I “ The Dogma of Hell, Illustrated by Pacts Taken

from Profane and Sacred History.”

BT

Rev. Father F. X. SCHOUPPE, S. J.

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THE VATICAN LIBRARY.” Issued Bi-Weekly. No. 1.

May I, 1883. Price, 15 Cents-

“The Dogma of Hell, Illustrated by Facts Taken

from Profane and Sacred History.”

BY

Rev. Father F. X. SCHOUPPE, S. J.

V

[Copyrighted, 1883, by P. V. Hickey.]

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HICKEY & CO., 44 The Vatican Library,”

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Annual Subscription $5, for twenty-six numbers, postage paid.



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HELL

I.—THE DOGMA OF HELL.

The Dogma of Hell is the most terrible truth of

our faith.

There is a hell.

We are as sure of it as of the existence of God,
the existence of the sun. Nothing, in fact, is more

clearly revealed than the dogma of hell, and Jesus

Christ proclaims it as many as fifteen times n the

Gospel.

Reason comes to the support of revelation
;
the

existence of a hell is in harmony with the immutable

notions of justice engraved in the human heart.

Revealed to men from the beginning, and conform-

able to natural reason, this dreadful truth has al-

ways been, and is still known, by all nations not

plunged by barbarism in complete ignorance.

Hell never has been denied by heretics, Jews or

Mahometans. The pagans themselves have retained

their belief in it, although the errors of paganism

may have impaired in their minds the sound notion.

It has been reserved for modern and contempor-

aneous atheism, carried to the pitch of delirium, to



6 The Dogma of Hell.

outdo the impiety of all ages by denying the exist-

ence of hell.

There are, in our day, men who laugh at, question,

or openly deny the reality of hell.

They laugh at hell
;
but the universal belief of

nations should not be laughed at
;
a matter affect-

ing the everlasting destiny of man is not laughable;

there is no fun, when the question is of enduring

for eternity the punishment of fire.

They question, or even deny the dogma of hell

;

but on a matter of religious dogma, they cannot

decide without being competent
;
they cannot call

in doubt, still less deny, a belief so solidly estab-

lished, without bringing forward irrefragable rea-

sons.

Now, are they who deny the dogma of hell com-

petent in matters of religion ? Are they not

strangers to that branch of the sciences which is

called theology? Are they not oftenest ignorant of

the very elements of religion, taught in the Cate-

chism ?

Whence, then, proceeds the mania, of grappling

with a religious question which is not within their

province? Why such warmth in combating the

belief in hell ? Ah ! it is interest that prompts

them
;
they are concerned about the non-existence

of hell, knowing that if there is a hell, it shall be

their portion; these unhappy men wish that there

might not be one, and they try to persuade them-



The Dogma of Hell. 7

selves that there is none. In fact, these efforts

usually end in a sort of incredulity. At bottom,

this disbelief is only a doubt, but a doubt which

unbelievers formulate by a negation.

Accordingly, they say there is no hell.

And upon what reasons do they rest so bold a

denial ?

All their reasons and arguments may be summed

up in the following assertions :

“I do not believe in hell.

“They who affirm this dogma know nothing about

it
;
the future lite is an insoluble problem, an invin-

cible, perhaps.

“No one has returned from beyond the grave to

testify that there is a hell.”

These are all the proofs, all the theology of the

teachers of impiety. Let us examine.

1st. I do not believe in it. You do not believe in
hell ? And there is no hell, because you do not be

lieve in it ? Will hell exist any the less, because

you do not please to believe in it 1 Should a thief be

so foolish as to deny that there is a prison, would

the prison cease to exist, and should the thief not

enter it ?

2d. You say that the future life is a problem, and

hell a perhaps. You are deceived
;
this problem is

fully solved by revelation, and left in no uncer-

tainty.

But suppose for a moment, that there was an un-



8 The Dogma of Hell.

certainty, that the existence of eternal torments is

only probable, and that it may be said
:
perhaps

there is no hell; I ask any man of sound reason,

would he not be the silliest of men who, upon such

fiperhaps, should expose himself to the punishment

of an everlasting fire ?

3d. They say that no one returned from beyond

the grave to tell us about hell. If it were true that

no one has returned, would hell exist the less ? Is

it the dammed who ought to teach us that there is

a hell It might as well be said that it is prisoners

who ought to inform us that there are prisons. To

know that there is a hell it is not necessary that the

damned should come to tell us
;
God’s word is suf-

ficient for us
;
God it is who publishes it, and in-

forms the world concerning it.

But are you, who claim that no dead person has

returned to speak of hell, quite sure of it 1 You say

it, you declare it
;
but you have against you his-

torical, proved, unexceptionable facts. I do not

speak here of Jesus Christ, who descended into

hell, and rose again from the dead; there are other

dead persons who returned to life, and damned

souls who have revealed their everlasting reproba-

tion. Still, whatever may be the historical certain-

ty of this sort of facts, I repeat, it is not upon this

ground that we claim to establish the dogma of

hell
;
that truth is known to us by the infallible

word of God
;
the facts which we adduce serve but

to confirm, and place it in a clearer light.



The Manifestations of Hell. 9

II—MANIFESTATIONS OF HELL.

As we have just said, the dogma of hell stands

on the infallible word of God ; but in his mercy,

God, to aid our faith, permits at intervals, the truth

of hell to be manifested in a sensible manner. These

manifestations are more frequent than is thought

;

and when supported by sufficient proofs, they are

unexceptionable facts, which must be admitted like

all the other facts of history.

Here is one of these facts. It was juridically

proved in the process of canonization of St. Fran-

cis of Jerome, and under oath attested by a large

number of eye-witnesses. In the year 1707, St.

Francis of Jerome was preaching, as was his wont,

in the neighborhood of the city of Naples. He was

speaking of hell and the awful chastisements that

await obstinate sinners. A brazen courtesan who
lived there, troubled by a discourse which aroused

her remorse, sought to hinder it by jests and

shouts, accompanied by noisy instruments. As she

was standing close to the window, the Saint cried

out: “Beware
,
my daughter

, of resisting grace; be-

fore eight days God will punish you” The un-

happy creature grew only more boisterous. Eight

days elapsed, and the holy preacher happened to

be again before the same house. This time she was

silent, the windows were shut. The hearers, with



10 Manifestations of Hell.

dismay on their faces, told the Saint that Catharine

—that was the name of the bad woman—had a
few hours before died suddenly. “Died

P

he re-

peated, “well
,
let her tell us now what she has gained

by laughing at hell. Let us ask her? He utteied

these woxds in an inspired tone, and every one ex-

pected a miracle. Followed by an immense crowd,

he went up to the death chamber, and there, after

having prayed for an instant, he uncovers the face

of the corpse, and says in a loud voice, “ Catharine,

tell us where art thou now? At this summons, the

dead woman lifts her head, while opening her wild

eyes, her face borrows color, her features assume an

expression of horrible despair, and in a mournful

voice, she pronounces these words : “In hell; Iam
in hell? And immediately, she falls back again into

the condition of a corpse.

“ I was present at that event,” says one of the

witnesses who deposed before the Apostolic tri-

bunal, “but I never could convey the impression it

produced on me and the bystanders, nor that which

I still feel every time I pass that house and look at

that window. At the sight of that ill-fated abode,

I still hear the pitiful cry resounding : “In hell; I

am in hell? (Father Bach, Life of /St. Francis of
Jerome.)

Batbod, King of the Frisons, who is mentioned

in ecclesiastical history in the eighth century, had

said to St. Wolfrand that he was not afraid of hell;



Manifestations of Hell. 11

that he wished to be there with the kings, his an-

cestors, and most illustrious personages. “ More-

over” he added, “ later on, I shall be always able to

receive baptism.” “ Lord

”

answered the Saint,

u do not neglect the grace that is offered to thee.

Ihe God who offers the sinner pardon, does not

promise him to-morrow” The King did not heed

this advice, and put off his conversion. A year

after, learning the arrival of St. Wiilibrord, he

despatched an officer to him, to invite him to come

to the court and confer baptism on him. The Saint

answered that it was too late. “ Your master” he

said, “ died after your departure. He braved eter-

nal fire; he has fallen into it. I have seen him
this night, loaded with fiery chains, in the bottom

of the abyss.”

Here is another witness from beyond the grave.

History avers that when St. Francis Xavier was at

Cangoxima, in Japan, he performed a great number

of miracles, of which the most celebrated was the

resurrection of a maiden of noble birth. This

young damsel died in the flower of her age, and her

father, who loved her dearly, believed he would be-

come crazy. Being an idolator,he had no resources

in his affliction, and his friends, who came to con-

sole him, rendered his grief only the more poignant.

Two neophytes, who came to see him before the

funeral of her whom he mourned day and night, ad-

vised him to seek help from tire holy man who was



12 Manifestations of Hell.

doing such great things, and demand from him

with confidence, the life of his daughter. The pa-

gan—persuaded by the neophytes that nothing was
impossible to the European bonze, and beginning

to hope against all human appearances, as is usual

with the afflicted, who readily believe whatever com-

forts them—goes to Father Francis, falls at his
feet, and, with tears in his eyes, entreats him to

bring to life again his only daughter whom he has

just lost, adding that it would be to give life to

himself.

Xavier, touched by the faith and sorrow of the

pagan, went aside with his companion, Fernando,

to pray to God. Having come back again after a

short time, “ Go” he said to the afflicted father,

“ your daughter is alive !
”

The idolator, who expected that the Saint would

come with him to his house and invoke the name of

the God of the Christians over his daughter’s body,

took this speech as a jest and withdrew, dissatis-

fied. But scarcely had he gone a few step& when

he saw one of his servants, who, all beside himself

with joy, shouted from a distance that his daughter

was alive. Piesently, he beheld her approaching.

After the first embraces the daughter related to her

father that, as soon as she had expired, two horri-

ble demons pounced upon her, and sought to hurl

her into a fiery abyss ; but that two men, of a ven-

erable and modest appearance, snatched Lut from



Manifestations of Hell. L3

the hands of these executioners and restored her

life, she being unable to tell how it happened.

The Japanese understood who were these two

men of whom his daughter spoke, and he led her

directly to Xavier to return him such thanks as so

great a favor deserved. She no sooner saw the

Saint with his companion, Fernando, than she ex-

claimed : u There are my two deliverers

!

” and, at

the same time, the daughter and the father de-

manded baptism.

The servant of God, Bernard Colnago, a religious

of the Company of Jesus, died at Catana in the

odor of sanctity, in the year 1611. We read in his
biography that he prepared for the passage by a

life full of good works and the constant remem-

brance of death, so apt to engender a holy life. To

keep in mind this salutary remembrance, he pre-

served in his little cell a skull, which he had placed

upon a stand to have it always before his eyes.

One day it struck him that, perhaps, that head had

been the abode of a mind rebellious to God, and

now the object of His wrath. Accordingly, he

begged the Sovereign Judge to enlighten him, and

to cause the skull to shake if the spirit that had

animated it was burning in hell. No sooner had

he finished his prayer than it shook with a horrible

trembling, a palpable sign that it was the skull of

a damned soul.

This saintly religious, favored with singular gifts*



14 Manifestations of Hell.

knew tk;3 secret of consciences, and, sometimes, tlie

decrees of God’s justice. One day God revealed to

him the eternal perdition of a young libertine, who

was his parents’ heart-scald. The unfortunate

young man, after having rushed into all sorts of

dissipation, was slain by an enemy. His mother,

at the sight of so sad an end, conceived the liveliest

terrors for her son’s everlasting salvation, and be-

sought Father Bernard to tell her in what state his

soul was. Despite her entreaties Father Bernard

did not answer by a single word, sufficiently show-

ing by his silence that he had nothing consoling to

say. He was more explicit to one of her friends.

This person inquiring why he did not give an an-

swer to an afflicted mother, the religious openly

said to him that he was unwilling to increase her

affliction
;
that this youg libertine was damned, and

that, during his prayer, God had shown him the

youth under a hideous and frightful aspect.

On the 1st of August, 1645, there died in the

odor of sanctity, at the College of Evora, in Portu-

gal, Anthony Pereyra, Coadjutor Brother of the

Company of Jesus. His history is, perhaps, the

strangest furnished by the annals of this Society.

In 1599, five years after his entrance into the novi-

tiate, he was seized by a mortal malady in the Isle

of St. Michael, one of the Azores
;
and a few mo-

ments after he had received the last sacraments, be-

neath the eyes of the whole community, who we 3



Manifestations of Hell. 15

present at his agony, he seemed to empire, and be-

came cold like a corpse. The appearance—almost
imperceptible—of a slight throbbing of the heart
alone, prevented his immediate burial. Accord-

ingly, he was left three whole days on his death-

bed, and there were already plain signs of decompo-

sition in the body, when, all of a sudden, on the

fourth day, he opened his eyes, breathed and spoke.

He was obliged by obedience to account to his su-

perior, Father Louis Pinheyro, all that had passed

in him after the last pangs of his agony
;
and here

is the summ . ry of the relation, which he wrote with

his own hand : “ First, I saw from my death-bed,’

he says, “ my Father, St. Ignatius, accompanied by

some of our Fathers in heaven, who was coming to

visit his sick children, seeking those who seemed

worthy to be presented to our Lord. When he

was near me I thought for an instant that he might

take me, and my heart leaped with joy
;
but he

soon described to me what I must correct before

obtaining so great a favor.”

Then, however, by a mysterious dispensation of

Providence, the soul of Brother Pereyra was mo-

mentarily released from his body, and immediately

the sight of a hideous troop of demons, rushiug

headlong upon him, filled him with dread. But, at

the same time, his ange1-guardian and St. Anthony

of Padua, his countryman and paSron, put his ene

mies to flight, and invited him in their company to'



16 Manifestations of Hell.

take a momentary glimpse and taste of something

of the joys and pains of eternity. “ They then, by

turns, led me to a place of delights, where they

showed me an incomparable crown of glory, but

one which I had nob yet merited; then, to the brink

of the abysmal pit, where I beheld souls accursed

failing into the everlasting fire, as thick as grains

of corn, cast beneath an ever-turning millstone.

The infernal pit was like one of these limekilns, in

which the flame is smothered for an instant beneath

the heap of materials thrown into it, only to fire up

again by the fuel with a more frightful violence.”

Led thence to the tribunal of the Sovereign

Judge, Antony Pereyra heard his sentence to the fire

of purgatory, and nothing here below, he declares,

could give an idea of what is suffered there, or of

the siate of anguish to which the soul is reduced

by the desire and postponement of the enjoyment

of God and of His blessed presence.

So when, by our Lord’s command, his soul was

united again to his body, neither the new tortures

of sickness, which, for six entire months, combined

with the daily help of iron and fire, caused his flesh,

irremediably atb&cted by the corruption of this first

death to waste away
;
nor the frightful penances to

which, so far as obedience allowed him, he never

ceased to subject himself for the forty-six years of

his new life, were able to quench his thirst for suf-

ierings and expiation. “ All this,” he used to say,



Apparitions of the Damned. 17

“ is nothing to what the justice and mercy of God

have caused me, not only to see, but to endure/’

Finally, as an authentic seal of so many wonders,

Brother Pereyra detailed to his Superior the hidden

designs of Providence on the future restoration of

the Kingdom of Portugal, at that time still distant

nearly half a century. But it may be fearlessly

added that the most unexceptionable avouchment

of all these prodigies was the surprising sanctity to

which Antony Pereyra never ceased for a single

day to rise.

in—APPARITIONS OF THE DAMNED.

