Series 1 > History of Greater Britain, as well England as Scotland

CHAP. XV.]
OF GREATER BRITAIN
151
who delivered me to thee hath the greater sin’1. Where
is law? where justice? where the Christian religion? where
the laws of God ?—to murder a holy bishop of God in God’s
holy temple! But it was after a splendid feast, and when he
was inflamed with wine, that the king conceived this grievous
thing, and brought forth iniquity following upon the injustice
with which his soul had been in travail. For, grant one un¬
toward accident, and many evils follow; this you shall find in
the first book of the Physics.
And thanks to this it is that something may be said British customs
here by the way about those British customs that up to of the blrtlTof
this present are observed—all unworthy of observance asChnst-
they are—at the feast of the Nativity. On these holy days
it is the wont of the Britons to indulge in much super¬
fluous revelling, in banquets rich with every dainty, and all
sorts of drink. They begin their Christmas banquet on the
festival of the birth of Christ, and bring the same to an end
after mid-day on the festival of John; the days that follow
this sumptuous banqueting they spend in devilish dances and
lewd songs;—so far do they carry it, that the kings send for the
the nobles of the kingdom and their wives. These men show
themselves most unwise in thus taking their wives with them
to these orgies of the court, for it would better become the
chaste matron to stay at home. And if some among the chief
men or the barons do not attend the king, they provide like
feasting in their measure for their own people. With these
the festival is kept in a tavern, not in a church, in such intem¬
perance of eating and drinking as is the enemy of chastity, in
dances and lewd songs that are equally her foe. Outside
Britain, in France for instance, in Flanders, and other parts
beyond the sea, these festivals are more fitly celebrated; for
there a moderate meal is taken at mid-day, soon thereafter the
people go to church to hear the gospel of God 2 ; and such like¬
wise is the custom observed at Easter, at Pentecost, and the
rest of the solemn festivals. If this Henry, of whom we are
now speaking, had eaten in moderation, and thereafter had
1 St. John xix. n.
2 ut verbum Dei evangelizans audiatur.