sy was of
them that denied the resurrection of dead bodies, and began to grow;
Theodosius, then the most Christian emperor, being sorrowful that the
faith of our Lord was so felonously demened, for anger and heaviness he
clad him in hair and wept every day in a secret place, and led a full
holy life, which God, merciful and piteous, seeing, would comfort them
that were sorrowful and weeping, and give to them esperance and hope of
the resurrection of dead men, and opened the precious treasure of his
pity, and raised the foresaid martyrs in this manner following.

He put in the will of a burgess of Ephesus that he would make in that
mountain, which was desert and aspre, a stable for his pasturers and
herdmen. And it happed that of adventure the masons, that made the said
stable, opened this cave. And then these holy saints, that were within,
awoke and were raised and intersalued each other, and had supposed
verily that they had slept but one night only, and remembered of the
heaviness that they had the day tofore. And then Malchus, which
ministered to them, said what Decius had ordained of them, for he said:
We have been sought, like as I said to you yesterday, for to do
sacrifice to the idols, that is it that the emperor desireth of us. And
then Maximian answered: God our Lord knoweth that we shall never
sacrifice, and comforted his fellows. He commanded to Malchus to go and
buy bread in the city, and bade him bring more that he did yesterday,
and also to inquire and demand what the emperor had commanded to do. And
then Malchus took five shillings, and issued out of the cave, and when
he saw the masons and the stones tofore the cave, he began to bless him,
and was much amarvelled. But he thought little on the stones, for he
thought on other things. Then came he all doubtful to the gates of the
city, and was all amarvelled. For he saw the sign of the cross about the
gate, and then, without tarrying, he went to that other gate of the
city, and found there also the sign of the cross thereon, and then he
had great marvel, for upon every gate he saw set up the sign of the
cross; and therewith the city was garnished. And then he blessed him and
returned to the first gate, and weened he had dreamed; and after he
advised and comforted himself and covered his visage and entered into
the city. And when he came to the sellers of bread, and heard the men
speak of God, yet then was he more abashed, and said: What is this, that
no man