De pena sub habitu religionis et ordine fornicantium vel quacumque conditione se inmoderate coinquinantium
The Iron-Beaked Beast on the Frozen Pool
The angel leads Tundal to a monstrous beast with iron claws, an iron beak, and inextinguishable flame pouring from its mouth.
With the angel going ahead, they saw a beast very unlike any of the beasts they had seen before. It had two feet and two wings. It also had an extremely long neck. And an iron beak. It also had iron claws. Through its mouth belched an inextinguishable flame.
Devoured, Dissolved, and Reborn for Torment
The beast sits on a frozen pool, devours souls, reduces them to nothing in its belly, then casts them back into the ice to be renewed for further torment.
The beast was sitting on a pool thickened with ice. And the beast devoured whatever souls it could find. And while they were being reduced to nothing through torments in its belly, it brought them forth into a pool coagulated with ice. And there they were renewed again for torment. Indeed, all souls were made pregnant, both of men and of women, who descended into the pool. And so, heavy with child, they waited for the time that was fitting for them to give birth.1
Vipers Within: Conception and Grotesque Birth
Souls are made pregnant and tormented inwardly by vipers; when the time comes, serpents burst forth from every limb of both men and women, filling the underworld with wailing.
Inside, they were being bitten in their inward parts, after the manner of vipers. And from the offspring conceived within them, they were wretchedly quickened in a foul wave. It was frozen solid by the ice of the dead sea. And when the time came for them to give birth, their cries filled the underworld with wailing, and so the serpents gave birth. They were giving birth, I say, not only women. But also men — not only through the very limbs that nature established as suitable for such a function, but indeed through their arms as well as through their chests they came bursting forth through every limb.
The Newborn Beasts That Devour Their Hosts
The serpents born from the souls have burning heads and iron beaks; they tear apart the bodies they emerged from, their hooked tails pricking backward, until nothing but sinew and bone remains.
The beasts that were being born had burning heads. And iron beaks. And very sharp beaks, with which they tore apart the very bodies they emerged from. In their tails, however, the same beasts had many stings, which like hooks turned backward pricked the souls they had come out of. For when the beasts tried to go out, since they could not drag their tails with them back into the bodies they had emerged from. Their burning iron beaks did not stop twisting back until they had consumed those bodies down to the sinews and dry bones. And so they all cried out together. The creaking of overflowing ice and the wailings of souls.
A Cry That Shakes the Heavens
The combined wailing of tormented souls and roaring of beasts is so great that even demons would be moved to pity if any compassion remained in them.
of those enduring this. and the roaring of the beasts coming forth shook the heavens. so that even the demons themselves, if there were any spark of compassion in them, would rightly have been moved to pity.
Beast-Headed Fingers and Serpent Members
The damned are covered in beast-heads on every finger that bite to the bone, serpent-like tongues that consume throat and lungs, and serpent-formed private parts that tear at the entrails.
They were in all their different limbs. On their fingers were the heads of various beasts, which kept biting into those very limbs, down to the sinews and bones. They also had living tongues, in the manner of asps. These tongues consumed the whole palate and throat, and everything, all the way to the lungs. So too the private parts of those very men and women were in the likeness of serpents. These serpents tore at the lower parts of the belly and tried to drag those very entrails away.
The Angel Explains: Harsher Judgment for the Religious
Tundal asks why this punishment exceeds all others; the angel replies that those of a holier calling who go astray are judged more harshly, just as they would have received greater glory.
Then the soul spoke. Tell me, please, what wrong have these souls done, that this punishment is being prepared for them, beyond comparison, I believe, with any torments I have ever seen? The angel said, "I told you before: those who are of a holier calling, if they go astray, are judged with harsher punishments; just as, on the other hand, they obtain greater glory. if they do not deserve these things through fault of their own."
Monks, Canons, Nuns, and Clergy Who Lied to God
The angel identifies this as the punishment of monks, canons, nuns, and other churchmen who lie to God through their tonsure and habit, their limbs consumed because they did not restrain them from what is forbidden.
This, he said, is the punishment of monks of canons, of nuns, and of the rest of churchmen. of orders. who, whether by their tonsure or by their habit, are known to lie to God; and so their limbs are consumed by various punishments. because they did not restrain those limbs from what is forbidden.
Burning Tongues and Savage Beasts: The Fate of the Unchaste
The angel explains that tongues sharpened like serpents burn, and private parts given to forbidden lust become savage beasts; he warns Tundal that those who defiled themselves without restraint cannot escape this fate.
They were sharpening their tongues like serpents, and so they suffer them burning.✦ Their private parts too, which are not restrained from the forbidden lust of sexual immorality, are sent into it.2 Or they become savage beasts. To heap up their punishment.' And he added: 'We have said enough about these things. Although this punishment ought especially to belong to those who say they are religious and are not, still those who defile themselves with immoderate lust will endure these things. And so you won't be able to escape this, because while you were in the body you were not ashamed to defile yourself without restraint.'
Delivered to the Beast, Then Rescued by Compassion
Demons seize Tundal's soul and hand it to the beast to be devoured; the narrator declines to repeat what was suffered inside the beast or the foul swamp.
And after these words were spoken, demons came rushing in with force. They seized the soul and gave it to the beast to be devoured. But once the soul had been devoured, or whatever it suffered inside, or in the foul swamp, because we said it before, we shouldn't repeat it.
Healed and Led into Deeper Darkness
A spirit of compassion comes to Tundal in her labor of vipers, heals her, and leads her onward; she follows without knowing where, for beyond the spirit's radiance there is no light.
