Page:Purgatory proved, illustrated, and set forth in a clear light (2).pdf/17

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.

17

by the bees, who ranged themselves into two choirs, and sang the praises of their Creator. The Bishop ordered a procession to carry back the holy host of the church; and in that place was erected a sumptuous chapel, which became a place of refuge for the sick and the afflicted. When no body knew from whence, and by whom, that host had been brought there, two thieves of their own accord discovered themselves, and confessed, that having stolen a box, they had thrown the host against the hives. By which miracle we see that the bees adore the holy host, and sing the divine praises, dividing themselves into two choirs."

A certain woman, having received the communion unworthily, carried the host to her hives, for to enrich the stock of bees; and afterwards coming again to see the success, she perceived that the bees, acknowledging their God in the sacrament, had, with admirable artifice, erected to him a chapel of wax, with its doors, windows, bells, and vestry; and within it a chalice where they laid the holy body of Jesus Christ. She could no longer conceal this wonder. The priest being advertised of it, came thither in procession, and he himself heard harmonious music, which the bees made, flying round about the sacrament; and having taking it out, he brought it back to the church full of comfort, certifying, that he had seen and heard our Lord acknowledged and praised by those little creatures.

An old and simple priest, of the parish of St. Colen, carrying the holy sacrament out of town to a sick person, and going up a very rough hill