CHAPTER TWO: Horrifics of Hell and Foibles of Purgatory

I. Horrifics of Hell Portrayed in Literature and Art of Middle Ages

We should not pass from the Middle Ages to the oncoming Reformation without first noting the horrific side of Immortal-Soulism, which was particularly prominent in the centuries just preceding the Protestant Reformation. While not pleasant to contemplate, it was nevertheless an inseparable part of the teaching of the times, and the emphasis of the dominant church. Hideous portrayals of the horrors of hell, iterated and reiterated in written and sculptured form, and pictured upon canvas, characterized the oppressive ecclesiastical portrayal all the way from the sixth century to and through the late Middle Ages.CFF2 39.1

Dante, of Florence (1265-1321), the greatest of Italian poets, in his Divine Comedy filled Purgatory and Hell with the spirits of the departed, but treated the theme so nobly that their horror was almost hidden. Not all writers, however, were that way. In the eighth century the Venerable Bede (673-735) recorded that such portrayals stem from the “Dialogues of Gregory the Great” (590-604), though he notes that there was a fifth-century vision of heretics in Hell recorded by the monk Cyriacus. ^{11) The Venerable Bede, Ecclesiastical History (ed. J. A. Giles, George Bell), book 5, chap 12, p 255.} Later, Thomas Aquinas, Berthold of Regensberg, Herold, Fra Luis de Grenada, and particularly Ignatius Loyola, along with many others, all pictured a Hell that would have no end, and afforded no hope of escape.CFF2 39.2

Throughout this dreary period ecclesiastical art is replete with horrific details. Prof. Percy Dearmer, of King’s College, London, in his The Legend of Hell (1929), reproduced an authentic series of these revolting picturizations. These stark characterizations included:CFF2 40.1

(1) A Damned Woman Carried Off by a Devil, by Signorelli (1499-1504), in the Ovieto Cathedral.CFF2 40.2

(2) The Torment of Cold, by Verard (1492)—a biting wind forcing its victims into the more unbearable cold of a frozen river, whence Beelzebub throws them into a lake of fire, and sometimes into the jaws of a monstrous beast, which first swallows and then vomits them up again.CFF2 40.3

(3) The Ladder of Salvation (c. 1190), in Chaldon Church, Surrey, showing the “harrowing of hell”—a beast devouring the feet of those who sinned by dancing, a dog gnawing the feet of a woman who had been unkind to animals, and souls being pulled off a ladder and plunged into Hell.CFF2 40.4

(4) Two Devils Roasting a Soul Over Hell-Fire (c. 1250) a carving in Worcester Cathedral.CFF2 40.5

(5) The Tortures of the Damned (c. 1416), from Les Tres Riches Heures by Duc de Berry, in Chantilly—Satan spewing up damned souls, who afterward gave birth to fiery serpents which in turn devoured them, as in the vision of Tundal. Other devils work bellows under the central grid to intensify the heat, and volcanos belch victims from below.CFF2 40.6

(6) The Last Judgment (1390), in Bourges Cathedral—a typical sculptured depiction, wrought over the central arch, where all who entered the edifice must see it. Here Christ is pictured as a stern judge, and Michael as mercilessly weighing a soul. Abraham’s bosom is portrayed, to which angels conduct the blessed, while the damned are led to Hell’s mouth by devils.CFF2 40.7

(7) Christ Cursing the Lost—detail from The Last Judgment in the capella sistina of the Vatican, by Michelangelo (1534-1541), striking mortal terror to the damned.CFF2 40.8

These horrific portrayals met the eye with deadly frequency. There was no escape, since they constituted the sustained note of unnumbered literary productions, and were sculptured in stone in many a famous medieval church. These formed the inescapable background emphasis throughout these dismal centuries. And as the Reformation dawned these assuredly helped to create an inevitable revolt against the terrors of such a dogma.CFF2 41.1