I also saw a religious man suffering. During his life I had a high opinion of him. For three months I prayed for his soul with anguished heart, that it might never happen that I might have to look upon his distress until the evening of the last day.
When he gave up his spirit, he was immediately shown to me in the prayer I was saying for the poor souls. I saw him alone, and he was not able to show me his suffering. He was pale in a white mist. I asked: "Alas, why did you not go to heaven?"
He answered me in obscure speech, ruefully ashamed and weeping all the while as he read from a book. All the words were screaming at him with all the books that he had ever read chiming in. He said: "In my life on earth I was too fond of ideas, words, and deeds."
Two dragons were lying at his feet and sucked out of him all the consolation that he was supposed to receive from Holy Christianity in return for meager obedience, since he for no reason wanted to live according to his own will rather than according to the determinations of his superiors. I asked him: "Where are the enemies who are supposed to torment you?"
He answered: "Because of the dignity of my order no devil was ever able to touch me. I had a great struggle with my body, and I wanted to achieve a certain thing that would have been very harmful if I had been successful. Because of this God did not let me live any longer. I am burning within myself; my own will must torment me."
I asked: "Alas, tell me, how can anyone help you?"
He said: "If a person were to offer up a hundred venias,'S twelve disciplines," and many tears with a sorrowful heart from pure eyes every day for a year, that would be a penance for me. And one should say masses for me. Alas, tell virgins' and priests that they should pray for me. The end of my torment I do not want to describe for you because I do not want to sadden my brothers" with it. Now, leave me!"
Then he took on the likeness of the devil, burned, and became mute toward me.
18. A Knight's Battle in Full Armor Against Sensual Desires
I prayed for a person, as I was bid, that God might free him from those desires of the body that occur without sin for the reason that an evil will does not cause them. But our Lord said: "Stop such talk! Would it please you if there were a knight fully armed, with noble prowess, true manliness, and able hands who had nothing to do, neglected his lord's honor, and lost his rich recompense and the ringing of worthy praise that is the due both of the lord and the knight of the realm? Another thing: if there were a liegeman without armor who never came to battle because he lacked the equipment-if such a person would then take part in a tournament of princes, he would promptly lose his life." For this reason I have to spare people who are so prone to fall. I let such people do battle with children so that they win a garland of flowers as a reward."
19. Two Kinds of Poor People: Those Who Are Cheerfully Poor and Those Who Are Unhappily So
I have seen two kinds of poor people. The ones are cheerfully poor and are always in fear that they will receive too much of this poor earth. The others are involuntarily and quite unhappily poor, and they constantly run around in great anxiety that nothing on this poor earth will ever be theirs. Our Lord commented on this and said: "The unhappily poor are within my justice, for if they had an abundance of earthly things, they would not care to return my love with love nor to know me to the benefit of their holiness. And so I must win them by being very hard on them. To those who are cheerfully poor I give more than they dare desire, but I cannot bear the dust on them that comes from their excessively weighing themselves down with earthly things; and I desire that their hearts remain ever open to me and that I might, unimpeded and unceasingly, illumine them and shine through them and they in turn into mine."
20. The Five Prophets Who Illumine This Book
Our Lord promised me he wanted to illumine this book with five lights:
Moses' great intimacy," his holy efforts, special humiliation, which he suffered through no fault of his own, his glorious won ders, his joyful teaching, and the intimate conversations that he was chosen frequently to have face to face with God eternal 12 on the high mountain-all these things should be a light; and God has granted and shall continue to grant that I should go forth with a light and cheerful step under his protection through all the evil scheming of my enemies, free of all shame arising through my own fault, just as Moses did with his friends through the Red Sea. And Pharaoh and his friends shall not pursue us very far. Alas, how they were drowned in this sea! Alas, have mercy, dear Lord, that our enemies be converted.
King David is the second light in this book with his psalter, in which he instructs us, laments, begs, admonishes, and praises God.
