Then with
one consent they built, at the Hill of Vaws, a fair
and large tomb, and there the three Holy Kings,
Melchior, Balthazar, and Jasper died, and were
buried in the same tomb by their sorrowing
people.
Now after much time had passed away, Queen
Helen, the mother of the Emperor Constantine,
began to think greatly of the bodies of these three
kings, and she arrayed herself, and, accompanied
by many attendants, went into the Land of Ind.
And you shall understand that after she had
found the bodies of Melchior, Balthazar, and
Jasper, Queen Helen put them into one chest and
ornamented it with great riches, and she brought
them into Constantinople, with joy and reverence,
and laid them in a church that is called
Saint Sophia; and this church the Emperor
Constantine did make,--he alone, with a little child,
set up all the marble pillars thereof.
Now, after the death of the Emperor Constantine
a persecution against the Christian faith
arose, and in this persecution the bodies of the
three worshipful kings were set at naught. Then
came the Emperor Mauricius of Rome, and,
through his counsel, the bodies of these three
kings were carried to Italy, and there they were
laid in a fair church in the city of Milan.
Then afterward, in the process of time, the city
of Milan rebelled against the Emperor Frederick
the First, and he, being sore beset, sent to Rainald,
Archbishop of Cologne, asking for help.
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