_How the Magician and his Garment were consumed, and Benignus and the
Garment of St. Patrick preserved unhurt._
But the magician, loving darkness rather than light, and darkening
himself in the delusions of his darkness, stubbornly persevered in his
malice, and still contentiously affirmed that his wicked and perverse
opinions excelled the doctrines of the saint. And the king feared that
the works of the magician would be overturned, and he proposed a
certain trial to be made between them: "Let your books be plunged into
the water, and he whose writings are blotted or effaced, let his
preaching be disbelieved; but he in whose writings no blemish shall be
found, let his preaching be admitted and confirmed." And Patrick
assented to this decision, but the magician refused; for he affirmed
that Patrick worshipped the element of water for a god, inasmuch as he
baptized with water in the name of his God. Then the king changed the
trial, and appointed that each book should be cast into the fire, and
that of him whose book should remain unhurt the doctrine should be
received of all. And the saint accorded to this sentence, but the
magician, distrusting himself, accorded not; for he said that Patrick
worshipped, in their turn, now the fire, now the water, and that
therefore he held propitious to him either element. And Patrick
replied that he adored no element, but that he worshipped the Creator
of all the elements. While, therefore, the dispute waxed high, and the
people varied from the one side unto the other, the wisdom of the Lord
inspiring them to distinguish the light of the true faith from the
darkness of idolatry, and the soundness of holy doctrine from the
vanity of magical delusion, a new trial by fire is sought out. Then
with the agreement of all, and Patrick and the evil-doer consenting, in
a new manner a new house is builded, whereof the one-half is made of
wood which was green, the other of wood which was dry and eaten of
worms; and the boy Benignus and the magician, each being bound hand and
foot, are placed over against each other, the boy, arrayed in the
magician's garment, is placed in the dry part of the building, and the
magician, clothed in the robe of Saint Patrick, is placed in the green
part, and the fire is put thereto. And behold an event marvellous and
much unwonted! The fire, furiously raging, consumed the magician, even
to ashes, with the green part of the building wherein he stood; and the
robe of the saint wherewith he was clad was neither scorched nor
soiled; but the blessed youth Benignus, standing in the dry part
thereof, the fire touched not, yet reduced to a cinder the garment of
the magician that wrapped him round. Behold, therefore, herein
repeated the miracles which are recorded in the Holy Writ, as when the
three youths were cast into the furnace, the fire burned only their
bonds, and hurted not themselves; so destroyed it the magician, with
the green part of the house, yet hurted not the vest of Patrick, and,
leaving the boy with the dry part of the house uninjured, it consumed
the garment of the evil-doer.