St. Antoninus, Archbishop of Florence, relates, in

his writings, a terrible fact which, about the middle

of the fifteenth century, spread fright over the

whole North of Italy. A young man of good stock,
who, at the age of 16 or 17

,
had had the misfortune

of concealing a mortal sin in confession, and, in

that state, of receiving Communion, had put off

from week to week, month to month, the painful

disclosure of his sacrileges. Tortured by remorse,

instead of discovering with simplicity his misfor-

tune, he sought to gain quiet by great penances,

but to no purpose. Unable to bear the strain any

longer, he entered a monastery
;
there, at least, he

said to himself, I will tell all, and expiate my
frighthful sins. Unhappily, he was welcomed as a



18 Apparitions of the Damned.

holy young man by his superiors, who knew him

by reputation, and his shame again got the better

of him. Accordingly, he deferred his confession

of this sin to a later period
;
and a year, two years,

three years, passed in this deplorable state
;
he

never dared to reveal his misfortune. Finally, sick-

ness seemed to him to afford an easy means of

doing it. “ Now is the time,” he says to himself

;

“ I am going to tell all
;
I will make a general con-

fession before I die.” But this time, instead of

frankly and fairly declaring his faults, he twisted

them so artfully that his confessor was unable to

understand him. He hoped to come back again

the next day : an attack of delirium came on, and

the unfortunate man died.
* The community, who were ignorant of the fright-

ful reality, were full of veneration for the deceased.

His body was borne with a certain degree of

solemnity into the church of the monastery, and

lay exposed in the choir until the next morning,

when the funeral was to be celebrated.

A few moments before the time fixed for the

ceremony, one of the Brothers, sent to toll the bell,

saw before him, all of a sudden, the deceased, en-

compassed by chains, that seemed aglow with fire,

while something blazing appeared all over his per-

son. Frightened, the poor Brother fell on his

knees, with his eyes riveted on the terrifying appa-

rition. Then the damned soul said to him : “ Do



Apparitions of the Damned. 19

not prayfor me
,
I am in here for all eternity f'

and he related the sad story of his false shame and

sacrileges. Thereupon, he vanished, leaving in the

church a disgusting odor, which spread all over the

monastery, as if to prove the truth of all the

Brother just saw and heard Notified at once, the

Superiors had the corpse taken away, deeming it

unworthy of ecclesiastical burial.

After having cited the preceding example,

Monsignor de Segur adds what follows* :

“ In our century, three facts of the same kind,

more authentic than some others, have come to my

knowledge. The first happened almost in my

family.

“ It was in Bussia, at Moscow, a short while before

the horrible campaign of 181*2. My maternal

grandfather, Count Kostopchine, the Military Gov-

ernor of Moscow, was very intimate with General

Count Orloff, celebrated for his bravery, but as

godless as he was brave.

“One day, at the close of a supper, Count Orloff

and one of his friends, General V., also a disciple of

Voltaire, had set to horribly ridiculing religion, es-

pecially hell.
6 Yet' said Orloff

;

4

yet if by chance,

there shovld be anything the other side of the

curtain
?' 4

Well' took up General V., 4 whichever

of us shall depart first, will come to inform the

other of it. Is it agreed ?'
4 An excellent idea'

Opuscule on Hell.



20 Apparitions of the Damned.

replied Count Orloff
;
and both interchanged very

seriously their word o f honor not to miss the en-

gagement.

“ A few weeks later, one of those great wars
which Napoleon had the gift of creating at that time,

burst forth. The Russian army began the cam-

paign, and General V. received orders to start out

forthwith to take an important command.
44 He had left Moscow about two or three weeks,

when one morning, at a very early hour, while my

grandfather was dressing, his chamber doon is

rudely pushed open. It was Count Orloff, in dress-

ing-gown and slippers, his hair on end, his eye

wild, and pale like a dead man. 4 What
, Orloff,

\

you ? at this hour ? and in such a costume ? What

ails you ? what has happened T 4 My dear,' replies
Count Orloff, 4 1 believe I am beside myself. I
have just seen General V? 4Mas General I7"., then,

comeback?'
1 4

Well, no? rejoins Orloff, throwing

himself on a sofa, and holding his head between his

hands
;

4
no, he has not come back

,
and that is what

frightens me /’

My grandfather did not understand him. He

tried to soothe him. 44 Relate to me,” he says to

Orloff,
44
cehat has happened you, and what all this

means.” Then, striving to stifle his emotion, the

Count related the following : 44 My dear Rostop-

chine, some time ago, Y. and I mutually swore

hat the first of us who died should come and tell



Apparitions of the Damned. 21

the other if there is anything on the other side of

the curtain. Now, this morning, scarcely half an

hour since, I was calmly lying awake in my bed, not

thinking at all of my friend, when, all of a sudden
?

the curtains of my bed were rudely parted, and at

two steps from me I see General V. standing up,

pale, with his right hand on his breast, and saying

to me : 6 There is a hell
,
and I am there P and he

disappeared. I came at once to you. My head is
splitting ! What a strange thing ! I do not know

what to think of it.”

My grandfather calmed him as well as he could.
It was no easy matter. He spoke of hallucinations,

nightmares
;
perhaps he was asleep. . . There are

many extraordinary unaccountable things . . . and

other common-places, which constitute the comfort

of freethinkers. Then he ordered his carriage,

and took Count Orloff back to his hotel.

Now, ten or twelve days after this strange inci-

dent, an army messenger brought my grandfather

among other news, that of the death of General V.

The very morning of the day, Count Orloff had seen

and heard him, the same hour he appeared at Mos-

cow, the unfortunate General, reconnoitring the

enemy’s position, had been shot through the breast

by a bullet, and had fallen stark dead.

“ There is a hell
,
and I am there /” these are the

words of one who came back.

Mgr. de Segur relates a second fact, which he re-



22 Apparitions of the Damned.

gards as alike free from doubt. He had learned it

in 1859, of a most honorable priest, and Superior of

an important community. This priest had the

particulars of it from a near relation of the lady o

whom it had happened. At that time, Christmas

Day, 1859, this person was still living, and little

over forty years.

She chanced to be in London in the winter of

1847-48. She was a widow, about twenty-nine years

old, quite rich and worldly. Among the gallants

who frequented her salon
,

there was noticed a

young lord, whose attentions compromised her ex-

tremely, and whose conduct, besides, was anything

but edifying!

One evening, or rather one night, for it was close

upon midnight, she was reading in her bed some

novel, coaxing sleep. One o’clock struck by the

clock
;
she blew out her taper. She was about to

fall asleep when, to her great astonishment, she

noticed that a strange, wan glimmer of light, which

seemed to come from the door of the drawing-room,

spread by degrees into her chamber, and increased

momentarily. Stupefied at first, and not knowing

what this meant, she began to get alarmed, when

she saw the drawing-room door slowly open, and the

young lord, the partner of her disorders, enter her

room. Before she had time to say a single word,

he seized her by the left wrist, and with a hissing

voice, syllabled to her in English r
'

‘ There is a



Apparitions of the Damned. 23

hell!” The pain she felt in her arm was so great

that she lost her senses.

When, half an hour after, she came-to again, she

rang for her chamber-maid. The latter, on enter-

ing felt a keen smell of burning. Approaching her

mistress, who could hardly speak, she noticed on

her wrist so deep a bum, that the bone was laid

bare, and the flesh almost consumed
;
this burn was

the size of a man’s hand. Moreover, she re-

marked that, from the door of the saloon to the bed,

and from the bed to that same door, tho carpet

bore the imprint of a man’s steps, which had burned

through the stuff. By the directions of her mis-

tress, she opened the drawing-room door: there,

more traces were seen on the carpet outside.

The following day, the unhappy lady learned with

a terror easy to be divined that, on that very night,

about one o’clock in the morning, her lord had been

found dead drunk under the table, that his servants

had carried him to his room, and that theLe he had

died in their arms.

I do not know, added the Superior, whether that

terrible lesson converted the unfortunate lady, but

what I do know, is that she is still alive, and that

to conceal from the sight the traces of her ominous

burn, she wears on the left wrist, like a bracelet, a

wide gold band, which she does not take off day or

night. I repeat it, I have all these details from her

near relation, a serious Christian, in whose word I re-



24: Apparitions of the Damned.

pose the fullest belief. They are never spoken of,

even in the family
;
and I only confide them to you,

suppressing every proper name.

Notwithstanding the disguise beneath which this

apparition has been, and must be enveloped, it

seems to me impossible, adds Mgr. de Segur, to call

in doubt the dreadftd authenticity of the details.

Here is a third fact related by the same writer.

In the year 1873, he writes, a few days before the

Assumption, occurred again one of these apparitions

from beyond the grave, which so efficaciously com

firm the reality of hell. It was in Rome. A brothel,

opened in that city after the Piedmontese invasion,

stood near a police station. One of the bad girls

who lived there had been wounded in the hand, and

it was found necessary to take her to the hospital

of Consolation. Whether her blood, vitiated by

bad living, had brought on mortification of the

wound, or from an unexpected complication, she

died suddenly during the night. At the same in-

stant, one of her companions, who surely was

ignorant of what had just happened at the hospital,

began to utter shrieks of. despair to the. point of

awaking the inhabitants of the locality, creating a

flurry among the wretciied creatures of the house,

and provoking the intervention of the police. The

dead girl of the hospital, surrounded by flames, had

appeared to her, and said : “ 1 am damned ! and if
you do not wish to be like me

,
leave this place of

infamy and return to God”



Apparitions of the Damned. 25

Nothing could quell the despair of this girl, who,

at daybreak, departed, leaving the whole house

plunged in a stupor, especially as soon as the death

of her companion at the hospital was known.

Just at this period, the mistress of the place, an

exalted Garribaldian, and known as such by her

brethren and friends, fell sick. She soon sent for

a priest to receive the sacraments. The ecclesiasti-

cal authority deputed for this task, a worthy pre-

late, Mgr. Sirolli, the pastor of the parish of Saint-

Saviour in Laura. He, fortified by special instruc-

tions, presented himself, and exacted of the sick

woman, before all, in presence of many witnesses,

the full and entire retractation of her blasphemies

against the Sovereign Pontiff, and the discontinu-

ance of the infamous trade she plied. The unhappy

creature did so without hesitating, consented to

purge her house, then made her confession and re-

ceived the holy Viaticum with great sentiments of

repentance and humility.

Feeling that she was dying, she besought, with

tears, the good pastor not to leave her, frightened

as she always was by the apparition of that damned

girl. Mgr. Sirolli, unable to satisfy her on account

of the proprieties which would not permit him to

spend the night in such a place, sent to the police

for two men, closed up the house, and remained

until the dying woman had breathed her last.

Pretty soon, all Pome became acquainted with



26 To Deny Hell is Foolish Bravado.

the details of these tragic occurrences. As ever*

the ungodly and lewd ridiculed them, taking good

care not to seek for any information about them;

the good profited by them, to become still better

and more faithful to their duties.

IV.— 1THE DENIAL OF HELL IS FOOLISH

BRAVADO.

There are some miserable men, let us rather say,

fools, who, in the delirium of their iniquity, make

bold to declare that they laugh at hell. They say

so, but only with their lips
;
their consciences pro-

test and give them the lie. Collot de Herbois,

famous for his impiety as much as for his san-

guinary ferocity, was the chief author of the mas-

sacres of Lyons, in 1793
;
he caused the destruction

of 1,600 victims. Six years after, in 1799, he was

banished to Cayenne, and used to give vent to his

infernal rage by blaspheming the holiest things.

The least act of religion, the slightest show of

Christian piety, became the subject of his jests.

Having seen a soldier make the sign of the cross,

“Imbecile /” he said to him. “ You still believe in

superstition ! Do you not know that God
,
the Holy

Virgin, Paradise, Hell, are the inventions of the

accursed tribe of priests ?” Shortly after he fell

sick and was seized by violent pains. In an access



To Deny Hell is Foolish Bravado. 27

of fever lie swallowed, at a single draught, a bottle

of liquor. His disease increased
;

he felt as if

burned by a fire that was devouring his bowels.

He uttered frightful shrieks, called upon God, the

Holy Virgin, a priest, to come to his relief. “ Well,

indeed” said the soldier to him, “you ask for a

priest ? You fear hell
,
then ? You used to curse

the priests
,
make fun of hell ! Alas ! ” He then

answered: “My tongue was lying to my heart?
Pretty soon, he expired, vomiting blood and foam.

The following incident happened in 1837. A

young under-lieutenant, being in Paris, entered the

Church of the Assumption, near the Tuileries, and

saw a priest kneeling near a confessional. As he

~r>ade religion the habitual subject of his jokes, he

wished to go to confession to while away the time,

and went into the confessional. “Monsieur l’Abbe,” he

said, “ would you be good enough to hear my con-

fession ?” “Willingly my son
;
confess unrestrain-

ed.” “ But I must first say that I am a rather

unique kind of a sinner.” “ No matter ; the sacra-

ment of penance has been instituted for all sinners.”

“ But I am not very much of a believer in religious

matters.”
' “ You believe more than you think.”

“Believe? I ? I am a regular scoffer.” The con

fessor saw with whom he had to deal, and that

there was some mystification. He replied, smiling:

“You are a regular scoffer? Are you, then, mak-

ing fun of me too ?” The pretended penitent



28 To Deny Hell is Foolish Bravado.

smiled in like manner. “Listen,” the priest went

on, “what you have just done here is net serious.

Let us leave, confession aside; and, if you please,

have a little chat. I like military people greatly;

and, then, you have the appearance of a good,

amiable youth. *Tell me, what is your rank?”

“Under-lieutenant.” “Will you remain an under-

lieutenant long?” “Two, three, perhaps four years.”

“ And after ?” “ I shall become a lieutenant ?”

“ And after?” “ I hope to become a captain.”

“ And after ?” “ Lieutenant-colonel ?” “ How old

will you be then?” “ Forty to forty-five years.”

“ And after that ?” I shall become a brigadier

general.” “And after?” “If I rise higher, I shall

be general of a division.” “ And after?” “ After

!

there is nothing more except the Marshal's baton
;

but my pretensions do not reach so high.” “Well

and good. But do you not intend to get married ?”

“Yes, when I shall be a superior officer.” “Well !

There you are married
;
a superior officer, a general,

perhaps even a French marshal, who knows ? And

after?” “After? Upon my word, I do not know

what will be after.”

“ See, how strange it is !” said the abbe. Then,

in a tone of voice that grew more sober : “You

know all that shall happen up to that point, and you

do not know what will be after. Well, I know, and

I am going to tell you, After, you shall die, be

judged, and, if you continue to live as you do, you



To Deny Hell is Foolish Bravado. 29

shall be damned, you shall go and burn in hell

;

that is what will be after.”

As the under-lieutenant, dispirited at this con-

clusion, seemed anxious to steal away One mo-

ment, sir,” said the abbe. “You are a man of

honor. So am I. Agree that you have offended

me, and owe me an apology. It will be simple.

For eight days, before retiring to rest, you will say:

‘ One day I shall die
;
but I laugh at the idea. After

my death I shall be judged
;
but I laugh at the

idea. After my judgment, I shall be damned; but

I laugh at the idea. I shall bum forever in hell

;

but I laugh at the idea!’ That is all. But you are

going to give me your word of honor not to neglect

it, eh?”

More and more wearied, and wishing, at any

price, to extricate himself from this false step, the

under-lieutenant made the promise. In the even-

ing, his word being given, he began to carry out

his promise. “ I shall die” he says. “I shall be
judged

”

He had not the courage to add : UI
laugh at the idea.” The week had not passed be-

fore he returned to the Church of the Assumption,

made his confession seriously, and came out of the

confessional his face bathed with tears, and with joy

in his heart.

A young person who had become an unbeliever

in consequence of his dissipation, kept incessantly

shooting sarcasm at religion, and making jests of



30 To Deny Hell is Foolish Bravado.

its most awful truths. “ Juliette

”

some one said

to her one day, “ this will end badly. God will be

tired of your blasphemies, and you shall be pun

*

ished.” ‘'Bah” she answered insolently. “ It

gives me very little trouble . Who has returned

from the other world to relate what passes there ?”

