London, and after a conference had been held thereon with due deliberation, it pleased all that our lord the king should consult thereupon Philip, king of France, his liege lord; upon which the council breaking up, our lord the king gave to all his subjects, both clergy and laity, permission to assume the cross. Accordingly, Baldwin, archbishop of Canterbury, Ranulph, justiciary of England, Walter, archbishop of Rouen, and Hugh, bishop of Durham, together with many others of the bishops from both sides of the sea, and nearly all the earls, barons, and knights of England, Normandy, Aquitaine, Brittany, Anjou, Maine, and Touraine, assumed the cross; at the period of the assumption of which a certain miraculous event took place.

For on a certain day, a woman who had secretly become pregnant, finding that the time of her labour was approaching, fled from the house of her father, in consequence of her wish to avoid being detected in her transgression; when be hold! a mighty tempest of wind and rain overtook her in her flight, as she was wandering alone in the fields and begging the Lord for His assistance and a place of refuge. Upon finding that her prayers were not instantly listened to by the Lord, she fell into a fit of desperation, saying, "If thou, God, dost despise my prayers, then may the Devil succour me;" immediately upon which the Devil made his appearance to her under the form of a young man, barefoot and girt up as though for a journey, and said to the woman, "Follow me.' As they passed along the road they met with a sheepfold in a field, on which the Devil ran before and got ready a fire in the sheepfold, and a seat made of fresh straw, upon which the woman followed him, and, entering the place, warmed herself before the fire. While so doing, she said, "I am thirsty, and am quite famished with hunger;" to which the Devil made answer, "Wait a little, and I will bring you bread and drink." While he was gone [to fetch this], two men, who happened to be passing along the road, seeing a fire in the sheepfold, wondered what it could be, and coming nearer, entered the sheepfold; where, finding the pregnant woman lying down near the fire, they asked her who it was that had made the fire for her, to which she made answer, "The Devil." On this they enquired of her where he was, when she replied, "I was hungry and thirsty, and he has gone to find me some victuals and drink." On hearing this, they said to her,

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faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and in the glorious Virgin Mary, His mother, and they shall deliver you from the hand of the enemy; and be sure to enquire of him what shall come to pass;" after saying which, they went to a village that was near at hand, and related to the clergy and the people what they had seen and heard upon the road.

In the meantime, the Devil returned, and bringing with him bread and water, refreshed the woman; after which, stooping down, she gave birth to a male child, which the Devil taking up, performed the duties of midwife, and was warming it before the fire, when, lo! the priest of the village before-mentioned came to the sheepfold, armed with the Catholic faith, the cross, and holy water, and attended by the clergy and a great number of people. Finding that she was delivered, he was sprinkling the child, which the Devil was holding in his arms, with holy water, in the name of the holy and undivided Trinity, when the Devil, being utterly unable to endure it, took to flight, and, carrying the child away with him, appeared to them no more. On this, the woman, returning to herself, exclaimed, "Now do I know of a truth that the Lord hath delivered me from the hands of the enemy;" and she then related to them that she had been informed by the Devil, that, since the time when Jesus Christ prevailed over hell, there had not been so great sorrow or lamentation in hell as there was now, in consequence of the assumption of the cross: but, said she, his sorrow will be turned into joy, because so great will be the iniquities and offences of the Crusaders, that the Lord will blot them out of the Book of Life, and many of them, forsaking the religion of the cross, will become persecutors of the cross and of the name of Christ—a thing that afterwards proved to be the case.

Our lord the king next came to Windsor, and there, on the Lord's day on which is sung 55 "Latare, Jerusalem," ["Rejoice, O Jerusalem,"] which this year fell on the day, before the calends of April, he dubbed his son John a knight, and immediately after sent him to Ireland, appointing him king thereof. In the meantime, a mighty earthquake was heard throughout nearly the whole of England, such as had not been heard in that

65 The commencement of the introit on the Fourth Sunday in Lent. 56 The word is "auditus;" at the present day we speak of feeling an earthquake, and, in general, not of hearing one.

land since the beginning of the world; for rocks were split asunder, houses of stone fell down, and the metropolitan church of Lincoln was rent from top to bottom. This earthquake took place on the day after Palm Sunday, that is to say, on the seventeenth day before the calends of May; and on the day after the said earthquake our lord the king of England, Heraclius, the Patriarch, and Hugh, bishop of Durham, with many of the principal men of England, crossed over between Dover and Witsand. After his arrival in Normandy, our lord the king of England raised a considerable army, and then sent word to his son Richard, earl of Poitou, who had fortified Poitou against him, and had taken prisoner his brother Geoffrey, earl of Brittany, that unless he delivered up to his mother Eleanor the whole of Poitou freely and quietly, he would visit him with a rod of iron, and war against him with all the power of his might. Upon receiving this command, the said Richard, ceasing all hostilities, delivered up Poitou to his mother, and, returning to his father, remained with him like an obedient son.

