ABSTRACT
SINCE this evil also engages Northerners with its torments, though only men of consequence, and does not leave hold of those who are vexed by it before they proceed to the tomb, it has been my wish to quote the evidence of Cassiodorus in Bk X of his Letters, from the words of Theodahad, king of the Goths, in the following form: This combination of suffering without cure and health full of suffering binds the unfettered, contracts the muscles, and makes bodies shrink even when they have not been shortened by any mutilation. Whereas the arms and legs stay uniform, the height dwindles and can be seen as less, although we perceive that nothing has been removed. While life still persists, the patient has the functions of his limbs taken away. His body is alive, but does not stir; it is reduced to the state of senseless matter and no longer goes by its own volition, but is borne along by another’s motion. This living death is said to surpass all torments that can afflict a healthy person, and a patient is considered better off if he has not actually survived this condition of mortal illness. The pain does indeed pass, but leaves rather strong after-effects and, as a new instance of misfortune, the suffering seems to depart but the sick man does not stop being ill. Even debtors under torture have the weights removed from their feet one day, but these chains are of such a kind that, once they have been able to fetter their captive, they cannot release him for the whole of his lifetime. Gout leaves unhappy marks as it goes away and, after the fashion of barbarian tribes, is violent in the penalties it exacts in defending its lodging, the body upon which it has seized, so that, wherever this affliction begins to take possession, no health may possibly dare to enter and oppose it.
