CORNELL 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME 
 OF THE SAGE ENDOWMENT 
 FUND GIVEN IN 1891 BY 
 
 HENRY WILLIAMS SAGE 
 
Cornell University Library 
 BX4700.C4 G22 
 
 Saint Catherine of Siena, a study in the 
 
 olin 
 
 3 1924 029 423 898 
 
Cornell University 
 Library 
 
 The original of this book is in 
 the Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924029423898 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
?^F£?™ C £ THA:RINA SENENSIS.QVAM PICTOR 
 INPARIETE ECCLESIA S.DOMINICI DE SENIS 
 DVM VIRGO EXTASIM PATIEBATV-R COLORIB^S 
 EXPRESSIT ANN MCCCLXVl'r 
 
 ^VU> 
 
 -purm^L Cf*te^^//r/U>^«9«u£<Y> f z&-,<„« e&S&ut./ffy 
 
SAINT CATHERINE 
 
 Si*-,.. '. -i:'-. •■ ■ - - > 
 
 a -study' ik tttit k I§ugion\ i n.rwiT- f ^- 
 
 AND H!ST|pi^%F TJ4K PO^T ■■VU 
 CTKTURY J*? IT A! V 
 
 EDMUND G. QAf 3KBII, AT*.. 
 
 
 
 , 4rfW» «"&.#* ** <#K»r«W* 4PS?£W ' 
 
 f ',. ? 
 
 .? LONDON . ; ,-: -:::\ l ^ <v. 
 
 ;". NEW YORK.- ; ■ . <* ' H'ON & CO 
 
SAINT CATHERINE 
 OF SIENA 
 
 A STUDY IN THE RELIGION, LITERATURE 
 
 AND HISTORY OF THE FOURTEENTH 
 
 CENTURY IN ITALY 
 
 BY 
 
 EDMUND G. GARDNER, M.A. 
 
 Author of 'Dante's Ten Heavens,' 'The Story of Florence,' 
 ' Dukes and Poets in Ferrara,' ' The King of Court Poets,' etc. 
 
 " Entriamo nella casa del cognoscimento di noi." 
 
 MCMVII 
 
 LONDON : J. M. DENT & CO. 
 
 NEW YORK: E. P. DUTTON & CO. 
 
cv-t 
 
 (^5 X jL* 
 
 Richard Clay & Sons, Limited, 
 
 bread street hill, e.c., and 
 
 bungay, suffolk. 
 
 w< 
 
 
To 
 MY FRIEND 
 
 MAUD F. JERROLD 
 
PREFACE 
 
 In this book I have not attempted to write the conventional 
 biography of a canonized saint, but a study in Italian history 
 centred in the work and personality of one of the most wonderful 
 women that have ever lived — the successor of Dante in the 
 literature and religious thought of Italy, the connecting link 
 between St. Francis of Assisi and Fra Girolamo Savonarola in the 
 strange pageant of the progress of the mystical chariot of the 
 Spouse, which the divine poet saw in part on the banks of 
 Lethe in the Earthly Paradise. While devoting my attention 
 mainly to Catherine's own work and her influence upon the 
 Italian politics of her age, I have endeavoured at the same time to 
 make my book a picture of certain aspects, religious and political, 
 of the fourteenth century in Italy — the epoch that immediately 
 followed the times of Dante, the stormy period in the history of 
 the Church of which Petrarca and Boccaccio witnessed the begin- 
 nings. It may, indeed, be said that so much attention has been 
 paid to Italian history of late years, and so many fresh sources of 
 original information made accessible in every direction, that a new 
 life of the woman who was the truest and most single-hearted 
 patriot of her age seems not only permissible, but even — from the 
 scientific point of view — necessary. In this undertaking, I have 
 been greatly aided by the manuscripts still preserved of Catherine's 
 letters, manuscripts full of unpublished matter which has hitherto 
 been unaccountably neglected, having apparently escaped the 
 notice of all her biographers and editors : matter which throws 
 light upon every aspect of the Saint's genius, and has enabled me, 
 at many points, to correct the hitherto accepted chronological 
 order of her writings and the events in her life to which they 
 refer. 
 
 Our contemporary materials for the life of Catherine of Siena, 
 apart from isolated documents and the general history of her 
 
PREFACE 
 
 times, are derived from five principal sources : the Vita or Legenda 
 (known as the Legenda prolixa, or, in Italian, Leggenda maggiore) ; 
 the Processus ; the Supplementum ; the Legenda abbreviata {Leggenda 
 minor e, in Italian) ; and Catherine's own Letters. 
 
 (i) In 1384, four years after the Saint's death, Fra Raimondo 
 delle Vigne of Capua, who had been her third confessor and chief 
 director, and was then master-general of the Dominicans, began 
 his admirable history of her, the Vita by excellence, which, in 
 one of his letters, he calls : Sanctae Matris Catharinae eximia 
 Legenda. This was finished in 1395. Raimondo's Latin text was 
 first published in 1553 at Cologne (an edition now of the utmost 
 rarity), and has been re-edited by the Bollandists in the third 
 volume of the Acta Sanctorum for April. An Italian version, 
 begun by one of the Saint's secretaries, Neri di Landoccio 
 Pagliaresi, and finished by a native of Piacenza, whose name is 
 unknown, was printed at the Dominican convent of San Jacopo di 
 Ripoli near Florence, by Fra Domenico da Pistoia and Fra Piero 
 da Pisa, in 1477. Another edition, in which the second half of 
 the translation is identical with that of the editioprinceps, while the 
 first half (up to the middle of Part II. cap. x. par. 5 in Pecci's 
 version, or § 283 in the Acta Sanctorum) differs considerably, was 
 printed at Milan in 1489 ; it is evidently the complete translation 
 made by the anonymous scholar of Piacenza, at the bidding of 
 Don Stefano Maconi. 1 Instead, however, of these, a compara- 
 tively modern translation by the Canonico Bernardino Pecci, first 
 published by Girolamo Gigli at Siena in 1707, may be said to 
 hold the field. While relying mainly on the Latin text of the 
 Legenda, I have consulted the convenience of readers by giving 
 references to the divisions of part, chapter, and paragraph in 
 Pecci's version, the corresponding paragraphs in the Acta Sanctorum 
 being indicated in brackets. Although French, German, and 
 Spanish translations appeared in the sixteenth century, Raimondo's 
 
 1 Cf. F. Grottanelli, Introduction to the Leggenda mlnore, pp. ix.-xiv. where, 
 however, it has escaped his notice that these two editions do not contain the same 
 translation. I have not been able to see the intermediate editions Nsr,l P<! ,.^8 
 and Milan, 1488, respectively. ' P ' 47 *' 
 
 viii 
 
PREFACE 
 
 complete work has never been translated into English. The lyf 
 of saint Katherin of Senis the blessid virgin, which Caxton printed, 
 contains only certain portions of it, freely rendered, with con- 
 siderable omissions. Says the translator in his preface : " I leve of 
 also poyntes of divynyte whiche passeth your understondyng and 
 touche only maters that longeth to your lernying." The version 
 by John Fenn, confessor to the English Augustinian nuns at 
 Louvain, first published in 1609, is translated from the abridged 
 Italian edition composed by the famous Dominican controversialist, 
 Fra Ambrogio Catarino Politi of Siena, in the middle of the 
 sixteenth century. 
 
 (2) Second in date and in importance to the Legenda comes 
 the Processus. The fact that, although she had not yet been 
 canonized by the Church, the feast of " a certain person called and 
 named the blessed Catherine of Siena " was being annually cele- 
 brated in the Dominican convents and churches of Venice and 
 elsewhere, and pictures of her were being painted for veneration 
 in many places, led to complaints being made to Francesco Bembo, 
 the Castello bishop of Venice. A sermon preached in SS. 
 Giovanni e Paolo by a certain Fra Bartolommeo da Ferrara 
 on the first Sunday of May, 141 1, led to him and Fra Tommaso 
 di Antonio Nacci CafFarini, one of Catherine's earliest followers 
 and most intimate associates, who was then a friar in that convent, 
 being summoned before the Bishop ; and the famous Processus 
 contestationum super sanctitate et doctrina beatae Catharinae de Senis 
 was the result. This is a collection of testimonies and letters by 
 Catherine's surviving followers, and others who had come under 
 her influence, edited (so to speak) by Fra Tommaso CafFarini 
 between 141 1 and 1413, with a few later additions. Complete 
 manuscripts of this Process are preserved in the Biblioteca 
 Comunale of Siena (MS. T. i. 3) and the Biblioteca Casanatense 
 of Rome (MS. 2668, or XX. v. 10) ; the former dates from 
 the fifteenth century (but is not, as sometimes stated, the ori- 
 ginal), while the latter is a copy of it made in 17 10. Several 
 of the more important contestations, including those of Fra 
 Tommaso CafFarini himself, Fra Bartolommeo di Domenico, Don 
 
 ix 
 
PREFACE 
 
 Bartolommeo da Ravenna, and Don Stefano di Corrado Maconi, 
 were published by Martene and Durand (from a manuscript in 
 the Grande Chartreuse), in the sixth volume of their Veterum 
 Scriptorum et Monumentorum amplissima Collectio. Three others of 
 the least important had already been given in Mansi's Appendix to 
 the fourth volume of Baluze's Miscellanea. The contestation of 
 Stefano Maconi is practically the Epistola Domni Stephani de gestis 
 et virtutibus S. Catharinae, to Fra Tommaso, given in its original 
 by the Bollandists in the volume cited of the Acta Sanctorum, of 
 which an Italian version is prefixed to Aldo's edition of Catherine's 
 Letters and another appended to Pecci's translation of the Legenda. 
 But several contestations of the very first importance, including 
 those of Don Francesco di Vanni Malavolti, Pietro di Giovanni 
 Ventura, and Fra Simone da Cortona — all of whom had been of 
 the inner circle of Catherine's friends and associates — have never 
 been printed in the original, and have only been made use of, to 
 any considerable extent, by Augusta Drane, who had copies 
 specially made for the library of the Dominican nuns at Stone. 
 In the present volume, I refer to Martene and Durand as 
 Processus simply, while quoting the unpublished contestations 
 direct from the Casanatense manuscript, with occasional reference 
 to the codex of Siena. 
 
 (3) The public cult of Catherine being now, as the result of 
 the Process, firmly established and recognized by authority, the 
 indefatigable Fra Tommaso Caffarini, about the year 14 14, while 
 prior of San Domenico at Venice, composed a kind of appendix 
 or supplement to Fra Raimondo's great Legenda : the Libellus de 
 Supplement legendae prolixae beatae Catharinae de Senis. This 
 work, which has never been published in its entirety, exists in a 
 fifteenth century manuscript in the Biblioteca Comunale of Siena 
 (MS. T. i. 2), and a copy, made in 1706 from the original MS. 
 (then in the Archivio di San Domenico), is preserved in the 
 Biblioteca Casanatense, the codex numbered 2360 (XX. vi. 36). 
 The professed translation by Padre Ambrogio Ansano Tantucci, 
 published at Lucca in 1754, is merely a paraphrase of certain 
 portions of the work, with the translator's own comments and 
 
 x 
 
PREFACE 
 
 explanations inserted as though they were a portion of the original. 
 In the present volume, I refer to the Latin text in the Casanatense 
 manuscript as Supplementum, and to Tantucci's version simply as 
 " Tantucci." 
 
 (4) Shortly after he compiled the Supplementum (to which he 
 refers), Fra Tommaso CafFarini wrote an abridgement in Latin of 
 Fra Raimondo's Legenda, with a few slight additions and modifica- 
 tions based upon his own personal knowledge of Catherine's life 
 and acquaintance with Sienese matters. This was known as the 
 Legenda abbreviata, and was printed (still further curtailed) as the 
 Epitome vitae beatae Caterinae [sic] de Senis, in the first volume of 
 the collection of the lives of the Saints known as the Sanctuarium 
 of Boninus Mombritius, at Milan, in 1479. The Leggenda minor e 
 is a beautiful Italian translation of the whole of Fra Tommaso's 
 Latin abridgement by Catherine's beloved disciple, Don Stefano 
 di Corrado Maconi, when prior of the Certosa of Pavia, a manifest 
 labour of love which brings the list of contemporary lives of the 
 Saint to an appropriate close. Don Stefano's work was published 
 by Grottanelli at Bologna in 1868, together with a most precious 
 collection of letters of Catherine's disciples and associates. It 
 appears to have escaped the notice of Grottanelli, and of every 
 one else as far as my knowledge extends, that (with the exception 
 of the prologue and first two chapters, for which free translations 
 of the second prologue and corresponding chapters of the Legenda 
 prolixa are substituted) it had already been printed in the fifteenth 
 century. A copy of this edition, without date or place of publica- 
 tion, is in the British Museum, and it is worth noting that the 
 " Sermone a laude della venerabile vergine," given at the end of 
 Grottanelli's work, appears in the older edition as the sixth chapter 
 of the third part, as a recapitulation, by way of conclusion, of 
 the contents of the book. 
 
 Besides these works, Fra Tommaso wrote, in collaboration 
 with Fra Bartolommeo di Domenico, a little-known treatise on 
 the Dominican third order of penance, and began a history of that 
 reformation of the Dominican rule in Venice, with which these 
 two friars, together with Fra Raimondo, were associated. These 
 
 xi 
 
PREFACE 
 
 appear to have been composed shortly before 1408, and were first 
 printed by Flaminio Cornaro, in vol. vii. of his Ecclesiae Venetae 
 antiquis monumentis illustratae, Venice, 1 749. The latter, especially, 
 is full of most interesting documents and letters concerning the 
 lives of Catherine's disciples in the years immediately following 
 her death. 
 
 (5) Of St. Catherine's Letters, the originals of only six have 
 been preserved — none of them being in her own hand, but all 
 written at her dictation by one or other of her secretaries. Four 
 of these (two in a merely fragmentary condition) are in the 
 Biblioteca Comunale of Siena, in the famous manuscript numbered 
 T. iii. 3. ; they are the letters to Stefano Maconi and Pietro di 
 Giovanni Ventura, numbered 255, 258, 262, 264, in Gigli's 
 edition, and 319, 320, 329, 332 in that of Tommaseo. A fifth, 
 also addressed to Stefano Maconi (numbered 256 in Gigli and 
 365 in Tommaseo), belongs to the Confraternity of Santa Lucia 
 in Siena. The sixth, addressed to Jacomo di Viva, is among the 
 treasures left by the late Mr. Hartwell de la Garde Grissell to 
 the Jesuit church at Oxford, and was first published by Messrs. 
 Frank Rooke Ley and Arthur Francis Spender in an article con- 
 tributed by the latter to St. Peter's in 1899. It had not previously 
 been included in any printed edition of Catherine's works, nor 
 have I ever met with a copy of it in the manuscript collections. 
 
 In addition to these, there are a certain number of manuscripts 
 containing copies of Catherine's letters, of which I have personally 
 studied eighteen. Nine of these contain hitherto unpublished 
 matter : in the Biblioteca Casanatense at Rome, MSS. 292 and 
 2422 ; in the Biblioteca Riccardiana at Florence, MS. 1303 ; 
 in the Biblioteca Nazionale at Florence, MSS. xxxv. 199, 
 xxxviii. 130, Palat. 57, Palat. 58, Palat. 60 ; in the British 
 Museum, Harleian MS. 3480. The three Palatine MSS. and the 
 Harleian MS. are fifteenth century copies, in one case complete, 
 of the famous manuscript of the Saint's letters compiled by 
 Stefano Maconi, now lost, which was once preserved in the 
 Certosa of Pavia. 
 
 The first edition of Catherine's letters, published at Bologna 
 
 xii 
 
PREFACE 
 
 in 1492, contains only thirty-one. Aldo Manuzio brought out 
 what is regarded as the editio princeps at Venice in 1500, contain- 
 ing ostensibly 368 letters, but, in reality, allowing for repetitions, 
 350. This was the basis of three other editions printed at Venice 
 in the sixteenth century; in 1548 (Toresano), 1562 ("al segno 
 della Speranza"), and 1584 (Domenico Farri), respectively. 
 In Girolamo Gigli's monumental Opere della Serafica Santa 
 Caterina da Siena, the letters, illustrated by the learning of Padre 
 Federigo Burlamacchi, occupy volumes ii. and iii. (Siena, 17 13, 
 Lucca, 1 721) ; in this edition, which still remains the standard 
 one, the number is brought up to 373. Niccolo Tommaseo's 
 convenient edition in four volumes, published at Florence in 
 i860, is practically a reprint of Gigli and Burlamacchi, the letters 
 being differently arranged, with a somewhat modernized and not 
 always judiciously amended text. 1 A new and critical edition of 
 Catherine's letters is greatly needed. In the following pages, 
 for convenience of reference, I give the numbers in Tommaseo's 
 edition, with those of Gigli in brackets, but, as far as possible, 
 have revised the text of my quotations by collation with the 
 manuscripts. 
 
 From the very outset, the biographical and historical value of 
 Catherine's letters has been, to a considerable extent, impaired by 
 the copyists (and the editors who followed them) omitting or 
 suppressing passages which appeared to them of merely temporary 
 interest, or not tending immediately to edification. A certain 
 number appear to have been deliberately expurgated, in cases 
 where the writer's burning words seemed likely to startle the 
 susceptibilities of the faithful. This process seems to date back 
 to the generation that immediately followed that of Catherine's 
 original disciples. A striking instance is seen in a certain letter, 
 of which the subject is sufficiently obvious, which Aldo introduces 
 with the rubric : " To one whose name it is better not to write, 
 because of certain words used in the letter. Let not whoso reads, 
 or hears it read, wonder if the sense seems to him broken ; for, 
 
 1 An excellent selection from the letters, based on Gigli's text, has been 
 published in English by Miss Vida D. Scudder (London, 1905). 
 
 xiii 
 
PREFACE 
 
 where et cetera is written, many words are passed over, which it is 
 not meet that every one should know, nor even the name of him 
 to whom it went." x Neither these words nor the omissions are 
 due to Aldo himself ; the same heading occurs in every manu- 
 script containing this letter which I have examined, and evidently 
 dates back to the end of the fourteenth century. Other letters, 
 though for different reasons, have been subjected to a similar 
 process, with the general result that, even in the editions of Gigli 
 and Tommaseo, the text is still sadly corrupt and too often 
 mutilated. The printed versions of several apparently short 
 letters are little more than the devout exhortations with which 
 Catherine usually opened her correspondence, the real substance 
 of what she had to say being in these cases still unpublished. Of 
 peculiar interest and importance in this connection are two 
 manuscripts which have hitherto strangely escaped the notice of 
 students : the Casanatense MS. 292, and the MS. numbered 
 xxxviii. 130 in the Biblioteca Nazionale di Firenze ; both of which 
 were evidently copied direct from Catherine's original letters. 
 The former contains the full text of a number of those written in 
 her name from Rome by Barduccio Canigiani ; the latter the 
 authentic and complete version of her correspondence with the 
 Florentine tailor, Francesco di Pippino, and his wife, Monna 
 Agnese, after the Saint's final departure from Florence. In an 
 appendix to the present volume, besides six entirely new letters of 
 St. Catherine, I print two of these latter in full, by comparison 
 of which with the previously published versions, the reader may 
 estimate the amount of work still to be done by whoso would 
 restore to the world the true and complete correspondence of the 
 seraphic virgin. I am not without hope of myself ultimately 
 undertaking this task, unless some scholar in Italy should, in the 
 meanwhile, accomplish it. 
 
 Catherine's great literary work, the Dia/ogo, was published at 
 
 Bologna in 1472, at Naples in 1478, and at Venice in 1494. 
 
 A number of editions were printed at Venice in the course 
 
 of the sixteenth century. It was translated into Latin by Ser 
 
 1 Letter 21 (306). Qi.Dialogo, cap. 124. 
 
 xiv 
 
PREFACE 
 
 Cristofano di Gano Guidini and by Fra Raimondo ; the former's 
 version remains in manuscript at Siena ; that of Fra Raimondo was 
 printed at Brescia in 1496, and at Cologne in 1553 and 1601. 
 An English rendering of Fra Raimondo's Latin version, entitled 
 The Qrcharde of Syon, by Brother Dane James, was printed by 
 Wynkyn de Worde in 15 19. The vernacular text was reprinted 
 by Gigli as the fourth volume of the Of ere, in 1707, from a con- 
 temporary, but curiously inaccurate and incomplete manuscript, 
 which he somewhat too readily accepted as the work of Stefano 
 Maconi. In all these editions the Italian text is unsatisfactory ; 
 but, though there have been alterations and some serious omissions 
 made (amounting in one place, in every edition later than that 
 published at Venice in 15 17, to the greater part of two chapters), 
 there has been no deliberate attempt at expurgation even in the 
 most outspoken of its passages. 1 In making my quotations from 
 the Dialogo, I have occasionally adopted a somewhat eclectic text, 
 but have derived great assistance from the beautiful manuscript 
 of Catherine's vernacular from the Biblioteca Barberini, now 
 in the Vatican (Cod. Barb. Lat. 4063), which gives in many 
 respects a much better reading than the printed versions, and 
 one which is in more general accordance with Fra Raimondo's 
 Latin interpretation of the work. 
 
 There is also ascribed to Catherine a short treatise on " Con- 
 summate Perfection," in somewhat the same form as the Dialogo ; 
 a kind of spiritual conversation between the soul and her Creator 
 upon the complete abnegation of self and the perfect fulfilling of 
 the will of God. It was printed in Latin at Lyons in 1 552, under 
 the title : Dialogus brevis Sanctae Catharinae Senensis, consummalam 
 continens perfectionem? The Italian original has never been dis- 
 covered, and only one manuscript of the Latin version appears to 
 be known. An Italian translation, by Alessandro Piccolomini, 
 
 1 The Dialogo was well translated by Mr. Algar Thorold (London, 1896) ; 
 but his new and abridged edition (London, 1907), which has the ecclesiastical 
 imprimatur, omits the greater part of the terrible Trattato delle Lagrime. 
 
 2 Alphonsus Rodriguez, the Jesuit mystic, refers to it as St. Catherine's in his 
 Christian Perfection, Pt. viii. cap. 12. 
 
 XV 
 
PREFACE 
 
 was published by Gigli as an appendix to his edition of the Dialoge, 
 and was freely rendered into English by Augusta Drane. None 
 of the Saint's early biographers or contemporaries make any 
 mention of this work, which adds nothing to our knowledge of 
 the thought and doctrine of the seraphic virgin. In the absence 
 of any external evidence in its favour, I am disposed to regard its 
 authenticity as highly questionable. 
 
 In dealing with the two great political struggles in which 
 Catherine was engaged, I am much indebted to Alessandro 
 Gherardi, La Guerra dei Fiorentini con Papa Gregorio XI, as also 
 to his edition of the Diario d'Anonimo Fiorentino, and to the 
 masterly work of M. Noel Valois, La France et le Grand Schisme 
 d' Occident. The pieces justificatives published by the Abbe Gayet 
 have often proved most useful. I have, however, in many cases 
 preferred to go directly to the original documents bearing upon 
 the Great Schism, still existing in the Archivio Segreto of the 
 Vatican, by the aid of which I am able to give a somewhat full 
 account of the origin of that extraordinary event. 
 
 My grateful thanks are due to the authorities and officials 
 of the Vatican Archives and Vatican Library, of the Biblioteca 
 Casanatense and Biblioteca Vittorio Emanuele at Rome, of the 
 Biblioteca Nazionale and Biblioteca Riccardiana of Florence, and 
 of the Biblioteca Comunale of Siena, for their kind assistance 
 and never-failing courtesy ; as also to the Canonico Vittorio 
 Lusini of the Duomo of Siena, whose works on the churches of 
 his native city are so highly valued by all students of Sienese 
 matters, for his kindness in enabling me to have the oppor- 
 tunity of a more intimate study of the original letter of Saint 
 Catherine to Stefano Maconi, now a treasured possession of the 
 Confraternity of Santa Lucia in Siena. 
 
 E. G. G. 
 
 Siena, 
 
 In festo Nativitatis B. M. V. 
 
 XVl 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAP. 
 
 I. CATHERINE'S HIDDEN LIFE 
 
 II. FROM DANTE TO SAINT CATHERINE 
 
 III. THE VALLEY OF LILIES . 
 
 IV. THE COMING OF URBAN THE FIFTH 
 V. THE SPIRITUAL FELLOWSHIP . 
 
 VI. FROM THE CELL TO THE WORLD 
 
 VII. UNDER A DARKENING SKY 
 
 VIII. BETWEEN FLORENCE AND AVIGNON . 
 
 IX. FROM THE BABYLON OF THE WEST 
 
 X. THE ANGEL OF PEACE 
 
 XL CATHERINES LAST EMBASSY TO FLORENCE 
 
 XII. THE BEGINNING OF THE SCHISM 
 
 XIII. FROM SIENA TO ROME . 
 
 XIV. ON THE FIELD OF BATTLE 
 XV. THE PASSAGE FROM THE WORLD 
 
 XVI. CATHERINE'S LITERARY WORK 
 
 XVII. THE DISSOLUTION OF THE FELLOWSHIP 
 
 PAGE 
 I 
 
 27 
 
 4-7 
 
 61 
 
 81 
 100 * 
 128 
 
 153 
 
 .78 
 201 
 228 
 252 
 281 
 
 304- 
 329 
 
 353 
 386 
 
 APPENDIX 
 UNPUBLISHED LETTERS OF SAINT CATHERINE 
 
 407 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY 
 INDEX . 
 
 423 
 429 
 
 XV11 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 St. Catherine of Siena. (From an Engraving) . . Frontispiece 
 
 Giovanni Colombini. By Sano di Pietro. (Accademia, 
 
 Siena) ........ Facing page 64 
 
 St. Bridget of Sweden giving her Rule. By G. A. 
 Sogliani. (Uffizi, Florence. The chief kneeling figure 
 on the right is Bridget's daughter, St. Catherine of 
 Sweden) „ 103 
 
 A Page of the Harleian MS. 3480, showing a portion 
 of St. Catherine's Letter to Bartolommeo di 
 Smeduccio. (British Museum) . . . . „ 140 
 
 The Ecstasy of St. Catherine. By G. A. Bazzi. 
 
 (San Domenico, Siena) „ 192 
 
 5t. Catherine in Prayer. By Domenico Beccafumi. 
 
 (Accademia, Siena) . „ 240 
 
 !t. Catherine of Siena. By Andrea di Vanni. (San 
 
 Domenico, Siena) ........ 298 
 
 ^ETTER FROM St. CATHERINE TO StEFANO MacONI. 
 
 (Biblioteca Comunale di Siena, MS. T. iii. 3) . „ 352 
 
 The Monks of the Certosa. By Ambrogio Bor- 
 
 gognone. (Scuola di Belle Arti, Pavia) . . . „ 392 
 
 xix 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 CATHERINE'S HIDDEN LIFE 
 
 " Sop vast a re alle passion! ed atti di tanta gioventudine pare alcuno parlare fabuloso." 
 — Dante, Vita Nwva, % z. 
 
 " O stupor I O admiratio ! O inaudita a seculis nostris familiaritatis ostensio I " — 
 Raimondo da Capua, Legends, § II 2. 
 
 Caterina Benincasa, whom we now call Saint Catherine of 
 Siena, was born on March 25, 1347 — the Feast of the Annunci- 
 ation, which, according to Florentine and Sienese reckoning, was 
 the first day of the new year. It was one hundred and twenty 
 years since Saint Francis had died at Assisi in the arms of Lady 
 Poverty, his mystical bride, and a quarter of a century since Dante 
 had passed away in exile at Ravenna, again to behold Beatrice in 
 the empyrean heaven of which he sang. These two men are 
 Catherine's elder brothers in the spirit ; the seraphic Father of 
 Assisi, Standard-bearer of the Crucified, as the voice in the high 
 vision on La Verna had hailed him, is her predecessor in the 
 mystical life ; she is the successor of the poet of the Divina 
 Commedia in the history of religious thought in Italy. 
 
 Of her contemporaries, Francesco Petrarca was then nearly 
 forty-three years old. Crowned six years before as poet laureate 
 on the Capitol, he was now the literary dictator of Italy, but, in 
 the year of Catherine's birth, was back in his Provencal home at 
 Vaucluse, fighting with the Naiads (as he poetically puts it) who 
 had destroyed his garden on the bank of the Sorgue during his 
 long absence across the Alps. It was probably in this very year 
 that he finished the first part of his Canzoniere for Madonna 
 Laura with the sonnet " Arbor vittoriosa, triunfale," and he was 
 about to open the second, nobler and more spiritual series of 
 lyrics with the sublime canzone, " I' vo pensando " : " For, with 
 death at my side, I seek a new rule for my life, and I see the 
 I 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 better but cling to the worse." Giovanni Boccaccio was thirty- 
 four years old, and not yet the author of the Decameron. He 
 had written his early prose romance and poems, had deserted or 
 been deserted by his Fiammetta, and was now either at Florence 
 or (as seems more likely) in Romagna at Forli, under the 
 protection of Francesco degli Ordelaffi. Geoffrey Chaucer, 
 according to the most recent theories of the date of his birth, 
 was a little boy of seven. Edward III of England had won the 
 battle of Crecy in the previous year. Charles of Luxemburg, 
 King of Bohemia, unworthy grandson of Dante's adored Henry, 
 and son of the heroic blind King John who had fallen at Crecy, 
 had been elected Holy Roman Emperor as Charles IV. From 
 Avignon, Pierre Roger de Beaufort misruled the Church of 
 Christ and profaned the -throne of the Fisherman, under the 
 title of Pope Clement VI. 
 
 The condition of Italy had altered but little since Dante had 
 written his famous lament in the sixth canto of the Purgatorio. 
 She was still " hostelry of sorrow," and not yet again " lady of 
 provinces." " O wonderful poet," writes Catherine's contem- 
 porary, Benvenuto da Imola, "would that thou couldst come 
 to life again now ! Where is peace, where is liberty, where is 
 tranquillity in Italy ? Thou wouldst readily see, O Dante, that 
 in thy time certain particular evils oppressed her ; but these, 
 indeed, were small and few ; for thou dost enumerate among the 
 woes of Italy the lack of a monarch and the discord of certain 
 families ; whereas now worse things oppress us, so that I can say 
 of all Italy what thy Virgil said of one city : Crudelis ubique 
 luctus, ubique pavor, et plurima mortis imago. 1 Assuredly, Italy 
 suffered not such things in the time of Hannibal, nor in that of 
 Pyrrhus, nor in that of the Goths or the Lombards. For Attila 
 did not cross the Apennines, nor did Totila cross the Po, but 
 only wasted Apulia and Rome. With how much greater excuse 
 then, if it were lawful, could I cry out to the Almighty, than thou, 
 whose lot was cast in happy times which all we now living in 
 wretched Italy may well envy? Let Him then, who can, now 
 
 1 Aeneid, II. 368, 369. 
 2 
 
CATHERINE'S HIDDEN LIFE 
 
 send the Veltro whom thou didst see in vision, if he is ever to 
 come." l Although " Guelf " and " Ghibelline " had long lost all 
 significance, the factions continued. The Italian cities either 
 groaned beneath the heavy yoke of sanguinary tyrants, or, if they 
 still ruled themselves as free republics, were torn by internal dis- 
 sensions and harassed by fratricidal wars with their neighbours. 
 And the anarchy of the country was intensified by the presence of 
 the wandering companies of mercenary soldiers — Germans, Bretons, 
 English, Hungarians — now in the pay of some despot, now in that 
 of a republic, but always fighting for their own hands, levying large 
 ransoms from cities as the condition of not devastating their territory 
 and exposing the country-people to the horrors of famine. 
 
 The moral state of the land matched the political. The absence 
 of the Popes, the example of the evil lives of the ministers of the 
 Church, the growing immorality of high and low, were bringing 
 religious life to a standstill in Italy. The Franciscan revival was 
 utterly a thing of the past, while the encyclical letters of the 
 Generals of the Dominicans testify to the deplorable degeneration 
 of the Friars Preachers. 2 There is abundant evidence in the 
 Revelations of Birgitta, and in the Dialogue of Catherine herself, 
 that moral corruption was rampant in the convents and monasteries, 
 amongst men and women alike. Many of the secular priests 
 openly kept concubines ; others were usurers ; not a few followed 
 the example of that bishop recorded by Dante, who was trasmutato 
 d'Arno in Bacchiglione, " translated from Florence to Vicenza," and 
 did worse. 3 The spirit of worldliness, of wickedness in high places, 
 stalked unabashed through the Church, while the three Beasts of 
 Dante's allegory made their dens in the Papal Court. 
 
 In the year after Catherine's birth, 1348, the great Pestilence, 
 brought, it was said, in two Genoese galleys from the East, swept 
 over Italy, Provence, France, and Spain, and in the following year 
 spread to England and the rest of Europe. Giovanni Villani, the 
 
 1 Comentum super Dantis Aldigherii Comoediam, iii. p. 181. 
 
 2 Cf. especially the encyclicals of Simon Lingonensis (1359) and Elias Raimundi 
 (1368), Monumenta ordinis Fratrum Praedkatorum historica, torn. v. pp. 299, 306. 
 
 8 Cf. Inf. xv. 106-1 14 with the Dialog), cap. 124. 
 
 3 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 chronicler who could speak of Dante Alighieri as "our neighbour," 
 was among the victims at Florence ; the Laura of Petrarca's poetical 
 homage at Avignon ; Ambrogio Lorenzetti, the supreme painter 
 of allegory, at Siena. In Italy, the scourge did not rage every- 
 where with equal violence ; Milan and other cities near the Alps 
 suffered comparatively little ; Florence and Siena endured its 
 worst horrors. For the five months during which it devastated 
 these two cities, from April or May till the beginning or end 
 of September, all civic life was suspended, and about four-fifths 
 of the population perished. Peculiarly appalling is the account 
 given by the Sienese chronicler, Agnolo di Tura. Men and 
 women felt the fatal swelling, and suddenly, while they spoke, 
 fell dead. All natural and religious bonds seemed annihilated. 
 Without any ecclesiastical ceremony, the abandoned dead were 
 thrown indiscriminately into great trenches hastily dug in different 
 parts of the city, and roughly covered up with a little earth to 
 keep them from the dogs. " And I, Agnolo di Tura, called 
 Grasso, buried five of my sons in one trench with my own hands." 
 Men said that the end of the world had come. Bernardo Tolomei, 
 the founder of the Olivetani, came down with his white-robed 
 monks from the security of secluded Monte Oliveto, to labour 
 among the sufferers in the streets of Siena and the other Tuscan 
 cities, and, with many of his brethren, died in the work. He 
 had fewer imitators in his own city than among the Florentines. 
 Matteo Villani, who took up his brother's pen, tells us that at 
 Florence many who devoted their lives to the service of the plague- 
 stricken either escaped entirely, or, if they took the infection, 
 recovered, and their example encouraged others to similar charitable 
 effort. To him it seemed like a second universal deluge, sent as 
 a divine punishment for the sins of men. 1 It is, indeed, in some 
 1 Matteo Villani, i. i, 2 ; Cronka Sanese, coll. 123, 124; II Polistore (Rer. It. 
 Scrip., xxiv.), cap. 32 ; Cronka di Pisa, coll. 1020, 1021. The statements of 
 contemporaries that 80,000 persons died in Siena, and 96,000 in Florence— 
 incredibly appalling though they seem— are probably more or less accurate. 
 During the decade preceding the pestilence, the population of Florence was 
 between 120,000 and 125,000. The survivors numbered not more than 30,000. 
 In 135 1, the population of Florence was still under 50,000. Cf. N. Rodolico' 
 
 4 
 
CATHERINE'S HIDDEN LIFE 
 
 sort, a black flood across the ages, severing the Italy that had 
 been Dante's from the Italy that was to be Catherine's. 
 
 Petrarca, as we know from the famous note on the margin of 
 his Virgil, was at Parma when the news of Laura's death reached 
 him ; his Trionfo della Morte idealizes this fearful time into an 
 impassioned homily on the transitoriness of all earthly greatness. 
 Boccaccio was apparently at Naples, where, in the following year, 
 he began his Decameron with the rhetorical description of the 
 pestilence at Florence, the details of which he had not personally 
 witnessed. The passed horrors had no permanent effect for good 
 on men's minds, and those who believed that a great renovation 
 of the world would ensue were speedily disillusioned. Restraint 
 and convention had been cast off; riot and excess of every kind 
 followed among the survivors. The deserted streets rang with 
 the shouts of revellers or echoed to the fierce cries of brawlers. 
 Lust, pride, and avarice tightened their grasp on men's souls. 
 " Without any restraint," writes Matteo Villani, " almost all our 
 city plunged into evil living, and the same and worse did the other 
 cities of the world. And, according to the tidings that we could 
 hear, there was no part in which those who had escaped from the 
 divine anger lived in continence, but as though they deemed the 
 hand of God was weary." Scarcity and famine followed in many 
 places ; work kept for long at a standstill ; everywhere dissensions 
 and quarrels arose over questions of heritage and succession. Not 
 even the characteristic gaiety of the Sienese could hide the appalling 
 desolation of their city : per Siena non fareva che fusse persona. 1 
 The cynical and shameless stories of the Decameron paint the cor- 
 ruption of the following years with the master's hand. Exagger- 
 ation, doubtless, there is, and the writer's hatred of the priests and 
 their allies has coloured his pen ; but the reader of certain terrible 
 chapters of Catherine's Dialogue, written not quite thirty years 
 later, will find only too striking confirmation of Boccaccio's 
 testimony. 
 
 La Democrazia Fiorentina nel suo tramonto, pp. 29-39. These figures do not include 
 the contado. 
 
 1 Cf. M. Villani, i. 4, 5 ; Cronica Sanese, coll. 124, 125. 
 
 5 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 The house in which Catherine was born still stands, albeit 
 transfigured— not irreverently nor impiously— by generations of 
 worshippers, on the side of that third of Siena's hills that rises 
 opposite the Duomo over the deep and fragrant Vallepiatta, the 
 hill which is crowned by the great red-brick church of the Friars 
 Preachers, San Domenico. A little further down towards one of 
 the city gates, a gate famous in the annals of Siena's wars, is " her 
 deep green spring," Fonte Branda, from which we can still, with 
 the poet of the Songs before Sunrise, gaze " up the sheer street " :— 
 
 " And the house midway hanging see 
 That saw Saint Catherine bodily, 
 Felt on its floors her sweet feet move, 
 And the live light of fiery love 
 Burn from her beautiful strange face." 
 
 Catherine's family belonged to the class and faction known as 
 the Dodicini, or popolo minore, " to wit, of that rank of people 
 that then ruled and governed the city of Siena." Her father, 
 Jacomo di Benincasa, was a dyer, a simple and God-fearing citizen, 
 pure in heart and gentle in speech, such a one as Giotto or Simone 
 Martini might have painted for one of the first followers of Him 
 whom men reputed the carpenter's son of Nazareth. Her mother, 
 Lapa di Puccio di Piagente, was the daughter of a citizen of the 
 same class of life, who seems to have been also a poet — as many 
 a popolano of that time in Tuscany was : " a woman," writes Fra 
 Raimondo, " utterly alien from the corruption of our times, albeit 
 she was exceedingly careful and busy over the affairs of her house- 
 hold and family, as all those who know her are aware, for she is 
 still alive." At the time of the Saint's childhood, her father was 
 a fairly rich man, and the family all lived together in the house 
 where his workshop was. All that part of Siena is still redolent 
 with the aroma of the dyers' and tanners' labours, and the strange, 
 pleasant smell links the past and present of the people of the city, 
 whose maiden daughter, in Raimondo's phrase, " was made the 
 bride of the King of Heaven." 
 
 Lapa bore Jacomo a very large family of children. The names 
 are known of five sons : Benincasa, Bartolommeo, Sandro Niccolo, 
 
 6 
 
CATHERINE'S HIDDEN LIFE 
 
 and Stefano ; and five daughters older than Catherine : Niccoluccia, 
 Maddalena, Bonaventura, Lisa, and Nera. Bartolommeo, the 
 second son, married Lisa di Golio (or, according to others, di 
 Chimento) Colombini, who appears to have been a first cousin of 
 Giovanni Colombini (the founder of the Gesuati), and who was 
 destined to be very closely associated with Catherine in her life 
 and work. 1 Of the daughters, Niccoluccia and Maddalena married 
 Palmiero di Nese della Fonte and Bartolo di Vannino, respectively. 
 Such was the refined purity of the atmosphere of the dyer's house 
 that when Bonaventura, the third daughter, married a certain 
 Niccolo di Giovanni Tegliacci, she was so appalled by the licen- 
 tiousness of the conversation of her husband and his young friends 
 that she fell seriously ill, and was only restored to health by her 
 husband's conversion. This Bonaventura was Catherine's favourite 
 sister. A twin-sister, christened Giovanna, was born at the same 
 time as Catherine, but died shortly after. From her birth, the 
 Saint, who was the only one of her younger children that Lapa 
 was able herself to nourish, was the chief darling and best beloved 
 of her mother out of all the family. She is usually stated to have 
 been the youngest, but Raimondo says : " After Lapa had brought 
 forth Catherine, she gave birth to another girl, who was called 
 Giovanna, to renew the memory of the departed sister of Catherine ; 
 and this was the last, after she had given birth to twenty-five 
 children." 2 This second Giovanna, or Nanna, died when Catherine 
 was sixteen years old ; the entry in the Libro de Morti of San 
 Domenico runs : " Nanna filia Jacobi Tinctoris sepulta est die 
 xviii Aprilis, 1363." 
 
 As she grew up in childhood, Catherine became the darling 
 of all the district round. " Verily," writes Fra Raimondo, " the 
 
 1 Cf. G. Pardi, Della Vita e degli Scritti di Giovanni Colombini. Giovanni 
 sends a message to Lisa in one of his letters (addressed to their cousin, Caterina 
 di Tommaso Colombini, who founded the Gesuate nuns). Lisa's twin-sister 
 Francesca, like her, became a Dominican tertiary. 
 
 2 Legenda, I. ii. 1 (§ 26). The Leggenda minore (p. 10) makes Catherine 
 Lapa's youngest child. Cf. Grottanelli, Albero della Famiglia Benincasa, in vol. i. 
 of Tommaseo's edition of the Letters. 
 
 7 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 wisdom and the prudence of her talk, the sweetness of her holy 
 conversation, nor tongue nor pen could easily describe. Those 
 alone know it who experienced it. Not only her speech, but also 
 her whole bearing had a strange power, whereby the minds of men 
 were in such wise drawn to good and to delight in God, that all 
 sadness was excluded from the hearts of those who conversed with 
 her, and every mental weariness was driven out ; nay, even the 
 memory of all troubles departed, and so unwonted and so great 
 a tranquillity of soul took its place, that each one, marvelling at 
 himself, rejoiced with a new sort of joy, saying in his mind : It 
 is good for us to be here, let us make here three tabernacles." 
 We are surely back in the atmosphere of the Vita Nuova ; not 
 otherwise had Dante sung of his Beatrice in those golden sonnets 
 of his youth ; and even as the glorious lady of his mind " was 
 called by many Beatrice who knew not what they were calling 
 her," so many in Siena felt such delight in Catherine's childish 
 wisdom and in her company " that, by a certain excess of joy, 
 they took from her her proper name, calling her not Catherine 
 but Eufrosina, nor know I by what instinct." x And even as 
 " the name of that blessed queen Mary was in very great reverence 
 in the words of this blessed Beatrice," so from her fifth year 
 Catherine practised the most complete devotion to the Blessed 
 Virgin, kneeling to salute her on every step as she passed up or 
 down the staircase of her father's house. 
 
 To such a child, in such an age, visions began to come as a 
 matter of course. She was in her sixth year when, as she returned 
 with her brother Stefano from the house of their sister Bonaven- 
 tura, and passed down the steep Vallepiatta towards the valley of 
 Fontebranda, she looked up and saw, over the summit of the 
 church of San Domenico, Christ seated on an imperial throne, 
 clad in the papal robes, and wearing the tiara, attended by Sts. 
 Peter and Paul, and the beloved disciple, John. He smiled upon 
 her and blessed her, and the girl was absorbed in ecstasy, knew 
 not where she was or what she did, until her brother, calling and 
 pulling her by the hand, brought her back to the sounds of earth. 
 1 Legenda, I. ii. z (§ 27). Cf. Vita -Nuova, § § 2, 21. 
 
CATHERINE'S HIDDEN LIFE 
 
 Then she grew silent, began to abstain from food and cruelly 
 to afflict her flesh, wandered to woods and caves to imitate the 
 ancient anchorites of the desert, dreamed of entering the Dominican 
 order in the disguise of a boy, or gathered other little girls of the 
 same age around her, to join in her prayers and discipline them- 
 selves together with her. Burning every day more and more with 
 the fire of divine love, she consecrated her virginity to Christ. 
 This, in after years, she told her confessors, was when she was 
 seven years old — which we should, perhaps, interpret as we do 
 Dante's statement of the beginning of his love for Beatrice : " It 
 was about the beginning of her ninth year when she appeared to 
 me, and I saw her about the end of my ninth year." 
 
 But, when she had passed the age of twelve and was considered 
 marriageable according to the customs of Siena, her sister Bona- 
 ventura, whom she loved exceedingly, and to whom she could refuse 
 nothing, at their mother's instigation persuaded her to change for a 
 while her mode of life, to dye her hair and adorn her person, dress 
 becomingly, and conform with the fashions of their little world. 
 She bewailed this bitterly in after times as a grievous sin, and 
 did heavy penance for it, accusing herself of having loved her 
 sister more than God ; nor could all the comfortable exhortations 
 of Fra Raimondo make her see it in any other light. Bonaventura 
 died in August, 1362, and Catherine at once returned to her 
 former mode of life. This, however, her father and brothers 
 would not permit, especially after the death of the elder sister, 
 whose husband had been a man of some importance among the 
 adherents of the faction in Siena to which they belonged. They 
 were resolved upon finding a husband for Catherine whose alliance 
 would strengthen the position of their family in the city. Finding 
 her, as they deemed, obstinate and undutiful, they had recourse 
 to a certain Fra Tommaso della Fonte, one of the friars of San 
 Domenico, who had been brought up in their house and was 
 probably a relation of the husband of Catherine's sister Niccoluccia. 
 
 This Fra Tommaso is the first of those sons of St. Dominic 
 with whom Catherine was brought into contact — a group of 
 worthy men who, in the midst of all the ecclesiastical corruption 
 
 9 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 that surrounded them, maintained their single-hearted faith and 
 religious fervour unimpaired, and found in the scholasticism of the 
 Angelical Doctor a sufficient answer for all the problems of the 
 time. Fra Tommaso was Catherine's first confessor, and seems to 
 have written some account of her life, as far as it came under his 
 observation, which was incorporated into Fra Raimondo's great 
 Legenda. Finding her resolute, he bade her follow her inspiration, 
 and counselled her to cut off her beautiful hair, as a sign to her 
 family that her intention was fixed. The inevitable domestic perse- 
 cution followed. Catherine's room was taken from her, and she 
 was compelled to do all the menial drudgery of the house, the 
 servant being sent away, in order that she might have neither time 
 nor place for prayer and devotion. Abuse and reproaches were 
 heaped upon her, and every unkindness shown her, in order to 
 break down this seeming obstinacy. But all in vain. Thrown back 
 upon herself, the girl invented the refuge that she was ever to 
 urge upon her disciples that they, too, should find, and which could 
 never be taken from them : the cell of self-knowledge. " She 
 made herself in her mind, by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, a 
 secret cell, out of which she resolved never to go by reason of 
 any external occupation. So it befell that she who, when formerly 
 she had her exterior cell, sometimes stayed within and sometimes 
 issued forth, now that she had made this inner cell that could not 
 be taken from her, never left it." All unkindness, all reproaches, 
 she bore sweetly and cheerfully. " She told me that she firmly 
 pictured to herself that her father represented Our Lord and 
 Saviour Jesus Christ ; her mother the most glorious Mother of 
 God ; and that her brothers and the rest of the household figured 
 the holy Apostles and Disciples. And, because of this imagination, 
 she served them all with such great gladness and diligence, that 
 every one marvelled." x Nor did her visions desert her. In a 
 dream she thought she saw St. Dominic holding in one hand a 
 white lily, which, like the bush seen by Moses, burned and 
 was not consumed, and with the other offering her the black 
 and white habit of the Dominican tertiaries the Sisters of 
 1 Legenda, I. i v. 5, 6 (§ § 49, 50). 
 IO 
 
CATHERINE'S HIDDEN LIFE 
 
 Penance, promising that she should be vested in it as she 
 desired. 
 
 Jacomo di Benincasa had by this time been convinced that 
 his daughter's conduct had a higher sanction, and was not 
 prompted by any childish caprice. He had come upon her 
 unawares, as she prayed in the room of her brother Stefano (the 
 only brother who was still unmarried), and had seen a snow-white 
 dove hovering over her head. And, so, when the girl, ordinarily 
 bashful and silent, suddenly revealed to all the family her vow and 
 her unalterable resolution of having Christ alone for her Spouse, 
 he bade her follow the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, for she 
 would meet with no more opposition from him, and enjoined on 
 all the household to leave her in perfect liberty to serve her Divine 
 Bridegroom as she thought fit. 
 
 " Then, having obtained this full and long-desired liberty of 
 serving God, the virgin, already entirely dedicated to Him, began 
 zealously and wonderfully to order all her life in the divine 
 service. She asked and obtained a small room separate from the 
 others, in which, as though in the solitude, she could devote 
 herself to God, and afflict her body according to her desire. 
 Here no tongue could narrate with what rigour of penitence she 
 afflicted her body, and with what eagerness of love she sought 
 the countenance of her Spouse. In this little chamber were 
 renewed the olden time works of the holy fathers of Egypt, and 
 all the more wondrously, inasmuch as they were done in her 
 father's house, without any human teaching, example, or guidance. " 1 
 
 In order to make this liberty still more secure, Catherine 
 shortly after took the habit of the Sisters of Penance of St. 
 Dominic, called in Siena the Mantellate — the white robe of 
 innocence and the black mantle of humility in which we still see 
 her clad in the pictures. These Mantellate were not nuns, strictly 
 speaking, but devoted themselves to the service of God in their 
 own homes. At first the sisters refused to receive a maiden into 
 their number, as their order was then composed only of widows ; 
 but at length, when Catherine lay ill and assured her mother that, 
 
 1 Ibid., I. ri. i (§ 57). 
 1 1 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 if her desire was not fulfilled, God and St. Dominic would take 
 her from the world, they told Lapa they would grant her daughter's 
 request, provided the girl was not too beautiful. Their represen- 
 tatives being reassured upon this point (for she was temporarily, 
 but completely, disfigured by her illness), and immensely edified 
 by her conversation, they accepted her as a sister ; and, on her 
 recovery to health, she received the habit from one of the Dominican 
 friars who acted as director of the sisterhood at San Domenico 
 in the Cappella delle Volte— that little chapel still so fragrant 
 with her spirit. There is some small difference of opinion as 
 to the date of her thus taking the habit, but I think it was most 
 probably about the beginning of 1363. 
 
 Then began that wonderful life of almost incredible austerity 
 and of mystical communings with the unseen, that made the whole 
 existence of this young maiden of the people seem a new, unheard- 
 of miracle. As far as the austerities were concerned, however, she 
 was only continuing what she had already begun as soon as her 
 family had granted her her liberty. 
 
 Gradually abstaining from one thing after another, Catherine 
 freed herself from all dependence on food or sleep. In a short 
 while, she could easily restrict herself to raw herbs, a little bread, 
 and water. Then the bread was left out, and she ate only the 
 herbs. Soon even that became a torment to her, and she seems 
 often for a long time to have lived upon the Blessed Sacrament of 
 the Altar alone. " In the time during which I was allowed to be 
 the witness of her life," writes Fra Raimondo, "she lived without 
 any nourishment of food or drink ; aided by no natural power, 
 she ever sustained, with a joyous countenance, pains and labours 
 that would have been insupportable to others." In these later 
 years she would usually, to avoid scandal (for while these things 
 seemed miracles to Fra Raimondo and his friends, others, of no 
 less repute in the spiritual life, cried out against them), sip a little 
 water and force herself to chew some coarse food, but always with 
 great physical suffering. 1 She slept on a bare board. At first 
 
 1 On one occasion, to avoid singularity, she appears to have asked the Pope 
 to impose a rigid fast of bread and water upon her, as a condition of gaining an 
 
 12 
 
CATHERINE'S HIDDEN LIFE 
 
 she wore a hair-shirt, but, characteristically dreading the least trace 
 of uncleanliness, she changed it for a chain of steel, which she 
 fastened so tightly round her sides that it pierced the skin and 
 lacerated her tender flesh. Towards the end of her life, Fra 
 Raimondo compelled her, in virtue of holy obedience, to lay it 
 aside, which she did, albeit unwillingly. Gradually she overcame 
 the need of sleep, until at times she would only have half-an-hour 
 in the space of two days and two nights — and this she told her 
 confessor was the hardest of all her victories in this kind. 
 Especially, she loved to keep watch in prayer continuously while 
 the friars of San Domenico, whom she called her brothers, slept, 
 and then rest a little on her hard board when they rose to matins. 
 Not content with this, she would scourge herself with a little steel 
 discipline until the blood ran down from her shoulders to her feet. 
 " Three times a day, she shed the blood from her body to render 
 to her Redeemer blood for blood." Thus she, who had been an 
 exceptionally robust and healthy child (as her mother told Fra 
 Raimondo), became so attenuated and wasted that it seemed a 
 wonder that the ardent spirit could still be confined in so immaterial 
 a prison. In vain Lapa implored her to mitigate her austerities. 
 When once, shortly before her taking the Dominican habit, she 
 prevailed upon her daughter to accompany her to the Bagni of 
 Vignone, one of the famous hot baths of the contado, Catherine 
 waited till she was unobserved, and then exposed herself to the 
 flow of the boiling water, meditating the while on the torments of 
 Hell and Purgatory, beseeching the Creator to accept these pains 
 which she thus voluntarily endured, instead of those others which 
 (she said) her sins merited. 
 
 Thus Catherine became one of those saints, horrible and 
 repulsive to the eyes of many in an age that worships material 
 gain and physical comfort, who have offered themselves as a 
 sacrifice to the Eternal Justice for the sins of the world. 
 
 There have been other women who have borne the same 
 
 indulgence. Cf. Letter 228 (278), and the notes of Gigli and Tommaseo, 
 respectively, thereon. A detailed account, differing somewhat from Raimondo's, 
 is given by Stefano Maconi, Ep'utok Domni Stephani, § 18. 
 
 13 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 burden at different epochs in the Church's history— especially in 
 times of her greatest corruption— more frequently in the seclusion 
 of the cloister or in the poor hovels of the peasantry. Catherine 
 differs from such saints as Fina of San Gimignano and Lydwine 
 of Schiedam, almost her contemporaries, or Rose of Lima in later 
 times, inasmuch as this " existence of expiation " was only a small 
 portion of her life's work ; but the spirit that animated them in 
 their sufferings was the same. This has been admirably expressed 
 by a modern French writer, in the case of the young Dutch 
 woman who was born in the very year that Catherine died : 
 " She made expiation, even as the other saints of her age, for 
 the souls in Purgatory, for the abomination of the schism, for the 
 debauchery of the clergy and the monks, for the wickedness of 
 the peoples and the kings ; but, in addition to that obligation 
 which she accepted of repairing the sins committed from one end 
 of the Universe to the other, she had also the office laid upon 
 her of being the scapegoat of her own country." Such an 
 existence of expiation would be incomprehensible without a know- 
 ledge of the causes, the number, and the nature of the offences, 
 to make reparation for which here on earth was, in some sort, 
 her raison d'itre. 1 For the salvation of others, Catherine was 
 prepared to endure the very pains of Hell. " ' How could I be 
 content, Lord,' she prayed, ' if any one of those who have been 
 created to Thy image and likeness, even as I, should perish and 
 be taken out of my hands ? I would not in any wise that even 
 one should be lost of my brethren, who are bound to me by 
 nature and by grace ; I am fain that the old enemy should lose 
 them all, and Thou gain them, to the greater praise and glory of 
 Thy name. Better were it for me that all should be saved, and 
 I alone (saving ever Thy charity) should sustain the pains of 
 Hell, than that I should be in Paradise and all they perish 
 damned ; for greater honour and glory of Thy name would it 
 be.' And she was answered by the Lord, as she secretly con- 
 fessed to me : < Charity cannot be in Hell, for it would destroy 
 it utterly ; it were easier for Hell to be destroyed than for Charity 
 
 1 J. K. Huysmans, Sainte Lydwine de Schiedam, pp. 61-65. 
 H 
 
CATHERINE'S HIDDEN LIFE 
 
 to exist with it.' Then she : ' If Thy truth and Thy justice 
 permitted it, I would that Hell were utterly destroyed, or at least 
 that no soul ever more should descend thither, and if (so I were 
 still united to Thy charity) I were put over the mouth of Hell 
 to close it, in such wise that none should ever more enter it, 
 much would I rejoice, so that all my neighbours might thus be 
 saved.' " 1 And, on another occasion, she prayed : " Lord, give 
 me all the pains and all the infirmities that there are in the world, 
 to bear in my body ; I am fain to offer Thee my body in sacrifice, 
 and to bear all for the world's sins, that Thou mayest spare it 
 and change its life to another." " And when she said these words, 
 she was abstracted from her senses and rapt in ecstasy. But, 
 when she returned to herself, she was white as snow, and began 
 to laugh loudly and to say : ' Love, Love, I have conquered 
 Thee with Thyself. For Thou dost wish to be besought for 
 what Thou canst do of Thine own accord.' " 2 
 
 Catherine's first step, after receiving the Dominican habit, 
 was to enter upon a prolonged retreat. For three years con- 
 tinuously, she kept a complete silence, speaking only with her 
 confessor, Fra Tommaso della Fonte, when she confessed to him, 
 and occasionally with other persons at his bidding. She dwelt 
 continually within the religious enclosure of her little cell, nor 
 ever left it save when she went to hear Mass. In Fra Raimondo's 
 poetical phrase, " She found the desert within her own house and 
 solitude in the midst of people." 
 
 Now began the continuous series of her visions. In her 
 narrow cell she smelt the fragrance of celestial lilies, and heard 
 the ineffable melodies of Paradise, sweetest of all on the lips of 
 those who had loved Christ on earth with the most ardent love. 
 " Father," she said to Fra Tommaso, " do you not hear the 
 Magdalene, how she sings with a high voice and with grace of 
 singular sweetness, in company of all the choir of the blessed ? " 
 Christ Himself appeared to her spiritual eyes, instructed her in 
 the secret mysteries of the Divinity, conversed continually with 
 
 1 Legenda, Prologue I. (§ 15). 
 
 2 Suf>pkmentum (Casanatense MS.), f. 30. Cf. Dante, Par. xx. 94-99. 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 her and familiarly as friend with friend, and kissed her with " the 
 mysterious kiss that infused into her spirit the sweetness of 
 ineffable delight." 1 And, at the very beginning of these visions 
 and revelations, the Lord delivered to her the simple doctrine 
 which became the basis of her whole conception of God and man : 
 " Knowest thou, O daughter, who thou art and who am I ? 
 Thou art she who art not, and I am He who am. If thou 
 hast this knowledge in thy soul, the enemy will never be able to 
 deceive thee, and thou wilt escape from all his snares ; never 
 wilt thou consent to anything against My commandments, and 
 every grace, every truth, every clearness, thou wilt acquire without 
 difficulty." "The soul," said Catherine, in illustration of this, 
 " that already sees her own nothingness and knows that all her 
 good is in her Creator, entirely abandons herself with all her powers 
 and all creatures, and immerges herself utterly in her Creator, in 
 such wise that she directs all her operations primarily and entirely 
 towards Him ; nor would she in any wise go out of Him, in 
 whom she perceives she has found every good and all perfection of 
 felicity ; and from the vision of love, which daily increases in her, 
 she is in a manner so transformed into God that she cannot think, 
 nor understand, nor love, nor remember aught save God, and 
 what concerns God. She sees not other creatures or herself, save 
 only in God, neither does she remember herself or them, save 
 simply in God ; even as one who dives down into the sea, and is 
 swimming under its waters, neither sees nor touches aught save 
 the waters of the sea and the things that are in those waters ; he 
 sees nothing outside those waters, touches nothing, feels nothing. 
 If the likeness of those things that are without reflect themselves 
 in the water, he can, indeed, see them ; but only in the water and 
 as they are in the water ; not otherwise. And this is the ordered 
 and right love of self and of all creatures, in which we cannot go 
 wrong, because of necessity it is governed by divine rule, neither 
 by it is anything desired outside God, because it is ever exercised 
 in God and is ever in Him." 
 
 1 Tantucci, pp. 36, 45. 
 16 
 
CATHERINE'S HIDDEN LIFE 
 
 And from this, too, she drew her doctrine of holy hate. The 
 more a soul so conjoined with God loves Him, so much the more 
 does she hate the offence she commits against Him, and, seeing 
 the origin of every sin has its roots in her own sensual part, she is 
 inspired to a holy hate of this and wages a relentless war of the 
 spirit against it. " Woe to that soul," said Catherine, " in whom 
 this holy hatred is not ; for needs must be that, where it is not, 
 self-love will reign, which is the sink of all sins and the root and 
 cause of every evil greed." 1 
 
 This doctrine, upon which her whole spiritual teaching may 
 be said to depend, Catherine explained in detail, some nine or ten 
 years later, to an Englishman, whom we shall meet in her circle, 
 William Flete, one of the Augustinian friars of Lecceto. " The 
 holy mother," he wrote, at the beginning of 1376, "speaking of 
 herself in the third person, said that at the beginning of her 
 illumination she set as the foundation of all her life, against self- 
 love, the stone of self-knowledge, which she distinguished into 
 three small stones. The first was the consideration of Creation ; 
 that is, that she had no being of herself, but dependent only 
 upon the Creator, both in production and in conservation, and 
 that the Creator had done and was doing all this through His 
 grace and mercy. The second was the consideration of Redemp- 
 tion, that is, how the Redeemer with His blood had restored 
 the life of grace which had until then been destroyed ; and this 
 through His pure and fervent love, which man had done nought 
 to deserve. The third was the consideration of her own sins, 
 committed after baptism and the grace received in it, for which 
 she had deserved eternal damnation, and was stupefied at the 
 eternal goodness of God because He had not commanded the 
 earth to swallow her up. From these three considerations, there 
 was born in her so great a hatred of herself, that she desired 
 nought according to her own will, but only according to the will 
 of God, who, she knew, willed nought save her good. From 
 this it followed that she was content and glad at every tribulation 
 and temptation ; not only because it came to her by the will of 
 
 1 Legenda, I. x. I, 8, 9 (§§ 92, IOO, 101). 
 2 17 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 God, but also to see herself punished and chastised. She began, 
 therefore, to have the greatest displeasure from those things in 
 which she at first delighted, and a great delight in what at first 
 displeased her." 
 
 " She also said that self-love is the cause of every evil and 
 the ruin of every good, and that it is of two kinds, to wit, 
 sensitive self-love and spiritual self-love. The first is the cause 
 of all sensual sins, and of all others that are open and manifest, 
 and are committed through affection for earthly things and 
 creatures ; that is, when, for love of them, the commandments 
 of the Creator are scorned and disobeyed. The second self-love, 
 called spiritual, is that which, after despising earthly things, all 
 creatures, and even his own senses, nevertheless makes man keep 
 so tenaciously attached to his own spiritual appetite and to 
 his own opinion, that he will not serve God nor walk in His 
 ways unless in accordance with his own desire and feeling. 
 Therefore, since God wants man without a will of his own, such 
 a one cannot possibly stand firm nor persevere in his way ; needs 
 must he fall, because he adheres more to his own will than to 
 the divine. Such are all those who would fain choose state and 
 exercise according to their own liking, and not according as they 
 are called by God and judged by the counsel of prudent and 
 discreet persons. Such also are those who are too much wedded 
 to some spiritual work or exercise, such as fasting or the like, as 
 though it were an end in itself ; for it then happens that, if they 
 cannot practise it, they at once yield to despair and abandon every- 
 thing. Among these should also be included those who love 
 spiritual consolations and sweetnesses too much, and, when these 
 fail them, soon despair. True spiritual love loves God alone and 
 the salvation of the soul for God's sake. It makes use of all 
 other things in due order for this end, and recks not what the 
 means may be, provided that the end is the honour of God and 
 the salvation of our neighbours. Whoso, then, possesses true 
 spiritual love must judge and take all things according to the will 
 of God, and not according to that of men ; and when he remains 
 deprived of any spiritual consolation, he must at once think and 
 
 18 
 
CATHERINE'S HIDDEN LIFE 
 
 say : This befalls me through the divine disposition, by the per- 
 mission of God, who, in all the adversities that He sends me, seeks 
 and wills nought save my justification and salvation. And with 
 this thought all bitter things will be rendered sweet." l 
 
 But, as the conversations with her divine Lover grew more 
 frequent and familiar, and the revelations of the divine Beauty 
 more full and overwhelming, so did the manifestations of the evil 
 of the world the more insistently press themselves upon her. And, 
 as ever with men and women of the Middle Ages, they took a 
 personal and anthropomorphic form in the shape of temptations 
 of the devil. At first, indeed, Catherine had doubted whether 
 the visitation that seemed celestial might not, in reality, have some 
 such diabolical source. " But I will teach thee," said the Voice 
 in her heart, " how to distinguish My visions from the visions of 
 the enemy. My vision begins with terror, but always, as it 
 grows, gives greater confidence ; it begins with some bitterness, 
 but always groweth more sweet. In the vision of the enemy 
 the contrary happens, for in the beginning it seems to bring some 
 gladness, confidence, or sweetness, but, as it proceeds, fear and 
 bitterness grow continuously in the soul of whoso beholds it. 
 Even so are My ways different from his ways. The way of 
 penance and of My commandments seemeth harsh and difficult 
 in the beginning ; but, the more one walks therein, the more 
 does it become easy and sweet ; whereas the way of the vices 
 appears in the beginning right delightful, but in its course 
 becomes ever more bitter and more ruinous. But I will give 
 thee another sign, more infallible and more certain. Be assured 
 that, since I am Truth, there ever results from My visions a 
 greater knowledge of truth in the soul ; and, because the know- 
 ledge of truth is most necessary to her about Me and about herself, 
 that is, that she should know Me and know herself, from which 
 knowledge it ever follows that she despises herself and honours 
 Me, which is the proper office of humility, it is inevitable that from 
 
 1 Relatione d'una dottrina, o documento spirituale, scritta nel? anno del Signore 1 3 76, 
 il giorno settimo del mese di Gennaio, da Fra Guglielmo Flete inglese. Published by 
 Gigli as an appendix to the Dialogo. Cf. Letters 64 (124), 71 (35 8 )> 2I 3 ( l6 3)- 
 
 19 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 My visions the soul becomes more humble, knowing herself better 
 and despising her own vileness. In the visions of the enemy the 
 opposite happens ; for, since he is the father of lies, and the king 
 over all the children of pride, and cannot give save what he has, 
 from his visions there ever results in the soul a certain self-esteem 
 or presumption on herself, which is the proper office of pride, 
 and she remains swollen and puffed up. Thou, then, by ever 
 examining thyself diligently, wilt be able to consider whence the 
 vision has come, whether from the truth or from the lie ; for 
 truth always makes the soul humble, but the lie makes her 
 proud." 1 And again, when she prayed for strength against these 
 assaults : " Daughter, if thou wouldst acquire the virtue of 
 fortitude, thou must needs imitate Me. Albeit I could by My 
 divine virtue annihilate all the power of the enemy, and take 
 another way to conquer him, nevertheless, because I wished 
 with My human actions to give an example to you, I would not 
 conquer save by the way of the Cross, in order to teach you by 
 deed as well as word. If you would become strong, to over- 
 come every power of the enemy, take the Cross for your con- 
 solation, even as I did, who (as My Apostle says) having joy set 
 before Me endured the Cross, in order that you may choose not 
 only patiently to bear pains and afflictions, but even to embrace 
 them as consolations. And, verily, they are consolations ; for 
 the more you bear such things for My sake, the more do you 
 make yourselves like to Me ; for as you are partakers of the suffer- 
 ings^ it follows, according to the teaching of My Apostle, that so 
 shall you be also of the consolation. Receive then, My daughter, 
 the sweet things as bitter, and the bitter things as sweet, for My 
 sake ; and fear nothing henceforth, for certainly for all things 
 thou shalt be strong." 2 
 
 There came a time, towards the end of these three years, 
 when these assaults and temptations became horrible and un- 
 bearable. Aerial men and women, with obscene words and still 
 more obscene gestures, seemed to invade her little cell, sweeping 
 round her like the souls of the damned in Dante's Hell, inviting 
 
 l Legenda, I. ix. 4 (§ 85). 2 j bi j^ j. xi x (g 1Q+ j_ 
 
 20 
 
CATHERINE'S HIDDEN LIFE 
 
 her simple and chaste soul to the banquet of lust. Their 
 suggestions grew so hideous and persistent, that she fled in 
 terror from the cell that had become like a circle of the infernal 
 regions, and took refuge in the church ; but they pursued her 
 thither, though there their power seemed checked. And her 
 Christ seemed far from her. At last she cried out, remembering 
 the words in the vision : " I have chosen suffering for my 
 consolation, and will gladly bear these and all other torments, in 
 the name of the Saviour, for as long as shall please His Majesty." 
 " When she said this, immediately all that assemblage of demons 
 departed in confusion, and a great light from above appeared 
 that illumined all the room, and in the light the Lord Jesus 
 Christ Himself, nailed to the Cross and stained with blood, as 
 He was when by His own blood He entered into the holy 
 place ; and from the Cross He called the holy virgin, saying : 
 ' My daughter Catherine, seest thou how much I have suffered 
 for thee ? Let it not then be hard to thee to endure for Me.' 
 Then, in another guise, He approached her to console her, and 
 spoke sweetly to her of the triumph that she had already won in 
 that battle. But she, imitating Antony, said : ' And where wast 
 Thou, my Lord, whilst my heart was tormented with so much 
 foulness ? ' To which the Lord answered : ' I was in thy heart. 
 Thou, My daughter, who, with My and not with thine own 
 virtue, hast so faithfully battled, hast merited still greater favour 
 from Me ; and therefore, henceforth, I will reveal Myself to thee 
 more often and in more familiar wise.' " 
 
 This was the first time that the divine Voice had called her 
 by her name, and it gave her such rapture of delight that she 
 prayed her confessor, Fra Tommaso, that he would always 
 address her in this way : My daughter Catherine ; in order that 
 the sweetness might be ever renewed. Her colloquies with the 
 Saviour grew more frequent, more prolonged, more intimate. 
 Sometimes He appeared to her with His Virgin Mother, some- 
 times with St. Dominic, St. Mary Magdalene, St. John the 
 Evangelist, St. Paul, or other saints ; " but most times He came 
 unattended, and conversed with her as a friend with a most intimate 
 
 21 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 friend ; in such wise that (as she herself secretly and bashfully 
 sometimes confessed to me) ofttimes the Lord and she recited 
 the Psalms, walking up and down in her room, as two religious 
 or clerics are wont to say the office together. O wondrous, 
 marvellous, and unheard of in our ages, demonstration of the 
 divine familiarity ! " x 
 
 During this time of seclusion, Catherine learned to read, 
 though it does not appear that she attempted to study anything 
 more than the Psalms and the offices of the Church. Fra 
 Raimondo tells us that she had originally got the alphabet from 
 a companion of hers, but found it so hard to get further that, 
 fearing that she was losing time, she prayed to God and was 
 miraculously instructed. When he knew her, she could read any 
 writing, rapidly and with ease, though unlike other people and as 
 if she knew the meaning of the words without being able to spell 
 out the syllables. Reading, however, was not her only recreation. 
 She took great delight in flowers of all kinds, and would weave 
 them into crosses and garlands in her spare time, singing mystical 
 songs of divine praise the while. These she would send or give 
 as presents, either directly or through Fra Tommaso della Fonte, 
 in token of the love of Christ. A young Dominican friar, 
 Tommaso di Antonio CafFarini, soon to be very closely associated 
 with her spiritual life, tells us that, before he knew her, he had 
 received some of these mystical gifts through her confessor. 2 
 
 At the same time, perhaps inevitably, her ecstasies were 
 growing upon her. After Communion, or at other times when 
 meditating upon the mysteries hidden in God, she would be rapt 
 out of her senses for a while, and her body left rigid and seemingly 
 lifeless, insensible to touch or wound. This increased with years, 
 and lasted all through her life. It is a not unusual feature in the 
 legends of women saints and mystics, nor would it be hard to 
 find a purely natural and scientific explanation. 
 
 There are, doubtless, many who will regard this simply as a 
 form of catalepsy, and who will see in much of these visionary 
 
 1 Legenda, I. xi. 5, 6 (§ § 109-112). 
 
 2 Contestatio Fr. Thomae Caffarinl, Processus, col. [260. 
 
 22 
 
CATHERINE'S HIDDEN LIFE 
 
 experiences little more than hysterical phenomena ; nor need the 
 faithful followers of St. Catherine to-day deny this as a possible, 
 or even probable, element in her life. In the record of her 
 revelations, we are confronted with things that are incapable of 
 literal acceptance, that, perhaps, at times even offend our religious 
 sensibilities, occurring side by side with profound truths, expressed 
 with wonderful precision and startling inspiration, shedding light 
 upon every step of the believer's difficult path from the human 
 to the divine. That phenomena not unconnected with organic 
 hysteria existed side by side with the possession of a suprasensible 
 revelation in the lives of many of the greatest mystical saints, 
 may well be granted. It has even been urged, in the case of St. 
 Teresa, that, while suffering in a sense from organic hysteria, 
 her knowledge of the workings of her own soul was so clear and 
 exact that she could distinguish perfectly between these two 
 classes of experiences, the natural and the supernatural, and that 
 this fact is the strongest guarantee for the truth of her account 
 of the latter. 1 Catherine, like Teresa, with her unwavering 
 fortitude and calm resolution, her firm will which was to impose 
 itself upon the rulers and powers of the world, her practical sense 
 and angelic wisdom, is poles asunder from a hysterical subject ; 
 yet, perhaps, with all her celestial endowments, this thing was 
 given her as the Pauline " thorn in the flesh, the messenger of 
 Satan to buffet me." She had learned early to discriminate 
 between the two kinds of vision — those that proceeded from her 
 divine Teacher and those that were the work of the father of 
 lies. But I do not think that she could distinguish between the 
 natural and the supernatural in the way that has been claimed for 
 St. Teresa ; at times, in her visions, we cannot but detect 
 apparent hallucinations, to which a physician would probably 
 assign a hysterical origin. Yet the " abundance of the revelations " 
 is more surely there. 
 
 1 For all this delicate question, see especially G. Hahn, Les phenomenes 
 hysteriques et les revelations de Sainte Therhe (Revue des Questions Scientifiques, 
 xiii. pp. 553-569, xiv. pp. 39- 8 4). and cf. H. .Toly, Psychologie des Saints, pp. 
 no, in, and W. James, The Varieties of Religious Experience, pp. 1 4- 1 8. 
 
 23 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 The mystical revelations and divine colloquies of these three 
 years culminated in the " spiritual espousals " of Catherine with 
 Christ on the last day of the carnival, most probably, I think, in 
 the year 1366. 
 
 By this term, " spiritual espousals," the great mystics clearly 
 mean something different, not in degree but in kind, from what 
 every nun may be said to experience when she consecrates her 
 virginity to Christ. They evidently hold that some chosen souls, 
 after passing through the ways of purgation and illumination, 
 having been tried in much tribulation and mortification, and 
 enlightened by profound meditation upon spiritual things, attain 
 to a state of mystical perfection which they call the " spiritual 
 marriage," in which, by an intellectual vision of Christ in the 
 centre of the soul, they become united to Him in some special 
 and peculiarly absorbing manner, and become, in some sort, one 
 thing with Him. The mystical poets of Spain, St. Teresa and 
 St. John of the Cross, draw a distinction between " spiritual 
 espousals " and the " spiritual marriage," for which the former 
 is but a preparation. " That which God here communicates to 
 the soul in an instant," says St. Teresa, " is so great a secret and 
 so sublime a grace, and what she feels is such an excessive 
 delight, that I know nothing with which to compare it, except 
 that Our Lord is pleased at that moment to manifest to her the 
 glory which is in Heaven ; and this He does in a more sublime 
 way than by any vision or spiritual delight. More cannot be 
 said (as far as can be understood) than that this soul becomes one 
 with God ; for as He Himself is a spirit, His Majesty is pleased 
 to discover the love He has for us, by making certain persons 
 understand how it extends, in order that we may praise His 
 greatness, because He has vouchsafed to unite Himself to a 
 creature in such a way that, as in the marriage-state husband and 
 wife can no more be separated, so He will never be separated 
 from her." 1 
 
 It would seem that Catherine does not regard the " spiritual 
 marriage," as St. Teresa and St. John of the Cross understand it, 
 1 El Castillo Interior, Moradas shimas, cap. ii. (Dalton's translation). 
 
 24 
 
CATHERINE'S HIDDEN LIFE 
 
 as attainable in this world — at least for one who, like her, though 
 ever walking with Christ and ever talking with Him even while 
 in the midst of men, was, nevertheless, called to a life of active 
 labour for His name rather than to sheer contemplation. Her 
 " spiritual espousals " were to have their mystical consummation 
 in the eternal nuptials of Paradise. " It would be foolishness," 
 writes St. John of the Cross, " to think that the language of love 
 and the mystical intelligence can be at all explained in words of 
 any kind." The loving souls, in whom the Spirit dwells, " use 
 figures of special comparisons and similitudes ; they hide some- 
 what of that which they feel, and, in the abundance of the Spirit, 
 utter secret mysteries rather than express themselves in clear 
 words." " It is better to leave the outpourings of love in their 
 own fulness, that every one may apply them according to the 
 measure of his spirit and power, than to pare them down to one 
 particular sense which is not suited to the taste of every one." 1 
 A mystic must express his vision in the symbolic terms of his 
 own day, and it is, therefore, not wonderful that Catherine 
 should describe her spiritual betrothal with imagery suggestive 
 of the Italian painting of the fourteenth century. 
 
 She had prayed again and again, Fra Raimondo tells us, for 
 the gift of the perfection of the virtue of faith, such that it should 
 never be shaken or beaten down by any assault of the enemy, and 
 ever had she heard the same answer made : / will espouse thee to 
 Myself in Faith. At length, on the last day of the carnival, 
 while all Siena was given up to the usual festivities of the season, 
 the Voice told her that the time had come : " I will this day 
 celebrate solemnly with thee the festival of the betrothal of thy 
 soul, and, even as I promised, I will espouse thee to Myself in 
 Faith." " Whilst the Lord was yet speaking, there appeared the 
 most glorious Virgin, His Mother, the most blessed John 
 Evangelist, the glorious apostle Paul, and the most holy 
 Dominic, the father of her order ; and with these the prophet 
 David, who had the psaltery set to music in his hands ; and, 
 
 1 Cant'uo Esp'iritual entre el Alma y Cristo, su Esposo, prologo (D. Lewis's 
 translation). 
 
 2 5 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 while he played with most sweet melody, the Virgin Mother of 
 God took the right hand of Catherine with her most sacred hand, 
 and, holding out her fingers towards the Son, besought Him to 
 deign to espouse her to Himself in Faith. To which graciously 
 consenting, the Only Begotten of God drew out a ring of gold, 
 which had in its circle four pearls enclosing a most beauteous 
 diamond; and, placing this ring upon the ring-finger of Catherine's 
 right hand, He said : < Lo, I espouse thee to Myself, thy Creator 
 and Saviour, in the Faith, which, until thou celebratest thy eternal 
 nuptials with Me in Heaven, thou wilt preserve ever without 
 stain. Henceforth, My daughter, do manfully and without 
 hesitation those things which, by the ordering of My providence, 
 will be put into thy hands ; for, being now armed with the 
 fortitude of the Faith, thou wilt happily overcome all thy 
 adversaries.' Then the vision disappeared, but that ring ever 
 remained on her finger, not indeed to the sight of others, but only 
 to the sight of the virgin herself ; for she often, albeit with bash- 
 fulness, confessed to me that she always saw that ring on her 
 finger, nor was there any time when she did not see it." 1 
 
 1 Legenda, I. xii. I, 2 (§ 115). 
 
 26 
 
CHAPTER II 
 FROM DANTE TO SAINT CATHERINE 
 
 "Ha, mater piissima, sponsa Christ! 1 quos in aqua et spiritu generas tibi filios ad 
 ruborem! Non Charitas, non Astraea, sed filiae sanguisugae factae sunt tibi nurus." — 
 Dante, Ep'ut. viii, 7, 
 
 Fully to understand Catherine's political work and mission, 
 we must turn to the states and rulers with which and with whom 
 she was to be brought into direct contact. 
 
 The " Babylonian Captivity " of the Popes at Avignon, which 
 had begun with Clement V in 1305, was still, to some extent, the 
 dominant feature in the situation. It was on Clement's death, 
 in 1 3 14, that the voice had been heard of "a man who was a 
 prophet," and Dante, in his letter to the Italian cardinals at 
 Carpentras, had renewed for Rome the lamentation of Jeremiah 
 for Jerusalem. 1 Things had grown worse under Clement's 
 successor, the Cahorsine John XXII (1316-1334). "The gold 
 which is the holiness of virtues has grown dim in the Church," 
 wrote Alvarus Pelagius, " for all covet material gold. Ordina- 
 tions and the sacraments are bought and sold for gold. When- 
 ever I entered the apartment of the chamberlain of our Lord the 
 Pope, I saw brokers, and tables full of gold, and clerics counting 
 and weighing florins." 2 Petrarca had written two poetical 
 epistles to Benedict XII (1 334-1 342), exhorting him to return 
 to Italy, and he duly offered a similar appeal in the name of 
 Rome to the man who now sat on the papal throne, Clement VI 
 (1342-1352). 3 In Clement, the typical Limousin pope, the 
 corruption of this epoch of the Papacy was personified. Learned 
 and eloquent, not without a certain magnanimity, his private life, 
 both as archbishop and as pope, was scandalous, and such was the 
 
 1 Ep'tst. viii. 4. 
 
 2 De Planctu Eccksiae, II. 7. Cf. Dante, Par. xviii. 1 30-136 ; G. Villani, 
 xi. 20. 
 
 3 Ep'tst. metr., Lib. I. 2, 5 ; Lib. II. 5. 
 
 27 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 luxury and prodigality of his court that he would have taxed all 
 Christendom, had he been able, to supply the funds. He wasted 
 the treasures of the Church in lending money to the French kings 
 to aid them in their wars with England, and in the advancement 
 of his kindred, filling the Sacred College with men of his own 
 stamp and country, godless and worldly, many of them of evil 
 and dissolute life. If Petrarca is to be believed, the riotous 
 licentiousness of these younger cardinals was but too well matched 
 in the senile debauchery of their elders who wore that hat, in 
 Dante's phrase, che pur di male in peggio si travasa, " which doth 
 but pass from bad vessel to worse." " Our two Clements," said 
 a French prelate of the Curia (probably the Patriarch of Jerusalem, 
 Philippe de Cabassole) to Petrarca, " have destroyed more of the 
 Church in a few years than seven of your Gregories could restore 
 in many centuries." l 
 
 In his three terrible sonnets against Avignon, Petrarca has 
 painted for all time the state of the society that gathered round 
 Clement's throne. But in one of his Latin poems, the sixth 
 eclogue entitled Pastorum pathos, St. Peter, in the guise of the old 
 shepherd Pamphilus, rebukes his hireling successor Mitio, who 
 is Clement himself, for the desolation of the pastures and the 
 destruction of the flocks, only to find him brazen-faced and 
 exulting in his shame. 2 Even more frightful is the picture of 
 the corruption of the papal court which the poet has left us 
 in his Epistolae sine titulo, albeit the note of exaggeration and 
 rhetorical inflation is manifest. "What difference is there," he 
 asks, " between those enemies of Christ, who betrayed Him with 
 a kiss and bent the knee before Him in mockery, and the 
 Pharisees of our time ? That same Christ, whose name they 
 exalt night and day with hymns of praise, whom they robe in 
 purple and gold, whom they load with jewels, whom they salute 
 and adore prostrate — that very same do they not buy and sell on 
 earth like merchandise ? As it were blindfold that He may not 
 
 1 Epist. sine titulo, XIX. Cf. M. Villani, iii. 43 ; Benvenuto da Imola, 
 Comentum, v. p. 289. 
 
 2 Egloga VI. 
 
 28 
 
FROM DANTE TO SAINT CATHERINE 
 
 see, they crown Him with the thorns of their impious wealth ; 
 they defile Him with most impure spittal, and assail Him with 
 viperous hissing ; they strike Him with the spear of their poisonous 
 deeds ; and, so far as in them lies, mocked, naked, poor, and 
 scourged, they drag Him again to Calvary, and nail Him again 
 to the Cross." Avignon is the Babylon of the West, the home 
 of all vices and misery, the same that the Evangelist saw in spirit ; 
 litde, indeed, according to the circuit of its walls, but immense in 
 its accumulation of wickedness. 1 
 
 On December 2, 1352, the campanile of St. Peter's was struck 
 by lightning. All the bells were dashed to the ground and fused 
 together as though they had been melted in a furnace. At once 
 the report spread through Rome that Pope Clement was dead. 
 " Lo now," it seemed to a Swedish widow that Christ said in her 
 heart, " the bells are burning, and men are crying out : Our lord 
 is dead, our lord the Pope has departed ; blessed be this day, 
 but not blessed that lord. How strange, for where all should 
 cry : May that lord live long and live happily ; there they cry 
 and say with joy : Down with him and may he not rise up again ! 
 But it is no wonder, for he himself, who should have cried : 
 Come, and ye shall find rest for your souls ; he cried : Come, and 
 behold me in pomp and ambition more than Solomon. Come to my 
 Court, and empty your -purses, and ye shall find perdition for your 
 souls. For thus did he cry by example and in deed. Therefore 
 the time of My wrath is now approaching, and I shall judge him 
 as one that has scattered the flock of Peter. O what a judgment 
 awaits him ! But, nevertheless, if he will yet be converted to 
 Me, I will run to meet him half-way like a tender father." 2 
 
 Clement's successor, Etienne d'Albret, who took the tide of 
 Innocent VI (1352-1362), was a simple man, "of good life and 
 not much knowledge ; " he made an earnest, but ineffectual 
 attempt to reform the papal court. The confusion of French 
 politics and the presence of bands of mercenaries in Provence 
 
 1 Epist. sine titulo, XVI., XIX., XX. 
 
 2 Revelationes S. Birgittae, VI. 96. Cf. M. Villani, iii. 42. Clement actually 
 died at Avignon on December 6. 
 
 29 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 were making Avignon a less desirable residence. Innocent spoke 
 of returning to, or at least visiting, Rome. In 1353, he sent the 
 great Spanish cardinal, Egidio (or Gil) de Albornoz, as legate to 
 Italy, to re-establish the power of the Holy See in the States of 
 the Church. 
 
 The two great powers of the peninsula (leaving Venice out 
 of the question, as, indeed, she did not yet concern herself much 
 with the politics of the mainland) were Milan in the north, where 
 the Visconti — the typical Italian tyrants of the age — were absorbing 
 a great part of Lombardy, and Naples in the south, under the 
 sway of sovereigns of the house of Anjou, the descendants of 
 the great Charles whom Dante saw in the Valley of the Princes 
 outside the gate of Purgatory. The one state was an absolute 
 despotism, under a family traditionally hostile to the Church ; the 
 other a feudal kingdom, normally a staunch supporter of the 
 Holy See. 
 
 On the death of Luchino Visconti in 1349, his brother, the 
 Archbishop Giovanni — an able and astute ruler, one of the least 
 atrocious of his cruel house — united the spiritual and temporal 
 sovereignty of its dominions in his own person. Bologna, though 
 nominally subject to the Church, had been the most powerful 
 city in Romagna, and one of the chief free republics of central 
 Italy. But the factions, raging there as elsewhere, had led to its 
 falling in 1321, the year of Dante's death, under the sway of a 
 single man, Romeo de' Pepoli, whose grandsons sold it in 1350 
 to the Archbishop of Milan. Clement VI shamelessly confirmed 
 this transaction by granting him the investiture of Bologna for 
 twelve years. On the death of Giovanni in 1354, he was 
 succeeded in his temporal sovereignty by his three nephews : 
 Matteo, Bernabo, and Galeazzo ; but in 1356, either consumed 
 by his own lusts or poisoned by his brothers, Matteo died, and 
 the other two divided the dominions of their house. Bernabo 
 made Milan his capital, while Galeazzo, after the capture of 
 Pavia in 1359, set his headquarters in the latter city. A Visconti 
 of uncertain parentage, Giovanni da Oleggio (possibly an un- 
 acknowledged bastard of the late Archbishop), made himself 
 
 3° 
 
FROM DANTE TO SAINT CATHERINE 
 
 independent master of Bologna, with aid from the Marquis 
 of Ferrara, and ruled it with the usual brutal tyranny of his 
 family. 
 
 Bernabo Visconti was now the head of the Ghibelline party in 
 Italy. A man of fierce passions, subject to paroxysms of bestial 
 fury, he was a cruel and sanguinary tyrant, but a prudent and 
 subtle politician. A mighty hunter, he enforced his game-laws 
 by wholesale blinding, torturing, and hanging of his unhappy 
 contadini. On one occasion, he burned alive two friars who had 
 rebuked him for these proceedings. He ground down his people 
 with taxation, and quartered his five thousand hunting-dogs upon 
 the citizens and convents ; their keepers were more dreaded than 
 the magistrates of the towns. Bernabo married Regina Beatrice 
 della Scala, the ambitious and able daughter of the despot of 
 Verona. " This woman," writes Corio, " ruled in great part her 
 husband's dominion ; she was of an imperious nature, proud and 
 daring, insatiable of wealth." x 
 
 The ruler of the south, the head of what would, under normal 
 circumstances, have been the Guelf party, was that mysterious and 
 unhappy woman, Giovanna of Anjou : " the great harlot that 
 sitteth upon many waters and was called the Queen of Naples." 2 
 Readers of Dante's Paradiso need not be reminded that Charles 
 Robert, son of the poet's beloved Charles Martel and Clemence 
 of Hapsburg, had been excluded from the throne of Naples 
 by his uncle, Charles Martel's younger brother, Robert the 
 Wise. Charles Robert became King of Hungary in 1308, 
 and ruled till 1342. In 1333, a reconciliation of the rival 
 claims of the two branches of the House of Anjou had been 
 effected by the marriage of Andrew, second son of Charles 
 Robert of Hungary, with Giovanna, the granddaughter and 
 heiress of Robert of Naples — both being seven years old. But 
 there were a number of princes of the royal blood of Naples 
 who might have expected the old King's choice to have fallen 
 
 1 Storia di Milano, III. 6. " Regina " appears to have been one of Beatrice's 
 real names, not merely an assumed title. 
 
 2 Walsingham, Historia Anglicana (ed. Riley), II. p. 49, 
 
 3 1 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 upon them, and the Hungarians were detested. The marriage 
 was an unhappy one. Robert of Naples died in 1343. On 
 September 18, 1345, Andrew was strangled as he left the Queen's 
 chamber at Aversa ; it seems probable that Giovanna was at 
 least privy to the deed, and others of the royal family were 
 implicated. 
 
 Such, at least, was the view of the avenger— the dead man's 
 brother, Louis of Hungary — by strict descent the head of the 
 house of Anjou. A young king, strong and terrible, he 
 assembled a Hungarian army, and, in 1347, invaded Italy. 
 Giovanna, who had married her cousin, Luigi of Taranto, fled 
 to Provence (of which she was Countess), where she convinced 
 the Pope of her innocence, and sold Avignon to him for a 
 nominal sum. With his black standard of vengeance floating 
 before him, the King of Hungary entered the kingdom of 
 Naples. At Aversa, he executed his cousin, Charles of Durazzo, 
 on the spot of Andrew's murder, as an accomplice in the crime ; 
 the rest of the royal family were sent prisoners into Hungary, 
 with the little child, Carobert, Giovanna's son (ostensibly by her 
 late husband), who died almost immediately. Naples surrendered 
 in terror. But, in the next year, Giovanna and Luigi returned ; 
 and a long war was brought to an end by the Pope's intervention 
 in April, 1352, leaving the kingdom to Giovanna and her 
 husband, and to Louis what he professed alone to desire — the 
 satisfaction of having avenged his brother's death. 
 
 Giovanna's second husband died in 1362, and, in 1366, she 
 married a third, James of Aragon, son of the King of Majorca. 
 The house of Anjou had now three chief representatives : 
 Giovanna at Naples, still of surpassing beauty, luxurious and 
 splendid, not devoid of enlightenment, presiding over the gayest 
 and most gorgeous court of Italy ; King Louis of Hungary, who 
 was making his kingdom the most potent state in Europe, con- 
 quering Moldavia in 1352 and Bulgaria in 1365 ; and the younger 
 Charles of Durazzo ("Carlo della Pace"), nephew of the Duke 
 whom Louis had slain, and husband of Giovanna's niece Mar- 
 gherita, in the service of his Hungarian cousin, and himself 
 
 3 2 
 
FROM DANTE TO SAINT CATHERINE 
 
 uniting the claims of two branches of the royal house. In 1370, 
 Louis succeeded his maternal uncle, Casimir III, as King of 
 Poland. To the Italians, who had seen the vengeance he had 
 taken for his brother, and the stern justice with which he repressed 
 the excesses of his own troops in Naples, he seemed a possible 
 arbiter of the nation's destinies, more formidable than the 
 Emperor himself. In their eyes, he was hardly more a foreigner 
 than Queen Giovanna or the Visconti of Milan. It will seem 
 perfecdy natural to the Republic of Florence to appeal to him 
 against the Pope, and to Catherine of Siena herself to look to him 
 as the champion and defender of the Church. 
 
 Between despot-ridden north and feudal south lay the 
 Republics of Tuscany and the nominal States of the Church. 
 
 And here the great Guelf Republic of Florence was still the 
 dominant power. Excluded from the government by the famous 
 Ordinances of Justice in 1293, the nobles (magnates or grand!) 
 had been finally broken in the tremendous street battles of 1343. 
 The power was mainly in the hands of the wealthy burghers, 
 popolani grassi, members of the greater Guilds ; but the smaller 
 tradesmen and artisans, forming the minor Guilds, were gradually 
 coming to the front, and sharing in the administration. And 
 rumblings of social discontent, sounds from a still lower stratum 
 of society, were being heard in the background. The supreme 
 magistracy of the Republic, the Signoria, consisted of the Gonfa- 
 loniere of Justice and eight Priors of the Arts (instead of the six 
 in Dante's days), two from each quarter of the city. These 
 Signori held office for two months ; their nomination was by lot, 
 and was controlled by a complicated process of scrutiny. Next 
 came the two " Colleges," that is, the twelve Buonuomini, who 
 were the counsellors of the Signoria, and the sixteen Gonfalonieri 
 of the city companies, four from each quarter. All magnates, 
 whether by birth or declared so as penalty, were excluded from 
 the Signoria and the Colleges, whose members were all popolani, 
 Florentine burghers and artisans, ascribed to the greater or minor 
 Arts or Guilds. 
 
 The executive, as in almost all Italian States of the epoch, was 
 
 3 33 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 represented by three alien magistrates : the Captain and the 
 Podesta, both foreign (that is, from some other Italian state) 
 nobles, and the Executor of Justice, who was normally a foreign 
 burgher. There were two great Councils of the State : the 
 Council of the People, over which the Captain presided, and the 
 Council of the Commune presided over by the Podesta. In the 
 former, only popolani could sit, but grandi were also admitted to 
 the latter. Measures proposed by the Signoria had first to be 
 carried in the Colleges ; if they passed there, they were then 
 submitted successively to the Council of the People and to the 
 Council of the Commune, after which they became law. Tem- 
 porary measures could, however, be concerted between the 
 Signoria and a special meeting of richiesti, citizens summoned for 
 the purpose, without an appeal to these councils ; and in theory, 
 and now and then in practice, a general Parliament, open to all 
 the citizens of Florence, was assembled. 
 
 There was, however, in addition, another organization within 
 the Republic, one which we shall find very closely associated with 
 Catherine in her dealings with the Florentines. This was the 
 Parte Guelfa, with its six captains and two councils, originally 
 founded in the latter part of the thirteenth century, to maintain 
 Guelf principles in the State. And in this the magnates were 
 predominant, three of the captains being elected from their number. 
 Their power of " admonishing " persons obnoxious to them, as 
 suspected " Ghibellines," thereby excluding them from office 
 under heavy penalties, made them greatly dreaded — all the more 
 as, now that nothing of Ghibellinism remained but the name, this 
 power was for the most part used to gratify personal feuds and to 
 fan the flames of faction. 
 
 In Siena, from the middle of the thirteenth century, there had 
 been a more or less similar constitution of the Commune and of 
 the People — but with the striking difference that the organization 
 of the latter was not based upon the Arts or Guilds, which (with 
 the exception of the two Merchant Guilds, the Arti di Mercanzia, 
 and the Guild of Wool) were of little political importance, but 
 upon the Societies armorum, the armed militia or train-bands of 
 
 34 
 
FROM DANTE TO SAINT CATHERINE 
 
 the contrade, or wards, into which the three terzi of the city were 
 divided. 1 The Concilium Campanae, or Council of the Bel!, 
 elected the executive officials of the State, as usual from out of 
 the lesser nobles of other Italian cities : the Podesta, the chief 
 judicial officer, and the Conservative, or Capitano di Guerra, later 
 called the Senator, who led the forces of the Republic in time of 
 war. But the Captain of the People, in the fourteenth century, 
 was always a Sienese plebeian. 
 
 After the exclusion of the nobles or geniiluomini (milites) from 
 the administration, in the third quarter of the thirteenth century, 
 Siena had enjoyed a period of considerable prosperity under the 
 oligarchical rule of the " good merchants of the Guelf party," the 
 chief council or magistracy of the Nine. The Nine held office 
 for two months, lived at the expense of the State, and (to the 
 complete exclusion of the lower orders no less than of the nobles) 
 were elected from the rich and enlightened burgher class, corre- 
 sponding, more or less, to the popolani grassi of Florence. In 
 Siena the orders that held sway successively were known as Monti. 
 The adherents and families of this Monte del Nove are famous in 
 Sienese history as the Noveschi. The epoch of their rule, when 
 Siena gained the title of amorosa madre di dolcezza, is that pictured 
 to us in those vivid little masterpieces, the sonnets of Folgore da 
 San Gimignano. Early in the fourteenth century, they had pur- 
 chased the port of Talamone, by which they hoped to make the 
 Republic a great maritime power, even as Pisa in the past ; but 
 the unhealthiness of the situation, and the impossibility of keeping 
 the harbour clear, soon damped their ardour. The sanguinary 
 feuds of the nobles — the Tolomei against the Salimbeni, the 
 Malavolti against the Piccolomini, the Saracini against the Scotti 
 — kept the State in chronic disturbance ; plots and tumults against 
 the burgher oligarchy, usually hatched by a combination of nobles 
 
 1 Cf. R. L. Douglas, History of Siena, pp. 108-114; E. Armstrong, The 
 Sienese Statutes of 1262 (on L. Zdekauer's great work, 77 Constituto del Comune di 
 Siena del? anno 1 26 2, Milan, 1897), in the English Historical Review, vol. xv., 
 London, 1900 ; G. Canestrini, Delia Milizia Italiana dal secolo XIII. al XVI, 
 pp. xviii., xix. 
 
 35 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 and popolo minuto, threatened the administration ; while, in the 
 contado, the Salimbeni were almost independent of the Republic, 
 made their own alliances, and not unfrequently were united with 
 the enemies of their fatherland. 
 
 The once mighty Republic of Pisa had sunk to a secondary 
 position among the powers of Tuscany. To its destinies during 
 the fourteenth century were united those of its neighbour, Lucca, 
 which had been subjected to Pisan rule in 1342. Pisa was 
 divided by the factions of the Bergolini and Raspanti ; the latter 
 being expelled, the family of the Gambacorti swayed the Republic. 
 Andrea di Gherardo Gambacorti held the chief authority until his 
 death in 1351, when he was succeeded by his nephews, Francesco 
 and Lotto. We shall find Andrea's son, Piero, among the friends 
 and correspondents of Catherine. The rule of the Gambacorti 
 was just, pacific, and beneficent — they were men of upright life 
 and loyal to the Republic. 
 
 With these four communes, Florence, Siena, Pisa, and Lucca, 
 Catherine was to be closely connected. The remaining Tuscan 
 republic, that of Arezzo, hardly touched her life at all. It had 
 already been subject to Florence from 1336 until 1343, and the 
 days of its independence were numbered. 
 
 To the south and east of Tuscany lay what were nominally 
 the Papal States, in which, however, the always vague authority of 
 the Church had sunk to a minimum. Of the cities included in 
 them, some, such as Perugia, governed themselves as virtually 
 independent republics ; others, such as Rimini and Forli, were in 
 the hands of despots like the Malatesta and Ordelafii, who ruled 
 them either under the title of papal vicars or with no title but 
 that conferred by the power of the sword and mercenary troops. 
 The state of the Eternal City itself was peculiar, and was destined 
 to affect all Christendom in the great struggle with which 
 Catherine's closing days are associated. 
 
 Overshadowed by the Popes and Emperors, the Roman 
 Republic had still existed throughout the centuries, always in 
 name and at intervals in fact, when, in Giovanni Villani's telling 
 
 phrase, e Romani si levarono a romore e feciono popolo " the 
 
 3 6 
 
FROM DANTE TO SAINT CATHERINE 
 
 Romans rose in tumult and established a popular government." 
 " The ancient people and government of Rome," writes Matteo, 
 "was to all the world a mirror of constancy and incredible 
 firmness, of upright and regulated living, and of every moral 
 virtue. But those who at present possess the ruins of that 
 famous city are, on the contrary, utterly fickle and inconstant, and 
 without any shadow of moral virtues. With eager and excessive 
 lightness, they often overturn their state, and, seeking liberty, 
 they have found it, but have not known how to set it in order 
 nor how to keep it." 1 The absence of the Popes, while weaken- 
 ing the power of the nobles, gave a fresh impulse of life to the 
 Republic, whose rights had been formally recognized by Clement V 
 in 1 3 10. Revolution after revolution followed, until in May, 
 1347, the humanist Cola di Rienzo, full of poetical and unpractical 
 dreams of Rome's past, established " the Good Estate," declaring 
 the cause of Rome that of the whole of Italy, and calling upon the 
 Italian States to free themselves from their tyrants and to send 
 representatives to a national parliament. The scheme fell to 
 nothing, through the disposition of the times and the unworthi- 
 ness of the man who proposed it. Rienzi fled in December, 
 and passed more than two years of mystical contemplation among 
 the Fraticelli in the Abruzzi. An epoch of anarchy followed — 
 scarcely abating during the Jubilee of 1350, when, finding them- 
 selves insulted and threatened, the papal legates put the city 
 under an interdict. Sent by the Emperor as a prisoner to 
 Avignon, Rienzi was reconciled to Innocent VI, and returned 
 to Italy in the autumn of 1353, as the Pope's representative, 
 to collaborate with the great Spanish cardinal in building up the 
 fabric of the Church's temporal power — only to meet a shameful 
 death on the steps of the Capitol. 
 
 " The Capitol was yet stained with the blood of Rienzi," 
 writes Gibbon, "when Charles the Fourth descended from the 
 Alps to obtain the Italian and Imperial crowns." For a while, 
 
 1 M. Villani, ix. 87. For these changes and counter-changes, see the admir- 
 able essay by Pasquale Villari, // comune di Roma nel medio evo, in Saggi storki e 
 critic], Bologna, 1890. 
 
 37 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 Petrarca believed in him as Dante had believed in his grandfather 
 — but was bitterly disillusioned. Crowned at Rome by the 
 Cardinal of Ostia, on Easter Day, 1355, he returned to Prague : 
 " with the crown which he had received without stroke of sword ; 
 with the purse full of money, which he had brought empty ; but 
 with little glory for virtuous deeds, and with great disgrace for the 
 debasement of the Imperial Majesty." 1 "Oh," exclaimed 
 Petrarca, " if thy grandfather and father met thee in the passage 
 of the Alps, what thinkest thou they would say ? Emperor of the 
 Romans in name, thou art in truth only the King of Bohemia." 2 
 
 At Siena and at Pisa, the imperial passage was marked by a 
 revolutionary outbreak and the overthrow of the oligarchical 
 government. 
 
 While on his way to Rome, the Sienese ambassadors, headed 
 by Guccio Tolomei and Giovanni di Agnolino Salimbeni, had 
 sworn fidelity to the Emperor at Pisa on behalf of the Nine, and 
 he had sworn in return to preserve the liberties of Siena, and to 
 make the Nine his vicars. But when, on his arrival at the city in 
 March, the nobles and populace rose together, clamouring 
 " Long life to the Emperor, and death to the Nine," the utmost 
 that Charles would do for the unlucky magistrates was to refuse 
 to surrender their persons to the fury of the mob. He received 
 their abdication, forced them to renounce all the privileges he had 
 granted them, and to annul the oath he had sworn to their 
 ambassadors, while the populace were led by the younger nobles 
 to sack their houses and drag their official chest through the city 
 at the tail of an ass. The relations and adherents of the Nine 
 hid themselves as best they could. No one would receive or 
 speak with them. Their servants deserted them. The very 
 priests and religious shrank from them as though they had the 
 plague. 
 
 The government was entirely reformed in the interests of the 
 lower middle classes. A new supreme magistracy of twelve 
 popo/ani, henceforth known as the Twelve, the Signori Dodici, 
 
 1 M. Villain, v. 54. 
 
 2 De Relus Familiaribus, Lib. XIX. ep. 12 (Fracassetti) 
 
 38 
 
FROM DANTE TO SAINT CATHERINE 
 
 four from each terzo of the city, was appointed, holding office for 
 two months, one of them to serve as Captain of the People 
 and Gonfaloniere of Justice. There was at first a subsidiary 
 council of six nobles, to be known as the Collegio, who were not 
 to reside with the Signoria in the Palace, but without whom the 
 Twelve could undertake nothing of importance nor open letters 
 that concerned the State. But at the beginning of June, after the 
 Emperor had passed again through Siena on his return journey, 
 Giovanni di Agnolino Salimbeni (the most weighty in counsel 
 of all the Sienese nobles, and a man most loyal to the Republic, 
 with whose family Catherine was to be so closely associated), him- 
 self a member of the College, finding that this arrangement 
 would not work, agreed with the Twelve to summon a general 
 council in the Sala Grande of the Palace, at which the six nobles 
 laid down their office and the College was abolished. 1 The 
 government thus remained entirely in the hands of the Twelve 
 and their adherents, known as the Dodicini, afterwards called the 
 People of the Middle Number. The members of this new Monte 
 (called, by Matteo Villani, of the " minuti mestieri ") came 
 from the class of the petty tradesmen and small notaries. It 
 " formed a class intermediate between the order of the Noveschi 
 and the lowest populace, and was composed for the most part of 
 families which had become well-to-do by attending to trade and 
 commerce, during that long period of prosperity that the Republic 
 enjoyed under the oligarchical government of the Nine." 2 Their 
 rule, however, proved the most corrupt and incompetent that 
 Siena had ever endured, though they carried on an ultimately 
 successful war against Perugia, and made attempts, partly by 
 money, partly by hiring other mercenaries, to deal with the ever 
 increasing scourge of the foreign companies that at intervals 
 threatened the Sienese contado. 
 
 In the meanwhile, at Pisa, an alarm that the Emperor intended 
 to liberate Lucca, and an attempt to reconcile the rival factions of 
 the Raspanti and Bergolini, had led to a popular rising against 
 
 1 Cronica Sanese, coll. 148-152. 
 
 2 Grottanelli, notes to the Leggenda minore, p. 190. 
 
 39 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 him, in which his Germans suffered heavily. Both factions were 
 equally implicated ; but the Raspanti had gained the ear of the 
 Emperor, and obtained the support of the imperial troops in 
 executing vengeance upon their enemies. The houses of the 
 Gambacorti were destroyed, and the heads of the family put on 
 their trial for treason. Their innocence was manifest, but the 
 imperial judges wrung a confession by torture. On May 28, the 
 three brothers, Francesco, Lotto, and Bartolommeo Gambacorti, 
 with four of their principal adherents, were beheaded in the 
 Piazza degli Anziani of Pisa, solemnly protesting their innocence 
 to the last, and for three days, at the Emperor's orders, their 
 bodies were ignominiously exposed in the mingled blood and filth 
 of the piazza. 1 Piero Gambacorti, with his friends and kindred, 
 was banished from the city ; while Caesar went on his way, leaving 
 an imperial vicar behind him, and the State of Pisa in the hands 
 of the treacherous Raspanti, who, in 1365, with the aid of foreign 
 mercenaries, made Giovanni dell' Agnello, an unscrupulous and 
 worthless upstart, lord of the city, with the title of Doge, to 
 which he added that of captain-general of Lucca. 
 
 Cardinal Albornoz had come to Italy in the latter part of 
 1353. Temporizing with the Visconti, received enthusiastically 
 by the Florentines and Sienese, welcomed even by the Perugians, 
 he had begun by making war upon Giovanni di Vico, titular 
 Prefect of Rome, the tyrant of Viterbo, Orvieto, Civita Vecchia, 
 and other places in the Patrimony. Viterbo (henceforth the 
 capital of the Patrimony), Orvieto, Assisi, Spoleto, and other 
 Umbrian cities were recovered for the Church, while Rienzi was 
 playing out the last scene of his deplorable melodrama on the stage 
 of the Capitol. While Charles IV was receiving the imperial crown 
 from the hands of the Cardinal of Ostia, the indefatigable Spaniard 
 was carrying his victorious arms into the Marches, against the 
 Malatesta of Rimini, Astorre Manfredi of Faenza, Francesco 
 degli Ordelaffi of Forli and Cesena. The petty despots were 
 either expelled from their States or forced to act as papal vicars 
 
 1 M - Villani, v. 31-33, 37 ; Cronica di Pisa, coll. 1029-1033 ; Cronica Sanese, 
 coll. 150, 152. 
 
 40 
 
FROM DANTE TO SAINT CATHERINE 
 
 on the Cardinal's terms, who made his headquarters at Monte- 
 fiascone as Rector of the Patrimony. Faenza, Cesena, and Forli 
 were taken. Defeated in the open field by the papal forces, 
 Galeotto Malatesta was compelled to enter into an alliance with 
 the Church. 
 
 An even more signal triumph was the recovery of Bologna. 
 Hard pressed by the armies of Bernabo Visconti, Giovanni da 
 Oleggio surrendered the city to Albornoz in March, 1360, and 
 Bologna thus became subject to the direct dominion of the Holy 
 See. The Cardinal's warlike nephew, Gomez Albornoz, was 
 made governor. War between Bernabo and the Church followed ; 
 Bologna was invested by the forces of the Visconti and again hard 
 pressed, until in June, 136 1, Gomez Albornoz, with the aid of 
 Galeotto and Malatesta Malatesta, completely defeated Bernabo's 
 army on the banks of the Savena at San Rossillo. Thus was 
 the work of recovering the temporalities of the Church practically 
 accomplished, when, on September 11, 1362, Innocent VI died 
 at Avignon. 
 
 A few years before his death, Innocent, at the advice of 
 Albornoz (who had practically left the city alone, and had, perhaps, 
 never entered its walls), had nominated a single foreigner (that is, 
 not Roman) Senator of Rome, a kind of Podesta to hold office 
 for six months — the first appointed being a Sienese noble, 
 Raimondo de' Tolomei. This pleased the people, but about the 
 same time (1360), taking advantage of the preoccupation of 
 Albornoz with the affair of Bologna, they set up a popular 
 government under seven Riformatori (in imitation of the Floren- 
 tine Priors), popolani to hold office for three months. Nobles were 
 excluded from the army as well as from the government — the 
 popular forces of the Republic being reorganized, under the two 
 Bandaresi (in imitation of the Gonfalonieri of the Companies in 
 Florence) and four Antepositi, into a military guild, which was 
 known as the Felix Societas Balestrariorum et Pavesatorum Urbis, 
 the " happy society of the crossbowmen and shieldbearers of 
 the City." The Bandaresi and Antepositi sat in the special 
 council of the city, with the Riformatori and the heads of the 
 
 41 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 Rioni (the districts into which Rome is still divided). Later on, 
 they formed, together with the Riformatori, the Signoria, which 
 was called the Signoria of the Bandaresi. A force of three thousand 
 well-armed plebeians waited on their biddings. It was their office 
 to execute justice against powerful evildoers and refractory nobles, 
 and all who should shelter criminals in their fortresses ; and they 
 began their work with the most rigorous severity. " There is no 
 prince or baron in the jurisdiction of the Roman People," writes 
 the Florentine chronicler, " who is not terrified thereat and does 
 not hold them in great dread, and who for fear does not obey the 
 governors of Rome and their rulers." 1 Such was the Roman 
 Signoria with which Catherine of Siena, at a critical epoch in her 
 life, was to have to deal. And better had it fared with the Church, 
 if it had been only the temporal lords of Rome who trembled 
 before it ! 
 
