Practice your Latin

Halloween special in Latin #8 – The procession of the Dead

This article has been reviewed in accordance with our editorial policy.

A March of Condemned Souls

This sto­ry is an excep­tion­al episode from the Eccle­si­as­ti­cal His­to­ry, writ­ten by the 12th-cen­tu­ry monk Order­ic Vital­is from the abbey of Saint Evroult in Nor­mandy. More known for his records of polit­i­cal events and local news of the medieval Anglo-Nor­man world, Order­ic pro­vides a stark diver­gence in Book Eight to tell a strik­ing super­nat­ur­al tale.

We present the sto­ry as Pom­pa Perdi­to­rum in a slight­ly abbre­vi­at­ed version.

Cen­tered around a priest called Walche­lin, this tale unfolds on the night of Jan­u­ary 1, 1091, when this robust and young man encoun­tered what seemed to be a ghost­ly army on a lone­ly road while return­ing from a sick vis­it in his parish.

The eerie spec­ta­cle known as the ‘pro­ces­sion of the dead,’ or a march of con­demned souls, appears fre­quent­ly in var­i­ous cul­tures’ folk­lore and ghost sto­ries. You will find it under names such as the Wild Hunt, Wüten­des Heer, Osko­r­eia, Odens jakt, and Her­laþing. In this march, mul­ti­tudes of sin­ners are seen being tor­tured and pun­ished for their sins. This bone-chill­ing nar­ra­tive offers not only an insight into the beliefs preva­lent in the Mid­dle Ages but also under­scores the moral com­pass of that time. Despite being a depar­ture from the stan­dard chron­i­cles, this tale enrich­es our under­stand­ing of the com­plex tapes­try of belief that punc­tu­at­ed medieval thought.

Order­ic’s sto­ry pro­vides the first men­tion of the demon Her­lechin, Her­le­quin or Helle­quin, that devel­ops into the famous check­ered wear­ing Har­le­quin.

More Halloween

If you sim­ply can­not get enough of Hal­loween, may I sug­gest you check out pre­vi­ous year’s Hal­loween Spe­cials in Latin. You can find them all here.

You can also find Pom­pa Perdi­to­rum along with some of our ear­li­er spe­cials on Leg­en­tibus. We have trans­formed them into sto­ry­books where you can lis­ten to them and fol­low along in the text, have dic­tio­nar­ies built into the text, and an Eng­lish trans­la­tion with a small tap of your fin­ger. You can find them in the free books sec­tion, as they are avail­able to all – sub­scrip­tion or not. You can find the app here. 

You will find the text and an Eng­lish trans­la­tion below the video, but it is much eas­i­er, more enjoy­able and bet­ter to read it in the Leg­en­tibus app.

Halloween Video in Latin

Pompa Perditorum – The Latin Text

Quid in epīs­copātū Lex­oviēn­sī, in capite Jānuāriī con­tiger­it cuidam pres­byterō, praetere­un­dum nōn aes­timō, nec com­pri­men­dum silentiō.

In vīl­lā, quae Bonaval­lis dīc­i­tur, Gualchel­mus sac­erdōs erat, quī ecclēsi­ae Sānc­tī Albīnī Ande­gavēn­sis dēserviēbat.

Hic annō Domini­cae Incar­nātiō­nis 1091 in capite Jānuāriī accer­sī­tus, quen­dam aegrō­tum in ultimīs parochi­ae suae ter­minīs noc­tū vīsitāvit. Unde dum sōlus redīret, et longē ab hominum habitātiōne remō­tus īret, ingen­tem strepi­tum velut max­imī exercitūs coepit audīre.

Lūna quippe octā­va in signō ari­etis tunc clārē micā­bat, et gra­di­en­tibus iter dēmōnstrābat.

Gigās

Prae­fā­tus pres­byter erat juve­nis, audāx et for­tis, cor­pore mag­nus et agilis. Audītō itaque tumultū prop­er­an­tium, timuit et plūri­ma sēcum trac­tāre coepit an fugeret, nē ā vīlibus parasītīs invāderē­tur, et inhon­estē spoliārē­tur, aut val­i­dam manum prō dēfēn­siōne suī ērigeret, sī ab aliquō impeterētur.

