And then she said:
Sir, hast thou seen the sweven that I have seen? I have seen, said he, that
I am greatly amarvelled of, and am sore afraid what we shall do. And his
wife said: It is more profitable for us to obey her, than to run into the
ire of her God, whom she preacheth. For which cause they received them into
their house, and ministered to them all that was necessary and needful to
them. Then as Mary Magdalene preached on a time, the said prince said to
her: Weenest thou that thou mayst defend the law that thou preachest? And
she answered: Certainly, I am ready to defend it, as she that is confirmed
every day by miracles, and by the predication of our master, Saint Peter,
which now sitteth in the see at Rome. To whom then the prince said: I and
my wife be ready to obey thee in all things, if thou mayst get of thy god
whom thou preachest, that we might have a child. And then Mary Magdalene
said that it should not be left, and then prayed unto our Lord that he would
vouchsafe of his grace to give to them a son. And our Lord heard her prayers,
and the lady conceived. Then her husband would go to Saint Peter for to wit
if it were true that Mary Magdalene had preached of Jesu Christ. Then his
wife said to him: What will ye do sir, ween ye to go without me? Nay, when
thou shalt depart, I shall depart with thee, and when thou shalt return again
I shall return, and when thou shalt rest and tarry, I shall rest and tarry.
To whom her husband answered, and said: Dame, it shall not be so, for thou
art great, and the perils of the sea be without number. Thou mightest lightly
perish, thou shalt abide at home and take heed to our possessions. And this
lady for nothing would not change her purpose, but fell down on her knees
at his feet sore weeping, requiring him to take her with him. And so at last
he consented, and granted her request. Then Mary Magdalene set the sign of
the cross on their shoulders, to the end that the fiend might not empesh
ne let them in their journey. Then charged they a ship abundantly of all
that was necessary to them, and left all their things in the keeping of Mary
Magdalene, and went forth on their pilgrimage. And when they had made their
course, and sailed a day and a night, there arose a great tempest and orage.
And the wind increased and grew over hideous, in such wise that this lady,
which was great, and nigh the time of her childing, began to wax feeble,
and had great anguishes for the great waves and troubling of the sea, and
soon after began to travail, and was delivered of a fair son, by occasion
of the storm and tempest, and in her childing died. And when the child was
born he cried for to have comfort of the teats of his mother, and made a
piteous noise. Alas! what sorrow was this to the father, to have a son born
which was the cause of the death of his mother, and he might not live, for
there was none to nourish him. Alas! what shall this pilgrim do, that seeth
his wife dead, and his son crying after the breast of his mother? And the
pilgrim wept strongly and said: Alas! caitiff, alas! What shall I do? I desired
to have a son, and I have lost both the mother and the son. And the mariners
then said: This dead body must be cast mto the sea, or else we all shall
perish, for as long as she shall abide with us, this tempest shall not cease.
And when they had taken the body for to cast it into the sea, the husband
said: Abide and suffer a little, and if ye will not spare to me my wife,
yet at least spare the little child that cryeth, I pray you to tarry a while,
for to know if the mother be aswoon of the pain, and that she might revive.
And whilst he thus spake to them, the shipmen espied a mountain not far from
the ship. And then they said that it was best to set the ship toward the
land and to bury it there, and so to save it from devouring of the fishes
of the sea. And the good man did so much with the mariners, what for prayers
and for money, that they brought the body to the mountain. And when they
should have digged for to make a pit to lay the body in, they found it so
hard a rock that they might not enter for hardness of the stone. And they
left the body there Iying, and covered it with a mantle; and the father laid
his little son at the breast of the dead mother and said weeping: O Mary
Magdalene, why camest thou to Marseilles to my great loss and evil adventure?
Why have I at thine instance enterprised this journey?
