A reading of the formula is preserved in the _Enchiridion Papæ Leonis_, a book translated into French soon after its first appearance in Latin at Rome in 1502:
Au soir, m'allant coucher, je trouvis trois anges à mon lit couchés, un aux pieds, deux au chevet, la bonne Vierge Marie du milieu, qui me dit que je me couchis, que rien ne doutis. Le bon Dieu est mon Père, la bonne Vierge est ma mère, les trois vierges sont mes s[oe]urs. La chemise où Dieu fut né, mon corps en est enveloppé; la croix Sainte Marguerite à ma poitrine est écrite; madame d'en va sur les champs à Dieu pleurant, rencontrit Monsieur Saint Jean. Monsieur Saint Jean, d'où venez vous? Je viens d' _Ave Salus_. Vous n'avez pas vu le bon Dieu; si est, il est dans l'arbre de la croix, les pieds pendans, les mains clouans, un petit chapeau d'épine blanche sur la tête.
Qui la dira trois fois au soir, trois fois au matin, gagnera le Paradis à la fin.
Curious as are the above citations, they only go a little way towards filling up the blanks in the history of this waif from the fabric of early Christian popular lore. A search of some years has yielded evidence that the White Paternoster is still a part of the living traditional matter of at least five European countries. Most persons are familiar with the English version which runs thus:
Four corners to my bed, Four angels round my head, One to watch, one to pray, And two to bear my soul away.
A second English variant was set on record by Aubrey, and may also be read in Ady's "Candle in the Dark" (1655):
Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Bless the bed that I lye on; And blessed guardian angel keep Me safe from danger while I sleep.
Halliwell suggests that the two last lines were imitated from the following in Bishop Ken's Evening Hymn:
Let my blest guardian, while I sleep, His watchful station near me keep. But if there was any imitation in the case, it was the bishop who copied from the folk-rhymer, not the folk-rhymer from the bishop.
The thought of the coming of death in sleep, is expressed in a prayer that may be sometimes seen inscribed at the head and foot of the bed in Norwegian homesteads:
Here is my bed and sleeping place; God, let me sleep in peace And blithe open my eyes And go to work.