observes, was the consequence of this fine speech. {282} Such acts were represented by the monks as contributing greatly to the future repose of those who did them, and of their friends; whence it was usual for all those who had any sense of religion, or concern, for their salvation, to bequeath some part of their estates _to their own souls_, as they called those bequests which they made to a church or a monastery. To promote and establish an unbounded veneration for the priesthood, miraculous tales were industriously propagated, and as readily believed; for the credulity of the people perfectly suited the knavery of the priests. The following talc, or rather miracle, is related by William of Malmsbury, in the very words, as he says, of one of the persons on whom it was wrought: “I Ethelbert, a sinner, will give a true relation of what happened to me on the day before Christmas, A.D. 1012, in a certain village, where there was a church dedicated to St Magnus the martyr, that all men may know the _danger of disobeying the commands of a priest_. Fifteen young women and eighteen young men, of which I was one, were dancing and singing in the church-yard, when one Robert, a priest, was performing mass in the church; who sent us a civil message, intreating us to desist from our diversion, because we disturbed his devotion by our noise. But we impiously disregarded his request; upon which the holy man, inflamed with anger, prayed to God and St. Magnus, that we might continue dancing and singing a whole year, without intermission. His prayers were heard. A young man, the son of a priest, named John, took his sister, (who was singing with us) by the hand, and her arm dropped from her body without one drop of blood following. But notwithstanding this disaster she continued to dance and sing with us a whole year. During all that time we felt no inconvenience from rain, cold, heat, hunger, thirst, or weariness; and neither our shoes, nor our clothes wore out. Whenever it began to rain, a magnificent house was erected over us, by the power of the Almighty. By our continual dancing we wore the earth so much, that by degrees we sunk into it up to the knees, and at length up to the middle. When the year was ended, bishop Hubert came to the place, dissolved the invisible ties by which our hands had been so long united, absolved us, and reconciled us to St. Magnus. The priest’s daughter, who had lost her arm, and other two of the young women, died away immediately; but all the rest fell into a profound sleep, in which they continued three days and three nights; after which they arose and went up and down the world, publishing this true and glorious miracle, and carrying the evidence of its truth along with them, in the continual shaking of their limbs.”