← Vie et miracles de saint Louis by Guillaume de Saint-Pathus/Book 1 · La Vie de monseigneur saint Loys

Chapter 11VieStLoys.1.11

De ses oevres de pite

The King's Personal Service to the Poor

King Louis demonstrates his deep humility and charity by personally feeding and washing the feet of the poor in his own household.

The blessed king stretched out his hands to help the poor and the wretched generously and freely. The holy king's heart was so filled, and his inmost being so pierced through, that it seemed pity had wholly claimed him and put him under its lordship—for all his heart poured out toward the sick and the poor, as the things that follow here clearly prove.¹ First, every Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday during Lent and Advent, he personally served thirteen poor people whom he hosted in his chamber or wardrobe, waiting on them by serving them soup and two helpings of fish or other food.² He cut two loaves of bread himself, serving portions to each of them, while his chamber valets cut the remaining loaves as needed for the poor mentioned above.³ And beyond all this, the blessed king set before each of those poor two loaves that they carried away with them. And if among these poor there were any who were blind or weak of sight, the blessed king put the morsel of bread into his hand with his own hands, or he guided the poor man's hand to the bowl and taught him how he should put his hand to the bowl. Furthermore, when someone was weak or had poor vision and was served fish, the blessed king would take a piece, carefully remove the bones with his own hands, dip it in the sauce, and then place it into the sick person's mouth.⁴ Before they ate, he gave each of them twelve deniers.⁵ He also gave more to some of these poor people—specifically those he saw had greater need—and if a woman was there with a small child, he increased her gift.⁶ He did the same thing outside of Lent and Advent, every Friday and Saturday throughout the year.⁷ Beyond all this, every Saturday, he had three of those thirteen poor people brought into his private wardrobe. He carefully sought out the poorest among them, or those who were blind or had poor eyesight. In his wardrobe, he kept three basins with hot water ready, along with white towels; there, he would kneel before them, girt with a linen cloth, and wash their feet.⁸ And when any of his people wanted to help him wash the feet of any of these poor people, because he had not yet cleaned them, the blessed king could not bear that anyone else put a hand to it except he alone.⁹ And when he had washed them, he dried them and then kissed each one on the feet very devoutly, even though they were scabby or horrible about the feet. Immediately after that, while still on his knees, he gave them water to wash their hands and provided a towel for them to dry off; then he placed forty deniers¹⁰ of Paris into each person's hand with great devotion, and he kissed each of their hands.¹¹ He did these things as privately as he could; people believe that for this reason he preferred to have the blind, or the poor who could barely see, summoned to receive this service from him, so they wouldn't recognize him and wouldn't make it known to others. After that, these three were brought back to the other ten and they ate together, and the blessed king served them as mentioned above. To each of them,¹² in addition to these things, he gave one loaf of bread; he also gave each of the children one loaf of bread.¹³ Furthermore, he had two loaves of bread and money given to sixty poor people—four deniers to each.¹⁴ Again he had a general alms given twice a week to all the poor, from wherever they came, from the leftovers and the remainders of the tables; and his almoner put so much bread with it that each one could receive from the alms.¹⁵ When the blessed king was in Paris, he often served with his own hands in his lower chamber—sometimes twenty poor people, sometimes thirty, sometimes more—setting the bowl of stew and other dishes of meat or fish before them, and cutting their bread.¹⁶ The blessed king also went four times a year to Puisiaux in the Gâtinais, or to some other place he considered poorer, and there he had two poor people gathered in the hall to eat; he served them personally, setting before them bread, bowls of stew, and two pairs of dishes of fish or other foods, as the season required, and gave each of them twelve deniers.¹⁷ ...Paris, and in his other hand he held money to increase his gift to those most in need, as he saw fit.¹⁸ Each of them took home two loaves, if he wished—loaves the blessed king had set before each of them at the start; for the bread-stewards set other bread before them, as much as they needed to eat there.¹⁹

Almsgiving and Support for Religious Orders

The King extends his charity to the liturgical life of the Church, supporting mendicant friars, building hospitals, and providing for scholars.

Every Maundy Thursday, the holy king would wash the feet of thirteen or twenty-six poor people and give each of them forty deniers. Afterward, he served them at the table himself, just as described above regarding his service to the other poor. And this same thing he had done by my lord Philip and by my lord Pierre and by his other children when they were with him on a Thursday, and some of his chaplains said the Office of the Mandatum while he washed the poor people's feet.²⁰ Every Good Friday, wherever he happened to be, he walked barefoot through the nearby churches. At the king's command, two of his chamberlains would take a hundred livres—fifty each—and give them to him that day. They would periodically place the money into a small pouch the blessed king wore under his cape, hanging from his belt. As he walked through the churches that day, he gave those hundred livres to the poor with his own hands. He wouldn't allow his sergeants or anyone following him to drive the poor away or push them back; he wanted everyone to have free access to him so he could give them alms personally.²¹ Again, it was the holy king's custom that, in whatever city or town or place he entered where there were Friars Minor or Friars Preachers or any house of those orders, he had bread and wine and two pairs of dishes given them for their pittance on the day he arrived and the next day, and had provided whatever else they needed.²² And later, because it was more helpful for the friars to have money for those pittances, the holy king had money given them for that purpose instead. Every time he came to Paris, he gave a large sum of money to the Friars Minor, the Friars Preachers, and all other religious orders in Paris that held no possessions—specifically, eighteen deniers for each person. He had a standing rule: if he left Paris for a day to visit the woods of Vincennes, Saint-Denis, or anywhere else—no matter how close—and returned to Paris the next day, he still gave his alms for God's sake just as described above. The blessed king ordered that food be provided for every poor religious person, man or woman, who came to his court or passed through where he was staying—even if they arrived after the meal. He directed that whenever they ate at his court, they were to be given whatever they needed from the kitchen and other household offices, and this practice continued as long as the blessed king lived.²³ Once, while he was at Châteauneuf-sur-Loire in the diocese of Orléans, he wanted to go into the woods for recreation after a day of rest. He called for Brother Geoffroi de Beaulieu of the Order of Preachers, who was with him, to accompany him. The brother replied that he couldn't go because he was waiting for Dominican friars traveling by boat on the Loire to Orléans for a provincial chapter that was soon to be held there.²⁴ The blessed king told him he wanted to go to the river with him to see the friars. So the holy king, the brother, and many others walked all the way to the river, even though it was a fairly long distance.²⁵ And when the king was there, even though the friars in the boat wanted to go straight on to lodge at Jargeau, he nonetheless so pressed the friars—about eighteen of them or thereabouts—that he made them come to the castle, had them lodged that night, and had a very good lodging assigned to them.²⁶ It was also the holy king's custom each year at the beginning of Lent to provide for poor religious people—including Cistercian nuns, other nuns and religious orders, the poor lepers in the houses of God across France, and others living in misery—with herrings, money for almonds, peas, and other supplies they needed for the season.²⁷²⁸ Again, every year at the start of winter he provided them with firewood, robes of coarse wool, fur-lined coats, and shoes, which he gave to the poor in great quantity.²⁹ Each year, he had nine thousand herring purchased and distributed just as described above.³⁰ This practice was maintained for the rest of his life after he returned from overseas.³¹ Furthermore, every year at Shrovetide, the blessed king had thirty sides of bacon given to the poor.³² And these lesser alms that the blessed king had given, as a special charge upon his conscience, to the Friars Minor and the Friars Preachers and to other religious men and women and other poor people amounted each year to seven thousand livres of Paris in counted money—not counting the coarse-wool cloths, the shoes, and the herring that he had given and distributed every year as is said above.³³³⁴ Moreover, whenever the blessed king traveled to Berry, Normandy, or other places he didn't visit often, he would have three poor people brought in to eat, serving them himself with the help of his squires and chamberlains.³⁵ He gave each of the poor twelve Paris deniers and set bread, soup, meat, and fish before them, depending on what the day required. On certain major feast days, the holy king would have three poor people brought into his hall and seated at his table.³⁶ The blessed king also frequently visited the abbey of Royaumont, where he often ate in the refectory—especially on Fridays and Saturdays—at the abbot's table, with the abbot sitting beside him.³⁷ And every time he ate there, he provided a special allowance for the community—of bread and wine and two pairs of fish dishes—and at that time there were a hundred monks in the convent of that place, or about that many, not counting the lay brothers, who were forty or so.³⁸³⁹ And on the other days, when the blessed king was not eating in the refectory, he still went in often and as a matter of habit, and while the monks were seated at table, the blessed king served with the monks assigned to serve; and he would come to the kitchen hatch, take the bowls full of food there, and carry them and set them before the monks seated at table.⁴⁰ Because there were many monks and few servers, he kept carrying and returning with those bowls until the entire community had been fully served. And because the dishes were too hot, he would sometimes wrap his hands in his cloak against the heat of the food and the bowls, and sometimes he would spill the food on his cloak.⁴¹ When the abbot told him he was staining his cloak, the blessed king would reply, "I don't care; I have another."⁴² And he himself would go among the tables and sometimes pour the wine into the monks' cups; and sometimes he would taste that wine from those cups and praise it when it was good; and if it was sour or tasted of the wood, he would order good wine brought.⁴³ Every time he visited that abbey, he provided a portion of two fish or meat courses—depending on the season—to all the sick, whether they were monks, lay brothers, or the outside sick staying in the abbey's hospital.⁴⁴ And when the blessed king came to Compiègne, it often happened that he would go into the kitchen of the Friars Preachers and ask what was being made to eat for the convent; and afterward he would go into the refectory while the brothers were eating and have enough food brought from his own kitchen—fish and other things—and have it served to them, remaining present himself the whole time. Moreover, the blessed king had houses bought that stand on two streets in Paris before the Palais des Thermes, in which he had good, large houses built so that scholars studying in Paris might live there permanently; and scholars still live in them who are received for that purpose by those who have authority to receive them.⁴⁵ And furthermore, some of these houses are rented to other scholars, and the price or rent from them is turned to the benefit of the poor scholars mentioned above; these houses cost the blessed king, so it is believed, four thousand livres tournois.⁴⁶ Moreover, the holy king provided a weekly stipend to many poor students he supported at the schools, giving some of them two sous.⁴⁷ And to others, three sous.⁴⁸ and to some, twelve deniers. and to some, eighteen.⁴⁹ And it is believed that these poor people whom the blessed king provided for in this way numbered a good hundred.⁵⁰ He provided for certain beguines in the same way. Likewise, the aforementioned blessed king had a piece of land purchased near Saint-Honoré, where he built a large house so that up to three hundred of the blind poor could live there permanently; every year, they receive funds from the king's purse for meals and other necessities.⁵¹ In that house there is a church that he had built under the title of Saint Remigius so that the said blind people might hear God's service there, and it often happened that the blessed king came on the feast days of the Head of Saint Remigius, when the said blind people had the Office solemnly sung in the church, with the blind people present around the holy king, and he gave an income to the church.⁵²⁵³ Furthermore, he founded and had built the House of God at Vernon; and because the site of the buildings and the structures sits in the best place in the town and is spacious and wide, the blessed king bought it very dearly, and the ground and the buildings cost him thirty thousand Paris livres.⁵⁴⁵⁵ He also supplied the house with beds, kitchenware, and all other equipment needed for the poor and sick residing there, as well as for the brothers and sisters of the house.⁵⁶ And there are twenty-five sisters and two clerical brothers who perform God's service in the chapel of that Hôtel-Dieu, and another large household of serving women and other people who are needed to serve at the house. And he also gave them books and other ornaments and chalices for the said chapel.⁵⁷ Furthermore, as long as the blessed king lived, he provided clothing for the sisters of that Hôtel-Dieu every year, and he had coats made for the poor, which they wore while eating. He also had the Hôtel-Dieu of Pontoise built, founded, and endowed, providing them with properties that yield four livres in rent each year.⁵⁸ He also had the Hôtel-Dieu of Compiègne built and significantly expanded; the project cost twelve thousand Parisian livres, and he endowed it richly, providing beds and other necessities for the poor and the sick.⁵⁹ Again, he had the Hôtel-Dieu of Paris enlarged so that it extends as far as the Petit Pont, and he gave incomes to the said Hôtel-Dieu. He also had the dormitory for the Friars Preachers in Paris built, along with other houses there.⁶⁰ And when the blessed king had houses and other places for the poor built, he himself would go in person to inspect the work while those houses mentioned above were being put up, and he directed and arranged how the halls of the houses, the rooms, and the service buildings of those houses should be made.⁶¹ And people believe that the building works done for the scholars of Paris, the house of the blind, the house of the Beguines of Paris, the church of the Friars Minor, the dormitory of the Friars Preachers of Paris and the other houses built there, the enlargement of the Maison-Dieu of Paris, the Maisons-Dieu of Pontoise, Vernon, and Compiègne, the house of the Friars Preachers of Compiègne, the house of the brothers of Saint-Maurice of Senlis, the house of the sisters of the Order of Preachers at Rouen, the house of the Friars Preachers of Caen, the house of the Carthusian brothers at Vauvert near Paris, and the house of the Carmelite brothers of Paris for the greater part—these works, among the others the blessed king had done, cost him, when everything put into those houses and holy places from that king’s goods is counted, whether in founding the places, or in the buildings, or in the rents he gave them, as much as two hundred thousand livres tournois and more.⁶²⁶³ And sometimes it happened that some of his counselors rebuked him because they heard of the great sums he was spending on such outlays and such houses, and of the great gifts and great alms he was giving to those houses, and the blessed king answered: “Be quiet. God has given me everything I have.^✦ What I spend in this way is put to the best use."