Hast thou required
of God that my wife should conceive and should die at the childing of her
son? For now it behoveth that the child that she hath conceived and borne,
perish because it hath no nurse. This have I had by thy prayer, and to thee
I commend them, to whom I have commended all my goods. And also I commend
to thy God, if he be mighty, that he remember the soul of the mother, that
he by thy prayer have pity on the child that he perish not. Then covered
he the body all about with the mantle, and the child also, and then returned
to the ship, and held forth his journey. And when he came to Saint Peter,
Saint Peter came against him, and when he saw the sign of the cross upon
his shoulder, he demanded him what he was, and wherefore he came, and he
told to him all by order. To whom Peter said: Peace be to thee, thou art
welcome, and hast believed good counsel. And be thou not heavy if thy wife
sleep, and the little child rest with her, for our Lord is almighty for to
give to whom he will, and to take away that he hath given, and to reestablish
and give again that he hath taken, and to turn all heaviness and weeping
into joy. Then Peter led him into Jerusalem, and showed to him all the places
where Jesu Christ preached and did miracles, and the place where he suffered
death, and where he ascended into heaven. And when he was well-informed of
Saint Peter in the faith, and that two years were passed sith he departed
from Marseilles, he took his ship for to return again into his country. And
as they sailed by the sea, they came, by the ordinance of God, by the rock
where the body of his wife was left, and his son. Then by prayers and gifts
he did so much that they arrived thereon. And the little child, whom Mary
Magdalene had kept, went oft sithes to the seaside, and, like small children,
took small stones and threw them into the sea. And when they came they saw
the little child playing with stones on the seaside, as he was wont to do.
And then they marvelled much what he was. And when the child saw them, which
never had seen people tofore, he was afraid, and ran secretly to his mother's
breast and hid him under the mantle. And then the father of the child went
for to see more appertly, and took the mantle, and found the child, which
was right fair, sucking his mother's breast. Then he took the child in his
arms and said: O blessed Mary Magdalene, I were well happy and blessed if
my wife were now alive, and might live, and come again with me into my country.
I know verily and believe that thou who hast given to me my son, and hast
fed and kept him two years in this rock, mayst well re-establish his mother
to her first health. And with these words the woman respired, and took life,
and said, like as she had been waked of her sleep: O blessed Mary Magdalene
thou art of great merit and glorious, for in the pains of my deliverance
thou wert my midwife, and in all my necessities thou hast accomplished to
me the service of a chamberer. And when her husband heard that thing he amarvelled
much, and said: Livest thou my right dear and best beloved wife? To whom
she said: Yea, certainly I live, and am now first come from the pilgrimage
from whence thou art come, and all in like wise as Saint Peter led thee in
Jerusalem, and showed to thee all the places where our Lord suffered death,
was buried and ascended to heaven, and many other places, I was with you,
with Mary Magdalene, which led and accompanied me, and showed to me all the
places which I well remember and have in mind.
And there recounted
to him all the miracles that her husband had seen, and never failed of one
article, ne went out of the way from the sooth. And then the good pilgrim
received his wife and his child and went to ship. And soon after they came
to the port of Marseilles. And they found the blessed Mary Magdalene preaching
with her disciples. And then they kneeled down to her feet, and recounted
to her all that had happened to them, and received baptism of Saint Maximin.
And then they destroyed all the temples of the idols in the city of Marseilles,
and made churches of Jesu Christ. And with one accord they chose the blessed
Saint Lazarus for to be bishop of that city. And afterward they came to the
city of Aix, and by great miracles and preaching they brought the people
there to the faith of Jesu Christ. And there Saint Maximin was ordained to
be bishop. In this meanwhile the blessed Mary Magdalene, desirous of sovereign
contemplation, sought a right sharp desert, and took a place which was ordained
by the angel of God, and abode there by the space of thirty years without
knowledge of anybody. In which place she had no comfort of running water,
ne solace of trees, ne of herbs. And that was because our Redeemer did do
show it openly, that he had ordained for her refection celestial, and no
bodily meats. And every day at every hour canonical she was lifted up in
the air of angels, and heard the glorious song of the heavenly companies
with her bodily ears. Of which she was fed and filled with right sweet meats,
and then was brought again by the angels unto her proper place, in such wise
as she had no need of corporal nourishing. It happed that a priest , which
desired to lead a solitary life, took a cell for himself a twelve-furlong
from the place of Mary Magdalene. On a day our Lord opened the eyes of that
priest , and he saw with his bodily eyes in what manner the angels descended
into the place where the blessed Magdalene dwelt, and how they lifted her
in the air, and after by the space of an hour brought her again with divine
praisings to the same place. And then the priest desired greatly to know
the truth of this marvellous vision, and made his prayers to Almighty God,
and went with great devotion unto the place. And when he approached nigh
to it a stone's cast, his thighs began to swell and wax feeble, and his entrails
began within him to lack breath and sigh for fear. And as soon as he returned
he had his thighs all whole, and ready for to go. And when he enforced him
to go to the place, all his body was in languor, and might not move. And
then he understood that it was a secret celestial place where no man human
might come, and then he called the name of Jesu, and said: I conjure thee
by our Lord, that if thou be a man or other creature reasonable, that dwellest
in this cave, that thou answer me, and tell me the truth of thee.
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