Legends of the holy rood; Symbols of the passion and cross poems. In Old English of the eleventh, fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries. Edited from Mss. in the British Museum and Bodleian Libraries, with introduction, translations, and glossarial index, by Richard Morris.

had ben thus In Iherusalem vnto the destruction of the Cyté. And fro thens hit was born in to the Royame of agryppe of Crysten men / And fro thens it was brought agayn in to the countree. and it was lefte to me by my parentes by ryghtfull herytage / and this was done in the yere of our lord seuen hondred and l.

And thenne all the Iewes halowed theyr synagogues in to the chyrches and therof cometh the custome that Chyrches ben halowed: For to-fore that tyme the aultres were but halowed only / and for this myracle the chyrche hath ordeyned / that the fyfte kalendas of decembre / Or as [Misprinted at in orig.] it is redde in an other place: the fyfte ydus of Nouembre shold be the memorye of the passyon of our lord / wherfore at rome the chyrche is halowed in thonore of our sauyour / where as is kepte an ampulle wyth the same blood: and there a [folio CClxixb:1] solempne feste is kepte and done / and there is proued þe ryght grete vertu of the crosse vnto the paynems and to the mysbyleued men in all thynges / And saint gregory recordeth in the thyrde booke of his dyalogues: that whan andrewe bisshop of the Cyté of fundane suffred an hooly nonne to dwelle [dwedlle in orig.] wyth hym / the fende thenemy began Temprynte in his herte the beaulté of her / in suche wyse / that he thoughte in his bedde wycked and cursyd thynges / And on a daye a Iewe came to rome and whan he sawe that the daye fayled and myght fynde no lodgynge. he wente that nyght / and abode in the Temple of appollin / and by cause he doubted of the sacrylege of the place / how bee it that he hadde no fayth in the Crosse· yet he markyth and garnysshed hym wyth the sygne of þe crosse: thenne at mydnight whan he awoke / he sawe a companye of euyll spyrytes: whiche wente to-fore one Lyke as he hadde somme auctoryté of puyssaunce aboue thother by subiection / and thenne he sawe hym sytte in the middes a-monge the other: and began to enquyre the causes and dedes of eueryche of thyse euylle spyrytes: whiche obeyed hym / and he wold knowe what euylle eueryche hadde do / But gregory passyth the maner of this vysyon / By cause of shortnes· But we fynde semblable