Page:Aelfric's Lives of Saints Vol 2.djvu/227

 and we  take  the  English  from  the  same  account;

but we  will  write  no  more  but  his  own  miracles.

Martin, the  great  bishop,  was  born  in  the  fortified  town

called Sabaria,  in  the  province  of  Pannonia,

and was  brought  up  in  Ticinum  (Pavia)  in  the  Italian  land.

He came  of  heathen  parents,  but  nevertheless  noble,

of honourable  kindred  in  worldly  things;

his father  was  first  a  soldier   and    afterward    a    captain   of   soldiers,

and Martin  was  accustomed  to  weapons  from  childhood,

and followed  war  amongst  the  soldiers  in  training;

first under  Constantine  the  noble  emperor,

and again  under  Julian  the  wicked  apostate;

nevertheless, not    of   his    own  will,  because  that  from  childhood he  was  rather

instigated by  God  to  divine  service

than to  worldly  warfare,  even  as  he  afterward  shewed.

When   he    was    ten   winters    old,  he   was    anointed  with  chrism (as  a  catechumen)

against the  will  of  his  parents,  and  in  wondrous  measure

he was  at  once  wholly  turned  to  God's  service;

and when  he  was  twelve   winters   he    desired   (to  retire)  to  the  desert,

and he  would  likewise  have  accomplished  it,  if  he  had  been  old enough.

His mind  was,  nevertheless,  ever  pondering  about  monasteries

or about  churches  and  God's  ordinances;

he meditated  in  childhood  that  which  he  afterwards  performed.

Then was  the  emperor's  command  that  the  sons  of  the  soldiers

who were  superannuated  should  be  nominated

to the  same  military  service  in  which  their  fathers  had  been,

and Martin  was  thereupon  denounced  by  his  father,