Prolicionycion [sic]

¶ Capitulum 16

ABoute saynt matheus feste the danes beseged Caunterbery and the twenty daye of the syege the cyte was taken / and sette on fyre / and that by tresonne of Almarus the Deken / that saynt Elphegus had byfore saued from dethe / Thabbot of seynt Austyns was suffred for to go his wey / crystes flocke were ty∣thed / the / ix / were slayne / & the / x / was kepte / of hem that were slayne / somme were slayne with yren / and some throwen down from hygh places / somme hanged by the pryuy membrys & som drawen by the heere / Amonge the whiche Elphegus the Bisshop was taken and bounde seuen monethes / & greued and despysed with many maner paynes / Therfor goddes wrath felle vppon the peple / that slough soo men / that sorow of her bowels slough & des∣troyed of hem / now by / x / now by / xx / & so a grete nombre / than the danes were warned by crysten men that they shold do the bis¦shops gre / but they dyfferted it & abide therwith / for on ester euē

they gaf the bisshop chois whether he wold pay thre thousād pond owther leese his lyf / he forsoke at her profre / & prayde mekely his crysten men / and forbade them hyghly that none of hem shol∣de pay for his raunsome / therfor the danes were wroth and kene and the next saterday after the danes were wyne dronken / & ledd oute the bisshop and slough hym with stones and with rotheren bones / That saterdaye felle twelue dayes byfore maij / whan the bisshop was dede he was not buryed til on the morn / whan a drye tree was touched with a drope of the blode it wax grene ageyn / Than the nexte daye after his bodye was brought to london / and buryed worshipfully in seynt paulus chirche / But afterward by graunte of kanutus kyng of danes he was brought all hoole in bodye to his owne chirche / ¶ W / de / r / li / 2 / After that this Alphegus had taken monkes habyte at dirhust / he lyued as an Anker at bathe / and gadred there monkes afterward and as it fallyth ofte in agreete college / these monkes drough hem alle to euyll maner of doynge / For vnwyttyng the fader somme of hem made festes by nyghte in outrage and in drynkynge to the daye lyght / But the banyour of this euyll doynge / fyl dede by wreche of god in the myddel of the hows that they drank in / The fader was war therof by noys that he herde / and come to the wyndow and sawe twey fendes bete that body / and the wretche axed helpe Nay sayde the fendes / thou were not obedyent to god / so we shal not be obedyēte to the / On a tyme saynt andrew / appered to dun¦stan & by coūseyle of seynt andrew alphegus was made bisshop of wynchestre and ete neuer flessh / but he was seeke / By nyghte ••e wolde begyle his wardeyns and stonde in the water to the gyr∣del stede / and worship god and pray hym to the day lyght / Whanne he had be bisshop of wynchestre two and twenty yere / he was made Archebisshop of Caunterbury ayenst his wylle / But as he went to Rome for the palle / he was robbed in a strete of al that he hadde / therfore god toke wreche of that streete / soo that the strete waxe on fyre / than the men of that streete knowheched her trespaas and restored ageyne al that was his / Than they sawe that the fyre was quenched atte prayer of saynt elphegus / ¶ Marianus / ¶ After Sergyus the eyghtenth benet was pope twelue yere / Of hym peter damianus sayth / that a bisshop sawe hym sitte on a blac hors greuously tormented / therfor he prayd the Bisshop that saw that syght that he shold go to his successour the / xx / iohan / and praye hym to doo almes dede for hym of the

money that was in suche a cheste / For al that was deled for hym byfore / stode hym in no stede / For it was of thefte and rob¦berye / soo it was don and than that bisshop wente in to an Ab¦bay / This yere twey dayes byfore october the see ouerflowed and passed the clyues and d••••ynt many men and townes / Henricus libro sexto / Suanus kynge of danes sayled aboute eestenglond that conteyneth northfolk / and southfolk / and come with his na¦uey in to humbre / and passed forth by the ryuer Trente to geynil burgh· than the men that dwellyd by / the north watlyng streete swar / fewte to hym & bytoke hym pledgys / & he bitoke his nauey and these pledgys to his sone canutus / whyle he wente to destroye south mercia / and slough the men and kepte the women to flesshe∣ly lykynge of hym / and his men / Than he toke oxenford and wynchestre / but as he went toward london and sought no brydge he lost many of his men in the Ryuer of Temse. But by presence of kynge Egelredus he was put of at london and wente and wanne westsaxon / the londoners wente and sawe that / and sente hym pledges / than the kynge was abasshed and sente his wyf Emma to hir broder the second Rychard duc of normandy / and sente with hir his twey sones and the bisshop of l••ndon / In the meane tyme hyder and thyder at wyght he helde so his mydwyn¦ter tyde. Atte laste he was withoute cataylle and comforte / and sayled in to normandy / than kyng Suanus was the more prou∣de / and to eche owne dampnacion be chalenged greete trybute of seynt edmunds the martirs cyte & menaced that but the trybute were payd he wold slee the men & sette the cyte on fyre / Also he despysed and scorned saynt edmond with all that he couth / But whanne euen come he was stykked with saynt edmondes swerde in the myddel of his owne knyghtes / atte toune of geynisburgh ānd cryed in the departyng of day and nyght / and dyed the thir¦de day of Februar / His sone canutus sawe that and dyd myldly with seynt edmond and made a dyche aboute saynt Edmundes land and graūted hym fredom / and discharged the place of all maner seruyce / and buylde a chirche ouer the martirs body / and ordeyned there monkes and yaue hem money landes and ren∣tes / therafter it was vsed that kynges of englonde sente her crou¦nes to seynt Edmond / and yf they wolde vse or were hem after∣ward they sholde pay therfor moche money and haue hem ayene ¶ The collectours of trybute that were ful cruel in other pla∣ces of englonde there be mylde and easy and softe pl••tynges on

this half saynt edmondes dyche /