan of Walsingham the Sacrist, grieving vehemently and made sad, the Sacrist intent on restoring the ruin knew not where to turn or what to do to repair so great a ruin. But with his spirit resumed, trusting greatly in the help of God and of His most pious mother Mary, and also in the merits of the holy Virgin Etheldreda, he set his hand to mighty things: and first, the stones and timbers which had fallen in that ruin, with great labor and various expenses he had carried out of the church, and as quickly as he could cleansed it of the great amount of dust which was there, and had dug, for the place in which the new bell-tower was to be constructed, in eight parts measured by architectural art, in which eight stone columns, supporting the whole edifice, were to be erected…

[174] a new affliction comes upon him In the same year in which the bell-tower fell, another misfortune happened, very wearisome to him: for notwithstanding the urgent necessity for the repair of the aforesaid ruin, he laid out more than twenty pounds of silver, as he admitted, in the investigation and prosecution of a matter of this kind. For certain men of malignant mind, sons of the devil, unmindful of their own salvation, entered by night the basilica of St. Etheldreda; and the golden Cross, which the glorious King Edgar conferred on the church of Ely as a sign of its liberty and of his munificence—fixed to a beam of the breadth of one palm, with two images of gold, and with golden plates and with wondrous work of purest gold set in three parts, adorned with pearls and precious gems—they also stole two Texts (Gospel-books) with their silver plates: and to the southern part of the outer tower, in a place called Quenesboure, they tore off from the beam the aforesaid Cross and the golden images, with all the precious ornament, the golden Cross having been stealthily taken away, and also the golden plates from the Texts; and they left the bare timbers, stealthily despoiled, in that same place; and the said Cross with the images, and whatever remained that was precious, they carried off with them to London.

[175] And when they had arrived there, that author of the crime and contriver of guile, which the robber, having vainly tried to break it, hides in a sewer, who was greater among them, seized the aforesaid Cross, and bent the arms almost down to the body, set it upon an anvil, seizing a hammer raised his hand, and thought to break and melt down the said Cross with the images. But in the very effort of the work the power of Christ and of the Virgin Mary so seized him that he could not direct downward the hand raised to strike. Whence, made stupid and as if out of his mind, with a certain fruitless repentance he said: "I fear lest this execrable deed become the confusion of us all." And seizing the Cross and images, he wrapped them in a linen cloth, and irreverently and secretly threw them into a certain sewer and went away. But the just judgment of God did not allow him to lie hidden any longer in his perverse works: rather a little after, with his accomplices, he was captured, and placed in the prisons at Newgate of the city of London with these same men. Where, when he had lain a little while in chains, and being placed in prison a certain vision appeared to him one night, on account of which, turned into the greatest terror and stupor, he uttered an exceedingly horrid and terrible cry.

[176] On hearing it, the guards and all the prisoners were terrified with fear; and being gravely rebuked by the Saint in a vision, and, a lamp having been lit, they entered the prison, seeking the cause of so great and so horrible a cry. To whom that wretch replied: "There has just now appeared to me the holy Virgin Etheldreda, beloved of God, vehemently reproaching me and terribly threatening, for the sacrilege which I committed in her church of Ely." And he explained to them the things done in order, how he took the aforesaid Cross and golden images from the church of Ely, and wrapped them in a little linen cloth, and threw them into a sewer, not designating to them the place until the arrival of Brother Robert Bykeling, the Keeper of the Bier and Monk of Ely. This Brother Robert had indeed walked through various places, to inquire whether perchance he might somewhere find the holy Relics. Then at London, by a divine nod, as is believed, he was present: and having heard rumors of this kind, he hastened to the place of the prison. he points out the place to the Monk of Ely: When he came, openly to him and to all the bystanders he pointed out the place where he had thrown the said Cross and images: and at once the said Brother Robert proceeded with the Bailiffs of the city to the designated place; and he took up those holy Relics from that place, abominably defiled with the foulest filth and stenches, and showed them to the chief citizens of that city. Before whom he found such favor that he carries the Cross home. that he carried off the Cross and images with him to the church of Ely. At whose arrival, out of reverence for the Cross, the whole Convent went forth to meet him at the doors of the church. And the said Brother Robert there, before the Clergy and people, unfolded an edifying sermon concerning the finding of the said Cross and the miracles done.

[177] It must not be passed over in silence, a certain miracle In the year 1333 the Vicar of Weston which God wrought for the edification of many, by the merits of His holy Virgin Etheldreda, in the year of the Lord 1333. There was a certain man of praiseworthy life in the village of Weston, near Spalding in the diocese of Lincoln, born and brought up, named Henry, who from his youth had always grown better, so that in the process of time, being placed in holy Orders, he was at last ordained a Priest, his merits requiring it. He afterward, on account of the honesty of his conduct and the probity of his character, was presented to the Vicarage of the church of Weston, and into that Vicarage was inducted and instituted as Vicar: who ruled his church most honorably through many spaces of days, and most wholesomely instructed his parishioners by word and example alike. But in the year of the Lord 1332 it happened that the Vicar was detained by ill health, seized with a deadly quinsy, and with the disease which is called quinsy, he began vehemently to swell in his neck, throat, and jaws, and to be vexed with grievous pain; so that he could not speak, nor swallow anything other than saliva, and this with difficulty: whence all his friends and intimates, despairing of his life, foretold nothing else but death imminent for him close at hand.

