whole." The woman departed, and did the
priest's bidding. And, lo! straightway, as
she had drunk of the blessed spring, she broke
out into a fit of vomiting; and, while many
who had come on a like errand beheld, there
fell from her two great black toads, who, to the
end that their devilship might be set forth
and approved beyond doubt, were
transformed to two great black dogs, and,
afterwards to asses. The woman stood astonished,
but shortly ran after them in a rage, wishing
to catch them; but the keeper of the spring,
who right well did understand its virtues,
sprinkled some of its water between the
woman and the asses, upon which they forthwith
flew up in the air and disappeared,
leaving behind them traces of their foul and
filthy nature.—Roger of Wendover, A.D. 1200.

About the same time, when the same
warning was going forth throughout the
world, a certain poor laundress living at
Norfolk, despite the warnings of the Man of
God, went, on a certain Saturday, at three
o'clock, to wash clothes. Whilst hard at
work, a man with a hoary beard and
venerable countenance, whom she had never seen
before, approached her, and, in reproaching
terms, inquired how she had dared to wash
clothes after three o'clock, and thus by
unlawful toil to profane the holy Sabbath,
after the warning she had received. She
pleaded poverty, and said that, wretched and
laborious as had been her life up to that
time, she would be deprived of the means of
existence, and bereft of her now miserable
pittance, if she desisted from labour. Her
mysterious visitor disappeared, and the poor
laundress toiled on, washing, wringing, and
drying the clothes more eagerly than ever.
But a terrible vengeance ensued ; a small
black pig stuck fast to the woman's left
breast, and could by no strength be forced
away ; by continual sucking it drew away
her blood and her strength. At length,
brought down to utter exhaustion, the poor
creature was compelled to beg from door to
door, until, in the sight of many, a miserable
death closed her life of toil and starvation.—
Roger de Wendover, ibid.

But there is a yet more wonderful story,
which doth, in a marvellous wise, attest the
politeness and respect which one saint hath
towards his brother in holiness. During the
time when the Danes vexed England, and
our good King Alfred with much ado
succeeded in dislodging them, the bodies of many
saints had been removed from their original
sepulchres, in order to be conveyed to abodes
of greater safety. Second to none in the
whole calendar was St. Martin, venerated,
saith Sidonius Apollinaris, throughout the
whole of the wide earth ; was removed to
Auxerre by the clergy of his church, and
placed in the church of St. Germain. Here
his body, in which, though dead and food for
worms, virtue did still exist, worked many
and wondrous miracles, curing the sickness
and infirmity of all who resorted to his
shrine, and bestowing grace upon the souls
of all his worshippers. Whereupon, those
who were so greatly benefited did, out of
gratitude, contribute much of their worldly
goods to reward the care of those who had
brought the saint's body among them. But
there arose a dispute between the people of
Auxerre and the Tironais, about the great
wealth that had flowed in from those who
sought the aid of St. Martin. The Tironais
laid claim to the whole, because their saint
had called together the contributors by his
miracles; the natives, on the other hand,
asserted that St. Germain was not a whit
behind the other in merit and in the will to
do good. While granting, then, that both
saints were equal, they maintained that the
prerogative of their church ought to be
respected. To solve this, a leprous person,
wasted to mere skin and bone, and nearly at
the last gasp, was placed between the bodies
of the two saints. All human watching or
interference was carefully prevented during
the whole night ; and, marvellous to relate,
in the morning the skin of the man on his
side that lay nearest Martin's corpse appeared
clear and healthy, while that on the side
turned towards Germain was discoloured and
deformed as usual. Thus did the glory of
St. Martin predominate. But, lest the
miracle should be ascribed to chance, they
turned the yet diseased side of the leper
towards the same saint ; and, in the morning,
he appeared whole and sound, as though he
had never been defiled with leprosy. And
herein was set forth not only the great and
wondrous power of St. Martin, but likewise
the complaisance of St. Germain ; who, albeit,
no doubt, possessed of fully equal power with
his brother saint, yet, for that he was a
stranger and visitor, did ill like to interfere
in his cure ; and like as a physician doth
oftentimes say of the surgeon that he hath
done all things aright, and doth decline
interfering, so did St. Germain abstain from
working a miracle, to the end that St. Martin
might gain the more credit thereby. And not
only did St. Martin gain much credit, but his
followers did gain much money, both then
and afterwards, until they were restored, by
the return of peace, to their former residence.
—William of Malmesbury, book ii., chap. 4.

In the year 681, Mummolus, abbot of the
monastery of Fleury, being divinely
admonished, sent his monk, Argulf, to Mount
Cassino, to fetch thence the body of the most
holy Benedict; who, with his sister Scolastica,
had been buried in one coffin.

Directed by similar information from above,
Argulf, in company with some devotees (whom
he had met on a similar errand in quest of
St. Scolastica), brought the bones of both
the saints in a basket; and, having brought
them as far as a place, called Neufoi, about a
mile distant from the monastery of Fleury,
the Abbot Mummolus received them with