In their versions of the story
the early life of Enius, previous to his undertaking to enter the
Purgatory, is passed over with a few general remarks as to its
extreme wickedness -- while they give in great detail all that he saw
and heard therein. Matthew Paris, for instance, opens the story of
Enius in these words: "Miles quidam Oenus nomine, qui multis annis
sub Rege Stephano militaverat -- licentia a Rege impetrata, profectus
est in Hyberniam ad natale solum, ut parentes visitaret. Qui cum
aliquandiu in regione illa demoratus fuisset coepit ad mentem
reducere vitam suam adeo flagitiosam: Quod ab ipsis cunabulis,
incendiis semper vacaverat et rapinis, et quod magis dolebat, se
ecclesiarum fuisse violatorem et rerum ecclesiasticarum invasorem
praeter multa enormia quae intrinsecus latebant peccata," etc. --
'Mat. Par'., p. 72. In Henry of Saltrey's account, as given by
Messingham in 1624 and Colgan in 1647, this portion of the life of
Enius is despatched even with more succinctness, but in Montalvan's
'Vida y Purgatorio de San Patricio', all his early crimes are
detailed nearly in the order and almost in the very words that
Calderon has used. Sir Walter Scott mentions, in his Border
Minstrelsy, that there is a curious MS. Metrical Romance, in the
Advocates' Library of Edinburgh, called, "The Legend of Sir Owain,"
relating his adventures in St.
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