Page:The Mediaeval Mind Vol 1.djvu/522

500 it is himself who says: I am come to set a man against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a man's foes are they of his household.'

"The brethren wondered and rejoiced that I said such things to my father. And then my father said: 'You have bewitched and deceived my son, so that he will not mind me. I will complain again of you to the emperor and to the minister-general. Now let me speak with my son apart from you; and you will see him follow me without delay.'

"So the brothers allowed me to talk with him alone; for they began to have a little confidence in me, because of my words. Yet they listened behind the wall to what we should say. For they trembled as a reed in water, lest my father should alter my mind with his blandishments. And not for me alone they feared, but lest my return should hinder others from entering the Order.

"Then my father said to me: 'Dear son, don't believe those nasty tunics who have deceived you; but come with me, and I will give you all I have.'

"And I replied: 'Go away, father. As the Wise Man says in Proverbs, Thou shall not hinder him to do right, who is able.'

"And my father answered with tears, and said to me: ’What then, son, shall I say to thy mother, who is afflicted because of thee?' "And I say to him: 'Thou shalt tell her from me; thus says thy son: My father and mother have forsaken me, and the Lord hath taken me up; also (Jer. iii.): Thou shalt call me Father, and walk after me in my steps.… It is good for a man when he has borne the yoke from his youth.'

"Hearing all these things my father, despairing of my coming out, threw himself down in the presence of the brethren and the secular folk who had come with him, and said: 'I give thee to a thousand devils, cursed son, thee and thy brother here who has deceived thee. My curse be on you forever, and may it commend you to the spirits of hell.' And he went away excited beyond measure; while we remained greatly comforted and giving thanks to our God, and saying to each other, 'They shall curse, and thou shalt bless.' Likewise the seculars retired edified at my constancy. The brethren also rejoiced seeing what the Lord had wrought through me, His little boy."

This whole scene presents such a conflict as the thirteenth century witnessed daily, and the twelfth, and other mediaeval centuries as well. The letters of St.