William Caxton

“ Merciful and benign God, That for the mickelness of Thy mercy doest away the sins of them that be verily repentant, and voidest the blames of sins that be passed and done before through grace of Thy forgiveness, we beseech that Thou look mercifully upon our brother, Thy servant, and graciously hear him asking, with all confession of his heart, remission of all his sins. Renew in him, most merciful Father, all thing that is corrupt in him by bodily frailty, or defouled with the fraud of the devil, and gather him to the unity of the body of Holy Church, and make him a member of Holy Redemption. ”

“ The Peace of our Lord Jesu Christ; the virtue of His holy passion; the sign of the holy cross; the entireness of the humility of the Virgin Mary; the blessing of all the saints; the keeping of the angels; and the suffrages of all the chosen of God; be between me and all mine enemies, visible and invisible, in the hour of my death. Amen.
And if the sick man or woman may, nor can not, say the orisons and prayers beforesaid, some of the assistants [32] ought to say them before him with a loud voice, in changing the words there as they ought to be changed. ”

“ Desire, with Saint Austin, of our Lord here to be cut with tribulation and to be burned with sickness and sorrow, so that ye may be saved hereafter for ever.
Now meek yourself and be sorry that ye have been so unkind to please and to keep His commandments, and presume not as of yourself any goodness, and say with all meekness thus: Good Lord, Jesu Christ, I knowledge that I have sinned grievously and by Thy grace I will gladly amend me if I should live. Have mercy now of me for Thy bitter passion. ”

“ In hell thou shalt see more sorrow than man may devise. In purgatory more torment than man may endure. In paradise more joy than man may desire. Hell will teach thee how God shall venge deadly sin. Purgatory will show thee how God shall venge venial sin. ”

“ Twain, for they be dead unto sin, and dead unto the world; and they abiden the third death, that is departing of the body and the soul. Betwix them and paradise is not but a little wall, which they pass through thought and desiring. ”

“ So should every man in his death; that is to say, he should die wilfully, conforming fully therein his own will to God's will, as he is bound.
Therefore as long as he that is in point of death may speak, and have the use of reason with him, let him say these prayers following:
ORATIO
O Thou High Godhead, and endless Goodness, most merciful and glorious Trinity, that art highest Love and Charity; have mercy on me, wretched and sinful man, for to Thee I commend fully my soul. ”

“ By my self will not the death neither the damnation of no sinful man, but that he convert himself to Me and be saved. [Ezech. 33:11] Every man should follow Saint Antony to whom the devil said: Antony, thou hast overcome me; for when I would have thee up by pride, thou keptest thyself a-down by meekness; and when I would draw thee down by desperation, thou keptest thyself up by hope. Thus should every man do, sick and whole, and then is the devil overcome. ”

“ Art thou sorry in heart of all manner of sins that thou hast done against the high Majesty, and the Love of God, and the Goodness of God; and of all the goodness that thou hast not done, and mightest have done; and of all graces that thou hast slothed [43] — not only for dread of death, or any other pain, but rather [44] more for love of God and His righteousness — and for thou hast displeased His great goodness and kindness; and for the due order of charity, by the which we be bound to love God above all things; and of all these things thou askest the forgiveness of God? ”

“ Whosoever is not asked of another of these seven interrogations when he is in such peril of death — for there be right few that have the cunning of this craft of dying — he must remember himself in his soul, and ask himself, and subtly feel and consider, whether he be so disposed as it is above said, or no. For without that a man be disposed in such wise finally, he may not doubtless [46] be saved everlastingly. And what man that is disposed as is abovesaid, let him commend and commit himself, all in fear, fully to the passion of Christ ”

“ God, he saith, is true, and will not suffer you to be tempted more than ye may bear; but He will give you such support in your temptations that ye may bear them.
Whereupon saith the gloss: God is true in His promises, and giveth us grace to withstand mightily, manly, and perseverantly; giving us might that we be not overcome, grace to get us merit, steadfastness to overcome with. He giveth such increase of virtue that we may suffer and not fail nor fall; and that is by meekness. For as Saint Austin saith: They break not in the furnace that have not the wind of pride. ”

“ Therefore to every such man that is in such case and is come to his last end, is to be counselled busily that he labour, with reason of his mind after his power, to have ordinate and very repentance; that is to mean — notwithstanding the sorrow and grievance of sickness, and dread that he hath of hasty death — that he use reason as much as he may, and enforce himself to have, wilfully, full displeasing of all sin, for the due end and perfect intent that is for God; and withstand his evil natural inclining to sin, though he might live longer, and also the delectations of his sins before ”

“ Brother, or sister, remember well that God saith by His prophet and evangelist: Blessed be those that die and depart in our Lord, that is to say from the world and his pleasures, and die in the true faith of the church, and repentance for their sins. ”

“ Thou shalt understand that this life is not else but death; for death is a passing as every man knoweth well. Wherefore men say of a man when he dieth that he passeth; and when he is dead he is passed. ”

“ A man nigh his death ought to be well advised when by such pride he feels himself tempted, that then he humble and meek himself so much the more; that he withdraw him in thinking [on] his wretchedness and his sins. For none is certain if he be digne or worthy to have deserved the love of God, or the hate of God. Natheless none ought to despair; but right always to address his heart to God by good hope, in thinking and considering the mercy of God to be above all his works. ”