Tan­dem quat­tuor mespileās arborēs in agrō, procul ā calle, prōspex­it, ad quās lati­tandī causā, dōnec equi­tā­tus pertrān­sīret, cito dīvert­ere voluit. Vērum quī­dam ēnōr­mis statūrae, fer­ēns ingen­tem maxū­cam, pres­byterum prop­er­an­tem praevēnit, et super caput ejus lev­ātō vecte dīxit:

“Stā, nec prō­grediāris ultrā!”

Mox pres­byter diri­gu­it et bac­ulō quem bajulā­bat appodiā­tus, immō­bilis stetit. Ardu­us vērō vec­tifer jux­tā eum stā­bat, et nihil eī nocēns praetere­un­tem exerci­tum exspectābat.

Percussōris poena

Ecce ingēns tur­ba ped­i­tum pertrān­sī­bat, et pecud­ēs ac vestēs, mul­ti­modamque supel­lec­tilem, et dīver­sa ūtēn­sil­ia, quae praedōnēs asportāre solent, super col­la scapulāsque suās fer­ē­bat. Omnēs nīmīrum lāmen­tāban­tur, sēsēque ut fes­tīnārent cohortābantur.

Multōs eti­am vīcīnōrum suōrum, quī nūper obier­ant, pres­byter ibī­dem recognōvit, et maer­en­tēs prō mag­nīs sup­pli­ciīs, quibus ob faci­no­ra sua torquēban­tur, audīvit. Deinde tur­ma vespiliōnum secū­ta est, cui prae­fā­tus gigās repente asso­ciā­tus est.

Fer­e­tra ferē quīn­quāgin­tā fer­ēban­tur et ūnumquodque ā duōbus bajulīs fer­ēbā­tur. Por­rō super fer­e­tra hom­inēs parvī velut nānī sedēbant, et magna capi­ta ceu dōlia habēbant. Ingēns eti­am trun­cus ā duōbus Aethiopibus portābā­tur, et super trun­cum quī­dam mis­el­lus, dīrē ligā­tus, cru­ciābā­tur, et inter angōrēs dīrōs ululātūs ēmit­tēns, vōcifer­ābā­tur. Taeter­rimus enim daemōn, quī super eum­dem trun­cum sedē­bat, igneīs cal­cāribus in lum­bīs et tergō san­guino­len­tum importūnē stimulābat.

Vēxilla nigra

Nōn multō post, numerō­sum agmen clēricōrum et monachōrum, jūdicēs atque rēc­tōrēs eōrum, epīs­copōs et abbātēs cum pāstōrālibus cam­būtīs advertit.

Clēricī et epīs­copī nigrīs cap­pīs indūtī erant. Monachī quoque et abbātēs nigrīs nihilōmi­nus cucul­līs amic­tī erant. Gemēbant et plangēbant, et nōn­nūl­lī Galchel­mum voc­itābant, ac prō prīstinā famil­iāritāte ut prō sē ōrāret pos­tulābant. Multōs nīmīrum mag­nae aes­timātiō­nis ibi pres­byter sē vīdisse ret­tulit, quōs hūmā­na opīniō sānc­tīs in caelō jam con­jūnc­tōs astruit.

Ter­ri­bilibus vīsīs pres­byter admod­um trepidā­bat. bac­ulōque innīxus, ter­ri­bil­iōra exspec­tā­bat. Ecce ingēns exerci­tus mīl­i­tum sequēbā­tur, et nūl­lus col­or sed nigrēdō et scin­til­lāns ignis in eīs vidēbā­tur. Max­imīs omnēs equīs īnsid­ēbant et omnibus armīs armātī velut ad bel­lum fes­tīnābant, et niger­ri­ma vēx­il­la gestābant.

Perīculōsum cōnsilium

Gualchel­mus autem, postquam multōrum mīl­i­tum ingēns cohors pertrān­si­it, intrā sēmetip­sum sīc cōgitāre coepit:

Haec sine dubiō famil­ia Her­lechīnī est. Ā multīs eam ōlim vīsam audīvī; sed incrē­du­lus relātiōnēs dērīsī, quia cer­ta indi­cia nun­quam dē tālibus vīdī. Nunc vērō manēs mor­tuōrum vērāciter videō; sed nēmō mihi crēdet, cum vīsa ret­tulerō, nisi cer­tum spec­i­men ter­ri­genīs exhibuerō.

