thence, and he would not, but at the last he being overcome by their
prayers went away. And when he came to the gate, as, Leo witnesseth,
which is called Sancta Maria ad passus, he met Jesu Christ coming
against him, and Peter said to him: Lord, whither goest thou? And he
said to him: I go to Rome for to be crucified again, and Peter demanded
him: Lord, shalt thou be crucified again? And he said: Yea, and Peter
said then: Lord, I shall return again then for to be crucified with
thee. This said, our Lord ascended into heaven, Peter beholding it,
which wept sore. And when Peter understood that our Lord had said to him
of his passion, he returned, and when he came to his brethren, he told
to them what our Lord had said. And anon he was taken of the ministers
of Nero and was delivered to the provost Agrippa, then was his face as
clear as the sun, as it is said. Then Agrippa said to him: Thou art he
that glorifiest in the people, and in women, that thou departest from
the bed of their husbands. Whom the apostle blamed, and said to him that
he glorified in the cross of the Lord Jesu Christ. Then Peter was
commanded to be crucified as a stranger, and because that Paul was a
citizen of Rome it was commanded that his head should be smitten off.
And of this sentence given against them, St. Dionysius in an epistle to
Timothy saith in this wise: O my brother Timothy, if thou hadst seen the
agonies of the end of them thou shouldst have failed for heaviness and
sorrow. Who should not weep that hour when the commandment of the
sentence was given against them, that Peter should be crucified and Paul
be beheaded? Thou shouldst then have seen the turbes of the Jews and of
the paynims that smote them and spit in their visages. And when the
horrible time came of their end that they were departed that one from
that other, they bound the pillars of the world, but that was not
without wailing and weeping of the brethren. Then said St. Paul to St.
Peter: Peace be with thee that are foundement of the church and pastor
of the sheep and lambs of our Lord. Peter then said to Paul: Go thou in
peace, preacher of good manners, mediator, leader, and solace of
rightful people. And when they were withdrawn far from other I followed
my master. They were not both slain in one street. This saith St.
Dionysius, and as Leo the pope and Marcel witness, when Peter came to
the cross, he said: When my Lord descended from heaven to the earth he
was put on the cross right up, but me whom it pleaseth him to call from
the earth to heaven, my cross shall show my head to the earth and
address my feet to heaven, for I am not worthy to be put on the cross
like as my Lord was, therefore turn my cross and crucify me my head
downward. Then they turned the cross, and fastened his feet upward and
the head downward. Then the people were angry against Nero and the
provost, and would have slain them because they made St. Peter so to
die; but he required them that they should not let his passion, and as
Leo witnesseth, our Lord opened the eyes of them that were there, and
wept so that, they saw the angels with crowns of roses and of lilies
standing by Peter that was on the cross with the angels.
And then Peter received a book of our Lord, wherein he learned the words
that he said. Then as Hegesippus saith: Peter said thus: Lord, I have
desired much to follow thee, but to be crucified upright I have not
usurped, thou art always rightful, high and sovereign, and we be sons of
the first man which have the head inclined to the earth, of whom the
fall signifieth the form of the generation human. Also we be born that
we be seen inclined to the earth by effect, and the condition is changed
for the world weeneth that such thing is good, which is evil and bad.
Lord, thou art all things to me, and nothing is to me but thou only, I
yield to thee thankings with all the spirit of which I live, by which I
understand, and by whom I call thee. And when St. Peter saw that the
good Christian men saw his glory, in yielding thankings to God and
commending good people to him, he rendered up his spirit. Then Marcel
and Apuleius his brother, that were his disciples, took off the body
from the cross when he was dead, and anointed it with much precious
ointment, and buried him honorably. Isidore saith in the book of the
nativity and death of saints thus: Peter, after that he had governed
Antioch, he founded a church under Claudius the emperor, he went to Rome
against Simon Magus, there he preached the gospel twenty-five years and
held the bishopric, and thirty-six years after the passion of our Lord
he was crucified by Nero turned the head downward, for he would be so
crucified: Hæc Isidorus.
