3 - The Visio S. Pauli and the Insular vision of hell

Summary

The fifth ‘likeness’ of hell, torment (tintrega), affords the Vercelli homilist an opportunity to elaborate on the pains of hell through a series of motifs culminating in the devil's account of hell. Echoing his earlier claim that no man can express the good things that God has prepared in heaven, the homilist states that ‘nænig man … mæge mid his wordum asecgan hu mycel pære fiftan helle sar is’. He then amplifies the theme of inexpressibility with three motifs that frame the central exemplum – the Hanging Sinner, the Men with Tongues of Iron and the Monster of Hell. These motifs derive ultimately from interpolations characteristic of the short redactions of the Apocalypse of Paul, but each developed in distinctive ways in Insular tradition.

THE VISIO S. PAULI IN IRELAND AND ANGLO-SAXON ENGLAND

Composed in Greek perhaps as early as the third century, the Apocalypse of Paul was the most influential apocryphal vision in the Middle Ages. Two Long Latin versions have survived, as well as a series of redactions. The redactions of the Visio S. Pauli (as the Latin versions are called) eliminate much of the Long Latin text, including the episode of the going-out of souls and the entire vision of heaven, focusing instead on Paul's guided tour of hell, which they embellish with lurid interpolations. Theodore Silverstein was able to identify some eleven separate redactions.