THE AVENGING OF THE SAVIOR
Doumergue refers us to a text the title of which is “The Avenging of the Savior”. He says of this text:
‘There are several copies of this text. A copy is preserved at St Omer's municipal library (St Omer is a town situated in the North of France). It has been studied by historians. It is a manuscript of the IXth century. This manuscript comes from the Benedictine abbey of Saint-Bertin. This version contains several faults of copies which supposes the existence of a source text. Ernst von Dobschütz (who was professor at the University of Halle, the University of Breslau and the University of Strasbourg (1870-1934)) dates this source text to the pre-Carolingian period. He dates its writing between 700 and 720. He places its writing in the South of Gaul’.
All these manuscripts deal with events surrounding the death and burial of Jesus Christ. They provide post biblical traditions regarding the characters associated with this death and burial, such as Mary Magdalene, Joseph of Arimathea, Nicodemus and Pilate etc. Textual comparisons can show the origins of these ideas and texts. Thus in one text Mary Magdalene is named, in others Mary is replaced by a figure called Veronica. Veronica met Jesus on the road to Calvary and obtained a print of the face of Jesus when she wiped his sweating brow. In the ‘Epistola Tiberri ad Pilatum’ it is Mary Magdalene who journeys to Rome to try Pilate for his crimes. And in fact, the Catholic tradition of Veronicas Veil is that this was ‘the cloth imprinted with the image of Christ's face. Veronica bore the relic away from the Holy Land, and used it to cure Emperor Tiberius of some illness’. The ‘legends’ of the East are quite clearly overlapping with those of the West.
‘There are several copies of this text. A copy is preserved at St Omer's municipal library (St Omer is a town situated in the North of France). It has been studied by historians. It is a manuscript of the IXth century. This manuscript comes from the Benedictine abbey of Saint-Bertin. This version contains several faults of copies which supposes the existence of a source text. Ernst von Dobschütz (who was professor at the University of Halle, the University of Breslau and the University of Strasbourg (1870-1934)) dates this source text to the pre-Carolingian period. He dates its writing between 700 and 720. He places its writing in the South of Gaul’.
All these manuscripts deal with events surrounding the death and burial of Jesus Christ. They provide post biblical traditions regarding the characters associated with this death and burial, such as Mary Magdalene, Joseph of Arimathea, Nicodemus and Pilate etc. Textual comparisons can show the origins of these ideas and texts. Thus in one text Mary Magdalene is named, in others Mary is replaced by a figure called Veronica. Veronica met Jesus on the road to Calvary and obtained a print of the face of Jesus when she wiped his sweating brow. In the ‘Epistola Tiberri ad Pilatum’ it is Mary Magdalene who journeys to Rome to try Pilate for his crimes. And in fact, the Catholic tradition of Veronicas Veil is that this was ‘the cloth imprinted with the image of Christ's face. Veronica bore the relic away from the Holy Land, and used it to cure Emperor Tiberius of some illness’. The ‘legends’ of the East are quite clearly overlapping with those of the West.
HERE BEGINNETH THE AVENGING OF THE SAVIOR
THIS version of the Legend of Veronica is written in very barbarous Latin, probably of the seventh or eighth century. An Anglo-Saxon version, which Tischendorf concludes to be derived from the Latin, was edited and translated for the Cambridge Antiquarian Society, by C. W. Goodwin, in 1851. The Anglo-Saxon text is from a MS. in the Cambridge Library, one of a number presented to the Cathedral of Exeter by Bishop Leofric in the beginning of the eleventh century. The reader will observe that there are in this document two distinct legends, somewhat clumsily joined together--that of Nathan's embassy, and that of Veronica.
IN the days of the Emperor Tiberius Caesar, when Herod was Tetrarch, Christ was delivered under Pontius Pilate by the Jews, and revealed by Tiberius.
In those days Titus was a prince under Tiberius in the region of Equitania, in a city of Libia which is called Burgidalla. And Titus had a sore in his right nostril, on account of a cancer, and he had his face torn even to the eye. There went forth a certain man from Judea, by name Nathan the son of Nahum; for he was an Ishmaelite who went from land to land, and from sea to sea, and in all the ends of the earth. Now Nathan was sent from Judea to the Emperor Tiberius, to carry their treaty to the city of Rome. And Tiberius was ill, and full of ulcers and fevers, and had nine kinds of leprosy. And Nathan wished to go to the city of Rome. But the north wind blew and hindered his sailing, and carried him down to the harbor of a city of Libia. Now Titus, seeing the ship coming, knew that it was from Judea; and they all wondered, and said that they had never seen any vessel so coming from that quarter. And Titus ordered the captain to come to him, and asked him who he was. And he said: I am Nathan the son of Nahum, of the race of the Ishmaelites, and I am a subject of Pontius Pilate in Judea. And I have been sent to go to Tiberius the Roman emperor, to carry a treaty from Judea. And a strong wind came down upon the sea, and has brought me to a country that I do not know.
And Titus says: If thou couldst at any time find anything either of cosmetics or herbs which could cure the wound that I have in my face, as thou seest, so that I should become whole, and regain my former health, I should bestow upon thee many good things. And Nathan said to him: I do not know, nor have I ever known, of such things as thou speakest to me about. But for all that, if thou hadst been some time ago in Jerusalem, there thou wouldst have found a choice prophet, whose name was Emanuel, for He will save His people from their sins. And He, as His first miracle in Cana of Galilee, made wine from water; and by His word He cleansed lepers, He enlightened the eyes of one born blind, He healed paralytics, He made demons flee, He raised up three dead; a woman caught in adultery, and condemned by the Jews to be stoned, He set free; and another woman, mined Veronica, who suffered twelve years from an issue of blood, and came up to Him behind, and touched the fringe of His garment, He healed; and with five loaves and two fishes He satisfied five thousand men, to say nothing of little ones and women, and there remained of the fragments twelve baskets. All these things, and many others, were accomplished before His passion. After His resurrection we saw Him in the flesh as He had been before. And Titus said to Him: How did he rise again from the dead, seeing that he was dead? And Nathan answered and said:
He was manifestly dead, and hung up on the cross, and again taken down from the cross, and for three days He lay in the tomb: thereafter He rose again from the dead, and went down to Hades, and freed the patriarchs and the prophets, and the whole human race; thereafter He appeared to His disciples, and ate with them; thereafter they saw Him going up into heaven. And so it is the truth, all this that I tell you. For I saw it with my own eyes, and all the house of Israel. And Titus said in his own words: Woe to thee, O Emperor Tiberius, full of ulcers, and enveloped in leprosy, because such a scandal has been committed in thy kingdom; because thou hast made such laws in Judea, in the land of the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ, and they have seized the King, and put to death the Ruler of the peoples; and they have not made Him come to us to cure thee of thy leprosy, and cleanse me from mine infirmity: on which account, if they had been before my face, with my own hands I should have slain the carcases of those Jews, and hung them up on the cruel tree, because they have destroyed my Lord, and mine eyes have not been worthy to see His face. And when he had thus spoken, immediately the wound fell from the face of Titus, and his flesh and his face were restored to health. And all the sick who were in the same place were made whole in that hour. And Titus cried out, and all the rest with him, in a loud voice, saying: My King and my God, because I have never seen Thee, and Thou hast made me whole, bid me go with the ship over the waters to the land of Thy birth, to take vengeance on Thine enemies; and help me, O Lord, that I may be able to destroy them, and avenge Thy death: do Thou, Lord, deliver them into my hand. And having thus spoken, he ordered that he should be baptized. And he called Nathan to him, and said to him: How hast thou seen those baptized who believe in Christ? Come to me, and baptize me in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen. For I also firmly believe in the Lord Jesus Christ with all my heart, and with all my soul; because nowhere in the whole world is there another who has created me, and made me whole from my wounds.
And having thus spoken, he sent messengers to Vespasian to come with all haste with his bravest men, so prepared as if for war.
Then Vespasian brought with him five thousand armed men, and they went to meet Titus. And when they had come to the city of Libia, he said to Titus: Why is it that thou hast made me come hither? And he said: Know that Jesus has come into this world, and has been born in Judea, in a place which is called Bethlehem, and has been given up by the Jews, and scourged, and crucified on Mount Calvary, and has risen again from the dead on the third day. And His disciples have seen Him in the same flesh in which he was born, and He has shown Himself to His disciples, and they have believed in Him. And we indeed wish to become His disciples. Now, let us go and destroy His enemies from the earth, that they may now know that there is none like the Lord our God on the face of the earth.
