.

Then he showed us a safe-conduct, signed with that blessed woman's own
hand, such as she was wont to give to the religious of the Order of St.
Francis. By virtue of this, he said (and, by miracle, for once he said
truly, as I had but too good cause to learn), he could go freely in and
out among the camps of French, English, and Burgundians.

You may conceive how joyous they were in that poor cottage, on a night so
blessed, and how Brother Thomas told us of the holy Colette, that famous
nun and Mother in Christ, as he that had often been in her company. He
had seen her body lifted in the air while she remained in a pious
ecstasy, her mind soaring aloft and her fleshly body following it some
way.

He had often watched that snow-white beast which followed her, such a
creature as is known in no country of the sinful world, but is a thing of
Paradise. And he had tried to caress this wondrous creature of God, but
vainly, for none but the holy sister Colette may handle it. Concerning
her miracles of healing, too, he told us, all of which we already knew
for very truth, and still know on better warranty than his.

Ye may believe that, late and at last, Brother Thomas had his choice of
the warmest place to sleep in--by the "four," as is the wont of pilgrims,
for in his humility this holy man would not suffer the farmer's wife and
the farmer to give him their bed, as they desired. I, too, was very
kindly entreated by the young lads, but I could scarcely sleep for
marvelling at these miracles done by one so unworthy; and great, indeed,
I deemed, must be the virtue of that relic which wrought such signs in
the hands of an evil man. But I have since held that he feigned all by
art magic and very sorcery, for, as we wended next morning on our road,
he plainly told me, truly or falsely, that he had picked up the blackened
finger-bone out of the loathly ashes of the dead in the burned castle
near Ruffec.

Wherefore I consider that when Brother Thomas sold the grace of his
relic, by the touching of rings, he dealt in a devilish black simony,
vending to simple Christians no grace but that of his master, Sathanas.
Thus he was not only evil (if I guess aright, which I submit to the
judgment of my ecclesiastical superiors, and of the Church), but he had
even found out a new kind of wickedness, such as I never read of in any
books of theology wherein is much to be learned. I have spoken with
some, however, knights and men of t