 Amidst this turmoil of political faction and moral corruption, 
 men and women arose who looked for righteousness ; flowers of 
 the spiritual life bloomed even in the bloodstained streets of Siena 
 and on the arid desert of the seven hills of Rome. Catherine's 
 work was, to some extent, anticipated by the Swedish princess, 
 Birgitta (whom we now call St. Bridget), that flower of the north 
 transplanted to the Eternal City, and by Giovanni Colombini, 
 himself a Sienese. 
 
 Giovanni di Pietro Colombini was a rich merchant, belonging to 
 the order of the Noveschi, one who had himself sat in the Signoria 
 of the Nine. He was absorbed in mercantile pursuits and in the 
 acquisition of wealth, until one day, to soothe his irritation when 
 dinner was not ready and he wished to return to the warehouse, 
 his wife bade him read a volume of the lives of the Saints. He 
 chanced upon the legend of St. Mary of Egypt, and was com- 
 pletely converted by its perusal. Another of the Noveschi, who 
 had also been one of the Nine, Francesco di Mino Vincenti, 
 joined him, and the two consulted the pious Carthusian, Pietro 
 Petroni, who bade them follow Christ in the most absolute 
 
 1 M. Villani, ix. 87 ; Villari, op. cit., pp. 234, 235 ; Gregorovius, English 
 ed., VI. part II. pp. 403, 404. 
 
 42 
 
FROM DANTE TO SAINT CATHERINE 
 
 poverty. 1 This appears to have been in 1355, the year of the 
 downfall of the Nine. A few years later, they carried out Pietro's 
 counsels, placed their daughters in the Benedictine monastery of 
 Santa Bonda (of which the Abbess, Madonna Paola di Ser Ghino 
 Foresi, was a sort of spiritual mother to this new movement), and 
 gave away all their possessions to religion and the poor — Giovanni 
 first making adequate provision for Monna Biagia, his wife. 
 Even as they had punished their former avarice with poverty, 
 they sought for shame where they had once received honour ; and 
 for two months, the time during which they had sat in the 
 supreme magistracy or the Nine, they performed all the menial 
 work of the Palace, begging their food in the meanwhile through 
 the streets. 
 
 Disciples came to them, who were received and clothed with 
 rags at the Madonna of the Campo, and initiated into the spirit 
 of these new poverelli by public humiliation through the streets of 
 Siena — which one young noble who joined them confessed that he 
 found as bitter as death. 2 Among the earliest of these Gesuati (as 
 they were afterwards called) was Tommaso di Guelfaccio, one of 
 the leading Noveschi, previously a man of soft and luxurious life, 
 whom we shall meet again in Catherine's circle. Giovanni and 
 Francesco then wandered over the Sienese contado, preaching 
 Christ and Poverty, working everywhere a wonderful revival, 
 stirring up a new life among the Franciscans and Dominicans 
 themselves, who welcomed them with enthusiasm, especially at 
 Asciano and Montalcino. Said a friar minor to Giovanni : " If 
 religious will once more begin to speak only of God, the 
 spirit of holy fervour will return among us, and we shall set 
 the world on fire." 3 Banished from the Sienese dominions 
 by the Twelve, they wandered to Arezzo, Citta di Castello, 
 
 1 Pietro Petroni died in 1 361. A vision which he had upon his death-bed 
 brought about the conversion of Boccaccio. Cf. Petrarca, Rerum Senilium, Lib. I. 
 ep. 5 ; Bartholomaeus Senensis, Vita B. Petri Petroni, III. 1, 2, 11. 
 
 2 Cf. Lettere delB. Giovanni Colombini, 87, the reception of Giovanni di Niccoli 
 di Verdusa. 
 
 3 Ibid., 17. 
 
 43 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 and other Tuscan cities, converting sinners, enforcing reparation 
 of fame and goods, healing feuds and factions. Pisa, too, gave 
 them a glad welcome, and at length the Twelve, for very shame, 
 revoked their sentence of banishment. Something of the mystical 
 aroma of these days lingers yet in the letters of Giovanni and 
 Francesco still preserved, and not the least pleasant feature in 
 them is the beautiful and pathetic spiritual intercourse that still 
 bound the former to his devoted wife, who, as she said, had 
 prayed for rain, but had not quite expected such a flood. 
 
 A very different figure is Birgitta, whose revelation on the 
 death of Clement VI we have already heard. Born about the 
 year 1303, the daughter of Birger, lord of Finstad, and Ingeborge, 
 his wife (both of whom were connected with the reigning house 
 of Sweden), Birgitta, when little more than a child, was married to 
 Ulf Gudmarsson, a Swedish noble of royal blood, to whom she 
 bore eight children, of whom Charles, the eldest of her five sons, 
 and Catherine, the second of three daughters, will play a part in 
 this history. Her married life was (save for the enforced 
 marriage of her eldest daughter to an unworthy man) one of 
 almost ideal happiness. Alike in her husband's castle of Ulfasa 
 and in the court of Magnus II, King of Sweden and Norway, she 
 wrought for Christ and the salvation of souls. At her request, 
 her confessor, Matthias of Linkoping, translated the Pentateuch 
 into Swedish. On their return from a pilgrimage to Compostela, 
 Ulf Gudmarsson became a monk, in 1343, and died in the 
 following year, Birgitta being with him at the last. 
 
 Then the spirit of prophecy fell upon her, and the same 
 mystical Voice spoke in the heart of the Swedish princess that the 
 dyer's daughter of Siena was to hear a few years later. 1 The 
 wonderful book of Revelations, that Birgitta now began to dictate, 
 is at once a spiritual autobiography, a collection of epistles, a 
 record of graces and visions, a denunciation of the corruption of 
 the times. It anticipates in many respects Catherine's political 
 letters and her Dialogue alike. For a while, she returned to the 
 court, as Mistress of the Palace, to preach repentance there ; a 
 1 Revelatlones S. Birgittae, II. 10. 
 44 
 
FROM DANTE TO SAINT CATHERINE 
 
 little later she founded at Vadstena her order of the Holy Saviour, 
 composed of women and men alike, each monastery containing 
 two convents, the Abbess to be as the Virgin Mother in the 
 midst of the Apostles. Then she looked southwards to Avignon 
 and Rome, and the Voice spoke again in her heart, inspiring her 
 with an eloquent letter to Pope Clement, rebuking him as " a 
 lover of the flesh " for the cupidity and ambition that he suffered 
 to flourish in the Church, urging him to be converted before it 
 was too late. 1 At the end of 1349, she left her native land, and 
 went, by Milan, Pa via, and Genoa, to Rome for the Jubilee. 
 
 With Italy the rest of Birgitta's life was to be associated. At 
 Farfa, whither she had fled with her company during the interdict, 
 she was joined by her daughter — the tall, silent, golden-haired 
 Catherine, unhappy and mysterious, a prey to depression and to 
 fits of terror which were only too well-founded. While at Farfa, 
 Catherine heard of the death of her husband. Returning to 
 Rome, the Swedish ladies took up their residence first in the 
 palace of the Pope's brother, Cardinal Hugues Roger de Beaufort, 
 at San Lorenzo in Damaso, and afterwards in the house still 
 shown (now a Carmelite convent) near the Campo de' Fiori. In 
 the anarchy that followed the Jubilee, Catherine ran fearful risks 
 at the hands of the lawless Roman barons who attempted to get 
 possession of her. At last one of the Orsini, hearing that the 
 Swedish ladies were to go to S. Lorenzo fuori le Mura on the 
 Saint's feast, laid an ambush for them between the basilica and 
 the gate. Converted by a miraculous blindness, the young baron 
 became their most ardent protector, and through him they 
 acquired the friendship and support of his house, and especially 
 of Niccolo Orsini, the Count of Nola. 
 
 The desolation of the Eternal City struck deeply into 
 Birgitta's soul, and inspired pages of pure eloquence not un- 
 worthy of Petrarca himself. A Voice ever cried in her heart : 
 " O Rome, Rome, thy walls are broken down ; thy gates are left 
 unguarded ; thy vessels are sold and thy altars are desolate ; the 
 living sacrifice and morning incense are consumed in the outer 
 
 1 Revelationes , VI. 63. 
 45 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 courts, and therefore the sweetest odour of sanctity rises no more 
 from the Holy of Holies." But still she saw room for hope. 
 " Rome is verily as thou hast seen," said the Voice ; " the altars 
 are desolate, the offertory is spent in the taverns, and they that 
 offer serve the world rather than God. Know, nevertheless, that, 
 from the time of Peter the humble even until Boniface ascended 
 the seat of pride, innumerable souls have ascended to Heaven. 
 Rome is still not without friends of God ; let them call upon the 
 Lord, and He will have mercy upon them." 1 And again she 
 heard the high command : " Thou shalt remain in Rome until 
 thou seest the Pope and the Emperor, and thou shalt speak to 
 them in My name the words that I shall tell thee." So, with the 
 exception of a pilgrimage to Assisi and the holy places of Naples, 
 Birgitta remained in Rome, tending the sick in the hospitals, 
 begging alms for the poor, labouring for the salvation of souls, 
 while she waited for the promised advent of Pontiff and Emperor ; 
 and, in the meanwhile, " she had many revelations concerning the 
 state of the City, in which our Lord Jesus Christ rebuked the 
 excesses and the sins of its inhabitants, with grave threatening of 
 chastisement. Which revelations, brought to the knowledge of 
 the inhabitants of Rome, stirred up furious hatred against the 
 blessed Birgitta. Wherefore some of them threatened to burn 
 her alive, and others blasphemed her as a sorceress ; but the 
 blessed Birgitta patiently suffered their threats and insults." 2 
 
 To this coming of Pope and Emperor the thoughts of all 
 who looked for the salvation of Israel were soon to be directed ; 
 yet was it to prove but the song that "bore false witness of 
 dawn." 
 
 1 Revelationes, III. 27. 2 Revelationes extravagantes, 8. 
 
 46 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 THE VALLEY OF LILIES 
 
 "Virgo sacra, jam summo doctore docente imo etiam compellente, addiscebat quotidie 
 amplius, et in lectulo florido frui Sponsi caelestis amplexibus et ad convallem liliorum 
 descendere, ut foecundior redderetur ; nee alterum pro altero dimittere aut diminuere." — 
 Raimondo da Capua, Ligmda, § 130. 
 
 It was probably in 1366 that Catherine, the mystery of her 
 spiritual espousals being fulfilled, began to go forth from her cell, 
 to join in the life of the family, to labour for the conversion of 
 souls. The voice of the celestial Bridegroom sounded in her 
 ears : Of en to me, my sister, my beloved, my dove ; which Fra 
 Raimondo interprets : " Open for me the gates of souls that I 
 may enter them. Open the path by which My sheep may pass 
 in and out, and find pasture. Open for My honour thy treasury 
 of divine grace and knowledge, and pour it forth upon the faith- 
 ful." The gifts that she had received in the cell were now to 
 be made manifest to the world. 
 
 Once more, and this time in the face of vigorous opposition 
 from her family, Catherine devoted herself to all the humblest 
 menial labours of the house. With her father's leave, she had 
 full liberty to give as much as she thought fit of his substance to 
 the poor. She tended the sick, in their houses and in the 
 hospitals, day and night, and with the greatest zeal nursed those 
 afflicted by the most loathsome diseases. From a poor woman 
 named Cecca, dying of leprosy and deserted by all, who reviled 
 and taunted her while she gave herself up to relieving the horror 
 and loneliness of her last days, she took the dreadful malady, 
 which spread over her hands ; but, when the woman at length 
 died and Catherine had prepared the body for burial, she was 
 miraculously healed. One of her own sisters in religion, Suora 
 Palmerina, had been among her chief detractors, and persecuted 
 her still with her hatred when on her death-bed ; converted at 
 last by her prayers, Palmerina died in peace, and Catherine beheld 
 
 47 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 her soul, which, " albeit it was not yet blessed, was so beautiful 
 that no words could express." And, all this while, her conversa- 
 tion with the Divine Master and Spouse continued uninterrupted 
 and increasingly ardent, although at times He came to her only in 
 the guise of the beggar to whom she gave her cloak or the silver 
 cross of her chaplet. "Taught, nay, rather compelled by her 
 supreme Teacher, she learned every day more and more both to 
 enjoy the embraces of the celestial Bridegroom in the bed of 
 flowers, and to descend into the valley of lilies to make herself 
 more fruitful, nor ever to leave or lessen the one for the sake of 
 the other." 1 
 
 Though suffering intolerable pains in her whole frame, she 
 impressed all who approached her by her constant mirthfulness, 
 her never-failing high spirits, her radiant happiness. " She was 
 always jocund and of a happy spirit," says one of her intimates, 
 " and especially when held down by any sickness ; while that 
 lasted, she was ever all laughing in the Lord and exultant and 
 rejoicing." 2 To those who criticized her almost entire abstinence 
 from human food, she would answer humbly : " God for my sins 
 has smitten me with a singular infirmity, by which I am totally 
 prevented from taking food ; I would eat right willingly, but 
 cannot. Pray for me that He may forgive me my sins, because 
 of which I suffer every ill." 3 
 
 From the beginning to the end of her life, Catherine desired 
 to be subject to all, even to the servant in her father's house and 
 the poor she encountered in the streets or in the hospital. She, 
 in all sincerity, regarded herself as the vilest of creatures, and 
 desired to be treated as such ; again and again, we shall find her 
 asserting that her sins are the cause of all the evil around her, and 
 almost that she alone is responsible for all the corruption of the 
 world. She would fain have her faults judged by comparison 
 with the graces she received. " If I were perfectly inflamed by 
 the fire of Divine Love," she said once to Fra Raimondo, " and 
 
 1 Legenda, II. ii. 4 (§ 130). 
 
 2 Contestatio Fr. Thomae Caffarini, Processus, col. 1258. 
 
 3 Legenda, II. v. 9 (§ 174). 
 
 48 
 
THE VALLEY OF LILIES 
 
 besought my Creator with ardent heart, would not He who is all 
 merciful surely use mercy towards all these, and grant them all 
 to be enkindled by the fire which would then be in me ? And 
 what is it that impedes such great good ? Surely nought else 
 but my sins. The fault cannot be on the side of the Creator, in 
 whom there is no defect ; it must, therefore, be in me and from 
 me. When I consider how many and what great graces the 
 Lord has so mercifully granted me, in order that I might become 
 such as I have said, and still through my iniquities I am not such, 
 which is clearly shown me in the evils that I see, I am wroth 
 against myself and bewail my sins, albeit for this I do not despair, 
 but always hope the more that He may pardon me and them." 1 
 
 There were times, indeed, when she suffered much, need- 
 lessly, through this humility. Although bound by no vows 
 (for the Dominican tertiaries did not then take the vows of 
 Chastity, Poverty, and Obedience, even if there were many who, 
 like herself, practised them in the highest degree), Catherine had 
 resolved to render the most absolute obedience to the friar who, 
 according to the time, was the director of the Mantellate and to 
 their prioress, as also to her own confessor. And Raimondo tells 
 us that she persevered so rigidly in this resolution that, as she 
 lay dying, with all her tendency to self-accusation, she could not 
 remember that she had ever even once not kept it. Indeed, he 
 writes, " if this holy virgin had never had any other affliction while 
 she lived, than what her very indiscreet directors inflicted upon 
 her, she would, in some sort, have been a martyr by reason of her 
 great patience. For they, in no wise understanding, and often 
 not even believing the excellence of the gifts granted her from 
 above, wished entirely to guide her along the road of the others 
 who live in ordinary fashion, nor did they render honour to the 
 presence of the Divine Majesty which was leading her by a 
 wondrous way, albeit of that they continually saw the manifest 
 signs ; like unto the Pharisees, who in such wise, seeing signs and 
 prodigies, murmured at the healings which the Lord worked on 
 
 1 Legenda, Prologue I. (§ 13). 
 
 4 49 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 the Sabbath, saying : This man is not of God, because he 
 keepeth not the sabbath day." 1 
 
 Almost from the beginning, persecution had come upon her, 
 of a more material kind than the assaults of the evil spirits in her 
 visions, and it lasted all through the earlier years of her public 
 ministry. The persons to whom she had thus made herself 
 spiritually subject, and especially the women, misliked her mode 
 of life and distrusted her conduct. " She could hardly exercise 
 an act of devotion in public, without suffering calumnies, impedi- 
 ments, and persecutions, particularly from those who ought most 
 to have protected her and even to have continually encouraged her 
 in those very acts." Not only Suora Palmerina, but others of 
 the Mantellate, her sisters in religion, reviled and slandered her, 
 and called upon their superiors to correct her. They even gained 
 over some of the Dominican friars to their side, who refused to 
 have any dealings with her, often deprived her of the Blessed 
 Sacrament in Communion, and even for a while took away her 
 faithful confessor from her. At times, when they condescended 
 to let her communicate in their church, they would insist upon 
 her straightway leaving off her prayers of thanksgiving and going 
 home ; which was a sheer impossibility for Catherine, as she used 
 to communicate with such fervour that, immediately afterwards, 
 she would pass into the state of ecstasy, in which for hours she 
 would be totally unconscious. On one occasion, finding her in 
 this condition, they forcibly threw her out of the church at mid- 
 day, and left her in the heat of the sun, watched over by some of 
 her companions, until she came to her senses. One friar even 
 brutally kicked her as she lay helpless. Of course we are told 
 that he came to an evil end, as also did another friar of the same 
 type, " religious in habit, but not in deeds," who, when the other 
 friars were in the choir of San Domenico after dinner, catching 
 sight of her in the church when she was in ecstasy, came down 
 and pricked her in many places with a needle. Catherine was 
 not aroused in the least from her trance, but afterwards, when 
 
 1 Legenda, I. ix. i (§ 80). 
 5° 
 
THE VALLEY OF LILIES 
 
 she came back to her senses, she felt the pain in her body and 
 perceived that she had been thus wounded. 1 
 
 But all these things Catherine bore with her usual unalterable 
 patience and humility. They did it all with holy intention and 
 for the good of her soul, she said, and she ever prayed for her 
 assailants as for kind and beloved benefactors. No complaint 
 ever crossed her lips, even when a friar robbed her of the money 
 she had for the poor. " On her tongue and in her heart she had 
 nought save Jesus ; along the streets she walked with Jesus ; her 
 eyes gazed fixedly upon Jesus, nor did they ever open through 
 curiosity to behold other objects, unless they were such that 
 could guide her to Jesus ; wherefore she was often seen rapt in 
 ecstasy, and lifted up in wondrous abstraction and excess of 
 mind." Later, when she was told that men called her a hypocrite 
 and deceiver, she answered : " They speak sooth, for, if the / 
 world knew me, it would stone me. I am the greatest of all' 
 sinners ; and what remains but that you all pray for me, that 
 God may illumine me, and bring me to humility and patience and 
 to do penance for my sins ? Would that I could embrace and 
 kiss the feet of those who know me so well ! " 2 
 
 Hardest of all was it to bear when they deprived her of the 
 Blessed Sacrament. Whenever she could, she communicated every 
 day ; not only was this the centre of her whole inner life, but her 
 very bodily existence seemed to depend upon it. So great was 
 her inflamed desire of being united to her celestial Bridegroom in 
 this way, that it was physical, no less than mental agony, to be thus 
 deprived of His embraces. "lam a miserable wretch," we find 
 her writing to one of her friars, " for my sins are so manifold 
 that, since you went away, I have never been worthy to receive 
 the most sweet and venerable Sacrament. I tell you this in order 
 that you may help me to weep, and pray that I may be aided, so 
 that I may receive the fullness of grace. Pardon my ignorance, 
 father, and remember me at your most holy Mass, and I will 
 
 1 Legenda, III. vi. 12, 13 (§ § 406,407) ; Contestatio Fr. Simonis de Cortona 
 (Casanatense MS.), pp. 514, 515. 
 
 2 Tantucci, p. 38 ; Contestatio Fr. Barotitis, MS. cit., pp. 509, 510. 
 
 5 1 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 receive the sweet body of the Son of God spiritually from you. 
 And not only her enemies, but even her confessor seemed against 
 her. Sometimes Fra Tommaso himself bade her, under the duty 
 of obedience, to mistrust her visions, to regulate her life more 
 like those of others in order to avoid scandal, to force herself to 
 eat. Humbly and patiently, she always obeyed him to the letter, 
 and found the agony caused her by the attempt to eat and drink 
 a new way of doing penance. " Let us go and execute this 
 wretched sinner," she would say with a smile when the time came, 
 and, though she simply masticated what little she took without 
 swallowing any, the pain was so intolerable that, in after years, 
 Fra Raimondo urged her not to continue the attempt, in spite of 
 what was said. Nevertheless, she persevered in this until her 
 last illness, though the torment it caused her grew almost daily- 
 more terrible and acute. 
 
 Friends and disciples, of both sexes, now began to gather 
 round her. Her little cell in her father's house became a centre 
 of religious life, an ever-burning spiritual lamp to all in Siena 
 who looked for righteousness. 
 
 A little group of Mantellate became her constant companions. 
 
 Chief among them were the two we still see supporting her in 
 
 Bazzi's glorious fresco : Alessa Saracini and Cecca (Francesca) 
 
 Gori ; both widows of noble birth, who had given all their 
 
 possessions to the poor, and taken the black and white habit of 
 
 penance. The latter, an older woman, had three sons in the 
 
 Dominican order, probably very young novices. Of the former, 
 
 Fra Raimondo writes that, although she became her disciple later 
 
 in time than some of the others, she was nevertheless, in his 
 
 opinion, the first in perfection and Catherine's most faithful 
 
 imitator. Both appear to have been educated women, and to 
 
 have frequently written Catherine's letters for her. Closely 
 
 associated with these was the Saint's beloved sister-in-law, Lisa, 
 
 " my sister-in-law, according to the flesh, but my sister in Christ," 
 
 the wife of her brother Bartolommeo — all the members of Jacomo 
 
 di Benincasa's family then living under his roof. Her own sister 
 
 1 Letter 70 (114). 
 52 
 
THE VALLEY OF LILIES 
 
 Lisa, too, seems to have taken the habit. Another of the first of 
 her companions was a certain Caterina di Ghetto (or Scetto), 
 possibly the daughter of one of the Saint's brothers-in-law, one of 
 the young unmarried women who, in imitation of Catherine, 
 joined the Dominican tertiaries. 
 
 The earliest of Catherine's men followers were two young 
 Dominicans : Fra Tommaso di Antonio Nacci Caffarini, a 
 novice, then about seventeen years old, and Fra Bartolommeo di 
 Domenico, who was slightly older and already a priest, and had 
 been a companion in the novitiate with Fra Tommaso della 
 Fonte. Next to Fra Raimondo, we owe most of our information 
 about Catherine to the devotion of these two friars. It is 
 possible that their first introduction to her, by Fra Tommaso 
 della Fonte, was during the time of her strict seclusion and 
 retreat in her cell, which still remained the centre of the spiritual 
 life of all her fellowship. 
 
 Fra Bartolommeo gives us a detailed description of that cell, 
 before she came out of it, while she conversed with no men save 
 at the command or by the permission of her confessor. We see 
 its door and window always closed, the hard couch of bare boards, 
 the little lamps always burning day and night before the images 
 of Christ, of the Blessed Virgin, and of the Saints which were 
 painted there. 1 In words that curiously recall those of the Vita 
 Nuova, but much less poetically and more crudely expressed, he 
 tells us how — although he, too, was young, and evidently 
 morbidly sensitive on this point — all carnal passion died away 
 when he approached her, and that others, whose normal mode of 
 thinking and feeling was quite alien from his own, had the same 
 experience : " For her aspect and address seemed to pour forth 
 a certain fragrance of purity, more angelical than human, and 
 withal she was always joyful and merry of countenance." Even 
 so had it been with Dante, when he went to behold the nobili e 
 laudabili ■portamenti of Beatrice : " And albeit her image, which 
 kept continually with me, was a power of Love to rule over me, 
 
 1 Contestatio Fr. Bartholomael, Processus, col. 1312. 
 
 S3 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 it was, nevertheless, of so noble a virtue that it never suffered 
 Love to sway me without the faithful counsel of reason." l 
 
 Nevertheless, there were certain things that Bartolommeo at 
 first found hard to accept. He noticed that, when she returned 
 to consciousness after her prolonged ecstasies, Catherine always 
 seemed to know what her women companions had done in the 
 meanwhile, and sometimes rebuked them for idle talk or waste 
 of time. The friar, " in my stupidity, being as yet ignorant or 
 the virtues of the holy virgin," could not at once believe that she 
 did this by what he calls the prophetic spirit : — 
 
 " But, at that time, when once I came to her cell with her 
 aforesaid confessor, after a long conversation she asked us what 
 we were doing at the second and third hour of the night. But 
 we, wishing to try her, said, questioning her : ' What dost thou 
 think ? ' And she answered : ' Who knows this better than you 
 yourselves ? ' Then her confessor rejoined, at my suggestion : 
 c I charge thee, on thy obedience, tell us if thou knowest what 
 we were doing at that time.' But she humbly refused to do 
 this, until her confessor charged her again on her obedience. 
 Then, humbly bowing down her head, she said : ' You know 
 well that there were four of you, and you were in the cell of the 
 subprior, talking for a long while at that late hour.' We asked 
 her who they were, and she named each ; and when we asked her 
 what we said, she replied that, for the most part, we talked about 
 things pertaining to the salvation of our souls, albeit at times we 
 touched on other matters. I was amazed, but still doubted 
 whether one of us four had not told her this. Wishing, therefore, 
 to test whether she knew this by man or by the spirit of prophecy, 
 I came to her on the following day, and in our conversation said : 
 'O mother' (for so we were wont to call her), ' how knowest thou 
 what we do ? ' And she : < O son, since it has pleased our sweet 
 Saviour to give me the sons and daughters which, by His gift, I 
 have, nothing concerning you is hidden from me ; but He 
 showeth me clearly everything that is done about them.' Then 
 I rejoined : < Thou knowest, then, what I was doing yesterday 
 1 Cf. Contestatio cit., col. 13 14, with Vita Nuova, §§2 and 19. 
 
 54 
 
THE VALLEY OF LILIES 
 
 evening at such an hour of the night ? ' And she answered me : 
 ' Surely, for you were writing, and you were writing about such 
 a matter.' All of which was so. And she added : ' Son, I 
 always watch and pray for you, my children, and for others, until 
 in your convent the bell rings for matins, and shows me what you 
 are doing ; nay, if you had good eyes, you would see me with you 
 — as clearly as I see all and each of you, who you are, where you 
 are, and what you are doing. Very often our sweet Saviour bears 
 me company, while I say the Psalms and walk up and down this 
 little cell, and He talks with me, instructing me about many 
 things. But when He sees me wearied, He sits over there, and 
 at His bidding I sit at His feet, and we talk together up to that 
 hour. But when that hour comes, He gives me leave to sleep, 
 saying : Go, daughter, and rest, whilst thy brethren, who are now 
 rising to matins, praise Me in thy stead. And so I sleep. Then, 
 after a brief while of slumber, I straightway rise.' " * 
 
 At first, Bartolommeo was not edified by her calling herself 
 misera, miserabile, more wretched than all men, the cause of all the 
 evils that were done. He thought she did not really mean what 
 she said ; until, to his question how this could be, as she mani- 
 festly abhorred the sins that many delighted daily to commit, she 
 answered as she did later on to Fra Raimondo : " O father, I see 
 you do not know my wretched state. For I, miserable woman, 
 have received so many and such wondrous gifts from my Creator, 
 that, as I think, there is no reprobate so vile that, if he had 
 received such, would not be all aflame and burn with the love of 
 his Creator. And, both by the example of his life and by the 
 words of his teaching, he would so enkindle the hearts of men to 
 the love of our celestial country and to the contempt of the 
 present life, that they would cease from their sins. Since there- 
 fore I, wretched woman, endowed with so many gifts, do not do 
 this, what can I in very truth say about myself, but that I am 
 most ungrateful to my God, and that I am the cause of the ruin 
 of all, who through me could be called back from evil and incited 
 to good ? If I did my duty, I should call them back by the food 
 1 Contestatio cit., coll. 1320, 1321. 
 
 55 
 
SAINT CAT] 
 
 of God's word, and animate them to act rightly by the example 
 of a good life ; and, because I have not done this as I might, 
 surely I am guilty." l 
 
 These were Bartolommeo's last doubts. He became her 
 most ardent follower and champion, and frequently acted as her 
 confessor and that of all her spiritual company. A certain 
 Franciscan friar, Fra Lazzarino of Pisa, was one of the first who 
 followed him to her feet. An eloquent and popular preacher, a 
 man of considerable learning, though by no means an exemplary 
 Franciscan as far as his vow of poverty was concerned, Lazzarino 
 was at that time lecturing on philosophy at Siena. He hated the 
 very name of Catherine, abused her both in public and in private, 
 and persecuted her friends. Knowing the devotion to her of Fra 
 Bartolommeo, who was then lecturing occasionally on the Sentences 
 of Peter the Lombard, he tried to make him unpopular with the 
 students. Finding all his efforts against Catherine's reputation 
 were useless, he began to preach publicly against her, and, when 
 that failed, decided to visit her, under pretence of devotion, in 
 order to catch her in her speech. With this intention, he came 
 on the evening of the feast of St. Catherine, Virgin and Martyr, 
 to Bartolommeo's cell, and asked him to bring him to her ; and 
 the Dominican, thinking his heart was touched, with leave of 
 Fra Tommaso della Fonte, accompanied him to the house. Let 
 Bartolommeo himself relate what followed : — 
 
 " When we entered her holy cell, Fra Lazzarino sat down 
 upon a stool ; she seated herself at his feet upon the floor, while 
 
 I took a seat apart on the opposite side. Both kept silence for a 
 while. At length he began : ' I have heard such good report of thy 
 holiness and that thou art endowed by the Lord with the under- 
 standing of the Scriptures, that I have come to thee, hoping to 
 hear somewhat to edify and comfort my soul.' But she answered : 
 
 I I am glad at your coming, for I believe the Lord has sent you 
 in order that you, who have the knowledge of the holy Scriptures 
 with which you daily feed the souls of the people, may be moved 
 by charity to comfort my poor little soul ; and so, for the love 
 
 1 Contestatio cit., coll. 1346, 1347. 
 
THE VALLEY OF LILIES 
 
 of Jesus Christ, I pray you deign to do.' When, therefore, the 
 time had passed in such conversation and night was at hand, he 
 (not, indeed, mocking her, as he had thought to do, but neverthe- 
 less, in his heart, making little account of her) said : ' I see the 
 hour is late, and therefore deem 1 had better go ; I will return 
 on another occasion at a more suitable hour.' And so he rose up 
 to go. But, as he went away, the holy virgin followed him, and, 
 kneeling with crossed arms, besought him to bless her ; which he 
 did. And, when she had his blessing, she besought him to 
 remember her in his prayers. Then he, moved rather by shame- 
 facedness than by devotion, asked her to pray for him, which she 
 gladly promised she would do. He, therefore, went away, as I 
 said, making small account of her, deeming her to be a good 
 woman, but not worthy of her great reputation." 
 
 During the following night, Lazzarino rose to meditate upon 
 the lecture which he was to deliver the next morning, and found 
 himself overwhelmed by a flood of tears, which he was unable to 
 check. In the morning, he forced himself to go to the schools 
 and read his lecture perfunctorily, at once leaving the room when 
 he had finished, because he could not contain his tears. So passed 
 the day, until, in the night, he began to think that he had unwittingly 
 offended God. Then a voice spoke in his heart : " Hast thou 
 so soon forgotten that, the day before, thou didst scorn My 
 faithful handmaid Catherine with so orgulous a mind, and that, 
 albeit feignedly, thou didst nevertheless commend thyself to her 
 prayers ? " Before sunrise, he left San Francesco and hastened 
 to Catherine's house. Catherine herself, " not ignorant of the 
 things that were being worked in this man by her Spouse," 
 opened the door. He fell at her feet ; she knelt and implored him 
 to rise. Entering the cell, he humbly sat down like her on the 
 floor, and, after " a long and holy colloquy," besought her to 
 adopt him as a son, and to direct him in the way of God. " But 
 when she said that he knew the way of God better, by means 
 of the holy Scriptures, he answered that he knew the rind, but 
 she tasted the very pith. At length, constrained by his earnest 
 prayers, she answered : ' The way of salvation for your soul is 
 
 57 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 that, despising the pomp of the world and all its favour, casting 
 away all money and superfluities, you follow Christ crucified and 
 your father, Blessed Francis, in nakedness and humility.' '" 
 
 Fra Lazzarino seemed changed into another man. He gave 
 away all he had, even his books, excepting a commentary on the 
 Gospels which he needed for his sermons, " and became really a 
 true poor man of Christ." He became a zealous champion of 
 Catherine's cause, and endured much persecution in consequence, 
 especially from his own brethren, but triumphed over all and 
 devoted himself to the conversion of souls. One of his fellow 
 Franciscans tells us that he fled the society of the other friars to 
 live in lonely hermitages, from which he would emerge at times 
 to preach to the people, and that on these occasions his words 
 were like flaming arrows to pierce the hearts of all who heard. 1 
 
 Although Bartolommeo says that he became valde domesticus 
 with himself, Lazzarino — perhaps because of his membership or 
 the rival order — does not seem ever to have been closely associated 
 with Catherine's spiritual family. We have, however, a dictated 
 letter from Catherine to him, undated, but probably of a some- 
 what later epoch, a letter in which the Dominican tertiary, too, 
 claims the seraphic Father of Assisi as hers : — 
 
 " Jesus hangs upon the Cross," she writes, " as our rule and 
 our way, and as a written book in which all the unlearned and 
 blind can read. The first verse of the book is hate and love ; 
 that is, love of the honour of the Father, and hatred of sin. 
 Then, most beloved and dearest brother, and father by our 
 reverence for the Sacrament, let us follow this sweet book, that 
 so sweetly shows us the way. And if it befall that our three 
 foes should assail us in the way, to wit, the world, the flesh, and 
 the devil, let us take the weapons of hate, as did our father, St. 
 Francis. In order that the world should not puff him up, he 
 chose holy, true, and utter poverty. And so would I have us 
 do. And if the demon of the flesh should rebel against the 
 spirit, let us be angry with ourselves, and afflict and chastise our 
 
 1 Contestatio cit., coll. 1 347-1 351; Contestant) Fr. Jngeli de Sahettis (O.F.M.), 
 he. cit., col. 1367. 
 
 58 
 
THE VALLEY OF LILIES 
 
 body ; even as that father of ours did, who ever ran along this 
 holy way with zeal and not with negligence. And if the devil 
 should come with many illusions and varied fantasies and with 
 servile fear, and wish to occupy our mind and soul, let us not 
 be afraid ; for these things are become powerless by the virtue 
 of the Cross. O sweetest Love ! They can do no more than 
 God allows them ; and God wills nought else than our good ; 
 He will not, therefore, give us more than we can bear. Take 
 comfort, take comfort ; and do not shun pain ; but ever keep 
 the will holy, so that it may repose in nought save in what Christ 
 loved and in what God hated. 1 And our will, so armed with 
 hate and love, will receive such fortitude that, as St. Paul says, 
 neither the world nor the devil nor the flesh will be able to draw 
 us back from this way. Let us bear, let us bear, dearest brother ; 
 for the more pain we bear down here with Christ crucified, the 
 more glory shall we receive ; and no pain will be so much re- 
 warded, as mental pain and labour of the heart ; for these are 
 the greatest pains of all, and, therefore, are worthy of greater 
 fruit." 2 
 
 It is somewhat remarkable that Catherine seems never to 
 have had any dealings with Giovanni Colombini. Although she 
 frequently visited the monastery of Santa Bonda in the company 
 of Lisa, and corresponded with two of the nuns there, she never 
 makes any allusion to Giovanni in her letters. A cousin of his, 
 however, Matteo Colombini, was among her correspondents, and 
 Tommaso di Guelfaccio, whom we have met among the Gesuati, 
 seems to have been one of the first to frequent her cell, and was 
 afterwards, to some extent, associated with her labours. 
 
 1 That is, keep the will steadfast in love of virtue and hatred of vice. 
 
 3 Letter 225 (121). This letter was probably in answer to one of Lazzarino's 
 to her, of which a mutilated fragment is preserved in the Biblioteca Comunale of 
 Siena (MS. T. iii. 3), in which, as far as any connected sense can be made out of 
 what is left, he appears to be complaining of the persecution he is receiving from 
 his fellow Franciscans. It is dated " in Firenze lo dl dela pentecoste," and ad- 
 dressed to " Chaterina da Siena sposa di Jeso Cristo crocifixo et serva de suo servi 
 et madre de suo fedeli devoti, in Pisa." Both letters are probably of the year 
 '375- 
 
 59 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 While the spiritual household of his daughter was thus being 
 formed, Jacomo di Benincasa died. He had always been a tender 
 and loving father, especially in these latter years, and Catherine 
 " found his soul ready for the passage, nor kept back by any 
 desire of the present life, for which thing she rendered immense 
 thanks to her Saviour." In after years, she told Fra Raimondo 
 that she had wrestled with the Lord in prayer that her father 
 might not have to sustain the pains of Purgatory, and had at 
 last obtained this grace for him, on the condition that she should 
 bear them instead. At the instant he passed away, a grievous pain 
 in the side assailed her, and never again left her until the end of 
 her life : " But, as he expired, the holy virgin laughed for joy, 
 saying : ' Blessed be the Lord, would that I were as you ; ' nor, 
 whilst the others wept during the rites for the dead, could she 
 show aught else save joy and gladness. She comforted her 
 mother and the others, as though she was in no wise concerned 
 at this death, for she had seen that soul pass out of the darkness 
 of the body and enter immediately into the eternal light." 1 
 
 Jacomo di Benincasa was buried at San Domenico on August 
 22, 1368. A man of the old regime, he died but a few weeks 
 before the overthrow of his party in the State, which was also to 
 reduce his own family to comparative poverty. A year before 
 his death, a great event had filled all who looked for righteous- 
 ness with hopes of a new era and renovation of the Church ; 
 hopes that Jacomo was not to see dashed to the ground ; a 
 Sovereign Pontiff had landed in Italy, and the successor of St. 
 Peter had returned to Rome. 
 
 1 Legenda, II. vii. 4 (§ § 220-222). 
 
 60 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 THE COMING OF URBAN THE FIFTH 
 
 "Tu es qui venturus es, an alium expectamus " ? — Matth. xi. 3. 
 "Colui che fece per vilta lo gran rifiuto." — Dante, Inf. III. 59, 60. 
 
 Guillaume de Grimoard, Abbot of St. Victor of Marseilles, 
 was at Florence, on his way to Naples on a mission from the 
 Pope to Queen Giovanna, when the news reached Italy that 
 Innocent VI was dead. " I dare to say," quoth the worthy monk, 
 when he heard the tidings, " that if, by the grace of God, I were 
 to see a Pope who would come to Italy, to the true papal seat, 
 and would beat down the tyrants, I should be happy, if I had to 
 die the next day." x On his return from Naples, he arrived at 
 Marseilles at the end of October, 1362, to be met by a message 
 from the Sacred College informing him that (owing to a 
 deadlock in the conclave) he had been elected Pope. He was 
 crowned at Avignon, under the title of Urban the Fifth. 
 
 The newly elected Pontiff was fifty-three years old. Never 
 having been a cardinal, he was untainted by the corruption of the 
 Curia. A man of simple and blameless life, learned and devout, 
 he hated pomp and luxury, abominated simony and nepotism and 
 all the vices he saw around him. His choice of a name, Urban, 
 was held by the Italians to point towards Rome. 2 In the preced- 
 ing year, he had been sent as ambassador to Bernabo Visconti, 
 to urge the rights of the Church upon Bologna ; the tyrant, in 
 one of his outbursts of bestial fury, had forced him to eat the 
 fragments of the papal brief and driven him with contumely 
 from Milan, according to one account with even grosser personal 
 outrage. He knew then, by personal experience, what these 
 tyrants of Italy were like. When Bernabo's ambassadors arrived 
 to congratulate him on his election and to express their master's 
 
 1 M. Villani, xi. 26. 
 
 2 Cf. Petrarca, Rerum Senilium, Lib. VII. ep. I. 
 
 6i 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 desire to come to terms, the Pope gravely answered that, when 
 their lord had restored her cities to the Holy See and repented of 
 his crimes, he would receive him back into the bosom of the 
 Church. 1 His intention was to crush this chief despot first, and 
 then send all Christendom forth to recover the Holy Places. But 
 the realization of the scheme was impossible. Wars raged every- 
 where. France was at war with England, the Emperor on the 
 point of hostilities with the King of Hungary, who in his turn 
 was assailing the Venetians. Italy clung to her state of anarchy. 
 Siena fought Perugia for the possession of Cortona and Monte- 
 pulciano ; Florence, with mercenaries under Galeotto Malatesta, 
 made war on Pisa with mercenaries under Sir John Hawkwood. 
 A general league against Bernabo effected little, and, in 1364, a 
 peace was signed at Milan by which Bologna was left in the hands 
 of the Church, but the Pope weakly consented to remove 
 Albornoz to the southern legation. 
 
 Each peace, whether in France or in Italy, set loose fresh 
 hordes of mercenaries, who moved over the lands almost 
 unchecked, so admirably organized as to deserve the description 
 that Gregorovius gives them, of " errant military states." In vain 
 did Urban publish bull after bull, hurling anathemas at the 
 companies and their leaders. The condottieri mocked at Rome's 
 thunders. In the latter part of 1365, Duguesclin, on his way to 
 Spain, besieged the Pope himself in Avignon, compelling him to 
 pay an enormous ransom, and to absolve him and his followers 
 from all censures. 
 
 It was, perhaps, this humiliation that induced Urban to carry 
 out his old resolution of returning to Rome, to which the Romans 
 had invited him at the beginning of his pontificate. The 
 exhortations of the royal Spanish Franciscan, Peter of Aragon, 
 who came to Avignon full of an impassioned dream of the 
 reformation of the Church, no less than the eloquent appeal of 
 Petrarca, made a deep impression on the Pope. The Emperor 
 was favourable, and Albornoz urged him to make no delay. In 
 
 1 M. Villani, xi. 31, 32. Qi.Diario d' Jnonimo Fiorentino (edited by Gherardi), 
 p. 296. 
 
 62 
 
THE COMING OF URBAN THE FIFTH 
 
 spite of the opposition of the King of France, Urban left 
 Avignon on April 30, 1367, and, on June 4, he landed at 
 Corneto, where a great throng of nobles and envoys from almost 
 every State of Italy was waiting to receive him, headed by Albor- 
 noz himself and Birgitta's friend, the Count of Nola. In the 
 midst of all this glittering show were Giovanni Colombini and 
 Francesco Vincenti, with some sixty of their poverelli, clad in the 
 most amazing rags. They had accompanied Albornoz from 
 Viterbo, had invaded the Franciscan convent in which Urban was 
 to stay, insisting upon making his bed, and those of the cardinals, 
 and now, crowned with olive and carrying branches in their 
 hands, they rushed madly to and fro, cheering frantically for Christ 
 and the Pope. " It was the most lovely and devout thing that 
 was ever seen," wrote Giovanni to the Abbess of Santa Bonda. 
 They were accused of heresy, like that of the Fraticelli, the frati 
 della povera vita, of whom there were many in Tuscany ; but 
 the Pope's brother, the " Cardinal of Avignon," Anglico de 
 Grimoard, " who is like a lamb," and the papal secretary, 
 Petrarca's friend Francesco Bruni, took them under their pro- 
 tection, and promised to befriend them with the Sovereign 
 Pontiff. 
 
 At Corneto the Pope stayed for Whitsuntide, and received an 
 embassy from the Romans, who conferred the full dominion of 
 the City upon him, and gave him the keys of Sant' Angelo. 
 Then he moved on to Toscanella, the poverelli running round 
 him all the way. Urban bore it all with exemplary patience, but, 
 when he got to his lodging, he sent for Francesco and told him 
 he did not like their rags, but would clothe them in grey habits 
 and white hoods at his own expense — whereat the "poor little 
 men " sang psalms of praise. 
 
 The Pope entered Viterbo in state on June 9, 1367, "with 
 such grace and exultation that it seemed the very stones would 
 cry : Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord." Here 
 he took up his abode in the great fortress that Albornoz had 
 built, and received the lords of the Italian cities that acknow- 
 ledged his sway and the ambassadors of the Republics. To the 
 
 63 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 unsophisticated eyes of Giovanni and Francesco, everything seemed 
 ideal. " This Holy Father," they wrote to the Abbess and nuns 
 of Santa Bonda, " is considered a good man, and we believe that 
 God through him is working good and holy things. He has a 
 brother who seems to us most holy and a good servant of God 
 and right humble, and who keeps up his state unwillingly ; he 
 loves us right well ; may Christ reward him and give him His 
 grace. Think, Madonna and our mothers, that here is all the 
 nobility of the world, with pomps and delights and goodly robes 
 and lordship, and all lovely things and great are here. But, all 
 the same, never was Poverty so dear to us as now, and never did 
 she please us so." They were profoundly edified even by the 
 papal courtiers. " You could not imagine how much virtue we 
 find in these cardinals and in these great lords and many others, 
 so much so that we are confounded at what they do. They have 
 more humility in their great estate and in their vast wealth than 
 we, poor and proud, in our vile and abject condition ; we make 
 the show, and they do the deeds." Cardinal Anglico gave them 
 a rule of life, "which pleases us much, and, with the grace of 
 God, will please all, for it is the true way of salvation." 1 But 
 they would accept no bulls or privileges of any kind from the 
 Pope. Their friend, the Bishop of Citta di Castello, said to 
 them : "Let virtues defend you, and not papal bulls." 
 
 With their order now confirmed, the seventy or more poverelli 
 having doffed their rags and put on the new white and grey papal 
 habit, Giovanni and Francesco left Viterbo towards the end of 
 July. At Acquapendente, Giovanni fell ill. They tried to bring 
 him back to Santa Bonda, but he died on the way at the abbey 
 of San Salvatore on Monte Amiata, on the last day of July, 
 1367. He was buried in the church of the monastery of Santa 
 Bonda. Fifteen days later, Francesco Vincenti followed him 
 into the other world. Their order of the Gesuati, white-hooded 
 and grey-gowned, lives now only on the canvasses of the painters 
 of their native city. 
 
 One anxiety had clouded the last days of Giovanni's stay at 
 1 Lettere del B. Giovanni Cohmbini, 90-93, 95, 108 
 64 
 
^tcnAammts &<?icr?ri/wru/. 
 
 ^£&7?V&-eZslL6L-£* 
 
 UZ- CZceruz, 
 
THE COMING OF URBAN THE FIFTH 
 
 Vlterbo. The Pope was arranging a league against the Visconti, 
 and the Sienese ambassadors did not come. The only political 
 letter of Giovanni and Francesco that has come down to us, 
 dated Viterbo, July 18, is to the "magnificent lords, the Twelve, 
 governors of the city of Siena," on this subject. Francesco 
 Bruni has told them that his Holiness is amazed at their delay, 
 and they implore them for their own good, lest they lose the 
 Pope's favour, instantly to send the ambassadors. 1 On July 3 1 , 
 the very day of Giovanni's death, the league was signed in the 
 Apostolic Palace, and, through the personal influence of the 
 Marquis of Ferrara, the Republic of Siena joined it. 2 But, on 
 August 20, the great Cardinal Albornoz died, followed to his 
 grave by the admiration and reverence of friend and foe. At 
 once his presence was missed in the papal counsels. An anti- 
 French tumult broke out at Viterbo on September 5, and for 
 three days Urban and his cardinals were besieged in the fortress 
 by the insurgents. Florence and Siena, and even Rome itself, sent 
 troops to his aid, but the Pope was glad at length to leave the 
 turbulent capital of the Patrimony. Escorted by the Marquis 
 of Ferrara with his men-at-arms, Urban left Viterbo on October 
 14. On October 16, he entered Rome in triumph, riding on a 
 white mule, and was received with universal joy and acclamation. 
 The Marquis of Ferrara, Count Amedeo of Savoy, the lords of 
 the Malatesta family, and all the petty nobles of the Marches 
 and Campagna accompanied him ; the fierce soldier, Rodolfo 
 Varano of Camerino, bore up the standard of the Church. 
 Armed mercenaries, infantry and cavalry, surrounded the pre- 
 lates and cardinals of the Curia. Such was the martial entry of 
 the Vicar of the Prince of Peace ; but the simple monk, who 
 thus seemed the sovereign of the world, wept to see the 
 desolation of the Sacred City, and threw himself in fervent 
 prayer upon the ground at the tomb of the Apostle whose place 
 he came to hold. 
 
 1 Lettere del B. Giovanni Colombini, no. 
 
 2 See G. Sanesi, Siena nella Lega contro il Visconti. In the Bulkttino Senese di 
 Storia Patria, Anno I., 1894. 
 
 5 65 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 In the spring of the following year, 1368, the Emperor came 
 again to Italy, as he had promised. He came with an army to 
 carry out the designs of the league against the Visconti, joined 
 forces with the papal troops and those of Queen Giovanna (to 
 whom Urban had just given the Golden Rose), but effected 
 nothing. Having made a truce with Bernabo and accepted a 
 large sum of money from him, he moved southwards into 
 Tuscany. 
 
 The rule of the Twelve in Siena was tottering. The party 
 had split into two sections, one of which allied with the Tolomei 
 and other nobles, while the other had the powerful support of 
 the Salimbeni. Giovanni di Agnolino Salimbeni managed to 
 prevent the two factions coming to open war, but, on his return 
 from an embassy to the Emperor, he was killed by a fall from 
 his horse on the way from Siena to his castle of Rocca d'Orcia. 
 The nobles and Noveschi secredy brought troops into the city, 
 and, on September 2, with the support of the populace, they 
 forced the Twelve to surrender the Palace and the entire control 
 of the State. Thirteen consuls were appointed, ten nobles and 
 three Noveschi, who sent Messer Vanni Malavolti and two other 
 ambassadors to the Emperor at Lucca. The Salimbeni and the 
 Dodicini allied, and sent a rival embassy ; Charles accepted their 
 offers, and despatched Malatesta Malatesta to Siena with eight 
 hundred horsemen. On September 24, the Salimbeni, shouting 
 for the People and the Emperor, began a general rising against 
 the new aristocratic regime, and admitted Malatesta and his 
 cavalry. There was furious fighting from street to street, and a 
 last mighty struggle in the Campo round the Palace, which was 
 finally stormed by the imperial troops and sacked by the in- 
 furiated populace. The nobles fled the city with their families, 
 while Malatesta fortified himself in the Poggio Malavolti, from 
 which he ruled the city as imperial vicar. A popular council of 
 a hundred and twenty-four plebeians was assembled, called the 
 Consiglio de Riformatori, which created a new Signoria of twelve 
 " Defenders," representatives of all classes of the people. The 
 Salimbeni were given Massa and five other casdes in the Sienese 
 
 66 
 
THE COMING OF URBAN THE FIFTH 
 
 contado, and declared popolani. The Emperor, passing through 
 Siena on his way to join the Pope at Viterbo, knighted two of 
 the family for their services, and accepted an enormous present of 
 money from the Commune. 
 
 On October 21, the Pope and the Emperor entered Rome 
 together, Charles leading Urban's mule on foot. This was the 
 great event for which Birgitta had so long waited in patience, 
 but, now that it had come, it brought her a personal trial and 
 disappointment. She had communicated her visions concerning 
 the reformation of the Church to the Pope. She had written to 
 the Emperor, urging him to unite in this great work, and she 
 now wrote again in the name of Christ, bidding him hearken to 
 her revelations, and strive to make the Divine justice and mercy 
 feared and desired upon earth. 1 But Charles simply ignored her, 
 and Urban had no time at present to attend to a woman's 
 admonitions. 
 
 The state of Siena was bordering upon anarchy. The banished 
 nobles held the fortresses in the contado, burned and foraged up 
 to the gates of the city, and absolutely declined to come to terms 
 with the government of the Defenders, at whose sentences and 
 decrees they mocked. Malatesta sent the army of the Commune 
 against them, but it effected nothing. On December 11, there 
 was a popular rising against the less democratic element in the 
 new administration. The mob fired the gate of the Palace, broke 
 in, and drove out the representatives of the Nine and Twelve 
 from the Signoria. Ultimately, by a kind of compromise, under 
 the authority of the imperial vicar, a new council of plebeian 
 reformers instituted a fresh Signoria of fifteen " Defenders," 
 eight of the popolo minuto, four of the Twelve, and three of the 
 Nine. The Captain of the People and the " Gonfalonieri Maestri " 
 (the Gonfalonieri of the three terzi of the city) were always to 
 be of the popolo minuto, while the Captain was to have three coun- 
 sellors, one from each order of the people, all together forming a 
 supreme authority in criminal cases. Thus was established the 
 
 1 Revelationes, IV. 45, VIII. 50, 51. 
 67 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 artisan government of the Riformatori, or popolo del maggior 
 numero, in Siena. 1 
 
 In the meanwhile, the Dodicini and the Salimbeni, who had 
 instigated the rising for their own advantage and were naturally 
 disappointed at the results, sent agents to the Emperor to implore 
 his aid. Charles was now on his way back from Rome. On 
 December 22, with the Empress, he entered Siena, "all armed 
 save the head," with an imposing array of imperial troops, and 
 alighted, as before, at the Palazzo Salimbeni. A few days later, 
 the Cardinal Guy of Boulogne, a warlike French prelate whom 
 the Emperor had made imperial vicar-general in all Tuscany, 
 arrived at Siena with reinforcements. The adherents of the 
 Twelve hailed him as a possible ecclesiastical despot to overthrow 
 their enemies. Charles demanded the surrender into his hands 
 of the towns and fortresses of Massa, Montalcino, Grosseto, 
 Talamone, and Casole, with the intention of handing them over 
 to the Cardinal. The Defenders summoned a council of more 
 than eight hundred citizens, and returned a practically unanimous 
 refusal. Neither would they make any fresh modification of 
 their constitution at the Bohemian Caesar's bidding. The Noves- 
 chi and the populace alike were prepared to end the crisis by 
 recalling the exiled nobles. 
 
 On the morning of January 18, 1369, there arose a sudden 
 clamour through the streets of Siena : " Long live the People," 
 " Death to the traitors who want the nobles back ! " Led by 
 Niccolo Salimbeni and his allies of the Dodicini, armed bands 
 rushed through each terzo of the city, sacking and slaying as they 
 went, while two other Salimbeni, Pietro and Cione, entered the 
 Palace with their followers. The whole thing had been pre- 
 arranged with the imperial authorities. Malatesta brought his 
 soldiery into the Campo and called upon the Defenders, in the 
 name of the Emperor, to expel their colleagues of the Nine. 
 Summoned by the Salimbeni, Charles himself mounted, and 
 moved towards the Palace with three thousand horsemen. 
 
 1 Cf. O. Malavolti, Historia de' Sanesi, pp. 132, 132^. 
 68 
 
THE COMING OF URBAN THE FIFTH 
 
 All the bells of the city clashed out the alarm. The train- 
 bands were in arms and poured into the Campo. Seizing the 
 banner of the People, the Captain, Matteino di Ventura, left the 
 Palace, put himself at their head, and drove the imperial forces 
 back upon the Croce del Travaglio. In the narrow streets, 
 assailed in all directions, deafened by the clanging bells, rained 
 upon by stones and darts, the heavily-armed chivalry of the north 
 was helpless. After an " incredible battle " of several hours, the 
 Emperor was driven back to the Palazzo Salimbeni, with the loss 
 of more than four hundred slain, including one of his own 
 nephews. The three representatives of the Nine, who had left 
 the Palace, were brought back in triumph in procession, to the 
 sound of trumpets, crowned with garlands and bearing branches 
 of olive. Pietro and Cione Salimbeni, in their turn, were made 
 prisoners, and forced to yield up Massa to the Commune. A 
 proclamation was issued forbidding any food to be sold or given 
 to the Emperor or his people. Starved and terrified, protesting 
 that he had been betrayed, the successor of Augustus pardoned 
 the Commune everything, made the Defenders his vicars in per- 
 petuity, meekly received back as many of his horses and as much 
 of his property as the Captain of the People could recover, 
 accepted a large sum of money, and went his way on January 25. 1 
 So cowed was the Emperor that a mere suggestion of trouble 
 made him shrink from entering Pisa, where the upstart Doge had 
 been overthrown and the old democratic government of the 
 Anziani restored in the previous September. He passed on to 
 Lucca, where he stayed till July, formally liberating that city for 
 ever from the Pisan yoke. 
 
 In February, the Gambacorti — led by Piero and Gherardo and 
 their sons — returned to Pisa in triumph, enthusiastically welcomed 
 by the people in memory of the good government of their fore- 
 bears. At the high altar of San Michele, Messer Piero swore 
 love and fidelity to the Commune and People of Pisa, and he 
 kept his oath. In the inevitable tumult against the Raspanti that 
 
 1 Cronica Sanese, coll. 204-207. 
 69 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 followed, he did his utmost to restrain the excesses of his adhe- 
 rents : " I have forgiven, as you know, the beheading of my 
 kinsmen," he said, " and will not you forgive ? " 1 In September, 
 1370, the citizens offered to make him absolute lord of Pisa, but 
 he refused, and chose to be merely the chief salaried officer of the 
 Republic, " Captain-General and Defender of the Commune and 
 People." The administration of the twelve Anziani remained, 
 but Piero Gambacorti was virtually the ruler of the State. He 
 was a merciful and pacific man, an ardent Catholic and deeply 
 religious, and his government was, in the main, of a paternal 
 description. Lucca lay directly subject to the Roman Empire in 
 the person of the Cardinal Guy of Boulogne, until in March, 1370, 
 through the intervention of the Pope, the Cardinal surrendered 
 his authority, and Lucca became a free Republic once more, with 
 a Signoria of ten (nine Anziani and a Gonfaloniere of Justice) 
 and the usual two councils. Like the government of the Gamba- 
 corti at Pisa, the new-born Republic of Lucca was decidedly papal 
 in its tendencies and sympathies — a political fact of importance in 
 the coming convulsions of Italy. 
 
 But, in Siena, things seemed little better under the new regime. 
 There were risings and tumults within the city, in the main the 
 work of the Salimbeni and the adherents of the Twelve, directed 
 against the Noveschi ; there was plundering and ravaging in the 
 contado, the Marquis of Monferrato having failed in his attempt 
 to reconcile the nobles with the popular government. Armed 
 guards were set all over the city and at the gates : " And on the 
 tower of the Campo many guards kept watch, day and night, and 
 gave signals with fire and smoke when it was needful, and rang 
 the bells to give the alarm." The Defenders appointed a new 
 officer, the Executor of Justice, with full powers to enforce order, 
 but with little result. "And thus all law and all justice was 
 dead in the city of Siena, by the work of the Salimbeni and of 
 the Twelve. To such a pitch it came that, in Siena and in the 
 contado, men slew and plundered on every side." 2 The nobles 
 
 1 Cronica di Pisa, col. 1052. 
 
 2 Cronica Sanese, coll. 207, 208. 
 
 70 
 
THE COMING OF URBAN THE FIFTH 
 
 had sent Messer Vanni Malavolti, the government a certain 
 Jacomo di Guido Guernieri (a swordsmith by trade), as ambas- 
 sadors to Florence, and at length, in the spring of 1369, by 
 Florentine intervention, a temporary peace was made between the 
 nobles and the people, which was greeted with trumpets and 
 salvos and great rejoicing. 
 
 Like most others that belonged to the order of the Dodicini, 
 the family of Jacomo di Benincasa suffered heavily from the 
 change of government. Catherine's elder brothers, Benincasa and 
 Bartolommeo, were active members of their faction, and, either 
 on the occasion of the September rising or in one of the later 
 tumults, they were sought out by a band of the populace who 
 meant to take their lives. A friend rushed into the house, telling 
 them that the enemy were at hand, urging them to take refuge in 
 the neighbouring church of Sant' Antonio, whither others of their 
 faction had already fled. But Catherine sprang to her feet : 
 " They must not go to Sant' Antonio," she said, " and I am 
 sorry indeed for those who are there." She put on her mantle, 
 and, bidding her brothers come with her and fear not, led them 
 safely through their enemies, who lowered their weapons and 
 reverently saluted her as she passed, to the hospital of Our Lady, 
 where she left them in charge of the rector, telling them to stay in 
 hiding for three days, and then return home in safety. And so 
 it happened. All those who had taken shelter in Sant' Antonio 
 were slain or made prisoners, but, after three days, the tumult 
 subsided. Catherine's brothers were condemned to a fine of one 
 hundred gold florins, which they paid, and were left in peace. 1 
 
 As we have seen, the Twelve had still a small part in the 
 new regime, and Benincasa and Bartolommeo were at first among 
 the representatives of their faction that held office, the latter, it is 
 said, having even sat in the Signoria as one of the Defenders for 
 two months in 1370. But their condition had altered for the 
 worse since their father's death. The revolution had ruined their 
 business prospects, and, in the early autumn of this year, the two, 
 1 The anonymous author of the Miracoli, quoted by Grottanelli in the notes 
 to the Leggenda minore, pp. 209, 210. 
 
 7 1 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 together with Stefano, emigrated to Florence, and were admitted 
 to the Florentine citizenship. Their family had business connec- 
 tions with Florence, and, apparently, had kept a workshop there 
 for some considerable time previously. 1 In' their adopted city 
 they continued to exercise the art of dyers and tanners, but with 
 litde success, and were soon reduced to poverty. Catherine's 
 beloved friend and companion, Lisa, naturally accompanied her 
 husband. 
 
 Catherine followed them not only with prayers, but with letters. 
 Writing to the three together, " I would see you always united,'*' 
 she says, " with the sweet bond of holy charity, so that neither 
 demon nor word of man can separate you from it. I remember 
 the word that Jesus Christ said : he that humbleth himself shall be 
 exalted. Do thou, Benincasa, who art the eldest, wish to be the 
 least of all, and thou, Bartolommeo, wish to be less than the least, 
 and I pray thee, Stefano, to be subject to God and them ; and so' 
 sweetly, will you preserve yourselves in most perfect charity." 2 
 Patience and submission to the will of God is the note of her 
 three letters to Benincasa. The blood of Christ will make him 
 strong to bear with true patience every labour and tribulation, 
 from whatever side they come : " It will make you .persevering, 
 so that, even until death, you will^endure with, -true humility ; 
 because in that blood the eye of your understanding will be 
 illumined by the truth, which is that God wills nought else save 
 our sanctification, because He loves us ineffably ; otherwise, He 
 would not have paid so great a price for us. Be then content, 
 be content in every time and place, for all are given you by the 
 Eternal Love for love. Rejoice in your tribulations, and consider 
 yourself unworthy that God should send you by the way that 
 
 U tu Gr °" ane J li ' #■ "'•> PP. * "-2 1 3, gives the text of the petition of the three 
 brothers (October 16, 1370) for admission to the Florentine citizenship, which 
 
 beLJZf % ^ -° teS - t0 28 ' Jt " difficult t0 «P lain their claim "0 have 
 
 of the mlor3d Z £° f^" '" ^^ * e A " **" *<* ™ ™ 
 
 wooKmeXts 8 "^ * ^ «*" '«**»• L ™> ^e guild of " the 
 
 2 Letter 14 (252). 
 
 72 
 
THE COMING OF URBAN THE FIFTH 
 
 His Son trod, and in all things render glory and praise to His 
 
 name." " Dearest brother, be a lover of virtue with holy 
 
 patience, and go often to confession, which will help you to bear 
 
 your burdens. I tell you that God will use His benignity and 
 
 mercy, and will reward you for every burden that you have borne for 
 
 love of Him." l But, presently, a coldness arose between Benin- 
 
 casa^and those he had left behind in Siena ; in his tribulation, he 
 
 thought that his mother ought to have helped him, while she, 
 
 apparendy, felt more in need of aid from him. Catherine 
 
 naturally took Lapa's part, and held her brother ungrateful : — 
 
 O " You must remember to correct yourself of your ingratitude 
 
 and churlishness, in the matter of the duty you owe your mother, 
 
 to whom you are bound by the commandment of God. As to 
 
 your not having fulfilled the obligation of helping her, I hold you 
 
 excused, because you have not been able ; but, even if you had 
 
 been able, I do not know that you would have done it, seeing that 
 
 you have been niggardly to her even in your words. In your 
 
 ingratitude you have not considered how she bore you and gave 
 
 you suck, nor all the care she has had of you and of all the 
 
 others. If you tell me that she has not been tender to us, I say 
 
 that it is not true, for she has been so tender to you, and to the 
 
 other, that it costs her dear. But, even if it were true, you 
 
 would be in her debt, and not she in yours. She took no flesh 
 
 from you, but gave you hers. I pray you to correct this and 
 
 your other defects, and pardon me my rudeness, for, if I did not 
 
 love your soul, I would not say what I say to you." 2 
 
 A little later, she sent a beautiful and tender letter of counsel 
 to Benincasa's daughter Nanna, sua nipote verginella, on her taking 
 the veil, interpreting for her the parable of the ten Virgins. 3 
 Afterwards, when her influence extended as far as Florence, she 
 was able to help her brothers materially, by interesting the power- 
 ful Guelf politician, Niccolo Soderini, on their behalf. 
 
 Rome itself had seen but little of the Sovereign Pontiff during 
 these few years. His health had been steadily failing, and he 
 
 1 Letters 10 and 20 (249 and 251). 2 Letter 18 (250). 
 
 s Letter 23 (356). 
 
 73 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 had passed most of his time at Viterbo, and especially in the high- 
 lying and salubrious Montefiascone. 
 
 The work of Albornoz had been left incomplete in one essential 
 point. Perugia, the third city of the Papal States, was still 
 unsubdued. Its subjugation was a very different matter from 
 hunting out the tyrants of such places as Forli or Imola : Perugia 
 was a free and powerful Republic, only nominally subject to the 
 Church. A conspiracy of the Baglioni in October, 1368, to 
 surrender the city to the Pope, led to open war between it and 
 the Holy See, in which the Benedictine Pierre d'Estaing, Arch- 
 bishop of Bourges, had directed the papal forces ; while the 
 Perugians had been aided in their resistance by Bernabo Visconti, 
 Giovanni di Vico, and Hawkwood's English mercenaries. They 
 had at first been successful, and had even, in the following year, 
 threatened the Pope himself in Montefiascone. Urban naturally 
 answered with excommunications and interdict. In the October 
 of this year, 1369, he received in Rome the Emperor of the 
 East, Johannes V Palaeologus, who came to implore aid against 
 the Turks. Thus the Pope, in the space of a year, had seen the 
 successors of Charlemagne and Justinian alike at his feet ; but 
 found his power defied by a small Umbrian republic from its 
 hill. 
 
 In April, 1370, Urban for the last time left Rome for Viterbo 
 and Montefiascone. Giovanni di Vico submitted ; the Perugians 
 opened negotiations for peace. Then, at Montefiascone, the 
 Pope suddenly announced his intention of returning to Avignon. 
 
 From the outset, Petrarca had hailed the papal return to Rome 
 as the beginning of a new age for the Church — but only a 
 beginning — and he had doubted the Pope's strength of will. He 
 had greeted him on his arrival with the words of the Psalmist, 
 In exitu Israel de Aegyplu : " When Israel went out of Egypt, 
 the house of Jacob from a barbarous people, there was joy among 
 the Angels in heaven and among the faithful on earth. And 
 lo ! thou, most blessed Father, as far as in thee lies, hast rendered 
 the Christian people happy. No longer will they now go wander- 
 ing in search of their Lord or of His vicar ; but the one they 
 
 74 
 
THE COMING OF URBAN THE FIFTH 
 
 will find in heaven and within their own souls (for each is the 
 seat of God), the other on earth and in his proper place, that 
 place which the Lord chose, in which the first of His vicars 
 dwelt when he lived, and still remains though dead. Thou hast 
 restored brightness to our world, and, rising like the sun, 
 hast put to flight the coldness of long night and the powers of 
 darkness. The neglect of five pontiffs, equal to thee in rank 
 but not in soul, and of more than sixty years, hast thou alone in 
 a few days repaired." Urban has brought the Church back to 
 her ancient seat ; let him complete his work by restoring her to her 
 old state of purity and dignity, and begin by reforming the 
 luxury and pomp of the cardinals. Let him look to the legates 
 and papal officials, who are usurping the lordship of the Italian 
 cities, and ruling them with such unheard-of tyranny that Peter 
 is amazed, and Christ, in indignant wonder, is threatening 
 vengeance : " And, unless He from heaven and thou on earth 
 come to the rescue (for the Italians seem drugged and lie in 
 slumber), it will be all over with us ; we shall soon see Italy 
 reduced to servitude, and the Church literally militant, in arms 
 and fighting for temporal sovereignty instead of for the faith ; 
 we shall see her triumphant, too, so that the fame thereof reaches 
 heaven and the stars, and individual ecclesiastics ruling in triumph 
 over this or that city — until, when those who now slumber are 
 awakened, all things are overthrown and reformed by a terrible 
 revolution." " Then turn not aside from the way by which thou 
 hast started, for there is none straighter to salvation ; the time is 
 short, the journey long, and the hope of the reward will make 
 the labour light. Beware of looking back ; for thou knowest 
 that he who has set hand to the plough and looketh back, cannot enter 
 into the kingdom of God" " If I heard that thou wast departing, 
 I should not believe unless I saw ; and if I saw it with my own 
 eyes, I should find it difficult to believe them. So great is the 
 hope that I have set upon thee and upon thy virtues." x 
 
 This virile language found an echo in the Pope's heart. He 
 urged the poet, both directly and through the Patriarch of 
 1 Rerum Senttum, Lib. IX. ep. i (undated). 
 
 75 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 Jerusalem, to join him in Rome. Petrarca promised that he 
 would come, and actually started in the spring of 1370, but was 
 taken ill at Ferrara, and, when he recovered, the doctors forbade 
 him to proceed. 1 He was probably at Padua, or in his retreat at 
 Arqua among the Euganean Hills, when he heard that all was 
 over, and that Urban was returning to Provence. In his last 
 letter to the Pope, one of the noblest of his compositions, Italy 
 herself addresses the fugitive successor of Peter : — 
 
 " When I was lacerated with deadly sores, thou didst descend 
 to me to cure my wounds, and didst say with Peter : I am an 
 Apostle of Christ ; have no fear of me, my daughter. Thou didst 
 begin to pour into them wine and oil, and now, without having 
 bound them up or applied the remedies, thou art departing from 
 me. Thou didst find, it may be, that my malady was such as 
 seemeth to thee incurable, and for this thou art, perchance, 
 deserting me, like a despairing physician who is ashamed to await 
 the death of his patient. But who knoweth that He would not 
 lay His hand upon me with thee, who healed the sick from all 
 diseases ? Who knoweth if he would not be with thee, at whose 
 word the limbs of the infirm were made whole ? Thou art the 
 vicar of the one, the successor of the other ; thou holdest the keys 
 of the Kingdom of Heaven. ... If thou wilt not be moved by 
 my entreaty, He will meet thee on thy way, who to Peter's words 
 when he fled : Lord, whither goest Thou ? answered : I go to Rome 
 to be crucified again." 2 
 
 This letter was apparently written in the late spring or early 
 summer of 1370. On May 22, an embassy from the Romans 
 came to Montefiascone, to implore the Pope to reconsider his 
 decision. " The Holy Spirit led me to Rome," he answered ; " it 
 
 1 Rerum Seni/ium, Lib. XL ep. 1, 16, 17, letters dated Padua, July 25 (1368), 
 December 24 (1369), May 8 (1370), respectively. 
 
 2 The original text of this letter (which is not found in the early editions of 
 Petrarca's works) is given by A. M. Bandini, Blbliotheca Leopoldina Laurentiana, 
 Tom. ii. (Florence, 1792), coll. 101-103. In Fracassetti's Italian version, it 
 appears as the third of the Latere varie. The words, Ego sum Apostolus Christi, 
 etc., are those uttered by St. Peter to St. Agatha in prison, according to the legend 
 of the latter saint, in the Breznarlum Romanum for February 5. 
 
 76 
 
THE COMING OF URBAN THE FIFTH 
 
 now leads me away for the honour of the Church." Ill-health 
 and the evil influence of the French cardinals were probably the 
 real explanations ; the only plausible excuse that Urban could 
 have offered was that, Italy being now pacified, his presence was 
 needed in Avignon to make peace between France and Eng- 
 land, who had renewed hostilities. On June 7, he made two 
 cardinals, both of whom were soon to touch Catherine's life 
 very nearly : Pierre d'Estaing, with the title of Santa Maria 
 in Trastevere, and the Bishop of Florence, Piero Corsini, the 
 nephew of Piero degli Albizzi, whose faction had always favoured 
 the league of Florence with the Church. He likewise appointed 
 Pierre d'Estaing, who was a great-hearted and far-seeing man, of 
 virtuous life and enlightened views, albeit of an aristocratic and 
 somewhat overbearing disposition, to the southern legation in 
 Italy ; the northern legation, that called of Bologna, he had 
 previously, in January, 1368, assigned to his own brother, 
 Anglico de Grimoard. He now bade the Romans farewell, 
 promising still to care for them as a father, urging them to 
 remain at peace and not prevent his return, or the coming of his 
 successor. " Nevertheless," he said, " we bear witness that we 
 and our brothers, the cardinals of the Holy Roman Church, and 
 our familiars and officers, have remained for three years with you 
 and in the places round about, in great quiet and consolation ; and 
 you, collectively and individually, have treated us and our Curia 
 with reverence and kindness." 1 
 
 Birgitta had gone with her sons, Charles and Birger, to 
 Amalfi. She returned, to find Urban on the point of departure, 
 and resolved to make a last effort to see him. It was in July 
 when she reached Viterbo and went out to Montefiascone, where 
 the Pope was. With her came a man of high repute for sanctity, 
 whom we shall meet again in connection with Catherine : the 
 " hermit bishop," Alfonso da Vadaterra. Born of a Sienese father 
 and a Spanish mother, Alfonso had begun a brilliant ecclesiastical 
 career as Bishop of Jaen, but had renounced his bishopric, dis- 
 tributed his goods among the poor, and was now living at Rome 
 1 Brief of June 26, 1370, in Raynaldus, vii. p. 190. 
 
 77 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 as an Augustinian hermit. He it was who wrote Birgitta's life, 
 and apparently put the books of her Revelations into the form in 
 which we now have them. 
 
 The Swedish princess on her mule climbed the high hill upon 
 which Montefiascone stands, to the papal palace at the summit, 
 overlooking the peaceful lake of Bolsena. There below her lay the 
 island that had witnessed the martyrdom of Santa Cristina, and 
 that other where Amalasuentha had been brutally done to death by 
 her Gothic assassins ; further away lay the quiet little town with 
 the church that had witnessed the mystical wonder that is cele- 
 brated still in the Lauda Sion of Aquinas and the marble glory of 
 Orvieto's Duomo. She was ushered into the presence of the 
 Sovereign Pontiff — her friend Niccolo Orsini, the Count of Nola, 
 apparently acting as interpreter. Urban received her kindly, 
 granted her the authorization of her rule, but would not discuss 
 the affairs of the Holy See. Presently, however, he sent a mes- 
 senger after her, to ask her what was the Divine will in the 
 matter. Then the visionary spirit seized again upon Birgitta, and 
 the Blessed Virgin spoke in her heart to this effect : — 
 
 " Because of my prayer, he obtained the infusion of the Holy 
 Spirit, that he should go through Italy to Rome, for nought else 
 save to do justice and mercy, to strengthen the Catholic faith, to 
 confirm peace, and thus to renovate Holy Church. Even as a 
 mother leads her child to what place pleases her while she shows 
 him her breasts ; so did I lead Pope Urban, by my prayer and 
 the work of the Holy Spirit, from Avignon to Rome, without any 
 danger to his person. What hath he done to me ? Now he 
 turneth to me his back and not his face, and he intends to depart 
 from me ; to this a malign spirit leads him with its fraud. For 
 he is weary of his divine labour and lusteth for his bodily ease. 
 Yea, the devil draws him with worldly delectation, for too 
 desirable to him is the land of his birth in mundane fashion. 
 He is drawn, too, by the counsels of his carnal friends, who 
 consider his pleasure and will more than the honour and will of 
 God, or the profit and salvation of his soul. If it should happen 
 that he return to the regions where he was elected Pope, he will 
 
 78 
 
THE COMING OF URBAN THE FIFTH 
 
 in a brief while receive such a stroke that his teeth will gnash ; 
 his sight will be darkened and grow dim, and all the limbs of his 
 body will tremble. The ardour of the Holy Spirit will for a 
 while grow tepid within him and depart, and the prayers of all 
 the friends of God, who resolved to pray for him with tears and 
 groans, will be numbed, and the love of him will grow cold in 
 their hearts. And he will render account before God of the 
 things which he has done in the papal chair, and of the things 
 which he has omitted, but could have done to the honour of God 
 in his great position." 1 
 
 This revelation she delivered in person to the Pope, in the 
 presence of the young French cardinal, Pierre Roger de Beaufort, 
 the nephew of Clement VI. 2 But Urban went sadly on his way. 
 On September 5, 1370, he sailed from Corneto, reaching France 
 on the 1 6th. Three months later, on December 19, he died 
 at Avignon, in the house of his brother Anglico, at his own wish 
 stretched on the couch of poverty and dressed in the Benedictine 
 habit. An ineffectual Pope, but a faithful monk to the end. 3 
 On December 30, Cardinal Pierre Roger de Beaufort was 
 elected to succeed him ; he was ordained priest on January 4, 
 1 37 1, and, the next day, was crowned Pope under the title of 
 Gregory XL 
 
 A month before Urban's death, in November, 1370, a peace 
 had been concluded at Bologna between the Church and Perugia, 
 by the intervention of the ambassadors of Florence — the principal 
 conditions of which were that the city of Perugia should recognize 
 the Pope and the Church in perpetuity as its sovereign, and that 
 
 1 Revelationes, IV. 138. 
 
 2 The Cardinal had previously refused to present the revelation to Urban. 
 Cf. Alfonso's testimony in Raynaldus, vii. p. 374. 
 
 3 According to Birgitta, in spite of his great fall, Urban's soul finds mercy at 
 the last because of his fidelity to his vows. Cf. Revelationes, IV. 144 : " Visio quam 
 habuit Sponsa Christi de judicio animae cujusdam Summi Pontificis defuncti." 
 The Comtesse de Flavigny (Sainie Brigitte de Suede, p. 285) is clearly in error in 
 supposing that Clement VI is the pontiff in question. Cf. Petrarca, Rer. Sen., Lib. 
 XIII. ep. 13. The Bolognese anticipated the judgment of the Church by at once 
 venerating the dead Pope as a saint. 
 
 79 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 the Pope for his life-time should make the priors of the Republic 
 his vicars, after they had formally surrendered the keys of the city 
 to the commissaries of the Cardinal Legate, in sign and recog- 
 nition of which they were to pay, during the life of the Pope, an 
 annual tribute of 3,000 gold florins. The Perugians were still 
 doubting about the meaning of the clause that spoke of the 
 creation of vicars as only for the life-time of the Pope, while the 
 recognition of the Church's sovereignty was perpetual, when 
 Urban died, and the legate, Anglico de Grimoard, had no 
 further powers to act. But the exiles who had been restored 
 raised fresh tumults, the city lacked provisions, and Cardinal 
 d'Estaing, confirmed in his legation by the new Pope, entered 
 Perugia in triumph, on May 19, 1371, welcomed by the priors 
 and citizens with palms and olive-branches. 1 
 
 Thus, in appearance, was the work of Albornoz completed in 
 the first year of the pontificate of Gregory XI ; but it was to 
 prove a house built on sand, with no sure foundation in the love 
 of the subjects that ostensibly accepted the papal rule. The year 
 of Urban's desertion of Italy is the year of Catherine's entry 
 into public life. The new pontiff, gentle, scholarly, sickly and 
 suffering in his body, well-meaning, but weak and irresolute, 
 fickle, and at times unexpectedly hard and obstinate, was to 
 encounter the spiritual force of her whom He, whose vicar on 
 earth he claimed to be, had wedded to Himself in the mystic 
 bond of perfect Faith. 
 
 1 Cf. Pellini, Historia di Perugia, I. pp. 1080-1085 > Supplement to Graziani's 
 Chronicle, pp. 208-217 5 Montemarte, Cronaca di Orvieto, I. p. 39. 
 
 80 
 
Chapter v 
 
 THE SPIRITUAL FELLOWSHIP 
 
 " Amore non e altro che unimento spirituale dell' anima e della cosa amata." — Dante, 
 Convivio, III. 1. 
 
 " Id quod amatur amore amicitiae, simpliciter et per se amatur." — St. Thomas Aquinas, 
 Summa Theologica, I— II. Q. 26. A. 4. 
 
 Catherine was now nearly twenty-four years old : a won- 
 derfully endowed woman. Gifts had been 'given her to fulfil the 
 impassioned hunger and thirst after righteousness ; a divination of 
 spirits, and an intuition so swift and infallible that men deemed 
 it miraculous, the magic of a personality so winning and irresistible 
 that neither man nor woman could hold out against it, a simple 
 untaught wisdom that confounded the arts and subtleties of the 
 world ; and, with these, a speech so golden, so full of a mystical 
 eloquence, that her words, whether written or spoken, made all 
 hearts burn within them when her message came. In ecstatic 
 contemplation she passes into regions beyond sense and above 
 reason, voyaging alone in unexplored and untrodden realms of 
 the spirit ; but, when the sounds of the earth again break in 
 upon her trance, a homely common-sense and simple humour are 
 hers, no less than the knowledge acquired in these communings 
 with an unseen world. 
 
 It is stated by Orlando Malavolti, the sixteenth century 
 historian of Siena, that Catherine had already written to Pope 
 Urban V. But this is manifestly an error. Her time had not 
 yet come to pass out of her hidden life into what a Pope of the 
 Renaissance was to call the " game of the world." It is curious 
 that, while she makes one reference to Urban in a letter to his 
 successor, 1 she never mentions the hopes and fears that had been 
 raised by his coming. Her entry into public affairs appears to 
 have begun in those months that intervened between his flight 
 from Italy and his death at Avignon. 
 
 All through this summer of 1370, the soul of Catherine was 
 1 Letter 231 (7). 
 
 6 8i 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 overwhelmed with visions and manifestations of divine mysteries. 
 " To explain in our defective language what I saw," she said in 
 after years, " would seem to me like blaspheming the Lord, or 
 dishonouring Him by my speech ; so great is the distance 
 between what the intellect, when rapt and illumined and 
 strengthened by God, apprehends, and what can be expressed 
 with words, that they seem almost contradictory." As she 
 prayed to the Lord for purity of heart that she might worthily 
 receive the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar, it seemed to her that 
 a torrent of mingled blood and fire was poured down upon her, 
 to the mystical cleansing of body and soul. And, a day or two 
 later, she believed that Christ had drawn her heart from her side, 
 and given her His own in exchange, with which she was hence- 
 forth to live. "Do you not see, father," she said to Fra 
 Tommaso della Fonte, " that I am no longer she who I was, but 
 that I am changed into another person ? Such gladness and such 
 delight possess my mind, that I marvel greatly how my soul can 
 stay in my body. Such ardour is in my soul that this material, 
 exterior fire seems to me cold by comparison." Praying for 
 this confessor and her other companions, that eternal life might 
 be their portion, and seeking a sign from Christ that her prayers 
 were heard, she felt the palm of her outstretched hand pierced 
 through by an invisible nail of iron, and thus received the fore- 
 taste of the stigmata, the imprint of the five wounds of Our Lord 
 in His passion, which afterwards — albeit invisible — were to be 
 hers. "The abundance of graces and revelations and most 
 manifest visions," writes Fra Raimondo, " at this time so com- 
 pletely filled the soul of this holy virgin, that she began utterly 
 to waste away through the greatness of her love ; and she became 
 so weak that she could no more rise up from her bed, albeit she 
 suffered nought else save only the love of her eternal Bridegroom, 
 upon whose name she called continually, as though bereft of 
 sense." 
 
 She prayed earnestly that she might soon be delivered from 
 the body that kept her from the embraces of her Spouse, and 
 that, if this might not yet be, in the meanwhile she might at' least 
 
 82 
 
THE SPIRITUAL FELLOWSHIP 
 
 be united to Him by partaking in the sufferings that He endured 
 on earth. At length it seemed that her heart was broken by the 
 force of her love. " So great," she said, " was the fire of divine 
 love and of the desire of uniting myself with Him I loved, that, 
 if my heart had been of stone or of iron, it would have been 
 broken in like manner." It was on a Sunday in the autumn of 
 this year, 1370, when this mystical death fell upon her — a trance 
 of some four hours' duration — in which her friends all thought 
 her actually dead, and filled her cell with cries and lamentations. 
 In this suspension of her bodily life, Catherine believed that she 
 had really died, that her soul entered into eternity, tasted the 
 blessedness of the vision of the Divine Essence, and, like Dante, 
 beheld the spiritual lives of Heaven, Purgatory, and Hell. Like 
 Dante, she was bidden repeat to the living what she had seen, in 
 pro del mondo che mal vive : — 
 
 " Whilst my soul beheld all these things, the eternal Bride- 
 groom, whom I thought fully to possess, said to her : ' Seest 
 thou of what great glory they are deprived, and with what 
 grievous torments they are punished, who offend Me ? Return, 
 then, and make known to them their error, their danger, and loss.' 
 And, for that my soul shrank with horror from this return, the 
 Lord added : ' The salvation of many souls demands thy return, 
 nor shalt thou any more keep that way of life that thou hast 
 hitherto kept, nor shalt thou henceforth have thy cell for habita- 
 tion ; nay, thou shalt have to go forth from thine own city for 
 the welfare of souls. I shall be always with thee, and shall guide 
 thee and bring thee back ; thou shalt bear the honour of My 
 name and witness to spiritual things before small and great, the 
 laity no less than the clergy and religious ; for I shall give thee 
 speech and wisdom which none will be able to withstand. I shall 
 lead thee, too, before the pontiffs and rulers of the Churches and 
 of the Christian people, in order that, as is My wont, by means 
 of the weak I may confound the pride of the strong.' " 1 
 
 Fra Bartolommeo di Domenico tells us that he was preaching 
 in San Domenico when the report was spread that Catherine had 
 1 Legenda, II. vi. 1-9, 17, 20-23 (§ § 178-193, 206, 212-216). 
 
 83 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 died. After the sermon, he, too, heard the rumour, and rushed 
 to her cell. It was so full of friars and women that he could 
 hardly enter, and they told him she had been dead some hours 
 before. She gradually came to life again in his presence, but for 
 days could do nothing but weep, and bewail the sad fate of her 
 soul that, having beheld with the Angels the face of her Creator, 
 was sent down again to her carnal imprisonment. To the end, 
 Catherine believed she had been really and truly dead, nor could 
 she ever speak of this vision without tears. " "Will you not have 
 pity, father," she said to Fra Raimondo, " upon a soul that had 
 been freed from the dark prison, and, after having seen a most 
 blessed light, was again shut up in her former darkness ? I am 
 that wretched creature to whom this befell, for so did the divine 
 Providence dispose because of my sins." x Nevertheless, this 
 vision was the prelude to her public life — the mystical signification 
 of her great and wonderful vocation. 
 
 Henceforth, Catherine's work was done openly in the eyes of 
 
 the world, though for a while she did not, save in spirit, leave the 
 
 territories of the Sienese Republic. A number of conversions 
 
 marked the beginning of her public ministry. Andrea di Naddino 
 
 Bellanti, a notorious sinner and blasphemer, struck down by 
 
 illness in the flower of his manhood, was moved by her prayers 
 
 to repentance and an edifying end. Francesco Saracini, the 
 
 father-in-law of Alessa, a fierce and irreligious old noble of eighty 
 
 years, at her bidding made peace with the enemy whom he hated 
 
 to death, and became a model of simple-hearted devotion for the 
 
 few months of life that remained to him. Jacomo Tolomei, the 
 
 furious son of Francesco and Rabe Tolomei, "uomo assai 
 
 maraviglioso e molto terribile," already twice a homicide and the 
 
 terror of all the city, not only meekly submitted to his sisters, 
 
 Ghinoccia and Francesca, taking the veil, but confessed his own 
 
 sins to Fra Bartolommeo, and " was changed from wolf to lamb, 
 
 from lion to watch-dog." A younger brother of his, Matteo 
 
 Tolomei, became one of Catherine's spiritual household and 
 
 entered the Dominican order. 
 
 1 Contestatio Fr. Bartholomaei, coll. I33*-I333 ; Legenda, II. vi. 21 (§ 213). 
 
 84 
 
THE SPIRITUAL FELLOWSHIP 
 
 But, among the men and women who gave up everything to 
 become Catherine's followers and disciples, there were some very 
 different from the Dominican tertiaries and the friars. Neri di 
 Landoccio Pagliaresi, a vernacular poet, and by rank a noble of 
 one of the lesser Sienese houses, who joined her about this time, 
 is the first of a little group of youths of birth and learning who 
 left their families to cleave to her and serve her as secretaries, 
 binding themselves to her in worship and love of friendship ; a 
 spiritual tie of whole-hearted devotion, which she describes in 
 her Dialogue as the means chosen by God to raise a soul as yet 
 imperfect in love to the perfection of love. By thus conceiving 
 a spiritual and absorbing love for some one creature, such a soul 
 frees herself from all unworthy passions, and advances in virtue, 
 by this ordered love casting out all disordered affections. By the 
 unselfishness and perfection of her love for such a friend, the soul 
 can test the perfection or imperfection of her love for God. 1 It 
 is like the love of Dante for Beatrice, but kindled at the foot of 
 the Cross and consecrated at the steps of the Altar. 
 
 " You asked me to receive you for son," she writes to Neri, 
 in the first of her letters to him ; " and, therefore^ I — unworthy, 
 miserable, and wretched as I am — have already received you, and 
 receive you with affectionate love ; and I pledge, and will pledge 
 myself for ever in the sight of God, to bear the weight for you of 
 all the sins you have committed or might commit. But I pray 
 you to fulfil my desire ; that is, that you conform yourself with 
 Christ crucified, by entirely severing yourself from the conversa- 
 tion of the world ; for in no other way could we have this 
 conformity with Christ. Clothe yourself, clothe yourself with 
 Christ crucified ; for He is that wedding garment that will give 
 you grace here, and afterwards will place you at the banquet of 
 life eternal." 2 
 
 A very different type from this highly-strung and sensitive 
 poet (who to the end was tormented by terrible fits of despondency 
 and depression, with a haunting fear lest he should not have 
 
 1 Dialogp, cap. 144. 
 
 2 Letter 99 (272). In all subsequent letters, Catherine addresses him as tu. 
 
 85 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 grace to persevere) was his friend and companion, Francesco di 
 Messer Vanni Malavolti, the son of one of the most influential 
 of the great Sienese nobles. 
 
 " I was then about twenty-five years old," writes Francesco, 
 " not a little fiery and daring by reason of my kindred and my 
 birth, well furnished with temporal goods, and, impelled by my 
 still youthful age, I was living lasciviously and unrestrainedly in 
 the wretched delights of the world and the flesh, as though I were 
 never to die, recklessly pursuing my inordinate lusts with all my 
 power. But it chanced that, as I had conversation and fellowship 
 with many like me in age and birth, among my other dear and 
 beloved companions, there was a noble youth of Siena called Neri 
 di Landoccio di Messer Neri de' Pagliaresi, with whom I spent 
 much of my time, both because he was very virtuous and pleasant, 
 and because he was an excellent composer of beautiful poems, in 
 which at that time I took the greatest delight. This Neri, after 
 we had been friends for a long while, had heard often (without my 
 knowledge) of the fame of that glorious virgin Catherine, and 
 had even spoken to her, whereby he had become wondrously 
 changed and made another man. Pitying me because of 
 the lascivious life I led, and desiring the salvation of my 
 soul rather than of my body, he many times besought me to 
 go with him to speak with the said virgin Catherine. But I, 
 caring little for these words and prayers, nay, rather deriding 
 them, for a long time would not in the least consent to his will ; 
 but at length, constrained by his prayers, and unwilling to distress 
 him because of the bond of singular love by which he was bound 
 to me, I told him that I was ready to satisfy his desire ; albeit, in 
 my inmost heart, I was not going thither from any devotion, but 
 rather with contempt, and intending, if she preached to me about 
 the spirit and especially about confession, to answer her in such 
 wise that she would never speak to me any more. And so, with 
 this intention, I prepared to go to her. But, when we both came 
 to the glorious virgin, no sooner had I seen her face than a 
 terrible fear entered me, with so great a trembling that I almost 
 fainted ; and, albeit (as I said) I had no thought or intention of 
 
 86 
 
THE SPIRITUAL FELLOWSHIP 
 
 confessing, God so wondrously changed my heart at her first 
 word that I went straightway to confess myself sacramentally ; 
 and that first visit was so efficacious that I became all the contrary 
 to what I had been before." After a few more visits to her, he 
 completely abandoned his former mode of life ; and so great was 
 the change that, whereas hitherto his own wife, " a noble damsel, 
 fair and beautiful according to the flesh, but far more according 
 to virtue and spirit," had not sufficed him, " but I was striving 
 also, according to my power, to have several other women," he 
 now, with her consent, lived for a long time with her in chastity, 
 and, shunning the worldly pleasures in which his soul had 
 delighted, he found his joy in the churches and in conversing 
 with the servants of God, and began to frequent Catherine's 
 house and listen to her teaching. 
 
 Nevertheless, shordy after, he fell into a grave sin — known, he 
 says, only to God. " Immediately after the commission of this 
 sin, touched by God, I went to the virgin's home, and, as soon as 
 I had entered her house, before I had come to her presence, 
 beyond her wont she had me called to her ; and, having sent out 
 all the others who were with her, she made me sit down near her, 
 and said to me : c Tell me, how long is it since thou didst go to 
 confession ? ' To which I answered : ' Last Saturday.' And 
 this was perfectly true, for such was the custom of all of us who 
 conversed with her. Then she : ' Go and confess at once ; ' to 
 which I : < My sweet mother, I will confess to-morrow, which is 
 Saturday.' But she repeated the same thing, saying : ' Go, and 
 do what I tell thee.' And when I sought some delay, and 
 refused to do it just then, she, with face glowing and enkindled, 
 said to me : ' How, my son, dost thou think that I have not my 
 eyes ever open over my children ? You could not do or say 
 anything without my knowing it. And how dost thou think 
 to hide from me that thou hast just now done so and so? Go 
 therefore, immediately, and cleanse thyself from such great misery.' 
 Then, when I heard her tell me exactly all that 1 had done and 
 said, confused and full of shame, without any other answer, 
 I straightway heedfully fulfilled her command and went to 
 
 87 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 confession ; and not only then, but on many other occasions, 
 did she manifest to me, with modest and humble words, not only 
 my hidden deeds, but also the thoughts that were passing in my 
 heart, the good as well as the evil." l 
 
 On a later occasion, Catherine was to write to Francesco : " I 
 can well call thee dear ; so much art thou costing me in tears and 
 labour and in much bitter sorrow." But, for the present, the 
 young man was in the first fervour of his conversion. " From 
 being a bestial man and well-nigh demoniacal," he says, " I had 
 come to true knowledge and to life according to the spirit." 
 His relations and associates strove by all possible means to draw 
 him from his new mode of living. Two especially misliked his 
 change to good — " and this, as I deem, because we had previously 
 been the most concordant in the lascivious vanities of the world." 
 One of these was a connection by marriage, Neri di Guccio 
 degli Ugurghieri (a member of the oldest feudal family of Siena), 
 and the other a companion, Niccolo di Bindo Ghelli. Whenever 
 they met Francesco, they would abuse Catherine, and declared 
 themselves ready to say the same to her face. " Come then," 
 said Francesco at last, " and I will introduce you to her. If you 
 convince her, I promise to return with you to my old life ; but 
 take good heed, for, if you go to her, before you depart she will 
 convert you, and make you both go to confess your sins." That, 
 the two protested, Christ Himself could not induce them to do ; 
 but, nevertheless, a few days afterwards, they accompanied him to 
 the Saint's house. And, whereas they had come with the intention 
 of saying everything bad against her, when they were in her 
 presence, they found they could not utter a word : — 
 
 " Then she sweetly began to reprove them for many words 
 which they had used many times against me, even as though she 
 herself had been bodily always present when they said these things, 
 albeit she had never heard anything about them from me, of which 
 may God be my witness. Having heard these words of the 
 virgin, they were touched and confused, and began to weep 
 bitterly, nor did they answer anything but this : ' Tell us, lady, 
 
 1 Contestant* Francisci de Malavoltis, cap. i., Casanatense MS., pp. 430-4.33. 
 
THE SPIRITUAL FELLOWSHIP 
 
 what you would have us do, for we are disposed and ready to 
 do whatever you think fit to command.' To which the virgin 
 answered, saying : ' I wish you instantly to go to confession ; and 
 do thou, Francesco, lead them to my father, Fra Tommaso.' 
 And, departing thence, we went together straight to the convent 
 of the Friars Preachers of Siena, where the said father was, and 
 there, with the greatest devotion and with tears, both the two 
 confessed their sins. And so completely did they correct their 
 lives, that, throughout the whole of that Lent, they were always 
 present at holy preachings, put aside all evil conversations, and 
 lived honestly and with the fear of the Lord. And thus it 
 appears manifesdy how wondrously these two, who fled her so, 
 nevertheless could not escape out of the hands of that holy little 
 virgin Catherine." 1 
 
 Other lay disciples who joined Catherine's spiritual family at 
 this time were Gabriele di Davino Piccolomini, a married man, 
 and Nigi di Doccio Arzocchi, apparently a youth, both members 
 of noble houses. Less closely associated with her, but a fervent 
 believer in her sanctity and mission, was Tommaso di Guelfaccio, 
 the follower of Giovanni Colombini, a man in whom the govern- 
 ment of the Republic placed much confidence. A man of a very 
 different stamp, who became her disciple through Neri di Lan- 
 doccio and Nigi di Doccio, and who has left us his memoirs, was 
 Ser Cristofano di Gano Guidini, a notary. Cristofano belonged 
 to the faction of the Riformatori, held various small offices under 
 the government, and in after years sat twice in the chief magistracy 
 as one of the fifteen Defenders. After he had associated for some 
 time with Catherine and her circle, he desired to abandon the 
 world and enter the religious state, but yielded to the prayers of 
 his mother and determined to marry. He has preserved to us 
 the letter of advice that Catherine wrote to him on the choice of 
 a wife, gently blaming him for his decision in abandoning the call 
 to a higher life, but bidding him, in all he does, seek the honour 
 of God and the salvation of his soul. 2 A simple and straight- 
 
 1 Contestatio Franchci de Malavoltis, cap. iii., MS. cit., pp. 439, 440. 
 
 2 Letter 43 (240). Cf. Memorie di Ser Cristofano di Gano Guidini, pp. 3 1-33, 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 forward man, not without learning, he was, perhaps, the most 
 practical member of the fellowship. 
 
 It was probably through Ser Cristofano that a more important 
 personage was brought into Catherine's sphere of influence : the 
 painter and democratic politician, Andrea di Vanni. Andrea di 
 Vanni had taken part in the revolutionary movement that had 
 brought about the supremacy of the Riformatori, and was a man 
 of weight in the counsels of the new magistrates of the Republic, 
 much employed in important embassies. He was intimate with 
 the worthy notary, and stood godfather to his eldest son. There 
 is no reason for supposing that he actually became one of 
 Catherine's spiritual family, and her letters to him, written when 
 he was filling the office of Captain of the People, are of a later 
 date. He was a loyal and conscientious politician according to 
 the lights of his day, and a virile painter, with a noble and 
 striking ideal of the Blessed Virgin in his art. 1 The most im- 
 portant of his surviving works is the large altar-piece in the church 
 of Santo Stefano, on the Lizza ; but, restored and repainted though 
 it be, he would be graceless indeed who could look unmoved 
 upon that strange, unearthly, almost uncouth, but immeasurably 
 touching and appealing portrait of Catherine from his hand that 
 still watches over the Cappella delle Volte in San Domenico. 
 
 That a young woman should thus be surrounded with men, 
 some of them no older than herself, gave food to cynical thoughts 
 and slanderous tongues. The bitterest of all accusations for 
 Catherine to bear was made against her. A woman named 
 
 and Grottanelli, Orazioni di Santa Brigida (Siena, 1867), p. 4. Cristofano wrote 
 a life of Giovanni Colombini, translated Catherine's Dialogo into Latin, and had 
 an Italian version of the Revelations of St. Bridget copied for the Confraternity of 
 Our Lady. 
 
 1 Cf. F. M. Perkins, Andrea Vanni, in the Burlington Magazine, vol. ii. 
 (London, 1903). He seems to have called himself "Andrea di Vanni," Vanni 
 becoming a family name in later times. Various documents concerning his public 
 life, with certain of his letters to the Signoria when ambassador to the Pope 
 C 1 373, !3 8 4> x 3 8 5)> are S iven b 7 G - Milanesi, Documenti per la Storia dell' Arte 
 Seneie, vol. i. docs. 90-95, 137, and Borghesi and Banchi, Nuovi documenti, pp. 
 27, 54. 55- 
 
 90 
 
THE SPIRITUAL FELLOWSHIP 
 
 Andrea, whom she was tending while dying slowly of cancer, 
 accused her to the prioress and sisters of the Mantellate as guilty 
 of unchastity. In spite of Lapa's vehement indignation, Catherine 
 nursed her traducer lovingly to the end, and at last gained her 
 soul, too, for her Divine Bridegroom. In the first pang of the 
 lying accusation, she had prayed to Him with tears to prove her 
 innocence ; but when, in answer, He bade her choose between 
 the crown of pearls and the crown of thorns, she eagerly and 
 ardently pressed the latter upon her brows. It was on this 
 occasion that, to punish herself for a momentary fit of aversion 
 caused by the horrible physical state of the patient's body, 
 Catherine subjected herself to an ordeal too dreadful to be set 
 down in this place. 
 
 " Sweetest daughter," said the Divine Voice in her heart, on 
 another occasion, " the time to come of thy earthly pilgrimage 
 will be full of such wondrous new gifts from Me that it will cause 
 stupor and incredulity in the hearts of the ignorant and carnal ; 
 and many, too, that love thee will doubt, and will think that what 
 will befall thee through My exceeding love is delusion. For I 
 will pour such abundance of grace into thy soul that it will over- 
 flow wondrously even in thy body, which will thereby acquire an 
 all unwonted mode of life. Thy heart will be so mightily in- 
 flamed towards the salvation of thy neighbours that, forgetting 
 thine own sex, thou wilt utterly change thy former way of con- 
 versation, nor wilt thou any more shun the company of men and 
 women ; nay, for the salvation of their souls, thou wilt expose 
 thyself to every labour according to thy power. At these things 
 many will be scandalized, and by them shalt thou be spoken 
 against that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed. But 
 be not thou disturbed, nor fear at all ; for I shall be ever with 
 thee, and shall deliver thy soul from deceitful tongues and from 
 the mouth of those that lie. So execute manfully whatever the 
 Holy Spirit instructs thee, because through thee I will deliver 
 many souls from the jaws of Hell, and, by means of My grace, 
 bring them to the Kingdom of Heaven." 1 
 1 Legenda, II. v. I (§ 165). 
 91 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 It was probably about this time that a last attempt from the 
 religious portion of the city was made to hinder Catherine's work, 
 and it came from two men in Siena who were, in Francesco 
 Malavolti's words, " religious of very great worth according to 
 the world." One, Fra Gabriele da Volterra, a Franciscan and 
 then minister of the province, a " Master in Sacred Theology," 
 with a great reputation for learning and preaching, was a sort of 
 petty Brother Elias, who lived sumptuously in the convent of 
 San Francesco like a great prelate. The other was a friar of the 
 order of Augustinian hermits, Fra Giovanni Tantucci (usually 
 known as Giovanni Terzo, to distinguish him from two other 
 " Brother Johns " who had preceded him in his convent), also a 
 " Master in Sacred Theology," who had been to England, where 
 he had taken his doctor's degree at the University of Cambridge. 
 These two murmured against Catherine, in orthodox pharisaical 
 fashion, saying that she was an ignorant woman, seducing simple 
 persons with false expositions of holy Scripture, and leading them 
 to hell with herself. They resolved to make her recognize her 
 errors, and came one day to visit her, with two companions, 
 intending to silence her by difficult theological questions. A 
 number of men and women were with her when they arrived ; 
 Fra Tommaso della Fonte, Fra Matteo Tolomei, a certain Niccolo 
 di Mino, Tommaso di Guelfaccio, Neri di Landoccio, Gabriele 
 Piccolomini, Alessa, Lisa, Cecca, and others, including Francesco 
 Malavolti, who tells the tale of what happened. 
 
 " While we were thus listening to the saintly and wonderful 
 words and doctrine of that holy virgin, she suddenly broke off 
 in her speech, and, becoming all enkindled and with countenance 
 all glowing, she raised her eyes to heaven, and said : ' Blessed be 
 Thou, sweet and eternal Bridegroom, who dost find so many 
 new ways and paths by which to draw or lead souls to Thyself.' 
 And she said many other words, which I do not remember 
 exactly, and would not be able to repeat in the form in which 
 they were uttered by her. But we were all attention, consider- 
 ing what she did, for her motions and all her words were full of 
 mystery nor without particular cause ; so we were expecting 
 
 92 
 
THE SPIRITUAL FELLOWSHIP 
 
 the end that the matter must needs have. Then the father 
 Fra Tommaso, her confessor, said to her : < Tell me, daughter, 
 what is the meaning of what thou hast just done ? What dost 
 thou mean ? Let us understand something about it.' But she, 
 like an obedient daughter, answered : ' My father, you will soon 
 see two great fishes caught in the nets ' ; and said no more. We 
 still by these words did not know what she meant to say ; but, 
 while we were thus in suspense and expecting the end of the 
 affair, one of the virgin's women companions, who lived in the 
 house with her, said : ' Mother, there is here below Master 
 Gabriele da Volterra of the Friars Minor, with a companion, and 
 Master Giovanni Terzo of the friars of St. Augustine, also with 
 a companion, who wish to come to you.' " 
 
 As Catherine was going to meet them, the two came into the 
 room. They sat down, and the others grouped themselves round, 
 as they said that they wished to say nothing to her in secret. 
 Then, " like two furious lions," the Franciscan and the Augustinian 
 in turn began to ply her with the most difficult theological 
 questions, hoping to put her to confusion before her friends and 
 disciples. " But the Holy Spirit, who deserteth none that trust 
 in Him, did not desert this humble handmaiden of His, but 
 granted her so great wisdom and fortitude, that if there had been 
 not only two such men, but even a thousand or ten thousand, she 
 would have overthrown all, and won a magnificent triumph over 
 them, even as that same Holy Spirit said through the mouth of 
 David : A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy 
 right hand." All aflame with divine zeal, yet with the utmost 
 reverence for her two opponents, Catherine rebuked their inflated 
 and unprofitable science, their setting their hearts upon the praises 
 of creatures, and spoke so winningly of the love of Christ that 
 the two were instantly converted. Master Gabriele was living in 
 such pomp that in his convent he had made himself one cell out 
 of three, and furnished it so sumptuously that it would have been 
 excessive for a cardinal, including " a most noble bed with a silk 
 covering and curtains round it, and so many other things that, 
 together with his books, they would be worth hundreds of ducats. 
 
 93 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 Taking the keys from his girdle, he said before us all : ' Is there 
 no one here who will go to distribute and give away for the love 
 of God what I have in my cell ? ' Then uprose Niccolo di Mino 
 and Tommaso di Guelfaccio, and, taking the keys, they said to 
 him : « What would you have us do ? ' And Master Gabriele 
 answered them : « Go into my cell, and whatever you find therein 
 distribute and give away for the love of God, so that nothing be 
 left me in it save my breviary.' " They took him at his word, 
 distributed his books among the other friars of the convent who 
 were students, and gave the rest to the poor, leaving only what 
 was sufficient for a humble Franciscan friar of the strict observ- 
 ance. Gabriele himself shortly after went to Santa Croce at 
 Florence, and there set himself to serving the friars in the refec- 
 tory and other acts of humility, although he was still the minister 
 of the province. Master Giovanni, also, gave away all he had, 
 keeping only the breviary, and became one of Catherine's im- 
 mediate followers, afterwards accompanying her in her travels 
 until her death. He was one of the three confessors who were 
 deputed by the Pope to hear the confessions of those who were 
 converted by her means. 1 
 
 It was doubtless through Maestro Giovanni Tantucci that 
 Catherine was brought into touch with the hermits of Lecceto. 
 The convent of San Salvatore di Lecceto was the head house in 
 Tuscany of the Augustinian hermits, " a blessed place," writes its 
 seventeenth century historian, Ambrogio Landucci, "in which 
 the Most High chose to work so many wonders." It lies beyond 
 Belcaro, a few miles westward of Siena, in what still remains of a 
 once glorious forest of ilex trees. The place was originally 
 known as the Convento di Selva, the Convent of the Wood, 
 which was also called the Selva di Lago, because of the lake or 
 swamp (afterwards drained) that lay at the foot of the hill upon 
 which, solitary and austere, the convent still rises. From remote 
 middle ages, wonderful legends had lingered round the convent 
 and forest. Miraculous waters had gushed out of the arid soil ; 
 the stones had taken mystical colours in commemoration of Him 
 1 Cmitestatio Francisci de Malavolth, cap. in., MS. ctt„ pp. 441-445, 
 
 94 " 
 
THE SPIRITUAL FELLOWSHIP 
 
 who was crucified ; the flowers of the forest had wonderful 
 healing properties, "all evident signs that here flourished a 
 continual spring of Paradise." Angels had descended in human 
 form to eat with the hermits in their refectory, or to succour 
 them in their need ; Christ Himself had appeared in the wood to 
 confirm the young friar, Giovanni di Guccio, in his vocation ; but 
 fiends lurked in it, ready to ensnare the souls of the unwary, 
 even as the young Sienese knight, Ambrogio Sansedoni, walking 
 heedlessly under the ilexes, had been confronted with what seemed 
 a beautiful girl bound by two ruffians to a tree, who was only 
 revealed in her true nature at the sign of the Cross. 
 
 The great days of the convent, however, were a thing of the 
 past, although the house was still ruled by Fra Niccolo Tini, the 
 prior whose sweetness of disposition, boundless humility and 
 charity, are so lovingly extolled by his novice, Filippo Agazzari. 
 Both Fra Niccolo Tini and Fra Filippo must have been living 
 at the convent during the whole time of Catherine's life ; but 
 she appears to have had no dealings with the former (to whom 
 she refers indirectly only in one letter), nor does the latter, in his 
 fascinating Assempri, ever make any mention of her or any of her 
 followers. It is, indeed, somewhat startling to find a contem- 
 porary Sienese, evidently of holy life and devout conversation, 
 who must have frequently seen Catherine, or, at least, have heard 
 all about her, in after years picturing the religious and social life 
 of his day as though no such person had ever existed. 1 There 
 was evidently a party opposed to Catherine in the convent. It 
 is, at least, certain that none of the friars in Lecceto who now 
 became Catherine's disciples — William Flete, Felice de' Tancredi 
 (known as Fra Felice da Massa), Antonio da Nizza, or Giovanni 
 Tantucci himself — make any appearance in Fra Filippo's pages, 
 
 1 Fra Niccol6 Tini (said to have been a Marescotti) was prior of Lecceto 
 from 1332 till 1388. His life is related in Fra Filippo's Assempro 41. Filippo 
 entered under him as a novice in 1353, began to write his Assempri in 1397, and 
 was elected prior in 1398. Giovanni Tantucci (who died in 1 391) apparently 
 succeeded Fra Niccol6 as prior. Cf. Carpellini, Gli Assempri di Fra Filippo da 
 Siena, pp. xxvi., xxvii., and Landucci, Sacra Leccetana Selva, pp. 103-109. 
 
 95 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 and the first of these, at least, was a man of some fame in those 
 days. 
 
