It is from the Egyptians that Orpheus, Homer, and the other Greeks derived the idea of the immortality of the soul, as well as the cave of the Nymphs described by Homer, who says there are two gates, the one to the north, through which the soul enters the cavern, and the other to the south, by which they leave the nymphic abode.
A certain Thespisius, a native of Soloe in Cilicia, well known to Plutarch,[626] having pa.s.sed a great part of his life in debauchery, and ruined himself entirely, in order to gain a livelihood lent himself to everything that was bad, and contrived to ama.s.s money.
Having sent to consult the oracle of Amphilochus, he received for answer, that his affairs would go on better after his death. A short time after, he fell from the top of his house, broke his neck, and died. Three days after, when they were about to perform the funeral obsequies, he came to life again, and changed his way of life so greatly that there was not in Cilicia a worthier or more pious man than himself.
As they asked him the reason of such a change, he said that at the moment of his fall he felt the same as a pilot who is thrown back from the top of the helm into the sea; after which, his soul was sensible of being raised as high as the stars, of which he admired the immense size and admirable l.u.s.tre; that the souls once out of the body rise into the air, and are enclosed in a kind of globe, or inflamed vortex, whence having escaped, some rise on high with incredible rapidity, while others whirl about the air, and are thrown in divers directions, sometimes up and sometimes down.
The greater part appeared to him very much perplexed, and uttered groans and frightful wailings; others, but in a less number, rose and rejoiced with their fellows. At last he learnt that Adrastia, the daughter of Jupiter and Necessity, left nothing unpunished, and that she treated every one according to their merit. He then details all he saw at full length, and relates the various punishments with which the bad are tormented in the next world.
He adds that a man of his acquaintance said to him, "You are not dead, but by G.o.d"s permission your soul is come into this place, and has left your body with all its faculties." At last he was sent back into his body as through a channel, and urged on by an impetuous breeze.
We may make two reflections on this recital; the first on this soul, which quits its body for three days and then comes back to reanimate it; the second, on the certainty of the oracle, which promised Thespisius a happier life when he should be dead.
In the Sicilian war[627] between Caesar and Pompey, Gabienus, commander of Caesar"s fleet, having been taken, was beheaded by order of Pompey.
He remained all day on the sea-sh.o.r.e, his head only held on to his body by a fillet. Towards evening he begged that Pompey or some of his people might come to him, because he came from the shades, and he had things of consequence to impart to him. Pompey sent to him several of his friends, to whom Gabienus declared that the G.o.ds of the infernal regions favored the cause and the party of Pompey, and that he would succeed according to his wishes; that he was ordered to announce this, "and as a proof of the truth of what I say, I must die directly,"
which happened. But we do not see that Pompey"s party succeeded; we know, on the contrary, that it fell, and Caesar was victorious. But the G.o.d of the infernal regions, that is to say, the devil, found it very good for him, since it sent him so many unhappy victims of revenge and ambition.[628]
Footnotes:
[621] Job xxvi. 5.
[622] Prov. ix. 18.
[623] Isa. xix. 9, _et seq._
[624] Ezek. x.x.xi. 15.
[625] Luke xvi. 26.
[626] Plutarch, de his qui misero a Numine puniuntur.
[627] Plin. Hist. Natur. lib. vii. c. 52.
[628] This story is related before, and is here related on account of the bearing it has on the subject of this chapter.
CHAPTER LV.
INSTANCES OF CHRISTIANS WHO HAVE BEEN RESUSCITATED AND SENT BACK TO THE WORLD--VISION OF VETINUS, A MONK OF AUGIA.
We read in an old work, written in the time of St. Augustine,[629]
that a man having been crushed by a wall which fell upon him, his wife ran to the church to invoke St. Stephen whilst they were preparing to bury the man who was supposed to be dead. Suddenly they saw him open his eyes, and move his body; and after a time he sat up, and related that his soul, having quitted his body, had met a crowd of other souls of dead persons, some of whom he knew, and others he did not; that a young man, in a deacon"s habit, having entered the room where he was, put aside all those souls, and said to them three times, "Return what you have received." He understood at last that he meant the creed, which he recited instantly; and also the Lord"s Prayer; then the deacon (St. Stephen) made the sign of the cross upon his heart, and told him to rise in perfect health. A young man,[630] a catechumen, who had been dead for three days, and was brought back to life by the prayers of St. Martin, related that after his death he had been presented before the tribunal of the Sovereign Judge, who had condemned him, and sent him with a crowd of others into a dark place; and then two angels, having represented to the Judge that he was a man for whom St. Martin had interceded, the Judge commanded the angels to send him back to earth, and restore him to St. Martin, which was done.
He was baptized, and lived a long time afterwards.
