Protomartyrs of Britain

ON THE HOLY PROTOMARTYRS OF BRITAIN, ALBAN AND AMPHIBALUS THE CLERIC, AND ABOUT TWO THOUSAND COMPANIONS,

AT VERULAMIUM AND NEIGHBORING PLACES OF ENGLAND.

IN THE YEAR 303

Preliminary Commentary.

On their various Acts, Miracles, and the Analecta pertaining thereto.

Alban Protomartyr, at Verulamium and neighboring places in Britain (St.)

Amphibalus the Deacon, at Verulamium and neighboring places in Britain (St.)

About two thousand, at Verulamium and neighboring places in Britain (SS.)

BY G. H.

[1] Verulamium, a city once most renowned among the Catuvellauni, a people of Britain in the present County of Hertford; to Tacitus, in book 4 of the Annals, chapter 33, "Verulamium, a municipium endowed with the right of Roman citizens." The arena of St. Alban, Verulamium, Ptolemy, in book 2 of his Geography, chapter 3, writes "Urolanion." But Camden says: "In nothing was Verulamium so renowned, as that it brought forth Alban, a citizen of singular holiness and faith in Christ: who, when Diocletian was striving to blot out the Christian religion by exquisite tortures from the memory of men, with unconquered constancy of soul was the first in Britain to meet death for Christ. Whence he is called both our Stephen, and the Protomartyr of Britain." So he there. But in the Anglo-Saxon wars Verulamium utterly fell: but King Offa, after the Body of St. Alban was found, built a most ample monastery in a neighboring place in his memory, Redbourn of St. Amphibalus. and then a town rose up together with it, called the Shrine of St. Alban, elegant and ample, and in it a temple to be admired for the size, elegance and charm of the monastery, which is represented in the English Monasticon with a double plan, in volume 1, page 176. From this town of St. Alban, three leagues toward the West, is Redbourn, where James Ussher teaches, from the antiquities of the people of Winchester, that St. Amphibalus ended his life by martyrdom, in his "On the Origins of the British Churches," page 166; and he adds that the neighboring town of Annable received its name from Amphibalus.

[2] We have various Acts of them, but from these we give: first, those which the venerable Bede, in book 1 of his Ecclesiastical History, chapters 6 and 7, has about St. Alban and his appointed executioner, but converted and a Martyr;

then we subjoin the older Acts which, through Stephen White the Irishman, a learned man of the Society of Jesus, the aforementioned Ussher once had sent to us; The Acts are given from Bede. from which Bede could have culled some things. There was a most ancient volume of these Acts, concerning which, in the Lives of the twenty-three Abbots of St. Alban, in the ninth Abbot Eadmer, these things are read: In the time of that Abbot, while diggers were searching the walls and the hidden things of the earth, in the middle of the ancient city, they demolished the foundations of a certain great palace: and as they were marveling at the traces of such great buildings, they found, in the hollow of a certain wall, deposited as it were in a little cupboard, together with certain smaller books and little things, an unknown volume of a certain codex, which was little ruined by so long a delay. Of which neither the letter nor the idiom was known to anyone then found, because of its antiquity: yet the letters were graceful and clear: whose epigrams and titles shone wreathed with golden letters: the boards of oak, the silken bindings, retained their pristine strength and beauty in great part. When concerning the knowledge of this book there had been diligent inquiry far and wide, at last they found one old man, now decrepit, Unwona: who, imbued with the tongues and letters of diverse idioms, Other Acts found in the British tongue in the 10th century read distinctly and openly what was written in the aforesaid book … In the said book he found written the history of St. Alban, the Protomartyr of the English: which the Church in these present days recites in its reading. To which the excellent Doctor Bede bears witness, disagreeing in nothing … That book alone, in which the history of St. Alban was contained, was most preciously kept in the Treasury. And just as the aforesaid Presbyter had read it, written in the old English or British idiom, in which he was expert; that Abbot Eadmer, through the more prudent of the Brothers, had it faithfully and diligently expounded in the Convent, and more fully taught by public preaching. But when the written history had become known to many in Latin, as has now been said; the primitive and original exemplar (which is marvelous to say) was suddenly and irreparably reduced into dust, and fell annihilated. rendered into Latin.

[3] These things there: marvelous indeed, and such as not undeservedly might move a suspicion of fiction. Yet I do not wish to create a prejudice against the ancient credulity by a more laborious examination of the cause through which the codex, thus far whole, so suddenly ceased to be. However it be, let those things have happened about the year 970. Then, after two hundred years, there came forth the Acts of SS. Alban and Amphibalus, perhaps the same, [Acts written in English about the year 590, rendered into Latin in the 12th century] turned from the English tongue into Latin by William, a monk of St. Alban's, by order of Simon the 19th Abbot, appointed in the year 1166, and deceased in the year 1188. But the author flourished about the year 590, when the Anglo-Saxons still as Pagans were ruling there; and he asserts in the Prologue that he has not prefixed his name; lest by speaking he should lose name and life alike; and so, his name suppressed, what he has seen, what he has heard, he does not wish to be silent about. In the epilogue he predicts that the Pagans will be converted, then says that he is setting out for Rome, that there he may obtain the laver of regeneration. Ussher from a double manuscript of the Cottonian library copied those Acts, they are given from the Cottonian manuscripts, and published the Preface of William the interpreter, and the Prologue and Epilogue of the Author, on pages 156 and 157. We, as we have said, having received those Acts whole by his benefit, give them. The same Ralph of Étaples expressed in heroic verses; whose Preface, composed in elegiac verse, Ussher also published, page 158, which the Reader can there see.

[4] After those double Acts we give the Miracles of St. Alban, related in Capgrave in the Legend of the Saints of England. Afterward we subjoin Analecta from various sources, especially from the History of Bede, the Life of Offa II King of the Mercians, and the Lives of the twenty- three Abbots of St. Alban, which are attributed to Matthew Paris, and were published with his history, from which also, as well as from the history of Thomas Walsingham, we bring forward some things. Miracles and Analecta are added Various things from these are contained in the said Capgrave, but greatly abridged. The most ancient mention of all of Alban is had in St. Gildas the Wise, "On the Destruction and Conquest of England": whose words in the Notes to the second Life we more conveniently bring forward for the confirmation of the matter narrated. We have other Acts from various manuscripts, but mostly drawn from Bede; as also from the most ancient codex of Claude Dupuy, mention in Gildas. Various Acts in manuscripts. of the Utrecht St. Saviour's, and another of ours. Then also from the Trier manuscript of St. Maximin, but in this various things are added concerning the translation of St. Albinus to the city of Cologne, by no means pertaining here. Finally we received the Acts of both Saints, Alban and Amphibalus, copied by the study of D. Andrea Maroquin; but who this was we do not know. I pass over the little book on the Acts and the translation to Cologne, printed in the year 1502, because we shall treat of it below, distinguishing this St. Alban, to be left to the English, from Albinus brought from Rome to Cologne.

[5] Among the Martyrologists the first place is held by the Venerable Bede, in whose genuine Martyrology, The eulogy of St. Alban from the Martyrology of Bede published by us before volume 2 of March from eight manuscripts, these things are had: In Britain, of St. Alban the Martyr, who in the time of the Emperor Diocletian, in the city of Verulamium, after scourges and bitter tortures was beheaded: but as he fell to the earth, the eyes of him who struck him fell out at the same time. There suffered with him also one of the soldiers, because he, being commanded to strike him, was unwilling, being utterly terrified by the divine miracle; because he had seen the blessed Martyr, while he hastened to the crown of martyrdom, and in the Roman Calendars. make the bed of the river that lay between passable by his prayer. Thus Bede: from whom Rabanus, Usuard, Ado, Notker, and others drew their encomia. In the present-day Roman Martyrology these things are read: At Verulamium in Britain, of St. Alban the Martyr, who in the time of Diocletian, giving himself up for the Cleric guest, whom he had received, after scourges and bitter tortures was beheaded. There suffered also with him one of the soldiers, who was leading him to the punishment, who on the way being converted to Christ, deserved to be baptized with his blood. The said Cleric guest is St. Amphibalus, whose Acts cohere with the Acts of Alban: but separately he himself is referred to the 25th of June in the English martyrologies both of Richard Whitford, of the year 1526, St. Amphibalus is referred to the 25th of May and of John Wilson in this century: him Ferrari and Alford followed. Besides, in the Roman manuscripts of Cardinal Barberini, and of the monastery of St. Cyriacus, and of the Arras Cathedral Church, these are added to the eulogy of Bede: And with him others, in number eight hundred nine (in the Arras eight) placed in Cathalacus, 699 Companions are said to be martyred together whose names are written in the book of life. But in the Acts, in number 36, they are said to have been nine hundred ninety- nine. These were slain near Lichfield, which is believed therefore to be so called, because "Lichfeld" is interpreted "the field of corpses." Again, in number 39, another thousand are said at Redbourn, having been converted at the sight of the constancy of St. Amphibalus, and again a thousand; and handed over to death as he looked on; but in the year 1178. But that with the body of St. Amphibalus were found the bodies of nine Companions is indicated in the Analecta, number 36.

[6] That all these suffered in the year 303, in the great persecution of Diocletian, we judge with most writers. Meanwhile Michael Alford refers them to the year 287, whose reasons the reader may weigh. That some of his Relics were preserved at London in the Cathedral church, is read in the Appendix to the History of this church, published by William Dugdale; The time of the martyrdom. in which, on page 214, among other Relics there preserved, these are read: Likewise one silver vessel, gilt, made in the manner of a cup, containing the Relics of Saints Oswald, Alban and Dunstan. Of St. Oswald the Bishop we treated on the 28th of February, and of St. Dunstan on the 19th of May. St. Alban the Martyr is also venerated on the 21st of June at Gniezno, Poznań, Włocławek, Cracow, and is said to have suffered in England under Diocletian.

ACTS OF THE MARTYRDOM

From the History of Bede, book 1, chapters 6 and 7.

Alban Protomartyr, at Verulamium and neighboring places in Britain (St.)

Amphibalus the Deacon, at Verulamium and neighboring places in Britain (St.)

About two thousand, at Verulamium and neighboring places in Britain (SS.)

BHL Number: 0206

[1] In the two hundred eighty-sixth year of the Lord's incarnation, Diocletian, the thirty-third Emperor from Augustus, elected by the army, reigned twenty years; and he made Maximian, surnamed Herculius, a) Under a most savage persecution of the Church, partner of the empire: and Diocletian indeed in the East, but Maximian Herculius in the West, commanded that the churches be devastated, the Christians be afflicted and slain, in the tenth place after Nero. Which persecution was longer-lasting and more savage than almost all those done before: for through ten years it was carried on incessantly with burnings of churches, proscriptions of the innocent, slaughters of martyrs: at last it exalted even Britain with very great glory of confession devoted to God. For in it there suffered St. Alban, of whom the Presbyter Fortunatus, in his "Praise of Virgins," when he made mention of the blessed Martyrs, who came from the whole world to the Lord, says: Fruitful Britain brings forth the distinguished Alban.

[2] Which Alban, namely, still a Pagan, when the mandates of the faithless Princes were raging against the Christians, received a certain Cleric, b) fleeing his persecutors, into his hospitality: whom, when he beheld studying by continual prayers and vigils day and night, Alban converted being suddenly regarded by divine grace, he began to emulate the example of that man's faith and piety; and gradually instructed by his salutary exhortations, the darkness of idolatry being left behind, he became a Christian with his whole heart. And when the aforesaid Cleric had been lodging with him for some days, it came to the ears of the wicked Prince, that a confessor of Christ, to whom not yet had a place of martyrdom been assigned, was hiding with Alban. he willingly offers himself to death. Whence at once he ordered the soldiers to search for him more diligently: who, when they had come to the dwelling of the Martyr, soon St. Alban, for his guest and master, clothed in his habit, that is, in the caracalla c) with which he was clothed, presented himself to the soldiers, and was led bound to the judge.

[3] But it happened that the judge, at that hour at which Alban was being brought to him, was standing by the altars, and offering victims to the demons. And constant in the faith of Christ. And when he had seen Alban, soon kindled with excessive anger, because he had willingly presumed to offer himself to the soldiers and to give himself to danger for the guest whom he had received; he ordered him to be dragged to the images of the demons, beside which he was standing: Because, he said, you preferred to conceal a rebel and a sacrilegious man, rather than to deliver him to the soldiers, so that, as a despiser of the gods, you shall pay the deserved penalty of your blasphemy; whatever punishments were due to him, you shall pay, if you try to depart from the worship of our religion. But St. Alban, who had willingly betrayed himself to the persecutors as a Christian of the faith, by no means feared the threats of the Prince: but girded with the arms of spiritual warfare, openly to the commands

of that man he declared that he would not obey. Then the Judge: Of what, he said, family or lineage are you? Alban answered: What does it concern you, of what stock I was born? But if you desire to hear the truth of religion, know that I am now a Christian, and devote myself to Christian duties. The Judge says: I ask your name, which without delay declare to me. But he: Alban, he said, I am called by my parents; and the true and living God, who created all things, I adore always and worship. Then the Judge, filled with anger, said: If you wish to enjoy the felicity of perpetual life, do not delay to sacrifice to the great gods. Alban answered: These sacrifices, which are rendered by you to demons, can neither help their subjects, nor fulfill the desires or vows of those who supplicate them: nay rather, whoever offers sacrifices to these images, will receive the eternal punishments of hell as his reward.

[4] On hearing this, the judge, moved with excessive fury, commanded the holy confessor of God to be beaten by the torturers, supposing that he could soften the constancy of his heart by blows, which he could not by words; after the scourges he is condemned to death, when he was afflicted with the bitterest torments, he bore these for the Lord patiently, nay joyfully. But when the Judge perceived that he could not be overcome by torments, nor recalled from the worship of the Christian religion, he ordered him to be beheaded. And as he was being led to death, he came to a river, which by a wall and sand, where he was to be struck, was divided by a most rapid channel: and he saw there no small multitude of people of both sexes, of diverse condition and age, who, without doubt by the impulse of the divine, were called to do honor to the most blessed Confessor and Martyr; and so they occupied the bridge of that river, that before evening he could scarcely cross: at last, when almost all had gone out, the Judge had remained without retinue in the city. he walks upon the waters, Therefore St. Alban, in whom was a burning devotion of mind to reach martyrdom more quickly; came to the torrent, and directing his eyes to heaven, immediately, the channel being dried up, he saw the water yield to him and give a way to his steps. When the executioner himself, who was to strike him, had seen this among others, he hastened to meet him, when he had come to the place appointed for death, being doubtless admonished by divine instinct; and converts the executioner thereby; and casting away the sword, which he had held drawn, he fell at his feet, much desiring that, with the Martyr, or for the Martyr, whom he was bidden to strike, he himself rather might deserve to be struck.

[5] While therefore he, from a persecutor, had become a colleague of truth and faith, and the iron lying there, there was among the executioners a just hesitation, he obtains a fountain by his prayers, the most reverend confessor of God ascended the hill with the crowds: which, conveniently joyful with most becoming grace, is situated nearly five hundred paces from the arena, painted, nay everywhere clothed, with the various flowers of plants: in which there is nothing suddenly steep, nothing precipitous, nothing abrupt, which nature levels, drawn out far and wide on its sides, in the manner of a plain; rendering it, indeed, he is beheaded, the striker being punished: worthy already long since, by the inborn appearance of beauty, to be consecrated by the blood of the blessed martyr. On the summit of this, therefore, St. Alban asked that water be given him by God: and immediately, the channel being enclosed, before his feet a perennial fountain sprang up, so that all might recognize that even the torrent had done service to the martyr: for it could not be that on the steep summit of the hill the Martyr should ask for water, which he had not left in the river, if he did not see this to be opportune. Which river, namely, its service being discharged, its devotion completed, leaving a testimony of its office, returned to its nature. The most valiant Martyr, therefore, being beheaded in that very place, received the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him: but he who laid impious hands on holy necks, was not permitted to rejoice over the dead man: for his eyes fell to the earth together with the head of the blessed Martyr.

[6] There was also beheaded there at that time that soldier, who before, seized by the divine nod, refused to strike the holy confessor of God: of whom indeed it is established, the first executioner, also converted, is likewise beheaded. that although he was not washed in the font of baptism, yet he was cleansed by the laver of his own blood, and made worthy of the entrance to the heavenly kingdom. Then the Judge, struck by so great a novelty of heavenly miracles, soon ordered the persecution to cease; beginning to render honor to the slaughter of the Saints, through which he had supposed before that they could cease from the devotion of the Christian faith. But blessed Alban suffered on the tenth day before the Kalends of July, near the city of Verulamium, which now by the nation of the English is called Werlamacestir d) or Warlingacestir: where afterward, when the serenity of Christian times returned, a church e) of marvelous workmanship, and worthy of his martyrdom, was built. In which place, namely, The church of St. Alban. up to this day, the healing of the sick and the working of frequent miracles does not cease to be celebrated. There suffered in that storm Aaron and Julius f), citizens of the City of Legions, and very many others of both sexes in diverse places: who, tortured with diverse tortures, and lacerated by unheard-of tearing of their limbs, sent their souls to the joys of the heavenly city, the contest being completed.

NOTES OF G. H.

a) These twenty years are to be taken from the year 284, in which the reign began, to the year 304 in which he laid down the empire.

b) Called St. Amphibalus by posterity.

c) The caracalla is a certain garment with a hood. Hence St. Jerome, in epistle 128, describes a little cloak of wonderful beauty, dazzling the eyes with its splendor, in the manner of caracallas but without hoods. Eucherius in book 2 of his Institutions: "The ephod is a priestly garment which is called the over-garment or the over-shoulder garment: but it is as it were in the manner of a caracalla but without a hood."

d) Westminster, at the year 313. That, he says, the city is reckoned by a twofold name, this is the reason. For from the river-bed which is called Warlame, and flows down to the Eastern side of the city, it is Warlancestria. But from the royal road, which is called Watlingestrete, and lies on the Western part of the city, it is named Warlingecestria.

e) The same Westminster, at the said year 313, asserts that ten years after the Passion the church was built.

f) These are inscribed in the Roman Martyrology on the Kalends of July. See concerning them Alford at the year 287, number 28.

OTHER ACTS of SS. Alban, Amphibalus and Companions, written in English in the year 590.

Translator: William, monk of St. Alban's.

Alban Protomartyr, at Verulamium and neighboring places in Britain (St.)

Amphibalus the Deacon, at Verulamium and neighboring places in Britain (St.)

About two thousand, at Verulamium and neighboring places in Britain (SS.)

BHL Number: 0213

TRANSLATOR WILLIAM.

PREFACE OF THE TRANSLATOR

To the Reverend Father and most dear Lord Simon, William, greeting in the Lord.

[1] When a book written in the English tongue, containing the Passion of the blessed Martyr Alban, had come to our notice; you commanded that I should express it in Latin words. The excuse of the writer, having followed obedience. But I, deeming it a sin not to obey you, obeyed the word: yet not from any presumption, but lest the authority of him who commands should seem to be despised. Which work I believed should be consecrated to your name, finding no one to whom I might rather offer the firstfruits of my mouth, than to a Priest of the Lord. If perhaps anything should sound less Latin to learned ears; let obedience, which often presumes things greater than its strength, excuse the new interpreter. But it should be known that to this work I have added the name of the blessed Cleric: which I found not in the book which I am translating, but in the history, which Geoffrey Arthur testifies that he turned from the British into Latin. But lest the prolixity of words should displease a busy man: it now remains that it be heard in what manner the author directs the Preface of his work.

PROLOGUE OF THE AUTHOR.

[2] Whoever shall attempt to recall to memory the glorious contests of the blessed Martyrs, The Writer of the Martyrdom incurs the hatred of the Pagans. it is necessary, if indeed he escape, that he endure the hatred of the pagans. For if anyone shall begin to arrange a narration about the death of the martyrs, about the glory of the Saints; soon those who envy their felicity are wont to grow angry, to rage, and to persecute even unto death. Hence it is that, being about to hand down to posterity, in whatever style, the passion of the blessed Alban the martyr, I do not prefix a title to the work: preferring by keeping silent to lose my name, rather than by speaking to lose name and life alike. Although therefore all things are full of the snares of those who lie in wait, yet, my name being suppressed, what I have seen, what I have heard, His own name being suppressed, he writes the things seen and heard. I will not be silent about. The citizens once of Verulamium, to declare the elation of their heart, left sculpted on the walls of their city how the most blessed Alban suffered: which writing, a long time afterward, on their walls, now ruinous and inclined to ruin, I found: and I saw the walls already falling through age, within whose compass Blessed Alban endured grievous tortures in body. I saw the place filled with a density of trees, in which the unconquered Martyr once for Christ underwent the capital sentence. These among other things I learned by the report of many, how the holy man by praying produced a fountain on the summit of the hill; that he might relieve his enemies laboring with thirst, and now despairing of life, by the benefit of waters. I diligently inquired into the whole order of the matter, learned it, and (lest it should be hidden from posterity) took care to commit it in this manner to pen and memory.

CHAPTER I. The coming of St. Amphibalus into Britain. The conversion of St. Alban.

[3] When the persecution, which under Diocletian was stirred up against the Christians, was raging far and wide; a) a certain man, renowned in merits and learning, by name Amphibalus, b) crossing into Britain, by the Lord's leading came to Verulamium. St. Amphibalus coming into Britain Who, having entered the city, turning aside into the house of Alban, asked for lodging. Now Alban was a citizen of Verulamium, a man eminent in the city, deriving his origin from an illustrious stock of the Romans: in whom the glory of riches and secular dignity, corresponding to the nobility of his birth, rendered him an honorable man to all the people. He, kindly receiving the holy man into his hospitality, furnished the necessaries of life. At length, the bustle of the servants being removed, addressing him more secretly; How, he said, since you are a Christian man, St. Alban receives him in hospitality: were you able to pass through the borders of the Gentiles and to come to this city unharmed? Amphibalus says to him: My Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God, continually following my journey, kept me safe amid dangers. He sent me for the salvation of many to this Province, that namely, announcing to the Gentiles the faith which is in Christ, I might prepare for him an acceptable people. And who is, he said, this Son of God? What is it that God is asserted to have been born? These things are new and to me hitherto unheard. I would wish to know what you Christians think upon this matter.

[4] Then Blessed Amphibalus, having entered upon an Evangelical disputation, said to him: The assertion of our faith is this, that we say there is God the Father, he is instructed in the faith and God the Son; which Son, namely, deigning to assume flesh for the salvation of men, brought it about that he who had made flesh, should become flesh; and he who had been the creator of the Virgin, should himself marvelously be created of the Virgin. When therefore the time for exhibiting this novelty came, a heavenly messenger is sent to the Virgin: who, entering to her, said: Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you: blessed are you

among women. And when she had heard this, she was troubled at his word. And the Angel said to her: Do not fear, Mary; behold you shall conceive and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. And Mary said to the Angel: How shall this be, since I know not a man? concerning the mystery of the Incarnation: And answering the Angel said to her: The Holy Spirit shall come upon you, and the power of the Most High shall overshadow you; and therefore also that which shall be born of you Holy shall be called the Son of God. And Mary said: Behold the handmaid of the Lord, be it done to me according to your word. In this manner the Virgin deserved to bring forth God, the handmaid the Lord, the daughter the Father. The future Martyr is foretold: She was made a Virgin mother; but she did not lose the marks of virginity. That this too would be was not hidden from the Prophets; but they foretold it from of old by many oracles. If you, my host, will believe these things to be so; all things which pertain to the faith of Christ will be able to be worthily fulfilled concerning you: but having become a Christian, you will be able to help the weak, the sick, and all who are ill, by invoking the name of Christ: no adversity will harm you, death will not draw near, before the will of the Creator himself shall have come: at last you will end this life by Martyrdom, and blessed in a happy departure, you will pass from the world to Christ. Therefore I entered this city, that in it I might become the herald of your passion: for the kind Lord recompenses the offices of humanity, in which you persist, with the reward of the heavenly life.

[5] Alban says to him: What reverence shall I render to Christ, what honor; if perhaps I shall have received the faith of Christ? And he: Believe that the Lord Jesus, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, is one God; and you will have accomplished a great work in his eyes. Then Alban says to him: What is it that you say: you are mad: c) you know not what you say. The understanding does not grasp your assertion, he resists his words, reason does not admit it. If the men of this city knew that you had spoken such things about Christ, without delay they would avenge blasphemous words according to the public sanctions of the laws by cutting off your head. But I, altogether anxious for you, lest anything adverse befall you, before you have departed from this dwelling, am vehemently afraid. Having said this he rose, and refuses to hear more: and went away moved with anger. For in no way could he yet patiently hear the things that were said, nor would he lend a calm ear to the one admonishing him. Alone in the place remained Amphibalus; and he passed the whole night sleepless in prayer.

[6] But to Alban resting in an upper room, certain marvelous things were shown by divine power that night. And when he had been terrified by the new sight, and was disturbed by the unusual vision; rising immediately he descended to the lower parts; and approaching his guest, he said: Friend, if the things you preach about Christ are true; do not fear, I pray, to indicate to me the true solution of my dream. I was looking, and behold, from the heavens a man was coming; in a nocturnal vision he beholds the torments inflicted on Christ, whom an innumerable multitude of men, seizing, expended upon him diverse kinds of torments. His hands are bound with chains, the body is worn by scourges, and grievously mangled, the wounded body is suspended on wood, across the strength of the wood the hands are spread out. The man who was tortured was naked, and had no shoes on his feet: his hands and feet are fixed with nails, the side is pierced with a lance; from the wound of which side, as it seemed to me, blood and water flowed forth. At his right they set up a reed, a crown of thorns they place upon his head. All things being completed which human cruelty could inflict; they began to mock him with words, saying, Hail King of the Jews: if you are the son of God, come down now from the cross, and we will believe you. And when they heaped many reproaches; that young man did not answer them a word. At last when they had said against him whatever they wished: at length crying out with a great voice he said, Father, into your hands I commend my spirit; his Resurrection and Ascension. and having said this, he expired. The lifeless body is taken down from the cross, the blood still flowing copiously from the wounds: it is enclosed in a stone sarcophagus, and the stone being sealed, guards are appointed. A marvelous thing! The dead corpse returned to life; and his strength resumed, he came forth from the closed monument: how he rose from the dead, I myself beheld with my own eyes. Men clothed in snowy garments come from the heavens; and having taken the man with them, they return thither whence they had come. There follows him an infinite army of those clothed in white, who through all that journey do not cease to sing praises; and they assiduously bless the Father, I know not whom, and his Son: saying; Blessed be God the Father, and his only-begotten Son. Among them is immense joy; ineffable gladness, such that none can worthily be compared to it. These and many other things, which I neither wish, nor is it lawful, to indicate to any mortal; were shown to me by night through a vision. What those things signify, I beseech you, do not hide from me. Do not fear.

[7] On hearing this, Blessed Amphibalus, perceiving that his heart had been visited by the Lord; rejoiced in the Lord more than is credible to anyone; St. Amphibalus expounds the vision, bringing forth the Cross, and immediately bringing forth the Cross of the Lord, which he had with him, he said: Behold, in this sign you can manifestly discern what your nocturnal vision means, what it portends. For the man coming from on high is my Lord Jesus Christ: who did not refuse to undergo the punishment of the cross, that he might free us by his blood from the guilt by which through the transgression of our first parent Adam we were held bound. But those who laid hands on the man, and afflicted him with diverse kinds of punishments, signify the people of the Jews: who, although they had the promise, that God would send them his son from the heavens, and at last he had come whom they long awaited; did not receive him coming, nor recognized the author of their salvation; but contradicting him in all things, always repaid him evil for good, hatred for love. concerning Christ the Redeemer: At last, led by envy against him, they broke out into such great wickedness; that they seized the man, in whom they had found no cause of death, crucified him and slew him. Thus the kind Lord redeemed us by the price of his blood, thus by dying he became victor over death, and exalted on the cross drew all things to himself: but descending of his own will to the prisons of hell, he loosed his own who were held there, and binding the devil with eternal bonds, cast him down to the lowest places of darkness.

[8] Then Alban, vehemently marveling at his words, broke out into these words, to which St. Alban assenting, saying: True are, he said, true the things which you relate about Christ; nor can they in any way be convicted of falsity. For I evidently this night have known how Christ conquered the devil, bound him, and thrust him into the deeper parts of hell. I myself beheld with my own eyes, that that foul one lies ensnared in the bonds of chains. In this recognizing that all things which you have spoken are true, henceforth I promise myself to you as a most faithful hearer. Tell therefore, I beseech you (since you know all things), what I am to do for the Father, what for the Holy Spirit, approaching the service of the Son. On hearing which, with immense exultation he said: I give thanks to my Lord Jesus Christ, that you already know how to bring forth these three names through yourself. Therefore three persons, which you have openly designated by their names, believe to be one God, and firmly and faithfully d) confess. But Alban answering; I believe, he said, and from this is my faith, that there is no God except my Lord Jesus Christ, who for the salvation of men deigning to assume manhood, endured the passion of the cross; he with the Father and the Holy Spirit is one God; and besides him there is no other. e)

[9] Having said this, he is often prostrate before the cross: and as though he beheld the Lord Jesus hanging on the cross, the blessed penitent begs pardon for himself. Thus the feet, thus the places of the wounds he soothes with assiduous kissing; pricked in conscience and penitent he is baptized, as if he were falling down at the very footsteps of the Redeemer, whom he had seen crucified. Tears mingled with blood roll down his cheeks, falling copiously upon that venerable wood. I, he said, renounce the devil, and detest all the enemies of Christ; believing in him alone, committing myself to him, who (as you assert) on the third day rose from the dead. [And when Alban steadfastly confessed this; Amphibalus baptized him in the name of the same holy Trinity, made from the heart a complete Christian.] Amphibalus says to him: Be of strong heart: the Lord is with you, and his grace will never be lacking to you. The faith, which the rest of mortals are wont to receive by a man's handing it on, you learned not from a man, nor through a man, but through the revelation of Jesus Christ. Wherefore now, rendered altogether secure about you, I purpose to go farther, about to show the way of truth to the Gentiles. By no means, said Alban, but stay with me at least one week, that in the meantime, while you show me the solicitude of a Teacher, he keeps St. Amphibalus with him. I may, more fully instructed, come to know the worship of the Christian religion. Amphibalus therefore, perceiving that Alban would take his departure grievously, is drawn to consent. Therefore on each day, when now the hour declined toward evening, master and disciple, avoiding the throng of men, betook themselves to a more remote house, which is commonly wont to be called a hut; passing the whole night there in the praises of God. And they did this, lest their secret should become known to the unbelievers; who strove not to follow the worshippers of the Christian religion in faith, but to persecute them for their faith.

NOTES OF D. P.

a) "Bede, a Cleric," in the manuscript given us by Andrea Maroquin; "an excellent Abbot, worshipper and teacher of the most holy Trinity."

b) Hence we judge that he was of transmarine origin, and crossed into Britain on account of the persecution. Meanwhile that he was sprung from the City of Legions, or Caerleon, was written by Ranulf of Chester in the 14th century, in book 1 of the Polychronicon, chapter 48 (which we have in manuscript), and by Giraldus Cambrensis in book 1 of the Itinerary, chapter 52. Other later writers made him Rector of the city of Cambridge.

c) In Capgrave, I do not know.

d) "Confess the same."

e) These things about baptism are lacking in the older manuscript and in Capgrave. In the aforesaid manuscript are these: "Catechizing him more fully and more perfectly, he at last baptized him in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit."

CHAPTER II.

The captivity of St. Alban, the scourges, chains, his constancy in faith and his execration of idolatry.

[10] But after some time had passed, a certain Gentile, boldly entering to the judge, indicated what had been done. Alban, learning of the betrayal and the judge's sentence, Nothing at all did he leave untouched, by which he might either the more easily harm the innocent, or impel the judge to fury. On learning which the Judge, soon kindled with the fury of anger, ordered Alban and his Master to be summoned to his presence, that with the reverence which was fitting they might immolate victims to his gods; but if they refused, to be seized by force and violence, to be bound with chains, and to be placed on the altars of the gods in the place of a victim, to be slaughtered. But this decree was not hidden from Alban: who, desiring by all means to forestall the Prince's snares a), exhorts Amphibalus to withdraw from the city; giving him a cloak woven with gold, with which

he might be rendered safer from his enemies: for festal garments of this kind at that time were of such great dignity among all, and of such great reverence; he sends St. Amphibalus away, that one clothed in it might pass through the wedges of the enemy unharmed. But he himself retained for himself his Master's caracalla, knowing most certainly that his raging enemies would not look upon it with favorable eyes. Therefore Amphibalus, yielding to Alban's prayers, before the rising of the light took to flight, going by the way which from the city verges to the North: but Alban escorted him, he himself remains in the other's habit. as long as it seemed expedient to them both. And when they parted from one another, and bade each other a last farewell; who could recall to memory their tears without tears? And so into Wales Amphibalus hastens to martyrdom; Alban, clothed in his master's habit, that even in this way he might more easily draw the minds of the Gentiles upon himself alone, returned.

[11] When day arose, suddenly horsemen with a great band of footsoldiers, with savage minds, rush into the dwelling of Alban; they search the hidden places, Amphibalus not being found, coming with noise and tumult through all things to the hut, there they find the illustrious man Alban in foreign garb, with bare feet bending over prayers before the Cross of the Lord. Soon rushing in by troops, they inquire where the Cleric was whom he had received. To whom he himself says: Behold, he is with God; surrounded by whose protection, he does not fear the threats of men. Why do you seek him? But after the one who was demanded was nowhere found; the ministers of crimes, turning the savagery of their wickedness upon Alban, soon laid hands on him. He is snatched, dragged, he is seized and dragged to the idols: and bound with the dread bonds of chains: by some he is dragged by his clothes, by others by his hair. Afflicting him with various injuries, and treating him quite inhumanly, to their idols they led him; where then the whole city, together with the Judge, had gathered: Alban, that he might openly show himself to all as a servant of the Cross, continually bore the Lord's sign in his hands. The Gentiles, beholding the new and unknown sign, were troubled and terrified. But the Judge, who presided over the city, with grim countenance, with threatening eyes, looked upon the blessed man and the sign of salvation. Whose anger Alban is said to have so despised, he professes his name and faith: that he did not deign to confess to him either his family, or of what household he was: but, questioned about particulars, he indicated only his name; and answered with a free voice that he was a Christian.

[12] Whom the Judge assails with words of this kind, saying: Alban, where is the Cleric, who lately directed hither by Christ I know not whom, he hears the Judge raving against Amphibalus, in order to mock our citizens, secretly entered this city? If guilt did not gnaw at him in conscience, if he did not distrust the quality of his cause; he would of his own accord have presented himself to our sight, that, as an excellent master, he might plead for himself and his disciple. But how great a falsity lurked in his teaching, and how great fraudulence, he at last made plain by his own example: since he, dissolved by sluggish fear, deserted and fled from the one whom he ought to have defended in the cause. In which matter (unless I am mistaken) you understand quite evidently, to how foolish a man you gave consent in error: by whose instigation you have rolled down into such great madness, that you would suddenly desert all things that are of the world, and not fear to hold the great Gods in contempt. Whence, lest we should seem to have passed over the injury of the Gods unavenged, and enticing him with promises to the worship of the gods: it has pleased us to avenge their contempt in the death of the despiser. But because there is no one who cannot be deceived; you will be able to avert their indignation by repenting: whose favor you will at last earn in this way, if this most abominable sect be utterly separated from you. Therefore yield to most wholesome counsels, and do not delay to sacrifice to the great gods; from whom you will easily obtain not only pardon for your sins, indulgence for your crimes, but also cities and nations, armies, monies, Provinces, powers.

[13] Alban, intrepid amid threats, whole amid gifts, answered the Judge: Your words, O Judge, over which you have long labored, how vain they are and superfluous, he excuses the departure of Amphibalus, is quite plain. For the Cleric, if it seemed good, if useful, if finally it were dear to both of us; would surely have come to your hearing: but his coming could certainly not please me, who knew that this people was always inclined to evil: nor did Judges ever please him, who do not discern the truth in judgment. His teaching I confess that I have received: nor do I repent of the deed. For that I have not lent faith to the words of the unskilled, nor of anyone of the common people, you will perhaps learn from what follows. he professes his faith: This faith which I have received, the weak and the sick, restored to their former health, will prove to be true by the testimony of their salvation. This faith is dearer to me than all the riches which you promise, more precious than all the honors which you propose. For although one may be enriched beyond measure, yet at the last he dies even unwilling: nor can that gold, preserved with such great care, recall its keeper from the dead. he scorns the idols: But why is the discourse drawn out at length? To your false and deceitful gods I do not sacrifice; who, soothing all my family with vain hope, while they diligently served them, miserably deceived them b). Having said this, suddenly there arises grief in the people, here mourning, there a cry of insult arises: but the most blessed martyr fears neither the Judge's threat, nor the murmur of the surrounding people.

