The story, according to James of Voragine.
Sequence by Adam of St. Victor:
Praecursorum summi regis
Et praeconem novae legis
Celebrat Ecclesia.
In hac luce tam festiva,
Gaude, mater, et votiva
Deprome praeconia.
Hujus ortum veneremur,
Sed nec minus delectemur
In ejus martyrio.
Totus mundus sit jocundus!
Nulli martyr hic secundus
Virtute vel praemio.
Non est nostrae pravitatis
Virum tantas sanctitatis
Laudare per omnia.
Summa rei recitetur,
Ut affectus inflammetur
Ex ejus memoria.
Non arundo levitatis,
Sed columna veritatis
Nulla palpat crimina;
Scribas tangit et doctores,
Vocans legis transgressores
Viperae genimina.
Arguebat hic Herodem,
Nec terretur ab eodem
Ligatus in carcere.
Fert injuste Justus poenam,
Rem detestans tam obscoenam
Regis et adulterae.
Saevit in hunc vis tyranni:
Laus accrescit hinc Johanni,
Tyranno supplicium;
Stultus servit sapienti,
Quia Justus in praesenti
Purgatur per impium.
In natalis sui coena
Capitali plecti poena
Johannem rex imperat.
Spiculator saltatrici,
Saltatrix dat genetrici
Caput quod petierat.
Crux praesignat sublimari
Christum, sed hunc minorari
Capitis abscissio.
Mors est justi pretiosa
Quam praecessit gloriosa
Vitae conversatio.
Nos ad laudem tui, Christe,
Praecursoris et Baptistae
Colimus solemnia.
Tu nos ab hac mortis valle,
Duc ad vitam recto calle
Per ejus vestigia. Amen.
Englished by Digby S. Wrangham:
John, the King of kings' precursor,
John, the new Law's bold rehearser,
Celebrates the Church to-day!
Mother! on so glad a morning
Joy, with praise his name adorning,
And bring forth a votive lay!
Let us keep his birthday rightly.
But rejoice we no less brightly
In the martyrdom he won.
Show, Creation! exultation;
Second is this martyrs station,
In both mark and meed, to none!
'Tis not for our fallen nature
To extol each single feature
Of such special sanctity:
Be the tale in sum repeated;
That our love may kindle, heated
With his blessed memory.
He, no reed to bend and quiver,
But Truth's pillar, firm for ever,
Never calleth evil good;
Scribes he strikes at and professors,
Calling all the Law's transgressors
Offspring of a viper's brood.
Herod's sin he censured gravely;
Bound by him, he bore up bravely.
In a prison kept secure:
Pains unjust the just endureth,
Who such filthiness abhorreth
In the king and paramour.
Tyrant power against him burneth:
Whence John greater honour earneth,
And the tyrant torments dure:
Help to wisdom folly giveth,
Since the just, while here he liveth,
By the impious is made pure.
At his birthday-feast at even
Orders by the king are given,
That the head of John be brought.
She who danced that head receiveth
From the officer, and giveth
To her mother what she sought.
Christ's increase the Cross foreshoweth,
But, that less the Baptist groweth,
His beheading shadows forth.
Precious, if the life preceding
Glory o'er that life were shedding,
Is the righteous' death on earth.
Christ! the better to adore Thee
Through the Baptist sent before Thee,
We this feast-day celebrate:
Out of death's dark valley lead us
Thither, where his steps precede us,
And our path to life make straight! Amen.