Jpetct, A very terrible thing it is, that he which merited so great a grace, should be punished with so pitiful a death.
(JPtCgOtP. Who is able to enter into the secret judg- ments of God? Wherefore those things which in divine examination we cannot comprehend, we ought rather to fear than curiously to discuss.
Chapter Ctoentp=seoen: of the Death of the Carl Cheophanius. <1 And to prosecute what we have already begun, concerning the prophetical knowledge of those that die, I will now tell you that which, when I was in the city of Centumcellis, I understood by the relation of many, touching Theophanius, Earl of that place. For he was a man of great mercy and compassion, and one that did many good works, but especially he was given to good housekeeping and hospitality. True it is that, following the affairs of his earldom, he spent much time about earthly and worldly business, but that rather of necessity and duty than according to his own mind and desire, as his virtuous end afterward declared., For when the time of his death was come, there arose a great tempest, which was likely to hinder the funerals; whereat his wife, pitifully weeping, asked him in this manner: cc What shall I do? or how shall we carry you to be buried, seeing the tempest is so terrible, that none can stir out of doors? ” To whom he answered thus: “Weep not, good wife,- for so soon as I am dead you shall have fair weather”: and when he had so said, he gave up the ghost: and straightways the air became clear, and the tempest ceased. After this miracle one or two more followed. For whereas his hands and feet were with the gout before swollen and festered, and by reason of much corrupt matter, did savour and smell: yet when he was dead, and his body after the manner came to be washed, they found his hands and feet so sound and whole, as though they had never been troubled with any such sores at all. Four days after his burial, his wife was desirous to have the marble stone that lay upon him changed: which being done, such a fragrant and pleasant smell came from his body, as though, instead of worms, spices had sprung out of that corrupt carcass: r of which 2 IQ Cbe Deatl) of Cfjeop&anius strange thing when I did in my Homilies make public mention, and certain incredulous persons doubted there- of: upon a day, as I was sitting in the company of divers noble men, those very workmen, which had changed the tombstone, came unto me about business of their own: whom in the presence of the clergy, nobility, and common people, I examined, touching that miracle: and they all affirmed it to be most true, saying that they were in a strange manner replenished with that sweet smell: and they added also certain other things concerning his sepulchre, that made the miracle greater, which, not to be over long, I mean to pass over with silence.
I perceive now that my former question is suffi- ciently satisfied: yet another remaineth which troubleth my mind, and that is, seeing you affirmed before that holy men’s souls which depart this life be now in heaven, it followeth consequently that the souls of the wicked be also in hell: and yet ignorant I am whether it be so or no, for man’s imagination cannot conceive how the souls of sinners can be tormented before the day of judgment.
Chapter Ctoent^eigfit: tfiat, as toe Pel ietie tfie souls of just ano perfect men to fie In fieatien: so toe ougfit also to fielieue tfiat tfie souls of tfie toicfeeD, after tfieir Departure from tfie fioDp, 6c in fielfi § <$regorp* If, by the testimony of holy scrip- ture, you believe that the souls of holy and perfect men be in heaven: by the same reason ought you also to believe that the souls of the wicked be in hell: for as just men do rejoice and be glad at the retribution of eternal justice, so necessary it is that the wicked at the same justice should be grieved and tormented: for as heavenly felicity doth glad the elect, so we ought to believe that, from the day of their departure, fire doth afflict and burn the reprobate.
JPeter* With what reason can we believe, that corporal fire can hold and torment an incorporal thing?
€&e Dialogues of ©tegorp Cbaptet €toentp-nine: tfje reason to&p toe ougfrt to fielieoe, that corporal fire can polo and torment tpe spirits tpat be toitpout Pooies. <1 <$5tegorp. if a spirit without a body can be holden and kept in the body of a living man: why, likewise, after death, may not an incorporal spirit be holden and kept in corporal fire?
