William of Malmesbury's Chronicle of the Kings of England: From the earliest period to the reign of King StephenWilliam, of Malmesbury
History
William of Malmesbury's Chronicle of the Kings of England: From the earliest period to the reign of King Stephen
William, of Malmesbury
Great Britain -- History -- Norman period, 1066-1154; Great Britain -- History -- To 1066; Middle Ages -- Sources
In that city, which formerly was called Agrippina, from Agrippa the
son-in-law of Augustus, but afterwards named Colonia by the emperor
Trajan, because being there created emperor he founded in it a colony
of Roman citizens; in this city, I repeat, there was a certain bishop,
famed for piety, though to a degree hideous in his person; of whom I
shall relate one miracle, which he predicted when dying, after having
first recorded what a singular chance elevated him to such an eminent
station. The emperor of that country going to hunt on Quinquagesima
Sunday, came alone, for his companions were dispersed, to the edge
of a wood, where this rural priest, deformed and almost a monster,
had a church. The emperor, feigning himself a soldier, humbly begs a
mass, which the priest immediately begins. The other in the meantime
was revolving in his mind why God, from whom all beautiful things
proceed, should suffer so deformed a man to administer his sacraments.
Presently, when that verse in the tract occurred, “Know ye that the
Lord himself is God,” the priest looked behind him, to chide the
inattention of an assistant, and said with a louder voice, as if in
reply to the emperor’s thoughts, “He made us; and not we ourselves.”
Struck with this expression, the emperor esteeming him a prophet,
exalted him, though unwilling and reluctant, to the archbishopric of
Cologne, which, when he had once assumed, he dignified by his exemplary
conduct; kindly encouraging those who did well, and branding with the
stigma of excommunication such as did otherwise, without respect of
persons. The inhabitants of that place proclaim a multitude of his
impartial acts; one of which the reader will peruse in that abbreviated
form which my work requires. In a monastery of nuns in that city, there
was a certain virgin who had there grown up, more by the kindness of
her parents than through any innate wish for a holy life: this girl,
by the attraction of her beauty and her affable language to all,
allured many lovers; but while others, through fear of God or the
censure of the world, restrained their desires, there was one who,
excited to wantonness by the extent of his wealth and the nobility
of his descent, broke through the bounds of law and of justice, and
despoiled her of her virginity; and carrying her off kept her as his
lawful wife. Much time elapsed while the abbess entreated, and his
friends admonished him not to persevere in so dreadful a crime. Turning
a deaf ear, however, to his advisers, he continued as immoveable as
a rock. By chance at this time the prelate was absent, occupied in
business at Rome; but on his return the circumstance was related to
him. He commands the sheep to be returned to the fold directly; and
after much altercation the woman was restored to the monastery. Not
long after, watching an opportunity when the bishop was absent, she
was again carried away. Excommunication was then denounced against the
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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