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| Chapter I.
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Chapter I.
“Well then, when
first, having left the schools, I attached myself to the blessed man, a
few days after doing so, we followed him on his way to the church. In
the way, a poor man, half-naked in these winter-months, met him, and
begged that some clothing might be given him. Then Martin, calling for
the chief-deacon, gave orders that the shivering creature should be
clothed without delay. After that, entering a private apartment, and
sitting down by himself, as his custom was—for he secured for
himself this retirement even in the church, liberty being
granted to the clerics, since
indeed the presbyters were seated in another apartment, either spending
their time in mutual110
| 110 “salutationibus
vacantes”: this is, in the original, a very confused and obscure
sentence. | courtesies, or
occupied in listening to affairs of business. But Martin kept himself
in his own seclusion up to the hour at which custom required that the
sacred rites should be dispensed to the people. And I will not pass by
this point that, when sitting in his retirement, he never used a chair;
and, as to the church, no one ever saw him sitting there, as I recently
saw a certain man (God is my witness), not without a feeling of shame
at the spectacle, seated on a lofty throne, yea, in its elevation, a
kind of royal tribunal; but Martin might be seen sitting on a rude
little stool, such as those in use by the lowest of servants, which we
Gallic country-people call tripets,111
| 111 Halm edits
“tripeccias,” which may have been the local patois
for “tripetias” (ter-pes), corresponding to the Greek
τρίπους, and meaning
“a three legged stool.” | and which you men of learning, or those at
least who are from Greece, call tripods. Well, that
poor man who had been chanced upon, as the chief-deacon delayed to give
him the garment, rushed into this private apartment of the blessed man,
complaining that he had not been attended to by the cleric, and
bitterly mourning over the cold he suffered. No delay took place: the
holy man, while the other did not observe, secretly drew off his tunic
which was below his outer112
| 112
“Amphibalum”: a late Latin word corresponding to the more
classical toga. | garment, and
clothing the poor man with this, told him to go on his way. Then, a
little after, the chief-deacon coming in informs him, according to
custom, that the people were waiting in the church, and that it was
incumbent on him to proceed to the performance of the sacred rites.
Martin said to him in reply that it was necessary that the poor
man—referring to himself—should be clothed, and that he
could not possibly proceed to the church, unless the poor man received
a garment. But the deacon, not understanding the true state of the
case—that Martin, while outwardly clad with a cloak, was not seen
by him to be naked underneath, at last begins to complain that the poor
man does not make his appearance. ‘Let the garment which has been
got ready,’ said Martin, ‘be brought to me; there will not
be wanting the poor man requiring to be clothed.’ Then, at
length, the cleric, constrained by necessity, and now in not the
sweetest temper, hurriedly procures a rough113
garment out of the nearest shop, short and shaggy, and costing only
five pieces of silver, and lays it, in wrath at the feet of Martin.
‘See,’ cries he, ‘there is the garment, but the poor
man is not here.’ Martin, nothing moved, bids him go to the door
for a little, thus obtaining secrecy, while, in his nakedness, he
clothes himself with the garment, striving with all his might to keep
secret what he had done. But when do such things remain concealed in
the case of the saints desiring that they should be so? Whether they
will or not, all are brought to light.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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