The old English versions of the Gesta Romanorum: edited for the first time from manuscripts in the British Museum and University Library, Cambridge, with an introduction and notes / By Sir Frederic Madden. Printed for the Roxburghe Club.

Date:
1838
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The old English versions of the Gesta Romanorum: edited for the first time from manuscripts in the British Museum and University Library, Cambridge, with an introduction and notes / By Sir Frederic Madden. Printed for the Roxburghe Club. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    is our Lord Jhesu Criste, the whiche bildithe in a perfite herte, vndir a clene and an holy conscience ; and ther he genderithe, sell. bringithe forthe goode vertuys. And he goithe by the medewe,* sell, out of suche a conscience, withe his briddis, scil. vertuys, whenne it is infecte ; and thenne comithe a toode, scil. the Deuelle, and entrithe into the nest, scil. the herte of the synner. But thenne the serpent comythe a3en, scil. our Lord, whenne that he hathe pyte of our wretchidnesse ; thenne he comithe, and knockithe at the dore of our hertys, as it is wretin in the Gospelle, Ecce sto ad hostium, et pulso ; si quis miclii apperuerit, cenabo cum illo, et ipse mecum, this is to sey, I stond at the dore, and knocke; who that openithe to me, I shalle sopye with him, and he with me. But alias ! for this toode, scil. the Develle, regnyd in the herds of manyf so stronglye thor3 hir continuaunce of synne, and not doyng penaunce, that God may not come yn,—what is remedye therfore ? forsothe for to drawe at the corde of the grace of God, scil. for to aske grace, and for to sette the conscience in to a clere way ; and thanne shal God entre into thyn herte, and he schalle 3eve to the a stone, scil. vertue, bi the whiche thi soule shalle have li3t, Ad quam nos perducat. Amen. [ VIII. ] EMPERATOR FOLLICULUS. [c. 2.] Folliculus was a wise Emperour regnyd in the cite of Rome ; he was mercifulle, and r^twis in his werkis, and he made a worthi tour in the eest, in the whiche he put alle his tresour and precius iewelis ; and the wey toward the cite was stony, thorny, and scroggy; and iij. armyd kny3t,ys were in the same wey, to fi3te with alle that euer come in that wey to the forsaide cite. And the forsaide Emperour made a proclamacione, that if ther were ony man that wolde goo to medewewe, M.S. t of many of many, M.S.