392.崇拜偶像的人，如非洲人和类似他们的人，在肉体生命结束后，被奇妙的幻象所支配，由此被洁净。一个异象向我展示了什么样的幻象死后会保留下来，或者什么样的生活会跟随着那些崇拜偶像的人。他们觉得自己似乎变成了昏暗的卑微小动物，住在粘土建造的小房子里，他们从那里进进出出。因此，他们生活得很满足，只要不被那些破坏他们小泥屋的人攻击。他们称这些人为魔鬼，他们的脸在我看来很像人，然而他们却野蛮无情。正如他们所说，这些人摧毁了他们的小房子，撕咬居住者，像猫一样追逐并咬他们；他们非常害怕这些人。于是他们离开那个地方，在别处盖起小房子；但他们还是像以前受到攻击，直到最后他们厌倦了这种最低级的生活。与此同时，他们有一种与其偶像崇拜相对应的敬拜；因为那里有一个大理石基座，上面有一些形像，就像他们一生中所拥有的那些形像，他们从心里崇拜这些形像。
392. Idol worshippers, like the African and similar peoples, are governed after death by nothing but fantasies, and are thus purged
I was shown by a vision what kind of fantasies remain after death with those who are idolaters, or what kind of life follows them. They seem to themselves to be transformed into lowly little animals, dwelling in small houses built of clay, which they go out of and return to. Thus they lead a quite contented life, if only they are not attacked by beings who destroy their little huts of mud. For those they call devils, and while their faces appeared quite human to me, yet they were fierce, or unappeasable, as they say. They destroy their little houses, and maul [their occupants] and, like cats, stalk and bite them; and they are very afraid of them.
So they depart from that place and build little houses elsewhere, but they are attacked in the same way, until at last they become disgusted with that very base life. Meanwhile, they hold to a worship conformable with their idolatry, for there is a marble base on which [figures] resembling living ones are carried around, and these they worship from the heart.
392. THAT IDOLATERS, SUCH AS THE AFRICANS AND THOSE LIKE THEM, AFTER THE LIFE OF THE BODY ARE GOVERNED BY WONDERFUL PHANTASIES, AND ARE THUS DEVASTATED
There was shown me by a vision what kinds of phantasies remain after death, or what kind of life follows those who are idolaters. They seem to themselves to be turned into dusky little animals, and to inhabit little houses built of clay, from which they go out and return; thus they live contentedly enough, if only they are not infested by those who destroy their little mud hovels, whom they call devils, who indeed appeared before me as human in face, but still they were savage and implacable. These, as they say, destroy their little houses, and lacerate them, and like cats pursue and bite them; they greatly fear them. So they depart thence and build little houses elsewhere; but they are infested in like manner as before, and this until they become weary of that lowest kind of life. In the meanwhile they have a worship corresponding to their idolatrous worship; for there is a marble platform upon which [images] like those they had in their lifetime are carried around, which they adore from the heart.
392. Quod idololatrae, sicut Africanae 1
, et similes, post vitam corporis, miris phantasiis regantur, et sic devastentur
Ostensum mihi est per visionem, quales phantasiae post mortem manent apud eos qui idololatrae sunt, seu qualis vita eos sequitur, sibi videntur in obscura animalcula verti et inhabitare parvas domulas ex argilla constructas, inde egrediuntur et revertuntur, sic vitam agunt satis contentam modo ne infestentur ab iis qui destruunt eorum tuguriola lutea, sunt enim ii quos 1
vocant diabolos, qui 2
apparentes mihi facie quidem humana erant, sed usque immiti, seu implacabili, ut dicunt, ii destruunt domulas eorum, ac eos lacerant, et sicut feles insectantur et mordent, quos multum timent, inde sic proficiscuntur, et alibi exstruunt domulas, sed similiter infestantur, usque dum vitae infimae istius taedio afficiuntur: interea cultum habent correspondentem cultui eorum idololatrico, est enim basis marmorea, super quam similes vitae 3
circumferuntur, eos ex corde adorant.
Footnotes:
1. sic manuscript
1. This is how it appears in J.F.I. Tafel's edition; the Manuscript has qui
2. This is how it appears in J.F.I. Tafel's edition; the Manuscript has quae
3. hoc est vivis