The Catholic World, Vol. 19, April 1874‐September 1874Various
Religion
The Catholic World, Vol. 19, April 1874‐September 1874
Various
Catholic Church -- Periodicals
Heraclius had come to Europe to preach the Third Crusade. In Paris he was
the first to officiate at Notre Dame. His special mission to England was
to induce Henry II. to fulfil his vow of going to the succor of the Holy
Land by way of penance for the murder of Thomas à Becket. Finding his
efforts in vain, the patriarch at last said to the king: “Hitherto thou
hast reigned gloriously, but hereafter thou shalt be forsaken of Him whom
thou at this time forsakest. Think on him, what he hath given to thee, and
what thou hast yielded to him again; how first thou wert false to the King
of France, and, after, slew that holy man, Thomas of Canterbury, and,
lastly, thou forsakest the protection of Christ’s faith.” The king, vexed
at such frankness, said: “Though all the men of my land were one body, and
spake with one mouth, they durst not speak to me such words.”
“No wonder,” replied the patriarch, “for they love thine and not thee;
that is to mean, they love thy goods temporal, and fear thee for loss of
promotion, but they love not thy soul.” And so saying, he bowed his head
before the king, and continued: “Do by me right as thou didst by that holy
man, Thomas of Canterbury; for I had rather be slain of thee than of the
Saracens, for thou art worse than any Saracen.”
The king, restraining himself, said: “I may not wend out of my land, for
mine own sons will rise up against me when I were absent.”
“No wonder,” responded the patriarch, “for of the devil they come, and to
the devil they shall go;” and so departed, as Abbot Brompton records, “in
great ire.”
In the wall of the Round Church is a winding staircase of stone leading to
the triforium. Part way up it opens into what is called “the penitential
cell”—a recess in the thick wall four feet and a half long, and two and a
half wide, with two squints to admit air and light, and enable the
penitent to witness the divine service. It would seem, however much an
active knight might chafe in such restricted quarters, as if he had much
to console and support him in looking down into such a church. In the
triforium are gathered together monuments that were formerly scattered
about the church. Among them is a tablet to Edmundus Gibbon, an ancestor
of the historian, who died in 1679.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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