The Life of Macarius

Here followeth the Life of Saint Macarias, and. first the interpretation of his name.

Macarius is said of macha, which is as much to say as engine, and of ares, which is to say virtue. Or Macarius is said of macha, that is to say smiting, and of rio, that is to say master, for he was ingenious against the fallacy of the devil, virtuous of life, smiting in chastening his body, and master in the governance of prelacy.

Saint Macarius was in a desert, and entered in to a pit or sepulchre, whereas had been buried many bodies of paynims, for to sleep, and he drew out one of these bodies and laid it under his head instead of a pillow. Then came thither devils for to make him aghast and afeard, and said one to another: Come with me to bathe thee. And the body that lay under his head said: I may not come, for I have a pilgrim upon me Iying, that I may not move. For all this Saint Macarius was not afeard, but he beat the body with his fist, and said: Arise and go if thou mayst. When the devils saw that they might not make him afeard they cried with a great voice: Macarius, thou hast vanquished and overcome us twice. On a time as Macarius was nigh his house, the devil came with a great scythe on his neck, and would have smitten therewith Saint Macarius, and the devil said to him: Thou dost to me great violence and force for I may not prevail against thee. Lo! what thou doest I do, thou fastest and I eat not, thou wakest and I never sleep, but there is one thing in which thou overcomest me, and Macarius said: What is that? To whom the devil said: That is humility, and thy meekness by which I may not prevail against thee.

It happed on a time that a great temptation came upon Saint Macarius, and much tempted him, and anon he filled a sack full of stones, and laid it on his neck and bare it many journeys together through the desert. Then another hermit met him and demanded him why he bare so great a burden, and he answered: I travail my body because it suffereth not me in peace, and thus I vex him that vexed me. This holy abbot Saint Macarius saw passing tofore him a devil in the habit of a man, which was the clothing of a herald, all linen full of holes, and in every hole hung a phial, and he demanded him whither he went. The devil answered him, I go for to give drink unto these hermits, then demanded him, Saint Macarius, wherefore he bare so many phials. And he answered: I shall offer to them one, and if he may not drink of that one, I shall proffer him another, and so the third, and of all the other, each after other, until they may find something pleasant to them for to fall into temptation. And when he came again, Saint Macarius called him, and demanded him what he had found, and he answered that he had evil sped, for they were all so holy and blessed that they recked not of his drink, save one only which is named Theodistus. Then Saint Macarius arose and came to these hermits, and found them all in good point save him whom the devil had tempted. Then Saint Macarius did so much by his exhortation that he brought him again in the right way. Another time Saint Macarius met the devil and demanded him whence he came, and the devil answered: I come from visiting thy brethren, then said Saint Macarius: How do they? The devil answered: Evil. And he asked wherefore, and the devil said: For they all holy, and that worst is, there was on that was mine and I have lost him, for he is now made holier than the others. When Saint Macarius heard this he gave laudings and thankings to God. It happed on a time Saint Macarius found in his way the head of a dead man, and he demanded of it whose head it was, and the head answered: Of a paynim, and Macarius said to him: Where is thy soul? He answered: In hell; and he demanded if it were deep in hell, and he said: Deeper than is from heaven to earth. And after he demanded if there were any beneath him, and he said the Jews be lower than he was; he asked if there were any lower or beneath the Jews; to whom he said that the false christian men be yet lower and deeper in hell than the Jews, for as much as they have despited and villained the blood of Jesu Christ of which they were redeemed, so much the more be they tormented.

On a time Saint Macarius went in a desert and at the end of every mile he set a reed in the earth for to have knowledge thereby to turn again, and went forth nine days' journey, and after, he slept. And the devil took all these reeds and bound them and laid them at his head, wherefore he had great labour for to come again into his house. An hermit which was in desert was much tempted for to go again to the world, and he thought in his heart that he should do more good to be among the people than he should do in his hermitage. Then he told all this to Saint Macarius, and Saint Macarius said to him: Thus shalt thou say to thy thoughts, that for the love of Jesu Christ I keep the walls of this cell.

