Page:Aelfric's Lives of Saints Vol 2.djvu/249

 So Martin  would  not  visit  the  place

nor allow  the  people  to  do  so;    but  went  forth  one  day

with a  few  brethren  and  stood  at  the  tomb,

praying the  Almighty  God  that  He  would  reveal  concerning  the  man

what he  had  really  been  or  of  what  merit,

he who  was  buried  there  and  had  been  venerated  until  then.

Then the  bishop  looked  on  his  left  side,

and saw  there  standing  a  horrid  shade,

who said  that  he  had  been  slain  for  theft,

and abode  in  torment,  not  in  glory  with  martyrs,

and that  he  was  wrongfully  venerated  by  the  people.

It was  wondrous,  nevertheless,  that  all  who  were  there

heard him  clearly,  but  they  saw  him  not

save Martin  only,  who  told  it  to  them  all.

Then he  bade  forthwith  remove  the  altar  from  the  place,

and delivered  the  people  from  the  false  error.

IX. Again on  a  certain  occasion  Martin  was  travelling

in his  diocese,  when  they  bare  there  a  corpse

of a  heathen  man,  in  order  to  bury  him.

Then Martin  beheld  the  heathen  men  from  afar,

and supposed  that  they  were  superstitiously  bearing,

even as  their  wont  was,  their  idol  throughout  the  land,

and he  made  the  sign  of  the  cross  in  the  direction  of  the  people,

and bade  them,  in  God's  name,  carry  it  no  further

but lay  down  the  burthen,  and  the  bearers  at  once

stood still  in  the  place,  as  if  they  had  been   stiffened.

Then he  who  was  at  hand  might  wonder

how the  poor  bearers,  thus  bound  to  the  earth,

turned them  about,  and  wished  to  go  forward;

but when  they  could  not  stir  from  the  ground,

they set  down  the  corpse  and  looked  each  on  the  other,