Ælfric's Lives of Saints/11mil eng

by Ælfric

MARCH 9.

THE FORTY SOLDIERS, MARTYRS.

We will relate to you the passion of the Forty Soldiers,

that your faith may be the firmer when ye hear

how devotedly (lit. thane-like) they suffered for Christ.

In the emperor's days who was called Licinius

a great persecution was stirred up against the Christians,

so that every Christian man had, for the sake of his own life,

to deny the Saviour and conform to heathenism,

and to sacrifice the Lord's honour to idols.

There was set a certain bloodthirsty judge,

called Agricola, in a city

hight Sebaste, in the land of Armenia.

The aforesaid judge was very wicked,

a persecutor of Christian men, and ready to the devil's will.

Then commanded the murderer that all the emperor's soldiers

should offer their sacrifices to the gods.

There were in the army (warfare) Cappadocian soldiers,

forty Christians, unfearful in mind,

living piously after the doctrine of God;

these the judge seized and led them to the idol-sacrifice,

and said with flattery that they were noble soldiers,

and in every conflict constant to each other,

and ever victorious in sharp conflict.

'Show now therefore your constancy,

and subject yourselves to the king's commands,

and sacrifice to the gods before ye be tormented.'

Then spake the Christians to the murderer thus;

'Often have we overcome, even as thou thyself knowest,

our adversaries in every battle,

when we fought for the mortal king;

but it becometh us even more with toil to fight

for the immortal King and to withstand thee.'

Then said the judge that they should do one of these two things,

either they must sacrifice to the gods and have honour,

or else contemn the offering and be put to shame;

'Consider now, I pray you, what will best profit you.'

The saints answered the heathen murderer,

'The Lord will foreshow what may profit us.'

Then bade the murderer to bring them into a dungeon.

So then the saints bowed their knees

within the dungeon, thus praying Christ,

'Deliver us now. Lord, from the devil's temptations,

and from all the deceits of unrighteous workers.'

They sang in the evening again another psalm,

and continued vigilant in their prayers until midnight.

Then the Saviour manifested Himself to His saints,

and thus encouraged them to the coming conflict:

'God is your beginning (guide) and your encouragement,

but he shall be upheld who continueth to the end.'

They all heard the Saviour's words,

and were affrighted, and therefore continued

without sleep until day, magnifying their Lord.

Then Agricola in the early morning gathered

his born kinsmen to his wicked council,

and bade lead to him the holy soldiers of God.

So they all forty stood before him.

Then began the judge again to praise them,

saying that there were none like them in the emperor's land,

neither so extolled nor so dear to him,

if they would not turn that love to hate.

Then said the saints that they hated him

for his unbelief, and loved their Lord.

Then raged the cruel one like a greedy lion,

and bade that they should be brought bound into the dungeon,

because he awaited the chief magistrate's coming.

Then about a se'nnight after this the chief magistrate came,

and immediately bade summon the faithful saints.

Then said one of them, whose name was Quirio,

Oh ye brothers, let us be encouraged;

as often as we have cried to Christ in the fight,

we were victorious straightway through His succour,

and we likewise overcame the approaching army.

Once we were in a great conflict,

and all our people escaped by flight,

except we forty who stood to the fight,

earnestly entreating our Lord's assistance,

and some we put to flight, others fell before us,

and not one of us was harmed by^[1] all that multitude.

Now is our adversary this bloodthirsty Prefect,

another is the judge, and a third is the devil;

these three lay snares how they may deceive us;

but let us now call Christ to help us,

and neither the awful tortures, nor the sharp punishments,

nor any bonds shall be for our bale.

Ever have we been helped in each fight,

as often as we have sung this one psalm,

Deus in nomine tuo saluurn me fac, et in virtute tua libera me: et cetera. That is in English,

'Thou, Almighty God, save me in Thy Name,

and in Thy might deliver me, Ruler of all.'