Dē vac­uīs ergō equīs, quī sequ­un­tur agmen, ūnum appre­hen­dam, cōn­fes­tim ascen­dam, domum dūcam, et, ad fidem obti­nen­dam, vīcīnīs ostendam.

Mox niger­rimī corni­pedis habēnās appre­hen­dit; sed ille for­titer sē dē manū rapi­en­tis excus­sit, āligerōque cursū per agmen Aethiop­um abiit.

Pres­byter autem vōtī com­potem sē nōn esse doluit. Erat enim aetāte juve­nis, ani­mō audāx et levis, cor­pore vērō vēlōx et for­tis. In mediā igi­tur strātā parā­tus cōn­sti­tit, et venien­tī parātis­simō cornipedī obviāns manum extendit.

Ille autem sub­sti­tit ad sus­cip­i­en­dum pres­byterum, et exhālāns dē nāribus suīs prōjēc­it neb­u­lam ingen­tem velutī longis­si­mam quer­cum. Tunc sac­erdōs sin­istrum pedem in teri­pe­dem mīsit, manumque arrep­tīs lōrīs clītel­lae impo­suit, subitōque nim­i­um calōrem velut ignem ārden­tem sub pede sēn­sit, et incrēdi­bile frī­gus per manum, quae lora tenē­bat, ejus praecor­dia penetrāvit.

Equitēs horrendī

Dum tālia fīunt, quat­tuor hor­rendī equi­tēs adve­ni­unt, et ter­ri­biliter vōcifer­an­tēs, dīcunt:

“Cūr equōs nos­trōs invādis? Nōbīs­cum veniēs. Nēmō nos­trum lae­sit tē, cum tū nos­tra coepistī rapere.”

At ille, nim­i­um ter­ri­tus, cabal­lum dīmīsit, tribusque mīl­itibus eum pre­hendēre volen­tibus, quār­tus dīxit:

“Sinite illum, et per­mit­tite loquī mēcum, quia con­jugī meae fīliīsque meīs mea mit­tam mandā­ta per illum.”

Deinde nim­i­um paven­tī pres­byterō dīxit:

“Audī mē, quaesō, et uxōrī meae refer quae mandō.”

Pres­byter respondit:

“Quis sīs nesciō, et uxōrem tuam nōn cognōscō.”

Mīles dīx­it:

“Ego sum Guil­lel­mus dē Glōtis, fīlius Barō­nis, quī fāmō­sus fuī quon­dam dapifer Guil­lelmī Bre­toliēn­sis, et patris ejus Guil­lelmī, Her­fordēn­sis comi­tis. Prae­jūdi­ciīs et rapīnīs inter mortālēs anhēlāvī, multīsque faci­noribus plūs quam refer­rī potest pec­cāvī. Cēterum super omnia mē cru­ci­at ūsūra. Nam indi­gen­tī cuidam pecū­ni­am meam ērogāvī, et quod­dam molendīnum ejus prō pig­nore recēpī, ipsōque cēn­sum red­dere nōn valente, tōtā vītā meā pignus ret­inuī, et lēgitimō hērēde exhērēdātō, hērēdibus meīs relīquī.”

“Ecce can­dēns fer­rum molendīnī gestō in ōre, quod sine dubiō mihi vidē­tur ad fer­en­dum grav­ius Rotho­ni­agēn­sī arce. Dīc ergō Beātrīcī, uxōrī meae, et Roger­iō, fīliō meō, ut mihi sub­ve­ni­ant, et vadimōni­um unde multō plūs recēpērunt quam dedī, vēlōciter hērēdī restituant.”

Pres­byter respon­dit: “Guil­lel­mus dē Glōtis jamdū­dum mor­tu­us est, et hujus­modī lēgātiō nūl­lī fidēli­um accep­tā­bilīs est. Nesciō quis es, nec quī tuī sunt hērēdēs. Sī Roger­iō dē Glōtis, vel frātribus ejus, aut mātrī eōrum praesūmpserō tālia ēnār­rāre, ut āmentem dērīdēbunt mē.”

