All these things were pleasing to us and, having enjoined on him a fast, we declared that a fire should be prepared upon the day on which the Lord was beaten with stripes and put upon the cross for our salvation. And the fourth day thereafter was the day before the Sabbath. So when the appointed day came round, a fire was prepared after the noon hour. The leaders and the people to the number of 60,000 came together. The priests were there also with bare feet, clothed in ecclesiastical garments. The fire was made of dry olive branches, covering a space thirteen feet long; and there were two piles, with a space about a foot wide between them. The height of these piles was four feet. Now when the fire had been kindled so that it burned fiercely, I, Raimond, in the presence of the whole multitude, said: "If Omnipotent God has spoken to this man face to face, and the blessed Andrew has shown him our Lord's lance while he was keeping his vigil,[294] let him go through the fire unharmed. But if it is false, let him be burned, together with the lance, which he is to carry in his hand." And all responded on bended knees, "Amen." [Sidenote: Peter Bartholomew passes through the flames] The fire was growing so hot that the flames shot up thirty cubits high into the air and scarcely any one dared approach it. Then Peter Bartholomew, clothed only in his tunic and kneeling before the bishop of Albar,[295] called God to witness that "he had seen Him face to face on the cross, and that he had heard from Him those things above written."... Then, when the bishop had placed the lance in his hand, he knelt and made the sign of the cross and entered the fire with the lance, firm and unterrified. For an instant's time he paused in the midst of the flames, and then by the grace of God passed through.... But when Peter emerged from the fire so that neither his tunic was burned nor even the thin cloth with which the lance was wrapped up had shown any sign of damage, the whole people received him, after he had made over them the sign of the cross with the lance in his hand and had cried, "God help us!" All the people, I say, threw themselves upon him and dragged him to the ground and trampled on him, each one wishing to touch him, or to get a piece of his garment, and each thinking him near some one else. And so he received three or four wounds in the legs where the flesh was torn away, his back was injured, and his sides bruised. Peter had died on the spot, as we believe, had not Raimond Pelet, a brave and noble soldier, broken through the wild crowd with a band of friends and rescued him at the peril of their lives.... After this, Peter died in peace at the hour appointed to him by God, and journeyed to the Lord; and he was buried in the place where he had carried the lance of the Lord through the fire.[296] FOOTNOTES: