ABSTRACT
ALTHOUGH on the one hand the King seemed to entertain a high opinion of the Christian religion, as is plain from what has already been said, and that in many ways he gave it preference above all others, arousing thereby great hopes of his embracing it, yet, on the other hand, so strongly was he attached to his mad ambition to be esteemed as some great Prophet, or demi-god on earth, that there was no means of winning him to submission to the law of Christ. It is quite true that he held the law of Mahomet of no account; but he was much addicted to the worship of the sun, to which he made prayer four times a day, namely, in the morning when he arose, at noon, on retiring to bed, and again at midnight. On each occasion he repeated as many as a thousand and fifty names of the luminary, which he counted by means of small balls threaded like our paternosters, but consisting of beautiful precious-stones. 2 One often saw him doing reverence to the pictures of our Saviour and our Lady, and even wearing suspended from his neck by a gold chain, a reliquary, which had on one side of it an Agnus Dei, and on the other an image of our Lady. But one saw him also place himself daily at a window of his palace where he could be seen by large numbers of people, who, as soon as he appeared, prostrated themselves, and worshipped him with a certain ceremonial that the Gentiles use when praying to their false gods. 3 We have already spoken of his willing acceptance of the vows paid to him.
