De infirmitate regis, et monasterii sui dedicatione Westmonasterii.
The King's Last Journey Home
Forewarned by an oracle, blessed Edward prepared for death by sending ahead prayers and alms as messengers to secure eternal welcome.
Instructed by such an oracle, therefore, blessed Edward foresaw his own death long before it came, and so when he was about to set out for his homeland, he carefully sent ahead fitting messengers — that is, prayers and tears.✦ But he also distributed treasures with a generous hand, making for himself friends out of the mammon of iniquity, who would receive him into eternal tabernacles.✦1
The Vow to Dedicate Westminster
Edward resolved to see his beloved church of blessed Peter consecrated before his death, planning the solemn dedication after the Christmas festivities on the feast of the Holy Innocents.
But now that the basilica of blessed Peter had been built, he wanted it dedicated before his death, judging it a beautiful completion of his works if he could see the church he had undertaken to renew — for the forgiveness of his sins and the fulfillment of his vow — completed with a pontifical blessing during his lifetime.2 The feast day was approaching, more joyful than the rest, on which our Savior Jesus, clothed in the robe of mortality, came forth from the virgin womb as a bridegroom from his chamber — a day on which all the nobility of the English were obliged to gather at the king's court and assist him, as was his custom, while his scepters and crown were being adorned.✦3 Thinking over, therefore, how the consecration itself could be carried out more solemnly, he decided that after the royal festivities had been completed, this celebration should be fulfilled on the feast of the Holy Innocents.
Sickness at the Nativity
On Christmas night fever seized the king, turning joy into sorrow, yet he concealed his illness, sustained by the nearness of heaven and the delight of Christ's nativity.
When on the very night of the Lord's Nativity he was seized with fever, and soon the joy that was at hand was turned into grief, and the feast into weeping. He concealed it nonetheless, forestalled, I believe, by a twofold consolation. For he felt that his passing to heavenly things was imminent, and the sacred solemnity of the sweetest birth of the sweetest Jesus delighted his mind greatly.
Triumph Over Nature
For three days Edward conquered his illness, bearing royal duties and joining the banquet with bishops and nobles through sheer devotion.
So for three days he was the victor over nature, and, triumphing over the very illness itself, he bore the royal duties and took his place at the solemn banquet among the bishops and nobles with as much eagerness as he could manage.
The Dedication of the Church
Sensing his end was near, Edward ordered the church consecrated, prepared rich gifts and endowments, and the solemn dedication was carried out on the feast of the Holy Innocents with the queen anxiously managing all things.
But on the third day, sensing that the time of his calling was at hand, he ordered that, once everything was prepared, the church should be consecrated the next day. He himself prepared gifts and brought out various ornaments, set aside different kinds of vessels, and drew up the possessions with which that most holy chapel might be endowed, adorned, and enriched in every way. The joyful feast of the Holy Innocents was dawning, and with the bishops and all the nobles of the kingdom gathered together, the sacred solemnity of the dedication was begun. The king, as far as his health allowed, fulfilled his duty, but the queen, managing everything, providing for everything, anxious about all things, attentive to all things, filled the place of both.
It Is Finished
After the dedication was complete, the king echoed Christ's 'It is finished,' collapsed onto his bed, and all present mourned, foreseeing national ruin in his death.
When everything was done for so great a solemnity, the king, as if to say 'It is finished,' laid his head back on the bed and from then on began to be worn down by severe pain. Then there was grief and mourning from all, with one voice of those weeping. Many foresaw, in his death, the desolation of the fatherland, the destruction of the people, the ruin of the entire English nobility, the end of liberty, and the downfall of honor.
Read the original Latin
Tali igitur edoctus oraculo beatus Edwardus obitum suum longe ante praescivit, unde et postmodum ad patriam profecturus, idoneos nuntios, preces videlicet et lacrymas, sedulo praemittebat. Sed et larga manu thesauros distribuit, faciens sibi amicos de mammona iniquitatis, qui eum reciperent in aeterna tabernacula. Verum constructam jam Beati Petri basilicam ante obitum suum voluit dedicari, pulchram operum suorum consummationem aestimans, si ecclesiam quam in peccatorum suorum remissionem et voti recompensationem renovandam susceperat, pontificali benedictione in vita sua cerneret consummatam. Appropinquabat dies festus caeteris laetior, quo Salvator noster Jesus trabea mortalitatis indutus, de utero virginali tanquam de thalamo sponsus processit; in quo Anglorum tota nobilitas ad regis curiam debuit convenire, et regi more suo sceptris simul et corona decorando assistere. Cogitans ergo quemadmodum posset ipsa consecratio solemnius exhiberi, decrevit festivitate peracta regali, die sanctorum Innocentium celebritatem istam compleri. Cum in ipsa nocte Dominicae nativitatis febre corripitur, et mox instans jucunditas vertitur in dolorem, festivitas in fletum mutatur. Dissimulavit tamen, duplici, ut arbitror, consolatione praeventus. Nam et transitum suum ad superna imminere sentiebat, et dulcissimae nativitatis dulcissimi Jesu sacra solemnitas mentem ejus plurimum jucundabat.
Igitur tribus diebus victor naturae, et de ipso morbo triumphans regalia instrumenta sustinuit, et solemni convivio inter episcopos, et proceres cum qua potuit alacritate resedit. Tertio autem die, sentiens vocationis suae tempus adesse, jubet, ut paratis omnibus, die crastina consecraretur ecclesia. Paravit et ipse donaria, varia protulit ornamenta, diversa vasorum genera separavit, descripsit possessiones, quibus omnibus sanctissimum illud oratorium et dotaretur et ornaretur et ditaretur. Illucescebat igitur sanctorum Innocentium jucunda festivitas, et convenientibus in unum episcopis, cunctisque regni proceribus sacra dedicationis solemnitas inchoatur. Rex quantum valitudo permittebat favebat officio, sed regina omnia disponens, omnia procurans, sollicita de omnibus, intenta omnibus, utriusque vicem implevit. Peractis itaque omnibus pro tanta solemnitate, quasi diceret rex: Consummatum est, inclinat in lectulo caput, et exhinc coepit gravi dolore fatigari. Tunc moeror et luctus omnium, una vox plangentium. Praesentiebant plures ejus in morte desolationem patriae, plebis exterminium, totius Anglicae nobilitatis excidium, finem libertatis, honoris ruinam.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Luke.16.9 — And I say to you, make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth, so that when it runs out, they may receive you into the eternal dwellings.
- ↩Luke.16.9 — And I say to you, make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth, so that when it runs out, they may receive you into the eternal dwellings.
- ↩Ps.19.5 — Their line has gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them he has set a tent for the sun,
Notes
- 1 ↩The phrasing echoes Luke 16:9 ('make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness, that when ye fail they may receive you into everlasting habitations').
- 2 ↩remissio peccatorum: 'forgiveness of sins' — the church is dedicated as an act of penitential devotion.
- 3 ↩The image of Christ coming forth 'as a bridegroom from his chamber' echoes Psalm 19:5 (Vulgate 18:6) and nativity imagery.
Aelred of Rievaulx, Vita Sancti Edwardi Regis et Confessoris companion
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