Ælfric's Lives of Saints/Of Saint Alban

by Ælfric

XIX.

JUNE 22. PASSION OF ST. ALBAN, MARTYR.

There was a heathen emperor named Diocletian,

who was chosen to be emperor over all the earth,

though he was a destroyer of men, two hundred

and eighty-six years after Christ's incarnation;

and he reigned twenty years, a cruel murderer,

so that he killed, and bade kill,

all the Christians whom he could find out,

and burned churches, and robbed the innocent;

and this impious persecution spread unceasingly

over all the earth fully ten years,

until it came also even to England,

and there killed many who believed in Christ.

One of these was Alban, the noble martyr,

who was likewise killed in that persecution

for Christ's faith, even as we shall tell [you] here.

In those days came the murderous persecution

to England from the wicked emperor,

and the murderers seized the Christians everywhere

with exceeding fury; then a priest escaped from them

who ran secretly to Alban's house,

and there lay hid from his fierce persecutors,

and Alban received liim, though he was not baptized.

Then began the priest, forasmuch as he loved God,

to sing his offices, and fast strictly,

and day and night to praise his Lord,

and meanwhile to teach the true faith

to the honourable Alban, until he believed

in the true God, and renounced heathenism,

and became verily a Christian, and exceeding full of faith.

Then the priest dwelt with the honourable man

until the magistrate who persecuted the Christians

discovered him there, and with great wrath

commanded him to be fetched before him speedily.

Then came the messengers to Alban's house,

but Alban went out unto the persecutors

with the priest's cloak, as if he were he,

and would not betray him to the wicked persecutors.

He was thereupon bound, and brought straightway

to the impious judge, where he was offering to his gods

the devilish sacrifices, with all his associates,

Then became the judge fiendishly angry,

as soon as he beheld the steadfast martyr,

because he had received the fugitive priest,

and given himself up to be slain for him.

Then he bade men lead him to the heathen sacrifice, and said

that he himself should receive the heavy punishment

which he had meant for the priest if he could have taken him,

unless he quickly submitted to his shameful gods;

but Alban was not affrighted by his fiendly threats,

because he was girded about with God's weapons

unto the ghostly fight, and said that he would not

obey his best, nor bow to his idolatry.

Then asked the judge immediately, and said,

'Of what family art thou, or of what rank among men?'

Then Alban answered the wicked man thus:

'What concerneth it thee, of what family I may be?

but if thou desire to hear the truth, I tell thee quickly

that I am a Christian, and will ever worship Christ.'

The judge said to him: 'Tell me thy name,

without any delay, now that I thus ask.'

The champion of God said to the murderer thus,

'I am hight Albanus, and I believe in the Saviour,

who is the true God, and made all creatures;

to Him I pray, and Him will I ever worship.'

The murderer answered the glorious man,

'If thou wilt have the felicity of the everlasting life,

then thou must not delay to sacrifice

to the great gods, with full submission.'

Alban answered him: ' Your sacrifices to the gods,

which ye offer to devils, cannot help you,

nor profit your cause, but ye shall receive as your meed

everlasting punishments in the wide-reaching hell,'

Lo! then the judge became fiendishly irate,

and commanded men to scourge the holy martyr,

weening that he might bend the steadfastness of his mind

to his (own) forms of worship by means of the stripes;

but the blessed man was strengthened by God,

and bore the scourging exceeding patiently,

and with glad mind thanked God for it.

Then the judge perceived that he could not overcome

the holy man by the severe tortures,

nor turn [him] from Christ, and commanded them to kill him

by decapitation, for the Saviour's name.

Then the heathen did as the judge commanded them,

and led the Saint unto his beheading;

but they were delayed a long while at a bridge,

and stood still until evening by reason of the exceeding crowd

of men and of women who were stirred up,

and came to the martyr, and went with him.

So then it fell out that the unbelieving judge

sat unfed in the town until evening,

without any meal, fasting against his will.

Lo! then Alban would hasten to death,

and went to the stream when he could not go over the bridge,

and looked up to heaven, praying to the Saviour,

and the stream thereupon dried up before him,

and made a broad way for him, even as he had desired of God.

Then the executioner, who was to kill him,

was touched by that miracle, and threw away his sword,

and ran quickly, as soon as they had come over the stream, loo

and fell at his feet with full faith,

desiring to die with him rather than to slay him.

He was then united, with resolute faith,

to the holy man whom he was to have beheaded;

and the sword lay there shining before them,

and not one of them would readily slay him.

Then was there nigh at hand to the holy man

a pleasant hill, adorned with plants,

with all fairness, and eke full smooth.

Then went Alban quickly thither,

and straightway prayed God that He would give him water

upon the hill, and He did so.

Then ran the well-spring at Alban's feet,

that men might understand his power with God,

when the stream ran from the steep hill.

He was then beheaded for the Saviour's name,

upon the hill, and departed to his Lord

by victorious martyrdom, and with true faith;

but his slayer might not live in full health,

because that both his eyes burst out of him,

and fell to the earth with Alban's head,

that he might understand whom he had killed.

They beheaded afterward the faithful soldier

who would not behead the holy man,

and he lay beside Alban, believing in God,

baptized with his blood, and departed to Heaven.

Afterward, when the executioners came to their lord,

and related the wonderful signs which Alban had wrought,

and how he was blinded who had beheaded him,

then he bade them stay the persecution, and spake reverently

of the holy martyrs, whom he could not turn

from God's faith by the terrible torments.

