shipped him, and making obeisance, thanked him much for kindnesses conferred on him. As he frequently cried out, 'Holy Nicholas, have pity on me,' I was pleased to recognize the name of my dear protector, St. Nicholas, from whom I hoped to obtain salvation both of body and soul. On my then asking the goldsmith how he had thus quickly gone through the cruel torments I had seen him suffering, he answered, 'You, my friend,' said he, ‘and all my acquaintances, who, during my life, saw that all the supports of the Christian faith were denied me, such as confession and the viaticum, considered me a lost man, not knowing the mercy of my lord, who is with me, namely, St. Nicholas, who did not suffer me, his unhappy servant, to undergo the death of everlasting damnation; for now and ever, since I have been consigned to this place of punishment, when I was suffering under a severe torture I have been refreshed by the visitation of his compassion. For in gold-working, in which art I, in my life-time, committed many frauds, I now make most severe atonement, since I am frequently thrown into a heap of burning money, and most intolerably scorched; being often compelled to swallow with gaping mouth those very coins, which consume my internal parts; and, moreover, am often obliged to count these coins, and feel my hands and fingers consumed and burned by them.' I then asked him, if men could by any remedy avoid such a dreadful torture; to which he replied with a sigh,' If men were daily to write with the finger on their foreheads and on the parts near their heart, "Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews," those of the faith would doubtlessly be preserved harmless, and, after their death, those very places would shine with a bright splendor.' These and many other things I heard from him ; but let us hasten to describe other things, and let what has been said suffice.

Of the third place of punishment, and the manifold variety of

torments.

"I and my guide, then, having left this truly called valley of tears which we got to in the second place, we arrived at a large plain situated low down in the bosom of the earth,

and which seemed inaccessible to all except to torturing devils and tortured spirits. The surface of that plain was covered by a great and horrible chaos, mixed with a sulphureous smoke, and a cloud of intolerable stench, with a flame of a pitchy blackness, and this rising from all directions was diffused in a dreadful way through the whole of that void space. The surface of the place abounded with a multitude of worms in the same way as the court-yards of houses are covered with rushes; and these, dreadful beyond conception, of a monstrous size and deformed, with a dreadful gaping of their jaws, and exhaling execrable fire from their nostrils, lacerated the crowds of wretched beings, with a voracity not to be escaped from; and the devils running in all directions, raging like mad creatures, took the wretched beings and at one time were cutting them up piece by piece with their fiery prongs, at another time were tearing all their flesh off to the bone, at another time threw them into the fire, melted them like metals, and restored them in the shape of burning flame. Little it is, I call God to witness, yea nothing, that I recollect of the punishments of that place; for God knows that in a very brief space of time I saw those wretched beings destroyed by a hundred or more different kinds of torture, and soon afterwards restored again, and again reduced almost to nothing, and then again renewed; for a lost life caused them to be tortured in that place, and owing to the different kinds of punishment there was no end to their sufferings. For the flame of that fire was so devouring, that you would think an ordinary fire or fever to be lukewarm in comparison with it; dead worms torn in pieces were collected in heaps beneath the wretches, filling everything with an intolerable stench which surpassed all other suffering. The most loathsome and severe of all remains yet to be told; for all who were punished there had, in their life, been guilty of wickedness which is unmentionable by a Christian, or even by a heathen or a pagan. Those therefore were continually attacked by huge monsters of a fiery appearance and horrible beyond description, which, notwithstanding their opposition, committed on them the damnable crimes of which they had been guilty on earth; and their

eries were horrid until they fainted apparently dead, when they again revived to be exposed to fresh torments. I tremble while relating it, and am beyond measure confounded at the filthiness of their crime, for till that time I had never heard or thought that both sexes could have been corrupted by such filthiness, and, oh shame! such an innumerable crowd of such wretches as was there found most pitiably to be pitied. The figures of many in that place I neither saw nor recognized, for I was overcome with horror by the enormity of the torments and obscenity, and by the filthy stench; so that it was beyond measure offensive to me either to stop there a moment, or to look at what was being done there. Lastly amid the dreadful din one of them cried out, Alas! why did I not repent?' so loud was their grief that you would have thought all the sufferers in the world were there lamenting.

