DLH I.44

English, pp.93-4

Urbicus was the first Bishop of Clermont-Ferrand after the prelate and preacher Stremonius. He had been converted from a senatorial family. He was a married man and, according to the custom of the church, his wife lived as a religious, apart from her husband. They both devoted themselves to prayer, charity and good works. As they were pursuing the even tenor of their lives, the woman was filled with the Devil's own malice, which is always hostile to holiness: for he inflamed her with desire for her husband and turned her into a second Eve. The Bishop's wife burned so hot with passion, and was overwhelmed by dark thoughts of such a sinful nature, that she made her way through the pitch-black night to the church-house. When she found that everything was shut up for the night, she started to beat on the doors of the church-house and to shout something like the following: 'Bishop! How long do you intend to remain asleep? How long do you propose to refuse to open these closed doors? Why do you scorn your lawful wife? Why do you shut your ears and refuse to listen to the words of Paul, who wrote: "Come together again, that Satan tempt you not." I am here! I am returning to you, not as to a stranger, but to one who belongs to me.' For a long time she went on shouting these things and others like them. In the end the Bishop forgot his religious scruples and ordered her to be admitted to his bedroom, where he had intercourse with her and then said that it was time for her to go. Later on he recovered his wits, and grieved for the sin which he had committed. He went off to a monastery in his diocese, with the intention of doing penance. With lamentation and tears he atoned for his misdeeds, and finally came back to his own town. When he reached the end of his life, he departed from this world. His wife had become pregnant and she bore a daughter, who passed her life as a religious. The Bishop was buried in a crypt beside a public thoroughfare at Chantoin, with his wife and daughter at his side. Legonus was elected as Bishop in his place.

Latin, pp.

44. De Orbico Arvernorum episcopo.

Apud Arvernus vero primus episcopus post Stremonium episcopum praedicatoremque Urbicus fuit, ex senatoribus conversus, uxorem habens, quae iuxta consuetudinem ecclesiasticam, remota a consortio sacerdotis, religiose vivebat. Vacabant enim ambo orationem, elemosinis atque operibus bonis. Cumque haec agerent, libor inimici, quae semper est aemula sanctitate, conmovetur in femina; quam in concupiscentiam viri succendens, novam Evam effecit. Nam succensa mulier a libidine, operta peccati tenebris, pergit ad domum ecclesiae per tenebras noctis. Cumque obserata omnia repperisset, pulsare fores ecclesiasticae domus coepit hac voce huiusmodi dare: 'Quousque sacerdos dormis ? Quousque hostia clausa non reseras? Cur satellitem spernes? Cur obduratis auribus Pauli praecepta non audis? Scripsit enim: Revertimini ad alterutrum, ne temptet vos Satanas.1 Ecce! ego ad te revertor, nec ad extraneum, sed ad proprium vas recurro'. Haec et his similia diu declamanti, tandem sacerdotis tepescit religio. Iubet eam cubiculo intromitti, ususque concubitum eius, discedere iubet. Dehinc tardius ad se reversus et de perpetrato scelere condolens, acturus paenitentiam, diocesis suae monasterium appetit, ibique cum gemitu ac lacrimis quae commiserat diluens, ad urbem propriam est reversus. Qui, impleto vitae cursu, migravit a saeculo. Nata est enim filia ab hoc conceptu, quae in religione permansit. Ipse quoque sacerdos cum coniuge et filia in cripta Cantabennensi iuxta aggerem publicum est sepultus. In cuius loco Legonus episcopus subrogatur.

1. I Corinthians 7:5.

Notes:

- Pattern of Joseph and Potiphar's wife or just an allusion? It ends differently, and it ends with a negative consequence whereas Joseph stuck to his no and here the bishop does not.

- But Gregory calls her a second Eve.

• rewriting the narrative but not in josephs favour. consequences emphasis.