Thus, flagellations were given out by some, as having the power of rescuing souls from Hell itself; a thing which even Masses, though constantly used to draw them out of Purgatory, were not thought to be able to perform. As an instance of the stories that were circulated on that account, may be produced the following, related by one _Vincent_, who lived in the year 1256. ‘Archbishop Umbert (says Vincent) recited, that in the Monastery of St. Sylvester, in the duchy of Urbino, in Italy, a certain Monk died; and the Brothers continued singing Psalms by his body, from the first evening crowing of the Cock, till two o’clock in the morning, and as soon as they began, in the Mass they celebrated for his sake, to sing the _Agnus Dei_, behold! the dead Man suddenly rose. The Brothers, greatly astonished, came near him, to hear what he had to say; when he began to throw forth abuses and curses against God; he spit on the Cross that was offered him to kiss; he uttered the most opprobrious expressions against the immaculate Mother of God, and said, Of what service to me is your singing psalms, and offering sacrifices? I have been in the flames of Hell, where my Lord and Master Lucifer placed a brass crown, glowing with inextinguishable heat, on my head, and laid a coat of the same metal, with which himself was covered, on my shoulders: this coat was not long enough to reach down to my heels, but it was so violently heated, that drops seemed to fall from it to the ground. The Brothers having then continued to exhort him to repent of his sins, he anathemised them, and denied, in a sacrilegious manner, all the mysteries of our Redeemer. The Monks thereupon prayed for him heartily, and after stripping off their clothes, flagellated themselves, uttering every manner of supplication in his behalf; when behold! that desperate Man recovered the use of his reason; he confessed the omnipotence of our Saviour; he renounced the errors of Satan, adored the Cross, and intreated to be admitted to the Sacrament of Confession and Penitence. Now, the crime of which he accused himself was that of having committed fornication, after he had renounced the world; a thing which he had kept secret to his death. He thus continued to live, praising and blessing God, to the next day, when he again gave up the ghost.’ Besides stories of the same kind with that above, which were contrived to heighten the merit of flagellations, the admirers of that practice have excogitated others, in order to terrify those who declined adopting it, or attempted to confute it by arguments. As a specimen of this, we may quote the report that was circulated concerning Cardinal Stephen, which hath been mentioned in a former place (p. 214) that he had died suddenly, for having despised the exercise in question.