Page:The most ancient lives of Saint Patrick - O'Leary.djvu/271

 the tongue of the people is ever open unto the spreading of scandal, it could not long lie hidden from Saint Patrick. Then he, desiring to try whether so the matter was, repaired unto the house of the bishop. But Mel, preferring to prove his innocence by a token rather than by an oath, ploughed up the earth on a certain hill, and took by the ploughshare many and large fishes out of the dry land; and these he offered unto the saint as a miracle, that no suspicion might continue in the beholders, inasmuch as such a token could not ever be showed by an impure hand. And the sister of Saint Patrick, gathering her vest around her bosom, filled it with live coals; and these she carried a sufficient way, and shook them thereout before the saint without any mark of a scar or of other hurt, proving thus her innocence. Then the saint, beholding these evident proofs, pronounced each to be pure and justified; yet took he care to ordain what to them and to many others would be right profitable. And first addressing the bishop, he bade him that he should thenceforth plough on the land, and fish in the water, lest he should seem to tempt the Lord his God; then, that he should not presume to glory in any miracle worked by him through the divine grace; and, lastly, the saint gave command that the men should be divided from the women, and that distinct dwellings and oratories should be builded for either sex. Thus truly, as Saint Patrick said, the name of God would not through them be dishonored among the nations to whom they preached it; nor would in such case occasion of scandal be given unto the weak, nor cause of reproach afforded. And what he ordained and appointed, that did Saint Patrick make to be observed.