 William Flete was an Englishman from Cambridge, who had 
 setded down among the Augustinian hermits at Lecceto, led, 
 perhaps, to that spot by his acquaintance with Giovanni Tantucci, 
 who had probably been his fellow-student by the banks of Cam. 
 In Catherine's circle these two scholars were usually spoken of by 
 their academic degrees, Giovanni being the " Master," and 
 William the " Bachelor." In the wood of ilexes, he led a life 
 more austere than his rule enjoined upon him ; devoting himself 
 to works of penance and to study ; avoiding all intercourse with 
 outsiders, and associating but little with the other friars, returning 
 only to the convent in the evening or for the offices of the 
 Church. 1 
 
 It is clear from one of Catherine's letters to him that it seemed 
 to her that the good hermit of England attached too much 
 importance to mortification for its own sake. There are those, 
 she tells him, " who have set their desire more in mortifying the 
 body than in slaying their own will. These are fed at the table of 
 penance, and are good and perfect ; but, if they have not a great 
 humility and do not take consolation in judging according to the 
 will of God and not according to that of men, they often mar their 
 perfection by making themselves judges of those who do not go 
 by the same road as they. And this befalls them because they 
 have set more zeal and desire in mortifying the body than in 
 slaying their own will. Such as these ever wish to choose times 
 and places and mental consolations in their own way, as also the 
 tribulations from the world and the assaults of the demon ; 
 saying, to deceive themselves, being deceived by their own will 
 (which is called spiritual will) : ' I would have this consolation, 
 and not these assaults and turmoils of the demon ; not indeed 
 for my own sake, but to please and possess God more, because it 
 seems to me that I possess Him better in this way than in that.' 
 
 1 Cf. Mcmorie di Ser Cristofano, etc., p. 34. William Flete had previously 
 known Giovanni Colombini, who sends a message to him and to the prior, Letters 
 del B. Giovanni Colombini, 80. 
 
 96 
 
THE SPIRITUAL FELLOWSHIP 
 
 And thus such a one often falls into pain and weariness, and 
 
 becomes thereby unbearable to himself ; and so mars his perfect 
 
 state. The taint of pride lies within this, and he perceives it not. 
 
 For, if he were truly humble and not presumptuous, he would 
 
 surely see that the first sweet Truth gives state, time, place, 
 
 consolation, and tribulation, according as it is necessary for our 
 
 salvation, and to complete in the soul the perfection to which she is 
 
 chosen. And he would see that it gives everything for love, 
 
 and therefore with love." The souls that have this perfect light, 
 
 enamoured and panting with love, run to the table of holy desire. 
 
 " They lose themselves, stripping off the old man, that is, their 
 
 own sensuality, and they clothe themselves with the new man, 
 
 Christ sweet Jesus, following Him manfully. These are they 
 
 who are fed at the table of holy desire, and who have set their 
 
 solicitude more in slaying their own will than in slaying or in 
 
 mortifying the body. They have, indeed, mortified the body, 
 
 but not as their chief aim, but merely as an instrument to aid them 
 
 in slaying their own will ; for their chief aim should be, and is, 
 
 to slay the will, so that it neither seek nor will aught save to 
 
 follow Christ crucified, seeking the honour and glory of His name 
 
 and the salvation of souls. These are ever in peace and in quiet. 
 
 No one can scandalize them, because they have got rid of the 
 
 thing by which scandal cometh, to wit, their own will. All the 
 
 persecution that the world and the devil can give flows under 
 
 their feet ; they stand in the water, holding fast to the branches of 
 
 inflamed desire, and are not submerged. Such a soul rejoices at 
 
 everything ; and she does not judge the servants of God, nor any 
 
 rational creature ; nay, she rejoices at every state and every way 
 
 that she sees, saying : ' Thanks be to Thee, eternal Father, who 
 
 hast many mansions in Thy house.' And she rejoices more at the 
 
 diverse ways she sees than if she saw all going along one path ; 
 
 because she sees the greatness of God's goodness more clearly 
 
 revealed. She rejoices at everything, and draws the perfume of the 
 
 rose from all. And she does not pass judgment even upon what 
 
 she expressly sees to be sin, but is touched with true and holy 
 
 compassion, saying : ' To-day it is thou, and to-morrow it 
 
 7 97 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 would be myself, were it not for the divine grace that preserves 
 me.' " i 
 
 And, a little later, we find her urging him and Frate Antonio 
 (the hermit of Nice who, Cristofano di Gano tells us, was the 
 Englishman's chosen companion) not to let their love of solitude 
 draw them from their duties of obedience and charity : — 
 
 " I tell you, in the name of Christ crucified, that not only 
 should you say Mass in the convent sometimes in the week when 
 the prior wishes it, but L want you to say it every day, if you see 
 that it is his wish. Because you lose your consolations, you do 
 not lose the state of grace ; nay, rather, you acquire it, when you 
 lose your own will. I want us (in order that we may show our- 
 selves eaters of souls and tasters of our neighbours) not to attend 
 only to our own consolations ; we must also care and have com- 
 passion for the labours of our neighbours, and especially for those 
 who are united in one same bond of charity. If you did not so, 
 it would be a very great fault. And, therefore, I wish you to be 
 sure to listen to the troubles and needs of Frate Antonio, and I 
 wish and pray Frate Antonio to listen to yours. And so I beseech 
 you, in Christ's name and mine, to do. In this way you will 
 preserve true charity in yourselves, and, otherwise, you would 
 give room to the devil to sow discord." 2 
 
 Another early member of the spiritual family was Messer 
 Matteo di Fazio de' Cenni, " a notable servant of God," who, 
 after a dissolute youth, had been converted by the influence of 
 William Flete, and was now devoting himself to an active life of 
 charity as rector of the Casa della Misericordia, one of the chief 
 Sienese hospitals. Sano di Maco, a plebeian who had business 
 connections with the Benincasa family and was a person of some 
 influence with the artisan government, also became one of Cathe- 
 rine's sons in religion. An old hermit, Fra Santi da Teramo, 
 "holy alike in name and in deeds," an anchorite from the Abruzzi 
 who had been intimately associated with Pietro Petroni and 
 Giovanni Colombini, likewise joined the circle. " In his old 
 age," writes Raimondo, " finding this precious pearl, the virgin 
 1 Letter 64 (124). 2 Letter 77 (128). 
 
 98 
 
THE SPIRITUAL FELLOWSHIP 
 
 Catherine, he left the quiet of his cell and his former mode of life, 
 in order that he might help others as well as himself, and followed 
 her, especially because of the signs and wonders that he daily saw 
 both in himself and in others ; declaring that he found greater 
 quiet and consolation of mind, as also greater advance in virtue, 
 by following her and listening to her teaching, than he had ever 
 found in the solitude of his cell." x 
 
 Two others, whose names were destined to be linked more 
 intimately with that of Catherine, were still needed to complete 
 the fellowship : Raimondo da Capua himself, and that young 
 countryman and beloved disciple of the saintly maiden, to whom 
 at the last he could appeal in testimony of the truth of the whole 
 of his Life of their spiritual mistress : " He is the witness of 
 almost all this narration, in such wise that I can say with John 
 the Evangelist : he knoweth that he saith true. He, that is, 
 Stefano the Carthusian, knoweth that Raimondo of the order 
 of Preachers saith true, who, albeit unfit and unworthy, has 
 composed this Legend." 
 
 1 Legenda, III. i. 10 (§ 340). Cf. Bartholomaeus Senensis, Vita B. Petri 
 Peironi, III. 6. 
 
 99 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 FROM THE CELL TO THE WORLD 
 
 " Buscando mis amores, 
 
 lr£ por esos montes y riberas, 
 
 Ni coger£ las flores, 
 
 Ni temer£ las fieras, 
 
 Y pasar£ los fuertes y fronteras.'' 
 
 San Juan de la Cruz, Canciones entre el Alma y el Esposo, 
 
 These were stormy days for Siena. Plots against the 
 supremacy of the Riformatori were incessant, and the government 
 retaliated by torture and executions. At the beginning of 1371, 
 a conspiracy was discovered, and two culprits were sentenced to 
 be attanagliati, that is, torn by hot pincers on a cart all through 
 the city to the place of execution. Catherine was in the house of 
 Alessa, when the dreadful pageant passed through the street 
 below ; at her prayers, the horrible shrieks and despairing blas- 
 phemies of the condemned men were hushed at a vision of Christ 
 that came to meet them at the gate of the city, " and they went 
 to death as joyously as though they were invited to a banquet." 
 
 In the July of this year, a formidable rising of the Compagnia 
 del Bruco, a secret association of the wool-carders, who were 
 subjected to the Guild of Wool, and forbidden the right of com- 
 bination, shook for a moment the whole fabric of the State. It 
 was a curious anticipation of the tumult of the Ciompi in Florence, 
 seven years later. For several days the insurgents held the city 
 at their mercy, and compelled the government to put seven of their 
 own number into the Signoria. This was followed by a counter 
 conspiracy of the Dodicini and their allies, with the connivance of 
 the Captain of the People, Francesco di Naddo, supported by the 
 Salimbeni. There was a sanguinary massacre in the Costa d'O- 
 vile on July 30 ; but, in spite of the defection of their chiefs, 
 the armed companies of the city kept loyal to the government and, 
 with the aid of the Noveschi and nobles, the rising was crushed. 
 The Captain of the People, robed in scarlet, was beheaded on a 
 
 100 
 
FROM THE CELL TO THE WORLD 
 
 scarlet-covered scaffold in the middle of the Campo. The 
 Dodicini were excluded from the administration, the central 
 magistracy now consisting of twelve of the " People of the Greater 
 Number " and three Noveschi. Among the citizens condemned 
 to pecuniary penalties was Nanni di Ser Vanni Savini, " famous 
 among those who were devoted to the world and full of the 
 prudence of the flesh," as Fra Raimondo says of him, who was 
 sentenced to pay a fine of five hundred florins ; a little later, we 
 shall find him among Catherine's disciples. 1 
 
 Almost immediately after leaving the seclusion of her father's 
 house, we find Catherine in touch with the politics of her native 
 city, and with the great questions that were agitating the whole 
 Church. Not only are the spears and swords of contending 
 factions lowered before her as she passes along the streets of 
 Siena, but the princes and potentates of Italy seem to realize 
 instantly that a new spiritual power has arisen in the land, and 
 from Avignon the Pope himself would fain know the secrets that 
 Christ had hidden from His vicar to reveal to the simple maiden 
 whom He had made His bride. 
 
 This was in part due to the effect produced upon Gregory's 
 mind by the revelations of Birgitta. From the beginning of his 
 pontificate, the Swedish princess had exhorted the new Pope to 
 repair the scandal caused by the defection of his predecessor. In 
 a vision she heard the voice of the Blessed Virgin, promising that, 
 if Gregory will restore the papal chair to Rome and reform the 
 Church, her prayers will flood his soul with spiritual joy from her 
 divine Son ; if not, he will assuredly feel the rod of Christ's 
 indignation ; his life will be cut short, and he will be summoned 
 to the judgment of God. She wrote to bid the Pope come to 
 Italy by the beginning of the following April (apparently of 1372) 
 at the latest, if he would still have the Blessed Virgin as a mother 
 and escape the judgments of God. There will be no peace in 
 France until the people appease God by some great works of 
 humility and piety ; as for the expedition which the Pope is 
 organizing to redeem the sepulchre of Christ with mercenary 
 1 Cronka Sanese, col. 228. Cf. Legenda, II. vii. 17 (§ 235). 
 
 IOI 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 soldiers, that will no more please Him than did the worship of 
 the Golden Calf. 1 
 
 At Birgitta's bidding, the hermit-bishop Alfonso brought this 
 letter to Perugia, and entrusted it to the Count of Nola for 
 transmission to the Pope. A copy was shown to the Count and 
 to a sinister personage, of whom more presently, the papal nuncio, 
 the Abbot of Marmoutier, and then destroyed, after its contents 
 had been communicated to Cardinal d'Estaing, as also to Gomez 
 Albornoz, who had been converted by Birgitta and was then 
 holding Spoleto for the Church. But there was one significant 
 passage in the revelation which was reserved for Gregory alone. 
 " Unless the Pope," said Birgitta to Alfonso (speaking in the 
 person of the Blessed Virgin), " comes to Italy at the time and in 
 the year appointed, the lands of the Church, which are now united 
 under his sway and obedience, will be divided in the hands of his 
 enemies. To augment the tribulation of the Pope, he will not 
 only hear, but will also see with his own eyes that what I say is 
 true, nor will he be able with all the might of his power to reduce 
 the said lands of the Church to their former state of obedience 
 and peace. These words that I now say to thee are not yet to be 
 told or written to the Abbot, for the seed is hidden in the earth 
 until it fructifies in ears of corn." 2 This prophecy was soon to 
 be fulfilled to the letter, and in part at the Abbot's cost. 
 
 Gregory, who had bidden the Abbot demand an explanation 
 of the first revelation, returned no answer to the second ; and 
 Birgitta, seeing no hope of his present coming, started for the 
 Holy Land, in the autumn of 1371, accompanied by Alfonso, her 
 two sons, Birger and Charles, and others. At Naples, Charles fell 
 in love with the still beautiful Queen, and Giovanna, allured by 
 the splendid manhood of the young northern warrior, returned 
 his passion. Both of them were married, but the Queen is said 
 to have contemplated obtaining a divorce and to have suggested 
 the same to him. An adulterous connection of this kind seemed 
 
 1 Revelationes, IV. 139, 140. 
 
 2 Ibid., IV. 140. Cf. Comtesse de Flavigny, Sainte Brigitte de Suede, pp. 397- 
 402. 
 
 I02 
 
FROM THE CELL TO THE WORLD 
 
 to Birgitta worse than death, and when, before any steps had 
 been taken, Charles died at the beginning of March, she welcomed 
 it as his deliverance. 1 She left Naples immediately after the 
 funeral, and, going by way of Cyprus, reached Jerusalem early 
 in May. In October, she was back in Naples, where she found 
 the pestilence raging in that gayest and most licentious of cities. 
 Here she began, apparently at the request of the Queen and 
 Archbishop, to preach repentance, urging the latter to attempt a 
 complete reformation of the Neapolitan church by correcting the 
 immoral lives of its prelates and priests. She exhorted Giovanna 
 herself to confession and a complete amendment of life, warning 
 her to set the affairs of the kingdom in order, for that God had 
 declared that she would have no heir of her body : — 
 
 " Let her acquire greater humility and contrition for her sins, 
 for in My sight she is a robber of many souls, a lavish squanderer 
 of My goods, a rod and a tribulation to My friends. Let her 
 have continual fear in her heart, for all her time she has led the 
 life of a harlot rather than of a queen. Let her devote the rest 
 of her time, which is brief, to My honour. Let her fear, and so 
 live that she incur not My judgment. Otherwise, if she will not 
 hear Me, I will judge her, not as a queen, but as an ungrateful 
 apostate." 2 
 
 Praying for the Pope on the feast of St. Polycarp, January 
 26, 1373, Birgitta had a vision of Christ, who told her that 
 Gregory was fettered by his excessive love for his own kindred 
 and his coldness of mind towards Him, but that, through Our 
 Lady's prayers, he would overcome all obstacles and come to 
 Rome. " But whether thou shalt see him come or not, is not 
 lawful for thee to know." In February, she despatched the 
 hermit-bishop to Avignon with a long letter to the Sovereign 
 Pontiff, describing another vision, in which she beheld Gregory 
 himself standing before the throne of the heavenly Judge, and 
 heard the terrible rebuke addressed to him : " Why hatest thou 
 
 1 Cf. Comtesse de Flavigny, op.cit., pp. 411-415. Giovanna's third husband, 
 James of Majorca, died in 1375. Cronkon Siculum (ed. J. de Blasiis), p. 28. 
 
 2 Revelationes, VII. 1 1 . 
 
 103 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 Me so? Why is thy daring and thy presumption so great 
 against Me ? For thy mundane court is plundering My celestial 
 Court. Thou in thy pride dost take My sheep from Me ; thou 
 dost unlawfully seize upon the goods of the Church, which are 
 Mine own, and the goods of the subjects of the Church, to give 
 them to thy temporal friends. Thou dost rob My poor for the 
 sake of thy rich. Too great is thy audacity and presumption. 
 What have I done to thee, Gregory ? I patiently permitted thee 
 to ascend to the Supreme Pontificate, and foretold to thee My 
 will, and promised thee a great reward. How hast thou repaid 
 Me for all My benefits ? Why dost thou make reign in thy 
 court such great pride, insatiable cupidity, and the lust that I 
 hate, and likewise the most horrible simony ? Moreover, thou 
 dost rob Me of innumerable souls ; for almost all who come to 
 thy court dost thou cast into the hell of fire, in that thou dost not 
 attend to the things that pertain to My Court, albeit thou art the 
 prelate and pastor of My sheep. The fault is thine, because 
 thou dost not wisely consider what is to be done for their spiritual 
 salvation, and what to be corrected. And albeit I could with 
 justice condemn thee for these things, yet do I still admonish 
 thee, for the salvation of thy soul, that thou come to Rome, to thy 
 seat, as quickly as thou canst. Come, then, and do not delay. 
 Come not with thy wonted pride and mundane pomp, but with 
 humility and ardent charity ; and, after thou art thus come, 
 extirpate and root out all the vices from thy court. Put far 
 from thee the counsels of thy carnal and worldly friends, and 
 humbly follow the counsels of My spiritual friends. Rise up 
 manfully, put on thy strength, and begin to renovate My Church, 
 which I acquired with My own blood ; let it be brought back in 
 spirit to its primitive holy state, for now it is a house of shame 
 that is venerated rather than Holy Mother Church. But, if thou 
 dost not obey My will, I will cast thee down from the Court of 
 Heaven, and all the devils of hell shaH divide thy soul, and for 
 benediction thou shalt be filled with eternal malediction. If thou 
 dost obey Me in this way, I will receive thee like a tender Father ; 
 I will be merciful to thee, and will bless thee, and will robe and 
 
 104 
 
FROM THE CELL TO THE WORLD 
 
 deck thee with the pontifical vestments of a true Pope ; I will 
 clothe thee with Myself, so that thou wilt be in Me and I in thee, 
 and thou shalt possess eternal glory." 1 
 
 The Queen, whose heart had been for a little moved by 
 Birgitta's words, supplied her with means to return to Rome, 
 which she reached at the beginning of Lent. Here the Count of 
 Nola and the Abbot of Marmoutier came to her from the Pope, 
 to ask for light, and, like the Pharisees of old, to demand a sign, 
 now that the renewal of hostilities between the Church and 
 Bernabo Visconti seemed to raise a fresh obstacle to his return. 
 In answer, early in July, Birgitta wrote her last letter to Alfonso, 
 which he was to show to the Pope. Let Gregory do what lies in 
 him for the honour of God, the salvation of souls, and the 
 renovation of the Church, and he will have a sign of eternal 
 consolation. But, if he does not come, he will have a sign of 
 another kind, in the loss of things both temporal and spiritual, 
 and in the remorse of his own conscience. As to the discord 
 between the Pope and Bernabo, with such danger to innumerable 
 souls, let the former come to terms. " For, even if the Pope 
 were expelled from the popedom, it were better that he should 
 humble himself and make peace on whatever occasion it could be 
 done, rather than so many souls perish in eternal damnation." 
 Let him trust in God alone, and, though all dissuade him from 
 coming to Rome, and do all in their power to hinder him, none 
 of them shall prevail over him. " Thus saith the Lord : Since 
 the Pope doubts whether he should come to Rome for the 
 establishment of peace and the reformation of My Church, I 
 would have him come by all means in the coming autumn. And 
 let him know that he can do nothing more pleasing to Me than 
 coming to Italy." 2 
 
 A few days later, on July 23, 1373, Birgitta died. Her 
 daughter Catherine took the body to Sweden, and then returned 
 to Rome, to await the coming of the Pope that her mother had 
 promised. Petrarca died in the following year. And, in the 
 meanwhile, the other Catherine had taken up the work that the 
 1 Revelations, IV. 141, 142. 2 Ibid., IV. 143. 
 
 105 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 Italian poet and the Swedish princess alike had left uncompleted, 
 beginning with those two formidable prelates of the Church 
 Militant whom we have seen meeting over Birgitta's revelations 
 — Cardinal d'Estaing and the Abbot of Marmoutier. 
 
 Cardinal d'Estaing, although upright and strenuous, had 
 proved a stern and unpopular ruler of Perugia. At the end of 
 1 37 1, the Pope appointed him to the legation of Bologna, in 
 succession to Cardinal Anglico de Grimoard, while his place at 
 Perugia was taken by Cardinal Philippe de Cabassole, Petrarca's 
 friend, the Patriarch of Jerusalem, a mild-tempered and amiable 
 prelate who won golden opinions from the Perugians during the 
 few months of his government. In January, 1372, d'Estaing 
 made a pompous triumphal entry into Bologna, received with 
 acclamation by the inhabitants, who saw in him the champion of 
 their liberty against Bernabo Visconti : " He was reputed a very 
 great and upright man," says the chronicler, " and they said that 
 he had great legatorial powers, and more authority from the 
 Pope than had ever been given to any other representative of the 
 Church." 1 In the following August, Cardinal de Cabassole died, 
 and was succeeded by the Abbot of Marmoutier (who had come 
 to Italy in the preceding year as treasurer general of the Church), 
 who now governed Perugia and the Patrimony and Spoleto, 
 with the title of vicar apostolic, the troops being still under the 
 command of Gomez Albornoz. 
 
 Now begins the series of Catherine's letters. And among 
 the first of them that we can date with any approach to certainty 
 are the two to Cardinal d'Estaing, in his capacity of legate of 
 Bologna and chief representative of the Pope in Italy." They are, 
 as it were, the frontispiece to the whole mystical volume of her 
 epistles. They give us at once the essence of her spiritualized 
 political doctrine. Italy is the prologue, peace the epilogue. 
 Love of Charity is the rule ; self-love and servile fear the 
 enemies to be overthrown. The philosophy that she has learned 
 from the Prince of Peace in her cell of self-knowledge is applied 
 to the political state of the Church and of the world. Already is 
 1 Cronka di Bologna, coll. 491, 492. 
 106 
 
FROM THE CELL TO THE WORLD 
 
 her soul overwhelmed by that impassioned dream of a reformation 
 of the Church down to its very foundations — infino alle fondamenta, 
 to use her own words — which is soon to lead her across the Alps, 
 the ambassador of Christ as well as of Florence, the maiden image 
 of the Italian people, to reconcile the Pope with Italy, to bring 
 him back to Rome. 
 
 It was early in 1372 that Catherine first addressed a letter to 
 Cardinal d'Estaing, opening with a play upon the words legato 
 and Legato, which it is impossible to render in English. " Dearest 
 and reverend father in Christ sweet Jesus," she begins ; " I, 
 Catherine, servant and slave of the servants of Jesus Christ, write 
 to you in His precious blood, with the desire of seeing you bound 
 in the bond of charity even as you have been made Legate in 
 Italy, 1 as I have heard, and at which I have been greatly and 
 singularly delighted, considering that by this you will be able to 
 do much for the honour of God and the weal of Holy Church. 
 But you know that we can effect no work of grace in ourselves, 
 nor for our neighbour, without charity ; charity is that sweet and 
 holy bond/which binds the soul with her Creator ; it bound God 
 in man and man in God. This inestimable charity kept God 
 and Man fastened and nailed upon the wood of the most holy 
 Cross." It is charity alone that unites the separated, enriches 
 the poor in virtue, makes wars to cease, gives patience and 
 perseverance, and can never be shaken, because it is founded on 
 the living Rock, on Him who is the way, the truth, and the life. 
 Bound in this love, let the representative of the Sovereign Pontiff 
 follow in the footsteps of Christ : — 
 
 " I would have you then, like a true son and servant bought 
 back by the blood of Christ crucified, follow His footsteps, with 
 manly heart and ready zeal, never turning aside by reason either 
 of pain or pleasure, but persevering even to the end in this, and 
 in every other work which you undertake to do for Christ 
 crucified. Strive to extirpate the iniquities and the miseries of 
 the world, which come from the many sins that men commit, by 
 which the name of God is shamed ; do your utmost, as one 
 1 Legato nel legame delta caritk s\ come setefatto Legato. 
 107 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 hungry for His honour and for the salvation of your neighbour, 
 to find a remedy for all this. I am certain that, if you are bound 
 in the sweet bond of charity, you will use your legation, which 
 you have received from the Vicar of Christ, in this way. But, 
 without the first bond of charity, you cannot use it so, nor do 
 what you ought ; and, therefore, I pray you to try to have this 
 love in you. Bind yourself with Christ crucified, following His 
 footsteps with true and royal virtues, and bind yourself with your 
 neighbour by deeds of love. But I would have us think, dearest 
 father, that, unless our soul is stripped of all self-love and worldly 
 affection, we can never come to this true and perfect love, the 
 bond of charity ; because one love is so contrary to the other, 
 that the one separates us from God and our neighbour, while the 
 other unites us ; one gives life, and the other death ; one gives 
 darkness, and the other light ; one war, and the other peace. 
 Self-love so narrows the heart that it leaves no room for you or 
 your neighbour ; but divine charity enlarges it, receiving into 
 itself friends and enemies and every rational creature, because it 
 is clothed with the love of Christ and therefore follows Him. 
 Miserable self-love abandons justice and commits injustice, and 
 has a servile fear which does not let it do jusdy what it should, 
 either because of flatteries or for fear of losing its state. This is 
 that perverse servitude and fear that led Pilate to slay Christ. I 
 would have you, then, utterly lay aside this kind of love, and be 
 founded in true and perfect charity, loving God for His own 
 sake, inasmuch as He is worthy of being loved, because He is the 
 supreme and eternal Goodness, and loving yourself for Him and 
 your neighbour for Him, and not for your own advantage. 
 Thus, then, my father, legate of our lord the Pope, would I have 
 you bound in the bond of true and most ardent charity, and this 
 does my soul desire to see in you." 1 
 
 1 Letter 7 (23). The Palatine MS. 56 states that this letter was sent to the 
 Cardinal " in Corneto, essendo nuovamente fatto ine legato." Students of the 
 Inferno may remember that it was this legate, " vir magnae virtutis et scientiae," 
 who, at the instigation of Benvenuto da Imola, made the stern, but ineffectual 
 attempt to stamp out unnatural vice in the University of Bologna. Cf. Benvenuto 
 Comentum, I. pp. 523, 524, where for 1375 we should probably read 1373. 
 
 IO8 
 
FROM THE CELL TO THE WORLD 
 
 And she follows this up with a second letter, " with desire of 
 eeing you a virile and not cowardly man, so that you may 
 nahfully serve the Spouse of Christ, using both spiritual and 
 erriporal means for the honour of God, as this Spouse hath need 
 n these times." Let him open the eyes of his understanding to 
 ee her necessities, and let him beware of servile fear (a favourite 
 loctrine of Catherine's, which we find her repeating again and 
 gain in almost the same words). Let him look upon the im- 
 naculate Lamb, who sought nought save the honour of the 
 7 ather, and feared nothing, not even the shameful death of the 
 3ross. " We are the scholars, who have been sent to this sweet 
 .nd gentle school." And the time has come to put these lessons 
 nto practice : — 
 
 " Strive manfully, to the utmost of your power, to bring about 
 he peace and union of the whole country. And if, for this holy 
 vork, it were necessary to give the life of the body, it should be 
 jiven a thousand times, if it were possible. It is a terrible thing 
 o think and hear and see that we are at war with God, by reason 
 )f the multitude of the sins of the subjects and their pastors, and 
 .lso in corporeal war by reason of the rebellion that has arisen 
 gainst Holy Church. 1 Where all faithful Christians should be 
 >reparing_to^ make- war upon the infidels, false Christians are 
 vaging it against each other ; and the servants of God cannot 
 ontairrthemselves for grief and bitterness at seeing the damnation 
 if souls who are perishing for this, and the demons are rejoicing, 
 lecause they see what they want to see. Verily, then, it is time 
 o gixejiurJiTCS_mjinkatieft--0£ the Master of Truth, and to care 
 tought for honour or shame that the world would give us in 
 lainful torments and death of the body. I am certain that you 
 /ill do this manfully, if you are clothed with the new man, Christ 
 esus, and stripped, of the old, to wit, of your own sensuality ; for 
 hen you will have cast off servile fear ; in no other way would 
 ou ever do it, but would rather fall into the very sins I have 
 
 1 i. e. the war between Bernabo Visconti and the Holy See. Catherine, in 
 er letter to Bernabo himself, describes it in the same way as " rebellion against 
 loljr Church." 
 
 IO9 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 named. Considering, then, that it was necessary for you to be a 
 virile man, and without any fear, and freed from self-love (for you 
 are put by God in an office that demands no fear save that which 
 is holy) ; therefore, I said to you that I desired to see you manful 
 and not timorous. I hope in the Divine Goodness that He will 
 grant grace to you and to me, that is, to fulfil His will and your 
 desire and mine. Peace, peace, peace ! Dearest father, make the 
 Holy Fajther consider tXeJoss of spjds_ more than tiiat of cities ; 
 for God demands souls more than cities." x 
 
 A man of a very different stamp from that of this great- 
 hearted and zealous Cardinal was the other director of the papal ■ 
 policy in Italy. Gerard du Puy, Abbot of Marmoutier and 
 nephew to Pope Gregory, was one of the worst of those rapacious 
 wolves in sheep's clothing to whom the pastors of Avignon had 
 entrusted their Ausonian flocks. While d'Estaing in his Bolog- 
 nese legation was vigorously pursuing the campaign against the 
 Visconti, without oppressing the subjects of the Church committed 
 to his rule, the Abbot, supported by Hawkwood's mercenaries, 
 was governing Perugia with the most detestable tyranny. To 
 secure his hold upon the turbulent city, he was building two great 
 fortresses, connected by a large covered way supported by arches, 
 over which troops could pass to and fro. He ground down the 
 people with taxes, excluded all the citizens, high and low, from his 
 counsels, and ruled the province with corrupt notaries and foreign 
 captains. He connived at the most outrageous licence of his 
 officials, in which a nephew of his own was the worst offender, 
 and to the protests of the injured parties returned an answer 
 disgusting in its brutal cynicism. 2 Nevertheless, this detestable 
 monk had been the intermediary between the Pope and Birgitta, 
 and now, probably immediately after the latter's death in July, 
 I 373> ne was bidden approach Catherine in the same way ; his 
 papal uncle, unabashed by the rebuke of the Swedish prophetess, 
 
 1 Letter 1 1 (24). Cf. Petrarca's canzone, Italia mia : " P vo gridando : Pace, 
 pace, pace." 
 
 2 Cf. Pellini, I. pp. n 11, 1112 ; Supplement to Graziani, pp. 217-219; 
 Montemarte, I. p. 41 ; eirenicon Regense (Rer. It. Script., xviii.), col. 85. 
 
 JIO 
 
FROM THE CELL TO THE WORLD 
 
 ras still seeking a sign like the Pharisees of old, and the fame of 
 le maiden of Fonte Branda (probably through the report of the 
 ;gate of Bologna) had penetrated even into the papal palace of 
 Ivignon. 
 
 We do not know by what means his appeal was conveyed to 
 Catherine, nor whether she was aware of the character of the 
 cclesiastic with whom she was now dealing ; but her answer is 
 xtant, and it is one of the most striking of her political letters. 
 To this wicked man, too, she writes in the precious blood of 
 jod : " with desire of seeing you a true priest, and a member 
 >ound in the body of Holy Church." The first part of the letter 
 s an impassioned hymn to charity, by whose milk the soul lives, 
 he love that binds the soul to Christ even as it bound the Son of 
 jod to the Cross, the fire that burns away vice and sin and love 
 )f self. All must follow this rule of love, purifying memory, 
 understanding, and will in this divine fire. Above all, God 
 iemands from men in the position of the Abbot a zeal and 
 iolicitude for the salvation of souls. " This is the way of Christ 
 :rucified, who wilLalways give us the light of peace. But, if we 
 bold another way, we shall go from darkness to darkness, and 
 ultimately to eternal death." Her answer to the Pope is that two 
 things in particular are disfiguring the Church, and must be taken 
 iway : nepotism, "excessive tenderness and solicitude for kinsmen," 
 and leniency in dealing with the wickedness of the clergy. " Christ 
 specially hates three perverse vices : impurity, avarice, and the 
 puffed-up pride which reigns in the Spouse of Christ, that is, in 
 the prelates, who attend to nought save pleasures and states and 
 excessive riches. They see the infernal demons carrying off the 
 souls of their subjects, and they reck not of it, because they have 
 become wolves and sellers of the divine grace." " I say not 
 that the Spouse of Christ will not be persecuted ; but I believe 
 that she will remain in flower. It is necessary, for her complete 
 reformation, that she should be pulled down even to her founda- 
 tions." As to the Abbot's own professed repentance : " I, your 
 unworthy daughter, have taken and will take the debt of your 
 sins upon myself, and we shall burn yours and mine together in 
 
 in 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 the fire of sweet charity, where they are consumed. Hope and 
 be assured that the divine grace has pardoned you them." " You 
 must chiefly labour together with the Holy Father, to the utmost 
 of your power, in removing the wolves and incarnate demons of 
 pastors who attend to nought save eating, and goodly palaces, and 
 stout horses. Alas, that what Christ acquired upon the wood of 
 the Cross is spent upon harlots ! I pray you that, even if you 
 have to die for it, you tell the Holy Father to find a remedy for 
 such great iniquities, and, when the time comes to make pastors 
 and cardinals, not to make them for the sake of flattery nor for 
 money nor for simony ; but, with all your power, pray him to heed 
 and consider whether he finds virtue and good and holy repute in 
 the man, and not to consider whether he is noble or plebeian ; 
 for virtue is the thing that makes man noble and pleasing to 
 God." i 
 
 This year, 1373, was marked by innumerable dissensions and 
 homicides, especially among the religious and clergy. The Sienese 
 chronicler declares that the Augustinian friars murdered their 
 provincial at Sant' Antonio (a convent of the order in the Sienese 
 contado near the Bagni of Petriuolo) ; that, at Assisi, the Friars 
 Minor fought with knives, and fourteen were killed ; and at 
 Siena a young friar in San Domenico killed another, and every 
 convent was divided against itself. The same thing went on 
 outside the convents ; every order in the State was rent with plots 
 and petty treasons ; " and so the world is one darkness." 2 The 
 new Senator of Siena, Count Lodovico da Mogliano from the 
 Marches, who entered upon office in February — " a man of discreet 
 years, pacific and wise, who gave good hope to all the citizens " — 
 attempted to restore order by impartial executions of noble and 
 plebeian criminals alike ; but the only result was a series of riots, 
 in which his own life was threatened, and all his household ran 
 great risks of being massacred by the Sienese populace. 3 
 
 Three of Catherine's letters bear the impress of these events. 
 Writing to Pietro, priest of Semignano in the Sienese contado, 
 
 1 Letter 109 (41). 2 Cronica Sanese, col. 238. 
 
 8 Ibid., coll. 235, 236 ; O. Malavolti, p. 141, 
 I 12 
 
FROM THE CELL TO THE WORLD 
 
 ho was at mortal feud with another priest and apparently leading 
 scandalous life in other respects, she sets before his eyes the 
 ignity of the priesthood which he is outraging with his impurity 
 nd his hatred, and threatens him with the judgments of God, if 
 e does not amend and make peace. " What a scandal it is to 
 se two priests keep in deadly hatred ! It is a great miracle that 
 rod does not command the earth to swallow you both up. Come, 
 ben, while you are still in time to receive mercy ; hasten to 
 "hrist crucified, who will receive you benignly, if only you wish 
 t ; and think that, if you do not so, that sentence will fall upon 
 ou which was given to the unjust servant to whom his master 
 lad forgiven his great debt, and who then would not remit a small 
 me to his fellow-servant." And, in like manner, she bids the 
 'rovost and Jacomo di Manzi, two ecclesiastics of Casole, to 
 ollow the footsteps of the Lamb who made peace between God 
 nd man by shedding His blood upon the Cross, to turn their hate 
 ipon their own sins, and make peace with God and their neigh- 
 lour. " I beseech you, in the name of Christ crucified, not to 
 leny me this grace." To Madonna Mitarella da Mogliano, the 
 nfe of the Senator, who had written to her in terror, after the 
 nob had assailed her husband, that she had " no faith nor hope 
 ave in the prayers of the servants of God," she sent words of 
 gentle comfort, and a reminder that not a leaf can fall from the 
 ree without the permission and will of God. 1 
 
 But letters were the smallest part of Catherine's activity at this 
 ime. Wherever men and women in Siena were in suffering or 
 n need, she was always there. The sick were healed, the dying 
 omforted when she stood by them ; hardened sinners were 
 noved to repentance at her bidding, and heard the sweet assur- 
 .nce from her lips : " Fear not ; I have taken your sins upon 
 nyself." " I never saw any person," writes Francesco Malavolti, 
 ( however badly disposed, of whatever condition or state, come to 
 his virgin, whom the Holy Spirit had chosen, who ever departed 
 rom her without being first converted to good and without at once 
 foing to confess himself sacramentally, laying aside all evil works 
 1 Letters 59 (47), 3 (43), 31 (333). 
 
 8 113 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 and becoming entirely a new being." 1 Pietro di Giovanni Ven- 
 tura tells us how, at the instance of his sister, he went to visit 
 Catherine. He had not been to confession for seven years. 
 " That virgin, raising her hands to heaven, then said : ' Pietro, 
 I will take all thy sins upon myself, and do penance for them, and 
 make satisfaction for them instead of thee. But I wish for this 
 grace, Pietro, from thee — that thou confess thy sins.' To which 
 I answered, saying : ' It is only a few days since I confessed 
 them.' And she : ' It is not so, for I know that it is seven years 
 since thou wert confessed in the least' And she added : 'Why 
 wilt thou not go to confession ? ' And, albeit I had told no one 
 of that matter, nevertheless she manifested it all to me, and even 
 the cause for which until then I had been unwilling to confess." 2 
 After that meeting Pietro became one of Catherine's most 
 devoted followers and disciples, and, though once, for a brief 
 moment, he wavered and asked for a sign, he was one of the little 
 band that shared her fortunes down to the end. It was, perhaps, 
 a foreknowledge of that moment's weakness that made Catherine 
 address him a beautiful letter upon love and perseverance in the 
 service of the beloved. 3 
 
 In northern Italy, Cardinal d'Estaing was strenuously carrying 
 on hostilities against the Visconti : " he was a right valiant 
 man," says the chronicler of Bologna, " and made more war 
 upon the lords of Milan than any other legate who was here 
 had done, save only him of Spain." i But the Tuscan Republics 
 wavered between Bernabo and the Pope. At the beginning of 
 November, 1373, two ambassadors from Bernabo and Galeazzo 
 came to Siena. The latter seems to have soon returned to his 
 master ; but Bernabo's envoy stayed on " in the hostelry of the 
 Ocha," until the following January, when, the Sienese regarding 
 his presence as compromising, he was requested to leave the 
 city, the Gonfaloniere of the Terzo di Camollia escorting him 
 
 Contestatio Franc'ucl de Malavoltis, cap. iii., MS. clt., p. 440. 
 Contestatio Petri quondam Johannis Venture de Senis, MS. clt., p. 482. 
 Letter 47 (235). 
 Cronica di Bologna, col. 496. 
 
 II 4 
 
FROM THE CELL TO THE WORLD 
 
 remoniously out of the gate. 1 While in Siena, he sought an 
 terview with Catherine, in the name of Bernabo and his 
 nbitious wife, Beatrice della Scala — possibly with the idea of 
 invincing her of the good intentions of his master, with a view 
 i influencing the public opinion of the Sienese through her, now 
 tat fresh processes were being instituted against the Visconti 
 : the papal court on account of their cruel oppression of the 
 lilanese clergy. If this was his object, the ambassador was 
 lanifestly unsuccessful. 
 
 Catherine promptly dictated to her secretaries the two long 
 :tters to Bernabo and Beatrice which we still possess. Unfor- 
 mately, the passages at the end of the letters, in which she 
 irectly answers their requests or questions, were regarded by 
 er contemporaries as of merely ephemeral interest, and have, 
 lerefore, not been preserved, either in the printed editions or 
 
 I any of the manuscripts ; but, reading between the lines of 
 er letter to Bernabo, we gather that the tyrant of Milan had 
 "ied to represent himself to the simple Sienese maiden as a 
 ind of scourge of God, divinely ordained to punish the iniquities 
 f the pastors of the Church. 
 
 To this most sanguinary and grasping of all the despots of 
 taly, Catherine expounds the law of Love, as shown in the 
 lystery of the Redemption. She speaks of the vanity of all 
 arthly lordship, which may pass away in a moment, in com- 
 larison with the lordship of the city of the soul, in which God 
 ests, and which, defended by free-will, is impregnable against 
 
 II the assaults of the world, the flesh, and the devil. But to 
 •reserve or regain this spiritual liberty, man must be washed in 
 he blood of Christ ; this blood is kept in the body of Holy 
 Church, to be administered by the hands of Christ's vicar ; and 
 ve cannot partake of it save through him. " I tell you, dearest 
 ather, and brother in Christ sweet Jesus, that God does not 
 vish you, nor any one else, to make yourself the executioner 
 )f His ministers ; for He has reserved this to Himself and 
 
 1 Cronica Sanese, coll. 238, 239. 
 
 "5 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 committed it to His vicar. And if the vicar does not do what 
 he should (and it is bad if he does not), we must humbly await 
 the punishment and chastisement of the Supreme Judge, God 
 eternal, even if our possessions are taken from us by these men. 
 I pray you, in the name of Christ crucified, concern your- 
 self no more with this. Possess your own cities in peace ; 
 punish your own subjects when they do wrong ; but never 
 touch those who are the ministers of this glorious and precious 
 blood, which you can have by no other hands than theirs. 
 "Without it you will not receive the fruit of that blood, but you 
 will become a putrid limb, cut off from the body of Holy 
 Church. Now no more, father ; humbly would I have us put 
 our head upon the lap of Christ in heaven in affection and 
 love, and of Christ on earth, who holds His place, to show 
 reverence for the blood of Christ, of which blood he bears the 
 keys ; to whom he opens, it is opened, and to whom he shuts, 
 it is shut ; he has the power and the authority, and there is no 
 one who can take it out of his hands ; because it has been given 
 him by the first sweet Truth." 
 
 Let Bernabo, then, become a faithful son of the Church. 
 " But what amends shall we make for the time that you have 
 been outside ? For this, father, it seems to me that a time is 
 preparing in which we shall be able to make sweet and gracious 
 amends ; for, as you have disposed your body and temporal 
 substance to every peril and death in war with your father, so 
 now I invite you, in the name of Christ crucified, to true and 
 perfect peace with that father, benign Christ on earth, and to 
 war upon the infidels, preparing to give your body and substance 
 for Christ crucified. Make yourself ready, for it befits you to 
 make this sweet amends ; even as you have gone against him, 
 so now go to his aid, when the Holy Father raises on high the 
 banner of the most holy Cross. I wish you to be the first to 
 invite and urge the Holy Father to make haste, for it is a great 
 shame and disgrace to Christians to suffer wicked infidels to 
 possess what by right is ours. But we act like fools and base 
 of heart, who make war only upon each other ; we are divided 
 
 116 
 
FROM THE CELL TO THE WORLD 
 
 tgainst each other by hate and rancour, whereas we should be 
 xmnd by the bond of divine and most ardent charity." 1 
 
 And to Beatrice, whose pride and avarice were notorious 
 hroughout Italy, she writes "with desire of seeing you clothed 
 n the robe of most ardent charity, so and in such wise that you 
 nay be the means and instrument of reconciling your husband 
 yith Christ sweet Jesus and with His vicar, Christ on earth. I 
 im certain that, if the virtue of charity is in you, it is impossible 
 )ut that your husband will feel the warmth of it." 2 From a 
 etter addressed to Catherine by Elizabeth of Bavaria, the wife 
 )f Bernabo's son Marco (Petrarca's godson), we find that she 
 lad thoughts of coming in person to Milan. Elizabeth expresses 
 ler deep disappointment at hearing that the Saint has changed 
 ler plans, and humbly commends her husband and little four- 
 rear-old daughter Anna to her prayers. 3 
 
 With these first political letters, Catherine entered into the 
 lational life of her country. The lords of Italy and the prelates 
 >f the Church had learned by now that her words had a power 
 lot their own, nor was either party unprepared or unwilling to 
 nalce use of it for their own ends and advantage. 
 
 In the letters to the Cardinal of Bologna and his Milanese 
 dversary alike, Catherine refers to the Crusade. From the 
 >eginning of his pontificate, Gregory had urged the powers of 
 Christendom to make peace among themselves, and turn their 
 rms against the Turks and Saracens. In particular, he had 
 lesought King Louis of Hungary, as the persecutor of infidels 
 nd defender of the Catholic Faith, to use the great power that 
 he Lord had given him, " for the defence of His people whom 
 ie has redeemed by the shedding of His most precious blood, 
 
 1 Letter 28 (191). In the bull of the Pope against Bernabo and Galeazzo, 
 'hich is dated January 7, 1373 (Raynaldus, vii. pp. 235-237), the former 
 
 accused of having tortured certain priests to death with appalling atrocity, 
 'he matter is evidently that to which Catherine refers, and the date of the 
 apal bull, together with the authenticated presence of Bernabo's envoy in 
 iena, seems to fix this as the occasion of her letter. 
 
 2 Letter 29 (319). 
 
 3 Let/ere dei discepoli di S. Caterina, 2. 
 
 II 7 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 and so from a perishable earthly kingdom pass to an eternal 
 one." 1 But, before anything could be effected, war broke out 
 between Venice and Genoa, between the latter power and 
 Cyprus ; Bernabo Visconti continued to keep all the forces of 
 the Church engaged in Italy ; all the Pope's efforts to make 
 peace between France and England proved in vain. 
 
 Nevertheless, at the beginning of 1373, Gregory proclaimed 
 the Crusade. Birgitta, as we saw, had from the outset raised the 
 voice of prophecy against the scheme, as one that merely afforded 
 at once an excuse to the Pope for neglecting his more immediate 
 duty, and an opportunity to the mercenary soldiers for plundering 
 and ravaging on a more extensive scale than was possible in 
 Christendom. But Catherine, on the contrary, was fired with 
 enthusiasm at the papal announcement. She saw in the proposed 
 expedition at once the liberation of the sepulchre of Christ and 
 the deliverance of Italy from these armed pests that, like the eagle 
 upon Prometheus, were feeding upon her vitals ; visions passed 
 before her eyes of crowds of martyrs offering up their blood for 
 the redemption of the Holy Land, of men who had hitherto 
 fought for Mammon putting on the sign of the Cross, expending 
 their fierce strength and ardour in battling for the Faith. So 
 when, a little later, the papal summons and invitation were 
 repeated, and fresh briefs from Avignon arrived in Italy, her 
 voice rang out, sicura, balda e lieta, from the " City of the 
 Virgin," as had Dante's of old from the ruddy sign of Mars. 
 
 But already the cloud was gathering on the horizon that was 
 to render the Pope's design abortive and even Catherine's eloquent 
 pleading of no avail. Early in the following year, 1374, the 
 Pope recalled Cardinal d'Estaing, and appointed Guillaume de 
 Noellet, known as the Cardinal of Sant' Angelo, to take his place 
 as legate in Italy and papal governor of Bologna. The new 
 legate entered Bologna on March 15: " He came through 
 Tuscany, and, when he arrived at Florence, the Florentines 
 showed him great honour ; but here we did not welcome him as 
 we had done the others, because this novelty of changing cardinal 
 
 1 Raynaldus, vii. pp. 201, 202, 223. 
 Il8 
 
FROM THE CELL TO THE WORLD 
 
 was too frequent. May God have sent us one who will be good 
 for this city." l It was a most unfortunate choice. Cardinal de 
 Noellet was a tyrannical and incompetent French prelate of the 
 usual type furnished by Avignon ; he and his colleague, the 
 Abbot at Perugia, were speedily to drive their Italian subjects to 
 desperation. 
 
 This was a dark and dismal year for all Italy, and especially 
 for Catherine's native city : " In Siena," writes one of her 
 chroniclers, at the opening of his records for this year, " there 
 was pestilence, war, and very great scarcity, so that the bushel of 
 grain was worth two golden florins." 2 
 
 In the spring, a fierce war on a small scale broke out in the 
 contado. One of the Salimbeni, Andrea di Niccolo, had seized 
 Perolla, a castle of the Sienese Maremma near Massa, and hurled 
 the daughter of its late lord, Geri (apparently himself a kinsman 
 of the Salimbeni), to whom it rightfully belonged, down from the 
 battlements. Secure in this stronghold, he gathered bandits and 
 exiles round him, murdered and plundered all through the 
 Maremma, levying blackmail up to the very gates of Siena. 
 With aid from the Florentines (to whom in like manner they had 
 rendered assistance in subduing the Ubaldini in the preceding 
 year), the Sienese got together a large army, under their Senator 
 (the Count Lodovico da Mogliano already mentioned), and, on 
 April 23, forced the place to surrender. The Senator returned 
 to Siena with twenty-nine prisoners, including Messer Andrea 
 Salimbeni himself. Sixteen were executed, but the Senator, either 
 by reasons of friendship or for fear of the Salimbeni, shrank from 
 doing justice on the chief offender. Upon this the populace 
 armed and assailed the Palace of the Signoria, demanding justice 
 with threats of raising the whole city. The Defenders, intimi- 
 dated, gave authority to the leader of the mob, one Noccio di 
 Vanni, a saddler by trade, to do what seemed to him to the 
 advantage of the Republic. Noccio at once led his followers to 
 
 1 Cronka di Bologna, col. 495. 
 
 2 Amali di Siena dal 1300 a! 1400. Biblioteca Comunale di Siena, MS. A. 
 iv. 1., f. 18. 
 
 119 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 the palace of the Senator, who fled at their approach, and, breaking 
 in, took his seat on the bench as judge, and condemned Andrea 
 to instant execution. He was promptly beheaded ; but when, a 
 month or so later, Noccio tried to repeat this process with one 
 of Andrea's associates, the government interfered, and deprived 
 him of the authority they had so strangely given. 
 
 With some difficulty the tumults were thus appeased in the city. 
 But, indignant at the affront offered to their house, the Salimbeni 
 rose in arms in the contado. Niccolo di Niccolo Salimbeni seized 
 Montemassi, Cione di Sandro Salimbeni harried the district of 
 Montepulciano, Agnolino di Giovanni Salimbeni, the virtual head 
 of the house, ravaged the hills and valleys about Montalcino ; 
 while others of the family with their adherents made war else- 
 where in the contado, and defied the forces of the Republic. 
 From Perugia, the Abbot of Marmoutier sent agents to both 
 parties, offering to mediate, but was suspected (with good reason) 
 of having a secret understanding with the Salimbeni. A more 
 genuine pacific offer from the Florentines was rejected by the 
 latter, who would hear of no terms while their kinsman's blood 
 was unavenged. Within Siena itself, the faction of the Dodicini 
 was secretly favouring the rebels. The Signoria appointed a 
 magistracy of ten to carry on the war, imprisoned twenty-five 
 of the Dodicini, extorted a heavy sum of money from them in 
 fines, and sent for aid, which was promptly granted in horse and 
 foot, to Florence and to Lucca. 
 
 It was at this time that Catherine first left the territory of her 
 native city. Moved by the conflicting reports that had reached his 
 ears, the General of the order, Fra Elias of Toulouse, summoned 
 her to attend the chapter-general which met at Florence in May. 
 " There came to Florence," writes an anonymous Florentine 
 contemporary, "in the month of May, 1374, when the chapter 
 of the Friars Preachers was held, at the command of the Master 
 of the order, one wearing the habit of the sisters of penance of 
 St. Dominic, who was called Caterina di Jacomo di Benincasa of 
 Siena, who was of the age of twenty-seven years, and whom we 
 deemed to be a great servant of God. And with her she had 
 
 120 
 
FROM THE CELL TO THE WORLD 
 
 three other women, dressed in her habit, who went in her company. 
 Hearing her fame, I managed to see her and to gain her friend- 
 ship, in such wise that she ofttimes came here into my house." l 
 We have no clue to the identity of the writer, nor any record 
 elsewhere of this first visit of Catherine to the great city with 
 whose political turmoils she was soon to be associated. Probably 
 on this occasion she made the acquaintance of various Florentine 
 citizens, of all classes in the State, and more particularly of 
 Messer Angelo Ricasoli, who had succeeded Cardinal Piero 
 Corsini as bishop, and Niccolo Soderini, a wealthy and influential 
 man, of a deeply religious mind, one of the " popolani grassi " 
 and a leading spirit in the Parte Guelfa. She left Florence on 
 June 29, and returned to her mother's house at Siena, to find 
 the pestilence raging and a partial recurrence of the horrors of 
 1348 within the city. 
 
 This frightful scourge had appeared in May, and it ravaged 
 Tuscany all through the summer until September, spreading 
 thence through northern and central Italy even across the Alps. 
 While attacking all ages and classes, the mortality was particularly 
 terrible among the children. And the black shadow of famine 
 dogged its footsteps. There was fearful scarcity of everything — 
 bread, wine, meat, and oil were at unheard-of prices. In the 
 great Tuscan cities, the government collected all the materials 
 that could be made into bread, and doled it out by ticket ; but, 
 even so, there was not enough to go round. At Siena, the 
 Spedale di S. Maria della Scala acted up to its great traditions and 
 devoted all its resources to succouring the poor ; and it was 
 heroically supported by the Casa della Misericordia and the 
 Disciplinati of Our Lady. The death-carts went from street to 
 street, gathering up the dead ; the priests, who tended the dying 
 and buried the victims, in many cases shared their fate. The 
 pestilence was already at Florence when Catherine was there, and 
 
 1 Miracoli e transito di Santa Caterina, Biblioteca Riccardiana, MS. 1267, f. 
 190. This little work was printed by Grottanelli in 1862, under the title Alcuni 
 miracoli di Santa Caterina da Siena, secondo che sono narrati da un Anonimo, suo con- 
 temporaneo. Cf. Augusta Drane, I. pp. 216-218. 
 
 121 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 lasted from March to October ; but the devastation was on a 
 less dreadful scale than among the Sienese ; out of a population 
 of 60,000, some 7,000 Florentines perished, and, although we have 
 not the exact figures, the mortality in Siena was evidently much 
 greater. 1 
 
 Two of Catherine's brothers, Bartolommeo, who had ac- 
 companied her back from Florence, and Stefano, who had gone to 
 Rome, her sister Lisa, and eight of her nephews and nieces, 
 Lapa's grandchildren, died. With her own hands Catherine 
 prepared the bodies for burial, saying over each : " This one, at 
 least, I shall not lose." With her companions, she passed through 
 the streets or the city, seeking out the most infected districts, 
 entering the houses and the hospitals, tending the stricken, 
 comforting and converting the dying, laying out the dead — many 
 of whom she is said to have buried with her own hands. Not a 
 few — including the hermit, Fra Santi, and the devoted rector of 
 the Casa della Misericordia, Messer Matteo Cenni — gained such 
 strength from her ministrations that they rose up healed at her 
 word, and followed her to render service to the others. 
 
 Foremost among her fellow-labourers was the noble and holy 
 Dominican friar who now became her spiritual director, and 
 afterwards her biographer : Fra Raimondo delle Vigne of Capua ; 
 he whom, in her last letter, she was to call " father and son given 
 me by that sweet Mother Mary." A man of aristocratic birth 
 and great learning (among whose ancestors was that ill-fated Piero 
 delle Vigne, the chancellor of the Emperor Frederick II, whose 
 fame Dante had so nobly vindicated in a famous canto of the 
 Inferno)^ Raimondo had in some mysterious way — to which he 
 vaguely refers as miraculous — been called in his youth to the 
 Dominican order, and had rapidly become a personage of im- 
 portance among the friars. He had been prior of the Minerva 
 at Rome in 1367, and shortly after (it being the practice of the 
 
 1 Marchionne di Coppo Stefani, Istoria Tlorentina, Lib. IX. rubr. 745, who 
 gives the Florentine mortality, says that Florence suffered less in proportion to its 
 inhabitants than any other town in Tuscany, and that elsewhere a third of the 
 population died. 
 
 122 
 
FROM THE CELL TO THE WORLD 
 
 order, with a view to avoiding all possibility of heresy or scandal, 
 to appoint only friars of established fame and doctrine to such 
 offices) had been made director of the convent of Dominican nuns 
 of Santa Agnese at Montepulciano, where he had spent two years, 
 and where, at the request of the nuns, he had written the life of 
 their blessed patroness which still appears in the Acta Sanctorum 
 for her feast. Thence he had been sent to San Domenico at Siena, 
 as lector or professor of theology, and there (though he did not 
 for some time see anything miraculous in her, nor put much 
 credit in her revelations) he had at once espoused Catherine's 
 cause, and insisted that she should on no account be hindered 
 from communicating as often as she pleased. 1 To him she found 
 she could open her heart as to no other man, and, with the cordial 
 and humble assent of Fra Tommaso, he now took his place as her 
 chief confessor and spiritual director. 
 
 " Considering," as he writes, " that Christ is far more powerful 
 than Galen, and grace than nature," Raimondo led a devoted band 
 of friars into the thickest fury of the pestilence, to lay down their 
 lives for their people if such was God's will. Day and night, he 
 was to be seen in the hospitals, or visiting the stricken in infected 
 houses, bearing the Blessed Sacrament, hearing their last con- 
 fessions, performing the rites for the dead. Both he and Fra 
 Bartolommeo were among those who took the infection, and 
 believed that Catherine's miraculous intervention had raised them 
 up from the bed of death. But all the three Dominican sons of 
 her companion, Cecca Gori, died. 
 
 Many others, priests and religious, had deserted the city, like 
 those of the laity who could find a safer refuge. Fra Filippo 
 tells a striking story of one of these latter, a man he knew, a great 
 usurer and oppressor of the poor, who, at the first approach of 
 
 1 Legenda, II. xii. 8 (§ 314). It was apparently on the feast of St. John the 
 Baptist, when he acted as deacon at High Mass in San Domenico at Siena, that 
 Catherine first saw Raimondo. Cf. Augusta Drane, I. p. 224, and Tantucci, 
 p. 122. This must have been in the preceding year, if the author of the 
 Miracoli is right in his statement that, in 1374, Catherine was at Florence till 
 June 29. 
 
 123 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 the pestilence, converted all he had into ready money and fled to 
 Massa, where he waited until he heard that it had abated. Then 
 he returned to the city, and, drinking and laughing with his friends, 
 began to boast that he had jockeyed God. " And, raising his 
 eyes on high, he cried out at the top of his voice : Thou thoughtest 
 to catch me, Domenedio, but Thou hast not got me ! But no sooner 
 had he said this word, than he said another in a lower tone : Woe's 
 me, Thou hast indeed got me, for I feel the swelling''' And 
 straightway he went to his house and died. 1 
 
 -A fresh recruit to Catherine's mystical army at this time was a 
 young novice of San Domenico, Fra Simone da Cortona. From 
 his own account of himself, he was a melancholy and sensitive 
 youth, tormented by shyness, self-consciousness, and religious 
 scruples. While the other younger friars of the convent, for fear 
 of infection, shrank from associating with the fathers, Raimondo, 
 Tommaso CarFarini, and Bartolommeo, who visited the sick, 
 Simone eagerly sought their company and joined them in their 
 work ; and they, " as though to reward me for my labour," 
 brought him to Catherine, "which to my taste was, indeed, a 
 magnificent reward." " O how gladly did I see her, and how 
 eagerly did I listen to her burning words ! Verily, for her sake, 
 all labour was turned for me into rest." But once, when they 
 were visiting her, the other friars forgot all about him, and left 
 him outside ; Catherine called for him, and he, abashed and 
 mortified, would not go in. Afterwards, when they had left, 
 Catherine said to her companions : " My son has gone away 
 troubled, because he could not speak with me, but I will go to 
 him this very night." He went to bed, very angry and 
 miserable ; but she appeared to him in a dream, and gave him 
 sweet comfort. Afterwards, when he accompanied Fra Bar- 
 tolommeo, who was preaching a mission at Asciano, Catherine, 
 fearing that the youth might again think himself neglected, 
 always remembered him in the postscripts to the letters she 
 addressed to the elder friar, and excused herself for not having 
 had time to write directly to him. " Tell Frate Simone, my son 
 1 Assempro 57, Come un uomo dkeva che Dio non I'aveva gonto. 
 124 
 
FROM THE CELL TO THE WORLD 
 
 in Jesus Christ, that the son is never afraid to go to his mother ; 
 nay, he runs to her, especially when he thinks himself hardly 
 used ; and his mother takes him in her arms, and clasps him to 
 her breast, and comforts him. And, although 1 am a bad mother, 
 nevertheless I will always bear him at the breast of charity." 1 
 
 Worn out by her labours, Catherine herself fell dangerously ill 
 on the feast of the Assumption of this year, 1374, and with all joy 
 prayed for death, until restored by a vision of the Blessed Virgin, 
 who showed her all the souls whom, if her life were prolonged, 
 she would yet guide to eternal life. 2 It having been, as she 
 believed, revealed to her that she would ultimately be the special 
 companion in paradise of Agnese of Montepulciano, she felt a 
 keen desire to visit her shrine in that town. Thither she now 
 went, on her recovery, followed by Fra Raimondo and another 
 of her confessors ; and Girolamo del Pacchia's masterpiece still 
 preserves the legend of how, as Catherine bent down over 
 Agnese's incorrupt body to kiss her feet, one of them raised 
 itself to meet her lips. The painter has united this with a similar 
 episode which is said to have occurred a little later, when Catherine 
 came again to Montepulciano, accompanied by her sister-in-law 
 Lisa (who had returned to Siena^after her husband's death and taken 
 the habit of the Mantellate), to place the latter's two daughters 
 in the convent ; while she laid her face to the silk covering 
 that was over the dead face of Agnese, " Lisa and the others, 
 lifting up their eyes, saw a very white and very minute manna, 
 that, like rain, descended from on high in such great abundance 
 that it covered the body of Agnese, and the virgin Catherine, as 
 also all the others who were present, in such wise that Lisa filled 
 her hands with those little grains." 3 
 
 It was during their first stay at Montepulciano that Fra 
 Raimondo's last doubts were dispelled concerning the divine origin 
 
 1 Contestatio Fr. Simonis, MS. At., pp. 511-516; Letter 105 (113). Cf. 
 Dante, Par. xxii. 1-9. 
 
 2 So the author of the Miracoli, quoted by Augusta Drane, I. p. 237. 
 
 3 Legenda, II. xii. 17-19 (§§ 327, 328). Cf. Raimondo, Vita S. Agnetis de 
 Mimte Politiano (Acta Sanctorum, Aprilis torn, ii.), pp. 793, 794. 
 
 125 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 of Catherine's works and revelations, which, till then, had been 
 keeping his mind in suspense : " for I remembered that it was 
 now the time of that third beast with the leopard's skin, by which 
 is signified hypocrisy, and in my days I had met with hypocrites, 
 especially among women, who are more easily and readily seduced 
 by the Enemy, as is shown in the case of our first Mother." At 
 her intercession, he obtained a mental vision of his own sins so 
 clear, and a contrition so overwhelming, that he was convinced 
 could proceed from nothing save from the grace of the Holy 
 Spirit. A little later, when he doubted again of the truth of 
 what she was revealing to him, he saw her face transformed into 
 the face of Christ, and experienced a wonderful illumination of 
 mind concerning the matter of which she spoke. 1 Nevertheless, 
 the good father, who, like Dante, " seco avea di quel d'Adamo," 
 was still unable always to follow her etherial flights, and he con- 
 fesses it with some little humour. On one occasion, when she 
 was discoursing at great length upon the divine mysteries, he fell 
 asleep : " But she, who, while she thus spoke, was all absorbed in 
 God, went on with her discourse for a long time before she 
 perceived that I was asleep. At last she noticed it, and then 
 woke me up by saying with a loud voice : ' Ah, why do you 
 lose your soul's profit by sleeping ? Am I talking about God to 
 a wall or to you ? ' " 
 
 Montepulciano lay close to the fiefs of the rebellious Salimbeni, 
 but it seems more probable that Catherine's relations with that 
 family belong to a later epoch in her life. Nor do I think that 
 her mediation in the local feuds and dissensions should be assigned 
 to this date. She appears to have been ill with fever during most 
 of this visit to the monastery of Santa Agnese, and, as soon as 
 was possible, she probably returned to Siena. 
 
 In spite of the pestilence, the war between the Republic and 
 the Salimbeni had continued. In October, the latter, in a sudden 
 sally from their beleaguered fortress of Boccheggiano, completely 
 defeated the Sienese forces, although outnumbered by nearly three 
 
 1 Legenda, I. ix. 6, 7 (§§ 87-91). Cf. Par. xxvii. 105, where Dante says 
 of Beatrice : " che Dio parea nel suo volto gioire." 
 
 126 
 
FROM THE CELL TO THE WORLD 
 
 to one, capturing their captain and all their munitions of war. 
 The government retaliated by expelling all members of the family 
 from Siena, proclaimed them rebels, and ordered their palaces and 
 houses to be dismanded. But in the following March, 1375, the 
 Florentines intervened, and sent Buonaccorso di Lapo Giovanni, 
 Leonardo Strozzi, and Carlo Strozzi as ambassadors to bring 
 about peace. The three came first to Siena and then went on to 
 confer with the Salimbeni in Val d'Orcia. At the end of April, it 
 was proclaimed to the sound of trumpets throughout Siena and in 
 the lands of the Salimbeni that the whole matter had been referred 
 to the decision of the Priors of the Commune of Florence. 
 
 The representatives of both parties were at Florence, engaged 
 in the final negotiations, when news reached Tuscany of a more 
 momentous peace having been made in northern Italy. On June 
 7, a courier rode into Pisa bearing an olive branch from Cardinal 
 de Noellet, with the tidings that he had concluded at Bologna a 
 truce for a year between the Holy See and Bernabo Visconti. 
 Four days later, the symbolical olive and the official announcement 
 of the truce was brought to Siena. In both cities the news was 
 received with sorrow and apprehension ; men doubted the inten- 
 tions and the good faith of the papal legate ; sinister rumours 
 were spreading as to the movements of Hawkwood's mercenaries, 
 whom the Church had dismissed from her service and who were 
 approaching the Tuscan frontiers. "From this truce," writes 
 the chronicler of Pisa, " there resulted such great evil that war 
 followed through almost all the world." 
 
 127 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 UNDER A DARKENING SKY 
 
 "Then in her sacred saving hands 
 She took the sorrows of the lands, 
 With maiden palms she lifted up 
 The sick time's blood-embittered cup, 
 And in her virgin garment furled 
 The faint limbs of a wounded world. 
 Clothed with calm love and clear desire, 
 She went forth in her soul's attire, 
 A missive fire." 
 
 A. C. Swinburne, Songs before Sunrise. 
 
 Catherine was by this time no longer at Siena. Other 
 cities in Tuscany were now claiming her spiritual ministrations, 
 and her great political work had fairly begun. 
 
 It was probably in the latter part of 1374 that Birgitta's 
 confessor, the hermit-bishop, Alfonso da Vadaterra, returned to 
 Italy from Avignon. He came to Siena, and sought an interview 
 with Catherine in the name of the Pope, from whom he brought 
 her the apostolic benediction, to enlist her ever-increasing spiritual 
 influence for the papal intentions. " The Pope," writes Catherine 
 to Fra Bartolommeo and Fra Tommaso Caffarini, who were then 
 at Pisa, " has sent here one of his vicars — the spiritual father of 
 that Countess who died at Rome. It is he who renounced the 
 bishopric for love of virtue, and he came to me in the name of 
 the Holy Father, bidding me offer up special prayers for him 
 and for Holy Church ; and for a sign he brought me the holy 
 indulgence. Rejoice then and be glad, for the Holy Father has 
 begun to attend to the honour of God and of Holy Church. I 
 have written a letter to the Holy Father, beseeching him, for the 
 love of that most sweet blood, to give us leave to expose our 
 bodies to every torment. Pray to the supreme eternal Truth that, 
 if it is best, He may vouchsafe this mercy to us and to you, so 
 that we may all together give our lives for Him." x To Alfonso 
 
 1 Letter 127 (117). Cf. Cristofano di Gano, Memorie, p. 34. This letter 
 about the Crusade, which was apparently Catherine's first to Gregory XI, has not 
 come down to us. 
 
 128 
 
UNDER A DARKENING SKY 
 
 it must have seemed that the spirit of his dead friend lived again 
 in the Sienese maiden, and he now associated himself with her 
 spiritual fellowship. 
 
 The two friars had spread Catherine's fame through Pisa, and 
 she received repeated invitations to come thither, especially from 
 :ertain nuns who greatly desired to see and to hear her, and who 
 assured her that she could win many souls to God in that city — 
 invitations that had been supported by a letter from no less a 
 person than Piero Gambacorti, the ruler of the Pisan Republic, 
 himself. Her answer to the latter, admonishing the upright man 
 who was holding earthly lordship by so doubtful and unstable a 
 title, to detach himself from the delights of the world and keep 
 tiis eyes fixed upon Divine Justice in governing, is extant ; at the 
 ;nd she excuses herself from coming, on the grounds of her bad 
 health and the risk of causing scandal — relations being then 
 somewhat strained between Messer Piero and the Sienese, in 
 :onsequence of the refusal of the Pisans to help their nominal 
 lilies against the rebellious Salimbeni, whereas Florence and Lucca 
 had loyally corresponded to their bond. 1 
 
 Nevertheless, early in the new year, 1375, Catherine believed 
 derself to have received a divine command to delay no longer, 
 md accordingly set out for Pisa. With her went Alessa, Lisa, 
 Cecca, and others of her women, as also her mother, Monna 
 Lapa herself, who would not again be parted from her daughter. 
 Fra Raimondo, Fra Tommaso della Fonte, and Fra Bartolommeo 
 iccompanied her, to hear the confessions of those whom she was 
 :o convert to God. 
 
 At Pisa the little band of Sienese received a royal reception, 
 jeing met by Piero Gambacorti himself, the Archbishop (Francesco 
 Moricotti di Vico), and the chief religious and political notabilities 
 )f the State. Catherine was entertained and lodged in the house 
 )f Gherardo Buonconti, a leading citizen of Pisa, and one of 
 1 large family of brothers and sisters, several of whom became 
 ler disciples. The house stood on the Arno, near the little 
 
 1 Letter 112 (193). Cf. Legenda, II. viii. 17 (§257), and Cronica Sanese, 
 ol. 240. 
 
 9 I2 9 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 church or chapel of Santa Cristina. Here the same wonders 
 were enacted as had been done at Siena : the sick were healed ; 
 men of evil life were brought to repentance. " I saw her speak 
 to certain sinners," wrote Giovanni Dominici, the famous Cardinal 
 of Ragusa, then a young Dominican novice, to his mother, " and 
 her words were so profound, so fiery and potent, that they 
 straightway transformed these vessels of contumely into pure 
 vessels of crystal, as we sing in the hymn of St. Mary Magdalene 
 that our Lord Jesus did to her." x A new breath of spiritual 
 life seemed given to that decaying city, whose days of political 
 independence were drawing to a close. 
 
 There were, as usual, some that murmured, and others that 
 professed themselves scandalized at Catherine's mode of life and 
 at the reverence with which she was treated, especially at the way 
 in which many of the men and women who approached her knelt 
 and kissed her hands. Two learned men of the city, Maestro 
 Giovanni Gutalebraccia, a physician, and Ser Pietro di Messer 
 Albizzo, a lawyer of repute who was a leading spirit among the 
 adherents of the Gambacorti, came to her, much as Fra Lazzarino 
 and Maestro Gabriele had done in Siena, and attempted to 
 bewilder her with theological problems. To all their questions 
 she answered simply, that only one thing was necessary : to know 
 that Christ, the true Son of God, had assumed human nature for 
 our salvation, had suffered and died for our liberation ; and she 
 spoke to them so sweetly of the love of Him that they were 
 moved to tears. But the hostile comments on the reverence shown 
 her increased, until Fra Raimondo (Fra Bartolommeo being also 
 present) hinted that she should stop it, asking her if it did not 
 move her mind to vainglory. " I hardly notice what they do," 
 she replied, " and, through God's grace, it does not please me ; 
 I consider only the good affection that brings them to me, and 
 thank the Divine Goodness that thus moves them, praying that 
 He may perfect and fulfil those desires which He has inspired. 
 
 1 This letter, written from Constance in 141 6, is included in Biscioni, 
 Lettere di Santi e Bead Fiorentini, and there is a Latin version of it appended to 
 the Processus. 
 
 130 
 
UNDER A DARKENING SKY 
 
 I marvel how a creature, knowing itself to be a creature, can have 
 vainglory." * 
 
 But there was one, whom Bartolommeo styles " a certain man 
 of no small reputation among spiritual persons," who, in all 
 sincerity, trembled for the safety of Catherine's soul. This was 
 the poet of the Gesuati, Bianco dall' Anciolina, known as "El 
 Bianco da Siena," but sometimes called " El Bianco da Firenze," 
 or " El Bianco da Citta di Castello," from the place where he had 
 lived as an anchorite after the death of his master, Giovanni 
 Colombini. "Now beware, Catherine, my sister," he sang, 
 " lest thou fall in great ruin ; if thou hast the divine grace, take 
 heed to preserve it. Beware lest, through thy great fame, thou 
 becomest hungry for it. If thou art indeed the bride of Christ, 
 thou canst verily deem thyself blessed ; but if such praise pleases 
 thee, 1 fear lest the demon rejoice ; beware lest thou be caught 
 in his snares. Many have been the saints to whom men have 
 flocked, who, lest they should be wounded by pride, have fled to 
 the cell. I hear that thou claimest that the Holy Spirit is guiding 
 thee ; if it is true, I thank God who has so exalted thee. Beware, 
 beware, beware, lest thou become a liar or cowardly through 
 vanity. Beware lest the temptation of prophetical speech enthrall 
 thee. Lay aside the fantasies of vain prophecy ; if thou goest by 
 their ways, thou wilt find thyself ensnared. Thou art proclaimed 
 to be of holy life ; thou art already called a saint. If the Holy 
 Spirit is leading thee, seek not earthly praise, which undoes the 
 soul that desires it. Shouldst thou fall, many will lose their 
 faith ; beware, poor woman, lest thou be overthrown. May the 
 loving divine light so guard thee along its way that thy soul may 
 take her stand upon the truth alone." 2 This poem, or lauda, El 
 Bianco seems to have actually sent to Catherine at Pisa, together 
 with a long letter, blaming her severely for allowing such honours 
 to be paid her, generally censuring her mode of life as dangerous 
 
 1 Contestatio Fr. Bartholomaei, Processus, coll. 1352, 1 3 5 3- 
 
 2 Poem in 3 z stanzas, headed " Questa seguente lauda mand6 el Bianco alia 
 Beata Caterina da Siena " (No. 72 in the printed collection of the Laudi spirituali 
 del Bianco da Siena). 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 and objectionable, urging her to shun publicity and to seek 
 solitude, since the latter was the way of the Saints, while hers was 
 that of hypocrites and seekers of their own praises. Raimondo 
 and Bartolommeo attempted to keep the letter from Catherine, 
 intending to send a sharp answer on their own account ; but she 
 insisted upon hearing it, professed the warmest gratitude to the 
 writer for his solicitude for the welfare of her soul, and rebuked 
 the two friars for their uncharitable interpretation of his good 
 intentions. Her own answer is extant, written, she tells him, 
 "with the desire of seeing us united and transformed in that 
 sweet, eternal, and pure Truth, which takes from us all falsehood 
 and lying" : — 
 
 " I thank you cordially, dearest father, for the holy zeal and 
 anxiety that you have for my soul. You seem to be in great 
 doubt at what you hear about my life. I am certain that nothing 
 moves you save desire of the honour of God and of my salvation, 
 for you fear that I may be assailed and deluded by the devil. I 
 do not wonder, father, at your having this fear, especially in the 
 matter of eating ; for I promise you that it is not only you 
 who are afraid about it, but I myself tremble for fear of deception 
 by the devil. But I put my trust in the goodness of God, and 
 mistrust myself, knowing that upon myself I cannot rely. Not 
 only in this, but in all I do, I always fear because of my own 
 frailty, and because of the astuteness of the devil, thinking that 
 I may be deceived ; for I know and see that the devil lost 
 blessedness, but not wisdom, and with that wisdom*, or rather 
 astuteness, he could deceive me. But I turn, then, and cling to 
 the tree of the most holy Cross of Christ crucified, and thereto I 
 would be fastened ; and I doubt not that, if I be fastened and 
 nailed to it with Him, through love and with deep humility, the 
 devils will have no power against me, not because of my virtue, 
 but by the virtue of Christ crucified. You bid me specially pray 
 to God that I may eat. I tell you, my father, and I tell you in 
 the sight of God, that I have always tried in every possible way, 
 once or twice a day, to take food ; and I have prayed continually, 
 and do pray to God, and will pray that He may give me grace in 
 
 I3 2 
 
UNDER A DARKENING SKY 
 
 this matter to live like other creatures, if it is His will, for it is 
 mine. I pray you to pray that supreme eternal Truth that, if it 
 is more for His honour and the salvation of my soul, He may 
 give me grace and enable me to take food, if it pleases Him. 
 And I am certain that the goodness of God will not despise 
 your prayers. I beseech you to write to me what remedy you 
 see for it, and, if only it be to the honour of God, I will 
 gladly adopt it. And I beseech you, too, not to be hasty in 
 judging, unless you are quite sure that you see things as they 
 are in God's sight." x 
 
 The desire that Catherine had expressed in this letter, that 
 she might " be fastened and nailed to the tree of the most holy 
 Cross of Christ crucified with Him, through love and with deep 
 humility," was now to be mystically fulfilled. The church of 
 Santa Cristina stands on the Lung' Arno, not far from the little 
 Gothic gem of Santa Maria della Spina, which she, who had 
 chosen a crown of thorns for a crown of pearls, must have seen in 
 all its fresh beauty. Although Santa Cristina in its present form 
 is in the main a building of the nineteenth century, prosaic alike 
 in its surroundings and its interior, there stands still, by the first 
 altar to the right of the entrance, a fragment of one of the 
 pillars of the older church, with the inscription : Signavit 
 Dominus servant suam Catharinam hie signis redemptionis nostrae : 
 " Here the Lord signed His servant Catherine with the signs of 
 our redemption." For here, on the fourth Sunday of Lent, 
 1375j th e Sunday known as Laetare Sunday from the text of 
 Isaiah sung as Introit (" Rejoice ye with Jerusalem, and be glad 
 with her, all ye that love her "), while rapt in ecstasy after 
 Communion, Catherine of Siena in a measure received the same 
 
 1 Letter 92 (305), which is one of those included in the Harleian MS. 
 Cf. Contestatio Fr. Bartholomaei, loc. o'/., coll. 1354, 1355 (£ H 2 ' n t ^ le Sienese 
 MS.). The poem, or lauda, previously quoted, which has hitherto curiously 
 escaped the notice of all the biographers of St. Catherine, leaves no doubt as to 
 the identity of the person who wrote to her. For the life of El Bianco at Citta 
 di Castello, see the Vita d'alcuni servi di Giesu Cristo appended to Belcari's Vita del 
 B. Giovanni Golombini. 
 
 133 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 mystical revelation which had been stamped in all the fulness of 
 its seal upon the members of Francis of Assisi one hundred and 
 fifty years before. Fra Raimondo and the others saw her 
 gradually rise up from her prostrate position to her knees, with 
 face all glowing, stretch out her arms, and then, after remaining 
 a while steadfast in this attitude, fall suddenly to the ground 
 as though mortally wounded. " I saw," she said, " the crucified 
 Lord coming down to me in a great light, and for this, by the 
 impetus of the mind that would fain go forth to meet its Creator, 
 the body was constrained to rise. Then from the marks of His 
 most sacred wounds I saw five blood-red rays coming down 
 upon me, which were directed towards the hands and feet and 
 heart of my body. Wherefore, perceiving the mystery, I 
 straightway exclaimed : A h, Lord my God, I beseech Thee, let not 
 the marks appear outwardly on my body. Then, whilst I was yet 
 speaking, before the rays reached me, they changed their blood- 
 red colour to splendour, and in the semblance of pure light they 
 came to the five places of my body, that is, to the hands, the feet, 
 and the heart. So great is the pain that I endure sensibly in all those 
 five places, but especially within my heart, that, unless the Lord 
 works a new miracle, it seems not possible to me that the life of 
 my body can stay with such agony, and that it will not end in a 
 few days." 
 
 They brought her back to her room, in what appeared a dying 
 condition. But it seemed that, in answer to the united prayers 
 of all the fellowship, this new miracle was wrought, and when, on 
 the following Sunday, she received the Blessed Sacrament again 
 from Raimondo's hands, her strength was, as it were, supernaturally 
 renewed. " O Father of ineffable mercy," writes the good friar, 
 "what wilt Thou do for Thy faithful servants and for Thy 
 beloved children, when Thou dost show Thyself so benign to 
 such afflicted sinners as us ? I said to her : ' Mother, does the 
 pain still last of the wounds which were made in thy body ? ' And 
 she answered : ' The Lord has heard your prayers, albeit to the 
 affliction of my soul, and those wounds not only do not afflict 
 my body, but even fortify it ; so that, instead of receiving 
 
 J 34 
 
UNDER A DARKENING SKY 
 
 torment from them, albeit I feel them still, they bring me 
 strength.' " 1 
 
 While staying at Pisa, Catherine for the first time saw the sea. 
 On the island of Gorgona, some twenty miles from Livorno, 
 there stood a Carthusian monastery, of which a certain Don 
 Bartolommeo Serafini of Ravenna was then prior : a man of holy 
 life and spiritual conversation, who believed profoundly in 
 Catherine's mission, and was eager for the monks under his 
 charge to hear her words. At his repeated instance, supported 
 by Fra Raimondo, Catherine visited the island, with a number of 
 her companions and friends from Pisa. They arrived at evening, 
 and, while Raimondo and the others were entertained at the 
 convent, the prior found rooms for Catherine and her women 
 without. The next day, at the earnest prayer of the monks, 
 Catherine spoke to them of the temptations of the monastic life 
 and of its trials, in such a profound and illuminating fashion that 
 all were amazed, and the prior, turning to Raimondo, declared 
 that, if she had heard the confession of each (as he had done), she 
 could not more appositely have healed the soul of every one. 
 Bartolommeo himself bears witness to the great spiritual fruit 
 that she wrought among them. He tells us how she left the 
 island in the convent boat, and how, when they had reached the 
 Pisan shore, the monks asked her blessing before rowing back, 
 and believed that, through her intercession, they were miraculously 
 delivered from a sudden storm that rose. He speaks, too, of 
 her parting warning to him concerning a scandal which the devil 
 would shortly try to cause in his flock, which was soon verified 
 in the attempted suicide of a young monk, who was only liberated 
 from temptation by the touch of the mande that Catherine had 
 left behind her, and by calling on her name. 2 
 
 The simplicity with which Don Bartolommeo in his old age 
 tells these stories is a revelation of the character of the man, and 
 
 1 Legenda, II. vi. 10, n (§§ 194-198). Cf. Lombardelli, Sommario della 
 disputa a difesa delle Sacre Stimate di Santa Caterina, p. 13. 
 
 2 Legenda, II. x. 20 (§ 296) ; Contestatio Dom. Bartholomaei de Ravenna, 
 Processus, coll. 1 304-1 307. 
 
 135 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 it is evident that Catherine was as delighted and edified by him as 
 he had been impressed by her. "God is calling you by holy 
 and good inspirations," she wrote to Ippolito degli Ubaldini, a 
 Florentine noble who sought her advice about entering religion, 
 " and He has prepared a holy and devout place for you, utterly 
 cut off" from the world, with a father, the Prior of Gorgona, who 
 is veritably an angel, a mirror of virtue, with a good and holy 
 family. Tell him your intention fully, and make a steady, firm, 
 and true resolution. And if you decide to enter that holy and 
 devout place (which will be the life of your soul), or whatever you 
 determine, if you dispense your substance to the poor, give some 
 of it to that place of Gorgona. For the convent needs to be put 
 into shape, if it is to conform to the rule of the Carthusian 
 order." 1 Two of the most beautiful of her spiritual letters are 
 addressed to one of the monks of this convent, Francesco Tebaldi 
 of Florence, who is apparently the same young man who had 
 been so sorely tempted to take his own life. " We have all had 
 a great desire to hear news of you," she says at the end of the 
 first ; " it seems to me that the demon has not slept, and is not 
 sleeping with regard to you ; at which I am very glad, because I 
 see that, by the goodness of God, the battle has not been to 
 death, but to life. Thanks, thanks, to the sweet God eternal, 
 who has given us so much grace ! Now you will begin to know 
 that you are nothing, and to realize that your being, and all grace 
 that is founded upon your being, comes from Him who is. To 
 Him let all thanks and praise be rendered ; for it is His will that 
 we give the flower to Him and that the fruit be our own." 2 
 
 A man of a more virile type than the gentle Prior of 
 Gorgona, who is said to have first met Catherine at this time, and 
 afterwards came under her influence, was the Florentine hermit of 
 Vallombrosa, Don Giovanni dalle Celle, whose name runs through 
 so much of the religious life of the Trecento. His spiritual 
 
 1 Letter 130 (271). The convent of Gorgona was a Benedictine house that 
 had recently been made over to the Carthusians, and would, therefore, need 
 the building of separate cells for the monks. 
 
 2 Letters 150 (62), 154 (63). 
 
 136 
 
UNDER A DARKENING SKY 
 
 letters, still only in part collected, extend from the forties to the 
 nineties of the century. Giovanni had become a monk of the 
 Vallombrosan rule at an early age, and, while superior of S. 
 Trinita in Florence, had committed a peculiarly scandalous and 
 infamous crime, for which (after release from imprisonment) he 
 did penance all the rest of his long life. In his earliest extant 
 letter, he beseeches the saintly Augustinian hermit, Fra Simone 
 da Cascia, as a most experienced physician of souls, to heal " the 
 execrable wound of my mind " : "I was what I am not ; I used 
 to do penance ; but now, by looking back, I have become a 
 statue of salt. I used to taste what now, in my wretchedness, I 
 hardly remember. I have fallen, and cannot rise of myself; I 
 strive to return to the man I was, but dare not, for my mind is 
 overwhelmed by remorse and confounded by the shame of my sins. 
 Receive me, then, crying to thee from the abyss, and begin to 
 build up in me what I have destroyed." x After this he took the 
 name of Giovanni dalle Celle, "John of the Cells," from the 
 solitude above Vallombrosa to which he retired, but from which 
 he issued at intervals to labour in Florence and elsewhere for the 
 good of souls. Men and women alike appealed to him for 
 direction ; but his special work of this kind seems to have been 
 the guidance of a confraternity of young men, known as his 
 adopted sons, whom he trained in the religious life ; at the same 
 time, through his friend Guido dal Palagio (a man of devout life 
 and great charity, known to students of Italian literature by a noble 
 patriotic canzone, and dear to lovers of the beautiful for the 
 Franciscan convent above Fiesole which he founded), he kept in 
 touch with the government of the Republic. 
 
 It has frequently been stated that Catherine had come to Pisa 
 by the express wish of the Pope, to carry out certain negotiations 
 
 1 This letter, with Fra Simone's answer, is given by P. Nicola Mattioli, // 
 Beato Simone Fidati da Cascia (Rome, 1898), pp. 392-410, and must have been 
 written before 1 348, the year of Simone's death. Giovanni's crime, as described 
 by Girolamo of Vallombrosa, in B. Sorio, Lettere del B. Giovanni dalle Celle, p. 7, 
 curiously illustrates Catherine's words about the wicked practices of certain monks, 
 in her Dialogo, cap. 129. 
 
 J 37 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 on his behalf, with the object of preventing the Republic from 
 joining the league that was being formed against the Holy See. 
 There is no warrant for this in Raimondo's narrative, and it 
 seems chronologically an anticipation of what was to take place 
 some months later. If Catherine had any more definite mission 
 than that of her Divine Spouse for the conversion of souls, it 
 could only have been in connection with the proposed Crusade ; 
 she was apparently to use Pisa as a headquarters from which to 
 stir up enthusiasm among high and low in Italy, alike by letter 
 and by spoken word, for " the holy passage." 
 
 The Pope was trying gradually to feel his way in this matter, 
 which he probably had sincerely at heart. Among the numerous 
 bulls despatched from Avignon was one addressed to the 
 provincial of the Dominicans in Tuscany, the minister of the 
 Friars Minor, and to Fra Raimondo, empowering them to 
 investigate the will and disposition of the faithful, to enroll those 
 who were ready to give their lives in the great undertaking, and 
 to report to the Pope thereon, so that he might know upon what 
 support he could rely from Italy when the banner of the Cross 
 should actually be raised. There had been some immediate 
 response from individuals, three of the Buonconti, for instance, 
 having enrolled themselves ; but it was imperative to secure the 
 adhesion of the heads of the maritime States of the Mediterranean : 
 Naples, Genoa, Pisa, and Sardinia ; especially as the practical 
 intervention of Venice in the enterprise seemed doubtful, and 
 Louis of Hungary, in spite of his alleged pledges to the contrary, 
 showed small disposition to move his powers in defence of the 
 threatened Greeks and their Emperor, notwithstanding an urgent 
 brief from Gregory inciting him to act with vigour. 1 A little 
 later, these exhortations were renewed, and a friar of great 
 eloquence, one of the few immediate links between Petrarca's 
 circle of correspondents and that of Catherine, Fra Bonaventura 
 Badoara of Padua, an Augustinian hermit, was sent to inflame the 
 
 1 Brief of January 28, 1375. Raynaldus, vii. p. 263. The Pope was 
 flattering himself that the Greeks were prepared to submit to the Roman obedience 
 in return for armed Hungarian protection. 
 
 138 
 
UNDER A DARKENING SKY 
 
 Cing's lagging zeal. 1 But the official invitations of the Pope and 
 he eloquent exhortations of his Augustinian emissary seem frigid 
 ind perfunctory, when compared with the fiery-hearted enthusiasm, 
 he white and glowing passion, with which Catherine threw herself 
 nto the undertaking. 
 
 From the house of the Buonconti, she despatched letters and 
 messengers in all directions, to princes and rulers of republics, to 
 :aptains of mercenaries and to private citizens alike, urging each 
 n his own degree to support the papal design, and to be ready to 
 lay down his life for the Cross when the summons should come. 
 One of the first to whom she appealed was Queen Giovanna of 
 Naples, whose ambiguous character and dangerous position stirred 
 her imagination and excited her compassion. In words of 
 touching tenderness, the maiden of the people implores the 
 daughter of kings, who had won from men the title of regina 
 meretrix, to repent and amend her life, thereby becoming " a true 
 and perfect daughter of God," to contemplate the ineffable love 
 that God bears her, and plant the tree of the Cross in the garden of 
 her soul. " Rise up, then, manfully, sweetest sister ! It is no 
 longer time for sleep, for time sleeps not, but ever passes like the 
 wind. For love's sake, lift up the standard of the most holy 
 Cross in your heart. Soon must we uplift it, for, as I understand, 
 the Holy Father will proclaim the war against the Turks. And, 
 therefore, I pray you to make ready, so that we may all go 
 together to die for Christ. I beseech and urge you, in the name 
 of Christ crucified, to support His Spouse in her need, with your 
 possessions, your person, and your counsel ; in all that is possible, 
 show yourself a faithful daughter of sweet and holy Church." 2 
 And to Bartolommeo di Smeduccio, the tyrant of San Severino in 
 the Marches, a young condottiere whose growing reputation as a 
 soldier was giving him a power and importance far beyond that 
 derived from the forces actually at his disposal, she wrote : " Let 
 your heart and soul be enkindled in Christ sweet Jesus, with love 
 and desire of paying Him back for so much love by giving life 
 
 1 Brief of October 27, 1375. Ibid., p. 264. 
 
 2 Letters 133 (312) and 138 (314). 
 
 139 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 for life. He has given His life for you, and do you give your 
 life for Him, blood for blood. I invite you, in the name of 
 Christ crucified, to give your blood for His, when the time comes 
 which the servants of God are expecting, for going to win back 
 what has been taken from us : namely, the holy place of the 
 sepulchre of Christ, as well as the souls of the infidels, who are 
 our brothers, bought back by the blood of Christ even as we ; to 
 redeem the place from their hands, and their souls from the hands 
 of the demons and from their infidelity. I invite you not to be 
 negligent nor tardy, when the Holy Father raises the standard of 
 the most holy Cross, and orders the sweet and holy expedition. 
 I beseech you, by the love of Christ crucified, to await with 
 gladness and desire the invitation to these sweet and glorious 
 nuptials, where impurity will be left behind, and the soul, free 
 from sin and penalty, will be fed at the table of the Lamb. You 
 would indeed be foolish to keep away from such great delight. It 
 seems to me that any one who could not go upright should go 
 there crawling, to show his love for God by giving Him life for 
 love of life. Make amends for your failings and for your sins 
 with the instrument of your body, even as with the instrument of 
 your body you have offended." 1 
 
 As far as words went, the response to Catherine's appeals was 
 prompt. Mariano d' Oristano, who ruled the island of Sardinia 
 under the title of Judge of Arborea, promised to join the Crusade 
 in person, and to supply two galleys, a thousand horsemen, three 
 thousand foot-soldiers, and six hundred crossbowmen, for ten 
 years. The Genoese seemed enthusiastic. 2 Giovanna professed 
 herself more than ready. " My venerable mother," wrote 
 Catherine to the Queen, " I will pray, to the utmost of my 
 feeble powers, the supreme and eternal goodness of God that He 
 may give you perfect light for this and all your good works, and 
 that He may increase desire upon desire in you ; so that, en- 
 kindled with the fire of love, you may come from the sovereignty 
 of this miserable and transient life to that perpetual city of 
 
 1 Unpublished. Appendix, Letter I. 
 
 2 Letter 66 (125). 
 
 140 
 
dtiircoU ia(C\ ucnuto a<xkocol' 
 tui ccrfhtt tion Wuttn Wututa 
 fna /mibla (ua codJotta, tifcrtitito 
 fucrtt . '/K/ctarncntc-CDfi/c/catD 
 pacWmmfto dolor Jefa drla- 
 mtna tnatoitalmcntE-infemctle^ 
 ftma> (fcramatErecfmmtareil fco 
 baclrc-cBBatDix'cltojctectio de- 
 uedcndo oWdio ta cccata- (clop 
 amote-fcucfi tea-t-ce uccfij dt ' 
 tw scnoti tjuo &ftmccrl« tnotn - 
 tiedcoLficno fecw.V«olr»^ft - 
 telauendcoKL-pamorc dxoli *' 
 aUxadtc-etxaudbi >c4atamonc" 
 Ja dxrlantma. uncle fern jbtr 6 - 
 "tx-ucndecfca. contra tatvirte-fin - 
 fittta*/ cfjevcfno nit-moo motta. - 
 te"- rctn d-c-eo\ui dxnia dieicto 
 a c(Tk fenitialitx opU TJmanftnor- 
 to dt-mottr etcmale ctucrficoe- 
 art-fto unaltta uolta, dxnoi (ax 
 facte dx folo pto tioccitt) colt mo- 
 W /■ftdf-Lanttna. inamorata di 
 dio (cnno cttrcno tjadtc txuotc 
 (coui tatr la natvfca fua / lamo- 
 vc-oftfi» tool etc 7 la more fa uc'' 
 dcota axfc mcdctiTno txrootcn - 
 do Li foX{k partibne-fcnfttatut • 
 <?{dtmoTiio e/mortdo Sclacatv 
 nc tcceotendo col colxdlo ddlo- 
 dto eC ddU tnotcodio 8Cclifpm - 
 aincTito del txtaia amorc-dd-' 
 Icut-ctudtlcctandofi diejuci' 
 
 io dx-dto atno cdiando ctuetlo 
 <3rc ooU odto 4tlota mide-laiu <• 
 ma udetnto fuo altoadte ftotu - 
 tzt laCua natuta. oia mat noturc- 
 fcte-: Guarda pta dx non atnec- 
 Wtlitweteno detlamot*%Jt>rio 
 dife-mcdefimo daTnatrft'fuo'o 
 dt dto 'Con en do foftudtofito^ 
 "cUerdeUtie- ftati scdilcttidd mo- 
 do fn-nrdctta came fiia uno dio/ 
 hrncndola con dtto-cdmato di - 
 tccto ftccUltcatczre-.^udh) ta- 
 le non tattto dx-feon uendee- 
 ta delnttnieo c?Teolta morto d' 
 {Mdtc/ma cflb medcfimoluc- 
 dde^Or-nonniopUo cWlairv 
 tioi -• matifiotio cfxHiotuttAttr 
 lam-ma-pcnnle^t-iofha dexlio 
 ua data ctm amoicerfiLubcto ats- 
 bttrto Viftrt "onctc «. ut tcoatxr 
 cjucfto ucftjmento dienon fa- 
 ta dimonto nccwratata dx^td 
 boda torrc Co(t uefhto St ar^ 
 mato dettc utctn. col coltcllox 
 dellocLo BcdeUamorc tdcrc- 
 tctltimorc fcrmlcvtjolTcdcre'- 
 fciaatta deUaTnma, uoft-ta nc 
 ncfdn feu L t c tnai tcolbt diar- 
 rutia tribulationC7a'txtiJtoV' 
 potcrti (oOrnncc/ncuotoetctc 
 ilcupo adttcto arttnotta'cenl - 
 uonuto dc-txxc4ti mottsvtt Ho 
 uooUo aa(i "ma comma- uccajP. 
 
 A PAGE OF THE HARLEIAN MS. 3480, SHOWING A PORTION OF 
 SAINT CATHERINE'S LETTER TO BARTOLOMMEO DI SMEDUCCIO. 
 
 [To face p. 140. 
 
UNDER A DARKENING SKY 
 
 [erusalem, the vision of peace, where the Divine Clemency will 
 nake us all kings and lords, and will reward every labour to 
 vhoso endures it for His most sweet love." 1 
 
 To the Queen Mother of Hungary, too, Elizabeth of Poland, 
 Catherine wrote, telling her that Giovanna's support had been 
 secured, imploring her to use her influence with her son, King 
 Louis, to induce him to accede to the Pope's request, and serve 
 :he Church with his arms. " The Church has need of your 
 luman aid, and you have need of her divine aid. Be assured 
 that, the more you give her of your aid, the more you will 
 partake of the divine grace, the fire of the Holy Spirit, which 
 is contained in her. I, wretched, miserable woman, have nothing 
 wherewith to aid her ; but if my blood could be of any avail, I 
 would gladly shed it all. But I will do this much : I will give 
 her that little particle that God gives me, that it may be helpful 
 to her, albeit I see nought in me that is useful that I can give, 
 save tears and sighs and continual prayer. But you, mother, and 
 my lord the King, your son, can aid her with prayers through 
 holy desire, and can also at your will and with love support her 
 by human aid. Do not shun, then, for the love of God, this 
 labour ; but embrace it for Christ crucified, for your own utility 
 and exaltation, and to work out your salvation. And pray your 
 dear son earnestly to offer himself for love to serve Holy 
 Church." 2 
 
 But, in the meantime, the political horizon in central Italy 
 had been growing darker and darker. The two papal legates, 
 Cardinal de Noellet at Bologna, the Abbot of Marmoutier at 
 Perugia, were steadily filling the cup of their iniquities to the 
 brim, and the prophecies of Birgitta and Petrarca were soon 
 to be fulfilled to the letter. In the summer of this year, 1375, 
 the storm burst with dramatic suddenness. 
 
 From the outset of Gregory's pontificate, the Florentines had 
 been alarmed by the subjugation of Perugia, and had attempted 
 
 1 Letter 143 (31 3), dated August 4. Giovanna, as the descendant of Charles 
 of Anjou, bore the title of Queen of Jerusalem. 
 
 2 Letter 145 (311). 
 
 I 4 I 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 to form an alliance with Siena, Pisa, Lucca, and Arezzo, for the 
 defence of Tuscany against the supposed sinister designs of the 
 papal representatives. They had hitherto, however, found these 
 other communes unwilling to enter into any league in which the 
 Church was not included. Their growing suspicions that the two 
 legates were plotting against the liberties of the Republic, already 
 excited by the aid that they had given to the Salimbeni and 
 Ubaldini, were brought to a head in June, when, on the con- 
 clusion of the truce at Bologna between the Church and the 
 Visconti, Hawkwood's mercenaries were dismissed from the 
 service of the former. There had been great scarcity of food 
 during the spring throughout Florence and the contado (as well as 
 elsewhere in Italy) ; but, in spite of the express command from 
 the Pope to the contrary, Cardinal de Noellet refused to allow 
 grain to be sent thither from the places under his dominion. He 
 now wrote to the Signoria that Hawkwood was collecting troops, 
 and that, unless Florence would lend him at least sixty thousand 
 florins to hire them, he would be unable to prevent these 
 mercenaries from assailing the territory of the Republic. The 
 Signoria having expressed their inability to find the requisite 
 sum, Hawkwood arrived with his company at the Florentine 
 frontier. 
 
 There can be little doubt that the ruling faction in Florence 
 had been for some time desiring a rupture with the Church, 
 partly from really patriotic motives, partly with a view to 
 weakening the power of the Parte Guelfa in the Republic. In 
 spite of the explicit allegations of Florentine historians, it is most 
 unlikely that either the Pope or his legates had any intention of 
 undertaking so impossible a task as the subjugation of Tuscany, 
 though it may well be that they contemplated the overthrow of 
 the democratic governments, and the establishment of a regime 
 less hostile to the aggrandizement of the temporal sovereignty 
 of the Church. Cardinal de Noellet probably spoke the truth 
 when he declared that he had no longer any control over Hawk- 
 wood's movements, and he was, perhaps, really unable to supply 
 the Florentines with grain from the cities of Romagna. Gregory 
 
 142 
 
UNDER A DARKENING SKY 
 
 could protest, with much show of reason on his side, that the 
 Florentines had not the smallest right to object to the truce with 
 the Visconti, seeing that they themselves had not contributed 
 their share to the payment of the mercenaries, as they were bound 
 by the terms of their treaty with the Church. 1 Nevertheless, 
 the evil government and iniquitous policy of the papal repre- 
 sentatives in Italy was calculated to arouse the worst appre- 
 hensions, and the Florentines could not look on with indifference 
 while the neighbouring cities, hitherto practically free or ruled by 
 friendly potentates, bound to their Republic by the Guelf league, 
 were reduced to mere units in a powerful and consolidated State. 
 The Pope wrote to the Signoria, complaining of their unworthy 
 suspicions of him, protesting his great affection for the Floren- 
 tines, and urging them to come to some agreement with the 
 Cardinal to prevent Hawkwood's soldiers from harming their 
 cities or those of the Church. 2 But it was now too late. On 
 June 21, the Florentines made terms on their own account with 
 Hawkwood and his Societas Anglorum, purchasing a five years' 
 peace with them for the sum of 130,000 gold florins. A few 
 days later, the anti-papal feeling in the city was roused to a height 
 of frenzy by the discovery of a plot (which, apparently, was 
 revealed by Hawkwood himself) to betray Prato to Cardinal 
 de Noellet ; two of the conspirators, a notary and a monk in 
 priest's orders, were tortured to death through the streets of 
 Florence with appalling cruelty. It was further alleged that an 
 agent of the Cardinal had been in Florence, to spy out a site for 
 the erection of a papal fortress. 3 Hostilities were now inevitable. 
 On July 24, the Florentines took the politically astute, but 
 morally indefensible step, of entering into an alliance for five 
 years with Bernabo Visconti. The next day, pleading the danger 
 
 1 Brief of August 8, 1375. Raynaldus, vii. p. 268. Cf. Capponi, Storia della 
 Repubblica di Firenze, I. pp. 319-322 ; Marchionne Stefani, Lib. IX. rubr. 751 ; 
 Ammirato, I. 2. pp. 691, 692. 
 
 2 Briefs of June 16 and 21. Gherardi, La Guerra dei Fiorentini con Papa 
 Gregorio XI, docs. 4 and 5. 
 
 3 Diario del Monaldi, p. 507 ; Ammirato, I. 2. p. 693. 
 
 H3 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 caused by the coming of the English as their justification, they 
 informed the Republics of Pisa, Siena, Lucca, and Arezzo of 
 what they had done, and called upon them to join the league. 
 
 Having thus blackmailed the Florentines, Hawkwood, in 
 July, came into the contado of Pisa and then into that of Siena, 
 compelling each of these communes to make similar terms. Pisa 
 paid 30,000 florins, and Siena 35,500 (of which Montepulciano 
 contributed 3,000). " In order that the Commune should not 
 suffer for what the pastors of the Church had wrongly made 
 them pay," the Florentines and Sienese imposed a heavy tax on the 
 ecclesiastics to raise the money, a levy which, in the case of the 
 clergy of Siena, amounted to two-thirds of the whole sum. 
 
 Catherine was apparently still at Pisa while these things were 
 being done. Hawkwood had previously made a sort of promise 
 that he would join the Crusade ; the time seemed ripe for her 
 to call upon him to fulfil his word, and so leave Tuscany in peace. 
 She accordingly sent Fra Raimondo to the English camp, with a 
 letter to Hawkwood and his captains, exhorting them to abandon 
 the service and pay of the devil, and become soldiers of Christ 
 crucified. " I pray you sweetly in Christ Jesus that, since God 
 and our Holy Father have ordered the expedition against the 
 infidels, and you delight so much in making war and fighting, 
 you war no more upon Christians, because it offends God ; but 
 go against those others. How cruel it is that we who are 
 Christians, members bound in the body of Holy Church, should 
 persecute one another ! I am much amazed that, after having 
 promised (as I have heard) to go to die for Christ in this holy 
 enterprise, you should now be making war here. This is not the 
 holy disposition that God demands from you." This letter is, 
 however, merely the credentials for Fra Raimondo, who is to give 
 them her full message by word of mouth. " My father and son, 
 Fra Raimondo, is bringing you this letter. Trust what he tells 
 you, for he is a true, faithful servant of God, and will not advise 
 or tell you anything save what is for the honour of God, and the 
 salvation and glory of your soul." So much were Hawkwood 
 and his captains impressed by the friar's exhortations, that they 
 
 144 
 
UNDER A DARKENING SKY 
 
 .11 took a solemn oath that, if the Crusade really started, they 
 vould go, and Raimondo returned to Catherine with their signed 
 md sealed promises to this effect. 1 
 
 In August, the Florentines elected eight magistrates, two for 
 :ach quarter of the city, known as the Otto della Balm, or Otto 
 iella Guerra, to carry on the conflict with the Church. These 
 ncluded representatives of each order in the State : one noble, 
 Aiessandro de' Bardi ; one artisan, Giovanni di Mone ; six 
 jurghers, Giovanni Dini, Giovanni Megalotti, Andrea Salviati, 
 rommaso Strozzi, Guccio Gucci, Matteo Soldi. They were 
 ill men of mark, able and experienced, animated by sincere 
 patriotism, haters of the prepotency of the Parte Guelfa ; such 
 popularity, did they acquire by their energetic management of the 
 task committed to them, that they were called the Otto Santi. Eight 
 other officials, known as the Otto di livelli, were appointed, to 
 tax the clergy and the churches for the defence of the city. 2 
 Mercenaries were hired, German cavalry obtained from Bernabo, 
 md a German condottiere, Conrad Wertinger, who was in the 
 service of Galeazzo Visconti, was elected captain-general of the 
 forces of the Republic. The Abbot of Marmoutier having 
 arrested the Florentine ambassador at Perugia, the Florentines 
 seized and imprisoned the papal nuncio, Luca Bertini, Bishop of 
 Narni, who was returning from Avignon to the Patrimony. 3 
 
 1 Letter 140 (220). 
 
 2 Cf. Gherardi, op. cit., p. 23 ; Marchionne Stefani, Lib. IX. rubr. 752, 753 ; 
 and, for a hostile contemporary view of " citizens who had such presumption as 
 to consent to be called santi," Sercambi, Croniche, I. p. 213. 
 
 8 Cf. Raynaldus, vii. p. 279 ; Cronica Sanese, col. 246. The statement made 
 by Augusta Drane (I. p. 347), and copied from her by more recent writers, that 
 " the mad Ghibelline mob, encouraged by their ' Eight Saints,' after slaughtering 
 the inquisitors, seized the papal nuncio and flayed him alive in the streets of 
 Florence," is entirely inaccurate. The papal bull (Raynaldus, he. c'tt.) merely 
 says that the nuncio was aliquandiu crudelissimo carcere detentus. For an account of 
 this personage, who was afterwards Bishop of Siena, see G. A. Pecci, Storia del 
 Vescovado di Siena., pp. 288-290. Augusta Drane has, perhaps, confused him 
 with the monk Niccol6 who had been so horribly put to death, probably unjustly, 
 for the affair of Prato. 
 
 10 145 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 Nevertheless, war was not openly declared against the Church, 
 and a show of diplomatic relations was maintained with the papal 
 legates. The other Tuscan communes showed no eagerness to 
 enter the league. Piero Gambacorti was divided between his 
 religious feelings and his need of Florentine support ; Siena had 
 differences concerning boundaries with Pisa and Arezzo, which 
 latter State was the first to adhere to Florence ; Lucca still 
 regarded the Church as her liberator from the foreign yoke, and 
 was most unwilling to commit herself to any hostile action. " Do 
 not allow yourselves to be deceived by any flatteries," wrote 
 the Pope to the government of Lucca, " nor corrupted by any 
 sedition, nor terrified by any threats from those who are, perchance, 
 striving to disturb your peace and pervert your devotion, and who 
 reduce the liberty of their neighbours to servitude when they 
 can ; but, like most devoted sons, be columns of the Church 
 which desires and seeks your liberty." 1 
 
 Catherine was still at Pisa at the beginning of September, 
 where we find her, on the second day of the month, dictating to 
 Fra Raimondo a letter to the new Senator of Siena, the Marchese 
 Pietro del Monte Santa Maria, a religious and upright noble from 
 Umbria, through whom she was able to keep in constant touch 
 with the government of her native city during her absence at this 
 time. 2 Shortly after, however, she returned with her spiritual 
 family to Siena, Fra Raimondo apparently remaining at Pisa, 
 where he was still busy with the affairs of the Crusade. But her 
 stay at Siena was very brief. The City of the Virgin could look 
 after herself, and was too powerful to be coerced, while the 
 position of Pisa and Lucca was difficult in the extreme. Almost 
 immediately, probably through the medium of Alfonso da Vada- 
 terra, Catherine received a command from the Pope to repair to 
 Lucca, to confirm that Republic in its tottering allegiance to the 
 Holy See. 
 
 Tommaso Caffarini and Neri di Landoccio are the only two 
 of Catherine's household that we know for certain accompanied 
 
 1 Brief of August 10, 1375. Pastor, Geschichte, I. doc. 3. 
 
 2 Letter 135 (209). Cf. Cronica Sanese, coll. 244., 250. 
 
 146 
 
UNDER A DARKENING SKY 
 
 ier to Lucca, and it is to the pen of the former that we owe the 
 .ccount of her visit to this most beautiful of Tuscan cities, with its 
 'ines and olives and distant hills of marble, where Ruskin, almost 
 ixactly five hundred years later, saw " one glow of calm glory 
 md perfect possibilities of human life." The rulers of the 
 Republic and private citizens alike received her with every 
 nanifestation of reverence and affection ; for the signs and 
 (renders, both spiritual and material, that she wrought here as 
 Dreviously at Siena and at Pisa, together with the burning words 
 :hat she uttered, convinced them that she "taught as one that 
 had authority, and not as the scribes." x A little group of letters 
 still preserved, addressed by her after her departure to women of 
 Lucca with those beautifully sounding names, Mellina, Colomba, 
 Caterina, Chiara, Bartolommea, Lagina, shows us the intense 
 personal love for herself that she aroused in their hearts, to such 
 an extent that her presence had become all in all to them. " My 
 beloved daughters," she says in one, " love God without any inter- 
 mediary. And, if you wish to love Him through me, wretched 
 and miserable woman as I am, I will teach you where to find me. 
 That you may not depart from this true love, go to that most 
 sweet and venerable Cross with the sweet enamoured Magdalene ; 
 there you will find the Lamb and me, where your desires can be 
 fed and nourished and fulfilled. In this way would I have you 
 seek me and all created things ; let this be your standard and 
 your consolation. And do not think, because my body is far 
 from you, that my affection and my care for your salvation is 
 taken from you ; nay, it is greater when I am absent bodily than 
 when present. Know you not that the holy disciples knew and 
 felt their Master more after His departure than before ? For 
 they took such delight in His humanity that they sought no 
 further ; but, after His presence had gone, they began to know 
 and understand His goodness. Therefore said the first Truth : 
 
 1 CafFarini's account of Catherine's stay at Lucca is in his Supplementum, 
 Tantucci, pp. 107, 108. Neri di Landoccio, in his capitolo in praise of St. 
 Catherine (printed at the end of Toresano's edition of. the Letters) refers to a 
 promise she made him there. 
 
