Cecilie hem sayde with a ful stedefast chere;
'Now, Cristes owne knyghtes leef and deere,
Cast al away the werkes of derknes,
And armith you in armur of brightnes.1

'Ye han forsothe y-doon a greet batayle; Youre cours is doon, youre faith han ye conserved;" Goth to the coroun of lyf that may not fayle; The rightful jugge, which that ye han served, Schal geve it yow, as ye han it deserved.' And whan this thing was sayd, as I devyse, Men ladde hem forth to doon the sacrifise.

But whan they were to the place y-brought,
To telle schortly the conclusioun,

They nolde encense ne sacrifice right nought,'
But on her knees they setten hem adoun,
With humble hert and sad devocioun,
And leften bothe her heedes in that place;
Here soules wenten to the king of grace.

This Maximus, that say this thing betyde,
With pitous teeres tolde it anoon right,
That he here soules saugh to heven glyde
With aungels, ful of clernes and of light;
And with his word converted many a wight.
For which Almachius dede him so bete
With whippes of leed,* til he his lif
gan lete.
Cecilie him took, and buried him anoon

By Tiburce and Valirian softely,

Withinne hire berieng place, under the stoon.

3 This was the criterion. The Christians were brought to the image of Jupiter, or of the Emperor, and commanded to join in the sacrifice, by eating part of it, or to throw a few grains of incense into the censer, in token of worship; if they refused, they were put to death.-See Pliny's celebrated letter to Trajan. Those who complied were termed sacrificati, and thurificati by the canons, and were excluded from communion for seven or ten years, or even till their death, according to the circumstances of their lapse.-See Bingham's Antiquities, b. xvi. 4, 5.

4 With a cat-o'-nine tails knotted with lead. plumbatis tamdiu cædi fecit,' &c.-W. W.S.1

[The Latin is 'cum

And after this Almachius hastily

Bad his ministres fecchen openly
Cecilie, so that sche might in his presence
Doon sacrifice, and Jubiter encense.

But they, converted at hir wise lore,
Wepten ful sore, and gaven ful credence
Unto hir word, and cryden more and more;
'Crist, Goddes sone, withouten difference,
Is verray God, this is al oure sentence,
That hath so good a servaunt him to serve;
Thus with oon vois we trowen, though we sterve.'
Almachius, that herd of this doynge,

Bad fecchen Cecilie, that he might hir se;
And alther-first, lo, this was his axinge;
'What maner womman art thou?' quod he.
'I am a gentil-womman born,' quod sche.
'I axe the,' quod he, though the it greve,
Of thi religioun and of thi byleve.'

6

'Ye han bygonne your questioun folily,' Quod sche, 'that wolden tuo answers conclude In oo demaunde; ye axen lewedly.' Almache answerde to that similitude, 'Of whens cometh thin answering so rude?' 'Of whens?' quod sche, whan she was i-freyned, 'Of conscience, and of good faith unfeyned."

Almachius sayde, 'Takest thou noon heede Of my power?' and sche answerde him this; 'Youre might,' quod sche, 'ful litel is to drede; For every mortal mannes power nys But lyk a bladder ful of wynd I wis; For with a nedeles poynt, whan it is blowe, May al the bost of it be layd ful lowe.'

Ful wrongfully bygonnest thou,' quod he, And yet in wrong is thy perseveraunce. Wostow nought how oure mighty princes fre Han thus comaunded and maad ordinaunce, That every cristen wight schal han penaunce,

But if that he his Cristendom withseye,
And goon al quyt, if he wil it reneye?'

For ye

"Youre princes erre, as youre nobleye doth,'
Quod tho Cecilie; and with a wood sentence
Ye make us gulty, and it is nought soth;
that knowen wel oure innocence,
Forasmoche as we doon ay reverence
To Crist, and for we bere a Cristen name,
Ye putten on us a crim and eek a blame.
'But we that knowen thilke name so
For vertuous, we may it not withseye.'
Almache sayde, 'Cheese oon of these tuo,
Do sacrifice or Cristendom reneye,

That thou mow now eschapen by that weye.'
At which the holy blisful faire mayde
Gan for to laughe, and to the jugge sayde;
'O jugge confus in this nycete,
Wilt thou that I refuse innocence ?
To make me a wikked wight,' quod sche.
'Lo, he dissimuleth heer in audience,

He starith and woodith in his advertence.'

