In the 1241^st year of the Lord, numerous miracles are reported to have happened at the tomb of blessed Edward, archbishop of Canterbury. Walter fitz Alan the younger died. The church of Durham, a long while ▬ bereft of a pastor, at last received Master Nicholas of Farnham as bishop, a man of great age and the king’s physician, who from a physician of bodies was made a physician of souls. William the count of Aumale died. Also, Gilbert the marshal of England died leaving no issue.¹ Also, Dom William the bishop of Glasgow, and Dom David the bishop of St Andrews returned to their own country with bishops from France and England, having previously made an appeal against the legates who had been their guides, for they were maintaining that they could not reach the apostolic see without ▬ danger of death. On returning home, therefore, their legates, with many other important and religious men, set out on the journey by sea. And since it is tiresome to relate everything, I have thought it appropriate to insert here a letter which the lord [abbot] of Cîteaux sent to the abbot of Savigny from the imperial prison. To the venerable father [abbot] of Savigny, greetings from the abbots of Cîteaux, of Clairvaux, and of la Piété Dieu.² You should know, that our minds advantageously being set on avoiding them, we wretchedly happened to fall into the hands of the emperor’s sailors. Stripping us without mercy of all our possessions, after many tribulations at sea, which we endured naked and unshod for the course of a week, we were carried away with triumph to the city of the Pisans, along with ten-score galleys which they plundered from the Genoese. Even now we are disagreeably confined in prison at the pleasure of his imperial majesty in the castle of San Miniato, which is called the Emperor’s Chamber, while our companions, monks and lay-brothers, remain in prison at Pisa. They have all been preserved safe by God’s grace, except for the notary of the abbot of Cîteaux, who, as we looked on, powerless to help, was drowned in the sea. In this same condemnation with us are the legates, my lord of Palestrina and my lord Gregory, who are in chains; the archbishops of Bordeaux and of Auch, the bishops of Carcassonne, Agde, Noyon, Tortona, Asti, Pavia, the abbots of Cluny and of Pontigny, provosts and archpriests, and other important men from various parts of the world, who are all held in irons—which will happen to us all very soon, without any regard to persons, we are without doubt certain. Since, then, we are able to send no certain word to you about our escape or return and rather, to the contrary, anticipating a delay, we ask that you arrange for our retinues, lay-brethren, and our whole household, without delay—if it be possible to be done—to be escorted back from the place where they are to their houses with safe conduct, reporting our condition straightforwardly to our religious communities, so they may be much more fervent about the observance of the Order, as well as that they should know that we are to be found at this moment of great need; and that you would see fit to have special