In that same persecution were [also] slain

Aaron and Julius, and many others,

both of men and women, widely throughout England,

killed by tortures for Christ's faith,

and they departed victoriously to the true life.

Then the persecution ceased, and the Christians came

out of the woods, and out of the wastes, where they had been hidden,

and went amongst men, and restored Christianity,

and repaired churches that were wholly ruined,

and dwelt there in peace with true faith.

Then they built likewise a worthy church

to the holy Alban, where he was buried,

and there frequently were miracles performed

to the praise of the Saviour who liveth ever in eternity.

This was done before that strife came

through Hengest and Horsa who defeated the Britons,

and Christianity was again dishonoured,

until Augustine re-established it,

according to the instruction of Gregory, the faithful pope.

Be glory and praise to the benevolent Creator,

who delivered our fathers from their foes,

and disposed them to baptism by means of His preachers. Amen.

ITEM ALIA. AHITOPHEL AND ABSALOM.

[N.B. This Homily is really distinct from the foregoing, but is not recognised as such in the Table of Contents.]

It is now also to wit that we very often punish

wicked robbers and treacherous thieves,

but they shall have no reward from Almighty God,

but rather the everlasting torments for their cruelty,

because they lived by rapine, like savage wolves,

and oftentimes snatched away from the righteous their subsistence.

Would that at least the miserable man would bethink himself,

and confess his sins with true contrition,

at least when he is in bonds and is led to death,

even as the thief did, who hung condemned

with the Saviour Christ, and said to him with faith,

'Lord and Master, have pity on me when Thou comest into Thy kingdom.'

The Saviour answered him, 'Verily I say unto thee,

now to-day thou shalt be with Me in Paradise.'

Thus earned the wicked thief,

in his death-throes, the eternal life with Christ,

because he believed in Christ, and besought His mercy.

Evilly doeth he to himself who provides for himself fraudulently,

and he shall be the companion of robbers, whom men punish ignominiously.

The deceiver concealeth his deeds from man,

but they will be revealed, often against his will,

at least at Doomsday, when nothing shall be secret,

and he shall have eternal punishment, because his caution availed him nothing.

The robber will be slain now, and ignominiously punished,

and his miserable soul afterwards shall journey to hell

to the everlasting torments, in swart chains.

We ween nevertheless that the Allruling Saviour

will compassionate the wicked robber,

if he, with all his heart and inward lamentation,

crieth to the Almighty God, and beseecheth His mercy

before the sharp sword may sway to his neck ;

and if he bemoaneth his sins more than his [loss of] life,

and, with weeping, desireth the Almighty's compassion.

But the false devil, who deceived the robber,

and ever seduced him until his life's end,

will in no wise easily permit him, at his ending,

to turn then, with true repentance,

and with inward weeping, to the benevolent Saviour;

but will try with all his craft to draw him away from Christ.

So likewise will traitors perish, in the end,

even as books verily tell us everywhere.

There was a certain councillor, wise in speech, hight Ahitophel,

with David the king who was pleasing to God,

at the time when Absalom, his own son,

began to war against his father, desiring to drive

him out of his kingdom, and kill him, if he could.

Then this Ahitophel was with Absalom in council,

and advised him straightway how he might ensnare

his own father, while he was in flight;

but another thane wisely opposed his design,

and showed Absalom a different counsel,

worse to his [Ahitophel's] liking, because God thus intended

that David should be delivered from their madness.

Then Ahitophel was angry, and became filled with wickedness,

because his counsel might not please the cruel man,

by reason of the other's rede, and straightway rode him home,

bequeathed his property, and killed himself

in a high noose, so that he died by hanging.

So the councillor ended his cruel design,

who sought to advise wrongly his true lord.

Absalom then fared forth with his evil counsel,

desiring to deprive his own father of life

and possess his dominion, but God willed it not*

Then he rode on his mule with a great army

through a high wood, with hostile intention;

then speedily a tree caught him by the hair,

because be was long-haired, and he hanged so,

and the mule ran forward from the wicked lord,

and David's thanes pierced him through.

So the traitor to his father ended his evil counsel with his life.

So likewise Judas, who cruelly betrayed

our Saviour Christ, killed himself

by hanging in a noose, an apostate from God,

everlastingly damned as the Lord's betrayer.

Every man shall likewise be damned who killeth himself,

and every suicide shall suffer everlastingly,

and traitors shall perish in the end

with the perfidious devil who incited them to treachery.

So likewise those unrighteous judges who pervert their judgments,

always for gain, and not for justice,

and always offer their justice for sale,

and thus sell themselves for the sake of money,

then shall they have in the end, for their unrighteousness,

eternal torments with the treacherous devil.

The righteous judge must judge ever aright,

and ever further justice for the love of God,

seeing that bribes blind, even as books tell us,

the minds of men who wickedly take them [Prov. xxii. , Vulg.],

and thus pervert their judgments into injustice.

None of God's thanes may decide a cause for gain,

but maintain the judgment, if he be the Lord's man,

without miserable bribes, ever for the right,

that he may receive his reward in the eternal life.

Likewise some men sell even a church for hire,

as it were worthless mills, the glorious House of God,

which was dedicated to God for His service,

for that Christianity which Christ Himself founded;

but it befitteth not that men make God's House

like unto a mill, for vile toll;

and he who doeth it shall sink [or sinneth] very deeply.

May the Creator, who created us as men, shield us

from the deceit of the devil who layeth snares about us,

and mercifully bring us to the eternal life,

wherein is everlasting glory for ever and ever. Amen.