IPeter, The reason why an incorporal spirit in every living man is kept in the body, is, because it doth quicken and give life to the body.
<£tegorp. If an incorporal spirit, Peter, may be kept in that to which it giveth life: why also, for punishment, may it not be kept there, where it continually dieth? And we say that a spirit is holden by fire, to the end that, in the torment thereof, it may both by seeing and feeling be punished: for the soul by seeing of the fire is afflicted, and burned it is, in that it seeth itself to be burned: and so it falleth out, that a corporal thing may burn that which hath no body, whiles that an invisible burning and sorrow is drawn from visible fire, and the incorporal soul by means of corporal fire may be tormented with a spiritual and incorporal flame: although out of the Gospel we also learn that the soul is not only tormented by seeing the fire, but also by the feeling thereof: for the rich glutton, as our Saviour saith, was buried in hell. And he giveth us to understand that his soul was kept in fire, in that he telleth us how he did beseech Abra- ham, speaking to him in this manner: Send Lazarus^ that he may dtp the top of his finger into the water and may refresh my tongue: because I am tormented in this flame } Seeing, then, truth itself assureth us that the sinful rich man was condemned into fire, what wise man can deny that the souls of the reprobate be detained in fire?
Both reason and testimony of scripture draweth my mind to believe what you say: but yet, when I think Peter Pitcher Sof/tmt KING THEODORICUS THE OSTROGOTH ( Franciscan Church, Innsbruck ) €t )c Deatf) of fting C&eoDoticus not of them, it returneth again to his former opinion: for I neither see, nor can perceive, how a corporal thing can hold and torment that which is incorporal and with- out body.
©tCflfOtp* Tell me, I pray you, whether do you think that those Angels which fell from heaven have bodies or no?
What man that hath his wits will say that they have any bodies?
(£>tC0Ot£* And whether do you think that the fire of hell is corporal or spiritual?
I make no doubt but that it is corporal, seeing most certain it is that bodies be burned therewith.
And as certain it is that, at the day of judg- ment, our Saviour shall say to the reprobate: Qo into everlasting fire y which is prepared for the devil and his angels } If, then, the devil and his angels, though with- out bodies, shall be tormented with corporal fire, what marvel is it that the souls after their departure, and before they be united again to their bodies, may in like manner suffer corporal torments?
The reason you give is very plain, and there- fore now there is not any further doubt touching this question, that doth trouble my mind.
Chapter Chirtp: of the Death of I&ing; CheoDott* cus, toho to as an arian heretic, <S>tegorg. Seeing with such difficulty you are brought to believe, I think it worth my labour to let you understand such things concerning this very point, as I have received from them that be of good credit. Julian, who died almost seven years since, and had a worshipful office in this church of Rome, in which now by God’s providence I serve, used often to visit me (living as yet in my Monastery) and to talk with me of spiritual things for the good of both our souls. This man, upon a day, told me this story.
Cf)c Dialogic of ©regorp 44 In the time of king Theodoricus,” quoth he, 44 my wife’s father, being then in Sicily, was to return into Italy. The ship in which he came arrived at the island of Liparis: where he understood that there dwelt a certain solitary man of great virtue, whom he thought good, whiles the mariners were occupied about mending of their ship and tackling, to visit, to talk with him, and to commend him- self to his prayers: and so he did in the company of others. When they were come to the man of God, amongst other talk which they had, he asked them this question: 4 Do you,’ quoth he, c hear that king Theodoricus is dead?’ to whom they quickly answered: c God forbid: we left him alive at our departure from Rome; and before this present we never heard of any such thing.’ Then the servant of God told them that certainly he was dead: 4 for yesterday,’ quoth he, c at nine of the clock, he was without shoes and girdle, and his hands fast bound, brought betwixt John the Pope and Symmachus the Senator, and thrown into Vulcan’s gulph, which is not far from this place.’ When they heard this news, care- fully they wrote down the time, and at their return into Italy, they understood that king Theodoricus died upon that very day, in which his unhappy passage out of this world and punishment was revealed to the servant of God.” And for as much as he had, by miserable im- prisonment, been the death of Pope John, and also killed Symmachus, justly did he appear to be thrown of them into fire, whom before in this life he had unjustly condemned.
