The Life and Passion of William of Norwich (Penguin Classics)

by Thomas of Monmouth

  [VII] OF A CERTAIN VIRGIN FROM DUNWICH WHO WAS FREED FROM THE MOLESTATION OF AN INCUBUS DEMON30

  After an interval of a few days, in the town called Dunwich,31 there was a virgin who from an early age loved God, trod upon carnal lust and strove for the life of a virgin. Many proposed marriage to her, both because she was most beautiful in bodily appearance, and because they appreciated she was known to be of very rich parents. Truly, as many [such proposals] as she had, she rejected them all, remaining constant in her resolve. Indeed, she remained enclosed in her father’s dwelling, where she pondered day and night the psalms which she had learned.32 She could love nothing more than God, whom she desired with all her might.

  The devil was envious of her pious efforts and so he sent a messenger of evil to cast her down from the pinnacle of her resolve. And so, one of those who are called demons and incubi, who tend towards debauchery and who often accost women, transformed itself into a most beautiful youth, came to her without warning and appeared to her suddenly. The solitary virgin was terrified by the arrival of a man on his own and was extremely scared. He greeted her and, when she greeted him in return, he sat with her. He pretended to be what he was not, so as to achieve his aim. He pretended to be of knightly status, of a noble family, endowed with manly virtue and beauty, pre-eminent in wealth and largesse. Hearing this, the innocent and modest virgin remained silent and, gazing at the ground, she closed her eyes. He said: ‘Listen graciously, maiden most gracious to me. The fame of your chastity and of the beauty of your elegance has long reached my ears. I have fallen in love and have come to see what rumour had described. Here, seeing you, you delight me! What remains, then, but for us to marry? What is sweeter in this life than love? What more joyful? Both our youthful age and our equal beauty invite us to a mutual love. If like unites with like, the affection will be the greater. You do not know who I am, but in a few words I will tell you. I am better than all others in nobility and beauty and excel over others in wisdom and virtue, too; I am better endowed than all others with vast wealth. And as soon as I make my pledge in words, that is, if you agree to such an offer, I shall without delay grant you so many and such great gifts as your own family has never enjoyed.’ Then he immediately brought forth and offered rings, necklaces, collars, bracelets, earrings and many gifts of this kind, saying: ‘Receive these, meanwhile, joyfully, my most gracious one, my most desired one; soon you will receive more and even more precious things as you wish.’

  What then could the virgin do? How could her feeble sex resist these things? The ears tingle with the announcement of such overblown praise; the gifts of great worth delight the eyes, the promise of riches and power flatter the mind. Yet truly amongst all this her spirit remained in Christ, strong and unmoved. The love of Christ ruled although her spirit was tossed by the waves of temptations. And so the virgin rose up, rejected the gifts, and did not assent to the requests. What then? The malign enemy, thus despised and vanquished, disappeared with his gifts as quickly as he had appeared. But he returned very frequently both day and night, and repeated the same words, offering a great deal and promising any number of things. Silken clothes, gleaming jewels, gold, silver and all of the most precious and beautiful that could be contrived in the world’s glory; he heaped this in front of her, setting forth everything she could want. He frequently repeated this, but always striving in vain, he began to press on with ever greater persistence.

  But the girl, taking her own counsel and fearing the violence she suspected, revealed to her parents the whole affair. Because they knew that no one had entered her [room], and heard that he entered it every day, they guessed it to be a demon whose arrival was so sudden and departure so swift, as they learned from the girl’s account. So the parents applied diligence and appointed guards. But he was not to be kept out by guards or excluded by locks. He attacked her ever more violently, as if by violence he would subdue this girl whom he could not overcome with flattery, gifts or promises. The parents consulted the priests, Masses were celebrated, prayers were offered and alms distributed. The bedroom was sprinkled with holy water and a holy cross was fixed in front of her bed. It came to be known to all that a demon was infesting her. Thus, when all human efforts failed against him, they also tried to repel him with divine rites. But the demon, who but a short time ago used to enter at intervals of some hours, thereafter frequented her more vehemently, being ever closer to her.

  Since, however, divine mercy is always present to those who believe in it, and makes provision to prevent their being overcome by temptations, a salutary source of comfort appeared to the girl who was struggling so heroically. One night when she fell asleep, exhausted almost to the point that she wearied of her life, in her sleep a man stood near her, white of hair and venerable of appearance, dressed in pontifical vestments, and said: ‘My daughter, maiden dear to God, do not be afraid of my arrival, listen carefully to the messenger of your salvation. You have battled with an evil enemy.33 You have endured many sufferings and you have triumphed bravely. A crown is already due to you for your chastity and a prize for your combat. But in order to free yourself from the daily annoyance of these attacks, go to Norwich in the morning with three candles and both your parents and seek out the tomb of the holy martyr William, who was killed by the Jews. You may be sure of this, that upon your return from there you will receive the desired solace of liberation. I am, I say, HERBERT the bishop,34 founder of the church of Norwich, who appears to you as the messenger of your salvation. Rise up, go, you will be freed!’

