Note 5 — The Cloister of Hellfde

The contents of the seven books may be thus summarised:— 1. Disconnected passages—visions, or parables related as visions. 2. Disconnected parables, visions, and prophecies. With regard to one of these visions Matilda remarks, “That this so happened is not to be understood literally, but spiritually; it was that which the soul saw, and recognised, and rejoiced in. The words sound human, but the natural mind can but partly receive that which the higher sense of the soul perceives of spiritual things.” Commendations of the preaching friars of the order of S. Dominic. References to passing events and contemporary persons, or persons lately departed. 3. Refers chiefly to ecclesiastical matters. Contains prophecies of the last days, of the Antichrist, of the return of Enoch and Elijah. In these prophecies occur passages reproduced in the Divine Commedia. 4. The book of love, between God and the soul. 5. Practical. 6. Descriptions of hell (the City of Eternal Hate) and Purgatory, with which the Divine Commedia may be compared. Preparation for death. 7. Various and disconnected. References to contemporary persons and events.