With this design, then, they went forth from the city of Libia which is called Burgidalla, and went on board a ship, and proceeded to Jerusalem, and surrounded the kingdom of the Jews, and began to send them to destruction. And when the kings of the Jews heard of their doings, and the wasting of their land, fear came upon them, and they were in great perplexity. Then Archelaus was perplexed in his words, and said to his son: My son, take my kingdom and judge it; and take counsel with the other kings who are in the land of Judah, that you may be able to escape from our enemies. And having thus said, he unsheathed his sword and leaned upon it; and turned his sword, which was very sharp, and thrust it into his breast, and died. And his son allied himself with the other kings who were under him, and they took counsel among themselves, and went into Jerusalem with their chief men who were in their counsel, and stood in the same place seven years. And Titus and Vespasian took counsel to surround their city. And they did so. And the seven years being fulfilled, there was a very sore famine, and for want of bread they began to eat earth. Then all the soldiers who were of the four kings took counsel among themselves, and said: Now we are sure to die: what will God do to us? or of what good is our life to us, because the Romans have come to take our place and nation? It is better for us to kill each other, than that the Romans should say that they have slain us, and gained the victory over us. And they drew their swords and smote themselves, and died, to the number of twelve thousand men of them. Then there was a great stench in that city from the corpses of those dead men. And their kings feared with a very great fear even unto death; and they could not bear the stench of them, nor bury them, nor throw them forth out of the city. And they said to each other: What shall we do? We indeed gave up Christ to death, and now we given up to death ourselves. Let us bow our heads, and give up the keys of the city to the Romans, because God has already given us up to death. And immediately they went up upon the walls of the city, and all cried out with a loud voice, saying: Titus and Vespasian, take the keys of the city, which have been given to you by Messiah, who is called Christ.
Then they gave themselves up into the hands of Titus and Vespasian, and said: Judge us, seeing that we ought to die, because we judged Christ; and he was given up without cause. Titus and Vespasian seized them, and some they stoned, and some they hanged on a tree, feet up and head down, and struck them through with lances; and others they gave up to be sold, and others they divided among themselves, and made four parts of them, just as they had done of the garments of the Lord. And they said: They sold Christ for thirty pieces of silver, and we shall sell thirty of them for one denarius. And so they did. And having done so, they seized all the lands of Judea and Jerusalem.
Then they made a search about the face or portrait of Jesus, how they might find it. And they found a woman named Veronica who had it. Then they seized Pilate, and sent him to prison, to be guarded by four quaternions of soldiers at the door of the prison. Then they forthwith sent their messengers to Tiberius, the emperor of the city of Rome, that he should send Velosianus to them. And he said to him: Take all that is necessary for thee in the sea, and go down into Judea, and seek out one of the disciples of him who is called Christ and Lord, that he may come to me, and in the name of his God cure me of the leprosy and the infirmities by which I am daily exceedingly burdened, and of my wounds, because I am ill at ease. And send upon the kings of the Jews, who are subject to my authority, thy forces and terrible engines, because they have put to death Jesus Christ our Lord, and condemn them to death. And if thou shalt there find a man as may be able to free me from this infirmity of mine, I will believe in Christ the Son of God, and will baptize myself in his name. And Velosianus said: My lord emperor, if I find such a man as may be able to help and free us, what reward shall I promise him? Tiberius said to him: The half of my kingdom, without fail, to be in his hand.
Then Velosianus immediately went forth, and went on board the ship, and hoisted the sail in the vessel, and went on sailing through the sea. And he sailed a year and seven days, after which he arrived at Jerusalem. And immediately he ordered some of the Jews to come to his power, and began carefully to ask what had been the acts of Christ. Then Joseph, of the city of Arimathaea, and Nicodemus, came at the same time. And Nicodemus said: I saw Him, and I know indeed that He is the Savior of the world. And Joseph said to him: And I took Him down from the cross, and laid Him in a new tomb, which had been cut out of the rock. And the Jews kept me shut up on the day of the preparation, at evening; and while I was standing in prayer on the Sabbath-day, the house was hung up by the four corners, and I saw the Lord Jesus Christ like a gleam of light, and for fear I fell to the ground. And He said to me, Look upon me, for I am Jesus, whose body thou buriedst in thy tomb. And I said to Him, Show me the sepulcher where I laid Thee. And Jesus, holding my hand in His right hand, led me to the place where I buried Him.
And there came also the woman named Veronica, and said to him: And I touched in the crowd the fringe of His garment, because for twelve years I had suffered from an issue of blood; and He immediately healed me. Then Velosianus said to Pilate: Thou, Pilate, impious and cruel, why hast thou slain the Son of God? And Pilate answered: His own nation, and the chief priests Annas and Caiaphas, gave him to me. Volosianus said: Impious and cruel, thou art worthy of death and cruel punishment. And he sent him back to prison. And Velosianus at last sought for the face or the countenance of the Lord. And all who were in that same place said: It is the woman called Veronica who has the portrait of the Lord in her house. And immediately he ordered her to be brought before his power. And he said to her: Hast thou the portrait of the Lord in thy house? But she said, No. Then Velosianus ordered her to be put to the torture, until she should give up the portrait of the Lord. And she was forced to say: I have it in clean linen, my lord, and I daily adore it. Velosianus said: Show it to me. Then she showed the portrait of the Lord. When Velosianus saw it, he prostrated himself on the ground; and with a ready heart and true faith he took hold of it, and wrapped it in cloth of gold, and placed it in a casket, and sealed it with his ring. And he swore with an oath, and said: As the Lord God liveth, and by the health of Caesar, no man shall any more see it upon the face of the earth, until I see the face of my lord Tiberius. And when he had thus spoken, the princes, who were the chief men of Judea, seized Pilate to take him to a seaport. And he took the portrait of the Lord, with all His disciples, and all in his pay, and they went on board the ship the same day. Then the woman Veronica, for the love of Christ, left all that she possessed, and followed Velosianus. And Velosianus said to her: What dost thou wish, woman, or what dost thou seek? And she answered: I am seeking the portrait of our Lord Jesus Christ, who enlightened me, not for my own merits, but through His own holy affection. Give back to me the portrait of my Lord Jesus Christ; for because of this I die with a righteous longing. But if thou do not give it back to me, I will not leave it until I see where thou wilt put it, because I, most miserable woman that I am, will serve Him all the days of my life; because I believe that He, my Redeemer, liveth for everlasting.
Then Velosianus ordered the woman Veronica to be taken down with him into the ship And the sails being hoisted they began to go in the vessel in the name of the Lord, and they sailed through the sea. But Titus, along with Vespasian, went up into Judea, avenging all nations upon their land. At the end of a year Velosianus came to the city of Rome, brought his vessel into the river which is called Tiberis, or Tiber, and entered the city which is called Rome. And he sent his messenger to his lord Tiberius the emperor in the Lateran about his prosperous arrival.
Then Tiberius the emperor, when he heard the message of Velosianus, rejoiced greatly, and ordered him to come before his face. And when he had come, he called him, saying: Velosianus, how hast thou come, and what hast thou seen in the region of Judea of Christ the Lord and his disciples? Tell me, I beseech thee, that he is going to cure me of mine infirmity, that I may be at once cleansed from that leprosy which I have over my body, and I give up my whole kingdom into thy power and his.
And Velosianus said: My lord emperor, I found thy servants Titus and Vespasian in Judea fearing the Lord, and they were cleansed from all their ulcers and sufferings. And I found that all the kings and rulers of Judea have been hanged by Titus; Annas and Caiaphas have been stoned, Archelaus has killed himself with his own lance; and I have sent Pilate to Damascus in bonds, and kept him in prison under safe keeping. But I have also found out about Jesus, whom the Jews most wickedly attacked with swords, and staves, and weapons; and they crucified him who ought to have freed and enlightened us, and to have come to us, and they hanged him on a tree. And Joseph came from Arimathaea, and Nicodemus with him, bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about a hundred pounds, to anoint the body of Jesus; and they took him down from the cross, and laid him in a new tomb. And on the third day he most assuredly rose again froth the dead, and showed himself to his disciples in the same flesh in which he had been born. At length, after forty days, they saw him going up into heaven. Many, indeed, and other miracles did Jesus before his passion and after. First, of water he made wine; he raised the dead, he cleansed lepers, he enlightened the blind, he cured paralytics, he put demons to flight; he made the deaf hear, the dumb speak; Lazarus, when four days dead, he raised from the tomb; the woman Veronica, who suffered from an issue of blood twelve years, and touched the fringe of his garment, he made whole. Then it pleased the Lord in the heavens, that the Son of God, who, sent into this world as the first-created, had died upon earth, should send his angel; and he commanded Titus and Vespasian, whom I knew in that place where thy throne is. And it pleased God Almighty that they went into Judea and Jerusalem, and seized thy subjects, and put them under that sentence, as it were, in the same manner as they did when thy subjects seized Jesus and bound him. And Vespasian afterwards said: What shall we do about those who shall remain? Titus answered: They hanged our Lord on a green tree, and struck him with a lance; now let us hang them on a dry tree, and pierce their bodies through and through with the lance. And they did so. And Vespasian said: What about those who are left? Titus answered: They seized the tunic of our Lord Jesus Christ, and of it made four parts; now let us seize them, and divide them into four parts,--to thee one, to me one, to thy men another, and to my servants the fourth part. And they did so. And Vespasian said: But what shall we do about those who are left? Titus answered him: The Jews sold our Lord for thirty pieces of silver: now let us sell thirty of them for one piece of silver. And they did so. And they seized Pilate, and gave him up to me, and I put him in prison, to be guarded by four quaternions of soldiers in Damascus. Then they made a search with great diligence to seek the portrait of the Lord; and they found a woman named Veronica who had the portrait of the Lord. Then the Emperor Tiberius said to Velosianus: How hast thou it? And he answered: I have it in clean cloth of gold, rolled up in a shawl. And the Emperor Tiberius said: Bring it to me, and spread it before my face, that I, falling to the ground and bending my knees, may adore it on the ground. Then Velosianus spread out his shawl with the cloth of gold on which the portrait of the Lord had been imprinted; and the Emperor Tiberius saw it. And he immediately adored the image of the Lord with a pure heart, and his flesh was cleansed as the flesh of a little child. And all the blind, the lepers, the lame, the dumb, the deaf, and those possessed by various diseases, who were there present, were healed, and cured, and cleansed. And the Emperor Tiberius bowed his head and bent his knees, considering that saying: Blessed is the womb which bore Thee, and the breasts which Thou hast sucked; and he groaned to the Lord, saying with tears: God of heaven and earth, do not permit me to sin, but confirm my soul and my body, and place me in Thy kingdom, because in Thy name do I trust always: free me from all evils, as Thou didst free the three children from the furnace of blazing fire.
