see
THE SAXONS IN ENGLAND.
[book I.
sins, yet fly to penitence in the hour of death, and
thus leave the body : yet since they had confession
and penance even in death, shall all, at the day of
judgment, reach the kingdom of heaven. But
many, both the prayers of the living, and their alms
and fasts, and most of all the celebration of masses,
assist, so that they shall be freed even before the
day of judgment. But that flame-belching, putrid
well which thou hast seen is the mouth of hell it-
self, into which whoever shall fall, shall never be
set free for ever and ever. And that flowery place
in which thou sawest those most beauteous youths
enjoy themselves in splendour, is that wherein are
received the souls of those who indeed leave the
body in good works, but yet are not of such per-
fection that they may at once enter the kingdom of
heaven ; who yet shall all, in the day of judgment,
enter into the sight of Christ, and the joys of the
heavenly kingdom. For they who are perfect in
every word and act and thought, immediately on
leaving the body shall reach the heavenly king-
dom ; to whose precincts that place belonged, where
thou heardest the sound of pleasant singing, toge-
ther with the smell of sweetness and the splendour
of light1.’ ” Having thus seen and heard, Drihthelm
was allowed to return to the body, where no doubt
he became a powerful champion of Purgatory.
But Beda is not satisfied with this tale : he goes
on to tell of a Mercian noble, who would not go
to confession. At the point of death, be sees two
1 Beda, H. E. v. 12.
СИ. X∏∙]
HEATHENDOM. DEVIL.
387
angels enter his room, bearing the record of his
good deeds, which fill but a small rolΓ: having
caused him to read this, they make way for a
crowd of fiends, black and foul, who bear the enor-
mous tale of his sins of word, work and thought,
which also he is compelled to read. Then the leader
of the fiends turning to the sons of light exclaims,
“ Why sit ye here, knowing assuredly that he is
ours ? ” to which they reply, “ Ye say truly : take
him, and lead him with you into the accumulation of
your own damnation ! ” Upon this the good spirits
vanish, and two demons, a sort of Occidental Mun-
kir and Nekir, smite him with ploughshares on the
head and feet, and creep into him ; when they meet
within him, he dies and passes into everlasting
torments1. This tale, which Beda heard from the
venerable bishop Pecthelm2, he refines upon, ex-
plains, and finishes by declaring that he relates it
simply for the salvation of those who shall read
or hear it. No doubt the distempered ravings of
monks, made half mad by inhuman austerities, un-
natural restrictions, and wretched themes of con-
templation, would in themselves be of little worth :
we can comprehend the visions of a Saint Francis
de Salis, an Ignatius Loyola, a Peter the Hermit, a
Santa Theresa, and even more readily those of a
Drihthelm or a Madame Guyon : but how shall
1 Beda, II. E. v. 13.
The first Bishop of Whiterne in Galloway, who died in 737. Any
one who desires to learn more of the miserable superstitions which Beda
could recommend, may see the account of Fursseus (H. E. iii. 19), and
. e MS. lives of the saint of which Mr. Stevenson has given a notice
ɪɑ his edition of Beda, pp. 197, 199, notes.
2 C2