Vita Caroli
The Devil's Snare in Lucca
While in Lucca, the narrator is assailed by the devil and corrupted companions, yet preserved by divine grace.
At that time, while we were in Lucca — the devil, who always looks for someone to devour and who offers people sweet things in which poison lies hidden — since we had already been tempted by him for a long time and yet, with divine grace aiding us, had not been defeated, he stirred up wicked and corrupt men, since he could not prevail on his own, men who clung daily to our father, to lead us away from the straight path into the snare of misery and lust; and so, led astray by the corrupt, we ourselves became corrupt together with them.✦12
A Vision Above the Battlefield
During a journey to Parma, the narrator receives a night vision in which an angel carries him above a battlefield and shows a man struck down by a fiery sword.
Then our father, not far behind us, caught up with us and we traveled together toward Parma, arriving at an estate called Tarencz in the diocese of Parma on a Sunday, the fifteenth of August. August. The feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. That very night, as sleep was overtaking us, a vision appeared to us: an angel of the Lord stood beside us on the left side, where we were lying, and struck us in the side, saying: "Get up and come with us." We answered in our spirits: "Lord, I don't know where or how I am to go with you." Seizing us by the hair at the front of our heads, he carried us up with him into the air, high above a great battle line of armed horsemen who stood before a fortress, ready for battle. He held us in the air above the battle line and said to us: "Look and see." And behold, another angel descended from heaven holding a fiery sword in his hand, struck one man in the middle of the battle line, and cut off his genitals with the same sword. That man, as if mortally wounded, writhed in agony sitting on his horse.
The Dauphin's Judgment and Mercy
The angel reveals the struck man as the Dauphin of Vienne, punished for lust, and the narrator learns of his coming death, his chance to confess, and glimpses holy figures nearby.
Then the angel, holding us by the hair, said: "Do you recognize the one who was struck by an angel and wounded to death?" Then we said: "Lord, I don't know, and I don't recognize the place." He said: "You should know that this is the Dauphin of Vienne, who on account of the sin of lust was struck down by God in this way. So now beware, and you can tell your father to guard himself against similar sins, or worse things will happen to you." We, however, felt compassion for that Dauphin of Vienne, named Bigo, whose grandmother had been the sister of our grandmother, and he himself was the son of the sister of the king of Hungary, Charles the First. We asked the angel whether he could confess before death, and I was deeply grieved. The angel answered, saying: "He will have confession and will live for several days." Then we saw on the left side of the army many men standing, clothed in white cloaks, as if they were men of great reverence and holiness, and they were speaking to one another, looking out over the army and over the things that had been done, and we observed them carefully.✦ Nor, however, did we have the grace to ask, and the angel did not of his own accord tell us who those men of such great reverence were, or of what kind.3
Awakening and the Foretelling
Returning to the body at dawn, the narrator is roused by a chamberlain and, still shaken, foretells the Dauphin's death to his father's household.
And suddenly we were brought back to our place, as the dawn was already growing bright. And Thomas, a knight from Nova Villa in the diocese of Liège, our father's chamberlain, came and roused us, saying: "My lord, why aren't you getting up? Your father is already prepared and has mounted his horses." Then we rose, broken down and as if exhausted, just as after a great effort of travel. And we said to him: "Where should we go, since we have suffered so much this night that we don't know what we ought to do?" Then he said to us: "My lord, what?" And we said to him: "The Dauphin is dead, and our father himself wants to gather his army and go to the aid of the Dauphin, who is at war with the Count of Savoy. But our help does not benefit him, because he is dead." He, however, was mocking us. That day after we arrived in Parma, he told our father everything that we had said to him. Then our father called us and asked whether it was true and whether we had seen it just like that.
The Vision Confirmed by Letters
Though dismissed as a dream, the narrator's vision is confirmed when letters arrive reporting the Dauphin's crossbow wound, confession, and death.
We answered him: "Certainly, my lord, you may know for a fact that the Dauphin is dead." Our father, however, rebuked us and said: "Don't believe dreams." We hadn't spoken fully to the aforementioned men — our father and Thomas — as we had seen it; but only that the Dauphin was dead. After several days, therefore, a messenger came bringing letters: that the Dauphin, having gathered his army, had come before a certain castle of the count of Savoy, and that with a crossbow and a large arrow he had been shot in the midst of all his soldiers, and that after several days, having made his confession, he had died. Then our father, having heard the letters, said: "We wonder greatly about these things, because our son had foretold his death to us beforehand." And he himself and Thomas wondered greatly; yet afterward no one spoke with them about this matter.
Read the original Latin
In tempore illo cum essemus in Lucca diabolus, qui semper querit, quem devoret, et offert hominibus dulcia, in quibus fel latet, cum ante diu fuissemus temptati per eum nec tamen divina gracia adiuvante victi, instigavit homines pravos et perversos, cum per se non valuisset, qui patri nostro cottidie adherebant, ut nos de tramite recto in laqueum miserie et libidinis seducerent, sicque seducti a perversis eramus perversi una cum perversis.
