“All ye that pass by, on this pillar cast eye,
This Epitaph read if you can;
‘Twill tell you a Tombe once stood in this room
Of a brave, spirited man,
Sir John Mandevil by name, a knight of great fame,
Born in this honoured Towne;
Before him was none that ever was knowne
For travaile of so high renowne.
As the Knights in the Temple cross-legged in Marble,
In armour with sword and with shield,
So was this Knight grac’d which Time hath defac’d
That nothing but Ruines doth yield.
His travailes being done, he shines like the Sun
In heavenly Canaan.
To which blessed place the Lord, of His grace,
Bring us all, man after man.”
There is no doubt, however, that Sir John Mandeville was buried in the Abbey of the Gulielmites in the town of Liege, where he died; for Abrahamus Ortelius, in his ‘Itinerarium Belgiæ’ (p. 16), has printed the following epitaph there set over him:—
“Hic jacet vir nobilis Dominus Johannes de Mandeville, aliter dictus ad Barbam, Miles, Dominus de Campdi, natus de Angliâ, medicine professor, devotissimus orator, et bonorum largissimus pauperibus erogator; qui toto quasi orbe lustrato Leodii diem viti sui clausit extremum Anno Domini 1371, Mensis Novembris die 17.”
Ortelius adds, that upon the same stone with the epitaph is engraven a man in armour with a forked beard, treading upon a lion, and at his head a hand of one blessing him, and these words in old French: “Vos ki paseis sor mi, pour l’amour Deix proies por mi”—that is, “Ye that pass over me, for the love of God pray for me.” There is also a void place for an escutcheon, whereon, Ortelius was told, there was formerly a brass plate with the arms of the deceased knight engraven thereon—viz., a Lion argent with a Lunet gules, at his breast, in a Field azure, and a Border engraled or. The clergy of the Abbey also exhibited the knives, the horse-furniture, and the spurs used by Sir John Mandeville in his travels. John Weever, in his ‘Ancient Funeral Monuments’ (p. 568), says that he saw the above epitaph at Liege, and also the following verses hanging near by on a tablet:—
“Aliud
Hoc jacet in tumulo cui totus patria vivo
Orbis erat: totium quem peragrasse ferunt
Anglus, Equesque fuit; num ille Britannus Ulysses
Dicatur, Graio clarus, Ulysse magis.
Moribus, ingenio, candore, et sanguine clarus,
Et vere cultor Religionis erat
Nomen si quæras est Mandevil, Indus, Arabsque,
Sat notum dicit finibus esse suis.”
B ([p. 8]).
Odoricus of Friuli.
Odoricus did not write his account of his travels with his own hand, but dictated it to his brother friar, William de Solanga, who wrote it as Odoricus related it. Having “testified and borne witness to the Rev. Father Guidolus, minister of the province of S. Anthony, in the Marquesate of Treviso (being by him required upon his obedience so to do), that all that he described he had seen with his own eyes, or heard the same reported by credible and substantial witnesses,” Odoricus prepared to set out on another and a longer journey “into all the countries of the heathen.” He, therefore, determined to present himself to Pope John XXII., and to obtain his benediction on his missionary enterprise. Accordingly, at the commencement of the year 1331, he left Utina with this intention. On his way, however, he was met, near Pisa, by an old man who, hailing him by his name, told him that he had known him in India, and warned him to return to his monastery, “for that in ten days thence he would depart from this present world.” Having said this, he vanished from sight. Odoricus obeyed the admonition, and returned to Utina “in perfect health, feeling no crazednesse nor infirmity of body. And being in his convent the tenth day after the forsayd vision, having received the Communion, and prepared himself unto God, yea, being strong and sound of body, he happily rested in the Lord, whose sacred departure was signified to the Pope aforesaid under the hand of the public notary of Utina.” Odoricus died January 14th, 1331, and was beatified.