In the Middle Ages these passages were interpreted very literally and
had a great influence over the people. At that time the Christian
religion was a religion of fear rather than of love, and men were
continually picturing in their minds God's angry separation of the
good from the wicked.

How much such thoughts occupied them we may see from Dante's great
poem describing a vision of the Inferno, Purgatory, and Paradise.
This was written in the thirteenth century, and in the same period
appeared a short Latin lyric, or hymn, called "Dies Irae," or the Day
of Wrath, from an expression used by the old Hebrew prophet Zephaniah.
The author was a Franciscan monk named Thomas of Celano, and we may
see how deeply he felt from these verses:--

"Ah! what terror is impending
When the Judge is seen descending,
And each secret veil is rending.

"To the throne, the trumpet sounding,
Through the sepulchres resounding,
Summons all, with voice astounding.

"Sits the Judge, the raised arraigning,
Darkest mysteries explaining,
Nothing unavenged remaining."

This vivid word picture forms the subject of many great paintings by
the older Italian masters, known under the title of the Last Judgment.
Michelangelo's was one of the last of these, and in general
arrangement his composition resembles those of his predecessors.