Thereupon they were brought with this song of praise to the cruel one,

and every one came to the spectacle.

Then the Prefect looked on the saints, and said,

'Ye shall have from me honours and riches,

if ye will sacrifice to our gods;

but if ye then shall be perverse against this,

ye shall be dishonoured and likev/ise tortured.'

Then said the saints, that they worshipped the Saviour,

and accounted none other so high.

Then commanded the chief magistrate, with exceeding anger,

to beat their faces with black flints,

but the stones turned against the persecutors,

so that the murderers knocked themselves.

Then the chief magistrate seized an exceeding great flint,

and threw it at the saints, but it turned backward

towards the Prefect and brake open his head.

Then were the saints greatly heartened,

and straightway sung this song with faith,

Qui tribulant me inimici mei ipsi infirmati sunt et ceciderunt.

'My foes who afflicted me are weakened and have fallen down.'

Then swore the judge that they through sorcery

had turned the stones against their tormentors.

Then commanded the chief magistrate to bring them quickly

again into the prison, and with anxious mind

sought out with his counsellors what seemed to them advisable,

how he might wreak his contumely on the saints.

So they were brought into the prison,

and sung this psalm with exceeding joy,

Ad te leuaui oculos meos, qui hahitas in celis, et cetera. That is in English,

'To Thee I lift up mine eyes, O Lord,

Thou that dwellest in the heavens,' and they sung the whole psalm.

Lo, then! at midnight came the Almighty Lord

from the high heaven, and visited His saints,

and spake these words that are here written:

'He who truly believeth on the living Father,

and on His only-begotten Son, and on the Holy Ghost,

though he be dead, nevertheless he shall live;

be heartened, and be Jiot afraid of the torments of the heathen,

which are but transitory; be patient for this while,

that ye may be crowned with glory in the eternal world.'

Then the saints continued watching until morning

in heavenly bliss, through the Saviour's coming.

Then in the morning the magistrate bade fetch them,

and they all said as if with one mouth,

'Do now by us that which the Lord will.'

Then came also the devil, and had a serpent in one hand

and a sword in the other, thus saying to the judge,

'Thou art my own, begin now right well;'

as if he had said, ' Overcome these Christians

through sharp tortures that they may submit to me.'

Then it came to [the minds of] the persecutors, in their evil thought,

that they would lead God's saints in heavy chains

to a broad mere with ignominous taunts.

At that time there was a very severe winter,

and the foresaid mere was covered over with ice,

and the winterly wind raged as well as the frost.

Then the heathens shoved the saints into the mere,

into the middle of the ice, all unclothed,

and set vigilant men for warders over them,

that none of them might escape by flight.

There was also set, very handy to the mere,

warm water in a vessel, if any of the martyrs

desired to forsake his faith and bathe his body

in the warm water, for the winter's tartness.

Then it began in the evening to freeze awfully,

so that the ice seized upon the aforesaid martyrs,

so that their flesh cracked by reason of the frost.

Then one of them turned coward on account of the exceeding chill,

cast away his faith, and desired to bathe himself

in the luke water, and turned from his companions;

but he died as soon as he touched the water,

and the warmness was turned into death to him,

because his faith did not last until the end,

even as the Lord Himself said in the prison.

Then the others saw how it befell that one,

and sung this song, as if with one mouth,

'Be not angry with us. Lord, in these deep floods,

neither let Thy hot displeasure be in this water.

As for him who for this sharpness separated himself from us,

his limbs are relaxed and he has quickly perished;

we will never part from Thee, O Lord,

until Thou quicken us, O Lord, to Thy praise.

"We will show forth Thy name, Thee whom verily praise

all creatures and all deeps,

fire and hail, snow and cold ice,

winds and storms, which fulfil Thy word.

Thou goest over sea even as over green earth,

and Thou easily stillest her strong waves;

Thou heardest, Lord, the patriarch Jacob

when he fled away from the wicked threats

which his own brother Esau spake.

