THE SCENE: This medieval fable seems to suggest that – crazy as it sounds – you shouldn’t just automatically kill any stranger you find in your bed.
THE TEXT: A certain soldier, called Julian, unwittingly killed his parents. For being of noble birth, and addicted, as youth frequently is, to the sports of the field, a stag which he hotly pursued suddenly turned round and addressed him: “Thou who pursuest me so fiercely shalt be the destruction of thy parents.” These words greatly alarmed Julian, who feared their accomplishment even while he disavowed the probability. Leaving, therefore, his amusement, he went privately into a distant country, and enrolled himself in the bands of a certain chieftain. His conduct, as well in war as in peace, merited so highly from the prince he served, that he created him a knight, and gave him the widow of a castellan in marriage, with her castle as dowry.
All this time, the parents of Julian bewailed the departure of their son, and diligently sought for him in all places. At length they arrived at the castle, and in Julian’s absence were introduced to his wife, who asked them what they were. They communicated without reserve the occasion of their search, and their sorry for their child. Convinced by this explanation that they were her husband’s parents, she received them very kindly; and in consideration of the love she bore her husband, put them into her own bed, and commanded another to be prepared elsewhere for herself.
Now, early in the morning, the lady castellan went to her devotions. In the meantime Julian returned home, hasted, according to custom, to the chamber of his wife, imagining that she had not yet risen. Fearful of awakening her, he softly entered the apartment and – perceiving two persons in bed – instantly concluded that his wife was disloyal. Without a moment’s pause, he unsheathed his sabre, and slew both. Then he hurried from the chamber, and accidentally took the direction in which the church lay, and by which his wife had proceeded not long before. On the threshold of the sacred building he distinguished her, and struck with the utmost amazement, inquired who they were that had taken possession of his bed. She replied that they were his parents; who, after long and wearisome search in pursuit of him, arrived at his castle the last evening. The intelligence was as a thunderbolt to Julian; and unable to contain himself he burst into an agony of tears.
– Gesta Romanorum, 13th Century AD
