265. Afterwards hell was opened up, where I saw two persons, one sitting on a bench with his feet in a basket full of snakes, which could be seen creeping up over his chest to his neck; the other sitting on a fiery ass, with red snakes crawling beside it, lifting up their heads and necks, and following the rider. I was told that they were popes who had deprived emperors of their thrones, speaking ill of them and treating them badly when they came to Rome to beg for help and to show them reverence. The basket with snakes to be seen in it, they said, and the fiery ass with snakes beside it, were pictorial images of their love of controlling arising from self-love. Such sights were only to be seen by those who looked that way from a distance. There were some clergy present, and I asked them whether they were really the same popes; they replied that they recognised them and they knew them to be the same.