The Dream of One of Coenred of Mercia's Soldiers, A. D. 704-9
— from the venerable Saint Bede, Ecclesiastical History of England, Book 5, chap. 13
This account is as edited by J. A. Giles, D.C.L. and published in London by George Bell & Sons,
1903 [FHL 942 H2b; 845138 item 3] cf. also another website
p. 259 Of another, who before his death saw a book containing all his sins, which was showed him
by devils [A.D. 704-709]
It happened quite the contrary [from Dritheim] with one in the province of the Mercians, whose visions and words,
and also his behaviour, were neither advantageous to others nor to himself. In the reign of
Coenred, who succeeded Ethelred, there was a layman in a military employment, no less
acceptable to the king for his worldly industry, than displeasing to him for his private neglect of
himself. The king often admonished him to confess and amend, and forsake his wicked courses,
before he should lose all time for repentance and amendment by a sudden death. Though
frequently warned, he despised the words of salvation, and promised he would do penance at
some future time. In the meantime, falling sick he was confined to his bed, and began to feel very
severe pains. The king coming to him (for he loved the man), earnestly exhorted him, even then,
before death, to repent of his offences. He answered, “He would not then confess his sins, but
would do it when he was recovered of his sickness, lest his companions should upbraid him of
having done that for fear of death, which he had refused to do in health.” He thought he then
spoke very bravely, but it afterwards appeared that he had been miserably deluded by the wiles of
the Devil.
The distemper still increasing,
when the king came again to visit and instruct him, he cried out with a lamentable voice, “What will
you have now? What are ye come for? for you can no longer do me any good.”
The king answered, “Do not talk so; behave yourself like a man in his right mind.”
“I am not mad,” replied he, “but I have now all the guilt of my wicked conscience before my
eyes.”
“What is the meaning of that?” rejoined the king.
“Not long since,” said he, “there came into this room two most beautiful youths, and sat down by
me, the one at my head, and the other at my feet. One of them produced a very small and most
curious book, and gave it me to read; looking into it, I there found all the good actions I had ever
done in my life p. 260 written down, and they were very few and inconsiderable. They took back
the book and said nothing to me. Then, on a sudden, appeared an army of wicked and deformed
spirits, encompassing this house without, and filling it within. Then he, who, by the blackness of
his dismal face, and his sitting above the rest, seemed to be the chief of them, taking out a book
horrid to behold, of a prodigious size, and of almost insupportable weight, commanded one of his
followers to bring it to me to read. Having read it, I found therein most plainly written in black
characters, all the crimes I ever committed, not only in word and deed, but even in the least
thought; and he said to those men in white, who sat by me, ‘Why do you sit here, since you most
certainly know that this man is ours?’ They answered, ‘You are in the right; take and add him to
the number of the damned.’ This said, they immediately vanished, and two most wicked spirits
rising, with forks in their hands, one of them struck me on the head, and the other on the foot.
These strokes are now with great torture penetrating through my bowels to the inward parts of
my body, and as soon as they meet I shall die, and the devils being ready to snatch be away, I shall
be dragged into hell.”
Thus talked that wretch in despair, and dying soon after, he is now in vain suffering in eternal
torments that penance which he refused to suffer during a short time, that he might obtain
forgiveness. Of whom it is manifest, that (as the holy Pope Gregory writes of certain persons) he
did not see these things for his own sake, since they availed him only for the instruction of others,
who, knowing of his death, should be afraid to put off the time of repentance, whilst they have
leisure, lest, being prevented by sudden death, they should depart impenitent. His having books
laid before him by good or evil spirits, was done by Divine dispensation, that we may keep in
mind that our actions and thoughts are not lost in the wind, but are all kept to be examined by the
Supreme Judge, and will in the end be shown us either by friendly or hostile angels. As to the
angels first producing a white book, and then the devils a black one; the former a very small one,
the latter one very large; it is to be observed, that in his first years he did some good actions, all
which he nevertheless obscured by the evil actions of his p. 261 youth. If, on the contrary, he had
taken care in his youth to correct the errors of his more tender years, and to cancel them in God’s
sight by doing well, he might have been associated to the number of those of whom the Psalm
says, “Blessed are those whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are hid.” This story, as I
learned it of the venerable Bishop Pechthelm [Bishop of Whithern, in Galloway] I have thought
proper to relate in a plain manner, for the salvation of my hearers.