The former is couched in these words:  “O God, who hast not without reason mingled the birthday of the glorious high-priest, Thomas, with the joys of thy nativity, by the intervention of his merits” (ipsius mentis intervenientibus), “make these thy servants venerate thy majesty with the reverence of due honour.  Amen.  And as he, according to the rule of a good shepherd, gave his life for his sheep, so grant thou to thy faithful ones, to fear no tyrannical madness to the prejudice of Catholic truth.  Amen.  We ask that they, by his example, for obedience to the holy laws, may learn to despise persons, and by suffering manfully to triumph over tyrannical madness.  Amen.”  The latter runs thus:  “May God, by whose pity the bodies of saints rest in the sabbath of peace, turn your hearts to the desire of the resurrection to come.  Amen.  And may he who orders us to bury with honour due the members of the saints whose death is precious, by the merits of the glorious martyr, Thomas, vouchsafe to raise you from the dust of vanity.  Amen.  Where at length by the power of his benediction ye may be clothed with doubled festive robes of body and soul.  Amen.”]

  The shepherd slain in the midst of the flock,
  Purchased peace at the price of his blood. 
  O joyous grief, in mournful gladness! 
  The flock breathes when the shepherd is dead;
  The mother wailing, sings for joy in her son,
  Because he lives under the sword a conqueror. 
  The solemnities of Thomas the Martyr are come. 
  Let the Virgin Mother, the Church, rejoice;
  Thomas being raised to the highest priesthood,
  Is suddenly changed into another man. 
  A monk, under [the garb of?] a clerk, secretly clothed with haircloth,
  More strong than the flesh subdues the attempts of the flesh;
  Whilst the tiller of the Lord’s field pulls up the thistles,
  And drives away and banishes the foxes from the vineyard.

The First Lesson.

Dearest Brethren, celebrating now the birth-day of the martyr Thomas, because we have not power to recount his whole life and conversation, let our brief discourse run through the manner and cause of his passion.  The blessed Thomas, therefore, as in the office of Chancellor, or Archdeacon, he proved incomparably strenuous {204} in the conduct of affairs, so after he had undertaken the office of pastor, he became devoted to God beyond man’s estimation.  For, when consecrated, he suddenly is changed into another man:  he secretly put on the hair shirt, and wore also hair drawers down to the knee.  And under the respectable appearance of the clerical garb, concealing the monk’s dress, he entirely compelled the flesh to obey the spirit; studying by the exercise of every virtue without intermission to please God.  Knowing, therefore, that he was placed a husbandman in the field of the Lord, a shepherd in the fold, he carefully discharged the ministry entrusted to him.  The rights and dignities of the Church, which