Manuscript: Faustina B. IX

Previous Folio 75v
baptismum sancte fidei uestre percipere, uolo igitur antequam baptizer illos de ratione fidei
percipiendi conuenire ad quem Eduuardus bene inquit facietis si properaueritis ut bapti
zemini, quia nescitis horam mortis uestre, stabat ergo admiraldus secundum scema
sue leuitatis tripudians ante ipsum ac si ipsi esset ioculator, a quo demum peti
ta licencia recedendi recessit ab ipso infelix dolositate plenus promittens
crebris uicibus se uenturum ad illum ad consolandum se ⁊ spaciandum cum1 illo quod
fecit mittens ei per plures uices more solito inmensa exennia & speciosa do
naria, a quo cum quereret Eduuardus cur tam diu differret baptissmum
suscipere respondit se assensum iam habuisse multorum ex suis ad hoc faciendum, sed
non omnium inquit quem infra breue tempus adquiram Deo uestre fidei Christiane prouiden
te, hii dum sic se habent ad inuicem amicabiliter quasi confederatos nulla apud am
bos alteri de altero remanet susspicio, vnde rumor talis permaxime amicitie eorum
peruenit ad soldanum totius Sarracenitatis qui mittens post admiraldum de
quo vehementem habuit suspicionem quod quantum in ipso erat Sarracenitatem
voluit prodere ⁊ tradere Christianis ipse Christianus effectus mandauit illi super uitam
⁊ menbra precipiens ut compareat coram maiestate sua tali die ⁊ tali loco
cuius maiestatis tanta est dignitas ut narrauit mihi armiger a quo presentem ha
beo relacionem quod omnes introeuntes in regiam eius pro quouis nogocio2
apud ipsum audiendo uel expediendo primo flectunt genu extra introitum regie
ad limitem ubi limes est, deinde ingressi regiam iterum faciunt genuflexionem
aliam in medio regie, demum accedentes ante faciem eius profunde inclinant
eum genua submittentes ad quem ueniens dictus admiraldus salutauit eum
prius facto patrio ritu introitus sui secundum consuetudinem aliorum quem cum conuenisset
soldanus si iam Christianus factus est ⁊ utrum proditor sit paganissimi apud filium
regis Anglie respondit ei quod plus profecerat apud illum filium pro saluacione
paganie quam omnes quotquot sunt in paganisimo eius potuissent longo tempore
profecisse ⁊ quomodo inquid soldanus, cui ille, illum regis filium quem forte uos
timetis tantis magnis placaui muneribus, tot exenniis honoraui multi
plicibus cautissime agens cum ipso quod possum3 facere de illo quicquid
uolo, nec aliquid superest modo de ipso nisi ut perimatur quando uolo, quod
manifeste factum fuisset, nisi optimus Deus piissimum Eduuardum melius saluan
do adiuuisset, post dies igitur paucos factum est ut \ab/ admiraldo doloso im4

Notes

1 JRD: Written over an erasure.
2 JT: Read negocio.
3 JRD: Read possum.
4 JRD: Either im or un.
the baptism of your holy faith along with me. I therefore wish to discuss the matter of the faith with them before receiving baptism.’ Edward told him, ‘You will do well if you are quick about being baptised, since you do not know the hour of your death’.1 The emir therefore stood before him jigging about in keeping with his shallowness, as though he were a jester. At this point, having asked permission from Edward to retire, the wretch withdrew from him, full of deceit, promising that he would visit him frequently, to enjoy his company and take recreation with him, which he did. And on many occasions he sent him huge presents and splendid gifts, as he had done before. When Edward inquired of him why he put off the reception of baptism so long, he replied that he already had the assent of many of his friends to do it, ‘although not of them all,’ he said, ‘yet by the providence of the God of your Christian faith, I shall obtain it within a brief time.’ So long as they regarded each other in this friendly way, as though allies, no suspicion remained in either with regard to the other. News of their great friendship became known to the chief sultan of the entire Saracen people; and he sent after the emir, having the strong suspicion about him that, so far as he could, he wanted to betray and hand over the Saracen people to the Christians, having himself become a Christian. He ordered him on pain of life and limb, instructing him to appear before his majesty on such a day and at such a place. The dignity of the sultan’s majesty is such (so an esquire from whom I received the present account told me) that all who enter his palace for any business, either to be heard by him or to take orders, first bend the knee outside the entrance of the palace, at the threshold where there is a line; then when they enter the palace they again make another genuflexion in the centre of the palace; then when they come before his presence they bow deeply to him and get down on their knees. Upon coming to the sultan, having first performed the traditional ritual of his own entry in the same way as others, the emir greeted him. Then the sultan asked whether he had yet become a Christian and whether he had been unfaithful to the heathen religion2 with the son of the king of England; and he replied that he had made more progress with Edward for the salvation of the heathen than anyone—as many as belong to the heathen religion—had for a long time been able to achieve. ‘And how?’ said the sultan. The other replied, ‘I have pleased that son of a king, whom you greatly dread, with so many splendid gifts, honoured him with such numerous presents, and dealt with so carefully, that I am able to do whatever I want with him. And now nothing remains for him except to be slain whenever I desire it.’ And he would clearly have done this had the good God not helped the devout Edward to be saved; for a few days afterwards, it happened that \to/ the wretched emir

Notes

1 JRD: Mt 25:13.
2 JRD: Here, ‘heathenism’ is the author’s disparaging way of referring to the Islamic religion.