[14] Immediately the crowd of Gentiles, assembling, began with combined forces to push the holy man toward the sacrifices of the demons, ordering that he should as quickly as possible immolate to their gods. amid dread scourges he invokes Christ: But so great a multitude of men cannot break the mind of one man, that he should in anything consent to the abominable rites. Then, by command of the Judge, seized, he is stretched out for the scourges. When he was grievously beaten, turning to the Lord, with cheerful countenance he said: Lord Jesus Christ, keep, I pray, my mind, lest it waver, lest it fall from the state which you have given. To you, Lord, I gladly desire to offer my soul as a holocaust, and, my blood being shed, to become your witness. he is detained in prison for 6 months: These words resounded amid the blows. And when the hands of the lictors were wearied, and the matter had no effect; the people, still hoping that the Martyr's mind could at some time be recalled from his purpose (especially since with the passage of time the human mind is wont frequently to slacken from its rigor), caused him to be detained under the custody of the Judge for six months and more.

[15] These things being thus done, soon the elements testify to the martyr's injury. For from the time of his arrest, the people being punished with sterility, until the day on which he was to be loosed from the bonds of the flesh, neither dew nor rain watered the earth, the winds did not blow; but day after day the whole region was scorched under a most burning sun: even in the nightly hours the heat was excessive and intolerable: neither the fields, nor the trees brought forth any fruits, the world fighting on the side of the just against the impious. But the citizens of Verulamium, not bearing a plague of this kind, came together into one, and said: The maleficence of the magic art prevailing, the seed has failed, all greenness has perished: that Christ, whom Alban worships, does this, that no seedlings, no crops come up for us. Messengers therefore being sent through all that province, men endowed with wisdom and honor and means are summoned, to treat of the business of their salvation. in a public council he is declared innocent; When at last they were gathered into one, the most blessed Alban, cast out from the squalor of the prison, proceeds with bare feet into the midst. On seeing whom, soon the wise men converse with one another, all consent, Alban is judged innocent by all: they grieve over his injury, they groan over his chains. And also through his parents and his family, great and very renowned, which was in the city, no small fury of disturbance and dissension arises. For they could not equanimously bear the injury of so great and such a man; that namely a free man, as if he had been the author of some theft, and loosed from his chains, should stand before the Judge laden with iron: when concerning his morals not even any rumor of sinister suspicion had ever arisen; and it was held most certain among all, that he had always shunned crimes of this kind with the utmost zeal. And when a grave sedition arose among the people, and the tumult increased; the blessed man, by the judgment of all, is stripped of the bonds of his chains, so that, free from chains, he might stand to render the cause of his deed to the Judge.

[16] Taking this kind of mercy grievously, Alban vehemently began to fear, he adores the Cross, lest he should be put off from martyrdom, being prepared for martyrdom. And standing in the midst of the multitude, with a groan he looked up to heaven: and bringing forth the Cross of the Lord he adored it and said: Lord Jesus Christ, do not permit the malice of the devil so to prevail in this matter, that by his cunning machinations, and the concord of this people, he should impede my passion. May his efforts, I pray, be made vain by you; let his audacity be repressed, let his strength fall into failure. he mocks the vanity of the gods. Then turning to the people he says: What are you waiting for? You surely see that the time passes by under this delay. If you do not know how to pass sentence, consult your laws, seek the statutes of your city: let them suggest to you what you ought to do. Why do you suffer delays? Know, all of you, that I am a grievous enemy of your gods. Are they worthy of honor who are recognized to have nothing of divinity in themselves; since they are the works of the hands of men? You are their witnesses; that they see nothing, hear nothing, understand nothing. Does any of you wish to see thus, to hear thus, as the gods whom he adores? By no means. What therefore shall we say of such things, whose likeness their worshippers believe it a disgrace to have? O greatly to be detested vanity! To hope for life from those who never lived; to offer prayers to those who never heard; to seek salvation from those who were never well. Whence I absolutely declare; that whoever worships such things, is utterly mad. I ask, what is more wretched than a man, over whom his own figments hold dominion! Woe therefore to the idols, and woe to the worshippers of the idols. What seems good to you?

NOTES OF H. G.

a) Gildas the Wise, "On the Destruction," inserting these things, says: Alban, after for the grace of charity he had concealed a Confessor, pursued by the persecutors, and on the very point of being seized, imitating in this too Christ, who lays down his life for the sheep, first in his house and then by mutually changing garments: and gave himself willingly to danger, to be pursued in the garments of his aforesaid brother.

b) In Capgrave is added: Nor even your threats, nor your torments, supported by the protection of my God, do I fear.

CHAPTER III.

The martyrdom of St. Alban and of another soldier. The miracles of the dried-up river, the elicited fountain, and the raising of the dead.

[17] On hearing this, the Gentiles converse with one another, and counsel being taken on both sides, Alban is adjudged to death: all with unanimous consent passed the sentence of death upon the holy man: and they chose that it be done soon in the place which by the custom of the common people was called Holmhurst, but a great contention arose among them, not finding by what kind of death they should destroy their enemy. For some wished him, as a disciple of the Crucified, to be crucified; others, because he was an enemy of the gods,

had been, wished him to be buried alive in the earth; some, his eyes being plucked out, decreed that he should be sent after his master: at last the Judge and the whole people of the city condemned him to the capital sentence. he is led out, silent amid insults: Therefore by the judgment, again bound with chains, Alban was dragged to the punishment. Then the people, the Judge being left behind in the city, rushed forth eagerly to the spectacle: who, continually pursuing the holy man with reproaches; Go out, they say, go out, enemy of the city, foe of all the gods. Go where your crimes call you; that a fitting recompense may be paid to your deserts: but the blessed martyr did not answer them a word.

[18] So great a mass of peoples had flowed together there; that places formerly ample and spacious, now through the density of men seemed most narrow: because some of the multitude that ran together were drowned, the force of the sun too was so great, that by its excessive heat the earth was burned under the feet of the travelers. And while the journey was being made; at last they came to a most rapid river: at whose bank, the people halting, no small difficulty of crossing arose. For while they rush without order, while one strives to go before another; the narrowness of the bridge granted easy passage to none. Then certain ones, not bearing this delay, but trusting themselves to the vast river, crossed over to the farther bank by swift swimming. But others, attempting a similar feat, intercepted by the violent waters, miserably lost their lives. On seeing which, there arose great grief and mourning among the people.

[19] Alban also, seeing these things, groaned, and bewailed the losses of the perishing people: and his knees being placed on the earth, by his prayer he dries up the river: moved with mercy over the people, he directed his eyes to heaven, his mind to Christ. Lord, he said, Jesus, from whose most holy side I beheld blood and water at once flow forth; grant, I pray, that the waters be diminished, that the streams recede: so that all this people, sound and safe, may be able to be present at my passion. A marvelous thing! When Alban bent his knees; b) that channel was suddenly dried up. While Alban's tears are poured forth, and he raises up the drowned: they leave no waters in the river: the power of his prayer drains the river, and opened a way for the people amid the waves. The miracles multiply, and while powers succeed to powers, the powerful merits of Alban shine forth more clearly in the people. Those whom a little before the force of the river snatched away with it, enveloped, and destroyed; these were now found, having no injury, nor showing any sign of death upon themselves.

[20] Then that soldier, who was dragging Alban to the punishment, at last through Alban deserved to come to salvation c). For having seen the marvels, which were gloriously done by him, by these miracles he converts the soldier to the faith, led by repentance he casts away his sword, falls at his feet, confesses his error, begs pardon; and tears welling up, he says: Alban, servant of God, truly your God is the true God, and there is no other. Know that I now believe in him, that I claim him with you for my God. That river, which by your prayers you in a moment reduced to nothing, in a way speaks and testifies that there is none like him, powerful and doing marvels upon the earth. On hearing this, the fury of the ministers of crimes increases, they are driven by the stings of envy, and men most savage become more savage. Who with savage minds returning to him; It is not, they say, through Alban (as you assert) that this river suddenly disappeared: but we, to whom the kindness of the gods has conferred the knowledge of secrets, can indicate why this thing happened: we worship the god Sun, and to him before the others we render greater reverence. He, not unmindful of our devotion, on our account consumed the water of the river by the force of heat; that sound and complete in number we might behold the death of our enemy with joyful eyes. But you, because you presume to twist the benefits of the gods to others by a sinister interpretation, shall pay a fitting penalty for your blasphemy. Having said this, they seize the man, knock out his teeth: and that sacred mouth, who soon suffered very many torments. which had borne testimony to the truth, is grievously lacerated by the impious. But since for so many hands one part of the body did not suffice; passing to the other limbs, they break all his limbs: and though nothing remained unharmed in the body; yet the faith which fervently burned in his breast, could not be harmed. With his whole body therefore mangled, they left the man half-dead on the sand; making a transition from crime to crime.

[21] But who can now without tears recall, when through hard places of stones, through brambles and every rough thing, most cruel men led and led back Blessed Alban: Through brambles and thorns he ascends the hill: the thorns too and roots of trees tore away with them even pieces torn from his feet, and the precious blood stained the stones? At last they ascend the summit of the hill; where the athlete of God was to fulfill the course of his contest. There lay a countless crowd of men; who, sweltering with thirst under the burning sun, were now drawing their last breath. These, when they had seen Alban, raged against him, saying: Behold, the sorcerer prevailing, we are pressed by such great troubles, that no hope of living remains to us any longer; through the magic arts, which that Alban does not cease to practice, our days have failed, and we ourselves have failed. With whose miseries Alban grieved with innermost affection, and burning with the grace of charity, did not neglect to pour forth prayers for his persecutors. God, he said, who created man from clay, do not allow, I pray, your creature on my account to feel any loss whatever. his prayer being poured forth May a glad mildness of the air be present, may abundance of waters be granted; let a gentler wind begin to blow; that the heat, with which the people labor, by your gift may be more quickly extinguished. Still the speech was rolling in the mouth of the speaker; and behold, suddenly a fountain burst forth before his feet in the midst of the surrounding crowd. The marvelous power of Christ! The earth was scorched by the excessive heat of the sun, and yet from the summit of the hill, from the dust of the earth, a cold fountain suddenly gushing, with overflowing veins flowed copiously forth. And as the stream with rapid rush descended to the lower parts; the people ran up, that refreshed with the waters they might at last escape the calamity by which they were vexed. These being drunk, soon by the merit of one the thirst of all was extinguished: but still they thirsted for human blood. The heat indeed of their bodies was relieved, he elicits a fountain: but the fervor of their raging minds was not diminished: the sick obtained health, but they by no means recognized the author of their health; for blaspheming Christ; Praise, they say, to the great god Sun, who deigned to provide such a remedy for his servants placed in a strait, that a little stream of waters suddenly springing from the earth, might run to us for our salvation.

[22] Having said this, the fury of the people is kindled to shed blood: and the Martyr's locks are bound to a stake. he is beheaded From all the people one executioner is chosen, who should perpetrate the crime on behalf of all. Who soon ready rises high with his lifted sword; and balancing it with the utmost strength upon his neck, with one blow he cut off the head of the holy Martyr. The lifeless corpse falls into the pit, prepared for the slaughter: the head hangs on the stake, ensnared by the hairs. But the Cross which the holy man had been wont continually to bear in his hands, now sprinkled with the happy blood, fell upon the grass: and a certain Christian secretly, and the executioner is deprived of his eyes. all the Pagans being ignorant, snatched it and hid it. But the executioner, while he still stood beside the body, his eyes falling to the earth, became wholly darkened: nor could the wretch by the interposition of his hands resist his falling eyes, nor recall the fallen ones to their former place. On seeing which, very many of the Gentiles, conversing with one another, profess that this vengeance was full of justice.

[23] The crippled soldier, having suffered the Judge's insult, And while these things are thus done, behold, suddenly that soldier, whom a little before half-alive the Pagans had left in the lower parts, by the effort with which he could, ascended the hill, creeping with his hands. Then the Judge, whom the rumor of the miracles, which were done through Blessed Alban, had drawn thither; insulting the man's wounds; Come, he said, weak one, let us beseech Alban; that he may deign to restore your bones to their former state. Run, hasten, put the head back to the rest of the body; and immediately you will deserve to obtain from him full soundness. Why do you delay? Bury the dead man, render your service; and there is no doubt that to the hands of his servant he will confer swift medicine. But he, kindled with the warmth of faith: I, he said, most firmly believe, healed by the touch of St. Alban's head, that Blessed Alban can by his merits restore whole health to me, and lead me to the clemency of the Savior. For easily this, which you now say in mockery, through him can be fulfilled concerning me. Having said this, embracing the head of the blessed Martyr, he reverently loosed the holy hair. Then, the frail bearer taking up the pious burden, and applying it to the body with his hands more devoutly; in a marvelous manner he soon began to grow strong, and to recover the despaired-of strength of his body. he buries him: Who, restored sooner than said to his former health, did not cease to preach the power of Christ, and the merit of Alban, all the people hearing. And now stronger for labor, with his own hands he rendered the due service to the Saint. He himself covers the body with earth; he himself composes the tomb above.

[24] But the Pagans, seeing what was being done, were filled with zeal: and conferring with one another, they said; What shall we do? This man cannot perish by iron. We have crushed his whole body; he is beheaded. and behold, now, the case being reversed, the flesh has recovered its former strength and its first appearance. And what more shall we do? Take counsel what we ought to do. Then one of them springing into the midst; This man, he said, will not be able to be slain by the sword, unless he be first torn limb from limb. For he is a magician, and through the magic arts knows how to ward off the iron lest it harm him: he blunts every edge of the iron, nor does the sword dare to touch the body of the sorcerer. On hearing which, the soldier is ordered to be seized, and bound with chains: and by a most horrible kind of punishment, tearing apart that holy little body, at last they cut off his head with the sword. Thus the blessed soldier, persevering in the faith of Christ unto death, alone on that day deserved to be exalted with the crown of martyrdom together with the most holy Alban: and he who was made a partner of the passion, did not lose the partnership of glory also. The slaughter of the Martyrs being at last completed, the Judge, the council being dissolved, gives the people leave to depart. But departing, they detest the cruelty of the Judge, and say: Woe to the Judge, with whom equity has no place, who exercises his side against reason. Woe to the Judge, in whose judgment fury, not justice, holds dominion; who dictates the sentence not by reason, but by will.

[25] On the following night, therefore, the Lord Jesus Christ declared by evident signs the merits of his servant Alban. The tomb is illumined by heavenly light. For when the time of rest had come; behold, a column of the Cross was extended from the tomb of the blessed Martyr up to heaven: through which Angels descending and ascending, spent the whole night in hymns and praises. But among the other things which they sang, this voice was more frequently heard: Alban the distinguished man stands forth a glorious martyr. And when to this spectacle there suddenly came a concourse of men, more and more the number of those beholding increased. Who, standing afar off, are troubled by the unusual light, and the novelty of the thing turns into a miracle.

NOTES OF G. H.

a) Ussher says that "Hurst" among the Anglo-Saxons denotes a Wood, and afterward obtained the name of the Wood of Deuswolda, and that there the town of St. Alban was built, and grew up from the ruins of Verulamium: this is certain, that the Saxon name, later than Alban's age, is here placed according to the interpreter's sense.

b) Gildas describes those things thus: Pleasing to God amid his holy confession and his blood in the presence of the impious, who then bore the Roman stigmata with a horrible apparition, he was adorned with the miracles of signs, so that by fervent prayer, like the dry and less-trodden way of Israel, the Ark of the Testament standing long near the gravel in the midst of the Jordan, he opened an unknown path across the bed of the noble river Thames, entering with a thousand men dry-footed, the river floods being held up on either side in the manner of steep mountains.

c) The same Gildas: And he would change the former executioner, seeing such great prodigies, from a wolf into a lamb: and would make him thirst more vehemently for the triumphal palm of martyrdom together with him, and receive it more bravely. In Capgrave that one is called Heraclius.

CHAPTER IV.

The 999 Martyrs invited by Christ to glory. Their bodies restored whole, guarded by a wolf and an eagle.

[26] Then one of them, when he saw all standing astonished through fear, said: These marvelous things which we see, it is clearly established that Christ the Son of God works. Roused by one converted to a horror of the idols, The gods whom hitherto we have worshipped are rather proved to be portents than deities: for it is easily perceived that there is no power, no divinity in them. Our works are useless works; and our days have flowed by emptily. Behold, the darkness of night yields to the splendors of heaven; the celestial citizens come and return, and by them the holiness of Alban is assiduously commended. The world is wrapped in the gloom of darkness, but the brightness of Alban admits no darkness; the merits of Alban cannot be obscured. Let us, since that religion which hitherto we have held has nothing of usefulness, at last condemn our old error; let us be converted from false things to true, from faithlessness to faith. Let us go and seek the man of God, who (as you know) converted Alban by preaching to Christ. But how true are the things he speaks about Christ; and the worship of Christ, from the marvels which are done through Alban you can clearly perceive. The works which are done through the disciple, without doubt bear witness to the words of the master.

[27] While that man pursued these and other things, the favor of all received his praiseworthy opinion: soon they detest their former error, the faith of Christ is preached by all, the journey into Wales is directed in haste, a thousand men depart to St. Amphibalus, where the servant of God Amphibalus was thought to remain. Nor did their opinion deceive them; for, placed still afar off, that he abode there, they learn by the celebrity of rumor. When they had come to him, they found him preaching the word of life to the men of that region. To whom, explaining the cause of their coming, they offered the Cross, which to his Alban he had once commended; which, suffused with the recent blood of the blessed Martyr, bore the signs of his martyrdom quite evidently. But the man of the Lord, giving thanks in all things to the Creator, bows himself and adores, and venerates the saving sign with due devotion. And while he made to the new hearers a discourse on religion, instructed, they are baptized: soon all consented to him in the faith; and the superstition of vanity being cast off, they eagerly received from his sacred hands the seal which is in Christ. And when very many days had passed, the rumor of the deed is spread through all the region: which, growing strong in process of time through every place, at last filled Verulamium with various report, asserting that certain men of the city were following with their whole heart the transmarine man, and at his persuasion had cast off the worships of the gods and the laws of their fathers. with great disturbance of the people of Verulamium: On hearing which the city is shaken, all are troubled; it is inquired who have departed, and it was found that a thousand men were not present; and their names are soon ordered to be noted down. Against whom, moved with excessive fury, with all their strength they prepare to pursue: and equipped with the arms of war, with a huge din they set out on the journey, as if they were about to advance to battles.