Por­rō Guil­lel­mus obnīxē īnsistēns rogā­bat, et plūri­ma nōtis­si­ma signa dīli­gen­ter incul­cā­bat. Pres­byter autem intel­ligēns ea quae audiē­bat, omnia tamen sē scīre dissimulābat.

Tan­dem multā prece vic­tus, acquiēvit et iterum ut rogā­tus fuer­at sē fac­tūrum prōmīsit.

Tunc Guil­lel­mus cūnc­ta reca­pit­ulāvit, et longā cōn­fābulātiōne mul­ta eīdem replicāvit.

Īra equitis

Intereā sac­erdōs coepit sēcum trac­tāre quod nōn audēret exse­crā­bil­ia bio­thanatī mandā­ta cuili­bet annūntiāre.

“Nōn decet,” inquit, “tālia prō­mul­gāre. Nul­lātenus quae injungis cuili­bet referam.”

Mox ille furi­bun­dus manum exten­dit, et pres­byterum per faucēs appre­hen­dit, sēcumque per ter­ram trahēns, mināre coepit. Cap­tīvus autem manum, quā tenēbā­tur, ārden­tem ignem per­sēn­sit, et in tālī angustiā repente exclāmāvit:

“Sānc­ta Marīa, glōriōsa māter Chrīstī, adju­vā mē!”

Prōt­i­nus, ad invocātiōnem piis­si­mae gen­etrī­cis, fīliī Dom­inī aux­il­i­um praestō adfuit. Nam quī­dam mīles, ēnsem dex­trā fer­ēns, super­vēnit, gla­d­i­umque suum, qua­si fer­īre vel­let, vibrāns, dīxit:

“Cūr frātrem meum inter­fici­tis, male­dic­tī? Sinite illum, et abīte.”

Mox illī āvolārunt, Aethiopi­camque pha­langem prōsecūtī sunt. Abe­un­tibus cūnc­tīs, mīles in viā cum Gualchelmō dēmorā­tur, et ab eō scīscitātur:

“Cognōs­cisne mē?”

Pres­byter respondit:

“Nōn.”

Mīles dīx­it:

“Ego sum Rod­ber­tus, fīlius Rodulfī, cognō­men­tō Blondī, et sum frāter tuus.”

Amor frāternus

Cum pres­byter prō tam īnspērātā rē vehe­menter admīrārē­tur, nim­i­umque prō hīs quae vīder­at vel sēnser­at, angerē­tur, mīles eī dē puer­i­tiā utriusque mul­ta coepit recēn­sēre, et nōtis­si­ma signa recitāre. Sac­erdōs autem audī­ta opti­mē recolē­bat, sed ōre cōn­fitērī nōn ausus, omnia dēnegā­bat. Tan­dem prae­fā­tus eques ait:

“Mīror dūri­ti­am et hebetūdinem tuam. Ego tē post mortem utriusque par­en­tis nūtrīvī, et super omnēs mortālēs dīlēxī. Ego tē ad scholās in Gal­liam dīrēxī, et vestēs num­mōsque tibi cōpiōsē por­rēxī, aliīsque multīs mod­īs tibi prōdesse satis ēlabōrāvī. Nunc hōrum immem­or effi­ceris, mēque tan­tum­mo­do recognōscere dēdignāris!”

Tunc pres­byter, vēridicīs fāminibus ūber­tim prōlātīs, con­vic­tus est allēgātiōnibus certīs, palamque cum lacrimīs fas­sus est affāmi­na frātris. Tunc mīles dīx­it eī:

“Mer­itō dēbuis­sēs morī, nos­trārumque par­ti­ceps poenārum nunc nōbīs­cum trahī, quia rēs nos­trās nefāriā temer­itāte invā­sistī. Hoc nūl­lus alius inchoāre ausus fuit. Sed mis­sa, quam hodiē can­tāstī, nē perīrēs, tē salvāvit.”

