De visione quam vidit in extremis.
The King Falls Still
As courtiers and the queen grieve around King Edward's deathbed, he sinks into unconsciousness for nearly two days through illness or rapture.
The courtiers stand around him; the queen prostrates herself before his bed and holds his stiffened limbs in her own lap. Then, either sinking into sleep, or weighed down by the force of his illness, or — what seems likely — swept up in a rapture of mind, he lay unconscious for nearly two days.
A Prayer for a People
Edward awakens, prays prophetically for mercy on the English, and is miraculously restored in strength and voice as those around him marvel.
At last, as if waking from a deep sleep, he opened his eyes and sat up, and with hands raised toward heaven: 'Almighty God,' he said, 'in whose power all things are placed, who knows all things before they come to be, transferring and transforming kingdoms and empires, and bringing the iniquities of the fathers down upon their sons — if what has been revealed to me has come forth from the light of truth, grant my voice a voice of power, and put a right and fitting word in my mouth, so that I may proclaim your wonders, and those who hear me may learn to fear you, and in a spirit of humility and a contrite heart may appease your face, so that you may regret the evil you have purposed to bring upon this people.'✦ A remarkable thing! He had barely finished his prayer when — look! — strength returned to his body, power came back to his voice, and the grace that his illness had bound loosened his tongue. Those who were present were amazed: how could someone who, a short while before, was so crushed by illness that he could scarcely be heard by them, suddenly lift up his voice and recover his former strength, and his speech a clearer tone?
Remembering Holy Friends
Edward recalls his youthful exile in Normandy and the sweet spiritual friendship of two devout monks whose holy conversation nourished his soul.
Having taken up the parable, the blessed man then relates this vision in the clearest language: 'When I was a young man living in exile in Normandy, the friendship of good men was always welcome to me, and whoever seemed the best within the sacred folds of the monastic religious life were the most familiar to me of all.' Among these men, two in particular had bound me to themselves with a special love — the uprightness of their conversation, the holiness of their life, the gentleness of their manner, the graciousness of their speech. I used to visit them more often — how sweet their words were to my throat, sweeter than honey and honeycomb to my mouth.1 That's how I lived, and in such things consisted the life of my soul.
The Warning of the Saints
The two holy men appear to Edward in a dream, declaring that English wickedness is complete and that God has prepared judgment of fire and sword through evil angels.
These men — translated to heaven many years ago — I saw in a dream a little while back, standing before me, reporting by God's command what would happen to my people after my death.2 They say the wickedness of the English has reached its full measure, and their completed iniquity provokes wrath and hastens vengeance. The priests have broken the Lord's covenant; with polluted hearts and defiled hands they handle holy things, and they are not shepherds but hirelings who expose the sheep to wolves. They don't protect them — they seek milk and wool, not the sheep themselves — so that death may thrust them down to the grave and devour both shepherds and sheep.3 But the princes of the earth are faithless too — associates of thieves, plunderers of their own land — for whom God holds no fear and the law no honor, for whom truth is a burden, justice a thing to scorn, and cruelty a delight. And so neither do those in authority practice justice, nor do those under them observe discipline. And look — the Lord has brandished his sword, stretched his bow, and made it ready. He will soon show this people his wrath and fury, along with raids through evil angels, to whom they have been handed over for a year and a day, to be punished with fire and sword at the same time.
A Plea for Repentance
Edward grieves over the threatened calamity and urges his people to repent, hoping God may yet show mercy as he did for Nineveh and Ahab.
These things — to those people. But I, grieving and sighing over the calamity that has been threatened against my own people — and I say this as one aware of heavenly secrets — if they turn and do penance, will God not forgive and leave behind him a blessing? Penitence, to be sure, suspends the sentence God pronounced against the Ninevites — and even the vengeance that was owed to the most wicked Ahab, looming over him. So I will urge my people to repent of past sins and beware of the future, and perhaps God will then have mercy, and not bring upon them this great evil — but rather receive into grace, by his customary goodness, those he had prepared to punish, once they have turned back.
A Hardened Heart
The people refuse to listen, their hearts grown hard, and Edward despairs in anguish, asking when God's anger will end and joy will return.
'Not at all,' they say, 'because the heart of this people has grown hard, and their eyes are blinded and their ears are deaf — so that they won't hear the one correcting them, or understand the one warning them, or be frightened by threats, or be moved by blessings.'✦ While these words of theirs stirred even greater anxiety within me, I said: 'What — will God be angry forever, and not add yet further that he might be more pleased?' When will joy follow after so many sorrows?
The Parable of the Green Tree
Edward voices his longing for consolation, and the saints offer the image of a severed tree returning to its root as a sign that hope and restoration may yet come.