Compassion for the Suffering and the Captive

Louis shows mercy to the vulnerable, including widows, the impoverished nobility, and the thousands of Christians ransomed from Saracen captivity.

Furthermore, the blessed king each year had a hundred livres given to the Friars Minor and to the Friars Preachers—sometimes three hundred—to pay off the debts they had taken on, as they said; and to put it more briefly, he supported them for the most part in Paris and in the other neighboring places.⁶⁴ When the Friars Preachers of Compiègne first moved into their house there, the blessed king gave them a hundred livres parisis as alms for their living expenses.⁶⁵ And after the blessed king came back from overseas, it happened several times that certain noblewomen came to him and told him that their husbands had died overseas in his service and that they had spent their goods, so that they were poor; and they brought their sons and daughters with them and begged the holy king to do them good and to have pity on them. And when the holy king knew who they were, he had his almoner give one of them twenty livres, another ten, and more or less according to what he judged she needed; and sometimes he asked whether any of their daughters could read, and said that he would have her received into the abbey of Pontoise or elsewhere.⁶⁶⁶⁷ And the holy king often had gifts given to poor knights and poor ladies and poor young women and poor men-at-arms—to one ten livres, to another twenty, thirty, forty, fifty, sixty, and sometimes a hundred—to marry off their daughters, and sometimes more or less, according to the rank and condition of the persons and as he judged it right.⁶⁸ And when the blessed king rode through the kingdom, the poor came to him and he had one denier given to each of them.⁶⁹ When he saw those who were in greater need, he had five sous given to one,⁷⁰ to another ten sous.⁷¹ and to another, twenty sous. and sometimes more and less, as it seemed good to him. When he returned from overseas after his first crossing and was touring his kingdom, his almoners gave alms to everyone who came to them—a denier to each person.⁷² And when the blessed king saw someone in greater need, he would give him six deniers.⁷³⁷⁴ or twelve deniers, or whatever he thought was right. During that same time, while visiting his lands, he personally served two poor people every day, giving each of them two loaves of bread and twelve deniers in Parisian coin; he kept extra deniers in his left hand so that when he saw someone in greater need, he would give them an additional four deniers⁷⁵ or five or six, as he saw fit. Beyond all this, he had general alms distributed every day during that time, even if ten thousand people showed up, or twenty thousand or more.⁷⁶ Often—especially when food was expensive—he would have his household staff hand out anywhere from one thousand to two thousand livres or more, having the money carried, given out, and distributed to the poor living in various parts of his kingdom.⁷⁷ And when the king heard that food was very expensive in some part of his kingdom, he would send into those parts by his officers two thousand, sometimes three thousand, sometimes five thousand livres tournois—more or less, according to what seemed right to him and what he believed was needed.⁷⁸ It's well known that he did this many times. Once when times were hard, the holy king sent a sum of money into Normandy to give to the poor, and he ordered those who went there to give of the alms to the tenants who lived solely under the king and paid him rents each year, if they needed it more than the others.⁷⁹ J)l'.⁸⁰ Again, he often had his own robes given to good religious ladies and to others and to priests.⁸¹ And he would sometimes say: "Let's go visit the poor of such-and-such a region and feed them." And then he would go into various parts of his kingdom, either into the Gâtinais or into Normandy, and there he had generous alms given to the poor for God's sake.⁸² He also had timber cut from his own woods for the church and cloister of the Friars Minor in Paris, for the dormitory and refectory of the Friars Preachers in Paris, for the Maison-Dieu of Pontoise, and for the Sack Friars of Paris—and he ensured all that timber was delivered to each of those locations.⁸³ And the branches and the other wood left over from the large pieces of timber were given for God's sake to poor religious houses—to one, two cartloads, and to another, three—by command of the blessed king, who ordered that this wood be carried by water as far as Paris or elsewhere to where it was being given for God.⁸⁴ Again, at the time of his first passage overseas, when he was freed from the Saracens' prison, he remained overseas about four years, especially so that he might free the Christians who had been taken captive before he went overseas.⁸⁵ And many times he sent solemn messengers to the sultan for the deliverance of the Christians the sultan held in captivity; and sometimes they ransomed two hundred of them, sometimes three hundred or five hundred, according as they could obtain them.⁸⁶ And because we have recounted only some of these occasions as examples, it is certain that the third or fourth time the messengers brought back about four hundred of them; another time seven hundred, not counting the women; another time six hundred and one; and another time seven hundred and one; and once they were freed they were brought back at the blessed king's expense.⁸⁷ And to those Christians who came back in this way from the Saracens' prisons—now a hundred, now two hundred, now five hundred, according as they arrived freed from those prisons of the unbelievers, naked and in rags and with nothing—the blessed king had clothing provided for them all.⁸⁸ And for other things they needed, he had given to some a hundred⁸⁹ of the currency of the land that are called dragans, each of which was worth seven small tournois—to some two hundred or three hundred, sometimes more, sometimes less, according to the rank and condition of the persons—and in this way at that time he provided for more than three thousand men; and he gave robes of green cloth or other cloth of that kind to the knights and noblemen, and to those of lower rank, cloth of Arras or other cloth of lower price than the cloths for the knights.⁹⁰ When they returned in this way—sometimes a thousand and five at once, and at other times even more—they came from the Saracen prisons, as they claimed; they arrived by ship as far as Acre at the blessed king's expense, or so they said, and it was a common belief.⁹¹ People believed this was true, for no one else would have covered such great costs for men so poor and destitute if the blessed king hadn't provided the funds. These men were finally recovered through the messengers the blessed king sent to the Saracens to free the captives. It was said in Acre that they had been released by the sultan under agreements made long before between the holy king and the sultan—or the Saracens—when the king himself was freed from their prison.⁹² The king provided these men with clothing or money to buy it.

Visiting and Comforting the Sick

The King personally visits the infirmaries, tending to the sick and lepers with a devotion that transcends the physical repulsion of their diseases.

Concerning his visits to the sick.⁹³ Even though many things have already been said above about the service the blessed king himself gave to people full of misery, still something of this ought to be set down here, especially about the visits and the comfort the blessed king gave them. The blessed king often visited the abbey of Royaumont, and every time he came to that abbey he himself went into the abbey's infirmary, saw the sick brothers, comforted them, and asked each of them what illness he had; and he felt some on the pulse and some at the temples—even when they were sweating—and he called the physicians who were with him, and made sure that they examined the sick monks' urine in his presence and that the physicians advised them how they ought to manage themselves in their illness. And the blessed king would often say, "If only our electuary of this kind, or such things of ours, would do this sick man good," and he would order them and have administered to them from his kitchen and from his other household offices whatever was fitting for them in sufficient measure.⁹⁴ He kept only a few people with him for these tasks, such as the abbot, his physicians, and his secretaries; when he did these things, he wanted only a few people present—specifically those closest to him, and no one else.⁹⁵ He visited those who were more severely ill with greater care, coming more promptly to their bedsides and even touching the hands of the sick and the areas affected by their disease.⁹⁶ And when the illness was more severe, or involved an abscess or something similar, he was all the more willing to touch it.⁹⁷ At the abbey of Royaumont, there was a monk named Brother Legier, a deacon, who was a leper living in a house set apart from the others. He was so repulsive and abominable that, due to the severity of his disease, his eyes were ruined so he couldn't see at all, his nose was gone, his lips were split and swollen, and his eye sockets were red and hideous to look at.⁹⁸ So, when the blessed king came to the abbey of Royaumont one Sunday around the feast of Saint Remi and had heard several Masses, as was his custom, he was accompanied by the Count of Flanders and several other noblemen. Once the Masses were over, he left the church and went toward the infirmary, to the house where the monk was living as a leper.⁹⁹ When he wanted to go there, he ordered one of his ushers to have those accompanying him step back. And so he took the abbot of Royaumont and told him that he wanted to go to the place where the said leper was living, whom he had seen another time, and that he wanted to visit him.¹⁰⁰ The abbot went ahead, followed by the blessed king, and they entered the place where the sick man was staying. They found him eating pork at a low table, as it is the custom for lepers in that abbey to eat meat.¹⁰¹ And the holy king greeted that sick man and asked him how he was, and knelt before him; and then, still on his knees, he began to cut the meat, and cut it before him with a knife he found on the said sick man's table. And when he had cut the meat into pieces, he put those pieces into the sick man's mouth, and the man received them from the blessed king's hand and chewed them.¹⁰² And at last, when the holy king was thus on his knees before the said leper, and the said abbot likewise on his knees out of reverence for the holy king—though of that the said abbot nonetheless had no small horror—the blessed king asked the leper whether he wanted to eat some hens and some partridges, and he said yes.¹⁰³¹⁰⁴ The holy king then summoned one of his ushers through a monk who was caring for the sick man, ordering him to bring hens and partridges from the royal kitchen, which was quite a distance away.¹⁰⁵ While the usher was making the trip to and from the kitchen to fetch two hens and three roasted partridges, the king and the abbot remained on their knees beside the sick man the entire time.¹⁰⁶ Afterward, the holy king asked the leper which he would prefer to eat first, the hens or the partridges, and he replied that he wanted the partridges.¹⁰⁷ The blessed king then asked him how he would like them seasoned, and he answered that he wanted to eat them with salt. The king then cut the wings off a partridge for him, salted the pieces, and placed them into the sick man's mouth. But because the sick man's lips were split, as was said above, he bled, for the salt got into those split lips; so the salt hurt him, and the discharge came out so that it ran down his chin.¹⁰⁸ For this reason, the sick man said that the salt was stinging him too much. After that, the blessed king would season the morsels with salt for flavor, but he would wipe the grains off so they wouldn't get into the cracks of the sick man's lips.¹⁰⁹ And along with all this, the blessed king comforted the sick man and told him that he should bear that illness with good patience, and that it was his purgatory in this world, and that it was better for him to suffer that illness here than to suffer something else in the world to come.¹¹⁰ Afterward, the blessed king asked the sick man if he wanted a drink, and he said yes.¹¹¹ He asked what kind of wine he had, and the sick man answered, "Good." Then the blessed king took the cup and the wine pitcher from the table and poured the wine into the cup with his own hands; he held the cup to the man's mouth and gave him a drink.¹¹² When this was done, the blessed king asked the sick man to pray to Our Lord for him; then the king and the abbot left, and the king went to eat at his lodging within the abbey. He visited the sick man often, frequently saying to his knights, "Let's go visit our sick man"—referring to the leper.¹¹³ But they did not go in with him into that sick man's room—only the abbot or the prior of that place did.¹¹⁴ And one time, when he had gone in to visit that leper and the table had been set before him, the king himself served him and made him sops in a broth and put them into his mouth with a wooden spoon.¹¹⁵ And because the blessed king once put too much salt in those sops, the sick man's mouth and lips began to bleed from the salt, as people believe.¹¹⁶ At which someone who was there said to the blessed king, "You're making his mouth bleed, because you've put too much salt in his sops. "¹¹⁷ The blessed king replied, "I have done for him just as I would for myself," and he asked the sick man to forgive him. In that same abbey of Royaumont, there was another monk with leprosy whom he visited from time to time. The blessed king often went to the hospitals of Paris, Compiègne, Pontoise, Vernon, and Orléans, and he visited the poor and the sick who lay there and served them in person; and to each of them he gave a certain amount of money, and bread, and meat, and fish, according to what suited them and according to what the season required.¹¹⁸ And he gave them generous portions when he went in to them, and with his own hands he served them bread, meat, or other dishes that he had had prepared for the sick by his cooks and brought there.¹¹⁹ Sometimes he would cut one or two loaves himself and distribute the pieces to every poor person present.¹²⁰ When some were sicker than others, he served them with even greater care: he cut their bread and meat, knelt before them, brought the morsels to their mouths, fed them, supported them, and wiped their mouths with a towel he carried.¹²¹ Some of these sick people were so repulsive that even the blessed king's personal attendants found them abominable, drawing back in wonder at how he could bear such a thing.¹²² His servants truly couldn't stay there at all because of the foul air, the stench, and how repulsive the sick were; yet he stayed as if he felt none of it, serving them just as described above. Beyond this,¹²³ in the Maison-Dieu at Reims he did these same works of pity; and sometimes the knights and the others who were with him, seeing him do this, did the same as well.¹²⁴¹²⁵ It once happened that while the blessed king was serving a sick man in the Maison-Dieu of Paris, as mentioned above, blood began running from the man's nostrils. He wiped the man's nose with his own hands using a towel he had the sisters bring him, and he left that towel there.¹²⁶ He also left there the other towels that had been brought for him whenever he went to perform that kind of service. One Friday, he personally served a hundred and thirty-four poor people at the Maison-Dieu of Compiègne, setting before each of them a bowl of pottage, along with two fish dishes and other items suited to the sick, all of which he had had prepared.¹²⁷ When it seemed he was worn out from such hard service, someone present suggested they should tell the king to rest. Upon hearing this, the king looked around and saw a sick man who had the disease known as Saint Eligius's disease in two places on his face. The blessed king then sat down on that man's bed, peeled a pear for him, and with his own hands put the pieces into his mouth. While he was doing this, the rot or filth running from the sick man's sores—which were on either side of his nose—ran down onto the king's hand, so the king had to wash the hand he was feeding him with twice before the sick man had finished eating the whole pear.¹²⁸¹²⁹ Also, when he visited the sick, he would bring rose water with him and sprinkle their faces with his own hands.¹³⁰ When he came to Vernon, before he entered the palace he had there, he would go down to the Maison-Dieu of Vernon and visit the poor, walk around their beds, and ask them—or the sisters of the house who tended them—how they were, and sometimes he would touch them; and it often happened that he came at mealtime to that hospital, and from the food he had had prepared by his cooks in that same house he served with his own hands the poor and the sick of that Maison-Dieu, in the presence of his sons, whom he wanted there, as people believe, so that he might form them in works of mercy.¹³¹ He served them soup and other dishes, such as meat or fish, depending on what was appropriate for their illnesses. He would ask the sisters about the patients—what they were suffering from, whether they could eat meat, and what would be most nourishing for them—and he had their meals prepared accordingly.¹³² And when he found some among them sweating and poorly covered, he himself covered them. It is said that a sister at the house in Vernon was once sick and insisted she would not eat unless he fed her with his own hands. And when the blessed king heard this, he went to her where she lay and fed her, and with his own hands put the morsels into her mouth.¹³³ And when the Maison-Dieu of Compiègne was founded, the holy king on one side, and my lord Thibaut, formerly king of Navarre, his son-in-law, who helped him on the other side, carried on a silk cloth and laid down the first poor sick person ever placed in the newly made Maison-Dieu, and they put him in a newly prepared bed and then left on him the silk cloth in which they had carried him.¹³⁴ And on that same day my lord Louis, then the eldest son of my lord Saint Louis, and my lord Philip, who was after him the noble king of France, also carried and laid the other sick man in the said Hôtel-Dieu and put him in the other bed; and some other barons who were there with him did the same.¹³⁵ Every morning, after hearing Mass and returning to his chambers, he would have those suffering from scrofula brought in so he could touch them.¹³⁶¹³⁷ Those who had been lodged the night before in a designated area of the holy king's household and had been fed were then moved out into the king's courtyard.¹³⁸ Once, while he was passing through the town of Châteauneuf-sur-Loire, a poor old woman standing at the door of her small house near the castle entrance held up a piece of bread and said to the blessed king, "Good king, it is by this bread, provided by your alms, that my sick husband is kept alive."¹³⁹ The blessed king took the bread in his hand and remarked, "This is rather rough bread." And when the holy king learned and heard that the sick man was there, he went into that little house to visit him.¹⁴⁰