Poenae nātūra

“Postquam in Nor­man­niā tēcum locū­tus fuī, ā tē salūtā­tus in Angliam per­rēxī, ibique fīnem vītae jussū Creātōris accēpī, et prō pec­cātīs, quibus nimis onerā­tus eram, immā­nia sup­pli­cia per­tulī. Arma quae fer­imus, ignea sunt, et nōs foetōre taeter­rimō īnfi­ci­unt, ingen­tīque pon­derōsitāte nimis opprimunt, et ārdōre inexstin­guibilī com­būrunt. Hāctenus itaque hujusce­modī poenīs inēnār­rā­biliter cru­ciā­tus sum. Sed quandō in Angliā ōrdinā­tus fuistī, et prī­mam mis­sam prō fidēlibus dēfūnc­tīs can­tāstī, Radul­fus pater tuus sup­pli­ciīs ērep­tus est, et scū­tum meum, quō vehe­menter angēbar, ēlāp­sum est. Ēnsem hunc, ut vidēs, ferō. Sed in annō relaxātiōnem ab hōc onere fīdū­ciāliter exspectō.”

Dum mīles haec et alia hujus­modī dīceret, et dīli­gen­ter ad eum pres­byter inten­deret, qua­si strū­mam san­gui­nis īnstar hūmānī capi­tis ad ejus tālōs cir­cā cal­cāria vīdit, stupēn­sque sīc interrogāvit:

“Unde tan­ta coāgulātiō cruōris imminet cal­cāneīs tuīs?”

At ille respondit:

“Nōn est san­guis, sed ignis; et maiōris mihi vidē­tur esse pon­deris, quam sī fer­rem super mē Mon­tem Sānc­tī Michaēlis. Et quia pretiōsīs et acūtīs ūtēbar cal­cāribus, ut fes­tīnārem ad effun­den­dum san­guinem, jūre sarci­nam in tālīs bajulō ēnormem; quā intol­erā­biliter gravā­tus, nūl­lī hominum exprimere valeō poe­nae quan­titātem. Haec indēsi­nen­ter med­itārī mortālēs dēbērent, et timēre, immō cavēre, nē prō reātibus suīs tam dīra luerent.”

“Plūra mihi nōn licet tēcum, frāter, fārī, quia mis­erā­bile agmen fes­tī­nan­ter cōgor prōse­quī. Obse­crō, memen­tō meī, precibusque piīs et eleē­mosynīs suc­curre mihi. Nam ā Paschā Flōrum usque ad ūnum annum spērō salvārī, et clē­men­tiā Creātōris ab omnibus tor­men­tīs līberārī. Tū vērō sol­lic­i­tus estō dē tē, vītamque tuam prū­den­ter cor­rige, quae plūribus vitiīs sor­dēsc­it, scītōque quod diu­tur­na nōn erit. Ad praesēns silē. Rēs, quās nunc ex īnspērātō vīdis­tī et audīstī, silen­tiō com­prime, et usque ad trēs diēs nēminī praesūmās ēnārrāre.”

Hīs dic­tīs, mīles fes­tīnus absces­sit. Pres­byter autem tōtā sep­ti­mānā graviter aegrōtāvit. Deinde postquam invalēscere coepit. Lex­ovi­um adi­it, Gisle­ber­iō epīs­copō cūnc­ta ex ōrdine recitāvit et ab eō medicā­men­ta sibimet necessāria impetrāvit.

Post­mod­um, ferē XV annīs veg­e­tus vīx­it, et haec quae scrīp­tō trā­didī ab ōre ipsīus audīvī, et faciem ejus hor­rendī mīli­tis tāc­tū lae­sam prōspexī.

Haec ad aed­i­ficātiōnem leg­en­tium scrīp­sī, ut in bonīs cōn­soli­den­tur jūstī, et ā malīs resipīs­cant perversī.

The Procession of the Dead – English Translation

I con­sid­er that I ought not to sup­press and pass over in silence what hap­pened to a cer­tain priest of the dio­cese of Lisieux, in the begin­ning of January.

In a vil­lage called Bon­neval there was a priest named Walke­lin who served the church of Saint Aubin of Anjou.

At the com­mence­ment of the month of Jan­u­ary 1091, this priest was sum­moned in the night time to vis­it a sick man who lived at the fur­thest extrem­i­ty of his parish. As he was pur­su­ing his soli­tary road home­wards, far from any habi­ta­tion of man, he heard a great noise like the tramp of a numer­ous body of troops, and thought with­in him­self that the sounds pro­ceed­ed from the army of Robert de Bel­lême on their march to lay siege to the cas­tle of Courcy.

The moon, being in her eight day in the con­stel­la­tion of the Ram, shed a clear light so that it was easy to find the way.