Less than eight days after she was found in her

room, giving no sign of life, and already cold. As

there was no doubt that she was dead, she was put

in a coffin and buried. The following day, the

grave-digger, digging a new grave beside that of

the unhappy Juliette, heard some noise, it seemed

to him that there was a knocking in the adjoining

coffin. At once, he puts his ear to the ground, and

in fact hears a smothered voice, crying out : “Help!

help !” The authorities were summoned
;
by their

orders, the grave was opened, the coffin taken up and

unnailed. The shroud is removed
;

there is no

further doubt, Juliette was buried alive. Her hair,

her shroud were in disorder, and her face was

streaming with blood. While they are releasing

her, and feeling her heart to be assured that it still

beats, she heaves a sigh, like a person for a long

time deprived of air
;
then she opens her eyes,

makes an effort to lift herself up, and says : “My
God

,
I thank thee.” Afterward, when she had got

her senses well back, and by the aid of some food,

recovered her strength, she added : “ When I re-
gained consciousness in the grave and recognized



To Deny Hell is Foolish Bravado. 31

the frightful reality of my burial, when after hav-
ing uttered shrieks

,
I endeavored to break my coffin

,

and struck myforehead against the boards
,
I saw

that all ivas useless ; death appeared to me with all

its horrors ; it was less the bodily than the eternal

death thatfrightened me. I saw 1 was going to be
damned. My God, 1 had bu t too well deserved it

!

Then Iprayed, I shoutedfor hdp, I lost conscious-
ness again

,
until I awoke above ground. O

,
good-

ness of my God /’ she said, again shedding tears.

“Ihad despised the truths offaith ; thou hast

punished me, but in thy mercy, I am converted and

repentant
.”

They who deny hell will be forced to admit it

soon
;
but alas ! it will be too late. Father Nurem-

berg, in his woik Difference between Time and

Eternity, speaks of an unfor tunate sinner, who, as

the result of his evil ways, had lost the faith. His

virtuous wife exhorted him to return to God, and

reminded him of hell, but he would answer, obsti-

nately : “ There is no hell.” One day his wife

found him dead, and, strange circumstance, he held

in his hand a mysterious paper, on which, in large

characters, was traced this terrifying avowal : “

I

now know that there is a hell!”



32 Awaking in Hell.

V—AWAKING OF THE UNGODLY SOUL IN
HELL.

Unhappy sinners, wlio are lulled to rest by the

* illusions of the world, and who live as if there was

no hell, will be suddenly stripped of their illusions

by the most frightful of catastrophes. From the

midst of their pleasures they shall fall into the pit

of torments.

The disaster of the Cafe Kivoto supplies an im-

age of the catastrophe, still more terrible, which

awaits them, soon or late.

The Kivoto was a theatrical cafe at Smyrna,

built upon piles in the sea. The extremely stout

stakes that kept the house above the waves, water

and time-eaten, had lost their solid contents. It was

on the 11th of February, 1873, at 10 o’clock p. m.

Two hundred persons had assembled to witness a

comic spectacle. They were amusing themselves,

when, all at once, a frightful crash was heard. At

the same moment everthing gave way and was

turned topsy-turvy
;

the house, with the theatre

and spectators, was pitched forward and swallowed

up in the sea. What an awful surprise for these

amusement amateurs ! A more tragical surprise

awaits the worldling. A day will come when. *rom



<33Awaking in Hell.

the centre of his pleasures, he shall, all of a sud-

den, behold himself cast headlong into a sea of

sulphur and fire.

On the night of the 31st of March-lst of April,

1873, a stately and magnificent steamship, the At-

lantic foundered on the Canadian banks, near Hali-

,

fax. The number on board, passengers and crew,

reached 950, of whom 700 were lost in this shipwreck.

Most of them were wrapped in sleep, when the ves-

sel, striking some rocks, sank almost instantaneously.

Swallowed up by the sea in the middle of their re-

pose, they awoke in the waters, and were suffocated

before being able to account for the terrible acci-

dent which had just happened. Frightful awaking

!

But more frightful will be the awaking of the

atheist when he shall see himself suddenly en-

gulfed in hell.

On the 28th of December, 1879, occurred the

Tay bridge accident. The train from London to

Edinburgh crosses the Tay, near Dundee, over an

iron bridge half a league long. A dreadful stoim,
which had swelled the waves and broken the

bridge during the day, ended by sweeping away

several arches, despite the ii75n cross-bars and piers.

These arches, when falling, left an empty space,

which was not perceived in the darkness. At 7:30

p. m. the express train out from Edinburgh thunders

along, carrying a hundred travellers
;

it mounts the

fatal bridge, and soon, coming on the empty space,



34 Truth of Hell.
*

is hurled into the waves. Not a cry was heard

;

in the twinkling of an eye the victims were in the

depths below. What a surprise! what a sudden

change ! But what will it be when the sinner shall

see himself, in the twinkling of an eye, in the pit

of hell?

VL—TRUTH OF HELL.

This is how the Son of God speaks to us of hell

:

“Woe to the world because of scandals; for it

must needs be that scandals come; nevertheless,

woe to that man by whom scandal cometh

!

“ If, then, thy hand or thy foot scandalize thee,

cut it off and cast it from thee
;

it is better for

thee to go into life maimed or lame, than, having

two hands or two feet, be cast into everlasting fire.

“ And if thy eye scandalize thee, pluck it out and

cast it from thee; it is better for thee, having one

eye, to enter into life, than, having two eyes, to be

cast into hell fire.”

—

(Matt, xviii., 7 ; compare v., 29.)

“Fear ye not them that kill the body, and are

not able to kill the soul
;
but rather fear him that

can destroy both soul and body into hell.”

—

(Matt.

x. 28.)



Truth of Hell. 35

“The rich man also died, and he was buried in

hell.

“Now, lifting up his eyes when he was in tor-

ments, he saw Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his

bosom.

“ And he said : Father Abraham, have mercy on

me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of

his finger in water tQ cool my tongue, for I am

tormented in this flame.”—

(

Isuke xvi., 22.)

*
“ Then the Judge will say to them that shall be on

his left hand : Depart from me, you cursed, into ever-

lasting fire, which was prepared for the devil and

his angels.”

—

{Matt, xxv., 41.)

*
“ Many shall come from the east and the west,

and shall sit down in the kingdom of heaven.

“ But the children of the kingdom shall be cast

out into the exterior darkness : there shall be weep-

ing and gnashing of teeth.”

—

{Matt, viii., 11.)

*
“ The King went in to see the guests, and he saw

there a man who had not on a wedding garment.

“ And he saith to him : Friend, how earnest thou

in hither, not having on a wedding garments

But he was silent.



36 Truth of Hell.

“ Then the King said to the waiters : Bind his

hands and feet, and. cast him into the exterior

darkness : there shall weeping, and gnashing of

teeth.”

—

{Matt, v., 22.)

*
“ The unprofitable servant cast ye out into the

exterior darkness: there shall be weeping, and

gnashing of teeth.”

—

{Matt, xxv., 30.)

*
“ But I say to you : Whosoever is angry with his

brother shall be in danger of the judgment, and

whosoever shall say to his brother, Thou fool, shall

be in danger of hell fire.”

—

{Matt, v., 22.)

“ The Son of Man shall send His angels, and they

shall gather out of His Kingdom all scandals and

them that work iniquity
;

“ And shall cast them into the furnace of fire

;

there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

{Matt, xiii., 41.)

*
“ If thy hand scandalize thee, cut it off

;
it is bet-

ter for thee to enter into life maimed, than having

two hands to go into hell, into unquenchable fire.

“ There, the gnawing worm dies not and the fire

is not extinguished.

“ And if thy foot scandalize thee, cut it off
;

it is



Truth of Hell. 37

better for thee to enter lame into life everlasting

than having two feet, to be cast into the hell of un-

quenchable fire.

“ Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not

extinguished.

“ And if thy eye scandalize thee, pluck it out
;

it

is better for thee with one eye to enter into the

Kingdom of God, than, having two eyes, to be cast

into the hell of fire.

“ Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not

extinguished.”—(Mark ix., 42.)

“ Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit,

shall be cut down and shall be cast into the file.”

—

(Matt. XII, 19.)

*
“ I am the vine

;
you the branches

;
he that

abideth in Me, and I in him, the same beareth

much fruit.

“ If any one abide not in Me, he shall be cast

forth as a branch, and shall wither, and they shall

gather him up, and cast him into the fire, and he

burneth .—(John xv., 5.)
*

“ Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not over Me, but

weep for yourselves and for your children.

“ For the days shall come, wherin they shall say



38 Truth of Hell.

to the mountains: Fall upon us
;
and to the hills:

Cover us.

“ For if in the green wood they do these things,

what shall be done in the dry?—that is to say,
what will sinners be, destined, like the dry wood,

to be burned.”—{Luke xxiii., 31.)
*

“ Already, the axe is laid to the root of the tree :

and every tree that doth not yield good fruit, shall

be cut down and cast into the fire.

“He that shall come after Me is mightier than I,

and he shall baptize you in the Holy Ghost and

fire.

“ Whose fan is in his hand and he will thoroughly

cleanse his floor
;

and gather his wheat into the

barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable

fire.” Words of St. John the Baptist.

—

{Matt.

iii., 10.)

*
“The beast and the false prophet who had

seduced them who had received the character of the

beast, and who had admired his image, were cast

alive into the pool of fire burning with brimstone.”

(Apoc., xix., 20.)

*
“ WTiere they were tormented day and night, for

ever and ever.

“And whosoever was not found written in the



Truth of Hell. 39

book of life, was cast into the pool of Are.”

—

(Apoc.

xx., 15.)

*
To doubt about hell, is to doubt the infallible

word of God
;

it is to give ear to the speech of

libertines rather than to the infallible teaching of the

Church. The Church teaches that there is a hell

;

a libertine tells you that there is not
;
and should

you perfer to believe a libertine ? An honorable

Roman, Emilius Scaurus, was accused by a certain

Yarns, a man without word or honor. Being

obliged to prove his innocence, Scaurus addressed

the people in this short speech : uRomans
f
you

know Varus, andyou know me; now, Varus says I
am guilty of the crime charged against me, and I
protest that Iam not guilty. Varus says yes, I
say no ; whom will you believe ?

The people applauded, and the accuser was con-

founded.

Natural reason confirms the dogma of hell. An
atheist was boasting that he did not believe in hell.

Among his hearers, there was a sensible young man,
modest, but who thought that he ought to shut the

silly speaker’s mouth. He put him a single ques-
tion : “ Sir,” he said, “ the kings of the earth have

prisons to punish their refractory subjects; how can

God, the King of the Universe, be without aprison

for those who outrage His majesty f” The sinner

had not a word to answer. The appeal was pre-



40 Truth of Hell.

sented to the light of his own reason, which pro-

claims that, if kings have prisons, God must have

a hell.

The atheist who denies hell is like the thief who

should deny the prison. A thief was threatened

with sentence to prison. The foolish fellow re-

plied: u There is no Court
,
there is no prison

” He

ivas speaking thus, when an officer of justice put

his hand on his shoulder, and dragged him before

the Judge. This is an image of the atheist who is

foolish enough to deny hell. A day will come,
when, taken unawares by divine justice, he shall see

himself dashed headlong into the pit which he

stubbornly denied, and he shall be forced to ac-

knowledge the terrible reality.

The atheist who denies hell is like the African

heron. That stupid bird, when chased by hunters,

plunges its head into the sand, and keeping stirless,

believes it is secure from danger, because it does

Hot see the enemy. But soon the piercing arrow

comes to undeceive it. Thus absorbed, sunk in

earthly things, the sinner is persuaded that he has

nothing to fear from hell until the day when death

strikes him and shows him, by a sad experience,

how deceived he has been.

The truth of heil is so clearly revealed that

heresy has never denied it. Protestants, who have

demolished almost all dogmas, have not dared

to tou?h this dogma. This fact suggests to a Cath-



Truth of Hell. 41

olic lady this witty answer. Anxiously importuned

by two Protestant ministers to pass over into the

camp of the Reformation : 46 Gentlemen
,”

she re-

plied,
“you have indeed achieved a fine reforma-

tion. You have suppressed fasting
,

confession

,

purgatory. Unfortunately
,
you have kept hell; put

hell away
,
and Ishall be one of you.” Yes, Messrs.

Freethinkers, remove hell, and then ask us to be

yours. But know that an “ I do not believe in it,”

is not sufficient to da away with it.

Is it not the most inconceivable folly to rely on

& perhaps, at the risk of falling into hell? Two

atheists went one day into an anchorite’s cell. At

the sight of his instruments of penance, they

asked him why he was leading so mortified a life.

“'To deserve paradise,” he replied. “ Good

Father,” they said, smiling, “ You would be nicely

caught, if there is nothing after death
!” “ Gentle-

men,” rejoined the holy man, as he looked at them

with compassion, “ you will be quite otherwise, if

there is any.”

A young man belonging to a Catholic family in
Holland, as a consequence of imprudent reading,

had the misfortune to lose the treasure of faith and

fall into a state of complete indifference. It was a

subject of the bitterest grief for his parents,

especially his pious mother. In vain did this other

Monica give him the most solid lectures, in vain did

she admonish him with tears to come back to God
;



42 Truth of Hell.

her unhappy son was deaf and insensible. Yet, at last,

to satisfy his mother, he was pleased to consent to

spend a few days in a religious house, there to

follow the exercises of a retreat, or rather, as he put

it, to rest a few days and smoke tobacco, an enjoy-

ment he loved. So, he listened with a distracted

mind to the instructions given to those making the

retreat, and speedily after began again to smoke

without thinking further of what he had heard.

The instruction on hell, to which he seemed to

listen to like the rest, came on, but being back again

in his little cell, while |he was taking his smoke as

usual, a reflection arose, in spite of him, in his

mind. “ If
\
however

,
it should be true” he says to

himself, “ that there is a hell ! If there be one

,

clearly it shall be for me ! And
,
in reality

,
do I

know, myself, that there is not a hell ? Iam

obliged to acknowledge that I have no certainty in

this behalf; the whole ground of my ideas is only

a perhaps. Now, to run the risk of burningfor

eternity on a perhaps, frankly speaking, as a mat-

ter of extravagance, would be to go beyond the

bounds. If there are some who have such courage,

1 have not sufficiently lost my senses to imitate

them.” Thereupon, he begins to pray, grace pen-

etrates his soul, his doubts vanish, he rises up, con-

verted.

A pious author relates the history of the tragic

punishment that befell an ungodly scoffer of hell.



Truth of Hell. 43

This was a man of quality, whom tne author,

through respect for his family, does not name
;
he

designates him by the fictitious name of Leontius.

This unfortunate man made it a boast to brave

heaven and hell, which he treated as chimerical super-

stitions. One day, when a feast was about to be

celebrated at his castle, he took a walk, accompan-

ied by a friend, and wished to go through the cem-

etery. Chancing to stumble against a skull lying

on the ground, he kicked it aside with profane,

blasphemous words : “ Out of my way” he said,
rotten bones

,
worthless remains of what is no more”

His companion, who did not share in his sentiments,

ventured to say to him u that he did wrong to use

this language . The remains of the dead” he

added, “ must be respected
,
on account of their

souls
,
which are always alive

,
and which will assume

their bodies again on the day of the resurrection .’

Lenotius answered by this challenge spoken to the

skull : “ If the spirit that animated thee still exists
,

let it come and tell me some news about the other

world. I invite it for this very evening to my ban-
quet.” Evening came, he was at table with nu-

merous friends, and telling his adventure of the

cemetery, while repeating his profanations, when, all

at once, a great noise is made and almost at the

same time a horrible ghost appears in the dining-

room, and spreads fright among the guests,

Leontius, especially, losing ail his audacity, is pale,



44 Truth of Hell.

trembling, out of his wits. He wants to flee; the

spectre does not give him time, but springs on him

with the swiftness of lightning, and smashes his

head to pieces against the wainscot. I do not

know how far this recital is authentic
;
but what is

certain is that a day will come when the pride of

the ungodly shall be dashed down, and their heads

broken by the Judge of the living and the dead:

“ The Lord shall judge among nations
,
He shall

fill ruins ; He shall crush the heads in the land of
mangy—(Ps. 109.)
Here is another fact almost contemporaneous and

related by a trustworthy author : Two young men,

whose names, through respect for their families,

must remain secret, but whom I shall call Eugene

and Alexander, old schoolmates and college friends,

met again later in life after a long separation.

