Chapter 9

What three men of Greece foretold of this place.

IT was said also that three men from Greece, sprung of noble lineage, having gone forth from their country and kindred and having entered for the Lord's sake upon the labour of a holy pilgrimage, when with devout souls they had oft besought the protection of saints in many places in the world as they travelled round, having passed over the sea entered England, desiring to visit the bodies of saints resting there, and by their merits and prayers to preserve themselves in the last account, and coming to London they approached this place, and there, prostrate on the ground, worshipped God, and in the face of those who were there present at the same time and who were regarding them as simple and ignorant folk, began to prophesy wonderful things of this place, saying --

'Wonder not ye, that we here worship God, where the Supreme Creator of all things will build a temple most pleasing to Himself, and its fame shall reach from the rising of the sun to the going down thereof.'

 

The Book of the Foundation of St. Bartholomew's, Smithfield Rendered into Modern English from the original Latin version preserved in the British Museum, numbered Vespasian B. IX, by Mr. Humphrey H. King and Mr. William Barnard for use in the Records of St. Bartholomew's Priory by E.A. Webb.

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