St. Salvius, Bishop of Albi,[631] having been seized with a violent fever, was thought to be dead. They washed him, clothed him, laid him on a bier, and pa.s.sed the night in prayer by him: the next morning he was seen to move; he appeared to awake from a deep sleep, opened his eyes, and raising his hand towards heaven said, "Ah! Lord, why hast thou sent me back to this gloomy abode?" He rose completely cured, but would then reveal nothing.
Some days after, he related how two angels had carried him to heaven, where he had seen the glory of Paradise, and had been sent back against his will to live some time longer on earth. St. Gregory of Tours takes G.o.d to witness that he heard this history from the mouth of St. Salvius himself.
A monk of Augia, named Vetinus, or Guetinus, who was living in 824, was ill, and lying upon his couch with his eyes shut; but not being quite asleep, he saw a demon in the shape of a priest, most horribly deformed, who, showing him some instruments of torture which he held in his hand, threatened to make him soon feel the rigorous effects of them. At the same time he saw a mult.i.tude of evil spirits enter his chamber, carrying tools, as if to build him a tomb or a coffin, and enclose him in it.
Immediately he saw appear some serious and grave-looking personages, wearing religious habits, who chased these demons away; and then Vetinus saw an angel, surrounded with a blaze of light, who came to the foot of the bed, and conducted him by a path between mountains of an extraordinary height, at the foot of which flowed a large river, in which he beheld a mult.i.tude of the d.a.m.ned, who were suffering diverse torments, according to the kind and enormity of their crimes. He saw amongst them many of his acquaintance; amongst others, some prelates and priests, guilty of incontinence, who were tied with their backs to stakes, and burned by a fire lighted under them; the women, their companions in crime, suffering the same torment opposite to them.
He beheld there also, a monk who had given himself up to avarice, and possessed money of his own, who was to expiate his crime in a leaden coffin till the day of judgment. He remarked there abbots and bishops, and even the Emperor Charlemagne, who were expiating their faults by fire, but were to be released from it after a certain time. He remarked there also the abode of the blessed in heaven, each one in his place, and according to his merits. The Angel of the Lord after this revealed to him the crimes which were the most common, and the most odious in the eyes of G.o.d. He mentioned sodomy in particular, as the most abominable crime.
After the service for the night, the abbot came to visit the sick man, who related this vision to him in full, and the abbot had it written down directly. Vetinus lived two days longer, and having predicted that he had only the third day to live, he recommended himself to the prayers of the monks, received the holy viatic.u.m, and died in peace, the 31st of October, 824.
Footnotes:
[629] Lib. i. de Miracul. Sancti Stephani, cap. 4. p. 28. Lib. vii.
Oper. St. Aug. in Appendice.
[630] Sulpit. Sever. in Vita S. Martini, cap. 3.
[631] Gregor. Turon. lib. vii. c. 1.
CHAPTER LVI.
THE VISION OF BERTHOLDUS, AS RELATED BY HINCMAR, ARCHBISHOP OF RHEIMS.
The famous Hincmar,[632] Archbishop of Rheims, in a circular letter which he wrote to the bishops, his suffragans, and the faithful of his diocese, relates, that a man named Bertholdus, with whom he was acquainted, having fallen ill, and received all the sacraments, remained during four days without taking any food. On the fourth day he was so weak that there was hardly a feeble palpitation and respiration found in him. About midnight he called to his wife, and told her to send quickly for his confessor.
The priest was as yet only in the court before the house, when Bertholdus said, "Place a seat here, for the priest is coming." He entered the room and said some prayers, to which Bertholdus uttered the responses, and then related to him the vision he had had. "On leaving this world," said he, "I saw forty-one bishops, amongst whom were Ebonius, Leopardellus, Eneas, who were clothed in coa.r.s.e black garments, dirty, and singed by the flames. As for themselves, they were sometimes burned by the flames, and at others frozen with insupportable cold." Ebonius said to him, "Go to my clergy and my friends, and tell them to offer for us the holy sacrifice." Bertholdus obeyed, and returning to the place where he had seen the bishops, he found them well clothed, shaved, bathed, and rejoicing.
A little farther on, he met King Charles,[633] who was as if eaten by worms. This prince begged him to go and tell Hincmar to relieve his misery. Hincmar said ma.s.s for him, and King Charles found relief.
After that he saw Bishop Jesse, of Orleans, who was over a well, and four demons plunged him into boiling pitch, and then threw him into icy water. They prayed for him, and he was relieved. He then saw the Count Othaire, who was likewise in torment. Bertholdus begged the wife of Othaire, with his va.s.sals and friends, to pray for him, and give alms, and he was delivered from his torments. Bertholdus after that received the holy communion, and began to find himself better, with the hope of living fourteen years longer, as he had been promised by his guide, who had shown him all that we have just related.
Footnotes:
[632] Hincmar, lib. ii. p. 805.
[633] Apparently Charles the Bald, who died in 875.
CHAPTER LVII.
THE VISION OF SAINT FURSIUS.