That same day Peter and Paul appeared to St. Dionysius, as he saith in
his foresaid epistle in these words: Understand the miracle and see the
prodigy, my brother Timothy, of the day of the martyrdom of them, for I
was ready in the time of departing of them. After their death I saw
them together, hand in hand, entering the gates of the city, and clad
with clothes of light, and arrayed with crowns of clearness and light.
Hæc Dionysius.
Nero was not unpunished for their death and other great sins and
tyrannies that he committed, for he slew himself with his own hand,
which tyrannies were overlong to tell, but shortly I shall rehearse here
some. He slew his master Seneca because he was afraid of him when he
went to school. Also Nero slew his mother. Then for his pleasure he set
Rome afire, which burned seven days and seven nights, and was in a high
tower and enjoyed him to see so great a flame of fire, and sang merrily.
He slew the senators of Rome to see what sorrow and lamentation their
wives would make. He fished with nets of gold thread, and the garment
that he had worn one day he would never wear it ne see it after. Then
the Romans seeing his woodness [madness], assailed him and pursued him
unto without the city, and when he saw he might not escape them, he took
a stake and sharped it with his teeth, and therewith stuck himself
through the body and so slew himself. In another place it is read that
he was devoured of wolves. Then the Romans returned and found the frog,
and threw it out of the city and there burned it.
In the time of St. Cornelius the pope, Greeks stole away the bodies of
the apostles Peter and Paul, but the devils that were in the idols were
constrained by the divine virtue of God, and cried and said: Ye men of
Rome, succor hastily your gods which be stolen from you; for which thing
the good Christian people understood that they were the bodies of Peter
and Paul. And the Paynims had supposed that it had been their gods. Then
assembled great number of Christian men and of Paynims also, and pursued
so long the Greeks that they doubted to have been slain, and threw the
bodies in a pit at the catacombs, but afterward they were drawn out by
Christian men. St. Gregory saith that the great force of thunder and
lightning that came from heaven made them so afraid that they departed
each from other, and so left the bodies of the apostles at the catacombs
in a pit, but they doubted which bones were Peter's and which Paul's,
wherefore the good Christian men put them to prayers and fastings, and
it was answered them from heaven that the great bones longed to the
preacher, and the less to the fisher, and so were departed, and the
bones were put in the church of him that it was dedicate of. And others
say that Silvester the pope would hallow the churches and took all the
bones together, and departed them by weight, great and small, and put
that one-half in one church, and that other half in that other.
And St. Gregory recounteth in his dialogues that, in the church of St.
Peter, where his bones rest, was a man of great holiness and of meekness
named Gentian, and there came a maid into the church which was cripple,
and drew her body and legs after her with her hands, and when she had
long required and prayed St. Peter for health, he appeared to her in a
vision, and said to her: Go to Gentian, my servant, and he shall restore
thy health. Then began she to creep here and there through the church,
and inquired who was Gentian, and suddenly it happed that he came to her
that him sought, and she said to him: The holy apostle St. Peter sent me
to thee that thou shouldest make me whole and deliver me from my
disease, and he answered: If thou be sent to me from him, arise thou
anon and go on thy feet. And he took her by the hand and anon she was
all whole, in such wise as she felt nothing of her grief nor malady, and
then she thanked God and St. Peter.
And in the same book St. Gregory saith when that a holy priest was come
to the end of his life, he began to cry in great gladness: Ye be
welcome, my lords, ye be welcome that ye vouchsafe to come to so little
and poor a servant, and he said: I shall come and thank you. Then they
that stood by demanded who they were that he spake to, and he said to
them wondering: Have ye not seen the blessed apostles Peter and Paul?
and as he cried again, his blessed soul departed from the flesh.
Some have doubt whether Peter and Paul suffered death in one day, for
some say it was the same one day, but one a year after the other. And
Jerome and all the Saints that treat of this matter accord that it was
on one day and one year, and so is it contained in an epistle of Denis,
and Leo the pope saith the same in a sermon, saying: We suppose but that
it was not done without cause that they suffered in one day and in one
place the sentence of the tyrant, and they suffered death in one time,
to the end that they should go together to Jesu Christ, and both under
one persecutor to the end that equal cruelty should strain that one and
that other. The day for their merit, the place for their glory, and the
persecution overcome by virtue.