Then said the Emperor Tiberius to Velosianus: Velosianus, hast thou seen any of those men who saw Christ? Velosianus answered: I have. He said: Didst thou ask how they baptize those who believed in Christ? Velosianus said: Here, my Lord, we have one of the disciples of Christ himself. Then he ordered Nathan to be summoned to come to him. Nathan therefore came and baptized him in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen. Immediately the Emperor Tiberius, made whole from all his diseases, ascended upon his throne, and said: Blessed art Thou, O Lord God Almighty, and worthy to be praised, who hast freed me from the snare of death, and cleansed me from all mine iniquities; because I have greatly sinned before Thee, O Lord my God, and I am not worthy to see Thy face. And then the Emperor Tiberius was instructed in all the articles of the faith, fully, and with strong faith.
May that same God Almighty, who is King of kings and Lord of lords, Himself shield us in His faith, and defend us, and deliver us from all danger and evil, and deign to bring us to life everlasting, when this life, which is temporary, shall fail; who is blessed for ever and ever. Amen.
THE FIFTEEN TOKENS OF DOOMSDAY
From the Leabhar Ui Maolconaire: a collection of legends, lives of saints compiled by the family of O’Mulconroy.
Hieronymus in Annalibus Hebraiorum, etc., that is, Jerome the prophet relates, as he found in the historical books of the Hebrews, the tokens of the fifteen days before Doom. And these are the tokens of the fifteenth day before Doom, to wit, all the seas and waters will rise from the face of the earth up to the clouds of heaven, fifteen cubits above the mountains, so that the cry of the seals, and the roar of the whales, the yelling and blowing of the red-mouthed sea-monsters will be on the dry strands after the water leaves them on that day.
This is the token of the fourteenth day before Doom, namely, the vast billow-roar, and the noise of the mighty waves of all the waters falling hurriedly again on the following day into their own proper places, so that they go into the depth of the earth; and whither they go is unknown.
This is the token of the thirteenth day before Doom, that is, all the waters will go back into their own right and proper place, and will freeze and harden, so that many armies would march upon them.
This is the token of the twelfth day before Doom; to wit, all the sea-animals will rise up madly from the earth to the walls of the firmament and to the clouds of heaven, and will be continually clamoring and uttering outcries urgently for dread of the Day of Doom; and no one in the world, save the true, great, mighty God, knows what they say on that day.
These are the tokens of the eleventh day before Doom, to wit, all the birds and fowls of the earth will be moving and flitting continually, without resting or delaying, and will be there without partaking of food or drink.
This is the token of the tenth day before Doom, to wit, great rivers, rough-waved, solid, fiery, will flow out of the firmament from sunrise to sunset.
This is the token of the ninth day before Doom, to wit, a great sound, ugly, rough, terrific, will be heard from the heights of heaven, and many lightnings and vast thunder will come there out, and a red, fiery cloud will rise from the southern part of the sky and spread over all the surface of the earth, and a rush of crimson blood, with a rough-waved fiery flame, will pour out of that cloud, so that it would fill the whole world, both sea and land; and flames of flashing fire will be over the four parts of the globe, and a mighty earthquake on the whole world, and a vast spark will rise at every part of the earth, and the sea with its many thousands will go forth over its ramparts on that day.
This is the token of the eighth day before Doom, to wit, an excessive tremor will be on the elements, with the shaking of the firmament and a great clanking at all the earth for dread of the great deed that is coming to them. And every creature will be prostrate with fear, and the waves of the sea will rise as high as the lofty ether, and strong fiery winds will shake the ocean from bottom to top. The stridor and thundering of the seas and the waters against the rivers of fire in the ether, without music or pleasure, throughout the world's four parts on that day. A life sad, ever-distressful, peaceless, healthless, they have, after the slopes and glens of the world have been filled for the sinners there.
This is the token of the seventh day before Doom, to wit, all the stones, both small and great, will split into four parts, and each of these parts will be conversing with another, and no one but God Himself knows what they say. And the woods of the earth will fall out of their roots, after all of them have been broken on that day, and a perilous trembling of the stones after they have been separated from their proper forms. And bitter, spectral streams of sulphurous fire will rise from the flanks of the earth, so that the whole world is one blaze from sunrise to sunset. Mist and mighty thundering of heaven are on that day.
This is the token of the sixth day before Doom, to wit, all the trees and stones will be shedding blood there, and frequent, rough, keen wind will rise there, whereby the whole world is shaken at once. Wailing and screaming and crying and wretched sorrowful groaning have Adam's race, entreating the earth to open before them, so that they may not be seeing those vast evils, for they deem it seven times better to die than to be alive at that season.
'Tis then three hundred and sixty-five stars will fall from the east of the firmament down upon earth on that day. And the mountains will then fall, so that they will be on a level with the glens, and the firmament and heaven and earth will be shut there.
This is the token of the fifth day before the Doom, to wit, great thunders and the sound of the four fiery winds from the four parts of heaven. The elements will shrink up and separate before the holy Powers, and their nature will change so that out of the firmament innumerable streams of stars, to wit, five thousand three hundred and sixty-five stars, fall down to earth as falls ripe fruit on a windy day. The moon will turn into blood, and the sun will grow dark, and the mountains and all the structures will turn into ashes. The terrible screaming and wretched cry of the birds at being burnt and scalded on that day, and the bitter sulphurous streams of that heavy storm's fire between heaven and earth! A bitter, sad wail, and a hard, vehement lamentation and heavy grief, and reproachful rebuke hath Adam's race on that day.
All mankind will then be kneeling fervently to God, and entreating Him to save them from the fire of Doom.
This is the token of the fourth day before Doom, to wit, all the lawless animals of the earth will go out of their proper places, and be on the plains, crying out and howling, without food, without clothing on that day, and the human race will go out of the places in which they will be, and each of them past his fellow in madness, and he himself understands nothing that he says. And everyone that has tasted life will die at once on that day, and all the world will be under hail and fire.
And the doors of the palace will open there. Ah the hurried crashing together, and the vast roar of the seven heavens, at the coming of the Creator with His angels out of them to the judgment of Doom!
Then will heaven's angels say to the Creator: ‘Oh, oh, our Lord!’ they say, ‘come quickly near us, so that the living fire of Doom may not burn us!’ For though virulent is this fire that is in the world, hotter seven times is the fire of Doom. For there are four fires there, and seven times greater is the heat of each of them than that of another: as said a certain sage, namely, fire of earth, fire of lightning, fire of Doom, and fire of Hell:
Seven times greater than the heat of the fire of the soft earth
is the fire of bright-quick lightning: Seven times greater than the heat of the fire of ready Doom is the fire of cruel Hell.
Then the angels and the souls of the saints and the righteous will be saved, like a fish in water, so that the fire of Doom does not burn them.
This is the token of the third day before the Doom, to wit, every grave will open, and their dead will come forth honorably, and the world will be in grief on that day, for then there will not be dwellings for living, or for dead on the present world.
This is the token of the second day before Doom, to wit, all the living will die thereon.
This is the token of the day before Doom, to wit, the pure King of Glory, the only Son of the King of heaven and earth and hell, with a countless multitude of angels and archangels, to wit, the nine ranks of heaven, in His company will go, on that day to the summit of Mount Zion to judge their deeds, both good and evil, for Adam's impure children.
This is the semblance in number of the household of heaven in the company of the Creator on that day, to wit, stars of heaven, and sand of sea, and grass on earth. Such is the greatness of the power and strength of the angels, that in the space of only a single day seven of them would sweep away the whole world from sunrise to sunset.
More awful and mightier than thunder are their voices, so that then, there is sent a proclamation, from the Creator to the human race, to wit, Michael the Archangel; and all human beings will then hear Michael's proclamation from the Creator, summoning them to that great assembly. So then all the dead will arise out of the earth, to wit, first, the apostles will arise, and the prophets and the confessors, the martyrs and the saints and the righteous; and thereafter the virgins and penitents; and, lastly, baptized infants.
