out, and he heard tell how the blessed S. Miniato was living as a
hermit, near to Florence, with his disciples and companions, in a wood
which was called Arisbotto di Firenze, behind the place where now stands
his church, above the city of Florence. This blessed Miniato was
first-born son to the King of Armenia, and having left his kingdom for
the faith of Christ, to do penance and to be far away from his kingdom,
he went over-seas to gain pardon at Rome, and then betook himself to the
said wood, which was in those days wild and solitary, forasmuch as the
city of Florence did not extend, and was not settled beyond Arno but was
all on this side,--save only there was one bridge across Arno, not,
however, where the bridges now are. And it is said by many that it was
the ancient bridge of the Fiesolans which led from Girone to Candegghi,
and this was the ancient and direct road and way from Rome to Fiesole
and to go into Lombardy and across the mountains. The said Emperor
Decius caused the said blessed Miniato to be taken, as his story
narrates. Great gifts and rewards were offered him, as to a king's son,
to the end he should deny Christ; and he, constant and firm in the
faith, would have none of his gifts, but endured divers martyrdoms. In
the end the said Decius caused him to be beheaded, where now stands the
Church of S. Candida alla Croce at Gorgo; and many faithful followers of
Christ received martyrdom in this place. And when the head of the
blessed Miniato had been cut off, by a miracle of Christ, with his hands
he set it again upon his trunk, and on his feet passed over Arno, and
went up the hill where now stands his church, where at that time there
was a little oratory in the name of the blessed Peter the Apostle, where
many bodies of holy martyrs were buried. And when S. Miniato was come to
that place, he gave up his soul to Christ, and his body was there
secretly buried by the Christians; the which place, by reason of the
merits of the blessed S. Miniato, was devoutly venerated by the
Florentines after they were become Christians, and a little church was
built there in his honour. But the great and noble church of marble
which is there now in our times, we find to have been built later by the
zeal of the venerable Father Alibrando, Bishop and citizen of Florence
in the year of Christ 1013, begun on the 26th day of April, by the
commandment and authority of the Catholic and holy Emperor, Henry II of
Bavaria, and of