Though they suffered both death in one day and in one hour, yet it was
not in one place but in diverse within Rome, and hereof saith a
versifier in this wise: Ense coronatus Paulus, cruce Petrus, eodem--Sub
duce, luce, loco, dux Nero, Roma locus. That is to say, Paul crowned
with the sword, and Peter had the cross reversed, the place was the city
of Rome. And howbeit that they suffered death in one day, yet St.
Gregory ordained that that day specially should be the solemnity of St.
Peter, and the next day commemoration of St. Paul, for the church of St.
Peter was hallowed that same day, and also forasmuch as he was more in
dignity, and first in conversion, and held the principality at Rome.
THE LIFE OF ST. PAUL THE APOSTLE
St. Paul the apostle, after his conversion, suffered many persecutions,
the which the blessed Hilary rehearseth shortly, saying: Paul the
Apostle was beaten with rods at Philippi, he was put in prison, and by
the feet fast set in stocks, he was stoned in Lystra. In Iconia and
Thessalonica he was pursued of wicked people. In Ephesus he was
delivered to wild beasts. In Damascus he was let by a lepe down of the
wall. In Jerusalem he was arrested, beaten, bound, and awaited to be
slain. In Cæsarea he was inclosed and defamed. Sailing toward Italy he
was in peril of death, and from thence he came to Rome and was judged
under Nero, and there finished his life. This saith St. Hilary: Paul
took upon him to be apostle among the Gentiles. In Lystra was a contract
which he lost and redressed. A young man that fell out of a window and
died, he raised to life, and did many other miracles. At the Isle of
Melita a serpent bit his hand, and hurted him not, and he threw it into
the fire. It is said that all they that came of the progeny and lineage
of that man that then harbored Paul may in no wise be hurt of no
venemous beasts, wherefore when their children be born they put serpents
in their cradles for to prove if they be verily their children or no. In
some place it is said that Paul is less than Peter, otherwhile more,
and sometimes equal and like, for in dignity he is less, in preaching
greater, and in holiness they be equal. Haymo saith that Paul, from the
cock-crow until the hour of five, he labored with his hands, and after
entended to preaching, and that endured almost to night, the residue of
the time was for to eat, sleep, and for prayer, which was necessary. He
came to Rome when Nero was not fully confirmed in the empire, and Nero
hearing that there was disputing and questions made between Paul and the
Jews, he, recking not much thereof, suffered Paul to go where he would,
and preach freely. Jeronimus saith in his book, De viris illustribus,
that the thirty-sixth year after the Passion of our Lord, the second
year of Nero, St. Paul was sent to Rome bound, and two years he was in
free keeping and disputed against the Jews, and after, he was let go by
Nero, and preached the gospel in the west parts. And the fourteenth year
of Nero, the same year and day that Peter was crucified, his head was
smitten off. Hæc Jeronimus. The wisdom and religion of him was published
over all, and was reputed marvellous. He gat to him many friends in the
emperor's house and converted them to the faith of Christ, and some of
his writings were recited and read tofore the emperor, and of all men
marvellously commended, and the senate understood of him by things of
authority.
It happed on a day that Paul preached about evensong time in a loft, a
young man named Patroclus, butler of Nero, and with him well-beloved,
went for to see the multitude of people, and the better for to hear
Paul he went up into a window, and there sleeping, fell down and died,
which when Nero heard he was much sorry and heavy therefor, and anon
ordered another in his office. Paul knowing hereof by the Holy Ghost,
said to them standing by him that they should go and bring to him
Patroclus, which was dead, and that the emperor loved so much. Whom when
he was brought, he raised to life and sent him with his fellows to the
emperor, whom the emperor knew for dead, and, while he made lamentation
for him, it was told to the emperor that Patroclus was come to the gate.