No one on that day will be younger or older than another, for the whole human race will arise at the age of thirty years, that is, the age at which Adam was created, and the age which Jesus had attained when He was baptized.
Oh, foul will be the resurrection of the sinners on that day! A great and vast army of Adam's race will be proceeding distressfully through the seas of heavy, fiery, perilous storm, and through the vast unendurable waves of the red flame which is in the four parts of the world, to the meeting of the justly-judging, mighty Over-king, unto Mount Zion.
Oh then the household of heaven and earth and hell will gather into that meeting, and then the King of Glory will arise with His final Cross on his shoulder in the presence of them all; and thus He will arise, with all His red Body around Him, with the traces of the stabs and wounds of His Passion upon Him, so that all the deep, incurable gashes, and the great tortures which they themselves inflicted upon Him, may be manifested to the Jews.
Then Christ will sit down with his twelve Apostles around Him. Oh then will be the great, conspicuous end, to wit, the Monday of Doomsday, the day of destruction and vengeance for the sinners, and the day of respect and great honor for the righteous.
That day there will be a sad and manifest cry from the rabble of the world at being cast, bound and cruelly fettered, into the awful death of Hell, into the unfriendly hands of their foe, the Devil, tortured continually, and with Hell shut upon them for ever and ever.
Then the saints and the righteous will be diligently and always praising their Creator, they being cheerful and glad after gaining victory and triumph from the Devil.
Oh the whole human race is arranged in four assemblies, there in presence of Christ, to wit, the good and the very good, the bad and the very bad.
Oh sad it is that the provision of the ready, ever-decisive judgments which are then delivered will not be upright, pleasant, righteous, discreet, gentle, patient, loving, abstinent, fasting, humble, penitent!
Oh, on one side then will be cast the envious and the false-judging, the quarrelsome and the incestuous, the harlots and the satirists and the buffoons, the heretics and the marauders, the robbers and the jealous, the liars, the noisy, the lampooners, the she-lampooners, the haughty; the gluttonous, the angry, the homicidal, the parricides, the deceivers, and all other evil ones.
Those, then, are cast to the demons, to inhabit Hell for ever and ever. And that folk is swept out of the world, for they themselves have forsaken the reward of heaven and the sight of their holy and mighty Father; and they will be a thousand years in the eternal fire of Doom, for that is the length and period of the Day of Judgment.
Oh, neither calm nor easy is that road, for there they get neither food nor drink nor resting, but constant hunger, and thirst without relief, and cold and unendurable heat.
Oh, sad will be the sharp cry of lamentation and the great howl of grief, and the hard, vehement wailing, and the sorrow of mind, and the suffering of heart, and the enduringly wretched hand-clapping of Doom, which the sinners, after rejecting God's mercy, make at being dragged, strongly and urgently, to the everlasting torture of Hell. And they will be mightily praying for pardon, and wretchedly reproaching the Lord for not forgiving them in this life for the outrages they committed upon Him.
Oh, 'tis then on that day the locks will be shut on the sinners! to wit, the shutting on them by casting them into the many awful torments of hell, and the shutting of their eyes against the world, and the shutting from beholding the heavenly Kingdom without their seeing it thenceforward.
Oh, then they will sit in the presence of the King of Evil, to wit, the Devil, in the glen of infernal torments, where there is dark, lightless fire, and a life sad, ever-distressful, foul, sooty, virulent, impure; and where there will be trembling on tooth, and hard shackles on body, and grief on mind, and darkness on cheeks, and miserable, mournful moans, and constant weepings, and lasting hand-clapping, and heavy tears of blood over cheeks at their suffering, and cries at hearing them.
Oh, the Devil will then make heavy-headed, cruelly-fettered, bound captives of the tortured sinners at their lasting passion in the narrow chested, rough-headed, iron, awful prison of hell for ever and ever. White faces of constant suffering with the aspect of a dead man they have; and horrible, many-headed monsters with thick, crimson snouts upon them; and one great monster there, with five hundred heads and five hundred fangs in every head, and a hundred feet, and a hundred toes on every foot, and a hundred nails on every toe.
Howbeit, the whole human race could not set forth the multitude of Hell's many torments, Ever-living fire will be continually blazing therein, and it does not illumine; and if the sea were spilled against it the sea would not quench it.
This is the second torment therein, to wit, unendurable cold, as saith this testimony: si mitteretur etc. that is, in a mountain of fire aflame were cast therein, Hell would make of it ice and snow.
The third torment, that of poisonous snakes and vermin and many monsters of hell to be gnawing and wounding the souls continually.
The fourth torment, the lasting, unmeet stench of Hell.
The fifth torment, the urgent smiting together of the demons, like the sledging of smiths in a forge, at the continual smiting and massacring of the souls.
The sixth torment, everlasting: A land of darkness wherein dwells the shadow of Death, and no right order, but eternal horror.
The seventh torment, namely, the confession of the sins which one did not confess in this life, so that they are then manifest to all the folk of Hell.
The eighth torment, the continual contemplation of the Devil's countenance. For though there were no torment in hell, that would be enough of torment, for sparks of fire drop urgently from the base eye of the Devil as a red firebrand drops from a hearth.
The ninth torment: locks and fiery bonds to be blazing on every member and on every separate joint of the sinners, so that they cannot escape from the torments in which they abide for ever: for in life they did not control those members by penance and by the cross of repentance in liability for their evil and their sin.
But touching the saints and the righteous, the mighty Lord will welcome them attentively on that day, and will then say to them: Come ye blessed ones, etc.
Then seven Glories are bestowed on the bodies of the righteous, and seven glories on their souls. These are the seven Glories of those bodies, Claritatem, that is brightness, for the bodies of those that arise on that day will be seven times brighter than the sun: Velocitatem, that is, speed, for the bodies of those that arise will be swifter than wind: Fortitudinem, that is strength: Libertatem, that is freedom: Voluntatem, that is, will, for their will and the Lord's shall be the same: Sanitatem, that is, health, for throughout eternity they will suffer no disease or sickness: Immortalitatem, that is, immortality, for in their case they will never have separation of body and soul.
These are the seven Glories of the soul, to wit, wisdom and friendliness and union, power and honor, gentleness and gladness. Oh those are the honors and gifts that the mighty Lord bestows on his own righteous ones, to wit, on the mild and kindly and loving and merciful, the beneficent, and the virgins for sake of God.
Then is Life eternal without death, and many-melodied joy, and lordly delight without limit or end, and health without sickness, and pleasure without strife, and youth without aging, and peace without disunion, and dominion without disturbance, and freedom without labor, and patience without desire, and calm without sleep. Holiness without defect, unity of angels, feasting without limit, to partake of the great Pasch among nine ranks of heaven's angels, and together with them a Prince high, noble, fair, just, adorned: great, lordly, gentle and pure: on golden thrones and on glassen couches. And every one will be seated there according to honor and law, and according to his good works, contemplating the King perfect, entreated, righteous, truly-judging, noble, reverend, humble; in presence of the great Godhead, to wit, the King of the Three Households, chanting together with Cherubim and Seraphim, and with nine ranks of Heaven, and with Him who was and is and will be there for ever; without age or decay, without feebleness or weakness, without gloom or sadness, in bodies subtile and shining, in the station of angels and in the burgh of Paradise.
Oh, unspeakable is the size and amplitude and breadth of the Heavenly City! For the bird whose flight and flying are swiftest on this earth could not finish the journey of that royal abode though it flew from the beginning of the world to the end.
Oh great and vast are the size and lastingness and radiance of that City, and its ease and its luster, its grace and its great purity, its firmness and its stability, its costliness, its beauty, and its pleasantness, its height and its splendor, its dignity and its venerableness: its plenteous peace and plenteous unity.
Oh then well for him who shall be with good morals and good works to inhabit that City on the day of Doom! For he will be in the unity of each of the three, namely, in the unity that is greatly nobler than any unity, the unity of the royal Trinity of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost.
I entreat the mercy of great God. May we all reach the unity of that noble many-powered King, and may we dwell together with Him for ever!
