he were dead, and told him how,
the day before, he had fallen down in a swoon, so that they believed
him to be dead. He could have wished to have some intelligent persons
about him to relate to them what he had seen; but having no one near
him but rustics, he asked for and received the communion of the body
and blood of the Saviour, and continued three days longer awake.

The following Tuesday, he fell into a similar swoon, in the middle of
the night; his feet became cold, and raising his hands to pray, he
received death with joy. Then he saw the same three angels descend who
had already guided him. They raised him as the first time, but instead
of the agreeable and melodious songs which he had then heard, he could
now hear only the frightful howlings of the demons, who began to fight
against him, and shoot inflamed darts at him. The Angel of the Lord
received them on his buckler, and extinguished them. The devil
reproached Fursius with some bad thoughts, and some human weaknesses,
but the angels defended him, saying, "If he has not committed any
capital sins, he shall not perish."

As the devil could not reproach him with anything that was worthy of
eternal death, he saw two saints from his own country--St. Bean and
St. Medan, who comforted him and announced to him the evils with which
God would punish mankind, principally because of the sins of the
doctors or learned men of the church, and the princes who governed the
people;--the doctors for neglecting to declare the word of God, and
the princes for the bad examples they gave their people. After which,
they sent him back into his body again. He returned into it with
repugnance, and began to relate all that he had seen; they poured
spring water upon his body, and he felt a great warmth between his
shoulders. After this, he began to preach throughout Hibernia; and the
Venerable Bede[635] says that there was in his monastery an aged monk
who said that he had learned from a grave personage well worthy of
belief, that he had heard these visions described by St. Fursius
himself. This saint had not the least doubt that his soul was really
separated from his body, when he was carried away in his trance.

Footnotes:

[634] Vita Sti. Fursci, apud Bolland. 16 Januarii, pp. 37, 38. Item,
pp. 47, 48. Saecul. xi. Bened. p. 299.

[635] Bede, lib. iii. Hist. c. 19.

CHAPTER LVIII.

VISION OF A PROTESTANT OF YORK, AND OTHERS.

Here is another instance, which happ