The Conversion of St. Paul
Strange medieval customs and prognosticatory poems from Geo. Soane
From George Soane’s New Curiosities of Literature:
The conversion of St. Paul, from which this day has its name, is by some writers supposed to have occurred two years after Christ's Ascension, by others not till seven, and by others again it is placed in the same year with the crucifixion.
It was on this day that the husbandmen of old used to make prognostics of the weather, and of other matters for the whole year, a custom, which Bourne has labored to unravel with much laudable gravity. That he failed to do so will surprise no one; and perhaps it was hardly worthwhile to inflict some eight or ten pages upon his readers to convince them of the fact.
Mayster Erra Pater sets to work much more scholarly and wisely, by laying down the infallible rules by which such prognostics may be made.
“A lytell rule of S. Paules Daye, otherwyse called the Conversation of S. Paule. The sayenge of Erra Pater to the Husbande man.”
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