Here followeth yet of the Assumption of our Blessed Lady.

The manner of the assumption of the right holy Virgin Mary, is showed in a sermon made and ordained of divers sayings of saints, the which is read solemnly in many churches, and therein is contained all that I can find in the world, in narrations of holy fathers, of the departing out of this life of the glorious virgin Mary, mother of God, that I have set here to the louing and praising of her. S. Cosmo, which had to surname Vestitor, saith he hath learned of his foregoers which did that ought not to be forgotten, and saith that Jesu Christ ordained and disposed the life of his mother to be finished. He sent an angel accustomed, which showed to her tofore the demonstrance of her departing, that the death should not come suddenly and give to her tribulation. And she had prayed him, her son, face to face, when he was here in earth, that she should not see any wicked spirit. He sent then to her the angel tofore with these words: It is time to take my mother with me, and thus as thou hast replenished the earth with joy, so make heaven to enjoy. Thou shalt render the mansions of my father joyous. And thou shalt comfort the spirits of my saints. Be not thou wroth to leave the world corruptible with his covetises, but take the celestial palace. Mother, be not afeard to be taken from thy flesh, thou that art called to the life perdurable, to joy without failing, to the rest of peace, to sure conversation, to refection not recordable, to light not quenchable, to day not evening, to glory not recountable, to myself, thy son, maker of all things, for I am life perdurable, love not corruptible, habitation not recordable, light without darkness, bounty not estimable. Give to the earth without trembling that which is his. None shall ravish thee out of mine hands, for in my hands be all the ends of the world; deliver to me thy body, for I have put in thee my deity or godhead. The death shall never have joy on thee, for thou hast borne the very light; breaking ne destruction shall not environ thee, for thou hast deserved to be my vessel. Come thou anon to him which is born of thee for to receive the guerdons of the womb of the mother, and the reward of thy milk for my meat. Come now fast, and haste thee to join thee to me, thine only son. I know well thou shalt not be constrained for the love of another son rather than of me that showeth thee virgin and mother. I show thee a wall of steadfast faith, thou art an arch of salvation, a bridge to them that fleet, a staff to the feeble, a ladder to them that go up and mount to heaven, the most debonair advocate for sinners. I shall bring the apostles to thee, of whom thou shalt be buried right of their hands, for it appertaineth to my spiritual children of light, to whom I have given the Holy Ghost to bury thy body, and that they accomplish in thy person the service of thy marvellous departing out of the earth. And after that the angel had recounted these things, he gave to our Lady a bough of palm, sent from the plant of paradise, in token of the victory against the corruption of death and clothes of immortality, and when he had said, he styed up into heaven from whence he came from. Then the Blessed Virgin Mary assembled her neighbours and said to them: I let you wit certainly that I am at the end of my temporal life, and shall hastily depart; wherefore it behoveth that ye wake, for to every each that shall pass out of this world, come gladly good angels and wicked spirits. And when they heard this they began to weep and say: Thou doubtest the sight of the spirits, which hast deserved to be mother of the maker of all things, and barest him that robbed hell, which hast deserved to have the seat above Cherubin and Seraphin, how shall we do then? And whither shall we flee? And there were a great multitude of women weeping, and said that she should not leave them orphans. And the Blessed Virgin, our Lady, said in comforting them: Ye that be mothers of sons corruptible, may not well suffer to be a little while thence from your children, how then ought not I to desire to go to my son, which am mother and virgin, and he is only son of God the Father. And if ye or any of ye had but one son, ye would desire to see him and be comforted in the lineage of him, and I then, that am not corrupt, wherefore should not I be desirous to see him which is life of all creatures? And whilst they spake these things, the blessed S. John, the Evangelist, came and inquired how the matter went, and then when our Lady had told to him of her hasty departing, he fell down stretched to the earth, and said, with weeping tears: O Lord, what be we? Wherefore sendest thou to us so many tribulations? Why hast thou not erst taken away the soul from my body, and that I had been better visited of thy blessed mother, than I should come to her departing? And then the Blessed Virgin led him weeping into her chamber, and showed to him the palm and the vestments which the angel had brought, and after, laid her down in her bed for to be there till her passing. And anon after came a great noise of thunder, and a whirlwind brought a cloud whiter than snow, in which the apostles were brought tofore the gate of our Blessed Lady, like as it had rained, so fell they down one after another. And as they marvelled of this thing, John came to them and told to them what the angel had showed to our Lady. And then they all wept and S. John comforted them, and then they dried their eyes and entered in to the Blessed Virgin, and saluted her honourably and adored, and she said to them: My dear children, God, my son, keep you all. And when they had told to her of their coming, she said to them all their estate, and the apostles said: Right honourable Lady and Virgin, we, in beholding thee, be greatly comforted, like as we should be in our Lord and master, and we have only comfort in ourselves because we hope that thou shalt be mediatrix for us unto God. And then she saluted Paul by name: God save thee, expositor of my comfort, howbeit that thou hast not seen Jesu Christ in his flesh. Nevertheless I am comforted, said S. Paul, that I may see thee in the flesh. And unto this day I have preached to the people that thou hast borne Jesu Christ. And now I shall preach that thou art borne up to heaven to him. And after, the Virgin showed to him that which the angel had brought, and warned them that the lights should not be put out till that she were departed, and there were two hundred and twenty tapers.

