Note 270 — Chapter II · HENRY AND ROME. 1164–1172.

Herb. Bosh. (ib. vol. iii.), p. 391, says “proximâ ante festum die,” and he makes the festival that of S. Mary Magdalene, the patron of the place. Tempting, however, as his version is—for it would explain at once Thomas’s otherwise rather unaccountable choice of Vézelay for the scene of his proceedings, and the great concourse of people who evidently were assembled there—it is quite irreconcileable with the minute chronological details of John of Salisbury’s letter (Ep. cxciv. as above), written within a few weeks of the events, while Herbert’s story was written from memory, many years after. On the other hand, R. Diceto’s date (Stubbs, vol. i. p. 318), Ascension-day, is more impossible still.