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About a temptation to gluttony with which Lady Bridget was tempted.

Now at one time, Lady Bridget was so gravely tempted with gluttony that for hunger, she could scarcely think of anything else. Finally, in spirit, she saw an Ethiopian holding in his hand, as it were, a morsel of bread and a certain very handsome youth holding a gilded vessel. And the youth said: ”Why do you solicit that woman who has been given over into my custody?” The Ethiopian responded: ”Because she glories in an abstinence that she has not had; for she does not cease to fill her belly until it is full of delicate dung. I therefore hold forth my morsel that grosser things may, for her, become sweet.”

The youth responded: ”You know quite well that she does not have an immaterial nature as we do but, rather, a sack made of earth. Since earth is slippery and restless, she needs continual re-creation.” The Ethiopian said: ”Your Christ fasted, eating nothing; and the prophets ate bread and drank water in moderation. Therefore they merited lofty things.
And how will that woman merit when she always feels a satiety?” The youth responded: ”Is Christ not yours too as well as ours?” To which the other said: ”By no means at all! For I will never humble myself to him but will rather act in opposition to him because I shall not return to his glory!” The youth responded: ”Our Christ taught us to fast, not so that the body would be weakened beyond measure, but so that it would be humbled and not grow insolent in opposition to its soul. Our Christ does not ask for things impossible to nature but for moderation; he does not ask the quality or the quantity of what one eats but, rather, the quality of the eater's intention and charity.”
To which the Ethiopian said: ”It is just that what that woman did not experience in youth, she should feel in old age.” In rebuttal, the youth said: ”The praiseworthy thing is abstinence from sin. There is no obstacle to heaven in purple dye or in delicate flesh when these things are possessed together with the love of God. Sometimes the customs of one's upbringing must be maintained well, with thanksgiving, lest the flesh be too seriously weakened.” After this, at that same hour, the Virgin Mary appeared to her - wearing a crown - and said to the Ethiopian: ”Be silent, you negotiator; look askance, because she has been assigned to me!” And the Ethiopian spoke: ”If I cannot do anything else,” he said, ”I will cast a bramble of the Christ's-thorn plant onto the hem of her garments.” To which the Virgin said: ”I will help her. And as often as you cast it on, it shall be cast back into your face; and her crown will be doubled.” Not long after this vision, the whole temptation to gluttony was taken away.

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