Of a certain lawyer and his punishments.

"Although I avoided as much as I could to look at what was passing there, I could not escape seeing a certain clerk, whom I had once known; he, in his life, was considered a most skilful man, of those who are styled lawyers and decretalists, wherefore in ecclesiastical revenues he was every day getting richer than the rest. I was astonished at the weight of his sufferings, and on my asking whether he expected to obtain mercy at all, he answered, crying out, Alas, alas, woe is me, I know, I know that I shall not receive mercy this side of the day of judgment, and even then I think it is uncertain, for ever since I have been subjected to these sufferings, my punishment grows worse, dragging me on from bad to worse.' I said to him, 'Why then did you not at the last confess your sins and repent?' He answered, 'Because I had hopes of recovering, the devil beguiling me, I was ashamed to confess such disgraceful crimes, lest I should seem to be unrespected by them to whom I appeared renowned and noble. Some of my slighter offences I did however confess to the priest, and on his asking me if I was conscious of any other sins, I asked him to leave me then, promising to let him know again if any should

occur to my memory. When he had departed, and had gone a little way, I felt myself dying; and when he was fetched back by my servants he found that I was dead. Therefore none of the thousand kinds of torments which I daily endure tortures me so much as the recollection of my fault, because I am actually compelled to be a slave to the baseness of my former weakness; for besides the greatness of this unspeakable punishment, I am oppressed with intolerable shame, when I appear as one to be execrated for such great offences.' At the moment he was thus speaking to me, I saw him tortured in numberless ways, and in the midst of them to be reduced as it were to nothing, and to be dissolved by the force of the heat like melted lead. I also asked St. Nicholas, who stood by me, if such torments could be alleviated by any kind of remedy; and he answered, 'When the day of judgment arrives, then will be accomplished the will of Christ, for he alone knows the hearts of all, and then he will afford to all a just retribution.' Afterwards, when I had returned to the body, that priest, to whom the lawyer had confessed only his light offences, came to me, and called God to witness in the presence of many, that what I said was true, since no one but himself knew these things. Of the punishments of which I saw, many, I omit to make mention, fearing lest, if I should speak further of them, I should create a loathing in my readers, but let these few chosen from the many suffice."

VISION OF TURCHILL, A. D. 1206.

In this year, a certain man of simple habits, and hospitable as far as his humble means would allow, who lived in a town called Tunsted,1 in the bishopric of London, was employed, after the hour of evening prayer, on the eve of the day of the apostles St. Simon and St. Jude, in draining his field, which he had sown that day, when, raising his eyes, he saw a man hastening to him from a distance; after looking at him, he began the Lord's prayer, when the stranger stepping up to him, asked him to finish his prayer and speak to him: 1 Perhaps "Twinsted" in Essex.

and, accordingly, as soon as his prayer was ended, they exchanged mutual greetings. After this, the man who had come to him asked him where, amongst the neighbors, he could meet with a suitable lodging for that night; but when the questioned person extolled the great hospitality of his neighbors, the inquirer found fault with the hospitality of some who were named. The laborer then, understanding that the stranger was acquainted with his neighbors, eagerly asked him to accept of a lodging with him, on which the stranger said to him, "Your wife has already received two poor women to lodge with her, and I too will turn to your house for to-night, in order that I may lead you to your lord, namely, St. James, to whom thou hast even now devoutly prayed; for I am Julian the entertainer, and have been sent on your behalf, to disclose to you by divine means certain things which are hidden from men in the flesh; therefore, proceed to your house, and endeavor to prepare yourself for a journey." After these words, the man who was conversing with him disappeared from the spot. But Turchill, for that was the laborer's name, hurried home, washed his head and feet, and found the two women entertained there, as St. Julian had foretold. Afterwards he threw himself on a bed which he had prepared in his house, apart from his wife, for the sake of continence, and slept outside the room; and as soon as all the members of the household were asleep, St. Julian woke the man, and said, “Here I am, as I promised; it is time for us to be going. Let your body rest on the bed, it is only your spirit which is to go with me; and, that your body may not appear to be dead, I will inspire into you the breath of life.". In this way they both left the house, St. Julian leading the way, and Turchill following.