C&aptet €frittp=one: of tfje Deatfc of Eepatatus.
C| At the same time, when I first desired to lead a solitary life, a certain old man called Deusdedit, passing well beloved of the whole city, and one also that was my friend and familiar acquaintance, told me that, in the time of the Goths, a certain worshipful man, called Reparatus, came to die; who lying a long while with C&e Dcatb of Reparatus his countenance changed, and his body stiff, many thought in very deed that he had been dead: and when divers of his friends and family wept for his departure, all on a sudden he came to himself, to the great admiration of his mourning household. Being returned thus to life, he bad them in all haste to send a boy to the church of St. Lawrence in Damaso (so called of him that built it) and quickly to bring word what was be- come of Tiburtius the Priest. This Tiburtius, as the speech went, was much given to a dissolute and wanton life; and Florentius, who at that time was a Priest in the same church, remembereth full well his conversa- tion and manner of life. When the messenger was gone, Reparatus, that was returned to life, told them that in the place where he was, he saw a great wood-pile made ready, and Tiburtius brought forth and laid upon it, and there to have been burnt with fire. “ Then another fire,” quoth he, “was prepared, which was so high that it reached from earth to heaven ”: but although they de- manded for whom it was, yet did he not tell them: for when he had spoken these words straightways he died: and the boy, which was sent to see what was become of Tiburtius, returned with news, that he found him, a little before his coming, departed this life. By which we may learn that, seeing this Reparatus was carried to the places of torments to see them, returned afterward to life to tell what he had there beheld, and straight after left this world: that he saw not all these things for himself, but for us that yet live, and have time granted to amend our wicked lives. And the reason why Reparatus saw that great wood-pile burning, was not that we should think that the fire of hell is nourished with any wood: but because he was to make relation of these things to them that remained still in this world, he saw that fire prepared for the wicked, to be made of the same matter of which our fire is, to. the end that, by Cfje Dialogues of %t. ©regorp those things which we know and be acquainted with, we should learn to be afraid of those, which yet we have not seen nor have any experience.
Chapter Cfuttp^ttoti: of t&e Deatf) of a Couttiet: tojjose gtatie tiurneo twit b fire, Maximianus, Bishop of Syracusis, a man of holy life, who for a long time in this city had the government of my Monastery, often told me a terrible story, which fell out in the pro- vince of Valeria. A certain courtier, upon Easter even, was godfather to a young maid, who, after the fast was ended, returned home to his house: where drinking more wine than enough, he desired that his god-daughter might tarry with him: whom that night, which is hor- rible to speak of, he did utterly undo. In the morning, up he rose, and with guilty conscience thought good to go unto the bath, as though the water of that place could have washed away the filthiness of his sin, yet he went and washed himself. Then he began to doubt, whether it were best to go unto the church or no; fear- ing, on the one side, what men would say, if he went not upon that so great a festival day; and on the other, if he did go, he trembled to think of God’s judgment. In conclusion, shame of the world overcame him, and therefore to the church he went: where yet he remained with great fear and horror, looking every instant that he should have been delivered to the devil, and tormented before all the people. At that solemn mass, though he did wonderfully shake for fear, yet he scaped free from all punishment: and so he departed very joyfully from church: and the next day after, came thither without any fear at all: and so merrily and securely he continued for six days together, thinking with Mmself that either God saw not that his abominable sin, or else that mercifully he had pardoned the same. Upon the seventh day, by sudden death he was taken out of this world. And being buried, for a long time after, in the sight of the i¬oleoge of tfje faints whole town, a flame of fire came out of his grave, which burnt his bones so long, until it consumed the very grave itself, in such sort that the earth which was raised up with a little bank, appeared lower than the rest of the ground. By which fact almighty God declared what his soul suffered in the other world, whose dead body flaming fire consumed in this. To us also he hath left a fearful example, that we may thereby learn what the living and sensible soul suffereth for sin committed, when as the sensible bones by such a punishment of fire were burnt to nothing.
jjpztzt. Desirous I am to know whether in heaven the good know the good, and the wicked in hell know one another.
