A shower dispersed the infidels, and the martyr was lead into ahouse where he had an opportunity of taking his last leave of thefaithful without one profane person being present. His festival is marked on the 17th ofMarch, in the Martyrology of Bede, &c. _Full of grace_. 16, that to beanimated with a spirit of charity and compassion is something greaterthan to raise the dead to life: our alms must be liberal, plentiful,voluntary, and given with joy.
But such was his reluctance to thedignity, that nothing less than the pope's {450} threatening him withexcommunication, and his commands, in virtue of obedience, could inducePeter to submit. The courageand cheerfulness which he maintained to his last moment, filled hisexecutioners with surprise and confusion. Oswald had professed the order of Saint Benedictin France, in the monastery of Fleury; and, together with the aforesaidtwo bishops, he established the same in a great measure in England. Footnotes:1.
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