60 POMPEIANA.
tionate vehemence, pouring out rivers of
rosin and brimstone whenever any rich and
consequently wicked man died.
Damiani also considered it the recep-
tacle of some souls not doomed to eternal
damnation; for he states, that he himself
knew a man, who was not only in orders,
and a priest, but also chaplain to a dig-
nified prelate, who leaving his mother
infirm at Beneventum, was proceeding
towards Naples, when he saw Vesuvius
shoot forth a great body of flames; while
from the midst proceeded a sad and doleful
voice, which he knew to be that of his
mother. He noted the time, and after-
wards found it to agree with the very mo-
ment at which she had expired.
An eruption in 1138, lasted forty days,
and, assisted by a slighter one of the fol-
lowing year, seems to have exhausted the
energies of Vesuvius, since we find it from
that date remaining in a state of compa-
rative inactivity for nearly five centuries.
tionate vehemence, pouring out rivers of
rosin and brimstone whenever any rich and
consequently wicked man died.
Damiani also considered it the recep-
tacle of some souls not doomed to eternal
damnation; for he states, that he himself
knew a man, who was not only in orders,
and a priest, but also chaplain to a dig-
nified prelate, who leaving his mother
infirm at Beneventum, was proceeding
towards Naples, when he saw Vesuvius
shoot forth a great body of flames; while
from the midst proceeded a sad and doleful
voice, which he knew to be that of his
mother. He noted the time, and after-
wards found it to agree with the very mo-
ment at which she had expired.
An eruption in 1138, lasted forty days,
and, assisted by a slighter one of the fol-
lowing year, seems to have exhausted the
energies of Vesuvius, since we find it from
that date remaining in a state of compa-
rative inactivity for nearly five centuries.