Cfmpter CfnttH&tee: tfrnt tn fjeaiaen tf )z poo fenoto tfie goon: ano fit fjell tfje totcfeeo fjatie fenoto- ICOgC Of ty£ toiefeeD, <1 <S>tCgOtJh The truth of this question we find most clearly resolved in those words of our Saviour before alleged: in which, when it is said that: There was a certain rich man, and he was clad with purple and silk, and he fared every day magnifically: and there was a certain beggar called Lazarus, that lay at his gate full of sores, desiring to be filled of the crumbs that fell from the rich mans table, and none did give him y but the dogs also came and licked his sores; straightways it is there also said, that: Lazarus died y and was carried of the Angels into Abraham s bosom: and the rich man also died y and was buried in hell: who, lifting up his eyes y being in torments y saw Abraham afar off y and Lazarus in his bosom y and he cried saying: Father Abraham y have mercy on me y and send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger into water for to cool my tongue y because I am tormented in this flame. To whom Abraham answered: Son y remember that thou diddest receive good things in thy lifetime y and Lazarus likewise evil} By which words, the rich man, having no hope of salva- Cf )C Dialogues of ©t ©regotp tion for himself, beginneth to make suit for his friends, saying: Father, I beseech thee, /to thou wouldest send him unto my father s house, for I have five brethren, for to testify unto them, Zatf they also come into this place of torments. In which words we see plainly, that the good do know the good, and the bad have knowledge of the bad. For if Abraham had not known Lazarus, never would he have spoken to the rich man being in torments, and made mention of his affliction and misery past, saying: that he had received evil things in his life. And if the bad did not know the bad, never would the rich man in torments have remembered his brethren that were absent: for shall we think that he knew not them that were present with him, who was so careful to pray for them that were absent?
By which we learn also the answer to another ques- tion, which you demanded not: and that is, that the good do know the bad, and the bad the good. For Abraham knew the rich man, to whom he said: Thou hast received good things in thy life: and Lazarus, God’s elect servant, was also known to the rich reprobate, whom by name he desired that he might be sent unto him, saying: Send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger into water, and cool my tongue: by which mutual knowledge on both sides, the reward likewise to both parts increaseth, for the good do more rejoice, when they behold them also in felicity whom before they loved: and the wicked seeing them, whom in this world not respecting God they did love, to be now punished in their company, tormented they are, not only with their own pains, but also with the pains of their friends. Beside all this, a more wonder- ful grace is bestowed upon the Saints in heaven: for they know not only them with whom they were acquainted in this world, but also those whom before they never saw, and converse with them in such familiar sort as though in times past they had seen and known one another: Uisions of tfje 2DtJ jet 2BoriD and therefore when they shall see the ancient fathers in that place of perpetual bliss, they shall then know them by sight,. whom always they knew in their lives and conversation. For seeing they do in that place with unspeakable brightness (common to all) behold God, what is there that they know not, that know him who knoweth all things?
CPaptcr CPittp^four: of a cettain religious man, tpat at pis Dcatp sato tpe proppets. C| For a certain religious man of my Monastery, that lived a virtuous life, dying some four years since, saw at the very time of his departure (as other religious men do report, that were present) the Prophet Jonas, Ezechiel, and Daniel, and by their names called them his Lords, saying that they were come unto him: and as he was bowing his head downward to them for reverence, he gave up the ghost: whereby we perceive what perfe'et knowledge shall be in that immortal life, when as this man, being yet in corruptible flesh, knew the Prophets whom he never saw.