The Works of Mercy for the Dead

Louis concludes his works of mercy by ensuring the honorable burial of the dead and providing spiritual suffrages for their souls.

Di. On burials.¹⁴¹ The deeds of the blessed Saint Louis described here demonstrate how he conducted himself in the service of burials and funeral rites for the dead.¹⁴² In the time of his first passage overseas, after he had already been released from the pagans' prison and was still beyond the sea and was having Sidon fortified, and crossbowmen and masons and other Christian workmen were there to build the walls, a great host of Saracens came upon them there one morning so suddenly that those who had been set to work and to guard the workmen never even saw them, so that the Saracens killed many of the Christians; and those of the Christians who could fled and took refuge in a castle that stands there in the sea.¹⁴³ And when the blessed king, who was in Jaffa, heard this, and he saw the Saracens leaving the siege just mentioned about three weeks later, he, who still wanted to fortify that land, ordered that part of his knighthood should go to Belinas, which belonged to the Saracens, to lay waste that country, where the blessed king's men did great harm to the Saracens.¹⁴⁴ The blessed king then traveled to Sidon with very few men, putting himself in great danger. Once there, he saw the bodies of the Christians killed by the Saracens lying along the seashore and within the area being fortified, where an ancient city had once stood.¹⁴⁵ And it was counted by those who saw the dead bodies that nearly three thousand had been killed. The blessed king resolved first that these bodies should be buried; he then ordered a cemetery to be blessed nearby and had large graves dug there.¹⁴⁶ And he himself, with his own hands, and with the help of those who were with him, took the bodies of the dead, and they put them in cloths and then sewed them shut, and then laid them on camels and on horses, and they were carried to the pits already mentioned, in which they were buried.¹⁴⁷ But some of these bodies were so rotten that when he and the others who helped him took an arm or a foot to put it in a sack, it came away from the rest of the body.¹⁴⁸ From this there was so great a stench there that few of our people could bear or endure it.¹⁴⁹ Because of this, some who belonged to his household never put their hand to the work; instead they held their noses and marveled at him—how he could do this and bear so great a stench.¹⁵⁰ The noblemen and wealthy men present at the time swore that they never once saw him hold his nose.¹⁵¹ And when the bowels of a dead man lay spilled there beside the body, the blessed king took the gloves off his hand and bent down to gather up those bowels with his bare hands and put them in a sack.¹⁵² He also hired common laborers to gather the bodies mentioned earlier, but they couldn't collect them all quickly. Instead, it took them about four or five days to gather and bury those bodies, and each day they had around fifteen pack animals to carry them to the designated pits.¹⁵³ Since many cisterns in that area were full of the bodies mentioned earlier, he had them emptied and buried in those pits. Every morning during those days, after hearing Mass, he would immediately go to load the bodies, urging the others on as he said, "Let's go bury these martyrs."¹⁵⁴ And when it seemed to him that some were not willing to do this, he said, "These have suffered death; so we can well endure this."¹⁵⁵ To those present where the dead lay, he said, "Don't feel disgust toward these bodies, for they are martyrs and are in paradise." » \Ei r'/?¹⁵⁶ Near the pits already named there were sometimes at that time the archbishop of Tyre, the bishop of Damietta, and another bishop vested in episcopal vestments, and the blessed king with them, and they read, as is believed, the office of the dead.¹⁵⁷ However, the archbishop and the bishops plugged their nostrils with their vestments. And a rich and noble knight who was watching this said under oath that he never once, at that time, saw him stop up his nose.¹⁵⁸ Once the bodies were buried, he had solemn funeral rites and the Office of the Dead celebrated for them.¹⁵⁹ And once it happened that he was at Compiègne one night when a man who had been ill died in the House of God of that place, and this was told to the blessed king by the prioress and by one of the sisters of that house; he ordered them to prepare the body for burial, but not to bury him without him, for he wanted to be there to perform the service for that dead man.¹⁶⁰ And since the house had no cemetery, when the Mass had been said for the dead man in his presence and that of his sons—namely my lord Louis, then the eldest son of the blessed king, and my lord Philip, who held the kingdom of France after him—the blessed king ordered that the body just named be carried a long way for burial, and said that those who saw it carried through the town would say their Our Fathers for his soul, and so the soul of the dead man named above would not gain little.¹⁶¹ After this, a chapter of the Friars Preachers was held at Orléans on the feast of the Nativity of Our Lady. The blessed king, who was coming to Orléans, was present at the solemnity in the church and in the chapter and ate in the refectory with the community, and the expenses were paid for all—that is, for some two hundred brothers who had come to the chapter just named; and when the chapter was done, as the blessed king sat in the parlor with some of the Friars Preachers, because the blessed king had heard it told in chapter how in each house of the province certain brothers had died, and the number was stated and told for each of the houses, but the names of the brothers were not given, then he said to these brothers just mentioned that it would be a good thing that, just as the numbers of the dead were recited in chapter, the names should likewise be named, and he said that for this reason many suffrages and helps could come to the dead brothers if their names were known, perhaps by those who had known them better or who had loved them better, or because some of the dead had been more profitable to the order—more than would be the case if their names were left unspoken.¹⁶² For this reason, some of the Friars Preachers requested at the subsequent general chapter of the order that this practice be established for the future, and the general chapter judged it to be good and profitable.¹⁶³ It was established this way, and to this day it is kept and observed throughout the entire order. Once, when the blessed king was at the Cistercian abbey of Chaalis, one of the brothers there happened to die.¹⁶⁴ As the brother neared death, the community gathered around him—he had been laid on ashes and a hair shirt, following the custom of the Cistercian order—and began chanting the litanies and the rest of the customary office. The blessed king arrived at that same place, and for as long as they were saying the office, he stood at the head of the dying man with great devotion and humility, remaining there the entire time.¹⁶⁵ After the brother died, the king followed the body to the church, where he personally attended the service held that same hour for the deceased, with very great devotion and humility.¹⁶⁶ From these accounts, it is clear that he possessed charity toward his neighbors, along with ordered, virtuous compassion, and that he performed the works of mercy: lodging, feeding, and giving drink to people, clothing them, visiting and comforting them, helping them through his own personal service, supporting the poor and the sick, redeeming wretched prisoners, and burying the dead—helping them all virtuously and abundantly.^✦¹⁶⁷¹⁶⁸

Read the original Latin

Li benoiez rois ' estendi ses mains a aidier largement et liberaument as povres et as de chetif / rempli le cuer du saint roy et si trespercié ses entrailles» que il sembloit que pitié l'eust tout acquis et mis souz sa seignorie ; car tout son courage ' decouroit as malades et as' povres, si comme les choses qui ci ensivent le pruevent apertement. Pre/nierenient chascim /or de mercredi, de vendredi et de samedi en Quaresme et en l'Avent, il servoit en sa persoiie a xiij povres que il fesoit menger en sa chambre ou en sa garderobe, et leur J aministroit en metant devant eus potage et ij paire dermes de poissons ou d'autres choses. Et trenchoit il meesmes ij pains des quex il metoit devant chascuns d'els ', et les valiez de la chambre le rov trenchoient les autres pains tant com il en couvenoit devant les povres desus diz. Et par desus tout ce, li benoiez rois metoit devant chascuii des devant diz povres ij pains que il emportoient avec eus. Et se il avoit entre ces povres aucuns avugles ou mal voianz, li benoiez rois li metoit le morsel de pain en la main a ses propres mains, ou il menoit la main du povre jusques a l'escuele et li enseignoit comment il devoit mètre la main a l'escuele. Et encores plus quant il y avoit un mal voiant ou non puissant et il avoit poissons devant lui, li benoiez rois prenoit le morsel du poisson et en treoit les arestes diligaument a ses propres mains, et le metoit en la saiisse, et lors le mctoit en la bouche du malade.

Et ainçois que il menjassent, il donoit a chascuii xij d. parisis, et si donnoit plus a aucun de ces povres, c'est a savoir a cens (jue il veoit qui eu avoient greigneur besoiug, et quant ilec(|ues avoit femme (jui avoit petit enfant avecques H, il li croissoit son don. Et ces choses meemes fesoit il hors (uaresme et hors TAvent chascun jour de vendredi et de samedi par tout Tan. Et encore par desus tout ce, en touz tens, chascun samedi, il fesoit mener iij povres des devant diz xiij en sa garderobe mont privement; et estoient les plus povres des autres ou avugles ou mal voianz, les quex il fesoit querre par grant estude", et en sa garderobe avoit iij bacins et l'iaue estoit ilecques apareilliée toute chaude et blanches touailles, et ilecques il leur lavoit leur piez, ceint d'un linceul et agenoillié devant eus. Et quant aucun des siens li vouloit aidier a laver les piez d'aucun de ces povres, pour ce que il ne les avoit pas nez, li benoiez rois ne pooit soufrir ({ue nul i meist la main fors que il tant seulement. Et quant il les avoit lavez, il les essuioit et puis les besoit chascun es piez moût dévotement, combien que il fussent roigneux ou horribles par devers les piez. Et tantost après, il leur donnoit a genoz l'iaue a laver leurs mains et leur appareilloit la toaille a essuier leur mains; et après il metoit xl d. parisis en la main de chascun par grant devocion et besoit la main de chascun .

Et ces choses fesoit il le plus priveement que il pooit; et croit on' que pour ce il feist apeler les avugles ou les povres mal voianz plus volentiers a ce fere leur, pour ce que il ne le conneussent et que il ne le révélassent par dehors. Et après ce, ces iij estoient ramenez as autres x et menjoient ensemble, et li benoiez rois les servoit si com il est dit desus. chascuii de ses enlim/. , par desiis ces choses, j pain et si donnoit encore a chascun des enfanz j pain. De rechief outre ces choses, il fesoit donner a Ix povres a chascun ij pains et argent, c'est a savoir iiij d. De rechief il fesoit fere aumône gênerai ij foi/, la semaine a toz povres de (uelque part que il venissent, du lelief et des remananz des tables, et y metoit son aumônier tant de pain avecques ce "■ que chascun pooit avoir de l'aumône. De rechief H benoiez rois, quant il estolt a Paris, servoit souvent de sa propre main en sa chambre, en bas, aucune foiz xx povres, aucune foiz xxx, aucune foiz plus et metoit l'escuele de potage devant eus et les autres mes de chars ou de poissons et leur tailloit le pain. De rechief li benoiez rois aloit iiij foiz en l'an a Puisiaus en Gastinais ou en autre lieu que il creoit plus povre, et ilecques fesoit il assembler ij povres en sale et les fesoit mengier; et les servoit il proprement en sa personne et leur aministroit en metant devant eus pain et escueles de potage et ij paire de mes de poissons ou d'autres viandes, si comme le tens le requeroit ; et donnoit avecques ce a chascun d'els xi) d.

parisis et avoit en l'autre main argent de quel il croissoit son don " as plus besoigneus selon son avis. ¥a chascun d'eus emportoit ij pains a son hostel, se il voloit, que li benoiez rois metoit au commencement devant chascun d'eus; car de l'autre pain metoient les panetiers devant eus tant com il leur couvenoit a mengier ilecques.