And when he heard that Patroclus was alive he much marvelled, and
commanded that he should come in. To whom Nero said: Patroclus, livest
thou? And he said: Yea, emperor, I live; and Nero said: Who hath made
thee to live again? And he said: The Lord Jesu Christ, king of all
worlds. Then Nero being wroth said: Then shall he reign ever and resolve
all the royaumes of the world? To whom Patroclus said: Yea, certainly,
emperor; then Nero gave to him a buffet, saying: Therefore thou servest
him, and he said: Yea, verily, I serve him that hath raised me from
death to life. Then five of the ministers of Nero, that assisted him,
said to him: O emperor, why smitest thou this young man, truly and
wisely answering to thee? Trust verily we serve that same King Almighty.
And when Nero heard that he put them in prison, for strongly to torment
them, whom he much had loved. Then he made to inquire and to take all
Christian men, and without examination made them to be tormented with
overgreat torments. Then was Paul among others bound and brought tofore
Nero, to whom Nero said: O thou man, servant of the great King, bound
tofore me, why withdrawest thou my knights and drawest them to thee? To
whom Paul said: Not only from thy corner I have gathered knights, but
also I gather from the universal world to my Lord, to whom our king
giveth such gifts that never shall fail, and granteth that they shall be
excluded from all indigence and need; and if thou wilt be to him
subject, thou shalt be safe, for he is of so great power that he shall
come and judge all the world, and destroy the figure thereof by fire.
And when Nero heard that he should destroy the figure of the world by
fire, he commanded that all the Christian men should be burned by fire,
and Paul to be beheaded, as he that is guilty against his majesty. And
so great a multitude of Christian people were slain then, that the
people of Rome brake up his palace and cried and moved sedition against
him, saying: Cæsar, amend thy manners and attemper thy commandments, for
these be our people that thou destroyest, and defend the empire of Rome.
The emperor then dreading the noise of the people, changed his decree
and edict that no man should touch ne hurt no Christian man till the
emperor had otherwise ordained, wherefore Paul was brought again tofore
Nero, whom as soon as Nero saw, he cried and said: Take away this wicked
man and behead him, and suffer him no longer to live upon the earth. To
whom Paul said: Nero, I shall suffer a little while, but I shall live
eternally with my Lord Jesu Christ. Nero said: Smite off his head, that
he may understand me stronger than his king, that when he is overcome we
may see whether he may live after. To whom Paul said: To the end that
thou know me to live everlastingly, when my head shall be smitten off, I
shall appear to thee living, and then thou mayst know that Christ is God
of life and of death. And when he had said this he was led to the place
of his martyrdom, and as he was led, the three knights that led him said
to him: Tell to us, Paul, who is he your king that ye love so much that
for his love ye had liefer die than live, and what reward shall ye have
therefor? Then Paul preached to them of the kingdom of heaven and of the
pain of hell, in such wise that he converted them to the faith, and they
prayed him to go freely whither he would. God forbid, brethren, said he,
that I should flee, I am not fugitive, but the lawful knight of Christ.
I know well that from this transitory life I shall go to everlasting
life. As soon as I shall be beheaded, true men shall take away my body;
mark ye well the place, and come thither to-morrow, and ye shall find by
my sepulchre two men, Luke and Titus, praying. To whom when ye shall
tell for what cause I have sent you to them, they shall baptize you and
make you heirs of the kingdom of heaven.
And whiles they thus spake together, Nero sent two knights to look if he
were slain and beheaded or no, and when thus St. Paul would have
converted them, they said: When thou art dead and risest again, then we
shall believe, now come forth and receive that thou hast deserved. And
as he was led to the place of his passion in the gate of Hostence, a
noble woman named Plautilla, a disciple of Paul, who after another name
was called Lemobia, for haply she had two names, met there with Paul,
which weeping, commended her to his prayers. To whom Paul said:
Farewell, Plautilla, daughter of everlasting health, lend to me thy veil
or keverchief with which thou coverest thy head, that I may bind mine
eyes therewith, and afterward I shall restore it to thee again. And when
she had delivered it to him, the butchers scorned her, saying: Why hast
thou delivered to this enchanter so precious a cloth for to lose it?
Then, when he came to the place of his passion, he turned him toward the
east, holding his hands up to heaven right long, with tears praying in
his own language and thanking our Lord; and after that bade his brethren
farewell, and bound his eyes himself with the keverchief of Plautilla,
and kneeling down on both knees, stretched forth his neck, and so was
beheaded. And as soon as the head was from the body, it said: Jesus
Christus! which had been to him so sweet in his life. It is said that he
named Jesus or Christus, or both, fifty times. From his wound sprang out
milk into the clothes of the knight, and afterward flowed out blood. In
the air was a great shining light, and from the body came a much sweet
odor.