 H7 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 Ipedient for you that I go away ; for if I go not away, the 
 orter will not come unto you. So say I : it was expedient that 
 
 iuld go away from you, in order that you should set your- 
 ires to seeking God in truth, and not with any intermediary. I 
 tell you that you will fare better now than before, if you enter 
 into yourselves to think upon the words and the teaching that 
 has been given you, and in this way you will receive the fulness 
 of the grace of God." 1 In these letters, there are constant 
 references to the love of Mary Magdalene for her Divine Master, 
 and it is fitting that the one memorial of Catherine in Lucca 
 to-day should be the great picture by Fra Bartolommeo della 
 Porta, which represents the Magdalene and Catherine together in 
 ecstatic adoration of the sovereign mystery of the Christian 
 faith. 
 
 We do not know how long Catherine stayed at Lucca. Her 
 mission was to the magistrates of the Republic rather than to the 
 women, and, as soon as she thought she had confirmed them in 
 their resolution of not joining the league, she passed on to Pisa, 
 where her influence over Piero Gambacorti secured the neutrality 
 of that State and a promise that Lucca would be protected by 
 its power, if necessary. She had, apparently, anticipated that her 
 absence from Siena would be a brief one, but she now found it 
 impossible to leave Pisa. " I am afraid," she wrote to Fra 
 Tommaso della Fonte, " that I must obey the orders that have 
 been given me ; for the Archbishop has asked the General for me 
 to remain still some days. Beseech that venerable Spaniard to 
 obtain grace for us that we may not return empty. But, by the 
 grace of God, I do not think I shall return empty." 2 
 
 At the end of October, a Florentine citizen renowned for 
 eloquence and patriotism, Donato Barbadori, arrived at Pisa as 
 ambassador from the Commune of Florence, bearing a letter from 
 
 1 Letter 164 (348). 
 
 2 Letter 139 (106). Cf. Dante, Par. xi. 129. I am inclined to think that 
 this venerabile Spagnuolo is not Alfonso da Vadaterra (as supposed by the editors of 
 the Letters), but St. Dominic himself, as we find Catherine elsewhere asking 
 Dominicans to invoke his intercession in similar language. Cf. below p. 319. 
 
 I48 
 
UNDER A DARKENING SKY 
 
 the Signoria, expressing their amazement that the Pisans had 
 rejected their overtures. His instructions were to exhort Messer 
 Piero and the Anziani to enter the league, and, if they refused, to 
 warn them in strong language of the indignation this would arouse 
 in Florence. He was then to do the same at Lucca, where, if the 
 citizens answered that they would enter the league only when the 
 other communes of Tuscany had done so, he was to tell them 
 openly that he had had a favourable reply from Pisa (if it were 
 so), and to add that the Sienese were most ready to follow the 
 same course. And indeed, on November 27, Siena formally 
 joined the league, stipulating that it should not last less than four 
 years, that she should not be bound to keep more than one 
 hundred and fifty lances in its service, and that none of the 
 confederates should aid the Aretines against her. 1 Nevertheless, 
 Pisa and Lucca both stood firm, albeit the latter State gave way 
 so far as to allow a free passage through its territory to a body of 
 men-at-arms that Bernabo Visconti was sending to Florence. 
 
 The Florentines had at length realized that, even with the 
 doubtful adherence of the other Tuscan communes, the assistance 
 of Bernabo Visconti alone would not suffice to enable them to 
 fight against the Pope — especially as Hawkwood, in spite of the 
 enormous bribe that he was still receiving from the Republic, had 
 gone back, in September, to the service of the Church. In 
 addition, at the beginning of October, the Pope (as, indeed, he 
 had done several times before) announced his intention of 
 returning very shortly to Rome. This the Florentines resolved 
 to prevent. With the consent of the Signoria, the Otto della 
 Guerra undertook to stir up a general rebellion of all the cities 
 and towns of the Papal States. Envoys and letters were de- 
 spatched, offering all the forces of the Republic to aid them, and 
 promising to preserve their liberty. Let them remember that 
 they are Italians, whose portion it is to command and not to obey. 
 Let them contrast the sweetness of liberty with the tyrannical 
 rule of the barbarians whom the pastors of the Church have sent 
 from Gaul to oppress them. Let them shake off the shameful 
 1 Gherardi, op. cit., p. 20, docs. 83 and 84. 
 I49 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 yoke of the foreigner, and show themselves worthy of liberty and 
 the Italian name. 1 
 
 There was an immediate and almost unanimous response to 
 this appeal. The exactions and misrule of the papal officials had 
 passed the limit of endurance, and the indignation of the Peru- 
 gians had been further aroused by the death of the wife of one of 
 their citizens, who, to escape from the violent hands of a nephew 
 of the Abbot of Marmoutier, had thrown herself from the 
 window of her house, and been dashed to pieces on the pavement 
 below. On December 3, with the aid of Florentine troops, the 
 inhabitants of Citta di Castello began the revolt. Viterbo 
 followed. The Abbot promptly sent his English mercenaries 
 against the rebels, upon which, on December 7, the whole people 
 of Perugia, nobles and populace alike, rose in arms, " in the name 
 of God, of His Mother Mary, and of the blessed Saints Ercolano, 
 Lorenzo, and Costanzo," shouting " Death to the pastors of the 
 Church ! " There was a general rush of all the papal officials and 
 adherents to the citadel, to which Gomez Albornoz, after a vain 
 attempt to beat back the insurgents, also retreated. The 
 connecting wings of the fortress were broken down, and the 
 Abbot, with Gomez and the rest, were kept closely blockaded, 
 continually harassed by the rudimentary artillery of the epoch, 
 especially a formidable trabocco, or ballista, which hurled gigantic 
 stones, and was christened caccia-preti, the " priest-hunter." 2 
 
 Gubbio, Sassoferrato, Urbino, Todi, Forli, and other cities 
 rose in rapid succession. In ten days, more than eighty cities and 
 towns in the Patrimony, Umbria, and the Marches had been lost 
 to the Church. Of the larger cities, Rome, Ancona, and Orvieto 
 alone did not move. The Malatesta at Rimini and the Trinci at 
 Foligno still declared for the Church, and the soldiery of Gomez 
 Albornoz still held Ascoli. Messenger after messenger rode into 
 Florence, bearing the branch of olive from the revolted cities. 
 
 1 Gherardi, op. at., doc. 103. 
 
 3 There is a vivid account of this liberation of Perugia " from the hands of 
 the accursed pastors of the Church " in the Supplement to Graziani's Chronicle, pp. 
 220-224. 
 
 I50 
 
UNDER A DARKENING SKY 
 
 The bells were rung and the city was illuminated. Horse and 
 foot were promptly despatched to support the insurgents, and to 
 each town the Florentines sent a red standard with Libertas 
 emblazoned upon it in white letters, which, together with the flag 
 of the Commune, floated in front of their troops. Each place as 
 it rose was received into the league ; but, although the Florentines 
 rigidly abstained from gaining any advantage to themselves, they 
 cared less for the liberation of the people than for the expulsion of 
 their pastors. "Without any protest from them, the former tyrants, 
 whom Cardinal Albornoz had expelled, in many cases returned ; 
 Francesco di Vico seized Viterbo for himself, Sinibaldo degli 
 Ordelaffi (the son of the formidable Francesco) entered Forli, the 
 Alidosi retook Imola, and the Polentani Ravenna, while Count 
 Antonio da Montefeltro occupied Urbino. 
 
 Catherine was still at Pisa when the news of the revolution in 
 the Papal States reached the city. She was at that time staying in 
 a hospice in the piazza di Santa Caterina, near the convent and 
 church of the Dominicans. Fra Raimondo and his companion, 
 Fra Pietro da Velletri, told her the news. " This is milk and 
 honey," she said, " in comparison with what is to follow. Thus, 
 father, do the lay folk act now, but soon you will see how much 
 worse will be the deeds of ecclesiastics. When the Roman Pontiff 
 will strive to correct their wicked lives, they will cause a universal 
 scandal in the whole Holy Church of God, which, in the fashion 
 of a pestilent heresy, will divide her and torment her." x Thus, 
 Raimondo assures us, did Catherine foretell the schism which they 
 were both soon to witness. 
 
 After this overwhelming triumph for the Florentines, it 
 became increasingly dangerous for Pisa and Lucca to resist their 
 overtures. It was probably before leaving Pisa that Catherine 
 made a fresh appeal to the Anziani of Lucca by letter, not to for- 
 sake the cause of the Church. " If you tell me that it seems that 
 she is failing and cannot even help herself, much less her children, 
 I answer that it is not so, although it may seem like it to the 
 outward show. If you look within, you will find that strength of 
 1 Legenda, II. x. 8-10 (§ § 284-Z86). 
 
 I 5 I 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 which her enemies are deprived. I pray you, then, by the love of 
 Christ crucified, dearest brothers and sons of Holy Church, to 
 keep ever firm and persevering in what you have begun." She 
 urges them at length, by every argument she can muster, to face 
 every danger rather than join the league, and concludes with a 
 promise of help from Pisa. " I tell you that, if you were to 
 remain alone, you should stand firm in this field, and not look 
 back ; but, by the grace of God, there is another there too. 
 There are the Pisans, your neighbours, who, if you stand firm and 
 persevere, will never fail you, but will ever aid you and defend you 
 until death from whosoever would injure you. Ah, sweetest 
 brothers, what demon will be able to coerce those two members 
 who are bound together, in order not to offend God, in the bond 
 of charity ? " x 
 
 1 Letter 168 (206). 
 
 152 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 BETWEEN FLORENCE AND AVIGNON 
 
 "E crescendo in me il fuoco, mirando vedevo nel costato di Cristo crocifisso intrare '1 
 popolo cristiano e lo infedele ; e io passavo, per desiderio e affetto d'amore, per lo mezzo di 
 loro ; ed entravo con loro in Cristo dolce Gesu, accompagnata col padre mio santo Domenico, 
 e Giovanni singolare con tutti quanti i figliuoli miei. E allora mi dava la croce in collo 
 e l'olivo in mano, quasi come io volessi ; e cosi diceva che io la porgesse all' uno popolo e 
 all' altro." — St. Catherine, Letter 219 (87). 
 
 To one endowed with the prophetic spirit, a sinister sign of the 
 times must have appeared in the creation of cardinals, the second 
 since Gregory's elevation to the pontificate, which took place on 
 December 21 in this year, 1375. Among these nine new 
 princes of the Church were three of the Pope's own kinsmen, 
 including Gerard du Puy, the infamous Abbot of Marmoutier, who 
 was still besieged in the citadel of Perugia. All were French, 
 with the exception of Simone Brossano, the archbishop-elect of 
 Milan, and Pedro de Luna, a young Spanish prelate of noble 
 birth, great learning, and apparently sincere piety, who held a 
 professorship in the University of Montpellier. " Take heed," 
 said Gregory to Pedro de Luna, " lest thy moon suffer eclipse." 
 Yet, judged by what might have seemed the higher standard, the 
 Cardinal of Aragon, as he was called, was the only one of the 
 nine not unworthy of his elevation. 
 
 Gregory's choice of cardinals utterly destroyed all hopes in a 
 possible reformation of the Sacred College. To Catherine, who 
 had just returned to Siena when the news reached Italy, it seemed 
 a cruel act of cowardice on the Pope's part, a putting ointment 
 upon a mortifying wound where the steel and the cautery were 
 needed for the life of the patient. So we gather from the first of 
 her letters to Gregory which have been preserved to us, evidently 
 written about the beginning of the following year, 1376, "with 
 desire of seeing you a fruitful tree, planted in the soil of true 
 
 l S3 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 knowledge of yourself." Love of self has corrupted prelates and 
 subjects alike, and no one dares begin the work of reform. " The 
 sick man is blind, for he knows not his own need, and the pastor, 
 who is the physician, is blind, for he considers nothing save his 
 own pleasure and advantage, and, in order not to lose that, does 
 not employ the knife of justice nor the fire of most ardent charity. 
 Such a one is truly a hireling shepherd, because not only does he 
 not draw his little sheep out of the hand of the wolf, but he him- 
 self devours them ; and the cause of all this is that he loves 
 himself without God, and does not follow sweet Jesus, the true 
 Shepherd, who has given His life for His sheep. O babbo mio, 
 sweet Christ on earth, follow that sweet Gregory, for it will be as 
 possible to you to quench self-love as it was to him, for he was of 
 the same flesh as you ; and the same God is now who was then ; we 
 only need virtue and hunger for the salvation of souls. This is 
 our remedy, father ; that we lift up this love above ourselves and 
 every creature outside God ; let us think no more of friends and 
 kinsmen, nor of temporal necessities, but only of virtue and of 
 the exaltation of spiritual things ; for temporal things are failing 
 you for no other reason save that you have abandoned the care of 
 spiritual things." " I beseech you to send to Lucca and to Pisa, 
 dealing with them like a father as God will teach you, helping 
 them in whatever can be done, and inviting them to stand firm 
 and persevere. I have been at Pisa and at Lucca until now, inviting 
 them, to the utmost of my power, not to make a league with the 
 putrid members who are rebels to you. But they are in great 
 perplexity, because they have no encouragement from you, and 
 are being continually urged with threats by the other side to join 
 it. But, up to now, they have not entirely consented. I beseech 
 you also to write forcibly to Messer Piero, and do it zealously 
 and do not delay. I have heard that you have made some 
 cardinals. I believe that it would be more to the honour of 
 God, and better for yourself, if you would always take care to 
 make virtuous men. If the contrary is done, it will be a great 
 insult to God and the ruination of Holy Church. And let us 
 not wonder afterwards, if God sends His chastisements and His 
 
 J 54 
 
BETWEEN FLORENCE AND AVIGNON 
 
 scourges upon us, for it is just. I beseech you, do what you 
 have to do manfully and with fear of God." l 
 
 Already the dyer's daughter of Siena could address the 
 Sovereign Pontiff in terms almost dictatorial. And, indeed, 
 Gregory had need of such virile counsellors. His newly created 
 Cardinal du Puy had been compelled to surrender the citadel of 
 Perugia to the insurgents, on January i, 1376. A fortnight 
 later, the Florentine force returned to Florence in triumph, 
 crowned with garlands of olive, to the sound of music and the 
 pealing of bells. Hardly had Catherine returned to Siena when, 
 on the very day of the surrender of the citadel of Perugia, Donato 
 Barbadori again appeared as ambassador at Pisa, sent by the 
 Eight to that city and to Lucca, once more to demand the 
 abandonment of their neutrality. And, on March 13, the 
 Signoria of Florence wrote exultantly to Bernabo Visconti : 
 " Yesterday, by the grace of God, we concluded the league with 
 the Pisans and the Lucchese." 2 Nevertheless, in thus joining the 
 league under compulsion, neither Piero Gambacorti nor the 
 Anziani of Lucca intended to undertake any hostile measures 
 against the Pope, and the latter Republic had expressly stipulated 
 that none of the confederates should be compelled to help any 
 other who should occupy possessions of the Church. 
 
 Immediately after the surrender of the citadel of Perugia, 
 the Signoria of Florence addressed an impassioned appeal to the 
 Romans, through Coluccio Salutati, the famous chancellor of 
 the Republic, one of whose letters in after years was to seem more 
 formidable to Gian Galeazzo Visconti than an army of twenty 
 thousand men. God has had compassion upon Italy, he wrote, 
 and has raised up the spirit of her peoples against the most foul 
 tyranny of barbarians. This must be particularly pleasing to the 
 
 1 Letter 185 (1), corrected by the Harleian MS. Catherine wrote simultane- 
 ously to the Archbishop of Otranto, urging him fearlessly to tell the Pope the truth 
 about what seemed to him to be for the honour of God and the renovation ot 
 the Church ; and to the papal secretary, Niccol6 da Osimo, offering Fra Raimondo 
 for the Church's service. Letters 183 (33) and 181 (40). 
 
 2 Gherardi, op cit., doc. 183. 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 Romans, whose love of liberty made them masters of the world. 
 Let them rise, too, and aid in expelling this abomination from Italy, 
 for this will be a truly Roman work. Let them not be seduced 
 by the suggestions of the priests that, if they support the state of 
 the Church, the Pope will bring back the Roman Curia to Italy. 
 Surely the Romans will not suffer Italy to be trampled under foot 
 for their own gain. The example of Urban V has shown how 
 little such promises can be trusted, and, indeed, if the Pope comes, 
 he will set his seat at Perugia instead of Rome. " Therefore, 
 dearest brothers, consider their deeds, not their words ; for not 
 your advantage, but their lust of domination is bringing them back 
 to Italy. Be not deceived by honeyed words, and do not suffer 
 your Italy, which your forefathers with the cost of so much blood 
 made the head of all the world, to be subject to barbarians and 
 foreigners. Repeat once more the saying of the famous Cato : 
 We do not so much desire to be free as to live with freemen." 1 
 
 But the Romans were resolved to do nothing to prevent the 
 restoration of the Apostolic See to the Eternal City. " We had 
 firmly intended," wrote Gregory to all the States and peoples of 
 Italy, a few days later, " to return with the Roman Curia to the 
 Supreme City and our other towns in Italy, and to live and die 
 among you, and to relieve you of the heavy burdens which, on 
 account of the whirlwinds of warfare, you have borne, to our great 
 displeasure and that of our predecessors, and to preserve you in 
 peace, and rule you with beneficent government with the aid of 
 the Most High." 2 He further appointed a Roman, Cardinal 
 Francesco Tebaldeschi, a good man but enfeebled by age and 
 illness, to succeed the Cardinal Abbot of Marmoutier as vicar- 
 general of the Church in the Papal States. Simultaneously, he 
 attempted to come to terms with the league, through the 
 intervention of the Queen of Naples and the Doge of Genoa, who 
 sent two ambassadors, Niccolo Spinelli and Bartolommeo Giacoppi, 
 to Florence. But, before they arrived, Gregory, on February II, 
 
 1 Letter of January 4, 1376. Pastor, Geschkhte, I. document 4. 
 
 2 Litterae hortativae pro parte dom'tnl nostri papae, etc. Dated Avignon, January 
 6, 1376. Biblioteca Vaticana, Cod. Vat. Lat. 6330, f. 430 
 
 156 
 
BETWEEN FLORENCE AND AVIGNON 
 
 formulated a terrible process against the Florentines, which they 
 described as too atrocious to be addressed even to schismatics and 
 infidels, enumerating their real or alleged offences against the 
 Holy See, summoning by name all the citizens who had held 
 office since June to appear in person at Avignon before the last 
 day of March. A few days later, with Florentine aid, the city of 
 Ascoli, upon which the liberty of the whole of the Marches 
 depended, rose against the Church, and Gomez Albornoz, who 
 had taken refuge here after the surrender at Perugia, found 
 himself besieged in the citadel. 
 
 From Siena, Catherine watched the course of events with 
 agonized dismay : lo muoio di dolore e non posso morire, she 
 writes ; " I am dying of grief and cannot die." It seemed to her 
 that the jaws of hell were opened, and that the devils were 
 carrying off the souls of men on every side. While admitting to 
 the full that the iniquities and oppression of the papal officials were 
 the real cause of the war, and that, humanly speaking, the rising 
 of the cities of the States of the Church had ample justification, 
 she regarded rebellion against the Pope as in itself a mortal sin, and, 
 in consequence, the policy of the Florentines as almost diabolical. 
 Her soul is rent in twain between Italy and the Church, between 
 liberty and religion, and hence comes what at times seems the 
 exquisite inconsistency of the letters with which she attempted 
 to win the contending parties to counsels of charity and peace. 
 
 Niccolo Soderini had been elected one of the priors of the 
 Florentine Republic who held office for the first two months of 
 1376, and found himself most reluctantly forced into an attitude 
 of hostility towards the Church. To him Catherine wrote, 
 " with desire of seeing you a member bound and united in the 
 bond of true charity, in such wise that you may partake of this 
 true love, and that, now that you have been made head and set in 
 signory, you may be the means to help to bind all these members, 
 your citizens, so that they may not stay in such peril of the 
 damnation of soul and body." Whoso goes against the Church, 
 cuts himself off from the sacraments, and despises the blood of 
 Christ. If they will humble themselves, the Pope is ready to 
 
 »57 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 receive them ; he is inviting them to peace, notwithstanding the 
 injury he has received from them. They are misled if they think 
 themselves the offended parties, for the sins of God's ministers 
 should have been left to Him to punish. "I beseech you, 
 Niccolo, by that ineffable love with which God has created and so 
 sweetly ransomed you, to strive with all your power (for God has 
 not given it to you save for some great hidden end) to bring about 
 peace and union between your fellow-citizens and Holy Church, 
 in order that yourselves and all Tuscany may not be imperilled." : 
 And to the Pope she wrote, bidding him win back the revolted 
 cities by love alone : — 
 
 " O my sweet, most holy babbo, I can see no other means for 
 you to have back your little sheep, who like rebels have strayed 
 from the fold of Holy Church. Wherefore I pray you in the 
 name of Christ crucified, and I would have you do this mercy for 
 me, conquer their malice with your benignity. We are yours, O 
 father ; and I know that they all in general realize that they have 
 done wrong ; but, albeit they have no excuse for working evil, 
 nevertheless, because of the hardships and cruel injustice that 
 they suffered by reason of bad pastors and governors, it seemed 
 to them impossible to act otherwise. For when they perceived the 
 stench of the life of many of their rulers, who you know are 
 demons incarnate, they came into such exceeding fear that they 
 have acted like Pilate, who slew Christ in order not to lose 
 lordship ; and so have they done, for they have persecuted you 
 in order not to lose their state. I crave mercy, then, father, from 
 you for them. Do not look at the ignorance and pride of your 
 sons ; but, with love and kindness, giving what gentle punish- 
 ment and benign rebuke that will please your Holiness, render 
 peace to us, wretched children who have offended. I tell you, 
 sweet Christ on earth, in the name of Christ in heaven, that, if 
 you act thus, without storm or strife, they will all come in sorrow 
 for the offence committed and will lay their heads in your lap. 
 
 1 Letter 171 (217). Cf. Marchionne Stefani, Lib. IX. rubr. 762. From 
 1344, the Florentine priors began their two months of office from the calends 
 instead of the 15th day as in Dante's time. 
 
 158 
 
BETWEEN FLORENCE AND AVIGNON 
 
 Then you will rejoice, and we shall rejoice ; for with love you 
 will have put back the sheep that was lost into the fold of Holy 
 Church. And then, my sweet babbo, you will fulfil your holy 
 desire and the will of God in carrying out the holy enterprise ; to 
 which I invite you in His name, to do it soon and without 
 negligence. And they will join with great affection, for they are 
 disposed to give their lives for Christ. Ah, God, sweet Love ! 
 Uplift soon the banner of the most holy Cross, babbo, and you 
 will see the wolves become lambs. Peace, peace, peace ; so that 
 the war may not postpone this sweet time. But if you wish to 
 execute vengeance and justice, wreak it upon me, miserable and 
 wretched woman, and give me every pain and torment that you 
 like, even unto death. I believe that, through the odour of my 
 own iniquities, many defects and many disasters and discords have 
 come. Then upon me, your miserable daughter, inflict whatever 
 punishment you will. Alas, father, I am dying of sorrow and 
 cannot die. Come, come, and no more withstand the will of God 
 which calls you ; the starving sheep are awaiting your coming to 
 hold and possess the place of your ancestor and champion, the 
 Apostle Peter ; for, as vicar of Christ, you are bound to repose 
 in your own place. Come, then, come, and delay no more ; take 
 heart and fear nought that could befall, for God will be with 
 you." i 
 
 The Florentines had already appealed to the Cardinals Piero 
 Corsini and Jacopo Orsini to take their part in the papal court, 
 and promised to send ambassadors to prove their innocence. 
 Catherine likewise wrote to these two prelates, imploring them to 
 use their influence in hastening the Pope's coming to Italy and 
 the beginning of the Crusade ; she urged the Florentine Cardinal 
 to labour for the reformation of the Church by his own word 
 and example, and the Roman to press the Pope to make peace 
 with the revolted cities. 2 But the Florentines made no show of 
 laying down their arms, while town after town in the Papal States, 
 including Assisi at the beginning of March, rose against the 
 ecclesiastical officials and joined the league. The two papal 
 
 1 Letter 196 (4). * Letters 177 (29) and 223 (28). 
 
 l 59 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 ambassadors at length arrived from Bologna, and made three 
 alternative offers on behalf of the Pope : a truce for five years 
 with Bernabo and the Florentines and their allies, the rebellious 
 cities, in the meanwhile, to pay their usual tribute to the apostolic 
 treasury ; a perpetual peace with Bernabo and the Florentines, 
 and a truce of five years with the others, who would, as in the 
 former case, still pay their tribute ; a general peace with the 
 whole league, the question of the rebellious towns to be referred 
 to the arbitration of the King of Hungary, the Queen of Naples, 
 or the Lord of Padua, at the choice of the Florentines 
 themselves. 1 These terms were rejected by the Florentines. 
 Their agents were busy in Bologna, where Cardinal de Noellet 
 was suspected of being about to pawn the fortresses of the 
 Commune to Hawkwood, as he had already done with 
 Bagnacavallo, to pay the English. On the night of March 20, 
 the Bolognese nobles, led by Taddeo Azzoguidi, rose against the 
 legate, while the petty signori of the contado, with Florentine aid, 
 entered the city with their armed retainers. Taken by surprise, 
 the Cardinal surrendered the keys of the gates and castles, and 
 his mercenaries made no resistance. The news caused wild 
 exultation in Florence, for, says the Bolognese chronicler, "all 
 that they had done to overthrow the state of the Church would 
 have been of no avail, if Bologna had not rebelled." 2 A strong 
 force of troops with the banner of liberty, under Conrad 
 Wertinger, was at once despatched to Bologna, and received with 
 enthusiasm. The government of the city was put into the hands 
 of sixteen Anziani, four for each quarter, and the Cardinal 
 escorted to Ferrara, where the Marquis held for the Church. 
 Bagnacavallo and Faenza were still in the hands of the papa- 
 
 1 Cf. Gherardi, op. cit,, p. 43 »., where it is shown that there is no foundation 
 for the usual statement that the Pope offered to leave Perugia and Citta di Castello 
 at liberty, provided the Florentines proceeded no further and did not molest 
 Bologna. The financial side of the whole question was of vital importance to 
 the Holy See. From Bologna, alone, the Pope drew the annual sum of 200,000 
 florins. Cf. Cronica di Bologna, col. 498. 
 
 2 Cronica di Bologna, coll. 499-501. 
 
 160 
 
BETWEEN FLORENCE AND AVIGNON 
 
 lint, the former under Hawkwood, the latter ruled by a French 
 prelate under the title of Count of Romagna. Fearing for his 
 position, this latter sent for Hawkwood and the English, who 
 burst into Faenza, shouting Viva la Chiesa, sacked the town, and 
 expelled all the inhabitants, save a number of women whom they 
 kept for their own lusts. Two of Hawkwood's captains or 
 caporali were fighting together for the possession of a beautiful 
 young girl, a novice from one of the convents, who cried upon 
 her divine Bridegroom and His Mother to deliver her, when 
 Hawkwood came upon the scene. Unable to separate them, he 
 stabbed the girl to death with his own dagger. " And so," writes 
 Fra Filippo, " the Virgin Mary heard her and delivered her ; 
 virgin and martyr and bride of her Son, she bore her away to 
 the realm of life eternal, as it is written in the Psalm : lest the 
 righteous put forth their hands unto iniquity." 1 Shortly after, 
 Hawkwood sold both Bagnacavallo and Faenza to the Marquis of 
 Ferrara, to obtain the arrears of pay that were owed him by the 
 Church. 
 
 In spite of the expulsion of the legate from Bologna, the 
 position of the Florentines was highly critical. If the Pope were 
 to promulgate his sentence and could induce the nations to enforce 
 it, the whole mercantile traffic of the Republic would be destroyed. 
 Rumours had already reached them of papal galleys being 
 equipped in haste at Marseilles to prey upon their commerce, of 
 a great army of formidable Breton mercenaries being taken into 
 the pay of the Church. It was, above all, imperative to gain time. 
 "Because of the process," writes Fra Raimondo, "they were 
 compelled to treat for peace with the Sovereign Pontiff, through 
 the means of persons who they knew were acceptable to him. 
 They were informed that the holy virgin, by reason of the 
 fame of her sanctity, was most pleasing in the Pope's sight. 
 Therefore they ordained that I should first go to the said 
 
 1 Assempro 58:" Come una vergine fu guardata da la Vergine Maria per 
 martirio." The sack of Faenza was on March 28, 1376. Cf. Cronaca Riminese 
 {Rer. It. Script., xv.), col. 914; Cronica di Bologna, coll. 501,502. There was 
 little actual bloodshed. 
 
 11 161 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 Sovereign Pontiff, in the name of Catherine, in order to 
 mitigate his indignation." The friar was apparently to dispose 
 the Pope in favour of the two Florentine ambassadors, who 
 were already on their way. He started about the fourth 
 week in March, accompanied by Giovanni Tantucci, Felice da 
 Massa, and others of Catherine's household, with the letter of 
 credentials from Catherine to the Pope which we still possess, 
 beseeching the wavering Pontiff to make himself, with the aid of 
 divine grace, the instrument for the pacification of the entire 
 world. She bids him, in the name of Christ crucified, extirpate 
 the evil pastors and rulers, " full of impurity and cupidity, 
 puffed up with pride," the foul plants who are poisoning the 
 garden of the Church ; and plant in their stead " sweet smelling 
 flowers, pastors and governors who will be true servants of Jesus 
 Christ, who will attend to nought else save the honour of God 
 and the salvation of souls, and who will be fathers of the poor." 
 Hitherto, the luxurious lives of the prelates have been shamed by 
 comparison with the virtues of many of the laity : " But it seems 
 that the supreme and eternal Goodness is having done by force 
 what has not been done for love ; it seems that He is allowing 
 states and pleasures to be taken from His Spouse, as though to 
 show that He wished Holy Church to return into her primitive 
 state of poverty, humility, meekness, as she was in that holy time, 
 when they attended to nought else save the honour of God and 
 the salvation of souls, caring for spiritual things and not temporal. 
 For, since she has aimed more at temporal than at spiritual things, 
 her affairs have gone from bad to worse." But let the Pope 
 take heart and fear nothing ; if only he will come to Italy and 
 raise the standard of the Cross, all will be well. But he must 
 come like a meek lamb, " using the arms of the power of love 
 alone, aiming only to have the care of spiritual things " : — 
 
 " Answer the summons of God, who is calling you to come 
 to hold and possess the place of the glorious pastor St. Peter, 
 whose vicar you are. Lift up the banner of the holy Cross. 
 Come, and you will reform the Church with good pastors. 
 You will give her back the colour of most burning charity 
 
 162 
 
BETWEEN FLORENCE AND AVIGNON 
 
 which she has lost ; for so much blood has been sucked from 
 her by iniquitous devourers, that she has become all pallid. 
 But take heart and come, father, and do not make the servants 
 of God wait, who are afflicted with desire. And I, miserable, 
 wretched woman, can wait no more ; living, I seem to die in pain 
 at seeing God so outraged. Do not postpone the peace because 
 of what has happened at Bologna, but come ; for I tell you that 
 the fierce wolves will lay their heads in your lap like meek lambs, 
 and crave you to pardon them, father. I say no more. I beseech 
 you, father, to hear and listen to what Fra Raimondo will tell you, 
 and the other sons who are with him, who are coming in the 
 name of Christ crucified and in my name ; for they are true 
 servants of Christ and children of Holy Church." 1 
 
 And, a little later, she wrote to Raimondo and his companions : 
 " I am dying and cannot die, I am bursting and cannot burst, 
 with the desire that I have for the renovation of Holy Church, 
 for the honour of God, and the salvation of every creature, and 
 of seeing you and the others robed with purity, burned and 
 consumed in His most ardent charity. Tell Christ on earth not 
 to make me wait any longer. And when I see him, I shall sing 
 with that sweet old man Simeon : Lord, now lettest Thou Thy 
 servant depart in peace, according to Thy word." 2 
 
 All immediate prospects of a reconciliation between Italy and 
 the Holy See seemed dashed to the ground by the revolt 
 of Bologna and the sack of Faenza. On the last day of 
 March, Jacopo di Ceva, the fiscal advocate of the Curia who had 
 formulated the process, demanded in full consistory that sentence 
 should be pronounced against the Florentines. Their two am- 
 bassadors, Donato Barbadori and Alessandro dell' Antella, duly 
 
 1 Letter 206 (5), amended by the Harleian MS. Raimondo's own words, 
 Legenda, III. vi. 26 (§ 420), might be taken as meaning that he was sent to the 
 Pope after the promulgation of the sentence against the Florentines ; that is, in 
 April ; but the internal evidence of this and Letter 219 (87) seems to fix the date 
 of his starting between March 21, the day after the revolt of Bologna, and April 
 1, when Catherine had the vision of the cross and olive-branch. 
 
 2 Letter 211 (88). 
 
 163 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 appeared to represent the Commune and the citizens implicated, 
 who (they said) could not appear in person, as they were all in 
 prison at Florence. They protested the innocence of the 
 Republic, painted a lurid picture of the evil deeds of the papal 
 legates, and implored an extension of the time that they might 
 fully answer all accusations. In reply, Gregory solemnly put 
 Florence under the interdict, revoked all privileges granted by 
 his predecessors, declared the goods of each Florentine confiscated, 
 their possessions and persons to be the free prey of any who 
 could make themselves masters of them ; he forbade, under the 
 same penalties, any private person, community or prince to have 
 any dealings with them or favour them in any way, all previous 
 obligations being cancelled, and threatened to invoke the arms 
 of all the powers of Christendom upon the entire nation. The 
 Eight, together with fifty-one other citizens named (among whom 
 was Niccolo Soderini), were excommunicated, and, together with 
 their sons and grandsons, formally deprived of all civic rights 
 and legal protection, unless they appeared at Avignon by May 
 30. Against this sentence, Donato Barbadori uttered an im- 
 passioned and solemn protest, in the name of the Republic; 
 turning to the great Crucifix that hung opposite the papal throne, 
 he appealed from the Sovereign Pontiff to Christ Himself: 
 " Look upon me, O God of my salvation, and be Thou my 
 helper ; do not Thou forsake me, for my father and my mother 
 have forsaken me." 1 
 
 But, while these things were being done at Avignon, Catherine 
 at Siena had a vision, in which it seemed to her that the Divine 
 Bridegroom bade her, with the Cross on her shoulders and the 
 olive-branch in her hand, intervene between the Church and 
 her opponents : — 
 
 " On the night of the first of April," she writes to Raimondo 
 and his companions, " God more specially revealed His secrets, 
 
 1 Cf. Gherardi, op. cit., pp. 44-46, documents 198, 199; St. Antoninus, 
 Chronicorum, III. pp. 379-382. On April 5, Charles IV put Florence under the 
 ban of the Empire ; but his previous exploits at Siena had taught the Florentines 
 what his imperial threats were worth. 
 
 164 
 
BETWEEN FLORENCE AND AVIGNON 
 
 manifesting His wondrous mysteries in such wise that my soul 
 seemed not still to be in the body, and received such fulness of 
 delight that no tongue can tell it ; for He explained and in part 
 set forth the mystery of the persecution which Holy Church is 
 now enduring, and of the renovation and exaltation which she is 
 to have in the time to come, and said that the present time is 
 permitted in order to restore her state to her. 1 And the first 
 sweet Truth quoted two words that are in the Holy Gospel : // 
 must needs be that offences come into the world ; but woe to that man 
 by whom the offence cometh ; as though to say : { I suffer this time 
 of persecution in order to extirpate the thorns of My Spouse, for 
 she is all full of brambles ; but I do not suffer the evil cogitations 
 of men. Knowest thou what I am doing ? I am doing as I did 
 when I was in the world, when I made the scourge of small cords, 
 and cast out them that sold and bought in the Temple, not 
 suffering that My Father's house should be made a den of thieves. 
 So I tell thee I am doing now ; for I have made a scourge of 
 creatures, and by that scourge I am casting out the merchants 
 — impure, greedy, avaricious, and puffed-up with pride — who 
 sell and buy the gifts of the Holy Spirit.' Thus I understood 
 that He was casting them out by the scourge of human 
 persecution ; that is, by means of tribulation and persecution, 
 He would free them from their disordered and impure 
 living. And, while the fire of holy desire increased within 
 me, as I gazed, I saw the Christian people and the un- 
 believers enter into the side of Christ crucified ; and I, by 
 desire and the affection of love, passed through the midst of them, 
 entering with them into Christ sweet Jesus, accompanied by my 
 father St. Dominic, and my special John with all my children. 2 
 Then He laid the Cross upon my neck and put the olive into my 
 hand, even as though I wished it, and bade me offer them to one 
 people and to the other ; and He said to me : ' Say unto them : 
 
 1 i. e. her primitive state of purity, not her temporal possessions. 
 
 3 Giovanni singolare con tutti quanti i Jigliuoli miei. My translation is intended 
 to suggest that " Giovanni singolare " is Fra Raimondo himself, who tells us that 
 Catherine called him "John." Cf. Legenda, Prologue I. (§ 6). 
 
 I6 5 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 I bring you tidings of great joy.' Then my soul was filled ; she 
 was drowned with the truly blessed in the Divine Essence by 
 union and affection of love, and so great was the delight that my 
 soul possessed that she no longer beheld the past sorrow of seeing 
 the offence against God, but said : ' O happy and fortunate 
 fault.' "i 
 
 In the light of this vision, a few days before Easter, which 
 this year fell upon April 13, Catherine offered her services to 
 the Republic of Florence as mediator between it and the Pope : 
 " remembering the word that our Saviour said to His disciples : 
 With desire I have desired to eat this passover with you before I 
 suffer." The passover which she would fain eat with the 
 Florentines is that of peace and union with the Church, within 
 whose body alone can they receive the paschal mysteries, the 
 fruit of the blood of Christ and the heritage of eternal life. 
 
 " You know well," she wrote, " that Christ left us His vicar 
 for the cure of our souls ; for in nought else can we have 
 salvation, save in the mystical body of Holy Church, whose 
 head is Christ, and we are the limbs. And whoso is disobedient 
 to Christ on earth, who holds the place of Christ in heaven, does 
 not partake the fruit of the blood of the Son of God ; for God 
 has decreed that this blood and all the sacraments of Holy 
 Church, which receive life from this blood, should be com- 
 municated and given to us through his hands. We cannot go 
 by another way, nor enter by another gate ; for the first Truth 
 said : / am the way, the truth, and the life" He who rebels 
 against the Church is a rotten member, and what is done to 
 His vicar on earth, be it reverence or insult, is done to Christ 
 in heaven. "Then, if God is at war with you, because of 
 the injury you have done to our father and His vicar, 
 I tell you that you are weakened ; for you have lost His 
 aid. Let us grant that there are many who do not believe that 
 they offend God in this, but think that they are offering Him a 
 
 1 Letter 219 (87), amended by the Harleian MS., from which we learn that 
 Felice da Massa was one of those who accompanied Raimondo and Giovanni 
 Tantucci to Avignon. 
 
 166 
 
BETWEEN FLORENCE AND AVIGNON 
 
 sacrifice in persecuting the Church and her pastors, and who say- 
 in self-defence : ' They are wicked, and do everything evil.' But 
 I tell you that God wills, and has commanded so, that, even if the 
 pastors and Christ on earth were incarnate demons (whereas the 
 latter is a good and benign father), we must be subject and 
 obedient to him, not for their sake for what they are, but to be 
 obedient to God because he is Christ's vicar." If only they will 
 be reconciled with him, all Tuscany will have spiritual peace and 
 repose, and the war will be turned against the infidels ; otherwise, 
 " you and all Tuscany will have the worst time that ever our 
 ancestors had. Think not that God is sleeping over the injuries 
 that have been done to His Spouse." Let them, then, eat this 
 passover of peace and union in the body of the Church, where 
 the food of the soul is found and the wedding-garment for the 
 nuptials of eternal life. " Pardon my presumption, and impute it 
 to the love that I have for your salvation, both of soul and of 
 body, and the grief that I have at the damage you are receiving, 
 spiritually and temporally. And think that I had sooner say it 
 you by word of mouth than by letter. If through me anything 
 can be done for the honour of God, to unite you with Holy 
 Church, I am ready to give my life, if it should be needed." 1 
 
 Catherine had just received news from Raimondo at Avignon 
 which filled her with peace and exultation. He had, like many 
 others, probably been impressed by the mildness of the Pontiff's 
 reception, and had over-estimated his pacific disposition. " Rejoice, 
 rejoice, and exult," she writes in her paschal letter to the friar 
 and his companions, " for the time is at hand when the spring 
 will bring us sweet-smelling flowers. And do not wonder if you 
 see the contrary coming, but be then more certain than ever. I 
 would fain never rest until I see a knife pass through my throat 
 for the honour of God, so that my blood may remain sprinkled 
 in the mystical body of Holy Church." And, in a postscript, she 
 suggests, subject to Raimondo's approval, that Neri di Landoccio 
 
 1 Letter 207 (198). Capecelatro and Augusta Drane refer this letter to 
 Catherine's second embassy to Florence, but Tommaseo seems to me undoubtedly 
 right in assigning it to this earlier occasion. 
 
 167 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 should be sent to the papal court, " to work for the peace of 
 those decayed members who have rebelled against Holy- 
 Church." 1 
 
 Neri could now be spared more readily from Catherine's side, 
 as her spiritual family had just received a new member of the 
 same kind, who soon became her chosen friend and best-loved 
 disciple: Stefano di Corrado Maconi. Born in 1347, Stefano 
 was of the same age as Catherine herself ; his parents, Messer 
 Corrado and Madonna Giovanna Bandinelli Maconi, belonged 
 to conspicuous houses among the lesser nobility of Siena, a 
 former member of the family having even found a place in 
 the Inferno of the great Florentine. Young and gallant, 
 educated to a degree presumably rare among the nobles of that 
 day, Stefano was likewise distinguished for his sweetness and 
 purity of character, although sharing to the full in the social life 
 of his order and city. Through a dispute on a point of honour 
 at some social gathering, the Maconi had become involved in a 
 feud with the potent families of the Tolomei and Rinaldini, and 
 Stefano had felt himself compelled in honour to lead the retainers 
 of his own family. The Maconi would willingly have made peace, 
 but, in spite of the intervention of many influential citizens, the 
 Tolomei and Rinaldini would hear of no reconciliation. At length 
 Stefano's pious mother, Giovanna Maconi, persuaded him to have 
 recourse to Catherine, and a certain noble friend of theirs, Pietro 
 Bellanti, who had himself been reconciled to a deadly foe by her 
 means, offered to bring him to her. " I visited her, therefore, 
 and she received me, not like a bashful maiden as I expected, 
 but with most loving charity, as though welcoming a brother on 
 his return from distant regions. At this I was amazed, and 
 listened to her efficacious and holy words by which she compelled, 
 rather than induced me, to go to confession and to live 
 virtuously. I said : ' The finger of God is here.' And when she 
 had heard the cause of my visit, she answered confidently : ' Go, 
 dearest son, and trust in the Lord, for I will gladly labour until 
 you have an excellent peace ; and do you suffer me to take the 
 
 1 Letter 226 (89). 
 168 
 
BETWEEN FLORENCE AND AVIGNON 
 
 whole weight of this business upon my head.' " Stefano merely 
 tells us that, by her means, they obtained peace in a miraculous 
 fashion, even against the will of their adversaries ; but we owe 
 to the pen of his Carthusian biographer the dramatic story of 
 how, when Catherine had fixed the day for all the parties to 
 meet at the church of San Cristoforo in the Piazza Tolomei, and 
 Corrado and Stefano with their kinsmen came as arranged, the 
 Tolomei and the Rinaldini, with a view of adding a fresh insult 
 and rendering reconciliation impossible, did not appear. " They 
 will not hear me," said Catherine, " but, when God speaks, they 
 will have to listen." As she prayed and was rapt in ecstasy 
 before the altar, a mysterious force drew the Tolomei and the 
 Rinaldini, each independently of the other, to the church ; a 
 divine light irradiated the emaciated kneeling figure in the black 
 and white habit ; and the factious nobles, seeing a sign from 
 God, committed all the controversy into her hands, listened 
 meekly to her words, and exchanged forgiveness and the kiss of 
 friendship with those who, an hour before, had been their deadliest 
 foes. 1 
 
 While Catherine was engaged upon this reconciliation, Stefano 
 frequently visited her, and sometimes, to his ineffable delight, she 
 asked him to write letters for her at her dictation. Soon he 
 became heart and soul hers, enkindled by the divine love that ever 
 burned in her ; he exulted when he was made a mark for the jests 
 of the city in consequence, and idlers shouted Caterinato after him 
 as he passed through the streets. In return, Catherine loved him 
 with so special an affection that, as he tells us, many of her other 
 followers took it ill, and bore him a certain envy — among whom, 
 however, Neri was not included, for, from the outset, he and 
 Stefano had contracted an ardent friendship which was only to 
 end with the former's death. Stefano now became, for a time,, 
 the chief of Catherine's secretaries. " After a short while," he 
 
 1 Epistola Domni Stefhani,%% z, 3 ; Bartholomaeus Senensis, De Vita et Moribus 
 beati Stefhani Maconi, Lib. I. cap. 4-6. Bartholomaeus Senensis assigns the 
 beginning of the feud to the year of pestilence, 1374, and Augusta Drane, 
 evidently rightly, supposes the reconciliation to have occurred early in 1376. 
 
 169 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 writes, " that most holy virgin said to me in secret : ' Know, 
 most beloved son, that the greatest desire thou hast will soon be 
 fulfilled.' At this I was astonished ; for I could think of nothing 
 that I longed for in the world, while I was prepared to reject all 
 that it could offer. Therefore I said : ' O dearest mother, 
 what is the greatest desire that I have?' 'Look,' she said, 
 ' into thy heart.' And I answered her : ' Certainly, most 
 beloved mother, I can find no greater desire in myself than to keep 
 always near you.' And she straightway replied : ' And this 
 will be.' But I could not comprehend the way in which this 
 could suitably happen, considering our different conditions and 
 position ; but He, to whom nothing is impossible, ordained in a 
 wondrous way that she should go to Avignon to Gregory XI ; 
 and so, albeit unworthy, I was accepted as one of this holy 
 company, thinking it a little thing to leave parents, brothers, sisters, 
 and kindred, and deeming myself blessed in the enjoyment of the 
 presence and familiar friendship of the virgin Catherine." 1 
 
 It was probably from Florence that Neri di Landoccio started 
 for Avignon. " To thee, most beloved and dearest son in Christ 
 sweet Jesus," Catherine wrote to him, while he was waiting at 
 Pisa for the ship that was to take him to Marseilles, " I write in 
 His precious blood, with the desire of seeing thee united and 
 transformed in the fire of most burning charity, so that thou 
 mayest be a vessel of love to carry the name and the word of 
 God, with His great mysteries, into the presence of our sweet 
 Christ on earth, and mayest bear fruit by inflaming his desire." 
 He was the bearer of a letter imploring the Pope to imitate 
 Christ, the Good Shepherd, in his dealings with the rebels, to 
 make peace with them, and devote his powers to the reformation 
 of the Church. " I beseech you, reverend father, to give and 
 
 1 Epist. cit., §§ 4, 5, 9. Bartholomaeus Senensis, op. a/., Lib. V. cap. 1, tells a 
 curious story of how Stefano, after joining Catherine's family, was led into 
 attending a secret meeting against the government in the vaults under the 
 Spedale, in which several of the aristocratic members of the confraternity of 
 Our Lady's disciplinati were involved, and of the penance which he inflicted upon 
 himself at her bidding for the seditious words that he had uttered. 
 
 170 
 
BETWEEN FLORENCE AND AVIGNON 
 
 grant what Neri, the bearer of this letter, will ask you, if it is 
 possible to you and according to your will. I beseech you to 
 give him audience, and believe what he will tell you. And 
 because sometimes it is impossible to write what one would wish, 
 I add, if you want to send to tell me something secret, tell him 
 by word of mouth with confidence (for you can) whatever can be 
 accomplished by me. If it were necessary to give my life, I 
 would gladly give it for the honour of God and for the salvation 
 of souls." 1 
 
 Catherine's appeal had reached the Florentines in an auspicious 
 moment. Although Niccolo Soderini was no longer in the 
 government, the Signoria that held office for March and April 
 contained at least one moderate man : Buonaccorso di Lapo 
 Giovanni. The need was pressing ; papal envoys from Avignon 
 had been sent in all directions, ordering every sovereign and 
 commonwealth to break off relations with the Florentines and 
 expel them from their dominions, and many States had obeyed ; 
 papal galleys were intercepting Florentine ships, and making 
 booty of their merchandise ; the Breton mercenaries were quickly 
 gathering together. Catherine's offer of mediation was accepted, 
 and, at the beginning of May, accompanied by Stefano Maconi, 
 Fra Bartolommeo di Domenico, and her usual company of men 
 and women, she came to Florence. The new Signoria was less 
 pacifically inclined than its predecessor, and included Giovanni 
 Dini, one of the Eight. Nevertheless, the Priors came out of 
 the gate of the city to meet her, and besought her to go on their 
 behalf to Avignon, to secure at least a favourable hearing for the 
 ambassadors they were about to send. 
 
 During the few weeks that Catherine now stayed in Florence, 
 while the diplomatic arrangements were being made, she put 
 herself in touch with every class in the State, and made spiritual 
 disciples in every direction. She was already acquainted with 
 Messer Angelo Ricasoli, the luke-warm, time-serving bishop, 
 and with Niccolo Soderini, the upright and devout republican ; 
 possibly also with Carlo Strozzi, a wealthy burgher of the Parte 
 1 Letters 228 (278) and 218 (3). 
 I 7 I 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 Guelfa, whose wife Laudamia was one of her correspondents. 
 Buonaccorso di Lapo Giovanni seems to have been her chief link 
 with the popular side. The family of the Canigiani (kinsmen of 
 Petrarca's mother, Eletta Canigiani) became especially devoted 
 to her. The head of the family, Piero di Donate Canigiani, 
 and his son, Messer Ristoro (a learned lawyer), were men of 
 great character and personality, wealthy and influential burghers, 
 leading spirits in the counsels of the Parte Guelfa. A younger 
 brother of Ristoro, Barduccio di Piero Canigiani, although little 
 more than a boy, had devoted himself to a religious life and was 
 one of the " adopted sons " of Don Giovanni dalle Celle. Among 
 the lower orders, a tailor, Francesco di Pippino, and his wife, 
 Monna Agnese, were Catherine's ardent disciples. Francesco 
 does not seem to have been by birth a Florentine, but a native 
 of San Miniato al Tedesco, who had settled in the capital and 
 probably become a Florentine citizen. In spite of his humble 
 position, he was a man of some importance among all in Florence 
 who looked for righteousness ; and in later years, in his own 
 unobtrusive way, he made his little house near the Piazza del 
 Grano, in the quarter of Santa Croce, a centre of religious life 
 in the city. With them were closely bound in ties of friendship 
 a high-born couple, Bartolo Usimbardi and his wife, Monna 
 Orsa, who likewise took Catherine as their supreme guide in 
 the spiritual life. 
 
 Although vigorously continuing the campaign against the 
 papal officials in Italy, the Florentines were prepared to yield to 
 the Pope's authority in spiritual matters, and obeyed the interdict. 
 "To-day," writes a contemporary, "on the eleventh day of 
 May, 1376, they left off" singing the Mass in the city and 
 contado of Florence, and no longer celebrated the Body of 
 Christ to us, citizens and contadini. But we see Him with our 
 hearts, and God knoweth that we are not Saracens nor pagans, 
 but are and shall remain true Christians, the elect of God." 1 
 Another tells us how a passion of devotion swept over the 
 citizens, who found themselves thus for secular reasons deprived 
 1 D'tario d' Anonimo Florentine, p. 308. 
 172 
 
BETWEEN FLORENCE AND AVIGNON 
 
 of the supreme consolation of their religion : Lo pan che il pio 
 padre a nessun serra. Men and women thronged the churches 
 to sing psalms and hymns ; incessant processions were made 
 through the streets, bearing relics of the saints ; as many as 
 five thousand flagellants passed along, scourging their bare 
 shoulders, while twenty thousand persons followed ; the com- 
 mandments of the Church were kept as they had never been 
 before, and for every one that practised his religion when the 
 Mass was said, there were now a hundred. A number of noble 
 and wealthy young men formed a confraternity which met at 
 Fiesole, devoting themselves to austerity and works of charity, 
 especially labouring to convert fallen women, whom they 
 clothed and provided with means to live an honest life ; others 
 gave up everything, and went about begging alms for the poor : 
 "And this matter was so spread abroad that it seemed verily 
 that they wished to conquer the Pope by humility, and to be 
 obedient to the Church." 1 The government looked with great 
 suspicion upon this movement, but took no active steps to check 
 it. There was simultaneously a recrudescence of activity among 
 the Fraticelli, those frati della povera vita, who held that the 
 condemnation of poverty by John XXII had been "the con- 
 demnation of the life of Christ," and that neither he nor his 
 successors were lawful popes. Poverty being the law of Christ, 
 the Court of Avignon was the devil's synagogue. The sacra- 
 ments were invalid if administered by an unworthy priest. 2 
 Numbers of Florentines, men and women, began to affect their 
 doctrines, especially now that they seemed justified by the 
 attitude of the papal court towards the Italians. 
 
 The fact was that, at this stage in the conflict, all Florence 
 was united against the Pope ; adherents of the Parte Guelfa 
 were agreed with those of the Otto della Guerra that the 
 Republic must defend her rights and liberties. Men like 
 Don Giovanni dalle Celle had no doubt as to where the 
 duties of every citizen lay. " I have heard news of thee 
 
 1 Marchionne Stefani, Lib. IX. rubr. 757. Cf. Dante, Par. xviii. 127-129. 
 
 2 Cf, Tpcco, / Fraticelli, pp. 341-353. 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 for this holy Easter," he wrote to Guido dal Palagio, shortly 
 before Catherine's arrival in Florence, "and I have heard that 
 thou art compelled to take certain offices of the Commune, for 
 which matter I believe that questions often arise in thy heart, 
 because of the war which you have with the Holy Father. 
 But thou hast no need to doubt, as long as thou directest thy 
 intentions first to the honour of God, and then to the good 
 state of thy city ; it is lawful for thee to aid her and defend 
 her and counsel her, so that she may never fall into the hands 
 of her enemies. If thou payest the loan, let not thy intention 
 be to act against the Pope, but to defend thy country, and with 
 this holy intention thou canst pass through all the offices of 
 the Commune without mortal sin. Excommunications are made 
 for those who sin mortally, and therefore hold for certain that 
 no innocent man can be excommunicated ; and if, nevertheless, 
 thou wert excommunicated, it would not be valid in the sight of 
 God, who only confirms the sentence of pastors who bind and 
 loose jusdy, with lawful cause. Only, thou must beware of 
 giving advice or voting that the Pope, or any other cleric or 
 religious, should be taken or slain. I should have said much 
 to thee on this matter, did I not fear lest my letter should come 
 into the hands of those who care little for the good state of that 
 city." 1 But he was equally emphatic by word and letter against 
 the Fraticelli, and prepared to defend the whole hierarchy of the 
 Church against them. " What matters it to thee," he wrote to 
 a Florentine artisan who had joined them, " whether Christ was 
 poor or rich, as long as thou believest that He is thy Saviour, 
 thy Redeemer, thy Food, the price of thy Redemption, and thy 
 Reward ? I certainly believe that Christ was poor, and I would 
 go through the fire for this, saving always all that our holy 
 mother, the Catholic and Apostolic Church, holds." 2 Like 
 Birgitta before him, the monk had profoundly, mistrusted the 
 papal designs for a Crusade. "If thou hast Christ in the 
 Sacrament of the Altar," he wrote to a young nun named 
 
 1 Letter in Tocco, / Fraticelli, p. 348. 
 
 2 Wesselofsky, 11 Paradise degli Alberti, I. doc. 14, 
 
 I74 
 
BETWEEN FLORENCE AND AVIGNON 
 
 Domitilla, who had taken Catherine's exhortations as meaning 
 that she, too, was to go to the Holy Sepulchre, " even as He 
 came forth from the womb of the Virgin Mary and as He hung 
 upon the Cross, why wouldst thou abandon Him to go to see 
 a stone ? " This led to a correspondence with William Flete, 
 who supposed that he had attacked Catherine herself, with the 
 result that Don Giovanni, a little later, formally joined her 
 spiritual fellowship. "It will be glorious for me," he wrote, 
 "to be called a heretic with her, that, even as Christ who was 
 reputed a heretic by the Pharisees because He made Himself 
 the Son of God, I may bear the cross of His passion. O most 
 sweet heresy of celestial Catherine, who makest just men out 
 of sinners, and, the friend of publicans and sinners, dost make 
 the Angels smile and heaven rejoice ! " l 
 
 In the meanwhile, the Florentines continued to foment the 
 rebellion in the Papal States, and even put a price upon the 
 head of Gomez Albornoz, who was making a valiant defence 
 of the citadel of Ascoli. Nor was the papal court resting on 
 its arms. On May 27, the company of Bretons, six thousand 
 foot and four thousand horse, under the Cardinal Robert of 
 Geneva, left Avignon, with orders to march straight upon 
 Florence. They boasted that, if the sun entered Florence, they 
 would, and that they would make the Pope's brother, the Vicomte 
 de Turenne, lord of the city. 
 
 It must always remain a question whether the sending of 
 Catherine to Avignon was the result of a temporary victory of 
 Niccolo Soderini and the peace party in the counsels of the 
 Republic, or a mere device on the part of the others to gain time. 
 The Florentine archives apparently hold no record of the matter, 
 and we can only gather what happened from Catherine's own 
 
 1 Lettere del B. Giovanni dalle Celle, 19, with which compare Catherine's letter 
 to Monna Pavola, 144. (371). Don Giovanni's letters to William Flete 
 (together with a third, defending Catherine against the Augustinian, Giovanni 
 da Salerno) are given by Gigli at the end of the Opere, vol. ii. pp. 985-997. 
 They are included, with three others and a letter from William to Raimondo, 
 in the Palatine MS. 60. 
 
 175 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 letter to Buonaccorso di Lapo Giovanni. According to this, the 
 Signoria and the Eight had assured her that they were repentant 
 for having gone against the Church, and ready to throw them- 
 selves on the Pope's mercy. " See, my lords," she said, "if you 
 really intend to use all humility in deed as well as word, and 
 that I should offer you up before your father like sons that 
 were dead, I will labour in this to the utmost of your wish. 
 In no other wise would I go." They declared emphatically 
 that this was their intention, and that they would instruct the 
 ambassadors, whom they were going to send after her, to confer 
 with her about everything. " We do not believe," said one of 
 those present, apparently Buonaccorso himself, " that this peace 
 can ever be brought about, save by the hands of the servants of 
 God." x Upon this understanding, in the latter part of May, 
 Catherine accepted the mission. " It seems to me," she wrote 
 to the Pope, " that the Divine Goodness is making the great 
 wolves become lambs. I am now coming to you at once, to lay 
 them humbled in your lap. I am certain that you will receive 
 them like a father, notwithstanding the way they have injured 
 and persecuted you ; learning from the sweet first Truth who 
 says that the Good Shepherd, when He has found the sheep 
 that was lost, takes it upon His shoulders and brings it back to 
 the fold. So will you do, father ; now that your lost sheep is 
 found again, you will take it on the shoulder of love, and put it 
 into the sheepfold of Holy Church. Then, at once, our sweet 
 Saviour wills and commands you to raise the banner of the most 
 holy Cross against the infidels, and that the whole war should be 
 turned against them. Keep back the soldiers whom you have 
 hired to come hither, and do not suffer them to come ; for they 
 would ruin everything, rather than put it straight. My sweet 
 father, you ask me about your coming ; and I answer and tell 
 you, in the name of Christ crucified, that you must come as soon 
 as you can. If you can do so, come before September ; and, if 
 vou cannot come before, do not delay longer than until September 
 
 1 Letter 234 (215). Cf. below, p. 191, 
 176 
 
BETWEEN FLORENCE AND AVIGNON 
 
 And do not consider any opposition that you may meet ; but 
 come, like a virile man and without any fear. But take heed, as 
 you value your life, not to come with armed men, but with the 
 Cross in your hand, like a meek lamb. If you do so, you will 
 fulfil the will of God ; but, if you came in another wise, you 
 would not fulfil, but transgress it. Rejoice, father, and exult ; 
 
 come, come." x 
 
 1 Letter 229 (6). 
 
 12 177 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 FROM THE BABYLON OF THE WEST 
 
 " Novi expertus ut nulla ibi pietas, nulla caritas, nulla fides, nulla Dei reverentia, nullus 
 timor, nihil sancti, nihil iusti, nihil aequi, nihil pensi, nihil denique vel humani. Amor, 
 pudor, decor, candor inde exulant." — Petrarca, Ep'ut. sin: titulo, XVI. 
 
 Catherine started from Florence towards the end of May. 
 She was accompanied by Fra Bartolommeo di Domenico, Stefano 
 Maconi, Gherardo Buonconti with his brothers, Tommaso and 
 Francesco, and a number of other disciples ; Alessa, Cecca, and 
 Lisa were also of the party. No details have been preserved of 
 the journey, and it is even uncertain what course they took. A 
 local tradition speaks of Catherine passing through Bologna, while 
 a passage in a letter from Giovanni dalle Celle to Fra Giovanni 
 da Salerno seems to show her on her way along the Riviera. In 
 any case, we know from one of her own letters that she reached 
 --Avignon on June 18, 1376. 
 
 Into this Babylon of the West, the mystical bride of Christ 
 and her companions came as messengers from another world. 
 Avignon had altered but little since Petrarca had invoked the 
 fire from heaven to fall upon it. "I know by experience," 
 he wrote, " that there is no piety there, no charity, no faith, no 
 reverence for God nor any fear of Him, nothing holy, nothing 
 just, nothing worthy of man. Love, purity, decency, candour 
 are banished from it. All things are full of lies and hypocrisy. 
 The voices of angels conceal the designs of demons." 1 The only 
 change for the better since Petrarca wrote these words was that, 
 instead of a strong pontiff, enslaved to vice and luxury, there 
 now sat on the papal throne a weak Pope, who, in his sincere but 
 ineffectual way, looked for righteousness. 
 
 Two days after her arrival, the Pope admitted Catherine to 
 what appears to have been a private audience, only Fra Raimondo 
 
 1 Eplst. sine titulo, XVI. 
 I 7 8 
 
FROM THE BABYLON OF THE WEST 
 
 being present. Gregory knew no Italian and Catherine no Latin, 
 the friar acting as their interpreter. In spite of the correspondence 
 that had passed between them, the Pope had been prejudiced 
 against her ; but he was unable, now that he saw her face to face, 
 to withstand the magic of her personality. " In order that thou 
 mayest see clearly," he said, " that I desire peace, I put the 
 matter entirely into thy hands ; only be careful for the honour of 
 the Church." He assigned to her what Stefano Maconi calls " a 
 fine house with a beautifully decorated chapel," where, for the three 
 months that she stayed in Avignon, he lodged and supported her 
 whole household at his own expense. 1 
 
 But the Florentine ambassadors did not appear, and rumours 
 reached the court — rumours greedily accepted and spread abroad 
 by the prelates of the Curia — that new and oppressive taxes were 
 being imposed upon the clergy at Florence. The three ambassadors 
 — Pazzino Strozzi, Alessandro dell' Antella, and Michele 
 Castellani — had been nominated in May, and their coming 
 formally notified to the Pope. Their original commission had 
 reference only to getting the ecclesiastical censures removed, but 
 this had been extended, at the advice of Bernabo Visconti, to 
 include the whole question of peace. 2 Nevertheless, the counsels 
 of the Signoria were divided, and at least some of the Eight were 
 unwilling to come to terms with the Church until the whole of her 
 temporal power was completely destroyed. The matter lingered 
 on in this way through all June. Catherine, who had understood 
 that the ambassadors were to follow her immediately, with full 
 powers to confer with her and arrange terms with the Pope 
 through her, and that, in the meanwhile, all hostilities on the part 
 of the Florentines would be suspended, was amazed and in- 
 dignant. " Believe me, Catherine," said the Pope, " they 
 have deceived and will deceive thee ; they will not send the 
 ambassadors, or, if they do, it will be such a mission that it will 
 amount to nothing." Already a fresh process was preparing 
 
 1 Legenda, III. vi. 26 (§ 420) ; Processus, col. 1337 ; Epistola Domni Stephani, 
 §11. 
 
 2 Gherardi, op. cit., docs. 221, 228. 
 
 179 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 against them, threatening them with the most fearful spiritual 
 and temporal penalties, including the papal anathema and the 
 proclamation of a crusade against them throughout the entire 
 world. On their part, the Florentines were preparing vigorously 
 to push on the campaign, alike against Albornoz in the Marches 
 and against the Cardinal of Geneva, who was daily expected in 
 the Bolognese. 
 
 To the Eight, on June 28, Catherine wrote an emphatic 
 letter, beseeching them not to turn back, but to approach the 
 Pope with true humility of heart, " imploring life like the son that 
 was dead." She complains strongly of the new tax upon the clergy, 
 if it is true that they have imposed it, as calculated to alienate those 
 of the cardinals who desire peace and still further to inflame the 
 anger of the Pope against them. " I tell you, dearest fathers, 
 and pray you not to impede the grace of the Holy Spirit, which, 
 albeit you do not merit it, our sweet Christ on earth is disposed 
 in his clemency to give you. And you would be putting me to 
 shame and reproach. For what save shame and confusion could 
 result, if I tell him one thing and you do quite another ? I 
 beseech you not to let it happen again. Nay, strive in word and 
 deed to show that you desire peace and not war. I have spoken 
 to the Holy Father. He listened to me graciously, through God's 
 goodness and his own, and showed himself lovingly affected 
 towards peace, acting like a good father in not so much con- 
 sidering the offence that his son has committed against him as 
 whether he has become humble, so that he may be able to pardon 
 him completely. My tongue could not tell how singularly glad 
 he was. After I had talked with him for a good space of time, 
 he said at the end of our conversation that, if what I had laid 
 before him concerning you were so, he was ready to receive you 
 as his children, and to do in this matter what I should think 
 right. It did not seem to the Holy Father that he should give 
 any more definite answer, until your ambassadors arrive. I am 
 amazed that they have not yet come. As soon as they arrive, I 
 shall be with them, and shall then go to the Holy Father ; and I 
 will write to you according to how I find the matter proceeding. 
 
 180 
 
FROM THE BABYLON OF THE WEST 
 
 But you, with your levies and changes, are spoiling what I am 
 sowing. Do no more so, for the love of Christ crucified and for 
 your own advantage." 1 
 
 The three ambassadors had probably already started when this 
 letter reached Florence. A new Signoria entered office on the 
 first day of July, and had decided to despatch the three citizens 
 named as syndics, " to make truce or peace with the Pope, or with 
 his commissary, upon what conditions they shall think fit." 
 Their decision was confirmed in the Council of the Captain and 
 People on July 4, and in the Council of the Podesta and Com- 
 mune on July 5 ; and, on July 7, the Signoria wrote to Cardinals 
 Orsini and Corsini, calling God to witness that they had only 
 acted to defend their own liberty, asking them to use their 
 influence with the Pope on behalf of their ambassadors, to whom 
 they would shortly send the mandate for peace. 2 As soon as 
 they arrived at Avignon, Catherine sent to bid the three come to 
 her, and, in the presence of Fra Raimondo, reminded them of 
 what the preceding Signoria had promised her ; she told them 
 that the Pope had put the peace into her hands, and that they 
 could have good terms if they desired it. The ambassadors 
 brusquely answered that they had no commission to confer with 
 her, nor to make the acts of submission she suggested. 3 No 
 shadow of resentment or personal mortification seems to have 
 entered Catherine's mind at finding herself thus discarded ; 
 although bitterly disappointed at what she probably regarded as 
 the perfidy of the Republic, she continued to beseech the Pope to 
 deal with them mildly, acting not as a judge but as a father. 
 
 Nevertheless, the Florentines were probably in earnest. 
 The Mantuan representative at the papal court, Cristoforo da 
 Piacenza, writing to his master, Lodovico Gonzaga, on July 17, 
 tells him of the arrival of the ambassadors, and that they are 
 very desirous of peace. They have not been able to see the 
 Pope, but have visited the cardinals, and are expecting a formal 
 
 1 Letter 230 (197) ; in the Harleian MS. 
 
 2 Gherardi, op. cit., docs. 273, 274 ; Diario cFAnonimo Fiorentino, p. 309. 
 s Legenda, III. vi. 27 (§ 421). 
 
 l8l 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 audience. Three ambassadors from Pisa (including Benedetto 
 Gambacorti, one of Piero's sons), and two from Lucca, had 
 previously come to beseech the Pope to make peace with the 
 Florentines. The Pisans had effected nothing ; but to the 
 ambassadors of Lucca, who had protested that the Lucchese 
 had never forgotten how the Church had delivered them from 
 the hands of Pharaoh, the Pope returned a most gracious answer. 
 He said he loved their city, and was convinced that they had 
 only entered the league under compulsion ; but he could see 
 no possibility of peace between the Church and the Florentines, 
 as they had not power to restore the cities and towns that they 
 had induced to rebel against her, nor to indemnify her for all 
 she had lost and suffered ; the vicar of Christ was bound to 
 have peace with the contrite of heart alone, and not to encourage 
 sinners in their sins. 1 Nevertheless, yielding probably to the 
 united appeals of Catherine and the ambassadors of Lucca, 
 Gregory ultimately delegated two cardinals, Pierre d'Estaing 
 and Gilles Aycelin de Montaigu, to treat with the Florentine 
 ambassadors. 
 
 But Catherine felt that her mission was a higher one than 
 that she had received from Florence. Disavowed by the Eight, 
 she was still in Avignon as the ambassador of Christ, to bid the 
 Pope return to Rome and reform the Church. She continued 
 at the same time to urge on what she regarded as the holy and 
 pacific work of. the Crusade. When his first prejudices were 
 overcome, Gregory heard her gladly — the faithful Raimondo 
 always acting as interpreter. In one of their first interviews, 
 Catherine spoke her mind concerning the shameful vices of the 
 Roman Curia, and the Pope, after a feeble attempt to rebuke 
 her, listened in silence, and made no comment at the end, though 
 Raimondo was amazed at the boldness and authority with 
 which she had spoken. On another occasion, Gregory questioned 
 her about his return to Rome. " It is not meet," she answered, 
 " that a wretched little woman should give advice to the 
 
 1 Despatch dated Avignon, July 17. Oslo, I. doc. 124. It is curious that 
 the writer should make no mention of Catherine. 
 
 182 
 
FROM THE BABYLON OF THE WEST 
 
 Sovereign Pontiff." And the Pope : " I do not ask you for 
 advice, but to tell me the will of God in this matter." And, 
 while she still made excuses, he charged her on her obedience, 
 to say if she knew anything of the will of God in this affair. 
 " Then she, humbly bowing down her head, said : ' Who 
 knoweth this better than your Holiness, who vowed to God that 
 you would do this thing ? ' When he heard this, he was over- 
 whelmed with amazement, for, as he said, no living man save 
 himself knew that he had made' this vow." 1 
 
 There were the usual petty persecutions and trials, for all 
 the corrupt members of the papal court and their dependants 
 were naturally against her. Soon after her arrival, three pre- 
 lates of the Curia came to Catherine, and made a prolonged 
 attempt to ensnare her in her speech, hoping apparently to 
 discredit her growing influence with the Pope by convicting 
 her of having come under false pretences as ambassador for 
 Florence, or of heresy in the doctrines she professed. Foiled 
 in their object, they candidly reported to the Pope that they had 
 never found a soul so humble and so illumined ; but the 
 attempt, especially with a view to an accusation of heresy, had 
 been a serious one. " I can tell you," said the Pope's physician, 
 Francesco Casini, to Stefano Maconi, " that, if they had not found 
 this virgin Catherine had a solid foundation, she would never 
 have made a more unfortunate voyage." 2 This Francesco di 
 Bartolommeo Casini, a Sienese by birth, who had been one of 
 Petrarca's friends and correspondents, now attached himself to 
 Catherine's circle ; a man of great reputation in his own art 
 and of considerable influence in the papal court, his friend- 
 ship stood the whole fellowship in good stead. Another 
 influential person who conceived a great affection and devotion 
 for Catherine was the Pope's sister, the Countess of Valentinois, 
 who expressed a desire to be present when she received 
 Communion. Coming one Sunday morning, at Raimondo's 
 
 1 Legenda, II. iv. 7 (§152); Processus, col. 1325. Gregory during the 
 conclave had made a vow that, if elected Pope, he would return to Rome. 
 
 2 Epistola Domni Stephani, §§ 22-24. 
 
 183 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 invitation, to her house for this purpose, she brought with her 
 
 amongst others the young wife of the Pope's nephew, Dame 
 
 Elys de Turenne. After Mass, while Catherine was rapt in 
 
 ecstasy, this young woman thought she was feigning and under 
 
 pretence of kissing her feet, leant over and stabbed them through 
 
 and through with a needle, or some other sharp instrument. 
 
 Catherine remained insensible and motionless ; but, when she 
 
 came to herself, she suffered such great pain from the wounds that 
 
 she was scarcely able to walk, and her companions then, for the 
 
 first time, perceived what had been done. 1 On another occasion, 
 
 the mistress of one of the cardinals, either to gratify her 
 
 curiosity or to test the Saint's intuition, insisted upon speaking 
 
 with her, and made a great show of being a person of spiritual 
 
 life ; but Catherine resolutely kept her face averted from her, and 
 
 the unfortunate woman had to depart without even seeing her 
 
 features. 
 
 We have, rather curiously, no record or tradition of Catherine 
 coming into contact with any of the French cardinals, though, 
 doubtless, she made the acquaintance personally of d'Estaing, 
 whom she had previously known by letter. Perhaps, from the 
 outset, she foresaw that the time would soon come for her to 
 class all the rest together as dimoni incarnati. The political 
 situation would have led her into direct intercourse with two of 
 the Italians, Jacopo Orsini and Piero Corsini, the former of 
 whom was the official protector (salaried by the Republic) of 
 Siena at the papal court. Almost certainly, too, she met, and 
 was doubtfully impressed by, the Cardinal of Aragon, Pedro de 
 Luna, in whom the " servants of God " (to adopt the quaintly 
 expressive phraseology of the age) put great hopes. We are 
 told also of another prelate, not a cardinal, who at first opposed 
 her, but was ultimately won over to her side — one who was to 
 play a pre-eminent part in the drama of her latest days, 
 
 1 Epistola Domni Stephani, § n. Fra Bartolommeo, Processus, col. 1327, says 
 that the injuries inflicted were more serious than Stefano describes, and that 
 Catherine suffered much in consequence for many days. 
 
 184 
 
FROM THE BABYLON OF THE WEST 
 
 irtolommeo Prignano, then Archbishop of Acerenza, and 
 sistant to the Vice-Chancellor of the Holy See. 
 
 In the meanwhile, Gregory was ostensibly pushing on the 
 eparations for his journey to Italy; but the most careful 
 >servers doubted whether he would have the strength of mind 
 overcome the obstacles that confronted him. In his despatch 
 July 17, Cristoforo da Piacenza informed Lodovico Gonzaga 
 at a number of the papal officials had already started, and that 
 rancesco Orsini was on the way to Rome to acquaint the 
 omans with the Pope's intentions, and to bid the feudatories of 
 e Church be ready to meet his Holiness with fitting reverence 
 some port near Rome on September 20. " Nevertheless, he 
 finding great obstacles to his setting out, for all the cardinals 
 " this nation are against it, as also his own father and brothers, 
 id I hear that the Duke of Anjou is coming to prevent his 
 oving, if he can. I know not what to say. I see many signs 
 lat point to his going ; for the Lord Otho has already come 
 ith seven galleys and seven smaller ships, which are now at 
 Iarseilles. I hear that the galley belonging to the Commune 
 : Ancona, upon which the Pope is to travel, is at present at 
 Iarseilles." 1 
 
 Louis, Duke of Anjou, brother of the French king, an 
 nbitious and unstable prince, arrived at the papal court, and 
 fund Catherine in possession of the Pope's mind. Gregory 
 ild him that, at all costs, in spite of his love for his native 
 nd, he was compelled, in the interests of the Church of God, 
 1 return to Rome. Either because his heart was really touched 
 * because he hoped to use her influence for his own ends, 
 ouis persuaded Catherine to come with him from Avignon to 
 s castle of Villeneuve, to console his wife with her ministrations, 
 atherine stayed three days at Villeneuve, and so inflamed the 
 'uke with ardour for the Crusade that he promised that, if the 
 ope called upon him to do so, he would himself raise an army 
 id lead it across the seas at his own expense. He besought 
 
 1 Osio, I. doc. 124. Otho of Brunswick was the fourth husband of the 
 ueen of Naples. 
 
 185 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 her to go with him to the King of France. When she humbly 
 refused, he induced her to write to the King the eloquent letter 
 we still possess, urging him to reform his kingdom, no longer to 
 let his wars with England hinder the redemption of the Holy 
 Land, but to make peace and enable the Duke to carry out his 
 holy purpose. 1 She wrote at the same time exultantly to the 
 Pope that at last God had sent the means to begin " the holy 
 passage," as they had found a prince who would be a good 
 head. But God bids him undertake another crusade as well ; 
 to raise the standard of the Cross against the corrupt and 
 wicked ecclesiastics, and provide the Church with good pastors 
 and rulers instead. 2 A little later, after her return to Avignon, 
 hearing that Louis had narrowly escaped death through the fall 
 of a wall at a banquet, Catherine wrote exhorting him to bear 
 what had happened ever in his memory as a sign from God of 
 the vanity of earthly pleasure, to keep his heart and desire fixed 
 and nailed to the Cross, and formally to take the Cross in the 
 presence of the Pope before the latter set out. 3 But already 
 the Duke's resolution and aspirations were fading away, and 
 his subsequent career, had Catherine lived to see it, would have 
 seemed to her the betrayal of all the hopes she had set on him. 
 
 Catherine had returned to Avignon to enter into a desperate 
 struggle with the French cardinals for the soul of the Pope. 
 In spite of his preparations, Gregory was wavering. " Tell him," 
 Christ had seemed to say in her heart when he asked for a sign, 
 " that I give him this excellent sign that it is My will that he 
 should go : the more his going is opposed and contradicted, the 
 more will he feel such a strength increasing in him as no man 
 will be able to take from him ; which is contrary to his usual 
 way." i In the Sacred College, Cardinal d'Estaing, alone among 
 his countrymen, was supporting the Pope in his preparations ; 
 Orsini, Corsini, and Pedro de Luna were neutral ; but the rest 
 were emphatically opposed to the move, and the whole influence 
 of the King of France was at their back. 
 
 1 Processus, col. 1337 ; Letter 235 (186). 2 Letter 238 (9). 
 
 3 Letter 237 (190). * Letter 238 (9). 
 
 186 
 
FROM THE BABYLON OF THE WEST 
 
 It would seem that the Pope was too much afraid of these 
 latter any longer openly to admit Catherine to his presence ; 
 communications between them were now, for a while, confined to 
 messengers and letters. Once the Pope sent her a short note, 
 saying that the cardinals alleged that Pope Clement IV undertook 
 nothing without the counsels of the Sacred College, and always 
 followed their advice, even if his own opinion was different. 
 "Alas, most holy Father," she answered, "these men quote 
 Pope Clement IV to you, but they tell you nothing about Pope 
 Urban V, who asked their advice about things, when he was in 
 doubt whether it was better to do them or not ; but when a 
 thing was absolutely clear to him, as your going is to you (about 
 which you are certain), he took no heed of their counsel, but 
 followed his own, and did not care although they were all against 
 him. Follow the counsel of those who think of the honour of 
 God, the salvation of souls, and the reformation of Holy Church, 
 not that of men who only love their own lives, honours, states, 
 and pleasures. I beseech your Holiness, in the name of Christ 
 crucified, to make haste. Adopt a holy deception ; let it seem 
 that you are going to delay for a time, and then do it swiftly and 
 suddenly, for, the more quickly it is done, the sooner will you be 
 freed from these torments and troubles. Once before they made 
 you fall into their snares, when you delayed your coming, snares 
 which the demon had spread in order that the loss and evil should 
 result which has resulted. You, like a wise man, inspired by the 
 Holy Spirit, will not fall into them again." 1 Then Gregory 
 bade Raimondo tell her to pray to God for light to see whether 
 he would meet with any obstacle. She answered that she had 
 already prayed, before and after Communion, and she saw no 
 danger of any kind in the way. " I have prayed, and will pray 
 our sweet and good Jesus that He may take away all servile fear 
 from you, and that only holy fear may remain. May there be in 
 
 1 Letter 231 (7). A Latin translation of this letter, probably what Raimondo 
 actually presented to the Pope, is in the Palatine MS. 59 ; but there is not the 
 slightest foundation for Augusta Drane's statement (I. p. 378».) that all the 
 letters which Catherine wrote to Gregory at Avignon " are in Latin, not Italian. 
 
 I8 7 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 you such an ardour of charity as will not let you hear the voices 
 of those incarnate demons, nor follow the counsel of those 
 perverse counsellors founded in self-love, who, as I understand, 
 are trying to frighten you and so prevent your coming, by saying 
 that you will be slain. And I tell you in the name of Christ 
 crucified, sweetest and most holy Father, that you have absolutely 
 no cause for fear. Come with confidence ; trust in Christ sweet 
 Jesus ; for, if you do what you ought, God will be with you and 
 there will be no one against you. Up, manfully, Father ! For 
 I tell you, you have no need to fear. If you did not do what 
 you are bound to do, you would have need to fear. You are 
 bound to come : come then ! Come, sweedy, without any fear. 
 And if any of your household strive to impede you, say to them 
 boldly what Christ said to Peter, when, through tenderness, he 
 sought to draw Him back from going to His passion : Get thee 
 behind me, Satan : thou art an offence unto Me : for thou savour est not 
 the things that be of God, but those that be of men T l 
 
 The beautiful prayer that Catherine offered on this occasion 
 was taken down by Tommaso Petra, an Italian protonotary 
 attached to the papal court, who became one of her disciples, and 
 was afterwards secretary to Gregory's successor, and has thus 
 been preserved to us. " O supreme and ineffable Deity," she 
 prayed at the end, " I have sinned and am not worthy to pray to 
 Thee, but Thou hast power to make me worthy ; punish my 
 sins, O Lord, and consider not my miseries. I have one body, 
 which I offer up to Thee ; here is my flesh, here is my blood ; 
 let my veins be emptied, my body destroyed, my bones scattered, 
 for those for whom I pray to Thee ; if it is Thy will, let all my 
 frame be ground up for Thy vicar upon earth, the bridegroom 
 of Thy Spouse, for whom I pray Thee to deign to hear me, that 
 he, Thy vicar, may consider Thy will, may love and fulfil it, so 
 that we may not perish. Give him a new heart, that he may 
 
 1 Letter 233 (8). She had previously written to him : "God has given you 
 authority and you have taken it : you are bound to use your strength and power ; 
 and, if you do not wish to use it, it would be more to God's honour and your 
 soul's salvation to resign what you have taken." Letter 255 (13) ; Harleian MS. 
 
 188 
 
FROM THE BABYLON OF THE WEST 
 
 continually grow in grace, strong to uplift the banner of the 
 most holy Cross." 1 
 
 From the outset, the Florentines had pushed on the war — as, 
 indeed, they were compelled to do in the face of the coming of 
 the Bretons. Rodolfo Varano, Lord of Camerino, a feudatory of 
 the Church, had been appointed captain-general of the League, 
 and despatched to Bologna. Bartolommeo di Smeduccio had 
 likewise been taken into the service of the Republic, and had had 
 the campaign in the Marches committed to him. Bartolommeo 
 was a personal enemy of Rodolfo's, and the two would not work 
 in harmony ; but he bore a more deadly hatred towards Gomez 
 Albornoz, who had attempted to deprive him of San Severino by 
 treachery, and he could be trusted to use all his power for the 
 reduction of the citadel of Ascoli. The Bretons had arrived at 
 Borgo di Panicale in the Bolognese contado on July 12, had 
 taken and sacked Crespolano, and were ravaging all the country 
 round with fire and sword — the Cardinal of Geneva urging them 
 on and applauding their worst excesses. Rodolfo, though at the 
 head of a powerful force, contented himself with holding Bologna, 
 and made no serious efforts to take the field against them. 
 Elsewhere, the Florentines were feeling the heavy weight of the 
 papal censures. The expulsion of their merchants and the 
 imprisonment of their other citizens at Avignon had cut them off 
 from their profitable commerce with Provence and the papal 
 court. Although France, Spain, and England did not carry out 
 the papal decrees to the letter, enough was done in the first two 
 countries to inflict immense damage upon the commerce of the 
 Republic, and expelled Florentine merchants returned to the city 
 from all parts of the world. 2 The Pisans refused to take any 
 active steps in the matter ; but, after some delay, the Queen of 
 
 1 Orationi I. and II. 
 
 2 The Bishop of London, William Courtenay, published the bull against the 
 Florentines, but was compelled by the King and Chancellor to retract the 
 publication. Cf. Diet, of National Biography, XII. p. 343. In the following June, 
 1377, we find the Signoria thanking the King and the Duke of Lancaster for 
 favours granted to Florentines in England. Gherardi, op. cit., doc. 357. 
 
 189 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 Naples decided to expel all the Florentines from her dominions, 
 and to take up arms on behalf of the Church. When the news 
 reached Florence, on August 1 6, Ristoro Canigiani and Benedetto 
 Strozzi were instantly sent as ambassadors of the Commune to 
 induce Giovanna to reconsider her decision ; and the inclusion of 
 Messer Ristoro in the embassy is a striking sign of the unity of 
 all parties among the Florentines for the defence of the Republic. 1 
 They were unsuccessful in their mission ; but, in September, the 
 forces of the Queen, advancing to the relief of Ascoli, were com- 
 pletely routed and driven back by Bartolommeo di Smeduccio. 
 At the beginning of the same month, a conspiracy was discovered 
 to betray Bologna to the Cardinal of Geneva and the Marquis of 
 Ferrara ; several Bolognese citizens were executed, others put 
 under bounds. 
 
 The actual rupture of the negotiations came from the Pope. 
 According to the Florentines, the terms offered them amounted 
 to the desertion of their allies, the revolted cities of the Papal 
 States, and the payment of an indemnity of three million florins. 
 Even to the papal delegates, Cardinals d'Estaing and Aycelin, 
 this seemed excessive, and they proposed certain modifications, to 
 which Gregory answered that he would rather suffer the martyr- 
 dom of St. Bartholomew than consent. He sent the chamberlain, 
 Pierre de Cros, with an abrupt order to the ambassadors instandy 
 to depart from the court. The three arrived at Florence on 
 September 22, and their report, formally delivered before the 
 Signoria and a council of a number of chief citizens, richiesti, 
 raised the utmost indignation and alarm throughout the city. On 
 the day after their arrival, the Eight wrote to Bernabo Visconti 
 that the coming of the Pope to Italy was now certain, and that it 
 
 1 Diario tT Anonimo Florentine, pp. 313, 314. But, with regard to another 
 disciple of Catherine, we may notice that the Eight wrote to the Bolognese on 
 August 1 9, exhorting them to prorogue to another time the election of Pietro, 
 Marchese del Monte Santa Maria, as their captain, not because for his virtues he 
 is not a man worthy of the greatest honours, but only because of his excessive 
 devotion to the Church, and because he is closely related to the Ubaldini, their 
 deadly enemies. Gherardi, op. tit., document 294. 
 
 190 
 
FROM THE BABYLON OF THE WEST 
 
 is more than ever necessary to strengthen their forces, for, 
 less his powers were utterly broken, they would never be able 
 extort a fitting peace from him. A few days later, the Signoria 
 ote to the Emperor, the King of Hungary, the Doge of 
 :nice, and the Doge of Genoa, enclosing copies of the terms 
 e Pope had offered, declaring that the conditions would be 
 trageous if the city had been subjected to a long siege, and the 
 :tor were already lording it within her walls. It was decided to 
 nfiscate and sell the goods of the churches for money to carry 
 i the war. 1 
 
 "Alas, alas ! dearest brother," wrote Catherine to Buonaccorso 
 
 Lapo Giovanni, " I am grieved at the methods that have been 
 opted in asking peace from the most holy Father ; for there 
 s been a show of words rather than of deeds. I say this 
 :cause, when I came thither to you and to your lords, they 
 owed in their words that they were repentant for the fault 
 mmitted, and it seemed that they would humble themselves 
 Ld crave mercy from the Holy Father ; for when I said to 
 em : ' See, my lords, if you really intend to use all humility 
 
 deed as well as word, and that I should offer you up to your 
 ther like sons that were dead, I will labour in this to the utmost 
 
 your wish. In no other wise would I go ' ; they answered me 
 at they were content. Alas, alas ! dearest brothers, this was the 
 ly and the gate by which it befitted you to enter ; and there is 
 ) other ; and if you had followed this way in deed as in your 
 )rds, you would have had the most glorious peace that ever 
 y one had. I say not this without cause, for I know what the 
 sposition of the Holy Father was like ; but since we began to 
 ive that way, following the astute methods of the world, 
 rrying into effect something quite different from what was first 
 ofessed by word, the Holy Father has been given grounds, not 
 r peace, but for more anger. For when your ambassadors came 
 re, they did not adopt the fitting method which the servants of 
 
 1 Gherardi, op. cit., documents 304-307 (Sept. 23 to Sept. 28, 1376) ; 
 arlo d'Jnonimo Florentine, p. 323, where the Pope is represented as saying : "O 
 disfar6 al tutto Firenze, o Firenze disfarebbe la santa Chiesa." 
 
 l 9* 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 God had suggested to them. You have gone on in your own 
 fashion ; and I was never able to confer with them, although, 
 when I asked for the letter of credentials, you told me that you 
 would tell them that we should confer together about everything. 
 Your humble words proceeded more from fear and need than 
 from the spirit of love and virtue. But do you not see how 
 much evil and how many untoward things have come from your 
 obstinacy ? Alas, alas ! loose yourselves from the league of pride, 
 and league yourselves with the humble Lamb ; do not despise or 
 act against His vicar. No more so, for the love of Christ 
 crucified ! Do not scorn His blood ; but do in the present time 
 what has not been done in the past. Do not conceive bitterness 
 or indignation, if it should seem to you that the Holy Father 
 demands what appears to you very hard and impossible to do. 
 He will not want more than lies in your power. But he is acting 
 like a true father who punishes his son when he does wrong ; he 
 rebukes him severely to make him grow humble and acknowledge 
 his fault ; and the good son is not angry with his father, because 
 he sees that what he does is done for love of him. So I say to 
 you, in the name of Christ crucified, that, as often as you are 
 spurned by our father, Christ on earth, so often must you fly back 
 to him. Trust in him, for he is right. 
 
 " And now he is coming to his spouse, to the place of St. 
 Peter and St. Paul. See that you run to him at once, with true 
 humility of heart and amendment for your faults, following the 
 holy beginning with which you began. If you do so, you will 
 have spiritual and bodily peace ; but, if you act in other fashion, 
 our ancestors never had such great woes as we shall have ; for we 
 shall be calling the anger of God upon us, and shall not partake 
 of the blood of the Lamb. I say no more. Be as zealous as 
 you can, now that the Holy Father will be at Rome. I have 
 done, and will do, all that I can, even to death, for the honour of 
 God and for your peace, and in order that this obstacle may 
 be taken away, for it impedes the sweet and holy passage. If no 
 other evil resulted from it, we should be worthy of a thousand 
 hells. Take comfort in Christ, our sweet Jesus, for I hope in 
 
 192 
 

FROM THE BABYLON OF THE WEST 
 
 His goodness that, if you will adopt the course that you ought, 
 you will have a good peace." x 
 
 Catherine would gladly have left Avignon before, but the 
 Pope, still feeling his spiritual powers too weak, wished to have 
 her there until the very day of his departure. And not without 
 reason. The French cardinals made a last effort to draw him 
 back, and produced a letter, apparently anonymous, but which 
 they ascribed to some person with a reputation for sanctity and 
 prophecy (possibly the Franciscan, Peter of Aragon, for whom 
 he had a great esteem), commending the Pope's intention of 
 returning to Rome, but warning him that an attempt would be 
 made to poison him if he came to Italy, advising him to postpone 
 starting until the matter could be investigated, and, in any case, 
 to begin the Crusade first. The letter was apparently shown to 
 Catherine, probably by Fra Raimondo, at the Pope's request. She 
 instantly wrote to Gregory, denouncing it in no measured terms 
 as the work of an incarnate demon, " the sower of the most 
 deadly poison that has for a long time been sowed in Holy 
 Church," and a manifest forgery on the part of the devil's coun- 
 sellors, who wish to impede the reformation of the Church for 
 their personal ends. " I conclude that I do not believe that the 
 letter sent to you issues from that servant of God who has been 
 named to your Holiness, nor that it was written very far away ; 
 but I believe that it comes from near at hand, from the servants 
 of the devil who have little fear of God. If I believed that it 
 came from him, I should not consider him a servant of God, 
 unless I saw other proofs of it. Pardon me, father, if I have 
 spoken too presumptuously ; I humbly pray you to forgive me, 
 and to give me your benediction. Remain in the holy and sweet 
 charity of God. I beseech His infinite goodness to grant me 
 the grace of soon seeing you, for His honour, set your foot 
 outside the portals, with peace, repose, and quiet of soul and of 
 body. I beseech you, sweet father, to give me audience, when it 
 pleases your Holiness ; for I would fain come into your presence 
 
 1 Letter 234 (215). 
 13 193 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 before I depart. The time is short ; so that, if it pleased you so, 
 I would fain it were soon." 1 
 
 We have no record of what passed at this interview between 
 Catherine and Gregory — her farewell to him until they should 
 meet again (but once only, as it was to prove) upon Italian soil. 
 At last the Pope's resolution was fixed. The galleys, that for 
 weeks had lain waiting at Marseilles, were secretly made ready, 
 and Gregory suddenly, to the incredulous dismay of the Sacred 
 College, announced his intention of departing instantly. 
 
 On September 13, 1376, Gregory came out of the papal 
 
 palace of Avignon, to return to the seat of the Apostles. A 
 
 mournful crowd in silence watched the departure. At the door 
 
 of the palace his aged father, Count Guilkume de Beaufort, threw 
 
 himself at his feet, crying : " My son, whither art thou going ? 
 
 Shall I never see thee more?" "It is written," answered the 
 
 Pope, " thou shall trample upon the asp and the basilisk^ And he 
 
 passed over the prostrate body of his father — so well had he learned 
 
 the lesson Catherine had striven from the outset to impress upon 
 
 him, that tenerezza dei parenti was one of the first things that 
 
 Christ wished His vicar to root out from his heart. 2 From the 
 
 beginning, evil omens seemed to attend the Pope's departure. 
 
 His mule started and backed, and could not be made to stir, but 
 
 another was brought, and Gregory steadfastly went on his way. 
 
 Six cardinals — including the Cardinal of Pamplona (Pierre de 
 
 Montirac, Vice-Chancellor of the Church), Gilles Aycelin, and 
 
 Anglico de Grimoard (who, as archbishop of the city, was staying 
 
 at his post) — remained at Avignon. The rest, with the other 
 
 papal officials, accompanied the Sovereign Pontiff" in the state 
 
 procession that moved by slow stages to Marseilles, which they 
 
 reached on September 20. Here the papal fleet — twenty-two 
 
 galleys and a number of smaller ships, under the supreme 
 
 command of the Grand Master of the knights of St. John— lay in 
 
 1 Letter 239 (10), corrected by the Harleian MS. 
 
 2 Cf. Capecelatro, pp. 262, 263. The story is told in the Quarta Vita 
 GregoruXI, Baluze, I. col. 481, in which the Count's action is wrongly assigned 
 to the Pope's mother, who was already dead. 
 
 194 
 
FROM THE BABYLON OF THE WEST 
 
 readiness ; but it was not until October 2 that the Pope actually 
 embarked. It seemed that he had wished to postpone his de- 
 parture from his beloved native land as long as possible. " O 
 God," writes Pietro Amelio da Alete, the Augustinian Bishop 
 of Sinigaglia, " who could ever imagine how copious and bitter 
 were the cries and wailing and lamentations that arose ! Never 
 was such sorrow known. The Pope himself wept. Every cheek 
 was wet with tears ; the hearts of all seemed breaking." l The 
 fleet moved slowly from port to port along the Riviera, encoun- 
 tering terrible weather at sea, and at length, on October 18, 
 reached Genoa. 
 
 And here Catherine and her company were awaiting the Pope's 
 coming. She had left Avignon on the day of his departure, 
 September 13, and thence travelled by land, for which the Pope 
 and the Duke of Anjou had provided her with the requisite 
 means. We have glimpses of her on the way at Toulon, where, 
 writes Fra Raimondo, " albeit we were silent, the very stones 
 seemed to cry that the holy virgin had arrived in the city," and 
 where she miraculously healed a child ; and again at Voragine (the 
 modern Varazze), which she found depopulated by the pestilence. 
 She promised the survivors a brighter future for their town, 
 commending it to the special protection of the Blessed Trinity 
 and the Madonna. 2 Early in October, she reached Genoa ; 
 where, with all her company, she stayed for a month in the 
 house of a noble lady of the city, Madonna Orietta Scotti, whose 
 husband, Messer Barnaba Scotti, is said to have been descended 
 from a Scotch soldier of fortune who came to Italy in the days of 
 Charlemagne. 
 
 The tossing on the seas had shaken the Pope's nerves, and the 
 news he received on landing increased his dismay. On October 
 12, the Eight had written from Florence to the Romans, pro- 
 fessing astonishment at their belief in the coming of the Pope, 
 who was lingering at Marseilles and looking for an excuse to 
 
 1 Itinerarium Domini Gregorii Papae XI, a long and detailed composition in 
 leonine verses, in Rer. It. Script., iii. 2. 
 
 2 Cf. Augusta Drane, II. pp. 6-8. 
 
 195 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 return to Avignon : " And, if he comes, it will not be in peaceful 
 guise, but accompanied by martial fury ; we are absolutely con- 
 vinced that his presence will bring you nothing save war and 
 devastation." 1 There were popular tumults in Rome ; the 
 Florentines continued to carry on the war round Bologna and 
 Ascoli. Although the reception of the Curia by the Genoese 
 had been cordial and enthusiastic, the Doge, even in the Pope's 
 presence, declared himself unable to publish the papal processes 
 against the Florentines in the city. The French cardinals 
 exaggerated every report, represented the stormy weather as a 
 divine warning, and urged the Pope to reconsider the situation. 
 A consistory was held, at which it was proposed that they should 
 return to Avignon, and Gregory was about to give way. 
 
 But the Pope still thought of Catherine, whom, apparently, he 
 had not seen since his arrival. He feared to summon her to 
 his presence, because of the comments and opposition this would 
 excite among the cardinals, and thought it derogatory to his 
 dignity to visit her openly in the day, when throngs of people 
 were pressing to see her and hear her words. In the evening, on 
 the day of the consistory, he went in disguise to the house of 
 Orietta Scotti. Catherine fell at his feet ; he bade her rise, for 
 that he himself was a suppliant, and besought her to obtain him 
 the grace to know what course he should adopt. After a long 
 colloquy with her, Gregory departed, full of edification and with 
 his courage restored. 2 He at once informed the cardinals 
 of his resolution to proceed, and ordered the fleet to put to sea. 
 On October 29, he set sail from Genoa, and Catherine was 
 destined never again to see his face in this life. 
 
 Catherine herself was delayed at Genoa for some weeks after 
 the Pope had left, partly by her unceasing labours for the salva- 
 tion of souls, partly by an outbreak of sickness among her 
 fellowship. Stefano Maconi tells us that they were almost all 
 
 1 Gherardi, op. c'tt., doc. 309. 
 
 2 This incident is recorded only by Fra Tommaso in the Suppkmentum ; 
 Tantucci, pp. 48, 49. Cf. Oratione III., the prayer that the Saint offered on this 
 occasion. 
 
 196 
 
FROM THE BABYLON OF THE WEST 
 
 taken ill, and that Madonna Orietta watched most anxiously over 
 them, calling in two physicians every day to their aid. Neri di 
 Landoccio and Stefano himself, who had nursed the others, 
 suffered most of all, the former being brought very near to 
 death's door, and both seemed miraculously restored to health by 
 Catherine's prayers and her spiritual power upon them. 1 " Take 
 comfort sweetly and be patient," she wrote to Giovanna Maconi, 
 Stefano's mother, " and do not be troubled because I have kept 
 Stefano too long ; for I have taken good care of him. Through 
 love and affection I have become one thing with him, and there- 
 fore I have taken what is yours as though it were mine own. I am 
 sure that you are not really displeased. For you and for him 
 together I would fain do my very utmost, even unto death. You, 
 mother, have given birth to him once ; and I wish to give birth to 
 him and you and all your family, in tears and in labour, through 
 continual prayer and desire for your salvation." 2 
 
 And to her own mother, Lapa, who bewailed her daughter's 
 long absence and complained that she had been deserted, she 
 wrote a tender letter of comfort, " with desire of seeing you the 
 true mother, not only of my body, but of my soul." " Dearest 
 mother, you know that I must follow the will of God ; and I 
 know that you wish me to follow it. It was His will that I 
 should set out on this journey, which has not been without 
 mystery nor without fruits of great usefulness. It has been by 
 His will that I have stayed, and not by the will of man ; and, if 
 any one said the contrary, it is false and not the truth. And so I 
 shall have to go, following His footsteps in what way and at what 
 time shall please His inestimable goodness. You, like a good 
 and sweet mother, should be content and not distressed at bearing 
 all burdens for the honour of God, and your salvation and mine. 
 Remember that you did this for the sake of temporal goods, 
 when your sons left you in order to acquire temporal riches ; but 
 now, to acquire life eternal, it seems to you such a burden that 
 you say you will vanish, if I do not answer you at once. All this 
 
 1 Epistola Domni Stephani, § 13 ; Legenda, II. viii. 21-24 (§ § 261-264). 
 
 2 Letter 247 (355). 
 
 197 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 befalls you because you love that part which I have received from 
 you, that is, your flesh with which you clothed me, more than 
 that which I have received from God. Raise, O raise your heart 
 and affection to that sweet and most holy Cross, where every 
 burden becomes light ; be willing to bear a little finite pain, to 
 escape the infinite pain which we deserve for our sins. Now take 
 comfort, for the love of Christ crucified ; and do not think your- 
 self abandoned, either by God or by me. Nay, you will be 
 consoled and will receive full consolation ; your sorrow has not 
 been so great, but that the joy will be greater. We shall soon 
 come, by the grace of God." 1 
 
 Early in November, Catherine and her company left Genoa 
 by sea. After narrowly escaping shipwreck on the way, they 
 landed at Livorno and went on thence to Pisa, where Lapa, Fra 
 Tommaso della Fonte, and others met them. From Pisa, 
 Catherine sent Stefano to Siena, with letters and messages, to 
 prepare the way for their return ; 2 and, probably about the middle 
 of December, she found herself once more in her native city. 
 
 In the meanwhile, Gregory had proceeded on his way, tossed 
 by storms at sea and assailed by sinister rumours wherever he 
 touched shore. At Livorno, which he reached on November 10, 
 he was received by Piero Gambacorti and his sons, who, together 
 with the ambassadors of Lucca, again besought him to make peace 
 with the Florentines. But the Pope would not listen to a word 
 on the subject, but ordered fresh processes to be published against 
 them. A fearful tempest arose and scattered the fleet ; the 
 galleys of the Cardinals of Amiens and Glandeves sank, but their 
 lives were saved ; the greater part of the ships got to Port' 
 Ercole. Gregory himself with six galleys was driven to the 
 island of Elba, from which he despatched a letter to the cardinals, 
 " bidding them take heart, for these tempests which he had suffered 
 
 1 Letter 240 (169). 
 
 2 Two letters from Stefano at Siena to Neri at Pisa (" al luogo de' frati di San 
 Domenico, o vero di Santa Caterina "), dated November 29 and December 8 
 1376, are published by Grottanelli in the Lettere del discefoli, 5 and 6, full of 
 little playful touches. 
 
 198 
 
FROM THE BABYLON OF THE WEST 
 
 on the sea were the sign of a great victory, and no prince had ever 
 come to Italy without enduring storms and tribulations at sea, if 
 he were afterwards to prove a conqueror, as was shown by the 
 example of Aeneas and King Charles." 1 At length, on December 
 5, the Pope reached the shores of the Papal States, and landed at 
 the port of Corneto. 
 
 At Corneto the Pope stayed for nearly six weeks, to keep 
 Christmas, and to come to terms with the Romans, whom the 
 Florentines were inciting to insurrection. Here he received a 
 characteristic letter from Catherine, written shortly after her 
 return to Siena, exhorting him to constancy, fortitude, and 
 patience, assuring him of the good disposition of the Sienese, 
 urging him to proceed with confidence. 2 Nevertheless, ill tidings 
 poured in. On December 14, the citadel of Ascoli, from which 
 Gomez Albornoz had escaped in a vain effort to procure reinforce- 
 ments, was compelled to surrender to the forces of the league. 
 A week later, an attempt to gain back Citta di Castello for the 
 Church failed ; Uguccione and Francesco, sons of the Marchese 
 Angelo del Monte Santa Maria, were beheaded ; and Benedetto 
 Strozzi and Ristoro Canigiani (a further proof of the solidarity of 
 all parties in Florence for the defence of the Republic) were sent 
 to confirm the city in its friendship with the Commune of Florence, 
 "and with a word from the Eight of the War." 3 Bolsena 
 revolted from the Church ; and, at the beginning of January, a 
 papal force composed of troops supplied by the Queen of Naples, 
 which had been sent against Viterbo, was completely defeated by 
 Francesco di Vico and the Florentines. 4 
 
 But this was more than counterbalanced by the submission of 
 Rome itself. On December 21, an agreement was made between 
 
 1 Despatch from Cristoforo da Piacenza to Lodovico Gonzaga, dated Rome, 
 December 13, 1376. Pastor, Acta Inedita, doc. 1. 
 
 2 Letter 252 (11). 
 
 3 Diario d'Jnonimo Fiorentino, p. 327. 
 
 * Luigi delle Vigne, a brother of Fra Raimondo, was one of the Queen's 
 knights who were taken prisoners on this occasion. In Letter 254 (284), to Pietro 
 di Jacomo Tolomei, Catherine begs him to use his influence with the Prefect to 
 get Luigi set free without ransom. 
 
 IQQ 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 Cardinals d'Estaing, Corsini, and Tebaldeschi, in the name of 
 the Church, and the government and people of Rome, by which 
 the full dominion of the city was offered to the said cardinals, as 
 representing the Pope, in the same manner and form as had been 
 offered to Urban V. The whole of Trastevere and the Leonine 
 city was put into the hands of Cardinal Tebaldeschi as papal 
 legate ; the Pope on his part undertaking to preserve and maintain 
 the Signoria of the Bandaresi, " the society of the executors of 
 justice and four counsellors, the crossbowmen and shieldbearers," 
 while stipulating that the right of reforming the said society should 
 be recognized as pertaining to him. 1 The last obstacle to the 
 return of the Sovereign Pontiff to the seat of the Apostles was 
 thus removed. On January 13, the fleet sailed from Corneto. 
 A fair and prosperous voyage to Ostia raised the hopes and 
 expectations of the Pope and his court ; and, on January 1 6, they 
 sailed up the Tiber to San Paolo fuori le Mura, where they were 
 received with every demonstration of enthusiasm and exultation 
 by the Bandaresi and the people of Rome. The next day, 
 January 17, 1377, Gregory made his triumphal entry into the 
 Eternal City : " Verily," writes the Bishop of Sinigaglia, " I 
 never thought in this world to see such glory with my own eyes." 
 
 1 Convention in Raynaldus, vii. p. 283. 
 
 200 
 
CHAPTER X 
 
 THE ANGEL OF PEACE 
 
 "Per altro non venni se non per mangiare e gustare anime, e trarle delle mani delle 
 dimonia. La vita voglio lasciare per questo, se io n'avessi milie. E per questa cagione 
 anderd e stard secondo clie lo Spirito Santo fari fare." — St. Catherine, Letter 121 (joi). 
 
 It is evident from Catherine's letters that she had no 
 thought or desire of seeing Gregory return to Rome as a 
 temporal sovereign. She dreamed of the Pope as a purely 
 spiritual power, coming unarmed in poverty and humility, 
 conquering all opposition by the might of love alone. The 
 spectacle of the Church fighting against the Italians with 
 mercenary arms, for the recovery of the revolted cities of the 
 Papal States, was to her an utter horror and abomination, a 
 veritable war against God. 
 
 To the Sovereign Pontiff, shortly after his return to Rome, 
 she addressed a letter which gives impassioned utterance to the 
 aspirations of all those Catholics who, at any epoch in the history 
 of the Church, have prayed that their pastors might realize that 
 Christ's kingdom was not of this world, and, for the salvation of 
 souls, consent at length to lay down the Christless burden of tem- 
 poral power (even if existing merely in unrealizable and vaguely 
 formulated demands) — only to be confronted by the papal non 
 possumus, the declaration that he who sits on the throne of 
 the Fisherman cannot renounce what the Church has once 
 possessed, or claimed to possess, as her own. God demands 
 peace from the Pope, she writes, and that he should not be so 
 intent upon temporal lordship and possessions as not to see how 
 great is the destruction of souls and the outrage to God that 
 results from war. " You could indeed say, Holy Father : c I 
 am bound in conscience to preserve and recover what belongs 
 to Holy Church.' Alas, I confess that it is true ; but it seems 
 to me that one must still more guard what is more dear. The 
 
 201 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 treasure of the Church is the blood of Christ, given in ransom 
 for the soul ; for the treasure of the blood is not paid for 
 temporal substance, but for the salvation of the human race. 
 So that, supposing that you are bound to conquer and preserve 
 the treasure and the lordship of the cities that the Church has 
 lost ; much more are you bound to win back so many little 
 sheep, who are a treasure in the Church. It is better to let the 
 mire of temporal things go than the gold of spiritual things. 
 Peace, peace, for the love of Christ crucified." What is the loss 
 of the temporal power compared to the evil of seeing grace perish 
 in men's souls, and the obedience die away that they owe the 
 Pope ? How can he reform the Church while he remains at 
 war, and squanders upon soldiers what belongs to the poor ? 
 " You have need of the aid of Christ crucified ; set, then, your 
 affection and your desire upon Him ; not on man and on human 
 aid, but on Christ sweet Jesus, whose place you hold ; for it 
 seems that He wishes the Church to return to her sweet primal 
 state. O how blessed will your soul be and mine, when I see 
 you begin this great good work, and when what God is now 
 permitting by force shall be accomplished in your hands by 
 love I" 1 
 
 As soon as Catherine got back to Siena, certain Florentines 
 waited upon her — apparently on behalf of the Parte Guelfa — 
 wishing to hear from her lips what she had done for them at 
 Avignon, and what were the dispositions of the Pope. She 
 answered that Gregory was ready to receive them into his grace, 
 if they would give proof of their submission to the Holy See, 
 
 1 i. e . the return of the Church to her primitive state of poverty and purity 
 by the loss of her temporal possessions. Letter 209 (2), corrected by the 
 Harleian MS., which states that this letter was sent to the Pope " poi che fu 
 giunto a Roma," as is confirmed by internal evidence ; Gigli and Tommaseo are 
 clearly in error in assigning it to an earlier date. The postscript in the MS. 
 reads : " I believe that Fra Jacopo da Padova, the bearer of this letter, is a true 
 and sweet servant of God ; I commend him to you, and beseech your Holiness 
 to be pleased to see him and the others always near you." Fra Jacopo of 
 Padua was an Olivetan monk, one of Catherine's correspondents, who was 
 afterwards prior of San Bartolommeo outside Florence. 
 
