03-21-2021, 02:22 PM
Chapter VI
The torments for each sin and for each category of damnation
Saint Frances of Rome was not only aware of the evils endured by all the reprobates, she saw in particular the sorrows suffered by each of them, as punishment for the vice to which they were more especially attached.
In recounting her visions, the blessed woman repeated more than fifty times that, if she had not been supported and encouraged by the angel who accompanied her, she would not have had the constancy or even the strength to endure the sight of the spectacles that were shown to her. She would have died of pain and dread.
Laziness
The souls of the lazy are sitting in a furnace. The flame completely covers them. They each hold their heads inclined and their arms are bent.
The seat on which they sit is a square stone, sculpted and carved with stripes, like a fluted column. These dug lines are full of burning coals, and the stone itself is on fire.
The demons have in their hands hooked and flaming instruments with which, they pull these souls in one direction, then pull them out in another, from one end of the stone to the other. They bring extreme determination to this back and forth work.
The corners of the stone dig deep furrows in the flesh of the tormented; the coals that fill the hollows burn them; and the fangs handled by their executioners tear them to pieces.
The torturers also turn them, sometimes on their backs and at other times on their stomachs. This punishment is applied to them to punish them for the time they lost on earth.
Then one of the two demons, specially attached to each of these damned souls, stands behind him. He masters him with his left hand placed on his heart; with the other, armed with a sword, he opens his whole chest on his right side, then pours boiling oil into the wound.
This punishment is inflicted upon them because of the false idea that they formed of God's mercy when they were in the world, and especially because they produced in the open the faults of their neighbor.
Moreover, the same devil places in the wound of their chest a large number of worms of various kinds. This torment punishes them for the thoughts of all kinds of which they were agitated on earth, especially when they remained idle.
As a result of this spectacle, Saint Frances of Rome was surprised to see the damned suffering from corporal punishments, since the souls have no flesh; she was also very surprised to see the demons using iron instruments in the middle of a fire that melted metals.
She was answered by the Angel Raphael, her companion. - "Currently," he explained, "and until the end of the world, the souls of the reprobates (are evidently) will be deprived of their bodies.
“However, although they lack flesh, they are materially punished according to the senses of their bodies, because, although the soul is of its spiritual essence, it takes on the material nature to suffer in hell. This will be so until the last judgment comes; but then the souls of the reprobates will return to their bodies and suffer in their bodies similar torments to those you see represented."
The Angel added that, moreover, all these things were represented to her, not in their exact reality, as they happen in the depths of the abyss, but in the form of sensible images, so that they could be understood by her human intelligence.
As for the instruments of torture, the same Angel explained to her that there exists nothing similar in the darkness of hell, but that those she saw were shown to her so that she would realize the torture that the damned suffer. They are indeed subjected to penalties similar to those they would feel if these instruments were in the hands of their executioners.
Gluttony
The ordeal suffered by the gluttonous is frightening. One of the two demons, specially charged with tormenting each soul guilty of this vice, grabs it by the head and drags its over burning coals.
The other devil, meanwhile, jumps on it and clings to its chest by sticking the claws of his feet into its ribs. He ties its hands and ankles to itself, then throws it into a tank full of molten pitch and pushes it in completely, submerging it.
He takes it out of this torment and plunges it back into another tank filled with ice; then, while he keeps it in this bath, he pours boiling wine between its lips and introduces a large number of snakes into its mouth. This torture is the punishment for the excess of food and drink that the gluttonous committed on earth.
And its executioners repeat to it during this time:
- "O you who, during your stay on earth, loved eating and drinking so much, and who enjoyed all the delights of the table, now bear these sufferings and pains: you justly deserve them. From now on, snakes will be your food and fire your drink."
Then this reprobate is tied to a big red iron post. He is subjected to this torture for the sins of immorality of which he is guilty, because very often the excesses of the table generate misconduct.
While this damned is thus tied up, one of his two executioners approach him and licks him from top to bottom with a long tongue of fire. He thus causes him cruel suffering.
His second torturer advances towards him in turn, armed with a curved sword and tears him apart in the parts that his companion has burned.
This torture is the particular punishment for the vice of vain glory. Rich lovers of the pleasures of the table are in fact accustomed to show off their luxury in their banquets and to take pride in the large number of dishes they offer to their guests, and the beauty of their dishes.
Under the red iron post is a harrow bristling with very sharp nails. The demons untie the tormented and drop it on these points. There a furious snake bites it fiercely in the mouth, hits it with its tail like a whip and tears it apart as punishment for the crimes of adultery it committed. Because this kind of sin often accompanies or follows the luxurious magnificence of banquets.
The executioners then place the glutton's soul on a black cable, and pull it here and there, then drop it into the fire. They have iron piles and tie it to it. They lift it up by stabbing it in the jaws with flaming metal pliers, then they hold it suspended and make it endure various other torments during this time.
These punishments are inflicted on it because of the thefts it may have committed to satisfy its gluttony.
And yet these torments are not enough to punish this vice, which is the source of such disorder.
The demons drag their victims into a well that contains three pits. They plunge it into the first one filled with water which is frozen by the cold.
They then remove it and throw it into the second pit which is full of liquid lead. They open its mouth by force and introduce to it a drink composed of pitch, sulfur and gall melted together.
From the second pit they then precipitate it into the third where snakes and toads swarm. These filthy animals enter the mouth of the damned and enter its body. The two executioners then grabbed red iron fangs and extract these infernal beasts from the bowels of the tormented.
Then they dragged it on beds of burning coals, insulting it and overwhelming it with reproaches. And the wretched, through so many cruel tortures, shouts and blasphemes with an inexpressible rage.