These saints, according to Alban Butler, were Ephesians, who for their
faith, under Decius, in 250, were walled up together in a cave, wherein
they had hid themselves, till they were found in 479; and hence, he
says, “some _moderns_ have imagined that they only lay asleep till they
were found.” He designates them in his title, however, as having been
“_commonly_ called the seven sleepers;” and we shall see presently who
his “moderns” are. He adds, that “the cave wherein their bodies were
found, became famous for devout pilgrimages, and is still shown to
travellers, as James Spon testifies.”
The miraculous story of the seven sleepers relates, that they remained
in the cave till the heresy that “denyed the resurreccyon of deed
bodyes” under Theodotian, when a “burges” of Ephesus causing a stable to
be made in the mountain, the masons opened the cave, “and then these
holy sayntes that were within awoke and were reysed,” and they saluted
each other, and they “supposed veryley that they had slepte but one
nyght onely,” instead of two hundred and twenty-nine years. Being
hungry, Malchus, one of themselves, was deputed to go to Ephesus and buy
bread for the rest; “and then Malchus toke V shillynges, and yssued out
of the cave.” He marvelled when he saw the mason’s work outside, and
when he came to one of the gates of Ephesus he was “all doubtous,” for
he saw the sign of the cross on the gate; then he went to another gate,
and found another cross; and he found crosses on all the gates; and he
supposed himself in a dream; but he comforted himself, and at last he
entered the city, and found the city also was “garnysshed” with the
cross. Then he went to the “sellers of breed,” and when he showed his
money, they were surprised, and said one to another, that “this _yonge_
man” had found some old treasure; and when Malchus saw them talk
together, he was afraid lest they should take him before the emperor,
and prayed them to let him go, and keep both the money and the bread;
but they asked who he was, for they were sure he had found a treasure of
the “olde emperours,” and they told him if he would inform them they
would divide it, “and kepe it secret.” But Malchus was so terrified he
could not speak; then they tied a cord round his neck, and drove him
through the middle of the city; and it was told that he had found an
ancient treasure, and “all the cite assembled aboute hym;” and he denied
the charge, and when he beheld the people he knew no man there; and he
supposed they were carrying him before the emperor Decius, but they
carried him to the church before St. Martin and Antipater, the consul;
and the bishop looked at the money, and marvelled at it, and demanded
where he had found the hidden treasure; and he answered, that he had not
found it, that it was his own, and that he had it of his kinsmen. Then
the judge said his kinsmen must come and answer for him; and he named
them, but none knew them; and they deemed that he had told them untruly,
and the judge said, how can we believe that thou hadst this money of thy
friends, when we read “that it is more than CCC.lxxii. yere syth it was
made,” in the time of Decius, the emperor, how can it have come to thee,
who art so young, from kinsmen so long ago; thou wouldst deceive the
wise men of Ephesus: I demand, therefore, that thou confess whence thou
hadst this money. Then Malchus kneeled down, and demanded where was
Decius, the emperor; and they told him there was no such emperor then in
the world whereat Malchus said he was greatly confused that no man
believed he spoke the truth, yet true it was that he and his fellows saw
him yesterday in that city of Ephesus. Then the bishop told the judge
that this young man was in a heavenly vision, and commanded Malchus to
follow him, and to show him his companions. And they went forth, and a
great multitude of the city with them towards the cave; and Malchus
entered first into the cave, and the bishop next, “and there founde they
amonge the stones the lettres sealed with two seales of syluer,” and
then the bishop read them before all the people; and they all marvelled,
“and they sawe the sayntes syttynge in the caue, and theyr visages lyke
unto roses flouryng.” And the bishop sent for the emperor to come and
see the marvels. And the emperor came from Constantinople to Ephesus,
and ascended the mountain; and as soon as the saints saw the emperor
come, “their vysages shone like to the sonne,” and the emperor embraced
them. And they demanded of the emperor that he would believe the
resurrection of the body, for to that end had they been raised; and then
they gave up the ghost, and the emperor arose and fell on them weeping,
“and embraced them, and kyssed them debonayrly.” And he commanded
precious sepulchres of gold and silver to bury their bodies therein. But
the same night they appeared to the emperor, and demanded of him to let
their bodies lie on the earth, as they had lain before, till the general
resurrection; and the emperor obeyed, and caused the place to be adorned
with precious stones. And all the bishops that believed in the
resurrection were absolved.[227]
In the breviary of the church of Salisbury, there is a prayer for the
27th of July, beseeching the benefit of the resurrection through the
prayers of the seven sleepers, who proclaimed the eternal resurrection.
Bishop Patrick,[228] who gives us the prayer, says, “To show the reader
in what great care the heads of the Romish church had in those days of
men’s souls, how well they instructed them, and by what fine stories
their devotions were then conducted, I cannot but translate the history
of these seven sleepers, as I find it in the Salisbury breviary; which,
if it had been designed to entertain youth as the history of the _Seven
Champions_, might have deserved a less severe censure; but this was read
in the church to the people, as chapters are out of the bible, and
divided into so many lessons.” He then gives the story of the seven
sleepers as it stands in the breviary, and adds, that there was no
heresy about the resurrection in the days of Theodotian, and that if any
had a mind to see the ground of their prayer in the breviary, and the
“stuff” of the legend of the seven sleepers, they might consult
“Baronius’s notes upon the Roman Martyrology, July 27.”
It appears then, that the ecclesiastics of the church of Salisbury were
among the “moderns” of Alban Butler, “who imagined” of the seven
sleepers as related in the legend, and so imagining, taught the “stuff,”
as bishop Patrick calls it, to their flocks. Yet Alban Butler weeps over
the Reformation, which swept the “imaginations” of his “moderns” away,
and he would fain bring us back to the religion of the imaginers.
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