The giant

Now the priest was young, undaunt­ed, and bold, and of a pow­er­ful and active frame of body. How­ev­er, he hes­i­tat­ed when the sounds, which seemed to pro­ceed from troops on the march first reached his ears, and began to con­sid­er whether he should take flight, to avoid being laid hold of and dis­cour­te­ous­ly stripped by the worth­less camp fol­low­ers, or man­ful­ly stand on his defence if any one molest­ed him.

Just then he espied four med­lar trees in a field at a good dis­tance from the path, and deter­mined to seek shel­ter behind them, as fast as he could, until the cav­al­ry had passed. But as he was run­ning he was stopped by a man of enor­mous stature, armed with a mas­sive club, who, rais­ing his weapon above his head, shout­ed to him:

“Stand! Take not a step further!”

The priest, frozen with ter­ror, stood motion­less lean­ing on his staff. The gigan­tic club-bear­er also stood close to him, and with­out offer­ing to do him any injury, qui­et­ly wait­ed for the pas­sage of the troop.

A murderer’s punishment

Behold a great crowd of peo­ple came by on foot, car­ry­ing on their heads and shoul­ders; sheep, clothes, fur­ni­ture, and moveable’s of all descrip­tions, such as rob­bers are in the habit of pil­lag­ing. All were mak­ing great lamen­ta­tions and urg­ing one anoth­er to has­ten their steps.

Among them the priest recog­nised a num­ber of his neigh­bours who had late­ly died, and he heard them bewail­ing the excru­ci­at­ing suf­fer­ings with which they were tor­ment­ed for their evil deeds. They were fol­lowed by a troop of corpse-bear­ers, who were joined by the giant already mentioned.

They car­ried as many as fifty biers, each of which was borne by two bear­ers. On these were seat­ed a num­ber of men of the size of dwarfs, but whose heads were as large as bar­rels. Two Ethiopi­ans also car­ried an immense trunk of a tree, to which a poor wretch was rude­ly bound, who, in his tor­tures filled the air with fear­ful cries of anguish; for a hor­ri­ble demon sat on the same trunk and goad­ed his loins and back with red-hot spurs until the blood streamed from them.

Black banners

Not long after, he saw pass before him a numer­ous com­pa­ny of cler­gy and monks, with their rulers and judges, the bish­ops and abbots car­ry­ing croziers in their hands.

The cler­gy and bish­ops wore black copes, and the abbots and monks cowls of the same hue. They all groaned and wailed, and some of them called to Walke­lin, and implored him in the name of their for­mer friend­ship to pray for them. The priest report­ed that he saw among them many who were high­ly esteemed, and who, in human esti­ma­tion, were now asso­ci­at­ed with the saints in heaven.

The priest, trem­bling at these appalling scenes, still rest­ed on his staff, expect­ing appari­tions still more ter­ri­ble. And now there fol­lowed an immense army in which no colour was vis­i­ble, but only black­ness and fiery flames. All were mount­ed on great war-hors­es, and ful­ly armed as if they were pre­pared for imme­di­ate bat­tle, and they car­ried black banners.

A bad idea

Walke­lin hav­ing seen these count­less troops of sol­diers pass, on reflec­tion, said with­in himself:

“Doubt­less these are Hennequin’s peo­ple. I have often heard of their being seen, but I laughed at the sto­ries, hav­ing nev­er had any cer­tain proofs of such things. Now, indeed, I assured­ly behold the ghosts of the depart­ed, but no one will believe me when 1 tell the tale unless I can exhib­it to mor­tal eyes some tan­gi­ble proof of what I have seen.

“I will there­fore mount one of the hors­es which are fol­low­ing the troop with­out any rid­ers, and will take it home and show it my neigh­bours to con­vince them that I speak the truth.”

Accord­ing­ly he forth­with snatched the reins of a black steed, but the ani­mal burst vio­lent­ly from his hold and gal­loped away among the troops of Ethiopians.

The priest was dis­ap­point­ed at the fail­ure of his enter­prise; but he was young, bold, and light-heart­ed, as well as agile and strong. He there­fore sta­tioned him­self in the mid­dle of the path, pre­pared for action, and the moment a horse came up, laid his hand upon it.