De rechief, en chascun juesdi assolu, li sainz rois lavoit les piez a xiij povres ou a xxvj et donnoit a chascun d'eus xl d. , et après il les servoit en sa persone a table, einsi com il est devisé par desus que il fesoit aus autres povres. Et ce meesnies fesoit il fere par mon seigneur Phelipe et par mon seigneur Pierres et par ses autres enfanz" quant il estoient avecques lui en jour de juesdi, et aucuns de ses chapelains disoient l'olfice du Mandé l, endementires que il lavoit les piez as povres. De rechlef chiiscun jor du Suint Vendredi, il alloit nuz piez par les églises prochaines de quelconques lieu ou il fust, et du commandement du saint roy, ij de ses chambellenz prenoient c livres, chascun 1, et les aministroient au saint rov en cel jour, et metoient a la foiz ces deniers en un sachet (ue li benoiez rois portoit souz sa chape et pendoit a sa ceinture, lesqueles cent livres il donnoit por Dieu as povres de sa propre main, endementieres (jue il aloit einsi par les églises el dit jour, ne ne soufroit pas que ses serganz ou les autres qui le sivoient ostassent ne boutassent arrière les povres, ainçois vouloit que touz eussent franc acés a lui pour ce que il leur poist doner de ses propres mains l'aumône. De rechiel la coustume du saint rov fu qu'en quelconques cité ou vile ou lieu il entrast, ou il eust Frères Meneurs ou Frères Preecheeurs ou aucune ' de ces ordres, il lor fesoit donner en ce jour (pie il venoit et l'endemain, pour pitance, pain et vin et ij paire de mes, et aministrer ce que il leur couvenoit. Et après, pour ce que plus profitable chose estoit as frères avoir argent pour les dites pitances, li sainz rois leur fesoit donner pour ce argent. De rechief toutes les fois que il venoit a Paris, il fesoit donner grant argent as Frères Meneurs et ans Frères Preecheurs et a touz les autres religieus de Paris qui n'avoient possessions, c'est à savoir xviij deniers ' por chascun.

Et il avoit tele manière que se il issoit un jour de Paris et il aloit au bois de Vicenes ou a Saint-Denis ou a autre lieu, combien que il fust prochain, et il revenoit en jour ensivant a Paris, il donnoit s'aumone pour Dieu einsi com il est dit desus. Et li benoiez rois avoit commandé que l'en donnast a mengier a touz religieus povres, fussent homes ou femmes, qui vendroient a sa court ou qui passeroient parle lieu ou il seroit, neis se il venoient après mengier, et leur donnast l'en ce que il leur covendroit de la cuisine et des autres ofiiees quant il mengeroient a sa court; et ce fu fet tant comme li benoiez rois vesqui. Et com il fust une foiz a Chaslelmief sus Leire, en la dyo('ose (l'Orliciis, et se vousist uler esbatre, apirs dorinir (lu jour, au l>ois et il eust fet apeler (rere Giefroi de Biaulieu , de l'ordre des Preecheeurs, qui estoil ilecques avee lui pour ee que 11 alast avec lui au bols, 11 diz frères respoudi (jue il ue pooll pour ce que 11 atendolt Frères Preecheeurs qui venoient en une nefpar la rivière de Lelre, qui aloient a Orliens au chapitre provincial qui devoit adonques eslre ilecques prochainement. Et 11 benolez rois 11 dist que il voloit aler avecques lui jus(ues a la rivière pour veoir les frères ; et einsl vlndrent a pié 11 sainz rois et 11 diz frères et moût d'autres jusques a la rivière, ja soit ce que il ait ilecques assez longue vole. Et quant 11 rois lu la, ja soit ce que les frères qui estolent en la nef s'en vousissent du tôt en tout aler pour aler ' geslr a Jargueil, nepourquant il contreinst tant les frères qui estoient xvllj ou environ, que il les fist venir au chaslel et les fist herbegier celé nuit et leur fist assigner très bon hostel. Encore fu la coustume du saint roy de pourveoir aus povres religieuses persones, c'est a savoir as nonnalns de l'ordre de Cvstiax et a autres nonnalns et a autres persones religieuses d'autres ordres et as povres meslax des/ mesons Dieu des parties de France et as autres persones qui estoient en misère, chascun an, a l'entrée de quaresme, de harens, de deniers pour amandes», pour pois et pour autres de tele manière qui en celé seson leur estoient neccessaires.

De rechief il les pourveoit chascun an, a l'entrée d'yver, de busche, de robes de burel', de peliçons et de sollers que il donnoit as povres en grant quantité. Il fesoit acheter chascun au Ix milliers de harenc et les fesoit départir et donner si corn il est dit desus. Et ce fut tenu et gardé tant com il vesqui puis que il revint d'outre mer. Et encore li benoiez rois fesoit donner chascun an a Quaresme Prenant XXX bacons as povres. Et ces menues aumônes que li beiioiez rois fesoit donner de sa conscience especial a Frères Meneurs et a Parères Preecheeurs et :i autres religieus hommes et femmes et autres povres, se montoient chascnn an a vij™ livres de parisis en argent nombre, sanz les dias de burel et sanz les sollers et sanz les liarens que il (esoit donner et distribuer cliascun an einsi com il est dit desus. De rechief quant H benoiez rois aloit en Benl ou en Normandie ou en autres lieus ou il ne hantoit pas souvent, il fesoit a la loiz appeler iij" povres et les fesoit mengier " et les servoit en sa propre persone, et li aidoient ses escuiers et ses chambellens.

Et donnoit a chascun des povres xij deniers parisis et metoit le pain devant eus et le potage et les chars et les poissons selonc ce que il apartenoit au jour. De rechief, en aucunes granz festes, li sainz rois fesoit assembler iij povres en sa sale et les fesoit ordener a la table. De rechief H be/ieaiz rois venoit souvent a l'abeie de Roiaumont et souvent, meesmement es jours de vendredi et de samedi, il mengoit ilecques en refretoier, a la table de l'abé, et li abbes seoit delez lui. Et tozjors quant il menjoit ilecques, il fesoit pitance au couvent de pain et de vin et de ij paire de mes de poisson ; et estoient en cel tens c moines eu couvent de ce lieu, ou environ, hors les convers qui estoient xl ou environ. Et es autres jors, quant li benoiez rois ne mengoit pas en refretoier, il y entroit souvent et acoustumeement et, les moines seanz a table, li beneaiz rois a/nimstroit avec les moines ordenés a servir; et venoit a la lenestre de la cuisine et prenoit ilecques les escueles pleines de viande et les portoit et metoit devant les moines soianz a table. Et pour ce qu'il estoient mont de moines et pou de serviteurs, il portoit si longuement et raportoit ces escueles jusques a tant que l'en avoit servi le dit couvent de tout.

Et pour ce que les escueles estoient li-op chaudes, il envelopoit aucune foiz ses mains de sa chape pour la chaleur de la viande et des escueles, et espandoit aucune foiz la viande sus sa chape. Et li abl)es li disoit adon(ues que il honnissolt sa chape et li bcnoiez rois respondoit " : « Ne me chaut; j'ai autre. » Et il meesmes aloit par les tables et versoit le vin es hennas des moines aucune foiz, et aucune foiz il essaioit de ce vin a ces hennas et looit le vin quant il estoit bon', et se il estoit aigre ou que il sentist le fust, il commandoit que l'en aportast bon vin. Et toutes les foiz que il aloit a la dite abeie, il fesoit donner pitance de ij mes de poissons ou de chars selon ce que le tens le requeroit a touz les malades, fussent moines ou convers de la dite abeie, et par desus tout ce a touz les estranges malades qui demouroient en l'ospital de celé abeie. {Et quand li benoiez rois venoit a Compiegne, pluseurs foiz avint que il entroit en la cuisine des Frères Preecheeurs et demandoit que l'en faisoit a mengier pour le couvent, et en après il entroit eu refroitoier endenientieres que les frères menjoient et fesoit porter de sa cuisine viandes soufisanz, poissons et autres choses et leur fesoit aministrer, lui tout présent /De rechief li benoiet rois fist acheter mesons qui sont en ij rues assises a Paris» devant le paies de Termes', es queles il fist fere mesons bonnes et granz pour ce (jue escoliers estudianz a Paris ' demorassent ilecques a touzjours, es queles escoliers demeurent qui a ce sont recen par cens qui ont l'autorité d'eus recevoir. Et encores de ces' mesons sont aucunes louées a autres escoliers, des queles le pris ou le louage est converti eu proufit des povres escoliers devant diz, les queles mesons cousterent au benoiet roy si comme l'en croit iiij mile livres de tornois. De rechief li sainz roiz fesoit donner chascune semaine deniers a moût de povres clers pour leur bourse les quex il porveoit as"' escoles , c'est a savoii- a aucuns ij s. , a aucuns iij s.

et a aucuns xij d. et a aucuns xviij.

Et croit l'en que ces povres que li benoiez rov pourveoit einsi estoient bien cent. Et en ceste manière il pourveoit a aucunes béguines. Et ausi li benoiez rois devant diz fist acheter une pièce de terre delez Saint Ennouré, ou il fist fere une grant mansion por ce que les povres avugles deniorassent ilecques perpetuelment, jusques a iij cens; et ont touz les anz de la borse le roy, pour potages et pour autres choses, rentes . En la quele meson est une église que il fist fere en Teneur de saint Rémi pour ce que les diz avugles oient ilecques le service Dieu, et pluseurs foiz avint que li benoiez rois vint as jours de la Teste saint Rémi ou les diz avugles fesoient chanter sollempnement l'oHice en l'église, les " avugles presenz entour le saint roy, et donna rente a l'église. De leclîief il fonda et fist fere la meson Dieu de Vernon, de la quele li fons des mesons et les edefices, — pour ce que c'est el meilleur lieu de la vile et est épiant et lee, — li benoiez rois l'acheta très chierement, et li cousterent li fons et les edefices xxx mile livres de parisis. Et donna a la dite meson Hz, vessiax" de cuisine et touz autres hostillemenz neccessaires en la dite meson pour touz povres et malades qui i seroient et pour les frères et pour les sereurs de la meson.

Et ilecques sont xxv suers et ij frères clercs qui font le service Dieu en la chapele de cel ostel Dieu et autre grant mesniee de chamberieres et d'autres persones qui a l'ostel convienent a servir. Et encore leur donna il livres et autres aournenienz et calices pour la dite chapele. De rechief tant comme li benoiez rois vesqui, il vestoit chascun an les suers de celé meson Dieu et fist fere unes cotes pour les povres que il vestoient quant il menjoient. De rechief, la meson Diou de Pontoise il flst fere et la fonda et doua et leur " donna possessions (|ui valent ilii livres chascun au de rente. De rechicf il (ist fere la meson Dieu de Compiegne et acroistrc niout durement; la quele oevre cousta xij mile livres de parisis et la doua richement, et donna Hz et autres choses neccessaires por les povres et pour les malades. De rechief il fist fere l'accroissement de la meson Dieu de Paris qui s'estent jusques à Petit Pont et donna rentes a la dite meson Dieu .

De rechief il fist lere le dortoier des Frères Preecheeurs de Paris et autres mesons ilec meesmes. Et quant li benoiez rois lesoit fere mesons et autres lieus povres, il meesmes en sa propre persone aloit veoir les oevres quant l'en fesoit les mesons devant dites et ordenoit et disposoit comment les sales des mesons et les chambres et les officines des dites mesons fussent fêtes. Et croit l'en que les oevres des mesons fêtes pour la cause des escoliers de Paris, de la meson des avugles, de la meson des Béguines de Paris et l'église des Frères INIeneurs et le dortoier des Frères Preecheeurs de Paris et les autres mesons fêtes ilecques et l'acroissement de la meson Dieu de Paris, de la meson Dieu de Pontaise, de Yernon et de Compiegne, la meson des Frères Preecheeurs de Compiegne, de la meson des frères de Saint Moriee de Senliz, de la meson des suers de l'ordre des Preecheeurs de Roen, de la meson des Frères Preecheeurs de Caen, de la meson des frères de l'ordre de Chai treuse a Valvert de lez Paris, de la meson des frères du Carme de Paris por la greigneur partie, les queles oevres entre les autres que li benoiez rois fist fere, li cousterent, toutes choses prisiees qui es dites mesons et es sainz liex furent mises des biens de celui roy, que el fonsdes liex que es édifices que es rentes que il leur donna, jusques a la somme de deus cenz mile livres de tornois et plus. Et aucune foiz avintque aucuns des conseilliers le reprenoient en ce que il ooient si granz despenz que il metoit en fere tex despens et teles mesons et si granz données et si granz aumônes que il fesoit as ' dites mesons, et li benoiez rois respondi : « Tesiez vos. Dieux m'a tout donné ce que j'ai. « Ce que je met en ceste manière, c'est le miex mis ».

De rechief li benoiez rois clevani\ diz fesoit donner ans Frères Meneurs, ans Frères Preecheeurs c livres, aucune foiz iij cens, pour aquiter leur detes qu'il avoient fêtes, si com il disoient, et pour dire plus briément, il les soustenoit a Paris et es " autres liex voisins por la greigneur partie. Et quant les Frères Preecheeurs de Compiegue entrèrent premièrement la meson de Compiegne que il ontilecques, li benoiez rois leur donna en aumosne c livres de parisis pour leur vivre. Et puis que li benoiez rois vint d'outremer, il avint pluseurs fois que aucunes gentix femmes venoient a lui et li disoient que leur mariz avoient esté morz outremer en son service et que eles avoient despendu leur biens, pour quoi eles estoient povres et menoient avec eles leur fiuz et leur filles et prioient le saint roy que il leur feist bien et que il eust pitié d'eles. Et quant li sainz rois avoit connoissance d'eles,il leur fesoit donner par son aumônier a l'une xx livres, a l'autre x, et plus et moins selon ce que il lui estoit avis que il li couvenoit ; et aucune foiz il demandoit se aucune de ces filles savoil letres et disoit que il la feroit recevoir en l'abeie de Pontaise ou ailleurs. Et souvent fesoit donner li sainz rois ans povres chevaliers et aus povres dames et as povres damoiseles et as povres serganz, a aucun x livres, a aucun xx, xxx, xl, 1, Ix et aucune foiz cent pour leur filles marier et aucune foiz plus ou mains, selon Testât et la condicion des persones et si com il lui estoit avis que ce fust bien. \Et quant li benoiez rois chevauchoit par le roiaume, les povres venoient a lui et il fesoit donner a chascun j d. , et quant il veoit aucuns plus besoigneus, il fesoit donner a l'un V s. , a l'autre x s.

et encores a un autre xx s. et aucune foiz plus et moins selon ce que bon li sembloit. Et com il fust revenu d'outre mer après son premier passage et visitast son roiaume ', les aumôniers donnoient aumône a touz ceus qui a eusvenoient, a chascun j d.