Or with so many adversities, what consolation can temper them? What remedy can be hoped for in these evils, so that just as affliction from one side frightens and saddens, so from the other the promise of divine mercy may somewhat soothe? To these things the saints set before me a similar problem. Any green tree, cut off from its own trunk, is separated three acres' distance from its own root, which, when no human hand compels it and no necessity urges it, turns back to its own trunk and, receiving itself again into its former root, with sap restored, once more flourishes and bears fruit — then some comfort in this tribulation is to be hoped for, and a remedy for the adversity we spoke of before. When they had said these things, they themselves ascended to heaven, and I am given back to you.
Unbelief and Weeping
Stigand mocks the vision as delirium while the others weep, recognizing that the corruption the king described is already evident among priests and princes.
The queen sat beside him as he told the vision, and Robert too, guardian of the sacred palace, Duke Harold the queen's brother, and Stigand as well, who went up to his father's bed and defiled its sheets while Archbishop Robert was still alive, invading the see of Canterbury; because of this he was suspended by the supreme pontiff and shortly after burst open, and all his entrails poured out. He, at the voice of the one narrating, grew hard, and is not terrified by the oracle, nor had faith in the one prophesying, but rather murmured that the king, worn out with old age, was delirious, and chose to laugh rather than mourn. But the rest, whose minds were sounder, wept abundantly and sighed, knowing that nothing was being done otherwise than he himself had said, either by the priests or by the princes.
The Prophecy Fulfilled
The narrator confirms the prophecy's fulfillment in Harold's defeat by William and the near-total destruction of the English nobility.
Let these things be called to mind — how they were very often told to the highest bishop, and how he himself rebuked their madness again and again, now through envoys, now through letters, and applied diligence to curing the king and queen of these evils, but accomplished nothing. It has become clear at last that the holy king did not prophesy these things from his own spirit, when King Harold — who had invaded the kingdom against the oath he had made to Duke William — was defeated by him in battle and gave English freedom its end, and slavery its beginning. Hence some say that the comparison offered earlier should be treated as impossible — that the king decreed it as impossible — especially for those who mourned that the entire English nobility had perished in such a way that from that people, neither king, nor bishop, nor abbot, nor any prince could scarcely be found anywhere in England.
Read the original Latin
Circumstant palatini, ante lectum regina prosternitur, artus frigescentes proprio gremio fovet. Cum ecce vel resolutus in somnum, vel aegritudinis more depressus, vel quod credibile est, in mentis raptus excessum, biduo fere jacebat exanimis. Tandem quasi de gravi somno evigilans aperuit oculos et resedit, erectisque in coelum manibus: «Deus, inquit, omnipotens, in cujus ditione sunt cuncta posita, qui nosti omnia antequam fiant, regna transferens et mutans imperia, et reddens iniquitates patrum in filios, si ea quae mihi revelata sunt ex veritatis luce processerunt, praesta voci meae vocem virtutis, et da sermonem rectum et bene sonantem in os meum, ut enarrem mirabilia tua, et discant qui me audiunt timere te, et in spiritu humilitatis et in animo contrito placare faciem tuam, ut poeniteat te super malo quod proposuisti facere populo huic.» Mira res! vix orationi finem dederat, et ecce robur corpori, voci virtus accessit, resolvit linguam gratia quam vinxerat aegritudo. Mirantur qui aderant, quomodo is qui pressus paulo ante morbo vix poterat ab ipsis audiri, subito vocem extulit, ac vires pristinas, sonumque clariorem sermo recepit. Assumpta igitur parabola vir beatus refert verbis luculentissimis hujusmodi visionem: «Cum adolescens in Normannia exsularem, grata mihi semper exstitit bonorum amicitia, et quicunque in sacris monasticae religionis ovilibus videbantur meliores, hi mihi erant caeteris familiariores. Inter quos viros duos speciali quadam mihi devinxerant charitate conversationis honestas, vitae sanctitas, suavitas morum, verborum affabilitas.
Hos frequentius visitabam, quam dulcia faucibus meis eloquia eorum, super mel et favum ori meo. Sic quidem vivebam, et in talibus vita spiritus mei. Hos ante plurimos annos translatos ad coelos vidi mihi paulo ante in somnis assistere, quid genti meae post obitum meum sit futurum ex Dei mihi mandato referentes. Impletam dicunt Anglorum nequitiam, et iniquitas consummata iram provocat, accelerat vindictam. Sacerdotes praevaricati sunt pactum Domini, polluto pectore et manibus inquinatis sancta contrectant, et non pastores sed mercenarii exponunt lupis oves, non protegunt, lac et lanam quaerunt non oves, ut detrusos ad inferos mors et pastores depascat et oves. Sed et principes terrae infideles, socii furum, praedones patriae, quibus nec Deus timori est, nec lex honori, quibus veritas oneri, jus contemptui, crudelitas delectationi. Itaque nec servant praelati justitiam, nec subditi disciplinam. Et ecce Dominus gladium suum vibravit, arcum suum tetendit et paravit illum.
