And So Upon A Day, I Asked Of The Monks,
Both One And Other, How This Befell.
But they would not tell me
nothing, into the time that I said that they should not hide the
grace that God did them, but that they should publish it to make
the people have the more devotion, and that they did sin to hide
God's miracle, as me seemed.
For the miracles that God hath done
and yet doth every day, be the witness of his might and of his
marvels, as David saith in the Psalter: MIRABILIA TESTIMONIA TUA,
DOMINE, that is to say, 'Lord thy marvels be thy witness.' And
then they told me, both one and other, how it befell full many a
time, but more I might not have of them.
In that abbey ne entereth not no fly, ne toads ne newts, ne such
foul venomous beasts, ne lice ne fleas, by the miracle of God, and
of our Lady. For there were wont to be so many such manner of
filths, that the monks were in will to leave the place and the
abbey, and were from thence upon the mountain above to eschew that
place; and our Lady came to them and bade them turn again, and from
thence forwards never entered such filth in that place amongst
them, ne never shall enter hereafter. Also, before the gate is the
well, where Moses smote the stone, of the which the water came out
plenteously.
From that abbey men go up the mountain of Moses, by many degrees.
And there men find first a church of our Lady, where that she met
the monks, when they fled away for the vermin above-said. And more
high upon that mountain is the chapel of Elijah the prophet; and
that place they clepe Horeb, whereof holy writ speaketh, ET
AMBULAVIT IN FORTITUDINE CIBI ILLIUS USQUE, AD MONTEM OREB; that is
to say, 'And he went in strength of that meat unto the hill of God,
Horeb.' And there nigh is the vine that Saint John the Evangelist
planted that men clepe raisins of Staphis. And a little above is
the chapel of Moses, and the rock where Moses fled to for dread
when he saw our Lord face to face. And in that rock is printed the
form of his body, for he smote so strongly and so hard himself in
that rock, that all his body was dolven within through the miracle
of God. And there beside is the place where our Lord took to Moses
the Ten Commandments of the Law. And there is the cave under the
rock where Moses dwelt, when he fasted forty days and forty nights.
But he died in the Land of Promission, and no man knoweth where he
was buried. And from that mountain men pass a great valley for to
go to another mountain, where Saint Catherine was buried of the
angels of the Lord. And in that valley is a church of forty
martyrs, and there sing the monks of the abbey, often-time:
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 30 of 158
Words from 15206 to 15723
of 81655