Marco Polo : vol.1 / Page 119 (Color Image)

0119	Marco Polo : vol.1

THE DESCRIPTION OF THE WORLD, THE MOUNTAIN IS MOVED 3 0.

above all others. And when the bishop and all the Christians small and great heard the VB

commandment of the calif they knelt down with the head on earth and had great fear and

great dread, but yet they had good hope in their Creator Jesus Christ,•and with FB v

great weeping made prayer to God. And when all these people, Christians and Saracens,

were in that plain, then the shoemaker exhorted them to stand most firm in the Christian vB

faith, because if they all died by the hand of the calif with the greatest and undoubted faith

they must be sure as martyrs from the campi to go to the holy Paradise; to whom all with the

greatest constancy of mind promised that if our Lord God were pleased with their death they

were all ready to receive it for his love. The shoemaker•received the bishop's blessing and kneels FB

bare-kneed • on the ground •with great devoutness before the true Cross & holds his hands vL FB V FB

towards the sky and prays his Creator Saviour Master Jesus Christ, who was lord of heaven z VA

and earth, much with most humble prayer • to look upon the earth to the praise and excellence of z R

his name and for strengthening and confirming of the Christian faith, that he would give help

to his people about the commandment laid upon them, and would show his strength and power

to the detractors of his faith, and that that mountain may be obliged to move and that

so many Christians as are there should not die an evil death ; and made this prayer, FB

Fair Lord God almighty, •Creator of all things visible and invisible, •who hast made man in VB V Ì~

thy image and likeness, •who hast thought fit to send thy •only • Son to receive human flesh and VB V VB

death • on the tree of the Cross for the redemption of us miserable sinners •who were punished v VB V

for the sin of our first parent ;.whose naine we have always confessed and do confess, and if VB

it please thee we are ready not denying thy name to receive whatever torment thou, Lord God,

shalt please; but • I pray thee, • O my Lord, •that by thy holy kindness thou wilt do this FB V FB

favour to this thy people so that they may not die and that thy faith be not cast down nor

despised, • but that thy supreme power by us thy Christians confessed may be known by all those VB

most unbelieving men ; • not at all that I am worthy to pray or request of thee, but thy power FB

is so great and thy • immense kindness and •mercy that thou wilt hear this my prayer from me VB FB

who am thy servant full of sin, . asking thee, eternal Father, special grace that by the power VB

of thy name this mountain may be forced to move • and go to the other side, so that this unjust v

people may not destroy thy faith. And when he had made his prayer with great devotion VA

and faith, • he said •with a loud voice, • In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the z R Z

holy Ghost I command thee the mountain to depart thence to that place there by the strength

of the holy Ghost ; and it delays not a moment before the mountain begins by virtue VA

of Jesus Christ •visibly to crumble from above and to move one mile toward the plain • v z z

where the calif had ordered it,.with wonderful and terrible trembling of the earth, which FB VB

' de Castro This presumably has some technical meaning which I have not been able to discover.

III

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