And nigh that city of Tiberias is the hill, where
our Lord fed 5000 persons with five barley loaves and two fishes.
In that city a man cast a burning dart in wrath after our Lord.
And the head smote into the earth and waxed green; and it growed to
a great tree. And yet it groweth and the bark thereof is all like
coals.
Also in the head of that sea of Galilee, toward the septentrion is
a strong castle and an high that hight Saphor. And fast beside it
is Capernaum. Within the Land of Promission is not so strong a
castle. And there is a good town beneath that is clept also
Saphor. In that castle Saint Anne our Lady's mother was born. And
there beneath, was Centurio's house. That country is clept the
Galilee of Folk that were taken to tribute of Zebulon and Napthali.
And in again coming from that castle, a thirty mile, is the city of
Dan, that sometime was clept Belinas or Cesarea Philippi; that sits
at the foot of the Mount of Lebanon, where the flome Jordan
beginneth. There beginneth the Land of Promission and dureth unto
Beersheba in length, in going toward the north into the south, and
it containeth well a nine score miles; and of breadth, that is to
say, from Jericho unto Jaffa, and that containeth a forty mile of
Lombardy, or of our country, that be also little miles; these be
not miles of Gascony ne of the Province of Almayne, where be great
miles. And wit ye well, that the Land of Promission is in Syria.
For the realm of Syria dureth from the deserts of Arabia unto
Cilicia, and that is Armenia the great; that is to say, from the
south to the north. And, from the east to the west, it dureth from
the great deserts of Arabia unto the West Sea. But in that realm
of Syria is the kingdom of Judea and many other provinces, as
Palestine, Galilee, Little Cilicia, and many other.
In that country and other countries beyond they have a custom, when
they shall use war, and when men hold siege about city or castle,
and they within dare not send out messengers with letters from lord
to lord for to ask succour, they make their letters and bind them
to the neck of a culver, and let the culver flee. And the culvers
be so taught, that they flee with those letters to the very place
that men would send them to. For the culvers be nourished in those
places where they be sent to, and they send them thus, for to bear
their letters. And the culvers return again whereas they be
nourished; and so they do commonly.
And ye shall understand that amongst the Saracens, one part and
other, dwell many Christian men of many manners and diverse names.
And all be baptized and have diverse laws and diverse customs. But
all believe in God the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost; but
always fail they in some articles of our faith. Some of these be
clept Jacobites, for Saint James converted them and Saint John
baptized them. They say that a man shall make his confession only
to God, and not to a man; for only to him should man yield him
guilty of all that he hath misdone. Ne God ordained not, ne never
devised, ne the prophet neither, that a man should shrive him to
another (as they say), but only to God. As Moses writeth in the
Bible, and as David saith in the Psalter Book; CONFITEBOR TIBI,
DOMINE, IN TOTO CORDE MEO, and DELICTUM MEUM TIBI COGNITUM FECI,
and DEUS MEUS ES TU, & CONFITEBOR TIBI, and QUONIAM COGITATIO
HOMINIS CONFITEBITUR TIBI, etc. For they know all the Bible and
the Psalter. And therefore allege they so the letter. But they
allege not the authorities thus in Latin, but in their language
full apertly, and say well, that David and other prophets say it.
Natheles, Saint Augustine and Saint Gregory say thus:- Augustinus:
QUI SCELERA SUA COGITAT, & CONVERSUS FUERIT, VENIAM SIBI CREDAT.
Gregorius: DOMINUS POTIUS MENTEM QUAM VERBA RESPICIT. And Saint
Hilary saith: LONGORUM TEMPORUM CRIMINA, IN ICTU OCULI PEREUNT, SI
CORDIS NATA FUERIT COMPUNCTIO. And for such authorities they say,
that only to God shall a man knowledge his defaults, yielding
himself guilty and crying him mercy, and behoting to him to amend
himself. And therefore, when they will shrive them, they take fire
and set it beside them, and cast therein powder of frankincense;
and in the smoke thereof they shrive them to God, and cry him
mercy. But sooth it is, that this confession was first and kindly.
But Saint Peter the apostle, and they that came after him, have
ordained to make their confession to man, and by good reason; for
they perceived well that no sickness was curable, [ne] good
medicine to lay thereto, but if men knew the nature of the malady;
and also no man may give convenable medicine, but if he know the
quality of the deed. For one sin may be greater in one man than in
another, and in one place and in one time than in another; and
therefore it behoveth him that he know the kind of the deed, and
thereupon to give him penance.
There be other, that be clept Syrians; and they hold the belief
amongst us, and of them of Greece. And they use all beards, as men
of Greece do. And they make the sacrament of therf bread. And in
their language they use letters of Saracens. But after the mystery
of Holy Church they use letters of Greece. And they make their
confession, right as the Jacobites do.
There be other, that men clepe Georgians, that Saint George
converted; and him they worship more than any other saint, and to
him they cry for help. And they came out of the realm of Georgia.
These folk use crowns shaven.
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