Solomon's words illumine-but not his deeds, for he is himself darkened-from the book of songs,"3 where the bride is found to be so drunkenly bold and the bridegroom says to her so passionately: "You are so exquisitely beautiful, my Darling, and there is no flaw in
Jeremiah illumines also for his part when he speaks of the intimate secrets of our Lady45; for God told me that he possessed pure chastity, the most perfect love, and that he bore great torment in Christian faith, which he never saw with his fleshly eyes.
Daniel, too, illumines with marvelous wisdom. God, in his grace, gave him food for soul and body in the midst of all his enemies." The same thing happened to me, unworthy though I be, in my distress. This my enemies have noticed a bit and cannot tolerate it, and so they inflict much suffering on me.
21. Hell: How It Has Three Parts; How Lucifer and Sixteen Kinds of People Are Tormented; There Is No Help for Them. Lucifer's Garment47
This place is so perverted that the highest are consigned to the lowest and basest place. Lucifer sits bound by his guilt in the deepest abyss. There flows forth unceasingly out of his fiery heart and out of his mouth all the sins, torments, sickness, and shame in which hell, purgatory, and the earth are so wretchedly entangled. In the bottommost part of hell the fire, gloom, stench, shuddering, and all kinds of intense pain are the greatest. It is there that Christians are placed according to their deeds. In the middle part of hell the suffering is more moderate. There the Jews are ranked according to their works. In the topmost part of hell the various kinds of pains are the least severe, and there the heathens are ranked according to their works. The heathens lament thus:
The Jews lament as well:
The Christians lament even more, that they have lost great honor through their own evil will, though Christ had chosen them for himself with great love. In great anguish they constantly behold Lucifer and, naked with all their guilt, they are forced to parade publicly before him. Alas, how ignominiously they are received by him! He greets them grimly and speaks bitterly:
Then, first of all, he grabs the proud one and thrusts him under his tail and says: "I have not sunk so deep that I shall not lord it over you."
All the Sodomites pass down his throat and live in his belly. Whenever he draws a breath, they slide into his belly. But when he coughs, they are expelled again.
The false saints he puts upon his lap, kisses them hideously, and says: "You are my equals. I, too, was enveloped in false holiness; all of you are similarly duped."
Unceasingly he gnaws the usurer and rebukes him for never having been moved by mercy.
The robber he robs himself and hands him over to his henchmen to be chased and beaten mercilessly.
The thief is strung up by the feet to serve in hell as a beacon, but the damned do not see the better for it.
Those who were unchaste together on earth have to lie bound in like manner before Lucifer; but if such a one comes there alone, the devil is his partner.
The unbelieving teachers sit at Lucifer's feet so that they might look at their impure god directly. He also holds disputations with them that they might be humiliated.
The miser he eats, for he always wanted more. When he has swallowed him, he forces him out again by the tail.
Murderers must stand before him bloody and must receive fiery sword thrusts from the devil.
Those
who here gave themselves over to fierce hatred must there serve as a smelling pot, ever hanging before his nose.
Those who here so keenly ate and drank to excess must there stand before Lucifer in unending hunger and eat glowing stones. Their drink is sulphur and pitch. There everything is sour instead of sweet. We see there what we have done here.
The slothful person is weighed down with all kinds of pain.
The hot-tempered is beaten there with whips of fire.
The bitterly poor minstrel who with high spirit41 can excite to sinful frivolity weeps in hell more tears than all the water contained in the sea.
I saw beneath Lucifer the ground of hell-a hard black pebblestone that shall bear the structure forever. Though hell has neither bottom nor boundary, it has as to ordering both depth and end.
When I had seen this misery without my own doing but rather as a gift from God, I was so wretchedly in pain from the stink and the unearthly heat that I could neither sit up nor walk and was without the use of my five senses for three days, like someone struck by thunder.'" My soul, however, suffered no distress since that malady that is called eternal death had not brought it there. But if it were possible that a pure soul could be among them, that would be for them eternal light and a great consolation. For the innocent soul must of its nature ever radiate and shine since she is born painlessly out of the eternal light.' But if she takes on the likeness of the devil, she loses her beautiful light. Is it possible in eternal hell that any consolation at all might come to the damned from prayer and from alms? I never heard that. They are constantly in such a grim state of mind that they feel loathing toward anything good.
