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ROGER OF WENDOVER Flowers of history. The history of England from the descent of the saxons to A.D. 1235. vol.2
page 228
A. D. 1200.] SrOItTS OK DEVILS. 227
on the feast of its dedication." The saint then asked, " In what dress did you enter the church?" lie replied, " In the dress of a woman ; hut when I had advanced to the font, meaning to enter the chancel, the deacon met me with the sprinkler of holy water, and sprinkling me with it, he put ine to flight so precipitately, that I uttered a cry, and leaped from the church as far as a held two furlongs distant." The man and several others also of the parishioners bore witness to this same circumstance, declaring that they had heard that cry, and were entirely ignorant of the cause of it.
Of the theatrical sports of the devi.'s.
After this, St. Domninus said to the devil, " We wish to go with you to see your sports." The devil answered, " If you wish to go with me, do not bring this labourer with you, for he would on his return amongst his fellow mortals disclose our acts and secret kinds of punishment to the living, and would reclaim many from serving us." The saint said to him, '· Make haste and go forward, I and St. Julian will follow you." The demon therefore went on in advance and the saints followed him, bringing the man with them by stealth. They then proceeded to a northern region, as if they were going up a mountain ; and behold, after descending the mountain, there was a very large and dark-looking house surrounded by old walls, and in it there were a great many lanes (plateie) as it were, filled all around with innumerable heated iron seats. These seats were constructed with iron hoops glowing white with heat, and with nails driven in them in every part, above and below, right and left, and in them there sat beings of divers conditions and sexes ; these were pierced by the glowing nails all over their bodies, and were hound on all sides with fiery hoops. There was such a number of those seats, and such a multitude of people sitting in them, that no tongue, would be able to reckon them. All around these courts were blaek iron walls, and near these walls were other seats, in which the devils sat in a circle, as if at a pleasant spectacle, grinning at each other over the tortures of the wretched beings, and recapitulating to them their former crimes. Near the entrance of this detestable scene, on the descent of the mountains, as we have said, there was a wall live feet high, from which could plainly be seen what
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