Yet something is to be said in favour of the aforesaid William de Braose,although he greatly offended in this particular (since nothing human is perfect,and to have knowledge of all things,and in no point to err,is an attribute of God,not of man);for he always placed the name of the Lord before his sentences,saying,"Let this be done in the name of the Lord;let that be done by God's will;if it shall please God,or if God grant leave;it shall be so by the grace of God."We learn from Saint Paul,that everything ought thus to be committed and referred to the will of God.On taking leave of his brethren,he says,"I will return to you again,if God permit;"and Saint James uses this expression,"If the Lord will,and we live,"in order to show that all things ought to be submitted to the divine disposal.The letters also which William de Braose,as a rich and powerful man,was accustomed to send to different parts,were loaded,or rather honoured,with words expressive of the divine indulgence to a degree not only tiresome to his scribe,but even to his auditors;for as a reward to each of his scribes for concluding his letters with the words,"by divine assistance,"he gave annually a piece of gold,in addition to their stipend.When on a journey he saw a church or a cross,although in the midst of conversation either with his inferiors or superiors,from an excess of devotion,he immediately began to pray,and when he had finished his prayers,resumed his conversation.On meeting boys in the way,he invited them by a previous salutation to salute him,that the blessings of these innocents,thus extorted,might be returned to him.His wife,Matilda de Saint Valery,observed all these things:a prudent and chaste woman;a woman placed with propriety at the head of her house,equally attentive to the economical disposal of her property within doors,as to the augmentation of it without;both of whom,I hope,by their devotion obtained temporal happiness and grace,as well as the glory of eternity.
It happened also that the hand of a boy,who was endeavouring to take some young pigeons from a nest,in the church of Saint David of Llanvaes,{35}adhered to the stone on which he leaned,through the miraculous vengeance,perhaps,of that saint,in favour of the birds who had taken refuge in his church;and when the boy,attended by his friends and parents,had for three successive days and nights offered up his prayers and supplications before the holy altar of the church,his hand was,on the third day,liberated by the same divine power which had so miraculously fastened it.We saw this same boy at Newbury,in England,now advanced in years,presenting himself before David the Second,{36}bishop of Saint David's,and certifying to him the truth of this relation,because it had happened in his diocese.The stone is preserved in the church to this day among the relics,and the marks of the five fingers appear impressed on the flint as though it were in wax.
A small miracle happened at St.Edmundsbury to a poor woman,who often visited the shrine of the saint,under the mask of devotion;not with the design of giving,but of taking something away,namely,the silver and gold offerings,which,by a curious kind of theft,she licked up by kissing,and carried away in her mouth.But in one of these attempts her tongue and lips adhered to the altar,when by divine interposition she was detected,and openly disgorged the secret theft.Many persons,both Jews and Christians,expressing their astonishment,flocked to the place,where for the greater part of the day she remained motionless,that no possible doubt might be entertained of the miracle.
In the north of England beyond the Humber,in the church of Hovedene,{37}the concubine of the rector incautiously sat down on the tomb of St.Osana,sister of king Osred,{38}which projected like a wooden seat;on wishing to retire,she could not be removed,until the people came to her assistance;her clothes were rent,her body was laid bare,and severely afflicted with many strokes of discipline,even till the blood flowed;nor did she regain her liberty,until by many tears and sincere repentance she had showed evident signs of compunction.
What miraculous power hath not in our days been displayed by the psalter of Quindreda,sister of St.Kenelm,{39}by whose instigation he was killed?On the vigil of the saint,when,according to custom,great multitudes of women resorted to the feast at Winchelcumbe,{40}the under butler of that convent committed fornication with one of them within the precincts of the monastery.
This same man on the following day had the audacity to carry the psalter in the procession of the relics of the saints;and on his return to the choir,after the solemnity,the psalter stuck to his hands.Astonished and greatly confounded,and at length calling to his mind his crime on the preceding day,he made confession,and underwent penance;and being assisted by the prayers of the brotherhood,and having shown signs of sincere contrition,he was at length liberated from the miraculous bond.That book was held in great veneration;because,when the body of St.Kenelm was carried forth,and the multitude cried out,"He is the martyr of God!truly he is the martyr of God!"Quindreda,conscious and guilty of the murder of her brother,answered,"He is as truly the martyr of God as it is true that my eyes be on that psalter;"for,as she was reading the psalter,both her eyes were miraculously torn from her head,and fell on the book,where the marks of the blood yet remain.