De descensu ad inferos
The Approaching Horror
As the journey continues, an overwhelming cold, stench, and darkness suddenly assault the traveler, causing the earth to tremble and prompting a desperate cry for help.
And as they went on together, and were talking with one another, suddenly a horror and an intolerable cold appeared. and a stench never experienced before. and darkness incomparable to what had come before. Tribulation and anguish assailed the soul equally. so that all the foundations of the earth seemed to them to tremble; and she was compelled to say to the angel who went before her: "Alas, my lord, what is it that I can barely stand?
A Breathless Plea
The traveler confesses to the angel that the terror is so great it steals both breath and speech.
I'm so shaken I can't even catch my breath enough to speak.
Abandoned to Despair
Left alone and paralyzed by fear after the angel vanishes, the soul despairs of God's mercy, realizing that no wisdom or comfort exists in the underworld.
And as he stood there waiting for the angel's answer, he couldn't move because of his overwhelming fear; the angel quickly vanished.1 and he could no longer see him, couldn't.2 Therefore, seeing that she was far lower than all the sinners she had seen before, deserted by his light and comfort, what else could she do but despair entirely of God's mercy?3 For it is not, as Solomon says,✦ that wisdom or knowledge are to be found in the underworld.✦4
The Unutterable Roar
Stranded in peril, the soul hears horrifying shouts and thunder so immense that human smallness cannot comprehend nor express the terror.
So a delay happened while she was alone in such great dangers. She heard shouts and wailings, of astonishing magnitude. Thunder too, so horrible that our smallness cannot take it in, nor can his tongue, as he confessed, find words to tell it.
Read the original Latin
Cumque simul pergerent. et ad invicem sermocinarentur; ecce subitus horror et frigus intolerabile. fetorque antea inexpertus. et tenebre prioribus incomparabiles. tribulatio et angustia animam pariter invaserunt. ita ut omnia fundamenta orbis terre. viderentur sibi contremiscere; et angelo qui eam precedebat compelleretur dicere. 'Heu me domine mi quid est quod minus solito stare possum?
In tantum enim turbata sum; quod spiritum ad loquendum habere non possum.'
Cumque stando prestolaretur angeli responsum. non enim poterat se movere pre nimia formidine; angelus cito disparuit. et eum amplius videre non. potuit. Videns igitur misera longe se inferiorem esse ab omnibus quos ante viderat peccatoribus. et suo lumine ac solatio desolatam; quid aliud nisi omnino de dei misericordia desperare potuit? Non enim ut Salomon ait. sapientia aut scientia erant apud inferos'
Facta itaque mora dum esset sola in tantis periculis. audivit clamores et ululatus. mire magnitudinis. tonitruum quoque ita horribile. ut nec parvitas nostra possit capere. nec lingua eius ut fatebatur valeat enarre.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Eccl.9.10 — Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your strength; for there is no work or planning or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol, where you are going.
- ↩Eccl.9.10 — Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your strength; for there is no work or planning or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol, where you are going.
Notes
- 1 ↩pre is a variant spelling of prae; nimia formidine is an ablative of cause rendered as 'overwhelming fear'.
- 2 ↩The single-word segment 'potuit' completes the preceding clause; rendered as 'couldn't' to preserve the abrupt, fragmentary syntax of the source.
- 3 ↩The rhetorical question expresses the soul's extremity; 'despair entirely of God's mercy' renders omnino de dei misericordia desperare, preserving the theological weight of the Latin.
- 4 ↩The quotation is incomplete in the source; the closing quotation mark appears at the end of the clause, suggesting the citation was cut off or the text is fragmentary.
Visions of Tondal (Les Visions du chevalier Tondal) companion
Tondal came back and changed how he lived daily. That's the whole point.
Chosen Portion builds the daily practice Tondal's vision demanded: a morning reading that keeps eternity in view.
The Visio was written 'for the edification of many' as a spur to daily amendment of life, and Chosen Portion supplies that daily spur with a morning reading and evening examen.
- A daily portion from historic texts on living well and dying well
- The complete 27-chapter Visions of Tondal in modern readable English
- A built-in daily examen prompt — 2 minutes at day's end