Et quand H benoiez rois veoit aucun plus besoignex, il li l'esoit donner vj d. ou xij d. ou selon ce que il li estoit avis. Et en cel tens qui est prochainement desus dit, quant il visitoit sa terre, il servoit chascun jour de sa propre main a ij povres, en donnant a chascun ij pains et xij d. parisis ausi a chascun, et avoit en sa main senestre deniers si que, quant il veoit un homme pl//s besoignex, il li donnoit de seurcrois iiij d. ou v ou vj selon ce que il li sembloit que bon fust. Et par desus toutes ces choses, en cel tens il fesoit fere chascun jour aumosne gênerai, neis se x mile persones y venissent ou xx mile ou plus. Et moût de foiz et meesmement quant il estoit chier tens, il fesoit baillier a aucuns de sa mesniee a la foiz m livres, a la foiz ij mile et plus, et aucune foiz mains, et les fesoit porter et donner et départir en diverses parties de son roiaume aus povres qui i demouroient.

Et quant li rois ooit que il avoit grant chierté de vivres en aucune partie de son roiaume, il enveoit en ces parties par ses serganz ij mile ", aucune foiz iij mile, v mile livres de tornois et plus et moins selon ce que il li estoit avis et que il creoit que il le couvenist. Et est chose seue que il fist einsi pluseurs foiz.

Une foiz quant il fu chier tens, li sainz rois envoia en Normendie une somme d'argent a donner as povres, et ordena que cil qui iroient la donnassent de l'aumône as '" hostes qui manoient sous le roi nuement qui li paioient rentes chascun an, s'il en avoient mestier plus que as ' autres. J)l'. IXfUilCIOM', De rechief il fesoit donner ses propres robes souvent as bonnes daines religieuses et as autres et as ' prestres. Et disoit aucune foiz : « Alon visiter les povres de tel pais et les repesson. » Et lors aloit il en diverses parties de son roiaume, ou en dastinois ou en Normendie, et fesoit llecques donner pour Dieu ans povres larges aumônes. Et fist couper en son bois les très et antre merrien de Teglise des Frètes Meneurs de Paris et pour le cloistre de la dite église, et pour le dortoier et le refretoier des Frères Preecheeurs de Paris, et pour la meson Dieu de Pontaise et pour les frères des Sas de Paris - et fist ausi mener tout le dit merrien a tous les liex desus diz.

Et les branches et l'autre bois qui remanoif des grosses pièces du merrien estoit donné pour Dieu as povres religions, a l'une ij charetees et a aucune iij'", du commandement du benoiet roi, qui commandnit que cel bois fiist\ porté par yaue jusques a Paris ou ailleurs la ou ce bois estoit tlonné por Dieu. Encores el tens de son premier passage, quant il tu délivré de la prison des Sarrazins, il demora outre mer iiij ans/ ou entour, a ce especiaument que il delivrast les Crestiens qui avoient esté pris ainçois que il alast outre mer. Et moult de foiz il envoia messages soUernpnex au soudan pour la délivrance des Crestiens que il tenoit en chetivoisons ; et aucune foiz il en rachetoient ij cenz, aucune loiz iij cenz ou V ccm, et si coin il les pooient avoir. Et por ce que nos avons " traiicuncs de ces foiz les essamples, c'est certain (jue, a la tierce foiz ou a la quarte, les messages en ramenèrent iiij cens ou environ, a une autre foiz vij cenz hors les femmes et a l'autre ("oiz vj cens et 1, et a l'antre (olz vij'"' et 1, et estoient ramenez as despens du benoiet roy quant il estoient délivrés. Et a ces Crestiens qui einsi revenoient des prisons des Sarrazins, ore cent, ore ij cenz, ore v cenz, et einsi com il venoient délivrés des dites prisons des mescreanz nus et despanez qui riens n'avoient, li benoiez rois leur lesoit a touz aministrer robes. Et pour autres choses qui leur estoient neccessaires, il fesoit donner a aucun c d. de la monnoie du pais qui sont apelez dragans, dont chascun dragans valoit vij petiz tornois, a aucun ij cenz ou iij cenz, ancune foiz plus, aucune foiz moins, selon Testât et la condicion des persones, et pourvit en ceste manière en cel tens a plus de iij mile hommes; et donnoit robes aus chevaliers et aus nobles hommes de vert- ou d'autre drap de ceste manière, et aus mendres de drap d'Arraz ou d'autre de plus bas pris que les dras aus chevaliers.

Et en cel tens que il s'en revindrent einsi, il en revint a une foiz mil et v' , et autre foiz autres pluseurs des chartres des Sarrazins, si com il disoient, et venoient es naves" jusques en Acre aus despenz du benoiet roy, si com il disoient, et l'en le disoit communément. Et einsi le croit l'en, car il n'i aioit autre home qui donnast aus diz hommes einsi povres et mendianz si granz despenz, se li benoiez rois ne lor eust donnez. Et furent icés hommes derrenierement recouvrez par les messiiges ' que li benoiez rois envoia as Sarrasins pour les clietis deliviei', et clisoit l'en en Acre que il avoient este renduz du Soudan par les couvenances qui avoient este pièce a letes entre le saint roy et le Soudan ou les Sarrazins quant il fu délivré de leur chartre. Et a cels meesmement qui einsi estoient revenuz li ' rois fesoit donner robes ou deniers pour robes. De sa çLsitacion. — Soit il einsi que moût de choses soient dites par desus du service cjue li benoiez rois fesoit en sa personne ans persones pleines de misère, nonpourquant de ce est orendroit aucune chose a recorder, especiaument de la visitacion et du confort que li benoiez rois leur fesoit. Li benoiez rois visitoit souvent l'abeie de Roiaumont, et ausi com a chascune foiz que il venoit a la dite abeie, il entroit il meesme en l'enfermerie de l'abeie et veoit les frères malades et les confortoit et demandoit a chascun de quele maladie il estoit malades et touchoit a aucuns le poux et a aucuns les temples, neis quant il suoient, et apeloit les phisiciens cjui estoient avecques lui, et fesoit tant que il veoient en sa présence les urines des moines malades et leur donnoient les phisiciens conseil comment il se deussent gouverner en leur maladie.

Et disoit souvent li benoiez rois : « Nostre laituaire tel ou nos choses teles fussent « bonnes a cest malade », et leur commandoit et leur fesoit aministrer de sa cuisine et de ses autres olTices ce que il leur covenoit soufisamment. Et a ces choses 1ère il avoit pou de gens, si comme li abbes et ses phisiciens et ses secrétaires; car quant il lesoit tex choses, il vouloil que pou de genz 1 fussent et meesmement (U'us cpii estoient moul ses privez et nus autres. Mes cens qui estoient plus malades il visitoit plus soigneusement, et plus haslivemcMit venoit aus liz des malades et atouchoit neis les mains des malades et les liex de la maladie. Et quant la maladie estoit plus •rrieve ou apostume ou autre chose, tant plus volontiers l'atouchoit. Et en Tabeie de Roiaumont avoit un moine ({ui avoit non frère Legier et estoit diacre en l'ordre, qui estoit mesel et estoit en une meson dessevré des autres, qui estoit si despiz et si abominables que pour la grant maladie ses ieux estoient si degaslez que il ne veoit goûte, et avoit perdu le nez et ses lèvres estoient fendues et grosses et les pertuis des ieux estoient rouges et hysdeus a veoir. Et donques, comme li benoiez rois fust venu un jour de diemenche, entour la feste saint Rémi, a la dite abeie de Roiaumont eteustoï ilecques pluseurs messes, si com il avoit acoustumé, et estoit avecques lui li cuens de Flandres et pluseurs autres gentilz hommes, et quant les messes furent dites, il issi de l'église et ala vers l'enfermerie a la meson ou li moines demouroit einsi mesel.

Et quant il i volt aler, il commanda a un de ses huissiers que il feist cels qui estoient avecques lui trere arrière. Et einsi il prist l'abbé de Roiaumont et li dist que il vouloit aler au lieu ou li diz mesiax demoroit que 11 avoit autre foiz veu et le vouloit visiter. En après li abbes ala devant et li benoiez rois ala après et entra eu lieu ou li malades estoit et le trouvèrent menjant a une table assez courte et mengoit char de porc; car einsi est la coustume des mesiax en l'abeie que il menjuent chars. Et li sainz rois salua cel malade et li demanda comment il li estoit, et s'agenoilla devant lui; et lors commença a trenchier a genouz et trencha devant lui la char d'un coutel que il trouva a la table dudit malade. Et com il eust trenchié la char par morsiax, il metoit ces morsiax en la bouche du malade ', et il les recevoit de la main du benoiet roy et les metijoit. Et a la parfin, quant H sainz rois fii einsi a genouz devant le dit mesel et li diz abbes aiisi a genoz pour la révérence du saint roy, de laquele chose li diz abbes nonpourquant avoit assez horreur ", li benoiez rois demanda au mesel se il voloit meugier des gelines et des perdriz , et il dist oïl.

Lors fistli sainz rois apeler un de ses huissiers par un moine qui estoit garde du malade desus dit, et il ' li commanda que il leist aporter des gelines et des perdriz de sa cuisine qui estoit assez loing de cel lieu. Et toutevoies, tant comme li diz huissiers mist a aler et a venir de la dite cuisine, qui aportoit ij gelines et iij perdriz rosties, li diz rois fu touzjours a genouz devant le malade, et li abbes ensemenf avecques lui. En après li sainz rois demanda au mesel duquel il voudroit ainçois mengier ou des gelines ou de/ perdriz, et il respondi des perdriz. Et li benoiez rois li demanda a quele saveur, et il respondi que il les vouloit mengier au sel. Et lors il li trencha les eles d'une perdriz, et saloit les morsiax, et puis les metoit en la bouche du malade. Mes, pour ce que les lèvres du malade estoient fendues, si com il est dit desus, il saignoit »' pour ce que le sel li entroit es lèvres qui estoient fendues, si li fist mal le sel et en issoit li venins si que il li couloit par le menton.

Pour la quele chose, li malades dist que le sel le bleçoit trop. Et donques après ce, li beneurez ' rois metoit les morsiax eu sel pour prendre saveur, mes il terdoit les morsiax des grainz du sel qu'il n'entrassent es crevaces des lèvres du malades. Et avecques tôt ce, li benoiez rois confortoit le dit malade et li disoit que il soufrist en bonne pacience celé maladie et que c'estoit son purgatoire en cesl monde et que il valoit miex qu'il soufrist celé maladie ici que il soufrist autre chose cl siècle avenir. Et •' après li benoiez rois demanda au malade se il vouloit boivre, cl il dist oïl. Et il dist quel vin il avoit ; et li malades respondi bon. Et lors li benoiez rois prist le henap et le pot de vin qui esloieiit a la table, et mist le vin en henap a ses propres mains; et puis li mist le henap a la bouche et l'abevra.

Et quant ce fu fet, li benoiez rois pria le malade que il priast Nostre Seigneur por lui; et einsi s'en issirent li benoiez rois et li abes, et ala li benoiez « rois mengier a son hostel que il avoit en l'abeie. Et einsi visitoit il souvent ' le dit malade et disoit souvent as ' chevaliers : « Alon visiter nostre malade «, et il parloit du mesel. Mes il n'entroient pas avecques lui en la meson du dit malade, mes li abbes ou li prieurs de cel lieu. Et une ' foiz, comme il fust entré a visiter le dit mesel et la table fust mise devant lui , li rois meesmes le servi et li fist soupes en un brouet et li metoit a une cueillier de fust en la bouche. Et pour ce que li benoiez rois mist une foiz en ces soupes trop de sel, la bouche et les lèvres du malade commencierent a saignier/ pour le sel, si comme l'en croit. De quoi un qui la fu dist au benoiet roi : « Vous fêtes sa bouche saignier S car vos « avez mis trop de sel en ses soupes. »

Et li benoiez rois respondi : « Je ai fet aussi pour lui comme je feisse pour moi meemes », et il dist au malade que il li pardonnast. Et en celé meesmes abeie de Roiaumont fu un autre moine mesel que il visita aucune foiz. Li benoiez rois aloit souvent aus mesons Dieu de Paris, de Compiegne, de Pontaise, de Vernon '\ d'Orliens et visitoit les povres et les malades qui ilecques gisoient et les servoit en sa propre persone; et a chascuns d'eus il donnoit' certaine quantité de deniers et du pain et des chars et des poissons, selon ce que il leur couvenoit et selon ce que h tens le requerroit. Et leur fesoit larges pitances quant il entroit a eus et leur aministroit de ses mains J pain, char ou autres mes que il avoit fet apareillier pour les malades par ses queus et aporter ilecques. Et aucune foiz il tailloit i pain ou ii a ses propres mains et donnoit einsi trenchié a chascun povre qui ilecques estoit. filt quant aucuns estoiont plus malades que les autres, il les servoit plus en trenchant leur pain et char et les autres viandes et estoit a genouz devant eus et portoit le morsel trenchié a leur bouches et les pessoit et soustcnoit et terdoit leur bouches d'une touaille que il portoit. Et aucuns de ces malades estoient si despis (juc les privez serg-anz du benoiet roy en estoient abominables et se treoient arrière et se merveilloicnt comment il pooit tele chose souffrir.

