Hearing the vnworthy Decollation of Iohn Baptist be Herod, 13. he betaketh him to his
vsual solitarines in the desert, and there feedeth 5000 with fiue loaues. 23. And then after
the night spent in the mountaine in prayer, he walketh vpon the sea (signifying the wide world)
28. yea and Peter also: wherevpon they adore him as the Sonne of God. 35. And with the very touch of
his garments hemme he healeth innumerable.
1. AT that time
*
Mark 6,14.
Luke 9,7. 3,19.
Herod the Tetrarch heard the fame of Iᴇꜱᴠꜱ:
2. and said to his seruants: This is Iohn the Baptist: he is risen from the
dead, & therfor vertues worke in him.
3. For Herod apprehended Iohn and bound him, & put him into prison
Because of Herodias.
It is too ordinarie in Princes to put them to death that freely tel them such faults: women,
whom they fansie, especially inciting them to such mischeefe.
because of
Herodias, his
✟
brother Philips
brothers' wife.
4. For Iohn said vnto him: It is not lawful for thee to haue her.
5. And willing to put him to death, he feared the People: becuase they esteemed
him as a Prophet.
6. But on Herods birth-day, the daughter of Herodias danced before them: and pleased
Herod.
7. Wherevpon he promised with an oth, to goue her whatsoeuer she would aske of him.
8. But she being instructed before her mother saith: Giue me here in a dish the head
of Iohn the Baptist.
9. And the King was stroken sad: yet because of his
✟
A wicked & rash oth, and more wickedly fulfilled: because an vnlawful oth bindeth
no man.
oth, and for them that sate with
him at table, he commanded it to be giuen.
10. And he sent, and beheaded Iohn in the prison.
11. And his head was brought in a dish: and it was giuen to the damsel, and she
brought it to her mother.
12. And his Disciples came and took the body, and
✟
S. Iohns Disciples at this time had wel learned their duty toward Christ.
buried it
Buried it.
Sacrilege against holy Relikes.
An example of duty toward the dead bodies of the Faithful: wherein see the difference of
Catholike Christian men, & of al Infidels, be they Pagans, Apostataes, or Heretikes.
For whereas the Christians had layd the body of this Blessed Prophet and Martyr *in Samaria
with the Relikes of Elias and Abdias, by vertue wherof wonderful miracles were wrought in
that place, in Iulian the Apostataes time, when men might doe al mischeefe freely against
Christian religion, the Pagans opened the tombe of S. John Baptist, burnt his bones,
scattered the ashes about the fields: but certaine religious Monkes coming thither a
pilgrimage at the same time, aduentured their life and saued as much of the holy Relikes
as they could, and brought them to their Abbot Philip, a man of God: who esteeming them
too great a treasure for him and his to keep for their primate deuotion, sent them to
Athanasius the B. of Alexandria; and he with al reuerence layd them in such a place
(as it were by the Spirit of Prophecie) where afterward by occasion of them was built
a goodly chappel. Theod. li. 5 c. 6. Ruff. li. 2 c. 27, 28. Marke here that the
Heretikes of our time doe as those Pagans, to the bodies & Relikes of al Blessed Saints
that they can destroy: and Catholikes contrariwise have the religious deuotion of those
old Christians, as appeareth by the honour done now to his head at Amians in France.
*Hiero. in Epithap. Paule. c. 6.
and came and told Iᴇꜱᴠꜱ.
13. Which when Iᴇꜱᴠꜱ had heard,
*
Mark 6,31.
Luke 9,10.
Iohn 6,2.
he
Retired.
Eremites.
Christ much esteemed Iohn, and withdrew himself aside, to giue example of moderate
mourning for the departed, and to shew the horrour of that execrable murder: as in the
Primitiue Church many good men seeing the miserable state of the world in time of
persecution, and the sinnes that abounded withal, took an occasion to forsake those tumults,
and to giue themselues to contemplation; and for that purpose retired into the deserts of
Ægypt and els where, to doe pennance for their owne sinnes, and the sinnes of the world.
