A Contribution to the Comparative Study of the Medieval Visions of Heaven and Hell (Classic Reprint)

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Excerpt from A Contribution to the Comparative Study of the Medieval Visions of Heaven and Hell The present study represents the result of an attempt to compare more closely than has hitherto been done the English medieval Visions of Heaven and Hell. The original plan was to specialize on one particular work (the Vision of St. Paul), and using it as a point of departure, to bring the other similar works into organic connection with it and with one another. Almost inevitably, however, the field for investigation grew broader and broader as the work went on, new and important points of contact constantly presented themselves, and it very soon became evident that the study, in order to attain even a partial degree of completeness, could not be confined within the boundaries of England. In order to trace the incidents of the English visions back to their ultimate sources, it became imperative to consider carefully certain intermediate continental works in connection with them, and from these it was but a short step to the earlier and more primitive works which constitute the foundation of medieval vision-literature. No systematic comparative study of the visions, with a view to tracing their oldest elements to their sources, has yet been attempted. Such an undertaking, necessitating as it would a careful analysis of the forms which the doctrine of an after-life assumed among the various peoples, and a painstaking collation of the many elements thus obtained, would severely tax the powers of any single investigator. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully, any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.