Cpapter €pittp=fitt)e: poto sometime souls reaDp to Depart tpis toorlD, tpat fenoto not one anotpet, fenoto pet topat torments for tpeir sins, or like tetoaros for tpeir gooD DeeDs, tpep spall receive. 3nD of tpe Deatp of 31opn, Orsus, dEumor* ppiUS, anD ^Iteppen. And sometime it falleth out that the soul, before it departeth, knoweth them with whom, by reason of equality of sins or rewards, it shall in the next world remain in one place. For old Eleutherius, a man of holy life, of whom in the former book I spake much, saith that he had a natural brother of his, called John, who lived together with him in his Monastery, who, fourteen days beforehand, told the monks when he was to die: and three days before he departed this life, he fell into an ague, and when his time was come, he received the mystery of our Lord’s Cfje Dialogues of %u ©tegotp body and blood: and calling for the monks about him, he willed them to sing in his presence, prescribing them a certain anthem concerning himself,* saying: Open unto me the gates of justice ^ and being gone into them, I will confess unto our Lord: this is the gate of our Lord, just men shall enter in by it f and whiles the monks about him were singing this anthem, suddenly with a loud and long voice he cried out, saying: cc Come away, Ursus ”: straight after which words his soul departed this mortal life. The monks marvelled, because they knew not the meaning of that, which at his death he so cried for: and therefore after his departure, all the Monastery was in sorrow and affliction. Four days after, necessary busi- ness they had, to send some of their brethren to another Monastery far distant: to which place when they came, they found all the monks in great heaviness, and demanding the reason, they told them that they did lament the desolation of their house: <c for four days since,” quoth they, “one of our monks died, whose life kept us all in this place ”: and when they inquired his name, they understood that it was Ursus: asking also at what hour he left this world, they found that it was at that very instant, when he was called by John who died with them. Out of which we may learn that the merits of either were alike; and that in the next world they live familiarly together in one mansion, who atone time like fellows departed this life.
Here also will I tell you what I heard from the mouths of my neighbours, at such time as I was yet a layman, and dwelled in my father’s house, which descended to me by inheritance. A certain widow there was not far from me, called Galla, which had a young man to her son, whose name was Eumorphius: not far from whom dwelt one Stephen called also Optio. This Eumorphius, lying sick at the point of death, called for THE CORONATION OF THE IiJ.E.SSKJ> VIROIN ( l, Florence) Visions of t&e UDtfjer W > otlD his man, commanding him in all haste to go unto Stephen Optio, and to desire him without all delay to come unto him, because there was a ship ready, to carry them both into Sicily. But because his man refused to go, supposing that through extremity of sickness he knew not what he spake, his master very earnestly urged him forward, saying: “ Go thy way, and tell him what I say, for I am not mad, as thou thinkest.” Hereupon away he went towards Stephen, but as he was in the midst of his journey, he met one that asked him whither he was going, and when he told him, that he was by his master sent to Stephen Optio: “ You lose your labour,” quoth the other, u for I come now from thence: and he died this very hour.” Back again upon this news he returned to his master, Eumorphius: but before he could get home, he found him dead. And so, by con- conferring their meeting together, and the length of the way, apparent it was that both of them, at one and the self same instant, departed this mortal life.