Eugene, having stayed at home, used to occupy him-

self with works of charity, according to the spirit

of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, of which he

was a member. Alexander had entered the army

and obtained the rank of colonel
;

but, unhappily,

there lost every spark of religion. Having pro-

cured a leave of absence of a few days, he had re-

turned to his family, and wished to see Eugene.

The interview happened on a Sunday. After they

had chatted together for a time, “ Friend said Eu-

gene, “ it is time to leave you. Whither do you

wish to go? It cannot be there is anything press-



Truth of Hell. 45

ing ?” “Iam goingfirst after the business of sal-

vation / then 1 must attend a benevolent reunion
.”

“ Poor Eugene / I see it / you still believe in par-

adise and hell

.

’ Tis all a chimera
,
superstition

,

fanaticism
.” “ Dear Alexander

,
do not speak so/

you, like me
,
learned that the dogmas offaith rest

on unexceptionable facts.'
1 ' “ Chimeras

,
I tell you

,

which I believe no longer. If there be a hell, Iam
willing to go there to-day. Come with me to the

theatre.” “ Dear friend
,
use your liberty

,
but do

not brave Colsjustice.” Eugene spoke to a deaf

man, who w^s unwilling to Leed salutary advice.

He left him with a sore heart. That very day, in

the evening, Eugene was already in bed, when he

was awakened. “Quick,” they say to hi o, “rise, go

to Alexander's/ he has been just brought back

from the theatre
,
seized by a frightful pain.”

Eugene runs thither, and finds him tossed by vio-

lent convulsions, with foam in his mouth and roll-

ing his wild eyes. As soon as he sees Eugene,

“ You say there is a hell,” he shouts

;

6 6 you say, truly, there is a hell, and I am going

thither/ I am there already / I feel its tortures

and fury.”

In vain did Eugene try to calm him
;
the un-

happy man answers only by yells and blasphemies.

In the transports of his rage, he tore with his teeth

the flesh off his arms, and cast the bleeding frag-

ments at Eugene, his mother, and sisters. It was



46 Pains of Hell.

in this paroxysm of agony that he expired, iis

mother died of grief, his two sisters entered reli-

gion, and Eugene also quitted the world
;
owner of

a brilliant fortune, he forsook all to consecrate him-

self to God, and avoid hell.

VII.—PAINS OF HELL.

What predominates in the words of Scripture,

when it exhibits to us the pains of hell, is the ter

rible torture of the fire. The Scriptures call hell a

pool of sulphur and fire, the gehenna of fire, the

eternal fire, a fiery furnace, where the fire sha'l

never be extinguished. But this fire, kindled by

divine justice, will possess an activity incomparably

superior to that of all the furnaces, all the fires, of

this world. Alas ! do we understand how it shall

be possible to bear it ? How, it will be necessary

to dwell in it as in an everlasting habitation ?

“ Which of you,
” demands the prophet, “ can

dwell with devouringfire? Which of you shall

bear everlasting burnings ? ”—Isaiah xxxiii., 54.
In 1604, in the city of Brussels, occurred the

celebrated apparition of a damned soul, attested by

Blessed Kichard of St. Ann, of the Order of St.

Francis, who suffered martyrdom at Nangasaki, in

Japan, on September the 10th, 1622, and who was

beatified by Pius IX. in 1868. Blessed Bichard

related the fact to a theologian of the Spanish In-



Pains of Hell. 47

quisition, Father Alphonsus of Andrada, of the

Company of Jesus; he, in turn, communicated it

to Adrian Lyroeus, who has inserted it in his

“ Trisagium Marianum,” Book III. Saint Al-

phonsus Liguori, who cites the same fact in his

“ Glorias ofMary,” has made Blessed Bichard one

of the two actors in this frightful drama
;
he was

only a witness, like many others, who were living

at Brussels ; but the impression he experienced was

so lively that it became the determining cause of his

entrance into the Seraphic Order.

This is how the occurence is related, after au-

thentic documents in the “ Annals of Franciscan

Missions,” the year 1866-67.

It was not without a terrible, though merciful,

interposition of God’s justice, that Blessed ^Bichard

was brought to demand the habit of St. Francis.

It was in 1604. There were at Brussels, where

Bichard was at that time, two young students who,

instead of applying themselves to study, thought

only of how to live in pleasure and dissipation.

One night, among others, when they had gone to

indulge in sin in a house of ill-fame, one of the two

left the place after some time, leaving his miserable

companion behind him.

Having reached home, he was about to lie down in

bed, when he remembered that he had not recited

that day the few “ Mail Marysf which he had the

habit of saying every day in honor of the Holy



48 Pains of Hell.

Virgin. As he was overpowered by sleep, it was

troublesome for him
;
however, he made an effort,

and said them, although without devotion
;
then

he went to bed. In his first sleep he hears, all of

a sudden, a rude knocking at the door
;
and imme-

diately after he sees before him his companion, dis-

figured and hideous. “ Who are you?” he says to him.
“ What ? don’t you know me ?” replies the unhappy

youth. “ But how are you so changed ? You look

like a devil ?” “ Ah
!

pity me
;
I am damned.”

“How is that?” “Well, know that, on leaving

that accursed house, a devil sprang upon me and

strangled me. My body has remained in the mid-

dle of the street, and my soul is in hell. Know,

moreover, that the same chastisement awaited you

;

but the Virgin preserved you from it, thanks to

your practice of reciting every day a few £ Hail

Marys] in her honor. Happy are you if you know

how to profit by this information, which the Mother

of God gives you, through me.”

While finishing these words, the damned soul

partly opened his garment, allowed the flames and

serpents that were tormenting him to be seen, and

vanished. Then the young man, melting into tears,

threw himself on his face on the floor to thank the

Holy Virgin Mary, his deliverer. Now, while he

was praying in this manner, and reflecting upon

what he ought to do to change his life, he heard

the Matins bell ring at the Convent of Our Fathers



Pains of Hell. 49

That very moment he cried out, “ There it is that

God calls me to do penance.” The next day, in-

deed, at a very early hour, he went to the convent

and begged the Father Guardian to receive him. The

Father, who was aware of his bad life, having pre-

sented difficulties at first, the young student, shed-

ding a torrent of tears, related to him all that had

i aken place. And really, two religious, having re-

paired to the street indicated, found the corpse of

the wretched youth, black as a coal. Then, the

postulant was admitted among the Brothers, whom

he edified by a life altogether devoted to penance.

Such is the terrible fact which struck dismay and

fright into many souls, and which induced Blessed

Bichard, also, to consecrate himself entirely to God

in the same Order, into which the young student, so

wonderfully protected by Mary, had just been re-

ceived.

The following fact is related by Father Martin

Delrio, from the Annals of the Company of Jesus.

It is an apparition that occurred in 1590, and was

vouched for by trustworthy witnessses : Not far

from Lima, dwelt a Christian lady, who had three

maid-servants, one of whom, called Martha, was a

young Indian of about sixteen years. Martha was

a Christian
;

but, little by little, she grew cool in

the devotion she had displayed at first, became

negligent in her prayers, and light, coquettish, and

wanton in her conversations. Having fallen dan-



50 Pains of Hell.

gerously ill, she received the last sacraments*

After this serious ceremony, during which she had

evinced very little piety, she said, smiling to her

two fellow-servants, that in the confession she had

just made she had taken good care not to tell all

her sins to the priest. Frightenedby this language,

the gnls reported to their mistress, who, by dint of ex-

hortations and threats, obtains from the sick girl a

sign of repentance, and the promise to make a sincere

and Christian confession. Martha confesses, then,

over again, and dies shortly after.

Scarcely had she breathed her last when her

corpse emitted an extraordinary and intolerable

stench
;
they were obliged to remove it from the

house to a shed. The dog in the courtyard, usu-

ally a quiet animal, howled piteously, as if he were

undergoing the torture. After the interment the

l^dy, according to custom, was dining in the gar-

den in the open air, when a heavy stone fell sud-

denly in the centre of the table with a horrible

crash, and caused all the table equipments to

spring, but without breaking any article. One of

the servants, having occupied the room in which

Martha had died, was awakened by frightful noises

:

all the furniture seemed to be moved by an invisi-

ble force and thrown to the floor.

We understand how the servant did not continue
to occupy that room ; her companion ventured to

take her place, but the same scenes were renewed.



Pains of Hell. 51

Then they agreed to spend the night together

there. This time they distinctly heard Martha’s

voice, and soon that wretched girl appeared before

them in the most horrible state, and all on fire.

She said that by God's command she had come to

reveal her condition to them; that she was damned

or her sins of impurity, and the sacrilegious con-

fessions she had continued to make until death.

‘‘Tell” she added, “ what I have just revealed to
you

,
that others may profit by my misfortune .”

At these words she uttered a despairing cry, and

disappeared.

The fire of hell is a real fire, a fire that burns like

this world’s fire, although it is infinitely more ac-

tive. Must not there be a real fire in hell, seeing

that there is a real fire in purgatory ? “It is the

same fire” says St. Augustine, “ that tortures the

damned andpurifies the elect.” A crowd of indis-

putable facts demonstrate the reality of the fire in

the place of expiations. This is what Mgr. de

Segur relates :

In the year 1870, in the month of April, he writes:

I saw, or at least, touched at Foligno, near Assisi,

in Italy, one of those frightful imprints of fire,

caused sometimes by souls that appear and prove

that the fire of the other life is a real fire.

On the 4th of November, 1859, died of a stroke

of apoplexy, at the Convent of the Tertiary Fran-

ciscans of Foligno, a good Sister, named Theresa



52 Pains of Hell.

Gesta, who had been many years mistress of novi-

ces, and, at the same time, in charge of the scanty

clothes-room of the monastery. She was born at

Corsa, in Bastia, in 1797, and she entered the mon-

astery February, 1826. It need not be said that

she was well prepared for death.

Twelve days after, on the 6th of November, a

sister, named Anna Felicia, who replaced her in her

office, went up the wardrobe, and was about to

enter when she heard moans, which seemed to come

from the interior of this room. Somewhat alarmed,

she hastened to open the door
;

no one was there.

But new moans resounded, so clearly articulated

that, despite her usual courage, she felt seized by

fear. “ Jesus
,
Mary!” she exclaimed, “ what is

this?” She had not finished when she heard a

plaintive voice, accompanied by this mournful sigh

:

“ Oh, my God, how I suffer !” Oh ! Dio che peno

tanto

”

The shocked sister recognized at once the

voice of poor Sister Theresa. Then the whole hall

was filled with a dense smoke, and the ghost of

Sister Theresa appeared, moving toward the door,

while gliding along by the wall. Having reached

almost the door, she exclaimed forcibly : “ This is a

sign of the mercy of God” And saying that, she

struck the highest panel of the door, leaving hol-

lowed in the charred wood a most perfect stamp of

her right hand
;
then she disappeared.

Sister Anna Felicia had remained half dead with



Pains of Hell. 53

fear. All confused, she began to cry out and call

for help. One of her companions hastens to her,

then another, then the whole community
;
they

press eagerly around her, and they are all aston-

ished at finding a smell of burnt wood. Sister

Anna Felicia told them what had just taken place,

and showed them the terrible stamp on the door.

They immediately recognize the shape of Sister

Theresa’s hand, which was remarkably small.

Alarmed, they take flight, run to the choi
,
begin

to pray, spend the night praying and doing pen-

ances for the deceased, and the next day all receive

Communion for her.

The news spreads abroad, and the different com-

munities of the city join them prayers to those of

the Franciscans. The next day following, the 18th

of November, Sister Anna Felicia, having retired to

her cell to go to bed, heard herself called by her

name, and recognized perfectly the voice of Sister

Theresa. At the same instant an all-resplendent

sphere of light appears before her, lighting up the

cell as if at noonday, and she hears Sister Theresa,

who, with a joyous, triumphant voice, utters these

words : uI died on a Friday
,
the day of the Fas-

sion, and behold
,
on a Friday I departfor glory

!

Fe brave in carrying the Cross
,
be courageous in

suffering
,
love poverty.” Then adding, affection-

ately : “Adieu
,
Adieu

,
Adieu /” she becomes trans-

figured into a thin, white, dazzling cloud, she flies

kway to heaven and vanishes.



54: Pains of Hell.

A canonical inquest was immediately held by the

Bishop of Foligno and the magistrates of the city.

On the 23d of November, in the presence of a great

number of witnesses, the grave of Sister Theresa

was opened, and the stamp burned into the door

was found exactly to correspond with the hand of

the deceased. The result was an official judgment

that established the perfect certainty and authen-

ticity of what we have just narrated. The door

with the burned mark is preserved with generation

in the Convent. The Mother Abbess, a witness of

this fact, deigned to show it to me herself.”

St. Peter Damian speaks of a worldling who

lived only for amusement and pleasure. To no

purpose was he advised to think of his soul ; to no

purpose was he warned that by following the life

of the wicked, rich man, he should reach the same

end
;
he continued his guilty life to death. He

had scarcely ceased to live when an anchorite knew

of his damnation. He saw him in the midst of a

fiery pool
;

it was an immense pool like a sea, in

which a great number of people, howling with de-

spair, were plunged. They were striving to gain

the shore, but it was guarded by pitiless dragons

and demons, who prevented them from coming near

it, and hurled them far back into that ocean of

flames.

Nicholas of Nice, speaking of the fire of hell,

says that nothing on earth could give an idea of it.



Pains of Hell. 55

If, he adds, all the trees of the forests were cut

down, piled up into a vast heap and set on fire,

this terrible pile would not be a spark of hell.

Vincent of Beauvais, in the twenty-fifth book of

his history, narrates the following fact, which, he

says, happened in the year 1090: Two young

libertines, whether seriously or through mockery,

had made a mutual promise
;
whichever of the two

died first, would come and tell the other in what

state he was. So one died, and God permitted him

to appear to his companion. He was in a hori^ble

state, and seemed to be the prey of cruel sufferings,

which consumed him like a burning fever, and

covered him with sweat. He wiped his forehead

with his hand, and let a drop of his sweat drop

on his friend’s arm, while saying to him: “ lhat

is the sweat of hell ; you shall carry the mark of it

till death.” That infernal sweat burned the arm

of the living man, and penetrated his flesh with un-

heard-of pains. He profited by this awful infor-

mation and retired to a monastery.

Peter, the venerable Abbot of Cluny, tells an in-

cident of the same kind. A dying man persisted
in sin, and was about to die impenitent. Burned by

fever and tortured by thirst, he asked for some cold

water to cool himself. God permitted, thanks to

prayers offered for this wretched man, two infernal

spirits to appear to him under a visible form. They

bore a goblet containing a liquid, a drop of which



56 Pains of Hell.

they threw oq the sick man’s hand, saying: “ This

is the cold water used for cooling in hell /” The

infernal liquid went through and through the hand,

burning the flesh and bones. The attendants saw,

with astonishment, this terrible phenomenon, as

well as the convulsions of the sinner, who twisted

and turned in his unspeakable sufferings. If the

cold water of hell burns like that, what will the boil-

ing water and blazing sulphur do ?

In 1870, the city of New York witnessed a con-

flagration, the circumstances of which offered an

image of hell. Thfc Barnum menagerie became the

j)rey of flames. It was stocked with tigers, lions

and other wild beasts. All these animals were

burned alive in their iron cages, the oars of which

grew to a white heat. As the fire and the heat be-

came more intense,, the beasts became more en-

raged. With extreme violence they sprang at the

bars of their prisons, and fell back like inert heaps,

only to leap again on the insuperable obstacle

which held them captive. The awful roars of the

lions, the screams of the tigers, the howls of all the

animals, which betrayed supreme despair, were

blended together and formed a frightful chorus,

bringing to mind what the damned must hear re-

sounding in hell. But the sounds of this terrible

concert grew weaker and weaker, until the lion

having uttered his last roar, the silence of death

ucceeded the most doleful din.



Pains of Hell. 57

Fancy in these shining iron cages, not animals, but

men
;
and men who, instead of dying in the fire,

continue to live in it, as if their bodies were harder

than iron
;
this would be an image of hell, but an

imperfect one for all that.