So when, after the torments described above, she was in the labor of vipers, a spirit of compassion came to her, and gently speaking to her, comforted her. "Come," he said, "my dearest friend; you will suffer these things no longer." And touching her, he healed her. And he ordered her to follow him for the rest of the journey; and so they set out a great distance. The soul did not know where they were going. For beyond the radiance of the spirit of life, they had no light, as we have said.
The Narrow Path Downward
They journey through terrible places along a narrow path descending like a mountain precipice, and the farther down they go, the less the soul hopes for a return to life.
They were making their way through terrible places, and far more dreadful for those who went ahead. There was indeed a very narrow path, as if always descending from the peak of a towering mountain into a precipice, and the farther it went down, the less the soul hoped for a return to life.
Read the original Latin
Precedente igitur angelo viderunt bestiam omnibus quas ante viderant bestiis valde dissimilem. duos pedes et duas alas habentem. longissimum quoque collum. et rostrum ferreum. ungulas etiam habebat ferreas. Per cuius os flamma eructuabat inextinguibilis.
Que bestia sedebat super stagnum glacie condensum. Devorabat autem bestia quascumque invenire poterat animas. et dum in ventere eius per supplicia redigerentur ad nichilum. pariebat eas in stagnum glacie coagulatum. ibique renovabantur iterum ad tormentum. Inpregnabantur vero omnes anime tam virorum quam mulierum. que descendebant in stagnum. et ita gravide prestolabantur tempus quod eis conveniebat ad partum.
Intus vero mordebantur in visceribus more viperino. a prole concepta; sicque vegetabantur misere in unda fetida. maris mortui glacie concreta.
Cumque tempus esset ut parerent; clamantes replebant inferos ululatibus; et sic serpentes pariebant. Pariebant dico non solum femine. sed et viri; non tantum per ipsa membra que natura constituit tali officio convenientia; verum per brachia simul et per pectora exiebantque erumpentes per cuncta membra.
Habebant vero ipse que pariebantur bestie capita ardentia. ferrea. et rostra acutissima; quibus ipsa unde exibant dilaniabant corpora. In caudis autem suis eedem bestie multos habebant aculeos; qui quasi hami retro retorsi ipsas a quibus exibant pungebant animas. Bestie enim volentes exire cum caudas suas secum non possent trahere in ipsa unde exibant corpora. rostra ardentia ferrea retorquere non cessabant donec ea usque ad nervos et ossa arida consumebant. Et sic simul conclamantes. stridor glacierum inundantium et ululatus animarum.
sustinentium. et mugitus bestiarum exeuntium perverniebant in celum. ita ut et ipsi demones si in eis esset ulla scintilla pietatis. merito moverentur ad misercordiam compassionis.
Erant enim in omnibus diversis membris. et digitis diversarum bestiarum capita; que ipsa membra mordebant usque ad nervos et ossa. Habebant quoque linguas vivas. in modum aspidum. que totum palatum et arteria consumebant omnia usque ad pulmones. Verenda quoque ipsa virorum ac mulierum. erant in similitudine serpentium. qui inferiores partes ventris lacerare; et ipsa viscera inde studebant abstrahere.
Tunc dixit anima. 'Dic queso mihi quid mali iste operate sunt anime? Quibus ista paratur pena; incomparabilis omnibus ut reor quas umquam videram penis?' Ait angelus. 'Superius' inquit 'tibi dixi. quod hi qui sanctioris sunt propositi si erraverint. dirioribus iudicantur suppliciis; sicut e contrario maiorem consecuntur gloriam. si non merentur ista per culpam.
Ista enim est' inquit 'monachorum. canonicorum. sanctimonialium. ceterorumque ecclesiasticorum. ordinum. qui sive per tonsuram. sive per habitum deo mentiri noscuntur; et ideo eorum membra diversis penis consumuntur. quia non ea castigabant a prohibitis.
Exacuebant enim linguas suas sicut serpentes; et ideo paciuntur eas ardentes. Verenda etiam que non castigantur a coitu prohibite luxurie; vel in ipsa mittuntur. vel ipsa efficiuntur feroces bestie. ad cumulationem pene.' Et adiunxit. 'De his satis diximus. Licet namque ista pena specialiter illorum esse debeat qui se dicunt religiosos esse et non sunt; tamen qui inmoderate luxuria se maculant ista sustinebunt. Et ideo hoc tu non poteris evadere; quia te ipsum dum in corpore fueras inmoderate non verebaris coinquinare.'
Et post hec dicta. venientes cum impetu demones. rapuerunt animam; et dederunt bestie devorandam. Devorata autem anima. que vel intus passa fuerit. vel in stagno fetido. quia ante diximus. repetere non debemus.
Cum ergo post predicta tormenta esset in partu viperarum. affuit ei spiritus pietatis; eamque blande alloquens consolabatur. 'veni' inquiens 'amica mea carissima; non pacieris amplius ista.' Et tangens eam curavit. et ad reliquum iter se sequi precepit; sicque longe profecti. anima nesciebat quo ibant. Preter fulgorem enim spiritus vite. nullum ut diximus lumen habebant.
Pergebant quidem per loca terribilia; et multum precedentibus diriora. Erat quippe via valde angusta; et quasi de cacumine altissimi montis in precipitium semper descendens; et quanto plus descendebat. tanto minus anima reditum ad vitam sperabat.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Ps.139.4;Ps.141.3 — For there is not a word on my tongue, but behold, LORD, you know it altogether. Ps.141.3 — Set a guard, O LORD, over my mouth; keep watch over the door of my lips.
Notes
- 1 ↩gravide rendered as 'heavy with child' to capture the visceral, bodily sense of the Latin adverb; the image is of souls grotesquely pregnant with their own sin.
- 2 ↩verenda rendered as 'private parts' (euphemistic Latin for genitals); the punishment fits the sin — the organs of lust are themselves cast into the fire they refused to restrain.
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