About 538 a priest named Theophilus lived in Cilicia, and on the decease of the bishop he was chosen by acclamation to fill the vacancy. But his deep humility urged him to refuse the office. Slanders circulated against him, and the bishop investigated them, found him guilty, and deprived him. Being unable to clear his reputation, he consulted a necromancer, who took him at midnight to a place where four cross-roads met, and conjured up Satan, who promised to reinstate Theophilus and clear his character. But it was first necessary that Theophilus should sign away his soul with a pen dipped in his own blood, and to abjure Christ and the Holy Mother. Next day the bishop sent for Theophilus and admitted the sentence was wrong, and asked pardon for being so misled, and restored Theophilus. The populace also welcomed his return. But Theophilus found no rest for his conscience. He prayed long and often without a ray of comfort. At last he fasted forty days. The Virgin at the end of that time appeared and assured him of forgiveness; and one morning, on awaking, he found the accursed deed which sold his soul lying on his breast. He rose and went to church full of joy and exultation, made a public confession, and showed to the people the compact signed with blood. He craved absolution from the bishop and had the deed burned. He then took the Sacrament, and soon after died of a fever. He has ever since been treated as a saint.
THE HOLY GRAIL.
The story of the Sangreal was one of the traditions of King Arthur’s knights. When Christ was transfixed with the spear and the blood flowed out, Joseph of Arimathæa collected it in the vessel from which the Saviour had eaten the Last Supper. Joseph was thrown into prison and left to die of hunger, but he lived forty years, being nourished and invigorated by the sacred vessel. Titus released Joseph, who started with the vessel for Britain, and before his death he confided it to a nephew. Others say the Grail was preserved in heaven till a race of heroes grew up fit to protect it. A temple was founded by some king to hold the Grail, the model being the Temple at Jerusalem; and the vessel gave oracles, and the sight of it inspired perpetual youth and made its guardians incapable of wounds or hurt. The knights who watched the Grail were pure, and whenever a bell was rung one was bound to go forth and fight for the right. Endless variations of the legend appear in different countries.
THE SEVEN SLEEPERS OF EPHESUS.
The legend of the seven sleepers was told in the fifth and sixth centuries. The Emperor Decius, having gone to Ephesus, commanded all the Christians to worship idols or die. Seven young men refused, and being accused and reprieved, they sold all their goods and determined to conceal themselves in a cave, and fell asleep. Lest they should be hiding in the cave, the mouth of it was blocked up with stones. After the lapse of three hundred and fifty years, these stones being removed for a new building, the sleepers awoke; but on returning to Ephesus and searching for their parents, and finding no trace of them, and yet seeing crosses erected everywhere, they were confounded. One of them having offered a coin for bread, was taken up as a sorcerer who had discovered hidden treasure and concealed it. But when the governor and the bishop examined into the story, the bishop turned to the governor and said, “The hand of God is here.” They visited the cave, and saw the other six sleepers, all fresh and radiant. They said they were kept alive to prove the truth of the Resurrection, and then died. William of Malmesbury says these sleepers had lain all the time on their right side.
LITTLE BLIND HERVE, THE CHILD MINSTREL.
When the British emigrants in the sixth century went to convert the inhabitants of Armorica, in Brittany, they took also a bard named Hyvernion, who married a female bard; and these two had a little blind child named Herve, who, when an orphan at the age of seven, went about the country singing hymns with the voice of an angel. He became a universal favourite, and people wished him to be made a priest. But he would not leave a little monastery of his own which he had founded in a forest, and where he had a school and a church and taught children’s songs. This church was managed by a child cousin of his own, a little girl named Christina, who used to be compared to a little white dove among the crows. Three days before his death Herve fell into a trance, in which he saw visions of choirs of angels, and of his father and mother among the saints of heaven. The third day of his illness he told Christina to make his bed with a stone for a pillow and ashes for a couch, as he was anxious that the black angel should find him in that state. The little girl, on comprehending that his end was near, begged him to ask God to let her accompany him, and the prayer was granted, for when he died she threw herself at his feet and died too immediately. Ever since then the little blind monk is often heard singing his little hymns, and he is the patron of all the mendicant singers of Brittany. The same legend says that his mother used to be so proud of her minstrel boy as to think that, if there were a thousand singing together, she could still distinguish little Herve’s voice among them.
THE SUPPER OF ST. GREGORY.
St. Gregory was in his early days a monk in St. Andrew’s at Rome, though afterwards he became Pope and sent St. Augustine to preach to the Saxons at Canterbury. When at St. Andrew’s a beggar once came to the gate and was relieved, and he came again and again till all the monk’s means were exhausted. At last Gregory ordered the silver porringer which his mother Sylvia had given to him to be handed to the mendicant. When Gregory became Pope, he used to entertain every evening to supper twelve poor men, and one night he was surprised to notice that there were thirteen seated at the table. He called to the steward and said he had given orders that there should be twelve only. The steward looked and counted them over and said, “Holy father, there are surely twelve only!” Gregory said nothing more, but at the end of the meal he called to the thirteenth and unbidden guest, “Who art thou?” The answer was, “I am the poor man whom thou didst formerly relieve, and my name is the Wonderful, and through me thou shalt obtain whatever thou shalt ask of God.” Then Gregory knew that he had entertained an angel, or, as some say, our Lord Himself. This legend is often represented in pictures, Christ sitting as a pilgrim with the other guests. Another legend represents St. Gregory officiating at the Mass where some one was near who doubted the real presence; and the Saviour in person descended upon the altar surrounded by the instruments of His passion in answer to a prayer addressed by the saint.
ST. GREGORY RELEASING THE SOUL OF TRAJAN.