On Friday, the 18th of February, 1881, there was

a carnival ball given at Munich by the young artist-

painters. They were numerous, and masked, some

as monks, priests, comical pilgrims, carrying gro-

tesque-looking beads, and making a parody of reli-

gious usages
;
others like Esquimaux, covered with

tow, pitch and hemp. A cigar, imprudently lighted,

set fire to one of these inflammable costumes. The

unfortunate person seeing himself in flames, rushes

head-foremost among his companions
;
in a minute

all these tow and pitch garments are on fire.

Twelve of the dancers, like living torches, run

about crazy, unable to receive help. They fling

themselves on one another, roam around uttering

mournful wails, rush, blazing, into all the comers of

the hall, spreading a disgusting odor around. Soon

three of them are only charred corpses. Nine others

die shortly after
;
thirteen are transported to the

hospiral. Among these last was Joseph Schonert-

zer
;
he expired when skilful hands were proceed-

ing with the first bandaging. The skin peeled off

his breast and arms
;

it came off partly in rolls,

leaving the living flesh bare, scorched also by the

fire. This dreadful death was regarded, not wi h-



58 Pains of Hell.

out reason, as a chastisement of the Divine Justice,

which these unhappy young people had provoked by

all the excesses of impiety and dissipation. It pre-

sents, at the same time, an image of hell, but with

two great differences
;

it is far less cruel, and it

lasts only a short time,

On the 24th of March, 1881, another catastrophe

threw the city of Nice into a state of fright and dis-

may; the municipal theatre became a prey to the

flames. This theatre had doors exceedingly nar-

row and absolutely insufficient for passage in case

of a great rush. On the 24th of March, a brilliant

representation, which had drawn numerous spec-

tors, was given. The curtain had just risen for the

first act when, at the expiration of a few minutes,

there was an explosion among the footlights
;

all at

once the flames were seen to issue from the frail

boards, and gain the stage. She shouts, Fire! fire!

came from all parts of the theatre, and the panic

became general, especially when new explosions

were ‘ eard.

The orchestra and the stage were in complete

darkness. Only the^ glimmer of the great fire,

which was rapidly spreading, revealed to the gaze

a few unfortunate actresses crossing the stage,

crazy, wild with terror, and seeking an outlet

which the flames barred against them. The audience

in the galleries rushed headlong down the winding-

stairs to the corridors with a frenzied violence.



Pains of Hell. 59

The women, the children, were trampled under

foot. Only shouts of terror and despair were

heard : the shouts of all these human beings, who

were struggling to save their lives, and who felt

themselves dying, suffocated by the smoke, or

ground beneath the feet of their neighbors.

When the firemen, soldiers and marines could

penetrate the interior the spectacle was horrible.

There was a pile of corpses, black, hideous, some

almost entirely reduced to cinders. These were

the bodies of the unfortunate spectators, who

rushed down, all at once, by the narrow stairways.

Men, women and children, hanging to one another,

had rolled into this place. What poignant, fright-

ful dramas must have been enacted during these

few supreme minutes, when safety was possible no

more.

At three in the morning, 63 corpses were borne

to the Church of St, Francis de Paul. They were

half burned. The anguish of the most harrowing

agonies might be detected in their faces and post-

ures.

What will it be in hell? There, also, all outlet

is closed in the midst of the great fire ; there, too.

is the anguish of direst agony; but there death

does not come to end it. Were these unhappy

people ready to die ? Alas ! it is not to the theatre

that we go to prepare for death ! Is it not to be

feared that this place may have literally been the



60 Pains of Hell.

gate of hell for them ? Ah ! if the grilled,

charred victims had known that this fate awaited

them, would they not have foregone a pleasure

which must cost them so dearly? Your guilty

pleasures, worldlings, will cost you dearer, and

you do not renounce them.

An omen still more frightful, the burning of the

Ring Theatre
,
at Vienna, happened on the 8th of

December, 1881. Offenbach’s Contes d'Hoffman

were going to be represented. This piece, which

was to be played for the first time, had drawn quite

a throng of spectators
;

their number exceeded

1,500. At seven in the evening, just when the per-

formance was about to begin, the fire burst forth,

and a cry of alarm threw fright into the assem-

blage, fright which became frenzy when the flames

were seen to shoot forward, stretch out, and swiftly

invade the vast enclosure. In the twinkling of an

eye this hall, packed with people, was found to be

all on fire, and changed into a genuine hell. To

describe the tumult, the cries of distress, despair,

rage, would be impossible. The wretched people

rush toward the narrow exits, are upset, and

crushed, one by the other, or by the fiery timbers

that topple over their heads. Others, in tLe gal-

lery, crush their way to the windows to jump into

the street. They are seen from the outside, cling-

ing to one another, and forming as if human

bunches of grapes, suspended a moment, then



Pains of Hell. 61

letting go, and trusting to the empty space to escape

the terrible element of fire.

But the great number were imprisoned within.

A thousand men, women, children, abandoned in

the midst of the flames, die the most horrible

•death, burned alive, charred, reduced to cinders.

In the sweepings all that was found of them was

their charred bones. However, all were not so

completely consumed, and many corpses were

only half-burned. An enormous heap was dis-

covered, with arms twined together, grappled to-

gether, and betraying the supreme struggle in

which they had expired. It was recognized, with

horror, that, in this furnace, there had been a des-

perate combat among the fugitives; these unfor-

tunate people had jostled their way, seized, knocked

down furiously everyone to gain an exit, which

they were not to find.

They were forced to undergo the pain and die

there.

A very weak image of hell, in which the damned

are tortured by fire, but do not die
;
that is an ever-

lasting fire.

On the occasion of the dreadful catastrophe of

the Bing Theatre, a statement of the theatres

burned for a century was made ; the figure rises to

several hundreds. Is there not a lesson of Provi-

dence here, upholding the warnings which the

Church does not cease to give the faithful ? Since

the contemporary theatre is generally a school of



62 Pains of Hell.

irreligion and immorality, a hotbed of corruption

for nations, do not the continual great fires point

out sufficiently that these edifices, given up to fire,

are for souls the gates of hell ?

The sight of a soul that falls into hell, is of itself

alone an incomparable pain. Blessed Margaret

Mary, as her history relates, beheld the apparition

of one of her sisters in religion, recently deceased.

That sister implored her prayers and suffrages
;
she

was suffering cruelly in purgatory. “ See,” she said

to the Blessed Margaret, “ the bed I lie on ; where

Iam enduring intolerable pains” I saw that bed,

writes the Saint, and it still makes me shudder ; it

was bristling with sharp and fiery spikes which en-

tered the flesh. The deceased added that she was

suffering this torture for her sloth and ne-ligence

in observing the rule. “ This is not all
,

’ she said

again, “my heart is torn in my bosom topunish my

murmurs against my superiors ; my tongue is

eaten by worms for my words contrary to charity

,

and my breaches o f silence . But all this is a

small matter in comparison icith a?iother pain

which Godmade me experience ; although it did not

last long
,
it was more painful to me than all my

sufferings.” The Saint having desired to know

what this dire pain was. “ God” she replied,

showed me one of my near female relatives, who

had died in a state of mortal sin, sentenced by the

Supreme Judge and dashed into hell. That sight



Pains of Hell. 63

causedme a fright, horror, 'pain that no tongue could

communicate.”

Surius, in the “Life of St. Ludvine,” relates that,

in an ecstasy, this servant of God saw an abyss, the

wide opening of which was bordered with flowers,

and the great depth of which, when the eye pierced

it, chilled with terror. There issued from it an in-

describable noise, a frightful mixture of yells, blas-

phemies, tumult, ringing blows. Her Angel Guar-

dian told her that it was the abode of the damned

;

and he wanted to show her the torments they suffer.

“AlasP she replied, “ Icould not bear the sight of
them . How coidd I, as the mere noise of these des-

pairing yells causes me an unbearable horror

If the damned suffered no other pain in hell than

to remain there always, without motion, without

changing place or position, that alone would be an

insupportable torment. A wealthy voluptuary,

loaded down with crimes, and dreading hell, did

not have the courage either to break off with his

evil habits or to expiate his sins by penance. He

had recourse to St. Ludvine, who, at that time, was

edifying the world by her patience, and begged her

to do penance for him. “ Willingly,” she replied

“I will offer my sufferings for you, on condition
that, for the space of one night, you keep the same

position in your bed, without changing skies, budg-

ing, stirring.” He readily consented. But, having

lain down in bed, he had scarcely rested half an



64 Pains of Hell.

hour when he fe!t uncomfortable and wished to

move. Nevertheless he did not do it, and remained

immovable
;
but the discomfort went on increasing,

so much so that at the end of an hour it seemed

intolerable to him. Then a salutary reflection

sprang up in his mind. 64 If it is such a torture,”

he says to himself, “ to remain without motion

upon a comfortable bed for the space of one nighty

what would it be
, if I was bound down on a bed of

fire
,
for the space of a century, of an eternity ?

And I to be fearing to redeem such a punishment
by a little penance ?

St. Christina, a virgin, justly surnamed The

Admirable
,
born at St. Trond, in 1150, after her

death came to life again, and lived afterward for 42

years, enduring unheard of sufferings for the relief

of the souls in purgatory, and the conversion of

sinners.

After a youth spent in innocence, patience, hu-

mility, Christina died in the odor of sanctity at the

age of 32 years, (1182.) Her body was borne to

the Church of Notre Dame, in which Tier obsequies

were to be celebrated, and it was placed in the

middle of the nave, after the manner of that period,

in an open coffin. The great throng of people who

were present were praying devoutly, when at the

time of the Agnus Dei
,
the deceased lifts herself

up in her coffin, and a few seconds after, with the

lightness of the bird, shoots up toward the dome,



Pains of Hell. 60

and sits calmly on a cornice. At this sight the

who'le congregation takes to flight in a panic
;
the

eldest sister of Christina al$ne stayed in the church

with the priest, who finished the sacrifice. As soon

as he came down from the altar, having ascertained

what had happened, he commanded Christina to

descend. She obeys instantly, comes down softly,

as if her body had no weight, and calmly returned

home with her sister.
m
here, being questioned by her friends and rela-

tions, she spoke to them thus : “ When I had given

my last sigh, my soul, gone out of my body, found

itself surrounded by a troop of angels, who bore it

to a dark and frightful place, in which there was

an innumerable multitude of human souls. There,

I saw pains and torments which no tongue could

express. Among those who were enduring them I

remarked many Tvhom I had known on earth. At

tlie sight of their cruel sufferings, I was penetrated

with the liveliest compassion, and I asked my guides

what this place was. I scarcely doubted that it was

hell
;
but they replied tnat it was purgatory.

“ Afterward, they showed me the tortures of the

damned : there I saw, also, a few unhappy creatures

I had once known.

“Then the angels bore me to the heights of

Heaven, before the eternal throne of God. The

look, full of love, with which the Most High greeted

me, filled my soul with an unspeakable joy. I felt



66 Pains of Hell.

that for all eternity I should enjoy His blessed

presence. Answering to my thoughts, the Lord

said to me : 6 Yes, my daughter, you will bs eternal-

ly with Me, but for the moment, I leave you the

choice either to enjoy from now beatitude, or to re-

turn again on earth, there to suffer in a mortal

body the pains of the immortal souls, these pains,

however, being unable to cause any damage to your

body. By these sufferings you will deliver the

souls that have inspired you with so lively a pity,

and contribute powerfully to the conversion and

sanctification of the living. When you shall have

filled up the time of this mission, you shall return

here again, and enter into the possession of my

kingdom.
7

“ Such was the choice God proposed to me. I

did not hesitate; I chose the part of charity; and

God visibly satisfied with my choice, commanded

the angels to bring me to earth.

“ My friends,” added the Saint, “ be not astonished

at the excess of the wonders which you shall see

wrought in my person. They will be the work of

God, who does what He pleases, and who acts in

everything by designs often hidden, but always

adorable.”

Upon hearing these words, it may well be under-

stood that the hearers were struck with a holy

dread
;
they looked at Christina with astonishment,

and trembled at the thought of the sufferings which



Pains of Hell. 67

this woman, returned to life, was going to endure.

Indeed, from that moment, quite different from

what she had been -before her death, Christina

seemed to be a soul of purgatory in a mortal body.

Her life was nothing more than a tissue of un-

heard-of marvels and sufferings.

She abandoned human society, and lived habitual-

ly in solitude. After having assisted in the morn-

ing at Mass, at which she often approached the Holy

Table, she was observed fleeing to the woods and

wild places, there to spend days and nights in

prayer. Endowed with the gift of agility, she flew

from one place to another with the speed of light-

ning, darted to the top of trees, the roofs of houses,

the towers of churches and castles. Often pass-

ers-by would see her resting on the branches of a

tree, then taking flight and disappearing at their

approach.

Using no shelter, she lived like the birds of the

woods, exposed to all the hardships of the weather,

even in the most severe season. Her dress was

modest, but excessively coarse and poor. She ate,

like animals, what she found in the streets. Did

she see a fire lighted, she would plunge her hands

or feet into it, or if she could, her whole body alto-

gether, and endure as long as possible this torture.

She used to watch for the opportunity of entering

glowing furnaces, red-hot limekilns, to sink as

deeply as she could in the hot boilers. In wint'\\
i



68 Pains of Hell.

she spent the night in the icy water of the rivers

;

at times she would allow herself to be borne by the

current upon mill-wheels, cling to them, suffering

herself to be dragged by the machine which struck

and broke her against obstacles. Another in-

genuity of her passion for torments, was to tease

packs of dogs so as to be bitten and torn by these

animals. At times she rolled in the bushes and

thorns, until she was covered with blood.

These are some of the means by which she

tortured her body; and wonderful circumstance,

but conformable to the promise which God had

made to her, as soon as she emerged from her tor-

ture, she retained no wound of it
;
her body was un-

touched and without the least lesion.

This life of sufferings served for the edification

of a countless multitude of the faithful, who were

witnesses of it, for the space of forty-two years,

which the Saint still lived. She also converted a

great number of sinners, and, finally, went to enjoy

the glory of the elect, in the year 1224.

If such mortifications make us shudder, what are

we to think of the tortures of the other life?

“ There” says the author of the Imitation^ “ one

hour in torment will be more terrible than a hun-

dred years spent here below in the most rigorous

penance.”—(Book L, Chap. 24.)
The history of Japan speaks of the horrible

abysses of Mount Ungen, situated not far from Nan-



Pains of Hell. 69

gasaki. Its lofty summit is divided into three cra-

ters, the intervals between which form frightful

pits
;
forth from these shoot momentarily into the

air eddies of flames, corroding waters, and burning

mud, which carry such stinking exhalations with

them that these abysses pass in the country for the

sewers of hell. All the animals shun them with

horror, and the very birds do not fly with impunity

over them, however high they soar. The tyrant,

Bungondono, the Prince of Ximbara, resolved to

dash the Christians head-foremost into these fright-

ful chasms. Let the frightful agony they must

suffer there be imagined ! It was an agony to

which death was not to come and put an end
;
for

the consolation of dying was not left to them. Be-

fore they were suffocated, they were carefully

drawn out, to let them regain their breath. Then,

soaked as they were by the sulphurous waters,

the bodies of the martyrs were covered with fright-

ful pustules, and were speedily but one wound
;
all

their flesh dropped into putrefaction. In this con-

dition they were abandoned like corpses, cast into

the common sewer. Are these torments the tor-

ments of hell? They are only a shadow of them.

The same Bungondono devised unheard of tor-

tures to combat Christianity in Japan. One day,

seven Christians were led before him
;

they dis-

played great joy to suffer for the name of Jesus

Christ. At this sight, inflamed with rage, the tyr-



70 Pains of Hell.

ant caused seven ditches to be dug out, on which

seven crosses were erected; he had the martyrs

bound to them, and ordered their limbs to be

sawed with sharp-edged canes, and, at the same

time, salt thrown into their wounds. This torture

was executed with a cruel slowness
;

it lasted five

whole days. By an abominable use of the art des-

tined for the preservation of men, the physians had

cordials taken to the martyrs, to prolong their suffer-

ings. IstLis one of the the tortures of hell ? It

is only a shadow of them.

