The medieval hall church at Vamlingbo, Gotland, has a set of murals on its northern wall, one of which depicts the Archangel Michael weighing the soul of the Holy Roman Emperor Henry II (Henry the Exuberant). He died without an heir.
On the wall of Vamlingbo church
the archangel is weighing my soul.
My scale pan has room for an upper body
topped by an imperial crown.
Imps are constantly pressing it upwards.
In the opposite scale pan the devil has stuffed
my wars, intrigues and breaches of faith,
for good measure – the massacre in Pavia.
He also weighs down the rim with his foot.
Added to my own scale pan is fortunately
all the wealth I have made over to the church.
But heaviest is probably my vow of chastity
and thereby the cluster of unborn children.
I believe that it is by forgoing
that the soul attains its weight.
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