  What need for more? The vision disappeared and the virgin awoke. She got up and announced to her parents what she had seen. Candles were prepared. They went to Norwich. They arrived at the episcopal church. There they communicated to Wichemann the monk,35 then the bishop’s deputy for the purpose of hearing confessions, and to other monks present, the attacks she had suffered; the vision and the cause of their journey were made public. They marvelled as they heard about the demon’s audacity and accepted the instructions of the episcopal vision. And so, when the candles they brought were lit, the virgin was led with her parents to the tomb of Saint William, which was open to the sky at the entrance to the cemetery. There they prayed to God for a while and uttered prayers and vows to the holy martyr.36 The tears penetrated the heavens, so that heaven poured forth the dew of mercy.

  What then? The enemy’s malice was constrained, and divine virtue shone around the virgin. For now she was full of hope, and she returned safe with her parents and was congratulated by many for restraining the demon’s attacks. By this miracle, indeed, the memory of the blessed martyr William was revived, for it had been gradually declining and in the hearts of all was almost completely dead. Again, I wish the diligent reader to evaluate and assess carefully from this account what virtuous power Bishop HERBERT, of pious memory, has with God: he deserved to act as a private messenger of divine dispensation and is a diligent patron of the holy church of Norwich, which he himself had founded.37

  [VIII] A WARNING TO THOSE WHO DISMISS THE MIRACLES OF SAINT WILLIAM, AND WHO DENY OR DOUBT THAT HE WAS KILLED BY THE JEWS

  And so, as the first fruits of the miracles through the merits of Saint William became known, there were many, either ungrateful for divine favours or sceptical of divine signs, who disparaged the miracles when they were made public and claimed they were fictitious. These people were indeed hard of heart and slow to believe, and they reckoned that the blessed boy William was lacking in any merit after death, he who they heard had been but a little poor boy, insignificant in life. And there were others who held him in contempt, because they knew him to have been a poor little ragged boy, working for his living as far as he could in the art of tanning. Thus, by no means could they believe that someone like him, of almost no previous merit, could attain excellence of such heights. And there were others, too, who, despite seeing with their eyes or hearing from others or reading in the present text that he was cruelly slain, still say: ‘We are sure of his death, but by whom, why or
how he was killed we doubt entirely; hence we would not presume to say he is a saint or martyr. And since suffering does not make a martyr, but rather its cause [does],38 even if it is shown that he was killed in punishment by the Jews or by others, who would believe beyond doubt that in life he desired to die for Christ or that he suffered death patiently for Christ when it was inflicted?’ I give a like answer to all of these and answer them also one by one.

  To the first, therefore, who insult the miracles, who suggest they are untrue and who do not believe him to be sanctified because they heard he was a little poor boy, we answer: we admit, indeed, that false miracles are no miracles at all, but rather they are counterfeit jests. Indeed, if Saint William’s miracles were untrue, they would never have persisted for so long and been so frequent. To be sure, were they not the work of divine grace they would have ceased long before now. Yet we have seen a great number of people, over a long period, suffering from various ailments – blind, dumb, deaf, lame, hunchbacked, bent, walking on all fours with crutches, people suffering from swellings, dropsy,39 those with ulcers, with swellings of the throat, the insane – and many others of either sex, suffering from diverse sicknesses, cured40 by the merits of the holy martyr William. We have also frequently seen many trapped in suffering being freed after invoking his holy intercession; many shipwrecked people saved, those bound in leg irons released, and some freed from the grip of iron shackles. How could we have the impertinence to claim that so many and such great miracles are not inspired from on high? Also, those who do not believe that the poor and despised can be holy, let them hear what the prophet said: ‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me. Wherefore he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor.’41 Christ Himself was poor, not having a place to lay His head, and He called the poor – not the rich – to be His apostles; the weak, not the strong; the unlearned,42 not the worldly wise; innocent children, not those grown old in malice.

  Now, seeing that we have said enough about the first objectors, let us move on to the others, who see him as a little, worthless, ragged and poor boy, and seeing him so, feel contempt, and in their contempt say that he should not attain the heights of such great veneration where no worthy deeds have gone before. To them we respond: if childhood were a reason to reject sanctification, we offer them the boys Pancras, Pantaleon and Celsus,43 whom Christ raised to the crown of martyrdom in their childhood years. Moreover, the Lord Himself set a child amid the disciples and asserted that such were particularly suited for the kingdom of heaven.44 If indeed worthlessness or poverty is brought as a reason, why did the Lord choose the lowly and abject of this world to confound the powerful,45 and invite to His dinner the poor and weak, the blind and the lame;46 and He placed Lazarus into Abraham’s bosom and buried the rich man dressed in purple in hell?47 Once more, if they say this is the reason, that no merits preceded the winning of sanctification, I put in opposition the innocents ‘of two years old or less’48 who were not distinguished by the merits of a lifetime, but whom God’s grace alone glorified.

