1911 Articles

Influence of the Mediæval Christian Visions on Jean de Meun's Notions of Hell

Galpin, Stanley Leman

We have many guarantees of the popularity of Christian vision literature in the Middle Ages. It was a product of the Church, without doubt the best medium of publicity in that period. Visions are incorporated in the works of the most popular church writers, such, for example, as the Dialogues of Gregory the Great, and the Venerable Bede's Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum. Certain ones, appearing independently, have come down to us in many Latin manuscripts widely distributed as to place and date of origin. Such are, among others, the apocryphal Vision of Saint Paul and the Vision of Tundal. Twenty-two Latin manuscripts of the former were known to its editor, Brandes. Its form indicates that it was intended either as a sermon or as an epistle, in either case sure of coming to the notice of many persons.