A.D. 1200 ] WEIGHING OP GOOD AND EVIL. the man returned through the midst of the flame to the church of St. Alary, and there stopped with the white spirits which had lately arrived ; and these spirits were sprinkled with holy water by St. James and St. Doinninus, in order that they might become whiter. Here at the very first daylight of the sabbath, came St. Michael the archangel and the apostles Peter and Paul, to allot to the spirits assembled inside and outside the church the places ordained for them by God according to their deserts; for St. Michael gave to ail the white spirits a safe passage through the midst of the flames of purgatory, and through the other places of punishment to the entrance of the large church which was built on the mount of joy, with a door on the western side always open ; but the spirits stained with black and white spots, which were lying outside the hall on the northern side, were, without any discussion as to their works, brought by St. Peter through a door on the eastern side into the purgatorial fire, that they might be cleansed by that raging flame of the stains of their sins. Of the weighing of good and evil. The blessed Paul, too, sat inside the church at the end of the northern Avail: and outside the wall, opposite to the apostle, sat the devil with his satellites ; and aflame-vomiting aperture, which was the mouth of the pit of hell, burst out close to the feet of the devil. On the Avail between the apostle and the devil was fixed a scale hanging on an equal balance, the middle part of which hung without in front of the devil ; and the apostle had two weights, a greater and a lesser one, shining like gold, and the devil also had two, sooty and dark. Then the black spirits approached from all directions with great fear and trembling, one after the other, each to try in the scale the weight of their deeds, good or evil ; for the aforesaid weights estimated the deeds of each of the. spirits according to the good or evil they had done. When, therefore, the balance inclined itself towards the apostle, he took that spirit and brought it through the eastern door which was joined to the church, into the purifying tire, there to expiate its offences; but when the balance inclined and preponderated towards the devil, he and his satellites at once hurried1 away that spirit, wailing and cursing the VOL. II. Q