Blanquerna

OF VAINGLORY

On a certain great feftival it came to pass that a friar had preached in a church wherein was assembled much people in honour of the feaft-day. A great company of notable men followed the friar to his monaftery to do him honour. And it pleased the friar that they followed him, that the other friars might see how he was honoured by the notable men that gave him conduft. As they went, the friar made conversation of a kind that should cause them to extol his sermon. Greatly did they laud the sermon which the friar had preached, and great pleasure had he thereat in his mind.

blanqverna

„ While the friar had vainglory in his mind at the worfs which he heard concerning his sermon, they met the young wife whom the good example of Evaft and Aloma had freed from the bondage of luff. When the friar saw her, he remembered how for long he had driven to free this girl’ (whose confessor he was) from sin, and that neither his sermons nor her confessions had availed as greatly as the good example of Evaft and Aloma. While the friar con¬ sidered thus, he knew that he had been guilty of vainglory, and he resolved to chaften himself and to undergo some penance that his sermons might never more be to him an occasion for vainglory.

3. After he had considered thus, a lay brother who was a companion of the preacher enquired of him : “ Which sermon bears the more fruit — a sermon of words or a sermon of good works and good example ? ” The friar answered : “ Since it is a greater virtue to do good works, and since to do them cofts a man more than to tell another how to do them, therefore is the fruit of a good example greater than the fruit of words. It is but a short time since Evaft: and Aloma through their good example converted a woman to chaftity whom I was able to convert neither by preaching nor by exhortation.”

4. When the friar had ended his words, he took leave of the notables who would have followed him to the monaflery, for he desired their escort no longer. And by the virtue of God, and the good example of Evaft and Aloma, the friar determined in his mind that his future works

sermo ^ ^ ^ ** g°°d WOrds which hc sPake in his

u 5kAcCJ0rding as ?e hlve heard. by the grace of God Evaft and Aloma by their good example mortified the sins aforesaid; and a long time would it take to recount all the

t0hifetthhevreSUlteaf,>0m UVeS °f Evaft and Aloma' And whde they were ft, U servmg and loving God with all their

94g * Plmed our God to call Evaft to His glorious

OF VAINGLORY

bliss, and to take him from the perils and the misery of this

6. Dead was Evail in this world, but living was he in glory. Aloma was left, and daily she prayed to God for Evait, and besought Him to take her from this world when her penance therein was ended. Grieve she dared not, for she feared to disobey the will of God : console herself she could not, since she had neither Evaft nor her son Blanquerna. So she grew old, and her body, through afflittion and age, caused her much trial for so long as she lived. Then God, Who forgets not His servants, called her to His happiness, wherein she found the soul of Evaft her husband whom she so greatly loved.

ENDED IS THE FIRST BOOK OF EVAST AND ALOMA

RFGINNETH the second book which IS OF RELIGION

Part the First