S. ANTHONY
S. Anthony was born in Egypt of good and religious father and mother, and when he was but twenty years old, he heard on a time in the church read in the gospel, that said: 'If thou wilt be perfect, go sell all that thou hast and give it to poor men'; and then according thereto he sold all that he had, and gave it to the poor people and became an hermit. He had overmany temptations of the devil. On a time when he had overcome the spirit of fornication, the devil came to him in the form of a little child all black, and fell down at his feet and confessed that he was the devil of fornication, which S. Anthony had desired and prayed to see him, for to know him that so tempted young people. Then said S. Anthony: 'Sith I have perceived that thou art so foul a thing, I shall never doubt thee.'
A great multitude of devils so much beat him that his servant bare him upon his shoulders in to his house as he had been dead. When the other hermits were assembled and wept his death, and would have done his service, suddenly S. Anthony revived and made his servant to bear him into the pit again where the devils had so evil beaten him, and began to summon the devils again, which had beaten him, to battles. And anon they came in form of divers beasts wild and savage, of whom that one howled,
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