Page:Readings in European History Vol 1.djvu/393

 The Mediceval Church at its Height 357 what had been written there was erased, and thereby he knew the efficacy of confession. A certain very religious man told me that this happened in a place where he had been staying. A virtuous and pious matron came frequently to the church and served God most devoutly day and night. There also came a certain monk, the guardian and treasurer of the monastery, who had a great reputation for piety, and truly devout he was. When, however, the two frequently conversed together in the church concerning religious matters, the devil, envying their virtue and reputation, tempted them very sorely, so that the spirit- ual love was changed to carnal. Accordingly they fixed upon a night when the monk was to leave his monastery, taking the treasures of the church, and the matron her home, with a sum of money which she should steal from her husband. After they had fled, the monks, on rising in the morning, saw that the chests had been broken open and the treasures of the church stolen ; and not finding the monk, they quickly pursued him ; likewise the husband his wife. Overtaking the monk and the woman with the treasure and money, they brought them back and threw them into prison. So great was the scandal throughout the whole country, and so much were all religious persons reviled, that the harm from the infamy and scandal was far greater than from the sin itself. Then the monk, restored to his senses, began with many tears to pray to the blessed Virgin, whom from infancy he had always served, and never before had any such misfortune happened to him. Likewise the said matron began urgently to implore the aid of the blessed Virgin, whom regularly, day and night, she had been accustomed to salute and kneel in prayer before her image. At length the blessed Virgin, very angry, appeared, and after she had sorely upbraided them, she said : " I can obtain the remission of your sins from my Son, but what can I do about such a dreadful scandal? For you have so befouled the name of religious persons before all the people, that in the future no one will trust them. The harm you have done is almost irremediable." 139. The Virgin saves the reputa- tion of an erring matron and monk. (From Jacques de Vltry.)