After the last day, Lucifer shall put on a new garment that has spontaneously come about out of the manure of all filthy sins that he was ever able to suggest to men or angels. For he is the primary vessel of all sin. Then he is released, but his grimness and fierceness are so much a part of all the souls and all the devils that one is aware of his presence everywhere. At times he will swell up enormously and his muzzle shall open very wide. Then in a single breath he shall devour Christians, Jews, and heathens. Still, they shall have their full reward in his belly and their special feast. Woe then to soul and body! What a human mouth is able to say about it here is nothing at all compared to the indescribable anguish taking place there. For in truth I cannot bear to think about it for as long as it takes to say "Hail, Mary." Alas, so horrible is it there!
At the top hell has a head that is hideous and has on it numerous fierce eyes which shoot forth flames and envelop the poor souls that dwell in the anteroom from which God took Adam and others of our fathers. This is now the worst purgatory that a sinner can enter. There I saw bishops, high officials, and great lords in longlasting anguish with countless sufferings. All who came there God had barely spared from everlasting hell.52 I found no one there who at the end had made a pure confession with his fleshly mouth. When because of the nature of dying their outer senses had been taken from them, the body lay still-though the soul and body still had a common will. When they had left behind earthly darkness, God gave them true knowledge in secret. Oh, how narrow there is the path to the kingdom of heaven! The union of body and soul, not yet separated, spoke thus: "True God, grant me pardon; I sincerely regret my sins!" This is a brief hour in which God has secretly saved many a soul that to all appearances had been lost. I never saw a case where this happened to a person who had not done something good with a well-intentioned will. The devils lead the stained souls from their bodies to purgatory because the pure angels cannot touch them as long as they are not radiant with a brightness similar to theirs. However, a soul can have the aid of friends on earth that prevents the devils from ever attacking the soul. But if she is very guilty, she must nevertheless suffer other torments. All this she can better endure if the devils are not able to grab her and constantly ridicule her.
When our holy fathers went down to hell, what they brought with them was true hope in the Christian faith with the holy love of God and very many humble virtues and faithful striving. Although they went to hell, they had been prepared for heaven. Nothing in hell could daunt them. What they brought with them that kept them from burning was love. This shall burn everlastingly in all the children of God; otherwise, they shall never reach heaven. This God has so ordained: What we take along with us we have to eat and drink there." But the procrastinators, who leave here without having done penance for great sins,54 can never, short of being damned, suffer as terribly as they do before the mouth of hell. There at all times the breath of Lucifer shoots forth with all torments and permeates them so torturously that the poor wretches are just as utterly congealed in the flames and in the various kinds of savagery as the much blessed fathers were united in the sweet knowledge that God loved them. Of women there I saw only exalted ladies who here love all kinds of sins just as their husband lords do.
Hell also has a mouth at the top that remains ever open. All who enter into the mouth are never delivered from eternal death.
22. Of God's Mercy, His Concern, andJustice
I have heard and seen such boundless mercy from God that I said:
The soul said:
Our Lord said:
The soul said:
23. The Intensity of Yearning Takes Away Words; God Cannot Do Without Virgins; God's Countenance, His Embrace, and His Joy Overcome a Thousand Deaths'
Whoever has burned in the powerful fire of love cannot endure abruptly cooling off through any kind of sin.
"Ah, dear Lover, when shall you yearn for what I yearn for?" Thus did a lonely soul speak.
Her dear One responded to her and spoke as though he did not know what she wanted: "What are you yearning for?"
She said in response: "Lord, the urgency of my desire has taken from me the ability to speak my thoughts."
He said: "Virgins do not know how to woo well because their modesty is by its nature refined."
