day of Saint Stephen the Protomartyr, when the heart of Leopold, duke of Austria, was hardened, nor could be softened by means of the plagues previously mentioned which the Lord inflicted on his territories, the Lord scourged his body in the following manner. Having convened the elders of his territory to celebrate the festival of the Nativity of our Lord, while the said duke was on his road, on Saint Stephen's day, to take recreation with his knights, his horse fell upon him and crushed his foot, in such a manner that the bones, being broken on both sides, projected through the middle of the skin, and were exposed to the extent of the palm of one's hand : the surgeons, however, when they came, applied to the foot what they thought best for it. On the following day the foot was found to have turned black, and to be in such a state that it ought, in the opinion of the surgeons, to be taken off; but, upon his ordering this to be done, there was not a person found to acquiesce in his wishes: for no one dared, or could for sorrow, lay a hand on his master. At length, he sent for his son and heir, and begged and commanded him to cut off his foot, and put an end to his pain ; and, on his refusal as well, he sent for his chamberlain, who being compelled so to do, the duke himself, with his own hand, held an axe close to the bone of the leg, while the chamberlain, wielding a mallet, after three blows, with great dimculty, cut off the foot; the surgeons, however, after applying remedies, on visiting him the next day, found in him no hopes of life. The duke, being consequently reduced to despair, caused the archbishops, bishops, and great men of his dominions, who had come to be present at the festival, to be assembled together; and, on asking to be absolved from the sentence which our lord the pope had pronounced against him, for the injuries which he had done to the king of England, was answered by the whole of the clergy that he could, under no circumstances, procure absolution, unless, by making oath, he should give security that, as to the said injuries, he would abide by the judgment of the Church ; and, unless others of the chief men of his dukedom should join him in the said oath : and if he should be overtaken by the common destiny of man, they would use their exertions in every way that satisfaction might be made to the Holy Church, in order that the judgment of the Church might not be carried out with respect to him. Accordingly, being absolved through means of the judgment of the Church, he ordered