CIII. Poena veneficorum
CIII. Poena veneficorum
Then I saw a great and fiery light, in which there were some horrifying figures, with faces like those of pigs, who were tormented by the flames; and in this fire were the souls of those who, while they were in their bodies, had caused the death of others through sorcery or some other means. They had shed blood. Because of the hidden death they had inflicted on others, they burned in the same blazing fire; and due to the sorcery by which they had killed them, they were tormented by the same worms, their faces like those of pigs. The punishment of those who have delivered their children to death. And I saw a most powerful fire, next to a well of clear water, burning, in which certain souls were being tormented; some of them were bound by certain worms, like belts, around their navels; others were drawing from the same fire into themselves and then releasing it again, like a man draws in his breath and then exhales it; over them, wicked spirits were throwing fiery stones. And all of these souls were considering their punishments in the water of the aforementioned well, as if in a mirror, and from this, they were increasingly afflicted. These souls belonged to those men who, while living in their bodies in this world, had extinguished the essence of the human form within themselves and had killed the infants they had borne. The souls of those who destroyed their own offspring burned in that fire because of their transgression, and they endured the torment of the worms due to their inhumanity. The souls of those who handed their infants over to death were punished in that same fire because of their wickedness; they bore that fire within themselves and vomited it out again; and because of the hardness they had in this act, they suffered blows from the stones cast by evil spirits. But since they neglected to consider what they should do, they endured the same punishments; in that water, not for any consolation, but so that they might suffer more from it, they gazed upon it.
Read the original Latin
Deinde magnura et rutilantera ignera vidi, in quo quidara horrendi verraes, ora ut porci habentes, fuerunt, qui eumdera ignera totura coraraovebant; et in igne isto animae illorum eraht, qui dum in corporibus suis fuissent, alios horaines veneficio aut alio aliquo modo slne efTusione. sanguinis occiderant.
Nam propter latentem mortem, quam aliis intulerant, in eodem rutilante igne ardebant; ac propter veneficium, quo eos mortificaverant, eisdem vermibus, ora ut porci habentibus, affligebantur.
Poena eorum qui infanies suos morti tradiderunt.
Et vidi ignem fortissimum, juxta puteum perlucidae aquae ardentem, in quo quaedam animae urebantur, quarum aliae quibusdam vermibus, velut cingulis, circa umbilicum suum cingebantur; aliae aut-em de eodem igne in se trahebant, et iterum idem emittebant, velut homo halitum suum in se inducit, et iterum educit; super quos etiam maligni spiritus ignitos lapides projiciebant.
Et haec omnes in aqua praefati putei poenas suas quasi in speculo considerabant, et ex hoc magis ac magis affligebantur.
Istae autem animae illorum hominum erant, qui dum in corporibus suis in saeculo viverent, materiam figurae hominis in semetipsis extinxerant, ac infantes de se natos necaverant.
Nam animae illorum qui conceptus suos in semetipsis contriverant, ob transgressionem suam in igne illo ardebant, el ob hanc inhumanitatem vermium cincturam sustinebant, Animae autem eorum qui infantes suos morti tradiderunt, ob malitiam suam in eodem igne puniebantur; et ob inhumanum homicidium, ignem istum in se tollebant, et eum iterum evomebant; et ob duritiam quam in hoc facto habuerant, ictus lapidum a malignis spiritibus patiebantur.
Sed et quoniam quid facerent considerare neglexerunt, easdem poenas tolerabant; in praefata aqua, non propter consolatio^ nem, sed ut magis inde dolerent, inspiciebant.
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