“ Patriarchs and prophets, apostles and evangelists, martyrs, confessors, monks and hermits, maidens and widows, children and innocents, help thee. The prayers of all priests and deacons, and all the degrees of Holy Church, help thee; that in peace be thy place, and thy dwelling in heavenly Jerusalem everlastingly; by the mediation of Our Lord Jesu Christ, that is Mediator between God and man. ”

“ Notwithstanding that every secular man, both clerk and layman, whether he be disposed and ready to die or no, yet nevertheless he must needs die when God will. Therefore ought every man, not only religious, but also every good and devout Christian man that desireth for to die well and surely, live in such wise and so have himself alway, that he may safely die, every hour, when God will. And so he should have his life in patience, and his death in desire, as Saint Paul had when he said: Cupio dissolvi et esse cum christo. ”

“ Have in mind that thou hast one God that made thee of nought; which hath given thee thy right wits, thy right limbs, and other worldly ease, more than to another, as thou mayst see all day — which live in much disease and great bodily mischief. ”

“ And there ought not to be given to any sick person over much hope of recovering his bodily health. Howbeit oft times many do the contrary, in prejudice of their souls, yea, to them otherwhile [34] that draw to their death. And it happeth oft that they will not hear of death, and so by such false comfort, and by such faint trust of health, the sick person falleth into damnation. And therefore the sick person ought to be exhorted and desired that by very contrition and by very confession he procure the health of his soul. ”

“ And every man ought to know that the victory of temptations cometh alway by humility and meekness; for they that have not in them the wind of pride fall never into the furnace. And therefore every sinner ought wholly to meek himself under the mighty hand of God, to the end that by the help of our Lord he may obtain victory in all temptations, in all sicknesses, and in all tribulations of pain and of sorrow, unto the death inclusively. ”

“ I know well that there may no man be saved but if he know himself; of which knowing waxeth in a man humility, that is the mother of his health, and also the dread of God, the which dread, as it is the beginning of wisdom, so it is the beginning of health of man's soul. ”

“ If a very contrite man ofFereth himself gladly to all manner afflictions of sickness and punishing of his sins, that he may thereby satisfy God worthily for his offences, much more then every sick man should suffer patiently and gladly his own sickness alone, that is lighter without comparison than many sicknesses that other men suffer; namely [33] that sickness before a man's death is as a purgatory to him, when it is suffered as it ought; that is to understand, if it be suffered patiently, gladly, and with a free and a kind will of heart. ”

“ That it is better to pray still in the heart, without any sound of voice outward, than to pray with word alone, without devotion of heart.
The second was He cried. So should every man in his dying cry strongly with the heart, not with the voice. For God taketh more heed of the desire of the heart than of the crying of the voice. The crying of the heart to God is nought else but the great desiring of man to have forgiveness of his sins, and to have everlasting life. ”

“ And because every good Christian person is bound to believe, not only in the articles of the faith Catholic, but all the holy scripture; and ought to be subjugate and submit himself to all the statutes of the church of Rome, and firmly to abide and die in the same creance and belief. ”

“ The day of a man's death is better than the day of man's birth. And this is understood only of good men and the chosen people of God. For of evil men and reprovable, neither the day of their birth, neither the day of their death, may be called good. And therefore every good perfect Christian man, and also every other man though he be imperfect and late converted from sin, so he be verily contrite and believe in God, should not be sorry nor troubled, neither dread death of his body, in what manner wise or for what manner cause that he be put thereto ”

“ Yet ought it to be known that every person having the love and dread of God in himself, and also the cure of souls, ought much busily and diligently induce and admonish the sick person constituted in peril of body or of soul, that first, hastily and principally, he purvey for him, without any delay, for remedy of medicine ghostly and spiritual. ”

“ The devil is a liar, and a father of all leasings. But manly, therefore, and stiffly and steadfastly abide and persevere; and die in the very faith and unity and obedience of our mother Holy Church.
And it is right profitable and good, as it is used in some religious, when a man is in agony of dying, with an high voice oft times to say the Creed before him, that he that is sick may be mortified in stableness of the faith ”

“ The pity and mercy of God is more than any wickedness. And Austin, upon John, saith: We should never despair of no man as long as he is in his bodily life, for there is no sin so great but it may be healed, outake [21] despair alone. And Saint Justin saith also: All sins that a man hath done afore may not noy nor damn a man, but if he be well payd [22] in his heart that he hath done them. Therefore no man should despair, though it were so that it were possible that he alone had done all manner of sins that might be done in the world. ”

“ A rightful man though he be hasted, or hastily or suddenly dead, he shall be had to a place of refreshing. And so shall every man that dieth, if it be so that he keep himself stably, and govern him wisely in the temptations that he shall have in [the] agony or strife of his death; as it shall be declared afterwards. And therefore of the commendation of death of good men only a wise man saith thus: Death is nothing else but a going [out] of prison, and an ending of exile; a discharging of an heavy burden, that is the body ”

“ So grant, God, that his enemies be dissipated, and they that hate him flee before his face. Defail they like as smoke faileth, and as the sinners perish before the face of God; and the just persons come and enjoy them in the sight of God, and delight them in gladness. ”

“ Like as the health of every man consisteth in the end, [let] every man then much busily take heed to purvey him for to come to a good end, whiles that he hath time and leisure. To this might much well serve a fellow and true friend, devout and comendable, which in his last end [may] assist him truly; and that he comfort and courage him in steadfastness of the faith, with good patience and devotion, with good confidence and perseverance. And that over him [they] say all these said orisons, well entently and devoutly, whiles that he is in travail of death. ”