To whom Almachius sayde, 'Unsely wrecche,

Ne wostow nought how fer my might may strecch Han nought our mighty princes to me y-given,

·

Ye bothe power and eek auctorite

To maken folk to deyen or to lyven?
Why spekestow so proudly than to me?'
'I speke not but stedefastly,' quod sche,
Nought proudly, for I say, as for my syde,
We haten deedly thilke vice of pryde.

'And if thou drede nought a soth to heere,
Than wol I schewe al openly by right,
That thou hast maad a ful greet lesyng heere.
Thou saist, thy princes han i-give the might
Bothe for to sleen and eek to quike a wight,
Thou that ne maist but oonly lif byreve,
Thou hast noon other power ne no leve.

But thou maist sayn, thi princes han the maked Minister of deth: for if thou speke of moo, Thow liest; for thy power is ful naked.' 'Do way thy lewednes,' sayd Almachius tho, 'And sacrifice to oure goddes, er thou go.

I recche naught what wrong that thou me profre, For I can suffre it as a philosophre.

'But thilke wronges may I not endure,

That thou spekis of oure goddis her,' quod he.
Cecilie answered, 'O nice creature,

Thou saydest no word sins thou spak to me,

That I ne knew therwith thy nicete,

And that thou were in every maner wise

A lewed officer, a vein justise.

Ther lakketh no thing to thin outer eyen

That thou art blynde; for thing that we seen alle

That it is stoon, that men may wel aspien,
That ilke stoon a god thou wilt it calle.
I rede the, let thin hond upon it falle,

And tast it wel, and stoon thou schalt it fynde; Sith that thou seest not with thin eyghen blynde. 'It is a schame that the poeple schal

So scorne the, and laughe at thi folye;
For comunly men woot it wel over al,
That mighty God is in his heven hye;
And these ymages, wel thou mayst espie,
To the ne to hem self may nought profyte,
For in effect they ben nought worth a myte.'

Thise wordes and such other sayde sche;
And he wax wroth, and bad men schold hir lede
Hom to hir hous; 'And in hir hous,' quod he,
'Brenne hir right in a bath of flammes rede.'
And as he bad, right so was doon the dede;
For in a bath thay gonne hir faste schetten,
And nyght and day greet fuyr they under betten.
The longe night, and eek a day also,

For al the fuyr, and eek the bathes hete,
Sche sat al cold, and felte of it no woo,

It made hir not oon drope for to swete.
But in that bath hir lif sche moste lete;
For he Almachius, with ful wikke entente,
To sleen hir in the bath his sondes sente.

Thre strokes in the nek he smot hir tho
The tormentour, but for no maner chaunce
He might nought smyte hir faire necke a-tuo.
And for ther was that tyme an ordinaunce
That no man scholde do man such penaunce
The ferthe strok to smyten, softe or sore,
This tormentour ne dorste do no more;

But half deed, with hir nekke corven there
He laft hir lye, and on his way he went.
The cristen folk, which that about hir were,
With scheetes han the blood ful faire y-hent;
Thre dayes lyved sche in this torment,
And never cessed hem the faith to teche,
That sche had fostred1 hem, sche gan to preche.
And hem sche gaf hir moebles and hir thing,
And to the pope Urban bytook hem tho,
And sayd, 'I axe this of heven kyng,
To have respit thre dayes and no mo,
To recomende to yow, er that I go,

These soules lo, and that I mighte do wirche
Heer of myn hous perpetuelly a chirche.'

Seynt Urban, with his dekenes prively
The body fette, and buried it by nighte
Among his other seyntes honestely.

Hir hous the chirch of seynt Cecily yit highte;"
Seynt Urban halwed it, as he wel mighte;
In which into this day in noble wyse

Men doon to Crist and to his seint servise.

1 Harl MS., suffred. The meaning of the text seems to be, 'she

preached to them that faith in which she had fostered them.'

2 It is now a church in Rome, and gives a title to a cardinal.