Polychronicon Ranulphi Higden maonachi Cestrensis; together with the English translations of John Trevisa and of an unknown writer of the fifteenth century.

Capitulum vicesimum.

FREDERICUS the firste, after Conradus, was emperoure off Alemayne and of Rome xxvij. yere. This emperoure did

mony wicked dedes after the dethe of Alexander þe pope, whiche hade crownede hym or Adrian in drawenge to iiij. men electe into the pope ageyne the lawe of God, and trowblede soore the kynge of Fraunce, to whom the pope fledde for socoure. Neverthelesse he was expulsede from Fraunce by helpe of Richarde kynge of Ynglonde, but afore his departynge he destroyede utterly þe walles of the cite Mediolan, in the yere of oure Lorde God a M.C. lxij. This emperoure, after [folio 358b] grete tribulacion and iniury doen to þe pope, and dredynge the rebellion of Lumbardes, askede forȝifnesse of þe pope, and soe he was merkede there with the signe of the crosse that he myȝhte goe to the Holy Londe, where he was drownede soone after in a lytelle water nye to Armeny, and was beryede at the cite callede Tirus. And a noble yonge man his sonne diede at the sege of the cite of Acon, and allemoste alle the nobilite of Cristen peple. Anastasius the thridde succedid

Eugenius the pope ij. yere. In whiche yere seynte Bernarde diede, abbot Clarevall, whiche entrede the ordre Cisterciense with xxx. felawes in the xxij^ti yere of his age, and was made abbot Clarevall after the v^the yere of his conversion. Where he wakede as excedynge þe nature of man, seyenge that he loste noo tyme but when he slepede, assimblenge slepe to dethe; whiche wente also to his meite as to tormente, insomoche that he hade loste discrecion of meytes for his huge abstinence, takynge and drynkynge oyle ofte tymes for wyne, seyenge þat þer was noo licoure that savoured his mowthe or that he myȝhte discerne in that hit made his chekes colde. And that connynge that he hade he gate hit by meditacions and preiers in woodes and feldes, seyenge ofte that he hade noo

techer but okes and beche tres. The seide holy man hade poore clothes, but thei were clene, seyenge that the clothynge of man did represente his lyfe, usynge to say ofte this proverbe: "A man that doethe a thynge whiche noon other man usethe, causethe alle men to mervayle." Seynte Bernarde was wonte to say to novices willynge to entre into that religion in this wise: "If ye intende to kepe the observaunce of the religion, leve youre bodies here whom ye have brouȝhte from the worlde, and lete the sawles entre into religion as ac|cordynge to theym, for the body profitethe not." This holy [Sic in MS.] was founde at alle tymes other preyenge, redynge, wrytynge, in meditacion, other in techynge his brether. At the laste he knowynge in spiritte dethe to drawe nere, in the yere of oure Lorde God a M.C. and liii^ti, callynge his breþer to hym, mony|schede theyme to kepe iij. thynges, whom he seide to have kepede in alle his life after his powere. "I wyllede not in my

lyfe to sclawnder eny man, and if y hade knowlege of eny sclawnder y did sease hit to my powere. Also y toke lesse credence to myne awne wytte then to the reason of an other [folio 358b] man; also y askede never vengeaunce on a man that hurte and trowblede me." And so this blissede seynte Bernarde, noble wryter, specially of those thynges whiche towche the incarnacion of Criste, the doer also of mony miracles, and the edifyer of a c. and lx. monasterys, diede in Criste. Ranulphus, the iiij^the erle of Chestre after the Conqueste, dyed in this yere, whom Hew the secunde, and sonne to hym, did succede xxix. yere, which did mony noble thynges in his lyfe. Also kynge Steven diede in the same yere at the monastery of Faverisham in Kente, whiche monastery he edifiede and founded, and was beryede þer. In the tyme of this kynge a knyȝhte, Owen by name, entrede into the purgatory of seynte Patrikk abbot, whiche returnede from that purgatory taryede after in the

monastery Ludense of the ordre Cisterciense in Yrlonde, re|hersynge ioyes and peynes that he see.