fossio profunda &
horribilis qui eodem die subito obiit. Obiit Iohannes episcopus Glasgu
ensis in
Francia apud Meldam ciuitatem in qua sepelitur loco cuius eligitur Willelmus
Wiscard cancellarius regis qui cum esset electus mortuo Gamelino episcopo Sancti Andree
electus est ad pontificium eiusdem sancti. Et Robertus Wiscard nepos eius
archidiaconus
Laodonie factus est electus Glasguensis deinde in episcopum
consecratur.
Quidam alius uere anathema diaboli qui absciderat virilia sancti viri
Simonis
post duos annos tanti sceleris perpetrati morte turpissima mortuus est in
Scocia
submersus in magno profundo flumine Thayensi fluente ad mare iuxta nobile
op
pidum de Perht, de quo cum debuisset extrahi inuenti sunt super ventrem eius duo
scrabones
mire turpitudinis pedes suos adeo fortiter in ipso ventre fixos habentes
ut vix euelli
potuissent. Cuius corpus infelix de flumine extractum equinam meruit
sepulturam in non
nullis enim locis si\cut/ in Agrigentina
regione sepeliuntur equi nobiles ⊗1 // industriam nobilitatis
sue, quorum etiam
tumuliis adiciuntur piramides ut patet libro viii Plinii de Naturali
Hysto
ria, capitulo xliiiio Indigne igitur dixerim
infelicem hominem de quo modo locutus sum sepultu
ram equinam meruisse, quoniam
degenerauit a nobilitate equorum nobilem sepulturam promerencium
vnde dicitur in
capitulo modo dicto quod diuus imperator tumulum equo suo fecit, factum est &
carmen de illo equo. Item ut liquet ibi magnus rex Alexander inter xiiam Alexandrias
quas construxit fecit unam urbem nomine
suo diriuatiue appellatam scilicet Alexandriam
cognomine Buscefaleam equo suo.
Bucephalas enim vocabatur equus eius cui post mortem fecit
exequias & vocatur
Alexandria illa Bucephalea propter Bucephalam Alexandri equum no
bilem tumulatum in
ea Et bene fuit iste equus dignus tali sepultura quoniam Alexandrum
dominum suum
e dirissimis bellorum certaminibus sospitem ope sua extulit ut refert So
linus in
libro de mirabilibus mundi capitulo clxxiiioiiio. Hic equs
decore Alexandri captus
fuit sed ego pocius credo amore dum adhuc puer esset
Alexander ut patet in textu Plinii,
ubi supra, bene itaque dixerim quod amore
pueri Alexandri captus fuit equs eius
in tantum ut omnes sessores dorsum eius
ascendentes ⊗ reiceret excepto domino suo
proprio scilicet
Alexandro, ⊗ quod neminem unquam preter dominum
suum vehere
dign[atus] e[st sunt] & multa alia commendabilia in capitulis que supra
no
minaui de natura equorum ut pote quod lacrimas fundunt pro morte dominorum
suorum.
O pia generositas equorum. Item gratis fame moriuntur perditis rectoribus
quos dilige
bant. O affectuosa amicicia illorum que propter causantes prolixitatem
omisi. Viso itaque
and ghastly hollow, and he died
suddenly the same day. John, the bishop of Glasgow, died in France at the city of Meaux,
where he was buried. In his place is elected William Wishart, the king’s chancellor.
While he was still the bishop-elect—Gamelin, bishop of St Andrews—having died, he was
elected to the bishopric of that saint. And Robert Wishart, his nephew, the archdeacon
of Lothian, became the elect of Glasgow, and was afterwards consecrated as bishop.
Another one truly accursed of the devil, who cut off the genitals of the holy man Simon,
two years after carrying out such a great crime died a most foul death in Scotland,
drowned in the great depth of the river Tay where it flows to the sea next to the noble
town of Perth; and when he had to be pulled out of the river there were found upon his
stomach two astonishingly horrible crabs, having their claws so firmly fixed in his
belly that they could barely be torn away. His unhappy corpse, taken out of the water,
was honoured with a horse’s burial, for in some places, such as in the region of
Agrigento, thoroughbred horses are buried ⊗ // their pedigree, and pyramids are erected as their tombs, as it is
shown in the 8th book of Pliny’s Natural
History, the 44th chapter. So I would say that the
unhappy man about whom I have just spoken received unworthily the honour of a horse’s
burial, seeing that he was inferior to the nobility of those horses that deserve a noble
resting place, concerning which it is said in the chapter just mentioned that the Divine
Emperor built a tomb for his horse, and a poem was composed about that horse. Likewise,
as it is shown there, King Alexander the Great, among the 12 Alexandrias which he
constructed, built one city with a name derived from his own, that is to say, called
Alexandria Bucefalia, with the name of his horse added, for his horse was called
Bucephalus, for which he performed funeral rites after it died. Thus the latter
Alexandria was called Bucephalia because Bucephalus, Alexander’s horse, was buried in
it; and that horse was well suited to such a burial, since it brought his lord Alexander
safe out of the most dire encounters in battles by his own initiative, as Solinus
recounts in his book on The Wonders of the World, in the 173rd chapter.1 This horse was taken with Alexander’s
beauty (although I think it was rather with affection) while Alexander was still a boy,
as it is shown in Pliny’s text (as above); and so I would be justified in saying that
his horse was taken with affection for Alexander as a boy, inasmuch as it threw off all
riders who mounted its back, except its own master, that is, Alexander ⊗ that
it never deigned to carry anyone except its master, and there are many other
praiseworthy things in the chapters which I have mentioned above about the nature of
horses; for example, that they shed tears for the death of their masters. How loyal and
noble are horses! Again, when they lose their masters, whom they love, they freely die
by starvation. How affectionate is the friendship of horses! But for fear of being
over-wordy, I have left these things out. And so, having seen