 202 
 
THE ANGEL OF PEACE 
 
 and urged them to send ambassadors to him as soon as he should 
 have arrived at Rome. They besought her to come again to 
 Florence, to give a formal account of her legation and appease the 
 minds of the Parte Guelfa ; this, however, Catherine refused to 
 do, as compromising the dignity of the Church after what had 
 passed at Avignon, though she ultimately consented to send 
 Stefano Maconi in her stead. When he arrived at Florence, 
 Niccolo Soderini, Piero Canigiani, and Stoldo di Bindo Altoviti 
 (a prominent member of the Parte Guelfa, who played a con- 
 siderable part in the internal politics of the Republic) accompanied 
 Stefano to the Eight, to whom he delivered Catherine's message, 
 detailing all that had been done in Avignon and urging them to 
 make peace. But a rumour spread through the city that " a 
 certain Catherinated Sienese " was inducing the Eight to subject 
 the government to the Pope ; a tumult was raised, " so that not 
 otherwise than of old the Jews gnashed on the blessed levite 
 Stephen with their teeth, so did many of the people with 
 murderous fury upon our Stephen, and they would without 
 doubt have assailed him, had not the authority of most influential 
 men intervened." 1 Nevertheless, Stefano's biographer assures 
 us, his words had not been lost. But events were to render all 
 immediate prospects of peace out of the question. 
 
 Almost all the States of Italy, even those at war with the 
 Holy See, sent ambassadors to congratulate the Pope on his 
 arrival. The Sienese were also charged with the task of making 
 excuses for their having joined the league, and of obtaining 
 from the Pope the restitution of Talamone, which had been 
 seized by the prior of the Pisan knights of St. John with aid 
 from the Church. With them went Tommaso di Guelfaccio, 
 the Gesuato, bearing a letter from Catherine to the Pontiff, 
 once more exhorting him to make peace with the Tuscan 
 communes and the revolted cities, for the pacification of all Italy. 
 By love alone can he hope to win the souls of the Italians. 
 
 1 Barth. Senensis, of. ciu, Lib. I. cap. 8. This is our only authority for this 
 embassy, which, from the wording of Catherine's answer, was evidently while the 
 Pope was at Corneto. 
 
 203 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 " The Sienese ambassadors are coming to your Holiness, and, 
 if there are any folk in the world who can be caught with love, 
 these are they. And, therefore, I pray you to strive to take them 
 with this hook. Accept their excuses for the fault which they 
 have committed, for they are sorry for it, and it seems to them 
 that they are in such a position that they know not what to do. 
 I beseech you, sweet babbo mine, if you see any way by which 
 they could satisfy your Holiness without their being involved in 
 war with those with whom they are allied, you would be pleased to 
 adopt it. Bear with them, for the love of Christ crucified. I believe 
 that, if you do this, it will be a great boon for Holy Church and 
 obviate much evil." x The Pope received them kindly for 
 Catherine's sake, but would only answer in generalities — with 
 the result that the ambassadors doubted his pacific intentions, and 
 concluded that he meant to hold Talamone as a pledge for the 
 loyalty of the Sienese in his coming campaign for the reconquest 
 of the Papal States. 
 
 The three Florentine ambassadors arrived in Rome on 
 January 26. They were Pazzino Strozzi, Alessandro dell' 
 Antella, and Michele Castellani — the same three who had been 
 to Avignon — and they bore a mandate to congratulate the Pope 
 and to treat for peace. Gregory received them kindly, but would 
 only offer practically the same terms as before : they must pay 
 an indemnity of more than a million florins to the apostolic 
 treasury within four years, and virtually abandon their colleagues 
 in the league. 2 The indemnity was more than excessive, and an 
 appalling event, that happened a few days later, enabled the 
 
 1 Letter 285 (14), amended by the Harleian MS. The ambassadors were 
 Andrea di Conte, Giovanni Vincenti, and three others. Cf. O. Malavolti, pp. 
 143?., 144, and the Cronica Sanese, col. 252. On November 25 (1376), the 
 Signoria of Florence had requested the Sienese to suspend the sending of the 
 ambassadors, as the time was at hand in which all the confederates were to meet 
 to consider the general utility of the league. Gherardi, op. cit., doc. 321. 
 
 a Gherardi, op. cit., pp. 71, 72.. St. Antoninus states (III. p. 384) that the 
 Pope had written from Corneto to the Florentines, bidding them send him the 
 same ambassadors that had been to Avignon ; but there is documentary evidence 
 that they had been already appointed in November. 
 
 204 
 
THE ANGEL OF PEACE 
 
 Florentines to give a sinister interpretation to the second papal 
 demand. 
 
 Foiled at Bologna, the Cardinal of Geneva had taken the 
 Bretons into winter quarters at Cesena, the only large town in 
 Romagna that now remained faithful to the Church. The over- 
 bearing brutality of these ruffians, backed by the Cardinal, who 
 gave them leave to take what they needed from the citizens 
 without payment, brought about an armed rising in Cesena on 
 February i, in which some three or four hundred of the Bretons 
 were killed, and the rest driven from the city, or forced to take 
 refuge with the Cardinal in the citadel. There was no thought 
 of rebellion against the Pope : " Viva la Chiesa," had been 
 the shout of the populace, no less than " Muoiano i Brettoni " ; 
 and, on the following day, trusting in the pacific declaration of 
 the Cardinal, the insurgents laid down their arms. But already, 
 at the former's summons, Hawkwood and his English were 
 hastening from Faenza ; joining forces with the infuriated 
 Bretons, they entered Cesena at night by the citadel, and were 
 ordered to put the inhabitants to the sword. To do him justice, 
 Hawkwood hesitated, and made some sort of remonstrance ; but 
 the Cardinal insisted. On the next day, February 3, an appalling 
 massacre followed. Men, women, and children were slaughtered 
 indiscriminately ; the English were chiefly bent on plunder, but 
 the Bretons, thirsting for vengeance, did not even spare the 
 infants at the breast or in the cradle, and committed unspeakable 
 horrors of every description. The churches were desecrated, 
 those of the friars who attempted to give sanctuary to the 
 fugitives were murdered with the rest. At least four thousand 
 of the inhabitants of Cesena were thus butchered ; fifteen 
 thousand survivors, starving and perishing with the cold, fled 
 in utter destitution, to die on the way, or find shelter, as best 
 they could, in the neighbouring towns. A thrill of horror ran 
 through all Italy — it is impossible to set down on paper even a 
 small part of the unutterable atrocities that the common report 
 of the time ascribed to the mercenary soldiers of the Church. 
 " Nero himself never committed such cruelty," writes the 
 
 205 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 Franciscan chronicler of Bologna ; " it was enough to make folk 
 believe no more in pope or cardinals." In all the cities of the 
 league, Masses were offered up, and men and women thronged 
 the churches to make offerings, and to pray for the repose of the 
 murdered citizens of Cesena. 
 
 If such was the fate of the faithful adherents of the Church, 
 what might not the rebels expect at her hands, if deserted by their 
 Florentine allies ? Coluccio Salutati wrote, in the name of the 
 Republic, to the States of Italy and to the princes of Christendom, 
 declaring that what had happened had thoroughly justified the 
 policy of Florence. " This is the unhappy fate of peoples that 
 obey the Church ! This is the deplorable state of Italy, which 
 these rulers for the Church are destroying and defacing ! But we 
 do not accuse the humanity of the Sovereign Pontiff of these 
 things, for we believe that he is cordially displeased by this and 
 many others, about which we are silent ; but we lament 
 exceedingly that he still finds no remedy for so many and such 
 horrible deeds." 1 Nevertheless, Gregory seems to have taken no 
 steps publicly to dissociate himself from the unutterable horrors 
 done in his name. In his eloquent canzone to the Pope, 
 Franco Sacchetti bewails " the innocent blood of Cesena, shed 
 with such fury by these wolves of thine " : " Woe to whoso is 
 under thee and does not rise ! For there is just cause to free 
 oneself from him who is fain to feed on human blood." 
 
 Nowhere in Catherine's letters does she make any explicit 
 reference to the massacre of Cesena. But, doubtless, the fresh 
 remembrance of the blood of these unhappy victims to the lust of 
 the pastors of the Church for temporal sovereignty must have 
 given terrible actuality to her letter to the Pope, written ten 
 weeks after the event, pleading for peace at any price : — 
 
 1 The fullest account of the massacre is given in th&Cronica di Bologna, col. 510; 
 the Cronica Sanese, coll. 252-254 ; and by St. Antoninus, III. p. 383, who to some 
 extent exonerates the English of the worst horrors. For the whole subject, cf. 
 L'eccidio di Cesena del in 7 di anonimo scrittore coetaneo, ed. G. Gori (Archivio Storico 
 Italiano, N. S. vol. viii. part 2), and Canestrini, op. cit., p. xlvi.n. Contemporary 
 authorities differ considerably as to the details and the numbers killed on either 
 side ; that 4000 of the inhabitants perished in the massacre is the lowest estimate. 
 
 206 
 
THE ANGEL OF PEACE 
 
 " Have mercy upon so many souls and bodies that are perish- 
 ing. O pastor and keeper of the cellar of the blood of the 
 Lamb, let not trouble nor shame nor the abuse that you might 
 think to receive, nor servile fear draw you back, nor the perverse 
 counsellors of the devil who counsel you to nought else save wars 
 and misery. Consider what great evils are resulting from this 
 wicked war, and how great is the good that will be the result of 
 peace. Alas ! babbo mio, my soul is full of woe, for my iniquities 
 are the. cause of every ill. It seems that the devil has taken the 
 lordship of the world, not by himself, for he can do nothing ; but 
 in as much as we have given him. On whatever side I turn, I see 
 that each one has given him the keys of free will by his perverse 
 desires ; laymen, religious, and clergy are proudly pursuing delights 
 and states and worldly riches, with much impurity and misery. 
 But, above all other things that I see, the most abominable in the 
 sight of God are the flowers that are planted .in the mystical 
 body of Holy Church — which should be flowers of sweet odour, 
 and their life a mirror of virtue, hungry lovers of the honour of 
 God and of the salvation of souls. They are befouled with every 
 misery, lovers of themselves, uniting their own sins with those 
 of the others, and especially in the persecution that is being dealt 
 to the sweet Spouse of Christ and to your Holiness. 1 Alas ! we 
 have fallen under the sentence of death, and we have made war 
 upon God. O babbo mio, you are given us as the mediator to 
 make this peace ; and I do not see how it can be done, unless you 
 carry the cross of holy desire. We are at war with God, and 
 your rebellious children are at war with God and with your 
 Holiness. God wills and demands of you that, according to your 
 power, you should take the lordship from the hands of the 
 demons. Set yourself to freeing Holy Church from the foul smell 
 of her ministers ; weed out these stinking flowers, and plant sweet- 
 smelling flowers therein, virtuous men who fear God. Then I 
 pray your Holiness to be pleased to grant peace and to accept it, 
 in whatever way it can be had, always without injury to the Church 
 
 1 That is, the wickedness of the priests and ecclesiastics is giving strength to 
 the opponents of the Holy See. 
 
 207 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 and your conscience. God would have you attend to souls and 
 to spiritual things more than to temporal." l 
 
 Catherine dates this letter from " the new monastery which 
 you have granted me, entitled Santa Maria degli Angeli." This 
 was on the site of the present villa of Belcaro, that most roman- 
 tically placed castle, embedded in its noble grove of ilexes, from 
 the battlements of which the Sienese contado lies outstretched 
 before our eyes away to the Maremma and distant Monte Amiata. 
 It had been given her by Nanni di Ser Vanni Savini, who, after 
 an unfortunate and turbulent career as a politician of the faction 
 of the Twelve, had been finally converted to a religious life. 
 While at Avignon, the Pope had granted her the necessary 
 faculties ; and on her return to Siena, the Signoria, in answer to 
 her petition of January 25, 1377, had authorized her to turn 
 the dismantled fortress into a monastery, for the reception of 
 " religious sisters, who will continually pray for the city and 
 citizens and inhabitants of Siena and its contado." 2 The Abbot 
 of Sant' Antimo, Fra Giovanni di Gano of Orvieto (a monk in 
 whom Catherine had great confidence, and who occasionally acted 
 as one of her confessors), formally blessed the beginning of the 
 monastery as papal commissary, in the presence of all Catherine's 
 spiritual family, and William Flete came over from the neighbour- 
 ing Lecceto to say the first Mass. Catherine returned to Siena 
 on April 25, the feast of St. Mark. 
 
 We have lost sight of Francesco di Vanni Malavolti during 
 these months. During Catherine's absence at Avignon, he had 
 drifted back to his former dissolute way of life, and, on her return, 
 at first shrank from visiting her. She implored him to come to 
 
 1 Letter 270 (12). The date, April 16, 1377, is given by the Harleian and 
 Palatine MSS. 
 
 2 It was forbidden to alienate fortified places without leave of the Commune, 
 but the Saint represents in her petition that the castle is in ruins, and that she 
 will do nothing save with the permission of the Defenders. The petition was 
 approved by the General Council of the Bell by 3 3 3 votes to 65 . Cf. the document 
 given by Grottanelli, notes to Leggenda minore, pp. 219-222, and Lcgenda, II. vii. 
 17- 20 (§§ 235— 2 3 8 )- There was a Carthusian convent in the vicinity, of which 
 several of the monks were among Catherine's disciples and correspondents. 
 
 208 
 
THE ANGEL OF PEACE 
 
 her. " Dearest and beloved son in Christ sweet Jesus," she 
 wrote, " I, Catherine, servant and slave of the servants of Jesus 
 Christ, write to thee in His precious blood, with desire of finding 
 thee again, my little lost sheep, and I have a very great desire of 
 putting thee back, into the fold with thy companions. It seems 
 to me that the devil has so robbed me of thee that thou dost 
 not let thyself be found ; and I, thy miserable mother, go seeking 
 and sending for thee, because I would fain take thee upon my 
 shoulders, by reason of the bitter sorrow and compassion that I 
 have for thy soul. Open the eye of thy understanding, dearest 
 son, raise it from the darkness, and recognize thy fault, not with 
 confusion of mind, but with knowledge of thyself and with hope 
 in the goodness of God. See how miserably thou hast spent the 
 substance of grace that thy heavenly Father gave thee. But, 
 even as that son did, who, when he had wasted his substance and 
 began to be in want, realized his fault and had recourse to his 
 father for forgiveness, so do thou ; for thou art impoverished and 
 in want ; thy soul is dying of hunger. Go to thy Father for 
 forgiveness ; He will succour thee, and will not despise thy 
 desire, if it is founded in sorrow for the sin committed — nay, He 
 will fulfil it sweetly. Alas, alas ! where are thy sweet desires ? 
 O my unhappy soul ! I have found that the devil has stolen thy 
 soul and thy holy desire. The world and its servants have spread 
 the snares with its disordinate pleasures and delights. Up, now, 
 take the remedy, and sleep no more. Comfort my soul, and be 
 not so cruel, for thy salvation, as to grudge me one visit. Do 
 not let thyself be deceived by the devil through fear or shame. 
 Break this entanglement. Come, come, dearest son : I can well 
 call thee dear, so much art thou costing me in tears and labour, 
 and in much bitter sorrow. Ah, come, my sweet son, and return 
 to thy fold. I plead my excuse before God, for I can do no 
 more. In coming and staying, I am asking nothing from thee, 
 save that thou wouldst do the will of God. I say no more. 
 May Christ Jesus console thee with thyself and me with thee." 1 
 
 1 I follow the Palatine MS. 59, which gives a better text of this letter than 
 I 4 209 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 Francesco tells us that he at once went to her, " albeit not without 
 great shame and fear. But she, like a most benign and sweetest 
 mother, received me with a joyful countenance, giving the greatest 
 comfort to my weakness. And a few days afterwards, when I 
 went to her again, and one of the virgin's women companions 
 said to her, as it were in blame of me, that I had little stability, she 
 said with a smile : ' Never mind, my sisters, for he cannot escape out 
 of my hands, let him go by what way he will ; for when he thinks 
 that I am far from him, I shall put such a yoke upon his neck 
 that he will never be able to slip out of it.' At this time, I had 
 both wife and children. The sisters, and I with them, laughed at 
 these words, and we made merry, nor did any of us then think 
 any more about them." 1 
 
 At Siena, Catherine had again taken up her apostolic mission, 
 labouring for the conversion of souls, making peace between 
 enemies, tending and comforting the afflicted. Above all, at this 
 time, the prisoners and those doomed to death by the law claimed 
 her ministrations. The government lived in daily apprehension 
 of conspiracies ; the prisons were full ; executions were incessant. 
 At the beginning of this year, 1377, a young noble of Gubbio, 
 Gaddo Accorimboni, had been made podesta, and, in the hope 
 of obtaining the senatorship, he set about his work with the most 
 ruthless severity, caring less for justice than for winning a re- 
 putation as an inflexible and vigorous magistrate. We have 
 still the beautiful letter that, on the Thursday in Holy Week, 
 Catherine addressed to the prisoners under his heavy hand, 
 exhorting them to gain true patience in the contemplation of the 
 blood of Christ crucified. 2 It was probably now that the episode 
 in her life occurred that is known to so many that know nought 
 else of Catherine, by Bazzi's fresco and Mr. Swinburne's poem. 
 A young Perugian noble, apparently little more than a youth, 
 Niccolo di Toldo, attached to the household of the Senator or 
 
 Gigli (266) or Tommaseo (45). It is also one of those included in the Bolognese 
 edition of 1492. 
 
 1 Contestatio Franciscide Malavoltis, cap. i., MS. cit., p. 433. 
 
 2 Letter 260 (309). Cf. Cronico Sanese, col. 251. 
 
 2IO 
 
THE ANGEL OF PEACE 
 
 Podesta, was sentenced to death for some rash words he had 
 uttered against the State. Fra Tommaso Caffarini found him in 
 the prison of the Commune, raging with despair, refusing to make 
 his confession or to hear a word about the salvation of his soul. 
 He had never received the sacraments since his first Communion. 
 Then Catherine came to his cell, bringing him such mystical 
 consolation that he became "like a meek lamb led to the sacrifice," 
 and died with Christ's name and hers on his lips, she receiving 
 his severed head into her hands. " He met his death," writes 
 Fra Tommaso, " with such wonderful devotion that it seemed not 
 that of one condemned for any crime of man, but rather the 
 passing away of some holy martyr. All who witnessed it, among 
 whom I was one, were moved to such intense compunction of 
 heart, that never, until then, do I remember having been present 
 at any funeral where there was so much devotion as at his." 1 I 
 will return presently to the wonderful letter in which Catherine 
 informs Fra Raimondo of every detail in the tragedy turned 
 triumph ; for it is one of those that most vividly illustrate the 
 words of Stefano Maconi, that in her letters we may perceive 
 " the living image of that divine virgin, expressed in the most 
 true features of her holiness." 
 
 In the summer of this year, Catherine left the city, to carry 
 on her spiritual ministry in the Sienese contado. The immediate 
 occasion of her going was a feud that had arisen between two 
 of the principal members of the great house of the Salimbeni, 
 Agnolino di Giovanni di Agnolino and Cione di Sandro, which 
 was threatening to set the whole district once more aflame 
 with civil war. A dispute concerning the possession of a 
 castle, in which they both claimed a share, was the ostensible 
 cause of the quarrel, but there was also a political difference 
 between the two nobles. Cione, a restless and turbulent spirit, 
 inclined to support the policy of the papal legates in Tuscany, 
 from whom he was always looking for aid against the liberties of 
 
 1 Contestants Fr. Thomae, Processus, col. 1266. The story is one of Fra 
 Tommaso's additions in the Leggenda minore, pp. 93, 94, as Fra Raimondo, being 
 then absent from Siena, does not mention it. See below, chapter xvi. 
 
 211 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 his fellow-citizens ; while Agnolino, the head of the family, 
 although he had joined in the rebellion of 1374, had inherited 
 the traditions of his famous father, Giovanni di Agnolino Salimbeni, 
 who for so many years had been a power for peace in the State, 
 and was ready to serve the Republic against all her enemies. 
 Agnolino's widowed mother, the venerable Madonna Biancina 
 Salimbeni, a sister of the lords of Foligno, had been for long the 
 devoted worshipper of Catherine, who was also in correspondence 
 with Madonna Stricca, the wife of Messer Cione. It was 
 probably at the invitation of these two ladies that Catherine 
 intervened in the dispute, though she was doubtless glad of such 
 an opportunity to pursue the same apostolic work for her divine 
 Master and Bridegroom among the people of the contado that 
 she had already accomplished, for so many years, within the walls 
 of Siena itself. 
 
 Several of Catherine's letters to the Salimbeni have been 
 preserved. Besides Biancina and Stricca, she was in correspond- 
 ence with Agnolino's two sisters, the Countess Benedetta and 
 Madonna Isa, both of whom were at this time widows, and 
 whom she was persuading to enter the religious life. 1 To 
 Benedetta, whose second betrothed had died before the wedding, 
 and upon whom her family were urging a third marriage for 
 political reasons, she wrote urging her not to give herself to the 
 perverse service of the world, but to take the two rebuffs it had 
 given her as a sign that she was called to be the bride of Christ, 
 and advising her to enter the new monastery of S. Maria degli 
 Angeli at Belcaro. And in a longer letter, on divine love con- 
 trasted with the love of men, she invites her to the enclosed 
 garden of self-knowledge, planted in the soil of true humility. 
 " I know," she writes to Agnolino, " that much evil has been said 
 and will be said to you about the Countess, because she wishes 
 to be the servant and bride of Jesus Christ. She and you would 
 be very foolish, if she did not answer, now that the Holy Spirit 
 
 1 In the Cronica Same, under 1373, we read: "Agnolino di Giovanni 
 Salimbeni ne mando a marito due sue sorelle di Dicembre. El Comune di Siena 
 mand6 gente a far lo' scorta " (col. 236). 
 
 212 
 
THE ANGEL OF PEACE 
 
 is calling her. And she has seen that the world rejects her and 
 drives her to Christ crucified." And to Madonna Isa, who 
 ultimately became one of the Mantellate, she suggests that 
 Benedetta should come to the Rocca — Rocca d' Orcia or Rocca di 
 Tentennano, the chief fortress of the Salimbeni, where Agnolino 
 usually resided with their mother — before she herself came 
 thither. 1 
 
 It was already August when Catherine left Siena, accompanied 
 by her usual band of disciples and women, which included Fra 
 Raimondo, Fra Tommaso della Fonte, Fra Bartolommeo, Fra 
 Matteo Tolomei, Fra Santi, Stefano, Neri, the newly regained 
 Francesco Malavolti (from whose pen comes the most vivid 
 description of these months), Gabriele Piccolomini, with Alessa, 
 Cecca, Lisa, and others of the Mantellate. Monna Lapa — 
 familiarly known as nonna, or "granny," by the members of her 
 daughter's spiritual family — seems to have come as far as 
 Montepulciano. She and Cecca were left among the nuns of 
 the monastery of Santa Agnese, where Cecca had a daughter, 
 Giustina, a novice ; while Catherine went on her mission, first to 
 Cione Salimbeni at his stronghold of Castiglioncello del Trinoro, 
 and thence to Agnolino at the Rocca. " And in a short space of 
 time," writes Francesco Malavolti, " she brought both of them 
 to perfect concord, which many other barons and potent men had 
 hitherto been unable to effect." From the Rocca, Catherine visited 
 the Abbey of Sant' Antimo, at the request of her friend the Abbot, 
 who found himself involved in a quarrel with the archpriest of 
 Montalcino, who claimed jurisdiction over him. In like fashion, 
 at Montepulciano, it was her task to pacify Spinello Tolomei and 
 others of his family, who were in a chronic state of hostility 
 towards both the Salimbeni and the Republic, and divided among 
 themselves. In this latter attempt, however, she had only a 
 partial and temporary success ; for, in the following spring, in 
 spite of the intervention of the new Bishop of Siena (Luca 
 Bertini, the papal nuncio whose imprisonment at Florence has 
 
 1 Letters 112 (329), 113 (330), 114(267), 115 (332). 
 213 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 been already mentioned), Spinello rose in arms, harried the lands 
 of the Salimbeni, and renewed the fierce factions of the two 
 houses. 
 
 For more than four months Catherine remained in these 
 parts, making Rocca d' Orcia her headquarters. No traces of 
 this once famous castle remain to-day. It stood on an eminence 
 above the Orcia, some twenty-three miles from Siena on the way 
 to Rome, between Montepulciano and Montalcino, and (like so 
 many similar castelli that we still see in southern Tuscany and in 
 the Roman Campagna) was practically a small town centred 
 round the great fortress of the feudal lord. It was also known 
 as the " Isola della Rocca," apparently from its isolated position. 
 Here, the pacific work for which they had come being accom- 
 plished, Madonna Biancina showed herself the most loving and 
 devoted of hostesses to Catherine and her followers, while men 
 and women poured in from the hills and country round, to hear 
 the Saint's words and be healed of their maladies. Wonderful 
 stories are told us by Fra Raimondo and by Francesco Malavolti 
 of her power in casting out demons from the bodies of the 
 possessed, 1 but even more remarkable were the conversions that 
 she effected in men's souls. " I sometimes saw," writes Fra 
 Raimondo, " a thousand or more persons, men and women, come 
 together from the mountains and other regions of the Sienese 
 contado, to see and hear Catherine, as it were summoned by 
 an invisible trumpet ; and there, not only by her words, but at 
 the mere sight of her, they were straightway moved to 
 compunction for their misdeeds ; weeping and bewailing their 
 sins, they hastened to the confessors, of whom I was one, and 
 made their confessions with such great contrition that no one 
 could doubt that a great abundance of grace had descended from 
 heaven into their hearts." 2 
 
 Eating souls, or devouring demons, was Catherine's playful 
 term for converting sinners. "We must work for the honour 
 
 1 Legenda, II. ix. 7-9 (§§ 274-276) ; Contestatio Franchci de Malavoltii, cap. 
 iv., MS. at., pp. 446-453. Cf. Augusta Drane, II. pp. 61-66. 
 2 Ibid., II. vii. 21-22 (§§ 239, 240). Cf. Processus, col. 1271. 
 
 214 
 
THE ANGEL OF PEACE 
 
 of God, even as the holy apostles did," she writes to Caterina 
 dello Spedaluccio and Giovanna di Capo, two of her women who 
 had been left behind in the city, and who repined at her long 
 absence ; " after they had received the Holy Spirit, they 
 separated from each other and from that sweet Mother Mary. 
 Albeit it would have been their greatest delight to have stayed 
 together, nevertheless they gave up their own pleasure, to seek 
 the honour of God and the salvation of souls. This is the rule 
 that we must adopt for ourselves. You are in Siena, and Cecca 
 and the nonna are at Montepulciano. Fra Bartolommeo and 
 Fra Matteo have been there, and will be again. Alessa and 
 Monna Bruna are at Monte Giovi, eighteen miles from 
 Montepulciano ; they are with the Countess and Madonna Isa. 
 Fra Raimondo and Fra Tommaso and Monna Tomma and Lisa 
 and I are at the Rocca among evil-doers, and they are eating so 
 many incarnate demons that Fra Tommaso says that he has bad 
 pains. And, with all this, they cannot have enough ; their 
 appetite increases, and they are finding work that is highly paid. 
 Pray the Divine Goodness to give them big and sweet and bitter 
 mouthfuls." 1 And to Lapa herself, the " nonna " at Monte- 
 pulciano, she wrote : " You know, dearest mother, that I, your 
 miserable daughter, have been placed on earth for nought else 
 save the honour of God and the salvation of souls. To this 
 my Creator has called me. 1 know that you are content that I 
 should obey Him. I beseech you, if you think that I am 
 staying longer than you would wish, to be content ; for I cannot 
 do anything else. I believe that, if you knew the case, you 
 yourself would send me hither. I am here to heal a great 
 scandal, if I can. It is not the fault of the Countess ; and, 
 therefore, you must all pray to God and the glorious Virgin that 
 they send us a good result. Do you, Cecca and Giustina, drown 
 yourselves in the blood of Christ crucified ; for now is the time 
 to prove virtue in the soul." 2 
 
 1 Letter 118 (175). 
 
 2 Letter 117 (167). Catherine's mother was by this time herself one of the 
 Mantellate. A brief from Gregory XI grants special spiritual favours to Lapa, 
 
 215 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 In fact, Catherine's prolonged sojourn in the contado was 
 arousing political suspicions as well as perplexing and distressing 
 her friends, and troubles of every kind seemed gathering round 
 her. While she was at Sant' Antimo, the archpriest of Montal- 
 cino, impelled thereto by his hatred of the Abbot Giovanni di 
 Gano, laid complaints against both her and him before the govern- 
 ment. Catherine at once despatched Pietro di Giovanni Ventura in 
 her name to Siena with a letter to the Defenders and the Captain of 
 the People, warning them not to set " the servants of God " 
 against them by listening to slanderous tongues. She declared 
 that the Abbot was " as great and perfect a servant of God as 
 there has been in these parts for a very long time," and that 
 they ought to reverence and assist him in his work. " You 
 complain every day that the priests and other ecclesiastics are not 
 corrected, and now, when you find those who would fain correct 
 them, you prevent it and raise complaints." As to the accusa- 
 tions against her and her company, they ought to turn a deaf ear 
 to them. " We have sought and are continually seeking the 
 salvation of your souls and bodies, not heeding any labour, but 
 offering sweet and loving desires to God, with abundance of tears 
 and sighs, to prevent the divine judgments falling upon you 
 which we deserve for our iniquities. I have not enough virtue 
 to do aught but what is imperfect ; but the others, who are 
 perfect and attend only to the honour of God and the salvation 
 of souls, are those who do it. But neither the ingratitude nor 
 the churlishness of my fellow-citizens shall prevent me labouring 
 even to death for your salvation. We shall learn from that 
 sweet Paul, who says : Being reviled, we bless ; being persecuted, 
 we suffer it ; we shall follow his rule. The truth shall be what 
 will set us free. I love you more than you love yourselves ; 
 and I love your pacific state and your freedom, even as you do. 
 So do not believe that anything against it is being done, either by 
 me or by any other of my company. We are put to sow the word 
 
 Cecca, Lisa, and Alessa, " Sienese widows, sisters of penance of the Blessed Dominic." 
 Cf. Tommaso CafFarini, Tractatus super informatione, etc., p. 13. 
 
 2l6 
 
THE ANGEL OF PEACE 
 
 of God and to gather the fruit of souls. Every one is bound 
 to be keen for his own art ; this is the art that God has given us ; 
 we must, therefore, exercise it and not bury our talent, for then 
 we should be worthy of a great rebuke, but employ it at every 
 time and in every place and on every creature. For God is no 
 respecter of places or of creatures, but accepts holy and true 
 desires. I came for nought else save to eat and taste souls, and 
 draw them from the hands of the devils. For this I would lay 
 down my life, if I had a thousand, and for this reason I shall go 
 and stay according as the Holy Spirit shall direct." l 
 
 The murmuring continued while she was at Montepulciano 
 and the Rocca. Madonna Rabe Tolomei, misliking that her 
 son, Fra Matteo, should be lingering with Catherine among the 
 hereditary enemies of her house, wrote that her daughter 
 Francesca was very ill, and that Matteo must come instantly to 
 her, on pain of her curse. 2 Others declared that Catherine and 
 Raimondo were plotting with the Salimbeni against the State, 
 and so wrought upon the Defenders that they despatched 
 Tommaso di Guelfaccio with a letter ordering them to return to 
 Siena, where there was some more important peace to be effected 
 by her means. In her answer, a long and eloquent letter, 
 Catherine rebukes their self-love and cowardly fear that leads 
 them to mistrust those who are labouring indefatigably for their 
 welfare and the peace of the State, at the same time craving 
 pardon for her presumption in thus addressing them, and 
 promising to obey their summons as soon as she can. 3 To Salvi 
 di Pietro, a goldsmith in Siena who had weight with the govern- 
 ment, she wrote that, in spite of the murmurs and suspicions 
 that had arisen against her and Fra Raimondo, God had bidden 
 her stay until her work was accomplished, and that she rejoiced 
 in being thus persecuted. " Whether the demon likes it or not, 
 I shall continue to exercise my life in the honour of God and the 
 salvation of souls, for the entire world and particularly for my 
 native city. The citizens of Siena do a most shameful thing in 
 
 1 Letter 121 (201). 2 Letter 120 (344). 
 
 3 Letter 123 (202). 
 
 217 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 believing or imagining that we are engaged in weaving plots in 
 the lands of the Salimbeni, or in any other place in the world. 
 We are only plotting to defeat the devil, and to deprive him of 
 the lordship that he has assumed over man by mortal sin, and to 
 take hate from man's heart and pacify him with Christ crucified 
 and with his neighbour. These are the plots that we are weaving, 
 and that I wish to be woven by whoever is with me. I am sorry 
 for our negligence, whereby we do this only in lukewarm fashion. 
 And therefore I pray thee, sweet son, and do thou pray all the others, 
 to pray to God that I may be more zealous in doing this and 
 every holy work for His honour and the salvation of souls. 
 Poor calumniated Fra Raimondo begs you to pray to God for 
 him, that he may be good and patient." 1 
 
 Catherine was now, to her great sorrow, compelled to sever 
 herself from her poverello calunniato. She sent Raimondo from the 
 Rocca to the Pope : " with certain proposals," he says, " which 
 would have been good for the holy Church of God, if they had 
 been understood ; " and, at Rome, the General of the order 
 compelled him to resume the office of prior of the Minerva, 
 which he had already held under Urban V, whereby he was 
 unable to return to Catherine. And, indeed, save for a few 
 weeks, she was never again to be united, save in spirit, with her 
 " most beloved and most dear father and son in Christ Jesus, 
 given me by that sweet Mother Mary." For three years, his 
 spiritual ministrations had been of the utmost consolation to her ; 
 she could confide in him as in no other of her confessors ; and 
 the parting was most bitter to her, although no word of complaint 
 passed her lips. 
 
 The anonymous author of the Miracoll tells us of a certain 
 man, a friar apparently, whom he does not name, who had 
 sought Catherine's friendship and wondered at her holy life, but 
 whose devotion towards her changed into carnal love ; until at 
 last, "when she never showed him any other semblance than 
 what was pure and holy," his passion so maddened him that he 
 attempted to take her life in church. " A few days afterwards, 
 
 1 Letter 122 (304). 
 218 
 
THE ANGEL OF PEACE 
 
 this religious left his order, threw aside the habit, and returned 
 to his house in a village some way from Siena, and there he lived 
 half desperate. And she, when she knew that he had gone away, 
 prayed God for him that He would have mercy upon his soul. 
 But at last this man, persevering in his despair, hanged himself 
 by the neck." 1 One of Catherine's letters is directed to a 
 religious who had left his order, a sweet and most loving letter 
 throughout, ending : " If I were near at hand, I would know 
 what demon has stolen away my little sheep, and what is the 
 bond that keeps him bound, so that he does not return to the 
 flock with the others. But I will strive to see it by means of 
 continual prayer, and with this knife to cut the bond that holds 
 him ; and then will my soul be happy." 2 But this is probably 
 another man. 
 
 Among the correspondence of Catherine's disciples, we find 
 two piteous letters addressed at this time to Neri di Landoccio 
 at the Rocca. In one, the writer, in answer to an affectionate 
 message conveyed to him by Gabriele Piccolomini, wonders that 
 Neri remembers him, now that he has become " a vessel of 
 contumely," and is ashamed to write to any servant or friend of 
 God. " I was once thy very dear brother," he says in the other, 
 " but now, for a long time, I have found myself dismissed and 
 cancelled from the book in which I felt myself so sweetly fed. 
 Do not wonder if I have not written to thee, or if I write to thee 
 no more, until I return to gather the fruit of true obedience, or 
 patience, and true humility. But I have so long wandered from 
 the true way, that I almost judge it impossible for me ever to 
 find or taste that food, or to reach a place of repose. And this 
 has happened to me because I have kept the eye of my under- 
 standing closed with darkness, and driven the light away from 
 
 1 See Grottanelli, notes to the Leggenda tninore, pp. 354, 355, and cf. the 
 different story in the Legenda, III. vi. 14 (§ 408). 
 
 2 Letter 173 (134). An almost contemporary Latin version of a portion of 
 this is in the Vatican, Cod. Vat. Lat. 939. Cf. Letter 192 (275), where Catherine 
 assures Neri di Landoccio, who was always in dread about his own final persever- 
 ance, " that God will not permit in thee what He permitted in that other." 
 
 219 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 my soul. I have no more hunger or appetite for what is good." 
 The first is signed " F. S." ; but, at the end of the second letter, 
 he says : " I do not put my name here, because I know not if I 
 still have a name." 
 
 It has frequently been supposed that the author of these two 
 letters was the unhappy man mentioned above ; but an examina- 
 tion of the original manuscript, and a comparison with the 
 authentic text of one of Catherine's own letters, make it quite 
 certain that they were written by Fra Simone da Cortona, in one 
 of that young friar's chronic fits of depression and spiritual 
 misery. 1 Indeed, Catherine's letter to Simone is manifestly in 
 answer to what he had written to Neri. Addressing him as 
 " Dearest son without a name in Christ sweet Jesus," she exhorts 
 him to fight, " like a virile knight," against all obstacles and 
 temptations, the battle in which we cannot win the victory 
 " unless the light of most holy faith is in us ; and we cannot have 
 this light, unless the earth of all terrene affection is drawn out 
 from the eye of our understanding, and the cloud of self-love is 
 cast away ; for it is that perverse cloud which utterly takes from 
 us every light, spiritually and temporally." She urges him, in all 
 his troubles, to trust in the love of God, who permits these 
 things for love of us — though sometimes we cannot see it. 
 Through lack of light, because self-love has covered up the 
 pupil of the eye of faith, " we believe ourselves to be cast off by 
 God, and, because of this, we come to a confusion of mind, 
 whereby we leave off doing our work, as though we think we 
 are not accepted by God, and we come to weariness, and are 
 insupportable to ourselves." But in the blood of Christ we 
 shall learn that God does not let us be tried beyond our 
 endurance. Let him embrace the Cross, and not abandon his 
 prayers and spiritual exercises, but, without negligence or con- 
 fusion, serve God and obey the rules of his order, and find the 
 holy desire of the honour of God and the salvation of souls in 
 
 1 They are contained in the MS. of the Biblioteca Comunale of Siena, 
 T. iii. 3, and printed by Grottanelli in the Letteredei discepoli, 7 and 8. 
 
 220 
 
THE ANGEL OF PEACE 
 
 the blood of Christ crucified : " And I tell you that then you will 
 have your name, and I shall find my son again." 1 
 
 In the meanwhile, after an ineffectual attempt on the part of 
 Piero Gambacorti, at the beginning of March, to mediate between 
 the Florentines and the Pope, the war had continued. In April, 
 Hawkwood, with his whole company of English, passed over 
 to the side of the league ; but this was counterbalanced by the 
 defection of Rodolfo Varano, a few months later, who, when the 
 Florentines refused to let him keep Fabriano for himself, threw 
 up his command and entered the service of the Church. After 
 some wavering, the Bolognese finally submitted to the Pope in 
 May. 2 Francesco di Vico similarly left the league, and made 
 peace on his own account with the Church. Foiled in an 
 attempt to recover Talamone by force of arms, the Sienese 
 avenged themselves by wasting the territory of the Count of 
 Nola, upon which the Cardinal of Geneva sent a portion of his 
 Bretons to attack Grosseto and ravage the Sienese Maremma. 
 These dreaded mercenaries had shown themselves of little use 
 in the open field, and, at the end of September, they were routed 
 by Hawkwood, whom the Florentines had despatched to the aid 
 of their allies. 
 
 Trincio de' Trinci, Lord of Foligno and Gonfaloniere of the 
 Church, the son-in-law of the Marquis of Ferrara (whose 
 daughter, Jacoma d' Este, he had married), was vigorously 
 carrying on hostilities in Umbria against the adherents of the 
 league, and kept harrying the Perugians with the ecclesiastical 
 forces. Trincio and his brother Corrado were ferocious despots 
 of the usual mediaeval type, but Catherine felt a special 
 solicitude for them as the brothers of her beloved Madonna 
 
 1 Letter 58 (86), but none of the printed editions (save the Bolognese of 
 1492) has the true opening of the letter, which connects it with what Simone 
 had written : Carissimo figliuolo senza nome in Crista dolce Gesii : as in the MS. ioz 
 of the Biblioteca Nazionale V. E. of Rome. 
 
 2 Cf. Catherine's rather vague letter, 268 (200), to the Anziani and Consuls 
 and Gonfalonieri of Bologna, which seems to have been written in this year. 
 The Bolognese, while acknowledging the papal sovereignty, retained their 
 republican liberties. 
 
 221 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 Biancina Salimbeni. On September 14, the feast of the Exalta- 
 tion of the Cross, she addressed a long letter to the two, on the 
 love of God, shown above all in the mystery of the Redemption 
 by the Crucifixion, concealed only from the eyes of the lovers 
 of self, who are absorbed in the things of the world, or plunged 
 into the mire of sensuality. While congratulating them on their 
 fidelity to the Church, she urges them to a complete amendment 
 of life. 1 Trincio had already received a similar admonition from 
 the Franciscan tertiary and prophet, Tommaso Unzio, whom he 
 had threatened to burn alive, and who had warned him that he 
 would live as long as the great bell of the Commune remained 
 intact. He was apparently sincerely moved, but had little time 
 for amendment. At the approach of Count Lucio di Lando, 
 one of the condottieri of the league, who was leading a 
 Florentine force against Camerino, the enemies of the Trinci 
 rose ; and, on September 28, as the great bell cracked when it 
 sounded the signal to the conspirators, they broke into Trincio's 
 palace, stabbed him to death, and hurled the still quivering body 
 down from the balcony into the piazza below, where it remained 
 for some days unburied. Corrado was at Anagni when this 
 happened. He hurried to Spoleto to await his chance, and 
 thence, on December 6, at the invitation of the people, entered 
 Foligno. There was a general massacre of the enemies of the 
 Trinci, and Corrado was declared lord of the city. 
 
 " Keep close to Christ crucified," Catherine had written to 
 the widowed Jacoma d' Este, when the news of Trincio's death 
 reached her, " and begin to serve Him with all your heart and 
 with all your soul ; and bear with true patience the holy trial 
 that He has laid upon you, not for hate, but for the love He 
 bore to the salvation of his soul, upon which He had such mercy 
 that He permitted him to die in the service of Holy Church. 
 God, who loved him with a special love, wishing to ensure his 
 
 1 Letter 253 (194). For the ingratitude of the Pope and the alleged 
 treachery of the Cardinal of Geneva (to which Catherine distantly refers in the 
 letter), cf. the Anonimo Fiorentino, pp. 337, 338, and Manni's Crontchttta <? Incerto, 
 p. 213. 
 
 222 
 
THE ANGEL OF PEACE 
 
 salvation, allowed him to be brought to this fate which was sweet 
 for his soul. And you should be the lover of his soul rather 
 than of his body ; for the body is mortal and a finite thing, 
 but the soul is immortal and infinite. The supreme Providence 
 has provided for his salvation, while it gives you these sorrows 
 to bear in order to have something for which to reward you in 
 eternal life. I promise you, dearest sister, that, if you do so, God 
 will even put you back into your temporal house, and you will 
 ultimately return to your native land, Jerusalem, the vision of 
 peace. l 
 
 There were further negotiations for peace during the summer, 
 which failed because of the excessive demands made by the Pope. 
 After four months at Anagni, whither Gregory had gone at the 
 end of May, the Florentine ambassadors returned and described 
 the situation as hopeless. On the morning of October 6 (1377), 
 the Signoria summoned a parliament, a general council of all 
 the citizens to meet in the Palazzo Vecchio, to hear the report 
 of the ambassadors. They found the whole assembly unanimous 
 in declaring that the Pope's terms must be rejected and the war 
 continued at all costs. Ristoro Canigiani, Catherine's zealous 
 disciple, who spoke in the name of the College of the Ten of 
 Liberty, was as emphatic as Donato Barbadori himself, who was 
 the speaker of the College of the Gonfalonieri. It was decided 
 that the war should be carried on until a better peace could be 
 obtained, that the interdict should be disregarded, and Mass said 
 again throughout Florence and the contado. The clergy who had 
 left the dominions of the Republic were ordered to return under 
 the heaviest penalties, and all citizens bidden attend Mass, under 
 pain of denunciation, no excuses being accepted. The Eight 
 were confirmed in office for another year, and a new magistracy 
 of ten appointed to levy fresh taxes upon the priests and religious, 
 
 1 Letter 264 (324). Cf. St. Antoninus, III. pp. 385, 386; Durante Dorio, 
 Istoria della famiglia Trinci (Foligno, 1638), pp. 165-174 ; Pellini, I. pp. 1 1 88— 
 1 1 90. Corrado ruled Foligno until 1386, when he died childless, and Ugolino, 
 the son of Trincio and Jacoma, succeeded him, added Montefalco to his dominions, 
 and in 1392 received investiture as papal vicar from Boniface IX. 
 
 223 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 and to compel citizens to buy the goods of the churches. The 
 defiance of the interdict was solemnly carried out on October 18. 
 The Madonna of the Impruneta was brought into Florence and 
 carried in procession, with the head of St. Zanobius, to the Piazza 
 della Signoria, where Mass was sung at an altar set up on a 
 platform, and one of the Augustinian friars of Santo Spirito 
 preached an impassioned sermon to the crowd from the ringhiera 
 of the palace. 1 
 
 Gregory had, in fact, put himself into an impossible position. 
 He had still further alienated the Sienese by imprisoning the 
 ambassadors they had sent to him at Anagni. He had squandered 
 the moneys of the Church upon the mercenaries, who were daily 
 deserting his banners. We find him piteously writing to Queen 
 Giovanna, on October 12, that, considering the great aid he has 
 had from her, it is very grievous to him to burden her more, but 
 Christ is his witness that he knows not to whom to have recourse 
 save her. 2 On October 29, Bartolommeo di Smeduccio, with 
 Count Lucio di Lando and Francesco da Matelica, utterly routed 
 Rodolfo Varano, who had been reinforced by Bretons from the 
 Pope, and pressed the pursuit up to the walls of Camerino. 
 Several hundreds were killed, a thousand taken prisoners, and 
 the captured banners brought in triumph to Florence and dragged 
 through the streets. 
 
 Like other weak men in a similar position, Gregory seems to 
 have vented his anger upon those who would not offer any 
 resistance. Whatever those proposals were, " useful for the 
 Church, if they had been understood," which Fra Raimondo 
 brought with him from Catherine to the Pope, the latter would 
 not accept them. He was exceedingly angry with Catherine, who, 
 he apparently thought, ought to have gone to Florence or come 
 to Rome, instead of labouring for souls in the Sienese contado, 
 or, at least, to have done something that she had not done ; and 
 Raimondo, especially during the Pope's absence at Anagni, found 
 himself looked upon with much suspicion and disfavour. " Take 
 
 1 Anonimo Fiorentino, pp. 339-341 ; Cronichetta (P Incerto, pp. 212, 213. 
 
 2 Brief of October 12, 1377. Pastor, Acta Inedita, doc. 2. 
 
 224 
 
THE ANGEL OF PEACE 
 
 comfort," wrote Catherine to him ; " God has provided for you, 
 and will provide, and His providence will not fail you. In all 
 things have recourse to Mary, embracing the holy Cross ; do not 
 let yourself ever fall into confusion of mind, but sail over the 
 tempestuous sea in the bark of the Divine Mercy." For her 
 part, she humbly confesses that the Pope is right if he complains 
 of her negligence, and promises to obey his commands more 
 fully for the future. May God give His vicar grace to throw 
 himself like a lamb into the midst of the wolves, setting aside 
 and putting away from himself the care of temporal things, to 
 attend only to spiritual. "If he does this (which the Divine 
 Goodness demands of him), the lamb will lord it rover the 
 wolves, and the wolves will become lambs ; and thus shall we 
 see the glory and praise of God, the welfare and peace of Holy 
 Church. In no other way can it be done ; not with war, but 
 with peace and benignity, and with that holy spiritual punish- 
 ment that a father should give to his son when he does 
 wrong." 
 
 Then, suddenly, Catherine turns to address the Pope directly. 
 "Alas, alas, alas! most holy Father, would that you had done this 
 the first day that you came to your own place ! I hope in the 
 goodness of God and in your Holiness that you will do what is 
 not done, and in this way both temporal and spiritual things will 
 be gained back. This is what God bade you do (as you know 
 that you were told), to bring about the reformation of the Church 
 by punishing what was wrong and planting virtuous pastors, and 
 that you should seize a holy peace with your undutiful children, 
 in the best way and the one most pleasing to God that could be 
 found ; so that you could then begin to restore, by lifting 
 up the banner of the most holy Cross against the infidels. I 
 believe that our negligence and not doing what can be done, not 
 with cruelty nor with war, but with peace and kindness (always 
 punishing those who have sinned, not according to their deserts, 
 but according to what they can bear), are, perhaps, the cause of 
 such great ruin and loss and irreverence towards Holy Church 
 and her ministers having come upon us, as now is. And I fear 
 15 225 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 lest, unless the remedy is applied of doing what has not been 
 done, our sins may merit so much that we shall see worse disasters 
 come ; such, I mean, that would distress us more than the loss 
 of temporal things. Of all these evils and of your sorrows, I, 
 wretched woman, am the cause, through my little virtue and 
 through my great disobedience. Most holy Father, mitigate 
 your anger against me with the light of reason and with truth — 
 not for my punishment, but for your anger. 1 To whom shall I 
 have recourse, if you abandon me ? Who would succour me ? 
 To whom can I fly, if you drive me away ? The persecutors are 
 persecuting me, and I fly to you and to the other sons and 
 servants of God. And if you abandon me, conceiving dis- 
 pleasure and indignation against me, I will hide myself in the 
 wounds of Christ crucified, whose vicar you are ; and I know 
 that He will receive me, because He wills not the death of the 
 sinner. And if I am received by Him, you will not drive me 
 away ; nay, we shall stay in our place to fight manfully with the 
 arms of virtue for the sweet Spouse of Christ. In her am I 
 fain to end my life, with tears, with sweat, and with sighs, and to 
 give my blood and the marrow of my bones. And if all the 
 world should drive me away, I will not care, for I shall find rest, 
 with weeping and with bearing much, on the breast of that sweet 
 Spouse. Pardon me, most holy Father, for all my ignorance and 
 for the offence I have committed against God and against your 
 Holiness. Let the truth excuse me and set me free : Truth 
 eternal. I humbly ask your blessing." 2 
 
 Raimondo had had no opportunity of seeing the Pope in 
 person until the latter 's return to Rome, on November 7. He 
 then appears to have satisfied him concerning Catherine's 
 conduct, as we find her declaring herself consoled by letters she 
 had received from the " dolce babbo " and himself. 3 She seems 
 to have passed this Advent at the Rocca, much afflicted in body 
 
 1 That is, " punish me as much as you will, but do not be unreasonably 
 angry." I adopt the reading miticate col lume, as in Aldo and Toresano, instead 
 of the mirate of Gigli and Tommaseo. 
 
 2 Letter 267 (91). 8 Letter 272 (90). 
 
 226 
 
THE ANGEL OF PEACE 
 
 and mind, but exulting in the new gift of writing which she 
 believed she had miraculously acquired. " Thou hast written 
 to me," she writes to Alessa, " that it seemed that God was 
 compelling thee to offer up prayers to Him for me. Thanks be 
 to the Divine Goodness which shows such ineffable love to my 
 miserable soul. Thou tellest me to write thee if I am suffering, 
 and if 1 have my usual infirmities at this time ; to which I 
 answer that God has provided wondrously, within and without. 
 In the body He has done much for me this Advent, making me 
 relieve my sufferings by writing ; and it is true that, through 
 His goodness, they have been worse than they used to be. I 
 wish suffering to be my food, tears my drink, sweat my ointment. 
 I wish suffering to make me fat, suffering to heal me, suffering to 
 give me light, suffering to give me wisdom, suffering to clothe 
 my nakedness, suffering to strip me of all love of self, spiritual 
 and temporal. What I have suffered in being deprived of the 
 consolations of all creatures has made me know my lack of 
 virtue and my own imperfection, and the most perfect light of 
 the sweet Truth, who provides and accepts holy desires and not 
 creatures ; He has not withdrawn His goodness from me 
 because of my ingratitude, my little light and knowledge ; but 
 He has only looked upon Himself, who is supremely good. I 
 beseech thee, by the love of Jesus Christ crucified, most beloved 
 daughter mine, not to slacken prayer ; nay, redouble it, for I 
 have greater need of it than thou seest ; and to thank the 
 goodness of God for me. And pray to Him that He may give 
 me grace to give my life for Him." 1 
 
 About the beginning of the new year, 1378, Catherine seems 
 to have returned to Siena. But her stay there was again of brief 
 duration. Hardly had she arrived when she received a papal 
 command, through Fra Raimondo, to go at once to Florence. 
 
 1 Letter 119 (178). For her learning to write at this time, see below, 
 chapter xvi. 
 
 227 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 
 CATHERINE'S LAST EMBASSY TO FLORENCE 
 
 " Non fu adempito il desiderio mio di dare la vita per la verita, e per la dolce Sposa di 
 Cristo. Ma lo Sposo eterno mi fece una grande beffa. Onde io ho da piangere, perocche 
 tanta e stata la moltitudine delle mie iniquitadi, che io non meritai che il sangue mio 
 desse vita, ne alluminasse le menti accecate, ne pacificasse il figliuolo col padre, ne 
 mn raise una pietra col sangue mio nel corpo mistico della santa Chiesa." — St. Catherine, 
 Letter 295 (96). 
 
 In spite of the rupture of the negotiations in October and 
 the violation of the interdict at Florence, neither party had 
 entirely abandoned the hope of a compromise. The financial 
 position of the Florentines was little better than that of the 
 Church, and their unity was more apparent than real. Before 
 Fra Raimondo left Tuscany, Niccolo Soderini had come to 
 Siena and assured him that the majority of the Florentines 
 sincerely desired peace, but were being prevented by the action 
 of the minority who held the government. The remedy he 
 suggested was that the religious citizens should make common 
 cause with the captains of the Parte Guelfa, and deprive these 
 few of their offices, as enemies to the public good, the " admon- 
 ishing " of four or six of such persons being in his opinion 
 sufficient. 1 The friar repeated this conversation to the Pope, 
 but without any immediate result. 
 
 Simultaneously with the Pope's return to Rome from Anagni, 
 Friar John of Basle, an Augustinian hermit, came to Florence. 
 In spite of the resolution previously taken not to discuss peace 
 until Gregory had revoked all his processes, he was allowed 
 to confer with the Eight, to whom he proposed that the 
 Florentines should choose Piombino or Viterbo or Pisa, as a 
 place for a general congress to be assembled. 2 The Pope's 
 desperation at this time is vividly pictured in a brief to his 
 
 1 Legenda, III. vi. 28 (§ 422). 
 
 2 Gherardi, preface to the Anonimo Fiorentino, p. 237. 
 
 228 
 
CATHERINE'S EMBASSY TO FLORENCE 
 
 nuncio at Naples. No tongue nor pen, he declares, can 
 adequately express his urgent needs ; the provinces are in 
 anarchy, the mercenaries are clamouring for pay, he is tor- 
 mented inwardly more than it is fitting to write, and Queen 
 Giovanna herself seems beginning to favour the enemies of the 
 Church. 1 His counsels had been further weakened by the 
 loss of the loyal and strenuous Cardinal Pierre d'Estaing, who 
 died in November. At the beginning of the new year, 1378, 
 Gregory took the extreme step of appealing to Bernabo Visconti, 
 and sent the Bishop of Urbino to propose their own ally to the 
 Florentines as arbitrator. He resolved simultaneously to win 
 over the Parte Guelfa to his side, by means of Catherine. "It 
 has been written to me," he said to Fra Raimondo, "that, if 
 Catherine of Siena goes to Florence, I shall have peace." The 
 friar answered that they were all ready, in obedience to his 
 Holiness, to encounter martyrdom. "I do not wish you to 
 go," replied the Pope, " because they would maltreat you ; but 
 I do not believe that they will harm Catherine, for she is a 
 woman and they hold her in reverence." 2 At the Pope's 
 bidding, Raimondo at once drew up the necessary bulls and 
 credentials, and despatched them to Catherine, who, "like a 
 daughter of true obedience," instantly started for Florence. 
 
 The exact date is uncertain, but it was at least not later than u 
 the beginning of March, 1378, that Catherine thus, for the 
 third time, found herself within the walls of Florence. It is 
 clear that her mission on behalf of the Pope was less to the 
 Commune or People as a whole, than to the Parte Guelfa. 
 Following the hint that Niccolo Soderini had given Fra Rai- 
 mondo, she was to use her moral influence in support of the 
 measures adopted by the captains of the Party to prevent the 
 extreme spirits on the opposite side from interrupting the peace 
 negotiations, that had already begun, and to ensure that this 
 time the Republic should seek peace with deeds no less than 
 
 1 Brief to Pietro Raffini, dated Rome, December 26, 1377. Pastor, 
 Geschkhte, I. doc. 8. 
 
 2 Legenda, III. vi. 29 (§ 423). 
 
 229 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 words. To avoid attracting notice and exciting anti-clerical feel- 
 ings, none of her friars or priests, excepting Fra Santi, came 
 with her. Besides Lisa and Giovanna di Capo, her only other 
 companions appear to have been Neri and Stefano. When the 
 last-named, in April or May, was obliged to return to Siena in 
 obedience to his parents, his place was taken by Cristofano 
 Guidini. 1 
 
 This is one of the few episodes in Catherine's life concerning 
 which we have external contemporary (and, for once, hostile) 
 evidence. "In this year," writes Marchionne Stefani, under 
 1377 (the Florentines, it will be remembered, began their new 
 year on March 25), " it happened that there was in Florence 
 a woman named Catherine, the daughter of Jacopo Benincasa, 
 who, being held of most holy, pure, and good and chaste life, 
 began to blame the opponents of the Church. Those who 
 managed the Party welcomed her right gladly ; and among the 
 others the chiefs in this affair were Niccolo Soderini, who had 
 made a room for her in his house, in which she had sometimes 
 stayed, Stoldo di Messer Bindo Altoviti, and Piero Canigiani ; 
 these were those who praised her to the skies. And it is true 
 that she knew ecclesiastical matters, both by her natural talents 
 and by what she had acquired, and she spoke and wrote very 
 well. Piero Canigiani, too, was having a habitation built for 
 her up at the foot of San Giorgio, and was collecting money 
 from all his faction, men and women, buying stone and wood, 
 and bringing it up there. Either maliciously by her own will, 
 or introduced by the instigation of these men, she was brought 
 many times to the meetings of the Party, to declare that it was 
 right to admonish, in order that they might take measures to 
 stop the war. By those of the Party she was reputed a 
 prophetess, and by the others a hypocrite and a bad woman ; 
 and many things were said of her, by some for treachery, and 
 
 1 Cf. Letter 298 (254), and the letter from Stefano, dated Siena, May 22 
 1378, to Neri di Landoccio, " Florentie apud sanctum Georgium," in Lettere del 
 dhcepoli, 9. 
 
 230 
 
CATHERINE'S EMBASSY TO FLORENCE 
 
 by others because they thought to speak well by speaking evil 
 of her." 1 
 
 As soon as Catherine arrived, she began to urge upon the 
 principal citizens the need of making peace with the Pope. 
 Niccolo Soderini brought her to speak with the officials of the 
 Parte Guelfa, to whom she declared that it was absolutely right 
 to deprive of their office those who were attempting to prolong 
 the war, as such men were not rulers, but destroyers of the city. 
 Among the captains of the Party who held office from March 
 20 to May 20 of this year were Stoldo Altoviti, Ristoro Cani- 
 giani, Tommaso Soderini, Alessandro Buondelmonti, and Benedetto 
 Peruzzi. They readily agreed to put all possible pressure upon 
 the Signoria to work for peace, " not only with words, but with 
 deeds." Unfortunately, they needed no instigation from her 
 to " admonish " citizens whom they professed to consider ob- 
 noxious. The complaint had already been raised that it was 
 less dangerous in Florence to blaspheme God than to blaspheme 
 the captains of the Party. The more violent of their adherents 
 seized the first opportunity for each to admonish his private 
 enemy as a Ghibelline, " even if he were more Guelf than 
 Charlemagne." 2 
 
 Among the Florentines who at this time became Catherine's 
 disciples, two need special notice : Barduccio di Piero Canigiani 
 and Giannozzo di Benci Sacchetti. Barduccio, whom we have 
 already mentioned as one of the " adopted sons " of Giovanni 
 dalle Celle, was a consumptive youth, who now clung to 
 Catherine heart and soul, entered her spiritual family as one of 
 her secretaries, and never again left her. " He was young in 
 years," writes Fra Raimondo, " but old in life ; by birth of the 
 city of flowers, but adorned with all the flowers of virtue. The 
 sacred virgin loved him, it seemed to me, more tenderly than the 
 
 1 Lib. IX. rubr. 773. Marchionne's statement, about Canigiani afterwards 
 adopting the subscriptions for his own use, is obviously a partisan falsehood. 
 After Catherine's death, even this adherent of the Eight practically acknowledges 
 her sanctity. Ibid., Lib. XL rubr. 866. 
 
 2 Ibid., Lib. IX. rubr. 767, 788. 
 
 231 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 others, and this, I think, was because of his great purity of dis- 
 position." 1 Giannozzo, the brother of Franco Sacchetti, was a 
 converted spendthrift and wastrel ; a poet of no mean order in 
 the vernacular, whose laudi were being sung by the people in 
 their processions, when deprived of the sacrifice of the Mass by 
 the papal interdict. One of these compositions, O divina carta, 
 reads like a rendering into verse of a letter of Catherine's own ; 
 another, beginning Maria dolce che fat, frequently attributed to 
 others, is a classic of its kind. 2 He had been one of those young 
 men who had joined the confraternities that met at Fiesole at the 
 beginning of the interdict ; and, although Marchionne Stefani 
 denounces him (in the light of later events) as " a man of evil 
 sort and a hypocrite," there can be no doubt of the sincerity of his 
 conversion. Unfortunately, he continued to fish in the troubled 
 waters of political intrigue, and at the same time to assail his 
 political opponents with poetical lampoons, and his subsequent 
 fate was one of the many tragedies that saddened Catherine's 
 life. 
 
 In the meanwhile, Sarzana had been chosen as the place of the 
 peace conference, under the presidency of Bernabo Visconti. 
 The Pope was represented by Jean de la Grange, the Benedictine 
 Cardinal of Amiens, and two other French prelates of the Curia. 
 Venice, France, Naples, and the adherents of the league sent 
 ambassadors ; Otho of Brunswick attended in person. The 
 Florentine procurators — Pazzino Strozzi, Alessandro dell' 
 Antella, and Benedetto Alberti, with two of the Eight, Andrea 
 Salviati and Simone Peruzzi — had started on March 3. All 
 seemed going well. On March 20, Strozzi, Alessandro 
 dell' Antella, and Andrea Salviati, came back to Florence to 
 confer with the Signoria, returning to the Cardinal and Bernabo 
 on the 22 nd. 3 The delegates had already agreed on the amount 
 
 Ill.i. .1 (§341). 
 
 2 Cf. F. Palermo, Rime di Dante Alighieri e di Giannozzo Sacchetti, pp. ciii.-cxxx. ; 
 Marchionne Stefani, Lib. X. rubr. 821 ; O. Gigli, Sermoni Evangelici e Lettere 
 di Franco Sacchetti, doc. I. 
 
 8 Anonimo Fiorentino, p. 351. 
 
 232 
 
CATHERINE'S EMBASSY TO FLORENCE 
 
 of the indemnity (less than half what the Pope had originally 
 demanded), and were on the point of coming to terms on the 
 other conditions. 
 
 On the evening of March 27, two hours after sunset, there 
 came a knocking at the Porta San Frediano, and a cry : Open 
 quickly to the messenger of peace. The guards drew back the bolts, 
 but saw no one. But the cry spread through the city : The olive 
 has come, the peace is made. Men rushed from their houses 
 repeating it, carrying torches, and began to illuminate the city. 
 The priors, having no tidings, issued a proclamation bidding 
 every one go quietly home, and not leave his house again till 
 the morning. A few days later, the news reached Florence that 
 Pope Gregory had died at that very hour. 1 Men said that it was 
 the Angel of God that had come ; but was it not rather the 
 Pontiff's own unquiet ghost, seeking a reconciliation with the 
 city that he had cast out of the bosom of the Church ? 
 
 For the first time for seventy-four years, a new Pope was 
 elected in the Vatican, on April 8. Couriers rode into Florence 
 with the news that the Roman cardinal, Francesco Tebaldeschi, 
 had been raised to the papacy. 2 Quickly followed the official 
 notification that not Tebaldeschi, but "the Lord Bartolommeo of 
 Bari " had been made Sovereign Pontiff, and had taken the title 
 of Urban VI. What this meant, and what had happened, will 
 be seen presently. 
 
 On the news of Gregory's death, the papal representatives 
 left Sarzana, the peace negotiations having thus come to an end 
 without result. In May, the Florentines sent eight ambassadors, 
 two from each quarter of the city, to honour the new Pope Urban. 
 Four of these envoys, Donato Barbadori, Alessandro dell' Antella, 
 Pazzino Strozzi, and Stoldo Altoviti, together with Filippo 
 Corsini (the brother of the Cardinal of Florence), were further 
 named as procurators of the Republic to conclude peace with the 
 Holy See. 
 
 1 Anonimo Fiorentino, p. 3 5 2 ; Manni's Cronlchetta d 1 Incerto, p. 2 1 5 ; Historia 
 Sozomeni Pistoriensis (Rer. It. Script., xvi.), col. 1 104. 
 
 2 Cronaca di Ser Nofri, Corazzini, / Ciompi, p. 7. 
 
 233 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 Rumours of strange movements in Rome and in the Sacred 
 College had doubtless already reached Catherine from Raimondo, 
 who represented Pedro de Luna as the chief factor in the election 
 of Urban VI. Since the death of Pierre d'Estaing, the Cardinal 
 of Aragon had become Catherine's chief hope among the great 
 prelates of the Curia. To him the Saint now wrote, " with 
 desire of seeing you a sweet lover of the truth which sets us free," 
 giving him a pitiful picture of the spiritual state of Florence 
 under the violated interdict ; where " the religious and secular 
 clergy, and especially the mendicant friars, who have been put by 
 the sweet Spouse of Christ to announce and proclaim the truth, 
 forget that truth and deny it from the pulpit. Not only have 
 they broken the interdict, but they advise the others to celebrate 
 with a good conscience, and the laity to attend, and they say that 
 whoso does not do this commits a sin. They have plunged the 
 people into such great heresy that it is pitiful even to think of it, 
 not only to behold it. And they are led to do and speak thus by 
 the servile fear of men and human pleasure, and by the desire of 
 offerings." " I would have you enamoured of the truth, sweet 
 father mine ; and, in order that the holy beginning that you made 
 (when, knowing that the Spouse of Christ had need of a good 
 and holy pastor, you exposed yourself fearlessly to everything for 
 this) may come to effect with perseverance, I beseech you to keep 
 close to Christ on earth, and sound this truth continually into his 
 ears ; so that he may reform his Spouse in the truth. With a 
 manful heart, bid him reform her with holy and good pastors, in 
 reality and in truth, not only in the sound of words. Let him 
 then, for the love of Christ crucified, with severity and with 
 sweetness, root out vices and plant virtues, according to his power. 
 And may it please him to pacify Italy, so that afterwards, in a 
 goodly company, we may uplift the banner of the Cross, and 
 make a sacrifice of ourselves to God for love of the truth." x 
 
 1 I follow the text of the Palatine MS. 56, as the printed editions of this 
 letter (Gigli, 25 ; Tommaseo, 284) are corrupt. Catherine's denunciation of 
 the mendicant friars is interesting, as showing that the Franciscans, or, at least, 
 some of them, took the popular side, even against the Pope. 
 
 234 
 
CATHERINE'S EMBASSY TO FLORENCE 
 
 The violation of the interdict had, from the outset, been 
 repugnant to the religious instincts of the majority of the 
 Florentines, and, now that Gregory was dead, Catherine persuaded 
 the Signoria to propitiate his successor by revoking their decree 
 for the compulsory celebration of the offices of the Church. " It 
 seems to me that the first streaks of dawn are beginning to 
 come," she wrote to William Flete, " for our Saviour has illumined 
 this people so that they are delivered from the perverse darkness 
 of the offence they committed by having Mass celebrated by 
 force. Now, by the divine grace, they are observing the interdict 
 and beginning to be obedient to their father." l And she wrote 
 at the same time, in a similar strain, to Alessa, who had not 
 accompanied her to Florence : " Have special prayers offered in 
 the monasteries, and tell our prioress to bid all her daughters 
 make special prayer for peace, so that God may have mercy 
 upon us, and that I may not return without it ; and for me, her 
 wretched daughter, that God may give me grace to be always a 
 lover and proclaimer of the truth, and to die for that truth." 2 
 
 But, in Florence itself, the dissensions were growing daily 
 more intense, and a complete rupture between the Parte Guelfa 
 and the Signoria seemed imminent. As the prospects of peace 
 drew near, the power of the adherents of the Eight decreased, 
 and the captains of the Party waxed more arrogant and vigorous 
 in their admonitions. And in the background, scarcely heard or 
 heeded by either faction, were sounding the ominous rumblings 
 of a coming storm ; the artisans and unemployed of the lowest 
 orders, the Ciompi, were exchanging fierce and secret oaths, 
 preparing the general uprising that was to overwhelm the whole 
 city a few weeks later. 
 
 The Parte Guelfa was guided by a small group of fanatical 
 and overbearing partisans, among whom Lapo da Castiglionchio, 
 Bettino Ricasoli, and Piero degli Albizzi were the most prominent ; 
 they swayed the voting at the meetings where it was decided to 
 admonish such or such individuals ; and the sentences which the 
 captains, at their instigation, pronounced were published by night : 
 1 Letter 227 (126). 2 Letter 277 (181). 
 
 235 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 " either to avoid tumult, or to increase the alarm by assuming the 
 appearance of a secret tribunal." 1 Even men of such high 
 character as Ristoro Canigiani and Stoldo Altoviti pursued the 
 same policy. From the outset, Catherine had fallen into the 
 hands of this faction, which by tradition claimed to be that of the 
 Church, and it is clear that its more unscrupulous members were 
 simply making her a tool for their private ends, dragging her 
 name into their campaign of excluding their own personal enemies 
 from office. Niccolo Soderini's well-meant suggestion to Fra 
 Raimondo, and Catherine's own unfortunate speech to the officials 
 of the Party, were, indeed, bearing bitter fruit. It was in vain 
 that she sent Stefano Maconi to individual members to plead for 
 moderation, in vain that she herself implored them not to pervert 
 the means of securing peace to a cause of civil war, in thus giving 
 vent to their own hates. The number of those who, during 
 these months that Catherine was in Florence and Ristoro 
 Canigiani held office as one of the captains of the Party, found 
 themselves excluded from office, without explanation or appeal, 
 was daily increasing. All through March and April the work 
 went on. At length, on April 22, the captains took the extreme 
 step of admonishing Giovanni Dini, the powerful member of 
 the Eight, and, on April 30, among seven other prominent 
 citizens, they admonished Piero Donati, who had been drawn as 
 one of the priors, and Maso di Neri, who was one of the Twelve. 2 
 This brought things to a crisis. 
 
 In the new Signoria that came into office on May 1, 1378, 
 Salvestro de' Medici — a strong Guelf, but intensely obnoxious to 
 the Party — was Gonfaloniere of Justice. While openly declaring 
 his intention of overthrowing the prepotency of the faction, he was 
 ardently in favour of peace with the Church, and it was, perhaps, 
 on his initiative that the ambassadors to Rome were empowered 
 
 1 Capponi, Storia delta Refubblka di Firenze, II. p. 2. Cf. Rodolico, La Demo- 
 crazia Fiorentina, pp. 1 71-176. 
 
 2 Anonlmo Fiorentino, pp. 351-353 ; Ammirato, I. 2, pp. 713, 714 ; Legenda, 
 III. vi. 30, 31 (§§ 4.24, 425), where Fra Raimondo seems to imply that Catherine 
 approved the admonishing of Giovanni Dini. 
 
 236 
 
CATHERINE'S EMBASSY TO FLORENCE 
 
 to make terms. Not daring to admonish him, and relying upon 
 the fact that five of his colleagues were their adherents, the 
 captains of the Party offered to meet him half-way, by promising 
 that in future no one should be admonished upon mere suspicion, 
 unless he were really a Ghibelline, nor any name put to the 
 ballot for admonishing more than three times. These pledges 
 were flagrantly violated a few weeks later (Ristoro Canigiani, be 
 it noted, being no longer in office), when Bettino Ricasoli, who 
 was then proposto of the captains, wishing to admonish two of 
 Salvestro's adherents, had the doors of the palace locked and the 
 voting repeated twenty-two times until he had his will. The 
 more violent spirits in the faction, led by Lapo da Castiglionchio, 
 proposed to surprise the Palazzo Vecchio and reform the State in 
 favour of their party. Piero degli Albizzi, however, induced 
 them to postpone the execution of this treacherous plan until the 
 feast of St. John, when the Signoria would go to see the palio 
 run, the palace would be deserted, and the city would swarm 
 with men from the contado. Then would be the time to bring 
 out the old lily standard of the Guelfs, occupy the palace with 
 arms, and raise the whole city to the cry of Viva il Popolo e la 
 Parte Guelfa. 
 
 But they were anticipated. On June 18, Salvestro, being 
 proposto of the Signoria for that day, assembled the Colleges and 
 the Council of the People, the former in the Palazzo Vecchio, 
 the latter in the adjoining palace of the Captain, and presented 
 a petition to the Signoria, praying that all the provisions against 
 the magnates of the city and contado, especially the Ordinances 
 of Justice, should be renewed and enforced. It was vigorously 
 opposed in the Colleges, and Buonaccorso di Lapo, speaking for 
 the Twelve, denounced the proposal as altogether inopportune. 1 
 Salvestro then rushed down to the palace of the Captain, and 
 appealed to the Council of the People against his colleagues. A 
 furious tumult arose in the council chamber. A shoemaker, 
 Benedetto di Carlone, laid violent hands on Carlo Strozzi : 
 " Carlo, Carlo, the matter will go otherwise than thou thinkest, 
 1 Anonlmo Fiorentino, pp. 243, 504. 
 237 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 and your predominance must be utterly destroyed." Benedetto 
 Alberti called from the window to the crowd in the piazza: 
 " Shout, all of you, Viva il Popolo ! " 
 
 The alarm spread through the city ; all the shops were shut ; 
 the people began to arm. The captains of the Parte Guelfa and 
 their adherents, nobles and popolani alike, had secretly armed, 
 and were assembled in the palace of the Party to take measures 
 against the Gonfaloniere. Among those present were Lapo da 
 Castiglionchio, Piero degli Albizzi, Niccolo Soderini, the hated 
 Bartolo Siminetti, and both Piero and Ristoro Canigiani. But, 
 hearing the tumult, they quietly dispersed and returned to their 
 own homes. Overborne by the clamour, the Colleges passed the 
 measure ; and, on the following day, but by a very narrow 
 margin, it was approved by the requisite two-thirds in the 
 Council of the People and the Council of the Commune. 
 
 For three days things hung thus in suspense, the city guarded 
 at night, the shops closed, while the Signoria, the representatives 
 of the Guilds, and the captains of the Party engaged in fruitless 
 negotiations. On Tuesday, June 22, the " antevigil " of St. John, 
 the Guilds rose in arms, and came with their banners into the 
 piazza, shouting : Viva il Popolo ! The Signoria empowered the 
 magistrates and Colleges to reform the city and abolish the un- 
 popular laws of the Parte Guelfa ; but, in the meanwhile, led by 
 the men of the Guild of the Furriers with their banner, the 
 populace had begun to take vengeance on their own account. 
 Instigated, if not actually by the government, at least by those 
 who had been admonished, they assailed the houses of the leaders 
 of the Parte Guelfa. The houses of Lapo da Castiglionchio and 
 his family overlooking the Ponte Rubaconte were first attacked, 
 Messer Lapo himself escaping into the Casentino disguised as a 
 friar. The houses of Carlo Strozzi near the Porta Rossa, of 
 Bartolo Siminetti in Mercato Nuovo, of the Albizzi near San 
 Piero Maggiore, of Filippo Corsini, and others, were successively 
 looted and given to the flames. Then the mob passed over the 
 Arno, and, shouting abuse against " the hypocrite Niccolo and his 
 blessed Catherine," destroyed the houses of Niccolo and Tommaso 
 
 238 
 
CATHERINE'S EMBASSY TO FLORENCE 
 
 Soderini near the Ponte alia Carraia. At the instigation of their 
 neighbours, the Mannelli, who had been admonished while 
 Ristoro was a captain of the Party, they next looted and burnt 
 the houses of Piero and Ristoro Canigiani near S. Felicita. The 
 house of Donato Barbadori, who had no share in the misdeeds of 
 the Parte Guelfa and was absent on the service of the State, shared 
 the same fate. A horde of roughs broke open the prisons and 
 released the prisoners, invaded the monastery of the Angeli where 
 many of the citizens had placed their goods for safety, and sacked 
 it, killing two lay-brothers. This, however, was more than the 
 instigators of the riot had bargained for, and, seeing the work of 
 vengeance accomplished and the mob proceeding to fresh excesses, 
 they prevailed upon the Signoria to send soldiers with orders to 
 hang the first five looters taken in each quarter, choosing Flemings 
 or other foreigners by preference, as a warning to the rest. 1 This 
 was done, and the tumult abated. 
 
 But, in the meanwhile, for one brief, ineffable moment, 
 Catherine had tasted in anticipation the longed-for joys of 
 martyrdom — only to be bitterly disillusioned. A band of armed 
 rioters, probably at the instigation of the more embittered victims 
 of the Parte Guelfa, rushed from the sack of the houses of the 
 Canigiani, declaring that they would burn her alive or cut her 
 into pieces. She was apparently alone with Neri, Barduccio, and 
 Cristofano, and with her women, in the little house on the hillside 
 of San Giorgio. Those who kept the house, fearing for their own 
 safety, bade her and her followers leave them : " But she, con- 
 scious of her own innocence and suffering gladly for the cause of 
 Holy Church, was in no wise moved from her wonted constancy ; 
 nay, smiling and encouraging her companions, imitating her 
 Divine Bridegroom, she went to a place where there was a garden ; 
 and there, after some words of exhortation to them, she gave 
 herself to prayer." Soon the men broke in, brandishing their 
 weapons, and shouting : " Where is Catherine ? " She went to 
 
 1 For this "Tumulto degli Ammoniti," cf. Marchionne Stefani, Lib. X. 
 rubr. 792-795 ; Ammirato, I. 2, pp. 717-721 ; Gino Capponi (the elder), 
 Tumulto de 1 Ciompi, pp. 234-242 ; Anmimo Florentine, pp. 358-360. 
 
 239 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 meet them, and, with radiant countenance, falling on her knees 
 before their leader, said : "I am Catherine ; do to me whatever 
 God will permit, but I charge you, in the name of the Almighty, 
 to hurt none of these who are with me." The ruffian hesitated, 
 and then bade her go away. " Why should I fly," she answered, 
 " when I have found what I desired ? I offer myself a living 
 sacrifice to my eternal Bridegroom. If you are sent to kill me, 
 act boldly ; 1 shall not move from here ; but harm none of my 
 companions." At this the whole band went away in confusion ; but 
 when her companions gathered round her, rejoicing that she had 
 escaped their hands, she wept bitterly, saying that she had thought 
 that God was about to grant her the red rose of martyrdom, but 
 now saw that her sins had deprived her of it. " I tell you," she 
 wrote to Fra Raimondo, " that to-day I wish to begin anew, in 
 order that my sins may not draw me back from the great bliss of 
 giving my life for Christ crucified." 
 
 " My desire was not fulfilled of giving my life for the truth 
 and for the sweet Spouse of Christ. But the eternal Bridegroom 
 played a great trick upon me, as Cristofano will tell you fully by 
 word of mouth. Needs must I weep, because so great has been 
 the multitude of my iniquities that I did not merit that my blood 
 should give life, nor illumine the blinded minds, nor pacify the 
 son with the father, nor to build up a stone with my blood in the 
 mystical body of Holy Church. Nay, it seemed that the hands 
 were bound of him who wished to do it. And when I said : 
 I am she; take me and let this family he ; my words were knives 
 that straightway pierced his heart. O my father, do you, too, 
 feel wondrous joy, because never have I experienced in myself 
 such mysteries with so great joy. Here was the sweetness of 
 truth ; here was the gladness of an upright and pure conscience ; 
 here was tasted the time of the new martyrs, as you know, fore- 
 told by the eternal Truth. No tongue would suffice to tell the 
 greatness of the bliss my soul feels. For this I think myself so 
 bound to my Creator that, if I were to give my body to burn, it 
 seems not to me that I could make adequate return for so great 
 a grace as I and my beloved sons and daughters have received. 
 
 240 
 

CATHERINE'S EMBASSY TO FLORENCE 
 
 All this I tell you, not that you may receive bitterness, but that 
 you may feel ineffable delight with sweetest gladness ; and that 
 you and I may begin to bewail my imperfection, since so great 
 bliss was prevented by my sins. Now how blessed would my 
 soul have been, if, for the most sweet Spouse and for love of the 
 blood and for the salvation of souls, I had given my blood ! I 
 will say no more about this matter : I leave this and other things 
 to Cristofano to say ; I would only tell you to beseech Christ on 
 earth not to postpone the peace because of what has happened, 
 but to conclude it the more promptly, in order that he may then 
 carry out the other great deeds that he has on hand for the 
 honour of God and for the reformation of Holy Church. There 
 has been no change because of this ; on the contrary, the city for 
 the present is pacified, most fittingly. Tell him to have pity and 
 compassion upon these souls, who are in great darkness ; and tell 
 him to deliver me speedily from prison ; for, unless peace is 
 made, it seems that I cannot get out ; and I would fain come 
 then to Rome to taste the blood of the martyrs, and to visit his 
 Holiness, and to find myself again with you to narrate the 
 admirable mysteries that God has wrought in these times, with 
 gladness of mind and with joy of heart, with increase of hope, 
 with the light of most holy faith." 1 
 
 This was probably written on the day of the tumult, imme- 
 diately after the Signoria had, for the present, put down the 
 rising with practically no loss of life, save of those who had been 
 executed by the law. " But, albeit that tumult had for the time 
 ceased," writes Raimondo, " the holy virgin and her fellowship 
 were by no means safe ; nay, such great fear had come upon all 
 the inhabitants of the city that, even as in the time of the martyrs, 
 there was no one who would receive her into his house. Her 
 spiritual sons and daughters advised her to return to the city of 
 Siena ; but she answered them that she could not depart from 
 
 1 Letter 295 (96) ; in the Harleian and Casanatense MSS. Raimondo's 
 
 account of the affair, Legenda, III. vi. 32, 33 (§ § 426, 427), is clearly based 
 
 upon what Cristofano told him, slightly coloured, perhaps, by an unconscious 
 
 desire to make it resemble the scene in the Garden of Olives in the fourth Gospel. 
 
 l6 241 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 the Florentine territory until the peace was announced between 
 the father and his children, for so, she said, she had as a command 
 from the Lord. When they heard this, not daring to contradict 
 her, they found a good man, one that feared God, who without 
 any dread received her into his house, but secretly, on account of 
 the fury of the people and of wicked men." l This good man 
 was almost certainly the tailor, Francesco di Pippino, in whose 
 little house, in the Piazza del Grano, Catherine thus found shelter 
 for a few days. Her potent friends, the Canigiani, the Soderini, 
 the Altoviti, had fled or were in hiding. On the day after the 
 tumult, June 23, the official vengeance of the government com- 
 pleted the violence of the mob. All the laws in favour of the 
 Parte Guelfa were annulled, and all those admonished by the 
 captains of the Party since 1357 were declared eligible for office 
 under certain conditions. The ordinances excluding magnates 
 from all offices and councils, excepting those of the Parte Guelfa 
 and the Council of the Podesta and Commune, were confirmed. 
 Lapo da Castiglionchio was declared a rebel and put under ban, 
 and various lighter sentences passed upon the others. Carlo 
 Strozzi was banished from Florence for five years, and he and 
 his descendants declared magnates. Tommaso Soderini was 
 deprived of every office for life ; Niccolb Soderini was put under 
 bounds at thirty miles from Florence. Ristoro Canigiani was 
 declared a magnate, while Piero Canigiani was excluded from 
 office for ten years. 
 
 Nevertheless, the whole city was full of alarm. There was 
 no festa or palio on the feast of St. John. And for the rest of 
 the month the artisans and merchants did not open their shops, 
 the citizens dared not lay down their arms, and strict guard was 
 kept throughout Florence, night and day. The presence of 
 Catherine seemed useless, and could only lead to fresh scandal. 
 After a few days, she and her disciples left the city, and went to 
 what Raimondo calls " a certain solitary place, outside the city, 
 but not outside its territory, where hermits were wont to dwell." 
 This is usually supposed to have been Vallombrosa, in the 
 1 Legenda, III. vi. 34 (§ 428). 
 242 
 
CATHERINE'S EMBASSY TO FLORENCE 
 
 Casentino, where Giovanni dalle Celle and others were. It is 
 stated, rather questionably, that Niccolo Soderini accompanied 
 them thither. 
 
 The new Signoria, which entered office on July r, with Luigi 
 di Piero Guicciardini as Gonfaloniere of Justice, was judged 
 by the people as composed of " peaceful and quiet men, who 
 loved the repose of the city and their fellow-citizens." They 
 entered upon their duties quietly, without the ringing of bells, 
 the ceremony of installation being performed in the hall of 
 council, instead of on the ringhiera. They at once ordered the 
 citizens to lay down their arms, the contadini to leave the city on 
 pain of death, the shops to be opened, the barricades pulled down, 
 and every one to go about his business. " And the Signoria 
 was obeyed in everything, and, in a very few days, it was all done. 
 It seemed that there had never been any novelty in Florence, and 
 every one commended the Signoria and the Colleges for the 
 measures they had taken. The city passed every day from good 
 to better, and it remained in repose and in quiet, without any 
 murmuring, for ten days." x Under these circumstances, it 
 seemed safe for Catherine and her company to return to Florence, 
 where, says Fra Raimondo, she stayed at first secretly, " because 
 of those who now held sway, who seemed to hate her exceed- 
 ingly," but afterwards openly, waiting in ardent longing for the 
 peace to be concluded between the Republic and the Church. 
 
 From Florence she now wrote her first letter to Pope Urban, 
 whom, as we saw, she had known at Avignon, and with the 
 harsher side of whose character she was probably already 
 acquainted : " with desire of seeing you founded in true and 
 perfect charity, in order that, like a good shepherd, you may lay 
 down your life for your little sheep." She urges him to apply 
 himself to the reformation of the Church. " Most holy Father, 
 God has set you as shepherd over His little sheep of all the 
 Christian religion ; He has set you as the cellarer to deal out 
 the blood of Christ crucified, whose vicar you are ; and He has 
 set you thus in a time in which iniquity abounds more than it 
 1 Gino Capponi (the elder), op. cit., pp. 245-24.7. 
 243 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 has done for ages, in your subjects, in the body of Holy Church, 
 and throughout the whole of Christendom. And, therefore, you 
 have the greatest need of being founded in perfect charity, with 
 the pearl of justice. O sweetest father, the world can no more 
 endure ; the vices so abound, and especially in those who are 
 placed in the garden of Holy Church as.sweet-smelling flowers to 
 give the odour of virtue, that we see them so full of wickedness 
 that they are polluting all the world. Alas ! where is purity of 
 heart and perfect chastity, whereby they should make the incon- 
 tinent become continent by their virtue ? Instead of this, the 
 continent and the pure ofttimes taste impurity through their un- 
 cleanness. Alas ! where is the largesse of charity and the care of 
 souls, and the distributing to the poor, for the welfare of the 
 Church and for their necessity ? You know well that they do 
 the contrary. Wretched that I am ! With grief I tell you that 
 the sons of the Church nourish themselves with the substance 
 that they receive through the blood of Christ, and they are not 
 ashamed to barter and gamble it with those most sacred hands 
 that have been anointed by you, the vicar of Christ — not to 
 speak of the other miseries which they commit. Alas ! where is 
 the profound humility with which they should confound their own 
 sensual pride — the pride with which, with great avarice, they 
 commit simony, buying benefices with presents or with flattery 
 or with money, decked out in vain and dissolute fashion, not 
 like ecclesiastics, but worse than laymen ? Alas, sweet babbo 
 mine, remedy this for us ; comfort the agonized desires of the 
 servants of God, who are dying with grief and cannot die. They 
 are waiting with great desire for you, like a true pastor, to set 
 hand to the correction, not only in word but in deed, letting the 
 pearl of justice glow forth from you united with mercy, and, 
 without any servile fear, to correct in truth those who are fed at 
 the breast of this holy Spouse, those who are made ministers of 
 the blood." 
 
 But, for this reformation of the Church, let him begin with 
 the Sacred College itself, choosing a band of holy and fearless men 
 for cardinals, who will aid him in his arduous task and correct the 
 
 244 
 
CATHERINES EMBASSY TO FLORENCE 
 
 laity by the example of their own virtuous lives. And let him, 
 without any delay, receive back the Florentines and their allies 
 into the fold. Through the Divine Goodness, no great evil has 
 resulted from the recent tumult. His children are pacified and 
 asking him for mercy ; and, if they do not seem to be asking it 
 in the way he would wish, let him grant it all the same, and they 
 will prove more faithful than the others. " Alas, my babbo, I 
 am fain to stay here no longer. Do with me afterwards what you 
 will. Grant this grace and this mercy to me, miserable wretched 
 woman, who am knocking at your door. My father, do not deny 
 me the crumbs that I am asking for your children." 1 
 
 Urban was no longer at Rome, but at Tivoli, alone with the 
 four Italian cardinals : Corsini, Orsini, Brossano, and Tebaldeschi. 
 Circumstances had made it imperative upon him to make peace 
 with Florence on whatever terms could be obtained, and the 
 ambassadors, especially Barbadori and Filippo Corsini, in spite of 
 the treatment they had received, were doing their duty by the 
 Republic. The new Signoria, no less than the Pope, was resolved 
 to make peace without further delay, without haggling over the 
 conditions. 
 
 In the meanwhile, a strange lull seemed to have fallen upon 
 Florence. The priors, ardently pursuing their work of pacifying 
 the city within and without, seem to have received no warning 
 that anything was stirring beneath the surface. But the lowest 
 dregs of the populace, still expecting to be punished for what they 
 had done in the recent tumults, were holding secret meetings, 
 taking fearful oaths, preparing to rise against the burgher 
 government ; and those of the upper classes who had been 
 admonished, not content with what they had achieved, were 
 stirring them up. Not the slightest rumour of what was 
 preparing had as yet reached the Signoria. 2 
 
 1 Letter 291 (15). 
 
 2 Cf. Gino Capponi (the elder), op. cit., pp. 251-255. In a passage, 
 curiously suggestive of Catherine, he says : " Per lo peccato commesso contro a 
 Santa Chiesa di Dio .... permise Iddio dare questa disciplina a questa nostra 
 citta, come appresso si dira." 
 
 245 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 At last, on the afternoon of Sunday, July 1 8, a messenger 
 rode into Florence through the Porta San Piero Gattolino, bearing 
 a branch of olive in his hand, bringing letters from the Pope and 
 the ambassadors, announcing that the terms of peace were 
 arranged. The olive was fastened up at a window of the 
 Palazzo Vecchio, and the great bell of the tower pealed out over 
 the city, summoning the citizens to a parliament. " O dearest 
 children," wrote Catherine to Sano di Maco and her other 
 disciples at Siena, " God has heard the cry and the voice of His 
 servants, that for so long a time have cried out in His sight, 
 and the wailing that for so long they have raised "over their 
 children dead. Now are they risen again : from death are they 
 come to life, and from blindness to light. O dearest children, 
 the lame walk, and the deaf hear, the blind eye sees, and the 
 dumb speak, crying with loudest voice : peace, peace, peace ; with 
 great gladness, seeing those children returning to the obedience 
 and favour of their father, and their minds pacified. And, even 
 as persons who now begin to see, they say : Thanks be to Thee, 
 Lord, who hast reconciled us with our Holy Father. Now is the 
 Lamb called holy, the sweet Christ on earth, where before he was 
 called heretic and Patarin. Now do they accept him as father, 
 where hitherto they rejected him. I wonder not thereat, for the 
 cloud has passed away and the serene weather come. Rejoice, 
 rejoice, dearest children, with a sweetest weeping of gratitude 
 before the supreme and eternal Father ; not calling yourselves 
 contented with this, but praying Him soon to lift up the banner 
 of the most holy Cross. Rejoice, exult in Christ sweet Jesus ; 
 let our hearts burst at the sight of the largesse of the infinite 
 goodness of God. Now is made the peace, in spite of those who 
 would fain have prevented it. Defeated is the infernal demon." l 
 The whole city was wild with joy. An exultant crowd filled 
 the piazza, while the priors came out on to the ringhiera of the 
 
 1 Letter 303 (246). Catherine is writing on Sunday, July 18. Another 
 messenger of peace had arrived on the previous evening : " Sabato sera giunse 
 1' ulivo a un' ora di notte ; e oggi a vespero giunse 1' altro." Cf. Gi Capponi, 
 op. cit., pp. 255, 256, and the Anonimo Fiorentino, pp. 365, 366. 
 
 246 
 
CATHERINE'S EMBASSY TO FLORENCE 
 
 palace, to the sound of music and salvos, and their notary read 
 aloud the letters announcing the agreement that had been made 
 between the Pope and the Republic. All Florence was illu- 
 minated, and the rejoicings were prolonged into the night. But 
 on the next day, July 1 9, like a bolt from the blue, a rumour 
 reached the Signoria that the whole State was on the brink of 
 a precipice. Several arrests were made, and, at nightfall, one 
 Simoncino, called Bugigatto, being examined under torture in the 
 chapel of the palace, confessed that there was a plot for a 
 general uprising of the lowest orders on the following morning. 
 His cries were overheard by an artisan, who was mending the 
 clock of the palace and was in the secret, and he gave the alarm. 
 On the morning of Tuesday, July 20, the whole populace 
 was up in arms, and the disastrous revolution of the Ciompi — the 
 unskilled workers who, having no guild of their own, were 
 deprived of political rights — burst, like a tidal wave, over 
 Florence. 
 
 The chief question at issue was the right of association and 
 combination, with which was connected a number of grievances 
 especially on the part of those subjected to the consuls of the 
 Arte della Lana. 1 But in the anarchy of the next few days, 
 although the petition of the insurgents had been instantly 
 accepted by the Signoria and passed through the Councils, all 
 principle seemed confused in a carnival of outrage. Led by a 
 huckster, Betto di Ciardo, carrying the great banner of Justice 
 which they had taken from the palace of the Executor, one 
 portion of the mob sacked and burned the houses of those of the 
 wealthy citizens who were obnoxious to them, while another 
 seized upon those whom they regarded as their friends, and, 
 willingly or unwillingly, made them knights in the name of the 
 People. Luigi Guicciardini, the Gonfaloniere, found himself 
 included in both classes. The Eight of the War and Salvestro 
 de' Medici were among those knighted, Buonaccorso di Lapo 
 Giovanni one of those whose houses were destroyed. On the 
 evening of the second day, July 21, the Podesta, Giovanni dei 
 1 Cf. Rodolico, of. at., pp. 180 et seq. 
 247 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 Marchesi del Monte, surrendered the Palace of the Podesta, and 
 the banners of the Guilds (the minor Arts having taken part 
 with the populace) were hung out from its windows. On July 
 22, the Signoria pusillanimously abandoned the Palazzo Vecchio, 
 and the mob swept in in triumph, while the bells of the tower 
 pealed out in honour of the victory of the popolo minuto. 
 
 A wool-carder, Michele di Lando, who had served the 
 Republic as a crossbowman in the wars, carried the banner of 
 Justice into the palace. Him the populace acclaimed Gonfalon- 
 iere and Lord of Florence. It is needless to repeat the story of 
 how this man, who had taken no part in the excesses of the mob, 
 saved the State. Finding himself thus the sole ruler of the city, 
 he instantly issued a proclamation that the ravages and brutalities 
 of the insurgents must cease on pain of death, and summoned a 
 parliament, where he was confirmed Gonfaloniere of Justice until 
 the end of August. On the following day, July 23, he proposed 
 the names of the new magistrates. Besides himself, four of the 
 new Signoria represented the popolo minuto, two the minor Arts 
 (including the shoemaker, Benedetto di Carlone, already men- 
 tioned), and two the greater Arts. They entered office with 
 the usual formalities on July 25. 
 
 Nevertheless, the general panic did not abate. In spite of 
 repeated proclamations from the Signoria, many citizens fled to 
 their villas in the contado, taking their families and movable 
 goods with them, while those that remained would not lay down 
 their arms nor open their shops. The crossbowmen of the 
 Republic were marched through the city, to restore confidence, 
 without avail. There was a general attempt to reform the State ; 
 the admonitions of the Parte Guelfa were annulled, and ad- 
 monished families readmitted to office ; and, on the last day of 
 July, all the papers in the ballot-boxes, from which the names of 
 the magistrates were drawn, were burnt : " in order that all things 
 might be reformed anew, and that good men and merchants might 
 be put into office." On August 1, the priors went through the 
 city in the morning, with trumpets and other instruments, 
 which " mightily reassured those who wished to live in peace " ; 
 
 248 
 
CATHERINE'S EMBASSY TO FLORENCE 
 
 a thousand crossbowmen marched through in the afternoon, and 
 it was proclaimed that every merchant could return in safety to 
 carry on his business, with heavy penalties against any who 
 should molest him. In the evening, the news came that the peace 
 with the Pope had been signed, and that the absolution would 
 soon arrive. 1 
 
 It was an honourable and just peace that had been signed at 
 Tivoli on July 28, the Pope on the following day giving leave 
 to all the ecclesiastics of the Florentine dominion freely to 
 celebrate Mass. The Florentines were to pay an indemnity of 
 250,000 florins in monthly instalments, to annul all ordinances 
 against the Church within two months, to restore all confiscated 
 goods to the churches, monasteries, and hospitals. The Pope on 
 his side would absolve them fully from all censures. Perugia 
 and Citta di Castello were included, and the other colleagues and 
 adherents of the Commune of Florence, who were subjects of the 
 Church, on condition of sending ambassadors to the Pope to 
 subscribe within two months ; and, in the meanwhile, the Pope 
 could not make war upon them. They were practically to retain 
 their liberties, while acknowledging the papal suzerainty, paying 
 an indemnity and their original tribute. 2 But Florence was too 
 much harassed by internal dissensions to indulge in public 
 rejoicing. Rumours of fresh trouble caused the citizens again to 
 stand to arms on the following day, August 2, and for several 
 days this state of siege continued, the city diligently guarded, 
 and men hourly expecting a new rising. 3 Nevertheless, there was 
 a short interval before the tumults began again. 
 
 With the conclusion of peace between Florence and the Holy 
 See, Catherine's second great political work was done. In spite 
 
 1 Diario Compagnano, in Corazzini, pp. 110-112. 
 
 2 Gherardi, op. cit., pp. 94-96, 221-223. The absolution was informally 
 announced in Santo Spirito by Fra Agostino della Scarperia on August 10, but 
 the actual bulls did not arrive until October. On October 23, the Bishop of 
 Volterra and Fra Francesco of Orvieto solemnly absolved the city in the name 
 of Pope Urban VI. Cf. Anonlmo Fiorentino, pp. 373, 387, 388. 
 
 3 Diario Compagnano, loc. cit., p. 113. 
 
 249 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 of the great personal danger that she and her followers must have 
 run from the blind hatred of the populace, she had remained in 
 the city all through these tumultuous days of revolution and 
 anarchy, until the news came that the treaty was actually signed. 
 Then she gathered her followers round her, and announced her 
 intention of returning instantly to Siena, now that she had 
 fulfilled the command of Christ and His vicar. 1 Such was the 
 excitement and alarm in the city that it was not thought safe for 
 her even to have an audience with the Signoria. It was probably 
 on August 2, in the midst of the renewed panic, that she looked 
 her last upon Florence, and went quietly home, " back to her 
 daily way divine." 
 
 There still exists, among the Strozzi manuscripts of the Biblio- 
 teca Nazionale of Florence, a fourteenth century copy of the letter 
 which Catherine addressed on this occasion to the Gonfaloniere 
 and Priors of the Republic. It is her farewell to Florence. 
 " You have the desire," she says, " of reforming your city ; but I 
 tell you that this desire will never be fulfilled, unless you strive 
 to throw to the ground the hatred and rancour of your hearts and 
 your love of yourselves, that is, unless you think not of your- 
 selves alone, but of the universal welfare of all the city." She 
 suggests certain obvious reforms in the choice of magistrates, 
 urges them to see that the conditions of the peace are properly 
 carried out, and delicately hints that the exiles should be recalled. 
 Then she speaks about herself : — 
 
 " Let the sorrow that I feel at seeing your city (which I 
 regard as mine) in such great trouble be my excuse. I did not 
 expect to have to write to you ; but I thought, by word of mouth 
 and face to face, to say these things to you, for the honour of 
 God and your own utility. For my intention was to visit you, 
 and to rejoice with you at the holy peace, for which peace I have 
 laboured so long in all that I have been able, according to my 
 possibility and my small power ; if I had been able to do more, I 
 would have done it. After rejoicing with you, and thanking the 
 Divine Goodness and you, I would have departed and gone away 
 1 QX\Legenda, III. vi. 35 (§429). 
 250 
 
CATHERINE'S EMBASSY TO FLORENCE 
 
 to Siena. Now it seems that the demon has sowed so much, 
 unjustly, in their hearts against me, that I have not wished that 
 sin should be added to sin ; for thereby would the ruin be only 
 increased. I have gone away, with the divine grace ; and I pray 
 the supreme eternal Goodness to pacify and unite and bind your 
 hearts together, one with the other, so in love of charity that 
 neither demon nor creature can ever separate you. Whatever 
 can be done by me for your welfare will I gladly do, even unto 
 death, in spite of demons visible and invisible, who would im- 
 pede every holy desire. 1 go away consoled, inasmuch as that is 
 accomplished in me which I set before my heart when I entered 
 this city, never to depart, though I should have to die for it, until 
 I saw you, the children, reconciled with your father, seeing such 
 peril and loss in souls and bodies ; I go away grieving and with 
 sorrow, since I leave the city in such great bitterness. But may 
 eternal God, who has consoled me in the one, console me in the 
 other matter, so that I may see and hear that you are pacified in 
 a good and firm and perfect state, that you may be able to render 
 glory and praise to His name, and not stand under arms with 
 such great affliction. I hope that the sweet clemency of God 
 will turn the eye of His mercy, and fulfil the desire of His 
 servants." l 
 
 1 Unpublished. Appendix, Letter IV. 
 
 2 5 I 
 
CHAPTER XII 
 
 THE BEGINNING OF THE SCHISM 
 
 " Multae disputationes factae sunt circa istam materiam, multi libelli editi pro utriusque 
 partis defensione. Peritissimos viros in sacra pagina et iure canonico habuit toto tempore 
 illo quo duravit id schisma utraque pars seu obedientia, ac etiam religiosissimos viros et 
 (quod maius est) etiam miraculis fulgentes ; nee unquam sic potuit quaestio ilia decidi, 
 quin semper remaneret apud plurimos dubia. " — St. Antoninus, Chronicorum, IN. tit. 22. 
 
 We must now turn back to what had been passing at Rome 
 and at Tivoli, while Catherine was thus engaged upon the work 
 of her Divine Master at Florence. 
 
 Gregory had returned from Anagni in November, broken 
 down in health and embittered in spirit. He found even the 
 Romans turning against him. By lending ear to the suggestions 
 of the nobles, especially the ambitious and intriguing Count of 
 Fondi, Onorato Gaetani, he had alienated the friendship of the 
 Bandaresi, the formidable representatives of the Roman People, 
 who had the whole force of the Republic behind them. It was 
 feared that they would endeavour to prevent the Pope from 
 again leaving the city. The Cardinal of Marmoutier declares 
 that Gregory told him that one of the Roman cardinals was 
 plotting his death, in order himself to obtain the tiara. 1 
 One of the Pope's household told Alfonso da Vadaterra, who was 
 then in Rome promoting the canonization of Birgitta, that 
 Gregory intended to yield to the solicitations of the French 
 cardinals and of his own family, and to return to Avignon. " I 
 am absolutely certain," answered the hermit-bishop, " that he 
 will never be able to do this ; for I know that it is the will of 
 God that our lord the Pope and his Curia should remain in 
 Rome." 2 A few days after this conversation, Gregory's last 
 
 1 Deposition of the Cardinal of Marmoutier, Gayet, doc. 39. Jacopo Orsini, 
 the person meant, was already dead when the Cardinal made this statement. 
 
 2 Raynaldus, vii. pp. 375, 376. Cf. Thomas de Acerno, Rer. It. Script., iii. 2. 
 coll. 715, 716. 
 
 252 
 
THE BEGINNING OF THE SCHISM 
 
 illness came upon him. The Bandaresi forced their way to his 
 bedside, to see for themselves if he were really dying. " The 
 Pope cannot survive," one was heard to say to the other, as they 
 passed out of the palace ; " the time has come for us to be good 
 Romans. Let us look to it that in this case the popedom shall 
 remain with our nation." x From his deathbed, Gregory issued 
 a bull empowering the cardinals to proceed immediately to the 
 election of his successor without summoning or awaiting their 
 absent colleagues, and ratifying the choice that should be made 
 by the majority of two-thirds, even in the face of a hostile and 
 obstinate minority. About the same time, he sent secretly after 
 dark for Pierre Gandelin, the Provencal governor of the Castello 
 Sant' Angelo, and committed to his care a large portion of the 
 papal treasures, forbidding him to give up the keys of the fortress, 
 chance what might, without an express order from the cardinals 
 at Avignon. 
 
 This last French Pope recognized by the Church died on 
 March 27, 1378, full of the gloomiest apprehensions ; according 
 to one account, regarding his death as a direct intervention of 
 God to prevent his returning to Avignon ; according to another, 
 convinced that a fearful tempest was about to break upon the 
 Church, for which he would be responsible for having lent faith to 
 the visions of Birgitta and Catherine, and brought the papacy back 
 to Rome. No sooner was the news of his death known, than 
 preparations for the election of his successor began — both among 
 the members of the Sacred College and those who, ostensibly, had 
 no voice in the matter. There were mysterious meetings held 
 by the Romans in the convent of Ara Caeli and in the Senator's 
 palace on the Capitol. Deputations waited upon the cardinals 
 to exhort them to choose a Roman, or at least an Italian Pope ; 
 the same counsel was shouted after them in the streets ; and 
 fierce threats were added. While the cardinals met each morning 
 in Santa Maria Nuova, now Santa Francesca Romana, to cele- 
 brate a solemn requiem at the deceased pontiff's grave for the 
 1 Declaration of Fra Luigi, Bishop of Assisi. Archlvlo Vaticano, LIV. 19, 
 f. 183. 
 
 253 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 repose of his soul, the Bandaresi and other Romans who were 
 present seized the opportunity to urge upon them the necessity 
 of electing an Italian Pope and of maintaining the Apostolic Chair 
 at Rome. The Romans took possession of the gates of the city, 
 and seized upon the shipping in the Tiber. While the nobles, 
 including Onorato Gaetani, Count of Fondi, and Niccolo Orsini, 
 Count of Nola, high officials of the Church, upon whose pro- 
 tection the cardinals could have greatly relied, were expelled, 
 bands of armed contadini and mountaineers from the Sabine and 
 Alban hills came into the city, adding to the general confusion 
 and alarm by their cries and uproar, hustling and threatening the 
 French retainers and servants of the Sacred College. Clearly, 
 the fathers were held in a trap. 
 
 Nevertheless, the cardinals did not apparently believe in the 
 seriousness of the danger. They did not think it advisable 
 to summon the Breton and Gascon mercenaries, some eight 
 hundred of whom were within an easy march of Rome, nor 
 necessary (though there was some difference of opinion among 
 them on this point) to take shelter behind the battlements of 
 Sant' Angelo. To the persistent supplications of the authorities 
 of the city to choose a Roman or an Italian for Pope, they 
 answered in general terms that they would elect one who would 
 greatly please them and Italy and all Christendom. The four 
 Italian cardinals, at the instance of the whole College, rebuked 
 the Roman officials for their conduct ; but without result. 1 
 The Senator of Rome, Guido de Pruinis, and the Bandaresi, in 
 the name of the Republic, undertook the protection of the 
 conclave and the guard of the Leonine city. 2 A proclamation 
 was made, threatening all disturbers of the public order with 
 
 1 Cf. Cardinal Corsini's statement, added to the declarations of his colleagues, 
 Gayet, doc. 27. 
 
 2 Fra Gonsalvo, a Dominican, then prior of Santa Sabina, says that they sent 
 to the cardinals to offer a good and pacific guard for the freedom of the conclave, 
 but at the same time to beseech them to console Rome and Italy in the election, 
 and to warn them that, if their choice did not satisfy the Romans, there would be 
 trouble with the people : they feared ne forte aliquod non debitum populus faceret. 
 Archivio Vatkano, LI V. 1 5 , f. 5 7 v. 
 
 254 
 
THE BEGINNING OF THE SCHISM 
 
 death ; and a block, with the axe and other ghastly implements 
 of the executioner's craft, was solemnly set up in the Piazza San 
 Pietro. A general sense of alarm and expectancy pervaded the 
 Eternal City. 
 
 There were sixteen cardinals then in Rome, of whom ten were 
 French, four Italians, one an immediate subject of the Emperor, 
 and one a Spaniard. They were divided into three parties : the 
 Limousin, the French, and the Italian factions. The Limousin 
 faction was composed of prelates connected by birth or other ties 
 with the families of Clement VI, Innocent VI, and Gregory XI, 
 and who desired to elect one of their own number to carry on 
 the bad traditions that had put the ecclesiastics of their own race 
 at the head of the [ clerical world. To it belonged the Cardinal 
 of Limoges (Jean de Cros), the Cardinal of Poitiers (Guy de 
 Malesset), the Cardinal of Marmoutier (Gerard du Puy), 
 Cardinal Guillaume d'Aigrefeuille, Cardinal Pierre de Vergne, 
 who were all Limousins, and the Cardinal of Viviers (Pierre de 
 Sortenac), who was a Cahorsine. The Cardinals of Viviers and 
 of Poitiers seem to have been the candidates most favoured by 
 this group. Opposed to them was the so-called French faction, 
 which included the Cardinal of Glandeves (Bertrand Lagier) ; the 
 Cardinal of Sant' Eustachio (Pierre Flandrin) ; the Cardinal of 
 Sant' Angelo (Guillaume de Noellet) ; the Cardinal of Brittany 
 (Hugues de Montalais), an Angevin by birth, who had been 
 chancellor of Brittany. To this latter faction also adhered the 
 two strongest personalities of the Sacred College, though neither 
 of them was a Frenchman : Cardinal Robert of Geneva, the 
 butcher of the citizens of Cesena ; and the Cardinal of Aragon, 
 Pedro de Luna. Robert, younger son of Count Amedee III of 
 Geneva, was connected by his grandmother, Agnes of Savoy, 
 with the royal house of France, and held the Archbishopric of 
 Cambray. The special aim of this faction was to free the Church 
 from the domination of Limoges, even at the cost of electing an 
 Italian Pope, though their choice would by preference have fallen 
 upon the Cardinal of Sant' Eustachio or Cardinal de Noellet. 
 
 The leader of the four Italian cardinals was the dean of the 
 
 2 SS 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 cardinal bishops, Piero Corsini, the Cardinal of Florence, who 
 (as we saw) had been raised to the cardinalate by Urban V in 1370. 
 Gregory XI had made him Bishop of Porto, from which he is 
 frequently styled the " Cardinal of Porto." He was a man of great 
 ability and little moral courage. Francesco Tebaldeschi was a 
 Roman of humble birth, who had been, like the aristocratic 
 Corsini, one of the cardinals of Urban V ; his title was of Santa 
 Sabina, but he was always spoken of as the " Cardinal of St. 
 Peter's," from his being archpriest of the basilica. He was an 
 old man, broken down in health and tortured by gout. Jacopo 
 Orsini, a member of the great Guelf house, was the only other 
 Roman in the Sacred College. He was dean of the cardinal 
 deacons, a comparatively young man of doubtful probity and of 
 great ambition. While ostensibly leaning towards the French 
 faction, he was secretly himself aiming at the tiara, counting upon 
 the support of the Roman nobles and populace. The remaining 
 member of this group was the Archbishop of Milan, Simone 
 Brossano, a man learned in canon law, who had been promoted 
 to the Sacred College by Gregory XI under the title of SS. 
 Giovanni e Paolo on the Caelian Hill. 
 