[28] But hearing the renowned name of Amphibalus, they come to him after some days, rumor leading them; and in his circle, intent on his words, they find those whom they sought. On seeing whom, recalled by the submissive ones to idolatry, soon one of them assails the Saint of God with excessive severity in words of this kind: Worst seducer (he said), why did you wish to circumvent these imprudent ones, and those who knew not how to beware your snares, with the fallacies of words? What have you done? At your impulse they have presumed to trample on the laws, to despise the gods. Why do you not fear to provoke the great gods, which will not turn out prosperously for you? If they begin to avenge their injury upon you, no one doubts that you will quickly perish from the earth: but if you wish, or else of being slain. together with these whom you have cast into the chains of your error, to appear blameless before gods and men; command that, coming to their senses from the error, they return with us to their own homes. But if there be in them such great pertinacity in their error, that they in no way consent to return; there will not remain even one, who will not be slain. The sentence stands.

[29] Then one of the Christians, kindled with the warmth of faith, answered on behalf of the Cleric, saying; That this man whom you behold is a worshipper of the true God, perhaps you will today prove. For we are confident that in your sight, in the usual manner, through him to some sick person former health is to be restored in Christ's name. We have come to his holiness, They defend St. Amphibalus, that all things which pertain to the Christian faith being duly performed concerning us, he might make us partakers of eternal life. Far be it from us this crime; that we should leave the footsteps of this holy man, and again be wrapped in vain superstitions with you. Do you rather, ceasing from the quarrel, provoked at least by our example, receive the faith of Christ: that together with us you may be able to come to his joys. You threaten death: but one which we gladly embrace for Christ. and they profess that they will stand firm in the faith: But God and our Lord Jesus Christ may do with his servants what he will. Why do you try to recall us from a good and useful purpose? Why do you labor emptily and superfluously? The things which we have once forsaken for Christ, to them we will in no way return again. The sentence stands.

[30] On hearing this the fury of the Pagans is the more kindled: they spring to arms, and swords being drawn, the blood of the innocent is poured out. Alas, grief! The ministers of crimes rage against their own (so to speak) members, while the son is slain by the father, the father by the son; soon they are slaughtered: while brothers by brothers, citizens by citizens are killed. Neither reverence for the old, nor pity for parents softened the hard hearts of the executioners. But the holy Martyrs eagerly offer their necks to the swords: and while the former is slaughtered, the one to follow chides the delays. From this sacred college one alone wholly survived, who, detained on the way by an infirmity of body, could not be present.

[31] St. Amphibalus, surrounded on every side by the bodies of the slain, joyfully commended the blessed souls to the Lord. Upon whom the bloody executioners, pouring out all their anger, swore that they would take no food, until they should bring the enemy of their gods, whether alive or dead, to their city. St. Amphibalus is led away barefoot: His arms binding with the hardest thongs, before their horses they drove him to go: for they were borne aloft on their horses, Amphibalus alone with bare feet made the journey. But the nearer he draws to his Alban, the more the roughness of the ways and the injury of his toil is mitigated. But the executioners, always looking back toward the place of slaughter, led now by earnest repentance, over their kinsmen and friends, whom in their fury they had slaughtered, begin to weep most bitterly.

[32] And while the journey is made, they behold a man languishing lying beside the way: who, learning that St. Amphibalus was passing by, began to cry out and say: he heals a sick man on the way Servant of the most high God, help me; that I, who lie oppressed by my own infirmity, may deserve to be relieved by your intercession: for I believe that, the name of Christ being invoked over me, you can restore me swift soundness. But the executioners, not bearing the importunity of his cry, begin to mock the man. And without delay, under the eyes of the mockers, he who lay there rises up; and through the bound man, he is loosed from the chains of the lasting disease, by which he was held. These things being thus done, they proceeded on the journey begun. The deed could not long be concealed: but soon through all the region the rumor of the deed is spread. Even the executioners marvel; so much that some of them glorified God, saying: How great is the God of the Christians, and how great his power! At last, when they had come to their native soil, and could now behold the walls of their city; with the wonder of the executioners. resting a little in a deserted place, worn out with hunger and toil, they fix their spears in the earth and lean their shields. But while the others rested, Amphibalus alone, placed amid chains, had no rest. And although he was constrained by heavy chains: yet to his persecutors he did not cease to preach the word of life; for the Word of God could not be bound.

[33] Meanwhile it is announced in the city, that the citizens had returned to their fatherland; and had brought the master of Alban, a great sacrifice acceptable to their gods. When this had spread abroad, The people of Verulamium lament over the slaughter of their own, the city was filled with immense joy. For they reckoned that they had recalled safe to their own homes those for whom they had gone. But while among them marvelous exultation was taking place, certain of the executioners arrive unexpectedly, saying; that all, for whom they had undertaken so toilsome a journey, had alike fallen by the sword in foreign borders. On learning which, forthwith all their mirth and joy are turned into mourning and sadness. Fathers complain that they are bereft of their children, citizens of citizens: this one bewails that he has lost a brother, that one a kinsman: the mothers too, learning of the death of their sons, with disheveled hair, with torn garment, suddenly set the mournful city ablaze with their cries: everywhere mourning, everywhere groaning: nor was there anyone whom the magnitude of grief did not force to the lamentations of sorrow. And they said: Alas; why have these evils come upon us? Woe to us! Why do we still drag out an unhappy life? They have preceded us to death, whom we had determined to have as successors. Alas, sons! What have you done? On your account we have become a reproach to all the nations round about: nor can we now for confusion look upon the faces of men. For frequently before our eyes it will be recalled, that our sons deserted their gods; and therefore in a foreign fatherland, far from their friends, were miserably slain. Scattered over all the fields you lie lifeless, you lie unburied, food for the birds, prey for the beasts. Alas, grief! For this have we been reserved? for this do we survive you? that what the sons committed should be imputed to the parents. O misery! Our hope has perished: the rest of our old age has been taken away. Woe to the sacrilegious and fraudulent man, who, long since received by Alban into hospitality, first brought that execrable name of Christ into our city. He has disturbed all things: he is convicted of being the cause of the death of all. Immortal gods, if we ever served you, destroy the wicked man, and turn away from the lands such a plague. Together with our losses, your

injuries avenge in him: and the evils, which he committed against us, turn back upon his own head.

[34] And when the executioners had seen that the people was consumed with intolerable grief; springing forth into the midst, Do not, they say, citizens, do not weep, do not grieve beyond measure. Restrain your tears, admit consolation: but they are admonished by the executioners that they ought to rejoice lest you seem to envy the joys of your sons. It is not necessary to grieve greatly over the dead, whose death life, whose sorrows joys attend. That nothing is crueler, than for parents to be separated from their sons by intervening death, neither indeed do we deny: but there where the dying leave to posterity much matter for rejoicing concerning themselves. With these we must by no means grieve, since they live with Christ nay rather rejoice the more, who, it is established, will always live blessedly and reign in heaven with Christ. Therefore we ought not to grieve, but to give thanks to Christ; who deigned to take so great a multitude from this city, and to place them with himself in the heavenly places. They are not to be lamented on earth as though dead, who happily live with Christ in the heavens. To bewail losses is indeed human; but to be unwilling to set a measure to grief, is next to madness. Hear the things which were done concerning the dead; and because you lament in vain, perhaps you will recognize it.

[35] Then swearing that they mingled nothing of falsity with their narration, they spoke to the whole multitude, and that they themselves the slayers saying. Having gone out (as you know) to seek our kinsmen and friends; at last by rumor's leading we came into Wales: and there we found the Cleric exhorting the Welsh, the Picts, and the citizens to the faith of Christ. Then desiring without disturbance to separate our kinsmen from the rest, and so to lead them back with us; now with admonitions, now with threats we began to approach them. But such great pertinacity was in them all, that by no industry of words could they even for an hour be separated from the company of that man. We therefore, turned to anger, spring to arms; and the injury of our contempt, we avenge in the slaughter of the citizens. But they, eagerly offering their necks to the swords, gladly received death for Christ. And it was a wretched spectacle; when sons rose against fathers, fathers against sons, prostrated, slew. There was there no pity, nor reverence for old age. Alas, grief! what we are about to say, without a grievous groan we cannot speak. While the son bound the wounds of his father, his brother's hand, the brother coming upon them cut off. And so parents are felled, had heard from Christ that they were being invited to eternal blessedness. the dearest are slaughtered: the fields are flooded with blood, covered with corpses. While these things were being done, behold, Jesus himself, for whom they were laying down their lives, looking down from heaven, said with a clear voice: Pass over to me, my soldiers: behold, the door of paradise is opened to you; blessedness is prepared for you, which is not diminished, joys that know no end. On hearing which, we, who carried out the slaughter, it is incredible to relate with how great joy we were filled; understanding that our friends were passing from the world to heaven, from death to Christ. We seemed to ourselves happy, who had such kinsmen; whose fellow-citizens now were the Angels, whom Christ himself deigned to meet. But by the unusual hearing of the divine voice we were disturbed and terrified.

[36] But wishing to know how many in that slaughter had fallen, we began to count the slain: and they were found a) nine hundred ninety-nine, all slaughtered for the name of Christ. [The bodies of the 999 restored whole by the prayers of St. Amphibalus and recognized,] They lay each one trampled by the hooves of the horses, nor could they be recognized because of the wounds and the abundance of blood that had flowed forth. But while the holy man poured forth prayers to his God for the sake of this matter; suddenly, beyond hope, the wounds of all the dead are restored. The blood is turned into the appearance of milk, the skin is restored to its former form; so that not even a trace of a wound could be found in them. And it came to pass that the prayer of the Just One restored anew the human recognition, which our cruelty had before taken away. Then the people of the land, perverting the benefits of Christ by a sinister interpretation, contradicts the divine powers in all things; and vehemently resists, lest those who had received the faith of Christ be committed to burial in their borders. The last debt of nature is denied to the dead, they are guarded by a wolf and an eagle and they are exposed to be devoured by beasts and birds. But the grace of God was present, which, glorifying its servants after death too, softened the hard hearts of the raging, and rendered the enemies milder toward the dead. For that it might be clearly given to understand, that divine protection was not lacking to the worshippers of Christ; behold, a wolf and an eagle, coming unexpectedly, halted at the corpses of the Saints. The wolf drove off the wild beasts, the eagle the birds: that human sense might easily understand that they had been sent for their protection.

[37] On seeing which, the Picts marvel, the Welsh tremble: human rage is mitigated, ceasing now to attack and they are honored by the inhabitants: those whom the divine hand defended. From all sides the whole neighborhood, in eagerness to see, rushes poured about: it embraces the Relics of the Martyrs with pious affections, and venerates them with worthy services: and those whom a little before they held in derision, nor could endure that the earth should receive them; now, the case being reversed, they extol with marvelous praises, and desire to have them; giving thanks to the Creator of all, who deigned to consecrate his region with the blood of so many and such men. And to perpetuate the memory of the slain, by the inhabitants themselves their number and names are written down. and their kinsmen rejoice. All this multitude which had assembled, before it returned to its own homes, saw, heard, and in all these things together with us was a witness. When the executioners pursue these and other things; the tears of the people are calmed, their grief is mitigated. Many too who heard, praise the power of Christ; rejoice over the glory of their kinsmen, and say: Great is the God of the Christians, who renders his servants thus glorious. A sinful man could not restore the wounds of the dead whole. Truly a good physician, who so suddenly recalls the wounds of his servants to their former health. From this it is manifestly gathered, of how great merit that Cleric is with God, and how to be embraced is his preaching; who by prayers alone could obtain all the things we have heard.

NOTES OF G. H.

a) In Capgrave a thousand men are said to have been slain for Christ by the edge of the sword. But it is not indicated that one of this college survived, who, detained on the way by an infirmity of body, could not be present. In the Vatican manuscript and another, of the martyrology of St. Cyriacus, it is added to Bede's Martyrology: "And with him others, in number 889, placed in Cathalacus, whose names are written in the book of life": where we judge that two numerals are lacking and that it should be written 999. But Cathalacus is perhaps Charlem or Streetlem in Staffordshire near Lichfield, which they say is so called from "the field of corpses," as though they were slain there: and at the time of the Writer, Staffordshire, not yet occupied by the English, could have been reckoned among the inland Britons; or certainly St. Amphibalus, going toward Wales, could have halted there.

CHAPTER V.

The martyrdom of SS. Amphibalus and the thousand converts. The punishment of the lictors and of the Judge. Epilogue.

[38] But the Judge, when he had heard these speeches; wishing to please the Pagans, into these words furious burst out: How long shall we endure this scandal? The Pagan citizens incited by the judge against Amphibalus, This man is not from God, who by his speech destroys the innocent. That Cleric knows by certain tricks of words to deceive the eyes of beholders; so that the things which are false, he makes to be esteemed true. Through his deceptive words the best citizens of our city have perished. We command therefore, that all who follow this man, or magnify and admire the words of the executioners, wherever they are found, be punished by the sword. After these things he charged all the people, saying: Let us all go out, and let us meet our enemy as quickly as possible: that he who is known to have offended all, may feel vengeance exacted from him by all. Let all say what they will: but we ought not to neglect the injury of our city or leave it unavenged. with arms they meet him: After this command was made known in the city; the Gentiles run together here and there, and whatever weapon comes to the hands of the raging is snatched up. One exhorts another to go more swiftly, and they rouse one another against their enemy. Going therefore by the way, which from the city verges to the North, they left the city empty. But the number of the people was infinite, nor could the streets contain the multitude flowing together: and because they advanced in close-packed columns, through their density they were compelled to make the journey at a slow pace.

[39] Meanwhile certain ones among them, not bearing delays of this kind, led by lightness of mind, turned aside from the rest of the people: and entering a path, by whose shortcut they might avoid the windings of the public road; they disembowel him, having driven him around a stake, they came more quickly to the man of God placed in chains, and farther removed from his companions. Whom soon seizing, and treating more atrociously, they despoiled, and his bowels laid open with iron, binding them around a stake fixed in the earth, and beating the Saint of God with excessive scourges, they made him walk in a circle around the same a) stake. And when the blessed Martyr, by God's gift, placed amid so many straits, gave no indications of pain; then they pierce him with knives: they, made more savage, set him up as it were for a target, and with knives and little lances pierced what remained of his body. But the man of the Lord, as if he suffered nothing evil, with cheerful countenance stood the more constant; and bore the signs of his martyrdom now on his whole body: offering to all a prodigious spectacle of himself, that after such great punishments, after so many kinds of death, he could still live.

[40] At the same hour very many, whose hearts God had touched, were pricked in heart; and renouncing the idols, his constancy being seen, a thousand are converted and slain. submitted themselves to the Christian faith, praying the Martyr, that by his intercession they might deserve to become partakers of the eternal blessedness, which God had prepared for him, and which they declared they already saw; for whom also they all by no means feared to lay down their lives. On learning which, the Prince, the executioners being summoned, orders all who had cast off the worship of their gods, and followed the doctrine of the Cleric, to be killed. And they, fulfilling the deadly edict, soon handed over a thousand men to death: blessed Amphibalus looking on, and commending their souls to the Lord.

[41] Then one who seemed bolder than the rest, thus first addresses him: Most cruel of men, St. Amphibalus reproached for the death of the Martyrs, why did you deceive those imprudent ones by the fraud of your persuasion; and, ensnared by your perverse and deadly admonitions, remove them from the worship of the gods? What did our city sin against you, that you should despoil it of its citizens? Attend diligently, good man, what you have done. By the subtlety of your words our kinsmen and friends have gone to perdition. You are the cause of the death of all: you drove them to the noose of death. Hence with just hatreds we persecute you: especially since justice itself bids us to be adversaries to the adversaries of justice. Where do you now perceive yourself, wretch, to be? and invited to the worship of the gods, You are walled in on every side by the columns of your enemies, nor is there a place of escape. But although you have provoked gods and men to anger beyond measure, yet their favor by repenting you will be able to earn. But of perfect repentance this will be

the indication, if you forsake that sect which hitherto you have held; and the unconquered gods, whom perhaps unknowingly you have offended, you begin to adore: nor will you grieve over the deed; because soon you will obtain an abundance of all things; moreover all whom you lately delivered to death, by the power of their divinity our gods will recall from the dead.

[42] Amphibalus says to him: While your gods, O Pagan, you try to extol with excessive praises; know that in your word you have offended. For only the Lord Jesus Christ raises the dead and makes alive. he sets against this the power of Christ and the punishments of sinners. But those whom you esteem as gods and powerful in heaven, powerfully suffer torments in hell. There is the abode and eternal dwelling of your gods: there weeping and gnashing of teeth, there the worm that does not die and the inextinguishable fire. Partakers and companions of these in torment shall be the unjust, adulterers, the accursed, and the rest, who, while they lived here, rendered themselves like the demons by their reprobate acts; that those whose will they followed by the agreement of their vices, of their company too they may not lack in the endurance of torments: for to worshippers of such deities such a recompense of deserts is fitting. You too, O Pagan, you with the rest of the worshippers of idols, unless more quickly, the error of paganism being left, you are converted to the faith of Christ, must be subject to the same sufferings. But while there is time, let vanity be cast off, let error be condemned: the mercy of our God is great, do not despair. From your wicked ways come to your senses, and to the grace of baptism hasten. But what baptism confers attend diligently. In baptism sins are forgiven, heaven is opened to man; and the old being laid aside, a man is made in a manner a new creature. For those who before were through guilt sons of the devil, become afterward through grace sons of God. To this grace therefore take refuge; that you may be able to escape eternal punishments.