Thou wert with Joseph in the land of Egypt,

and didst raise him from serfdom to lordship;

Thou leddest Moses from that same land

back with the people of Israel by many signs,

and didst open out a way for them in the Red Sea;

Thou heardest also afterward Thine holy Apostles ;

hear us now, Lord, in this deep flood,

and let us not sink in this cold tempest,

neither let this swart abyss swallow us up.

"We are miserable creatures, help us now. Lord;

we are set in the watery depths,

and our blood fleeth adown to our feet;

mitigate now this ungentle chill,

that men may recognise that we have cried to Thee,

and that we are preserved because we hope in Thee.'

Lo, then suddenly there was a great wonder, through God's grace;

there came a heavenly light to the holy martyrs,

as hot as the sun shining in summer,

and the ice melted away over all the mere,

and the water was turned to a pleasant bath.

All the warders had been before cast into sleep,

except one of them who had listened to all this,

how they had prayed, and how the one had died.

Then beheld the same [man] whence that light shone,

then saw he brought with the bright light,

down from heaven, one less than forty crowns

to the holy martyrs who stood in the mere.

Then immediately he perceived that the one was not accounted [worthy]

of the crowns of the servants of Christ,

because he would not endure the hardness.

Then that one aroused the other warders,

and unclothed himself and plunged into the mere,

crying out and saying, 'I also am a Christian.'

He went to the saints, and cried to the Saviour,

' I believe on Thee, Lord, even as these believe,

let me be numbered amongst the number of them,

and make me worthy of this, that I may suffer

cruel torments for Thee, and be proved (to be) in Thee.'

Then saw the devil that the Lord's saints

were comforted in their peril,

and continued in faith as he would not before have believed

that they could ever so happily have endured the chill.

Then the devil turned himself into a man,

writhed his shanks and bewailed himself,

'Woe is me miserable, that I am overcome

by these holy men, and I am put to shame;

had I faithful servants, I should not be thus easily overcome ;

now I will turn the heart of this persecutor

to the thought, that he shall burn up all the bodies

of these saints and cast them into the river,

that even their bones may never be found.'

Then sang the saints in the soft bath,

'Thou only art God, Almighty Creator, '

Thou that workest wonders and overcomest our adversaries;

Thou puttest to shame the devil who laid snares for us.'

Then in the early morning came the wicked torturers,

and asked the warders how the one

had become associated with the saints, and what he had seen.

Then said the warders to the bloodthirsty judges,

'We all fell heavily asleep ;

as if we lay in death, but he lay watching,

saw the wonders, and roused us afterwards ;

then he saw the light, and immediately believed,

stripped himself entirely and went unto them,

and said, with a loud voice, that he believed in Christ.

Then commanded the impious judge to lead them all

out of the broad mere, and to break their legs.

Then began the heathen forthwith to drag them

and brake their, legs, even as was commanded them.

Then sung they this psalm during the breaking,

Anima nostra sicut passer crept a eat de laciueo venantium, et cetera. That is in English,

'Our soul is escaped out of the snare as a sparrow,

the snare is broken, and we are delivered.

The help of us all is in the Name of the Lord,

of Him who made the heavens and the earth.'

Then said they 'Amen,' and gave up their ghosts,

and went thus martyred to the Almighty Lord,

who had before succoured them in perils,

and had ever strengthened- them until they came to Him.

Then did the judge as the devil had commanded,

and bade burn them all in a very large fire,

but the bones remained after the burning;

which the heathen then threw into a wide stream.

This was straightway revealed after three days

to a certain holy bishop in the same city.

To him came in a dream the true saints of God,

and said whither their bones had been carried.

Then the bishop arose from his bed,

and went with his priests to the river by night.

Then shone the bones as brightly as stars

in the water, and they wondered thereat;

they had all come to [i. e. fallen into] a deep place,

and not one [bone] was lost in the flood;

and the light revealed wheresoever they lay.