TIDINGS OF DOOMSDAY
An Early-Middle-Irish Homily
The following homily is taken from pp. 31-34 of the lithographic facsimile of the Lebor na hUidre 'Book of the Dun Cow', a ms. of the early part of the twelfth century, preserved in the library of the Royal Irish Academy. Its value is threefold, first, as throwing light on the notions of the medieval Irish as to the other world, secondly, as a specimen of a little known homiletic literature, and, thirdly, as the situs of a large number of rare Middle-Irish words and forms. Thus in paragraph 1, comfolbthaide, which seems a mistake for co-molbthaide: cf. molbhthach 'praiseworthy'; 5, terbod (=terpud, Egerton 93, fo. 1. b. 1) .i. innarbad no deligud, O'Dav. 12. sráinfitir, 3d pl. b-fut. passive of the verb now written sraoínim. 14. tóithenach, O'Reilly's taoitheannach. 17. congain chride : cf. O'Clery's eatla .i. ciamhaire, congain chroidhe, aithrighe no déra. 20. sírrechtaidib, cf. O'Clery's sirreacht .i. truagh: riches, dat. pl. richessaib, O. Ir. richis (gl. carbo) Z 2 273, Corn. 'regihten' gl. pruna, Br. 'reguez', Cath. 'cicarach' 'ravenous', cirriud, cf. cirr 'comb', Rev. Celt. I, 55. aslom an 'hapax legomenon' to me. 21. brothgal the vapour (gal) of burning flesh (broth. i. feoil, O'Cl.) 22. tesmalta, cf. coneicsed-side do tesmolta andaine & acomairbairta bith, LB. 211a cin 'a drop' O'R. 23, tairthim splendor? also in tairthim flatho LU. 132 and in the Félire, prol. 166. 24. toichell (do-fo-chell) .i. imtheacht, O'Cl. dofoichlenn an innsi, H. 2. 16, col. 374: cf. Greek kéleuthos, callis. 25. ammáin, O'Reilly's amhain adv. only, alone'. The following forms are noticeable; the dat. sg. spirutu in paragraph 1 (perhaps a mistake for spirit, but cf. dia mogha manchuine, Senchas Mór, II, 22), the verbal forms tancabair, tancaibair, 5, 9, for Old-Irish tancaid 'venistis', for(f)acsabar-si, 18. scérait 19, 3d pl. redupl. fut. act. from scaraim. doraga 'adveniet' 5, I 3, ragait 'venient', 15, 16, 17, 18, and the secondary forms of the s-future rosesed (*ro-sech'sed) 2, and tairsed (*tairicsed) 24.
God to bless the hearers all!
Let everyone of them severally give his mind and his attention earnestly unto tidings of Doomsday, to wit, how the Lord will welcome the Saints and the Righteous to inhabit the heavenly kingdom, but how he will show sternness to the Sinful and to the Unrighteous in banishing them into hell.
Jesus Christ, son of David, Saviour of all the world, the third Person of the high Godhead, who is co-eternal and equally to be praised with the Father and with the Holy Ghost, he it is that told these tidings a little while before his Passion, to set forth the appearance that he himself will have on Doomsday, with his Saints and with his Righteous ones, and to strengthen his apostles and his disciples, so that sadness for his suffering might not take hold of them, for he knew that the time of his Passion was at hand.
Matthew son of Alpheus, an Hebrew sage, the twelfth man whom Jesus chose into his household, the fourth man who wrote the Gospel of the Lord, he it is that wrote and revised these tidings of Doomsday, as he heard them from the lips of his Master, namely, Jesus, and left them in remembrance with the Church, and spake in this wise.
When the Son of God and Man in one Person shall come with honor and with glory, and all his angels along with him, then will he sit on his throne and on the station of his glory and all the human beings will be collected there in his presence, and he will make their division and their separation thereafter. He will set in order, forsooth, his Saints and his Righteous ones on his right hand; but the sinful and the unrighteous he will set in order on his left. It is then that the King will say to those that are on his right, ‘Come ye, oh blessed ones, possess my Father's kingdom that hath been prepared for you from the beginning of the world! For I was in hunger and ye gave me food: I was in thirst and ye gave me drink; I was in need of a guest-house and ye gave me hospitality; I was without raiment and ye gave me raiment: I was in sickness and ye came to watch me: I was in captivity and ye came to loose me and to help me.’
It is then that the Righteous will give this answer to the Lord: ‘Oh Lord’, say they, ‘when saw we thee in hunger or in thirst and gave thee food and drink? when saw we thee in need of a guest-house or without raiment, and gave thee hospitality and raiment? or when saw we thee in sickness or captivity and came to get tidings of thee and to loose thee?’
This then is the answer that the Lord will give to the Righteous: ‘Every time’, saith he, ‘that ye have done good for the poor in my name, it is for me ye have done it.’
Those then are the six kinds of mercy by which the heavenly kingdom is bought. They are the six glassen doors through the which comes the light of eternal life into the Church. Those are the six steps whereby the Saints and the Righteous ascend to Heaven.
Then shall the Lord give also unto them that are on his left hand this bitter, awful answer, to wit, to the folk that have not fulfilled his will and his command, and it is this that he shall say to them, casting them into hell: ‘Depart from me, oh cursed ones, and go ye into the everlasting fire that hath been prepared for the Devil and his evil household. For I was in hunger and in thirst and ye gave me not food or drink: I was in need of a guest. house and raiment and ye gave me not hospitality or raiment: I was in sickness and captivity and ye came not to get tidings of me or to loose me.’
It is then that the impious ones shall give this answer to the Lord: ‘Oh Lord,’ say they, ‘when saw we thee in hunger, or in thirst, or in need of a guest-house, or without raiment, or in sickness, or in captivity, and rendered not attendance nor lowly service unto thee?’
It is then the Lord will give an answer to them: ‘Every time’, saith he, ‘that ye have not done good for the poor in my name, it is for me ye have not done it.’
Those then are the six chief things through the which hell is attained. Thereafter then the unjust shall be hurled headlong into hell's pain and into the everlasting punishment, but the Saints and the Righteous shall go into the life everlasting to inhabit heaven along with God and his angels for ever and ever.
It is asked in the holy scripture whence it is that the Lord will come to the judgment of Doom, and how he will come, and wherefore he will come.
From Heaven, then, certainly the Lord will come to the judgment of Doom, as certifieth the royal prophet David the son of Jesse; but how he will come certifieth the same prophet, and it is this that he saith: ‘It is manifest’, saith he, ‘that the Lord will come to the judgment, and he will not be not silent.’ There will be a great fire flaming before him and a mighty storm around him on every side. It is for this that the Lord will come to the judgment, to decide on the human race both living and dead, as saith the same royal prophet, ‘there shall be gathered together’, saith he, ‘the household of heaven and earth in the presence of the Lord on the Day of Doom.’
It is certain, then, that there will be made four troops of the human race on the Day of Doom. Now a troop of them shall be brought to judgment and shall go after their doom to pain and punishment. It is to them the Lord shall make the awful answer in banishing them from him: ‘Depart from me, oh cursed, into the everlasting fire that has been prepared for the Devil and for his evil household.’ It is these that do not fulfill by deed the good which they promise by lips. This is the name of that folk in the scripture, mali non valde, that is, bad, not greatly bad.
Another troop of then will not be brought to judgment, but to Hell they will go at once, without adjudication at all then, and they will be tortured thereafter through ages of ages without God's mercy to help them, for they do not put term, or law, or rule on committing their sins and the vices here, but every evil which is greatest they could to outrage God and men, it is this that they do. This is the name of that troop, mali valde, that is, what is worst of the human race.
Another troop of them will be brought to judgment, and they will go after their judgment unto reward. These are they that here make earnest repentance through grief of heart, and amend their former evils through virtues and fair deeds, and then they give alms of food and of raiment to the poor in honor of the Lord, and these hide the sins they have before committed, and the Lord remembers not for them there the evils they did here. It is to these that the Lord will say on Doomsday, calling them to Him unto heaven. ‘Come now, O Blessed, to inhabit the heavenly kingdom!’ This, then, is the name of that troop in the holy scripture boni non valde, that is, 'good who are not greatly good'.
Another troop of them, however, will not be brought to judgment, but unto heaven and all golden rewards they will go at once without adjudication at all. With them it is not enough of good to fulfill everything that the divine scripture enjoins on them to do, so that they abound through their own virtues and through their fair ... and they do more of good than what is enjoined on them in the divine commands. It is to them ... that Jesus pledges and prophecies this great good ... in the gospel, that he will say to them, seeing them ... to him in the great convention of Doomsday. ‘Since ye have left for me’, saith Jesus, ‘every good thing that ye had in the world, ye have come into my household and into my fellowship. Come ye now ... that ye may be along with me on twelve thrones, without adjudication on you. Ye are judging the human race’... Here a leaf seems lost.
... to inhabit Hell for ever. And it is they who shall be in the Devil's tents and camps. And they shall separate from the delight of this world which they loved, and from the faces of Heaven's household, that is, of the Angels and of the Saints and of the Righteous, after they have been a thousand years in the fire of Doom. For that is the length of Doomsday as the commentators on the holy canon declare.