At the time of the inroads of the Calvinists into

Holland in the sixteenth century, those sectaries, hav-

ing seized at Maestricht some priests of the Com-

pany of Jesus, resolved to practice all the cruelty

of their fanatical hatred upon them. After having

overwhelmed them with contempt and outrages,

they put round their necks iron collars, provided

with knives and sharp spikes, encircled their arms

and legs with similar rings, then seated them on

seats bristling with nails, so that the martyrs could

neither rest nor move without pain. Then they sur-

rounded them with flames, to burn them slowly.

What torture ! If the sufferers remained motion-

less they were burned
;

if they moved, they were

torn by the spikes and knives. The servants of

God triumphed by the help of grace over all this

barbarity
;

it is true, nevertheless, that their tor-



Pains of Hell. 71

ments were atrocious. Now, are these the torments

of hell ? They are but the shadow of them.

Antiquity has preserved the names of three tyr-

ants: Mezentius, Actiolinus, and Phalaris. The

first, Mezentius
,

it is said, chained his victims to

corpses and left them in that revolting state, until

the infection and putrid inhalations of the dead

killed the living. Actiolinus had such frightful

dungeons that the condemned used to ask as a

favor to be strangled, not to enter them. This

grace would be denied
;
they were lowered with

ropes into these stinking caves, there to be buried

all alive in putrefaction. Phalaris used to shut up

his victims in a brazen bull, which he then sur-

rounded with flames to burn them in this manner,

all alive. All these pains are horrible
;

but they

are only a shadow of the pains of hell.

The Romans punished parricides by a special

kind of torture. The guilty person was tied up in

a sack, with serpents, and thus cast into the depth

of the sea
;
a feeble image of the torture reserved

for those who are guilty of parricide toward God.

We shudder when reading in history the descrip-
tion of the frightful torments which the assassin of

William, Prince of Orange, had to endure. His

body was lacerated by iron rods.

Sharp spikes were driven into his flesh
;
then he

was exposed to the action of a slow fire, which

caused him inexpressible pains, and just as he was



72 Pains of Hell.

on the point of expiring, after his hands had been

burned with a red iron, he was torn asunder by

horses. That unhappy man committed an enor-

mous crime, but he attacked only a mortal prince.

What will not be the chastisement of one who has

assailed the King of Kings ?

According to certain historians, the Emperor

Zeno, a prince as impious as he was dissolute, died

by a most tragical death. On the night of the

9th of April, 491, after an excess at table, he fell

into so violent a syncope that he was beheved to be

dead, and he was hurriedly buried in the imperial

burial vault. There, having returned to himself,

he calls in vain for his servants and his guards ; no

one answers his shouts
;
he beholds himself in

darkness, shut up with the dead on all sides, meet-

ing only cold walls and iron doors. Then, giving

way to all the transports of rage and despair, he

dashes himself against his surroundings and breaks

his skull against the walls.
.
It was in this terrible

state that his corpse was discovered. What a hor-

rible situation for that prince, buried alive ! Is

that the situation of the reprobate ?

Hell is the sink of the world, and the receptacle

of all the moral filth of humanity. There, impur-

ity, intemperance, blasphemy, pride, injustice and

all the vices which are like the rottenness of souls,

are found heaped up. To this moral filth a corpor-

al stench is added, more insupportable than all



Pains of Hell. 73

I

the stenches of hospitals and corpses. If the body

of a damned person, says St. Bonaventure, were

deposited on the earth, that of itself alone would

be sufficient to make the earth uninhabitable ; it

would fill it with its infection, as a corpse that

might be left to rot in a house would infect it all

through.

A man, at Lyons, had gone into a burial vault, in

which a corpse lately buried was found wholly pu-

trefied. Scarcely had he gone down when he fell

dead. The poisonous exhalations caught him so

violently that he was suffocated.

Sulpicius Severus narrates, in the life of Martin

of Tours, that toward the end of the Saint’s life

the demon came to tempt him under a visible form.

The spirit of lies appeared before him with royal

magnificence, a crown of gold on his head, and said

he was the King of Glory, Christ, the Son of God.

The holy bishop recogrized the tempter, under

these appearances of human grandeur, and chased

him away with contempt. Proud Satan was con-

founded
;
he disappeared

;
but, for his revenge, he

left the holy man’s room filled with a stench, which

did not allow him to remain there any more.

The Fathers of the Company of Jesus had, dur-

ing the lifetime of St. Ignatius, established a resi-

dence near the sanctuary of Our Lady of Loretto.

Jealous of the good they were doing among souls,

the devil declared war upon them, and God permifc-

i



74 Pains of Hell.

ted him to trouble them by visible apparitions.

The whole house was infested by malign spirits,

who sometimes frightened the religious, some-

times ill-used them, sometimes even sought, by re-

ductive illusions, to induce them to enter the world

again. One of these perfidious tempters, repulsed

by a religious and obliged to leave his cell, with-

drew, saying : “ Ah! my counsels are not pleasing

to you; see, then, if my breath will be more agree-

able to you.” At these words he opened a horrible

mouth, and blew so fetid a breath into his face that

the religious believed himself choked. The cell,

infected by that infernal breath, was uninhabitable

for several days.

Another torture of hell : the horrible society of

the devils and the damned. There are some

wretched sinners who, seeing plainly that they are

walking toward hell, are comforted by saying : “ I

shall not be thtre alone /” Sad consolation ! It is

that of the convicts, sentenced to wear irons to-

gether in the galleys. Still it is intelligible how a

convict finds a certain life in the company of his

kind. Alas! it will not not be thus in- hell, in

which the damned will be mutual executioners.

“ There” says St. Thomas, “the associates of his

loretchedness
,
far from alleviating the lot of the

damned soul
,
will make it more intolerable for

him” (Suppl. 9, 86, A. 1.) The society of even

those persons who on earth were their best friends



Pains of Hell. 75

is insupportable to the damned in hell. They

would esteem themselves happy to have tigers and

lions for companions, rather than their relatives,

brothers, or their own parents.

Do you wish to see the poverty of hell, and the

privations that are suffered there by those who

made the goods of this world their god ? Consider

the wicked rich man of the Gospel. Accustomed

during his life to eat delicate meats served in silver

utensils, to drink exquisite wines in goblets of gold,

to wear purple and fine linen
;
having become an

inhabitant of hell, he finds himself brought down

to the last extremity of need. He who refused poor

Lazarus the crumbs from his table, is obliged to

beg in his tu' n. He asks, not delicacies, but a drop

of cold water, which he will be happy to receive

from a leper’s finger, l^ow, this drop of water is

refused to him. Has not the Saviour said : “ Woe

to you that are rich
,
for you have your consola-

tion . Woe to you that are filled
,
for you shall

hunger.”—(Luke vi., 25.)
There is no light, writes St. Teresa,* in the

eternal pit ; only darkness of the deepest dye ; and

yet, O mystery ! although no light shines, all that can

be most painful to the sight is perceived. Among

those objects which torture the eyes of the damned,

the most frightful are the demons, who reveal them-

selves in all their hideousness. St. Bernard speaks

Her Life, chap. 25.



76 Pains of Hell.

of a religious who, being in his cell, uttered aty of

a sudden frightful cries which attracted the com-

munity. He was found beside himself, and utter-

ing on]y these sorrowful words : “ Accursed be the

day I entered religion !” Terrified and troubled
by this curse, the cause of which they did not un-

derstand, his brethren question, encourage him,

and speak to him of confidence m God. Soon
being quieted : “ Ho, no,” he answered, “ it is not

the religious life that I should curse. On the con-
trary, blessed be the day Ibecame a religious ! My
brethren, do not be astonished at seeing my mind

disturbed. Two devils have appeared to me / their

horible appearance has put me out ofmy senses.

What monstrosity ! Ah ! rather all torments than
again to endure the sight of them.”

A holy priest was exorcising a demoniac, and he

asked the demon what pains he was suffering in hell.

“An eternalflre,” he answered ; “ an eternal maledic-
tion, an eternal rage, and afrightful despair at being

never able to gazeupon Himwho createdme.” “ What

would you do to have the happiness of seeing

God ?” “ To see Him, butfor one moment, Ishould
willingly consent to endure my tormentsfor 10,000

years. But vain desires ! I shall suffer forever,
and never see Him !”

On a like occasion, the exorcist inquired of the

demon what was his greatest pain in hell. He re-



Pains of Hell. 77

plied with an accent of indescribable despair

:

“Always, always ! Never
,
never!”

One day, a holy soul was meditating upon hell

;

and, considering the eternity of the pains, the

frightful always
,
never

,
she was thrown into coim

plete confusion by it
;
because she was unable to

reconcile this immeasurable severity with the divine

goodness and other perfections. “Lord” she said,
UI submit to Thyjudgments ; but do not push the

rigors of Thyjustice toofar.” “Do you understand”

was the answer, “what sin is ? To sin is to say to

God
,
I will not serve Thee ! I despise Thy law

,
1

laugh at Thy threats !” “ I understand
,
Lord

,
that

sin is an outrage to ThyMajesty” “ Well
,
measure

,

if you can, the greatness of this outrage.” “ L>ord,

this outrage is infinite
,
since it attacks infinite

Majesty” “Must it not
,
then

,
be punished by an

infinite chastisement ? Now
,
as this punishment

could not be infinite in its intensity
,
justice demands

that it be so at least in its duration. Accordingly

,

it is the divinejustice that wills the eternity of the

pains ; the terrible always, the terrible never. The

damned themselves will be obliged to render homage

to this justice, and cry out, in the midst of their

torments: ‘ Thou art just, Lord, and Thy judg-

ments are equitable!”—(Ps. 118.)
St. John Damascene relates, in the life of St.

Josaphat, that this young prince, being one day

exposed to violent temptations, prayed to God with



78 Pains of Hell.

tears to be delivered from them. His prayer was

gracious (y heard ; he was caught up in an ecstasy,

and he beheld himself led to a dark place, full of

horror, confusion, and frightful spectres. There

was a pool of sulphur and fire, in which were

plunged innumerable wretches, a prey to devouring

flames. Amid the despairing howls and shouts he

heard a heavenly voice which uttered these words :

“ Here it is that sin receives its punishment / here

it is that a moment's pleasure is punished by an

eternity of torments." This vision filled him with

new strength, and enabled him to triumph over all

the assaults of the enemy.

The most bitter regret of the da nned will be,

says St. Thomas, to be damned for nothing, while

they might have so easily obtained everlasting hap-

piness.

Jonathan was condemned to death for having

eaten a little honey, against the prohibition of Saul.

In his misfortune, he said, while moaning . “ Alas !

I did but taste a little honey
,
and behold I must

die /”—(I. Kings, xiv., 43.)
More bitter will be the regrets of the damned

when they shall see that, for a honeycomb, for a

fleeting enjoyment, they have incurLed everlasting

death.

King Lysimachus, besieged by the Scythians,

who had cut off all the springs, beheld himself re-

duced to the last extremity by lack of water. Yie
n

d-



Pains of Hell. 79

ing to the cravings of his thirst, he surrendered to

the enemy, who left him only his life safe. Then a

cup of water was given him to quench his thirst.

When he had drank it, “ Oh ! how quickly,” he

says, “ ha i the pleasure passed for which I have

lost my throne and my liberty !” It is in this man-

ner that the damned will speak, but with far more

bitterness : Oh ! how quickly passed the guilty

pleasure, for which I forfeited an eternal crown and

happiness

!

Esau returned faint from the chase
;
and seeing

Jacob, who was cooking lentels, he sold him his

birthright for a dish of the pottage.
“ Having

taken bread and this pottage of lentels says the

Scripture,
u he ate and drank / then went his way,

making little account of having sold his birthright
.”

But when the time to receive his inheritance came,

when he saw the large portion given to his brother,

and the small portion that was left to him, u He was

filled with consternation
,
and uttered a great cry.”

Then, having sought in vain to better his lot, he

yielded to the bitterest regrets and filled the air

with his doleful cries
;
they were less cries than

roars. “ cIrrugit clamore magnoj he roared out
,

with a great cry.”—(Gen. xxv., xxvii. 34.) What
will be the cries of the damned when they shall see

that they have sold their heavenly inheritance for

less than a dish of pottage? When they shall see



80 Pains of Hell.

that, for a trifle, they have sold everlasting benefits

and incurred everlasting torments ?

The Prophet Jeremias had warned Sedecias,

King of Juda, of the future that awaited him; he

had spoken to him on behalf of God. “ Behold

life,, and behold death / if you observe My words,
you shall remain quiet on your throne / if you

trample them under foot I will deliver you into the
hands of the King of Babylon —(Jerem. xxix.:
xxxix.) Sedecias paid no attention to these warn-

ings of a God, and soon the chastisements foretold

fell upon him
;
he was delivered to Nebuchadnez-

zar, blinded, loaded with chains and thrown into the

prison of Babylon. Then, what were not his re-

grets, his grief, at the remembrance of the words of

Jeremias? A weak image of the tardy regrets, the
cruel sorrows that devour the damned.

They weep for the time they lost in vain amuse-

ments, and in forgetfulness of their salvation.

“ One hourf they say, “ woidd have given us what

an eternity could give us back no more /” Father

Nieremberg relates that a servant of God, finding

himself in a solitude, into which no other man had

ventured, heard mournlul wails, which could pro-

ceed only from a supernatural cause. He demand-

ed, then, who were the authors of these piteous

cries, and what they meant. Then a sad voice re-

plied to him : “ We are the damned. Let it be
known that we are deploring in hell the time lost

,



81A Salutary Fear of Hell.

the precious time
,
which we wasted on earth in

vanities and crime. Ah ! one hour icould have
given us what an eternity could restore to us no

more. ’

Vm.—A SALUTARY FEAR OF HELL.

We ought to believe in hell, because we may fall
into it. Alas ! It is very easy to be damned, and

the damned are very numerous. St. Teresa com-

pares them to the flakes of snow which fall in the

dreary days of winter. The servant of God, An-

thony Pereyra, in a very authentic vision with

which he was favored*, saw the souls of sinners de-

scending into the pit like corn beneath the mill-

stones, like stones cast in heaps into a huge lime-

kiln. God showed one day before a large multitude

that they fall into it as the dead leaves in autumn

fall from the trees under the breath of the wind.

The venerable Father Anthony Baldinucci, a cele-

brated missionary of the Company of Jesus who died

in the odor ot sanctity in the year 1717
,
was preach-

ing in the open air, because the Church could not

contain the faithful who came in crowds to hear

him. “ My brethren,” he says, speaking of hell,
“ would you know how great is the number of those

who are damned? Look at that tree.” All eyes

were turned to a tree that was there, covered with

* See page 16.



82 A Salutary Fear of Hell.

leaves. At the same moment a gust of wind rising

shook all the branches of the tree, and caused the

leaves to fall so plentifully that there remained only

a certain number of them, thinly scattered and easy

to count. “ See” went on the man of God, “ what

souls are lost
,
and what souls are saved. Take

your 'precautions to he among the latter”

Father Nieremberg speaks of a bishop who, by a

special permission of God received a visit from an

unhappy sinner, who had died impenitent a short time

before. Addressing the prelate, this damned soul

demanded if there were men still on earth . As the

bishop seemed astonished at this question
;
the lost

soul added : u Since I have been in that melan-

choly abode I have seen such a prodigious multi-

tude arrive that I am at a loss to conceive that there
are men still on earth” This speech recalls that

of the Saviour in the Gospel : “ Enter ye in at

the narrow gate / for wide is the gate and broad

is the way that leadeth to destruction
,
and many

there are who go in thereat” “ Hoiv narrow is the

gate and straight is the way that leadeth to life !

and few there are that find it
!”—(Matt, vii., 13.