  Finally, we respond to the third type, those who know someone to be killed cruelly, but since they are unsure by whom and why, they dare to say on that account that he is neither a saint nor a martyr. We claim that he was surely slain by the Jews, both because it is the custom of dierum penalium,49 and also because of the nature of the torments, and by the sure signs of the wounds, too, as well as by the most truthful arguments we have from witnesses. And because we know for sure that they perpetrated this as an insult to the Passion of the Lord and to the shame of Christian law, we will prove the truth of the matter with several proofs.50

  [IX] FIRST PROOF

  In the first place, then, we put forward as the argument of the truth that after the mother had been led astray, the boy – handed over to the traitor – went to the Jews, as has been said, on the day before his death, seen by many, and afterwards was never again seen outdoors. Likewise, a girl who was his relative, following him from a distance and watching him on his way, observed that he entered the Jews’ house51 and that the door immediately was firmly closed behind him.

  SECOND PROOF

  Another most evident proof of the true assertion is revealed. At that time and on that very day, indeed at that very hour, when the boy William was being tortured so cruelly in retribution, ridiculed and crucified to the shame of Christ, a little Christian woman, who worked as a servant for them,52 as she was preparing alone in the kitchen some boiling water, as ordered by them, not knowing what was going on, nonetheless heard clearly the noise of it. When from inside they were calling out: ‘Water! Water!’ the woman carried it, boiling fiercely, and served it to those who requested it. But while she handed it over from the outside and they received it from within, she happened to see through the open door – with one eye, since she could not with both – the boy fixed to a post. Having seen this she was horrified; she closed her eye and they shut the door.

  What then? Inside the Jews poured that boiling water over the child, both to check the flow of blood and to staunch the wounds; while outside the anxious woman pondered what she should do. Now she abhorred what was being done and was disposed to reveal the affair; now she acknowledged that she was tied to the Jews by contract, which restrained her from her wish to reveal what had happened, so as not to lose the wages of her service. While she was turning her doubts over in her mind, whether to reveal or to remain silent, such terror came upon her that she dared not reveal what she had seen. For reflecting that she was the only Christian woman among so many Jews, she feared that at some time she might suffer at their hands a similar misfortune. At the same time she could not avoid conjecturing that if the Jews knew that she shared their secret, and perceived that she wanted to reveal it, they would then plot her death as soon as possible and get rid of the whole mountain of suspicion and fear by the death of just one person.

  Agitated by these thoughts, the woman judged that her safety lay in her silence and she kept quiet at the time and pretended to be ignorant of the deed. The Jews, however, in the evening after they had buried the already lifeless body in a very secret place, retired to their house as if they had done nothing; all their doors were left open and from then on gave free access to anyone who wished it. In consequence, that woman, immediately when she had free access, entered and began to go about her work assiduously. While indeed she went busily about, hither and thither, she found a part of a boy’s belt and, hanging from the belt, a sheath with a knife in it, a needle and a purse.53 Next she looked around with more care and noted definite clues to what had happened. Later, indeed, she showed us the belt with these objects and pointed out the signs of martyrdom on the doorposts of the house.

  [X] THE THIRD PROOF

  We add to the two arguments a third, so as to prove more effectively the truth about what happened. After a period of a few days had passed since the death of the blessed William, when the Jews were being charged by law of his killing, they tried in many ways to quell the accusation they had incurred or to evade it for the time being. And so they approached Robert – brother of the boy who had been killed, at that time indeed a clerk, but later one of our monks – with requests and payments, as the one who was responsible for the business of the accusation, but they could in no way lure him to an agreement with a peace-making bribe. He often used to refer to this very matter in our conversations, that he could have had ten marks from the Jews had he agreed to acquit them of the charge of his brother’s death of which they were accused.54

  FOURTH PROOF

  Let yet another truthful argument be put forward, by which the vileness of the Jews may be confounded. At the time when the reign of King Stephen flourished, or rather, when justice withered and declined in the royal court at Norwich, a certain knight was accused by the Jews of killing a certain Jew. On the knight’s behalf William, Bishop of Norwich, spoke effectively, as will be shown in what follows. At length, while he contrasted the Christian to the Jew, and one death to the other [William’s], he then turned
the whole case round against the Jews. Therefore, the king assigned a future date by which each side, before the clergy and barons of England in London, could debate this grave matter in full. And so the Jews of the whole of England were highly alarmed; when he came to London on the appointed day, the leaders of all the Jews came to meet the Bishop of Norwich and offered him a great deal of money. They renounced the charge of the murdered Jew and entreated him that the case of the Christian who had been killed be dropped entirely. But the mind of the bishop, fearing God and considering his own reputation, could not be softened by petitions or corrupted by avarice. Let the incredulity of the doubters weigh these things carefully, say I, because the Jews would not have acted in this way or promised such things if they had felt themselves to be innocent of the charge brought against them.

  [XI] FIFTH PROOF

  We also interpose as an argument of faith and truth what we have heard told by Theobald, a person who was once a Jew and later one of our monks. He told us that in the ancient writings of their ancestors it was written that Jews could not achieve their freedom or ever return to the lands of their fathers without the shedding of human blood. Hence it was decided by them a long time ago that every year, to the shame and affront of Christ, a Christian somewhere on earth be sacrificed to the highest God, and so they take revenge for the injuries of Him, whose death is the reason for their exclusion from their fatherland and their exile as slaves in foreign lands.55