340 ROGER OF AVENDO VER. [A.D . 1072. Nantes, two priests, who from their very childhood were so united by the ties of friendship, that, if there should be necessity for it, each would risk death for the other. Hence one day they agreed between themselves, that whichever of them should first die, should within thirty days appear to his surviving friend, either when he was sleeping or awake, and declare to him the nature of the life to come, and the condition of souls when they had left the body, that the survivor, being thus sufficiently informed on the subject, might know which of the various opinions of philosophers, concerning the soul, ought to be adopted. For the disciples of Plato set it down that the death of the body does not destroy the soul, but gives it back to God, its originator, as if released from a prison ; on the other hand, the Epicureans affirm, that the soul, when released from the body, vanishes into air, and is blown away and dispersed to the winds ; theologists, on the contrary, assert that there are three places of abode for the soul after death, one in heaven, another in purgatory, and the third in hell ; and that, as the spirits which are in hell will not be saved, so those which exist in purgatory will obtain mercy. So when they had pledged themselves to this agreement and confirmed it by oath, it shortly after happened that one of them died suddenly without confession and without preparation; the other remained alive, and anxiously thinking of their agreement, waited in vain for the period of thirty days. After they had expired, and he in despair had turned his attention to other things, lo! the dead friend appears to the living one and addresses him thus, " Do you know me? " to which his friend answered in the affirmative; the dead man then again said, " My appearance will be of great use to you (if you are -willing that it should be so), but useless to myself; for a decree is gone forth from God against me, and, wretch that I am, I am doomed to eternal punishment. Upon this, he that was still living promised that he would give all his property to monasteries and to the poor, and would pass his days and nights in continual fasting and prayers, for the rescue of his dead friend, the latter replied, " What I have told you is decreed ; for because I departed from life without repentance, by the j ust decrees of God I have been cast into the sulphury lake of helL where, as long as the stars revolve in the sky and the sea beats the shore, I