Tunc, cum persisteret in oracione sua noluit manum videre, sed neque
attrectare, licet cliens instanter
persuaderet ei vt allatam acciperet, ⁊ penes se
retineret. Cui perperam suadenti ait domina, Opperire
donec diuina fuerint
percelebrata. Ad iussum igitur domine secedens stabat in multitudine populi vt
ascultaret
missam. Et factum est dum eleuaretur sacrosancta hostia ⁊ populus
eleuaret manus suas pariter ⁊
cliens ad dominum a sacerdote eleuatum adorandum
ecce manus sancti viri quam baiularat satelles1 dia
boli satellitis, supra capud eius absque omni
sensibilitate eius, diuinitus est eleuata, ita vt preeminencia
altitudinis melius
cerni potuisset quam manus preeminencioris hominis de omni multitudine homi
num qui
ibi tunc aderant. Que dum adoraret dominum maiestatis in eleuacione eius de qua dictum
est vt
inclinauerat se versus altare ad adorandum eum, omni dicto cicius iterum
reclinata est in id ipsum
vnde exierat non sine uirtute diuinitatis, panniculo quo
inuoluebatur inuento integre consuto vt prius
erat penitus absque omni
animaduertibilitate baiulantis. Cuius nouitatis miraculum perpendens mulier
quam
predixi deum metuentem, ait clienti post misse celebracionem, manum illam quam dominus
meus per te
misit ad me reporta ad illum quoniam non intrabit in domum meam.
Perculsa enim erat miro stupore ex in
uisa ⁊ inaudita visione noui miraculi, propter
quod ait clienti, dignus est vlcione magna quicumque est
ille qui manum illam
abscidit, narrauit que visionem secreto clienti quam non omnes set plures
ex
fidelibus christi qui ibi tunc aderant videre meruerunt, precipiens ei vt visionem quam
audierat ve
niens ad dominum suum fideliter ei enarraret. Pergit igitur seruus
propere cum manu quam baiularat
ad dominum qui eum miserat. Non enim intrauit in
domum domine sue sicut illa promiserat propter manum
allatam, vnde videtur quod
erat vna ex fatuis mulieribus que tam sanctam manum tam fatue re
cusarat, quod non
fuit factum sine consilio diuinitatis omnia bene disponentis. Non enim erat dignus vir
eius filius Belial possidere in domo sua manum tante sanctitatis ⁊ ideo creditur
transisse ad possessorem
deo prouidente multo meliorem. Sed quomodo vel vbi
deuenerit prorsus ignoro. Sed hoc pro vero fixum
teneo ⁊ firmiter credo, quod ad
cotidianam eleuacionem salutaris hostie solebat ⁊ Simon dum adhuc viueret
non sine
ingenti reuerencia \Christi/, non sine intimo amore eius manus suas eleuare. Cuius deuotissime
eleuacionis
certa ⁊ infallibilis coniectura post mortem eius claruit, dum manus
eius mortua eleuatur vt dictum est re
demptorem mundi de mundissima virgine
procreatum adoratura, ⁊ ideo bene memini de eo in edici
uncula de bello Lawensi
facta, quod diuina erat preditus sapiencia. Quid enim sapiencius reccius vel melius
est homini in hac vita quam creatorem suum intimo ex corde cotidie diligere,
venerari ⁊ adorare? Quod
non dubito Simonem fecisse, ⁊ ideo finem faciens huius
miraculi propero ad aliud miraculum declarandum
quod omnipotens Deus fecit pro
Simone. Cuius manus multo sanctiores sunt ante Deum manibus Scipionis #
Iuxta
quoddam oppidum in Northumbria est domus preclara, in qua degunt canonici
premonstratensis
#a Seneca adoratis, vt patet, libro xiio de gradibus2 duodecim,
capitulo vltimo, ab ipso Seneca edito.
and while she continued steadfastly in prayer, she had no wish to look at the hand nor
to touch it, although the retainer was insistently prevailing upon her to accept what he
had brought and to keep it in her own possession. As he was perversely exhorting her,
the lady said to him, ‘Wait until the celebration of divine service is over.’ And so he
withdrew at the lady’s command and stood among the congregation in order to hear the
mass. When the sacred host was elevated and the people raised their hands—and the
retainer likewise—to adore the Lord elevated by the priest, behold, the hand of the holy
man, which this henchman of the Devil’s henchman had brought, was raised by divine power
above his head without his perceiving anything, so that by its superiority in height it
could be seen more clearly than the hand of the tallest man in the whole congregation of
men who were then present there could be well observed. When the hand adored the Lord of
Majesty at his elevation (about which we have already spoken), as it had bowed itself
towards the altar to worship him, quicker than any telling, it sank back on its own to
the place from which it had come out—not without the power of God—the handkerchief in
which it was wrapped up being found to be as wholly stitched together as it had been at
first, without the bearer’s noticing anything at all. The woman (whom I have already
mentioned) being a God-fearer and pondering the miracle of this new experience, said to
the retainer after the celebration of the mass, ‘That hand which my lord sent to me
through you: return it to him, for it shall not come into my house!’ For she had been
struck with wondering astonishment at the sight of this strange and unprecedented new
miracle. She therefore said to the retainer, ‘Whoever it is who cut off that hand
deserves great vengeance.’ And then she privately told the messenger about the vision,
which not all, but many of Christ’s faithful who had been present there, had been
privileged to see, instructing him that when he reached his master, he should faithfully
report to him the vision that he had heard about. The servant then hurried off quickly
to the master who had sent him with the hand that he had carried; for he did not go into
the house of his mistress, as she had vowed, on account of the hand which he bore. And
so it seems that she was one of those foolish women who had rejected such a holy hand so
unwisely; and this was not done without the guidance of God, who disposes all things;
for her husband, that son of Belial, was not worthy to keep a hand of such great
sanctity in his house; and so it is thought that it had passed on, by God’s providence,
to a much more worthy owner; but of how it got there I am entirely ignorant. Yet this I
hold steadfast for a truth, and this I firmly believe, that at the daily elevation of
the saving host, Simon, while he was still alive, was in the habit—not without
remarkable reverence
\for
Christ/
, not without profoundest love—of raising up
his hands. Certain and infallible inference of their most devout raising up was made
clear after his death when his dead hand was raised up (as we have said) to worship the
Redeemer of the World, born of the most pure Virgin. Hence, I well recall what was
written about him in that little treatise about the battle of Lewes, that he was endowed
with divine wisdom. For what in this life is wiser, more righteous, or better for a man,
than daily to love, honour, and worship his own Creator from his inmost heart? That
Simon did this I do not doubt. Therefore, drawing this miracle to an end, I quickly move
along to recount another miracle that Almighty God performed for Simon’s sake. The hands
of this man are much more holy in the sight of God than the hands of Scipio # Close to a
certain town in Northumbria there is a celebrated house in which the canons of the
Premonstratensian
#which Seneca worshipped, as it is shown in the last chapter of
the 12th book of The Twelve Degrees,
written by Seneca himself.