The horse stopped, ready for him to mount with­out dif­fi­cul­ty, at the same time snort­ing from his nos­trils a cloud of vapour as large as a full-grown oak. The priest then placed his left foot in the stir­rup, and, seiz­ing the reins, laid his hand on the sad­dle, but he instant­ly felt that his foot rest­ed on red-hot iron, and the hand with which he held the bri­dle was frozen with insup­port­able cold which pen­e­trat­ed to his vitals.

Terrifying knights

While this was pass­ing, four ter­ri­fy­ing knights came up and utter­ing hor­ri­ble cries, shout­ed to him:

“What do you want with our hors­es? You shall come with us. No one of our com­pa­ny had injured you, when you began lay­ing your hands on what belongs to us.”

The priest, in great alarm, let go the horse, and three of the knights attempt­ing to seize him, the fourth said to them:

“Let him go, and allow me to speak with him, for I wish to make him the bear­er of a mes­sage to my wife and children.”

“Lis­ten to me, I beg, and tell my wife what I command.”

The priest replied:

“I do not know who you are, and I do not know your wife.”

The sol­dier said:

“I am William de Glos, son of Barno, and was once the renowned stew­ard of William de Bre­teuil and his father William, earl of Here­ford. While in the world I aban­doned myself to evil deeds and plun­der, and was guilty of more crimes than can be recount­ed. But, above all, I am tor­ment­ed for my usuries. I once lent mon­ey to a poor man, and received as secu­ri­ty a mill which belonged to him, and as he was not able to dis­charge the debt I kept the mort­gage prop­er­ty and left it to my heirs, dis­in­her­it­ing my debtor’s family.”

“You see that I have in my mouth a bar of hot iron from the mill, the weight of which I feel to be more oppres­sive than the tow­er of Rouen. Tell, there­fore, my wife Beat­rice, and my son Roger, to afford me relief, by speed­i­ly restor­ing to the right heir the pledge from which they have received more than I advanced.”

The priest replied: “William de Glos died long ago and this is a com­mis­sion which no Chris­t­ian man can under­take. I know nei­ther who you are, or who are your heirs. If I should ven­ture to tell such a tale to Roger de Glos, or his broth­ers, or to their moth­er, they would laugh me to scorn as one out of his wits.”

How­ev­er, William con­tin­ued still to per­sist in his earnest entreaties, and fur­nished him with many sure and well-known tokens of his iden­ti­ty. The priest under­stood very well all he heard, but pre­tend­ed not to com­pre­hend it.

At length, over­come by impor­tu­ni­ties, he con­sent­ed to what the knight request­ed, and engaged to do what was required.

Upon this, William repeat­ed again all he had said, and impressed it on his com­pan­ion dur­ing a long conversation.

The knight’s anger

The priest, how­ev­er, began to con­sid­er that he durst not con­vey to any one the exe­crable mes­sage of a dammed spirit.

It is not right” he said “to pub­lish such things. I will on no account tell to any­one what you require of me.”

Upon this, the knight was filled with rage, and seiz­ing him by the throat dragged him along on the ground, utter­ing ter­ri­ble impre­ca­tions. The pris­on­er felt the hand which grasped him burn­ing like fire, and in this deep extrem­i­ty cried aloud: “Help me, holy Mary, the glo­ri­ous moth­er of Christ.”

No soon­er had he invoked the com­pas­sion­ate moth­er than the aid of the Son of God was afford­ed him.. For a horse­man imme­di­ate­ly rode up, with a sword in his right hand, and bran­dish­ing it over Roger’s head, exclaimed:

“Will ye kill my broth­er, ye accursed ones? Loose him and begone!”

The knights instant­ly fled and fol­lowed the black troops. When they had all passed by, the horse­man, remain­ing alone in the road with Walke­lin, said to him:

Do you not know me?” the priest answered “No.” The oth­er said: “I am Robert, son of Ralph le Blond, and your brother.”

