can help them, or give them health,
when they themselves never stir from the place.
The Christian man must cry to his Lord
with mind and with mouth, and beseech His protection,
that He may shield him against the devil's snares,
and set his hope in the true God,
Who alone ruleth over all creatures,
that He may provide for his safety,
even, lo! as He will, as being the all-ruling God.
I We should on every occasion and in every trouble
cross ourselves with true faith,
and by the sign of the Cross put to flight the wicked ones,
because the wicked devil was vanquished by the Cross,
land it is ever our beacon of victory against the fiend.
Likewise some witless women go to cross-roads,
and draw their children through the earth,
and thus commit themselves and their children to the devil.
Some of them kill their children before they are born,
or after birth, that they may not be discovered,
nor their wicked adultery be betrayed;
but their wickedness is awful, and everlasting their perdition.
Then the child perisheth, a loathsome heathen,
and the wicked mother, unless she ever do penance for it.
Some of them devise drinks [philtres] for their wooers,
or some mischief, that they may have them in marriage.
But such shameful ones shall go to hell,
where they shall ever suffer in the tormenting fire,
and in awful punishments, for their witlessness.
But Christian men must fight against devils
by strong faith, like trained champions,
