him a tomb or a coffin, and
enclose him in it.

Immediately he saw appear some serious and grave-looking personages,
wearing religious habits, who chased these demons away; and then
Vetinus saw an angel, surrounded with a blaze of light, who came to
the foot of the bed, and conducted him by a path between mountains of
an extraordinary height, at the foot of which flowed a large river, in
which he beheld a multitude of the damned, who were suffering diverse
torments, according to the kind and enormity of their crimes. He saw
amongst them many of his acquaintance; amongst others, some prelates
and priests, guilty of incontinence, who were tied with their backs to
stakes, and burned by a fire lighted under them; the women, their
companions in crime, suffering the same torment opposite to them.

He beheld there also, a monk who had given himself up to avarice, and
possessed money of his own, who was to expiate his crime in a leaden
coffin till the day of judgment. He remarked there abbots and bishops,
and even the Emperor Charlemagne, who were expiating their faults by
fire, but were to be released from it after a certain time. He
remarked there also the abode of the blessed in heaven, each one in
his place, and according to his merits. The Angel of the Lord after
this revealed to him the crimes which were the most common, and the
most odious in the eyes of God. He mentioned sodomy in particular, as
the most abominable crime.

After the service for the night, the abbot came to visit the sick man,
who related this vision to him in full, and the abbot had it written
down directly. Vetinus lived two days longer, and having predicted
that he had only the third day to live, he recommended himself to the
prayers of the monks, received the holy viaticum, and died in peace,
the 31st of October, 824.

Footnotes:

[629] Lib. i. de Miracul. Sancti Stephani, cap. 4. p. 28. Lib. vii.
Oper. St. Aug. in Appendice.

[630] Sulpit. Sever. in Vita S. Martini, cap. 3.

[631] Gregor. Turon. lib. vii. c. 1.

CHAPTER LVI.

THE VISION OF BERTHOLDUS, AS RELATED BY HINCMAR, ARCHBISHOP OF RHEIMS.

The famous Hincmar,[632] Archbishop of Rheims, in a circular letter
which he wrote to the bishops, his suffragans, and the faithful of his
diocese, relates, that a man named Bertholdus, with whom he was
acquainted, having fallen ill, and received all the sacraments,
remained during four days without taking any food. On the fourth day