storie telliþ how Zacarie mistrowide. And so Luk telliþ, how Zacharie seide to þe aungel, Wherof shal Y wite þis, þat Y shal gete a child; for I am an oold man, and my wif is passid in eelde? Here þis Zacharie trowide not to þe aungel; but Marie trowide to þis aungel þat he seide her soþ, but she wolde be certefied more of þe manere. And þus sum men reden as two wordis þis axing, On what manere shal þis be, for I knowe not man. But þis Zacarie mistrowide, and maad þerto his evy|dence; and so boþe þes weren troublid, but Zacarie more, for þe troubling of hym refte him bileve. But Gabriel telde him, wherfore he shulde trowe. For I am Gabriel, þat stonde bifore God, and I am sent of him to telle þee þes good tiþingis; and siþ it is þus, I mote nedis seie soþ, for I mai not see but treuþe in þe book of liif, and an aungel þat is confermed mai not lye to a man. And lo, þou shalt be domb, and þou shalt not mowe ['mowe' is the lost infinitive of the verb 'may;' it is the English form corresponding to the German 'mögen.' It occurs in this place in both Wycliffite versions.] speke unto þe dai þat þes þingis be done; and þis penance shalt þou have, for þou trowedist not to my wordis, which shal be fild in þes tyme. And here mai we se, bi logik of þis aungel, how al þing mote nede be; for noþing mai ever be but þat þat [So E; om. A.] God haþ ordeyned to be in his tyme; for ellis hadde Gabriel seid fals, þat he myȝte not speke til þanne.
And þe peple abood Zacarie, and wondride þat he tariede in þe temple. And whanne he cam out, he myȝte not speke to þe peple; and þei wisten þat he hadde seen sum visioun in þe temple. And he was bekenynge to hem, and dwelte dombe for þe tyme. And whanne þe daies of his office weren fulfillid, he wente hoom to his hous, and þanne was Joon geten. And after þes daies conseyved Elizabeth his wiif; and she hid hir for shame fyve moneþis aftir. And she seide to hirsilf; For þus haþ oure Lord do to me, in þe daies þat he caste to take awey my reprofe among men. And þus cam Elizbeth hoom, whanne she feelide þat Joon was quike; and so he myȝte witnesse þe comyng of Crist in þe wombe of Marie, whanne she cam to Elizabeth. For Joon made þanne joie in manere of dansing in presence of
