THE UPRIGHTNESS OF ST LEWIS

The peace that he made with the King of England was nade against the advice of his council, for the council said to lim: “ Sire, it seems to us that you are giving away the land .hat you make over to the King of England;1 for he has no ight thereto, seeing that his father lost it justly.” To this he king replied that he knew well that the King of England lad no right to the land, but that there was a reason why he hould give it him, “ for,” said he, “ we have two sisters to wife, and our children are cousins-german; wherefore it is itting that there should be peace between us. Moreover a retry great honour accrues to me through the peace that I lave made with the King of England, seeing that he is now my liegeman, which he was not aforetime.”

The uprightness of the king may be seen in the case of my ord Renaud of Trie, who brought to the saintly man a hurter stating that the king had given to the heirs of the Countess of Boulogne, lately deceased, the county of Damnartin in Gouelle. The seal on the charter was broken, so .hat naught remained save half the legs of the image on the ring’s seal, and the stool on which the king set his feet. And he king showed the seal to all those who were of his council, and asked us to help him to come to a decision. We all said, without a dissentient, that he was not bound to give effect to the charter. Then he told John Sarrasin, his chamber- lain, to give him a charter which he had asked him to obtain. When he held this charter in his hands, he said: “ Lords, this is the seal I used before I went overseas, and you can see clearly from this seal thir the impression on the broken seal is like unto that of the seal that is whole; wherefore I should not dare, in good conscience, to keep the said county.” So he called to him my lord Renaud of Trie, and said, “ I give you back the county. istanbul tours”

BIRTH AND CORONATION OF ST. LEWIS

In the name of God Almighty, we have, hereinbefore, written out a part of the good words and of the good teachings of our saintly King Lewis, so that those who read may find them set in order, the one after the other, and thus derive more profit therefrom than if they were set forth among his deeds. And from this point we begin, in the .lame of God and in his own name, to speak of his deeds.

As I have heard tell he was born on the day of St. Mark the Evangelist, after Easter (25th April 1214). On that day crosses are, in many places, carried in procession, and, in France, these are called black crosses; and this was as it were a prophecy of the great number of people who were to die in the two Crusades, viz., that of Egypt, and the other, in which he himself died, at Carthage, whereby there were great mourning’s in this world, and many great rejoicings in paradise for such as in these two pilgrimages died true Crusaders.

He was crowned on the first Sunday in Advent (29th November 1226). The beginning of the mass for that Sunday runs: And what follows after; and this means, “ Fair Lord God, I shall lift up my soul to thee, I put my confidence in thee.” In God had he great confidence from his childhood to his death; for when he died, in his last words, he called upon God and His saints, md specially upon my lord St. James and my lady St. Genevieve.