1. Until the sixth century the question whether the sufferings of the sinners in hell were to be regarded as eternal or not was still debated by the Fathers of the Church. Indeed some doctors, mainly of the Eastern Church, favoured temporality.⁠[545] Western opinion prevailed, however, and by the Council of Constantinople the doctrine of everlasting punishment was definitely established as part of the Catholic dogma. It is, then, all the more strange to find, in the eleventh century, legends popular in Western Christendom treating mainly of a respite from, or mitigation of, the sufferings of the damned.⁠[546] The myth first appeared in the vision of St. Paul. But, as was pointed out in the discussion of that legend, the primitive Greek version spoke of a yearly respite, whereas in the Latin versions, dating from the twelfth century, the respite is weekly.⁠[547] The difference is significant, as explaining the genesis of the later forms of the legend from Moslem models; for, whilst the doctrine of a weekly respite lacks foundation in Christian tradition, and particularly in that of the West, it was indeed fully justified in the dogma of Islam.

2. Even more striking influence of Islamic influence is shown by another Christian tale, told in substantially the same terms by St. Peter Damian, in the eleventh century, and Conrad of Querfurt and St. Vincent of Beauvais, in the twelfth.⁠[548]

A cavern situated in the volcanic region of Pozzuoli, to the west of Naples, or on the volcanic island of Ischia in the gulf of the same city, and washed by black and evil-smelling waters, was supposed to be the mouth of hell. At sunset every Saturday, birds of a sulphur-blackened plumage and fearsome aspect were believed to rise from the waters of that cave and fly away to the neighbouring mountains. There they would stay stretching and pruning their wings until the early morn of the following Monday, when they would return and enter the waters of the cave. These birds were generally believed to be the souls of the dwellers in hell, who thus enjoyed a respite from their tortures.

3. It was a doctrine of Islam,⁠[549] quoted even by Graf, that the torture of both believers and infidels ceased for the day and night on Friday, during which time the soul is allowed to visit its tomb and there receive the prayers offered up on its behalf. The belief, which inspired many very popular legends,⁠[550] is based on the sanctity of the day and is as old as the Moslem religion; indeed from the first century of the Hegira onwards it was held for certain that Moslems who died during the day or night of Friday were exempt from the private judgment of the soul that is peculiar to Islam.⁠[551]

That the souls of the wicked are incarnate in birds of black plumage is a belief attributed to Mahomet himself, just as the myth that holds the saintly soul or angelic spirit to be incarnate in white birds has been shown to be of Moslem origin.⁠[552]

“The souls of the host of Pharaoh are imprisoned in hell in the body or belly of birds of a black hue; these birds sit on nests of fire in the bottommost depths of the seventh earth and eat and drink fire.”⁠[553]

That these black birds rise to the surface, in respite from their torture, and precisely from the waters on the seashore, is told in a Moslem legend so strikingly similar to the Christian tale as actually to appear to be its model or prototype. The legend in question is attributed to Al-Awzai, a writer of the eighth century, and is related by Ibn Abu Aldunya, of the ninth century⁠[554]:

A man of Askalon inquired of Al-Awzai, “Oh, Abuamer! We see birds of a black plumage rise from the sea and when they return at night, behold! their plumage is white.” And Al-Awzai said to him, “Dost thou not know what those birds are?” And he answered, “Yes.” And Al-Awzai proceeded, “In the entrails of those birds are the souls of the host of Pharaoh; they are exposed to the fires of hell, which burn and blacken their plumes. After a while they lose those plumes, but, when they return to their nests, once again they are burnt in the fire. Thus shall they continue to the day of judgment, when a Voice shall say: Cast the host of Pharaoh into the bottommost pit.”

4. Closely related to this subject of respite from torture is that of the mitigation of suffering when a debt is paid. Graf quotes, among others, the legend related by Cæsar of Heidenbach in the thirteenth century.⁠[555]

After his death a soldier appears before a certain man and tells him that he is in hell for an act of robbery. He begs the man tell his children of his wish that the property be restored to its rightful owner, so that his punishment may be lightened, but the children turn a deaf ear to the other’s pleadings.

It was a Moslem belief, borne out by numerous hadiths, that debts left behind on earth either delayed or hampered the soul in its ascension to heaven⁠[556]:

Thus, at a certain funeral Mahomet decreed that no prayers should be said for the deceased until his debts had been paid. On another occasion, he addressed the children of the deceased thus, “Your father stands at the gates of heaven, detained by a debt. If ye wish, ye may yet ransom him; if not, ye must leave him to be dealt with by the wrath of God.” In other hadiths, Mahomet is represented as ordering a son of the deceased to pay the debts in order to obtain a remission of his father’s suffering.

Around these hadiths there grew up legends very similar to the Christian tale described above. One such legend, dating from the ninth century, runs as follows:

To two ascetics, who lived in the eighth century, there appeared a man who, seated on boards floating in the bottom of a pit, cried out to them in a hoarse voice, saying he was a citizen of Antioch who had just died and was held prisoner in that pit until a debt of his were paid. He added, “My children live at Antioch unmindful of me and of my debt.” The two ascetics proceed to Antioch and pay the debt, and the next night the deceased again appears to them and thanks them for their act of charity.⁠[557]

5. In conclusion, it was a common belief in mediæval Europe that prayers, fasting and almsgiving served to obtain mitigation, not merely of the expiatory suffering in purgatory, but even of the punishments of hell.⁠[558] This belief persisted in the face of the opposition of the Church, which adhered the more rigidly to the doctrine of everlasting damnation as being the one feature distinguishing hell from purgatory. But the rigidity of the official theology was set off by what Graf happily terms the theology of sentiment, as expressed in many popular legends. These, Graf is of opinion, were the spontaneous outcome of the feelings of pity to which the masses are ever prone. That such feelings may lead to popular reactions, unconsciously heterodox, against the strictness of doctrine based on intellectual exegesis, is undeniable; but the growth of the belief in question may have been stimulated by contact with Moslem eschatology, which on this point was much more benign than the official Christian doctrine.

Islam, as is well known, condemns only the infidel and the polytheist to eternal punishment; the true believer, however sinning, will one day see an end to his suffering. And even this temporary torture may be alleviated by the prayers of those on earth. Suyuti, with many other authors, has left us a collection of authoritative texts on this point.⁠[559] These show that prayer, almsgiving, pilgrimage, fasting, and even such pious or merely beneficent works as the erection and endowment of mosques, hostels, schools, or the construction of bridges and irrigation works, all serve to influence the lot of the soul; but special importance is attached to the offering up of prayers on Fridays on the tomb of the deceased. Thus Islam, in adopting the milder views of a minority of Eastern churchmen, may have been the medium through which this belief was transmitted to the West after it had been unanimously rejected as heretical by the Councils, the Fathers, and the Doctors of the Roman Church.