To keep away from hell, it is necessary to avoid

the road to it and to destroy the cause of damna-

tion, that is, sin, under all its forms. Men permit

themselves to be allured to their ruin by different

bonds of iniquity; sometimes by one, sometimes

by another. There are many wTho die in their sins,



A Salutary Fear of Hell. 83

because they are deprived of the last sacraments

;

and among those who receive them, there are not a

few who are lost, because they lack sincerity in the

accusation of their sins. Here is an incident which

we read in the “ Annals of Paraguay,” in the year

1640. In the reduction of the Assumption, a woman

died who had left a son of about twenty years.

This young man beheld his mother appear to him

in the most frightful condition. She told him,

that she was damned for not having made a sincere

confession / and that many others were damned

lilce herfor having concealed their sins in confes-

sion.
6 And doyou” she added, “profit by the ex-

ample of your unfortunate mother.”

Father Nieremberg mentions, also, another

damned person who revealed the cause of his dam-

nation. A young man was leading an apparently
Christian life

;
but he had an enemy whom he

hated, and, while frequenting the sacraments, he

all the while harbored in his heart sentiments of

ill-will and revenge, which Jesus Christ commands

to be discarded. After his death he appeared to

his father and told him, that he was damned for

not having forgiven his enemy. After which,

he exclaimed with an accent of unutterable sorrow

:

“Ah ! if all the stars in heaven were so many

tongues of fire, they could not express v:hat torments

I endure /”

Let us listen again to the same author. An un-



84: A Salutary Fear of Hell.

happy man, who had the habit of taking pleasure

in immodest thoughts, fell sick and received the

last sacraments. The next day his confessor, going

to visit him again, saw him on the road coming to

meet him. “ Go no further,” he says to him, “ I

am dead and damned.” “ How ? ” demanded the
priest, “ did you not make a good confession of

your sins ? ” “ Yes, I made a good confession ;
but

,
after

,
the devil represented to me sinful pleas-

ures, and asked me whether, in case of a cure, I

should not return again to my pleasures ? I

consented to these evil suggestions, and at the same

moment death surprised me.” Then, opening his

garment, he showed the fire that was devouring

him, and disappeared.

We read also in Father Nieremberg, that a noble
lady, who was exceedingly pious, asked God to

make known to her what displeased His divine ma-

jesty most in persons of her sex. The Lord vouch-

safed to hear her in a miraculous manner. He

opened under her eyes the ad>yss eternal. There,

she saw a woman a prey to cruel torments and in

her recognized one of her friends, a short time be-

fore deceased. This sight caused her as much

astonishment as grief : the person whom she saw

damned did not seem to her to have lived badly.

Then that unhappy soul said to her : “ It is true

that I practiced religion ; but I was a slave of
vanity. Ruled by the passion to please, I was not



A Salutary Fear of Hell. 85

afraid to adopt indecent fashions to attract atten-

tion
,
and I kindled the fire of impurity in more

than one heart. Ah ! if Christian women knew

how much immodesty in dress displeases Cod !
”

At the same moment this unhappy soul was pierced

by two fiery lances, and plunged into a caldron

of liquid lead.

Thomas of Cantimpre, a learned religious of the

Order of St. Dominick, relates that there was at

Brussels an unhappy sinner, the slave of intemper-

ance and the other vices which it foments. He had

a friend, the companion of his dissipation, to whom

he was greatly attached. A sudden death put an
end to his disorders. His sorrowful companion,

after having accompanied him to the grave, had

returned home and was alone in his chamber, when

he heard underground moans. Frightened at first,

and not knowing hat to do, he ventures at length

to ask, who is it that he hears moaning. “ It is

1
,
your companion

,
whose body you attended to

the grave. Alas ! my soul is buried in hell.”
Then, uttering a cry, or rather a dreadful roar:

“ Woe to me !
”
he added, “ the abyss has swallowed

me
,
and the pit has closed its mouth upon me.”

Henry of Granada speaks of a young woman

whose damnation had no other source than vanity

and the desire to please. She led a regular life

;

but her passion to attract attention by the charm

of her beauty was the moving cause of her whole



86 A Salutary Fear of Hell.

conduct. Having fallen sick, she died, having re-

ceived all the sacraments. While her confessor

was praying for her soul, she appeared to him, say-

ing that she was damned, and that the cause of her

damnation was vanity. “ I sought,” she added,
“ only to please the eyes of men; this passion

caused me to commit a multitude of sins, it pre-

vented me from receiving the sacraments well
,
and

it has led me to everlasting torments.”

A usurer had two sons who followed the evil
example of their father. One of the two, touched

by God, forsook his gailty profession and retired

to the desert. Before setting out, he exhorted his

father and brother with tears to think, like him, of

the salvation of their souls. It was to no purpose

;

they persevered in sin and died in a state of im-

penitence. God permitted the solitary to know

their unhappy condition. In an ecstacy he saw

himself on a high mountain, at the foot of which

was a sea of fire, from which arose confused cries,

like a tempest. Soon in the midst of these burning

waves he perceived his father and brother, furiously

raging against each other, mutually upbraiding and

cursing each other, and holding this dreadful dia-

logue: u jT curse thee
,

detestable son! it is for

thee that I did injustice
,
and lost my soul! 1 “ I

curse thee
,
unworthy father

,
who ruined me by thy

bad example!
1 “ I curse thee

,
foolish son

,
who

joined thy father in his sins!
1 “ I curse thee

,
and



The Thought of Hell. 87

author ofmy life, who reared me up for (framna-

tion /
”

Behold how wicked parents and wicked

children will eternally rend one another by recipro-

cal maledictions.—/Lives of the Fathers of the
Desert.)

IX.—THE THOUGHT OF HELL.

St. Dositheus, who lived in the eleventh century,

was brought up as a page at the Court of Constan-

tinople, and at first led a life altogether worldly, in

a profound ignorance of the truths of faith. As he

had heard a great deal about Jerusalem, he visited

it from a motive of curiosity. There it is that God’s

mercy was awaiting him. To touch him it made

use of a picture placed in a church, representing the

pains of hell. Miserable souls were seen there in

despair, plunged in a sea of fire, in which horrible

monsters were tormenting them, and making game

of their tortures. Struck by these terrible scenes,

Dositheus demanded the explanation of them from

an unknown person who was there. “ It is hell”

answered this person
;

“ they are the pains of the

damned.” “How long will these pains last ? Why
are they damned? Might I myself fall into such

a terrible state of woe? What must I do to be
safe from hell?” Such were the questions that

Dositheus by turns proposed to the person who was

instructing him. He was impressed by these



88 The Thought of Hell.

answers to such a degree that he quit the world

that very hour to go and live in seclusion. He en-

tered a monastery in which, thanks to the thought of

hell, which he had always before his eyes, and to

the wise direction of the Abbot Dositheus, whom

he found there, he made rapid progress in the ways

of God.

Whoever thinks of hell will not fall into

it, because, in the time of temptation, this thought

will retain him in his duty. St. Martinian had

lived twenty-five years in solitude when God

allowed his fidelity to be put to a violent test. A

perfidious woman, the courtesan Zoe, came to so-

licit him to sin. She was disguised as a mendicant,

and taking advantage of a rain storm, knocked at

the cell of Martinian, begging shelter from him.

The holy anchorite could not refuse it in these cir-

cumstances. He let the stranger in, and having

lighted a fire, invited her to dry her garments. But

soon, the unfortunate woman, casting off the bor-

rowed rags she wore, appeared in the eyes of Mar-

tinian in a most brilliant dress and with all her

fascinating charms. The servant of God, in the

presence of a most dreadful danger, remembered

hell
;
and drawing near the fire, which was blazing

on the hearth, he took off his shoes and plunged

both. feet into the fire. The pain drew cries from

him
;
but he said to his soul : “Alas! my soul

, if thou

canst not bear so loeak a fire , how wilt thou be



The Thought of Hell. 89

able to bear the fire of hell?” The temptation

was overcome, and Zoe was converted. Such was

the salutary effect of the thought of hell.

Another recluse, assailed by a violent temptation,

and afraid of being conquered, lighted his lamp.

Then, to be penetrated vividly with the thought of

hell, he put his fingers in the flame and let them

burn there with inexpressible sufferings. “ Since

thou dost wish” he says, addressing himself, “ to

sin
,
and accept hell

,
which will be the punishment

of thy sin, try first if thou shall have the courage

to support thepain of an everlasting fire.

It is related that St. Philip Neri received one

day a visit from a man who was leading a sinful

life. Imbued with the most unfriendly feelings

toward the Saint, this visitor addressed him with

the most unjust reproaches and heaped insults upon

him. His anger was such that he was incapable of

listening to reason. Then Philip made him draw

near the chimney, and pointing out the place where

the fire was made, “ Look” he says, “ at this fire-

place.” The sinner looked, but instead of a fire-

place he saw a pit all on fire, in the bottom of

which he recognized a place that was destined for

him. Seiz.ed with fright, this furious sinner grew

calm, suddenly recognized the evil state of his soul,

and changed his life.

In 1815 the young Louis Francis de Beauvais

died at the College of St. Acheul, near Amiens. He



90 The Thought of Hell.

was only 14 years, but he was ripe for heaven, so

innocent and holy had been his life. Such solid

virtue in so tender a youth was due to the thought

of hell. One day, while still quite a child, he was

seated at his mother’s side before a warm fire:

“ Mamma” he asked her, “ could the fire of hell he
as hot as this?” “Alas! my child, this fire is
nothing in comparison to hell.” u Well

, if I should

fall into it!” he rejoined with fright. “Hell,”

said his mother, “is only for sinners. If you

keep away from sin, you have nothing to fear.”

This idea was engLaved in the heart of Louis Fran-

cis
;

it was the source of his sorrow of sin and of

his holy life.

In 1540 the Blessed Peter Lefevre, one of the

first companions of St. Ignatius of Loyola, repair-

ing from Parma to Rome, while following the way

from Florence to Sienna, was surprised by night in

the midst of a country infested by robbers and

brigands. He had recourse, as was his wont, to

his Angel-Guardian, and perceived pretty soon a

house, at which he demanded hospitality. It was in

the month of October
;
the weather was cold and

rainy. The people who dwelt at the manor, seeing

that the traveller was a priest, welcomed him with

respect an! kindness, offered him refreshments, and

invited him to draw near the fire to dry his clothes.

While he was seated near the hearth, and speaking

with his hosts of the things of God, a noise of



The Thought of Hell. 91

hurried steps was heard, then violent rappings at

the door
;

and behold, men armed to the

teeth dash into the house. It was a band of

brigands. They were sixteen, and de-

manded noisily that all the provisions in

store should be given to them; then, having

ranged themselves round a table, they set to drink-

ing and eating amid rude songs and immodest con-

versation. The Blessed Peter Lefevre was not

taken aback
;
he remained seated, calm, pensive, his

eyes fixed on the fire. The leader of the bandits

asked him what he was doing there. The man of

God did not reply at first. “ You do not answer V ’

remarked the brigand
;
“ are you deaf ? are you

dumb ?” uWof he replied then ; “ but a thought

occupies my mind? “ What is this great thought

?

Tell us. What are you thinking of?” “ I am
thinking,” he said, in a calm, grave tone, “ that the

joy of sinners is very sad / this fire brings to my

mind that of hell, ichich they shall not be able to

escape
, if they do not hasten to return sincerely to

God? These words were spoken with a force and

unction that struck these savage men with respect.

They said not a word more, and the servant of God

took advantage of their attention to speak to them

of the danger they ran of falling into the hands of

human justice, and still more, into those of God’s

justice
;
then he touched on the security of a good

conscience, and the mercy of God, oi whom he spoke



92 The Thought of Hell.

in language so touching, that he caused them to

melt into tears and demand forgiveness of their

sins. He encouraged them and prepared them so

well that the whole sixteen made their confessions

to him that night.

The thought of hell fortifies the weakest. Two

Christians, Domnina and Theomilla, were brought

before the prefect Lysias, who gave them notice of

the order to renounce the faith in order to adore

the idols. They refused distinctly. Then Lysias

had a funeral pyre lighted and the altar to the false

gods set up. “ Choose

”

he says to them, “ either

to burn incense on the altar of our gods, or to be

yourselves burned in the flames of this pyre.”

They replied, without hesitating a moment : “ We

fear not this burning pile
,
which will be soon ex-

tinguished; thefire we dofear is that of hell, which

never goes out. Not to fall into it, we detest your

idols and we adore Jesus Christ.” They under-

went martyrdom in the year 235.

Cesarius relates that a wicked man, for whom

many prayers had been offered, fell sick and died.

As he was going to be buried, he came back to life

again, and rose up full of strength, but seized with

an exceeding alarm. Interrogated concerning what

had happened to him, “ God” he answered, “ has

just granted me a signalfavor ; he showed me hell,

an immense ocean of fire, into rohich I was about

to be plungedfor my sins. A delay was accorded



The Thought of Hell. 93

to me, that I might redeem my sins by penance”

Thenceforth, this sinner was changed into another

man. He thought no more of anything save of

expiating his sins by his tears, fasts and prayers.

He used to walk barefooted on bra nbles and

thorns
$
he lived on bread and water only, and gave

to the poor whatever he earned by his labor. When

people would prevail upon him to moderate his

austerities, “ I have seen hell
,
he would reply

;
I

know that too much cannot be done to avoid it .

Ah! hell ! If all the trees and all the forests icere

heaped up in a vast pile
,
and set on fire, I should

prefer to remain in that burning fire to the end of

the icorld rather than endurefor only one hour the

fire of hell.”

The Venerable Bede speaks of a rich inhabitant

of Northumberland, whom the sight of hell changed

after a like fashion into a new man. He was called

Trithelmus, and he led a worldly life, pretty much

like that of the wicked rich man of the Gospel. God,

by an exceptional mercy, granted him a vision, in

which he showed him the eternal pains of the

damned. Having come back to himself again,

Trithelmus confessed all his sins, distributed all

his wealth to the poor, and went into a monastery,

where he put no bounds to his austerities and pen-

ances. In winter he stood in the frozen water
;
in

summer he endured the burden of heat and toil

;

he practiced vigorous fasts and continued his mor-



94 The Thought of Hell.

tifications to the last stage of decay. When he

was spoken to about diminishing his penances, “ If

you had seen
,
like me, thepains of hell,” he would

reply,
u you would talk otherwise” “ But how

can you keep up such severe mortifications ?” u I

count them as nothing, beside the pains of hell

which I have deserved by my sins”
Mgr. de Segur narrates a rather singular fact

which happened at the Military School of St.

Cyr, in the last years of the Restoration. The Abbe

Rigolot, the almoner of the institution, was p each-

ing a retreat to the pupils who assembled every

evening in the chapel before retiring to the dormi-

tory.

A certain evening when the worthy almoner had

spoken on hell, the exercises being finished, he was

retiring, with a small candlestick in his hand, to his

room, which was situated in a wing reserved for

the officers. Just as he opened his door, he heard

himself called by some one who was following him

up the staircase. It was an old captain with a

gray moustache and by no means elegant appear-

ance.
u Pardon, Monsieur Almoner

,”
he said in a

slightly ironical tone of voice; u you havejust given

us a very fine sermon on hell ; only you forgot to

tell us whether, in the fire of hell, we should be

grilled or roasted, or boiled. Coidd you tell me f”

The almoner seeing whom he had to deal with,

looks at him in the white of the eyes
;
and putting



95The Thought of Hell.

the candlestick under his nose, quietly replies :

“ You shall see this
,
captain /” and he shuts his door,

unable to refrain from laughing somewhat at tiie

silly, baffled expression on the face of the poor

captain.

He thought of it no more, but from that time

forth he fancied that the captain used to take to

his heels from him as far as possible. The revolu-

tion of July came on. The military almonery was

abolished, that of St. Cyr like the rest. The Abbe

Rigolot was nominated by the Archbishop of Paris

to another position not less honorable.

Twenty years after, the venerable priest was one

evening in a drawing-room, at which there was a

numerous gathering, when he saw coming to him

an old man with a white moustache, who as. edhim

if he was*not the Abbe Rigolot at one time almoner

of St. Cyr. And upon his affirmative reply: u Oh!