A brother’s love

The priest was much aston­ished at this unex­pect­ed occur­rence, and much trou­bled at what he had seen or heard, when the knight began to remind him of a num­ber of things which hap­pened in their youth, and to give him many well-known tokens. The priest had a clear rec­ol­lec­tion of all that was told him, but not dar­ing to con­fess it, he stout­ly denied all knowl­edge of the cir­cum­stances. At length the knight said to him:

“I am aston­ished at your hard­ness of heart and stu­pid­i­ty; it was I who brought you up on our par­ents’ death, and loved you more than any­one liv­ing. I sent you to school in France, sup­plied you plen­ti­ful­ly with clothes and mon­ey, and did all in my pow­er to ben­e­fit you in every way. You seem now to have for­got­ten all this, and will not even con­de­scend to recog­nise me.”

At length the priest, after being abun­dant­ly fur­nished with exact par­tic­u­lars, became con­vinced by such cer­tain proofs, and burst­ing into tears, open­ly admit­ted the truth of what he had heard. His broth­er then said:

“You deserve to die, and to be dragged with us to par­take of the tor­ments we suf­fer, because you have rash­ly laid hands on things which belong to our repro­bate crew; no oth­er liv­ing man ever dared to make such an attempt. But the mass you sang to-day has saved you from perishing.”

The nature of the punishment

After I had con­ferred with you in Nor­mandy, I took leave of you and crossed over to Eng­land, where, by the Creator’s order, my life end­ed, and I have under­gone intense suf­fer­ing for the griev­ous sins with which I was bur­dened. It is flam­ing armour which you see us bear, it poi­sons us with an infer­nal stench, weighs us down with its intol­er­a­ble weight, and scorch­es us with heat which is inex­tin­guish­able! Hith­er­to I have been tor­ment­ed with unut­ter­able suf­fer­ings but when you were ordained in Eng­land, and sang your first mass for the faith­ful depart­ed, your father Ralph was released from pur­ga­to­ry, and my shield, which was a great tor­ment to me, fell from my arm. I still, as you see, car­ry a sword, but I con­fi­dent­ly expect to be relieved of that burden.”

While the knight was thus talk­ing, the priest atten­tive­ly lis­ten­ing to him espied a mass of clot­ted gore, in the shape of a man’s head, at the other’s heels, round his spurs, and in great amaze­ment said to him:

“Whose is this clot­ted blood which clings to your spurs?”

The knight replied:

“It is not blood but fire; and it weighs me down more than if I had Mount St. Michael to car­ry. Once I used sharp and bright spurs when I was hur­ry­ing to shed blood, and now I just­ly car­ry this enor­mous weight at my heels, which is so intol­er­a­bly bur­den­some, that I am unable to express the sever­i­ty of my suf­fer­ings. Men ought to reflect on these things with­out ceas­ing, and to dread and beware lest they, for their sins, should under­go such chastisements.

“I am not per­mit­ted, my broth­er, to con­verse longer with you, for I must has­ten to fol­low this unhap­py troop. Remem­ber me, I pray you, and give me the suc­cour of your prayers and alms. In one year after Palm Sun­day I trust to be saved; and by the mer­cy of the Cre­ator released from all my tor­ments. And you, con­sid­er well your own state, and pru­dent­ly mend your life which is blem­ished by many vices, for know it will not be very long. Now be silent, bury in your own bosom the things you have so unex­pect­ed­ly seen and heard, and do not ven­ture to tell them to any one for three days.”

With these words the knight has­tened away. The priest was seri­ous­ly ill for a whole week. As soon as he began to recov­er his strength, he went to Lisieux and relat­ed all that had hap­pened to Bish­op Gilbert, in reg­u­lar order, and obtained, on his peti­tion, the salu­tary reme­dies he needed.

He after­wards lived in good health almost fif­teen years, and I heard what I have writ­ten, and more which has escaped my mem­o­ry, from his own mouth, and saw the mark on his face left by the hand of the ter­ri­ble knight.

I have com­mit­ted the account to writ­ing for the edi­fi­ca­tion of my read­ers, that the right­eous may be con­firmed in their good res­o­lu­tions, and the wicked repent of their evil deeds.

Daniel Pettersson

Daniel Pettersson

Teacher and author Daniel Pettersson, M.A., is co-founder of Latinitium and is currently teaching Latin at Stockholm University, where he is also working on his Ph.D. dissertation on Humanist Colloquia. Daniel believes in the importance of Latin literature in the modern world and that you can teach yourself Latin with the right motivation, method, and material.
Written by Daniel Pettersson

Written by Daniel Pettersson

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