Et vraiement ses serganz ne pooient, tele foiz estoit, ilecques demorer pour la corruption de l'air et pour la pueur et pour l'abominacion des malades; et nonpourquant il demoroit ilecques ausi comme se il n'en sentist rien et les servoit , si com il est dit desus. Et avecques ce. en la meson Dieu de Reins, il fesoit cestes ' meemes oevres de pitié; et aucune foiz les chevaliers et les autres qui estoient avecques lui, qui li veoient ce fere, lesoient ausi. Or avint une foiz comme li benoiez rois servist, si com il est dit par desus, un malade en la mcsoii Dieu de Paris, et le sanc li decorust par les narines, il li terdoit ses narines a ses propres mains a une touaille que il se fist baillier des seucs et lessa ilecques celé touaille. Et les autres touailles que il se faisoit aporter quant il aloit a tel service, il les lessoit ilecques. Et il servi en un jour de vendredi en sa persone cent et xxx iiij povres qui /o/s estoient en la meson Dieu de Compiegne en metant devant touz une escuele de potage a chascun et avecques ce deux mes de poissons et autres choses, si com il couvenoit aus malades; les queles viandes il avoit fet apareillier. Et comme il semblast que il lust lassé de si grant service ("aire, un dist, {|ui ilecques estoit, que l'en deist au "" roi (jue il se re)osast d'orc en avant; et comme li rois/eust ce ov, il regarda entour lui el vit un nudade (ui avoit le mal que l'eu apele le mal saint lloy ' eu deux liex eu visage; et ad()ii(ues li heiioiez rois s'assist seur lo lit de ce malade ef li para une poire et li nietoit les niorsiax a ses propres mains en la bouche; et tandis que il fesoit ce, la porreture ou l'ordure" qui courolt des plaies du dit malade (|ui estoient de chaseune partie du nés, couloit sus la main du roy, pour quoy il convint que li rois lavast deux loiz sa main dont il le pessoit, ainçols que li di/ jnalades eust toute mcngiee la poire.

Eiicores quant il\ aloit visiter les malades, il fesoit avecques soi porter yaue rose et arrousoit de ses propres mains les visages des malades. Quant il venoit a Yernon, alncois que il entrast en son paies que il a la, il descendoit en la meson Dieu de Yernon et visitoit les povres et aloit entour leur lis et leur demandoit ou aus suers de la meson qui les gardoient comment il leur estoit, et les touchoit aucune foiz ; et avenoit souvent que il venoit a heure de mengier el dit hospital, et des viandes que il avoit fet apareillier par ses queus en ce meesmes hostel il servoit a ses propres mains les povres et les malades de celé meson Dieu, en la présence de ses fiex que il vouloit qu'il fussent ilecques, si comme l'en croit, pour ce/ que il les enformast en oevres de pitié. Et leur aministroit en metant devant eus potage, si com il leur covenoit, et autres mes ausi comme chars et poissons convenables a leur maladies; et demandoit as suers de la dite meson S des malades de quele maladie il estoient malades et se ' il pooient mengier char ou aucune autre chose et quele chose leur estoit bonne et sainne et, selonc ce que il leur estoit proufitable, il lor fesoit aministrer. Et quant il en trouvoit aucuns suanz et mal couverz, il meemes les couvroit. L'en dit que une suer de celé meson de Vernon fu une foiz malade, la quele suer dist que jamès ne mengeroit se il meemes ne la pessoit de ses propres mains. Et quant li beiloiez rois oy ce, il ala a li " ou ele gisoit et la peut et li nietoit les niorsiax a ses propres mains en la bouche •. £7 (luant la nieson Dieu de Compiegne fii fête, li sainz rois d'une part, et mon seigneur Tiebaut, jadis rov de Navarre, son gendie, qui li aydoit d'autre part, sus un drap de soie portèrent et mistrent le premier povre malade qui onques fust mis en la nieson Dieu nouvelement lete, et le mistrent en un lit nouvelement apareillié et lessierent adonc sus lui le drap de soie en quoi il le portèrent.

Et en cel jour meenies mon seigneur Loys, adonques alnzné filz mon seigneur saint Loys, et mon seigneur Phelipe qui fu après lui noble roy de France, portèrent et mistrent ausi l'autre malade en la dite meson Dieu et le mistrent en l'autre lit; et ausi firent aucuns autres barons qui ilecques estoient avecques lui. Cliascun jour, au matin, quant il avoit oy ses messes et il revenoit en sa chambre, il l'esoit apeler ses malades des escroeles et les touchoit. Cil qui avoient esté herbegiez la nuit devant en l'ostel du saint roy en certain lieu qui a ce estoit ordené, et avoient receu leur vivre, estoient mis hors ■ en la cort le ' saint voï\. Et com il venist une loiz par la vile de Chastiaunuef sus Leire, en l'entrée de la vile, hors du chastel, une povre femme ancienne qui estoit a l'uis de sa mesoncele et avoit pain en sa main, dist au benoiet rov ces paroles : « Bon roy, de cest pain qui est de t'aumone « est soustenu mon mari qui gist malade. » Et donques li benoiez roys prist le pain en sa main et dist : « C'est assez aspre pain. » Et quant li sainz rois sot et oy que li malades y estoit, il entra en la dite mesonnele pour visiter le/.

Di. ; SCS scpotilures o . — Les fez du benoiet saint Loys qui ci sont descriz et manifestez prueventet mostient comment il se porta el service des sepoutures et des cxeques des mors. Comme el tens de son premier passage, puis que il estoit ja issu de la chartre des Paiens, et estoit encore outre mer et feist fermer Sydoine et fussent ilecques arbalestiers et maçons et autres ouvriers crestiens pour fere les murs, ilecques seurvint, a un matin, un grant ost de Sarrazins si soudainement que cil qui estoient ordenez a ouvrer et a garder les ouvriers ne les aperçurent onques, si que les Sarrazins " ocistrent niout des Crestiens; et cil des Crestiens qui porent s'en fuirent et se mistrent en garde en un chastel qui est ilecques en la mer. Et quant li benoicz rois qui estoit en Jopen oy ce et il vit les Sarrazins qui se partoient du siège"' devant dit entour iij semaines après, il qui vouloit encore celé terre fermer, ordena que une partie de sa chevalerie iroit a Belinas qui estoit des Sarrazins por gaster celé terre, ou les genz du benoiet roy adamagierent moût les Sarrazins. Et li benoiez rois ala a Sydoine avecques moult pou de genz et se mist en niout grant perill, et quant il lu la, il vit les cors des Crestiens qui ilecques avoient esté ocis des Sarrazins gisanz par le rivage de la mer et dedenz cel lieu qui devoit estre fermé ou il avoit eu une cité ancienne. Et fu nombre de cens qui virent les cors mors que il estoient près de iij mile ocis. Et li benoiez rois ot deliberacion devant toutes choses que ces cors fussent enseveliz, et lors ordena un cymentire et le fist beueir ilecques près et fist fouir granz fosses en ce cymentire.

Et il meemcs a ses propres mains, a l'ayde de cens qui avec lui estoient, prenoit les cors des morz et les metoient en tapiz et puis les cousoient, et lors les metoient sus chamcx et SUS chevax, et estoieiit portez as dites fosses es queles il estoient enseveliz. Mes aucuns de ces cors estoient si porriz que, quant il et les autres qui li aidoient, prenoientle braz ou le pié a mètre en sac, il se dessevroit de l'autre cors. De quoi il avoit ilecques si grant pueur que pou y avoit de noz oenz qui la poissent soustenir ne soufrir. De quoi aucuns qui estoient de sa niesniee ni niistrent onques la main, ainçois estoupoient leur nés et se merveilloient de lui comment il pooit ce fere et soustenir si grant pueur. Et les gentilz hommes et les riches qui la lurent en cel tens avecques lui distrent par leur serement que il ne virent onques ne aperçurent que il estoupast son nés. Et comme les boiax d'un mort lussent ilec ' espanduz delez le cors, li benoiez rois mist hors ses oanz de sa main et s'enclina a recueillir les boiaus devant diz a ses mains nues et a mètre en sac.

Et encore avoit il let alouer vilains qui conqueilloient ausinques les cors devant diz, mes il ne porent pas estre conqueilliz si tost touz, ainçois i mistrent bien iiij jours ou V a ces cors concueillir et ensevelir; et si avoient chascun jour xv bestes ou environ qui les portoient a ces fosses devant dites. Et por ce que mont de cysternes du dit lieu estoient pleines des cors desus diz, il les fist vuidier et ensevelir en ces fosses. Dont chascun matin, quant il avoit oy messe en ces jours, il venoit tantost a ces cors charchier, et semonnoit les autres, et disoit : « Râlons (( ensevelir ces martirs. » Et quant il li sembloit que aucuns ne fust pas volenteïz de ce fere, il disoit : « Ct'Uis ont\ « &o\\fert la mort, nous poons donc bien ceste chose « sou//7'/-. )) Et a cens qui estoient presenz el lieu ou les morz estoient, il disoit : « N'aiez pas abominacion por ces « cors, car ils sont martirs et en paradis. » \Ei r'/? iprès les fosses devant dites estoient aucune foiz en cel tens l'arcevesque de Tyr', Tevesque de Damiete' et un autre evesque aomnez de vostemenz d'evescjue et li bcMioiez rois avec eus et lesoient, si comme Tcn croit, le service des morz. Mes li arcevesqiies et les evesqiies estoupoient leur narines a leur vestemenz.

Et dit un riche et noble chevalier ' par son serement, qui ce regardoit, que il ne li vit onques adonques estoupcr son nés ~.

Et quant les cors furent enseveliz, il fist ierc pour eus sollempnex exeques et l'oficc des morz ". Et une loiz avint que il estoit a Compiegne une nuit que un qui avoit esté malade fust trespassé en la meson Dieu du dit lieu, et ce fust dit au heneoit roi\ par la prieuse et par une des suers de la dite meson , il manda que il apareillassent le cors a ensevelir, mes que eles ne l'ensevelissent pas sanz lui, car il voloit estre a fere le service pour cel mort. Et comme la meson n'eust pas cymentire, quant la messe fu dite pour le mort en la présence de lui et de ses fiuz, c'est a savoir mon seigneur Loys, adonques ainzné fiuz3 du benoiet roy, et mon seigneur Phelipe qui tint le rovaume de France après lui, h benoiez rois commanda que li cors devant diz fust porté loing a enterrer et dist que cil qui le verroient porter par la vile diroient leur paternostres pour l'ame de lui, et einsi l'ame du mort desus dit ne gaaigneroit pas pou. Après ces choses il avint que un chapitre des Frères Preecheeurs fut célébré a Orliens en la feste de la Nativité Nostre Dame. Li benoiez rois qui venoit a Orliens, fu a la sollempnité en 1 eg-lise et eu chapitre et nienga eu refroitouier' avecques le couvent, et les clespenz fez a touz, c'est a savoir a deus cenz frères ou environ qui estoient venuz au chapitre desus dit; et le chapitre fet, ensernent comme li benoiez rois se seist eu parloier avec aucuns des Frères Preecheeurs, pour ce que li benoiez rois avoit oy raconter eu chapitre comment en chascune meson de la province estoient morz certains frères, et estoit exprimé et dit le nombre en chascune des mesons, mes les nous des frères n'estoient pas nommez, lors dist il a ces frères prochainement diz que ce fust bonne chose cjue ausi comme li nombres des morz estoit recité en chapitre, que les nons fussent ausi nommez et dist que pour ce pourroicnt venir as frères morz mont de suffrages ou d'aides, se leur nons estoient sens par aventure de ceus qui miex les avoient conncuz ou qui les avoient miex amez, ou pour ce que aucuns des morz avoient esté plus profitables- a l'ordre plus que il il ne feroit se leur nons estoient teuz. Pour la quele chose il fu requis par aucuns des Frères Preecheeurs eu chapitre gênerai de cel ordre meesmes qui adonques vint après, que il fust ainsi establi et fet eu tens a venir, et fu avis au chapitre gênerai que ce fu bon et profitable.

De quoi il fu establi" einsi et est au jour d'ui tenu et gardé par tout l'ordre. Et une foiz comme li benoiez rois fust en l'abeie de Chaeliz de l'ordre de Cistiaus, il avint que un des frères du dit lieu morut. Et com il aprochast a la mort et h couvenz fust asemblez entour lui qui estoit mis sus cendre et sus la haire, selon la coustume de Tordre de Cystiax, et li couvenz chantast les letanies et l'autre service acoustumé, li benoiez rois vint a cel meesmes lieu et tant longuement comme l'en tVsoit le service de celui, il fu au chief ' de celui qui se moroit a grant devocion et par granl humilité et en estant ilecqiies taiulis cominc l'en disoil" le servisc. Et quant 11 diz frei-es fu iiecqnes mort, il ala a l'église après le freje mort que l'en i portoit, et fu ilecques en sa persone li bcnoiez ' rois au service qui lu (et en eele meesmes heure entour le mort desus dit par moult grant devocion et par moult grant humilité. Et des choses devant mises apert il bien que il ot chanté a ses prochains et compassion ordenee et vertueuse, et que il fist les oevres de miséricorde en herbejant , en paissant, en abevrant, en vestant, en visitant, en confortant, en aidant par le service de sa propre persone et en soustenant les povres et les malades, en rachetant les chetis prisonniers, en ensevelissant les morz et en aidant leur a touz vertueusement et plente«/-(3//S6V«e///.