Very terrible it is that you say: but what, I pray you, is the reason, that he saw a ship at his depar- ture? Or why did he say that he was to go into Sicily? <S)t££0tp* The soul needeth not anything to carry it: yet no wonder it is, if that appeared to the soul being yet in the body, which by means of the body it had oftentimes before seen: to the end that we should thereby understand whither his soul might spiritually be carried. And in that he said he was to go into Sicily, what else can be meant thereby, but that there be in the islands of that country more than in any place else, certain gaping gulphs of torments, casting out fire continually? and as they say that know them, daily do they wax greater, and enlarge themselves: so that the world drawing to an end, and so, consequently, more coming thither to be burnt in those flaming dungeons, so much the more do those places of torments open and become wider. Which strange thing almighty God, for the terror and amend- ment of the living, would have extant in this world, that infidels which believe not the unspeakable pains of hell, may with their eyes see the places of torments, which they list not to credit when it is told them. And that both the elect and reprobate, whose life and conversation hath been alike, shall after death be carried to like places, the saying of our Saviour doth teach us, though we had no examples to prove the same; for of the elect himself saith in the Gospel: In the house of my Father there be many mansions } For if there were not inequality of rewards in the everlasting felicity of heaven, then were there not many mansions, but rather one: wherefore there be many mansions, in which divers orders and degrees of God’s saints be distinguished, who in common do all rejoice of the society and fellowship of their merits, and yet all they that laboured receive one penny, though they remain in distinct mansions: because the felicity and joy which there they possess is one, and the reward, which by divers and unequal good works they receive is not one but divers: which to be true our Saviour assureth us, when, talking of his coming to judgment, he saith: Then I will say to the reapers: Gather up the cockle, and bind it into bundles to burn? For the Angels, which be the reapers, do then bind up in bundles the cockle to burn, when like with like are put together in torment: as the proud to burn in hell with the proud, carnal with the carnal, covetous with the covetous, deceitful with the deceitful, envious with the envious, and infidels with infidels: when therefore those that were like in sinful life, be condemned to like torments, then be they as it were cockle bound together in bundles to be burnt.
JjpCtCt* You have given a sufficient reason for satisfac- tion to my demand: yet I beseech you to inform me Uimw oft be flDt&er mono further, what the cause is, that some be called out of this world, as it were through error: who afterward return again to life, saying that they heard how they were not the men which were sent for out of this life.
Chapter €fnrtg*0ir; of those souls tobtcb seem as it toere through error to be taken out of their hoDies: ano of toe Death anD retiring of a monk caileD Ureter: of the Death, likewise, anD raising up again of one Stephen: anD of the strange oision of a certain solDier* <1 <S?regorp* When this happeneth, Peter, it is not, if it be well considered, any error, but an admonition. For God of his great and bountiful mercy so disposeth, that some after their death do straightways return again to life, that having seen the torments of hell, which before when they heard they would not believe, they may now at least tremble at, after they have with their eyes beheld them. For a certain Sclavonion, who was a monk and lived with me here in this city in my Monastery, used to tell me that at such time as he dwelt in the wilderness, that he knew one Peter, a monk born in Spain, who lived with him in the vast desert called Evasa: which Peter (as he said) told him how, before he came to dwell in that place, by a certain sickness he died, and was straightways restored to life again, affirming that he had seen the torments and innumerable places of hell, and divers, who were mighty men in this world, hanging in those flames; and that as himself was carried to be thrown also into the same fire, suddenly an Angel in a beautiful attire appeared, who would not suffer him to be cast into those torments: but spake unto him in this manner: cc Go thy way back again, and hereafter carefully look unto thyself, how thou leadest thy life ”: after which words his body by little and little became warm, and himself, waking out of the sleep of everlasting death, reported all such things as happened about him: after which time he bound himself to such fasting and watching, that though he had said nothing, yet his very life and conversation did speak what torments he had seen and was afraid of: and so God’s merciful providence wrought in his tem- poral death that he died not everlastingly.
But because man’s heart is passing obdurate and hard, hereof it cometh that though others have the like vision, and see the same pains, yet do they not always reap the like profit. For the honourable man Stephen, whom you knew very well, told me of himself, that at such time as he was upon business resident in the city of Constantinople, that he fell sick and died; and when they sought for a surgeon to bowel him, and to embalm his body, and could not get any, he lay unburied all the night following: in which space his soul was carried to the dungeon of hell, where he saw many things, which before when he heard he little believed. But when he