The Medieval and Modern (Dis)Connection: Purgatory pt. II

From very early on in the Christian faith, historians find references to intercessory prayer. In this regard, intercessory prayer was defined as living Christians on earth praying for the souls and the release of loved ones in purgatory. In was believed that praying for deceased person’s soul could lessen their term and punishment in purgatory. Historians find an example of this in Orderic Vitalis’s account of The Wild Horde in The Ecclesiastical History in the early 12th century.
In medieval literature the Wild Horde, or Hellequin, was the procession of tortured souls in purgatory. In Vitalis’s story a local priest runs into a local procession of the Hellequin while wondering alone outside his town at night. This piece of literature reveals an abundance of information about the medievalist’s conception of purgatory and punishment fitting the earthly sin. Two primary illustrations can be drawn from Vitalis’s Wild Horde. The first component illuminates the second essential principle of the early doctrine of purgatory, that being the purgative nature of the punishment in purgatory. In the Horde, the young priest, Walchelin, witnesses women riding horses on saddles studded with burning nails to punish them for their sexual sins, men’s cries not being heard to punish them for lie telling, and knights burdened by heavy, burning armor to punish them for their war crimes and murders. Each soul receives certain tortures and punishments fitting specifically to their earthly sins so that they may be cleansed and purified before their arrival in Heaven.
Walchelin’s encounter with a specific knight illustrates the third component of purgatory: the availability of intercessory prayer for the help of souls. After being saved from one knight’s grasp by another, the young priest learns his rescuer is his brother. His brother, Robert, son of Ralph the Fair, reveals to Walchelin that when,

You were ordained in England and sang your first Mass for the faithful
departed your father Ralph escaped from his punishments and my shield,
which caused me great pain, fell from me. As you see I still carry this sword,
but I look in faith for release from this burden within the year.”

Here historians find an extremely clear account of intercessory actions taken by the living and their benefit to the dead. According to the account, Walchelin’s father was released from purgatory and his brother’s punishments lessened because of his own service in the priesthood. Further in the passage Robert asks Walchelin for more prayers and compassionate alms in order that he, too, will be released from purgatory.8
This passage in Vitalis’s History is one of many accounts of the Hellequin in medieval literature. While early theological writings reveal a great deal to the modern historian about the early doctrine of purgatory, the tales of the Wild Horde provide glimpses of the doctrine in real practice. The three essential components are spelled out specifically in Gregory the Great’s writings; however, The Ecclesiastical History illustrates the practice and common belief in the purgative and temporal nature of punishment as well as the benefit and importance of intercessory prayer for the dead. These early medieval accounts define the early doctrine of purgatory in the medieval Catholic Church. And while historians find the same foundations and writings in modern doctrine on purgatory, a different portrayal is found than that of the Wild Horde.