Then the bishop brought all the holy bones

into a seemly shrine, and laid them up

in the orthodox Church to the praise of the Almighty,

to Whom be glory and worship to all ages of ages. Amen.

What is ever lost to Almighty God?

If any unhappy man be disobedient to his Creator,

and will not continue in well-doing unto the end,

but forsaketh his faith and the dear Lord,

then shall another be chosen for the crown

which the other would not earn by labour,

even as ye have heard in this lection

that one of the warders became associated with the saints,

and received the crown which the other lost.

Likewise Judas, the impious, who betrayed the Saviour,

hung himself straightway in a snare;

and Matthias the humble was exalted afterward,

and chosen as apostle after Christ's resurrection,

and hath the worship which that atrocious man lost

through his own treachery, when he sold his Creator.

We know not if the warder were ever baptized,

but we know, however, what wise doctors have said,

that every one of those who are killed for the faith of Christ

is truly baptized when he dieth for God,

and is washed in his own blood from the stains of his sins,

and liveth with the Lord for Whom he gave up his life;

God hath no need that we should do good works,

neither commandeth He anything for His own need,

but it profiteth ourselves, whatsoever He biddeth us,

and we are happy if we obey our Creator,

and if we love Him alone above all things.

He who forsaketh Him, verily he shall perish;

nevertheless it liketh our dear Lord

that we should perform His will by our works,

and thereby merit eternal life with Him.

The Apostle Paul set down in his Epistle [i Cor. iii. ]

that we are verily our Creator's helpers,

so that our Lord doth, through His chosen (ones),

many things in the world, and notwithstanding ever helpeth them;

wherefore men may not think in their minds

[that there is] any goodness except it come from God,

nor [may they] do anything good without God's help.

He is so mighty a worker that He can turn

evil to good through His goodness.

Great evilness was there in Jewish men

when they laid snares, with dark thought,

how they might kill Christ; and that turned to our healing

and to everlasting deliverance, and to their destruction;

they are very guilty for their wiles,

and to them is adjudged according to that which they did,

though our Lord permitted them [to do] the deeds.

Evil were the persecutors and the impious murderers

who slew the martyrs, but nevertheless it became

glory and everlasting worship to the saints,

and the persecutors have perpetual abasement.

There would not have been so many martyrs had there not

been this great persecution

which the devil stirred up, against the Lord's saints,

through his wicked servants who loved heathenism.

God permitteth nevertheless, for His goodness,

that His sun shineth over the sinful heathen,

and He sends His showers of rain both to righteous men

and to the evil, for His great bounty,

and feedeth us all, both evil and good.

God created the heathen, though they know Him not,

but nevertheless they will not be without punishment hereafter,

because they might easily understand the Almighty

by means of the creatures which they see in the world.

Heaven and earth, and other creatures,

sun and moon, magnify their Creator,

and men may discern that He is the great God

alone Almighty, Who created them all.

Now are the heathen, without excuse,

rightly condemned with the devil in hell,

because they did not acknowledge Christ by faith,

Who gave them life, and provided them with sustenance.

One natural law is appointed to all mankind,

that no man may do harm to another man,

even as the Saviour said in His holy gospel;

'That which thou desirest not to befall thyself in thy life,

that do not to another man.' This said the Lord Himself.

But the heathen vex and plunder the Christians,

and with cruel deeds anger our Lord;

but they shall have their reward for this in the eternal punishments.

God giveth to us men manifold fruits,

which we are to enjoy as far as may be safe for us,

that the body may have shelter and food,

that we may not be ensnared by the pleasant lusts

which come from superfluity to all those

who spend their worldly life unwarily.

Let us turn our will to God,

and in all things honour our Creator

Who ever ruleth in Eternity. Amen.

1. Read ge-derod, harmed ; not gaderod, gathered.