2746. But these spirits love nothing better than to attract the minds of other spirits by their sly methods, by right means or wrong, and thus love nothing better than to trick them by lies or other kinds of deception familiar to them. Therefore when I woke up, while they were still busy speaking as if they were I by their own arts- which would be incomprehensible to an earthly human if they were made known-noticing that I had woken up in the night, they wanted to make up lies and then steal away.
When the upright spirits whom they had tricked observed this and were becoming angry, there came those who punished them, inflicting intense torment, and tearing them to shreds by a method of punishment spoken of earlier, I believe [404, 1071-1075], doing so piece by piece and bit by bit, by a pulling apart and alternate striking together, so there was nothing left of them but fragments. Thus they do try to break them up piece by piece and bit by bit, but a spirit cannot be broken up nor perish. Yet this punishment occurs with extreme torment and pain.
2746. But they, inasmuch as they love nothing more than through cunning to attract the minds [animos] of other spirits by right or wrong, and so love nothing above the deceiving with falsehoods and [their] arts at the same time, or with kinds of deceit familiar to them, therefore when I awoke, and they were still at the work of speaking as it were I, with their arts which man cannot perceive, should they be declared, and when they observed that I had waked in the night, wished to contrive falsehoods and thus steal away: which when the upright spirits observed, whom they had deceived, thence [were] angry. There came those who punished them and indeed with intense [ingenti] torment by rending them, by a mode of punishment of which I think [I have treated already], thus [rending them] piece by piece and particle by particle [ita frustatim et ita minutim], by (tearing asunder, and various collisions, so that there was nothing of them) but what was rended. Thus the [punishers] endeavor to disjoin [dissolve] [everything] in them, piece by piece and particle by particle. But a spirit cannot be dissolved, and perish, but [this] is done with the greatest torment and pain.
2746. Sed ii, quia nihil pptius amant, quam per astutias attrahere animos aliorum spirituum per fas aut nefas, et sic nihil prius amant quam mendaciis 1
fallere, et simul artibus, seu doli generibus iis familiaribus, ideo cum evigilatus, cum adhuc essent in opere ita loquendi sicut ego essem, suis artibus, quas homo percipere non potest, si vulgarentur, et observarent, quod evigilatus in nocte, vellent mendacia fingere, et sic se eripere, quod cum observarent spiritus probi, quos fefellerant, inde ii succensentes, venerunt qui eos puniebant et quidem cruciatu ingenti, eos lacerando, per modum supplicii, de quo, ut reor prius [404, 1071-1075], ita frustatim 2
, et ita minutim, per distractiones et per varias collisiones, ut nihil esset iis nisi laceratum, sic eos 3
dissolvere conantur frustatim 2
et minutim, sed spiritus dissolvi et perire nequit, sed fit cum cruciatu et dolore maximo.
Footnotes:
1. This is how it appears in J.F.I. Tafel's edition; the Manuscript has mendacii
2. The Manuscript has frustratim
3. The Manuscript has iis