Not happy then will be the road of those sinners: they get not drink nor food, but constant hunger, and great thirst, and great cold. It is they that will be brought thereafter to the Devil's house, with noise of despair, with heavy yearning sighs. Sad are the cry and shout, wailing and screaming, woe and hand beating, of those sinful people there, at the dragging of them to Hell's torture. But that will be sadness of repentance without profit thereon, for there their prayer will not be heard. For they prepared not at first while they were here in possession both of their bodies and their souls. Then will be shut the sinners' three locks, to wit, shutting of Hell for ever on them, and shutting of their eyes on the world to which they gave love, and shutting of the heavenly kingdom on them. Thereafter they will sit a merciless seat on glowing coals of great fire before the king of evil in the Glen of tortures, wherein they shall have heavy punishments, to wit, death without life: dark fire: life woeful, sad, foul, unclean: a place wherein shall be many dogs keen, greedy, gluttonous, broad-eared, long-clawed, sharp-pawed, beside them. And toads, keen, rough, destroying one another. And adders poisonous, very swift, around the Devil's city. And lions fierce, rending. And many in their dark mass and in their dark light. A place wherein shall be birds hideous, taloned, fearful, made of iron. And stinking lochs, stormy, cold, hellish. Fires dark, ever burning. Red flags under feet. Swords maiming. Cats scratching and furrowing. Fiends torturing. Wounds without healing. Flame without quenching. Gag on tongues. Strangling on throats. Vexing on heads. Yelling and gagging on voices. Fettering on soles. A place wherein beside every evil shall be the Monster, conspicuous, awful, many-headed, with crowds of red glowing coals. Somewhat of his description, to wit: a hundred necks upon him and a hundred heads on each neck, and five hundred teeth in each head. A hundred hands upon him, and a hundred palms on each hand, and a hundred nails on every palm. A place wherein existence is without lovingness, without friendship, in thirst, in hunger, in great cold, in great heat, in want of every good thing and in fullness of every evil thing, in union with the disunion of the fiends and the household of Hell. Then will be there woe and lamentation, wail and crying, groan and scream of every mouth, and a curse without resting from the sinners on their Abbot, to wit, on the Devil, for he it is that puts them in endurance of punishment for every evil they did through his temptation, and a curse, too, from him on monks about him, to wit, on the sinners, since the greater is his own punishment for every evil they did through his seduction of them, inciting every evil.
Awful, in sooth, and hideous is that prison which the Lord has made for the Devil with his fiends, to wit, Hell. Low, now, and deep is its place. For though a millstone were cast into Hell's mouth, not sooner than at the end of a thousand years would it reach the bottom. The soul's journey, now, after coming from the body, is for a space of thirty years from top to bottom thereof, as is the opinion of certain persons. Strong is that prison's surrounding: it is full of fear, dread, danger, lamentation. Dark, black, hideous is its open mouth. It is a rock for chastening every soul that is tortured. It is a flame for burning. It is a scourge for smiting. It is an edge for maiming. It is a night for blinding. It is a fog for smothering. It is a cross for torturing. It is a sword for vengeance. It is an awful weapon for slaying and for cutting. It is a roaring of tortures. It is a crowd of punishments. It is a drowning, it is a plaguing. It is a breaking: it is a bruising, it is a pollution, it is an exhaustion, it is a consuming, it is a hacking, it is a burning, it is a swallowing: it is high, it is low, it is very cold: it is very hot, it is narrow, it is wide: great is the stench of the steam of its burning flesh.
Now though one should be put in seven ages and though there should be a thousand years in each age of them, not more than the one and twentieth part of Hell's evils would he relate. But those are the chief details of Hell with its tortures. Beside it even the high kingdoms of the world, from sunrise to sunset, were not greater than a drop on the earth if thy dwelling were that dwelling and if thou were appointing the habitation of that prison.
But the Saints and the Righteous, who have fulfilled the commands of the Lord and his teaching, will be called to glory, to honor, to veneration, into the eternal Life on God's right hand, for ever and ever, to wit, the folk of gentleness and tenderness, of charity and of mercy, and of every fair deed besides, a folk of virginity and penitence, and widows faithful for God's sake. Then shall there be a great noise and mighty sound of the pure souls stepping on the right hand of their King and their Lord in the heavenly Kingdom, in ranks of the King of heaven and earth and hell. A place wherein is the Light that excels every light, every splendor, without interruption, without darkness. Life eternal without death: clamor of joy without sorrow: health without sickness: youth without old age: peace without quarrel: rest without adversity: freedom without labor, without fatigue, without need of food or raiment or sleep: holiness without age, without decay: radiant unity of angels: delights of paradise: feasting without interruption among nine ranks of angels and of holy folks of heaven and holy assemblies of the most noble King, and among holy, spiritual hues of heaven and brightness of sun in a kingdom high, noble, admirable, lovable, just, adorned, great, smooth, honeyed, free, restful, radiant: in plains of heaven, in delightful stations, in golden chairs, in glassen beds, in silvern stations wherein everyone shall be placed according to his own honor and right and well-doing.
But indescribable are the amplitude and width of the heavenly kingdom. For the bird that is swiftest of flight upon earth, for him the journey of the kingdom would not end though he flew from the world's beginning until the end thereof.
Vast, then, are this fruitfulness and the light, the loveableness and the stability of that City: its rest and its sweetness, its security, its preciousness, its smoothness, its dazzlingness, its purity, its lovesomeness, its whiteness, its melodiousness, its holiness, its bright purity, its beauty, its mildness, its height, its splendor, its dignity, its venerableness, its plenteous peace, its plenteous unity. Yea, not fit is any creature to set forth the hundredth part of the description of the goodness of that City, but still it is better to relate this little of them than to be in silence.
Happily born, in sooth, was he who shall abide with deservingness and with good deeds and who shall be taken to dwell in that City at doomsday! For he shall abide through ages without limit, without end, in the unity of the Church of heaven and earth, in the unity of the patriarchs and prophets, apostles and disciples of Jesus Christ, of the saints and holy virgins of the world, of the angels and archangels of the Lord, in the unity that is higher than any unity, the unity of the high, holy Trinity, Father and Son and Holy Ghost.
THE TIDINGS OF THE RESURRECTION
From the Lebor na hUidre
Let everyone take heed that the Judgment will come. 'Tis then that all men will arise through the proclamation of the Son of God. On that day, to wit, on the Day of Doom, heaven and earth will be shaken, and all the elements that are therein. They will be dissolved and melted by the heat of the fire of Doom; but all those, after being smelted and purified by the fire of Doom will be cast into a form more beautiful by far than the form in which they existed.
'Tis then that fire of Doomsday will possess vigor and strength like unto the fire into which the three Children were sent by Nebuchadnezzar. That fire did not burn the holy children; but it burnt the impious servants who were about the fiery furnace. Thus then the glowing fire of Doom will burn all the sinners and all the impious. But it will do no hurt to the bodies of the righteous, for that fire will be like a soothing rain to the saints, but it will consume the sinners.
On that day, to wit, on Doomsday, the Son of Man, even Jesus Christ, will come from heaven, and will appear in the air in vast light and radiance, like a sun; and that light will fill the whole world from the rising of the sun to the setting thereof.
Then all the men who are in graves will hear the voice of the Son of God. It may be a corporeal voice that Jesus would here utter to be heard by the dead, to wit, the voice of the archangel Michael who will come to proclaim the Resurrection generally to the human race, so that he says to them thrice: ‘Arise ye all out of death!’ Or it is an incorporeal voice that Jesus here utters to be heard by the dead, to wit, the spiritual command and the unspeakable power of the Lord, which no creature can avoid. By that command all men will arise out of death, to wit, whomsoever earth has swallowed, and beasts have devoured, and water has drowned, and fire has burnt; and also those that have been dissolved, according to the nature of the elements of which they were formed. All those will arise out of death in the flashing of a single hour, and each of them will take his own soul into union with his proper body, and they will afterwards remain alive for ever.
'Tis then the Lord will send his noble envoys, the holy angels, throughout all the world, and they will gather all the righteous out of the four quarters of the earth and bring them into the air to meet Christ. The devils, however, will gather with them all the sinners and all the impious. There shall all those be all high in the presence of the Lord at the Judgment, to wit, angels and devils and human beings, that is, both sinners and righteous.
Now it is asked, what is the exact place out of which everyone's resurrection will be? Out of their graves assuredly, after that example of the Lord's Body, which arose out of its own sepulcher. Those, however, who have been devoured by wild beasts and dispersed in different places, will arise according to the counsel of the Lord, who will gather them and renew them, out of the place that He desires. Yet it is likelier in this case that they will arise there where they have been devoured and dispersed, for that is what is counted as their tomb.
It is asked, now, will there be a resurrection for human abortives and monsters? The answer to that is, that beyond there will certainly be a resurrection into life for all who have had death here after life. If, then, the abortives had death after life, even in their mother's womb, it is certain that they will have a resurrection beyond, and that they will have life again after that death. If, then, there is thus no doubt of the resurrection of abortives, much less is there doubt of the resurrection of infants and monsters.
It is then asked, since all human beings will arise out of death, in what age or form will their resurrection be? And the apostle deals with that question when he says: ‘All men’, quoth the apostle, ‘will arise out of death in the likeness of the age and form of Christ.’ Three years and thirty were completed by Christ, and in the likeness of that age He arose out of death. At the age of Christ, then, the apostle says that all men will arise, but not in His size, that is, not equal in bulk to His body, for it is not certain that all the bodies of the Resurrection will be of equal size. Christ, however, will abide for ever, without addition or diminution, in the form and in the bulk in which He appeared to His apostles after His resurrection; and it is therefore that all men will arise at the same age, to wit, at the age of thirty. Howbeit, they will have in their bodies varying size and unequal bulk, in accordance with the likeness and the nature of the times and the countries in which they have been born.