Ostendet deinceps populo huic iram et indignationem, immissiones insuper per angelos malos, quibus traditi sunt anno uno et die uno, igne simul et gladio puniendi. Haec illi. Ego vero ob intentatam meae genti calamitatem dolens atque suspirans: Et, inquam, coelestium secretorum conscii, si conversi egerint poenitentiam nunquid non ignoscet Deus et relinquet post se benedictionem? Poenitentia certe prolatam ore Dei in Ninivitas suspendit sententiam, quin etiam imminentem impiissimo Achab debitam ultionem. Suadebo igitur genti meae ut poeniteant de praeteritis et caveant de futuris, et sic forte miserebitur Deus, ut non inducat super eos malum hoc grande, sed qui punire praeparavit adversos, recipiat in gratiam solita bonitate conversos. --Nequaquam, inquiunt, quoniam induratum est cor populi hujus, et oculi obcaecati et aures aggravatae, ut nec audiant corripientem, nec intelligant admonentem, nec terreantur minis, nec beneficiis provocentur.» His eorum verbis dum mihi major accrescerit sollicitudo: «Itane, inquam, in perpetuum irascetur Deus, et non apponet ut complacitior sit adhuc? Quando tot tristibus laeta succedent?
aut tot adversa qualis consolatio temperabit? Quale sperandum est in his malis remedium, ut sicut illinc terret et contristat afflictio, ita hinc aliquantulum mulceat divinae miserationis promissio? Ad haec sancti tale mihi problema proponunt. Arbor quaelibet viridis a suo trunco decisa ad trium jugerum spatium a radice propria separetur, quae cum nulla manu hominis cogente, nulla urgente necessitate, ad suum truncum reversa in antiquam radicem sese receperit, resumptoque succo rursum floruerit et fructum fecerit, tunc sperandum est aliquod in hac tribulatione solatium, et de ea quam praediximus adversitate remedium. Haec cum dixissent, ipsi coelo, ego vobis redditus sum.» Assidebat narranti visionem regina, Robertus etiam sacri custos palatii, dux Haraldus frater reginae, Stigandus etiam qui ascendit cubile patris sui, et maculavit stratum ejus, vivente adhuc archiepiscopo Roberto cathedram Cantuariensem invadens; ob quod a summo pontifice suspensus paulo post crepuit et effusa sunt omnia viscera ejus. Is ad vocem narrantis obduruit, nec terretur oraculo, nec fidem habuit prophetanti, sed potius regem confectum senio delirare submurmurans, ridere maluit quam lugere. At caeteri quibus erat mens sanior flebant ubertim et suspirabant, qui nihil secus quam ipse dixerat, aut a sacerdotibus aut a principibus fieri non ignorabant.
Recordantur haec ipsa summo saepius narrata pontifici, ipsumque persaepe tum per legatos, tum per epistolas eorum vesaniam increpasse, regemque ac reginam his malis curandis diligentiam adhibuisse, sed profecisse nihil. Experti sunt tandem regem sanctum haec non de suo spiritu prophetasse, quando rex Haraldus qui contra jusjurandum quod Willielmo duci fecerat regnum invaserat, ab ipso victus in praelio Anglicae libertati finem dedit, initium servituti. Unde quidam praemissam similitudinem dicunt, pro impossibili regem statuisse, illi maxime qui totam Anglorum nobilitatem sic deperisse lugebant ut ex ea gente nec rex, nec episcopus, nec abbas, nec princeps quilibet vix in Anglia cerneretur.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Deut.32.36 — For the LORD will vindicate his people and have compassion on his servants, when he sees that their strength is gone, and there is none remaining, neither bound nor free.
- ↩Isa.6.10 — And Make the heart of this people dull; make their ears heavy and shut their eyes, lest they see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their heart, and turn and be healed.
Notes
- 1 ↩The quam clause is rendered as an exclamatory/comparative reflection rather than a strict comparative construction; the Latin phrasing is compressed and the English expands slightly for natural cadence.
- 2 ↩The accusative-and-infinitive indirect statement (quid genti meae ... sit futurum) is rendered as a natural English indirect question; the participial phrase referentes is folded into the main clause for readability.
- 3 ↩The ut clause is rendered as result ('so that') rather than purpose, given the prophetic denunciation context; the final et oves is resumptive and is integrated into the devouring clause for natural English flow.
Aelred of Rievaulx, Vita Sancti Edwardi Regis et Confessoris companion
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