And then she clad her with the cloth of mortality and saluted them all, and ordained her body to abide in her bed unto her issue and departing. And Peter stood at the head, and John at the feet, and the other apostles were about the bed, and gave laud to the virgin mother of God. And then Peter began the song and said: Enjoy thou spouse of God in the chambers celestial, thou candlestick of light without darkness, by thee is showed the everlasting light and clearness. The blessed archbishop of Constantinople witnesseth that all the apostles were assembled at the passing of the blessed Virgin Mary, the right sweet mother of God, saying thus: Blessed Lady, mother of God, thou that hast received of the nature human the death which may not be eschewed, yet shalt thou not sleep, ne the eye shall not slumber that keepeth thee. Thy departing hence ne thy dormition shall not be without witness. The heavens recount the glory of them that sang over thee in earth, and of them shall the truth be showed. The clouds cry to thee honour, and to him that ministereth to thee. The angels shall preach the service of life done in thee by the apostles which were assembled with thee in Jerusalem. And S. Denis, Areopagite, witnesseth the same, saying: We, as I know well, and they and many of our brethren, were assembled for to see the body of her that bare God. And James, the brother of God, and Peter, the right noble and sovereign of theologians, were present. And after, it pleased them that, after this vision, all the sovereign priests sang louings after that each of them had conceived in his thought of the bounty of her. And S. Cosmo, in following the narration, saith: And after this a great thunder knocked at the house with so great an odour of sweetness, that with the sweet spirit the house was replenished, in such wise that all they that were there save the apostles, and three virgins which held the lights, slept. Then our Lord came with a great multitude of angels and took the soul of his mother, and the soul of her shone by so great light that none of the apostles might behold it. And our Lord said to S. Peter: Bury the corpse of my mother with great reverence, and keep it there three days diligently, and I shall then come again, and transport her unto heaven without corruption, and shall clothe her of the semblable clearness of myself; that which I have taken of her, and that which she hath taken of me, shall be assembled together and accord. That same S. Cosmo rehearseth a dreadful and marvellous mystery of dissension natural and of curious inquisition. For all things that be said of the glorious virgin, mother of God, be marvellous above nature and be more to doubt than to enquire. For when the soul was issued out of the body, the body said these words: Sire, I thank thee that I am worthy of thy grace; remember thee of me, for I ne am but a thing faint, and have kept that which thou deliveredst me. And then the other awoke and saw the body of the virgin without soul, and then began strongly to weep and were heavy and sorrowful. And then the apostles took up the body of the Blessed Virgin and bare it to the monument, and .S. Peter began the psalm: In exitu Israel de Egypto, and then the companies of angels gave louings and praisings to the virgin in such wise that all Jerusalem was moved for that great joy, so that the sovereign priests sent great multitude of people with glaives and staves, and one of them, in a great fury, came to the bier and would have thrown it down with the body of the blessed mother of God. And because that he enforced him so maliciously to touch and draw down the corpse, he lost his hands by his deserving, for both his hands were cut off by the wrists and hung on the bier, and he was tormented by horrible sorrow, and he required pardon and promised amends. And S. Peter said to him: Thou mayst in no wise have pardon if thou kiss not the bier of the Blessed Virgin, and that thou confess also Jesu Christ the Son of God to be formed in her. And then, when he had so done his hands were joined again to his wrists, and was all whole. Then S. Peter took a leaf of the palm and gave it to him and said: Go in to the city and lay it on them that be sick, and they that will believe shall receive health. And then when the apostles came to the Vale of Jehosaphat, they found a sepulchre like unto the sepulchre of our Lord, and laid therein the body with great reverence, but they durst not touch it, which was the right holy vessel of God, but the sudary in which she was wrapped, and laid it in the sepulchre. And as the apostles were about the sepulchre after the commandment of our Lord, at the third day, a cloud much bright environed the sepulchre, and the voice of angels was heard sound sweetly and a marvellous odour was felt sweet smelling. And when our Lord was come and seen descended there. all were marvellously abashed, and he bare the body with him of the Blessed Virgin with much great glory. And then the apostles kissed the sepulchre and returned into the house of S. John Evangelist in praising him as keeper and guard of so noble a virgin. And notwithstanding, one of the apostles failed at this great solemnity, and when he heard so great miracles, he marvelled and required with great desire that her sepulchre might be opened for to know the truth of all these things. And the apostles denied it to him. All said that it ought enough to suffice the witness of so great persons, to the end that lest peradventure the misbelieved men should say that the body were stolen away or drawn by theft. And he then, which was angry, said: Why defend ye to me that which am semblable to you in your common treasures? And at the last they opened the sepulchre and found not the body, but they found only but the vestments, and the sudary. S. Germain, Archbishop of Constantinople, saith that he found written in the History Euthimiata in the third book of the fortieth chapter, and the same witnesseth the great Damascene, that as the noble empress Helen in mind of holy church had made many churches in Constantinople, among all other she edified in the time of Marcian the emperor at Balthernas a marvellous church in the honour of the Virgin Mary, and called Juvenal archbishop of Jerusalem and all the other bishops of Palestine which dwelled then in the city royal for the cene which had been holden in Chalcedon, and she said to them: We have heard say that the body of the right holy virgin our Lady is in such a place, in such a tomb in the Vale of Jehosaphat; we will then that for the guard of this city, that the body of that Blessed Virgin be transported hither with due honour and reverence. And Juvenal answered to her, like as he had found in ancient histories, that the body was borne into glory, and was not in the monument, for there was nothing left but the vestments and the sudary only. And those vestments Juvenal sent then into Constantinople, and were there laid honourably. And let no man ween that I have made this of my proper head and engine, but I have set it here which I have by doctrine and study learned of the lesson of them, which by tradition and learning of their foregoers have received it. And hitherto endure the words of the said sermon.