Whatsoever, then, is wanting of completeness in their body to abortives and to little infants and to certain puny monsters which have not their lawful size and are defective in certain corporeal members, the Lord will supply beyond in the Resurrection, so that naught shall be lacking to them of the full propriety of their form or of their proper nature. For that is a thing which they possess in themselves, according to the invisible and hidden law of their nature, though they have not possessed it according to material nor according to bodily size.
The excess, however, over nature in the too bulky bodies and also in all the monsters that have immoderate size, that excess will be taken from them beyond in the Resurrection, and they will abide thereafter in the legitimate size and moderate bulk of their proper substance and nature. The monsters also, that have two bodies in one union, they will be separated beyond in the Resurrection, and each of them will receive his own body separate, as Job affirms when prophesying in his book and saying that all men will arise in their proper bodies.
The Church, however, holds the opinion that the bodies of the holy martyrs will after resurrection bear the traces of the wounds which they endured for Christ's sake, without defect or diminution of form or beauty, to manifest their victory and triumph, and also to manifest the great reward to which they are entitled from the Lord for their martyrdom: according to that example of the Body of the Lord, which hath in it after His Resurrection the traces of the wounds which he endured from the Jews, to manifest His perfect submission to the heavenly Father, and also to increase pain and punishment to the Jews from whom He endured those wounds.
Then it is asked with regard to the excess of the hairs and to nails, how will they be disposed of in the Resurrection? Augustine the holy man puts that question, and his opinion is that in the Resurrection beyond the excess of the hairs and the nails will not be returned into themselves merely, but into the nature of the body in general. For it is not of the length of the hairs, that is, of their excess, but of their number only that Jesus in the gospel is mindful when he commits this to His apostles, and says ‘the hairs of your head’, says Jesus to His apostles, ‘are in a definite number and in sure knowledge with the Lord, and they will all remain for you with Him there at the Resurrection’.
Or again, if, as is the opinion of some, it is into themselves only that the excess of the hairs and the nails is turned—for it is likely that the excess of every member would be gathered and compressed into itself, so that in this member itself one would receive whatever punishment or reward one deserves through the consent and cooperation of that member—we are to believe that the Lord will, through the unspeakable science of the Divine wisdom, condense and compress in the Resurrection the corrupt bodies of men into the slenderness and tenuity of the incorruptible substance and of their spiritual nature, after separating and dividing them from every defilement, according to that example and analogy of the ingots which, through the science of human wisdom, are caused to be condensed and compressed into the slenderness and tenuity of their proper body, after every defilement and every dross has been expelled from them.
Or again, there is an opinion that the Lord there will form the bodies of the Resurrection of the substance that will please Him, whatever be the largeness or the smallness in which that substance may be, that is, of what remained of the human body in the man before death, just as He builds up at present the large bodies from the little seeds, and also as at the primal creation of the elements He has built up the vast bodies from the invisible principle and from the incorporeal principle which the elements, from which those bodies have been created, held latent within them. For it is possible for God to build up without substance or with little substance any material or any structure that He pleases. Wherefore the author would say that Jesus did not think of the excess of the hairs or of the nails, or of any other member. And it is possible for God to renew the completeness of their proper form and nature without gathering again that excess into the body. Howbeit 'tis hard that any member in the body, or any part thereof, should be omitted from the punishment and the condemnation it deserves through its consent to sin, or from the reward it merits through its consent to a good deed.
So then this is probably what we should believe in the case, that the completeness of the whole human body is to be renewed in the Resurrection, so that the soul united to it in that wise may receive whatever it deserves of punishment or reward for their ill deserts or their good deserts.
For precaution then, and for avoidance of presumption, that is, of affirming what is not lawful to affirm, but what should properly remain in doubt, this variety of opinion exists. For though some of the mysteries of the Resurrection are certain and manifest — for, according to the teaching of the apostle and the rest of the Scripture, the Resurrection itself is sure to come — yet others are uncertain and obscure. So that it is more prudent and wiser that they should be hoped for and supposed than that they should be boldly affirmed.
Now all men will arise beyond in various shape and form, to wit, the men in the form of men and the women in the form of women, for where the apostle says that all human beings will arise in perfect man he has there given the name of 'man' to humankind in general, both men and women. For their imperfections and their blemishes will be removed from the bodies of human beings, but the peculiarity of their proper shape and form will be preserved in them.
Moreover the bodies of the Resurrection will have in them neither lust nor desire nor any other vice; and therefore they will have no shame though they will be stark-naked, that is, without any covering at all of raiment.
In condensed bodies and in thickish bodies will be the resurrection of the human beings, and not in thin and very subtile bodies, like air or wind, as was the opinion of the heretic Eutyches, who thought that the bodies of the resurrection would be thinner and more subtile than air or wind. Saint Gregory, however, overruled and contradicted that opinion.
It is asked then, since it is in dense and thickish bodies that men will arise, why does the apostle call them 'spiritual'? Maybe this is why he used so to call them, because of the harmony and the similarity in themselves according to the law of correspondence of every member to the other, and also because of their beauty and comeliness, their brightness and their splendor. For the saints will shine there like a sun in the heavenly kingdom.
Or this is why the apostle calls them 'spiritual', because of their harmony and oneness there with the spirit of the soul, just as at present the spirit of the soul is united with them. For beyond there will be a union greatly between the body and the soul, and what they resolve on will be the same. For there will be no opposition or contention yonder by one of them towards the other, that is, by the body to the soul, or by the soul to the body.
Or again they were called 'spiritual' since they will abide beyond for ever in the spiritual stations among God's angels in heaven.
Or again, they were called 'spiritual' by the apostle in this wise: since they will be changed beyond out of the misery and corruption and the ugliness in which they are into the glory and the splendor, into the brightness and the beauty, of the incorruptible existence and of the immortal life in which they will abide for ever. And yet not the same will be the beauty of all the bodies of the saints beyond, since even the reward will not be the same. But even as the splendor of the sun and moon and the splendor of the stars are different, and also the splendor of each star from another, even so the reward of the righteous will be different after the Resurrection; and therefore they will possess different stations in heaven according to their different deserts.
And yet none of them will envy the other, for there is as much solicitude and love with one as with another, according to that example of the single body which possesses in it different members, and members some of which are nobler than others; and yet none of them envies the other. And another thing also, since none of them grumbles at his own reward, for it is God alone that will be the likeness of every good thing beyond for all the saints and righteous.
Though, then, the rewards of the righteous are different, yet there is one reward which they have in another way, namely, the complete blessedness and joy which they possess in God, and also because to one who has a lower reward it is the same as if he had a higher reward when that reward is given to one who is as dear to him as himself.
Now everyone yonder will recognize the other after the Resurrection. Howbeit none of them yonder will feel solicitude for another according to the law of spiritual affinity or relationship; but all will agree to the righteous judgment of the Lord who will render to everyone as he may deserve.
Everyone also yonder will understand what shall be in another's mind without its being manifested by words or by other signs, and they will understand, by the spiritual insight of their minds, the things that are absent and are far away from them, after that example of the holy prophet Elisha, who understood, through the spirit of prophecy, what his disciple Gehazi had done in his absence, and he far away from him, taking a reward from Naaman the Syrian for healing him of leprosy. For what is there unknown to those that understand the Lord unto whom nothing is unknown?
The righteous, however, perform no other work beyond, save what the prophet David foretold when he said: ‘Happy are those that dwell in thy house, O Lord: they will praise thee and admire thee continually through the everlasting ages’. It is not, however, by words, or by corporeal voices externally, that the saints will make this praise of God, but by spiritual insight and by internal meditation of their law and their intelligence.
All the impious also will arise in integrity and in completeness of their bodies, without diminution and without defect of any member upon them. Howbeit, thus will those bodies be, with overburthening and molestation, with unshapeliness and excessive oppression accompanying them. Again, in the souls of the impious, the law of intelligence or of understanding, of illumination, of wisdom, or of knowledge, will not shine; but they will abide in sorrow and sadness, with the dark obscurity of their ignorance and their unwisdom within. They will all, moreover, be black of body outside.
‘Woe, then’, says the wise man, ‘to those who are awaiting that resurrection, for not less may that resurrection be named a return out of death into death to abide in death than the resurrection of the righteous a return out of death into life to abide in life.’
This, then, is the death of the soul, its perishing and departure, through sins and vices, from the all-golden life, that is, from God. For as the soul is the life of the body so God is the life of the soul. And as the death of the body is its departure from the soul, so the death of the soul is its departure from God because of its sins and its vices. Then, however, there is a resurrection for the soul, when it returns, through virtues and good works, to the Lord, and that is possible no other way except through the voice of the Son of God, that is, through fulfillment of the teaching of the Lord.
It is proper to know that there are two resurrections, namely, a first resurrection and a second resurrection. This is the first resurrection, the resurrection of the soul from sins in virtues through making repentance; and that resurrection is for the righteous only. The second resurrection, however, is the Resurrection which, on Doomsday, will be for all men out of death. And though that death is one and the same according to general nature, yet it bears various shapes and forms because of the multitude of happenings and accidents through which it leaves each one therein.
