You can download this volume here - Electric Scotland

Chronicle of Lanercost 33
the things necessary for the saint's festival ; which thing he had
no sooner undertaken than he was struck with a grievous malady
to be
affecting his whole body, pronounced by all the physicians
incurable. Then the friars having persuaded him to put his trust
in the saint and to hope for recovery, he directed that he should
immediately have all the limbs of his body measured in honour
of the saint, and in less time than it takes to tell he sat it, up
healed, complaining of nothing except a headache. 'And no
'
wonder ! exclaimed his wife, smiling, '
for his head is the only
part of him we left unmeasured.' The line having been
applied again, immediately he was freed from all pain. The
same individual, being delivered a second time, is in good
health at the present time, while his fellow-citizens were cut
in pieces by the sword ; and all this through the merits of
S. Francis. 1
On the morrow of the Epiphany 2 the clergy assembled in
London to hold council upon the answer to be returned to my
lord the king, who had imposed a tax of seven pence upon the
personality of laymen, while from the clergy
he demanded twelve
pence in the form of a subsidy ; which was agreed to reluctantly,
the clergy declaring that, while they would freely submit to the
royal will, they dared not transgress the papal instruction. 3 And
thus all the private property and granaries of the Archbishop of
Canterbury were confiscated by the king's authority,
palfreys reserved for the primate's riding
virtuous man patiently submitted. Also,
even to the
; to all of which this
all ecclesiastics were
deprived of the king's protection, and all their movables given
over to the hands of laymen. Yet was this inconsiderate action
for there occurred two
speedily checked by the hand of God ;
calamities on the
vigil of the Purification,* [namely] a defeat of
6 our people in Gascony, where Sir John de Saint-John and very
many others of our countrymen were captured ; also stores provided
for them, and shipped, were sunk in mid-ocean. When
1 See under the year 1285 for another instance of the cure by measuring for
S. Francis.
2 yth January.
*i.e. the Bull of zgth Feb., 1295-6 Clericoi la'tcos. The papal sanction was
required for any tax upon the clergy.
4 1st February.
5 The King's Lieutenant of Aquitaine. The actual date of his capture was 28th
January. He was released after the treaty of 1'Aumone in 1 299.
c