FRIAR BEATUS ODORICUS a.d. 



1330. 

 his paradise : who saith unto him, You cannot be ad- 

 mitted thither, unlesse you will slay such or such a 

 man for my sake, and if you will give the attempt 

 onely, whether you kill him or no, I wil place you 

 againe in paradise, that there you may remaine alwayes: 

 then would the party without faile put the same in 

 execution, indevouring to murther all those against 

 whom the sayd olde man had conceived any hatred. 

 And therefore all the kings of the east stood in awe 

 of the sayd olde man, and gave unto him great tribute. 



Of the death of Senex de monte. 



ANd when the Tartars had subdued a great part of 

 the world, they came unto the sayd olde man, and 

 tooke from him the custody of his paradise : who being 

 incensed thereat, sent abroad divers desperate and resolute 

 persons out of his forenamed paradise, and caused many 

 of the Tartarian nobles to be slaine. The Tartars seeing 

 this, went and besieged the city wherein the said olde 

 man was, tooke him, and put him to a most cruell and 

 ignominious death. The friers in that place have this 

 speciall gift and prerogative : namely, that by the vertue 

 of the name of Christ Jesu, and in the vertue of his 

 pretious bloud, which he shedde upon the crosse for the 

 salvation of mankinde, they doe cast foorth devils out 

 of them that are possessed. And because there are many 

 possessed men in those parts, they are bound and brought 

 ten dayes journey unto the sayd friers, who being dis- 

 possessed of the uncleane spirits, do presently beleeve in 

 Christ who delivered them, accounting him for their 

 God, and being baptised in his name, and also delivering 

 immediatly unto the friers all their idols, and the idols 

 of their cattell, which are commonly made of felt or of 

 womens haire : then the sayd friers kindle a fire in a 

 publike place (whereunto the people resort, that they 

 may see the false gods of their neighbors burnt) and cast 

 the sayd idols thereinto : howbeit at the first those idols 

 came out of the fire againe. Then the friers sprinkled 



439 



