gifts that are offered him, being content with slight food and clothing. He places his hope of salvation on the fact that he sinned through ignorance, for the Lord when suffering prayed for His enemies in these words, ‘Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.’”
Much about the same date, Philip Mouskes, afterwards Bishop of Tournay, wrote his rhymed chronicle (1242), which contains a similar account of the Jew, derived from the same Armenian prelate:—
“Adonques vint un arceveskes
De ca mer, plains de bonnes tèques
Par samblant, et fut d’Armenie,”
and this man having visited the shrine of “St. Tumas de Kantorbire,” and then having paid his devotions at “Monsigour St. Jake,” he went on to Cologne to see the heads of the three kings. The version told in the Netherlands much resembled that related at S. Albans, only that the Jew, seeing the people dragging Christ to His death, exclaims:
“Atendés moi! g’i vois,
S’iert mis le faus profète en crois.”
Then
“Le vrais Dieux se regarda,
Et li a dit qu’e n’i tarda,
Icist ne t’atenderont pas,
Mais sates, to m’atenderas.”
