broke away from their hands raging, and rushed upon the altar, which was covered with alms money which he seized and thrust between his two-fold garment. The monk who was at the altar broke off the divine office and fled; and the other monks ran up and undid the man’s belt. The stones then fell to the ground, but the money remained between the folds of his garment. The monks thought that the money had been changed into stones by the devil, and tried by exorcisms to restore it to its proper shape: but when the stones still remained, the exorcist angrily threw down the holy book, saying: “We have never had such a devil. Depart with him to all the devils!” The rogues escaped with the real money into Silesia where in a certain village they approached a noble matron who, in the absence of her husband, would not receive them. They asked her to give them at least a napkin or a piece of flax as alms; and she offered them a bundle of flax, upon which they said: “This we will take and Christ will bless you, that your linen may increase more abundantly. Show us, if you have it, another bundle.” And when they would likewise have taken this, the woman, fearing her husband, refused: whereupon they secretly put a piece of lighted tinder in the flax as they returned it to her. And so by means of the flax the house was set on fire and burned. When the husband returned, the woman said that this was a just punishment for her bad behaviour to Christ and His disciples. But the husband was smitten with anger and said: “There has been no Christ here, but a very vile rogue.” So with his neighbours he went in pursuit and found them in a certain town. Then the false Christ said to him he called Peter: “Now my Passion draws near, Peter, and the cup which I am to drink.” Peter answered: “And, Lord, I think it threatens me also.” He replied: “Peter, I can in no other wise escape from this than by the window.” Peter answered: “And as long as I live I will not leave you, but will follow you wherever you go.” So they escaped through the window, and the other Apostles by whatever means they could: but the peasants followed them smiting them with staves and ropes, saying: “Prophesy unto us, thou Christ and thy Apostles, in what forest did these sticks grow.” So, being chastened with blows, they thereafter chastened their lives, saying: “It is hard for us to bear the Passion of Christ and the persecutions of the Apostles as well.” This story is told in the Chronicles of Poland.
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Chapter V.
The Men of Old Accredited Witches with Marvellous Deeds.
Argument.
John of Salisbury[1] says that, when God permits, witches can with the help of demons shake the elements together and alter the true appearance of things. They can foretell much of the future. They confuse the minds of men with dreams; and merely by the potency of their charms can cause death, etc. Saxo Grammaticus[2] writes that giants and sorcerers in the North practised unheard-of wonders with various illusions, and could so skilfully deceive men’s eyes that they hid their own features and those of others under various fantasms, and obscured the true shape of things under seductive forms, and did other marvels like those which we have already told of Simon Magus. Pythagoras made his thigh appear to be golden, and by his spells tamed an eagle with which he often conversed. Baianus[3] the King of Bulgaria was
