Quite the reverse happened in the case of a man living in the province of the Mercians, whose visions and words – although not his way of life – benefited many others, but not himself. For in the reign of Coenred, Ethelred’s successor, there was a layman who held a military command, and pleased the king as greatly by his public diligence as he displeased him by the carelessness of his private life. The king repeatedly warned him to confess and amend, and to abandon his wicked ways before a sudden death deprived him of any time for repentance and amendment. But, although frequently warned, he rejected his salutary advice, and promised that he would do penance at some future date. Meanwhile he fell ill and, taking to his bed, began to suffer severe pains. The king, who was fond of him, visited him and urged him even then to repent of his sins before he died. But he answered that he did not wish to confess his sins at this time, but would do so when he recovered from his illness; for he did not wish his friends to accuse him of doing in fear of death what he had refused to do when he was well. He thought that he had spoken bravely, but it soon became clear that he had been deceived by the Devil’s tricks.
As his illness grew more serious, the king again came to visit and reason with him; but the man at once cried out in a miserable voice: ‘What do you want now? Why have you come here? There is nothing that you can do to help or save me now.’ The king answered: ‘Do not talk like that. Stop acting like a madman.’ ‘I am not mad,’ he replied, ‘but I have the knowledge of my wickedness set clearly before my eyes.’ ‘What do you mean by that?’ the king asked. ‘A short time ago,’ the man said, ‘two very handsome youths entered this house and sat down beside me, one at my head and the other at my feet. One of them produced a tiny but very beautiful book and gave it to me to read. When I looked at it, I found all the good deeds that I had ever done recorded; but they were few and trifling. Then they took back the book, but said nothing to me. Suddenly there arrived a horde of wicked spirits with horrible faces, who surrounded the house and occupied the greater part of it. Then one, who from the blackness of his dusky face and his exalted position seemed to be their chief, produced a horrible-looking book of enormous size and almost unbearable weight, which he ordered one of his satellites to bring me to read. When I read it, I found all my crimes clearly recorded there in black letters, not only sins of act and word, but even of the least thought. And he said to the glorious white-robed men who were sitting beside me: “Why are you sitting here? You know very well that this man belongs to us.” They replied: “You are right. Take him, and enrol him in your company of the damned.” With these words, they immediately vanished, and two wicked spirits rose and struck me with the tridents in their hands, one on the head and the other on the foot. These blows are now penetrating the inmost parts of my body with awful agony, and when they meet, I shall die. The devils will be waiting to snatch me away, and I shall be dragged down through the gates of Hell.’
So spoke the wretched man in his despair, and died shortly afterwards. So he is now vainly undergoing everlasting torments because he refused to undergo penance for a short while to win the grace of pardon. In his case it is clear – as Pope Gregory writes of certain people – that he did not see these things for his own benefit, since they did not help him, but for the benefit of others. For, when people learned of his death, they would fear to delay their penance while they still had time, lest the intervention of sudden death might cause them to perish unrepentant. When this man saw good and evil spirits offering him different records, this was done by divine providence in order that we should remember that our actions and thoughts are not scattered by the wind, but are all preserved to be examined by the Supreme Judge, and will be shown to us at the last either by our friends the angels or by our enemies. And whereas the white-robed angels first produced a white record, and the devils a black, the former tiny and the latter enormous, let it be noted that in his early years he did some good deeds which he completely obscured by his evil-doing as a grown man. In contrast, if in his manhood he had taken care to correct the errors of his childhood and cancel them in God’s eyes by well-doing, he might have been assigned to the company of those mentioned in the psalm: ‘Blessed are they whose transgression is forgiven, and whose sin is covered.’ I have thought that this story should be told in a straightforward way, as I have heard it from the venerable Bishop Pecthelm, to further the salvation of those who may read or hear it.