Page:Readings in European History Vol 1.djvu/391

 The Medicsval Church at its Height 355 anecdotes are especially well known : (i) The Dia- logues concerning Miracles, brought together by a devout Cistercian monk, Caesar of Heisterbach (d. ca. 1 240), early in the thirteenth century ; (2) the sermon stories of Jacques de Vitry (d. 1240), a bishop and cardinal, famous for his preaching ; (3) the anecdotes or apologues of Stephen of Bourbon, a Dominican in- quisitor (d. 1261), a man of wide experience and much sagacity. In Hemmenrode a certain aged priest, Henry by name, died a few years ago. He was a holy and just man, and had been for many years sacristan in that monastery. When he was celebrating the mass one day at the altar of St. John the Baptist, in the choir of the lay brethren, a certain one of the lay brethren standing near saw, in the hands of the priest, the Saviour in the form of a man. Nevertheless the priest himself did not see it. One of the elders of that convent related this to me. I have heard that a certain rustic, wishing to become wealthy and having many hives of bees, asked certain evil men how he could get rich and increase the number of his bees. He was told by some one that if he retained the sacred host on Easter and placed it in some one of his hives, he would entice away all of his neighbor's bees, which, leav- ing their own hives, would come to the place where the body of our Lord was and there would make honey. So he did this. Then all the bees came to the hive where the body of Christ was, and just as if they felt sorrow for the irrever- ence done to it, by their labor they began to construct a little church and to erect foundations, and bases, and columns, and an altar; then with the greatest reverence they placed the body of our Lord upon the altar. And within their little beehive they formed the little church with wonderful and most beautiful workmanship. The bees of 136. Christ is seen in the hands of a priest. (From the Dialogues of Caesar of Heister- bach.) 137. Bees construct a church for the host. (From Stephen of Bourbon.)