Dionysius, in an epistle to Timothy, saith of the death of Paul thus: In
that hour full of heaviness, my well-beloved brother, the butcher,
saying: Paul, make ready thy neck; then blessed Paul looked up into
heaven marking his forehead and his breast with the sign of the cross,
and then said anon: My Lord Jesus Christ, into thy hands I commend my
spirit, etc. And then without heaviness and compulsion he stretched
forth his neck and received the crown of martyrdom, the butcher so
smiting off his head. The blessed martyr Paul took the keverchief, and
unbound his eyes, and gathered up his own blood, and put it therein and
delivered to the woman, Then the butcher returned, and Plautilla met him
and demanded him, saying: Where hast thou left my master? The knight
answered: He lieth without the town with one of his fellows, and his
visage is covered with thy keverchief, and she answered and said: I have
now seen Peter and Paul enter into the city clad with right noble
vestments, and also they had right fair crowns upon their heads, more
clear and more shining than the sun, and hath brought again my
keverchief all bloody which he hath delivered me. For which thing and
work many believed in our Lord and were baptized. And this is that St.
Dionysius saith. And when Nero heard say this thing he doubted him, and
began to speak of all these things with his philosophers and with his
friends; and as they spake together of this matter, Paul came in, and
the gates shut, and stood tofore Cæsar and said: Cæsar, here is tofore
thee Paul the knight of the king perdurable, and not vanquished. Now
believe then certainly that I am not dead but alive, but thou, caitiff,
thou shalt die of an evil death, because thou hast slain the servants
of God. And when he had said thus he vanished away. And Nero, what for
dread and what for anger, he was nigh out of his wit, and wist not what
to do. Then by the counsel of his friends he unbound Patroclus and
Barnabas and let them go where they would.
And the other knights, Longinus, master of the knights, and Accestus,
came on the morn to the sepulchre of Paul, and there they found two men
praying, that were Luke and Titus, and between them was Paul. And when
Luke and Titus saw them they were abashed and began to flee, and anon
Paul vanished away, and the knights cried after them and said: We come
not to grieve you, but know ye for truth that we come for to be baptized
of you, like as Paul hath said whom we saw now praying with you. When
they heard that they returned and baptized them with great joy. The head
of St. Paul was cast in a valley, and for the multitude of other heads
of men that were slain and thrown there, it could not be known which it
was.
THE LIFE OF ST. CHRISTOPHER
Christopher tofore his baptism was named Reprobus, but afterward he was
named Christopher, which is as much to say as bearing Christ.
Christopher was of the lineage of the Canaanites, and he was of a right
great stature, and had a terrible and fearful cheer and countenance. And
he was twelve cubits of length, and as it is read in some histories
that, when he served and dwelled with the king of Canaan, it came in his
mind that he would seek the greatest prince that was in the world, and
him would he serve and obey. And so far he went that he came to a right
great king, of whom the renomee generally was that he was the greatest
of the world. And when the king saw him, he received him into his
service, and made him to dwell in his court. Upon a time a minstrel sang
tofore him a song in which he named oft the devil, and the king, which
was a Christian man, when he heard him name the devil, made anon the
sign of the cross in his visage. And when Christopher saw that, he had
great marvel what sign it was, and wherefore the king made it, and he
demanded of him. And because the king would not say, he said: If thou
tell me not, I shall no longer dwell with thee, and then the king told
to him, saying: Alway when I hear the devil named, I fear that he
should have power over me, and I garnish me with this sign that he
grieve not ne annoy me. Then Christopher said to him: Doubtest thou the
devil that he hurt thee not? Then is the devil more mighty and greater
than thou art. I am then deceived of my hope and purpose, for I had
supposed I had found the most mighty and the most greatest Lord of the
world, but I commend thee to God, for I will go seek him for to be my
Lord, and I his servant. And then departed from this king, and hasted
him for to seek the devil.