Now the general Resurrection which shall be beyond on the Day of Judgment is not the same as the resurrection which in the authority is called Praestrigia, that is, an apparitional resurrection, like the pythonism. Nor is it the same as the resurrection called Revolutio, that is, the transmigration of the soul into various bodies, after the example of the transmigrated persons. Nor the resurrection called Metaformatio, that is, transfiguration, after the example of werewolves. Nor is it the same as the resurrection called Subductio, that is subduction, as in the case of the prematurely dead. Nor the resurrection called Suscitatio, that is, the a wakening of the dead by a miracle, after the example of Lazarus.
This then is what will happen there. In the general Resurrection all men will arise at the age of thirty in their proper shape and form, with completeness of their bodies and all their senses, with completeness also of their hairs and their nails and every other member. And everyone will, through the strength and might of the Lord, take his own soul into union with his proper body, and will abide continually in eternal life, without age, without decay. For that assuredly is the true resurrection which is called in Scripture a second resurrection, in comparison with the first resurrection, that is, the resurrection which takes place through repentance.
But whosoever does not believe perfectly and completely in the resurrection of the human race in this wise shall be left out of the everlasting salvation which is promised to the saints and to the righteous for their faith.
‘But, O man’, saith the sage, ‘if thou deem it difficult to believe in this miracle of the Resurrection, consider the other works of the Lord; and though these are more numerous, not the less are they miracles. Behold the breadth of the sky and its amplitude, the size of the earth, the abyss of the sea which surrounds that earth on every quarter, and all the creatures that are therein. Behold, again, the angels of heaven, yea, behold those creatures and the other creatures that have been made of nothing through the strength and might of the Lord. For it is much less of a miracle to make of matter at present any structure through the Word of God than to make there at the beginning all creatures of nothing through that Word. For the Voice of God which is now declared here (as being that) whereby the Resurrection will be for all the dead is the same as the Word whereby He made at first all creatures out of nothing.’
‘O man, then’, saith the sage, ‘let the huge trees assure for thee this miracle of the Resurrection: the bodies of men and of the other animals which are born and brought forth from the petty seeds: the risings, also, of the stars after setting: the renewal of the grasses and the herbs and of every other thing in which there is increase and quickening.’
The hour will come when all the dead will arise through the proclamation of the Son of God and then those that have done good will arise to the resurrection of life, but those that have done evil to the resurrection of punishment and Doom. There will appear the Divine Judge in the shape in which He was sentenced by a human judge. There will He pass judgment righteously on men in the shape in which he was judged unrighteously by men. Then, too, will appear the righteous Judge of the human race, the Lord Jesus Christ, in a shape wherein it is possible for all—both righteous and sinners—to behold Him, that is, in the shape of His Manhood.
Then also He will bestow rewards on the righteous and inflict punishments on the undevout. For those that have no participation now in the first resurrection, that is, in the resurrection of the soul, those will all arise in the general Resurrection, and yet they will receive neither peace nor union, prosperity nor joy at the hands of the Lord; but they will be hurled from Him into the awful prison of hell, and there, for their various ill-deserts, they will endure unequal pains and punishments. And though great and vast be the heed that one may give to that pain, it is nothing in comparison to beholding the pain itself as it is.
Those, however, that will now arise through Christ in the first resurrection, that is, the resurrection which takes place through repentance, will also arise there through Christ in the Resurrection of life everlasting, and He will take them with Him into the everlasting kingdom in the presence of the Heavenly Father for evermore. Then for their virtues and for their good works, the righteous will receive a vast reward, to wit, the Lord Himself, from whom they got those virtues and good works; for the Lord will be there the fullness of every happiness and delight for the Church. 'Tis He then that will be seen for ever by the Church, without limit, without end, that will be loved without tedium, that will be praised without weariness; for this is, of a truth, the everlasting life which is promised to the saints and to the righteous after resurrection, the presence of the noble, holy Trinity, Father and Son and Holy Ghost.
THE VISION OF ALBERIC
In Abstract Form
Alberic of Settefrati (b. c. 1100) was a monk of Monte Cassino under Abbot Gerard (1111–23). His vision was written down in 1121–23 by Guido, a priest of the Abbey of Monte Cassino; his work was corrected by Alberic, under Abbot Senioretto, with the help of Peter the Deacon in 1127–37. Primary focus of criticism has been on its relation to the Divine Comedy. The sole ms, of about 7000 words, is Monte Cassino 257, fol. 712–34. This work bears traces of the influence of the visions of Perpetua, Wetti, Furseus, and the Voyage of Brendan, texts that were present in the library. The vision begins with Alberic lying sick, as if dead, for nine days. St. Peter and two angels, Emmanuel and Hélos, act as his guides. Hell is visited first. It is a series of locations, each dedicated to a particular group of sinners. There is a river of purgatory. Alberic is eventually shown the seven heavens and a land beyond, of which he is not permitted to speak. He is shown the fifty–one provinces of earth before he is finally returned to his body when Peter tells him to remember to make an offering each year at his church.
Toward the beginning of the XII century, in a castle called the castle of the Seven Brothers, Alberic, the son of the lord of the castle, remained nine entire days in a condition of unconsciousness. It was while in this state that, at the age of eight years, he had the following vision, which is related in the first person:
"A bird of white plumage, like a dove, gently placed its beak into my mouth; I felt that he drew something thence, I knew not what. Then, seizing me by the hair, he raised me up into space. Soon the Apostle Peter appeared, accompanied by two angels, and they conducted me to the place where evil-doers undergo their punishments.
“I saw first a vast circle in which was a multitude of very young children, in the midst of burning mists. St. Peter told me it was here that those whom death had stricken before baptism, were purified. Then the apostle directed my attention to a terrible valley filled with innumerable mountains of ice, the summits of which the eye could scarcely see. In the ice were tormented many souls: some were in it up to their knees, others to their middles, and still others to their breasts, according to the gravity of their crimes. A few, plunged in head foremost, had only their legs protruding. St. Peter informed me that these were such as had committed rape, adultery or incest.
"We next passed into another valley, not less horrible, full of trees with sword-like branches, from which were suspended women whose breasts were being constantly sucked dry by serpents. These were women who had refused to foster little orphaned children.
"I also saw in the same valley still other women suspended from trees by their hair, with flames beneath them; and these I was told were those who had indulged in unlawful loves.
"Further on there was a ladder of white-hot iron, off immense height covered with spikes. Those who were forced to ascend it soon fell, and were engulfed in a vast lake of burning oil and rosin. Thus, the apostle told me, were punished those who had not restrained their fleshly appetites on Sundays, holy days and fast days; for it is absolutely necessary to deny oneself all carnal pleasures on these days, and to consecrate them to works of charity.
"I was then conducted to a great lake, filled , as it seemed to me, with blood; but my guide told me it was fire, into which homicides and tyrants were plunged. For three years the murderer was forced to carry upon his neck a demon in the form of his victim, after which he was hurled into the lake.
"We finally arrived at the very mouth of the infernal chasm, resembling a vast pit. The eye could not pierce the darkness; a terrible odor and frightful lamentations proceeded from it. At the entrance was chained an enormous and hideous two-headed serpent. Before one of its mouths was an infinite multitude of souls, whom the monster inhaled like flies, disgorging them again from the other mouth, in the form of burning embers.
"I next saw a lake of liquid metal, from which issued jets of flame, which consumed the sacrilegious, and such as had practiced simony.
"The apostle next conducted me to a sea of sulphurous fire, in which a multitude of souls were wallowing, tormented by serpents with which demons struck their faces. Theses were false- witnesses.
"Through the middle of the plain where I now found myself, flowed a burning river. Across it was thrown a bridge of iron, very broad at first, but as narrow; as a simple thread toward the center. The less sinful a soul, the greater the rapidity with which it crossed the bridge. The more sinful ones, upon reaching the center, fell into the boiling flood below. Demons drew them out and replaced them upon the bridge, whence they again fell, and so on until purged of their crimes, when they could cross the bridge with ease. This, the apostle told me, was the Bridge of Purgatory.
“Continuing upon our way, we arrived at a valley which, my guide informed me, it required three days and nights to traverse. It was so strewn with thorns and obstructions that the foot left no mark upon it. I saw a demon mounted upon an immense dragon, and brandishing a hideous serpent in his hand. As soon as a soul arrived in this valley, the demon pursued it across the country, continually scourging it with the serpent. When this punishment had continued until the soul was cleansed of its crimes by grief, it then acquired the airiness necessary to permit it to escape from the pursuit of the monster. The souls then entered a flourishing country, exhaling the sweetest perfumes, where its limbs, torn by the thorns, are healed of their wounds.
"The souls of the just who dwell here, enjoying blessed repose, welcome the new arrival, and congratulate him upon having escaped the common enemy."
Then follows an orthodox description of the sensuous delights of the happy other-world, in this -- as in most visions -- very brief. In the center is situated paradise, which these happy souls will enter at the last judgment.
"St. Peter," says Alberic, in conclusion, 'showed me a great many other marvelous things, and gave me useful advice, which he ordered me to communicate to men upon icy return to earth."