Page:Readings in European History Vol 1.djvu/132

 96 Readings in European History a vast and beautiful field, so full of fragrant flowers that the odor of its delightful sweetness immediately dispelled the stench of the dark furnace, which had penetrated me through and through. "So great was the light in this place that it seemed to exceed the brightness of the day, or of the sun in its merid- ian height. In this field were innumerable assemblies of men in white and many companies seated together rejoicing. As he led me through the midst of these happy people, I began to think that this might, perhaps, be the kingdom of heaven, of which I had often heard so much. He an- swered to my thought, saying, ' This is not the kingdom of heaven, as you imagine.' Vision of " When we had passed those mansions of blessed souls heaven. an( j g One farther on, I discovered before me a much more beautiful light, and heard therein sweet voices of persons singing ; and so wonderful a fragrancy proceeded from the place that the other, which I had before thought most deli- cious, then seemed to me but very indifferent, even as that extraordinary brightness of the flowery field, compared with this, appeared mean and inconsiderable. When I began to hope we should enter that delightful place, my guide on a sudden stood still ; and then, turning round, led me back by the way we came. " When we returned to those joyful mansions of the souls in white, he said to me, * Do you know what all these things are which you have seen ? ' I answered that I did not ; and then he replied, ' That vale you saw, so dreadful for its con- suming flames and cutting cold, is the place in which the souls of those are tried and punished who, delaying to confess and amend their crimes, at length have recourse to repent- ance at the point of death, and so depart this life ; but nevertheless because they, even at their death, confessed and repented, they shall all be received into the kingdom of heaven at the day of judgment by the prayers, alms, and fasting of the living, and more especially by masses. " ' That fiery and stinking pit which you saw is the mouth of hell, into which whosoever falls shall never be delivered