Deinde pater noster non longe post nos arripiens iter versu Parmam una nobiscum pervenimus in villam nomine Tarencz, Parmensis diocesis in die dominica, in qua erat XV. Aug. dies Assumpcionis sancte Marie virginis. Illa vero nocte cum nos sopor invaderet, apparuit nobis quedam visio, quoniam angelus domini astitit iuxta nos in parte sinistra, ubi iacebamus, et percussit nos in latere dicens: "Surge et veni nobiscum." Nos autem respondimus in spiritu: "Domine, nec scio quo nec quomodo vobiscum eam." Et accipiens nos per capillos anterioris partis capitis exportavit nos secum in aerem usque super magnam aciem armatorum equitum, qui stabant ante unum castrum parati ad prelium. Et tenebat nos in aere super aciem et dixit nobis: "Respice et vide." Et ecce alter angelus descendens de celo, habens igneum gladium in manu percussit unum in media acie et abscidit sibi membrum genitale eodem gladio, et ille tamquam letaliter vulneratus agonizabat equo insidens.
Tunc tenens nos per capillos angelus dixit: "Cognoscis illum, qui percussus est ab angelo et vulneratus ad mortem?" Tunc diximus: "Domine, nescio, nec locum cognosco." Dixit: "Scire debes, quod hic est Delphinus Viennensis, qui propter peccatum luxurie sic a deo est percussus; nunc ergo cavete et patri vestro potestis dicere, quod sibi caveat de similibus peccatis, vel peiora accident vobis." Nos autem compassi illi Delphino Viennensi nomine Bigonis, cuius avia fuerat soror avie nostre, et ipse erat filius sororis regis Ungarie Karoli primi. Interrogavimus angelum, utrum posset confiteri ante mortem, et contristatus eram valde. Respondit autem angelus dicens: "Habebit confessionem et vivet aliquot diebus." Tunc vidimus in parte sinistra aciei multos viros stantes amictos palliis albis, quasi essent viri magne reverencie et sanctitatis, loquebanturque ad invicem respicientes super aciem et super ea, que gesta erant, et bene ipsos notavimus. Nec tamen graciam interrogandi habuimus nec per se angelus [retulit], qui vel quales essent viri illi tante reverencie.
Et subito restituti fuimus ad locum nostrum aurora iam clarescente. Veniensque Thomas de Nova Villa miles, Leodiensis diocesis, camerarius patris nostri, excitavit nos dicens: "Domine, quare non surgitis, iam pater vester paratus ascendit equos." Tunc surreximus et eramus confracti et quasi fessi sicut post magnum laborem itineris. Et diximus sibi: "Quo ut vadamus, cum hac nocte passi sumus tanta, quod nescimus, quid facere debeamus." Tunc dixit nobis: "Domine quid?" Et diximus sibi: "Delphinus mortuus est; et ipse pater noster vult congregare exercitum et procedere in auxilium Delphino, qui guerrat cum comite Sabaudie; nostrum auxilium non proficit sibi, quia mortuus est." Ipse vero deridens nos illa die postquam venimus in Parmam dixit patri nostro omnia, que sibi dixeramus. Tunc pater noster vocans interrogavit nos: si verum esset et si ita vidissemus?
Cui respondimus: "Utique domine eciam pro certo sciatis, quod Delphinus mortuus est." Pater vero increpans nobis dixit: "Noli credere sompniis." Predictis autem patri nostro et Thome non dixeramus integre, sicut videramus; sed solum quod Delphinus mortuus esset. Post aliquot ergo dies venit nuncius ferens litteras, quod Delphinus congregato exercitu suo venerat ante quoddam castrum comitis Sabaudie et quod de una balista cum magna sagitta in medio omnium militum suorum fuisset sagittatus et post aliquot dies confessione habita mortuus esset. Tunc pater noster auditis litteris dixit: "Miramur valde super hiis, quia filius noster mortem ipsius nobis ante predixerat." Et multum mirati sunt ipse et Thomas, nullus tamen post hec de ista materia cum ipsis fuit locutus.
Scripture echoes
- ↩1Pet.5.8 — Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.
- ↩Rev.7.9 — After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands.
Notes
- 1 ↩The Latin is a single long sentence with multiple nested clauses. Broken into readable English for clarity while preserving the logical flow: temporal setting (in Lucca), the devil's character and tactics, the prior history of temptation resisted by grace, the devil's recourse to human agents, and the resulting corruption.
- 2 ↩The phrase 'qui semper querit, quem devoret' echoes 1 Peter 5:8 ('your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour').
- 3 ↩The Latin text has a lacuna or corruption at [retulit]; the translation supplies 'did not' to complete the sense, following the candidate gloss.
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