It happed on a time that Saint Macarius killed fly that bit him, and when he saw the blood of this fly, he repented him, and so, repentant of that, would revenge it, and anon unclothed him and went naked in the desert six months, and suffered himself to be bitten of the flies. After this Saint Macarius when he had long lived, and God had showed many miracles for him, and had flowered in many virtues, he died and rendered his soul unto our Lord Jesu Christ, qui est benedictus in secula seculorum. Amen.

The Life of Felix

Here beginneth the Life of Saint Felix, said Inpincis

Felix was surnamed Inpincis, and is said of the place where he resteth, or of the pointelles of greffes. A greffe is properly called a pointel to write in tables of wax, by which he suffered death. And some say that he was a schoolmaster and taught children, and was to them much rigorous. After he was known of the paynims, and because he confessed plainly that he was christian and believed in Jesu Christ he was delivered to be tormented into the hands of the children his scholars, whom he had taught and learned, which scholars slew him with their pointelles, pricks, and greffes, and yet the church holdeth him for no martyr but for a confessor. And the paynims said to him that he should do sacrifice to the idols, but he blew on them and anon they fell to the earth. It is read in a legend that when Maximus, bishop of Nola, and Valerian, fled the persecution of the paynims, the bishop was tormented with hunger and thirst so much that he fell down to the ground, wherefore Felix was sent of an angel to him, and he bare nothing with him for to give to him, and he saw by him a cluster of raisins hanging on a tree, which he laid on his shoulders hastily, and bare it with him. And when the bishop was dead. Felix was elected and chosen to be bishop. And as he preached on a time the persecutors sought him, and he hid him in the clefts of a broken wall, and incontinent by the will of God came spincops and made their work and nets before him that they might not find him. And when the tyrants could not find him they went their way, and he went thence and came to the house of a widow, and took there his refection of her three months, and yet he saw her never in the visage. And at last when the peace was made he went him in to his church and there died and rested in our Lord and was buried by the city in a place that was called Pincis.

And this Felix had a brother which was in likewise named Felix, and when this Felix was constrained to adore the idols he said: Ye be enemies unto your gods, for if ye bring me to them like as my brother did, and they shall fall to the earth and break.

On a time this Felix did do labour his garden where he had set coles and worts for his use, and some of his neighbours would have stolen away these coles and worts, and hoed in the garden all the night and digged, and on the morning Saint Felix saluted them, and anon they confessed their sin, and he pardoned them and then they went their way.

And a little while after the paynims came for to take Saint Felix, and anon so great dolour and pain took them that they began to howl as dogs. And he said to them: Believe ye in God and say ye that Jesu Christ is very God, and do you to be baptized, and ye shall be whole, and your pain shall cease, and so they did, and anon they were all whole. And after, the bishop of the idols came to him and said: Sire, as soon as our God saw thee he fled, and when I said Why fleest thou? he said: I may not suffer the virtue of Felix, and when my God doubteth thee, much more I ought to doubt thee, and when Felix had confirmed him in the faith he baptized him. And Felix said to them that adored Apollo: If Apollo be very God, let him say to me what I hold in my hand. And he had in his hand a schedule wherein was written the orison of our Lord, that is the Paternoster. And he might not answer, wherefore the paynims were converted to our Lord. And at last when he had sung his mass and the peace given to the people, he fell down in prayer upon the pavement of the church and passed out of this life unto our Lord.

The Life of Marcel

Here followeth the Life of Saint Marcel and the interpretation of his name.

Marcel is as much to say as denying to do evil, or it is said as smiting the seas, that is to say the adversities of the world, for the world resembleth the sea. For like as Chrysostom saith upon Matthew: Continual dread is his confuse, and always in the sea is continual dread, the image of death and perpetual disordinance without ceasing.

Of Saint Marcel.

Saint Marcel was chief bishop and pope of Rome. He went to chastise and reprove Maximian the emperor of this, that he was over cruel to christian people. And the emperor had of him so great despite that he made of the house of a good woman, of which Saint Marcel had made a church, the said emperor made it a stable for horses, and in the place where Saint Marcel had sung mass, the emperor made him to keep his horse, in which service Saint Marcel was all his life after, and in that service Saint Marcel died holily the year of the incarnation of our Lord two hundred and four score and seven.

Date: 2016-04-22; view: 468