Human Affairs

Ritual for Infanticide

“Using the light they had brought with them, they lit two candies, each an inch long, one on each side of the child’s head and fixed them in -the trunk above it. Then they withdrew until the candles had burnt out.” […]

Supernatural

A Blessed Massacre

“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.” […]

Medieval Mentality

The Mysterious Ways of the World

“When by night a great streak of fire is seen to shoot downward, these are not falling stars, although we do call them that, but only slaggy pieces from the stars. They are big things, to be sure, and, as is true of the stars themselves, some are much bigger than others. But it is my opinion that no star itself falleth except as a scourge of God.” […]

History

The Age of Eleanor

“When the king had returned home, together with his wife, branded with the ignominy of not having accomplished his design, their former affection began, by degrees, to grow cold; and causes of dissension arose between them. The queen was highly offended at the behavior of the king, and asserted that she had married a monk, and not a monarch.” […]

Supernatural

God Put to the Test

“The next morning he ordered a bar of iron of great weight to be heated with fire, and then bade the cleric, in defense of the Catholic faith, to carry the glowing iron.” […]