Here Thomas Tusser, clad in earth, doth lie,
That sometime made the pointes of Husbandrie:
By him then learne thou maist: here learne we must,
When all is done, we sleepe, and turne to dust:
And yet, through Christ, to Heaven we hope to goe;
Who reades his bookes, shall find his faith was so.[6]
_St. Ulrick._
Of this saint, who died the 28th of February, 1154, Butler says little.
“THE FLOWERS of the LIVES of the most renowned SAINCTS of the three
kingdoms, England, Scotland, and Ireland, written and collected out of
the best authours and manuscripts of our nation, and distributed
according to their feasts in the calendar, By THE R. FATHER, HIEROME
PORTER, _Priest and Monke of the holy order of Sainct Benedict, of the
Congregation of England_, Printed at DOWAY with licence, and
approbation of the Ordinary, M.DC.XXXII,” relates of this saint, that he
was born in a village called Lenton, or Litton, near Bristol, with many
marvels concerning him, and among them this:--He became a priest, but
kept hawks and dogs for sport, till he met a beggar who asked alms.
Ulrick said, he did not know whether he had aught to bestow: “Look in
thy purse,” quoth the beggar, “and there thou shalt find twopence
halfpenny.” Ulrick finding as he was told, received thanks, and a
prophecy that he should become a saint, whereupon he starved and
hermitized at Hessleborough, in Dorsetshire, about thirty miles from
Exeter. “The skin only sticking to his bones,” his daintiest food was
oaten-bread and water-gruel. He passed many nights without sleep, never
slept but when he could not keep awake, and never went to bed, “but,
leaning his head to a wall, he tooke a short allowance;” and when he
awoke, “he would much blame and chastise his body, as yielding vnto
ouermuch nicenesse.” His pillow was ropes of hay, his clothing poor, and
lined next the skin with a rough shirt of hair-cloth, till his flesh
having overcome its uneasiness, he wore next his skin an iron coat of
mail. In the sharpest cold of winter, having first put off his iron
shirt, he was wont to get into a vessel of cold water and recite psalms.
His coat of mail hanging below his knees, he went to the knight who gave
it to him, to take counsel therein. His military adviser persuaded him
to send it to London to be cut; but he gave the knight “a payre of
sheares.” The knight hesitated, the other entreated. “The one falls to
his prayers, the other endeavours with iron and steale to cut iron and
steale, when both their labours tooke prosperous effect; for the knight,
in his cutting worke, seemed rather to divide a piece of cloath than a
peece of iron.” Then the saint, “without any sheeres, pulled asunder the
little rings of that part of his coate cutt off, and distributed them
charitably to all that desired, by virtue whereof manie diseases were
cured.” Envying such rare goodness, an infernal spirit, in most horrible
shape, dragged him into the church, and ran him round the pavement, till
the apparition of a virgin stopped this rude behaviour; however, the
infernal took advantage of the saint when he was sick, and with a staff
he had in his hand gave him three knocks on the head, and departed. The
devil tormented him other ways; he cast him into an intolerable heat,
then he gave him an intolerable cold, and then he made him dream a
dream, whereby the saint shamed the devil by openly confessing it at
church on Easter-day before all the people. At length, after other
wonders, “the joints of his iron coate miraculously dissolved, and it
fell down to his knees.” Upon this, he foretold his death on the next
Saturday, and thereon he died. Such, and much more is put forth
concerning St. Ulrick, by the aforesaid “Flowers of the Saincts,” which
contains a prayer to be used preparatory to the perusal, with these
words, “that this holy reading of their lives may soe inflame our
hearts, that we may follow and imitate the traces of their glorious
example, that, after this mortall life, we may be made worthie to enjoy
their most desired companie.”
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