 In addition to these sixteen cardinals, there were seven 
 members of the Sacred College absent from Rome. Six of these, 
 including the brother of Urban V, Anglico de Grimoard (the 
 best of the French cardinals), were at Avignon. The seventh, 
 Jean de la Grange, the Benedictine " Cardinal of Amiens," a 
 wealthy and worldly monk, a subtle politician of great influence 
 with the French King, had been the chief papal representative at 
 the Congress of Sarzana, and was now at Pisa. 
 
 The one member of the Sacred College to whom Catherine, 
 and all who looked for the salvation of Israel, turned was Pedro 
 de Luna, who had ultimately supported the late Pope in restoring 
 the See to Rome, where he apparently contemplated passing 
 the rest of his life, as he had built himself a palace, was busily 
 restoring his titular church of Santa Maria in Cosmedin, and had 
 even chosen his place of burial in San Lorenzo. A man of 
 blameless life, vast learning, great charity, and apparently sincere 
 
 256 
 
THE BEGINNING OF THE SCHISM 
 
 iety, insensible to moral or physical fear, there was, nevertheless, 
 omething mysterious and inscrutable in his bearing and character. 
 Jut of all the foreign cardinals he was the only one that the 
 tomans loved and respected. He was intimate with Alfonso da 
 /adaterra, with whom, as also with Fra Raimondo and with Fra 
 jonsalvo, the Dominican prior of Santa Sabina, he discussed the 
 iituation with much apparent frankness. " In good sooth," he 
 said one day to Fra Gonsalvo, in reference to the threats of the 
 Romans, " I tell you that, even if I have to die for it, I shall 
 :hoose no one for Pope save whom I wish. And why should I 
 ieem it an unworthy end, to die at the hands of this people and 
 in this holy city where so many thousand saints have battled for 
 the truth ? " l Regarded by Catholic writers, in the light of 
 his subsequent career, as an astute dissembler and designing 
 hypocrite, it is, nevertheless, difficult for the impartial student of 
 Church history not to recognize in Pedro de Luna a man of 
 upright life and high ideals, zealously striving to find where the 
 hidden jewel of truth lay concealed, and to follow where he 
 deemed that the light led. 
 
 But there was another personage, not a member of the Sacred 
 College, upon whom many eyes were turned in Rome at this 
 crisis in the history of the Church. Bartolommeo Prignano was 
 born at Naples, shortly before 1320, of a father who was by 
 origin a native of Pisa, and of a Neapolitan mother. As Arch- 
 bishop of Acerenza, and assistant to the Vice-Chancellor, he had 
 resided at the court of Avignon, and was thoroughly conversant 
 with the affairs and administration of the Church. As we saw, 
 he had at first opposed Catherine, and had afterwards been 
 impressed by her sanctity, though we do not know how far he 
 had had any personal intercourse with her. He had come to 
 Rome with Pope Gregory, by whom he had been promoted to the 
 Archbishopric of Bari, and was now acting as Vice-Chancellor of 
 
 1 Deposition of Fra Gonsalvo, Archivio Vatlcano, LTV. 15, £ 58. The friar 
 states (MS. cit., f. 63 v.) that the Romans had such confidence in the Cardinal of 
 Aragon that they would have been perfectly contented if he had been elected 
 Pope. 
 
 17 257 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 the Holy See in the absence, at Avignon, of the Cardinal of 
 Pamplona. In appearance, he was of short stature and thick- 
 set, pallid and sallow in complexion. As to his character, 
 Dietrich of Nieheim, afterwards one of his secretaries, assures us 
 that he was " a man humble and devout, keeping his hands free 
 from every gift, a foe and persecutor of simoniacs, a lover of 
 chastity and justice, but one that relied too much on his own 
 prudence, and over-readily gave credence to flatterers." 1 He 
 lacked the suave and courteous manners of the Cardinal of 
 Aragon, the air of a polished man of the world that distinguished 
 the Cardinal of Geneva, the diplomatic astuteness and aristocratic 
 dignity of the Cardinal of Florence ; was brusque and impetuous, 
 easily moved to anger, devoid of restraint and tact in word and 
 in deed — albeit these traits had hitherto been kept in check by 
 his comparatively inferior position. 
 
 The Archbishop had lately bought himself a house and a 
 vineyard in Rome, in order to qualify as a Roman citizen. His 
 enemies see a sinister purpose in all his movements during these 
 days. He is said to have been incessant in secretly questioning 
 the Pope's physician, Francesco Casini, during Gregory's last 
 illness, as to the possibility of his recovery. During the nine 
 days of requiem Masses for Gregory's soul at Santa Maria 
 Nuova, he had seized the opportunity of asking Guido de 
 Pruinis to present him to the Bandaresi and their colleagues ; 
 after which he appears frequently to have been present at their 
 secret meetings on the Capitol. There is nothing in all this, 
 however, in the least inconsistent with straightforward dealing, 
 and the accusations made against him, of attempting to purchase 
 the support of the Romans in his designs on the papacy, may be 
 disregarded. It seems certain that he counselled them to be 
 moderate and peaceable. Nardo di Giorgio, an apothecary who 
 was then one of the Bandaresi, and seems to have made a very 
 sinister impression upon the French prelates of the Curia, has 
 left on record that one day he and other Romans requested the 
 Archbishop to go to the cardinals to beseech them to give them 
 1 T. de Nyem, De Schismate, I. I. 
 258 
 
THE BEGINNING OF THE SCHISM 
 
 a Roman or Italian Pope ; to which Bartolommeo replied that 
 they should not make any such supplication to the cardinals, 
 but leave them to make their election freely, and, for his part, he 
 believed that the cardinals would do well : " Then this witness 
 and his companions were not well contented with his answer, and 
 told him that they would seek another who would act more 
 according to their wishes." x 
 
 Another prudent voice raised at these meetings was that of 
 Fra Bonaventura Badoara of Padua, who had been elected general 
 of the Augustinian hermits in the preceding year. It did not 
 matter to the Romans, he said, that the Pope should be a Roman 
 or an Italian, but only that he should remain upon Italian soil. 
 They should content themselves with whatever Pope might be 
 elected, whatever his origin ; but, when once elected, they could 
 supplicate his Holiness to take up his residence in Rome. 
 Above all, he added, " let me urge you to do nothing, not even 
 by signs, that can be taken as violence or pressure. For by 
 these things the election can be rendered void." 2 
 
 It is clear that there was no feeling of antagonism towards the 
 Archbishop of Bari in the Sacred College. They regarded him 
 as an experienced, eloquent and devout, and (as a subject of the 
 Queen of Naples) politically neutral prelate ; from his long 
 residence in Avignon, the French looked upon him as almost 
 one of themselves. Alfonso da Vadaterra had praised him 
 highly to the Cardinal of Aragon, who, from personal knowledge 
 of his qualities, regarded him as a suitable candidate for the 
 papacy — but their testimonies differ on one important particular. 
 The hermit-bishop's version is that Pedro de Luna told him 
 that he had resolved to give his vote to the Archbishop of Bari, 
 because the dissensions between the French and the Limousin 
 factions made it impossible to elect an ultramontane member of 
 the Sacred College. The Cardinal himself declares that he only 
 
 1 Testimony of Nardo, Archiv'io Vatkano, LIV. 37, f. 142. I find the full 
 name of this personage, Nardus Georgii aliter dictus Lupus, in an undated brief of 
 Urban VI, Cod. Vat. Lat. 6330, f. 277. 
 
 2 Baluze, I. coll. 1240, 1241. 
 
 259 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 intended to adopt this course in the event of the Romans com- 
 pelling the fathers to choose a Roman or an Italian, and that 
 he thinks that the majority of the Sacred College favoured the 
 candidature of the Cardinal of Viviers. 1 But, a few days before 
 the conclave, Tommaso Petra told Fra Raimondo that he saw 
 that almost all the cardinals had agreed to elect the Archbishop 
 of Bari. 2 This is questionable. There seems, however, little 
 doubt that, in the event of their being unable, through internal 
 dissensions or external pressure, to carry the election of their 
 own candidate, the French and Limousin cardinals (and probably, 
 though this is more uncertain, three of the four Italians) had 
 contemplated the possibility of their agreeing upon the Archbishop 
 of Bari. The Clementine position is that this course was only to 
 be adopted in case the Sacred College was in danger and unable 
 to proceed to a free election, while the Urbanists declare that the 
 split between the two factions had secured his election before 
 the conclave met. 
 
 The cardinals entered the conclave on the late afternoon of 
 
 the Wednesday in Passion Week, April 7. Our knowledge of 
 
 what happened all comes from the sworn testimonies and 
 
 depositions of contemporaries and eye-witnesses, even of those 
 
 who played leading parts in the events of that night and the 
 
 following day. Nevertheless, it is impossible to find out the. 
 
 absolute truth of what brought about the temporary dissolution 
 
 of the Catholic world. These testimonies and depositions were 
 
 taken many months later, when the deadliest passions had been 
 
 roused on either side, and the memories of the actors sharpened 
 
 or distorted by the urgent need of proving their own party in 
 
 the right. The clearest and fullest details by witnesses on the 
 
 side of the Roman claimant are flady contradicted by details, 
 
 equally clear and full, by witnesses on behalf of Avignon. 3 
 
 1 Cf. Alfonso's testimony, in Raynaldus, vii. p. 377, with that of Cardinal 
 de Luna, in A. Sorbelli, Appendix to St. Vincent Ferrer's Be Moderno Eccksiae 
 Schismate, pp. 244, 245. 
 
 2 Valois, I. pp. 30, 31. 
 
 The depositions of Bishop Tommaso of Lucera, given by Muratori (Rer. 
 
 260 
 
THE BEGINNING OF THE SCHISM 
 
 The historian to-day can merely strain after a via media, guided 
 by the statements of the men who, for one cause or another, 
 seem on either side the least open to suspicion of deliberate 
 falsification. 
 
 A vast and clamorous crowd, partly armed, filled the piazza 
 and surged round the Vatican, shouting : " Give us a Roman or at 
 least an Italian Pope " ; as the princes of the Church, one by one, 
 made their way with difficulty into the palace, under the 
 protection of the Senator. The rooms destined for the conclave 
 were on the first floor, but a number of Romans seem to have 
 pressed in after the cardinals and their attendants, and to have 
 thronged the courtyard, probably continuing the threats that had 
 been shouted in the square. The Romans had deputed Giovanni 
 Cenci, chancellor of the city, Nardo di Giorgio, and others of 
 their leaders, to guard the conclave ; while, on the side of the 
 cardinals, a similar function was assigned to Guillaume de la 
 Voulte, Bishop of Marseilles, and the Bishops of Todi and 
 Tivoli. Before the conclave was closed, the heads of the 
 thirteen Rioni, with other Romans, came to the cardinals, and, 
 respectfully at first, but afterwards with warnings of the 
 consequences of a refusal, demanded that a Roman or an Italian 
 should be elected to the papacy. The Cardinal of Florence, as 
 dean of the cardinal bishops, answered that they would do what 
 should be pleasing to God, useful for the Church, and honourable 
 for the city. Aigrefeuille and Orsini, deans of the cardinal 
 priests and cardinal deacons respectively, warned them that any 
 interference would invalidate the election. All during the night, 
 a great uproar continued in the piazza ; according to the 
 Urbanists, it was mere lighthearted singing and merry-making, 
 with a wonderful absence of the slightest sinister element ; 
 according to the Clementines, it was the clamour of a furious mob, 
 
 //. Script., iii. 2), and of Bishop Niccoli of Viterbo, recently published by- 
 Pastor (Acta Inedita, document 3), on the one side, are as untrustworthy as 
 the solemn testimonies of the cardinals themselves, so sedulously collected by 
 the Abb6 Gayet, on the other. M. Noel Valois, La France et le Grand Schisme 
 d 'Occident, I. pp. 35-83, is judicious and impartial. 
 
 261 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 threatening death to the cardinals if their will was not obeyed. 
 It seems agreed by both parties that, about the middle of the 
 night, a crowd composed mainly of rough peasants from the hills 
 broke into the Vatican cellars, " volentes bibere de bono vino 
 papale." At intervals, the cries of " Roman or Italian " rose up, 
 within and without the palace, and reached the ears of the 
 cardinals in their cells. 
 
 Early in the morning of Thursday, April 8, a band of 
 Romans forced their way into the campanile of St. Peter's and 
 rang the bells. They were answered by the tocsin of the Capitol, 
 which clashed out a stormo, as though to call the populace to arms. 
 The cardinals had entered the conclave and Corsini was about 
 to address them, when the clamour was renewed, and the Bishop 
 of Marseilles, with his colleagues, implored them not to elect a 
 foreigner or they were all lost. Cenci and Nardo assured them 
 that they could do nothing. Against his will, the Cardinal of 
 Florence was led by Aigrefeuille and Orsini to the window, and 
 the two latter addressed the armed and infuriated crowd below, 
 promising that, if they would keep quiet and leave the cardinals 
 to their deliberations, they should have a Roman or an Italian for 
 Pope. 
 
 It is impossible to say with confidence whether this promise, 
 manifestly extorted by fear and necessity, induced the cardinals 
 to do what next they did, or whether their own dissensions had 
 already impelled them to the choice they ultimately made. The 
 Cardinals of Florence and Limoges first suggested that the 
 election should be postponed ; but it was feared that this might 
 cause a general massacre of the Sacred College, which could only 
 lead to complete anarchy in the Church. " I should be willing 
 to lay down my life for the Faith," said Cardinal Lagier, " if God 
 were to grant me such grace ; but not for the nationality of a 
 Pope." Then Orsini, who was bent at all costs upon keeping 
 out the Archbishop of Bari, proposed that a friar minor should 
 be dressed up in the papal robes and paraded as Pope, so that 
 they could escape and hold a free election elsewhere. This plan 
 was indignantly rejected by the Cardinal of Limoges and others, 
 
 262 
 
THE BEGINNING OF THE SCHISM 
 
 as leading the people to commit idolatry. 1 It was unanimously- 
 agreed to satisfy the people, or, at least, to take a course that 
 would reconcile the interests of the Church with the demands of 
 the Romans. 2 Pedro de Luna saw the time had come to carry 
 out his plan, and informally suggested that the Archbishop of 
 Bari should be elected ; Orsini whispered to the Cardinal of 
 Florence to propose Tebaldeschi ; the Cardinal of Brittany 
 named the Cardinal of Milan, who answered that he would not 
 accept such an election, if they were to make him ten times Pope. 
 " Habemus pontificem," cried the Cardinal of Geneva, perhaps 
 ironically, seeing that Luna's candidate had the majority. The 
 cardinals took their seats, and Aigrefeuille called on the Cardinal 
 of Florence, as dean of the Sacred College, formally to propose a 
 candidate. Corsini then named the Cardinal of St. Peter's, but 
 added (so he tells us) : " I should name an ultramontane 
 member of the College, were it not for the promise we have 
 made the Romans, and their bearing, and our fear of them." 3 
 The Cardinal of Limoges, whose turn was to speak next, said 
 that St. Peter's was too old and his election would be too obviously 
 a yielding to clamour ; Florence and Milan were impossible, 
 because of the hostility of their cities to the papal see ; Orsini 
 was too young and a Roman. He proposed the Lord Archbishop 
 of Bari. All the rest concurred, with certain exceptions and 
 reservations. The Cardinal of Sant' Angelo said that he agreed, 
 although his vote could be of no avail, as he believed that the 
 election was not valid. The Cardinals of Brittany and Milan 
 said they yielded under protest, as the others were agreed. 
 Cardinal Orsini declared that he would not give his vote to any 
 one, under the circumstances, but would wait until he was at 
 liberty. Several cardinals in voting for the Archbishop of Bari 
 added the words : ut sit verus papa ; evidently in repudiation of 
 
 1 Testimony of the Bishop of Faenza, Jrchivio Vatkono, LIV. 40. Cf. Rer. It. 
 Script., iii. 2. coll. 680, 681. It is noteworthy that St. Antoninus (III. p. 389) 
 ascribes a similar suggestion to Bartolommeo Prignano himself. 
 
 2 Cf. Valois, I. p. 45. 
 
 3 Depositions of the Italian cardinals, Gayet, doc. 27. 
 
 263 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 the suggestion that they should make a fictitious election. 
 Cardinal de Luna's own account of the matter is that they did 
 not wish to elect an Italian, but thought the Archbishop a 
 sufficient man, and that if, when they were at liberty, the 
 cardinals agreed, he would be re-elected ; if not, they assumed 
 that he would abdicate. For his own part, he was not moved by 
 fear ; but, seeing the cardinals agreed to satisfy the people, he 
 proposed him and voted for him with the intention that, in any 
 case, he would be content that he should be Pope. 1 It is 
 evident that the cardinals thought that they had done their best, 
 though they would probably have made a different choice under 
 different circumstances. They had made a genuine attempt to 
 satisfy the Romans, while not compromising the dignity of the 
 Sacred College. It is questionable whether, at this moment, 
 more than a small minority among them considered that the 
 election was invalid, though the Cardinal of Glandeves seems to 
 have protested from the outset that he had only acted from fear 
 of death. 
 
 Either to gain time, or because the Archbishop had not yet 
 accepted his election, the cardinals did not forthwith proclaim 
 the new pontiff. The uproar in the piazza began again. 
 Orsini, whose office it was to announce the election, advanced to 
 the window, accompanied by the Cardinals of Florence and 
 Geneva — the Bishop of Marseilles, who had completely lost his 
 head with terror, incessantly imploring them to name a Roman. 
 " O Romans," shouted Orsini to the crowd, " if you do not 
 have a Pope you will like by the evening, you can cut me into 
 pieces." A deafening roar of " Roman, Roman, we will have a 
 Roman," was the answer — perhaps raised in part by the retainers 
 of the Cardinal's own family in his interest. The Archbishop of 
 Bari himself, who had been summoned to the palace together 
 with Agapito Colonna and other Roman prelates, also appeared on 
 the scene, apparently at another window, and exhorted the crowd 
 to keep calm. 2 This done, the cardinals took a hasty meal, and 
 
 1 His testimony in Sorbelli, op. cit., pp. 251, 252. 
 
 2 So at least the Bishop of Todi (Gayet, doc. 17), who adds that he thinks 
 
 264 
 
THE BEGINNING OF THE SCHISM 
 
 returned to the chapel of the conclave, to arrange about 
 publishing the election. Although by now aware of what had 
 happened, Bartolommeo does not seem to have been present. 
 
 In the meanwhile, a rumour had spread through the crowd 
 that they were being tricked, and the uproar was renewed. The 
 cardinals, on the motion of Tebaldeschi, appear to have practi- 
 cally re-elected Bartolommeo. Orsini, who alone had continued 
 in opposition, now went to the window, and told the people that 
 the Pope was elected : " Go to San Pietro." He was under- 
 stood as saying that the Cardinal of St. Peter's was Pope, and a 
 rush was made to pillage Tebaldeschi's palace. " No, no," cried 
 one of the French prelates of the Curia, " Bari, Bari ! " A roar 
 of execration burst from the crowd, who supposed that Jean de 
 Bar, a hated Limousin prelate, kinsman to the late pontiff, was 
 the person meant. Brandishing their swords and axes, the 
 Romans burst into the conclave, shouting : " A Roman, a Roman, 
 death to the traitor cardinals ! " Hearing this fresh tempest 
 sweeping upon them, ignorant of the misunderstanding that had 
 arisen, the unfortunate cardinals could only suppose that the 
 election of the Archbishop of Bari had failed to satisfy the 
 Romans. Some vainly attempted to escape ; the others, in spite of 
 a vigorous protest from Cardinal de Luna, hastily resolved to 
 present Tebaldeschi to the people as Pope. Notwithstanding the 
 old Cardinal's protests, the conclavists took hold of him, dressed 
 him in the papal robes, and seated him in the papal chair as 
 Sovereign Pontiff, while the bells were rung and the Te Deum 
 intoned. He attempted to resist, but was forcibly held down by 
 the Cardinal of Marmoutier and the Cardinal of Brittany, while, in 
 
 that Bartolommeo did not then know of his election. Nardo, on the other hand, 
 says that Orsini told him and the Bishop of Marseilles to tell the Romans from 
 the cardinals that they would content them about a Roman or Italian Pope ; he 
 delivered the message himself, bidding them thank God and go away so that the 
 Pope could freely come out : " And then some Romans, who were of the house- 
 hold of the said Lord Cardinal Orsini and of his kindred, hid their faces among 
 the others, and shouted that they wanted a Roman only." Archivio Vaticano, LIV. 
 37, f. 142 v. 
 
 265 
 
SAINT CATHERINE' OF SIENA 
 
 the deafening uproar when the Romans broke in, his feeble 
 declaration that he was not the Pope was unheard, or taken 
 merely as an expression of humility. They seized him and 
 enthroned him on the altar. Prelates and people alike knelt to 
 kiss his feet, and acclaimed him as vicar of Christ ; and such was 
 the press of unwelcome adorers, who added to the tortures that 
 he was already suffering from the gout, that the poor old man 
 began to rave wildly of antipopes and devils, and cursed the 
 Romans who besought his apostolic benediction. After some 
 hours, more dead than alive, he was carried in triumph to the 
 papal apartments, and there left in peace. 1 
 
 While this was in progress, the cardinals fled as best they 
 could from the palace. Aigrefeuille, Pierre de Vergne, Viviers, 
 Poitiers, and Limoges took refuge in the Castello Sant' Angelo, 
 where they were joined later by the Cardinal of Brittany, whose 
 house had been sacked and he himself roughly handled. The 
 Cardinals of Florence, Milan, and Marmoutier got in safety to 
 their own houses. Robert of Geneva, Noellet, Orsini, and 
 Flandrin escaped from the city. The last to leave the chapel 
 was Pedro de Luna, accompanied by his conclavist, the Dean of 
 Tarascon, Fernando Perez, who states that, throughout all the 
 disturbance, the Cardinal had rebuked and restrained the fury of 
 the people. A number of Romans escorted them on their way, 
 and, as they passed Sant' Angelo, the French supposed them 
 prisoners, and attempted a rescue. Once over the bridge, the 
 Cardinal was treated with all reverence by the populace. 2 
 Alfonso da Vadaterra, who visited him on his return from the 
 
 1 The clearest account of this extraordinary affair is in Valois, I. pp. 52, 53. 
 That given by Creighton, in his History of the Papacy, was written before the Vatican 
 documents were made accessible. It is curious to notice that Catherine of Sweden, 
 who was in Rome, supposes that the cardinals enthroned Tebaldeschi for fear 
 lest the Romans should kill the real Pope because not a Roman. Cf. her testi- 
 mony in Raynaldus, vii. pp. 380, 381. The Italian cardinals state that one of 
 the others " told the people that the Lord of St. Peter's was elected but would 
 not consent, and that they should induce him to consent." Gayet, doc. 27. 
 
 2 Letter from the Dean of Tarascon, Rome, April 1 1, to the Precentor of Elne 
 at Avignon. Gayet, doc. 22. 
 
 266 
 
THE BEGINNING OF THE SCHISM 
 
 conclave, found him surrounded by the Romans who had accom- 
 panied him, " totus laetus et hilaris," and still (so he asserts) 
 keeping up the fiction that Tebaldeschi was Pope. But, when 
 left alone with Alfonso and Fernando Perez, he explained that, 
 by his means, the Archbishop of Bari had been unanimously 
 elected as true Pope, and that the Cardinal of St. Peter's had 
 been enthroned simply for fear of the people. 1 He further told 
 him that the new pontiff was in hiding for fear — which the 
 Cardinal may well have believed, but which was by no means the 
 case. 
 
 Bartolommeo Prignano had remained in the Vatican, with 
 Cardinal Tebaldeschi and a few Italian prelates. He had had no 
 official notification of his election, but Giovanni Cenci and the 
 Bandaresi had already greeted him as Pope, and were busily 
 calming the minds of the Romans. The storm had, indeed, 
 completely subsided, and the following morning, Friday, April 
 9, found Rome at peace. Tommaso Petra tells us that, at 
 daybreak, Alfonso da Vadaterra sent to him in the name of the 
 Cardinal de Luna, asking him to go at once to Bartolommeo, to 
 assure him from the Cardinal that he was as truly Pope as St. 
 Peter, and that he had received a promise from influential 
 persons of a place of safety and a sufficient force of armed men 
 to bring him wherever he pleased. To this Bartolommeo 
 answered that he was not afraid, and that there was no need of 
 such an offer, for he wished to see his children freely and had no 
 thought of leaving them, but he thanked the Cardinal for his 
 solicitude. 2 The Cardinal had mistaken the situation ; the new 
 Pope and the representatives of the Roman People were united 
 against such intervention. Either freely or under pressure from 
 Cenci and the Bandaresi, all the cardinals who had remained in 
 the city came to the Vatican, followed (after some negotiation 
 and attempted evasion) by the six who had taken refuge in Sant' 
 Angelo. When Pedro de Luna arrived, Bartolommeo said that 
 he did not mean to be deceived, and bade him tell him if he 
 
 1 Raynaldus, vii. p. 378. 
 
 2 Testimony of Tommaso Petra, Archivio Vaticano, LIV. 17, f. 80. 
 
 267 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 understood that he had been lawfully elected — to which the 
 Cardinal answered in the affirmative. The cardinals retired into 
 the chapel, and, almost immediately, summoned Bartolommeo, 
 and informed him, by the mouth of the Cardinal of Florence, 
 that they had elected him Pope. " I am not worthy," was the 
 answer, " but I shall not contradict the Divine will ; I accept." l 
 He was at once robed in the papal vestments, and enthroned on 
 the altar ; the Te Deum was sung ; the doors were thrown open 
 for clergy and laity to pay their homage, while, in the absence of 
 Orsini, Cardinal de Vergne from a window of the palace formally 
 proclaimed to the people the election of Pope Urban VI. 
 
 " By the goodness and industry of the Roman People" wrote the 
 Mantuan agent, Cristoforo da Piacenza, to his master, " the lord 
 cardinals have elected the Lord Bartolommeo, Archbishop or 
 Bari, for Pope, a man with whom the holy Church of God is 
 certainly well provided." " I am certain that the holy Church of 
 God will be well governed, and I dare to say that for more than a 
 hundred years she has not had such a pastor. For he has no 
 kindred, and is most friendly with the Queen, experienced in the 
 affairs of the world, wise and prudent. All the Romans without 
 distinction are supremely joyful for the sake of the city, which has 
 gained back her Spouse." 2 
 
 During Holy Week, the cardinals who had fled from Rome 
 returned. On Easter Sunday, April 18, Urban was crowned 
 by Cardinal Orsini in front of St. Peter's, " with the greatest 
 solemnity and devotion," and went in procession with the 
 cardinals, all riding on white horses, to take possession of the 
 Lateran. The cardinals asked him for graces and favours, 
 spiritual and temporal, for themselves and their relatives and 
 friends, and in all respects treated him as lawful Pope. As such, 
 they announced his election to the cardinals at Avignon, to the 
 Emperor, and to the other princes of Christendom ; but it seems 
 
 1 Testimony of Cardinal de Luna, loc. at., pp. 259, 260. 
 
 2 Despatches of April 9 and 12, 1378. Pastor, Geschkhte, documents 10 and 
 11. The hermit-bishop, on the other hand (in the light of later events), tries 
 to make out that the Romans misliked the election of a Neapolitan. 
 
 268 
 
THE BEGINNING OF THE SCHISM 
 
 probable that this was done simply in obedience to Urban's 
 commands, and they appear in several instances to have accom- 
 panied their letters with a secret message not to put implicit 
 confidence in the official accounts of the election. The peculiar 
 situation had alarmed the consciences of many in the city, but 
 the Cardinal of Geneva and the Cardinal of Milan seem to have 
 been the only members of the College who openly expressed any 
 doubts as to Urban's title. When questioned, at least during 
 Holy Week and Easter Week, the others seem invariably to have 
 answered that Urban was as true a Pope as St. Peter, or words to 
 a similar effect. 1 Francesco Casini, indeed, hinted to Cardinal 
 Orsini that there were some who said that he was not Pope. " Get 
 out of this, you devil," answered that emphatic prince of the 
 Church ; " whoso says this, lies in his throat. He is as much a 
 Pope as you are a doctor of medicine." 2 Afterwards, the cardi- 
 nals declared that they were still in fear of the Roman populace, 
 surrounded by Urban's spies, and acting under compulsion ; 
 strange stories were told of ultramontane Carmelites and 
 Augustinians who had fared badly at the hands of their Italian 
 brethren for questioning the validity of the election. 3 Never- 
 theless, it is highly probable that, whether canonical or not, the 
 cardinals would have accepted the situation, had it not been for 
 Urban's own conduct. 
 
 Urban entered upon his pontificate with a sincere and uncom- 
 promising hatred of the corruption of the Curia and zeal for the 
 reformation of the Church, but with a tactless vehemence that can 
 only be explained on the assumption that his elevation had turned 
 his head. Not content with enforcing regulations against simony 
 and checking the luxury of the households of the cardinals, he 
 
 1 Cf. especially the report of the Bishop of Viterbo, Pastor, Acta Inedita, doc. 
 3, in which, however, there is a manifest Urbanist exaggeration. 
 
 2 Testimony of Francesco da Siena, Archivio Vaticano, LIV. 17, f. 76. 
 
 8 Cf. Gayet, II. pp. 86, 92. One of the Bandaresi is said to have declared 
 that, if any one ventured to call the validity of the election into question, " in 
 veritate Romani quemcumque facientem dubium ponerent in peciis talibus, quod 
 major pars esset auricula." 
 
 269 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 abused and insulted the individual members of the Sacred College, 
 and announced that he would swamp them by the creation of new 
 Italians and Romans. He stormed at them in public, calling one 
 a fool, another a liar, bidding a third hold his tongue. He sprang 
 from his seat to attack the Cardinal of Limoges, and there would 
 have been a disgraceful brawl, if the Cardinal of Geneva had not 
 intervened. On Low Sunday, April 25, the Cardinal of Amiens 
 arrived in Rome, furious with his colleagues for electing an 
 Italian, openly expressing his doubts as to the validity of the 
 election. A violent scene took place in the papal palace. Urban 
 declared that the Cardinal had destroyed the peace of the world 
 by his treacherous diplomacy ; the Cardinal retorted that, if his 
 accuser were still the Archbishop of Bari, he would tell him that 
 he lied in his throat. Such was Urban's bearing that even his 
 salutary measures for reform, bidding cardinals repair and reside 
 at their titular churches, bishops return to their sees, and the 
 like, seemed to acquire the character of studied insults. Nor 
 were the laity left untouched. Great nobles from Apulia and 
 barons from the Campagna found themselves rebuked and their 
 petitions denied them. Fra Gonsalvo, who had been absent from 
 the city on business of his order during the conclave, tells us that 
 at Gaeta he met Neapolitans returning from Rome, who were 
 greatly scandalized at the conduct of the new pontiff, who drove 
 people away from him with ignominy, " nobles and magnates and 
 venerable clerics and religious." There was much discussion 
 among the friars on the subject, but the prevalent opinion was 
 that it made for righteousness and marked the beginning of a 
 holy time, that men of bad life should be disturbed by the words 
 of the Pope, for these persons " would not dare to go into the 
 presence of Christ, the searcher of hearts." l Andrea di Piero 
 Gambacorti, who had gone to congratulate him in his father's 
 name, brought back a similar account of his proceedings to Pisa. 
 " According to what he says," wrote the Prior of Gorgona to 
 
 1 MS. cit., ff. 5 8 p., 59. To the poor, however, Urban was gracious, grant- 
 ing them all the favours and graces they asked. Cf. Cristoforo da Piacenza in 
 his despatch of June 24, Pastor, Geschkhte, I. doc. 12. 
 
 270 
 
THE BEGINNING OF THE SCHISM 
 
 Catherine, "this Holy Father of ours is a terrible man, and frightens 
 people fearfully with his conduct and words. He seems to have 
 a great trust in God, by reason of which he fears no man in the 
 world, and he is manifestly striving to abolish the simony and 
 great pomp that reigns in the Church of God." 1 But Urban did 
 not reserve his wrath for evil-doers ; the " servants of God " 
 came in for their share, when they spoke unpalatable truths ; we 
 still possess Catherine's letter of apology for Fra Bartolommeo di 
 Domenico, who, " by his fault of manner and his scrupulous con- 
 science," had thus excited the ready anger of her " sweet Christ 
 on earth." 2 
 
 The presence of the Cardinal of Amiens in Rome seems to 
 have brought things to a head. Led by him and Robert of 
 Geneva, the cardinals resolved to use against Urban the weapon 
 that the irregular nature of his election had put into their hands. 
 Urban had mortally offended Onorato Gaetani, the Count of 
 Fondi, by depriving him of the government of the Campagna, 
 and refusing to repay a large loan which he had made to the Holy 
 See. Amiens induced him to make common cause with the 
 cardinals, and at the same time, together with the Cardinal of 
 Geneva, he secretly encouraged Pierre Gandelin and Pierre 
 Rostaing, who, in spite of promises from Urban and threats 
 from the Romans, were still holding the Castello Sant' Angelo, 
 not to surrender it to the Pope. This done, the ultramontane 
 cardinals gradually left Rome, on plea of avoiding the heat, some 
 with and some without Urban's leave, and made their way to 
 Anagni (which the late Pope had fixed upon as the summer resi- 
 dence of the Curia), together with many other prelates of the 
 court and the chamberlain, Pierre de Cros, who carried off the 
 tiara of Gregory XI and most of the papal jewels. The first to 
 go were the Cardinals of Aigrefeuille and Poitiers, who left on 
 May 6 ; the last was Pedro de Luna, who stayed on in Rome 
 until about June 24. 
 
 The position of the Cardinal of Aragon was a peculiar one. 
 He could not but be aware that the election was regarded by most 
 1 Letter e dei discepoli, 3. 2 Letter 302 (16). 
 
 271 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 spiritual persons as his work, and that they all looked to him to 
 aid the Pope in reforming the Church. It is clear that he was 
 most reluctant to break with Urban, or to take any steps against 
 the unity of Christendom. When Fra Gonsalvo returned to 
 Rome in June, he found him at Santa Maria in Cosmedin, his 
 titular church, where he had taken up his residence in obedience to 
 the papal decree. Alone with the Cardinal (whose confessor he 
 was), the friar besought him to tell him the truth as to the 
 reports that were spreading about Urban's election ; to which he 
 answered that they had elected him in good faith, but that his 
 conduct since had been insupportable. 1 According to Alfonso 
 da Vadaterra, he complained also of Urban's ingratitude. " The 
 other ultramontane cardinals have all gone to Anagni," he said, 
 as they walked together in his garden, " and why should I linger 
 here with our lord, when he will grant me none of my requests ? " 
 At last, he decided to follow them, though Alfonso implored him 
 not to go. " He told me," says the hermit-bishop, " that in his 
 conscience he considered our lord the true Pope ; but that, if he 
 went to Anagni, he would do so to obviate the malice and sedition 
 of the French cardinals, who had an utterly evil and vindictive 
 intention against him ; and that he thought to serve our lord 
 the Pope better there than if he remained with him in Rome. 
 And I believe certainly that he went with this good intention ; 
 he wished to catch others in Anagni, but, alas, was caught himself, 
 which I cannot recall without heartfelt grief." 2 
 
 Urban had at first no suspicion as to the intentions of the 
 cardinals, and even talked of joining them at Anagni. He now 
 took alarm, hearing that they were plotting against him and 
 saying that he was not Pope, and summoned them to appear 
 within a certain time in his presence at Tivoli, whither he went 
 on June 27, accompanied by Cardinal Tebaldeschi. " I do not 
 know what will happen," wrote Cristoforo da Piacenza, with 
 cheerful optimism, to Lodovico Gonzaga, " but it is hoped that 
 
 1 Deposition of Fra Gonsalvo, MS. at., f. 60. 
 
 2 Raynaldus, vii. p. 379. 
 
 272 
 
THE BEGINNING OF THE SCHISM 
 
 everything will be settled peaceably." 1 Urban had previously 
 sent the three other Italians — Corsini, Brossano, and Orsini — to 
 Anagni to assure the cardinals of his good intentions, " offering 
 them many favours and advantages for themselves and their kin, 
 and to do more for them than any Roman Pontiff had ever done." 
 In public, the French cardinals professed themselves astonished 
 that Urban should give credit to such reports about their inten- 
 tions ; but, in private, they told their Italian colleagues that they 
 regarded the Apostolic See as vacant, and urged them to stay 
 with them. The three, however, returned to Urban, without 
 having effected anything. 2 For a while, the cardinals continued 
 to write to Urban as Pope and to treat him as such ; but this was 
 only a device to gain time. At the summons of the chamberlain, 
 Pierre de Cros, the Breton and Gascon mercenaries under 
 Bernardon de la Salle marched up from Viterbo to Anagni for 
 the defence of the Sacred College, passing within sight of Rome 
 on their way. At the Ponte Salario, on July 16, the forces or 
 the Roman Republic attempted to dispute their passage, but were 
 routed with loss of several hundreds killed. The infuriated 
 Roman populace retaliated by a massacre of all the foreign priests 
 and laymen who fell into their hands. The cardinals now 
 openly declared that the election of Urban was null and void, 
 because of the compulsion of the Romans, and, on July 20, 
 summoned their Italian colleagues to join them at Anagni within 
 five days. From Tivoli, on July 27, Marsile d'Inghen, who 
 was representing the interests of the University of Paris at the 
 papal court, wrote to the rector and heads of the University that 
 a schism in the Church was imminent, and asked for instructions 
 as to what he was to do under these circumstances. 3 
 
 1 Despatch of June 24. Pastor, Geschlchte, I. doc. iz. The deposition of 
 Pierre de Cros, Gayet, doc. 23, shows that the cardinals had hoped to entice 
 Urban to Anagni in order to make him their prisoner. 
 
 2 Cardinal Corsini's addition to the casus of the three Italian cardinals. Gayet, 
 doc. 27. Cf. the report of the Bishop of Viterbo, Pastor, Acta Inedita, doc. 3. 
 
 3 Du Boulay, IV. pp. 466, 467. Cf. Valois, I. p. 76 ; Gayet, II. p. 25. 
 The letter from the foreign cardinals to the Italians is in Raynaldus, vii. 
 P- 328. 
 
 18 273 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 The delay of the Sacred College in coming to a rupture with 
 Urban had been in part due to the opposition of Pedro de Luna. 
 " My lord of Geneva says that I am too conscientious," he said 
 to Alvarez Martinez, a Spaniard attached to the Curia : " I 
 certainly wish to see, and to see clearly, where the right lies ; for 
 I tell you that, if I were now to agree with them, and afterwards 
 were in Avignon and found that by right this man was true 
 Pope, I should go to him even barefoot, if I could not otherwise." 1 
 But at length, apparently sincerely converted by the arguments 
 of his colleagues, he wrote to Fra Gonsalvo at Rome, asking him 
 to come to him on important business. " I sent for you," he 
 began, when the friar arrived, " that you might hear my con- 
 fession, and that I might be comforted by your presence ; but I 
 must first ask you if you believe that the man at Tivoli is Pope, 
 for, in that case, I think you cannot absolve me." " O holy 
 Mother of God ! " exclaimed the Dominican, " what is this ? Do 
 not flatter yourself, my lord Cardinal, that those words are written 
 in water that you so often spoke to me in Rome to the contrary. 
 What can you now answer to what you yourself then told me 
 so frankly, as to your faithful son, your lover, your fellow- 
 countryman ? " The Cardinal, showing some embarrassment, 
 admitted that he had come to Anagni with the intention of 
 reconciling his colleagues with Urban, but declared himself now 
 convinced that the latter was not Pope. To Gonsalvo's retort 
 that the whole lot of them were being seduced by the devil, the 
 Cardinal " answered right humbly that it was possible, for he was 
 a mere man." He admitted that, if it had not been for Urban's 
 behaviour, they would still have been with him, and professed 
 his dread of schism, to avert which he asked Gonsalvo to exhort 
 the Pope spontaneously to renounce the papacy, in order that 
 they might proceed to a free election. Gonsalvo, "to escape 
 from the snare into which I had fallen," accepted the commission, 
 and the Cardinal paid his expenses back to Rome. 2 
 
 1 Baluze, I. col. 1 182. 
 
 2 Deposition of Fra Gonsalvo, MS. clt., ff. 63^.-65. 
 
 274 
 
THE BEGINNING OF THE SCHISM 
 
 Here he found Urban at S. Maria Maggiore, whither he had 
 removed from Tivoli at the beginning of August, after having 
 signed the peace with the Florentines. Tebaldeschi was the only- 
 cardinal in Rome — the other three Italians, at the end of July, 
 having gone to Vicovaro and thence to Palestrina, where they 
 were ostensibly negotiating with the Sacred College on Urban's 
 behalf, in reality attempting to keep neutral. " I went to our 
 lord the Pope," writes Gonsalvo, " and, after telling him my 
 message concerning his abdication, I exhorted him, in the name of 
 God, to dissipate the ambitious hosts of the devil which were 
 mustering against him, and to take aid from God and all the 
 Saints. But he, like a soldier who at length hears certain tidings 
 that the longed-for war is decided upon, rejoiced, and answered 
 me with joy : ' In God's own truth, I should reck little of laying 
 down the papacy ; but I will not resign to give place to the devil 
 and make sinners exult. Nay, I will abide and beat them down 
 in the name of the Lord our God.' " 1 
 
 In the meanwhile, the Cardinals of Geneva, Poitiers, and 
 Sant' Eustachio had been sent by their colleagues to Palestrina 
 to induce the three Italians to come to Anagni ; but without 
 result. They now decided to proceed without them. On 
 August 9, thirteen cardinals solemnly entered the cathedral of 
 Anagni. After the Mass of the Holy Spirit had been sung, 
 Jacopo d' Itri, Patriarch of Constantinople, preached from the text : 
 In te oculi respiciunt totius Israel, ut indices eis quis sedere debeat in 
 solio tuo? The history of the usurpation of the kingdom by 
 Adonijah the son of Haggith was, he declared, a figure of the 
 present state of the Church. " Let us turn the eyes of our mind 
 to our Queen, the glorious Virgin, that she may deign to plead 
 our cause in the presence of the King her Son. The sheep of 
 Christ's pasture are wandering through steep and devious ways, 
 even as flocks that have no shepherd ; he who usurpeth the name 
 of shepherd, is not the shepherd, for he has not entered by the 
 
 1 MS. cit., f. 65 v. (also in Raynaldus, vii. p. 318). 
 
 2 " The eyes of all Israel are upon thee, that thou shouldest tell them who shall 
 sit on the throne of my lord the king after him" (A.V., I Kings i. 20). 
 
 275 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 door into the sheepfold ; he whose own the sheep are not, careth 
 not to guard them from the invading wolves, from the roaring 
 lions that are seeking to devour. Say, we beseech thee, O 
 Queen, to the King : My only Son and my Lord, who didst lay 
 down Thy life for all these, who didst redeem them by Thy 
 precious blood, to place them on Thy right hand at the Day of 
 Judgment ; do Thou, the charioteer and the chariot of Israel, 
 deliver them from the spoiler, and appoint a ruler and a shepherd 
 over them. Instead of Adonijah who hath exalted himself in his 
 pride, appoint unto them a meek and peaceful Solomon." 1 An 
 encyclical letter signed by all the cardinals at Anagni was then 
 read aloud, denouncing the intrusion into the papacy of the late 
 Archbishop of Bari, declaring that they had only elected him to 
 escape the peril of death, anathematizing him as an antipope, a 
 deceiver and destroyer of Christians. They had previously 
 addressed a letter to him in similar terms, exhorting him, " by 
 the bowels of the mercy of Jesus Christ, whose Church and 
 Spouse thou hast not blushed to invade," to lay down his usurped 
 dignity, and strive to make amends by true penitence. 2 On 
 August 27, for greater security, the Sacred College moved from 
 Anagni to Fondi, to hold a fresh election under the protection of 
 Onorato Gaetani. 
 
 The three Italian cardinals were now at Subiaco, where they 
 kept in touch with both parties by letters and messengers, 
 labouring, as they afterwards declared, "to deliver the Church from 
 scandal and division, and to bring about her peace and union." 
 At length, on September 4, they wrote to Urban from Suessa 
 that they were about to take action, and were awaiting an answer 
 from the other cardinals to know how to proceed. Shortly 
 afterwards, they joined the Sacred College at Fondi ; there is 
 some evidence, from Clementine as well as Urbanist sources, that 
 each of the three believed that he himself was to be the new Pope. 3 
 
 1 Archivio Vaticano, LIV. 31, ff. 4^.-7 v. Many MSS. of this sermon have 
 been preserved. 
 
 2 Texts in Du Boulay, IV. pp. 467-478. 
 
 3 Cf. Gayet, doc. 27 ; T. de Nyem, I. 10 ; Baluze, I. col. 1237. 
 
 276 
 
THE BEGINNING OF THE SCHISM 
 
 In the meanwhile, Francesco Tebaldeschi, the last cardinal 
 who adhered to Urban, died at Rome on September 6. A 
 dying declaration, purporting to be his, was produced, to the 
 effect that he died in the conviction that Urban VI was lawfully 
 and canonically elected Pope. It seems certain that this was his 
 belief, but by no means improbable that the document was forged 
 in Urban's interests. 1 The Roman Pontiff was now left alone. 
 
 Queen Giovanna had received the first tidings of the elevation 
 of her subject to the papacy with every manifestation of delight, and 
 had sent a force of troops to Tivoli to guard his person, after the 
 engagement at the Ponte Salario. But at the end of August, 
 whether offended by Urban's treatment of her husband Otho, or 
 seduced by her chancellor, Niccolo Spinelli, with whom the Pope 
 had quarrelled, or really impressed by the declaration of the Sacred 
 College, she turned against him, and sent the Count of Caserta 
 with Niccolo Spinelli himself as her representatives to Fondi. 2 
 She was supported in this course, if, indeed, it had not first been 
 suggested to her, by a letter from the King of France. 
 
 Early in April, the Cardinal of Amiens and Pierre de Cros 
 had warned the King not to trust the official accounts of the 
 election. In May, a month after the event, Urban had tardily 
 notified his elevation to Charles by two envoys who arrived at 
 Paris in June : Cecco Tortelli, a Neapolitan knight, and Pierre de 
 Murles, a kinsman of Cardinal d'Aigrefeuille. The former was 
 faithful to his countryman. The latter had secretly accepted a 
 rival mission from the chamberlain and the French cardinals. 
 While ostensibly acting as the envoy of the Pope and affirming 
 Urban's lawful election, he privately warned the King that this 
 was not the whole truth, and gave a vivid account of the violence 
 to which the Sacred College had been subjected. 3 Not un- 
 
 1 Cf. Raynaldus, vii. pp. 328, 329 ; Gayet, II. pp. 268-274 ; Valois, I. p. 72. 
 
 2 Cf. T. de Nyem, I. 7, 8 ; Valois, I. pp. 77, 78. There was a report 
 spread that Urban intended to give the kingdom of Naples to Louis of Hungary, 
 and to send Giovanna to end her days in a convent. 
 
 8 Valois, I. pp. 90-93. Cf. Relation of Jean le Fevre in Du Boulay, IV. 
 p. 523, and the deposition of Pierre de Cros in Gayet, doc. 23. 
 
 277 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 naturally, Charles declared that he must wait for more information 
 before proceeding further in the recognition of the new Pope. 
 At Avignon itself there was division ; two of the six cardinals, 
 Anglico de Grimoard (as might have been expected from his past 
 career) and the Cardinal of Pamplona, were unwilling to re- 
 nounce allegiance to the man whom their colleagues at Rome 
 had at first announced as Pope, and they even wrote to bid the 
 custodians of Sant' Angelo surrender. But in August, a Francis- 
 can friar, who had been confessor to the French Queen, came 
 from Anagni with the formal declaration of the invalidity of 
 Urban's election ; Charles accepted it, and wrote to the Queen of 
 Naples assuring her of the applause of the world and of his own 
 gratitude, if she would take the part of the cardinals and be the 
 defender of the Church. 1 A little later, the Bishop of Farma- 
 gosta and Fra Niccolo da San Saturnino, the Dominican master of 
 the Sacred Palace, arrived at Avignon on their way to Paris, with 
 letters to the King, the Parliament, and the University. The six 
 cardinals now definitely made common cause with their colleagues. 
 At Paris, on September 13, the general assembly of the clergy of 
 France decided that more information was needed, and advised 
 the King not to commit himself. The latter, however, had 
 already made up his mind ; he had offered his aid to the 
 cardinals at Fondi ; and there can be little doubt that, although 
 he did not at first publicly adhere to him, the second claimant to 
 the papacy could fairly claim to have accepted the papal title 
 with his full approval, cum tuo suffragio, as he wrote a few 
 months later. 2 
 
 The new conclave was held in the palace of the Count of 
 Fondi, on September 20. The three Italians wished the election 
 to be effected by way of compromise, the whole to be put into 
 the hands of six cardinals, including themselves as three. This 
 was negatived. Cardinal Corsini, as dean of the Sacred College, 
 should have nominated a candidate, but he excused himself ; upon 
 which the Cardinal of Limoges proposed the Cardinal of Geneva, 
 who was unanimously elected. The three Italians abstained from 
 
 1 Text of letter in Valois, I. p. 99 n. 2 Valois, I. pp. 107, 108. 
 
 278 
 
THE BEGINNING OF THE SCHISM 
 
 voting, but raised no objection. According to Pedro de Luna, 
 they stated that they did this because of the danger that would 
 otherwise involve their kindred and their goods, but he himself 
 believed that they were discontented with the result. 1 On the 
 following day, Robert of Geneva was proclaimed Pope as 
 Clement VII, and, on October 31, he was solemnly crowned 
 in the cathedral of Fondi. 
 
 The new Supreme Pontiff was proclaimed at Avignon on 
 October 13 ; but the King of France still delayed taking the 
 final step, until November 16, when, being so advised by a 
 council assembled at Vincennes, he at length declared that he 
 recognized Clement VII as lawful Pope. 
 
 But he had been anticipated throughout by his brother. 
 Louis of Anjou, always dreaming of emulating the great Charles 
 of his house who had conquered Naples, listened to the first 
 appeal of the Sacred College, brought to him by Jean de Bar. 
 He lent large sums of money to the cardinals, declared that the 
 Count of Fondi was the anchor that Christ had provided for 
 the salvation of the bark of Peter, acclaimed the election of 
 Clement as the elevation of a personal friend, 2 and laid his sword 
 and power at his feet — on the understanding, as was soon shown, 
 that a very substantial reward should be his. 
 
 Queen Giovanna had already sent the Archbishop of Cosenza 
 to congratulate Clement on his election, and an illustrious embassy 
 of the noblest in her kingdom to assist at the coronation. It 
 was not, however, until November 20 (four days after the King 
 of France) that she made her solemn declaration in his favour. 
 At the same time, she ordered the arrest of all Urbanist emissaries, 
 and paid to Clement the 64,000 florins that she owed the Pope 
 as her tribute to the Holy See. 3 The rest of Italy, with the ex- 
 ception of Savoy, Piedmont, and Monferrato, adhered to Urban, 
 and Coluccio Salutati could freely, in the name of the Republic of 
 Florence, pour forth the same torrents of fiery rhetoric upon the 
 Clementine cardinals as he had previously employed against 
 
 1 Gayet, doc. 31 ; Sorbelli, p. 268. 
 2 See Valois, I. pp. 1 5 1 »., 1 57 ». 8 Ibid., P- 160. 
 
 279 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 Urban's predecessor in the papacy. Only a few feudal nobles, 
 like Francesco di Vico, the tyrant of Viterbo and titular prefect 
 of Rome, openly opposed the Roman claimant — although Gian 
 Galeazzo Visconti, who had succeeded his father Galeazzo as 
 lord of Pavia in August, was married to a sister of the French 
 King, and probably already contemplated the union of the whole 
 Milanese dominion in his own person, secretly kept in touch 
 with Louis of Anjou and the Clementine leaders. 
 
 From the outset, the Emperor Charles IV accepted Urban 
 as lawful Pope, and vigorously supported his cause. Dying in 
 November, 1378, he instructed his son and successor, Wenceslaus 
 (whom Urban, after much delay, had recognized as King of the 
 Romans at Tivoli, on July 26), to pursue the same course. But 
 he did not carry all Germany with him. The Dukes of Bavaria, 
 Luxemburg (the Emperor's own brother), and Lorraine, the 
 Archbishop of Mayence, and, in general, the princes of the 
 Empire most in touch with France, declared for Clement. 
 Hostility to France led the counsellors of Richard II to adhere 
 so fanatically to Urban that they refused to hear the other side ; 
 the Cardinal of Poitiers, appointed Clementine legate to 
 England, was denied admission into the country ; and those 
 portions of France still subject to the English were compelled 
 to adopt the faith of their rulers. Scotland acknowledged 
 Clement, as also did Brittany, while Flanders was Urbanist. 
 Louis of Hungary and Poland, then at the height of his power, 
 after some delay, adhered to Urban. Charles the Bad of Navarre 
 and Ferdinand of Portugal did not commit themselves. The 
 Kings of Aragon and Castile, Pedro IV and Henry II, de- 
 termined for the present to remain strictly neutral ; and it is to 
 the investigations of the ambassadors of Pedro and of Henry's 
 successor, Juan I, that we owe the series of depositions and 
 testimonies now preserved in the Vatican Archives upon which 
 much of our knowledge of the details of the events that caused 
 the Great Schism is ultimately based. 
 
 280 
 
CHAPTER XIII 
 FROM SIENA TO ROME 
 
 "Prega la somma eterna Bonta di Dio, che ne faccia quello che sia suo onore e salute 
 dell' anima ; e specialmente ora, che sono per andare a Roma per compire la volonta di 
 Cristo crocifisso e del vicario suo." — St. Catherine, Letter 316 (165). 
 
 At the first rumour of a misunderstanding between the 
 Sacred College and the Pope, Catherine had addressed an im- 
 passioned letter from Florence to Pedro de Luna : " with desire 
 of seeing you a firm column, set in the garden of Holy Church, 
 freed from that self-love which weakens every creature that has 
 reason." "I seem to have heard," she wrote, "that discord is 
 arising over there between Christ on earth and his disciples, from 
 which I receive intolerable sorrow, for the mere dread that I 
 have of heresy, which I fear greatly may come because of my 
 sins. And, therefore, I beseech you, by that glorious and precious 
 blood which was shed with such great fire of love, never to sever 
 yourself from virtue and from your head. All other things — 
 external war and other tribulations — would seem to us less than 
 a straw or a shadow in comparison with this." * 
 
 Catherine had returned to Siena a few days before the solemn 
 denunciation of Urban's usurpation of the papacy, at Anagni 
 on August 9, announced the imminence of a schism in the 
 Church. From her native city, she now beheld with unutterable 
 anguish what men called the rending of the coat of Christ that 
 was without seam. There can be no doubt that she heard only 
 the extreme Urbanist version of what had happened, and she 
 accepted it unreservedly with all the passionate fervour of her 
 soul. " O men, not men, but rather demons visible," she cries, 
 apostrophizing the cardinals, " how does the inordinate love that 
 you have set on the dunghill of your own bodies, and on the 
 
 1 Letter 293 (26). A better text is in the Palatine MS. 56, from which I 
 quote. 
 
 28l 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 delights and states of the world, blind you so, that, when the 
 vicar of Christ, he whom you elected by a canonical election, 
 wishes to correct your lives and that you should be sweet-smelling 
 flowers in the garden of Holy Church, you now spread poison, 
 and say he is not true Pope, but that you did it for fear, and 
 for dread of the fury of the people ? This is not the truth ; 
 and, if it had been, you were worthy of death for having elected 
 the Pope with fear of men and not with fear of God. But this 
 you cannot say, or, if you say it, cannot prove it ; for what you 
 did with fear, to appease the people, appeared manifestly to all 
 when you put the mantle of St. Peter upon Messer di San Pietro, 
 and said that you had chosen him Pope. This was seen not to 
 be the truth ; and it was found so, when the tumult ceased ; and 
 so he confessed, and you, too, that he was not Pope, but Messer 
 Bartolommeo, Archbishop of Bari, was elected Pope. And what 
 moved you, if the latter was not Pope, to re-elect him then afresh, 
 with an orderly election, without any violence, and to crown 
 him with such great solemnity, with all the order that is required 
 for this function, as had not been done in the election of any of 
 his predecessors ? But I know what moves you to denounce 
 him to the contrary : your self-love, which can brook no correc- 
 tion. For, before he began to bite you with words, and wished 
 to draw the thorns out of the sweet garden, you confessed and 
 announced to us, little sheep, that Pope Urban VI was true Pope. 
 And so I confess, and do not deny him, that he is the vicar of 
 Christ, who holds the keys of the blood in truth ; which truth 
 shall not be confounded by the liars and wicked men of the world, 
 for the truth is the thing that sets us free. O wretches ! you see 
 not how you have fallen, because you have deprived yourselves 
 of light. You have taken the poison for yourselves, but why do 
 you give it to others ? Have you no pity upon so many little 
 sheep, who for this are leaving the fold ? " x 
 
 And to the Count of Fondi, a few weeks before the election 
 of Clement, she wrote that self-love and wicked anger had 
 poisoned and corrupted him who should be a true worker in the 
 
 1 Letter 312 (3 1 5), dated October 8, 1378, in the Harleian MS. 
 
 282 
 
FROM SIENA TO ROME 
 
 vineyard of the soul. " O dearest father, consider your position 
 and look at your vineyard. In the secret of your heart, you hold 
 that Pope Urban VI is the true Sovereign Pontiff ; and whoso 
 says otherwise is a heretic, rejected by God, no faithful Catholic, 
 but a renegade Christian who denies his faith. We are bound to 
 hold that he is the Pope, canonically elected, the vicar of Christ 
 on earth, and we are bound to obey him even unto death. Even 
 if he were so cruel a father as to hunt us with reproaches and 
 with every torment from one end of the world to the other, we 
 are still bound not to forget nor to persecute this truth. And 
 if you said to me : ' On the contrary, I have been informed that 
 Pope Urban VI is not in truth the Sovereign Pontiff ' ; I should 
 answer that I know that God has given you so much light that, 
 if you do not deprive yourself of it by the darkness of anger and 
 resentment, you will know that whoso says this lies upon his 
 own head. They make themselves liars, by retracting the truth 
 that they delivered to us, and represent it as a lie. I know well 
 that you know what has moved those who were set in the place 
 of truth that they might spread the faith. Now they have con- 
 taminated the faith and denied the truth ; they have raised such 
 a schism in Holy Church that they are worthy of a thousand 
 deaths. You will find that nought else has moved them save 
 that passion which has moved you yourself, to wit, self-love 
 which could not endure a harsh word or rebuke, nor to be 
 deprived of territory, but conceived resentment and brought 
 forth anger as child. By this they, and all who act against this 
 truth, are depriving themselves of the goods of heaven. The 
 evidence that can be seen of this truth is so plain and so clear 
 and so manifest, that even the most unlearned person can see and 
 understand it." 1 
 
 Two of those for whose spiritual welfare she had been specially 
 solicitous and upon whom she had based great hopes as possible 
 champions of Christ and the Church — Duke Louis of Anjou 
 and Queen Giovanna of Naples — were among the first to reject 
 this truth, which to Catherine seemed so clear and manifest. 
 1 Letter 313 (192), revised by the Harleian MS. 
 283 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 Pedro de Luna himself, the pious and charitable Cardinal of 
 Aragon, had become one of the "incarnate demons." The prior- 
 general of the Carthusians, Guillaume Rainaud, was preparing to 
 lead his flock into the Clementine fold, and Catherine's appeal to 
 him, written in her name by Stefano Maconi, passed unheeded. 1 
 She was doubtless to be spared the knowledge that a young 
 Dominican, born three years after herself and just ordained priest 
 by the hands of Pedro de Luna, of life as holy and of eloquence 
 only less fervid than her own, destined to be raised to the altars 
 of the Church as St. Vincent Ferrer, was throwing himself heart 
 and soul into the conflict on behalf of Clement, and by his word 
 and pen was soon to draw Spain from her attitude of neutrality 
 to recognize the Pope of Avignon. 2 But she already saw the 
 shining lights of the order passing into the enemy's camp ; her 
 zealous and devout master-general, Fra Elias of Toulouse, 
 accepted Clement as Pope ; the eloquence of the master of 
 the Sacred Palace, Fra Niccolo da San Saturnino, had been 
 employed on behalf of the cardinals at Anagni. The time has 
 come, she writes to Suora Daniella of Orvieto, to take the food 
 of souls, by offering up humble and continual prayers with im- 
 passioned desire to God, at the table of the Cross. " It is the 
 time for this at all times ; but neither thou nor any one else 
 ever saw another time of greater necessity. Bethink thee, 
 daughter mine, with sorrow and bitterness, of the darkness that 
 has come into Holy Church. Human aid seems to be failing 
 us ; it befits thee and the other servants of God to invoke His 
 aid. Look to it not to be negligent ; it is time to watch and not 
 to sleep. Thou knowest well that, if the guards and others of 
 the city slept when the enemy were at the gates, there is no 
 doubt that they would lose it. We are surrounded by many 
 enemies ; for thou knowest that the world and our own frailty 
 
 1 Cf. Bartholomaeus Senensis, op. cit., Lib. III. cap. 2. This letter, now lost, 
 is not to be confused with Letter 55 (53), written to Dom Guillaume at an 
 earlier date. 
 
 2 His treatise, De Moderno Eccksiae Schismate, was dedicated to the King of 
 Aragon in I 3 80. 
 
 284 
 
FROM SIENA TO ROME 
 
 and the demon, with the many thoughts he brings, never sleep, 
 but are always ready to see if we are sleeping, to be able to enter 
 in, and like thieves plunder the city of the soul ; and, even as 
 our own soul, so, too, is the mystical body of Holy Church 
 surrounded by many enemies. Thus thou seest that those who 
 are set for columns and supporters of Holy Church have become 
 her persecutors, with the darkness of heresy. We must not sleep, 
 but defeat them with vigils, tears, sweat, with mournful and 
 loving desires, with humble and continual prayer. Like a faith- 
 ful daughter of Holy Church, pray and constrain the most high 
 and sweet God to help us now in this need ; and pray Him to 
 strengthen the Holy Father and give him light. I speak of Pope 
 Urban VI, truly Pope and vicar of Christ on earth. And so I 
 confess, and we are bound to confess, before all the world ; and 
 on no account must we believe whoso should say or hold the 
 contrary, but rather choose death." l 
 
 For more than three months, Catherine remained quietly at 
 Siena, dictating to her secretaries her great mystical book, the 
 Bialogo, which she finished in October, and her letters which she 
 was despatching in all directions, while she awaited the summons 
 to fight her last battle in the Eternal City. 
 
 The dates have been preserved in the manuscripts of an 
 unusual number of the letters that she wrote or dictated during,,, 
 these months, beginning with one on August 27, to Madonna 
 Lodovica di Granello Tolomei, on true and perfect charity. 2 We 
 find her writing to Pope Urban himself, on September 18, urging 
 him to reform the morals of the clergy, to appoint virtuous 
 bishops, to surround himself with the servants of God and to 
 lean upon their counsel. 3 On this very day, at Rome, Urban 
 was creating a new College of cardinals to take the place of those 
 who had deserted him, but six of the twenty-nine he had nomin- 
 ated (including the Bishop of Autun, who afterwards received 
 it from Clement) refused to accept the hat from his hands. With 
 the exception of Fra Bonaventura Badoara and the Archbishop of 
 
 1 Letter 308 (164). 2 Letter 304 (345). 
 
 3 Letter 305 (17). 
 285 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 Pisa, the others were either men of small note or appointed for 
 political reasons ; they included Pileo da Prata, Archbishop of 
 Ravenna, Agapito Colonna, and Philippe de Alencon, the 
 Patriarch of Jerusalem, a kinsman of the King of France. The 
 Bishop of London, William Courtenay, was among those who 
 declined the papal offer. On October 4, Catherine wrote to Monna 
 Agnese, the wife of the Florentine tailor, tenderly forbidding her 
 to practise excessive and imprudent austerities ; x and, on October 
 5, to Pope Urban again, the news of Clement's election having 
 reached her : " with the desire of seeing you robed in the strong 
 garment of most ardent charity, in order that the blows that are 
 hurled at you by the wicked men of the world, lovers of them- 
 selves, may not be able to harm you." In the strength of this 
 garment, let him fearlessly enter the battle against the Antichrist 
 that the incarnate demons have raised up against him. 2 She 
 wrote, on October 8, to the Queen of Naples, imploring her not 
 to pervert the light into darkness by aiding the cardinals or 
 acknowledging their Antipope ; let her, at least, remain neutral 
 until the truth is made manifest to her. 3 A letter to the tailor 
 Francesco and his wife, a letter of spiritual comfort and exhorta- 
 tion, dated October 1 3, has a peculiarly interesting postscript : 
 " I pray you to take at once to Giannozzo the letter that I send 
 you with this, and do not fail to take it to him wherever he is." 4 
 Here we find Catherine in direct communication with Giannozzo 
 Sacchetti, and, in the light of his tragic fate in the following 
 year, it would have been of very great, even painful interest, to 
 know what was the subject of the Saint's letter to him. A letter 
 to a Florentine lady, on the patient reception of tribulations, with 
 what seems a reference to the harsh judgments passed upon her 
 own mission to Florence, is of October 20. 5 On October 23, 
 
 1 Bibl. Nazionale di Firenze, MS. xxxviii. 130. 
 
 2 Letter 306 (18). » Letter 312 (315). 
 
 4 Bibl. Nazionale di Firenze, MS. cit. 
 
 5 Letter 307 (368). In several MSS. it is dated "a dl xx d'Octobre a 
 Firenze, 1378," the address having got confused with the text. Catherine was 
 at Siena and her correspondent at Florence. 
 
 286 
 
FROM SIENA TO ROME 
 
 she wrote to a certain Giovanni da Parma in Rome, whose 
 conscience was disturbed by some unnamed book that he had 
 been studying : God has given us a book, His Word, the Son of 
 God, which was written on the Cross, not with ink but with blood, 
 a book that the most unlettered and dull of apprehension can 
 read ; " and I am certain that, if you will read in this sweet book, 
 your book, by which you seem to be so harassed, will not give 
 you any trouble." 1 To Tora di Messer Piero Gambacorti, after- 
 wards known in the history of the Dominican order as the Beata 
 Chiara, who, after much opposition from her father, had just, by 
 the intervention of Alfonso da Vadaterra, been allowed to take 
 the veil, Catherine wrote, on October 26, warning her that the 
 Divine Bridegroom whom she had chosen is very jealous, and 
 urging her as soon as possible to become His true servant and 
 bride. 2 
 
 At last the summons came from Urban, who realized to the 
 full what a weapon the venerated maiden of Siena would be 
 in his hands, to come to Rome. Raimondo tells us that she at 
 first pleaded that her constant journeys scandalized many in Siena, 
 and some of her own sisters in religion ; she required an express 
 order from the Pope, that it might be quite clear that she was 
 acting under holy obedience. 3 " By the great goodness of God, 
 and by the command of the Holy Father," she wrote, on 
 November 4, to the tailor Francesco, " I believe that I am going 
 to Rome about the middle of this month, more or less, as shall 
 please God, and we shall go by land ; so I tell you this as I 
 promised you. Pray God to make us fulfil His will. I pray 
 you, Francesco, for the love of Christ crucified, to take the 
 trouble of delivering the letters which I am sending you with 
 this, quickly for the honour of God and to please me. Go to 
 Monna Pavola and tell her, if she has not had what she wanted 
 from court, to write to me, and I will do for her as for my 
 
 1 Letter 309 (299). 
 
 | 2 Letter 262 (322) ; the date (with some additional matter) is in the MS. 
 xxxviii. 1 30 of the Bibl. Nazionale di Firenze. 
 3 Legenda, III. i. 3 (§ 333). 
 
 287 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 mother. Tell her to pray, and to make all her daughters pray 
 for us. Find Niccolo, the poor man of Romagna, and tell him 
 that I am about to go to Rome, and that he must take heart and 
 pray to God for us." 1 " Pray the supreme eternal goodness of 
 God," she wrote to Suora Daniella, " that He may do with us 
 what may be His honour and the salvation of souls ; and especially 
 now that I am to go to Rome to fulfil the will of Christ crucified 
 and of His vicar. I do not know which way I shall take. Pray 
 Christ sweet Jesus that He send us by that which is most to His 
 honour, with peace and quiet to our souls." 2 
 
 Catherine reached Rome on November 28, 1378, the first 
 Sunday in Advent, con molta pace, as she wrote to Stefano Maconi, 
 who was detained at Siena by family affairs. 3 A large band of 
 men and women accompanied her, including Alessa, Cecca, Lisa, 
 Giovanna di Capo, Neri di Landoccio, Barduccio Canigiani, 
 Gabriele Piccolomini, Fra Bartolommeo di Domenico, Fra Santi, 
 and Giovanni Tantucci. " Many more would have come," writes 
 Raimondo, " if she had not forbidden it. Those who came 
 committed themselves to the Divine Providence in voluntary 
 poverty, choosing rather to go wandering and begging with the 
 holy virgin, than, by staying in comfort in their own houses, to be 
 deprived of such sweet and virtuous conversation." i Raimondo 
 himself, who was still prior of the Minerva, met them in Rome, 
 and Lapa seems to have joined them later. On November 30, 
 Lando di Francesco, then in Rome as ambassador of Siena to 
 obtain the restitution of Talamone, wrote to the Signoria : 
 " Caterina di Monna Lapa has come here, and our lord the Pope 
 has seen and heard her right gladly. It is not known what he 
 
 1 See Appendix, Letter V. Monna Pavola, the head of a house of spiritual 
 women in Fiesole, and Niccolo, a Romagnole beggar in Florence, were already 
 among Catherine's correspondents. 
 
 2 Letter 316 (165). 
 
 3 Letter 319 (255). A portion of this letter, apparently in Barduccio's 
 autograph, is preserved in the MS. T. iii. 3, at Siena. The statement of Barth. 
 Senensis, op. tit., Lib. I. cap. 10, that Stefano accompanied Catherine to Rome 
 and wished to be sent as her ambassador to Naples, is manifestly erroneous. 
 
 * Legenda, III. i. 3 (§ 333). 
 
 288 
 
FROM SIENA TO ROME 
 
 has asked of her, but he was glad to see her. Castello Sant* 
 Angelo is still holding out, and the Romans are bombarding it 
 daily." i 
 
 Urban received Catherine in a public audience, surrounded 
 by those of his new cardinals who were in Rome. At his 
 bidding, she addressed them, urging them to constancy and faith 
 in the Divine Providence. " This poor little woman puts us to 
 shame by her courage," he said, when she had finished ; "what 
 need the vicar of Jesus Christ fear, although the whole world 
 stand against him ? Christ the Almighty is more powerful than 
 the world, and He will never abandon His Church." 2 
 
 The situation was full of peril. Francesco di Vico from 
 Viterbo was ravaging the Patrimony, Giordano Orsini at Marino 
 could threaten the very gates of Rome, Clement had armed 
 galleys at the mouth of the Tiber to intercept Urban's com- 
 munication with the sea, while in the Neapolitan territory and 
 elsewhere troops were being collected, to decide the quarrel by 
 force of arms. The Romans had taken the siege of Castello Sant' 
 Angelo into their own hands, but could not prevail over the 
 vigorous resistance of the two French captains, and Urban, unable 
 to take up his residence in the Vatican, was compelled to remain 
 at S. Maria in Trastevere. Here, on November 29, the day 
 after Catherine's arrival, he issued a bull anathematizing the 
 " nurslings of iniquity and sons of perdition " : Clement himself, 
 the ex-Cardinals of Amiens, Marmoutier, and Sant' Eustachio ; 
 the Count of Fondi ; Pierre de Cros, the Patriarch of Con- 
 stantinople, the Archbishop of Cosenza, and a number of other 
 prelates ; the Count of Caserta, Francesco di Vico, Niccolo Spinelli, 
 and the three leaders of the Breton and Gascon mercenaries, 
 Jean de Malestroit, Silvestre Budes, and Bernardon de la Salle. 3 
 
 1 Lettere del discepoli, 1 o. 
 
 3 Legends, III. i. 4 (§ 334). 
 
 8 Raynaldus, vii. pp. 362-366. Cf. Valois, I. p. 162. In December, Clement 
 made Pierre de Cros, the Patriarch of Constantinople, the Archbishop of Cosenza, 
 and Fra Niccol6 da San Saturnino cardinals, together with the minister-general 
 of the Friars Minor, Fra Leonardo de' Griffoni. 
 19 289 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 Urban 's evident unwillingness to proceed against Pedro de Luna is. 
 noticeable, as also the fact that the bull still speaks of the three 
 Italian cardinals, Corsini, Brossano, and Jacopo Orsini, who had 
 retired to Tagliacozzo after the election of Clement, as "our 
 venerable brother and our beloved sons." It is clear that he did 
 not yet regard them as his enemies. 
 
 There is something heroic (tragically pathetic, even, in the 
 light of his subsequent fall) in the figure of this coarse- 
 grained, violent, and implacable man, firmly believing in the 
 justice of his own claims to be the vicar of the Prince of 
 Peace, surrounded by men who were prepared to turn 
 against him when it should serve their purposes, thus setting 
 out to battle against the world in what he deemed the cause of 
 righteousness, with the pale, ecstatic figure of the stigmatized 
 Bride of Christ by his side. His first impulse was to employ 
 her for the conversion of the Queen of Naples, sending her 
 and Catherine of Sweden together as his ambassadors to win 
 her over to his side. Catherine of Siena accepted the mission 
 with alacrity and enthusiasm ; but Catherine of Sweden, who 
 remembered with lively horror what she had seen of the court 
 of Naples at the time of her brother's death, absolutely 
 refused to go. Fra Raimondo, who also knew more of 
 his sovereign and her ways than did his spiritual mistress, 
 was so much impressed by the Swedish maiden's fears that 
 he frankly opened his mind to Urban on the subject ; and the 
 latter, after some thought, decided that it was better that 
 they should not go. Catherine, yearning like a mother over 
 the Queen's soul, and longing herself for martyrdom, was 
 bitterly disappointed. " If Agnes and Margaret had thought 
 upon these things," she said, "they would never have won 
 the crown of martyrdom. Is not our Bridegroom able to 
 protect us ? These are vain considerations, which proceed from 
 lack of faith rather than from true prudence." 1 She had, for 
 
 1 Legenda, III. i. 5 (§335)- Cf - Comtesse de Flavigny, Sainte Brigitte de Suede, 
 PP- 53 2 -537> but J can nnd n0 evidence of any direct intercourse between the 
 two Catherines. 
 
 290 
 
FROM SIENA TO ROME 
 
 the present, to content herself with sending another flaming 
 letter to Giovanna, once more urging the Urbanist case upon 
 her, threatening her with the divine vengeance and the rebel- 
 lion of her own subjects as the result of her vacillations. 
 "I beseech you," she wrote, "fulfil in yourself the will of 
 God and the desire of my soul, with which I desire, with all 
 my heart and with all the powers of my soul, your salvation. 
 And, therefore, constrained by the Divine Goodness which 
 loves you ineffably, I have set myself to write to you with 
 »reat grief. I wrote to you once before about this matter. 
 Have patience, if I burden you too much with words, and if 
 [ speak to you confidently, irreverently. The love that I 
 bear you makes me speak with confidence ; the sin that you 
 Slave committed makes me depart from the reverence I owe 
 pou, and speak irreverently. Very much more am I fain to tell 
 p-ou the truth by word of m'outh, for your salvation, and 
 xincipally for the honour of God, than by writing." 1 For 
 ;ome while, Catherine continued to hope that she might still 
 )e able to go to Naples, and win the wayward soul of the 
 3ueen to what she deemed " the truth that we must know 
 ind love for our salvation." 
 
 Another and more grievous disappointment awaited Catherine, 
 n November, Urban had decided to send a second embassy to 
 France, and his choice had fallen upon Fra Raimondo as one 
 »f the ambassadors. The other was Jacopo di Ceva, " marshal 
 if the Roman Curia," the same official who had acted as Pope 
 ■Jregory's procurator in the process against the Florentines ; 
 nd they were to be joined on their arrival by a third, 
 xuillaume de la Voulte, whom Urban had transferred from 
 be bishopric of Marseilles to that of Valence, and who had 
 ot yet joined the Clementines. The friar was charged with 
 riefs to the King, to the University of Paris (which was 
 ivided on the question of the day, one strong party still 
 ivouring Urban, while another desired an appeal to a General 
 'ouncil), to the Duke of Anjou, to Cardinal de Grimoard, 
 1 Letter 317 (316). 
 291 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 and various French bishops. 1 Early in December, Raimondo 
 
 set out. After more than a year's separation, they had only 
 
 passed a few days in each other's company, and Catherine, 
 
 while urging him to go in the service of the Church, felt the 
 
 separation most keenly. Instinctively, she knew that the long 
 
 conversation they had together before he started was to be 
 
 their last : " We shall never speak like this to each other 
 
 again," she said. The ship lay waiting in the Tiber, that was 
 
 to take him to Pisa. Catherine accompanied him to the bank ; 
 
 when the sailors began to row, she knelt awhile in prayer, 
 
 and then, rising and weeping, made the sign of the Cross as 
 
 the ship passed away. " She seemed to be saying," writes 
 
 the friar : " thou, my son, wilt go in safety, for the sign of 
 
 the holy Cross is protecting thee ; but, in this life, thou shalt 
 
 never see thy mother more." 
 
 Raimondo's ship, in spite bf the Clementine galleys that 
 were guarding the mouth of the Tiber and scouring all the 
 Italian coast, reached Pisa in safety. Here he received a 
 letter from Catherine, written " with desire of seeing you 
 illumined with a true and most perfect light." " Do you 
 know," she asks, " how much my soul desires this ? As 
 much as she desires herself to be delivered from darkness, and 
 to be united and blended with the light. I beseech you, by the 
 love of Christ crucified and of that sweet Mother Mary, that 
 you strive, to the utmost of your power, to fulfil in yourself 
 the will of God and my desire ; for then will my soul be 
 blessed. It is no longer time to sleep, but to wake up from 
 the slumber of negligence and rise up from the blindness of 
 ignorance, and royally espouse the truth with the ring of 
 most holy faith, and proclaim that truth, never keeping it 
 
 1 Cf. Denifle, Chartularium Universitatis Parisiensis, Tom. iii. pp. 663-665. 
 The brief, giving the friar authority for preaching and acting against the election 
 of Clement, is dated November 8, the others November 21 and 28 ; but it is clear 
 from Raimondo's own words in the Legenda that he left Rome at least some days 
 after Catherine's arrival, and her Letter 323 (54) shows that he had started by 
 December 13. ' 
 
 292 
 
FROM SIENA TO ROME 
 
 lent for any fear ; but be prepared boldly and generously 
 > give one's life, if need be, all inebriated with the blood of 
 le humble and immaculate Lamb, drawing if from the breast 
 7 His most sweet Spouse, Holy Church, which we see all 
 ismembered." x The friar continued his journey by sea to 
 enoa, and thence by land to Ventimiglia. Jacopo di Ceva 
 as arrested at the frontier by the soldiers of the Count of 
 ■eneva, Clement's brother. Raimondo himself received a 
 arning that an ambush was set for him and that his death 
 as certain, if he went any further ; he returned to Genoa, 
 id reported what had happened to Urban, who bade him stay 
 here he was and preach the crusade against the Clementines. 2 
 'he Pope appears to have been perfectly satisfied with his 
 )nduct ; but to Catherine it seemed a betrayal of the truth, 
 pusillanimous flight from martyrdom. " God has wished 
 ou. to know your own imperfection," she wrote, "showing 
 au that you are still a child that needs milk, and not a man 
 ) live on bread ; for if He had seen that you had teeth for 
 , He would have given it to you, even as He did to your 
 )mpanions. You were not yet worthy to stay upon the field 
 f battle, but you were driven back like a child ; and you 
 ed away willingly, and were glad at the grace that God 
 ranted to your weakness. Naughty father mine, how blessed 
 ould your soul and mine have been, if with your blood you 
 id built up a stone in Holy Church for love of the blood ! " 3 
 
 In the meanwhile, at Catherine's instigation, Urban had 
 :solved to summon the " servants of God " to his aid, to fill 
 ome with men of great repute for sanctity, and at least 
 :cure that all the spiritual forces within the Church should 
 i on his side. " In this horrible tempest that threatens the 
 hurch with shipwreck," he wrote, on December 13, to the 
 
 1 Letter 330 (99) ; in the Harleian and Casanatense MSS. 
 
 2 Legenda, III. i. 6, 7 (§§ 336, 337). 
 
 8 Letter 333 (100). Jacopo di Ceva was kept a prisoner until, like Guil- 
 ime de la Voulte, he passed over to the side of Clement. Cf. Denifle, op. cit., 
 3m. iii. p. 557, and Valois, I. p. 1 25 ». 
 
 293 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 Prior of Gorgona, Don Bartolommeo Serafini, "we believe 
 and hope to be divinely helped by the prayers and tears of 
 the just, rather than by the arms of soldiers and by human 
 prudence. Therefore, with Peter, who when he was sinking 
 in the sea besought aid from the Lord, and straightway merited 
 to be delivered by His loving hand, earnestly and with de- 
 votion of heart, we summon to our assistance the devout tears 
 and assiduous prayers of the just children of the Church, that 
 they may humbly and devoutly assail the ears of the Lord, 
 and He may the sooner bend to have compassion upon us." 
 The monk is to have special prayers and sacrifices offered, 
 night and day, in all the congregations and hermitages of men 
 and women in Tuscany and elsewhere, and to seek out certain 
 representatives of the different religious orders, including 
 Giovanni dalle Celle and William Flete, and with them pre- 
 sent himself in Rome before the Pope by the second Sunday 
 after the Epiphany. 1 A number of others, not named in this 
 bull, seem also to have been summoned, including Frate 
 Antonio da Nizza and Fra Paolino da Nola, of Lecceto, and 
 three of the hermits of Monte Luco, above Spoleto. 
 
 Catherine herself forwarded the bull to the Prior of Gorgona. 
 " Now is our time," she wrote, " in which it will be seen who is 
 a lover of the truth. We must arise from slumber and place the 
 blood of Christ before our eyes, in order that we may be more 
 inspirited for the battle. Our sweet Holy Father, Pope Urban 
 
 VI, true Supreme Pontiff, seems to mean to adopt that remedy 
 which is necessary for the reformation of Holy Church ; he wishes 
 to have the servants of God by his side, and to guide himself and 
 Holy Church by their counsels. For this reason he sends you 
 this bull, in which is contained that you have to summon all those 
 who are written there. Do it zealously and quickly, and without 
 loss of time ; for the Church of God has need of no delay. Set 
 
 1 Bull published by Gigli, in notes to Catherine's letter to Don Bartolommeo. 
 An earlier brief (of doubtful authenticity), dated September 6, 1378, is in Barth. 
 Senensis, op. at., Lib. IV. cap. 5, and Tromby, Storia del Patriarca S. Brunone, etc., 
 
 VII. App. I. doc. 38. 
 
 294 
 
FROM SIENA TO ROME 
 
 iside every other thing, be it what it may, and urge on the others 
 o be here soon. Do not delay, do not delay, for the love of 
 jod. Enter this garden to labour here ; Fra Raimondo has 
 ;one to labour over there, for the Holy Father has sent him to 
 he King of France. Pray God for him, that He may make him 
 i true sower of the truth ; and that he may lay down his life for 
 t, if there be need. The Holy Father bears himself well and 
 oyally, like a man virile and just and zealous for the honour of 
 jod, as he is." 1 She wrote simultaneously to the hermits of 
 ipoleto, Frate Andrea da Lucca and his companions ; to Giovanni 
 lalle Celle ; to William Flete and Frate Antonio ; urging them to 
 )bey the call of the Pope and leave their cells. " I shall see," she 
 vrote to the two of Lecceto, " if we have really conceived love 
 or the reformation of Holy Church ; for, if it is so in sooth, you 
 rill follow the will of God and of His vicar ; you will leave the 
 rood, and come to enter the field of battle. But, if you do not 
 lo it, you will be disregarding the will of God." 2 And to the 
 lermits of Spoleto : " You need not fear delights or great con- 
 olations, for you come to endure and to find no pleasure save 
 hat of the Cross." 3 "I pray you for another thing," she says 
 t the end of the letter to Giovanni dalle Celle, " and urge you, 
 i the name of Christ crucified, to go to Florence, and tell those 
 ;rho are your friends, and who can do it, that they be pleased to 
 elp their father and keep the promises they have made to him. 
 -et them not show such great ingratitude for the graces they 
 ave received from God and from his Holiness. You know well 
 bat ingratitude dries up the fountain of piety, and how many 
 races they have received. And what punishment have they 
 sceived for the offences that they have committed ? None from 
 im, but only favours. If they do not recognize this, they will 
 ;ceive it from the Supreme Judge, which will be incomparably 
 lore severe than any human chastisement. And, therefore, pray 
 lem most earnestly to do their duty, and not let themselves 
 
 1 Letter 323 (54). 3 Letter 326 (127). 
 
 3 Letter 327 (135). 
 295 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 be deceived by the flatteries of that demon incarnate, the 
 Antipope." 1 
 
 The Prior of Gorgona and most of the others seem, sooner 
 or later, to have obeyed the papal summons ; but, to Catherine's 
 indignation, William Flete flatly refused to leave his wood, 
 declaring that this was a device of the devil to deprive the servants 
 of God of their spiritual consolations. It was even whispered 
 that Giovanni Tantucci had gone to Rome simply for advance- 
 ment. Catherine was too much hurt to write to William himself 
 on the matter. " The youth who is bringing you the present 
 letter," she wrote to Frate Antonio, " told me that you would 
 come before Easter, but now it seems from the letter that Friar 
 William has sent me that neither he nor you are coming. I do 
 not intend to answer that letter ; but I am very sorry for his 
 simplicity, because little honour of God or edification to his 
 neighbour is the result of it. If he does not wish to come for 
 humility or for fear of losing his peace, he ought to use that 
 virtue of humility, that is, he should meekly and humbly crave 
 leave from the vicar of Christ, beseeching his Holiness to be 
 pleased to let him stay in the wood for his greater peace ; resign- 
 ing himself, nevertheless, to his will, like one truly obedient ; and 
 this would be more pleasing to God and profitable to his own 
 soul. But it seems to me that he has done entirely the contrary, 
 declaring that he who is bound to the divine obedience need not 
 obey creatures. I should not care about the other creatures, but 
 that he should include the vicar of Christ, this grieves me greatly, 
 seeing him so at variance with the truth ; for the divine obedience 
 never draws us from obedience to him ; nay, the more perfect 
 our obedience to God, the more perfect is this other, and we are 
 ever bound to be subject and obedient to his commands, even 
 unto death. Even if the injunction he laid upon us should seem 
 indiscreet, and deprive us of peace and consolation of mind, we 
 should obey ; and, if we did the contrary, I deem it to be a great 
 
 1 Casanater.se MS. 292. This passage is omitted in the printed versions of 
 Letter 322 (71). 
 
 296 
 
FROM SIENA TO ROME 
 
 nperfection and a deceit of the demon. It seems, according to 
 r hat he writes, that two servants of God have had a great 
 relation that Christ on earth, and whoso has advised him to 
 :nd for these servants of God, have been deceived, and that this 
 ! a human thing and not divine, and has been an inspiration 
 ■om the devil rather than from God, to wish to draw His 
 srvants from their peace and consolation ; saying that, if you and 
 be others came, you would lose your fervour, and thus would 
 ot be able to help with prayer, nor abide in spirit with the Holy 
 'ather. Too lightly is the spirit harnessed, if it is lost by change 
 f place ! It seems that God is an accepter of places, and that 
 ie is to be found only in the wood, and not elsewhere in the 
 ime of necessity. Then shall we say that, on the one hand, we 
 lesire that the Church of God be reformed, that the thorns be 
 Irawn out, and the sweet-smelling flowers of the servants of God 
 >e planted therein ; while, on the other side, we say that to send 
 or them, and draw them from peace and quiet of mind, in order 
 hat they may come to help this Bark, is a deception of the 
 lemon ? He might at least speak for himself, and not speak of 
 he other servants of God in general, since we need not bring the 
 ervants of the world into it ! Not thus have acted Frate Andrea 
 la Lucca, nor Frate Paolino, such great servants of God, although 
 )ld and in weak health, who had been so long a time in their 
 >eace ; nevertheless, at once, with labour and inconvenience to 
 hemselves, they set out, and they have come and fulfilled their 
 jbedience ; and albeit the desire constrains them to return to 
 :heir cells, they would not therefore depart from the yoke ; but 
 :hey say : let what I have said be as not said ; and drown their 
 jwn wills and their own consolations. Whoso comes, comes to 
 ;ndure and not to be made a prelate, but for the dignity of many 
 abours, with tears, vigils, and continual prayer. So one should 
 lo. Now let us distress ourselves no more about this matter, 
 r or we should have too much to say ; but I am amazed at one 
 :hing, seeing that I know the contrary: that I should see it judged 
 :hat the Master, Giovanni, has come only to exalt himself. With 
 ill my heart I feel intolerable grief at this, seeing, under the 
 
 297 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 pretence of virtue, God so manifestly offended, for the intention 
 of a creature neither can nor ought to be judged ; even if we 
 knew of some fault, which we saw by its result, we ought not to 
 judge the intention, but with great compassion bear it in the 
 sight of God ; we do the contrary when deceived by our own 
 opinions. May God in His infinite mercy send us in sincerity 
 along the way of truth, and give us true and most perfect light, 
 that we may never walk in darkness. I pray you and the 
 Bachelor, and the other servants of God, to pray the humble 
 Lamb that He may make me go by His way. I say no more. 
 As for your coming and staying, and Friar William's, may the 
 will of God be done. I hardly expected that he would come, 
 and also I did not expect him to answer with such disregard of 
 holy obedience, nor with such simplicity. Commend me to him 
 and to all the others ; I pray you and him to pardon me, if I 
 have been the cause of scandalizing you and giving you trouble ; 
 I confess that I am a scandal to all the world, being so ignorant 
 and full of defects as I am. Remain in the holy and sweet charity 
 of God." i 
 
 Catherine seems soon to have forgiven her English disciple, 
 who, for the rest, was working efficaciously for Urban in his 
 solitude. 2 Those that came all stayed in the house that had 
 apparently been assigned to Catherine by the Pope in the Rione 
 della Colonna (not to be confused with the " Contrada di Piazza 
 Colonna," where she afterwards took the house in which her 
 chapel is still shown), and lived there as her guests. The number 
 of persons who thus lived in her house was at the least twenty- 
 four, sixteen men and eight women, and at times it increased to 
 between thirty and forty. They lived entirely upon alms, partly 
 begged in Rome itself, partly collected by her friends and disciples 
 
 1 Casanatense MS. 292. The printed versions of this striking letter, 328 
 (130), omit a great part of this passage. 
 
 2 He had a vision, while celebrating Mass, to the effect that Bartolommeo of 
 Bari was truly Pope, and wrote to England upon the subject, with the result that 
 his testimony was accepted by his countrymen as an argument for their adherence 
 to the Roman claimant. Cf. the Rationes Anglicorum, in Raynaldus, vii. p. 338. 
 
 298 
 
sduA*, <£■ f£* 
 
FROM SIENA TO ROME 
 
 in Siena and elsewhere. Most of them were fasting perpetually, 
 and only ate one meal in the day. Each week one of the women 
 in turn did the housekeeping, so that the others might be free 
 for their devotions, or for whatever other matters had brought 
 them to Rome. Raimondo tells us that one day Giovanna di 
 Capo, whose turn it was, had forgotten to provide any bread or 
 to tell Catherine that there was none in the house, but that, when 
 the starving servi di Dio sat down to table, it was miraculously 
 multiplied, so that an abundance was afterwards given to the 
 poor. 1 Catherine herself frequently went through the streets to 
 beg for what they needed, but, for the most part, she was absorbed 
 in pressing her spiritual counsels upon Urban, in dictating letter 
 after letter on his behalf, and in her usual apostolic work among 
 the poor. 
 
 And, in the meanwhile, men's minds on both sides were grow- 
 ing more and more embittered, as the rent in the seamless coat 
 widened, and the clash of temporal arms began to be heard above 
 the thunders of ecclesiastical fulminations. " If Christ, who is 
 our peace," wrote Luigi Marsili from Paris, to Guido dal Palagio, 
 " He who out of diverse unbelieving nations has formed and 
 united one Church in His own blood, does not intervene, I fear 
 that this evil beginning will have a worse sequence and the worst 
 end ; for men's wills are so discordant that they do not let their 
 intellects freely consider the truth, and every day the one side 
 gets further from the other. I am in a place where I can do 
 nothing, save pray to God that He may make all those who are 
 faithful to Him full of charity ; for, without that, we can have 
 no perfect concord." 2 Vague prophecies of the approaching end 
 of the world began to spread abroad, and there was a strange 
 revival of the doctrines of the Abbot Joachim, that had been 
 forgotten for more than a century. Even Giovanni dalle Celle 
 was inclined to these opinions. We find him writing to Guido 
 dal Palagio that, although Christ would not reveal the end of 
 
 1 Legenda, II. xi. 4-6 (§§ 301-303). 
 
 3 Letter dated December 6, 1378, included in Lettere del B. Giovanni dalle 
 Celle, -p. 18. 
 
 299 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 the world to His apostles, He had revealed it to the Abbot 
 Joachim, in order that men might be ready for it, now that it 
 was at hand. He interprets a prophecy ascribed to the Abbot 
 as meaning that after Urban VI — "Papa Urbano che fa tanti 
 miracoli " — will come a Gregory, who is to be the last Pope, after 
 whom will come Antichrist, whom some say will be Pope : 
 " Thou art young and wilt probably see all these things, if thou 
 livest to the normal age." l 
 
 Nevertheless, the new year, 1379, opened well for the Urbanist 
 cause. England had declared emphatically for the Roman 
 claimant ; the King of the Romans was treading in his father's 
 steps ; Louis of Hungary and Poland, the chief arbiter of war 
 and peace in eastern Europe, gave hopes of armed intervention. 
 On January 1, Catherine, who had already forgiven William Flete 
 (perhaps in consideration of his letters to his own countrymen), 
 wrote to Pietro di Giovanni Ventura and Stefano Maconi : 
 " Through the sweet goodness of God, Holy Church and Pope 
 Urban VI have in these days received the most satisfactory news 
 that they have had for a long time. I send you with this a 
 letter addressed to the Bachelor, in which you can see how God 
 is beginning to pour out His grace upon His sweet Spouse. And 
 so I hope in His mercy that He will continue, multiplying His 
 gifts day by day. I know that His truth cannot lie ; He has 
 promised to reform her by much endurance on the part of His 
 servants, and by means of their humble and continuous prayers, 
 offered up with tears and travail." 2 
 
 In Siena itself, the government and populace alike had un- 
 hesitatingly declared from the outset for Urban, who had sent 
 Jacomo di Sozzino Tolomei, the Bishop of Narni, as his nuncio 
 to the city. "As to the Holy Father," wrote Cristofano Guidini 
 to Neri di Landoccio, " I do not believe that there is a single man 
 in Siena who does not hold and believe that Pope Urban is the 
 true pastor of Holy Church, and if any ambassadors of the 
 
 1 Lettere cit., 27. Cf. Anonlmo Florentine, pp. 389, 390. 
 
 2 Letter 332 (264). 
 
 300 
 
FROM SIENA TO ROME 
 
 Antipope come here, they will not be heard." x Stefano was still 
 kept at Siena by his family affairs, which, in spite of Catherine's 
 exhortations to cut and not wait to untie the knots that bound 
 him to the world, he was unable to get off his hands. He kept 
 up a constant correspondence with Neri di Landoccio, expressing 
 the extreme delight with which he had heard of Urban's proceed- 
 ings, and assuring him of the loyalty of the Sienese. " And, in 
 proof of this, I tell thee further that when, a few days ago, it was 
 first rumoured that an ambassador of that antidemon of Fondi 
 was coming hither, who had already been to Pisa, and it was 
 feared that he might be given audience here, many who desired 
 the honour of God (among whom I will not exclude myself, 
 however lukewarmly I may desire it) appealed to the Palace, 
 and also to others outside who could prevent it ; representing to 
 them that this demon came to sow heresy and to contaminate 
 our faith, adding that it would be greatly to the honour of God 
 if he were burned. And Pietro and I in particular went at once 
 to my lord of Narni, in order that he might go to the Signoria, 
 offering ourselves as his servants to be the first to lay hands 
 upon him ; and I promise thee that we found the people so well 
 disposed that thou wouldst have been greatly delighted ; and 
 especially those of the Palace, who at once gave orders that he 
 should not be allowed to enter the gate. Besides this, they 
 would have consented to his being stoned by the children ; and 
 I am certain that, if he had come, he would have lost his life, in 
 one way or in another. I write thee this that thou mayest have 
 some little pleasure at the good disposition that there now is in 
 this unhappy city of ours, instead of the sorrow that in other 
 times thou hast had, at seeing her hold against the obedience she 
 owes to Holy Church. Do not forget me, sweet brother mine, 
 but pray earnestly to God for me, for certainly I have very great 
 need of it ; praying Him especially that He grant me grace to 
 know how to free myself from this corruption of the world, so that 
 I may ever do His will in the way that is most pleasing to Him." 2 
 
 1 January 14, 1379. Lettere del discepoli, 11. 
 8 January 15, 1379. Ibid., 12. 
 301 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 To Catherine it seemed that what Stefano needed was a more 
 strenuous effort and more vigorous resolution to free himself. 
 " Time is lost in waiting to untie," she wrote to him, " and thou 
 art not sure of having it. It is better to cut decisively with a 
 true and holy zeal. I would have thee, all manfully, set thyself 
 free, and answer Mary who is calling thee with the greatest love, 
 and the blood of these glorious martyrs, who with such great fire 
 of love gave their blood for love of the blood, and their life for 
 the love of life. It all boils, inviting thee and the others to 
 come and endure, for the glory and praise of the name of God 
 and Holy Church, and to put your virtue to the test. For into 
 this holy city, of which God showed the dignity by calling it His 
 garden, into this garden He has called His servants ; saying now 
 is the time for them to come to test the gold of their virtues. 
 Now let us not act as though we were deaf ; if our ears be 
 stopped up by the cold, let us take the blood which is hot because 
 mingled with fire, and let us wash them out, and all deafness will 
 be taken away. Hide thyself in the wounds of Christ crucified ; 
 fly from before the world, leave the house of thy parents, fly into 
 the cavern of the side of Christ crucified, that thou mayest come 
 to the land of promise. I say this same to Pietro, too. Place 
 yourselves up at the table of the Cross, and there, all drunk with 
 blood, take the food of souls, enduring pain, insults, mockery, 
 and abuse, hunger, thirst, and nakedness, rejoicing with that sweet 
 Paul, the Chosen Vessel, in persecution for Christ crucified. If 
 thou wilt cut, as I have said, endurance will be thy glory ; other- 
 wise, no, but it would be anguish to thee, and thy shadow would 
 make thee afraid." l 
 
 Shortly before this, Stefano had been captured by a band of 
 marauders in the Sienese contado, and released as soon as he 
 called upon her name. Catherine took this as another sign to 
 her disciple to free himself from the bonds that still bound him 
 to the world, and give himself entirely to the service of God ; 
 then, only, would he be delivered from the enemies of the soul 
 
 1 Letter 329 (262). I quote from the original in the Biblioteca Comunale 
 of Siena. 
 
 302 
 
FROM SIENA TO ROME 
 
 as he had thus been delivered from those of the body. Never- 
 theless, she does not bid him come to her, if his parents oppose 
 it. " I do not bid thee come. I should, indeed, have been very 
 glad if thou hadst come, and that thou shouldst come now, if 
 thou canst without offence ; but, if it offends and distresses thy 
 father and mother, no, as long as the offence is not necessary. 
 Nay, I would have thee at this time avoid it, whenever thou canst. 
 I am certain, if the Divine Goodness sees it to be best, that the 
 offence will cease, so that thou canst come with peace. Come if 
 thou canst." 1 
 
 1 Letter 365 (256). I quote from Barduccio's autograph in the possession of 
 the Confraternity of Santa Lucia, the printed text being very corrupt in parts. 
 But for what seems to be an explicit reference to the Dialogo at the end, I should 
 have assigned this letter to a much earlier date than that generally accepted. 
 
 3°3 
 
CHAPTER XIV 
 
 ON THE FIELD OF BATTLE 
 
 " State nel campo col gonfalone della santissima croce ; pensate che il sangue di questi 
 gloriosi martiri sempre grida nel cospetto di Dio, chiedendo sopra voi l'adiutorio suo. 
 Pensate che questa terra e il giardino di Cristo benedetto, ed e '1 principio della nostra 
 fede. E pero ciascuno per se medesimo ci debbe essere inanimate." — St. Catherine, Letter 
 347 ("9> 
 
 Notwithstanding their having taken part in the conclave 
 of Fondi, the three Italian cardinals at Tagliacozzo had not yet 
 definitely committed themselves to either claimant to the papacy. 
 Urban and Clement alike recognized them as members of the 
 Sacred College and sought their alliance, and they themselves, 
 while appealing to a General Council of the Church to decide 
 the question, continued to write to both as lawful Sovereign 
 Pontiff. In the latter part of January, 1379, they appear finally 
 to have broken off negotiations with Urban, while still abstaining 
 from formally and openly making common cause with Clement. 1 
 To them, from Rome, Catherine now sent one of the most fiery 
 and eloquent of her letters : u with desire of seeing you return 
 to true and most perfect light, and issue from the great darkness 
 and blindness into which you have fallen." As is her wont, 
 she begins by enunciating a universal doctrine of love and light, 
 the light of truth and the love of God, which are obscured by 
 love of self and of transitory things. Life, at its best, is but a 
 flower that the Supreme Judge will pluck, when it pleases Him, 
 with the hand of death. Fearful at that hour will be the 
 reckoning exacted by God from those He has set in the highest 
 places and who have failed in their duty. Through self-love, 
 "the poison of self-love that has poisoned the world," they 
 
 1 They were still writing to Urban as Pope on January 17 ; but, in 
 private conversation, they spoke of him as " ille Romanus," and his rival as 
 "Dominus Clemens." Cf. Gayet, II. pp. 279-281, and doc. 30 ; Raynaldus, 
 vii. p. 370. 
 
 3°4 
 
ON THE FIELD OF BATTLE 
 
 have turned their backs upon the truth that they themselves 
 announced when they elected Urban. "O how mad you are, 
 to have given the truth to us and preferred to taste the lie 
 for yourselves ! " In impassioned words, addressing them as 
 " fools, worthy of a thousand deaths," she tells over again the 
 whole story of the two elections, brushing away their supposed 
 excuse that they did not actually vote for Clement. Had they 
 not consented, they would not have been there, even if their 
 lives had been the price of their refusal ; for they could, at 
 least, have protested, and did not do so. " On whatever side 
 I turn, I find in you nothing save lies." Then, changing her 
 tone, she implores them to return to the fold, and, at last, 
 appeals to their national sentiment as Italians. "I have had 
 the greatest sorrow for you three, and more wonder at your 
 sin than at that of all the others who have committed it. For, 
 if all had departed from their father, you ought to have been 
 those sons who strengthened him, by manifesting the truth. 
 Even if your father had given you nothing but reproaches, 
 you ought not to play the part of Judas by denying his Holiness 
 in every way. 1 Speaking merely naturally and in human fashion 
 (for, according to virtue, we should all be equal), Christ on 
 earth being an Italian and you Italians, I see no reason why 
 patriotic passion could not move you, as it does the ultramon- 
 tanes — save only love of self. Cast it henceforth to the ground, 
 and do not await time (for time does not wait for you), but 
 trample this affection under foot, with hate of vice and love of 
 virtue. Return, return, and do not await the rod of justice ; 
 for we cannot escape from the hands of God. We are in His 
 hands, either for justice or for mercy ; better is it for us to 
 acknowledge our faults, and to abide in the hands of mercy, 
 than to remain in sin and in the hands of justice ; for our 
 faults will not pass unpunished, and especially those that are 
 committed against Holy Church. But I will pledge myself to 
 bear you in the sight of God, with tears and continual prayers, 
 1 Nan dovevate perb essere Giuda. So the Harleian MS. The printed versions 
 read : non dovevate pen essere guida. 
 
 20 305 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 and to bear the penance together with you ; if only you will 
 return to the father, who, like a true father, is awaiting you 
 with the opened wings of mercy. Alas, alas ! do not fly or 
 shun it ; but receive it humbly, and do not believe the evil 
 counsellors who have given you your death. Alas ! sweet brothers 
 (sweet brothers and fathers will you be to me, in as far as you 
 abide in truth), resist no more the tears and sweat that the 
 servants of God are shedding for you ; for you could wash in 
 them from head to foot. If you despised them, and the thirsting, 
 sweet, and dolorous desires that are being offered up for you 
 by them, you would receive a far severer condemnation. Fear 
 God and His true judgment. I hope in His infinite goodness 
 that He will fulfil in you the desire of His servants." 1 
 
 Nevertheless, the three cardinals at Tagliacozzo continued to 
 appeal to a Council as the only way of ending the Schism, until 
 August, when Jacopo Orsini died. It was rumoured in Italy 
 that, on his deathbed, he had professed his conviction that Urban 
 alone was lawful Pope. This, however, was not the case. In 
 his dying confession, signed and dated August 13, 1379, he 
 declares that he acknowledges as Pope whoever shall be approved 
 by the Church and the Council, and expresses his sorrow if, by 
 written word or by work, he shall have ever done or said any- 
 thing against him who shall thus be declared lawful Pope. 2 It 
 was probably his hesitation that had hitherto prevented the 
 Cardinals of Florence and Milan from declaring for Clement ; 
 
 1 Letter 310 (31), corrected by the Harleian MS. 
 
 2 Archivio Vaticano, LIV. 40, printed in Raynaldus, vii. pp. 370, 371. On the 
 other hand, Francesco Casini asserts that Orsini, shortly before his death, 
 admitted to him that he was right in adoring Urban as the true Pope {Archivio 
 cit., LIV. 17, f. 76). The French King urged the two survivors to come 
 to France, or at least some part of Piedmont near Dauphine, to confer with 
 him, while Clement assured them that their adherence to him would do more 
 to restore peace to the Church than would the assembling of a Council. 
 Valois, I. pp. 321-323. Both ultimately joined the Clementines. The dying 
 profession of the Cardinal of Milan, that the election of Urban was under 
 compulsion, and that Clement was lawful Pope, is dated September 12, 1 38 1, 
 in the Archivio Vaticano, LIV. 19, f. 141. 
 
 306 
 
ON THE FIELD OF BATTLE 
 
 and it is curious to notice that, while Pedro de Luna, who had 
 been the chief cause of Urban's election and had deserted him 
 with the utmost reluctance, ultimately became the most strenuous 
 and obstinate leader of the opposite faction, Jacopo Orsini, who 
 had opposed the election from the outset, was the only member 
 of the Sacred College who never entirely went over to the side 
 of his enemies. 
 
 In the meanwhile, both Urban and Clement had appealed 
 to the arms of mercenary soldiers, to make good their claims to 
 be the vicar of the Prince of Peace. Castello Sant' Angelo still 
 held out against the Roman People, and its defenders were 
 reduced to the last extremities, those who fell into the hands 
 of the besiegers being cruelly maimed and mutilated. 1 Clement 
 had collected an army of Bretons and Gascons, including those 
 whom he had urged to the slaughter of Cesena, and put them 
 under the command of his nephew, Louis de Montjoie, with 
 orders, in February, to march upon Rome ; while Urban took 
 into his pay the Compagnia di San Giorgio, a company of Italian 
 mercenaries that had been raised by Alberigo da Barbiano, Count 
 of Cunio in Romagna, a condottiere who bade fair to eclipse 
 the fame of the foreign captains who had been the curse of 
 Italy for the last half-century. Early in March, Clement, who 
 was suffering from fever, moved from Fondi to Sperlonga, near 
 Gaeta ; from which, on April 17, 1379, he issued his famous 
 bull to Louis of Anjou, conferring the kingdom of Adria upon 
 him, which was to be a vassal kingdom of the Holy See, 
 including Ferrara, Bologna, Ravenna, all Romagna, the Marches 
 of Ancona, Perugia, Todi, Spoleto — the greater bulk, in fact, of 
 the Papal States — with the provision that disputes between the 
 new kingdom and that of Naples were to be decided by the 
 Pope's arbitration, and that neither sovereign could succeed 
 the other. 
 
 Montjoie's army amounted to some six hundred lances — 
 which, allowing three men to a lance, would mean about eighteen 
 hundred soldiers. He set his headquarters at Marino, the 
 1 Cf. Valois, I. p. 1 69 n. 
 307 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 stronghold of Giordano Orsini, from which he ravaged the 
 country, without making any serious attempt to relieve the 
 defenders of Sant' Angelo, who were compelled to accept an 
 offer of mediation from Giovanni Cenci, and capitulated on April 
 27. With the solemn benediction of Urban, Alberigo da 
 Barbiano marched out of Rome. Early on the morning of April 
 30, his company — which amounted to two hundred and forty 
 lances, with a subsidiary force of Roman infantry— advanced from 
 the neighbourhood of Tivoli towards Marino. Confident in his 
 superior numbers, Montjoie moved to meet them, broke their 
 first division under Galeazzo Pepoli, and drove them back upon 
 the infantry — only to be in his turn crushed by the onslaught of 
 Alberigo himself, who, pressing forward at the head of his main 
 body, threw the three lines of the enemy into confusion and 
 gained a complete victory. The Clementines lost more than a 
 third of their army in killed and prisoners, the latter including 
 Montjoie himself, Bernardon de la Salle, and Silvestre Budes. 1 
 The battle of Marino marks an epoch in the history of Italian 
 wars ; for the first time, a purely Italian army had gained a con- 
 clusive victory over the foreign mercenaries, and the patriotic 
 boast of Petrarca in his Italia mia had been justified : Chi V antiquo 
 valore ne P italici cor non e ancor morto. 
 
 Castello Sant' Angelo had surrendered to the Roman People, 
 and not to the Pope, whose demand that it should be given into 
 his hands, to be guarded by him, was rejected by the Romans, who 
 were keenly alive to the danger of his using it to command the 
 city and curtail their liberties. After two days' fruitless negotia- 
 tion, Urban was compelled to give way ; and on the morning of 
 April 30, the morning of the battle of Marino, the Romans 
 entered Sant' Angelo with their banners displayed, and began to 
 
 1 See Luigi Fumi, Notizie officiali sulk battaglia di Marino dell' anno 1379, and 
 Un nuovo avvho del/a battaglia di Marino (Studi e documenti di Storia e Diritto, 
 anno VII. Rome, 1886); Canestrini, op. cit., p. lxxi. ; Andrea Gattaro, in Rer. It. 
 Script., xvii. coll. 277, 278. The battle has been somewhat exaggerated by modern 
 historians, on Gattaro's track. 
 
 308 
 
ON THE FIELD OF BATTLE 
 
 raze it to the ground. 1 An expression in one of Catherine's 
 letters, referring to the wonderful things that God had wrought 
 four weeks before, per mezzo di vile creatura, has been taken as 
 meaning that she had been instrumental in obtaining the capitula- 
 tion of the fortress. 2 Of this, however, we know nothing. 
 Swallowing his discomfiture with the best grace he could, Urban 
 walked barefoot in procession from Santa Maria in Trastevere 
 to St. Peter's, to offer solemn thanks to God for the double 
 victory. 
 
 To the Bandaresi and their colleagues, " the maintainers of 
 the Republic of Rome," whom she consistently treats as the 
 temporal rulers of the Eternal City, Catherine addressed a letter 
 on May 6, exhorting them to be grateful for the great benefits 
 they had received from God. Let them show their gratitude by 
 justice to their neighbours, by purity of life, by abstaining from 
 rash judgment, by fidelity to the Church and the vicar of Christ. 
 Nor is the letter without a touch of worldly wisdom : " Also I 
 would have you grateful to this Company, who have been the 
 instruments of Christ, helping them in all that is needed, especially 
 with regard to these poor wounded. Bear yourselves charitably 
 and peacefully with them, in order that you may preserve them 
 to your aid, and not let them have any cause for turning against 
 you. Thus it is meet you do, sweetest brothers, both because it is 
 your duty and because it is urgently necessary." "It seems to 
 me," she adds, " that a little ingratitude is being used towards 
 Giovanni Cenci, who has laboured with such great zeal and fidelity, 
 with an upright heart, only to please God and for our utility (and 
 this I know to be the truth), abandoning everything else to deliver 
 you from the scourge that Castello Sant' Angelo had become to you, 
 and acting in the matter with so much prudence ; not only do they 
 
 1 Letter of April 30, 1379, from Pietro Angeli da Montefiascone, one of 
 the papal secretaries, to the Commune of Montefiascone. Fumi, op. ciL, doc. 2. 
 Cf. Benvenuto da Imola, Comentum, II. p. 8. 
 