Wherevpon partly rose that infinite number of Monkes & Eremites, of whom the Fathers and
Ecclesiastical histories make mention. Hiero. to. 2 in vit. Pauli Eremitæ. Sozo. li.
1 c. 12 13.
retired from thence by boat, into a desertplace a part,
and the multitudes hauing heard of it, folowed him on foot out of the cities.
14. And he coming forth saw a great multitude, and pitied them, and cured their diseased.
15. And when it was euening, his Disciples came vnto him, saying: It is a desert place, and
the houre is not past: dimisse the multitudes, that going into the townes, they may buy them selues
victuals.
16. But Iᴇꜱᴠꜱ said to them: They haue no need to goe: giue ye them to eate.
17. They answered him: We haue not here, but fiue loaues, and two fishes.
18. Who said to them: Bring them hither to me.
19. And when he had commanded the multitude to sit downe vpon the grasse, he took the
fiue loaues and the two fishes, and looking vp vnto Heauen he blessed, and brake, and gaue the
loaues to his Disciples, and
The Disciples to the multitudes.
A figure of the ministerie of the Apostles; who as they here had the distribution and
ordering of these miraculous loaues, so had they also to bestow and dispense al the
foode of our soules, in ministring of the Word & Sacraments, neither may laimen chalenge
the same.
the Disciples to the multitudes.
20. And they did al eate, and had their fil. And they took the leauings, twelue ful
baskets of the fragments.
21. And the number of them that did eate was, fiue thousand men, beside women and
children.
22.
⋮
The Ghospel vpon the Octaue of S. Peter and S. Paul. Iulij 6.
And forthwith Iᴇꜱᴠꜱ commanded his Disciples to goe vp into the boat, and to goe
before him ouer the water, til he dimissed the multitudes.
23. And hauing dimissed the multitude, he
*
Mark 6,46.
Iohn 6,16.
ascended into a mountaine alone to pray.
And when it was euening, he was there alone.
24. But the boat in the middes of the sea was tossed with waues: for the wind was
contrarie.
25. And in the fourth watch of the night, he came vnto them walking vpon the sea.
26. And seeing him vpon the sea
Walking.
Peters Primacie.
When not only Christ, but by his power Peter also walketh vpon the waters, it is euident
that he can dispose of his owne body aboue nature, and contrary to the natural conditions
thereof, as to goe through a doore. Iohn. 20. to be in the compasse of a litle bread.
Epiphan. in Anchorato.
walking, they were troubled saying: That it is a
Ghost: & for feare they cried out.
27. And immediatly Iᴇꜱᴠꜱ spake vnto them, saying: Haue confidence: it is I, feare ye not.
28. And Peter making answer said: Lord if it be thou, bid me come to thee vpon the waters.
29. And he said, Come. And Peter descending out of the boat,
Walked.
Peter (saith S. Bernard) walking vpon the waters, as Christ did, declared himself the
only Vicar of Christ, which should be Ruler not ouer one People, but ouer al. For
many waters, are many peoples. Bernard li. 2 de confid. c. 8. See the place,
how he deduceth from Peter the like auctoritie and iurisdiction to his Successour the
Bishop of Rome.
walked vpon the water to
come to Iᴇꜱᴠꜱ.
30. sBut seeing the wind rough, he was afraid: and when he began to be drowned, he cried
out saying: Lord, saue me.
31. And incontinent
✟
Not withstanding the infirmities of them that gouerne the Church, yet Christ
sustaineth them; and holdeth them vp, yea and by them, whosoeuer they are, he vpholdeth
and preserueth his Church.
Iᴇꜱᴠꜱ stetching forth his hand took hold of him, and said
vnto him: O thou of litle Faith, why didst thou doubt?
32. And when they were gone vp into the boat, the wine ceased.
33. And they that were in the boat, came and adored him, saying: In deed thou art the
Sonne of God.
34. And hauing passed the water, they came into the countries of Genesar.
35. And when the men of that place vnderstood of him, they sent into al that countrie,
and brought vnto him al that were il at ease:
36. and they besought him that they might touch but the
✟
See before, chap. 9,20.
hemme of his garments, and
whosoeuer did touch, were make hole.