Blanquerna: A Thirteenth Century Romance

OF THE MATRIMONY OF EVAST AND ALOMA

In a certain city it came to pass that a goodly youth, of right noble lineage, the son of a gentle burgess, became, through the death of his father, very wealthy in temporal riches. This youth, Evast by name, had been brought up and instructed by his father in right good manners: he was well-favoured in person, noble of heart, well equipped in all things, and knowing so much of letters and sciences that he had a passing great knowledge of Holy Scripture. Greatly was this Evast sought by men of religion in the city that he might become one of themselves, and by certain worldly men also who desired to be allied with him through matrimony. Now while he was thus importuned by religious men and by men esteemed in the world, he gave thought one night to the order of religion and the order of matrimony, and it came to his will that he should embrace the religious life in order to flee the vain delights of this world. But he remembered the abundance of temporal riches which his father had bequeathed to him and how it was laid upon him to maintain the great house and to continue the almsdeeds which his father had made while he lived this present life. For all the which reasons, and because, moreover, he was the head of his line, he inclined to the order of matrimony, determining, for so long as he was in that estate, to give good doétrine and example to all that were likewise therein. He desired also to have sons who should be servants of God, to whom he might leave the temporal goods that he possessed, that before his death he might serve God in some religious order.