 2 Letter 351 (20), which in the Harleian MS. is dated May 30, 1379. 
 The MS., however, reads : per mezzo di vili creature. 
 
 3°9 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 now show him no sign of gratitude, not so much as thanking 
 him, but the vice of envy and ingratitude is casting the poison of 
 slander and much murmuring against him. I should not like 
 him to be treated thus, nor any one else who served you ; for it 
 would be an offence to God and loss to yourselves. All the 
 commonwealth needs wise, mature, and discreet men, and of a 
 good conscience. Let it no more be so, for the love of Christ 
 crucified. Adopt what remedy seems meet to your lordships, in 
 order that the simplicity of the churlish may not interfere with 
 your welfare. I say this for your own good, and not for any parti- 
 ality of mine ; for you know that I am a stranger, speaking to 
 you for your own good estate, because I value you all, together with 
 him, as much as my own soul. I know that, like wise and discreet 
 men, you will consider the affection and the purity of heart with 
 which I write to you, and so you will pardon my presumption in 
 venturing to write. Be grateful, be grateful to God." 1 
 
 She wrote at the same time to Count Alberigo and his 
 caporali, who had not returned to Rome, but were still in the 
 field, pressing on the campaign against the remnants of the 
 Clementines in the Campagna, where Marino was being besieged 
 by the Roman People. Perhaps she already knew that a portion 
 of the Compagnia di San Giorgio was on the point of accepting 
 money from Clement, when she wrote : " with desire of seeing 
 you, you and all the rest of your company, faithful to Holy 
 Mother Church and to the Holiness of Pope Urban VI, true 
 Sovereign Pontiff, all combat royally and faithfully for the truth, 
 that you may receive the fruit of your labours " ; but, at least, 
 the letter is nothing but a prose poem in honour of ideal Christian 
 chivalry. Not otherwise might Dante have addressed his chosen 
 warriors of God in the glowing red sphere of Mars. " O brother 
 and dearest sons, you are knights who have entered the field to give 
 your lives for love of life, and to give your blood for love of the 
 blood of Christ crucified. Now is the time of the new martyrs. 
 You are the first who have given blood. How great is the fruit 
 that you will receive for it ? It is life eternal, which is an 
 1 Letter 349 (196), corrected by the Harleian MS. 
 3IO 
 
ON THE FIELD OF BATTLE 
 
 infinite fruit. In this conflict you cannot but gain, whether you 
 live or die. If you die, you gain life eternal, and are set in a 
 place safe and not subject to change ; and if you survive, you 
 have made a sacrifice of yourselves voluntarily to God, and you 
 will be able to keep what you possess with a good conscience." 
 That last clause, alas, makes us realize that these new knights of 
 Christ were, after all, mere soldiers of fortune ; but Catherine 
 goes on to exhort them always to keep the blood of the Lamb 
 before their eyes, to fight for the truth that " the members of the 
 devil " are denying, and enter upon the conflict with the highest 
 intention alone, purifying their consciences by holy confession. 
 Let the captain-general himself set the example. The holy soil 
 of Rome, upon which they are fighting, should animate them to 
 act manfully. " Keep in the field with the standard of the most 
 holy Cross ; think that the blood of these glorious martyrs is 
 ever crying out in the sight of God, invoking His aid upon you. 
 Think that this city is the garden of the blessed Christ and the 
 very beginning of our faith, and, therefore, every one of his own 
 accord should be filled with valour here. Be grateful, you and 
 the others, be grateful for the benefit you have received, to God 
 and to that glorious knight St. George, whose name you keep ; 
 may he defend you and be your guard, even unto death. Forgive 
 me, if I have wearied you too much with words. Love of 
 Holy Church and your salvation must excuse me, and my 
 conscience which has been constrained by the sweet will of God. 
 We will do like Moses ; for the people fought, and Moses 
 prayed ; and whilst he prayed, the people conquered. So shall 
 we do, if only our prayer be pleasing and acceptable to God." x 
 On this same day, May 6, Catherine wrote to the King of 
 France and to the Queen of Naples, evidently thinking that the 
 latter would have been moved by the victory of the Urbanists so 
 near her own territories. She beseeches Giovanna to have pity 
 upon her own soul, and again expresses her longing to come to 
 
 1 Letter 347 (219). The authenticity of this letter has been occasionally 
 called in question, but no student of the manuscripts can entertain the slightest 
 doubt on the subject. 
 
 3 11 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 Naples, to plead with her face to face. She reminds her, " my 
 mother and my daughter," of her old promise to aid the Crusade, 
 and warns her that Urban, if she perseveres in opposing him, 
 will pronounce sentence of deprivation against her as a heretic. 1 
 To Charles she writes at some length, with her usual conviction 
 that it is self-love alone that is taking away from man the divine 
 light and preventing him from discerning where the truth lies. 
 She gives her usual statement of the Roman case, adding that he 
 would find the " servants of God " unanimous for Urban, and 
 that God certainly would not suffer His servants to walk in dark- 
 ness. She implores the King to appeal to the theologians of 
 the University of Paris, "for you have there the fountain of 
 science, which I fear you will lose, if you continue this conduct," 
 and not to be led away by his affection for his own country. 2 
 Nevertheless, in this same month, Charles practically ordered the 
 University to declare for Clement, and obtained what professed 
 to be an unanimous decision of all the faculties and all the nations 
 composing it. In reality, the faculty of theology was divided, 
 a large portion of the doctors, in spite of persecution, continuing 
 in their adherence to Urban. 3 
 
 Alarmed at the result of the battle of Marino, Clement 
 decided to seek the protection of the Queen of Naples. On 
 May 9, with Cardinal Lagier, Cardinal Flandrin, and his new 
 Cardinal of Cosenza, he embarked at Gaeta, where the people 
 received him with scarcely veiled hostility, and, with a fleet of six 
 galleys and one galliot, he arrived at Naples on the following day. 
 In spite of Giovanna and her court, the populace of Naples and 
 not a few of the nobles believed in Urban ; Bernard Rodhez, the 
 
 1 Letter 348 (317). 
 
 2 Letter 350 (187). An unmistakable "servant of God," Friar Peter of 
 Aragon, had just sent Charles what he claimed to be a direct revelation from 
 the Lord on behalf of Urban, but which, to a large extent, contradicted Catherine's 
 contention that the tumult of the people had not influenced his election. In 
 Du Boulay, IV. p. 581, and Raynaldus, vii. p. 398. For an Urbanist proposal, 
 in 1 38 1, to transfer the University of Paris to Prague, see Denifle, op. cit., Tom. 
 iii. doc. 1642. 
 
 3 Cf. Valois, I. pp. 137-140. 
 
 312 
 
ON THE FIELD OF BATTLE 
 
 Provencal archbishop, having joined Clement at Fondi, Urban 
 had appointed a Neapolitan, Lodovico Bozzuto, to replace him ; 
 but the latter had not dared to take possession of his see, for fear of 
 the Queen. Giovanna gave Clement a magnificent reception, and 
 all her courtiers flocked to pay him reverence. But, while she was 
 entertaining him in the Castello dell' Ovo, the populace began to 
 gather together, murmuring against her for having received this 
 " Carnival Pope," and the partisans of the Urbanist archbishop 
 fanned the flames. A carpenter was denouncing the Queen in 
 one of the piazze, when a gentleman of the city, Messer Andrea 
 Ravignano, chanced to pass : " How now, fellow ? Darest thou 
 speak against thy liege lady ? " A volley of Neapolitan abuse 
 was the answer, to which Messer Andrea retaliated by a blow 
 which destroyed the sight of one of the carpenter's eyes. At once 
 the whole Neapolitan populace rose in fury, shouting : "Viva Papa 
 Urbano," " Muoia Papa Clemente," " Muoia l'Anticristo ! " 
 While one band rushed to sack the Archbishop's palace and the 
 houses of the Clementine prelates, the rest swept down to the 
 shore towards the Castello dell' Ovo, shouting death to the Queen 
 herself, if she defended her Antipope. The Urbanist archbishop 
 was put in possession of the see, and the populace illuminated the 
 whole city at nightfall. Pope and Queen were alike terrified. 
 On May 13, Clement, with his three cardinals, his six galleys and 
 one galliot, left Naples, and returned to Sperlonga ; while 
 Giovanna, on May 18, the vigil of the Ascension, published a 
 decree declaring that she held Urban as lawful Pope, and that he 
 was to be obeyed as such throughout her kingdom. She de- 
 spatched the Count of Nola, Messer Ugo da San Severino, the 
 Prior of the Certosa, and others to Rome as her ambassadors, to 
 make complete submission to the Holy See. 1 Catherine wrote 
 exultantly to three Neapolitan ladies, at the news of the shining 
 out of the light upon their city : " The heart of Pharaoh is broken, 
 that of the Queen, I mean, who has shown so much obstinacy up 
 
 1 Cronlcon Sicu/um (ed. J. de Blasiis), pp. 35-37 ; Diurnali dettl del Duca di 
 Monteleone, pp. 15, 16 ; Anonimo Fkrentlno, p. 396. Cf. Fumi, op. cit., docs. 4 
 and 5. 
 
 3 J 3 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 to now, by departing from her head, Christ on earth, and adhering 
 to Antichrist, member of the demon ; she has persecuted the 
 truth and exalted the lie. Thanks, thanks be to our Saviour, 
 who has illumined her heart, whether by force or by love, and 
 has shown His wonderful works in her." 1 
 
 On May 22, Clement embarked for Provence, leaving his 
 Cardinal Jacopo d'ltri, the former Patriarch of Constantinople, as 
 his legate in Italy. After much trouble on the way, he finally, 
 on June 20, reached the papal palace of Avignon. 
 
 At Whitsuntide, Urban took up his residence in the Vatican. 
 " Most holy Father," wrote Catherine, " may the Holy Spirit 
 overshadow your soul and heart and affection with the fire of 
 divine charity, and infuse a supernatural light into your under- 
 standing, in such wise that in your light we little sheep may see 
 light, and that no deception that the devil might wish to practise 
 upon you with his malice may be hidden from your Holiness. I 
 desire, most holy Father, to see fulfilled in you all the other things 
 that the sweet will of God demands of you, of which I know 
 that you have very great desire. I hope that this sweet fire of the 
 Holy Spirit will work in your heart and soul, as it did in those 
 holy disciples, when it gave them strength and power against 
 the visible demons and against the invisible. In its virtue they 
 beat down the tyrants of the world, and by endurance they spread 
 the faith. It gave them light and wisdom to know the truth 
 and the doctrine that Truth itself had left, whereby the affection, 
 which follows the understanding, robed them with the fire of His 
 charity, so that they lost all servile fear and human pleasure, and 
 only attended to the honour of God, and to draw souls from 
 the hands of the demons ; and they were fain to offer to every 
 creature the truth with which they found themselves illumined. 
 But it was only after much vigil, humble and continual prayer, 
 and the great mental labour in which they spent those ten days, 
 that they were filled with this strength of the Holy Spirit ; the 
 
 1 Letter 353 (337). In Letter 362 (318), Catherine states that Giovanna 
 herself wrote to her, confessing that Urban was true Pope and declaring her 
 intention of being obedient to him. 
 
 3H 
 
ON THE FIELD OF BATTLE 
 
 labour and holy exercise came first. O most holy Father, it 
 seems that they are teaching us and are exhorting your Holiness 
 to-day, and that they are showing us in what way we can receive 
 the ,Holy Spirit. What is this way ? That we should keep in 
 the house of knowledge of ourselves, in which knowledge the 
 soul is always humble, neither running to excess in gladness nor 
 yielding to impatience in adversity." " I rejoice that this sweet 
 Mother Mary and sweet Peter, the Prince of the Apostles, have 
 restored you to your own place. Now the eternal Truth wishes 
 you to make in your garden a garden of the servants of God, 
 and to nourish them therein with temporal substance, as they will 
 you with spiritual ; so that they will have nought else to do, save 
 cry in the sight of God for the good estate of Holy Church and 
 for your Holiness. These will be the soldiers who will give you 
 perfect victory." x At the beginning of June, Marino surrendered 
 to the Romans ; Rocca di Papa and other castelli followed ; 
 Giordano Orsini submitted to the Pope. On June 12, Urban 
 issued a triumphant brief to all the Catholic world, " giving thanks 
 to the Most High with ineffable joy of mind." " He who 
 knoweth all things is our witness that, if we thought that we had 
 not entered the sheepfold by the door, we should not have dared 
 to sit in the chair of Peter for an hour." Convinced that God 
 by the Holy Spirit has chosen his weakness to sustain the burden 
 of the universal Church, and that He will never desert her, he is 
 prepared to encounter all dangers and persecutions. Already the 
 storms are abating ; the mercenaries have been defeated ; Sant' 
 Angelo, non sine miraculo, has surrendered ; his beloved Neapo- 
 litan children have driven the Antipope from Naples ; Giovanna 
 has abjured her errors, has acknowledged him as true vicar of 
 Christ and successor of the bearer of the keys, and from day to 
 day he is expecting her ambassadors. 2 
 
 These ambassadors never came. Giovanna's conversion had 
 only lasted a few weeks. Her envoys were intercepted by a 
 
 1 Letter 351 (20), which the Harleian MS. dates May 30 (Whit Monday), 
 
 1379- 
 
 2 Raynaldus, vii. pp. 386, 387. 
 
 315 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 Clementine galley (possibly at her own instigation), and, when 
 released, she recalled them to Naples, and began vigorously to 
 persecute the Urbanists, especially the Archbishop Bozzuto, whom 
 she regarded as responsible for the tumult. Unable to get, him 
 personally into her hands, she destroyed his house and wasted his 
 possessions in the country. 1 Apparently, her conversion, induced 
 by a momentary fit of terror, was forgotten as soon as she heard 
 that her husband Otho was at hand, with fresh troops for her 
 support. A few days later, her niece Margherita, whom she 
 had treated as a most beloved daughter, left Naples, to join her 
 husband, Charles of Durazzo, to whom Urban had already offered 
 the crown in the event of Giovanna proving obstinate. 
 
 Urban had decided to make a fresh attempt to win the King 
 of France from his Clementine faith, and again chose Fra 
 Raimondo as his ambassador. This time, he wished the friar to 
 attempt the journey by way of Barcelona, for which purpose, on 
 May 9, he had addressed a brief to the King of Aragon, commend- 
 ing Raimondo to him, in the hope that a Spanish safe-conduct 
 might at length enable him to enter France in safety. Raimondo's 
 instructions are still preserved in the Archives of the Vatican. 
 He is to tell over again the official Roman version of Urban 's 
 election, enthronement, and coronation, to lay stress upon the way 
 the cardinals obtained (and used) spiritual and temporal favours 
 from him, announced his election, and treated him for three 
 months as Pope. He is to call the King's attention to the 
 voluntary coming of the Cardinal of Amiens to Rome, the 
 acceptance of the Bishopric of Ostia by the Cardinal of 
 Glandeves, the dying declaration of the Cardinal of St. Peter's, 
 the adherence of the greater part of the Universities. Also, 
 " the Lord Charles, the last Roman Emperor of blessed memory, 
 fully informed of the truth, held him for true Pope as long as 
 he lived " ; the King of the Romans and Bohemia, the Kings 
 of Hungary, Aragon, Castile, England, Portugal, Cyprus, and 
 Navarre (Urban apparently interpreting the neutrality of several 
 of these powers in his own favour), and many other princes in 
 1 Valois, I. p. i77». ; Diurnali cit., p. 16. 
 316 
 
ON THE FIELD OF BATTLE 
 
 Italy and elsewhere, hold him as true Pope canonically elected, and 
 he is obeyed as true vicar of Christ and legitimate successor 
 of St. Peter throughout their dominions. Following in the foot- 
 steps of St. Peter, he has fixed his residence in Rome ; but, 
 although an Italian by birth, he always was, and still is, a French- 
 man in will, and is prepared to satisfy the King in all his just 
 and reasonable demands. Already his cause has begun to triumph, 
 as shown by the unanimous decision of the King of the Romans 
 and the electors of the Empire in his favour, and the surrender 
 of Castello Sant' Angelo. The sudden death of the Cardinal 
 Gilles Aycelin de Montaigu, who had opposed him in Avignon, 
 and the incurable illness that has overtaken " the former Cardinal 
 of Geneva, now Antipope," upon whose face a mark of infamy 
 appeared as soon as he deserted him, are to be used as serious 
 arguments on his behalf. Let the King note well how everywhere, 
 even in France, women and children and almost all the lower 
 orders, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit alone, acclaim Urban 
 as true Pope, even as it is written by the Prophet : Out of the 
 mouths of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise. In so 
 arduous a business, as touching Catholic Faith, let the King listen 
 and give credit to the wise, and not be deceived by flatterers and 
 false counsellors, which would be contrary to his honour and the 
 salvation of his soul, and bring disgrace upon his royal blood 
 and lineage. 1 Once more Raimondo failed. In spite of Urban's 
 protests, Pedro de Luna, who was now as vigorous in the Clemen- 
 tine cause as he had been reluctant to adhere to it, had been 
 honourably received by the King of Aragon at the beginning of 
 the year as legate of Clement, and had secured the imprisonment 
 of Urban's former ambassadors, Perfetto Malatesta, Abbot of 
 
 1 I quote direct from the Archivio Vaticano,\AV . 33, ff. 132-135. These 
 instructions, which are headed : Sejuuntur ea que Domino Regi Francie sunt exponenda 
 per . . . pro parte domlnl nostri domini Urbani pape sexti : were first identified by 
 Valois, I. pp. 3 1 3-3 1 5 n. For the sudden death of Cardinal Aycelin, which the 
 Urbanists regarded as a divine judgment, cf. St. Antoninus, III. p. 390. The 
 triviality of the personalities against Clement is quite matched by the arguments 
 used against Urban by Jean le Fevre and other French ambassadors to the Count 
 of Flanders. 
 
 3 J 7 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 Sassoferrato, and Fra Menendo, who had been nominated 
 Urbanist Bishop of Cordova. 1 Raimondo had been his personal 
 friend, but, nevertheless, through the Cardinal's influence, the 
 entry into France was now as closed to him on the Spanish side 
 as it had been before from Provence. 
 
 Raimondo remained at Genoa, preaching an Urbanist crusade, 
 and acting as provincial of the province of Lombardy. He 
 wrote to Catherine, pleading with her not to judge him by her 
 own standard, and imploring her not to love him less because he 
 had failed her again. The Saint answers as though she herself had 
 fallen short in love and faith, and been an instrument to spoil God's 
 work by lack of confidence in Him. As to the special love and 
 special faith that binds us to a most dear friend, we must never 
 believe or imagine that such a friend wills aught save our good ; 
 and nothing whatever, " neither word of creatures, nor illusion 
 of the devil, nor change of place," must diminish this pure trust 
 which comes from love. Therefore, Raimondo's fears, " lest the 
 affection and charity I bear you be diminished in me," come 
 from his own imperfection in love and faith ; but she does not 
 conceal her bitter disappointment that he has found means of 
 casting to earth the burden laid upon him : " If you had been 
 faithful, you would not have had all this hesitation, nor yielded 
 to doubts about God and about me, wretched woman ; but, like 
 a faithful son, ready for obedience, you would have gone, and 
 done what had been possible. And if you had not been able to 
 go upright, you would have gone crawling ; if you could not go 
 as a friar, you would have gone as a pilgrim ; if you had no 
 money, you would have gone on alms. This faithful obedience 
 would have wrought more in the sight of God, and in the hearts 
 of men, than all human prudence would do. My sins have 
 prevented me from seeing this in you, but I am quite certain 
 that, in spite of natural shrinking, you, nevertheless, had and 
 have a good, holy intention, and the desire better to fulfil 
 the will of God and that of Christ on earth, Pope Urban VI." 
 " I wish by all means that you had gone ; nevertheless I 
 1 Cf. Sorbelli, op. cit., pp. 18, 19. 
 318 
 
ON THE FIELD OF BATTLE 
 
 abide in peace, because I am certain that nothing happens 
 without mystery." 
 
 " I tell you, sweetest father, that, whether we will or no, the 
 present time invites us to die. Then remain no longer alive ; 
 end all pains in pain, and increase the delight of holy desire in pain, 
 so that our life may only pass with crucified desire, and we may 
 voluntarily give our bodies to the beasts to devour, that is, 
 voluntarily, for love of the truth, cast ourselves into the tongues 
 and hands of men like unto beasts, even as have done the others 
 who, like dead men, have laboured in this sweet garden, and 
 watered it with their blood, but first with tears and sweat. But 
 I (unhappy is my life !), because I have not put this water to it, 
 have refused to shed my blood therein. I will no more thus ; 
 but let our life be renewed, and the fire of desire increase. You 
 ask me to pray the Divine Goodness that He may give you some 
 of the fire of Vincent, of Lawrence, of sweet Paul, and of that 
 loving John ; then, you say, you will do great deeds. Surely, 
 you speak the truth, for, without this fire, you would do nothing, 
 neither little thing nor great ; nor should I rejoice in you. You 
 commend our order to me, and I commend it to you, for, 
 perceiving how things stand, my heart is bursting in my body 
 thereat. Our province in general still shows itself obedient to 
 Pope Urban and to the vicar of the order, which vicar, I tell you, 
 bears himself right well for the truth ; in most prudent fashion, 
 according to the present state of things, does he bear himself 
 in the order and against those who wickedly contradict the truth. 
 And if any one said the contrary, according to what little I know 
 about it, no truth is in his mouth. The most holy Father has 
 given him commands and full authority to absolve all those 
 provincials who are rebels against his truth. It is no time to 
 sleep, but with great solicitude to pray our sweet Spaniard l to 
 look down upon his order, which order used ever to work for 
 the exaltation of the faith, and now has become its contaminator. 
 I am sorrowful thereat, even unto death, but can do no more, 
 save offer up my life in tears and in very great affliction. As to 
 
 1 St. Dominic. 
 
 3*9 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 what you write me, that Antichrist and his members are seeking 
 diligently to have you in their hands, do not fear ; for God is 
 strong enough to take light and power from them, so that they 
 may not accomplish their desires. And you should also think 
 that you are not worthy of so great a good, and, therefore, need 
 not be afraid. Have confidence ; for sweet Mary and the Truth 
 will be always with you. I, a vile slave, who am set on the field 
 where blood has been shed for love of the blood (and you have 
 left me here, and are gone away in God's name), will never cease 
 working for you. I beseech you to act so that you give me no 
 matter for tears, nor for being ashamed in the sight of God. As 
 you are a man in promising to do and to bear for the honour of 
 God, do not be now a woman when we come to the point ; for 
 I should appeal from you to Christ crucified and to Mary. 
 Beware lest He deal with you as He did with the Abbot of Sant' 
 Antimo, who, for fear and under colour of not tempting God, 
 left Siena and came to Rome, thinking to have escaped prison 
 and to be safe ; and he was put in prison, with the penalty that 
 you know. Thus are pusillanimous hearts served. Then be 
 utterly manly, so that death may come to you. Know that I 
 should not be here now, if it had been possible to go safely ; but 
 it was impossible, by sea or by land ; for it was decided that I 
 should go to Naples. Pray, and bid others pray to God and 
 Mary, that He may make us do what is His honour. Fra 
 Bartolommeo, the Master, Fra Matteo, and the others are ready 
 to do whatever needs, for the honour of God and the utility of 
 Holy Church, and to do violence to their own weakness. They 
 and all the others commend themselves to you ; the Norma 
 blesses you ; and 1 ask your blessing, and beseech you to pardon 
 me, if I have said anything contrary to the honour of God and 
 the reverence I owe you. Let my love excuse me." x 
 
 The reference to the imprisonment of Fra Giovanni di Gano 
 shows that yet another of Catherine's disciples had disappointed 
 
 1 Letter 344 (101), with unpublished passages from the Casanatense MS. 
 292. A reference to the state of Naples, and the papal mission to the King of 
 Hungary, shows this letter was not written before the latter part of June, 1379. 
 
 320 
 
ON THE FIELD OF BATTLE 
 
 her expectations. Nothing is known of the matter, but it is 
 likely that he had shrunk from doing one of Urban's missions to 
 Siena. Relations had again grown strained between Catherine's 
 native city and the Holy See, in consequence of the refusal of the 
 Sienese to assist Urban with men and money, to which they were 
 pledged by the terms of the peace between the league and the 
 Church, as also by the conditions of the restitution of Talamone. 
 Francesco Casini, who was now Urban's physician as he had been 
 Gregory's, had vainly attempted to smooth things over in the 
 papal court. " Do not think," he wrote to the Defenders, 
 " that I can interpose on behalf of the Commune or of the 
 citizens, while you behave thus ; rather, while you act in this 
 way, would I wish the Pope to think I was a Scotsman." x We 
 have two letters of Catherine herself to them on the subject, 
 urging them to assist the Pope as they had promised, especially 
 now that he was not demanding their aid to recover the tempor- 
 alities of the Church, but simply for the defence of the faith, 
 reminding them that they had found no difficulty in giving similar 
 support to the Florentines against the Holy See, and assuring 
 them that Urban loved them cordially as sons. 2 She wrote at 
 the same time to the prior and brethren of the Disciplinati of the 
 Madonna, urging them to put all the moral pressure they could 
 upon the Signoria, and to Stefano Maconi, bidding him be fervent 
 and not tepid in this work : " If you will be what you ought 
 to be, you will set all Italy aflame, not merely your own city." 3 
 But, with the mercenaries of Hawkwood and Lucio di Lando 
 demanding money, and scattered bands of Bretons threatening 
 the contado, the Sienese were probably really unable to fulfil 
 their pledges to Urban's satisfaction ; and, though Stefano urged 
 the Signoria to pawn the goods of the Commune, and send a 
 force to Rome, however small, as proof of their good will, 
 nothing was done. " In all spiritual things," he wrote to Neri 
 
 1 Letter of June 5, 1379. Fumi, op. c'tt., doc. 5. 
 
 2 Letters 311 (203) and 367 (204). 
 
 3 Letters 321 (144) and 368 (261). The full text of the letter to the 
 Disciplinati is in the Casanatense MS. 292. 
 
 21 3 21 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 di Landoccio, " he would be obeyed as true pastor ; but, in 
 temporal matters, they plead their great poverty and the misery 
 into which they are come. I am grieved to the heart at seeing 
 that the Holy Father has not had full satisfaction from this city ; 
 and I promise you that I have so much spoken about it, and 
 especially while Maestro Francesco was here, that I was several 
 times told that I talked more than befitted me on the subject. 
 But I should reck little of this, if only I saw done what is the 
 honour of God." l 
 
 There were similar difficulties elsewhere. The Florentines 
 
 fully acknowledged Urban's election, and turned a deaf ear to the 
 
 appeals of Louis of Anjou against him ; but they were exceedingly 
 
 slow in carrying out their part of the treaty, and already behind - 
 
 hand with the payment of the indemnity. It is probable that, 
 
 in the continual state of alarm and anarchy into which the 
 
 Republic had sunk after the tumult of the Ciompi, this was 
 
 inevitable ; the Pope himself ultimately recognized the fact ; but 
 
 Catherine wrote to the Priors and Gonfaloniere, reproaching 
 
 them for their ingratitude : " Let us not deceive ourselves, my 
 
 sweet brothers. Many are the offences and iniquities which we 
 
 have committed against God, against our neighbour, against the 
 
 vicar of Christ, and against Holy Church ; you cannot cloak 
 
 this iniquity by the sins of the pastors and ministers of the 
 
 Church, for it does not pertain to you to punish them, but to 
 
 the Supreme Judge and to His vicar. Now, notwithstanding 
 
 these sins of yours, which have merited great punishment, you 
 
 have received so much mercy ; you have been restored with 
 
 great benignity to the breast of Holy Church, made capable of t 
 
 receiving the fruit of the blood, if you will, by Pope Urban VI, 
 
 true Supreme Pontiff and vicar of Christ on earth, who has 
 
 pardoned you and absolved you with such great charity, giving 
 
 you what you have asked, treating you not like children who 
 
 had offended and rebelled against their father, but as though 
 
 you had never offended him. Now you see him in such great 
 
 1 June 22, 1379. Letters del dhcepoli, 13. 
 322 
 
ON THE FIELD OF BATTLE 
 
 need ; and not only do you not help him, but you do not even 
 keep what you have promised. Thereby you show signs of 
 great ingratitude ; for which I fear that, if you are not truly 
 grateful, God will permit you to inflict the punishment upon 
 yourselves, even as you have done in the past." l The Republic 
 of Perugia had concluded a final and complete peace with Urban 
 at the beginning of the year, 1379, but was no less tardy in 
 paying the tribute, though the Pope was sorely in need of 
 every soldo. Catherine sent Neri with a letter to the Priors of 
 the People and Commune : " with desire of seeing you succour 
 your father and yourselves, in his need and yours ; for to aid 
 him is to contribute to your own safety, spiritually and tempor- 
 ally " ; urging them to show their gratitude and secure their own 
 liberty by giving him all the aid in their power. 2 But it is 
 notable that none of the Italian communes, however dissatisfied 
 with Urban, showed any disposition to desert him for Clement. 
 When, a few months later, a quarrel broke out between the 
 Roman Pontiff and the Bolognese, and Clement sent a bishop 
 to offer to grant the vicariate of Bologna to the Commune on 
 their own terms, if they would recognize him as Pope, the 
 Bolognese answered that, at the bidding of the cardinals, they 
 had. acknowledged Urban, and that they intended to obey 
 whoever should ultimately be decided by the Church to be the 
 true successor of Peter. 3 
 
 In Catherine's letter to the Perugians, we find this remarkable 
 passage : " You see these times prepared for great burdens, and 
 our country doomed to the coming of princes ; and we are 
 fragile like glass, because of our many sins and great dissensions. 
 If, therefore, we desert our father and do not help him, we shall 
 be in danger ; for, being severed from our strength, we shall be 
 too weak." And again : " Keep united, for Christ crucified, 
 and then do not fear any tyrant ; for the aid of God, for the love 
 
 1 Letter 337 (199)- Cf. Gherardi, op. cit., pp. 94-96. 
 
 2 Letter 339 (205). Cf. Pellini, I. pp. 1237-1242. Stefano's letter of 
 June 22 shows that Neri had gone to Perugia before that date. 
 
 8 Cf. Raynaldus, vii. p. 389 ; Cronica di Bologna, col. 522. 
 
 3 2 3 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 of whom you will succour His Spouse, will deliver you." l While 
 Clement was urging Louis of Anjou to invade Italy for the 
 phantasmal kingdom of Adria, Urban was appealing to Louis of 
 Hungary and Charles of Durazzo, his cousin, to succour the 
 Roman Church and deprive Giovanna of the Neapolitan throne. 
 In the January of this year, 1379, ambassadors from the King 
 had been in Florence, announcing that their master was coming 
 with an army to Italy after Easter, and demanding assistance 
 from the Commune. 2 But, for the present, Louis was engaged 
 in helping Francesco da Carrara and the Genoese in their war 
 against Venice, the famous War of Chioggia, which was taken by 
 their allied forces on August 1 5 ; and, at the end of the month, 
 Charles arrived with ten thousand Hungarians in the Trevisano, 
 where the Lord of Padua was pressing on the siege of Treviso 
 itself. 
 
 It is heartrending to find Catherine involved in this deplorable 
 affair ; but it is clear from her letters that she was merely Urban's 
 tool, acting in good faith, without the slightest realization of the 
 extent to which he and Charles were prepared to carry out their 
 scheme. Nothing can palliate the infamy of Charles's conduct 
 towards his kinswoman and benefactress, but some slight excuse 
 for Urban may be found in the fact that Clement had been the 
 first to summon the foreigner into Italy. In her long letter to 
 the King of Hungary, urging him, as he had always been the 
 champion of the faith against the infidels, to be now the defender 
 of the Church, Catherine sets before his eyes the "true and 
 most perfect charity that seeketh not her own," and bids him make 
 peace with his other enemies and come speedily. " Will you 
 endure that Antichrist, member of the demon, and a woman 
 should cast all our faith into ruin and darkness and confusion ? " 
 " Much good will result from your coming. Perhaps, this truth 
 will be made clear without human power, and this poor little 
 woman, the Queen, will be delivered from her obstinacy either by 
 
 1 Letter 339 (205). Similarly, to the Sienese, in Letter 311 (203) : " Noi 
 vediamo il tempo ad avvenimento de' signori" (Harleian MS.). 
 
 2 Anonhno Fiorentino, p. 391. 
 
 3 2 4 
 
ON THE FIELD OF BATTLE 
 
 fear or by love. You see how long Christ on earth has borne with 
 her, in not having deprived her in fact of what she has lawfully- 
 forfeited, only because he waited for her amendment and for love 
 of you. If now he were to do it, he would be acting justly, and 
 stand excused in God's sight and in yours." l And to Charles 
 of Durazzo she wrote : " with desire of seeing you a virile knight, 
 fighting manfully for the glory and praise of the name of God, 
 and for the exaltation and reformation of Holy Church " ; bidding 
 him come swiftly to Urban's succour, since God has chosen him 
 to be a column in the Church, an instrument to extirpate heresy 
 and exalt the truth, but first overcome the enemies of his own 
 soul, by purifying his heart and amending his life. 2 She had 
 shortly before sent Neri and another of her followers, the Abate 
 Lisolo, to Naples, with a last appeal to Giovanna herself, 
 imploring her as her dolcissima madre, carissima madre, for her 
 own salvation, for the sake of her people whom she was plunging 
 into civil war, to return to the truth before it should be too late. 
 "Alas, how can your heart endure without bursting that your 
 subjects should be divided because of you, and that one should 
 hold the white rose, another the red ; the one cling to the truth, 
 the other to the lie ? See you not that they are all created by 
 that most spotless rose of the eternal will of God, and recreated by 
 grace in that most ardent crimson rose of the blood of Christ ? " 3 
 Catherine's letter, together with Urban's summons, was probably 
 delivered to Charles at Padua at the beginning of November, 
 and he at once returned to Hungary, to concert measures with 
 the King. 
 
 Connected with Charles's presence at Treviso is one of the 
 saddest episodes of Catherine's life. In Florence, after the 
 
 1 Letter 357 (188). A slightly better text is in the Harleian MS. 
 
 s Letter 372 (189). 
 
 3 Letter 362 (318). A letter to Neri from Fra Bartolommeo di Domenico, 
 dated Rome, September 1 {Lettere del discepoll, 16), shows that the former had 
 gone to Naples shortly before that date, and that Catherine had at length been 
 compelled to abandon the idea of going thither in person, as the Pope refused 
 his consent. 
 
 3 2 5 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 overthrow of the Ciompi, mainly through the strange desertion 
 of their cause by Michele di Lando, 1 the chief share in the 
 government had remained with the artisans of the minor Arts ; 
 many of the noblest and most influential of the burghers were in 
 exile or under bounds, no less than the lowest plebeians who had 
 taken part in the tumults ; plots within and without the city, for 
 the restoration of the exiles and the overthrow of the new 
 regime, were incessant ; while Cante de' Gabrielli of Gubbio (a 
 descendant of that Messer Cante who, as Podesta, had passed 
 sentence against Dante three-quarters of a century before), as 
 Captain of the People for both six months of 1379, did fearful 
 deeds of justice or injustice, beheading or hanging real or 
 supposed traitors, torturing suspected persons to extort denunci- 
 ations of their fellow-citizens. The exiles looked to the advent 
 of Charles of Durazzo much as Dante had done to that of Henry 
 of Luxemburg, and the prince himself was ready to lend the aid 
 of his soldiers to restore the adherents of the Parte Guelfa to 
 Florence. 
 
 Apparently in April, Giannozzo Sacchetti had been arrested 
 (for debt, according to Marchionne Stefani), and cast into the prison 
 known as the Stinche. "I understand," wrote Catherine, on 
 May 8, to Bartolo Usimbardi and Francesco di Pippino, " that 
 Giannozzo has been taken ; I know not how long he will stay 
 there. I am pleased at what you, Francesco, write to me about 
 it, that you will never abandon him, and so I command you, in 
 the name of Jesus Christ, to visit him very often, to comfort and 
 help him m all that you can ; think that God demands nought 
 else of us, save that we should show upon our neighbour the 
 love that we have for Him. I commend him earnesdy to you, 
 and tell him from me to be a good knight, now that God has 
 put him on the field, and that his fighting must be true patience, 
 by bowing his head with humility to the sweet will of God. 
 Comfort him much in my name and in that of all this family, 
 
 Cf. Rodolico, op. cit., pp. 199-206, whose researches reveal Michele's 
 conduct in a most sinister aspect, instead of the halo of legendary glory with 
 which he had previously been surrounded. 
 
 326 
 
ON THE FIELD OF BATTLE 
 
 who all have great compassion for him." 1 Shortly afterwards, 
 Giannozzo was set at liberty ; Marchionne Stefani, who pursues 
 him with relentless partisan hate in his chronicle and spares no 
 effort to blacken his name, declares that he deceived his creditors 
 by his edifying conduct in prison, and robbed a fellow-prisoner of 
 his jewels, by the sale of which he escaped into Lombardy. This 
 is certainly a calumny ; but it seems clear that Giannozzo joined 
 the Florentine rebels in the Paduan district, and, in September, 
 he was with the Hungarian army at the siege of Treviso, where 
 (in understanding with Lapo da Castiglionchio) Benedetto 
 Peruzzi persuaded him to join a conspiracy for the restoration 
 of the Guelf exiles to Florence, with the aid of Charles of 
 Durazzo. 
 
 Giannozzo returned to Tuscany with letters from the prince, 
 to raise money to hire four hundred lances for this purpose from 
 the Compagnia di San Giorgio, which was now in Charles's pay. 
 In the Florentine contado, he visited Guido della Foresta, Piero 
 Canigiani, Antonio da Uzzano, Donato Strada, and Bonifazio 
 Peruzzi, all of whom professed themselves favourable to the 
 undertaking. But the Florentine ambassadors who were with 
 Charles, attempting to arrange peace between Genoa and Venice, 
 had warned the Signoria ; and, on October 12, Giannozzo and 
 Bonifazio Peruzzi were arrested in a villa at Marignolle, and 
 handed over to Cante de' Gabrielli. Examined under torture on 
 the following evening, Giannozzo confessed the whole plot, 
 denounced Piero Canigiani and his other accomplices, and (so it 
 was said) even accused himself of having forged the letters he 
 had brought from Charles of Durazzo. His own brother, 
 Franco Sacchetti, was the first to propose, in the Council of the 
 Captain, that he should be put to death as a traitor to his native 
 land. On October 15, Giannozzo was brought in a cart through 
 the city to the place of execution, and there beheaded. The 
 other conspirators were condemned to a fine of two thousand 
 florins ; Bonifazio Peruzzi and Antonio da Uzzano paid ; but 
 Piero Canigiani and the others, being unable to find the amount 
 1 Unpublished. Appendix, Letter VI. 
 327 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 within a month, were put under ban, and their goods forfeited to 
 the Commune. The King of Hungary and Charles of Durazzo 
 denied all knowledge of the matter, the latter even declaring 
 that the death of such a traitor had been too merciful. But it was 
 afterwards admitted that the letters were authentic, and that 
 Giannozzo's confession of forgery, if really made, had been 
 extorted from him by torture, in order to avoid political com- 
 plications. 1 A similar conspiracy came to light in December, 
 Marchionne Stefani being then one of the priors, when, to 
 appease the clamour of the populace led by the demagogues 
 Tommaso Strozzi and Giorgio Scali, several of the noblest 
 Florentine citizens were beheaded. Among them was Donato 
 Barbadori, who had ever served the Republic with such fearless 
 fidelity, and who died calmly and emphatically protesting his 
 innocence. 
 
 1 Cf. Marchionne Stefani, Lib. X. rubr. 821, 827, 905 ; Manni's Cronkhetta 
 <P Incerto, p. 217 ; Anonimo Fiorentino, pp. 402-404, and Gherardi's preface, pp. 
 260-262 ; Palermo, op. cit., pp. ciii.-cxxx. ; Rodolico, op. at., pp. 331-336. 
 
 328 
 
CHAPTER XV 
 
 THE PASSAGE FROM THE WORLD 
 
 " Al cielo e ritornata 
 La Sposa al suo Sposo t 
 L' amorosa a 1' amoroso, 
 Et a 1' amante 1' amata." 
 
 Neri di Landoccio, In Lauds della Serafica Vcrginc. 
 
 All this while, Catherine's life was being slowly consumed in 
 the burning fire of her love for the Church ; in her, indeed, had 
 the word of the Psalmist been fulfilled to the letter : The zeal 
 of thine house hath eaten me up ; and the reproaches of them that 
 reproached thee are fallen upon me. These months in Rome had 
 been for her a time of intense agony, physical and mental, of 
 impassioned labour by word and deed, while her bodily 
 infirmities increased continually, until she seemed no longer to 
 resemble a living being. 
 
 Towards the close of 1379, Catherine had moved with her 
 spiritual family from the Rione della Colonna, and hoped soon 
 to return to Siena. " We have taken a house near San Biagio," 
 she wrote, on December 4, to Neri di Landoccio, who was still 
 at Naples, " between the Campo de' Fiori and Sant' Eustachio, 
 and we think to return before Easter, by the grace of God." 1 
 This was the house near the Minerva, in the present Via S. 
 Chiara, where her cell is now venerated as a chapel, and it was 
 here that her last mysterious illness came upon her. Here she 
 endured that prolonged torment of soul and body, offering up 
 herself as a willing victim to her Divine Bridegroom. To 
 those that loved her, and stood by her side during these 
 months from January 30, the Monday after Sexagesima Sunday, 
 when her last agony began, until April 29, the Sunday before the 
 
 1 Letter in the Casanatense MS. 2422. " Di frate Raimondo abiamo buone 
 novelle, che egli sta bene, et lavora molto forte per la santa Chiesa." 
 
 3 2 9 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 feast of the Ascension, when she passed away, it seemed a new, 
 unheard-of spiritual martyrdom, the death for which she had 
 so often besought the Lord, for the renovation of the Church 
 and the expiation of the sins of the world. 
 
 Two of the letters have been preserved that Barduccio wrote to 
 Urban at her dictation at this time ; for it is clear that she was 
 frequently prevented from speaking to him face to face. In one, 
 she bewails the fact that the new cardinals and prelates whom he 
 has made, far from setting an example of virtue and abnegation, 
 are simply following in the steps of their predecessors : " who 
 had grown old in vice, in much pride, impurity, and avarice, 
 committing the greatest simony." Already Urban had wearied 
 of his first reforming zeal, and there would soon be little to 
 choose between him and the man whom Catherine deemed the 
 Antipope ; but the Saint was never to realize this. " Pardon my 
 presumption, most holy Father," she writes, " that I have 
 ventured to write confidently to you, constrained by the Divine 
 Goodness, and by the need that is manifest, and by the love I 
 bear you. I should have come, instead of writing, but did not 
 wish to weary you by coming so often. Have patience with me ; 
 for I shall never cease from urging you, by prayer, and by word 
 of mouth or letter, as long as I live, until I see in you and in 
 Holy Church what I desire, for which I know you desire, much 
 more than I, to give your life." a In the other, she exhorts him 
 to follow the example of St. Gregory the Great and govern the 
 Church with prudence, especially in his dealings with the Roman 
 Republic, whose ambassadors have just received an insulting reply 
 from the rebellious Prefect, Francesco di Vico : "I have heard, 
 most holy Father, of the reply that the impious Prefect has made 
 you ; verily, full of anger and of irreverence towards the Roman 
 ambassadors. About this reply, it seems that they will call a 
 general council, after which the heads of the Rioni and certain 
 other good men will come to you. I beseech you, most holy 
 Father, as you have begun, so to continue to confer often with 
 them, and, with prudence, bind them with the bond of love. And 
 
 1 Letter 364 (21). 
 330 
 
THE PASSAGE FROM THE WORLD 
 
 so I beseech you now, as to what they will say to you after the 
 council has been held, to receive them with all the sweetness that 
 you can, pointing out to them what is necessary, according as shall 
 seem fit to your Holiness. Pardon me ; for love makes me say 
 what, perchance, need not be said. For I know that you must 
 know the nature of your Roman children, how they are led and 
 bound more by gentleness than by any other force or by 
 harshness of words ; and you know, too, the great necessity that 
 there is for you and Holy Church to preserve this people in 
 obedience and reverence to your Holiness ; because here is the 
 head and the beginning of our faith. And I humbly beseech 
 you to strive with prudence always to promise only what you see 
 to be possible for you completely to fulfil, in order that harm, 
 shame, and confusion may not follow afterwards. Pardon me, 
 sweetest and holiest Father, for saying these words to you. I trust 
 that your humility and kindness is content that they should be 
 said to you, and that you will not despise or scorn them because 
 they come from the mouth of a very vile woman ; for a humble 
 man does not consider who speaks to him, but looks to the 
 honour of God, and to the truth, and to his salvation." Let the 
 Pope remember " the ruin that came upon all Italy, because no 
 check was put upon those evil rulers, who governed in such wise 
 that they have been the cause of the spoliation of the Church of 
 God." 1 
 
 This letter to Urban was Catherine's last political testament. 
 It was written on the evening of Monday, January 30, the 
 Monday after Sexagesima Sunday. 2 She had barely finished 
 dictating it, when her agony came upon her, the repetition of a 
 
 1 Letter 370 (22), corrected by the Harleian MS., with which I read : 
 " della risposta che v' ha fatta 1' empio prefetto, drittamente empiuto d' ira," etc. 
 Further on, Catherine refers to an insult to the Sienese ambassador. The 
 Sienese had attempted to make peace between the Pope and the Prefect. Cf. 
 Cronka Sanese, col. 265. Augusta Drane (II. pp. 235, 236) has curiously misunder- 
 stood and mistranslated the Saint's reference to the Roman council. 
 
 2 That is, if Fra Tommaso Caffarini is right in identifying it with the one 
 mentioned by Catherine herself in Letter 373 (102), of which he does not 
 seem certain. Supplementum, III. i. (Casanatense MS. 2360), ff. 132-134. 
 
 331 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 stroke she had had on the previous night. "After we had 
 written a letter," wrote Barduccio to Suor Caterina Petriboni, a 
 nun in the Florentine convent of S. Piero a Monticelli, " she had 
 another stroke, so much more terrible that we all mourned for 
 her as dead, and she remained for a long space of time in such a 
 state that no sign of life appeared in her ; then, after several 
 hours, she rose up, and it did not seem that she was herself." 
 
 A few days later, the rancour that, since the destruction of 
 Sant' Angelo, had been steadily increasing between Urban and the 
 Romans came to a head. To Catherine's spiritual eyes, the whole 
 city seemed full of demons, urging the populace to rise in tumult 
 and take the Pontiff's life. Fra Raimondo pictures her to us, 
 wrestling in spirit with the Lord, beseeching Him, for honour of 
 His name and for the sake of the Church, to inflict upon her 
 body all the chastisements that the Roman People had merited 
 for the innumerable sins. committed in the Eternal City, and so 
 restore harmony between them and the Pope. It is said that the 
 populace assailed the Vatican in arms, and that Urban ordered 
 the gates of the palace to be thrown open, received the insurgents 
 seated upon his papal throne, and succeeded in appeasing their 
 fury. 1 We do not know what part Catherine played in this 
 affair, but the reconciliation was attributed to her prayers, and 
 not improbably was due to her direct influence upon Giovanni 
 Cenci, the democratic leader of the Roman republicans. In that 
 case, this was her last political work, and surely not the least noble 
 of her achievements. 
 
 " Then," writes Barduccio Canigiani, " began new pains and 
 
 1 Cf. Legenda, III. ii. 2-4 (§§ 345, 346) ; Gobelinus Persona, Cosmodromium, cap. 
 76. The accounts of this affair given by Raynaldus, vii. p. 389, and Maimbourg, 
 I. pp. 147, 148, are simply taken from Gobelinus, that of St. Antoninus, III. pp. 
 714, 715, being based upon the Legenda. Raynaldus and Maimbourg ascribe it 
 to the latter part of 1379, but Catherine, Letter 373 (102), seems to imply that 
 it took place on February 2, 1380. We read in the Anonimo Fiorentino, pp. 401, 
 402, under October 10, 1379, °f an earlier tumult, where it is stated that the 
 Roman People had made Giovanni Cenci tribune of Rome : " E '1 Papa ebbe 
 gran paura. Onde la cosa si riposo in questo tribuno." In 1380, Giovanni 
 Cenci was appointed Senator of Rome. 
 
 332 
 
THE PASSAGE FROM THE WORLD 
 
 cruel torments to increase in her body every day. And, we 
 being now come to Lent, she began, notwithstanding her weak- 
 ness, to be so zealous in prayer that it was a wondrous thing, with 
 those humble sighs and dolorous laments that drew our hearts 
 from us. I think you know that her prayers were of such 
 intensity, that one hour of prayer more consumed that poor little 
 body than two days upon the rack would have done another. 1 
 Therefore, every morning with tears we lifted her up after Com- 
 munion, in such a state that whoso saw her deemed her dead, and 
 carried her to her couch. And, after an hour or two, she would 
 rise up, and we went to San Pietro, which is a long mile from us, 
 and then she set herself to prayer, and she remained there until 
 nearly vespers, after which she returned home, so exhausted that 
 she seemed a dead woman ; and acting thus she continued, every 
 day in the same way, until the third Sunday of Lent." 
 
 These are things of which it is impossible for us to speak 
 in the language of modern life. We have Catherine's own 
 words, in the two wonderful letters written to Fra Raimondo on 
 February 15, 1380, the Wednesday after the first Sunday in Lent, 
 in which she takes leave of him and of the world. Never was 
 the psychology of saintliness so marvellously revealed by one 
 who had penetrated its depths, no less securely than she had 
 scaled its heights. 
 
 " In the name of Jesus Christ crucified and of sweet Mary. 
 
 "Dearest and sweetest father in Christ sweet Jesus. I, 
 Catherine, servant and slave of the servants of Jesus Christ, write 
 to you in His precious blood, with desire of seeing you a column 
 newly founded in the garden of Holy Church, like a faithful 
 bridegroom of the Truth, as you ought to be ; and then shall I 
 deem my soul blessed. I would not have you look back because 
 of any adversity or persecution, but I would have you glory in 
 adversity ; for in enduring we manifest our love and constancy, 
 and render glory to God's name ; in other wise, no. Now is the 
 
 1 Stando in su la corda due giorni, more literally, " two days of the strappado," 
 the mediaeval Italian method of examining prisoners. I quote the original 
 vernacular of this letter, appended to the early Venetian editions of the Dialog). 
 
 333 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 time, dearest father, to lose oneself utterly, and to think nothing 
 about self ; even as did the glorious labourers, who, with such 
 great love and desire, offered up the life of their body and watered 
 this garden with blood, with humble and continual prayers, and 
 by enduring even unto death. Look to it that I do not see you 
 timid, so that your own shadow frighten you, but a virile warrior ; 
 and never depart from that yoke of obedience that the Sovereign 
 Pontiff has laid upon you ; and, also, in the order carry out what 
 you see to be the honour of God ; for the great goodness of God 
 demands this of us, and He has set us there for nought else. 
 Consider how great is the need that we see in Holy Church ; for 
 we see her utterly left alone. And thus the Truth made manifest, 
 as I write to you in the other letter ; and even as the Spouse is left 
 alone, so is her bridegroom left alone. O sweetest father, I will 
 not conceal the great mysteries of God from you ; but I will 
 recount them as briefly as can be, according as the weak tongue 
 can narrate. And, also, I will tell you what I would have you do. 
 But receive what I tell you without pain ; for I know not what 
 the Divine Goodness will do with me, whether He will make me 
 remain or summon me to Himself. 
 
 " Father, father and sweetest son, wonderful mysteries has 
 God wrought from the day of the Circumcision until now ; so 
 much that the tongue would not be sufficient to be able to narrate 
 them. But let us let all that time go, and come to the Sunday 
 of Sexagesima, on which day there were, as in brief I am writing 
 you in the other letter, those mysteries which you shall hear ; for 
 it seemed to me that never had I borne the like. For so great 
 was the pain in my heart, that my habit was rent, as much of it 
 as I could grasp, as I went round the chapel like a person in 
 agony. Whoso had restrained me, would have verily taken my 
 life. When the evening of Monday came, I was constrained to 
 write to Christ on earth and to three cardinals ; I had myself helped, 
 and went into the study ; and when I had written to Christ on 
 earth, I could write no more ; so great were the pains that 
 increased in my body. And, after a little while, the terror of the 
 demons began, in such wise that they made me utterly stupefied, 
 
 334 
 
THE PASSAGE FROM THE WORLD 
 
 mad with rage against me, as if I, worm, had been the cause of 
 taking from their hands what they had long time possessed in 
 Holy Church. So great was the terror, with the bodily pain, 
 that I wished to fly from the study, and to go into the chapel ; 
 as though the study had been the cause of my pains. I raised 
 myself up ; and, not being able to walk, I leaned upon my son 
 Barduccio. But at once I was hurled down ; and, being hurled 
 down, it seemed to me as though the soul had been severed from 
 the body ; not in that way as when she passed away from it, for 
 then my soul tasted the bliss of the immortals, receiving that 
 sovereign good together with them ; x but now she seemed like a 
 thing reserved ; for I did not seem to myself to be in the body, 
 but I saw my body as though it had been another. And my soul, 
 seeing the pain of him who was with me, turned to know if I had 
 aught to do with the body, to say to him : ' Son, do not fear ' ; 
 and I saw that I could not move the tongue nor any other 
 member, any more than a body separated from life. Then I left 
 the body as it was, and my understanding kept fixed upon the 
 abyss of the Trinity. My memory was full of the recollection of 
 the necessity of Holy Church and of all the Christian people. I 
 cried out in God's sight, and with confidence besought the divine 
 aid, offering Him my desires, and constraining Him by the blood 
 of the Lamb, and by the pains that had been borne ; and so 
 earnestly was it besought, that it seemed to me certain that He 
 would not deny that petition. Then I besought Him for all of 
 you, praying Him to fulfil in you His will and my desires. 
 Then I besought Him to deliver me from eternal damnation. 
 While I remained thus for a very long while, so long that the 
 family mourned for me as dead, all the terror of the demons had 
 passed away. Then came the presence of the humble Lamb 
 before my soul, saying : ' Fear not ; for I will fulfil thy desires 
 and those of My other servants. I would have thee see that I 
 am the good craftsman, and do as the potter, who mars and makes 
 again as seems good to him. Thus do I with these My vessels ; 
 I can mar them and make them again ; and, therefore, I take the 
 1 She refers to her trance, or mystical death, in 1370. Cf. chapter v. 
 
 335 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 vessel of thy body and make it again in the garden of Holy 
 Church, in other wise than in the time passed.' And, that sweet 
 Truth clasping me round with most winning ways and words 
 which I pass over, my body began to breathe a little, and to show 
 that the soul had returned to her vessel. I was full of wonder, 
 and such great anguish remained in my heart that I still have it 
 there. Every joy, every consolation, and all bodily food were 
 taken from me ; when I was then brought back into the place 
 above, the room seemed to me full of demons ; and they began 
 to give me another battle, the most terrible that I ever endured, 
 striving to make me believe and see that I was not she who was 
 in the body, but, as it were, an unclean spirit. I called upon the 
 divine aid with a sweet tenderness, not, indeed, refusing labour, 
 albeit I said : ' O God, come to my assistance ; O Lord, make 
 haste to help me. Thou hast allowed me to be alone in this 
 battle, without the consolation of the father of my soul, of which 
 I am deprived through my own ingratitude.' 
 
 " Two nights and two days passed with these tempests. True 
 is it that the mind and desire received no injury, but the under- 
 standing remained ever fixed upon its object, and the body seemed, 
 as it were, to have died. Afterwards, the day of the Purification 
 of Mary, I wished to hear Mass. Then were all the mysteries 
 renewed ; and God showed the great need that was, and is, as 
 afterwards appeared ; for Rome has been all on the point of 
 revolting, traducing miserably and with great irreverence. But 
 God has laid the ointment upon their hearts, and I believe that 
 the affair will have a good conclusion. Then God imposed upon 
 me this obedience, that, all this time of holy Lent, I should have 
 the desires of all the family sacrificed and offered up in His sight, 
 with this sole intention, namely, for Holy Church ; and that I 
 should hear a Mass every morning at dawn ; which, you know, 
 is an impossible thing for me, but, in obedience to Him, every- 
 thing has become possible. So much has this desire become a 
 part of me, that the memory retains nought else ; the under- 
 standing can see nought else, and the will can desire nought else. 
 And not merely does she reject the things of this world for this, 
 
 33 6 
 
THE PASSAGE FROM THE WORLD 
 
 but, though she holds converse with the true citizens, the soul 
 neither can nor will rejoice in their joy, but only in the hunger 
 which they have, and had while they were pilgrims and wanderers 
 in this life. 
 
 " In this and in many other ways, which I cannot narrate, my 
 life is being distilled and consumed in this sweet Spouse ; I in this 
 fashion, and the glorious martyrs with their blood. I pray the 
 Divine Goodness soon to let me behold the redemption of His 
 people. "When it is the hour of tierce, I rise up from Mass, and 
 you would see a dead woman going to San Pietro ; and I enter 
 anew to labour in the little bark of Holy Church. There I stay 
 thus until nearly the hour of vespers ; and from that place I 
 would fain never go, nor day nor night, until I see this people a 
 little settled and established with their father. This body keeps 
 without any food, even without a drop of water ; with such great 
 and sweet bodily torments as I never endured at any time, so 
 that my life hangs upon a thread. Now I know not what the 
 Divine Goodness will please to do with me ; as far as I feel, I do 
 not say that I perceive His will and intention with regard to me ; 
 but, as to bodily sensation, it seems to me that I am to consume it 
 at this time with a new martyrdom in the sweetness of my soul, 
 that is, in Holy Church. Then He will, perhaps, make me rise again 
 with Him ; He will put an end and bound both to my miseries 
 and to my crucified desires ; or He will keep His wonted ways in 
 circling round my body with His power. I have prayed, and am 
 praying His infinite mercy to accomplish His will in me, and not 
 to leave you or the others orphans, but ever to direct you along 
 the way of the doctrine of truth, with true and most perfect light. 
 I am certain that He will do it. 
 
 " Now I pray and urge you, father and son given me by that 
 sweet Mother Mary, if you hear that God is turning the eyes of 
 His mercy upon me, to begin your life anew ; and, like one dead 
 to all feeling of sense, cast yourself into this little bark of Holy 
 Church. And be always cautious in speaking with others. You 
 will seldom be able to have an actual cell ; but I would have you 
 always dwell in the cell of the heart, and always bear it with you. 
 22 337 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 For, as you know, when we are locked into that, our enemies 
 cannot offend us. Then, every exercise that you do wdl be 
 directed and ordained according to God. Also, I pray you to 
 ripen your heart with a holy and true prudence, and to let your 
 life be an example in the eyes of the laity, by never conforming 
 yourself with the customs of the world. And let that generosity 
 towards the poor and voluntary poverty, which you have always 
 had, be renewed and refreshed in you, with true and perfect 
 humility ; and do not let it ever grow lax, because of any state or 
 exaltation that God gives you ; but plunge yourself down more 
 deeply into the valley of that humility, finding delight in taking 
 the food of souls at the table of the Cross, embracing humble, 
 faithful and continual prayer as a mother, with holy watchfulness, 
 celebrating Mass every day, unless by chance it should be necessary 
 to abstain from it. Shun unnecessary and light speech, but be 
 and show yourself mature in what you say, and in all you do. 
 Cast away all tenderness for yourself and all servile fear ; for the 
 sweet Church has no need of such folk, but of cruel persons, cruel 
 to themselves and pitiful to her. These are the things which I 
 pray you to strive to observe. Also, I pray you to get into your 
 hands the Book and all my writings which you can find, you and 
 Fra Bartolommeo and Fra Tommaso and the Master ; and do 
 with them what you see to be most to the honour of God, together 
 with Messer Tommaso ; x in them I found some recreation. I 
 pray you further, as far as you will be able, to be the pastor and 
 ruler of this family, even as a father, to preserve them in love of 
 charity and in perfect union ; so that they may not be left 
 scattered, like sheep without a shepherd. And I think to do more 
 for them, and for you, after my death than in life. I will pray 
 the eternal Truth to pour out over you all the fulness of grace 
 and gifts that He has given to my soul, in order that you may be 
 shining lights set on a candlestick. And I pray you to pray to 
 the eternal Bridegroom that He may make me fulfil manfully the 
 obedience that He has laid upon me, and may forgive me the 
 multitude of my iniquities. Also, I pray you to pardon me all 
 1 Tommaso Petra, then one of the papal secretaries. 
 338 
 
THE PASSAGE FROM THE WORLD 
 
 ie disobedience, irreverence, and ingratitude that I have com- 
 mitted towards you, and all the pain and sorrow that I have caused 
 ou, and the little solicitude that I have had for your salvation, 
 ask your benediction. 
 
 " Pray earnestly to God for me, and have prayers offered, for 
 he love of Christ crucified. Forgive me for having written 
 rords of bitterness to you ; I do not write them to you to 
 listress you, but because I am in doubt, and know not what the 
 ;oodness of God will do with me. I want to have done my duty, 
 ^.nd do not make yourself unhappy, because with bodily presence 
 am far away from you, and you from me ; for, although your 
 >resence would be a very great consolation to me, I have greater 
 onsolation and gladness at seeing the fruit that you are producing 
 n Holy Church. Now I beseech you to labour more zealously, 
 or never had she such great need. And Christ on earth and 
 Vlesser Tommaso are sending you the instruments with which 
 ^ou will be able to work well. 1 And never, because of any per- 
 lecution, depart without leave of our lord the Pope. Take 
 :omfort, take comfort in Christ sweet Jesus, without any bitter- 
 less. I say no more to you. Remain in the holy and sweet 
 ;harity of God. Sweet Jesus, Jesus Love." 2 
 
 The letter, or rather revelation, which accompanied this, and 
 vhich Fra Tommaso Caffarini declares that Catherine wrote with 
 ler own hand, is entitled : " To the aforesaid Maestro Raimondo, 
 signifying to him certain things and new mysteries that God had 
 wrought in her soul on the Sunday of Sexagesima " : — 
 
 " In the name of Jesus Christ crucified and of sweet Mary. 
 
 " I was panting with sorrow, through the crucified desire 
 tfhich was newly conceived in the sight of God ; for the light 
 jf the understanding had mirrored itself in the eternal Trinity, 
 ind in that abyss was seen the beauty and dignity of the rational 
 :reature, and the misery into which the soul falls by the fault of 
 
 1 i. e. the papal briefs, several of which, addressed to Raimondo at Genoa, are 
 n the Archwio Vatlcano, Reg. 310. 
 
 2 Letter 373 (102). I quote throughout from the fuller and more accurate 
 ext of the Casanatense MS. 292. 
 
 339 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 mortal sin, and the necessity of Holy Church which God mani- 
 fested in His breast ; and how no one can attain to taste the 
 beauty of God in the abyss of the Trinity, save by the means of 
 this sweet Spouse, because we must all pass through the gate of 
 Christ crucified, and this gate is not found elsewhere than in 
 Holy Church. I saw that this Spouse offered life, for she holds 
 life in herself in such wise that there is no one who can slay her, 
 and that she gave strength and light, for there is no one who can 
 weaken her nor give her darkness, as far as concerns her very self. 
 And I saw that her fruit never fails, but ever increases. 
 
 " Then said God eternal : c All this dignity, which thy under- 
 standing could not comprehend, is given to man by My goodness. 
 Look with grief and bitter sorrow, and thou shalt see that none 
 go to this Spouse save for her external raiment, that is, for her 
 temporal substance. But thou seest her destitute of those who 
 take or seek what is within this Spouse, to wit, the fruit of the 
 blood. Whoso does not bring the price of charity with true 
 humility, and with the light of the most holy faith, shall not 
 partake of this fruit to life, but to death ; he would act like the 
 thief, who takes what is not his ; for the fruit of the blood belongs 
 to those who bring the price of love, because she is founded in love 
 and is love itself. And for love I would have every man give to 
 her, according as I, God eternal, give to My servants to administer 
 in diverse ways, even as they have received. But I am grieved 
 that I find no one to minister to her. Nay, it seems that every 
 one has abandoned her. But I will find the remedy.' 
 
 " The sorrow and the fire of desire waxing stronger, I cried 
 out in the sight of God, saying : 'What can I do, O inestimable 
 Fire ? ' And His benignity replied : ' Thou canst offer up thy 
 life anew, and never give thyself rest. To this exercise have I 
 set and am setting thee, thee and all those who follow and shall 
 follow thee. Take heed, then, never to slacken, but ever to 
 increase your desires ; for I, with affection of love, shall surely 
 succour you with My grace for soul and for body. And, in order 
 that your minds may not be occupied in other things, I have 
 made provision by giving an impulse to her whom I have set to 
 
 34° 
 
THE PASSAGE FROM THE WORLD 
 
 govern you, and with mysteries and new ways I have drawn her 
 and put her to this exercise ; whereby she with her substance 
 serves my Church, and you with continual, humble, and faithful 
 prayers, and with those exercises that shall be necessary. 1 These 
 will be assigned to thee and to them by My goodness, to each one 
 according to his degree. Devote, then, thy life and thy heart 
 and thy affection solely to this Spouse, for Me, without thyself. 
 Gaze upon Me, and behold the bridegroom of this Spouse, to wit, 
 the Sovereign Pontiff, and see his good and holy intention, which 
 intention is without moderation ; and thou seest that, even as the 
 Spouse is alone, so is he alone. I permit that, with the methods 
 he uses without moderation, and with the fear that he gives his 
 subjects, he should sweep out My Church. But another shall 
 come who with love shall bear him company, and fill her again. 2 
 It will fare with this Spouse as fares with the soul ; for, first, fear 
 enters her, and afterwards, when she is stripped of vices, love fills 
 her again and reclothes her with virtues. All this shall be by 
 sweet enduring, which is and shall be sweet to those who, in very 
 truth, are nourished and shall be nourished at her breast. But do 
 thou bid My vicar reconcile himself with every person, according 
 to his power, and give peace to every one who will receive it. 
 And to the columns of Holy Church say that, if they wish to 
 repair her great ruin, they must do thus : they must unite together 
 to be a garment to cover up the conduct that appears faulty in 
 their father. Let them live ordered lives, and keep at their sides 
 persons who fear and love Me. Let them meet together, casting 
 
 1 This passage, in the plural, is addressed to Catherine's followers in general, tutti 
 quelli che ti seguitano e seguiteranno, the quella ch' io ho posta che vi governi being 
 Catherine herself. The change from thee to you, and back from you to thee, is thus 
 clear. 
 
 2 Ma altri verrh che con amore P accompagnerh e la riempira. That Catherine's 
 contemporary disciples understood the sentence thus, seems clear from Fra 
 Tommaso Caffarini's translation : Sed alius veniet qui cum amore eum associabit et 
 replebit Ecclesiam ; but the Italian might equally mean : " Another shall come 
 who shall bear her company in love, and fill her again." Cf. Dante, Purg. vi. 
 114. In any case, it is simply the common mediaeval prophecy of the ideal Pope, 
 the papa angelica, who is to reform and renovate the Church. 
 
 341 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 themselves to earth ; and, when they do so, I who am Light will 
 give them that light which shall be necessary to Holy Church. 
 And, when they have seen among themselves what should be done, 
 let them report it to My vicar, with true unity, promptly, boldly, 
 and with great deliberation, and he will be constrained not to 
 resist their good wills, because he has a holy and good 
 intention.' 1 
 
 " My tongue is not sufficient to narrate such great mysteries, 
 nor what the understanding saw and the affection conceived. 
 The day passed, full of wonder, and the evening came. And 
 feeling my heart so drawn by affection of love that I could make 
 no resistance to it, but must needs go to the place of prayer, and 
 feeling that disposition come which I had at the time of death, 2 
 I knelt down with very great self-reproach, because I served the 
 Spouse of Christ with great ignorance and negligence, and was the 
 cause through which others did the same. Rising up, with the 
 impression before the eye of my understanding of what I have 
 said, God placed me before Himself, albeit I am always present 
 to Him, because He contains all things in Himself ; but in a new 
 way, as though memory, understanding, and will had nought to 
 do with my body. And with such great light did it contemplate 
 this Truth, that in this abyss were then renewed the mysteries of 
 Holy Church, and all the graces past and present received in my 
 life, and the day on which my soul was espoused in faith. 3 All 
 these things passed away from my mind, through the fire that had 
 waxed stronger ; and I attended only to what could be done to 
 make a sacrifice of myself to God for Holy Church, and to 
 remove the neglect and ignorance of those whom God had put 
 into my hands. Then the demons cried out terribly against me, 
 looking by the dread they inspired to impede and slacken my free 
 and flaming desire. They struck against the outward body ; but 
 
 1 This was evidently to be the subject of the letter to three cardinals, which 
 she found herself unable to write. 
 
 " i.e. in 1370. 
 
 3 E il dl che infedefu sposata /' anima mla. So the Casanatense MS., with which 
 Fra Tommaso's Latin version corresponds. 
 
 342 
 
THE PASSAGE FROM THE WORLD 
 
 the desire was the more enkindled, and I cried out : ' O God 
 eternal, receive the sacrifice of my life in this mystical body of 
 Holy Church. I have nought to give, save what Thou hast 
 given me. Take my heart, and press it out over the face of this 
 Spouse.' Then eternal God, turning the eye of His clemency, 
 plucked out my heart, and pressed it out into Holy Church. And 
 with such force had He drawn it to Himself that if, not wishing 
 that the vessel of my body should be shattered, He had not 
 straightway circled it round with His strength, my life would have 
 departed. Then the demons cried out much more, as though 
 they had felt intolerable pain ; and they strove to fill me with 
 terror, threatening to deal with me in such wise that I should be 
 unable to do this exercise. But because Hell cannot resist the 
 virtue of humility joined to the light of most holy faith, my mind 
 drew itself together the more, and worked with weapons of fire, 
 hearing such winning words in the sight of the Divine Majesty, and 
 promises that gave joy. And, in truth, I was thus in so great a 
 mystery that the tongue henceforth is no longer sufficient to speak 
 of it. 
 
 " Now I say : thanks, thanks be to the most high, eternal 
 God, who has placed us on the field of battle, like knights, to 
 combat for His Spouse with the shield of most holy faith. The 
 field is left free for us, by that virtue and power with which was 
 defeated the demon who possessed the human race, and who was 
 defeated, not in virtue of the humanity of Christ, but in virtue of 
 His Godhead. With this will he now be defeated ; that is, the 
 demon will not be defeated by the mere suffering of our bodies, 
 but in virtue of the fire of the divine, most ardent, and 
 inestimable Charity. Thanks be to God, Amen. Sweet Jesus, 
 Jesus Love." x 
 
 In this mystical agony, Catherine passed the next ten days, 
 between her house and St. Peter's, until the third Sunday in Lent, 
 when, as she prayed in the basilica before Giotto's mosaic of the 
 
 1 Letter 371 (103), corrected and supplemented by the Casanatense MS. 292. 
 A Latin version by Fra Tommaso Caffarini is in his Suppkmentum, III. I 
 (Casanatense MS. 2360), ff. 123-126 v. 
 
 343 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 Navicella, it seemed to her that the bark of the Church was 
 placed upon her shoulders, and that it crushed her to death with 
 its weight. Her disciples carried her back, in a dying state, and 
 laid her upon her couch, from which she never rose again save 
 once. " She lay in this way for eight weeks," writes Barduccio, 
 " without raising her head, full of such intolerable torments from 
 head to foot, that she ofttimes said : ' These are not bodily or 
 natural pains, but it seems that I have given leave to the demons 
 to torment this body at their pleasure.' And, verily, it seemed 
 surely that it was so ; for she endured the most grievous pains 
 that were ever heard, and it would seem to me a profanation to 
 tell you of her patience ; but this much will I tell you, that, when 
 a new agony came, she raised her eyes with joy to God, and said : 
 ' Thanks be to Thee, eternal Bridegroom, who every day dost 
 newly grant such gifts and such graces to me, wretched woman, 
 and Thy unworthy servant.' " 
 
 Tommaso Petra tells us how, hearing of her condition, he 
 went to visit her, and found her lying upon the hard boards that 
 formed her bed, in the room that had been transformed already 
 into an oratory. He urged her to make her last will and 
 testament, by prescribing a rule of life for all her disciples, that 
 each might know what he or she should do after her death. 
 " Leave us," he said, " all rich in divine love by this last will and 
 testament, for I am certain that this injunction that I lay upon 
 you will be most pleasing to the Lord." l At his bidding, she 
 summoned all her spiritual sons and daughters who were then in 
 Rome, and delivered to them " a devout, notable, and fruitful 
 discourse," of which one of those present has left an account in 
 writing. It is, as it were, a summary of what, all through her 
 life, she had striven to teach them by word and by deed : — 
 
 " In the first place, she said that, in the beginning of her 
 spiritual life, she recognized that, in order to give herself entirely 
 to God and to possess Him fully, it was first necessary to strip her 
 heart and affection of every sensitive love of every creature and 
 
 1 Tommaso Petra's letter to Fra Bartolommeo, with some slight variations, is 
 included in both the Supplementum and the Processus. 
 
 344 
 
THE PASSAGE FROM THE WORLD 
 
 of every created thing outside of God ; because the heart cannot 
 be given completely to God, unless it be free, open, pure, and 
 single ; and that she had chiefly striven to do this, with great 
 solicitude, being desirous to seek God by the way of suffering. 
 
 " She said, further, that she kept the eye of her understanding 
 steadfast in a light of living faith, holding for certain that 
 whatever happened to her or to others proceeded from God, 
 through the great love that He bears His creatures, and not 
 through hate. And thence she acquired and conceived a love and 
 a readiness for holy obedience to the commands of God and those 
 of her superiors, thinking that all their commands proceeded from 
 God, either for the necessity of her salvation or for the increase of 
 virtue in her soul. And she added : ' This I say, in the sight of 
 my sweet Creator : I have never in the least degree sinned against 
 obedience, through His goodness.' 
 
 " Next, she said that God had made her see that she could 
 never come to perfection, nor acquire in herself any true virtue, 
 without the means of humble, faithful, and continuous prayer ; 
 saying : { This is the mother which conceives and nourishes all 
 virtues in the soul ; and without her they all grow weak and 
 fail.' Very much did she exhort us to be zealous in prayer, 
 defining two kinds of prayers, vocal and mental. To vocal prayer, 
 she said, we should apply ourselves at fixed hours ; but to mental 
 prayer, continuously ; erer striving to know ourselves and the 
 great goodness of God towards us. She said, also, that, in order 
 to attain to purity of mind, it was necessary to abstain utterly 
 from every judgment of our neighbour and from every empty 
 talk about his doings, but always to consider the will of God in 
 His creature ; adding, with great emphasis : ' On no account 
 must we judge the will of a creature ; even if we see a thing to 
 be a manifest sin, we must not pass judgment upon it, but, in 
 holy and true compassion, offer it up to God with humble and 
 devout prayer.' And on another occasion, speaking upon this 
 point, she declared to the father of her soul that never, for any 
 persecution, murmuring, detraction, injury, or insult, that had 
 been said or in any way done to her, had anything ever entered 
 
 345 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 into her mind save that whoso did, or spoke thus to her, was 
 impelled by charity or by zeal for the salvation of her soul. And 
 for this she thanked the inestimable goodness of God, who with 
 this light had saved her, through His grace, from the danger of 
 judging her neighbour. 
 
 " Lastly, she said that she had set very great hope and 
 confidence in the Divine Providence ; and to this she invited and 
 exhorted us all. She told us that she had found and tasted its 
 wondrous greatness from her childhood. And she added : ' You, 
 too, have experienced and seen it so great and so bountiful that, 
 if our hearts had been harder than stone, our hardness and 
 coldness must needs have been dissolved. Be enamoured, then, 
 children, of this sweet Providence, for it will never fail whoso 
 hopeth in it, and especially you.' 
 
 " Exhorting us and humbly inciting us to these and many other 
 things, she besought us for what our Saviour left as testament to 
 His holy disciples, that we should love one another. And, 
 speaking with enkindled speech, she often said : ' Love one 
 another, my children, love one another, for by this shall you 
 show that you have had me and own me for mother, and I shall 
 hold you to be my most beloved children ; for, by being virtuous, 
 you will be my glory and my crown. And I will pray the Divine 
 Goodness to pour out upon you all the abundance of gifts and 
 graces which it has pleased Him to infuse into my soul.' 
 
 "Also, she laid this command upon us all : c My children, do 
 not let your desires slacken, touching the reformation and good 
 state of Holy Church. But, ever more enkindled, offer tears 
 with humble and continual prayer in the sight of God for this 
 sweet Spouse, and for the vicar of Christ, Pope Urban VI ' ; 
 saying of herself : ' Long while have I borne this desire ; but 
 especially, now more than seven years ago, it seemed that God 
 put this exercise and enflamed desire into my soul. And, from 
 then until now, no time has ever passed without my offering it 
 up before the Divine Goodness, with mournful and painful and 
 sweet desires ; and it has pleased His goodness for this to lay 
 upon this weak body and make it bear many diverse and varied 
 
 346 
 
THE PASSAGE FROM THE WORLD 
 
 infirmities and sufferings. But, especially at the present time, it 
 seems that my sweet Creator, as He did with Job, has given 
 leave to the demons to torment and smite it as they please. 
 Never do I remember at any time to have borne so many sweet 
 sufferings and torments as now I bear. Thanks be to His 
 infinite goodness, which makes me worthy to endure for glory 
 and praise of His name in this sweet Spouse. And now, at the 
 last, it seems to me that my most sweet Bridegroom, after so 
 much enflamed and panting desire, so many sufferings and bodily 
 infirmities, wills that my soul should utterly leave this dark 
 prison and return to her source. I speak not as though I saw the 
 certainty of His will in this, but it seems to me so.' 
 
 " And then, speaking emphatically, she added : c Hold for 
 certain, sweetest and dearest children, that, in departing from the 
 body, I in truth have consumed and given my life in the Church 
 and for the Church ; which thing is a most special grace for me.' 
 And, to comfort us all, who were weeping bitterly round her, she 
 said : ' My children, you ought not to be grieved at this, but to 
 have singular joy and gladness thereat ; considering that I am 
 leaving a place of such great sufferings and shall go to rest in the 
 pacific sea, God eternal, and to be united, without any mean, to 
 my most sweet Bridegroom. And I promise you that I shall be 
 more perfectly with you, and shall be able to help you more there 
 than I have been able to do here, inasmuch as I shall be delivered 
 from darkness and united with the true and eternal light. Never- 
 theless, I commit both life and death to the will of my Creator ; 
 for, if He sees that I can be of any use to any one here, I would 
 not shun labour, nor torment, nor any pain ; but I am ready, for 
 His honour and for the salvation of my neighbour, to give my 
 life a thousand times a day, and each time with greater suffering 
 than the other, if it were possible.' 
 
 " Her discourse being ended, she called us each one by name, 
 and enjoined upon each one what she wished him to do after her 
 life, if it was God's pleasure that it should now be ended ; and 
 each one, with humility and reverence, received her obedience. 
 Then she besought us all humbly, to pardon her if she had not 
 
 347 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 given us a virtuous example by her teaching and her life, nor 
 helped us with her prayers before God as much as she could and 
 ought, and if she had not satisfied our needs as she was bound, 
 and for every pain, trouble, and sorrow of which she had been 
 the cause to us, saying : ' Every failing has been through my 
 want of knowledge. But I verily confess in the sight of God 
 that I have always had, and have, a continuous and inflamed desire 
 of your perfection and salvation ; and if you, my most beloved 
 children, follow this, you will be, as I said, my crown and my 
 glory.' And at the end, while we all wept, she blessed each 
 individually, in her usual way, in Christ." x 
 
 On the evening of Holy Saturday, March 24, Fra Bartolom- 
 meo di Domenico arrived in Rome. He was then prior of San 
 Domenico at Siena, and had been sent by his provincial on 
 business of the order. Not knowing of Catherine's illness, he at 
 once went to the house, and was aghast at her altered aspect. 
 Only by bending down his ear to her mouth, and then with 
 difficulty, could he hear her whisper that it was well with her by 
 the grace of our sweet Saviour. The next morning, it being 
 Easter Day, he celebrated Mass in her room ; when, to the great 
 wonder and consolation of all, she rose from her couch unaided, 
 and, together with her other spiritual children, received the 
 Blessed Sacrament from his hands. Afterwards, she relapsed into 
 her motionless condition, but had recovered her speech sufficiently 
 to talk freely with him during the few days that he remained in 
 Rome. At length, Bartolommeo's duty calling him back, she 
 bade him return to Siena, laying upon him as her last command 
 that he should make himself the constant companion of Fra 
 Raimondo, who would shortly be elected master-general of the 
 order. The friar then implored her, if it was the will of God 
 that he should go, to obtain from Him as a sign that he might 
 see her restored to health first. Accordingly, on the following 
 
 1 This was first published by Gigli, apparently from a contemporary MS., as 
 an appendix to the Dialogo. Cf. Legenda, III. iv. 1-5 (§ § 360-364). It is 
 clear from Barduccio's letter to Suor Caterina that this took place many days before 
 the end, before either Fra Bartolommeo or Stefano Maconi came to Rome. 
 
 348 
 
THE PASSAGE FROM THE WORLD 
 
 day, he found her as merry and joyous as she had been of old 
 when enduring the pains in her side. She stretched out her arms, 
 tenderly embraced him, and again bade him depart. " But I, if I 
 may speak with the Prophet, deceived by the Lord, decided to set 
 out. I departed therefore ; but, after I had reached my convent 
 at Siena, I was informed by a letter from one of her sons that, on 
 that very day, not long after my departure, she had returned to 
 the same state of inability to move body and limbs in which she 
 had been before. Then, after a few days, as the Legenda telleth, 
 she blissfully passed from this dying life and valley of tears to 
 the long-desired, sweet embraces of her Bridegroom." 1 
 
 A few days after Bartolommeo had left, Stefano Maconi at 
 last arrived in Rome. Catherine's last letter to him, half playfully 
 bidding him come or she would get him no more indulgences, 
 nor do anything else for him, and seeming surprised, perhaps 
 a little hurt, at a report that he intended to become a monk (of 
 which he had told her nothing), had given no hint of her approach- 
 ing end ; 2 but he had heard of her plight from the others, and, 
 while praying at night in great sorrow in the vaults under the 
 Spedale, had heard a voice : " Go to Rome, for the time of thy 
 dear mother's departure is at hand." It was now his office to 
 write what seems to have been the last letter written in her 
 name : " Write, my son Stefano," she said, " to Siena to Fra 
 Bartolommeo, that the Lord is exercising His mercy upon me, 
 and therefore let him, and all his companions in San Domenico, 
 beseech the Bridegroom Jesus to suffer me to offer up my life, 
 even to the shedding my blood for His glory, to illumine the face 
 of the Church." 3 
 
 The end came on April 29, the Sunday before the Ascension, 
 after prolonged and continual suffering. A few hours before the 
 dawn, all the spiritual family were summoned, and Giovanni 
 Tantucci gave her the absolution, a culpa et a poena, for the 
 
 1 Processus, coll. 1 358-1 361. 
 
 2 Letter 369 (263). 
 
 3 Barth. Senensis, op, cit., Lib. I. cap. 11, 12. Cf. Augusta Drane, II. pp. 
 258-260. 
 
 349 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 reception of the indulgence granted by the Pope at the hour of 
 death. When day came, extreme unction was administered by 
 the Abbot of Sant' Antimo, whose fall had already been forgiven 
 him. 
 
 Catherine lay as though she were unconscious ; but, shortly 
 after receiving the unction, she began to change utterly, and to 
 move her face and arms as though enduring a last and most 
 terrible assault from evil spirits. This lasted nearly two hours. 
 She said, again and again : " Peccavi, Domine, miserere mei " ; and : 
 " Credo, credo " ; and once, after having been silent for a little, as 
 though hearing an accusation brought against her, she answered 
 with a joyous countenance : " Never vainglory, but always the 
 true glory and praise of Jesus Christ crucified." Then, as though 
 a victory had been won, her face was suddenly all transfigured, 
 her eyes grew radiant, " and it seemed that she had come forth 
 from a great abyss." They helped her to sit up ; and, while 
 leaning upon Monna Alessa in whose arms she had been lying, 
 keeping her eyes fixed upon the Crucifix, she began to speak of 
 the goodness of God, and to make a general confession, accusing 
 herself in particular of negligence in seeking the salvation of souls 
 and the reformation of the Church, and of ingratitude for the 
 divine gifts. " I have not reverenced the innumerable gifts and 
 graces of so many sweet torments and sufferings as has pleased 
 Thee to lay upon this weak body, and, therefore, I have not borne 
 them with that inflamed desire and love with which Thou hast given 
 them to me." Then she asked again for the indulgence a culpa 
 et a poena, saying that it had been granted to her by both Pope 
 Gregory and Pope Urban. " She spoke," writes Barduccio, 
 " like one that was starving for the blood of Christ." Turning 
 to those of her spiritual children who had not been present at the 
 discourse which she had uttered " many days before," she now told 
 each (as she had done the others) what she would have him do 
 after her life. Pointing to Stefano with her finger, she said : 
 " And thee, in virtue of holy obedience, I command in the name 
 of God to go by all means to the Carthusian order, for God has 
 called and chosen thee to that." She asked pardon of all with 
 
 35° 
 
THE PASSAGE FROM THE WORLD 
 
 great humility, for the little solicitude that it seemed to her she 
 had had for their salvation, said some words to a Roman disciple 
 named Lucio, and lastly to Barduccio, and then returned to her 
 prayers. Let Barduccio tell the rest : — 
 
 " O that you had seen with what reverence and humility she 
 received many times the blessing of her sorrowful mother ; verily, 
 I tell you it was a sweet sorrow. O what a holy thing it was to 
 see that disconsolate mother commend herself to her blessed 
 daughter, and ask and receive her blessing ; verily, they moved 
 our hearts ; and, in particular, the mother besought the daughter 
 to obtain grace for her from God, that she might not offend Him 
 in her great sorrow. All these things did not distract her from 
 her prayers ; but, speaking continuously of God, she prayed on ; 
 and, as she drew near her end, she offered special prayers for 
 Holy Church, for which she repeated that she was giving her life, 
 and prayed for Pope Urban VI, whom she emphatically confessed 
 was true Sovereign Pontiff, exhorting her children to lay down 
 their lives for this truth. Then she prayed with great fervour 
 for all her beloved children whom God had given her to love, 
 using many of those words that our Saviour used, when He prayed 
 to His Father for His disciples, praying so fervently that not 
 only our hearts, but the stones should have broken. Making the 
 sign of the Cross, she blessed us all ; and thus she approached 
 her longed-for end, persevering continuously in prayer, and 
 saying : ' Lord, Thou dost summon me to Thyself, and I am 
 coming to Thee, not by my own merits, but solely through Thy 
 mercy, which mercy 1 crave from Thee in virtue of Thy blood.' 
 And, at the last, she cried out many times : Sangue, Sangue. 
 Finally, after the example of our Saviour, she said : ' Father, into 
 Thy hands I commend my soul and my spirit ' ; and thus sweetly, 
 with her face like an Angel's, bowing down her head, she gave up 
 the ghost." 1 
 
 It was about midday, " the sixth hour, that is to say, the 
 culmination of the day," as Dante has it, when Catherine thus 
 1 Lettera cit., di Barduccio di Piero Canigiani a suor Caterina Petriboni ; Leggenda 
 minore, pp. 163 et seq. ; Legenda, III. iv. 6 (§ 365) ; Epist. Domni Stephani, § 7. 
 
 35 1 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 passed to the embraces of her Divine Bridegroom. Stefano 
 carried the body to the church of the Minerva, where it lay until 
 the evening of Tuesday, May i, exposed to the veneration of the 
 people, working innumerable miracles, as men deemed, upon the 
 souls and bodies of those that approached it. Thinking still 
 more to enkindle their devotion, Giovanni Tantucci went up into 
 the pulpit, and attempted to address the crowd ; but such was the 
 noise of the throng that he could not get a hearing. He cried 
 out in a loud voice : "I had meant to say somewhat in praise of 
 this holy virgin, but it is manifest to all that she has no need of 
 our sermons, for her eternal Bridegroom is Himself declaring her 
 merits, and honouring her in His own fashion " ; and came down 
 to join them. Urban himself had the funeral carried out with all 
 ecclesiastical pomp, and Giovanni Cenci, the Senator of Rome, 
 had another requiem offered in the name of the Roman People, 
 with equal solemnity. Thus, for one brief moment, did the 
 Papacy and the Republic of Rome seem to meet in harmony and 
 union by the side of Catherine's tomb. 
 
 35 2 
 
immmnm 
 
 
 - 1 S I * 
 
 II htunU 
 
 ili-ti*** 
 
 [To face p. 352. 
 
CHAPTER XVI 
 
 CATHERINE'S LITERARY WORK 
 
 "Anco vi prego che il Libro e ogni scrittura la quale trovaste di me, voi e frate 
 Bartolomeo e frate Tomaso e il Maestro, ve le rechiate per le mani ; e fatene quello che vedete 
 che sia piu onore di Dio, con missere Tomaso insieme : nel quale io trovava alcuna 
 recreazione. " — St. Catherine to Fra Raimondo, Letter 373 (102). 
 
 At the end of her life, Catherine took thought for the written 
 word that she was leaving behind her, still to speak with her voice 
 after she had passed away. We have seen her, in her last letter, 
 commend her works to Fra Raimondo and her other literary 
 executors : il Libro e ogni scrittura la quale trovaste di me. The 
 literary value of these remains is probably the last thing of which 
 the Saint, " this blessed virgin and mother of thousands of souls," 
 as Barduccio calls her, would have thought ; she was not, in any 
 normal sense of the words, a " woman of letters " ; but, neverthe- 
 less, her spiritual and mystical writings rank among the classics of 
 the language of her beloved native land, and hold, indeed, a 
 position of unique importance in the literature of the fourteenth 
 century. 
 
 It was in the brief interval between her leaving Florence and 
 her going to Rome, a few months of comparative peace which she 
 passed at Siena in the late summer and early autumn of 1378, that 
 Catherine had completed her wonderful book : the Dialogo, or 
 Trattato della Divina Provvidenza, also known as the Libro della 
 Divina Dottrina. 
 
 " When the peace had been announced," writes Fra 
 Raimondo, " she returned to her own home, and set herself with 
 fresh diligence to the composition of a certain book, which, 
 inspired by the supreme Spirit, she dictated in her vernacular. 
 She had besought her secretaries (who were wont to write the 
 letters which she despatched in all directions) attentively to observe 
 23 353 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 everything when, according to her custom, she was rapt out of her 
 corporeal senses, and carefully to write down whatever she then 
 dictated. This they did heedfully, and compiled a book full of 
 high and most salutary doctrines, which had been revealed to her 
 by the Lord and were dictated by her, by word of mouth, in the 
 vernacular speech." 1 In her last letter, Catherine simply refers 
 to it as il libro nel quale io trovava alcuna recreazione, " the book in 
 which I found some recreation " ; and, although her friends and 
 disciples thus describe her as dictating it to her secretaries while 
 " rapt in singular excess and abstraction of mind," it is not clear 
 that she herself would have made any claims of supernatural 
 authority for it, or have regarded it as anything more than the 
 pious meditations of a spirit " athirst with very great desire for 
 the honour of God and the salvation of souls," one who (in her 
 own characteristic phrase) " was dwelling in the cell of knowledge 
 of self, in order better to know the goodness of God." 
 
 The book is concerned with the whole spiritual life of man, 
 in the form of a prolonged dialogue, or series of dialogues, between 
 the eternal Father and the impassioned human soul, who is here 
 clearly Catherine herself. It seems to be properly divided into six 
 treatises or Trattati : an Introduction (cap. i to cap. 8), the Trattato 
 della Discrezione (cap. 9 to cap. 64), the Trattato delV Orazione (cap. 
 65 to cap. 86), the Trattato delle Lagrime (cap. 87 to cap. 134), the 
 Trattato della Divina Provvidenza (cap. 135 to cap. 153), and the 
 Trattato dell' Obbedienza (cap. 154 to cap. 167). 2 It opens with a 
 striking passage on what we may call the essence of mysticism, 
 the possibility of the union of the soul with God in love : — 
 
 " When a soul lifts herself up, athirst with very great desire 
 for the honour of God and the salvation of souls, she exercises 
 
 1 Legenda, III. i. 2 (§ 332). Cf. III. iii. 1 (§§ 349, 350). In the Vatican 
 MS., Cod. Barb. Lat. 4063, the book is entitled simply : " II libro facto per divina 
 revelacione de la venerabile et admirabile vergine beata Katherina da Siena." 
 
 2 The arrangement I adopt is a compromise between that of the manuscripts and 
 early editions of the Italian text and that given by Fra Raimondo in his Latin 
 version — a compromise which, as far as making the Trattato delle Lagrime a 
 separate treatise, seems justified by Catherine's own reference to it in Letter 154 
 (63), as well as by internal evidence. 
 
 354 
 
CATHERINE'S LITERARY WORK 
 
 erself for a while in habitual virtue, and dwells in the cell of 
 nowledge of self, in order better to know the goodness of God ; 
 jr love follows knowledge, and, when she loves, she seeks to 
 allow and to clothe herself with the truth. But in no way does the 
 reature taste and become illumined by this truth as much as by 
 leans of humble and continuous prayer, based on knowledge of 
 elf and of God ; for prayer, exercising the soul in this way, unites 
 er to God, as she follows the steps of Christ crucified ; and thus, 
 y desire and affection and union of love, she is transformed into 
 iim. This it seems that Christ meant when He said : If a man 
 ove Me, he will keep My words ; and again : He that loveth Me 
 hall he loved of My Father, and I will love him and will manifest 
 Myself to him, and he will be one with Me and I with him. And in 
 nany places we find similar words, by which we can see that it is 
 rue that, by affection of love, the soul becomes another He." 1 
 
 The rest of the book is practically an expansion of the 
 evelation that Catherine had in a vision, after receiving Holy 
 Communion on a feast of the Blessed Virgin, in the autumn of 
 :he previous year ; a revelation which, in a more partial form, she 
 lad already set forth in a letter to Fra Raimondo. 2 It is, as it 
 vere, a gathering together of the spiritual teachings scattered 
 :hrough her letters. On the whole, it reads somewhat less 
 ecstatically, as though written with more deliberation than the 
 etters, and is in parts drawn out to considerable length, and 
 iometimes moves slowly. The effect is that of a mysterious 
 foice from the cloud, talking on in a great silence ; and the result 
 s monotonous, because the listener's attention becomes over- 
 strained. Here and there, it is almost a relief when the Divine 
 Voice ceases, and Catherine herself takes up the word. At other 
 :imes, however, we feel that we have almost passed behind the 
 feil that shields the Holy of Holies, and that we are, in very 
 :ruth, hearing Catherine's rendering into finite words of the 
 neffable things which she has learned by intuition in that half 
 lour during which there is silence in Heaven. The importance of 
 
 1 Cap. i. 2 Letter 272 (90). 
 
 355 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 the Dialogo in the history of Italian literature has never been fully 
 realized. In a language which is singularly poor in mystical 
 works (though so rich in almost every other field of thought), it 
 stands with the Divina Commedia as one of the two supreme 
 attempts to express the eternal in the symbolism of a day, to 
 paint the union of the soul with the suprasensible while still 
 imprisoned in the flesh. The whole of Catherine's life is the 
 realization of the end of Dante's poem : " to remove those living 
 in this life from the state of misery, and to lead them to the state 
 of felicity " ; and the mysticism of Catherine's book is as practical 
 and altruistic as that of Dante's, when he declares to Can Grande 
 that the whole Commedia " was undertaken not for speculation, 
 but for work. For albeit in some parts or passages it is treated 
 in speculative fashion, this is not for the sake of speculation, but 
 for the sake of work." x Thus Catherine, in the preliminary 
 chapters of the Dialogo, " wishing more virilely to know a.nd follow 
 the truth," makes her first petition to the eternal Father for herself, 
 only because " the soul cannot perform any true service to her 
 neighbour by teaching, example, or prayer, unless she first serves 
 herself by acquiring and possessing virtue." By the infinite 
 desire that proceeds from love, the soul can make reparation to 
 God for her neighbour's sins, as well as for her own. Even as 
 charity gives life to all the virtues, so all the vices have their root 
 in self-love, and both are realized in action by means of others. 
 " There can be no perfect virtue, none that bears fruit, unless it 
 be exercised by means of our neighbour." 2 
 
 For virtue to be perfect, it must be exercised with discretion, 
 " which discretion is nought else than a true knowledge that the 
 soul should have of herself and of Me, and in this knowledge 
 it has its root." Discretion, which springs from charity and is 
 nurtured in the soil of humility, should be the lamp of the whole 
 spiritual life, directing all the powers of the soul to serve God 
 and to love her neighbour, offering up the life of the body for 
 the salvation of his soul, and her temporal substance for the 
 
 1 Epist. X. 1 6. 
 
 2 Dialogo, cap. i-cap. 8, cap. n. Cf. Letters 311 (203), 282 (39). 
 
 35 6 
 
CATHERINE'S LITERARY WORK 
 
 elfare of his body. The face of the Church, the Spouse of 
 hrist, has grown like that of one smitten with leprosy, through 
 le impurity, the self-love, the pride and avarice of her ministers, 
 those who feed at her breasts " ; but by the prayers, desires, 
 ;ars, and labours of God's servants, her beauty will be restored 
 ) her, for the humanity of the Word still stands as the bridge 
 etween earth and Heaven. 
 
 This figure of the Word as the bridge from time to eternity, 
 le road to which has been broken by the fall of Adam, is worked 
 ut at length, Catherine laying stress upon the doctrine that " the 
 ternal Truth has created us without ourselves, but will not save 
 s without ourselves." The bridge has three steps or grades : 
 lie Feet that were nailed to the Cross ; the Side, that was pierced 
 d reveal the ineffable love of the Heart ; the Mouth, where the 
 itterness of gall and vinegar is turned to peace. On the bridge 
 Catherine's imagery suddenly changing form) is the garden of 
 he Church, to minister the bread of life and the blood that is 
 rink, in order that the pilgrims may not faint by the way. 
 These three steps also represent the three powers of the soul : 
 nil, memory, and understanding ; as likewise the three states of 
 he soul in God's service, by which she passes from servile fear 
 nd mercenary obedience to true fidelity and friendship, and, 
 istly, to perfect filial love. 
 
 " I require of you that you love Me with that love wherewith 
 love you. This you cannot do to Me, because I loved you 
 without being loved. All love that you bear Me you owe Me as 
 debt, and not as a free gift, because you are bound to give it 
 /le ; and I love you freely, not in duty bound. You cannot, 
 ben, render to Me the love that I require of you ; and, therefore, 
 ave I set you in the midst of others, in order that you may do to 
 liem what you cannot do to Me ; that is, love them freely and 
 without reserve, and without expecting any return from it ; and 
 len I consider done to Me whatever you do to them. So this 
 )ve must be flawless, and you must love them with the love 
 'herewith you love Me. And knowest thou how he who loves 
 ith spiritual love perceives that he is not perfect ? If he feels 
 
 357 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 pain and affliction when it does not seem to him that the creature 
 whom he loves corresponds to his love, and he deems that he is 
 not loved as much as he thinks he loves ; or when he is deprived 
 of the consolation of familiar intercourse with that creature, or 
 sees another loved more than himself. In this, and in many other 
 things, he will be able to perceive that this love towards Me and 
 his neighbour is still imperfect, and that he has drunk from this 
 vessel outside the fountain-head, albeit he first drew this love 
 from Me. But because his love for Me is still imperfect, 
 therefore he shows it imperfect towards the one whom he loves 
 with spiritual love. All comes from the root of spiritual self-love 
 not being entirely plucked out from his heart. And thus I often 
 permit a soul to love in this wise, in order that she may know 
 herself and her own imperfection. I withdraw Me from her 
 in feeling, in order that she may enclose herself in the cell of self- 
 knowledge, where she may acquire all perfectness ; and then I 
 return to her with more light and more knowledge of My truth, 
 so that she may deem it a grace to be able to slay her own will 
 for My sake, and never cease from watering her vineyard, and 
 plucking out the thorns of evil thoughts, and setting therein the 
 stones of virtues established in the blood of Christ crucified, which 
 she has found in going across the bridge of My only-begotten 
 Son." 1 
 
 To this state of perfection in love, the soul comes by 
 perseverance in holy prayer, offered up continually in the house 
 of knowledge of self and of God, inebriated with the blood, clad 
 in the fire of divine charity, fed on the sacramental food. Vocal 
 prayer is but the preparation for mental prayer, in which God 
 visits the soul, and the affection of charity is in itself a perpetual 
 prayer. Souls that love God less for His own sake than for the 
 consolation that they find in Him are easily deceived. When 
 that consolation fails them, they think they offend God ; and, for 
 fear of losing their own peace, they do not succour their neighbour 
 in his need, not realizing that " every vocal or mental exercise is 
 ordained by Me, that the soul may practise it to come to perfect 
 
 1 Cap. 64. 
 358 
 
CATHERINE'S LITERARY WORK 
 
 charity towards Me and towards her neighbour, and to preserve 
 her in that charity." 1 Such souls are deluded by spiritual self- 
 love, and are easily deceived by false visions that come from 
 the devil. But the soul who has attained to perfect love, and who 
 truly knows herself, does not consider the gifts and graces of her 
 divine Friend, but the charity with which He gives them. With- 
 out leaving the cell of self-knowledge, she goes forth in God's 
 name, prepared to endure sufferings, and to put into practice for 
 the service of her neighbour the virtues that she has conceived in 
 her mystical habitation. Thus the soul attains a fourth state, of 
 perfect union in God : " for there is no love of Me without love 
 of man, and no love of man without love of Me, for the one love 
 cannot be separated from the other." 2 
 
 In this state of perfect union, the Saints receive such strength 
 that they not merely bear with patience, but long with panting 
 desire to endure suffering for the glory of God's name. With 
 St. Paul, such as these bear in their bodies the marks of Christ : 
 " that is, the crucified love that they have glows out in their 
 bodies, and they reveal it by despising themselves, and by 
 delighting in insults, enduring troubles and pains from whatever 
 side and in whatever way I concede them." Perfectly dead to 
 their own will, they are never deprived of the presence of God 
 even in feeling : " I continually reside by grace and by feeling in 
 their souls ; and whenever they wish to unite their mind with Me 
 through affection of love, they can do so ; for their desire has 
 attained to such complete union, through love's affection, that 
 nothing can separate them from Me." 3 But although such souls 
 ever possess God by grace, and realize His presence in feeling, 
 they cannot be uninterruptedly united to Him as long as they 
 are fettered to the body : " For, when such souls rise up 
 with panting desire, they run with virtue along the bridge of 
 the doctrine of Christ crucified, and reach the gate ; lifting up 
 their minds to Me, bathed and inebriated with blood, inflamed 
 with the fire of love, they taste in Me the eternal Godhead, which 
 is to them a sea of peace, with which the soul becomes so united 
 i Cap. 69. 2 Cap. 74. 3 Cap. 78. 
 
 359 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 that the mind has no other movement save in Me. Although 
 mortal, she tastes the bliss of the immortals, and, although still with 
 the weight of the body, she receives the joy of the spirit ; whereby 
 ofttimes the body is lifted up from the earth through the perfect 
 union that the soul has made in Me, as though the heavy body 
 had become light. It is not that its weight is taken from it ; but, 
 because the union which the soul has made in Me is more perfect 
 than that between her and the body, therefore the strength of the 
 spirit united to Me raises the weight of the body from the earth, 
 and the body remains motionless, all fordone by the affection of 
 the soul, so that (as thou mayest remember to have heard from 
 some creatures) it would not be possible to live, unless My good- 
 ness girded it round with strength. Therefore, I would have thee 
 know that it is a greater miracle to see the soul not leave the body 
 in this union, than to see many dead bodies raised up again. 
 And for this, I, for a while, withdraw this union, making her 
 return to the vessel of her body ; that is, the bodily sense, which 
 was totally alienated through the affection of the soul, return to 
 consciousness ; because it is not that the soul departs from the 
 body, for this she does not, save by means of death, but the 
 faculties depart because of the affection of the soul which is united 
 to Me by love. Then is the memory found full of nought but 
 Me ; the understanding uplifted to contemplate My truth as 
 object ; the will, that follows the understanding, loves and unites 
 itself to what the eye of the understanding sees. All these powers 
 being gathered and united together, immersed and drowned in 
 Me, the body loses its feeling ; the eye, seeing, sees not ; the ear, 
 hearing, hears not ; the tongue, speaking, speaks not, save as some- 
 times I permit to relieve the abundance of the heart, and for the 
 glory and praise of My name ; the hand, touching, does not 
 touch ; the feet, going, do not go. All the members are bound 
 and occupied by the bond and by the consciousness of love. By 
 this bond they are subjected to reason and united with the affection 
 of the soul, and, as it were against their own nature, all cry 
 together to Me, the eternal Father, that they would fain be separ- 
 ated from the soul and the soul from the body ; and, therefore, 
 
 360 
 
CATHERINE'S LITERARY WORK 
 
 they cry out before Me, with the glorious Paul : O wretched man 
 that I am ! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death ? " x 
 
 Such souls yearn to be delivered from the body, but are 
 perfectly resigned to the will of God, rejoicing in being allowed 
 to suffer for His honour. Their union with Him, thus tempor- 
 arily interrupted, is ever renewed with increased intimacy : " I 
 ever return with increase of grace and with more perfect union, 
 ever revealing Myself to them anew, with a more lofty knowledge 
 of My truth." 2 It is for such souls as these, with their prayers 
 and sweat and tears, to wash the face of Christ's Spouse, the 
 Church : " for which reason I showed her to thee in the guise of 
 a damosel, whose face was all made filthy, as though of one 
 smitten with leprosy, by the sins of her ministers and of all 
 the Christian community who feed at her breast." 
 
 A frightful picture of the corruption of the clergy follows, in 
 the Trattato delle Lagrime, after Catherine has touched at some 
 length upon " the infinite variety of tears," and the way of coming 
 to perfect purity. The dignity of the priesthood, and the 
 ineffable mystery of the Sacrament which they have to administer, 
 require a greater purity in the ministers of the Church than in 
 any other creature. They are God's anointed, His Christs, with 
 power over the Lord's sacramental body that even the Angels 
 have not, and He considers all injuries done to them as inflicted 
 upon Himself, as persecution of His blood. But, in contrast 
 with Peter himself, Sylvester, Gregory, Augustine, Jerome, 
 Thomas Aquinas, and the other holy ecclesiastics of olden time, 
 we are shown the modern priests and prelates, whose lives are 
 founded in self-love, and who perform the office of devils. 
 Avarice, lust, and pride are the masters that they serve. The 
 table of the Cross is deserted for the sake of the tavern ; the 
 
 1 Cap. 79. In his Latin version, Fra Raimondo glosses : " Nota quod iste 
 status est ille, in quo erat ista benedicta virgo Catharina de Senis : ut oculi nostri 
 viderunt apertissime." 
 
 2 This is worked out in cap. 83, cap. 84, of which the modern printed editions 
 and translations contain only a mutilated version of what we find in the MSS. and 
 in Fra Raimondo's Latin. 
 
 361 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 poor are left destitute, while the substance of the Church is 
 squandered upon harlots. Nay, more, the leprosy of unnatural 
 vice, the sin from which even the devils flee in horror because of 
 their angelical nature, has contaminated their minds and bodies. 
 The priests celebrate Mass after a night of sin, and often their 
 mistresses and children join the congregation ; others use the 
 Blessed Sacrament of the altar to make love-charms to seduce the 
 litde sheep of their flock, or persuade them to commit fornication 
 under pretext of delivering them from diabolical possession. Some 
 priests, realizing their own sinful state sufficiently to fear God's 
 judgments, only pretend to consecrate when they say Mass, and 
 thereby lead the people into idolatry by making them worship as 
 the body of Christ what is no more than a piece of bread. The 
 prelates connive at infamous monks corrupting the nuns in the 
 monasteries under their charge. Ministers of the Church have 
 become usurers ; benefices and prelacies are bought and sold, 
 while the poor are left to die of hunger. Spiritual things are 
 abandoned, while the rulers of the Church usurp temporal power 
 and secular government. 1 It is only possible here to touch very 
 slighdy upon the contents of these terrible chapters ; but the 
 student of the religious life of the fourteenth century is compelled 
 to face the fact that in them we have the testimony of Boccaccio's 
 ~Decameron confirmed by the burning words of a great saint, who 
 does not shrink from putting them into the mouth of God 
 Himself. 
 
 From this Catherine turns to the contemplation of the Divine 
 Providence, shown in the creation of man in God's image and like- 
 ness, with memory, understanding, and will, for the Beatific Vision ; 
 in his redemption by means of the Incarnation ; and in the 
 institution of the Blessed Sacrament for his spiritual sustenance. 
 As an instance of this Providence, in a particular case, we have a 
 somewhat mysterious allusion to one whose soul was saved by a 
 
 1 Cap. 121-cap. 130. Cf. Caesarius Heisterbacensis, Dialogus miraculorum 
 (fed. Strange, Cologne, 185 1), dist. IX. cap. 6 ; Revelationes S. Birgiitae, I. 49, 
 IV. 133. An equally appalling picture is given, some years later, by Nicolas de 
 Clemanges, in his De ruina Eccksiae, cap. 15-cap. 23 {Opera, Leyden, 161 3). 
 
 362 
 
CATHERINE'S LITERARY WORK 
 
 violent death. " I would have thee know that, to save him from 
 the eternal damnation which thou seest he had incurred, I allowed 
 this to happen, in order that by his blood he might have life in 
 the blood of My only-begotten Son. For I had not forgotten 
 the reverence and love which he bore to Mary, the most sweet 
 Mother of My only-begotten Son, to whom it is given by My 
 goodness, for reverence of the Word, that whoso holds her in 
 due reverence, be he a just man or a sinner, shall never be taken 
 or devoured by the infernal demon. She is as a bait set by 
 My goodness to take all rational creatures." * Catherine's own 
 miraculous communions, when her Divine Bridegroom intervened 
 to give her the food of Angels which the priests would fain have 
 denied her, show God's providential dealings with souls that 
 hunger for the sweet Sacrament. 2 There are three states of the 
 human soul : those of mortal sin, imperfect love, and perfect 
 charity ; and in each God's Providence acts in diverse ways to 
 draw her to Himself. 
 
 One of the means He uses to draw the imperfect from their 
 imperfection is an absorbing devotion for a fellow-creature, the 
 amor amicitiae of which the Angelical Doctor writes, the kind of love 
 of which Dante had given the supreme exposition in the Vita 
 Nuova. By such a love, the soul is exercised in virtue and raised 
 above herself ; the heart is stripped of all sensitive passion and 
 disordered affection. By the perfection of this love can be 
 measured the perfection of the soul's love of God. When one 
 who loves in this way sees himself deprived of the delight he used 
 to have in familiar intercourse with the person loved, and sees 
 that person now more intimately associated with another than with 
 himself, the very pain that he feels will teach him to know him- 
 self, and will spur him on to hatred of his own selfishness and to 
 love of virtue. He will humbly repute himself unworthy of the 
 desired consolation, and will be assured that the virtue, for which 
 
 1 Cap. 139. Cf. the salvation of Buonconte da Montefeltro, Purg. v. 100-107. 
 Catherine alludes to this case in similar words in Letter 272 (90). Probably, 
 either Niccoli di Toldo or Trincio Trinci is the person meant. 
 
