46 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



souls in purgatory are directly tortured by the devil, are questions, 

 lie says, which are quite pertinent in this connection, but some- 

 what difficult to answer. Whatever doubts may arise, however, are 

 removed by the testimony of eyewitnesses, such as the blessed 

 Maria Anna Lindmayr, to whom her friend Maria Becher and the 

 mother of the latter appeared and left on her feet scars which were 

 produced by contact with their persons, and were not only visible 

 but quite painful for weeks afterward. Another instance, tend- 

 ing to edify the faithful and to confound the skeptical, occurred 

 on November 16, 1859, at ten o'clock in the morning in the cloister 

 of the nuns of St. Clare at Foligno, where a recently deceased sister 

 appeared enveloped in smoke and earnestly entreated the superior, 

 Anna Felice, to intercede in her behalf; in token of her presence 

 she left the imprint of her hand burned into the door. The tourist 

 in the Tyrol, who visits a little church in a place of pilgrimage near 

 Innsbruck, will be shown by the sexton a similar mark of a man's 

 hand on a wooden door. The deceased, we are informed, had been 

 noted for his piety, and his widow could hardly believe the woeful 

 tale of his purgatorial sufferings as he related them to her on one 

 occasion, begging her at the same time to hasten his release by having 

 additional masses said for his soul. In order to convince her of the 

 truth of his statements, he pressed his hand against the door and 

 left his " sign manual " there for all time. 



Professor Bautz is equally certain as regards the locality of 

 hell, which, he says, is not in Mars or in the moon or in the sun, 

 but in the innermost parts of our own globe; volcanoes are its flues 

 and earthquakes are produced by the movement of its fiery waves 

 when it is especially active owing to the arrival of a large num- 

 ber of the damned. When the ground begins to tremble under 

 our feet and the habitations of men " nod from high and totter to 

 their fall," we now know the reason why. The seismometer thus 

 acquires a new and most appalling significance as a means not 

 only of measuring the concussions and vibrations transmitted in 

 the material of the earth's crust, but also of registering the in- 

 tensity of the sufferings endured by the denizens of hell. In the 

 light of this doctrine we see the smoke of their torment ascending 

 from every volcanic crater, and discern in the earthquake a moral 

 admonition and spiritual meaning of which " science falsely so 

 called " has not the slightest appreciation. 



Professor Bautz tells us, furthermore, that souls in hell are 

 beyond redemption and therefore without means of grace. In pur- 

 gatorj^, on the contrary, sacred rites are performed and sanctuary 

 privileges are enjoyed. The " poor souls " go to church (perhaps 

 as a part of their punishment), and the services are conducted by 