[43] On hearing this, they run together here and there: their cruel right hands are laden with stones. The impious are fervent in the death of the innocent: and to drive out the blessed spirit, they labored with all their strength. But although the Martyr of God was grievously struck on every side by a hail of stones: struck with stones; yet remaining immovable in prayer, he was not moved from his place, nor declined to the other side even for an hour. At last, when he was about to render his unconquered spirit to heaven; with eyes lifted up he beholds Jesus standing at the right hand of the Father: he heard also the harmony of the Angels in the heavens: and among them he recognized his Alban. he invokes St. Alban: Whom calling to himself for help, Holy Alban, he said, I beseech you to entreat our common Lord, that he send me a good Angel to meet me; lest the savage robber withstand me, lest the wicked party be able to impede my journey. Scarcely had he completed the words: and behold, two Angels radiant with heavenly splendor were coming to him from on high. A voice also from heaven was made to him of this kind: Amen I say to you, that today with your disciple you shall be in paradise. he is carried by the Angels to heaven. But the Pagans, hearing the heavenly sound, stood stupefied. Therefore the Angels, taking with them the soul of the blessed man, shining with snowy whiteness, carried it to heaven with hymns and praises b).

[44] But the men, roused in mind, did not cease to overwhelm with stones still the lifeless body placed in chains. Nor could his leaders and companions, worn out with fasts and weariness, bring aid to the dying, nor rescue him from the hands of the raging. The Pagans quarreling Then a grave contest arises among the Pagans; and even to the clash of swords the abominable contention proceeds. In a dense column each party ran; and over the most blessed members a grievous battle is joined. But God omnipotent was unwilling and did not permit that the enemies of truth should become truthful; who had lately sworn that they would bring the holy man, whether alive or dead, to their city. the body is carried off by a Christian. For while the tumult increased, and among themselves the Pagans were thrown into confusion; a certain faithful one in Christ, secretly carrying off the body of the blessed Martyr, hid it diligently under the earth, to be at some time (as we trust) by divine gift brought forth into the light.

[45] Meanwhile heavenly vengeance rages upon the people, their lips are distorted, various deformity seizes their faces, The lictors all punished in their members their fingers grow stiff; their nerves do not perform their offices: their tongues burn, with which reproaches had been hurled at the blessed Martyr. In short, their arms, hands, and the flexibility of absolutely all their members had so suddenly grown rigid, that they could not now even lift a stone from the earth. Afflicted therefore with various punishments, thus at last they ceased from the battle. But the Judge, having lost the understanding of his reason, was made mad. Nor was there anyone who could, and the Judge made mad; boast by vaunting that he had hurled insults at the Lord Jesus and his servant Amphibalus, and yet escaped danger: for as many as had raised a hand against the Lord, had felt fitting vengeance for their deserts from the just judge.

[46] But the deed done could not long be concealed. Roused by rumor, the neighbors run up; proving by their eyes what they had perceived by hearing. afterward the whole city is converted to Christ. Soon the faith of Christ the whole city received, and praised the just God in his judgments. Many, by the instinct of divine love, leaving their own things, go to Rome: they bewail their deeds, confess their errors, and seek the wave of the saving laver. Therefore from that day and thenceforth, all the people of the city, recognizing that the gods which they had worshipped were vain, strove to worship and fear Christ the Son of God at all times.

[47] These and many other things, which divine piety was unwilling to conceal from men, I have diligently committed to writing. Blessed be God. There passed away all that company of the unfaithful, who once passed the sentence of death upon Blessed Alban, nor now do men treat or speak much of them: the memory of Alban will not be blotted out, but his praiseworthy merit, if my songs can do anything, will be spread far and wide through the world. There will be a time, as we trust, when religious men, Christian men, will come to preach to the Gentiles in Britain. These when they come, The Author of the Prologue foretells that the English will be converted will find the great works of God thus set forth in books, will read them and bring them to the notice of very many. Then, the truth being known, the island will rejoice: then the Gentiles, loosed from the chains of their errors, will be filled with manifold joy. But when the time of the predicted visitation and grace shall come, because I do not have it for certain; I here do not await the magnitude of this joy. But lest posterity be rendered too anxious about my name: let them know that if they wish to give me my true name, they will name me a wretch, me the last of sinners. But to Rome I shall set out, that there, the error of paganism being laid aside, and the laver of regeneration obtained, he himself goes to Rome to be baptized there. I may deserve to obtain pardon of my offenses: this little book too, which is in their hands, I shall bring to the examination of the Romans; that if anything in it has perhaps been brought forth otherwise than it ought, this through them the Lord Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns God through all ages of ages, may deign to change for the better. Amen.

NOTES OF G. H.

a) Hence perhaps it pleased them to call by the name of Amphibalus him whose name was unknown: which name then writers also used, who brought in St. Alban or the Angels speaking of him.

b) Harpsfield, in his "Six Centuries," chapter 10. The man of God, he says, was slain at the village of Redbourn, three thousand paces distant from Verulamium, where, up to his own times, Thomas Rudborne hands down that two rather large knives, by which he obtained martyrdom, were preserved, namely in book 1 of his history, chapter 5, who flourished about the year 1480.

ANALECTA OF G. H.

Alban Protomartyr, at Verulamium and neighboring places in Britain (St.)

Amphibalus the Deacon, at Verulamium and neighboring places in Britain (St.)

About two thousand, at Verulamium and neighboring places in Britain (SS.)

BY G. H.

CHAPTER I.

The body of St. Alban honored by St. Germanus; found and translated by King Offa. A monastery built with a new church.

[1] The holy and venerable Bede, when in chapter VII he had narrated the Martyrdom of St. Alban, as was related above, added; The church of St. Alban When the serenity of Christian times returned, a church, of marvelous workmanship and worthy of his martyrdom, was built: to which, as he relates in chapter XVIII, SS. Germanus Bishop of Auxerre and Lupus Bishop of Troyes, the damnable perversity of the Pelagian heresy being suppressed, and its authors confuted, and the minds of all being composed by the purity of faith; sought out Blessed Alban the Martyr, in order to give thanks to God the author through him. Where Germanus, having with him the Relics of all the Apostles and of diverse Martyrs, St. Germanus honors him, prayer being made, ordered the tomb to be opened up, intending to deposit precious gifts there: judging it opportune, that the members of the Saints gathered from diverse regions, whom heaven had received equal in merits, should hold also the hospitality of one tomb. These being honorably deposited and joined together, from the very place, he carries off a mass of bloodstained dust. where the blood of the blessed Martyr had been shed, he took away a mass of dust to carry with him: in which it appeared, the blood being preserved, that the slaughter of the Martyrs had reddened it, the persecutor turning pale. These things being thus done, an innumerable crowd of men on the same day was converted to the Lord. These things Bede.

[2] These things were done in the fifth century of Christ; in which same century, some years after the death of St. Germanus, It was overthrown by the Pagan Saxon-English. the Anglo-Saxons came into Britain, and distributed the greatest part of it (except Wales) into seven kingdoms, and constituted the Heptarchy, they then being the most savage enemies of the Christian religion: so much that the author of the greater Life of St. Alban, living under them, did not dare to set down his name, lest (as he says in the Prologue) by speaking it, he should lose name and life alike: but in the Life of Offa, the second King of the Mercians, by the author Matthew Paris, Monk of the monastery of St. Alban's, it is read: At this storm the Church of the blessed Protomartyr of the English, Alban, among the other churches of the region, was utterly overthrown; whence the place of the tomb and the distinct knowledge of the place was entirely blotted out. But how the sacred body was found, is thus narrated there.

[3] The most powerful King of the Mercians, Offa, when, residing in the city of Bath, after the labor of the day, he was taking the rest of night on the royal couch; was admonished by a divine oracle, an Angel announcing it, A revelation by an Angel being made to King Offa that he should raise from the earth the Saint of God, the Protomartyr of the English or Britons, Alban, and place his Relics more worthily in a shrine. But the King, immediately striving to obey the divine precepts, having summoned Humbert Archbishop of the Mercians (whose See at Lichfield had lately been constituted by the same King) indicates to him the divine will concerning the aforesaid. Then the Archbishop, immediately taking with him Ceolwulf of Lindsey, and Untrona of Leicester, Bishops, his suffragans, with an innumerable multitude of both sexes and diverse age, met the King, on the day appointed for him, at Verulamium. But the King, while he made the journey thither, beheld a ray of light, in the manner of a huge torch sent from heaven, flashing as it were above the place of the tomb. This too, a divine miracle manifestly seen by all, they rejoiced at such an indication, having been rendered, concerning the truth of the vision,

more certain of the truth of the vision. Then, the people being sanctified in fasting and prayers, the holy Bishops, adorned with their priestly fillets, earnestly besought that the help of the blessed Martyr might be present to them … Therefore, prayer being made, as we have said, by the Clergy and people with almsgiving and fasting, they strike the earth, and everywhere come upon the Martyr's burial. Nor was it necessary to seek long the place, which divine clemency deigned to reveal by a heavenly light. The Martyr's body, therefore, King Offa the most Christian standing by, in a wooden case (in which it had previously been hidden by the faithful of Christ, because of the savagery of the barbarians, in the time of danger) they find, the body is found, with the very sacred Relics of all the Apostles and of diverse Martyrs, which holy Germanus had long ago deposited there, triumphing over the Pelagians by the intercession of the blessed Martyr. This finding moved both the Clergy and the whole people to tears; and on this account especially, that the Lord gave proof concerning the Relics of the holy Fathers, deposited there with the body of the Martyr, as we read: which, as it is pious to believe, the Lord willed, as it were for the consolation of that same Martyr, to have long been associated with the body that was alone. There strengthened moreover the faith of the King and of his faithful a divine testimony, when at Wheathampstead a light, with the fragrance of a marvelous odor, illumined the cell of the Bishops praying, and more certainly confirmed the King's purpose. Yet more than the rest a fiery ray raised the hearts of all, sent from heaven over the place, and descending day by day, and increasing the solar as well as the lunar light; led the King with his companions (as the star of the Magi was their guide, until it stood above the house, where the child Christ was) to the place, distinguished by the aforementioned Relics: that it might truly be said, Your testimonies, O Christ, are made exceedingly credible; and therefore your house, O Lord, to be founded in such a place, holiness becomes for length of days, that is, forever.

[4] Which treasure indeed, more precious than gold and topaz, long hidden under the turf, and now divinely found, it is raised up and translated to the little church, Archbishop Humbert, with his fellow-Bishops and Clerics, the King standing by, reverently raising it from the tomb, a solemn procession going before, in hymns and proclamations of praise, translated into a certain little church, built there outside the city of Verulamium by the neophytes in honor of the blessed Martyr: where the Martyr, struck, shed his blood for Christ: which church the persecutors, because it was small, having cast out the little coffer containing his body, did not deign to destroy. There therefore, in the same coffer, the Relics being orderly arranged, and wrapped in palls, and the skull surrounded with a golden circle by the King, on which was written; This is the head of St. Alban, the Protomartyr of the English, Mass is solemnly celebrated. And meanwhile miracles, worthy of eternal remembrance, are celebrated there in the sight of the King and the Bishops and all who were there. For the dead are recalled to life, the half-dead are restored to soundness, lepers are cleansed, paralytics are made firm, the feverish are cured, the contracted are made upright; the dumb, the deaf, the blind, and the possessed, nay all the languishing and those who are ill receive remedies for their ills. Which benefits of God up to the present day do not cease to be done, besides that which is of more value, the salvation of souls, which in the same place is bountifully imparted to the devout. Therefore King Offa the most Christian, ordered the aforementioned coffer, renowned for miracles: with golden and silver plates and precious gems, magnificently taken from his treasury, to be becomingly adorned; and his church in which, as has been said, it was placed, with pictures, tapestries, and other ornaments, until a larger one, to be enriched with many possessions and honors, should be built, he ordered to be decorated. These things were done from the passion of the oft-mentioned Martyr in the five hundred seventh year, from the coming of the English into Britain the three hundred forty-fourth, in the first Indiction, on the Kalends of August, namely in the year 793, in which was the first Indiction. These things Matthew Paris, before whom William of Malmesbury treated of this finding; and at the same time with him Ralph de Diceto, and the younger John Brompton, William Thorn, and especially Matthew of Westminster, who in great part copies Paris, and toward the beginning interposes that it is certain that Alban was a Briton, not an Englishman; but because the English, enemies of the Britons, occupied those regions, they seem to have tried to extinguish the memory of the Britons, and so by order of King Offa it was inscribed; This is the head of St. Alban the Protomartyr of the English. The things which were then done, Paris thus pursues.

[5] In the same month too the King held there a provincial council, with Archbishop Humbert and his Suffragans and all his Primates. And when they were treating diligently and effectively, about gathering a community of monks in that place, and about constituting a monastery, and magnificently and royally privileging it; where he found the Relics of the Protomartyr of his realm, nay of all Britain or England, King Offa having set out for Rome and which place he consecrated with his blood; the pious purpose of the King pleases all, and the prudence of the Bishops counsels him, that by the authority of the Roman Pontiff (even if otherwise this had been done, which is said not unprofitably to be repeated when it is not known to have been performed) there be canonized at once, and privileged, the monastery, to be newly built in honor of the same Martyr. And that all these things might obtain a worthier and firmer effect, he receives and hearkens to the counsel of holy and discreet men, that through solemn Legates sent from the King's side, or rather in his own person the King himself, should treat about these things with the Roman Court. Offa therefore the most pious King, yielding to the sound counsel of his Magnates, led by the divine spirit, undertakes the toilsome and costly journey across the Alps without loss of delay … Coming at last to Rome … explaining to Adrian the supreme Pontiff the cause of his coming, the cult of St. Alban is approved, and devoutly offering prayers concerning the place and at the same time concerning the canonizing and magnifying of Blessed Alban, and the constituting of the monastery, he easily inclined the Roman Court to his petition: especially since the finding of the Martyr had been declared from heaven to mortals … and with the devout blessing of the supreme Pontiff the King returned prosperously to his own homes. Then, a council of his Bishops and Nobles being gathered at Verulamium, the King, by the unanimous consent of all and their benevolent will, conferred on Blessed Alban ample lands and innumerable possessions … He also gathered a community of Monks at the tomb, and set over them an Abbot, by name Willigod … and immediately began to build the church, placing the first stone in the foundation, saying: In honor of God omnipotent, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, and of his Martyr Alban, the Protomartyr of all my land.

[6] These and many other things Matthew Paris, and following him Westminster. a monastery is built with a new church; But besides the possessions, conferred by King Offa on the said monastery of St. Alban and there described, others are indicated in book 3 of the History; and their charters and diplomas are reported in the Supplement of the Additamenta, page 237 and following; and in the English Monasticon, volume 1, page 177 and following: and to the former charter, after King Offa, ten successors in the realm subscribe, and fifteen Bishops: in which matter there is not much difficulty, since John Mabillon, in his most learned treatise on Diplomatics, demonstrated that anciently Kings and Bishops were wont to confirm by the subscription of their name the charters of their Ancestors and Predecessors, made long before. A greater difficulty is in this, of which matter, however, the charter is deservedly suspect. that Higbert the Archbishop (whom other writers commonly assert was named the first and last Archbishop of the See of Lichfield, and substitute for him Humbert) subscribes in the first place; whom however above Paris named Archbishop, and following him Westminster, says he died in the year 795 and that Higbert succeeded him. Finally this little charter is said to have been written in the year 793, in the third Indiction; which agrees with the year 795: and so it goes on, the said charter still remaining suspect, which it suffices to have noted.

CHAPTER II.

The body of St. Alban carried off by the Danes and restored. The occasions of the figments about it being carried to the monastery of Ely. A new church built.

[7] There are added, in the aforementioned Paris, the Lives of the twenty-three Abbots of St. Alban: of whom the fourth is set as Wulnoth, and these things are inserted: In the time of this Abbot, (Capgrave indicates the year 914) the Danes raging in England, who had covered the surface of the earth, The body carried off by the Danes making inestimable destruction, and coming hostilely to St. Alban's; when they had heard, that he was the most famous Protomartyr of England; the case being broken, they snatched his bones, and carried them into their region: and venerating them in a precious bier, made specially for this, they placed them in a certain house of Religious, namely of black Monks; that as in England, so in Denmark conformably he might be venerated. But because it did not please the Saint to abide there, but rather where his blood he shed for Christ, and restored; by the industry and caution of a certain Monk, by name Egwin, he procured his return to his fatherland. These things there. The Monks of Saxon Corvey seem to be understood, who exercised their zeal about the borders of Denmark, and had the free exercise of the Christian religion at Schleswig and in the Holstein territory, and especially in lower Saxony; so that the Bones seem to have been translated to the said domains, or perhaps to Saxon Corvey, whence they could the more conveniently be brought back to England. Capgrave calls it the monastery of Owense; and affirms that the body, an apparition of St. Alban being made, was brought back.

[8] The eleventh Abbot, Aelfric, forewarned by a vision of St. Alban, composed the history as it is now sung, the cult of the Saint being promoted and adapted to it a musical Note; and by the authority of his brother the Archbishop caused it to be published in many places of England, and the day of the same Martyr to be honored: ordaining, that on Thursday, unless it be forestalled by lawful seasons, Mass of him with its appurtenances be solemnly celebrated …

[9] In the kingdom reigned King Edward, most pious and most acceptable to God. In whose time the Danes prepared with their King hostilely to enter England, intending to lay it deadly waste, or to subjugate it to their dominion … Abbot Aelfric therefore caused the Relics of St. Alban, the body, for fear of the Danes, is secretly kept, in a certain safe and secret wall, with the bier, to be hidden, namely under the altar of St. Nicholas, few of the Brothers being conscious of it, chosen persons, grave and honest. But he sent of set purpose openly to the Abbot and convent of Ely, asking humbly, that they would keep with them the Relics of St. Alban, until, peace being restored, they should be demanded back. For their island was surrounded with impassable marshes and reed-beds: whence they by no means feared the incursion of enemies. Yet the Abbot, like a man prudent and circumspect, fearing the fraud of men, the Bones of a certain other being sent to the people of Ely lest perhaps the people of Ely, blinded by cupidity, should contradict the Abbot himself demanding them back, if he committed the very true Relics to them to be kept; sent thither the Relics of a certain holy Monk, in a precious case, as if they were the Bones of the Martyr Alban himself; keeping his true Relics, in the aforesaid wall, as has been said, by the prudence of this intention, that if perhaps the adverse party of the barbarians coming upon them should have prevailed, and should search out the treasures of St. Alban, the opinion reported to them concerning the aforesaid carrying-off might satisfy them, and check their fury. For there were at Ely, with the said case, many ornaments of the church of St. Alban carried off; and, that it might seem true, that the Relics

of the blessed Martyr were most certainly transported thither, with the caracalla: the said Abbot Aelfric caused a certain shaggy little cloth, which in French is called "villuse," with the aforementioned Bones wrapped in it, to be transported therein: asserting for caution, that it had been the caracalla of Blessed Amphibalus, the Master of Blessed Alban.

