Gesta Romanorum Vol. II (1871)/Of a celestial Country
TALE LXXIV.
OF A CELESTIAL COUNTRY.
Gervase[1] relates that in the city of Edessa, in consequence of the presence of Christ's holy image, no heretic could reside: no pagan,—no worshipper of idols; no Jew. Neither could the barbarians invade that place; but if an hostile army appeared, any innocent child, standing before the gates of the city, read an epistle; and the same day on which the epistle was read, the barbarians were either appeased, or, becoming womanish, fled.
APPLICATION.
My beloved, that city is the city of the Apocalypse, namely, Heaven: or it may signify our body, in which if Christ dwelt that is, if our soul be full of his love, nothing repugnant to him will inhabit it. The boy is a clear conscience, and the epistle is confession and repentance.
- ↑ Gervase of Tilbury, (county of Essex,) a monkish historian. He flourished about the year 1200.