Monsieur almoner said the old soldier, with emo-

tion “permit me to clasp your hand andexpress all

my gratitude to you : yon savedme.” “1? ayid how

so ?” “ Well ! You do not know me ! Do you re-

member one evening when a captain
,
an instructor

of the school, having proposed to you, after the

close of a sermon on hell, an exceedingly ridicu-

lous question
,
you ansieered him while putting

your candlestick under his nose /
i You will see this

,

captain I am that captain. Fancy
,
that from

that time
,
that speech pursued me everywhere, as



96 The Thought of Hell.

well as the thought that I might be burned in hell
.

I struggled for ten years ; but at last I wasforced
to surrender / I have been to my confession • I
have become a Christian

,
a Christian in the mili-

taryfashion
,
that is to say

,
like a soldier. It is to

you I owe this happiness / and Iam very glad to
meet you

,
to be able to tell you sol

Father de Bussy, of the Company of Jesus, gave

at the beginning of this century, in a certain large

city of the South, an important mission, which

roused the whole population. It was in the heart

of winter
;
Christmas Day was at hand, and it was

very cold. In the room in which the Father was

receiving the men there was a stove with a good

fire.

One day the Father sees, coming to him, a young

man, who had been recommended to him on account

of his dissipation and open parade of impiety.

Father de Bussy soon saw there was nothing to be

done with him. “ Come here
,
my good friend

f

he

said, pleasantly;
“I do not hear the confessions

of people in spite of them. Stay ; sit down there ,

and let us have a little chat while warming our

selves.” He opened the stove, and noticed that the

wood was going soon to be burned up.

“Before sitting down
,
pray bring me one or two

logsf he says to the young man. The latter, some

what astonished, does, nevertheless, what the Father

demanded. “Nowf the latter added, Uput it for



The Thought of Hell. 97

me in the stove; there
,
veryfar down in the bottom.”

And, as the other was getting the wood into the

door of the stove, Father de Bussy, all at one?,

took his arm, and plunged it into the bottom of the

stove. The young man uttered a shout, and springs

backward. 66Ah me /” he shouts, “ are you crazy ?

You were going to burn me f “ What ails you
,

my dear ?” remarked the Father, calmly
;

“ must

not you get accustomed to it? In hell
,
whither

you shall go, if you continue your present course

of life , it icill not be merely the tips of the fingers

that shall be burned by the fire , but your whole

body; and this little fire is nothing to the other

one. Come, come, my good friend, be brave; you

must get accustomed to everything.”

The young libertine went away in a thoughtful

mood, tie was reflecting, indeed
;
he did reflect

so well that he was not slow in coming back again

to the missionary, who helped him to get rid of his

faults, and enter anew on the good path.

I affirm, adds Mgr. de Segur, that of a thousand,

ten thousand, menwho live far from God, and there-

fore, on the way to hell, there would not be one,

perhaps, 'who could resist the test of fire. There

would not be one who should be so crazy as to ac-

cept this bargain : During the year, you may yield

to all your passions, gratify all your whims, on the

condition of spending one day, only one day, or

even one hour, in the fire. I repeat it, not a single



98 The Thought of Hell.

person would accept the bargain. Will you have a

proof of it ? Listen to the history of the three sons

of an old usurer.

A father of a family, who grew rich only by cry-

ing wrongs, had fallen dangerously ill. He knew

that mortification had already set in, and, never-

theless, he could not decide to make restitution.

‘t If I make restitution,” he said, “tohat will become

ofmy children ?
”

His confessor, a man of sagacity, had recourse to

a singular stratagem to save this poor soul. He

told him that if he wished to be cured, he was about

to give him an extremely simple, but costly remedy.

“ /Should it cost a thousand
,
two thousand

,
even ten

thousand francs
,
what odds ? ” answered the old

man briskly. “ What is it ? ” “ It consists in

pouring the melted fat of a living person on the

mortifiedparts. It does not need much . If you

find any one willing, for ten thousand francs, to

suffer one hand to be burnedfor less than a quarter

of an hour, that will be enough

I

u Alasr says the poor man, sighing, “ I am
very much afraid I can find no such person.” “I

will help youf says the priest quietly. “ Summon

your eldest son; he loves you; he is to be your heir;

say to him : LMy dear son
,
you can save your old

father s life
, if you consent to allow one hand to be

burned only for a small quarter of an hour.’ If

he refuses
,
make the proposal to the second

,
pledg-



The Thought of Hell. 99

ing yourself to make him your heir at the expense of

his elder brother . If he refuses in his turn , the

thrid will no doubt acceptI

The proposition was made successively to the

three brothers, who, one after the other, rejected it

with a shudder. Then the father said to them

:

“ What! to save my life
,
an instant'

1

s pain alarms

you ! and I, toprocure you comfort
,
would go to hell

,

to be burned eternally ! Indeed
,
I should be quite

mad

I

And he hastened to restore all he owed,

without regard to what should become of his chil-

dren. He was quite right, and so were his three

sons To suffer a hand to be burned, a short quar-

ter of an hour, even to save a father’s life, is a sac-

rifice above human strength.

In 1844, again writes Mgr. de Segur, I was ac-

quainted at the Seminary of St. Sulpice at Issy,

near Paris, with a professor of sciences, extremely

distinguished, and a man whose humility and mor-

tification were admired by everyone. Before be-

coming a priest, the Abbe Pinault had been one of

the most eminent professors of the Polytechnic

School. In the seminary he made the course of

physics and chemistry. One day, during an experi-

ment, the fire somehow caught the phosphorus he

was manipulating, and in a moment his hand was

wrapped in flames. Assisted by his pupils, the

poor professor tried to no purpose to put out the

fire that was eating into his flesh. In a few minutes



100 The Thought of Hell.

his hand was but a shapeless, shining mass
;
the

nails had disappeared. Overcome by the excess of

pain, the unfortunate professor lost consciousness.

His hand and arm were plunged in a pail of cold

water, to try to assuage a little of the violence of

this martyrdom. All day and all night he uttered

but one cry, an irresistible and heart-rending cry

;

and when, now and then, he could utter a few

words, he would say and say again to the three or

four seminarians who were waiting on him : “ O my

children ! my children ! do not go to hell ! do not

go to hell /”

A brother, named John Baptist, was living at the

time of St. Ignatius at the profession-house in

Borne. He was remarkable for the spirit of fervor

and mortification which he derived from the

thought of hell. As he filled the humble office of

cook, the fire, which he had incessantly under his

eyes, reminded him of the fire of divine justice,

which shall torment eternally the impious in hell,

and caused him to conceive a great horror for sins

which merit such horrible chastisements. One day,

when profoundly absorbed by these thoughts, he

yielded to the grief which his sins caused him
;
he

was seized by an attack of indiscreet fervor; he

plunged his hand into the fire, and there left It

burning. The odor which arose from it was felt

by the Father who exercised the office of minister

of the house. He came into the kitchen and asked



The Thought of Hell. 101

what was the matter. The brother could not con-

ceal the excess of his pain, acknowledged his fault,

and, falling at his knees, humbly begged his par-

don. St. Ignatius was informed of the matter
;
he

was told that this brother had just deprived himself

of the use of his hand, and had become incapable

of doing his work. The Saint considered his fault

more worthy of compassion than punishment. He

set to prayer, and spent a part of the night in it, as

was his custom. The next morning the brother’s

hand was -cured, and as sound a3 if it had not been

injured. God manifested by this miracle that, if

this fervent religious had done an inconsiderate

act, the motive that prompted him to do it—that
is, the fear of hell—was agreeable to Him.

St. Teresa had seen the place that was prepared

for her in hell, and that remembrance gave her

strength to bear the severest trials. This is how

she speaks, in the 32d Chapter of her Life : “ Being

one day in prayer, in an instant I found myself,

without knowing how, carried body and soul into

hell. I understood that God wished to make me

see the place I should have occupied, had I not

changed my life. No words can give the least idea of

such suffering—it is beyond comprehension. I felt in

my soul a devouring fire, and my body was, at the

same time, a prey to intolerable pains. I had en-

dured cruel sufferings during my lifetime, but all
that I had suffered was nothing when compared



102 The Thought of Hell.

with what I experienced then. What filled the

measure up, was the prospect that they should be

unending and unalleviated. The tortures of the

body, however cruel they might have been, were

nothing in them turn beside the anguish of the

soul. While I felt myself burned, and as if hacked

into a thousand pieces, 1 was suffering all the

agonies of death, all the horrors of despair. Not

a particle of hope, of consolation, in this frightful so-

journ. There was a pestiferous odor, by which one

was continually suffocated. No light, only dark-

ness of the sombrest hue
;
and yet, O prodigy

!

though there was no light shining, whatever is most

distressing to the sight is seen. In fine, all I had

heard said of the pains of hell, all I had read of it

in books, was nothing beside the reality. There

was the same difference as between a lifeless por-

trait and a living person. Ah ! the hottest fire in

this world is such a trifling thing! it is like a

painted fire compared to that fire which burns the

damned in hell. Almost ten years have passed

since that vision, and I am still seized with such a

fright in describing it, that my blood is frozen in

my veins. Amid trials and sufferings I call up this

remembrance, and it gives me strength to bear all.”

The wonderful conversion of an obstinate Protes-

tant lady, which created quite a sensation in Amer-

ica, was owing to the thought of hell. This person

was none other than the wife of General X., one of



The Thought of Hell. 103

the ablest generals of the Northern army in the

war of 1860. Here are the particulars of this con-

version, as Monsignor Fitzpatrick, Bishop of Boston,

related them at St. Michael’s College at Brussels,

in November, 1862.

General X., first a Protestant, had had the happi-

ness of hearing a simple, clear explanation of the

Catholic religion. It was sufficient for this upright

and noble man to make him see the truth and em-

brace Catholicity with a great heart. From that

time, full of faith and fervor, he devoted himself,

not only to living as a true Catholic, but also to pro-

curing for other Protestants the grace of conversion.

In a short time he won over twenty officers, and

wrote a book destined to furnish instructions for sol-

diers. We can well understand that he had not for-
gotten his wife, who was a Protestant ; but he had

the grief of seeing all the efforts of his zeal fail in this

direction. Meanwhile, God permitted Madame X.

to be attacked by an illness which reduced her to

the last extremity. The General, after having ex-

hausted to no purpose all the resources of faith and

charity, seeing the sick woman on the point of dying

in her obstinacy, recurs to a last means. He calls

four Irishwomen whom he ha I in his service, and,

with tears in his eyes, says to them : “My friends
,

you know my wife is a Protestant
,
and that she is

unwilling to hear the Catholic religion spoken of

She is going to die in her obstinacy
,
and fall into



104 The Thought of Hell.

hell. I shudder at the thought of such a misfor-
tune*, it must be absolutely prevented, if it is possi-

ble. Bet us pray
,
then, to the Holy Virgin

,
and do

violence to her merciful heart” Thereupon, the

General draws forth his beads, and begins to pray

on his knees
;
the poor attendants do as much, and the

whole five continue to pray for one hour. Then the

general goes to the bed of the invalid, and discov-

ers her in a sort of syncope, out of her senses, , ith-

out consciousness. At the end of some time, re-

turning to herself, and looking at her husband, she

said to him in a very intelligible voice : “ Call a

Catholic priest

”

The General believed at first

that she was delirious, and made her repeat what

she desired. “Ibeg,” she says, “for a Catholic priest

without delay.” “But, my dear, you would not have

one.” “Ah ! General, Iam entirely changed. God

has shown me hell, and the place that awaited me

in the eternalfire, ifIdid not become a Catholic.”

So the sick woman had the happiness of returning

into the bosom of the church. She even recovered

her health, and lived afterward as a feivent Catho-

lic. Such was the narrative of the venerable Bishop

of Boston
;
he had these details from General X.’s

own mouth.



i

TABLE OF CONTENTS.

I. PAGE.

The Dogma or Hell 5

II.

Manifestations of Hell.—St. Francis of Jerome—The
Damned Woman of Naples—King Ratbod and St.
Willibrord—The Yonng Pagan Girl Brought to Life
—Father Bernard Colnago. Dread of Hell—Damna-
tion of a Young Debauche—Brother Anthony Per-
eyra 9

III.

Apparitions of Damned Souls.— St. Antoninus; the

Damned Beligious—Mgr. de Segur. Count Orloff’s
Friend—The Lady With the Gold Bracelet—The
Abandoned Girl of Rome 17

IV.

The Denial of Hell is Only Foolish Bravado.—The
Atheist Lies to his Conscience. Collat d’Herbois

—

The Atheist, in the Bottom of his Heart, Dreads

Hell—The Atheist Usually Laughs at Hell Only
From the Tip of His Lips. Juliette—The Atheist
will be Forced one Day to Acknowledge what He

Denies Now 26



106 Table of Contents.

V. PAGE.

Awaking of the Ungodly Soul in Hell.—Catastro-
phe of the Kivoto—Shipwreck of the Steamer Atlan-
tic—Catastrophe of the Tay Bridge 32

VI.

Truth of Hell.—Dogma of Hell Proclaimed in the
Gospel—Assertion of the Libertine Compared with
the Testimony of the Church. Emilius Scaurus

—

Dogma of Hell Confirmed by Reason. There Must

x Be a Prison—The Foolish Thief—The Voluntary
Blind Man. The Heron—Dogma of Hell Never De-
nied by Heresy—Folly of the Atheist who Denies
Hell. The Anchorite—To Risk Hell the Height of

Extravagance. The Smoker—Punishment of Leon-
tius—Eugene and Alexander, 34:

VII.

Pains of Hell.—The Fire. Holy Scriptures—Hell’s
Fire. Richard and Father de Andrada—Martha of

Lima—Foligno’s Burned Hand—Fire of Hell.
St. Peter Damian— Fire of Hell. Nicholas
of Nice—Sweat, Refreshment of the Damned—Image
of Hell. Conflagration at New York—Disaster at
Munich—Theatre at Nice—The Ring Theatre of
Vienna—Sight of a Soul Falling into Hell—Noise of
Hell. St. Ludwine—Pains of Hell. The Admirable
St. Christine—Mount Ungen in Japan—Cruelty of
Bungondono—Cruelty of the Calvinists of Maestrecht
—The Tyrants of Antiquity—Punishment of Par-
ricides—The Assassin of the Prince of Orange -Zeno
Buried Alive—Stench of Hell. St. Bonaventure

—

Burial Vault at Lyons—St. Mart'n—Imps at Loretto
—Hull’s Society. St. Thomas—Privations of Hell.
The Drop of Water—Torture of the Sight. Phan-



Table of Contents 107

toms. St. Bernard—Eternity of the Pains. Exorcists.
—Instructions Given to a Soul Frightened by the
Eternity of the Pains—Eternity of the Pains. St.
Josaphat—Bitter Regrets of the Damned. St.
Thomas—Bitter Regrets Drop of Honey

;
Plate of

Pottage
;
Glass of Water—Tardy Regrets. Sedecias

—Tardy Uegrets. One Hour 46

VIII.

Salutary Fear of Hell.—It is Easy to Fall into Hell.
The Venerable Father Baldinucci—“ Are there Men
on Earth Still Father Nieremberg—Cause of Dam-

nation. Sacrilegious Confession—Cause of Damna-
tion. Refusal of Pardon—Cause of Damnation.
Bad Thoughts—Cause of Damnation. The Passion

to Please—Cause of Damnation. Intemperance

—

Cause of Damnation. Vanity— Cause of Damnation.

Injustice.... 81

IX.

Thought of Hell.—The Thought of Hell Converts
Sinners

;
St. Dositheus—It Keeps from Sins

;
St

Martinian—The Recluse and the Lamp—St. Philip
Neri and the Sinner—Louis Francis de Beauvais—
Blessed Peter Lefevre and the Brigands— The
thought of Hell strengthens the Martyrs. SS.

Domnina and Theonilla—It is an Incentive to
Fervor. Incident Related by Cesa’ius—Incident

Narrated by Venerable Bede • Trithelmus—The
Abbe Rigalot and the Captain—Father de Bussy and

the Young Libertine—The Usurer’s Three Sons—

The Professor of Chemistry—The Pious Cook and
St. Ignatius— St. Tere a; her place in Hell—The

American General X 87







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