[10] But while the hostile arrival of the oncoming barbarians was believed, and indeed, that it might cross the sea, was being prepared; the King of the Danes, while he was ascending from the skiff into the ship, which very Bones, when afterward they were demanded back in vain, slipping into the sea was drowned, and that the holy King of the English, Edward, praying at Westminster in the Mass for the peace of the realm, saw in spirit, and rejoicing modestly laughed. When therefore, by the merits of St. Edward, the King of the Danes being drowned, the confused army, its purpose frustrated, returned to its region, and to the English peace and security was restored; the said Abbot Aelfric demanded that those things, which he had committed in good faith to the people of Ely to be kept, be restored to him, after they had been kept among them for nearly one year. But the Abbot and Convent of Ely entered upon a wicked counsel, namely that the things entrusted to them they would by no means resign to the Abbot and Convent of St. Alban. And so, answering insolently, they retained them: perhaps believing that in such violence there was no fraud or impiety, according to that poetic saying, "By the same deed pious and wicked."

[11] But this audacity the people of Ely conceived from the most pious King Edward's old age and weakness. Yet, the messengers of St. Alban pressing upon the people of Ely, and likewise other counterfeit ones were sent back, with prayer and manifold admonition, the Monks marveling at the malice conceived, and at so great an injury to religion and faith; they threatened them, asserting that they would move both the Lord Pope and the King, complaining tearfully about this. The people of Ely therefore feared for themselves, and among them now disagreeing, there arose a most grievous schism. Considering therefore, those crafty ones, who conceived the fraud, and certain of their Brothers, to whom the very fraud displeased, to pacify the Monks of St. Alban: secretly depositing those same Bones sent to them, and keeping them for themselves; in place of them, namely in the coffer sent to them concerning St. Alban, through a certain little back-door, which was underneath, they substituted certain spurious Bones. And so the crafty people of Ely were deceived by a pious craft: pious was the caution of the people of St. Alban, and the craft of the people of Ely detestable and villainous. The people of St. Alban therefore received that bier, lest the fraud of the Monks of Ely should generate scandal among the people, and so the whole religion be defamed and disgraced. And when they had come to their own monastery, they placed it as something sophistical in the case, which is over the altar of St. Oswin, painted (where antiquated corporals are kept).

[12] Now the Martyr Alban had lain in that wooden case, which was afterward painted, until the time of that Abbot Aelfric, who changed it, as has been said. The most prudent aforementioned Abbot Aelfric, the true body is brought forth from concealment: the discovered malice of the people of Ely, by the testimony of those who were conscious of the truth, namely twelve monks of the elders of the monastery of St. Alban, evidently disclosed; and by making manifest the deed done, he publicly and solemnly placed in the middle of the church the bier with the Relics of the blessed Martyr Alban, drawn out from the wall where it had been deposited. But the people of Ely kept for themselves the oft-mentioned Bones, in the shaggy little cloth, which they call the caracalla, and let them keep them forever. And if the same Martyr Alban be thereupon honored there, and being honored work miracles, the people of St. Alban ought to desire that in any renowned English church, just as there too, he should be believed to lie; that more honor, and in more places, might be paid to him. But the fraud of the people of Ely aforesaid, after it became known to King Edward by faithful report; angered, he greatly flared up, because he was a most intimate friend to Blessed Alban: and unless by a premature death his precious soul were released, he would have chastised those presuming such things with a fitting death; but detesting them with indignation and malediction, he terribly pursued them, when he had taken to his deathly bed. Abbot Aelfric too, when he had prepared powerfully to ruin the authors of this disturbance, paid the debts of nature.

[13] In proof of this matter, in the time of William the Abbot, Master Walter the painter drew out the aforementioned bier from the said case: and it is confirmed by an apparition of St. Alban on whose surface appear traces of silver plates, which Abbot William, about to make that noble bier, which still is, deposited within for the new work; and the said Walter the sacristan drew out from the wood of the bier on every side silver nails, which weighed half a mark. And at that time, when certain Brothers contended, of whom one was Dom Gilbert de Sisseverne, about this matter; there appeared on the following night to that same Dom Gilbert, coming manifestly out of his holy bier. And standing before the high altar, namely his own, addressing him he said: Behold, I, Alban, rest here. Do you not see me come out of my bier? And he: Yea, Lord and Martyr. Then the Saint, Henceforth firmly testify this openly. And having said this, he returned to his place. All these things Paris. Of which some compendium is had in Capgrave. The said William was the 22nd Abbot, appointed in the year 1214, dead in the year 1235, in whose Life, page 122, it is narrated that he built certain most noble structures about the high altar with a certain beam, representing the history of St. Alban, which overtops all that artful construction. Which most splendid work indeed Master Walter of Colchester, not without great laborious zeal and zealous labor, the Abbot furnishing the costs, completed. But let us return to earlier times, in which the aforementioned St. Edward flourished, and reigned from the year 1042 to the year 1066, and the 5th day of January on which his Acts have been illustrated. There were in his time as Kings of Denmark Magnus commonly surnamed the Good, and Sven Estrithson, so that it is difficult to assign which King is indicated above as having slipped into the sea and drowned. But perhaps someone of the royal family fitted out this fleet, and so perished.

[14] But another fable too, about the body of St. Alban translated to the people of Ely, is thus related by Paris. Frederic, the 13th Abbot, when he did not have the favor of William the Conqueror, crowned in his time, it is fabled to have been carried by Abbot Frederic to the people of Ely. by the leave of the Convent, and by counsel, taking with him certain books and cloths and necessary provisions, fled secretly into the island of Ely; where, grievously sick for some days, he closed his last day, and there his body is said to rest. Concerning which the people of Ely, lying to their own heads, assert that he brought with him the bones of Blessed Alban: not fearing to impose the crime of sacrilege on a holy man. Who, by the leave of his whole house, in order to avoid the tyrannical indignation, lawfully and carrying lawful things with him, withdrew.

[15] To Frederic succeeded Paul the 14th Abbot, promoted on the 4th day before the Kalends of July in the year 1077. … This Abbot, a religious man and elegantly lettered, and in the observance of the regular Order rigid and prudent, A new church built: cautiously and gradually reformed the norm of the whole monastic religion. Who, when he had now been Abbot for eleven years, within those years built the whole Church of St. Alban, with many other buildings, in brick work, Lanfranc effectively helping: who, as is said, contributed a thousand marks to the building to be made … When the same Abbot, for about twelve years, had strenuously governed the Church of Blessed Alban, his best friend, the Archbishop of Canterbury Lanfranc, died: to whom succeeded Anselm, Abbot of Bec, who as before, became most intimate to him … And Abbot Paul lived afterward about four years, and all that he began, he laudably completed … But he died in the year 1093, in the first Indiction, in the fifth year of William the second King, namely Rufus … Richard the fifteenth Abbot magnificently caused the church of Blessed Alban, and dedicated in the year 1115. which his immediate predecessor Paul had built, to be dedicated in the year of grace 1115, by Geoffrey Archbishop of Rouen, Richard of Laon, Ranulf of Durham, Robert of Lincoln, Roger of Salisbury, Bishops; with very many more Abbots, King Henry the First also being present and the good Queen Matilda, and many Counts, Barons and Magnates and illustrious persons, Archdeacons, Deans, Presbyters and keepers of churches, whose number is unknown because of the copious multitude, on the fifth day before the Kalends of January, the third weekday … To whom and to all coming in future on that day to so great a solemnity was granted an indulgence of many days.

CHAPTER III.

The bones translated into a new case; the same inspected and counted by order of the Pope, the outer coffer and other ornaments provided.

[16] Richard the Abbot being dead on the 17th day before the Kalends of June in the year 1119, there succeeded Geoffrey the 16th Abbot, The case for the Relics of St. Alban is made in the year 1123 who for Blessed Alban our Patron began a glorious case in the fifth year of his prelature: and when about his work he had expended sixty pounds, he postponed what he had begun … In the following year, the money being collected, he pursued his purpose in the work of the bier more diligently and effectively. And it came to pass that, Dom Anketell, and dispatched, that to beholders it generated admiration. He made it of ductile and embossed work, and caused the images, drawn out, to be raised, and solidified the concave parts with cement, and constricted the elegance of the whole body of the bier into a narrower summit by ascending, and thus better adorned the substance of the whole thing … The bier therefore being completed, Abbot Geoffrey diligently applied himself to the Translation. Now because the solemnity of the Translation could not be celebrated on the fitting day of his Translation, on account of St. Peter ad Vincula, his feast, on the morrow of that solemnity, which is of St. Peter, he appointed, by provision and the unanimous assent of the Convent, that the solemnity of the Translation of Blessed Alban should take place. With Alexander Bishop of Lincoln being present, and the Abbots Walter of Eynsham, formerly Prior of St. Alban's, and Robert of Norwich, the counted bones are placed in it: and Elias of the Holy Trinity Church of Rouen, and Andrew of the Church of Noyon, Abbots, with the whole Convent of the monastery of St. Alban, and also of other Religious Clerics, a throng assisting, the most ancient tomb of the blessed Martyr was opened. But, because a certain college in Denmark, and that of Ely in England, mendaciously asserted that they had the body of St. Alban entire or part of the body; therefore before all who could be present because of the crowd, all the Bones of the Martyr were counted, and one by one shown. And the head, more eminent, openly raised by the hands of the venerable Brother Ralph, then Archdeacon of that monastery, was found to have on the back a little slip of paper hanging by a silken thread, and inscribed with most ancient golden letters, "Saint Alban." The venerable King Offa had indeed placed a golden circle about the skull engraved with these letters: "This is the head of St. Alban Protomartyr of the English. Amen": afterward however incautiously that circle was destroyed, for the sake of the material for the building of the bier, as is said. But another circle was made, the Abbot being angry, that in place of the former it might be put …

[17] But when all the bones of the Martyr had been diligently counted, as I received from those who had been present, there was lacking of the left shoulder-blade

a bone, to the integrity of the rest of the body. But by what reason it was lacking, or to what place it had been carried, the bone of the shoulder-blade was lacking came to the memory of no one who was then present. But after the courses of a few years had elapsed, there came, sent by the Clergy of Naumucum and its renowned Church, to the church of the blessed Martyr Alban, in the time of that Abbot Geoffrey, two lettered men, mature in morals and age, after the manner of their region, secular Canons: asking the Convent of the place more earnestly and also the Abbot, that they might deserve to receive from them the office, which they might use fittingly and aptly and properly in the Passion of St. Alban; and to the urgings of their Church appending, they said that they had with them one of the shoulder-blades of the blessed Martyr. carried to Spain Now the Brothers, who had been present at the recently made translation, and had found that one of the shoulder-blades was lacking, diligently inquired how it had come to them. These things there, where in the margin these are read: "The bones of the Martyr were counted, and concerning the bone of St. Alban carried into Spain": which while we examine all around, that it may be adopted by what follows, we judge the above-mentioned people of Naumucum to have dwelt in Galicia near Finisterre, where in the Geographical Maps the Land of the Namanei is placed. But the King of England Canute, in the time of King Canute, while in the year 1031 he undertook the Roman journey, driven by an adverse storm, could have washed up in this Duchy, when the duke was being more fiercely harassed by the Saracens, and at the same time, his forces joined, had vanquished them, and afterward could have led the duke's son with him into England and committed him to St. Alban under the guardianship of the Abbot. Who, about to return after the death of the duke his father, obtained the shoulder bone of the Martyr, and likewise deposited it in a church built, to which also evildoers fleeing obtain a secure peace. Which things are there at length set forth. Thus far Henschen, whose conjecture about a Church of St. Alban at Naumucum in Galicia, which did not even come into the mind of Tamayo, the author of the Spanish Martyrology, or rather in Hesbaye cannot please me, nor I believe would it have pleased him, if he could have seen what I afterward wrote in the Commentary on St. Alban Martyr of Mainz among the people of Namur on the preceding day, number 25, concerning the very ancient church of a certain Alban at Namur; whose Canons of that long-desolate Church, restored in the 11th century, having learned of the renown of St. Alban of Mainz, sent their legates thither, demanded fraternity and Relics, and obtained a particle of the skull. And why should not, just as these then had recourse to Mainz, conjecturing that their church of St. Alban was that of Mainz; so their predecessors recognized only the Protomartyr of England as Patron, and sent into England those who should ask for part of the Relics and obtained the bone of the shoulder-blade: which however, together with many other sacred pledges, perished before the aforesaid restoration. And why should not, for "Hesbaye" in Belgium extended as far as the Meuse and embracing Namur itself of old, "Spain" have crept upon the English by a more commonly known name, just as in some manuscript Martyrologies St. Trudo, Count of our Hesbaye, most well known to all Belgium, is found ascribed to Spain, and on that sole foundation reckoned among the Spanish Saints by Tamayo.

[18] To Geoffrey succeeded in the year 1146 Ralph the 17th, and to him in the year 1151 Robert the 18th Abbot, who while he tarried in the Roman Court, while conversing with the Pope, recalling the boast of the people of Ely, [In the year 1155 by order of the Pope the people of Ely are examined, and confess they do not have the body of St. Alban.] who falsely assert that they have the Relics of Blessed Alban with them, said; Holy Father … let your venerable Holiness write to three Bishops of England, that, a diligent inquiry being made, they may detect the fabrications of falsehood … The Lord Pope therefore wrote to the Bishops, strictly charging and effectively admonishing, that according to the petition of the Abbot of St. Alban's, they should pursue this business without loss of delay … These came bodily to Ely: and the Papal authentic being shown to the Convent in the Chapter, twelve of the Convent were chosen, the elder and more discreet: who, an oath being given in a strict examination of truth and by virtue of obedience, that concerning this they should confess the truth of the matter; protested with unanimous consent that they had been deceived by craft: nonetheless that they had grievously offended and perpetrated sacrilege, and so had lacked the Relics of the true Martyr. Concerning the caracalla also they believed that they had been deceived by a similar caution, which at that very time is believed not to have been in the nature of things. For St. Germanus did not find it in the Martyr's tomb, but the precious bones wrapped in a certain pall; nor did King Offa, who afterward raised the Martyr himself when found into the church of St. Alban entire and unharmed, nor is it yet enclosed in the bier: and when these things were made manifest openly, the spirit of the Abbot, made certain, rested.

[19] That Robert died in the year 1166, and to him succeeded the 19th Abbot Simon, of whom subsequently Paris writes, that from the time of his consecration he began providently and wisely most diligently to gather a treasure no small of gold and silver and precious gems; Simon the 19th Abbot, the outer coffer and the outer case, which we call the bier (than which at that very time we saw none nobler) he ordered to be made by the hand of a most excellent artificer, master John the goldsmith: and a work so laborious, costly, and artful within a few years he happily completed; and in its more eminent place, namely above the high altar, opposite the front of the Celebrant, he placed it, that in his face and in his heart whoever celebrates Mass over that same altar may have the memory of the Martyr: and therefore in the view of the Celebrant his martyrdom, namely the beheading, precious in material and workmanship he builds it: is figured. But around the bier, namely on its two sides, he caused the series of the blessed Martyr's life, which was the pledge and preparation of his passion, to be evidently effigied with prominent images of silver and gold, of embossed work, which commonly is called "relief." But at the head which looks to the East, the image of the Crucified with the icons of Mary and John, with a most becoming order of various gems, he reverently placed. But at the front, looking to the West, the image of the blessed Virgin, holding her Son in her lap, in eminent work among gems and precious golden necklaces, seated on a throne, he enthroned. And so by the order of the Martyrs, on a bed as it were disposed on both sides, the case rises up into a curled and artful crest, on the four windowed corners, with its marvelous crystalline cupolas, it is squared, graceful. In it therefore, which is of marvelous magnitude, the very case of the Martyr (which is as it were his chamber, and in which his hidden bones are known to be kept) made by Abbot Geoffrey, is fittingly kept.

[20] In the year 1183 (by a copyist's error it is printed 1188) Simon paid the debt of nature, to whom soon succeeded the 20th Abbot Warin, who died in the year 1195, William the 22nd Abbot adorns the altar, after he had governed the church of Blessed Alban for 11 years, 8 months, and as many days; to Warin succeeded the 21st, John; to John, the 22nd, William, at the end of the year 1214. He built certain most noble structures about the high altar, with a certain beam, representing the history of St. Alban, which overtops all that artful construction: which most splendid work indeed master Walter of Colchester, not without great laborious zeal and zealous labor, the Abbot however abundantly furnishing the costs, completed. To which also, to be preserved and to enlarge the honor of the Martyr, the Abbot constituted six wax candles, to be lit on the feasts which are kept in Copes and especially the principal ones: to sustain which he assigned one mark by the consent of the Convent … Moreover in the time of that Abbot two wax candles were conferred, and provision was made whence they should be sustained, by the providence and acquisition of Dom Walter of Ramsey, that they should be lit daily … But the aforementioned Abbot William departed from the world in the year of the Lord 1235, on the day of St. Matthias, after he had governed the church for twenty years and nearly three months. Then there was appointed the 23rd Abbot, another John, in whose 20th year, of the Lord 1255, Paris ends this treatise, continuing nonetheless to write the history up to the year 1273.

[21] In this he relates, at the year 1257, how in the same year it happened, that on account of certain gaping cracks, about which there was fear; the eastern part of the church of Blessed Alban, he found the old coffer of St. Alban in the year 1257. by the counsel of the Abbot and Convent, that it might be repaired in form, the roof being dismantled in the Advent of the Lord, the walls should be thrown down, and while the masons' servants were working with mattocks in the pavement; by the ringing of the instruments and the noise of their feet they perceived that something unusual and unknown lay hidden there. Searching therefore more deeply, they found under the earth, but not deep, one stone tomb, quite elegantly composed, in the place which was between the altar of St. Oswin, where namely the morning Mass was wont to be celebrated; and the altar of St. Wulstan, where also had been placed the old painted bier and a certain marble tomb with marble columns: which place and tomb was called, "The old tomb of St. Alban." In that mausoleum therefore St. Alban was buried, on the day on which he was beheaded, by his friends and parents and the neophytes; secretly however and honorably by night, for fear of the Pagans: where heavenly light descended and there appeared Angels descending and ascending. In which mausoleum also was found a certain leaden plate, on which according to the custom of the ancients this title was written: "In this mausoleum was found the venerable body of St. Alban, the Protomartyr of the English. This happened in the Octave of St. Stephen, in the presence of the Lord Bishop of Bangor, and of the Lord Abbot John, and of Lord Philip of Chester, principal counselor of Count Richard, and of certain nobles of the household of Lord William of Valence, the King's uterine brother, and of the whole Convent and of innumerable faithful, to whom solemnly these things were announced." And the Bishop granted an indulgence of fifteen days to all venerating the very finding in person: and soon after the Lord Archbishop of York came thither for the sake of prayer.

