| Quotation |
XXXVIII Gregorius: Hac de re nil, Petre, mireris. nam Redemptum, Ferentini episcopum, vitae venerabilis virum, qui ante hos fere annos septem ex hoc mundo migravit, dilectio tua cognitum habuit. Hic, sicut mihi adhuc in monasterio posito valde familiariter iungebatur, hoc quod, Iohannis iunioris prodecessoris mei tempore, de mundi fine cognoverat, sicut longe lateque clauerat, a me requisitus mihi ipse narrabat. aiebat namque, qiua quodam die, cum parrochias suas ex more circuiret, pervenit ad aecclesiam. Beati martyris Iutici. advesperescente autem die stratum sibi fieri iuxta sepluchrum martyris voluit, adque ibi post laborem qievit. cum nocte media, ut adserebat, nec dormiebat, nec perfecte vigilare poterat, sed depraessus, ut solit, gravabatur quodam pondere, vigilans animus, adque ante eum isdem beatus martyr Iuticus adstetit, dicens: "Redempte, vigilas?", cui respondit: "vigilo". qui ait "finis venit universae carni; finis venit universae carni; finis venit universae carni."
post quam trinam vocem, visio martyris, quae eius mentis oculis apparebat, evanuit. tunc ... |
| Translation |
(38) GREGORY. Wonder nothing at this, Peter, for you knew very well Redemptus, Bishop of the city of Ferenti, a man of venerable life, who died almost seven years since: with whom I had familiar acquaintance, by reason that he dwelt not far from the Abbey in which I lived. This man, when I asked him (for the matter was very well known far and near), told me that which by divine revelation he had learned concerning the end of the world, in the time of John the younger, who was my predecessor. For he said that upon a certain day, as he was, according to his manner, visiting of his diocese, he came to the church of the blessed martyr Euthicius: and when it was night he would needs be lodged nigh to the sepulchre of the martyr, where after his travel he reposed himself. About midnight, being, as he said himself, neither perfectly waking, nor yet sleeping, but rather heavy of sleep, he felt his waking soul oppressed with great sorrow: and being in that case, he saw the same blessed martyr Euthicius standing before him, who spake thus: "Art thou waking, Redemptus?" to whom he answered, that he was. Then the martyr said: "The end of all flesh is come: the end of all flesh is come": which words after he had repeated thus three times, he vanished out of his sight.
Then the man of God rose up, and fell to his prayers with many tears: and straight after, those fearful sights in heaven followed; to wit, fiery lances, and armies appearing from the north. Straight after likewise the barbarous and cruel nation of the Lombards, drawn as a sword out of a sheath, left their own country, and invaded ours: by reason whereof the people, which before for the huge multitude were like to thick cornfields, remain now withered and overthrown: for cities be wasted, towns and villages spoiled, churches burnt, monasteries of men and women destroyed, farms left desolate, and the country remaineth solitary and void of men to till the ground, and destitute of all inhabitants: beasts possessing those places, where before great plenty of men did dwell.
And how it goeth in other parts of the world I know not, but here in this place where we live, the world doth not foretell any end, but rather sheweth that which is present and already come. Wherefore so much the more zealously ought we to seek after eternal things, by how much we find all temporal so quickly to be fled and gone. Surely this world were to be contemned, although it did flatter us, and with pleasant prosperity contented our mind: but now, seeing it is fraught with so many miseries and divers afflictions, and that our sorrows and crosses do daily increase and be doubled, what doth it else but cry unto us that we should not love it?
Many more things yet remain of the worthy acts of God's servants, but because I have resolved now upon another course, I will now pass them over with silence. |