She complained: "Alas, Lord, you certainly have been away from me much too long. If I could only win you, Lord, with magic, so that you could find rest only in me-ah, that would be a loving! Then you would have to beg that I behave sensibly."
Then he answered thus, saying: "0 you spotless Dove, now grant me that I might spare you. The earth cannot yet do without you."
She said: "0 Lord, if it could ever happen to me that I might gaze upon you as my heart desires and hold you in my arms, then the divine pleasures of your love would needs permeate my soul to the degree possible for people on earth. What I would be willing to suffer thereafter has never been seen by human eyes. Indeed, a thousand deaths were too little. Such, Lord, is my painful longing for you! For now I shall remain steadfast in my faithfulness. If you, Lord, can bear it, let me long pursue you in yearning. I know well, Lord, that the beginnings of desire for me will begin to stir in you. 1158
24. Two Kinds of Spiritsfrom God and from the DevilAre Offered to Two Kinds of Religious People. The Seven Kinds of Love
Now I want to write you about a true spiritual sister and about a worldly beguine. They dispute with each other thus: The spiritual sister speaks from the true light of the Holy Spirit, free from interior suffering; but the worldly beguine speaks from her flesh in Lucifer's spirit with dreadful effort.
There are two kinds of religious people on this earth, to whom two kinds of spirits are offered. God offers his Holy Spirit to pure spirits who live here in a faithful holy attitude with their whole being. Here two pure natures meet: the hot fire of the Godhead and the flowing wax of the loving soul. If a pure wick of constant humility is there, a beautiful light shall burn by which one shall see far. 0 loving Soul, you shall become so rich that no one can make you poor-and yet you are the poorest of all! Humility makes one rich and well-brought-up; good habits make one noble and well-bred. Love makes one beautiful and praiseworthy." Being scorned exalts one aloft in God. Mark this well, spiritual Sister, and let no one drive you away from your good habits. Then shall you remain holy.
The devil,
too, offers his spirit to the spirits who are ready to do the worst with hatred and with arrogant rapacity. They do not know what good things love brings. They become so poor from mean hatred and from the devil's grimness that it would be impossible for them to find or follow God's love.
f you want to enhance virginity, which God has so glorified that for love of you he became the Son of a virgin just think what that means!-then you should be humbly silent and lovingly suffer distress and throughout all your days and in all situations practice virginal modesty. This will make your chastity thrive. 0 virgin, what God wants to give you then! He wants to be your handsome young man and wants to lead you in the heavenly dance. 0 wretched lame dog that I am, I would also shuffle along with you. Consider how I mean that: The number of pure virgins is small.
2. This Book Has Come from God; the Soul Praises Herself for Many Things; She Is Given Two Angels and Two Evil Devils. With Twelve Virtues She Does Battle Against the Flesh
All the days of my life before I began this book and before a single word of it had come into my soul, I was one of the most naive persons ever to be in religious life. I knew nothing about the devil's malice; I was unaware of the frailty of the world; the duplicity of people in religious life was also unknown to me. I have to speak to God's honor and for the sake of the book's teaching: I, unworthy sinner, was greeted by the Holy Spirit in my twelfth year, while I was alone, with such an outpouring that I could never, ever after that endure letting myself be led into a clear venial sin. This precious greeting occurred every day and lovingly spoiled for me all worldly sweetness, and it is still increasing day by day. This happened over thirty-one years. About God I knew nothing more than what the Christian faith teaches and I strove with constancy to keep my heart pure. God himself is my witness that I never in will or desire asked him to give me these things that are written in this book. Also, I never imagined that such things could happen to a human being. As long as I was with my relatives and my friends, to whom I was always the favorite, I had no knowledge of these things. Long before this I had had the desire to be despised through no fault of my own. Then for the sake of God's love I moved to a town where no one was my friend except for one person. I was afraid that because of him holy contempt and God's pure love would be withdrawn from me. But God nowhere abandoned me and let me experience such delightful sweetness, such holy knowledge, and such incomprehensible wonders that I found little enjoyment in earthly things.
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