CHAPTER IV.

The people of Ely again convicted before King Edward II. Apparitions and miracles of St. Alban.

[22] The controversy is again stirred up by the people of Ely The arrogance of the people of Ely, in asserting for themselves the possession of the body of St. Alban, in the 12th century thus repressed as we have seen; the dead, who could be witnesses of all, being gone, gradually sprang up again within the century and a half following; until the question reborn over that matter Edward King, the second of that name from the entry of the Normans, dissolved, in the year 1313, as Thomas Walsingham writes at the said year, and at once indicates the King's piety toward St. Alban, with these words: The King came on the Vigil of Palm Sunday to St. Alban's, and offered to the blessed Martyr a certain golden cross, set with the Relics of diverse Saints and with precious stones, commending himself and his kinsfolk to the protection of the same Saint and to the prayers of the Monks. King Edward in the year 1313 honors St. Alban, And when it had been suggested to him, that his father had proposed to renew the choir of St. Alban; desiring to fulfill his father's desire, he soon conferred a hundred marks of silver, and a manor at Dynesley to be sought for that work, ordering that they should in no way spare the money,

but should complete that work, to the honor of God and Blessed Alban Protomartyr of the English, irreproachably. On the morrow of Palm Sunday the King set out on the journey toward the island of Ely: where he held the Paschal solemnity nobly and festively. At which time the people of Ely, lying that they had the body of St. Alban Protomartyr of the English, he most manifestly confuted before the nobles and monks of the said place. For when, to relieve his stay in the monastery, he was setting various things before his eyes, and wished to see various things there; at last it came into his mind, then visiting the people of Ely, to see what was contained in the bier, which is called Blessed Alban's in the aforementioned church: and he said to the Bishop, who was then present, of Ely: You know, he said, that my Brothers at St. Alban's think they truly have the body of that same Martyr; and in this place the monks say that they hold the body of the said Saint. By the soul, he said, of God, I wish to see, in which place I ought especially to venerate the Relics of the holy body. And when the Bishop had reported the King's words to the Prior and the Brothers; they, as it were bloodless, knew not what to answer, what to do: on the one hand fearing to lose so great a treasure, if it were true that it was with them; he desires to see what is enclosed in the bier, on the other fearing to be convicted of a lie, because they had preached that they had it: for they knew not at that time, what was contained in the said bier. The Bishop, seeing the consternation of his men, encouraged them, admonishing them to be confident, because not to take away so great a treasure, but to venerate it, the King required the sight of the Relics.

[23] They came therefore into the church, and the bier was loosed and opened by a certain monk, called Alan of Walsingham, who afterward, his merits increasing, was made Prior of that church: and he finds only the shaggy cloth, who was himself also expert in the goldsmith's work, and therefore to loose the bier then summoned. But the King, when he had seen all the nails drawn out, to lay open the bier, approached and lifted the cover with his own hand. And behold, they see that little coffer, from the top down to the bottom, so occupied with a certain shaggy cloth, that it could contain nothing else. But in the upper part of the garment they behold clots of blood densely sprinkled, so new, so recent, as if they had been shed the day before. It is established that this garment was the caracalla, which St. Alban at his conversion had received from St. Amphibalus his Master as a sign of religion: in which the same Martyr underwent the capital sentence. And it is right to believe, that to the honor of the Saint by a divine miracle his blood was preserved in this garment, the habit for the caracalla of St. Alban. just as in the dust of his tomb it is read to have been preserved through many ages. Of which dust a mass, in which still reddened the blood of the Martyr, St. Germanus Bishop of Auxerre took with him and carried to his native soil with him, building a chapel at Auxerre in honor of the aforementioned Martyr. The King therefore and all assisting, stupefied by so great a miracle, fell prone to the earth. And there was no small hesitation, who should approach to take off the cover and touch the bier. At last the King himself, more courageous than the rest, draws off the cover to its place: and then for the first time the people of Ely knew, what they had of St. Alban, what they did not have, since with ocular faith they saw in the said bier that besides the caracalla nothing at all was contained. But the King, more cheerful at the truth of the matter discovered, gave there various gifts, spending the rest of the time, in which he stayed there, in the greatest gladness, frequently conferring about the merit of the Martyr Alban and his glory, and judging that it was done not without divine providence, that in two places so renowned a special veneration of the Martyr should be had. And he said to the people of Ely: Rejoice in God's gift, rejoice in the merits and holiness of so great a Martyr: for if, as you say, here God through him works more miracles by reason of the Garment, believe that at St. Alban's he works greater miracles by reason of the Body resting there most holy. Thus Walsingham, whose sincerity in writing Pits and others praise. But from such a relation it seems to follow, that it is not true what above, number 19, Paris wrote, as if Aelfric, pretending that he was sending to the people of Ely the Relics of St. Alban, sent them the Relics of a certain holy Monk: but that in truth there was sent to the people of Ely the caracalla sprinkled with the sacred blood, which, when the memory had failed, posterity thought that with them was the Body of St. Alban and wished it to be believed against the people of St. Alban, somewhat more pertinaciously than was fitting.

[24] But it is to be noted that Paris had observed in Abbot Geoffrey, that the Saint himself, in order to make certain those doubting about this, The same is proved by the frequent apparitions of the Saint; appeared several times to many of the Brothers, showing many proofs of the truth. But that I may pass over many of the many, he says, indications of the truth, one I have thought to insert into this little work. While Dom Anketell, who both began and completed the building of the bier with his own hand (a certain secular youth helping, his disciple, Solomon of Ely), diligently in his goldsmith's work both strove in mind and labored with hand; his disciple often reproached him, favoring the party of the people of Ely, more often saying: Would that this were the house of the Protomartyr Alban himself, whom you believe to have, about which we are wearied with so many zealous and costly labors. To whom master Anketell: Friend, friend, cease to say such things: I am certain that this house (nor is it yet worthy of so glorious Martyr Alban himself. Blessed be God, who granted this skill of working to his honor: I, untiring and willing, will give my labor to it, nor ever conquered or weary shall I waver. But on one night there appeared to him the holy Martyr Alban, with cheerful and serene countenance, especially one made to the maker of the sacred coffer. and as if for his labor, and for the words which on his behalf he made, giving thanks and consoling, said: Work, my son and special artificer, my advocate and host; because there awaits you, of which you will not be defrauded, a copious reward: I am he who will repay: I, I say, the Protomartyr of the English, Alban; who in this very place underwent the capital sentence for the confession of Christ, and I, until the day of the great general judgment, will rest in this your work, (which coffer, would that it still survive!) until there be given me by the Lord the promised stole as a reward doubled. And having said this, with a great light, which followed him, he vanished. Thus Paris concerning the time of the coffer being made, which would that, by affection, they had not been amplified and hitherto verified, so that that coffer with the sacred body might still survive, withdrawn from the hands of the sacrilegious; and that it might lie hidden buried somewhere in the ground, until, the Catholic religion reflourishing among the English, at some time it might be offered into the light. Thus far certainly what was done with it I have not yet learned.

[25] Moreover, for the confirmation of the aforesaid truth, Paris asserts in the place aforecited, that, if the body of St. Alban had been retained by theft by the people of Ely, and another put in its place in the case … the manifold signs which the Saint works, Likewise the frequent miracles, and which many times he has renewed, celebrated in the place where his blood he shed for Christ, his head being cut off, would not give evident testimony. But miracles of this kind neither did he himself insert into his History, nor does he anywhere expressly mention them as collected or written by anyone; only in John the 21st Abbot, namely the raising of a man dead four days, he treats of a certain Cleric, by name Amphibalus, whom the Lord, dead four days, by the merits of SS. Alban and Amphibalus, had raised from the dead; that he might bear ocular testimony to the miracles of those very Saints: whence one might suspect that he did this not only by word (to which he is said to have been restored to life, and by which he had heaped up very much money, to pursue the work of the new frontispiece of the church, begun to be built by that Abbot) but also by writing left to posterity. Certainly something of this kind he had, who wrote the Passion inserted in Capgrave's Legend; when, the Ely controversy being related, to narrate the miracles he thus proceeded: Leaving the judgments of the foregoing to be discussed by skilled readers; the things which in diverse places I have found written, without envy by writing I have decided to communicate. And they are the following.

[26] A certain man of Tribunician power, by name Thurstan, received from the Monks a certain little village of the church of St. Alban under an annual rent; and in process of time refusing to pay the rent, claimed that land as his own. the punishment inflicted on one claiming for himself an estate of St. Alban, And behold, a certain terrible horseman, on a white horse coming to meet him, and gleaming with golden arms, struck him with a spear, and leaving him dashed half-dead on the ground, went away. His spirit at last resumed, repenting of his guilt, he promised every satisfaction. But recovering, when he returned to his crime; in the midst of the company of those feasting two unknown men hastening break forth to him, and seizing him, violently hurl him to the ground: a fire extinguished, who, his neck broken, expired before all: and forthwith those men having gone out, nowhere appeared. When a voracious flame invaded a certain house, the Monks oppose the bier to the fires: and the flames being calmed and extinguished, the buildings are freed from the danger of the burning.

[27] Many sick, oppressed with various ailments, asking the suffrage of St. Alban, rejoice that they have received whole health. Ships too, in peril at sea, the storm being calmed, obtain his benefits. the sick and the shipwrecked helped, A certain young man, guilty of homicide, fled to the protection of St. Alban; but deceived by the promises of someone, having gone out, is seized; presented to the Judge, he is convicted; and the sentence passed, he is condemned to the mutilation of his eyes and likewise of his genitals. And when the lictors strove to pluck out his eyes, all their effort is made vain: for St. Alban made the guilty man harder than adamant: and so running to the church he joyfully paid his thanks to God. A certain rich man, on the Translation of St. Alban, went to the field with his reapers; the guilty man freed from punishment. and seeing many going to the church, said: Why should I go to Alban, who was a certain peasant, like me; voiding his dung by the back parts, like me. He said it; and the food, with which he had been refreshed, he vomited up through his blasphemous mouth, and voided in the form of dung: through the seven years in which he lived, The blaspheming peasant punished, he never, except through the workshop of his blasphemous mouth, purged his belly: and although he had been most rich, at last he came to such great poverty, that before death he scarcely had the necessaries of life: his wife, as long as she lived, begged from door to door: his daughter, mulcted with a swelling of the belly, fatter than a pregnant woman, having in her womb nothing to bring forth, presented a monstrous prodigy to beholders.

[28] A certain soldier, Herbert Duket by name, accustomed to robberies, plundered the land of St. Alban by nightly incursions. and a soldier injurious to the Saint. And it happened that with his Lord in the church of St. Alban he was hearing Mass: and the Lord, calling his soldiers, said to them: Do you see Herbert, made smaller than usual? We see, they say, and astonished beyond measure we marvel: and they began among themselves to deride him. When all had gone out

from the church, the Lord said; Herbert, what is it, that you are made so small? See that you have not in any way injured Blessed Alban; who, after the manner of the Britons, quickly takes vengeance on the guilty in mind. But Herbert, confused, could scarcely with his hands touch the stirrup, which before most easily with his foot he touched. And immediately the sign of the Cross being placed on his shoulders, he confesses to the Abbot with tears the sins he had committed, and obtained pardon, and recovered his usual stature. To this clearly Paris referred, when in the place aforecited he appeals to the miracles. Let bear witness, he says, Herbert Duket, who in the presence shrank even to an ape-like stature, evident testimony, and very many others. Capgrave moreover proceeds:

[29] Pilgrims, while they sailed through the sea, a very great tempest arising, five of them tearfully implored the suffrage of Blessed Alban. 5 shipwrecked men saved; And behold, the ship, unable to bear the force of the winds, the joints of its planks broken, lets in the waves: the ship perishes: there perish also those who were in it, these five excepted, whom we said had invoked Blessed Alban: for the waves of the sea, bearing them up unharmed, set them down in the port of their will, with all their goods. When a certain man on a certain night before the altar of the Martyr Alban was sitting, the irreverence of a tailor chastised. not fearing God nor revering the Martyr, with the utmost haste he began to mend his shoes. And when he had now proceeded somewhat in the work; behold, so strong a blow was inflicted on him, that from the topmost step, not only to the lowest, but even farther onto the pavement he was rolled down. Through fear terrified, leaving the things which he had at hand, he fled from the church as quickly as possible.

CHAPTER V.

The revelation and finding of St. Amphibalus and his companions, and their translation, from Paris.

G. H.

[30] Matthew Paris, in his greater History and acts of Henry the Second King, at the year 1178, thus describes the finding of the body of St. Amphibalus: In the same year a certain man, St. Alban appearing to a citizen sleeping, inhabiting the Borough of Blessed Alban the Martyr, and a native of that place, lived among his own without reproach. He from his earliest age, as much as the moderateness of his substance permitted, living honestly, was a devout frequenter of the church. While therefore one night he lay on his bed, about cockcrow there entered a certain one, comely of countenance and tall of elegant stature, his inner chamber: who, clothed in white garments, bore in his right hand a most beautiful rod. At whose entrance the house immediately shone forth, and as it were a solar brightness illumined the interior of the chamber. Who, approaching the bed, called the one lying there, and, if he were sleeping, gently inquired. Robert, he said, are you sleeping? he leads him out, awakened But Robert was terrified with a vehement fear, and beyond measure marveling said: Who are you, Lord? And he: I am the Martyr Alban, who come for this, to announce to you the will of the Lord, concerning my Master, he said, namely that Cleric, through whom I received the faith of Christ: about whom among men frequent talk is held, and it is the hope of the faithful, that in future times he should be raised up, although the place of his burial is now unknown to all. Rise therefore quickly, gird yourself with your garment, and follow me, and I will show you the tomb, distinguished by his precious Relics.

[31] Rising therefore Robert, quickly clothed and shod, followed him: narrating many things about the passion of his master; and toward the North on the public road walking, they went on together, until to a certain plain, uncultivated from of old, which is situated beside the royal way, they came. By the way they conversed, as a friend is wont with a friend traveling together, now of the walls of the destroyed city, now of the common road adjacent to the city, now of the coming of Blessed Amphibalus his Master into the city, now of their lamentable parting from one another, now of the passion of both. And whatever Robert wished to ask, the Martyr discoursed with ready response. But it happened that, while speaking, they had certain merchants of Dunstable meeting them, who were hastening to be present at the morning market in the village of St. Alban for their business. Whose coming foretelling, the Martyr said: Let us turn aside a little, until they pass who are coming, lest perhaps they impede our journey by questioning (for the way gleamed from him) which also was done. But when they had come to about the middle of the journey, where two trees were in the middle of the road, the Martyr said: Thus far I led my Master Blessed Amphibalus, he shows the place where they were separated from one another, when at last in this worldly life tearfully we conversed, then about to depart from one another. And had not the splendor, which proceeded from the Martyr, repelled Robert's gaze, and fear simply restrained him; the Saint would have made Robert himself certain of many things both future and past. But that place had a pleasant plain, both in pastures and in ditches, on the way fit for men to rest, in the village which is called Redbourn, almost three miles distant from St. Alban. In this plain indeed two little hills stood out, which were called the Hills of the banners, because around them popular gatherings took place, when the faithful people, from ancient tradition, was wont yearly to pay a solemn procession to the church of St. Alban with due veneration.

[32] Then St. Alban gradually turned aside from the way, and taking the man's hand, led him to one of the little hills, and the little hill in which his Relics were laid; which contained the tomb of the blessed Martyr. Then turning his face to him, This, he said, place holds the Relics of my Master: this covers and preserves his bones. And so speaking, with the man's thumb he opened the earth in the manner of a cross; and a small portion of the turf being turned over, a certain shrine he disclosed: from which an excessive splendor going forth, illumined the western world, and the first rays of its light into the breadth of the world copiously diffused. This done, the case is closed again, and the plain of the place is restored to its former state. That man is astonished, and asks to be taught by the Saint what he should do about these things. To whom Blessed Alban: Mark the place diligently, that the mysteries which have been revealed to you in it, and leads him back. may more firmly cling to your mind: for there will come at the nearest time, when this your special instruction will serve the general advancement, and will profit many unto salvation. But Robert measuring the sight of the air and the plain, gathered certain stones, which there lay, and there in a certain arrangement placed them, saying: By these marks concerning this holy place I shall tomorrow be more fully instructed. And having said this, Rise said the Saint, let us go hence: and to the place, from which we departed, let us return. But while they returned by the way, by which they had come, when they came before the gate of the church (for the house of Robert was farther off) the Saint entered his church, The deed is indicated to a monk of St. Alban, and the man, having entered his house, received himself into his own bed. This happened not (as some feign, detracting from the truth) as a dream, but in truth: to which the final outcome of the matter bears testimony; and the testimonial assertion of a certain Brother, namely a monk of the church of St. Alban, Gilbert de Sissenerne; who frequently from the aforesaid Robert inquired the truth of the matter, and diligently the truth, under the attestation of the dread judgment, as a prudent and lettered man, explored to the marrow.

