The bloodthirsty Jews, because of
the feast days, would not allow that they should hang alive on the crosses, but
wanted to kill them, and asked Pilate that someone might break their legs
before Easter time and take them down from their crosses. The soldiers then
came with the deadly tools, and at once broke the legs of the thieves who hung
there in torment still alive. They found Christ dead to the world, and dared
not break his holy legs; but one of the soldiers opened his side with a deadly
spear, and from it flowed out blood and water together, with a true mystery. The
blood flowing out was our redemption in forgiveness of sins, with true faith;
the water indeed was our baptism, in which the multitude of the nations are
washed from the original sin of the first-created people. (Aelfric, “Palm
Sunday,” The Old English Catholic Homilies: The Second Series [trans. Roy
M. Liuzza; Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library 93; Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard
University Press, 2026], 329)