[178] Now there was a friend of his, a religious man, Lord John of Bercham, Monk and Subprior of the Conventual church of Spalding. a vow having been made to St. Etheldreda, He, hearing that he labored under a dire sickness, came to him for the sake of visiting, and if in anything he could, of comforting him. And approaching the place in which he lay, he asked about his condition: but he answered him not a word, because he could not speak: yet he had his sight and hearing—before all the other senses, except taste and speech—sound and whole. And the religious man said to him: "Henry, have you ever heard of that glorious Virgin Etheldreda of Ely, how God works many and various miracles through her merits; especially concerning that disease in which you now labor, which is called quinsy, since she herself also died of this infirmity? There is also there a certain band, which was bound around the neck of the dying woman, conferring swift health, by the merits of the holy Virgin, on those suffering this infirmity. Therefore I advise you, as a most dear friend—because you are not able to speak—that with all the devotion of your mind you commend yourself to God and the blessed Virgin, and that you vow with your whole heart to visit her at Ely, if it should happen that you recover from the bed of your sickness and become well." And he, with eyes and hands raised, showed with what devotion he could toward God and the holy Virgin, and by outward signs, that he agreed to the counsel of the said old man; and he, comforting the sick man and exhorting him at once, departed.

[179] But on the following night he began to sleep a little: and a certain consecrated woman, by whom appearing to him he is suddenly healed exceedingly beautiful, appeared to him as he slept, asking him how it was with him: and she comforted him, and taking hold of her own finger placed it on the outside at the bottom of his throat; lightly drawing it upward, through the place where he felt the force of the pain, until the finger reached the jaws of the sick man: and immediately she disappeared. But he, at once awaking, yawned strongly; and there broke into his mouth a certain congealed mass, hardened like a bone or a stone: and laying it out into his hand, he immediately spoke, calling his servant, and said to him: "Quickly light a candle, and come to me." And the candle being lit, he came to his lord, marveling greatly that he was speaking so suddenly. And he, opening his hand, saw that mass, having the measure of one inch and more in length and of very great size. And, recovering from day to day, he was made whole: and he related to his friends and very many others in order that vision which he had seen: that by the merits of Blessed Etheldreda he was freed from his infirmity: and afterward, an opportunity being found, he resolved to fulfill more promptly the vows which he had promised to God and to St. Etheldreda.

[180] And taking that mass, thus congealed, he set out on the journey toward Ely. And when he had arrived there, and coming to Ely, he approached the bier of the holy Virgin, paying his vows of praise. When this was accomplished, he had a certain Monk summoned to him, Brother William of Spalding, since he was known and familiar to him, from the time when the same Brother William had been a layman; and he related to him and to his fellow-brothers the whole sequence of this miracle, asking earnestly that it be made known to the Prior and Convent: and he added, saying: "I am no speaker of falsehood, he attests the miracle done in him. God being witness, that I should tell you, for the sake of flattering, things false, vain, and frivolous: they are manifestly true and open, the great deeds which God has wrought concerning me, by the merits of His holy Virgin." And at once he handed over the said congealed mass to the aforesaid Brother William, beseeching him assiduously that at his own expense he have it enclosed in silver: and that it be hung at the bier of St. Etheldreda, for the perpetual memory of this miracle: which was also done. He also entreated the Brothers that, in honor and reverence of St. Etheldreda, if any of them should come into his parts, they should turn aside to him in a friendly way; for he would receive them joyfully, and would be glad at their coming. And bidding the Brothers farewell, he returned home…

[181] In the time of the venerable Lord Thomas, Bishop of Ely, In the year 1349 a knight gravely wounded in Syria, a certain miracle happened, deservedly to be annexed to this slight little work. While Lord Edward reigned, the third after the Conquest, most victorious King of the English, in the year of the Lord's Incarnation 1349, and the 23rd of the reign of the same King, and the 5th year of the Pontificate of the same our Father Thomas; a certain squire, an Englishman by nation, vigorous in warlike matters, and from his youth manfully pursuing arms of war, son of an excellent man, John de Hynton, called Hugh, with his brother Lord William de Hynton the Knight, hastened to war in parts overseas and in the kingdom of Spain, in the Christian army against the enemies of the Cross of Christ: who manfully fought with the other Christians against the Saracens. the Saint having been invoked, Now it happened that on that day the battle was vehemently pressed: and since the outcome of wars is varied (because the sword consumes now these, now those), many of both armies fell: among whom that vigorous Knight William de Hynton fell; and Hugh himself in that conflict was pierced by a dire lance in the bone of his loins: and so firmly and deeply did the said lance enter into the bone, that he could not endure it to be torn out for the pain. Whence, despairing of human aid, he fled to the divine help, invoking Blessed Etheldreda more often and devoutly, and suppliantly entreating that God, by the merits of His gracious Mother, would in that close need console him with His mercy.

