speaking to them, I saw them sink by degrees into glory like a person who plunges into the vast ocean. They ask of you in thanksgiving to the Holy Trinity one Laudate and three times Gloria Patri. As I desired them to remember us, their last words were that ingratitude is unknown in Heaven?
CHAPTER XX.
Diversity of the Pains — King Sancho and Queen Guda — St. Lidwina and the Soul Transpierced — Blessed Margaret Mary and the Bed of Fire.
According to the saints, there is great diversity in the corporal pains of Purgatory. Although fire is the principal instrument of torture, there is also the torment of cold, the torture of the members, and the torture applied to the different senses of the human body. This diversity of suffering seems to correspond to the nature of the sins, each one of which demands its own punishment, according to these words: Quia per quce peccat quis, per hac et torquetur — " By what things a man sinneth, by the same also is he tormented." [1] It is just that it should be so with regard to the chastisement, since the same diversity exists in the distribution of the reward. In Heaven each one receives according to his works, and, as Venerable Bede says, each one receives his crown, his robe of glory. For the martyr this robe is of a rich purple colour, whilst that of the confessor has the brilliancy of a dazzling whiteness.
The historian John Vasquez, in his chronicle of the year 940, relates how Sancho, king of Leon, appeared to Queen Guda, and by the piety of this princess was delivered from Purgatory. Sancho, who had led a truly Christian life, was
- ↑ Wisdom xi. 17.
