On Care to Be Had for the Dead.

 1. Long time, my venerable fellow-bishop Paulinus, have I been thy Holiness’s debtor for an answer even since thou wrotest to me by them of the house

 2. But this being the case, how to this opinion that should not be contrary which the Apostle says, “For we shall all stand before the judgment-seat o

 3. Possibly thy inquiry is satisfied by this my brief reply. But what other considerations move me, to which I think meet to answer, do thou for a sho

 4. “But” (say I) “in such a slaughter-heap of dead bodies, could they not even be buried? not this, either, doth pious faith too greatly dread, holdin

 5. Yet it follows not that the bodies of the departed are to be despised and flung aside, and above all of just and faithful men, which bodies as orga

 6. If this be true, doubtless also the providing for the interment of bodies a place at the Memorials of Saints, is a mark of a good human affection t

 7. When therefore the faithful mother of a faithful son departed desired to have his body deposited in the basilica of a Martyr, forasmuch as she beli

 8. We read in the Ecclesiastical History which Eusebius wrote in Greek, and Ruffinus turned into the Latin tongue, of Martyr’s bodies in Gaul exposed

 9. And yet, by reason of that affection of the human heart, whereby “no man ever hateth his own flesh,” if men have reason to know that after their de

 10. This affection the Martyrs of Christ contending for the truth did overcome: and it is no marvel that they despised that whereof they should, when

 11. In regard to that woful compassion which I have mentioned, are those praised, and by king David blessed, who to the dry bones of Saul and Jonathan

 12. Stories are told of certain appearances or visions, which may seem to bring into this discussion a question which should not be slighted. It is sa

 13. Such, however, is human infirmity, that when in a dream a person shall see a dead man, he thinks it is the soul that he sees: but when he shall in

 14. Like dreams, moreover, are also some visions of persons awake, who have had their senses troubled, such as phrenetic persons, or those who are mad

 15. Similar to this is also that condition when persons, with their senses more profoundedly in abeyance than is the case in sleep, are occupied with

 16. Why should we not believe these to be angelic operations through dispensation of the providence of God, Who maketh good use of both good things an

 17. Some man may say: “If there be not in the dead any care for the living, how is it that the rich man, who was tormented in hell, asked father Abrah

 18. So then we must confess that the dead indeed do not know what is doing here, but while it is in doing here: afterwards, however, they hear it from

 19. Hence too is solved that question, how is it that the Martyrs, by the very benefits which are given to them that pray, indicate that they take an

 20. Howbeit it is a question which surpasses the strength of my understanding, after what manner the Martyrs aid them who by them, it is certain, are

 21. Such, we may believe, was that John the Monk, whom the elder Theodosius, the Emperor, consulted concerning the issue of the civil war: seeing he h

 22. Which things being so, let us not think that to the dead for whom we have a care, any thing reaches save what by sacrifices either of the altar, o

 23. Here, to the things thou hast thought meet to inquire of me, thou hast such reply as I have been able to render: which if it be more than enough p

14. Like dreams, moreover, are also some visions of persons awake, who have had their senses troubled, such as phrenetic persons, or those who are mad in any way: for they too talk to themselves just as though they were speaking to people verily present, and as well with absent as with present, whose images they perceive, whether persons living or dead. But just as they which live, are unconscious that they are seen of them and talk with them; for indeed they are not really themselves present, or themselves make speeches, but through troubled senses, these persons are wrought upon by such-like imaginary visions; just so they also who have departed this life, to persons thus affected appear as present, while they be absent, and whether any man sees them in regard of their image,36    Imaginaliter are themselves utterly unconscious.

CAPUT XII.

14. Visa phreneticorum. Visum Curmae curialis. Similia sunt autem somniis nonnulla etiam visa vigilantium, qui turbatos habent sensus, sicut phrenetici, vel quocumque furentes modo: nam et ipsi loquuntur secum quasi vere praesentibus loquantur, et tam cum absentibus quam cum praesentibus, quorum imagines cernunt, sive vivorum , sive mortuorum. Sed quemadmodum ii qui vivunt, ab eis se videri, et cum eis se colloqui nesciunt; neque enim revera ipsi adsunt, aut ipsi sermocinantur, sed turbatis sensibus homines talia visa imaginaria patiuntur: eo modo et ii qui ex hac vita migrarunt, sic affectis hominibus videntur quasi praesentes, cum sint absentes, et utrum aliquis eos imaginaliter videat, omnino nescientes.