he earth he
was put on the cross right up, but me whom it pleaseth him to call from
the earth to heaven, my cross shall show my head to the earth and
address my feet to heaven, for I am not worthy to be put on the cross
like as my Lord was, therefore turn my cross and crucify me my head
downward. Then they turned the cross, and fastened his feet upward and
the head downward. Then the people were angry against Nero and the
provost, and would have slain them because they made St. Peter so to
die; but he required them that they should not let his passion, and as
Leo witnesseth, our Lord opened the eyes of them that were there, and
wept so that, they saw the angels with crowns of roses and of lilies
standing by Peter that was on the cross with the angels.

And then Peter received a book of our Lord, wherein he learned the words
that he said. Then as Hegesippus saith: Peter said thus: Lord, I have
desired much to follow thee, but to be crucified upright I have not
usurped, thou art always rightful, high and sovereign, and we be sons of
the first man which have the head inclined to the earth, of whom the
fall signifieth the form of the generation human. Also we be born that
we be seen inclined to the earth by effect, and the condition is changed
for the world weeneth that such thing is good, which is evil and bad.
Lord, thou art all things to me, and nothing is to me but thou only, I
yield to thee thankings with all the spirit of which I live, by which I
understand, and by whom I call thee. And when St. Peter saw that the
good Christian men saw his glory, in yielding thankings to God and
commending good people to him, he rendered up his spirit. Then Marcel
and Apuleius his brother, that were his disciples, took off the body
from the cross when he was dead, and anointed it with much precious
ointment, and buried him honorably. Isidore saith in the book of the
nativity and death of saints thus: Peter, after that he had governed
Antioch, he founded a church under Claudius the emperor, he went to Rome
against Simon Magus, there he preached the gospel twenty-five years and
held the bishopric, and thirty-six years after the passion of our Lord
he was crucified by Nero turned the head downward, for he would be so
crucified: Haec Isidorus.

That same day Peter and Paul appeared to St. Dionysius, as he saith in
his foresaid epistle in these words: Understand the miracle and see the
prodigy, my brother Timothy, of the day of the marty