In the meantime, on the calends of May, being the day of the Apostles, Saint Philip and Saint James, about mid-day, a total eclipse of the sun was seen, which was followed by thunder and lightning, and a mighty tempest; from the effects of which men and animals perished, and many houses, being set on fire thereby, were burned to the ground. After this, Philip, king of France, and Henry, king of England, holding a conference as to giving aid to the land of Jerusalem, promised that they would afford it ample assistance both in men and money but, for all this the before-named Patriarch cared but little, as he had been in hopes that he should be enabled to bring back with him, for the defence of the land of Jerusalem, the before-named king of England, or one of his sons, or else some other person high in authority; but, being unable to effect this, he retired from the court in sorrow and confusion on his return to his country.

In the same year, Walter, the archbishop elect of Rouen, received the pall from pope Lucius, and immediately consecrated Gilbert de Glanville, who had been presented with the bishopric of Rochester by the king of England. In this year also, John, the king's son, coming into Ireland, was honorably received by John, the archbishop of Dublin, and the other

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subjects of his father, who had preceded him; however, as he thought fit to shut up everything in his own purse, 56 and was unwilling to pay their wages to his soldiers, he lost the greater part of his army in several conflicts with the Irish, and being at last reduced to want [of troops], after appointing justices and distributing his knights in various places for the defence of the country, he returned to England.

In the month of December, in this year, pope Lucius departed this life; and was succeeded in the papacy by pope Urban the Third; who immediately thereupon, in order that notice thereof might be universally given, wrote to the prelates of the Holy Church to the following effect:

The Letter of pope Urban on his Election.

"Urban, the bishop, servant of the servants of God, to his venerable brethren the archbishops and bishops, and to his dearly beloved sons the abbats, priors, and other prelates of churches, to whom these letters shall come, health and the

Apostolic benediction. The exalted counsels of heaven, retaining in their dispensations a constant supervision thereof, have founded the Holy Church of Rome, to the governance whereof, insufficient as we are, we have been chosen, upon a rock which is based upon the solidity of the faith; bestowing upon her that foundation in the strength of the Apostolic confession, that so neither the outbreaks of the storm, nor the winds of the tempest can prevail against her. Wherefore it is that the universal Mother Church, ever retaining wit hher the Saviour, even unto the end of the world, has so, as expressed in the Song of Solomon," 57 embraced him whom she loved," that, by reason of no change of events or of times, can she be separated from the singleness of her faith, or the fixedness of her affection. For although, by reason of the repeated changes of her pastors as they depart, she has frequently fallen into various perils, or in consequence of the attacks of the wickedness of this world has endured persecutions and labours innumerable, still, never has the Divine favour forsaken her, any further than that she might perfect her strength in some temptation, and thence obtain the joyous fulfilment of her hope, on receiving thereby a strengthening of her faith. The Lord thus dealing towards her, within these few days as a mark of His goodness, although no slight grief and sorrow affected her for the death of the pious 56* He more than once alludes to the avarice of John. 57 Probably in allusion to ch. vii, 10.

father Lucius, Divine Providence has preserved her in the unity of the spirit and in the bond of peace, so that after the sorrow of the evening joy came in the morning, and she, like a most beauteous dove, rejoicing amid her sighs, retained her beauty without a ruffle even or a spot upon her whiteness. Now, after the decease of the father of pious memory, our predecessor, Lucius, our lord the pope, when his most venerable body had been honorably entombed, there was held by the brethren a conference as to the election of a successor, at which there was such unity among all, and such concord of each with the other, that He may be supposed to have wrought upon them, in whose hands are the hearts of all men, and through whom the diversity of minds is reconciled. But, while in the church of God, there were many venerable and prudent men, of whom it is our belief that their votes might have more prudently and more worthily have made choice, inefficient as we are, they turned their eyes upon us; and it was done accordingly as it pleased the Lord, in that they made choice of us as their father and shepherd, who have neither strength nor merits to suffice to the elevation of a dignity so great. However, although we were fully conscious to ourselves of our own infirmities, so as to believe that we might, not without good reason, have offered resistance to their proposals; still, to the end that through delay in the transaction or pertinacity in making resistance, no danger might ensue to the Church, although unwillingly, we consented to undertake the labour of the burden entrusted to us; hoping that our steps would be guided by Him who bestowed on Saint Peter, when sailing on the waves, faith even to that degree that he went down into the sea, and went forth to meet Him in the midst thereof, that doubting he might not perish. Now therefore, being placed in such a position and office, as to require to be aided therein by the suffrages of all the faithful, to you do we resort, as especial sons of the Roman Church, with full confidence and security, and, prefacing with the salutation of the Apostolic benediction, we do by these familiar letters admonish you, and do earnestly request and exhort you in the Lord, that, attending the death of our before-named father and lord Lucius, with the devout suffrages of your prayers, you will especially pay to ourselves that fidelity and duty which is owed to us, in virtue of your respect for Saint Peter and Saint Paul the Apostles and the Apostolic See, by all of you in common, that by so doing, you may be enabled both to obtain your