[33] But the man, awakened in the morning, placed in doubt wavered, whether he should pass it over in silence; or reveal to others the things which not by sight but in reality, and to his household. without any hesitation he had learned to have been bodily done. For if he were silent, he feared to sin against God; if he made the matter public, he feared the mockeries of men. These things at last often revolving in mind, the man by the fear of God absorbed human fear: and although this word was still hidden from the common ears, yet he made the members of his household and his private friends conscious of his secrets. But they what was said in darkness, brought forth into light: and what they had heard in the ear, preached upon the housetops. And it came to pass that in this year this word was disseminated through the whole province, so much indeed, that by its frequency it entered the cloister of the monastery of the blessed Martyr Alban. At last the desired rumor, certain ones carrying it, had ascended to Abbot Simon: By Abbot Simon monks are sent with Robert by whose authority, after God, that business was especially to have its strength. He forthwith paid praises to the grace of God, and counsel being shared, some chosen Brothers of the convent to the place, which that man was to show, the same man going before, he sent. The convent at home applied itself to devout prayers, and the Brothers following their guide, hastened to see the Relics of the Martyrs. Coming at last thither, they found there a multitude of the faithful: whom the Holy Spirit had gathered from diverse provinces into one by a prosperous omen, that they might be present at the finding of the Martyr. While they awaited the outcome, the oft-mentioned man went before, they learn the place of the Relics on the 17th of June. showing the Brothers the plain, containing the bodies of the Saints. But it was the sixth weekday before the solemnity of Blessed Alban, when these things were done: on which the passion of that same Saint is celebrated. From that day therefore, until the time the Saints were raised, the place did not lack guarding: but the Brothers were continually present with the laity. The convent meanwhile undertook an abstinence of a stricter life, and the suffrage of prayers with a procession being appointed, a solemn fast is preached to the people. Now that place of the future finding bore the likeness of a fair; and as others withdrew, whom the fervor of devotion had led, others daily came.

[34] A weakness of 10 years is healed Moreover the beginnings of signs, which the holy Martyrs, still hidden in the heart of the earth, in the auspice of a better hope were performing, could be confirmed by the testimony of many. For a certain woman of Gaddesden, held by a weakness of the shoulders and loins for ten years, was now, because of the foulness of her sickness, held in contempt by her husband: who, having gone out from her own borders, dropsy and making her passage through Redbourn, lay down beside the burial of the holy Martyrs: nor rose from the place, until she was restored to her former health. Another of Dunstable, by name Cecilia, and the inability to walk. in the sickness of dropsy, sixteen years having passed, bore in her womb the likeness of a pregnant woman. She, coming to the aforesaid places, eager for her salvation, immediately received the desired health. Likewise a girl of five years, who had never from birth walked on her feet, was always carried by the service of her parents. She, which many of the faithful beheld, being placed beside the place prepared, when she had slept a little, leaped up and walked; and changed her parents' sighs into gladness.

[35] Meanwhile there dawned the holy solemnity, consecrated to Blessed Alban the Martyr; A blasphemer against the Saint is seized by a demon, which, in itself bright, the publication of those miracles rendered brighter. The faithful are admonished to larger almsgivings: a sparer use of food is enjoined on each, and a procession repeated on the morrow is established. But the interposed days too by no means passed idly in their course, but up to the hour of the finding of the Saints it gleamed with evident miracles. For indeed a certain man of Kingsbury, mocking those digging and seeking the Saints, came by night with others to the place, by the same way indeed but with a different will. Who immediately seized by a demon, evidently showed himself furious, and tearing his clothes cast them off: and he who, deriding others, had come to watch those digging,

was made a spectacle to all. And when, all seeing, he was tortured for a long time, the seizing hand of God ceased; and at last chastised, he returned home unharmed. But another, another is punished by a sudden death, mocking those seeking the Saints with derisive words, immediately lay subject to divine vengeance: for while speaking, seized by a grave malady, in a short time he breathed out his blasphemous spirit. Algar of Dunstable, when to the same place a barrel full of beer, to be sold, he had caused to be carried in a cart; there came to him a certain sick and poor man, asking simply for the love of the Martyr, whose intervention the people awaited, that the thirst, with which he was pressed, he might relieve with a little drink. Algar flared up at the sick man's words with vehement anger, asserting that he had not come thither for the Martyr's sake but to increase his gain in whatever way. While he still reviled the poor man in this way; behold, another by the spilling of his beer. both bottoms of the barrel being impetuously burst out, in the street the beer was poured: and so it came to pass, that the little portion of which, the Martyr's name spurned, he had denied, by the Saint's procuring not only that poor man, but also many others with him, their knees fixed on the earth, sufficiently, none forbidding, drank. The wickedness of the perverse therefore being repressed, the Martyr procuring it, the devotion of the faithful receives what it deserves. For on three continuous days which followed, ten people of both sexes from diverse infirmities, to the praise of God and the blessed Martyr, received their former health.

[36] The day meanwhile brightening, which the finding of the Saints consecrated, the venerable Father Abbot Simon went to the most holy place: and the mysteries of our redemption being celebrated in the chapel of St. James, contiguous to that place, in veneration of the blessed Martyr Alban; While Abbot Simon celebrates Mass the diggers labor: he commanded the monks who were present to seek diligently, and several diggers being employed, to persist in what was begun. Now that chapel had anciently been built in honor of the Martyr, because of the frequent rays of heavenly light, which had appeared there to shepherds keeping the night watches over their flock: which in honor of St. James principally and of the Saints, for whose veneration the heavenly brightness appeared, built there was venerated. Whence the said Abbot in the same place celebrating the divine Sacraments, over the pressing business implored the help of the blessed Martyr. The Abbot therefore having returned home, and now with the Convent sitting at the meal, the passion of the blessed Martyr was being read, whom they sought, and of his companions; through which, loosed from the prison of the flesh, they merited eternal glory. While therefore the savagery of the Judge, the immanity of the lictors, the patience and death of the Martyrs, more at length recited, had moved the pious minds of the Convent to tears and sighs; that Blessed Amphibalus with three of his companions had been found, someone running up announced. What then? The sighs are changed into praises, and to sadness succeeded a magnitude of gladness. The Congregation rising from the table, to the church hastily proceeds; and the gladness conceived in heart with lifted-up praises it protests. Now the blessed Martyr Amphibalus was found in the middle between two companions, the bodies of St. Amphibalus and 9 companions are found and collateral to both, a third companion as it were crosswise and from the opposite occupying a solitary place. But there were found near that place six of the companions of the aforesaid Martyrs, so that the blessed Martyr Amphibalus was reckoned the tenth. Among the Relics of the athlete of Christ Amphibalus, two large knives were found, one in the shell of the head, and the other about the heart: so as to suggest the truth of what is contained in the little book of his Passion written in ancient times at St. Alban's. For as the text of that passion has, the others died slain by swords, but he himself, his bowels first laid open and his intestines cast out, and after pierced with lances and knives, died at last shattered with stones: whence almost none of his bones appeared whole, while the bones of his companions had remained wholly unharmed.

[37] But the Abbot, as we have said, the desired message being heard, the Prior joined to him, with some Brothers of the Convent, and they are carried to the basilica of St. Alban: the burials of the Saints quickly went to; and raising the unearthed Relics, placed them in suitable linens, and fearing beyond measure the fraud of the people, and the violence of the crowd flowing together from every side, which from the pressing of the found treasure he could not keep away; it pleased the Abbot, that the holy Martyrs should be carried into the basilica of Blessed Alban, where a more diligent guarding and greater security could be applied. In short? The Brothers return with the Abbot separately, bearing the pledges of the Saints in procession. The Convent proceeds to meet the Martyrs with a procession, carrying with them the body of Blessed Alban the Martyr. Which, as it was sometimes wont, as is clear to its bearers, to be quite heavy; so great a lightness of itself in that hour it exhibited, that it seemed rather to fly than to rest on the shoulders of those carrying it. The Martyr therefore meets the Martyrs, the disciple the Master, and now openly he received his Master returning, whom he once had secretly as his Doctor of faith hiding in the hut. But the miracle, which in his elements the Lord deigned to show, when the Relics meeting one another wholly came together, in the year 1177, on the 25th of June ought not to be passed over in silence. For when a long drought, the plants and fruits being burned up, had lasted a long time, and had rendered the farmers desperate; at the same moment, when in the air not the least little cloud appeared, so great an inundation of rains burst forth, that the showers descending copiously both adorned the earth, and promised a more joyful hope of a harvest despaired of. And yet (as in the Life of Warin on another occasion it is said) the festal robes, with which boldly the Convent was clothed, when no change of the most serene air, no paleness, cloud, or little cloud had appeared; and, as has been said, the dry and chinked earth was drenched by a sudden inebriation; the Copes orphreyed and richly bordered with embroidered work, by no taint, deterioration or damage were harmed. Now the precious Martyr Amphibalus with his companions was found, and into the church of Blessed Alban with canticles and proclamations of praise solemnly was carried, in the three hundred eighty- sixth year from his passion, from the Incarnation of the Lord the one thousand one hundred seventy-seventh, on the day of the Sabbath, on the Kalends of July. But in the presence of the holy Relics of him, to the praise of God and the glory of the Martyr, they shine with miracles. from diverse infirmities the sick are healed, paralytic limbs are made firm, the mouths of many are loosed to speak, to the blind sight is granted, to the deaf hearing, to the lame the step is made firm; and, what is more magnificent, those seized by a demon are freed; epileptics are healed, lepers are cleansed, and to life the dead are recalled. But if anyone of the miracles, which through his Saints the divine clemency works, desires to have knowledge, let him read the little book, in which concerning his signs and powers it is more clearly had, and we, hastening to other things, ask pardon of the reader. Thus far Matthew Paris. Would that the little book which is cited toward the end, about the miracles, might be found and transmitted to us, to be printed at least with a Supplement of the work.

CHAPTER VI.

Another narration of the same matter from John Brompton: a church built, the Relics translated several times.

[38] Following Paris, or the same author as he himself, Matthew of Westminster, at the year 1178, The history published by some more briefly contracted the matter into a few words, from the many things then done adding one miracle; the same (I think) of which we made mention above from Paris, number 25, by which namely a certain Dead man of four days, namely so that from the day of death he had four days and a half, raised there, all who saw effectively procured to the glory of God and the praise of the Martyrs helping there. Similarly Capgrave contracted the same matter, page 9, moreover defining, that that Robert, after having had the vision, received himself into his own bed; nor until elapsed two years, the same man divinely admonished, laid bare to the Abbot the order of the deed, and showed the Brothers the place. All which things, received from the very monuments of the people of St. Alban, seem to merit a far more certain assent, from John Brompton, a writer of the 12th century, than those which John Brompton, Abbot of Jervaulx in the territory of Richmond, 160 English leagues and more from the monastery of St. Alban, wrote, from a less certain narration of the matter, most renowned in all England, but variously related by various ones, although he was nearer those times by almost a century than Paris, inasmuch as he, under Edward III in the year 1198, made an end of writing. Yet let this reverence be given to antiquity, that this too be transcribed.

[39] In the same year (1177) in the week of Pentecost (celebrated on the 12th of June, but Paris puts the following year, related in not a little different way, in which Pentecost fell on the 28th of May) an Angel of the Lord appeared to a certain one in sleep, saying; Thus says the Lord God. I will that the bodies of the Saints, namely the body of St. Amphibalus, who had been the Master of St. Alban, and had converted him from pagan error to Christian truth; and another holy body, namely of him who, when by a most wicked King, to slay Blessed Alban, he had been sent, was unwilling to lay hands on him; but converted from Pagan error to the faith of Christ, underwent the capital sentence; and made a Martyr of Christ, penetrated the heavens; be translated from the place where they are buried, to the church of St. Alban, and there with worthy reverence be laid up. And to these the Angel added, saying to him: Go quickly to the Abbot and Convent of the church of St. Alban, and indicate to them this vision; and charge them, as to the manner of the revelation, that in a certain place which is called &c. they cause digging to be done, that there they may be able to find the bodies of the Saints. But that man, awakened by so great an Angelic vision, long meditated within himself, whether he should approach the Abbot and convent of St. Alban with words, as the Angel had charged him, or not. And when long in this manner he afflicted his soul, at last it pleased him not to go, and so he lay back on his couch. And behold, the Angel a second and third time appeared to him, saying the same speech; and unless he went more quickly, adding threats. By such threats therefore that man terrified, more quickly rising from his couch, went to the Abbot and Convent, and to them indicated that heavenly mandate and the Angelic vision. To whose words the Abbot and Convent gave faith, because in their Annals, where the Miracles and Passion of Blessed Alban were written, the names and passions of the said Martyrs were read: but it was unknown to them, in what place their bodies were buried. The Provincials being therefore summoned, and of the finding. the aforesaid Abbot and that man to whom the Angel appeared, proceeding to the said place, where the bodies of the Martyrs were buried, commanded digging to be done all around. And when they, digging all around, had now for eight days labored in vain; behold, a most sweet odor, bursting forth from the tomb of the Martyrs, marvelously provoked them to dig there. With assiduous prayers therefore persisting, and the help of omnipotent God invoking, to the place whence that odor burst forth they more quickly came: and there digging, the sarcophagi, in which the bodies of the Martyrs had been buried, they found. And the bodies taking up, on the morrow of the nativity of St. John the Baptist, the 7th day before the Kalends of July, to the church of St. Alban with hymns and canticles they carried: where to those

being honorably laid up, a blind man received sight, and several others received health from diverse ailments.

G. H.

[40] At the year 1179 the aforesaid Westminster describes the journey of Louis VII King of France into England, to the tomb of St. Thomas of Canterbury, and adds these things: The King of France sends gifts thither Because the most Christian King Louis heard that the great works of God in Blessed Amphibalus the Martyr and his Companions lately found were celebrated, he proposed to go thither: but the counsel of his men did not permit him to be so far removed from his land: grieving over which, but unwilling to contradict, he sent thither as it were by vicarious turn Now to Simon the Translator of the Saints, as we have already said, in the year 1183 succeeded Garin or Warin the 20th Abbot, in whose Life the said Paris has these things, page 96. There appeared at Waldemgeva a venerable person, namely a Cleric shining like a solar ray: by the admonition of St. Amphibalus appearing who, being asked, asserted that he was St. Amphibalus, the Master and Converter of Blessed Alban Protomartyr of the English, in whom he was well pleased, and in his glory was glorified together. He said moreover and asserted, that that place (in which it happened that the same Amphibalus with his Companions was found, and their Relics toward St. Alban were carried, and to meet them the bier of Blessed Alban was conveyed) had been venerable and most dear both to God and to the holy Martyrs themselves. And he added, Go therefore to Abbot Warin, and in my stead tell him, the church of St. Mary of the Meadows is built. that he extol that place with worthy veneration. There came therefore that faithful messenger, and all the aforesaid, confirmed by certain tokens, he related in order to the Abbot. But the Abbot showed to that man not only faith, but also favor … About to build therefore he began to initiate the foundation thus, that within a short time he might perfect what was begun, endow it, dedicate it, people it with religious and instruct it in religion … The Church therefore being built and dedicated, and the workshops becomingly constructed, by pious consideration he constituted that certain leprous women should be enclosed there, and veiled, by certain limited rules he constrained, lest, wandering, in secular errors they should be involved … and entitled it by the name of Blessed Mary of the Meadows …

[41] In the one thousand one hundred eighty-sixth year of the Lord's Incarnation, by the precept of Lord Warin Abbot of the church of St. Alban, through the Subprior of the same church, and Adam the Precentor, and Gilbert and Baldwin the Sacristans, In the year 1186 on the 24th of June the Relics are translated into a new bier: and Roger of the Hospital keeper of the Relics of St. Amphibalus and his companions, on the eighth day before the Kalends of July, the aforesaid Relics were translated from the coffer, in which they had first been laid up under Lord Simon the Abbot, into a new bier, specially adapted for this, and to the honor of the same Martyrs and the adornment of the house of God, with gold and silver by embossing art splendidly adorned: which bier indeed a middle wall intersects within: and in that part whose front within expresses the passion of St. Alban, were laid up the Relics of that Martyr and of his three companions (who, buried together, were found) each in single bindings. But in the other part the Relics of the six remaining companions of the same, whose burials were found separately, each in single bindings tied together. But in that coffer which contained the aforesaid Relics, a certain small portion of those same Relics remained, together with a great number of corporals graceful, which out of reverence for it were honestly placed there. That coffer too with another like it, on the right side of the altar in the presbytery upon the wall was placed: in the first are the aforesaid, in the other dust and most minute particles of bones (into which dust the flesh of the holy Martyrs is believed to have been resolved, they are again translated to a consecrated altar: for in their tombs with the bones it was found) is laid up. These things there.

[42] To Warin was substituted, as also was said above, in the year 1195 John the first, under whom by the hand of Brother William was painted the panel before the altar of St. Amphibalus, as also various other panels. But in the year 1214 succeeding William, who the bier with the Relics of Blessed Amphibalus and his companions, from the place where it had first been placed (namely beside the high altar near the bier of St. Alban) on the North side, up to the place, which in the middle of the church is enclosed by an iron and grated wall, solemnly translated to a most becoming altar there constructed, with the panel and over the altar preciously painted: and he caused that altar solemnly to be dedicated in honor of St. Amphibalus and his companions, because there their bodies rest, by John Bishop of Hereford. And by the same he caused a great Cross placed above that altar with its images to be consecrated. Abbot William too, after he had becomingly completed all these things, two gilded biers, some are carried to Redbourn in which formerly before the time of Abbot Warin had been laid up the Relics of the blessed Martyrs Amphibalus and his companions, with those things which were contained in them, conferred on their church at Redbourn, for the honor and reverence of that place, in which those holy Martyrs completed the course of their contest. And he constituted there a perpetual keeper, namely a Monk vigilant and diligent, by night and day there assisting the treasure laid up there, worthy of such guarding. But this Monk assigned there, renowned for miracles by the Abbot's permission afterward acquired for himself a companion, while he indulged in works to be performed. But this honorable Translation we believe very greatly to please God, because of the manifest miracles, which God there then in honor of the said Saints celebrated openly … Among other works of piety too the church of Blessed Amphibalus the Martyr and his companions, out of reverence for that place, and a church is dedicated. in which the same Saint with his companions celebrated his martyrdom, solemnly by Bishop John, as also several other Churches or chapels in our diocese he caused, the Abbot himself being present, the Bishop adorned with pontifical garments, a relaxation of forty days being granted, Lord Gilbert of Sisseverne being then there Prior, to be dedicated …

[43] The Cross too of St. Amphibalus, which for a long time lay hidden concealed at London, and which into the possessions of many, namely of fathers to sons, had passed, the aforementioned Abbot William prudently acquired for us. Which Cross indeed, being of such a shape, The Cross of St. Amphibalus is found. deserves the more dearly to be kept, because (as the history of SS. Albinus and Amphibalus attests) it was anointed with the blood of Blessed Alban in his decollation, and was the first which into Britain was brought. These things there. Dead is the said Abbot William in the year 1235.