Scripture echoes

↩1Cor.4.7;Jas.1.17 — For who makes you different? And what do you have that you did not receive? But if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you had not received it? Jas.1.17 — Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.
↩Matt.25.35-Matt.25.36 — For I was hungry, and you gave me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you welcomed me in; Matt.25.36 — I was naked and you clothed me; I was sick and you visited me; I was in prison and you came to me.

Notes

1 ↩Source has OCR noise (stray marks, slash, «»). Reading as: the king extended his hands to help the poor and the dechetis (wretched); his heart was filled and his entrailles pierced so that pity seemed to have wholly claimed him. OF courage rendered as heart (inner disposition), not modern bravery.
2 ↩Reconstructed Premièrement chascun jor from corrupted Pre/nierenient chascim /or; en sa personne from persoiie; aministroit from 'J aministroit'. 'ij paire dermes de poissons' taken as two helpings/portions of fish (paire d'… de poissons); exact fish-measure term is uncertain.
3 ↩Reading 'le rov' as 'le roy' in 'les valiez de la chambre le roy' (the king's chamber valets).
4 ↩Reading 'saiisse' as sauce (sausse) and 'mctoit' as metoit (put).
5 ↩xij d. = twelve deniers; the following sentence completes the unit as deniers parisis (Paris deniers).
6 ↩Normalized corrupt OCR: (jue→que, greigneur besoiug→greigneur besoing, ilec(|ues→ilecques, (jui→qui, avecques H→avecques li. Reading: deniers parisis; extra gifts to those in greater need, and a larger gift to a woman with a small child.
7 ↩Corrected (uaresme→Caresme/Quaresme, TAvent→l'Avent, Tan→l'an.
8 ↩garderobe = the king's private wardrobe chamber (not a clothes closet). linceul = linen cloth/towel he wore girt about him for the foot-washing.
9 ↩Corrected ({ue→que. 'ne les avoit pas nez' read as 'had not yet cleaned them' (net/netoier).
10 ↩Sentence breaks before 'parisis' in s8; unit is forty Paris deniers placed in each hand.
11 ↩parisis continues xl d. from s7: deniers parisis (Paris coinage). 'grant devocion' rendered as 'great devotion' per lexeme policy for devotio.
12 ↩Source reading «chascuii de ses enlim/.» is heavily corrupt OCR; rendered as the opening of the following gift clause ('to each of them'), the most plausible sense before s4's bread allotment.
13 ↩Normalized «par desiis» as «par desus» ('over and above / beyond'); sentence begins mid-clause after the corrupt s3 fragment.
14 ↩Roman «Ix» read as 60; «iiij d.» is four deniers (pennies). The coin type is not named here (cf. «parisis» elsewhere).
15 ↩Corrected corrupt forms: «aumône gênerai» → general alms; «ij foi/» → twice; «(uelque» → whatever/wherever; «du lelief» → leftovers (relief of the tables); dropped OCR noise «"■» before «que».
16 ↩«H benoiez» read as «li benoiez»; «estolt» as «estoit». «en bas» taken as the lower/downstairs chamber; «potage» as stew/pottage; «chars» as meats.
17 ↩«ij povres» rendered literally as two poor people; assembling only two 'in the hall' is oddly small and the numeral may be corrupt (a larger figure is possible). «xi) d.» read as «xii d.» (twelve deniers), which the next section continues with «parisis».
18 ↩This sentence is a mid-phrase continuation of VieStLoys.1.11.3.s8 (the gift of deniers to each poor person). 'parisis' names the Paris coinage (deniers parisis). The stray quotation mark in the source is treated as noise.
19 ↩Leading '¥a' is treated as OCR noise for 'a'. 'panetiers' rendered as bread-stewards (royal pantry officers who served bread).
20 ↩Source 'meesnies' read as 'meesmes' (même, 'same'); 'olfice du Mandé' as 'office du Mandé' (Office of the Mandatum).
21 ↩Normalized several OCR corruptions: De rechief; chascun jor du Saint Vendredi; saint roy; sachet que; endementires que. 'chascun l' read as Roman L = fifty (half of the hundred livres for two chamberlains).
22 ↩'ij paire de mes': two pairs of cooked dishes/courses (table messes), not monetary 'pairs'.
23 ↩Source ofiiees read as offices (household departments/service offices), the usual sense with cuisine in court provisioning contexts.
24 ↩Heavily OCR-damaged sentence reconstructed as: Chasteauneuf sus Loire; dyocese d'Orliens; aler esbatre après dormir du jour au bois; frere Giefroi de Biaulieu; li diz frères respondi que il ne pooit; atendoit Frères Preecheeurs... nef par la rivière de Loire... Orliens... chapitre provincial... estre ilecques prochainement.
25 ↩OCR forms 11/benolez/einsl/vlndrent/vole read as li benoiez, einsi, vindrent, voie.
26 ↩Reconstructed readings: li rois fu la; estoient; aler gesir a Jargueil (Jargeau); xviij; chastel; herbegier. Place-name Jargueil taken as Jargeau on the Loire near Orléans.
27 ↩nonnalns → nonnains (nuns); Cvstiax → Cistiax (Cîteaux/Cistercians); meslax → mesiax (lepers); des/ mesons Dieu → des mesons Dieu (Hôtels-Dieu / houses of God).
28 ↩amandes kept as almonds (Lenten food/provision), not a figurative sense; fits the list with herrings and peas.
29 ↩burel: coarse woolen cloth commonly used for plain garments for the poor; peliçons: fur-lined outer garments (pelisses).
30 ↩Normalized reading: 'chascun an' (every year) for source 'chascun au'; 'si com' for 'si corn'; 'Ix' taken as Roman 9.
31 ↩d'outre mer: return from Outremer / the Crusade; not a generic sea voyage.
32 ↩Quaresme Prenant: the carnival / Shrovetide season at the threshold of Lent. bacons: flitches or sides of bacon (salted pork), not modern sliced bacon.
33 ↩Restored several OCR forms: beiioiez→benoiez; Parères Preecheeurs→Frères Preecheeurs; :i→a; chascnn/cliascun→chascun; dias→draps; liarens→harens; (esoit→fesoit. 'vij™' read as vijm = 7,000 livres parisis; if the witness intends vij.c (700), revisit.
34 ↩de sa conscience especial: personal/devotional alms given as a special matter of conscience (private conscience fund), not merely official household charity.
35 ↩Restored: H→li; Benl→Berri (Berry), the most plausible damaged place-name beside Normandie; a la loiz→a la foiz ('each time'); iij povres = three poor persons.
36 ↩Roman numeral iij is rendered as three. Neighboring section 7 has iij with a mark that may represent iijc (three hundred); if the intended feast-day count is three hundred, revise accordingly.
37 ↩Normalized surface H be/ieaiz rois is treated as li beneaiz/benoiez rois (the blessed king), matching the chapter's usual epithet.
38 ↩pitance is the monastic extra portion or treat beyond the ordinary ration; rendered as special allowance.
39 ↩ij paire de mes de poisson: two pairs of fish courses/dishes (four dishes in two pairings), not merely two fish.
40 ↩a/nimstroit is read as aministroit (served); lenestre as fenestre (window/hatch from the kitchen).
41 ↩Normalized reading takes corrupted 'li-op chaudes' as 'trop chaudes' (too hot).
42 ↩Corrected corruptions: abl)es→abbés, adon(ues→adonques, honnissolt→honnissoit, bcnoiez→benoiez.
43 ↩hennas = drinking cups/hanaps; 'sentist le fust' = tasted of the cask wood (spoiled wine).
44 ↩convers = lay brothers; estranges malades = outside/non-resident sick; opital = hospital/infirmary.
45 ↩Corrected: endenientieres→endementiers (while); paies de Termes→palais de Thermes; (jue→que; recen→receus; cens→ceus. The sentence joins two narrative units (Compiègne Dominicans; Paris student houses) as in the source division.
46 ↩iiij mile livres de tornois = four thousand livres tournois (medieval French currency).
47 ↩Corrected: savoii-→savoir; as"' escoles→as escoles. 'ij s.' = two sous (solidi).
48 ↩Continuation of the weekly stipend list begun in s7; 'iij s.' = three sous. Following section continues with twelve deniers, etc.
49 ↩Source has xviij without an explicit unit. By sequence after 'xij d.' and the prior sous amounts (ij s., iij s.), most plausible reading is eighteen deniers; left bare in English to match the source.
50 ↩Source reading «rov» taken as «rois» (king), which fits the formula «li benoiez rois» used throughout the chapter.
51 ↩«deniorassent» taken as «demorassent» (dwell/live); «Saint Ennouré» rendered as Saint-Honoré.
52 ↩«en Teneur de saint Rémi» rendered as dedication under the title of Saint Remigius; «Teste saint Rémi» taken as the feast of the Head (relic) of Saint Remigius.
53 ↩«l'oHice» corrected to «l'office»; stray quotation mark before «avugles» ignored as OCR noise.
54 ↩Opening «De leclîief» taken as «De rechief» (furthermore), the chapter's recurring connective.
55 ↩«épiant et lee» rendered as «spacious and wide»; «épiant» is uncertain (possibly a damaged reading of a word for spacious/ample).
56 ↩«Hz» taken as «liz» (beds), a common hospital endowment item and a plausible OCR/misreading before «vessiax de cuisine».
57 ↩Source aournenienz read as aournemenz (ornaments/furnishings).
58 ↩OCR/corrupt forms corrected: flst→fist, Diou→Dieu, (|ui→qui, au→an; numeral ilii read as iiii (four).
59 ↩OCR/corrupt forms corrected: rechicf→rechief, (ist→fist, acroistrc→acroistre, niout→mout; Hz read as liz (beds), matching the parallel gift at VieStLoys.1.11.11.s6.
60 ↩Source reads «fist lere»; translated as «fist fere» (had built), the regular formula in this chapter and the only sense that fits «dortoier» and «mesons».
61 ↩Source «lesoit fere» is almost certainly «fesoit fere» (had built), matching the chapter’s usual construction formula.
62 ↩Several OCR/scribal corruptions were read by sense and place-name: «Frères INIeneurs» → Friars Minor (Meneurs); «Pontaise» → Pontoise; «Yernon» → Vernon; «Saint Moriee de Senliz» → Saint-Maurice of Senlis; «Roen» → Rouen; «Chai treuse…Valvert» → Carthusians at Vauvert; «fonsdes» → «fons des» (foundations of).
63 ↩«meson Dieu» rendered Maison-Dieu (hospital/almshouse), not a generic church, in line with the chapter’s works of pity.
64 ↩Source reading “clevani\ diz” is corrupt (OCR/witness damage). Rendered as “chascun an” (“each year”), the phrase repeatedly used in this chapter for the king’s annual gifts; sense is highly probable but not certain from the surface form alone.
65 ↩“Compiegue” / “ontilecques” treated as “Compiègne” and “ont ilecques” (“have there”).
66 ↩“savoil letres” read as “savoit letres” (“knew letters” / could read).
67 ↩“avoit connoissance d'eles” rendered as “knew who they were” (recognized their case/identity), not mere acquaintance.
68 ↩Roman-numeral sequence “xl, 1, Ix” read as “xl, l, lx” (40, 50, 60). “selon Testât” read as “selon l'estat” (“according to the rank/station”).
69 ↩Leading “\Et” reflects editorial join/restoration of “Et quant” in the Delaborde witness; translated as ordinary “And when.” “j d.” = one denier.
70 ↩“V s.” rendered as five sous (solidi); sentence continues into s8.
71 ↩“x s.” = ten sous; fragment continues the gift scale begun in s7 (and extended in the next section).
72 ↩Reading 'eusvenoient' as 'eus venoient' (came to them); stray mark after 'roiaume' ignored as punctuation noise.
73 ↩Source reads "H benoiez rois"; taken as the standard formula "li benoiez rois" ("the blessed king").
74 ↩"il li l'esoit donner" is awkward; most plausible sense is habitual obligation/practice ("he would give him" / "he was to give him"). Possibly for "il li le souloit donner" (he used to give him).
75 ↩"pl//s" taken as "plus" ("more"), a line-break or diplomatic hyphenation artifact.
76 ↩"aumosne gênerai" taken as "aumône générale" (general public alms); "gênerai" looks like a corrupt or mis-normalized form of "generau/generale".
77 ↩"m livres" read as "mille livres" (a thousand livres); "chier tens" is a time of high prices / dearth.
78 ↩Source has a corrupt mark after 'ij mile' ("). Read as a scale of amounts: 2,000, sometimes 3,000, [sometimes] 5,000 livres tournois.
79 ↩Source shows OCR noise around as '" hostes and as ' autres; read as as hostes ... as autres. hostes taken as crown tenants (holders paying annual rentes to the king); nuement as solely/directly under the king.
80 ↩Normalized reading J)l'. is pure OCR garbage with no recoverable Old French sentence; left untranslated rather than invented.
81 ↩Leading IXfUilCIOM' treated as OCR garbage and omitted; daines read as dames; trailing as ' prestres as as prestres.
82 ↩dastinois read as d'Astinois / the Gâtinais; ans povres as as povres (to the poor).
83 ↩très et antre merrien read as beams and other timber (autre merrien); Frètes Meneurs as Frères Mineurs (Franciscans); Preecheeurs as Prêcheurs (Dominicans); frères des Sas as Frères des Sacs; Pontaise as Pontoise; de Teglise as de l'église.
