Note 282 — Chapter IX · THE LEGEND OF MICHAEL SCOT

Illustrium Miraculorum, xii. 12. The next tale, in chap. xiii., relates how some men, wandering by chance on Etna, heard a voice cry from under the hill ‘Prepare the fires.’ This was heard by them a second time, and then the cry was ‘Prepare a great fire,’ upon which other voices asked for whom this should be done, and the answer came back that it was for the Duke of Thuringia, a friend and trusty servant of these lower powers. This the hearers made faith of in a writing given to the Emperor Frederick, and it presently appeared that Bertolph of Thuringia, a noted tyrant, heretic and persecutor of the Church, had died at the very day and hour when these voices were heard on Etna.