An Irish precursor of Dante : $b a study on the Vision of Heaven and Hell ascribed to the eighth-century Irish saint Adamnán, with translation of the Irish text — Dante Alighieri — John Shaqi
An Irish precursor of Dante : $b a study on the Vision of Heaven and Hell ascribed to the eighth-century Irish saint Adamnán, with translation of the Irish text
Dante Alighieri · en
28. Another great multitude is there, clad in red and fiery mantles
down to their middle.[27] Their trembling and their outcries make
themselves heard, even unto the firmament. An unspeakable throng of
demons is throttling them, holding in leash the while raw-hided,
stinking hounds, which they incite to devour and consume them. Red
glowing chains[28] are constantly ablaze about their necks. Every
alternate hour they are borne up to the firmament, and the next hour
they are dashed down into Hell’s profound. Now they that are punished
in this wise are the regulars who have transgressed their rule,[29] and
become loathers of piety; also, impostors who have deceived and seduced
the multitude, and have undertaken miracles and wonders which they are
not able to perform. Moreover, the children that are tearing the men
in orders, are they who were committed to them for amendment, but they
amended them not, neither reproved them for their sins.
29. Thereafter, is another vast company; East and West they go,
unresting, across the fiery flagstones, at war with demon hosts.
Innumerable showers of red-hot arrows are rained upon them by the
demons. Running, they go on without stop or stay, making for a black
lake and a black river, that they may quench those arrows therein. A
weeping and wailing, truly miserable and piteous, do the sinners make
in those waters, for in them they only meet with augmentation of their
pain. Now they that are punished thus are cheating artificers, weavers,
and merchants; judges that judged falsely, both Jews, and others
likewise; impious kings, Erenachs of lewd and crooked ways, adulterous
women, and the panders that destroyed them by their evil practices.
Beyond the land of torment is a fiery wall; seven times more horrible
and cruel is it than the land of pain itself. Howbeit, no soul dwells
therein till Judgment, but it is the province of the demons only, until
the Day of Judgment.