84 ↩Normalized corrupt forms remanoif→remanoit, commandnit→commandait, fiist→fust, tlonné→donné; merrien = building timber; yaue = water/river transport.
85 ↩Read quant il tu délivré as quant il fu délivré; passage = crusade overseas.
86 ↩Read soUernpnex as solennels; aucune loiz as aucune foiz; V ccm as V cenz; si coin as si com. Subject of rachetoient is the messengers (plural il).
87 ↩Heavily corrupt: traiicuncs→traié aucunes; (jue→que; ("oiz/(olz→foiz. Final count vij'"' et 1 read as vij cenz et 1 (701) by parallel with vj cens et 1; could also be vijxx et 1 (141).
88 ↩Read lesoit as fesoit; despanez = ragged/torn (dépenaillé).
89 ↩Sentence is truncated mid-phrase at c d.; completed by s7 (dragans of the local currency). d. likely begins or abbreviates the unit named next.
90 ↩dragans = local coin (dragon/dragan); petiz tornois = small deniers tournois. Testât→l'estat. vert- read as green cloth; drap d'Arraz = Arras cloth.
91 ↩Source reading 'mil et v'' taken as 1,005 (mille et cinq).
92 ↩OF 'derrenierement' rendered as 'finally' (last/ultimate recovery of these men).
93 ↩Heading 'De sa çLsitacion' corrected to 'De sa visitacion' (Of his visitation / visiting).
94 ↩Source surface olTices read as offices (household departments/services). laituaire = electuary (medicinal confection).
95 ↩Corrupted forms restored for sense: 1ère→faire; lesoit→fesoit; vouloil→vouloit; (U'us cpii→ceus qui; moul→mout.
96 ↩haslivemcMit read as hastevement (promptly/hastily).
97 ↩•rrieve read as grieve (grave/severe). apostume = abscess/boil.
98 ↩Tabeie→l'abeie; ({ui→qui. mesel = leper (medieval sense of leprosy/severe skin disease).
99 ↩eteustoï read as et eust oï (and had heard/attended). diemenche = Sunday; feste saint Rémi ≈ early October.
100 ↩Normalized reading takes OCR/garbled «que 11 avoit» as «que il avoit» («whom he had»).
101 ↩«table assez courte» rendered as a rather short/low table; could also mean a fairly small table.
102 ↩«metijoit» taken as OF mestijer/masticier «chewed»; if the form is a garbled «mengoit», «ate them» would also fit.
103 ↩Normalized several garbled forms: «H sainz» → «li sainz»; «fii» → «fu»; «aiisi» → «aussi/einsi»; «meugier» → «mengier». «nonpourquant» kept as «nonetheless».
104 ↩«de laquele chose... avoit assez horreur» refers to the abbot’s horror at the leper’s condition / the intimate service, even while he kneels out of reverence for the king.
105 ↩Source reads fistli (likely fist li) and has a stray mark before li commanda; translated as the king having an usher called and then commanding him.
106 ↩ensemenf read as ensemble ('together'); ij/iij taken as Roman numerals 2 and 3.
107 ↩de/ perdriz read as des perdriz.
108 ↩venins rendered as 'discharge' (corrupt matter from the sores), not modern 'venom'; the next section confirms salt stinging the cracks in his lips.
109 ↩terdoit: rendered as 'wipe' (from OF terdre, to wipe/rub clean); metoit ... eu sel: put/dipped the pieces in salt.
110 ↩Normalized OCR-corrupted cesl monde → cest monde ('this world') and cl siècle avenir → el siècle avenir ('in the age/world to come').
111 ↩Normalized OCR cl → et before il dist oïl; bullet/apostrophe artifact before après ignored.
112 ↩esloieiit read as estoient ('were'); henap rendered as cup (OF hanap, a drinking vessel).
113 ↩mesel: rendered as leper (medieval leprosy / Hansen's disease patient), consistent with chapter context of a leprous monk.
114 ↩Second mes is contrastive/restrictive ('but rather only'): the knights stayed out; the abbot or prior alone entered with the king.
115 ↩soupes en un brouet: bread sops softened in broth/gravy, not modern 'soup' alone; cueillier de fust: wooden spoon.
116 ↩si comme l'en croit hedges the report as common belief/report rather than a sworn firsthand claim.
117 ↩Source sentence is only the closing quotation mark » for the speech begun in s6; rendered as the matching closing quote.
118 ↩Normalized OCR noise in the source: '\ after Vernon and the stray mark on donnoit'; read 'h tens' as 'li tens' (the season/time).
119 ↩Stray capital 'J' before 'pain' treated as OCR noise, not a lexical item.
120 ↩Roman numerals 'i' and 'ii' rendered as 'one' and 'two' loaves.
121 ↩Opening 'filt' read as corrupted 'Et' (or 'Et' + quant); 'estoiont' as 'estoient'; 'soustcnoit' as 'soustenoit'.
122 ↩Normalized OCR splits and marks: '(juc' as 'que'; 'serg-anz' as 'serganz'; 'merveilloicnt' as 'merveilloient'.
123 ↩Source prints a sentence-break fragment: 'Et avecques ce.' continues syntactically into s3 ('en la meson Dieu de Reins...'). Rendered as an opening clause rather than a free-standing sentence.
124 ↩Source 'lesoient ausi' is uncertain (possible damage/corruption). Sense taken as participation in the same works of mercy (cf. common hagiographic motif of companions imitating the king), not as 'they left' (lessoient) or 'they read' (lesoient from lire).
125 ↩Normalized stray mark in 'cestes ' meemes' as 'these same'.
126 ↩Normalized 'mcsoii Dieu' as 'meson Dieu' (Maison-Dieu). 'des seucs' read as 'des suers' (the hospital sisters), matching neighboring hospital context.
127 ↩Roman 'cent et xxx iiij' rendered as 134. Damaged token '/o/s' left untranslated as a separate word; sense taken as the relative clause 'who were in the Maison-Dieu...'.
128 ↩Source is heavily damaged/OCR-corrupt. Reconstructed reading used for translation: 'fust lassé... service faire'; 'un dist, qui ilecques estoit, que l'en deist au roi que il se reposast d'ore en avant'; 'eust ce oy'; 'et vit un malade qui avoit le mal que l'en apele le mal saint Eloy en deux liex en visage'; 'adonques li benoiez rois s'assist seur le lit... li para une poire et li metoit les morsiax...'; 'porreture ou l'ordure qui couloit des plaies... de chascune partie du nés'; 'lavast deux foiz sa main dont il le pessoit, ainçois que li dit malades eust toute mengiee la poire'.
129 ↩'mal saint Eloy' kept as the traditional name 'Saint Eligius's disease' (a facial affliction in medieval usage); no modern clinical identification attempted.
130 ↩Reading «Eiicores» as Encores (Again/Moreover); «yaue rose» as rose water (eaue rose).
131 ↩Reading «Yernon» as Vernon (confirmed by s5); «alncois» as ainçois (before); «paies» as palés/palais (palace).
132 ↩«meson S» treated as «meson» (house); «se ' il» as «se il» (whether they).
133 ↩Reading «beiloiez» as benoiez (blessed); «la peut» as fed her (paistre); «nietoit les niorsiax» as metoit les morsiax (put the morsels), by parallel with VieStLoys.1.11.27.s7.
134 ↩Reading opening «£7 (luant» as Et quant; «nieson» as meson; «fii fête» / «lete» as fu fete / fete (was made/founded); «rov» as roy; «gendie» as gendre (son-in-law). Confirmed by next section’s same-day placement of another sick person.
135 ↩Reading 'meenies' as 'meismes' (same) and 'alnzné' as 'ainé' (eldest), which fit the surrounding Compiègne Hôtel-Dieu scene.
136 ↩Reading 'Cliascun' as 'Chascun' and 'il l'esoit apeler' as 'il les fesoit apeler' (he had them summoned).
137 ↩'Malades des escroeles' is the royal touching of scrofula (the king's evil), not ordinary hospital nursing.
138 ↩Ending 'en la cort le ' saint voï' is corrupt; read as 'en la cort le saint roi' (into the holy king's courtyard), matching the lodging-and-dismissal pattern.
139 ↩Reading 'une loiz' as 'une foiz' (once) and 'benoiet rov' as 'benoiet roy' (blessed king).
140 ↩Trailing 'le/' taken as object pronoun 'le' (him), i.e. the sick husband just mentioned.
141 ↩Source '; SCS scpotilures o .' is heavily corrupt. Most plausible intended rubric: Des sepultures (Of the burials), matching the following sentence's service des sepoutures.
142 ↩Normalized prueventet → pruevent et; mostient → mostrient/monstrent (show); sepoutures → sepultures; cxeques → exeques (exequies/funeral rites).
143 ↩Read niout as mout (many). Sydoine = Sidon; chartre des Paiens = the pagans'/Saracens' prison; fermer = fortify.
144 ↩Jopen = Jaffa (Joppe); Belinas = Banyas/Paneas; iij semaines = three weeks; gaster = ravage/lay waste; adamagierent moût = did great damage to.
145 ↩Read niout as mout (very/great); lu la as fu la (he was there).
146 ↩Read beueir as beneir (bless); cymentire = cemetery; ot deliberacion devant toutes choses = resolved/determined before all else.
147 ↩Normalized corrupted readings: meemcs→meismes (himself); chamcx→chameaux (camels); chevax→chevaux (horses); estoieiit→estoient; cens→ceus (those).
148 ↩prenoientle read as prenoient le; mètre as mettre; porriz as pourris (rotted).
149 ↩oenz/gens: 'our people' (noz oenz = noz gens); pueur = stench/foul smell.
150 ↩niesniee→mesnie (household/retinue); ni niistrent→n'i mistrent (never put their hand to it).
151 ↩lurent read as furent (were); serement as serment (oath).
152 ↩boiax/boiaus = bowels/entrails; lussent→fussent; oanz→ganz (gloves); mètre→mettre. 'mist hors ses oanz de sa main' = took his gloves off his hand.
153 ↩Reading « let alouer » as « fait alouer » (had hired); the surface looks corrupt.
154 ↩« Râlons (( ensevelir » taken as « Allons ensevelir » (Let's go bury); quote mark/OCR damage in source.
155 ↩Direct speech heavily corrupt: « Ct'Uis ont … fert la mort, nous poons donc bien ceste chose sou… » reconstructed as « Cilz ont souffert la mort, nous poons donc bien ceste chose souffrir ».
156 ↩Source « » \Ei r'/? » is unreadable OCR debris; likely residual closing of the previous speech and/or the start of the next sentence (« Et près… »).
157 ↩Normalized corrupt forms: « iprès » → « (Et) près »; « Tevesque » → « l'evesque »; « aomnez de vostemenz d'evescjue » → « aournez de vestemenz d'evesque »; « bcMioiez » → « benoiez »; « lesoient » → « lisoient »; « Tcn croit » → « l'en croit ».
158 ↩Source shows OCR damage: estoupcr → estouper (stop up), with residual punctuation marks (', ~). Sense is fixed by the preceding sentence, where the archbishops and bishops stop up their nostrils with their vestments; the witness contrasts Louis, who does not.
159 ↩Normalized source reads "fist ierc pour eus sollempnex exeques et l'oficc des morz"; rendered as "fist faire... sollempnes exeques et l'office des morz" (had solemn exequies and the Office of the Dead performed).
160 ↩"une loiz" read as "une foiz" (once); "heneoit roi" read as "benoit roi" (blessed king); "meson Dieu" is the hospital/almshouse (Maison-Dieu).
161 ↩"cymentire" read as cimetière (cemetery); "fiuz" as filz (sons); "ainzné fiuz" as ainsné filz (eldest son); "rovaume" as royaume; "h benoiez rois" as li benoiez rois. Litotes "ne gaaigneroit pas pou" preserved as "would not gain little" (= would gain much).
162 ↩Heavy OCR damage restored: nienga~menga; refroitouier~refectoir; clespenz~despenz; enserment/ensement; nous/nons~nons (names); seus~known; teuz~silenced. "suffrages" kept as intercessory prayers for the dead.
163 ↩"chapitre gênerai" read as chapitre general (general chapter); "eu" as en; confirmed by following section that the practice was established and is still kept throughout the order.
164 ↩Chaeliz is rendered as Chaalis, the Cistercian abbey (also spelled Chaalis/Chaâlis).
165 ↩Source is heavily garbled near the end (tVsoit/tVsoit, granl, ilecqiies taiulis cominc, disoil, servisc; also h couvenz, Tordre). Sense restored as: he stood at the dying brother's head with great devotion and humility for as long as the office was said.
166 ↩Source shows heavy damage (11 diz frei-es, iiecqnes, freje, bcnoiez, qui lu (et, eele). Restored as: when the said brother was dead there... the blessed king was present in person at the service done that same hour around the aforesaid dead man.
167 ↩'chanté' is almost certainly a corruption of 'charité' (charity toward his neighbors). Ending 'plente«/-(3//S6V«e///' restored as 'plenteusement' (abundantly).
168 ↩The catalog maps to the traditional corporal works of mercy (harbor, feed, give drink, clothe, visit, comfort/help, ransom captives, bury the dead).

Vie et miracles de saint Louis by Guillaume de Saint-Pathus companion

A prayer for every moment, already on your phone

Chosen Portion puts a curated historic prayer in front of you each day — so the words are there before the moment arrives.

Chosen Portion is the digital descendant of the carried prayer book: the short daily prayers this collection preserves, delivered one a day to your pocket.

One short, memorable prayer delivered daily — build your repertoire a card at a time
Prayers matched to real situations: fear, gratitude, decisions, grief, sleep
Save favourites into your personal pocket collection you can open anywhere

Chosen Portion — Daily Prayer (free iOS app) →