Here followeth of S. Symphorien.
Timothy is as much to say as holding dread. Or of timor, that is dread, and theos, a word of Greek, which is deus in Latin and God in English, as the dread of God.
Of S. Timothy.
S. Timothy was taken under Nero of the provost of Rome, and was grievously beaten, and had quicklime put in his throat and upon his wounds. And he rendered thankings to God with all his heart. And then two angels came to him, saying: Lift up thine head to heaven. And then he beheld and saw the heaven open, and Jesu Christ, which held a double crown, and said to him: Thou shalt receive this of my hand. And a man named Apollinarius saw this thing and did him to be baptized. And therefore the provost commanded that they twain together, persevering in the confession of our Lord, should be beheaded about the year of our Lord fifty-six.
Symphorien was born in the city of Augustidinense. And he being a young child shone in so great abundance of virtues, that he surmounted the life of the ancients. And as the paynims hallowed the feast of Venus, Symphorien was there and would not worship the image tofore Heraclius the provost. And then he was long beaten, and after set in prison. And they would have constrained him to do sacrifice, and promised to him many gifts. He answered and said: Our Lord can well reward the merits, and also he can well punish the sins. Then the life that we owe to God of debt, let us pay with goodwill. Slow penance is to understand, sinners enhardened be anointed with the sweetness of honey which engendereth venom and thoughts evil believing. Your covetise tofore all things possesseth nothing, for it is bounden to the arts of the devil, and shall be withholden in the bounds of the cursed and evil winning. And your joys, when they begin to shine, shall be broken like glass. And then the judge, fulfilled with wrath, gave sentence, and commanded that Symphorien should be slain. And as he was led to the place of his martyrdom, his mother cried from the wall of her house, and said: Son! son! remember thee of the life perdurable, look upward and behold him that reigneth in heaven. The life shall not be taken away from thee, but it shall be changed into a better. And then he was anon beheaded, and his body taken of christian men and was honourably buried. And so many miracles were showed at his tomb that it was held in great honour of the paynims. Gregory of Tours rehearseth of the place where his blood was shed: A christian man bare away three stones which were besprent with his blood, and put them in a case of silver, and tables of tree enclosed about it, and bare them into a castle, which castle was all burnt with fire. And that case was found whole and safe in the middle of the fire. And he suffered death about the year of our Lord two hundred and seventy.