Corpus of Middle English Prose and Verse

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.

dunoe / whiche wold haue goon ouyr for to haue destroyed al the countré And whan constantyn hadde assembled hys hoost / He wente and sette them ageynst that other partye / but assone as he began to passe the ryuer: he was moche aferd / by cause he shold on the morn haue batayle / And in the nyght as he slepte in his bedde: an angel awoke hym· and shewed to hym the sygne of the crosse in heuen and sayd to hym: Beholde on hye on heuen / Thenne sawe he the crosse made of ryght clere lyght / and was wryten there vpon wyth lettres of gold / In this sygne thou shalt ouercome the batayle / Thenne was he alle comforted of this visyon / And on the morne / he put in his banere the crosse: and made it to be born tofore hym and his hoost. and after smo[te] in the hoost of his enemyes: and slewe and chaced grete plenté / After this he dyde doo calle the bysshoppes of the ydollis / and demaunded them to what god the sygne of the crosse apper|teyned: and whan the[y] coude not answere somme crysten men þat were there tolde to hym the mysterye of the crosse· and enformed him in the faith of the trynyté. Thenne anone he byleued parfytele in god / and dyde do baptyse hym [folio Cxxxii:1] and after it happed that constantyn his sone remembryd the vyc|torye of his fader: Sente to helayne his moder for to fynde the holy crosse Thenne helayn wen[t]e in to Iherusalem / and dyde doo assemble alle the wyse men of the countré: and whan they were assembled / they wolde fayne knowe wherfore they were called: Thenne one Iudas sayd to them: I wote wel þat she wyl knowe of vs where the crosse of Ihesu cryst was leyed: but beware you al / that none of you telle hyr / For I wote well thenne shal our lawe be destroyed For zacheus myn olde fader sayd to symon my fader / And my fader sayde to me at his deth: be wel ware: that for noo tourment that ye maye suffre / telle not where the crosse of Ihesu cryst was leyde For after that it shall be founden· the Iewes shall reygne no|more. but the crysten men that worshyppe the crosse shal thenne reygne. And verayly this Ihesus was the sone of god: Thenne demaunded I my fader: whe[r]fore had they hanged
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Title
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.
Author
Morris, Richard, ed. 1833-1894,
Canvas
Page 156
Publication
London,: Pub. for the Early English text society, by N. Trübner & co.,
1871.
Subject terms
Crosses -- Legends.

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"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." In the digital collection Corpus of Middle English Prose and Verse. https://name.umdl.umich.edu/aha2702.0001.001. University of Michigan Library Digital Collections. Accessed June 8, 2025.
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