[182] he is not only freed from the embedded lance, And immediately afterward he put his hand to the lance, and drew it out so lightly, as if it had been fixed in the flesh only. But from the excessive trouble of the wound, and worn out by the pressure in that conflict, he fell into bed, gravely afflicted. He, by various physicians and surgeons offering him medicine according to their art, could be cured by none of their remedies: but always in the meantime he invoked his beloved Matron Etheldreda, that by her most sacred prayers she would entreat the Lord God to free him mercifully from the dire sickness which he suffered. but also from the extreme weakness left thereby, But while he persevered in prayer and devotion, there appeared one night four venerable religious matrons: one of whom, as it seemed to him, excelling the rest in honor, carried in her arms a silken cloth, after the manner of a towel, variously bordered with different colors; and she said to him, "Friend, how is it with you?" And he: "Very ill." And comforting him she said: "Trust, son, you shall be healed shortly." And taking the silken cloth she bent down, and wrapped his loins, wounded with the gaping wound. And so by that touch he was comforted, so that he scarcely felt any pain: and as he afterward admitted, he never in his whole life felt anything so delightful and so sweet to cling to his body or his flesh.

[183] And that venerable Virgin, raising herself up, said to him: "Where is that lance with which you were wounded?" and he fulfilled the vow in England as he had been commanded, And he answered, saying: "I do not know, my reverend Lady." And she: "Seek it diligently, and when found offer it to me at Ely." And at once those four venerable Matrons disappeared: and he, gradually recovering, applied nothing more of medicine to the wound, except only wool and oil: and in a short time he was made whole, through the merits (as is believed) of Blessed Etheldreda the Virgin. He also had the said lance sought diligently for three days: but at last it was found in the keeping of a certain Knight, a familiar friend to the aforesaid Hugh. Taking therefore the head of the aforesaid lance, he carried it with him into England; and when he had come to the Isle of Ely, he with his brother Ralph de Hynton came to this church, and offered it at the bier of Blessed Etheldreda with the utmost devotion, and fixed it upon an iron peg there, for the memory of this miracle.

[184] A Monk about to die of quinsy, Another illustrious miracle also happened… A certain good and religious man, Lord John Lavenham, Monk of the church of the holy King Edmund, around the Passion of the Lord in Lent began to fall sick, and with the disease of quinsy in his neck, throat, and jaws to swell gravely and to be vehemently vexed; so that he could neither eat nor drink nor even speak, whence they believed nothing else but his death was to be reckoned: wherefore certain Brothers of the Convent were appointed to guard, comfort, and, when there was need, console the sick Brother, as is the custom among Religious to do for Brothers laboring at the last: after a vow to the Saint had been made, that, diligently observing the state of the sick man, by setting before him more often edifying words about the passion of Christ, about the mercy of God, and other consolatory things of this kind, they might await either the recovery of the languishing Brother or the exhalation of his last breath. But he in the meantime with his whole heart, continually and devoutly in his mind—because he could not speak—besought God that by the merits of St. Etheldreda He would soothe the pain which he direly suffered; and, if it pleased His mercy, restore him again to health.

[185] These things being done around the Lord's Preparation (Good Friday), that sick man began to sleep a little, and had a certain vision, that he was in a small chapel by her appearing he is bidden to offer her his ring: which had been set up within that church; and there a certain venerable Matron, clad in the habit of Religion, appeared to him: who, comforting him, lightly palpated all around with her hands his neck, throat, and jaws, where he felt the pain, and this done pretended to go out, and a little after, having returned, said to him: "You have two golden rings: offer one of these to me at Ely, for I wish to have it from you." And these things said, she disappeared. And immediately awaking he spoke clearly, calling his men, whom he had appointed with him for his guard. Who, hearing him speak, and suddenly healed marveled greatly; and filled with great joy, asked him how he was speaking so soon, who for many days back could not utter words. And he, explaining to them the vision which he saw, asserted that by the merits of St. Etheldreda he would soon become whole. he comes to Ely. Whence some of them, on the pretext of this miracle, promised that they would visit St. Etheldreda at Ely, going on pilgrimage with bare feet, while others uttered other vows: who afterward, coming to Ely, most devoutly paid their vows. Finally that aforesaid Lord John, when he was whole and strong in body, began to set out on the journey to Ely going on foot, carrying with him that golden ring sought through St. Etheldreda. Arriving there, he offered the said ring, adorned with a noble sapphire, and having also tiny grains of various stones in a circle around, to Blessed Etheldreda with the utmost devotion of mind, where the bier of that Virgin is shown to the people coming, to the honor of God and the showing forth of this miracle…

NOTES OF D. P.