THE SCENE: What does God think about people committing atrocities? In the medieval mind, that question was wholly open for debate.
THE TEXT: One that same day the camp of the enemy was invaded, and many men were captured or slain, and the slaughter continued far into the night. On the following day the head of the chieftain was set up in the camp, and around it the decapitated bodies of seven hundred of the captives, and also his chief adviser, with his eyes gouged out and his tongue cut off, was left helpless in the midst of the corpses.
When the slaughter of the barbarians was completed, in the same year many portents were seen, namely, the symbol of the cross was seen on the garments of many men. When they perceived this, very many were struck with a wholesome fear and dreaded adverse events; and these same amended in large part their vices. There were some also who interpreted the change in the garments as meaning that a later leprosy would corrupt many mortals. But the wiser ones declared that the sign of the cross prefigured safety and victory, to which opinion we also offer our fervent assent.
– The Deeds of the Saxons, Widukind of Corvey, 10th Century AD