 2 Cap. 142. Cf. Legenda,l\. xii. 4-14 (§§ 316-324). 
 
 3 6 3 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 he should chiefly love that person, is not diminished in his regard. 
 This love will have taught him to desire to bear all suffering for 
 the glory of God. 1 For tribulation is the test of true charity, 
 and, with those who have come to the perfect state, God uses the 
 means of suffering and persecution to preserve and augment their 
 perfection. Goaded on by their hunger for the salvation of souls, 
 forgetting themselves, they knock, night and day, at the gate of 
 Divine Mercy. For the more man loses himself, the more he 
 finds God. This truth they read in the sweet and glorious book 
 of the Word, and bring forth the fruit of patience. Although, 
 with St. Paul, they have received the doctrine of truth in the abyss 
 of the Godhead, they have likewise received the thorn in the 
 flesh, to keep them in self-knowledge and humility, and to make 
 them compassionate towards the weaknesses and frailty of others. 
 The anguish that they endure, in seeing the sins that are done 
 against God, purges them from all personal sorrows ; and God 
 suffers Himself to be constrained by their panting desires, to have 
 mercy upon the world, and by their endurance to reform His 
 Church : " Verily, such as these can be called another Christ cruci- 
 fied, My only-begotten Son ; for they have taken upon themselves 
 the office of Him who came as mediator to end the war, and to 
 reconcile man with Me in peace, by much endurance even unto 
 the shameful death of the Cross." 2 
 
 The whole being of such a saint is attuned to mystical music, 
 and has become one sweet harmony, in which all the powers 
 of the soul and all the members of the body play their parts. 
 This spiritual melody was first heard from the Cross, and those 
 that followed have learnt it from that Master. " My infinite 
 Providence has given them the instruments, and has shown them 
 the way in which to play upon them. And whatever I give and 
 permit in this life is to enable them to increase the power of 
 these instruments ; if they will only know it, and not obscure the 
 light by which they see, with the cloud of self-love and their own 
 pleasure and opinion." 3 Inebriated with trust in the Divine 
 Providence, these souls embrace the doctrine of voluntary poverty, 
 1 Cap. 144. 2 Cap. 145, cap. 146. 3 Cap. 147. 
 
 364 
 
CATHERINE'S LITERARY WORK 
 
 choosing Lady Poverty, the Queen, as their bride, with whom 
 they become mistresses of all spiritual wealth : — 
 
 "Then that soul, as though inebriated and enamoured of 
 true and holy Poverty, passing out of herself into the supreme 
 eternal Greatness, and transformed in the abyss of the sovereign 
 inestimable Providence (in such wise that, while still in the vessel 
 of the body, she saw herself out of the body by the over- 
 shadowing and rapture of the fire of Its charity), kept the eye of 
 her understanding fixed upon the Divine Majesty, saying to the 
 supreme and eternal Father : ' O eternal Father, O fire and 
 abyss of Charity, O eternal Beauty, O eternal Goodness, O eternal 
 Clemency, O hope and refuge of sinners, O inestimable Bounty, 
 O eternal and infinite Bliss ! Thou that art mad with love, hast 
 Thou any need of Thy creature ? Yea, it seemeth to me that 
 Thou dost act as though Thou couldst not live without her, 
 albeit Thou art the life from which all things have life and 
 without which nothing lives. Why, then, art Thou thus mad ? 
 Thou art mad, because Thou art enamoured of what Thou hast 
 made. Within Thyself Thou didst take delight in her, and, as 
 drunk with desire of her salvation, Thou dost seek her when she 
 flies from Thee ; she shuns Thee, and Thou drawest near her. 
 Nearer to her Thou couldst not come than to clothe Thyself 
 with her humanity. What then shall I say ? I will do as one 
 that is tongue-tied, and say : Ah, Ah ; for there is nought else I 
 can say, since finite speech cannot express the affection of the soul 
 which desires Thee infinitely. Methinks I can say with Paul : 
 Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart 
 of man, the things which I have beheld. I have seen the hidden 
 things of God. My soul, thou hast tasted and seen the abyss 
 of the sovereign and eternal Providence.' " 1 
 
 Obedience is the special virtue that ruled Catherine's spiritual 
 life, even as poverty had informed that of St. Francis and the 
 realization of justice had been the inspiration of that of Dante. 
 
 1 Cap. 153. Catherine's treatment of holy Poverty, cap. 151,1s thoroughly 
 Franciscan. It is curious to notice how loosely she often quotes the Scriptures ; 
 Fra Raimondo usually corrects her in his Latin version. 
 
 365 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 She treats it as the key which the Father put into the hand of 
 the Word to unlock the gate of eternal life, and which the Word 
 left with His vicar at the Ascension. All the faith is founded 
 upon it. Each soul receives it into her hand at baptism, and 
 must fasten it, with the cord of detachment, to the girdle of 
 resignation to the will of God. Like poverty, obedience is a 
 bride of souls, a queen enthroned above the tempests of the 
 world. Besides the general obedience to which all are bound, 
 there is the special obedience of the religious life, shown in its 
 perfection in the ideals with which Benedict, Francis, and Dominic 
 founded their orders. The chapter dealing with the Franciscans 
 and Dominicans, the sublime ideals of their two patriarchs who 
 based their rules on poverty and learning, respectively, and the 
 degeneration of their followers, is thoroughly Dantesque in spirit 
 and in expression. Catherine has, however, worse things to 
 record against the friars of her own order than those which the 
 divine poet puts upon the lips of the Angelical Doctor ; even the 
 vow of chastity is continually broken, and the light of science 
 perverted by them to darkness. The days of Thomas Aquinas, 
 whom Catherine ever names with profound admiration and 
 marked personal love (he was one of the saints with whom she 
 used to speak in her visions), and of Peter Martyr, whose career 
 appealed to the sterner side of her character, have passed away. 1 
 The resemblance at times between Catherine's phraseology, as 
 well as her thought, in the Dialogo as in the Letters, with that 
 of Dante, is not likely to be entirely fortuitous. Although she 
 never mentions the poet, and assuredly had never read the 
 Divina Commedia, she must frequently have heard his lines quoted 
 by her followers. Neri di Landoccio, at least, appears to have 
 
 1 Cap. 158. Cf. Dante, Par. xi., xii., and xxii. 73-93. The encyclical 
 letters issued by Fra Elias of Toulouse, as master-general of the order, in 1368, 
 1370, and 1376, strikingly confirm Catherine's testimony as to the corruption and 
 degeneracy of the Dominicans at this time. " We have come to such a pass," he 
 had written in 1376, "that whoso cares for the ceremonies of the Church is 
 pointed out with the finger, and whoso keeps the rules of the order is reckoned by 
 the others as of singular life." See Monumenta ordinis Fratrum Praedicatorum 
 historka, torn. v. pp. 306-312. 
 
 366 
 
CATHERINE'S LITERARY WORK 
 
 been a Dante student. 1 It would be pleasant to think of such 
 passages as the mystical espousals of St. Francis with Poverty, the 
 praises of St. Dominic, or St. Bernard's invocation to the Blessed 
 Virgin, being read aloud in Catherine's circle, and Saint and 
 secretaries alike being fired by the music of him who had fought 
 the same battle for righteousness more than half a century before. 
 
 From the consideration of her own order, Catherine turns to 
 the religious life in general, the excellence of its ideals, the 
 disastrous results when these are corrupted or neglected. The 
 perfect religious, il vero obbediente, he who has humbled himself 
 like a little child to enter into the kingdom of Heaven, is con- 
 trasted with the unfaithful and disobedient monk or friar, "who 
 stays in the bark of his order with such great pain to himself and 
 to others, that in this life he tastes the pledge of hell." Midway 
 between the two types is that of the average religious, neither 
 perfect nor corrupt, but lukewarm in his profession, ever in 
 danger of falling, but still with the power of joining the truly 
 obedient in their holy race. After a glowing eulogy of the 
 virtue of obedience, illustrated by the miracles that the saints of 
 old have wrought by its power, and a recapitulation of the whole 
 book, Catherine ends with the impassioned eloquence of what 
 may be called her universal prayer : — 
 
 " Thanks, thanks be to Thee, eternal Father, for Thou hast 
 not despised me, Thy creature, nor turned Thy face from me, nor 
 contemned my desires. Thou that art light, hast not considered 
 my darkness ; Thou that art life, hast not considered my death ; 
 nor hast Thou, the physician, turned from my grievous maladies. 
 Thou art eternal purity, and I am full of the mire of many 
 miseries ; Thou art infinite, and I am finite ; Thou art wisdom, 
 and I am foolishness ; for all these and other infinite evils and 
 defects that are in me, Thy wisdom, Thy goodness, Thy clemency, 
 and Thy infinite blessedness has not despised me ; but in Thy 
 light Thou hast given me light, in Thy wisdom I have known 
 the truth, in Thy clemency I have found Thy charity and the 
 
 1 Cf. Lettere del discepoli, 18. But Capecelatro, pp. 343, 344, following 
 Ignazio Cantu, much overstates Catherine's possible knowledge of Dante. 
 
 367 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 love of my neighbour. Who has constrained Thee to this. 
 Not my virtues, but Thy charity alone. May this same love 
 constrain Thee to illumine the eye of my understanding in the 
 light of faith, in order that I may know and comprehend the 
 truth Thou hast revealed to me. Grant that my memory may 
 be capable of retaining Thy benefits, that my will may burn in 
 the fire of Thy charity, and that fire make my body pour forth 
 blood ; so that with that blood, given for love of the blood, and 
 with the key of obedience, I may unlock the gate of Heaven. 
 This same grace I crave of Thee for every rational creature, in 
 general and in particular, and for the mystical body of Holy 
 Church. I confess and do not deny that Thou didst love me 
 before I was, and that Thou dost love me ineffably, as mad with 
 love for Thy creature. 
 
 " O eternal Trinity, O Godhead, Thou that, by Thy divine 
 nature, didst make the price of the blood of Thy Son avail ! 
 Thou, eternal Trinity, art a sea so deep, that the more I enter 
 therein, the more I find, and, the more I find, the more I seek of 
 Thee. Thou art the food that never satiates ; for, when the soul 
 is satiated in Thine abyss, it is not satiated, but it ever continues 
 to hunger and thirst for Thee, eternal Trinity, desiring to behold 
 Thee with the light of Thy light. As the hart panteth after the 
 water brooks, so does my soul desire to issue from the prison of 
 the darksome body, and behold Thee in truth. O how long 
 shall Thy face be hidden from my eyes ? O eternal Trinity, fire 
 and abyss of charity, dissolve henceforth the cloud of my body ; 
 the knowledge that Thou hast given me of Thyself, in Thy 
 truth, constrains me to desire to leave the heaviness of my body, 
 and to give my life for the glory and praise of Thy name ; 
 because I have tasted and seen, with the light of the under- 
 standing in Thy light, Thy abyss, eternal Trinity, and the beauty 
 of Thy creature. Contemplating myself in Thee, I see that I 
 am Thy image ; Thou, eternal Father, hast given me of Thy 
 power, and of Thy wisdom in the understanding, which wisdom 
 is assigned to Thy only-begotten Son ; the Holy Spirit, which 
 proceeds from Thee and from Thy Son, has given me the will, 
 
 368 
 
CATHERINE'S LITERARY WORK 
 
 whereby I am made able to love. Thou, eternal Trinity, art the 
 Maker, and I the work of Thy hands ; I have known, by Thy 
 recreation of me in the blood of Thy Son, that Thou art 
 enamoured of the beauty of what Thou hast made. 
 
 " O abyss, O eternal Godhead, O deep sea ! And what more 
 couldest Thou give me, than give Thyself ? Thou art fire that 
 ever burnest and art not consumed ; Thou art fire that con- 
 sumest all self-love in the soul by Thy heat ; Thou art fire 
 that destroyest all coldness ; Thou dost illumine, and by Thy 
 light Thou hast made me know Thy truth. Thou art that light 
 above all light, with which light Thou givest supernatural light 
 to the eye of the understanding, in such abundance and perfection 
 that Thou dost clarify the light of faith ; in which faith I see that 
 my soul has life, and in this light she receives Thee, the Light. In 
 the light of faith, I acquire wisdom, in the wisdom of the Word, 
 Thy Son. In the light of faith, I am strong, constant, and 
 persevering. In the light of faith, I hope ; it will not let me 
 faint on the road. This light teaches me the way, and, without 
 this light, I should walk in darkness ; and, therefore, I besought 
 Thee, eternal Father, to illumine me with the light of most holy 
 faith. Verily, this light is a sea, for it nourishes the soul in Thee, 
 sea of peace, eternal Trinity ; the water of this sea is never stormy, 
 and, therefore, the soul has no fear, because she knows the truth ; 
 it is ever clear and reveals things hidden ; and thus, where the 
 most abundant light of Thy faith abounds, it, as it were, makes 
 the soul certain about what she believes. It is a mirror, as Thou, 
 eternal Trinity, dost make me know ; for, gazing into this mirror, 
 holding it with the hand of love, it shows me myself in Thee, 
 who am Thy creature, and Thee in me, by the union which Thou 
 didst make of the Godhead with our humanity. In this light 
 it reveals Thee to me, and I know Thee, supreme and infinite 
 Good, good above all good, blissful good, incomprehensible good, 
 inestimable good ; Beauty above all beauty ; Wisdom above all 
 wisdom. Yea, Thou art very Wisdom ; Thou, the food of 
 Angels, hast given Thyself to men with fire of love ; Thou, 
 the raiment that coverest up my nakedness, dost feed the 
 24 369 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 famished in Thy sweetness ; sweet Thou art, without any 
 bitterness. 
 
 " O eternal Trinity, in Thy light which Thou didst give me, 
 receiving it with the light of most holy faith, I have known (for 
 Thou makest it plain to me by many and wondrous revelations) 
 the way of great perfection, in order that I may serve Thee with 
 light and not with darkness ; that I may be a mirror of good 
 and holy life, and thus rise up from my own miserable life ; for, 
 through my sins, I have ever served Thee in darkness ; I ^have 
 not known Thy truth, and, therefore, have not loved it. Why 
 did I not know Thee ? Because I did not see Thee with the 
 glorious light of most holy faith, for the cloud of self-love 
 darkened the. eye of my understanding ; and Thou, eternal 
 Trinity, with Thy light didst dissolve that darkness. And 
 who shall reach Thy height, to render Thee thanks for so 
 measureless a gift, and such great benefits as Thou hast granted 
 me, the doctrine of truth which Thou hast given me, which is a 
 special grace beyond the general grace which Thou dost give to 
 other creatures ! Thou wishest to condescend to my necessity, 
 and to that of other creatures who will look into it as into a 
 mirror. Do Thou, Lord, answer for me ; Thou Thyself hast 
 given, do Thou Thyself answer and make satisfaction, infusing 
 a light of grace into me, in order that with that light I may give 
 Thee thanks. Robe, robe me with Thyself, eternal Truth, so 
 that I may run this mortal life with true obedience and with the 
 light of most holy faith, with which light it seemeth that Thou 
 dost inebriate my soul anew." 1 
 
 At the end of one of her longest letters to Fra Raimondo, 
 the letter that reads almost like a first sketch of the Dialogo, and 
 contains the vision which was to be the starting-point of that 
 book, Catherine claims to have learnt to write by a miracle, the 
 power having suddenly come to her by a kind of spiritual in- 
 tuition, while staying at the Rocca d' Orcia in the autumn of 1377. 
 " This letter," she says, " and another that I sent you, I have 
 
 1 Cap. 167, corrected by the Vatican MS., Cod. Barb. Lat. 4063, with which 
 Fra Raimondo substantially agrees. 
 
 37° 
 
CATHERINE'S LITERARY WORK 
 
 written with my own hand on the Isola della Rocca, with many 
 sighs and abundance of tears, so that the eye, though seeing, 
 saw not ; but I was full of wonder at myself and at the goodness 
 of God, considering His mercy towards the creatures that possess 
 reason, and His providence, which so abounded towards me that, 
 for my refreshment, since I was deprived of this consolation 
 which through my ignorance I did not possess, He had given 
 me and prepared me to receive the faculty of writing ; in order 
 that, descending from the height, I might have somewhat where- 
 with to relieve my heart, that it might not burst, since He does 
 not wish to draw me yet from this darksome life. In a wondrous 
 way, He set it for me in my mind, even as the master does to the 
 child when he gives him the copy. Thus, as soon as you had 
 left me, with the glorious evangelist John and Thomas of Aquino, 
 I began to learn in my sleep. Forgive me for writing too much, 
 for my hands and my tongue are in tune with my heart." 1 
 
 This, however, was not the first letter that Catherine thus 
 wrote. We learn from Fra Tommaso Caffarini that, when she 
 " rose from prayer with the desire of writing," she wrote a letter 
 to Stefano Maconi with her own hand, at the end of which she 
 said : " Know, my dearest son, that this is the first letter that 
 I have ever written." He adds, on Stefano's authority, that she 
 afterwards often wrote her own letters, as also certain pages of the 
 Dialogo, and tells us elsewhere that the two wonderful epistles 
 to Fra Raimondo at the end of her life, in which she takes leave 
 of him and of the world, were also written by her own hand. 2 
 But, as already stated, at the present day, with six exceptions, we 
 possess only copies ; and even these six originals were evidently 
 
 1 Letter 272 (90). Cf. Letter 119 (178), to Alessa. It is uncertain whether 
 the other letter to which Catherine refers is that numbered 267 (91), as seems 
 most probable, if it is one of those preserved to us ; Augusta Drane, by some 
 inexplicable error, identifies it with Letter 226 (89), which was obviously written 
 to Raimondo at Avignon in the previous year. 
 
 2 Suppkmentum, Pars I. tract, i. ad finem (fF. 9-10 in the Casanatense MS.), 
 Pars III. tract, i. (f. 122); Processus, col. 1279. Unless this passage is one of the lost 
 postscripts to the letters we possess, the letter to Stefano Maconi has not been 
 preserved. 
 
 37 1 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 written at the Saint's dictation by one of her secretaries. Not a 
 single word written by Catherine's own hand has been preserved. 
 Catherine's earliest letters were written for her by her women 
 companions, Alessa, Cecca, and occasionally Giovanna Pazzi ; as 
 also were probably the more purely domestic of her later ones, 
 and those addressed particularly to women. Afterwards, Cristo- 
 fano Guidini and Gherardo Buonconti seem occasionally to have 
 written at her dictation ; but, during the greater part of her 
 political activity, she had three regular secretaries, the three young 
 nobles whom we have already so often met : Neri di Landoccio 
 Pagliaresi, Stefano di Corrado Maconi, and Francesco di Messer 
 Vanni Malavolti. Francesco Malavolti has left us a delightful 
 picture of Catherine's method of composition at this time. We 
 see her dictating simultaneously to these three young men, three 
 letters : one to Pope Gregory, another to Bernabo Visconti, the 
 third to a certain great nobleman whose name Francesco does not 
 remember. She dictates now to one, now to another ; at times 
 with her face covered by her hands or veil, as though absorbed 
 in thought, at others with clasped hands and head raised up to 
 Heaven ; at intervals she seems rapt in ecstasy, but, nevertheless, 
 goes on continuously speaking. Then, suddenly, all three stop 
 writing, look puzzled, and appeal to her for aid. They have all 
 taken down the same sentence, but for which of them was it 
 meant ? Catherine smilingly assures them that there is no cause 
 for concern : " Dearest sons, do not trouble, for you have done 
 this by the work of the Holy Spirit ; when the letters are finished, 
 we shall see how these words fit in with our intention, and then 
 arrange what had best be done." And, of course, Francesco 
 tells us that, though the three letters were to such different people 
 and included various matters, the words in dispute were found to 
 prove essential to all the three. 1 Fra Raimondo tells us that on 
 these occasions she dictated the letters rapidly and continuously, 
 
 1 Contestatio Francisci de Makvoltis, cap. vii. (Casanatense MS., pp. 460, 461). 
 It is impossible now to identify these letters, as that to Bernabo Visconti is clearly 
 not the one still preserved to us, which contains no passage common to any of 
 Catherine's letters to Gregory. 
 
 37 2 
 
CATHERINE'S LITERARY WORK 
 
 without even the smallest pause for thought, as though she were 
 reading all she said from a book placed in front of her. 1 To 
 these three was added, in 1378, the young Florentine, Barduccio 
 di Piero Canigiani, who accompanied her back from Florence 
 to Siena, and never left her until the end. During the last 
 months of her life, while they were in Rome, he seems to have 
 been her only regular secretary. At least five of the six letters 
 of which the originals still exist were written by his hand. 
 
 Nearly four hundred of Catherine's letters have been pre- ■ 
 served to us. It is easier to speak of their literary importance 
 and their historical interest than of their spiritual fragrance, 
 as of lilies of the valley plucked in some shaded world-forsaken 
 garden, imbued with an unearthly, mystical beauty, as grown under 
 suns that rose from a suprasensible orient. They are written to 
 men and women in every condition of life and every grade of 
 society. Her correspondents include a Romagnole mendicant in 
 Florence, a Jewish usurer in Padua, no less than two Sovereign- 
 Pontiff's and three Kings. Leaders of armies, rulers of Italian 
 republics, receive her burning words and bow to her inspired 
 will, no less than private citizens seeking her counsel in the spiritual 
 life, or simple monks and hermits in their cells striving to find 
 the way of perfection. She can warn a Queen : " instead of a 
 woman, you have become the servant and slave of nothingness, 
 making yourself the subject of lies and of the demon who is 
 their father " ; 2 while she bids the wife of a tailor : " Clothe 
 yourself in the royal virtues." 3 Her wonderful, all-embracing and 
 intuitive sympathy knows no barriers, but penetrates into the 
 house of shame as well as into the monastery. While she writes 
 to Suora Eugenia, her niece in Santa Agnese at Montepulciano, 
 " with desire of seeing thee taste the food of Angels," the 
 mystical food, which is " the desire of God, whom the desire that 
 is in the soul's affection draws to herself, so that the two become 
 one " ; 4 to the Abbess and nuns of San Piero a Monticelli, 
 "with desire of seeing you true servants and brides of Christ 
 
 1 Legenda, Prologue I. (§ 7). 2 Letter 317 (316). 
 
 3 Letter 251 (362). 4 Letter 26 (159). 
 
 373 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 crucified," a letter full of the same spiritual poetry that im- 
 pregnates the story of Piccarda in Dante's Paradiso ; l or to the 
 Dominican nun of Orvieto, Suora Daniella, " who, not being able 
 to continue her great works of penance, had come into great 
 affliction," on the holy virtue of discretion ; 2 she can address to 
 a harlot in Perugia, " with desire of seeing thee partake of the 
 blood of the Son of God," a letter as outspoken as tender in 
 expression, beginning and ending in the name of Maria dolce 
 Madre. 3 
 
 Some of these letters are purely mystical, ecstatic outpourings 
 of Catherine's heart, the translation into ordinary speech of the 
 conversation of Angels, overheard in suprasensible regions. 
 Such are pre-eminently the letters to Fra Raimondo, and, in a 
 lesser degree, that to Suora Bartolommea della Seta, a nun of 
 Pisa. 4 Others are a nearer approach to familiar domestic corre- 
 spondence, in which the daily needs of life become ennobled, and 
 even the innocent japery of her friends and followers is not 
 neglected. Among these are the letters to Stefano Maconi ; but 
 even more delightful examples are to be found in those sent to 
 Francesco di Pippino and Monna Agnese, so sadly curtailed and 
 mutilated in all the printed editions, letters as full of high 
 spirituality as of homely common-sense. 5 Some are written as 
 guides to men and women through all the snares of the world or 
 the trials of the religious vocation. Conspicuous among the 
 latter are the numerous letters Catherine addressed to Carthusians 
 and monks of Monte Oliveto, towards which orders, next to her 
 own beloved Dominicans, she evidently felt the greatest affection. 6 
 Among the former, we have those to Andrea di Vanni, the 
 
 1 Lette r 79 ('49)- 2 Letter 213 (163). 
 
 8 Letter 276 (373). For another instance of Catherine's large-hearted outlook 
 upon questions of this kind, see Letter 8 (82), on the admission of a youth of 
 illegitimate birth into the Olivetan order. 
 
 4 Letter 221 (152). 
 
 6 See Appendix, Letters V. and VI., which, however, are in a different key. 
 
 6 For Catherine's relations with the Olivetani, cf. Placido M. Lugano, Origine 
 e Prlmordi dell' Ordine di Montoliveto, pp. 157-164. 
 
 374 
 
CATHERINE'S LITERARY WORK 
 
 painter, in his capacity of Captain of the People, and to Lorenzo 
 del Pino, the learned decretalist of Bologna ; 1 and, above all, the 
 letters to her Florentine friends and associates, the Soderini and 
 the Canigiani, who had suffered so heavily in what she deemed 
 the cause of righteousness. " It seems to me," she wrote to 
 Niccolo Soderini, when a new sentence of banishment fell upon 
 him, "that the divine sweet goodness of God has now anew 
 shown you a most special love, in having made you follow the 
 teaching and the lives of the saints ; He has made you worthy 
 to endure for the glory and praise of His name, in order to render 
 you the fruit in life eternal, instead of in this life." 2 Two of 
 Catherine's letters to Piero Canigiani have been preserved, one 
 of them hitherto unpublished. The first, written " with desire of 
 seeing you founded in true and most perfect love, in order that 
 you may be robed in the bridal garment of perfect charity," 
 contrasts the love of self with the divine love : " that true and 
 most perfect love, which is so full of delight and sweetness that 
 no misfortune can take that sweetness from it nor disturb it ; but 
 misfortune only the more strengthens the mind, because it brings 
 the soul nearer to her Creator." 3 The second extols the " glorious 
 virtue of perseverance," and urges the Guelf politician to beware 
 of getting involved in the toils of faction, but, like a true pilgrim, 
 turn from the affairs of the world to seek his true home. 4 Those 
 to Messer Ristoro, five in number, must be read in their entirety. 
 As Augusta Drane truly observes, they " form a series by them- 
 selves, and contain a body of instructions for the sanctification of 
 persons living in the world, which for their prudence and practical 
 wisdom have never been surpassed." 
 
 There are other letters, again, as we have seen, especially 
 those to the Popes and great prelates, which confront the most 
 
 i Letters 358 (212), 363 (213), 193 (224). 
 
 a Letter 297 (218). Cf. Letter 314 (343), to Costanza Soderini. Niccolb 
 was put under bounds at Treviso, on August 27, 1378. Cf. Anonimo Florentine, 
 
 P- 376. 
 
 s Letter 96 (233). * Appendix, Letter VII. 
 
 375 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 arduous problems of Church and State, assailing the corruption 
 of the times with a fervour and a fearlessness that Savonarola 
 himself was not to surpass. One of Catherine's latest letters to 
 a high ecclesiastical dignitary has peculiar interest, as connecting 
 her with the subsequent development of the Schism ; it is 
 addressed to Angelo Correr, newly appointed by Urban to the 
 Castello bishopric of Venice, " with desire of seeing you illumined 
 with a true and most perfect light," urging upon him the work 
 of reformation ; for, otherwise, " you would be verily a demon, 
 because you would be abandoning the will of God, and conforming 
 yourself with that of the devil." x How Angelo Correr followed 
 this light was soon to be seen. 
 
 Catherine thus stands with Petrarca as the second great letter- 
 writer of the fourteenth century. It is noteworthy that, although 
 the dates of their correspondence overlap (it seems to me most 
 probable that the Saint began writing letters in 1370, the year 
 of her entry into public life, although the majority of those that 
 have been preserved date from 1376 to 1379), and they were 
 to some extent battling in the same cause, they had, with the 
 exception of Charles V of France, only two correspondents in 
 common : the physician, Francesco di Bartolommeo Casini, and 
 the Augustinian friar, Bonaventura Badoara, the " Cardinal of 
 Padua." 2 In Petrarca's epistles to Urban V, we find something 
 of the same spirit that inspired Catherine in writing to Gregory 
 XI and Urban VI ; but, as a rule, their epistolary styles are 
 poles asunder. Catherine's language is the purest Tuscan of the 
 
 1 Letter 341 (34). 
 
 2 Petrarca, Rer. Sen., Lib. XVI. ep. 2, 3, Lib. XL ep. 14 ; Catherine, 
 Letters 244 (227), 334 (30). Fra Bonaventura had pronounced Petrarca's 
 funeral oration at Arqua, in 1374. Catherine's letter to him as cardinal (of 
 which there are better texts, with additional matter, in the Casanatense MS. 292 
 and the Palatine MS. 57) was sent to him when at Florence, in the spring of 
 1379. Cf - Jnonimo Florentine, pp. 393-395. He was instrumental in the 
 restoration of Talamone to Siena. On June 10, 1385, he was murdered on 
 the Ponte Sant' Angelo at Rome. The Bartolommeo della Pace and Giovanni 
 da Parma, to whom Petrarca addressed letters (Ep. varie, 50, 54, 61), are 
 evidently not Catherine's correspondents of those names. 
 
 376 
 
CATHERINE'S LITERARY WORK 
 
 golden age of the Italian vernacular, as far as possible removed 
 from Petrarca's would-be Ciceronian Latin ; her eloquence is 
 spontaneous and unsought ; at times, in her letters as in the 
 Dialogo, the richness of the writer's ideas is such that the rapidity 
 and ardour of her thought outleaps the bounds of speech, metaphor 
 follows close upon metaphor, one image has hardly been formed 
 when another takes its place, until logic and grammar are swept 
 away in the flood and torrent of impassioned words. 
 
 The simple, but profound philosophy underlying all Catherine's 
 writings is the same that, put into practice, armed her to pass 
 unsubdued and unshaken through the great game of the world. 
 
 Love is the one supreme and all-important, all-embracing, 
 all-enduring, limitless and boundless thing. In a famous passage 
 of the Purgatorio, Dante had shown how Creator and every 
 creature is moved by love ; how, in rational beings, love is the 
 seed of every virtue and of every vice, because love's natural 
 tendency to good is the material upon which Free Will works 
 for bliss or bane. 1 But Catherine goes a step further than this. 
 Not only God, but man, in a sense, is love. " Think," she writes, 
 " that the first raiment that we had was love ; for we are created 
 to the image and likeness of God only by love, and, therefore, 
 man cannot be without love, for he is made of nought else than 
 very love ; for all that he has, according to the soul and according 
 to the body, he has by love. The father and mother have given 
 being to their child, that is, of the substance of their flesh (by 
 means of the grace of God), only by love." 2 And in another 
 place : " The soul cannot live without love, but must always 
 love something, because she was created through love. Affection 
 moves the understanding, as it were saying : I want to love, for 
 the food wherewith I am fed is love. Then the understanding, 
 feeling itself awakened by affection, rises as though it said : If 
 thou wouldst love, I will give thee what thou canst love." 3 
 Love nurtures the virtues like children at its breast ; it robes the 
 
 1 Purg. xvii. and xviii. 
 
 2 Appendix, Letter I. Cf. Letter 196 (4). 
 
 3 Dialogo, cap. 5 1 . 
 
 377 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 soul with its own beauty, because it transforms the beloved and 
 makes her one with the lover. 1 "Love harmonizes the three 
 powers of our soul, and binds them together. The will moves 
 the understanding to see, when it wishes to love ; when the 
 understanding perceives that the will would fain love, if it is a 
 rational will, it places before it as object the ineffable love 
 of the eternal Father, who has given us the Word, His own Son, 
 and the obedience and humility of the Son, who endured torments, 
 injuries, mockeries, and insults with meekness and with such 
 great love. And thus the will, with ineffable love, follows what 
 the eye of the understanding has beheld ; and, with its strong 
 hand, it stores up in the memory the treasure that it draws from 
 this love." 2 
 
 Then, since the supreme act of Divine Love is seen in the 
 Sacrifice of Calvary, and again in the mystical outpouring of 
 Pentecost, Love's symbols for Catherine are blood and fire — but, 
 above all/ blood, and sometimes this finds startling expression. 
 She calls her letters written in blood. Those to whom they are 
 addressed are bidden drink blood, clothe themselves in blood, be 
 transformed and set on fire with blood ; they are inebriated with 
 blood ; their will, their understanding, and their memory are filled 
 with blood ; they are drowned beneath the tide of blood. 
 " Drown yourself in the blood of Christ crucified," she writes to 
 Fra Raimondo, " and bathe yourself in the blood ; inebriate 
 yourself with the blood, satiate yourself with the blood, and 
 clothe yourself with the blood. If you have been unfaithful, 
 baptise yourself again in the blood ; if the demon has darkened 
 the eye of your understanding, wash it with the blood ; if you 
 have fallen into ingratitude for gifts which you have not acknow- 
 ledged, be grateful in the blood ; if you have been an unworthy 
 pastor, and without the rod of justice tempered with prudence 
 and mercy, draw it from the blood ; with the eye of understand- 
 ing, see it in the blood, and take it with the hand of love, and 
 grasp it with panting desire. Dissolve your tepidity in the heat 
 of the blood, and cast off your darkness in the light of the blood. 
 1 Letter 108 (172). 2 Letter 95 (308). 
 
 378 
 
CATHERINES LITERARY WORK 
 
 I wish to robe myself anew in blood, and to strip myself of every 
 raiment which I have worn up to now. I crave for blood ; in the 
 blood have I satisfied and shall satisfy my soul. I was deceived 
 when I sought her among creatures ; so am I fain, in time of 
 solicitude, to meet companions in the blood. Thus shall I find 
 the blood and creatures, and I shall drink their affection and love 
 in the blood." 1 
 
 And Catherine carries this into actual life ; the blood that 
 splashes the streets and palaces of the Italian cities in the fierce 
 faction-fights, the blood that is poured out upon the scaffold at 
 the Sienese place of execution, fires her imagination and seems 
 shed by Love itself. The sight and smell of blood have no 
 horror for her. We find the fullest realization of this in one of 
 the most beautiful and famous of her letters, that to Fra Raimondo 
 describing the end of the young noble of Perugia, Niccolo di 
 Toldo, unjustly doomed to die by the government of Siena : — 
 
 " I went to visit him of whom you know, whereby he received 
 such great comfort and consolation that he confessed, and disposed 
 himself right well ; and he made me promise by the love of God 
 that, when the time of execution came, I would be with him ; 
 and so I promised and did. Then in the morning, before the 
 bell tolled, I went to him, and he received great consolation ; I 
 brought him to hear Mass, and he received the holy Communion, 
 which he had never received since the first. That will of his was 
 harmonized with and subjected to the will of God, and there only 
 remained a fear of not being strong at the last moment ; but the 
 measureless and inflamed goodness of God forestalled him, 
 endowing him with so much affection and love in the desire of 
 God, that he could not stay without Him, and he said to me : 
 ' Stay with me, and do not abandon me, so shall I fare not other- 
 wise than well, and I shall die content ' ; and he leaned his head 
 upon my breast. Then I exulted, and seemed to smell his blood, 
 and mine too, which I desire to shed for the sweet Spouse Jesus, 
 and, as the desire increased in my soul and I felt his fear, I said : 
 ' Take heart, sweet brother mine, for soon shall we come to the 
 
 1 Letter 102 (93). 
 379 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 nuptials ; thou wilt fare thither bathed in the sweet blood of the 
 Son of God, with the sweet name of Jesus, which I wish may 
 never leave thy memory, and I shall be waiting for thee at the 
 place of execution.' Now think, father and son, how his heart 
 lost all fear, and his face was transformed from sadness to joy, 
 and he rejoiced, exulted, and said : ' Whence comes such grace 
 to me, that the sweetness of my soul should await me at the holy 
 place of execution ? ' See, he had reached such light that he 
 called the place of execution holy, and he said : ' I shall go all 
 joyous and strong, and it will seem to me a thousand years till I 
 come thither, when I think that you are awaiting me there ' ; and 
 he spoke so sweetly of God's goodness, 'that one might scarce 
 sustain it. I awaited him, then, at the place of execution ; and I 
 stayed there, waiting, with continual prayer, in the presence of 
 Mary and of Catherine, Virgin and Martyr. But, before he 
 arrived, I placed myself down, and stretched out my neck on the 
 block ; but nothing was done to me, for I was full of love of 
 myself ; then I prayed and insisted, and said to Mary that I 
 wished for this grace, that she would give him true light and 
 peace of heart at that moment, and then that I might see him 
 return to his end. Then was my soul so full that, albeit a multi- 
 tude of the people was there, I could not see a creature, by reason 
 of the sweet promise made me. Then he came, like a meek 
 lamb, and, seeing me, he began to laugh, and he would have me 
 make the sign of the Cross over him ; and, when he had received 
 the sign, I said : ' Down ! to the nuptials, sweet brother mine, 
 for soon shalt thou be in eternal life.' He placed himself down 
 with great meekness, and I stretched out his neck, and bent down 
 over him, and reminded him of the blood of the Lamb. His 
 mouth said nought save Jesus and Catherine ; and, as he spoke 
 thus, I received his head into my hands, closing my eyes in the 
 Divine Goodness, and saying : I will" 
 
 Then to her ecstatic gaze the heavens seemed to open, and 
 she saw the God made Man, in brightness like the sun, receive 
 the victim's blood into His own open wounds, his desire into the 
 fire of His divine charity, blood into blood, flame into flame, and 
 
 380 
 
CATHERINE'S LITERARY WORK 
 
 the soul herself pass into His side, "bathed in his own blood, 
 which availed as though it were the blood of the Son of God." 
 But, as the soul thus entered and began to taste the divine sweet- 
 ness, " she turned to me, even as the bride, when she has come to 
 her bridegroom's door, turns back her eyes and her head to salute 
 those who have accompanied her, and thereby to show signs of 
 thanks. Then did my soul repose in peace and quiet, in such 
 great odour of blood that I could not bear to free myself from 
 the blood that had come upon me from him. Alas, miserable and 
 wretched woman that I am, I will say no more ; I remained on 
 earth with the greatest envy." 1 
 
 Ordina quest' amore, O tu che m ami, sang Jacopone da Todi : 
 " Set this love in order, O thou that lovest Me." Following out 
 this Franciscan line, Dante had based his Purgatorio (which sym- 
 bolizes the whole life of man) upon the need of ordering love 
 rightly. And it is the same with Catherine. " The soul," she 
 says, " that loves disordinately becomes insupportable to herself." 
 Only the Creator may be loved for Himself alone and without 
 any measure. Too readily may a spiritual love for a creature 
 become entirely sensual, if the eye is not kept fixed on the blood 
 of Christ crucified. 2 And this love disordered grows up into the 
 monster of self-love, amore proprio, which plays the same part in 
 Catherine's doctrine as did the Lupa, the she-wolf of Avarice, in 
 the Divina Commedia. " Self-love," she writes, " which takes 
 away charity and love of our neighbour, is the source and found- 
 ation of every evil. All scandals, and hatred, and cruelty, and 
 everything that is untoward, proceed from this perverse root of 
 self-love ; it has poisoned the entire world, and brought disease 
 into the mystical body of Holy Church and the universal body 
 of the Christian religion." 3 And she makes magnificent use of 
 
 1 Letter 273 (97), corrected by the Harleian MS. 
 
 8 Letter 76. Cf. the curiously interesting Letter 245 (122), "to a Genoese 
 of the third order of St. Francis, who had engaged in a spiritual friendship with 
 a woman, whereby he endured much travail." I find in the Casanatense MS. 292 
 that this tertiary was a certain Fra Gasparo. 
 
 8 Dialogo, cap. 7. 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 this doctrine in addressing the democratic rulers of the Italian 
 republics. " You see, dearest brothers and lords," she writes 
 to the Anziani and Consuls and Gonfalonieri of Bologna, " that 
 self-love is what lays waste the city of the soul, and ravages and 
 overturns earthly cities. I would have you know that nothing 
 has wrought this division in the world save self-love, from which 
 has risen and rises all injustice." 1 Through self-love, she tells 
 the Signoria of Florence, the virtue of justice has died out in 
 monarchies and republics alike : " The legitimate sovereigns have 
 become tyrants. The subjects of the Commune do not feed at 
 its breast with justice nor fraternal charity ; but each one, with 
 falseness and lies, looks to his own private advantage, and not to 
 the general weal. Each one is seeking the lordship for himself, 
 and not the good state and administration of the city." 2 Similarly, 
 it is to self-love alone that Catherine ascribed the war between 
 the Tuscan communes and the Holy See, no less than the 
 Great Schism itself ; self-love had transformed Gregory's legates 
 to ravening wolves, and Urban's cardinals to incarnate demons. 
 
 Man, therefore, must draw out the two-edged sword of love 
 and hate, and slay this worm of sensuality with the hand of Free 
 Will. He must utterly cast off servile fear. " Servile fear takes 
 away all power from the soul. I think not that man has any 
 cause to fear, for God has made him strong against every adver- 
 sary." 3 " No operation of the soul that fears with servile fear 
 is perfect. In whatever state she be, in small things and in great, 
 she falls short, and does not bring to perfection what she has 
 begun. O how perilous is this fear ! It cuts off the arms of 
 holy desire ; it blinds man, for it does not let him know or see 
 the truth. This fear proceeds from the blindness of self-love ; 
 for, as soon as the rational creature loves itself with sensitive self- 
 love, it straightway fears. And this is the cause for which it 
 fears ; it has set its love and hope upon a weak thing, that has 
 no firmness in itself, nor any stability, but passes like the 
 wind."* 
 
 1 Letter 268 (200). 2 Letter 3J7 ^^ s Appendix, Letter I. 
 
 * Letter 242 (37), to the Bishop of Florence, Angelo Ricasoli, when he left 
 
 382 
 
CATHERINE'S LITERARY WORK 
 
 Whether he be in the cloister or in the world, man must enter 
 the cell of self-knowledge, la cella del cognoscimento di not, and 
 abide therein. At its door he must set the watch-dog, conscience, 
 to rouse the understanding with its voice : the dog whose food 
 and drink are blood and fire. 1 Within that cell, he will know 
 God and man ; he will understand God's love, possess His truth, 
 and freely let himself be guided by His will. The cell of self- 
 knowledge is the stable in which the traveller through time to 
 eternity must be born again. " Thou dost see this sweet and 
 loving Word born in a stable, while Mary was journeying ; to 
 show to you, who are travellers, that you must ever be born 
 again in the stable of knowledge of yourselves, where you will 
 find Me born by grace within your souls." 2 
 
 In addition to the book and the letters, a certain number 
 of prayers, twenty-six in all, have been preserved, which Catherine 
 uttered on various occasions. One, the shortest, is said to be the 
 first thing that she wrote with her own hand : — 
 
 " O holy Spirit, come into my heart ; by Thy power draw 
 it to Thee, its God, and grant me love with fear. Guard me, 
 Christ, from every evil thought ; warm me and reinflame me with 
 Thy most sweet love, so that every pain may seem light to me. 
 My holy Father and my sweet Master, help me now in all my 
 ministry. Christ Love, Christ Love, Amen." 3 
 
 The others are mystical outpourings, which were taken down 
 at the time by the Saint's disciples, and repeat in similar or slightly 
 varied forms the aspirations that breathe from her other writings. 
 We have the same " sweet enragement of celestial love," the 
 same impassioned contemplation of the sovereign mysteries of 
 the faith, the same devotion to the Blessed Virgin, the same 
 the city to observe the interdict. Catherine had previously used the same words 
 to Cardinal Pierre d'Estaing, Letter n (24). 
 
 1 Cf. Letters 2 (50) and 114 (267). 
 
 2 Dialogo, cap. 151. Cf. Botticelli's allegorical picture of the Nativity in the 
 National Gallery. 
 
 8 Orat. IV. A slightly different version of this prayer, in Latin, is given 
 by Fra Tommaso Caffarini in the Processus, col. 1279, and in the Suppkmentum, 
 MS. cit., f. 9. 
 
 383 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 desire of offering up her own life for the salvation of souls and 
 the reformation of the Church. It is, indeed, piteous to watch 
 this exquisitely tender and angelical woman besieging Heaven 
 with prayers for that grim and ruthless man whom she called her 
 "sweet Christ on earth," imploring God to look upon his good 
 will, to hide him under the wings of His mercy so that his 
 enemies, the iniqui superbi, may not be able to injure him, to 
 robe him with the purity of the faith, to give him light that all 
 the world may follow him, to temper his "virile heart" with 
 holy humility. In the striking prayer composed on the feast 
 of the Circumcision, probably that of 1380, when those " admirable 
 mysteries " began to work within her that finally delivered her 
 from the world, we find Catherine including not only Urban, but 
 those very schismatics whom she had addressed as incarnate 
 demons, men worthy of a thousand deaths ; now her only thought 
 is for the salvation of their souls, and she beseeches the God of 
 sovereign clemency to punish their sins upon her own body. The 
 last of the series consists of the words she uttered when she 
 regained consciousness on the Monday after Sexagesima, when 
 her household were weeping for her as dead. It strikes the key- 
 note of her passion, and seems, as it were, to sum up the aspir- 
 ations of those weeks of prolonged suffering : — 
 
 " O eternal God, O divine Craftsman, who hast made and 
 formed the vessel of the body of Thy creature of the dust of the 
 ground ! O most sweet Love, Thou hast formed it of so vile a 
 thing, and hast put therein so great a treasure as is the soul, 
 which bears the image of Thee, eternal God. Thou, good Crafts- 
 man, my sweet Love, Thou art the potter who dost mar and make 
 again ; Thou dost shatter and mend this vessel, as pleases Thy 
 goodness. To Thee, eternal Father, I, wretched woman, offer 
 anew my life for Thy sweet Spouse, that, as often as pleaseth Thy 
 goodness, Thou mayest draw me from the body and restore me 
 to the body, each time with greater pain than the other ; if only 
 I may see the reformation of this sweet Spouse, Thy holy Church. 
 I demand this Spouse of Thee, eternal God. Also, I commend to 
 Thee my most beloved children, and I beseech Thee, supreme 
 
 3 8 4 
 
CATHERINE'S LITERARY WORK 
 
 ad eternal Father, if it should please Thy mercy and goodness 
 ) draw me out of this vessel and make me no more return, not 
 ) leave them orphans, but visit them with Thy grace, and make 
 lem live as dead, with true and most perfect light ; bind them 
 )gether in the sweet bond of charity, that they may die of ardent 
 esire in this sweet Spouse. And I beseech Thee, eternal Father, 
 lat not one of them may be taken out of my hands. Forgive 
 s all our iniquities, and forgive me my great ignorance, and 
 le great negligence that I have committed in Thy Church, in 
 ot having done what I might and should have done. I have 
 mned, Lord, be merciful unto me. I offer and commend my 
 lost beloved children to Thee, because they are my soul. And 
 r it please Thy goodness to make me still stay in this vessel, do 
 ^hou, sovereign Physician, heal and sustain it, for it is all torn 
 tid rent. Grant, eternal Father, grant us Thy sweet benediction. 
 Linen." 
 
 25 3^5 
 
CHAPTER XVII 
 
 THE DISSOLUTION OF THE FELLOWSHIP 
 
 " In toto hoc tam gravi scismate, ipsa Christi ecclesia continue et indesinenter regitur 
 et semper regetur a spiritu sancto." — St. Vincent Ferrer, Dc Moderno EcchsiaeSchUmate, IH.4. 
 
 "Sono mold che dicono : Io credo in Dio, ma non credo ne a papa, ne a antipapa.' — 
 Franco Sacchetti, Sermone II. 
 
 Not in the written word alone did the spirit of Catherine 
 of Siena live on after her bodily death. She had left behind her 
 more than her mystical writings : a devoted company of men 
 and women, trained by her in the cell of self-knowledge, pledged 
 to consecrate their lives to righteousness, to labour to the end 
 for the conversion of souls, for the unity and reformation of the 
 Church. 
 
 With her last breath, she had deputed Monna Alessa to 
 succeed her as head of the famiglia, while all in general were to 
 look to Fra Raimondo for spiritual direction. William Flete 
 and Messer Matteo Cenni were to preside over the continuation 
 of her work in Siena itself. But, although the correspondence 
 between the various members shows how for years they kept 
 closely associated, nella santa memoria della Mamma (as Stefano 
 Maconi puts it), the actual fellowship was inevitably broken up, 
 and each one went on the way that Catherine had pointed out to 
 him. Alessa herself did not long survive her beloved friend 
 and spiritual mistress, but died shortly afterwards in Rome. 
 
 Fra Raimondo was at Genoa when Catherine died, preparing 
 to go by sea to Pisa on the way to Bologna, where a general 
 chapter was to be held of that portion of the Dominican order 
 that still adhered to Urban, in opposition to the chapter-general 
 under the Clementine obedience that Fra Elias of Toulouse had 
 summoned for Whitsunday at Lausanne. The friar tells us that 
 he was full of apprehension, both because of the storm that was 
 raging at sea and because he feared the Clementines were lying 
 
 386 
 
THE DISSOLUTION OF THE FELLOWSHIP 
 
 n wait, to take vengeance upon him for having preached the 
 xusade against them. He had been singing the high Mass of 
 k. Peter Martyr, and was going up to the dormitory to prepare 
 or the journey, when, as he paused to say the Regina caeli before 
 he Madonna's statue, a voice spoke in his heart : " Fear not ; 
 am here for thee ; I am in heaven for thee ; I will protect and 
 lefend thee ; be assured and fear nothing ; I am here for thee." 
 t was the hour of Catherine's death, though he knew it not. 1 
 \t Bologna, he was elected master-general in May, in opposition 
 o Fra Elias, and the schism in the Dominican order was now 
 omplete. 2 
 
 A similar disruption had taken place in the other orders in the 
 )revious year. The general chapter of the Carthusians held 
 it Grenoble under Dom Guillaume Rainaud had declared for 
 Element, upon which, in December, Urban had appointed a 
 general apostolic visitor of the houses faithful to him. 3 At 
 Naples, in October, the general chapter of the Franciscans, under 
 Cardinal Leonardo de' GrifFoni, had likewise decided to adhere to 
 Element. The Olivetani, on the other hand, being a mainly 
 talian order, were for the most part Urbanist. 
 
 Raimondo's task as master-general of the Dominicans was 
 >ne that would have tried all the powers of a much stronger 
 nan. He found the whole order rent by the Schism, the 
 ndividual convents either practically deserted, or else corrupt and 
 ebellious. The utmost he could do was to induce the chapter- 
 ;eneral to decree that, in every province under his obedience, 
 here should be at least one convent of the regular observance, 
 ontaining at least twelve friars, in which the original rule of St. 
 )ominic should be maintained in all its pristine severity. Under 
 is auspices, this reform was begun in Germany by Conrad of 
 'russia in 1389, and in Venice, in 1391, by Fra Giovanni 
 )ominici, a young Florentine friar of great fervour and eloquence, 
 
 1 Legenda, III. iv. 9, 10 (§§ 368, 369). 
 
 2 Cf. Chronica ordinis Praedicatorum, ed. Reichert, pp. 26, 27 (Mommenta 
 . F. P. historica, torn. vii.). 
 
 8 Cf. Tromty, VII. pp. 45-51. 
 
 387 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 who had seen Catherine in his boyhood, and believed himself 
 to have been miraculously delivered from an impediment in 
 his speech by her intercession. In this work he found devoted 
 and indefatigable assistants in Bartolommeo di Domenico and 
 Tommaso CafFarini ; but the results were only local and temporary, 
 though several of the houses that were thus founded, for men and 
 women, remain to this day. And, in the meanwhile, at the 
 chapter-general of the Clementine obedience held under Elias at 
 Avignon on the feast of Pentecost, 1386, Raimondo and his 
 fellow-labourers were denounced as scelerati ac reprobi fratres, and 
 threatened with condign punishment under the constitutions of 
 the order. 1 Even the friars of the Roman obedience murmured 
 against the reform ; and, in 1395, Raimondo issued an encyclical 
 letter, denying that he was dividing the order and disorganizing 
 convents, by inducing friars to emigrate to houses of the strict 
 observance, and scandalizing people by the spectacle of two 
 Dominican communities in the same town with different rules ; 
 those who divide the order are the men who do not observe the 
 constitutions. At the same time, he was worn out by illness, 
 and distracted by the political missions undertaken on behalf of 
 Urban and his successor, in Sicily and elsewhere. 2 He was of too 
 gentle a nature to adopt severe measures, which, for the rest, 
 could only have resulted in driving the Italian friars into the 
 Clementine obedience. In 1396, he went to Germany, to urge 
 on the work of reform there, and never returned. " Although 
 it would be a joy for me to see thee," he wrote to Giovanni 
 Dominici from Cologne, " nevertheless, it is not really necessary 
 for thee to come personally here to bring me back to Italy ; 
 especially because I know that thy presence in the city of Venice 
 is both useful and necessary. But, to speak familiarly with thee, 
 it would avail more for my return if thou, with the superior 
 
 1 Monumenta O. F. P. hhtorka, torn. viii. pp. 22-24. 
 
 2 For Raimondo's work as reformer, cf. Chronica ordinis praed., pp. 26-29 » 
 Fra Tommaso CafFarini, Hhtoria disciplinae regularis instauratae in coenobiis Venetis 
 O. P. ; J. Luchaire, in Revue Historique, torn. 74 (Paris, 1900); Anakcta Bollandiana, 
 xx. p. 113. 
 
 388 
 
THE DISSOLUTION OF THE FELLOWSHIP 
 
 and other sons, wouldst procure some viaticum for me, with 
 which, by God's aid, I may be able to come back to you ; for 
 I have spent both what I had and what I have not yet got, 
 and have incurred debts, which I do not think I can satisfy 
 without a large sum of money. So do anything you can to 
 help me, for, as I deem, you will accomplish a useful act of 
 charity and one pleasing to God. For, on account of the long 
 illness which has detained me, I shall need many things, if God 
 lets me return to you, which I did not need when I came to these 
 parts. Nevertheless, I commit all to the eternal providence of 
 our Saviour, in whom I desire with my whole heart that thou and 
 the family committed to thee may fare ever better." 1 He died 
 at Nuremberg, on October 5, 1399, leaving a memory of much 
 sweet charity and personal holiness. But the Acts of the chapter 
 held in that city in 1405, under his successor, Tommaso da 
 Fermo, show unmistakably that his work as a reformer had been 
 ineffectual. After the schism had been ended, Fra Leonardo da 
 Firenze, in his encyclical letter of 142 1, paints a deplorable 
 picture of the corruption in the Dominican order : in nostra ordine, 
 ubi, proh dolor, nullus est ordo? 
 
 In Raimondo's last letter to Giovanni Dominici, he mentions 
 the zeal for the reform of the order that is being shown in Pisa 
 by Suor Chiara de' Gambacorti. This is the daughter of Messer 
 Piero Gambacorti, Monna Tora, whom we have met among 
 Catherine's correspondents, and who had at length become a 
 Dominican nun. In October, 1392, the rule of the Gambacorti 
 had been overthrown in Pisa, by a conspiracy organized by 
 Jacopo d' Appiano, Piero's secretary ; Messer Piero himself and 
 two of his sons, Benedetto and Lorenzo (Tora's half-brothers), 
 were brutally murdered ; and it is said that Tora, in order to 
 preserve the clausura, refused to give shelter to Lorenzo, when 
 wounded and flying from his enemies. More edifying than this 
 appalling example of " detachment " is it to read that, when a 
 
 1 Letter of December 18, 1398, in Fra Tommaso Caffarini, of. cit., pp. 
 231-233. 
 
 2 Monumenta O. F. P. historica, torn. viii. pp. 1 12-133, I ^ 2 - 
 
 389 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 fresh revolution broke out, and the family of Jacopo d' Appiano 
 were in their turn pursued by the populace, Tora sheltered the 
 wife and daughters of her father's murderer in the cloistered 
 retreat that she had closed against her brother. 
 
 To Barduccio Canigiani, Don Giovanni dalle Celle had 
 written a beautiful letter of spiritual consolation on Catherine's 
 death, tenderly inviting him to come to Vallombrosa and be 
 once more one of his sons in religion. " Come, most beloved 
 son, to him who of old was thy father ; come to thy brethren, 
 who are expecting thee with such great desire that they 
 will think they are receiving an Angel of God, if thou dost 
 come." 1 But Catherine had disposed otherwise. "When the 
 holy virgin was departing from this world," writes Fra Raimondo, 
 " she bade him join me and lead his life according to my direction ; 
 which I think she did because she knew that he would linger 
 in the body but a short while. For, after the virgin's death, 
 Barduccio contracted the malady which the physicians call 
 consumption, and, albeit he sometimes seemed to grow better, he, 
 nevertheless, finally died of it. Wherefore, I, fearing lest the air 
 of Rome would harm him, sent him to Siena, where, after a brief 
 time, he passed away to Christ. Those who were present at his 
 death bear witness that, whilst he was at his last breath, gazing on 
 high with a glad countenance, he began to laugh, and so, with a laugh 
 of joy, he gave up the ghost, in such wise that the signs of that 
 joyous laugh still appeared in his dead body. This thing, I think, 
 befell because in his passing he beheld her, whom in life he had 
 loved with true charity of heart, robed in splendour, coming with 
 gladness to meet him." 2 Barduccio died in December, 1382, at 
 Siena. His father and brother were already dead ; Messer 
 Ristoro had died at Lucca, in December, 1380 ; Piero Canigiani 
 himself, persecuted and put under bounds by the Republic, passed 
 away in exile at Sarzana, in August, 1381. 3 Of the once power- 
 
 1 Lettcredel B. Giovanni dalle Celle, 26. 2 Legenda, III. i. 1 1 (§ 341). 
 
 3 Anonimo Fiorentino, pp. 422, 428. Niccold Soderini died at Lucca on 
 March 20, 1 38 1. Ibid., p. 423. In the reaction of 1382, Carlo Strozzi and 
 Tommaso Soderini were recalled to Florence. 
 
 39° 
 
THE DISSOLUTION OF THE FELLOWSHIP 
 
 rul Florentine politicians who had listened to Catherine's words, 
 Buonaccorso di Lapo Giovanni alone remained. Highly trusted 
 by the State, and employed in many embassies, he was accused on 
 his return from a mission to Milan, in November, 1388, of having 
 accepted a bribe from Gian Galeazzo Visconti. He appealed to 
 be heard in his own defence, upon which Franco Sacchetti, speaking 
 for the College of Gonfalonieri, proposed that he should be heard 
 in secret and at night. Having thus obtained three days' grace, 
 Buonaccorso fled from Florentine territory, and was declared a 
 traitor and a rebel. 1 There was one faithful disciple of Catherine's 
 still left in Florence ; untouched by the winds of faction that 
 smote these piu alte cime, the tailor, Francesco di Pippino, still 
 continued to work in her sweet memory, making his humble 
 home a centre for all that looked for righteousness in those 
 stormy times. " When thou dost wish to write to me," wrote 
 Giovanni dalle Celle to Guido dal Palagio, " give the letters 
 to Francesco, the tailor, a man faithful and loyal even unto 
 death." 2 
 
 The great friendship that bound Neri di Landoccio to 
 Stefano Maconi remained unbroken until the former's death. In 
 obedience to Catherine's dying charge, to join the Carthusians, 
 and in spite of much opposition from his own family, Stefano 
 entered the Certosa of S. Pietro di Pontignano in the spring of 
 1 38 1. "I tell thee, dearest brother," he wrote, on May 30, to 
 Neri, "with heartfelt gladness, that our benign God, through 
 His inestimable goodness and not for my own merits, has turned 
 the eye of His mercy towards me, wretched man, unworthy of 
 any grace, and has vouchsafed to let me receive the holy habit 
 here. I write this to thee, albeit very briefly, in order that thou 
 may est partake with me of the sweet joy and gladness that my 
 soul feels. I do not tell thee how and why it came to pass, 
 because the time is too short and the story too long ; but this, at 
 least, I will not conceal from thee, that our holy Mamma has 
 amply shown me by the results what she promised so emphatically 
 
 1 Anonimo Florentine, p. 480 ; Gherardi's introduction, p. 280. 
 2 June i, 1392- Letters cit., 23. 
 
 39 1 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 at her most blessed end, to help us more afterwards than before." 1 
 In the following year, to his great dismay, he was made prior of 
 Pontignano. " My sweet brother," he wrote to Neri, " I invite 
 thee to have compassion upon me, and also to aid me with holy 
 prayer, beseeching God to give me grace to correct my life and 
 to be His true servant even unto the end, and that He may 
 grant me to bear the weight that He has deigned to lay upon my 
 shoulders, as shall be to His honour and my salvation. When I 
 took the holy habit, I thanked God, and thought to sing with the 
 Psalmist : Lo, then, I would wander far off and remain in the 
 wilderness ; but Obedience, the bride that our holy Mamma gave 
 me, wishes me, for my greater weal, to sing : / was as a beast 
 before Thee. Therefore am I fain to begin again to glory in the 
 Cross of Christ crucified, and to rejoice in the Cross, and to abide 
 nowhere else save there." 2 In 1389, at the instance of Gian 
 Galeazzo Visconti, Stefano was transferred to Milan, and made 
 prior of the Carthusian convent of Our Lady and St. Ambrose. 
 Here he was influential in keeping the Milanese despot faithful to 
 the Urbanist obedience, and in furthering the interests of the Com- 
 mune of Siena at his court. He was much concerned, too, in the 
 founding of the great Certosa of Pavia, which Gian Galeazzo 
 was erecting with such lavish magnificence, and of which Don 
 Bartolommeo Serafini, the former prior of Gorgona, was the first 
 superior. 3 It is pleasant to fancy that we may see idealized 
 portraits of Stefano and Bartolommeo among the white-robed 
 Carthusians who are bearing their crosses after Christ in Ambrogio 
 Borgognone's picture. 
 
 From Pavia, we find Stefano on one occasion coming on 
 business of his order to Genoa, and there, con santi ragionamenti di 
 
 1 Lettere dei discepoli, 21. Cf. Tromby, VII. p. 54 ; Barth. Senensis, op. cit., 
 Lib. II. cap. 2. Stefano had previously been taken prisoner by a band of Breton 
 mercenaries, and set free, without payment of ransom, by the intervention of 
 Hawkwood — the second occasion upon which he had been delivered by calling 
 upon Catherine's name. 
 
 2 Ibid., 25. 
 
 8 Barth. Senensis, op. cit., Lib. II. cap. 13. Cf. Stefano's letter to Matteo 
 Cenni, of July 27, 1 391, Lettere dei discepoli, 33. 
 
 392 
 
^JA^ ^AionA^ y efffie t>ct/b 
 
 OO^f-* 
 
 S&ru/cteon 
 
 
THE DISSOLUTION OF THE FELLOWSHIP 
 
 'old materie, having much happy intercourse with Fra Raimondo, 
 'ra Tommaso Caffarini, Madonna Orietta Scotti, Francesco 
 /lalavolti, and others who still had Catherine's name in their 
 earts and on their lips. 1 In 1398, in the chapter-general held 
 ear Cilli in Styria, he was elected prior-general of the whole 
 Carthusian order under the Roman obedience, in opposition to 
 he aged Dom Guillaume Rainaud, who, from the mother-house 
 f Grenoble, still ruled the rest of the Carthusians who adhered 
 the Popes of Avignon. A pleasant letter to Fra Tommaso has 
 ieen preserved to us, in which Stefano informs him of his election, 
 mplores his prayers and commends himself to those of Fra 
 taimondo, and, now that he will no longer reside in Italy, 
 ommits the book of Catherine's letters (the famous manuscript 
 if the Certosa of Pavia) and her other relics to his correspondent's 
 are. 2 
 
 Neri di Landoccio, in the meanwhile, had fulfilled Catherine's 
 ibedience by becoming a hermit, first at Agromaggio near 
 Florence, where one of her Florentine friends, Leonardo di 
 Piccolo Frescobaldi, had founded a hermitage, and afterwards 
 t another romitorio outside the Porta Nuova of Siena. Here, 
 le kept closely in touch with the surviving members of the 
 ellowship, gathered disciples round him, and lived a life of 
 ustere holiness. He died on March 12, 1406, and was buried 
 t the convent of the Olivetani outside Porta Tufi. 3 
 
 Catherine's other secretary, Francesco Malavolti, remained in 
 he world for some years after her death. His wife and children 
 laving died, an uncle, Niccoluccio Malavolti, seeing the pleasure 
 hat he took in horses and arms, advised him, if he did not marry 
 gain, to become a knight of St. John. Francesco tells us how 
 le resolved to do this, was accepted by the chapter-general of the 
 irder at Genoa, and returned to Siena to prepare the armour, 
 
 1 Lettere dei discepoli, 34. 
 
 2 Letter of October 17, 1398, in Fra Tommaso Caffarini, op. cit., pp. 230, 
 
 8 Cf. the touching letter from Luca di Benvenuto, one of Neri's disciples, to 
 ier Jacomo, in Lettere del discepoli, 46. 
 
 393 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 weapons, and horses that were needed. But, in the night before 
 the day upon which he was to be made a knight and receive the 
 habit, Catherine herself appeared to him in a vision, rebuking 
 him for still clinging to the vanities of the world, and bade him 
 rise, seek out Neri di Landoccio, and go with him to the convent 
 of Monte Oliveto Maggiore, where he would be received without 
 any opposition : " Dost thou not remember how I told thee 
 that, when thou shouldst think I was furthest from thee, I should 
 then be most near thee, and that I should lay such a yoke upon 
 thy neck that thou wilt never be able to shake it off?" 
 Francesco was at once seized with such a desire to take the 
 Olivetan habit, that it seemed the night would never end. He 
 rose at dawn, and hastened to find Neri in his hermitage, who 
 likewise had seen Catherine in the night and been prepared for 
 his coming. They went together to Monte Oliveto, where, the 
 abbot-general being absent, the prior agreed to receive Francesco 
 into the order. He returned to Siena, sold his armour, weapons, 
 horses, and distributed the proceeds to the poor, and then, going 
 back to the convent, received the habit on the same evening, 
 the vigil of St. Lucy. 1 This was in 1388. But Francesco's 
 instability pursued him even into the cloister. After filling 
 various offices, sometimes that of master of novices, but more 
 frequently cellarer, at different convents of the order, he left the 
 Olivetani in 1410, and became a black monk of St. Benedict. 
 We find him, in 1413^ Benedictine in the abbey of San Miliano 
 near Sassoferrato, sending his recollections of Catherine to Fra 
 Tommaso CafFarini, as his Contestant), to form part of the 
 Venetian Process ; " concerning those wondrous things," he says 
 in the accompanying letter, " which I saw the Lord work in His 
 creatures by means of the glorious and holy virgin, Catherine of 
 Siena, our most sweet mother, what time I bore her company in 
 the city of Siena and without. And albeit I do not narrate a 
 hundredth part of what I saw, I nevertheless ratify and confirm 
 all that is said in the Legend of the Virgin by Master Raimondo 
 
 1 Contestatio Francisci de Malavolth, cap. i., MS. cit,, pp. 43 3—436. 
 
 394 
 
THE DISSOLUTION OF THE FELLOWSHIP 
 
 of venerable memory, and bear witness that all the things 
 recounted in it are most true." 1 
 
 With Catherine's death, all thoughts of reformation seem to 
 have died out of Urban's heart, and he began to tread the path 
 upon which the Popes of the Renaissance were to follow. He 
 had already, in April, 1380, formally deprived Queen Giovanna 
 of her kingdom and all her fiefs, and released her subjects from 
 their allegiance under pain of excommunication. To defend 
 herself from him and her Hungarian cousins, Giovanna, with 
 the approval of Clement, adopted Louis of Anjou as her heir, 
 and appealed for French protection. In the autumn, Charles 
 of Durazzo entered Italy with a Hungarian army, and, at the 
 beginning of June, 138 1, was crowned in Rome by Urban, as King 
 of Naples and Jerusalem, under the title of Charles III. The 
 price of the ceremony was the confirmation of the Neapolitan 
 fiefs that Urban had granted to his own infamous nephew, 
 Francesco Prignano, which included the principality of Capua, 
 the duchy of Amalfi, and the counties of Caserta and Fondi 
 — a transaction in which the exiled Florentine, Lapo da Casti- 
 glionchio, acted as Charles's legal adviser. Giovanna's despairing 
 appeal to Louis of Anjou, practically offering him immediate 
 possession of the kingdom, came at an inauspicious moment — 
 the Duke being fully occupied in the regency of France for the 
 young King, Charles VI. Charles advanced upon Naples, and, 
 on July 16, occupied the city, the Queen taking refuge in the 
 Castello Nuovo. Her husband Otho made a valiant attempt to 
 break through and rescue her, but was defeated and taken 
 prisoner ; and, on September 2, Giovanna surrendered. She 
 was imprisoned in Castello dell' Ovo, while the populace shouted 
 for Urban, whose legate, Cardinal Gentile di Sangro, proceeded 
 
 1 Letter of April 12, 141 3, prefixed to his Contestatio, pp. 427-429 in the 
 Casanatense MS., ff. 157^.-158 in the MS. at Siena. Cf. Placido M. Lugano, 
 of. cit., p. 163 ». An earlier letter of Francesco's, written from the Olivetan 
 convent of S. Girolamo di Quarto outside Genoa (which Alfonso da Vadaterra 
 had founded and where he was buried in 1388), to Neri di Landoccio, is in 
 Lettere dei discepoli, 40. 
 
 395 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 to take vengeance upon the Clementines. Two cardinals, 
 Leonardo de' GrifFoni and Jacopo d' Itri, had been captured with 
 the Queen ; the former denied his allegiance to Clement and 
 burned his red hat ; the latter was publicly degraded, and then 
 imprisoned. The Archbishop of Salerno, Giovanni d' Acquaviva, 
 is said to have been burned alive. 
 
 Tardily, in June, 1382, Louis of Anjou started to rescue 
 the imprisoned Queen and win the royal crown from Charles 
 of Durazzo. His approach was Giovanna's death-warrant. She 
 had been previously sent to the Castello di Muro in the interior 
 of the country, and thence, on the last day of July, what pur- 
 ported to be her dead body was brought to Naples and laid 
 out in state in Santa Chiara, where a solemn requiem was sung. 
 The actual manner of her death is as uncertain as its precise 
 date, but there can be little doubt that she had been murdered 
 at the command of her successor ; according to one version, she 
 was strangled by two of his Hungarian soldiers, while she knelt 
 in prayer. For more than a year, Louis abstained from assum- 
 ing the royal title, professing to believe that Giovanna still 
 lived. 
 
 We are not concerned with the ensuing struggle between 
 Charles and Louis, nor with the miserable deaths of both com- 
 petitors — Louis dying of the plague at Bari in September, 1384, 
 and Charles by the hands of assassins at Visegrad in February, 
 1386, the fruit of his perfidious usurpation of the crown of 
 Hungary after the death of the great King Louis. 
 
 In the previous year, Charles had definitely broken with 
 Urban, had been solemnly excommunicated by him, and had 
 sent his army under Alberigo da Barbiano, whom he had made 
 Constable of Naples, to besiege him in Nocera. It was on this 
 occasion that Urban committed one of the most appalling crimes 
 of the age. His overbearing conduct, and crazy partiality for 
 his abominable nephew, had passed the bounds of endurance. 
 At Nocera, in January, 1385, just before the siege, he discovered 
 what was probably nothing more than a design on the part 
 of certain members of the Curia to put him under restraint 
 
 396 
 
THE DISSOLUTION OF THE FELLOWSHIP 
 
 for the good of the Church, but which his suspicious mind 
 
 magnified into a plot against his life. The Bishop of Aquila 
 
 and six cardinals, including the English Benedictine, Adam 
 
 Easton, were promptly arrested, and subjected to prolonged 
 
 tortures under the superintendence of one Basil, a Levantine 
 
 pirate of Genoese origin, noted for his hatred of the clergy ; 
 
 while Urban himself walked in the garden, reading his breviary 
 
 aloud, and glutting his ears with their cries. When released 
 
 from Nocera by Raimondello Orsini and Tommaso da San 
 
 Severino at the head of a band of foreign mercenaries, the 
 
 remnants of the army of Louis of Anjou, Urban dragged his 
 
 prisoners with him. He had the Bishop of Aquila, who was 
 
 too maimed by torture to follow, butchered by the way, but 
 
 was compelled to set the English Cardinal at liberty through 
 
 the intervention of Richard II. The other five he took with 
 
 him to Genoa in September, and imprisoned them in his house. 
 
 None of these unfortunate men were ever seen again. When 
 
 the Pope left Genoa in December, 1386, they were either thrown 
 
 into the sea, or strangled and buried in quicklime under the 
 
 stables of the house. 1 The rest of the Sacred College shrank 
 
 from him in horror, save a few insignificant Neapolitans whom 
 
 he had recently raised to the purple, but only two, one of 
 
 whom was the Cardinal of Ravenna already mentioned, actually 
 
 went over to his rival. 
 
 The tragedy of Urban's pontificate ended with his death 
 in the Vatican on October 15, 1389. He who had set out as 
 a strenuous reformer of the Church, and a friend of the servants 
 of God, thus ended his days in the worst corruption and in 
 sacrilegious bloodshed, detested by all, his authority set at 
 nought even by the Italian powers which acknowledged him 
 as Pope. Creighton puts it to his credit that he refused to 
 purchase the allegiance of Aragon by unworthy means. Mad- 
 ness seems the only possible explanation of the terrible fall of 
 the man in whom Catherine had so passionately believed. One 
 
 1 Dietrich of Nieheim, De Schimate, I. 50-52, 56, 57, 60, gives a full 
 account of these horrors, which he himself witnessed. 
 
 397 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 of the few who remained faithful to him to the last was Messer 
 Tommaso Petra, the steadfast friend of all her spiritual 
 fellowship. 
 
 Ignoring the claims of the rival College at Avignon, fourteen 
 
 cardinals at Rome, on November 2, elected a successor to Urban 
 
 in the person of the Cardinal of Naples, Pietro Tomacelli, a 
 
 prudent and virtuous man, who took the name of Boniface IX. 
 
 Five years later, on September 16, 1394, Clement VII died at 
 
 Avignon. On September 28, Pedro de Luna, through whose 
 
 influence, supported by the eloquence of Vincent Ferrer, Aragon, 
 
 Castile, and Navarre had been drawn from their neutrality to 
 
 embrace the Clementine faith, was elected his successor, and 
 
 assumed the title of Benedict XIII. He had previously taken 
 
 an oath that he would abdicate, if the majority of the Sacred 
 
 College should deem this the way to restore unity to the Church. 
 
 Once elected, however, all the efforts of the French court and 
 
 the vehement assaults of the University of Paris failed to make 
 
 him carry out this pledge. An united embassy from England, 
 
 France, and Castile, in the summer of 1397, drew from him 
 
 nothing but an evasive answer. Deserted by his own cardinals, 
 
 and besieged in the papal palace of Avignon in 1398, he was 
 
 no more moved to surrender his claims to be the sole vicar of 
 
 Christ than he was to take any vengeance upon his enemies, 
 
 or to exult in his triumph, when, in 1403, his cardinals returned 
 
 and the kingdom of France once more acknowledged him as 
 
 Pope. Always gracious and magnanimous, never yielding to 
 
 excess of anger or exhibiting vindictive feelings, still, to all 
 
 appearances, as devout and edifying a man as when he had 
 
 attracted the sympathy of Catherine and her " servants of 
 
 God," Benedict remained unshaken in his resolution not to 
 
 resign the Papacy, save in his own way and at his own time. 
 
 On the other side, Boniface was no less irreconcilable ; his 
 
 answer to the united embassies of the three Kings had been 
 
 equally evasive and unsatisfactory ; and, for the rest, he was 
 
 occupied in restoring the temporal power of the Papacy, which, 
 
 to a large extent, he effected by destroying the liberties of the 
 
 398 
 
THE DISSOLUTION OF THE FELLOWSHIP 
 
 .oman Republic in 1398, rebuilding Castello Sant' Angelo as 
 fortress to overawe the city, and, in 1399, crushing the Count 
 f Fondi, Onorato Gaetani, whose fiefs were now absorbed into 
 le Papal States. 
 
 As prior-general of the Carthusians of the Roman 
 bedience, Stefano Maconi laboured zealously to bring the 
 chism to an end. Himself a strong supporter of the claims 
 f Boniface, from whom he had received special faculties and 
 postolic authority for his work, his most ardent efforts were 
 irected to healing first the breach in his own order. In 1402, 
 rom the Styrian charterhouse of St. John, he addressed a long 
 :tter to the fathers of the Grande Chartreuse, urging them 
 d be one body and one spirit with their brethren in the 
 Church, offering to lay down his own office for the sake of 
 inity. In eloquent and impassioned words, he tells again the 
 tory of the heroic labours of his seraphic mother, Catherine, 
 Dr the Church, reminding them, and especially Dom Guillaume, 
 f the letter he had written to them at her dictation, when 
 he first heard that they were about to follow the party of the 
 chismatics, appealing to them to bear witness to the truth that 
 he had then announced to them. " Come, then, to our 
 ommon Mother, my brethren ; fulfil my joy, for I have 
 lOthing more at heart than your salvation, to serve the Divine 
 jlory together with you, and to behold the unity of the 
 Christian Republic under its lawful head and ruler, the Roman 
 'ontiff. Although I am ignorant and unskilled in all things, 
 nd overladen with grievous errors, yet will I become for 
 ou the first example of our humiliation, and be the beginning 
 f our longed-for union. Now by these letters do I cast 
 nyself upon the earth, and lie utterly prostrate at your feet, 
 "ome and trample upon me at your will. I am prepared to 
 uffer all things, to endure all things. My mind is ready to 
 indergo whatever you will think my confusion, but to me 
 fill seem glory, if only I may see the unity of our universal 
 Mother, the Church, and of our order ; if only the cloud 
 nth which the Lord has covered the daughter of Zion in 
 
 399 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 His anger may be dispelled, and your brightness shine forth 
 upon us as of old ; and the wandering stars in the firmament 
 of the Church shine out in their places for ever, according to 
 the word of the prophet : And the stars have given light in their 
 watches, and rejoiced; they were called, and they said: Here we 
 are ; and with cheerfulness they have shine d forth to Him that made 
 them." l 
 
 The younger monks were greatly moved by Stefano's 
 letter, and would probably have answered in the same spirit, 
 had it not been for the strenuous opposition of their old and 
 venerated head, Dom Guillaume. But, in the June of this 
 same year, 1402, the latter died, and was succeeded as prior 
 of the Grande Chartreuse, and prior-general of the whole 
 order under the obedience of Benedict XIII, by Boniface 
 Ferrer, the brother of St. Vincent. Stefano had not long to 
 wait for a more favourable opportunity to renew his appeal. 
 
 After the short and stormy pontificate of Innocent VII 
 (Cosma Meliorati of Sulmona, who succeeded Boniface IX 
 in 1404), Angelo Correr, then Patriarch of Constantinople, who 
 had been closely associated with Catherine's surviving followers 
 in Venice, was elected Pope by the cardinals of the Roman 
 obedience, in November, 1406, and took the name of Gregory 
 XII. He had previously taken an oath to abdicate, as soon 
 as his rival should abdicate or die, and to make no new 
 cardinals. An old man, of high repute for holiness, the 
 cardinals had elected him, as they declared, less as Pope than 
 as a commissioner for the restoration of unity. He at once 
 expressed his eagerness to meet and confer with Benedict, 
 declaring that he would go in a fishing-boat, if no galley were 
 available, or on foot with his staff, if he could not get a 
 horse. And Benedict, on his part, professed himself no less 
 ready and eager for an interview. 
 
 Thus two men now faced each other, both of whom had 
 received Catherine's words while she yet lived ; for in each of 
 them she had seen a possible reformer of the Church. And it is 
 1 Barth. Senensis, op. cit., Lib. III. cap. 2. 
 4OO 
 
THE DISSOLUTION OF THE FELLOWSHIP 
 
 only too clear that neither of the two really intended to keep 
 the pledge he had made on accepting election. Gregory always 
 bore on his person one of Catherine's teeth, which he treasured 
 as a relic ; he sent for Stefano Maconi, to confer with him 
 about her canonization and the peace of the Church ; but he 
 had fallen into the hands of his own kindred, especially Antonio 
 Correr, one of his nephews, an intriguing and luxurious prelate, 
 who were resolved not to let the loaves and fishes of the 
 Papacy go out of their family ; and, in political matters, he 
 had become a mere tool of the ambitious and warlike young 
 King Ladislaus of Naples, the son of Charles of Durazzo. 
 Benedict, on his part, in spite of his protestations, had not 
 altered his attitude by a jot. After much negotiation, each 
 claimant being desirous that the meeting should take place in a 
 city subject to his own obedience, Gregory, in April, 1407, 
 consented to the choice of Savona, a city that acknowledged 
 Benedict, who actually went there in November. Gregory, 
 on the other hand, moved to Lucca, where, in May, 1408, in 
 flagrant violation of his pledges, he created four new cardinals, 
 including two of his own nephews (Antonio Correr and 
 Gabriele Condulmer), and Fra Giovanni Dominici. Upon this, 
 his former cardinals renounced their allegiance and fled to 
 Livorno. In the meanwhile, King Ladislaus had marched 
 upon Rome, and, on April 25, perhaps in understanding 
 with Gregory, he occupied it with his army. 1 
 
 The patience of the Catholic world was now exhausted. In 
 this same May, 1408, France withdrew her allegiance from 
 Benedict, who fled to Perpignan. The cardinals of the Roman 
 obedience met those that had deserted Benedict at Livorno, 
 from which, on July 14, the united Colleges summoned the 
 bishops of Christendom to a Council. In spite of threatened 
 armed intervention from Ladislaus, who still adhered to 
 Gregory, the Council met at Pisa on March 25, 1409. Of 
 those princes of the Church who had shared in the conclave 
 1 Cf. Creighton, I. pp. 225-227, where a suggestive characterization of the 
 rival claimants to the Papacy is given. 
 
 26 4OI 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 that elected Urban, and who alone knew how the Schism had 
 really arisen, only two were still alive : Benedict himself, under 
 the protection of King Martin of Aragon at Perpignan, and 
 the aged Cardinal of Poitiers, Guy de Malesset, who now 
 presided over the deliberations of the assembly. On June 5, 
 the Council deposed both Gregory and Benedict as heretics 
 and schismatics ; the Te Deum rose up from the cathedral of 
 Pisa to thank God for the deliverance of His Church ; the 
 bells rang out, and were caught up by the campanili of village 
 after village, until the news in this way reached Florence. 
 On June 26, twenty-four cardinals, fourteen of whom had 
 previously acknowledged Gregory and ten Benedict, elected 
 the Cardinal Archbishop of Milan, Peter Philargis, a friar 
 minor of Greek origin, who assumed the title of Pope 
 Alexander V. 
 
 We are not here concerned with the legality of these 
 proceedings. Catholic historians assure us that the cardinals 
 had no right either to summon the Council or to depose the 
 Pope, whichever of the two claimants we regard as legitimate. 
 As neither Gregory nor Benedict would resign their claims, 
 the result was that the Church had now to witness the spectacle 
 of three rival Popes instead of two. But, were we to apply 
 Catherine's test of the adherence of the " servants of God," 1 
 we should be compelled to accept Alexander. This time, 
 however, her own followers were divided. Assailed by the 
 foulest lampoons, denounced as an ally of Mahomet and Simon 
 Magus, Giovanni Dominici not only kept faithful to Gregory, 
 but used all the powers of his eloquence to prevent him from 
 abdicating ; although his own master-general, Fra Tommaso 
 da Fermo, had taken part in the Council, and the Dominican 
 order as a whole acknowledged Alexander as Pope in the most 
 emphatic language. 2 It seems uncertain whether Stefano Maconi 
 was actually present at the Council, but it is quite clear that, 
 notwithstanding his personal friendship with Gregory, he now 
 
 1 Letter 350 (187). 
 
 2 Cf. Monumenta O. F. P. historka, torn. viii. pp. 138-143. 
 
 402 
 
THE DISSOLUTION OF THE FELLOWSHIP 
 
 leclared unhesitatingly for Alexander. He had already written 
 .gain to the fathers of the Grande Chartreuse, declaring that 
 he Council was lawful and canonical, that the cardinals were 
 nspired by the Holy Ghost in summoning it, and whoever 
 hey elected Pope would undoubtedly be the true vicar of 
 Zhrist. 1 He now went in person to the general chapter of 
 he Carthusians of both obediences, held at the Grande 
 Chartreuse in the following year, 1410, where the whole order 
 iolemnly recognized Alexander as Pope ; and there, in the 
 Dresence of the assembled fathers, he resigned his generalship. 
 Boniface Ferrer, who (like his brother St. Vincent) still 
 idhered to Benedict, did not attend the chapter, but tendered 
 iris resignation by letter. 
 
 The Carthusians being thus reunited by his efforts, Stefano 
 returned to his beloved Siena, as once more prior of Pontignano. 
 Cristofano Guidini and the other surviving members of 
 Catherine's fellowship received him with joy. Ser Cristofano 
 had lost his wife and six children in the pestilence of 1390, the 
 one surviving daughter, Nadda, having become a nun. He had 
 then devoted his whole life to the service of the poor and the 
 infirm in the hospitals, and, before the end of this year, 14 10, 
 he breathed his last in Stefano's arms. In the following year, 
 Stefano was again transferred from Siena, and made prior of the 
 Certosa of Pavia. At Siena, he had doubtless seen and heard a 
 young Franciscan friar, born in the year of Catherine's death, 
 whom we now call San Bernardino ; we find him a little later, in 
 a letter written to Fra Angelo Salvetti from Pavia, vividly 
 expressing the great joy with which he has heard of the abundant 
 fruit that Fra Bernardino Albizzeschi is producing in the Church 
 of God. 2 
 
 From Pavia, Stefano witnessed the pontificate of Alexander's 
 successor, the infamous Baldassare Cossa, John XXIII, which 
 must have caused much searching of heart among the " servants 
 of God " who had so gladly welcomed the result of the Council 
 
 1 Barth. Senensis, op. at., Lib. III. cap. 8. 
 
 2 Ibid., Lib. IV. cap. 9. 
 
 4°3 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 of Pisa. He was still there when the Council of Constance met in 
 141 5 — the final movement for unity coming not from the rival 
 claimants to the Papacy nor from their cardinals, but from the 
 new King of the Romans, Sigismund of Hungary. Giovanni 
 Dominici, now known as the Cardinal of Ragusa, having been 
 allowed to convoke the Council anew as legate of Gregory XII, 
 the fathers, on July 4, accepted Gregory's abdication. They had 
 previously, on May 29, deposed John. But, at Perpignan, the 
 indomitable old Benedict still held out. The personal inter- 
 vention of King Sigismund himself proved fruitless ; Benedict 
 would only abdicate on his own impossible terms. In November, 
 he fled, and took refuge in Peniscola, a strong castle securely 
 placed over the Mediterranean. Aragon, Castile, and Navarre 
 now withdrew their obedience from him, St. Vincent Ferrer 
 publicly declaring that, although Benedict was the lawful Pope, 
 the three Kings were thus offering an Epiphany gift to God and 
 the Church for unity and peace. To all appeals, Benedict had 
 one inflexible reply : " Here is the ark of Noah." On July 26, 
 1417, the Council condemned him as a perjurer, an incorrigible 
 schismatic, and a heretic ; and, on November 1 1, Ottone Colonna, 
 the son of the Cardinal Agapito already mentioned, was elected 
 Pope, and took the title of Martin V. 
 
 The Schism was now officially at an end, and the Church 
 practically pledged to the cause for which Catherine had battled 
 to the death — the validity of the claims of Urban and his 
 successors in the Roman obedience. But, from his refuge at 
 Peniscola, Pedro de Luna (as we will now again call Benedict) 
 still asserted his prerogatives, anathematizing the new Pope and 
 his cardinals, protesting that he alone was the vicar of Christ. 
 He grew hard and embittered, even putting two priests to the 
 torture to obtain evidence of a plot against his life. Nor was he 
 without adherents. In September, 1419, complaints were made 
 that the majority of the inhabitants of Languedoc and Guyenne 
 still acknowledged him, and he was still being obeyed in some parts 
 of Scotland in 1420. He had also the powerful support of the 
 Counts of Armagnac. At length, either on November 29, 1422, 
 
 404 
 
THE DISSOLUTION OF THE FELLOWSHIP 
 
 or May 23, 1423 (the uncertainty being, perhaps, due to an 
 intentional mystification on the part of his followers), he died. 1 
 Strange, mysterious being to the last, it is most probable that he 
 was not the mere perjurer and hypocrite of Catholic tradition ; 
 it may well be that he really believed in his own claims, and held 
 that, in the confusion and turmoil of the world, the truth abided 
 in him alone ; in himself, a gracious and loveable personality, 
 until, rejected and assailed by all, the fierce Spanish blood flared 
 up in his old age. His strenuous refusal to abdicate at the 
 bidding of kings and universities had borne fruit in the liberation 
 of the Church from the oppressive yoke of France. Unwittingly, 
 Pedro de Luna had destroyed the power of the Giant, whom 
 Dante had seen in the Earthly Paradise, dragging the transformed 
 chariot of the Spouse from the Tree to which the mystical Griffin 
 had bound it. Let us leave him thus, the man to whom 
 Catherine had twice written in the precious blood as her " dearest 
 father in Christ sweet Jesus," and ignore the deplorable sequel 
 in which his followers strove to perpetuate the Schism after his 
 death. 
 
 The prolonged struggle in which Catherine and he had 
 borne their parts being now concluded, Stefano's one desire was 
 to be free to give himself entirely to divine contemplation. At 
 length, in 142 1, " at his earnest entreaties, because of his old age, 
 his infirmities, and many labours undertaken for the order," he 
 was allowed to resign his office of prior of the Certosa of Pavia, 
 it being decreed that all honour should be paid him in whatever 
 convent he chose for residence. In spite of invitations from 
 Pontignano, he chose to remain in the Certosa of Pavia, and 
 there, on August 7, 1424, he passed away, with the names of 
 Mary and Catherine upon his lips. 2 
 
 When Tommaso Caffarini died in 1434, the last of Catherine's 
 spiritual family had joined her again. But, already, the move- 
 ment that she had initiated had come to an end, to be renewed 
 half a century later, in another form and without success, by Fra 
 
 1 Valois, IV. pp. 450-454. 
 
 2 Barth. Senensis, op. cit,, Lib. V, cap. 6. 
 
 405 
 
SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA 
 
 Girolamo Savonarola on the one hand, and, on the other, in the 
 mystical sacrifice of those women, clad in the habit she had worn 
 and bearing the same marks of Christ's passion on their members, 
 Lucia of Narni, Osanna of Mantua, Colomba of Rieti, who 
 attempted to imitate her work among the corrupt courts of the 
 Renaissance. Ostensibly, Catherine's labour had failed. A century 
 after her death, the state of her beloved Italy was more deplor- 
 able than when she had departed from it, the Papacy immeasurably 
 more corrupt than it had been in the darkest days of the Schism, 
 and a far greater division and more permanent in the Church was 
 about to open. But the true value of the work to which the 
 whole power of a human soul has been dedicated, cannot, any 
 more than the lasting result of any great or small religious move- 
 ment, thus be measured, for, by its very nature, it is not 
 manifested in outward and visible effects ; its most perfect 
 flowers and fruits throughout the ages are in the invisible 
 garden of the spirit, grown to be gathered only by Him who 
 feedeth among the lilies. 
 
 406 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 UNPUBLISHED LETTERS OF SAINT CATHERINE 
 
 " In quibus litteris cernere erat divinae virginis prope animatam imaginem verissimis 
 expressam sanctitatis lineamentis." — Stefano Maconi (Barth. Senensis, Lib. III. cap. i). 
 
 I 
 A Mhser Bartolomeo della Pace 1 
 
 Al nome di Jesili Christo crucifixo et di Maria dolce. 
 
 Carissimo et reverendo padre in Christo dolce Jesu : io Katerina, serva 
 et schiava de' servi di Jesu Christo, scrivo a voi nel pretioso sangue suo ; 
 con desiderio di vedervi cavaliere virile et non timoroso, considerando io che 
 il timore servile toglie la forza dell' anima et non pu6 piacere al suo 
 Creatore. Conviensi adunque al tucto torre questo timore. Non mi pare 
 che 1' uomo abbi cagione di temere ; peri che Dio 1' a facto forte contra ogni 
 aversario. Che puo il dimonio contra noi ? Egli e facto infermo ; perduto 
 a la potentia per la morte del Figliuolo di Dio. Che pu6 la carne, che e 
 infermata per gli flagelli et battiture di Christo crucifixo ? Cioe, che 1' anima 
 che raguarda il suo Creatore, Dio et Huomo svenato in sul legno della 
 sanctissima croce, pone freno di subito a ogni movimento carnale et sensuale. 
 Che potra. il mondo colla superbia et stolte delitie sue ? Sconficto 1' a colla 
 profonda humilita, sostenendo obrobrio et vituperio. Debbasi confondere 
 1' umana superbia d' insuperbire dove Dio e humiliate Cosl diceva il nostro 
 Salvatore, invitandoci a non temere di timore servile, dicendo : Rallegra- 
 tevi, ch' io 6 vinto il mondo. SI che i nimici sono sconficti, et 1' uomo e forte, 
 
 1 Bartolommeo di Smeduccio, Lord of San Severino in the Marches, styled 
 himself " Bartolommeo della Vittoria," after his victory over Rodolfo Varano and 
 the papal forces in 1377 ; he probably acquired the title "della Pace" in 1385, 
 when appointed captain-general of the army of the allied Italian communes 
 against the foreign mercenaries, upon which occasion he was presented with a 
 banner inscribed PAX. Cf. L. Passerini, Smeducci di San Severino, in Litta, 
 Famiglie celebri italiane, disp. 160, and Sozomeno, Rer. It. Script., xvi. col. 11 29. 
 Bartolommeo was deprived of his lordship by his nephews in 1388, and died in 
 1399. The heading of the letter is an addition of the copyists. 
 
 407 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 et di tanta forteza che da veruno puo essere volto, 1 se egli non vorra. 
 Questo dolce Dio ci a data la forteza della volunta, che e la roccha dell' 
 anima, che ne dimonio ne creatura me la pu6 torre. Adunque bene potiamo 
 stare sicuri et non timorosi. La sicurta vostra voglio che sia in Christo 
 dolce Jesu. Egli ci a vestiti del piu forte vestimento che sia, dell' amore 
 affibbiato colla maglia del libero arbitrio, che il puoi sciogliere et legare 
 secondo che vuogli. Se questo vestimento della carita egli il vuole gittare, 
 egli puo, et se egli il vuole tenere, ancho pu6. Pensate, carissimo padre, 
 che il vestimento primo che noi avessimo fu 1' amore : pero che fummo 
 creati alia ymagine et similitudine di Dio solo per amore, et pero 1' uomo 
 non pu6 stare sanza amore, che non e facto d'altro che d' esso amore, che 
 cio che egli a secondo 1' anima et secondo il corpo a per amore ; perche a 
 il padre et la madre dato 1' essere al figliuolo, cioe, della substantia della 
 carne sua, mediante la gratia di Dio, solo per amore. Peri che e tanto 
 obligato il figliuolo al padre, et etiandio per 1' amore che egli gli a, che ve lo 
 inchina la natura, non pu6 sostenere niente del padre d' ingiuria che gli sia 
 facta, 2 s' egli e vero figliuolo. Guarda gia che per uno amore proprio di se 
 egli fussi venuto a odio con lui. Costui non seguita la natura sua, ma per 
 la sua cechita n' e uscito fuori. 
 
 Veramente cosl e, caro padre in Christo dolce Jesu, che 1' anima natu- 
 ralmente in se medesima dee amare et seguitare il suo padre Creatore, Dio 
 eterno, che, vedendo che Dio 1' a creata solo per amore, sentesi trarre verso 
 di lui, et non puo sostenere le ingiurie che gli sieno facte. Vuolne fare la 
 vendecta per 1' amore ch' egli a al padre ; et questa e la ragione 3 perche 
 1' anima vuole sempre fare vendecta contra la parte sensitiva, che e suo 
 nimico mortale ; pero che colui che va dricto a essa sensualitk, egli rimane 
 morto di morte eternale, crucifigge Christo un altra volta, che voi sapete 
 che solo per lo peccato egli morl. SI che 1' anima inamorata di Dio, sommo 
 eterno Padre, vuole seguitare la natura sua ; 1' amore gli fa perdere, et 1' amore 
 fa vendecta di se medesimo, percotendo la falsa passione sensitiva, el dimonio, 
 el mondo, et la carne, percotendo col coltello dell' odio et dell' amore, odio et 
 dispiacimento del peccato, amore delle virtu, dilectandosi di quello che Dio 
 ami, odiando quello che egli odi6. Allora rende 1' anima il debito suo al 
 padre, seguita la sua natura, gia mai none escie. Guarda gia che non ci 
 mettessi il veleno dell' amore proprio di se medesimo, d' amarsi fuori di Dio, 
 ponendo lo studio suo nelle delitie, stati, et dilecti del mondo, fare della 
 
 1 So the Harleian MS. and the Palat. MS. 57 ; thePalat. MS. 60 reads vinto. 
 3 The Palat. MS. 60 has : neuna ingiuria che al padre sia facta. 
 3 So the Harleian MS. and Palat. MS. 57 ; the Palat. MS. 60 reads cagione. 
 
 408 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 carne sua uno dio, tenendola con disordinato dilecto et dilicatezze. Questo 
 tale non tanto che facci vendecta del nimico che gli a motto il padre, ma 
 esso medesimo 1' uccide. 
 
 Or non voglio che sia in voi ; ma voglio che seguitiate 1' anima gentile 
 vostra, che Dio v' a data, con amore et libero arbitrio. Vi strignete et vi 
 legate in questo vestimento, che non sara dimonio ne creatura che vel possa 
 torre. Cosl vestito et armato delle virtu, col coltello dell' odio et dell' amore, 
 perderete il timore servile ; -possederete la citta dell' anima vostra ; none 
 schiferete mai i colpi di veruna tribulatione o pena che poteste sostenere, ne 
 volgerete il capo adrieto, cioe, cominciando a entrare nella via delle virtu et 
 poi rivolgiervi il capo adrieto a ripigliare il vomito de' peccati mortali. 
 Non voglio cosl, ma con una vera perseverantia infino all' ultimo : per6 che 
 il cominciare non e coronato ne degno di gloria ; ma solamente il perseverare. 
 Grande vilta e dell' uomo di cominciare una cosa buona et non trarla a fine. 
 O di quanta confusione sarebbe degno quel cavaliere che si truova nel 
 campo della battaglia, et volgiessi le spalle adrieto, avendo quasi vinto ! 
 
 Su, padre carissimo, non piu negligentia, ne volgete piu il capo adrieto a 
 raguardare le stolte miserie del mondo ; che passano e' dilecti suoi come il 
 vento, sanza veruna fermeza o stability. Non vi fidate della gioventudine 
 del corpo vostro, ne delle signorie del mondo : teste 1' uomo e vivo, teste e 
 morto ; teste e sano, teste infermo ; teste signore, teste e facto servo. 
 Adunque quanto e stolto P uomo che ci pone 1' affecto disordinato ; fidasi di 
 quello che non si pu6 fidare, aspecta quello * che non si pu6 avere, et fugge 
 quello ch' egli puo avere et tenere per suo, cioe, la gratia che la pub avere 
 quantunche e' vuole et quando egli vuole ; non per se, ma per essa gratia, 
 dono di Spirito Sancto, che gli a dato il libero arbitrio. O inextimabile 
 dolcissima carita, chi t' a mosso ? Solamente 1' amore. O dolcissimo amore 
 Jesu, per fare piu forte questa anima, et torle la debolezza nella quale era 
 caduta per lo peccato, tu 1' ai murata atorno atorno, intrisa la calcina 
 coll' abondantia del sangue tuo, il quale sangue fa unire et conformare 2 
 1' anima nella divina dolce volunta et carita di Dio ! Che come in mezo tra 
 pietra et pietra per conformarsi insieme in forteza, vi si mette la calcina intrisa 
 coll' acqua, cosl Dio a messo in mezo fra la creatura et se il sangue dell' 
 unigenito suo Figliuolo, intriso colla calcina viva del fuoco dell' ardentissima 
 carita ; per6 che non e sangue sanza fuoco, ne fuoco sanza sangue. Sparto 
 fu il sangue col fuoco dell' amore che Dio all' umana generatione ebbe. 
 Per questo muro e facto 1' anima tanto forte, che veruno vento contrario el 
 
 1 So the Palat. MS. 6o ; the others read quel tempo. 
 
 2 So the Palat. MS. 6o ; the others, confermare. 
 
 409 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 potra dare a terra, se non vorra smurarlo se medesimo, dandovi col piccone 
 del peccato mortale. 
 
 Quale sara quel cuore tanto duro et ostinato, che non si muova a ra- 
 guardare tanto infinito amore, et la grande sua dignita, dove egli e posto per 
 gratia di Dio et non per debito ? Non sara veruno che raguardandolo et 
 ponendoselo per obiecto, che non trapassi ogni sensualita, et non disolva 
 ogni duritia et ignorantia, et ricevera perfectissimo lume et cognoscimento 
 di se ; vedendo et cognoscendo se non essere et la bonta di Dio in se, che gli 
 a dato 1' essere et ogni gratia che e fondata sopra 1* essere. Accendasi il 
 cuore et 1' anima vostra in Christo dolce Jesu, con amore et desiderio a 
 renderli cambio a tanto amore, a renderli vita per vita. Egli a. dato la vita 
 per voi, et voi vogliate dare la vita per lui, sangue per sangue. Et io 
 v' invito, da parte di Christo crucifixo, a dare il sangue vostro per lo sangue 
 suo, quando verra il tempo aspectato da' servi di Dio, d' andare a racquistare 
 quello che ci e tolto ; cioe, il luogo sancto del sepolcro di Christo, et si 1' anime 
 degli infedeli che sono nostri fratelli, ricomperati del sangue di Christo come 
 noi : el luogo trarre delle mani loro, et 1' anime loro delle mani delle dimonia 
 et della loro infedelta. Invitovi a non essere negligente ne tardare quando 
 sarete invitato, quando il padre sancto rizera il gonfalone della sanctissima 
 Croce, ordinando il sancto et dolce passaggio. Non mi pare che sia veruno 
 che se ne debba ritrarre ne fuggirlo, ch' egli non corra. Per timore di morte 
 non tema. Et per6 dissi ch' io desideravo di vedervi cavaliere virile et non 
 timoroso ; il sangue vi fara inanimare, et fortificheravi ; torravi ogni timore. 
 Priegovi, per 1' amore di Christo crucifixo, che con letitia et desiderio 
 attenete la 'nvitata di queste dolci et gloriose noze, che sono noze piene di 
 letitia, di dolceza, et d' ogni suavita. A queste noze si lascia la inmonditia, 
 et si libera della colpa et della pena ; pascegli alia mensa dell' Agnello, che e 
 cibo in essa et servitore. Vedete che il Padre ci e mensa che tiene in se 
 ogni cosa che e, excepto che il peccato, che non e in lui. El Verbo del 
 Figliuolo di Dio ci e facto cibo, arrostito al fuoco dell' ardentissima carita. 
 Lo Spirito Sancto ci e servitore, essa carita che per le sue mani ci a donato 
 et dona Dio. Ogni gratia et dono spirituale et temporale egli ce la ministra 
 continuamente. Bene saresti semplice, voi et chi il facessi, che si dilungassl 
 da tanto dilecto. Parmi che ogniuno, se non potessi andare ricto, vi vada 
 carponi, accio che potiamo mostrare segno d' amore allui, dandogli la vita 
 per amore della vita, scontiare i difecti et i peccati nostri collo strumento 
 del corpo, si come collo strumento del corpo abbiamo offeso. 
 
 Questa sara la sancta et dolce vendecta che noi faremo di noi medesimi. 
 Essendo vinta questa parte sensitiva et fragile corpo nostro, rimarremo 
 
 410 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 vincitori. La ragione et 1' anima nostra rimarra libera et donna ; possedera 
 Dio, che e sommo eterno bene. Non indugiamo pii tempo, padre caris- 
 simo ; seguitate le vestigie di Christo crucifixo ; bagnatevi nel sangue di 
 Christo crucifixo, nascondetevi nelle piaghe di Christo crucifixo, ponetevi 
 per obiecto dinanzi a gli occhi dell' anima vostra Christo crucifixo, accio 
 che rimaniate in amore et in timore filiale, temendo la colpa et non la pena. 
 Non dico piu. Perdonate alia mia ignorantia ; 1' amore et il desiderio mi 
 scusi, et il dolore di vederci correre ostinati et accechati nelle miserie del 
 peccato mortale. Permanete nella sancta et dolce dilectione di Dio. Jesu 
 dolce, Jesu amore. 1 
 
 II 
 Sine Titulo 
 
 Al nome di Jesu Christo chrocifisso et di Maria dolce. 
 
 Charissimo figluolo in Christo dolce Jesu : io Katerina, serva et schiava 
 de' servi di Jesu Christo, schrivo ad voi nel prezioso sangue suo ; con 
 desiderio di vedervi piena la memoria del sangue di Christo, dolce Jesu 
 chrocifisso, et aperto 1' occhio dello intelletto ad riguardare il fuoco della 
 divina charita, la quale v' e manifesta in esso sangue di Christo Jesu dolce. 
 Allora la volonta et 1' affetto s' empiera et saziera d' amore, pero che 
 1' affetto ama quello che lo intelletto a veduto, et cosl vedro adcordate et 
 conghreghate le tre potenzie dell' anima nostra, et sara adempiuta quella parola 
 che disse el nostra Salvatore : Quando saranno due o tre conghreghati nel 
 nome [mio], Io sar6 in mezzo di loro ; et veramente cosl e. Et questo parve 
 che il nostro Salvatore volesse dire : che conghreghate le tre potenzie dell' 
 anima, chella memoria s' empia del sangue et de' benifici d' Iddio, 1' occhio 
 dello intelletto veggia, ponendosi per obbietto 1' amore ineffabile che Iddio 
 gl' a, nella volonta ami. 2 Seghuita che, conghreghate queste tre penitenzie 
 [potenzie], tutte 1' operazioni che 1' uomo fa adopera, 3 tutte sono conghreghate 
 nel nome d' Iddio, perche per lui e fatto ogni cosa. Allora 1' anima nostra 
 ghode, chessi vede avere Iddio in mezzo di se per grazia et per effetto dolce 
 d' amore. Adunque io voglo che siate sollecito ad andare alia fonte del 
 sangue, et empietene il vasello della memoria vostra. Altro non dico. 
 
 1 Harleian MS. 3480 ; Biblioteca Nazionale di Firenze, MSS. Palatini, 57, 
 58, and 60. In the Palat. MS. 60, the letter is headed : Al Re Carlo della Pace ; 
 an obvious error of the copyist. 
 
 2 Perhaps we should read : che [or et] la volonta ami. 
 
 3 Probably a slip for : sa adoperare ; or : fa et adopera. 
 
 4 II 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 Priegovi per 1' amore di Christo chrocifisso etc. Permanete nella santa et 
 dolce dilezione di Dio. Dolce Jesu, dolce Jesu, Amen. 1 
 
 Ill 
 Sine Titulo 
 
 Al nome di Jesu Christo chrocifisso et di Maria dolce. 
 
 Ad voi, charissimo figluolo in Christo dolce Jesu : io Chaterina, serva 
 et schiava de' servi di Jesu Christo, ischrivo ad voi nel prezioso sanghue 
 suo ; con desiderio di vedervi vestito di Christo dolce Jesu, et spoglato 
 dello antico vecchio peccato, el quale procede dallo amore propio sensitivo 
 chel 1' uomo a asse medesimo. O me, egli e quello amore che acciegha 1' ani- 
 ma, togle la vita, et dagli la morte, togle la ricchezza della virtu, et dagli la 
 poverta. Egli iscondante del prossimo suo. 2 S' egli e subito [subdito], non 
 ubbidisce, perche e fondato in superbia. S' egli e parlato [prelato] o signore, 
 non corregge, per timore di non perdere la signoria. S' egli e giudice, non 
 giudica giustamente secondo coscienzia, ma secondo le volonta et piaceri 
 degl' uomini. Tutto questo procede dalla perversita dell' amore propio, che 
 se 1' uomo non amasse se per se, ma amasse se per Dio, non farebbe cosl ; 
 col timore suo farebbe ci6 che avesse affare, tenendo Iddio dinanzi ad gl' 
 occhi dello intelletto suo, et perde 1' amore sensitivo, et adquista uno amore 
 ineffabile del suo Chreatore ; spogla se dell' uomo vecchio, et veste se 
 dell' uomo nuovo, che vestendosi d' amore d' affetto di carita si truova 
 vestito di Christo chrocifisso ; cioe, che non cercha ne Iddio ne virtu sanza 
 faticha, ma per la via della Chroce, seguitando le vestigie della prima dolce 
 Verita. Questo fa 1' anima inamorata d' Iddio, che poi che [a] aperto 
 l'occhio dello intelletto ad riguardare 1' amore inistimabile che Iddio gl' a, 
 che per amore gl' a dato il Verbo dell' unigenito suo Figluolo, et il Figlu- 
 olo a dimostrato 1' amore con pena, sostenendo infine alia obbrobiosa morte 
 della Chroce, allora concepe tanto amore in se che in tutto egli vuole 
 seghuitare in pena et in chroce, sostenendo fame et sete, persechuzione, 
 molestie, dal mondo, dal dimonio, et da se medesimo ; con tutti resiste 
 et combatte, per amore della virtu. Egli ama quello che Iddio ama, 
 odia quello che Iddio hodia, perche Christo benedetto am6 la virtu et 
 avea in hodio il peccato, et per6 ne voile morire et punirlo sopra il corpo 
 
 1 Biblioteca Riccardiana, MS. 1303. In transcribing these letters, I reproduce 
 faithfully the orthography of the writer of the manuscript in each case, with its 
 variations. The text of this and the following letter is manifestly corrupt. 
 
 2 i. e. Egli I scordante del prossimo suo. 
 
 412 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 suo. Costui il voile seghuitare, per si fatto modo n' e fatto amatore delle 
 pene, che se fussi possibile avere virtu sanza faticha, non la vuole, per unirsi 
 con Christo chrociflsso. Costui fa il contrario che colui che e nello amore 
 propio. Egli a il cuore largo et liberale d' amare Iddio et il prossimo suo 
 chome se medesimo, hubbidiente et humile sanza superbia, giusto giudice 
 che rende ad ciaschuno il debito suo ; non e ciecho ne ingnorante ; anzi e 
 illuminato, et [con] vera sapienzia discerne et vede quello che a affare, 
 perche egli a tratto da se 1' amore propio che 1' accechava ; riceve 1' aiuto 
 della grazia, collo amore divino et lume della fede, mediante il sangue del 
 Figluolo d' Iddio ; di questo si sazia, et si se ne inebbria di fuoco d' amore. 
 Veste se dell' uomo nuovo, che ripara a' colpi delle ricchezze et delle adver- 
 sita del mondo et agli inganni del dimonio, et in tutti e forte ; per Christo 
 chrociflsso se reputa fare ogni cosa. Nelle pene si diletta, ne'diletti tempo- 
 rali si contrista, per hodio et dispiacimento della parte sensitiva, che e istata 
 et e ribella al suo Chriatore. Ad questo modo si spoglia dell' amore di se, 
 et vestesi dello amore d' Iddio. Vedete quanto e necessario ad essere vestito 
 di si glorioso vestimento. Essendo noi posti in questo campo della battalgla, 
 per gli colpi checci sono dati, verremo meno. Peri dissi io che io desideravo 
 di vedervi vestito, considerando me che altro modo non c'era ad potere ghu- 
 stare et avere Iddio per grazia in questa vita. Priegovi che siate sollecito 
 et non nighrigente, cercando le vie et modi el quale vel faccino avere. 
 Ischrivestimi se mi parea il meglio lo stare di qua, perche avete desiderio 
 per piu pace et salute vostra, del venire. Figluolo mio dolce, io non so 
 bene discernere quale sia il meglio ; ma voi avete provato di qua et di 
 costa ; dove voi trovate piu pace et piu quiete et meno pericolo dell' anima 
 vostra, quello pigliate, secondo chello Spirito Santo v' amaestra. Et io 6 
 preghato et pregherr6 lui che vi spiri, o qui o costl o a Roma, di fame 
 quello chessia piu honore suo et bene di voi. Altro non vi dico. Per- 
 manete nella santa et dolce dilezione d' Iddio. Jesu dolce, Jesu amore. 1 
 
 IV 
 
 A' Signori Priori dell'Arti et il Gonfatoniere della Giustitia 
 della Citta di Firenze 
 
 Al nome di Jesu Christo crocifixo et di Maria dolcie. 
 Karissimi fratelli et signori miei in Christo dolcie Jesu : io Caterina, 
 serva et schiava de' servi di Jesu Christo, scrivo a voi nel prezioso sangue 
 suo ; con desiderio di vedervi legati et uniti nel legame della carita, el quale 
 1 Biblioteca Riccardiana, MS. 1303. 
 413 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 legame e di tanta fortezza che ne dimonio ne creatura il pu6 tagliare, et di 
 tantaunione che niuno pu6 separare 1' anima che [e] unita in questa perfetta 
 carita. Nolla puo separare il mondo co' suoi inganni, ne colle sue frode, ne 
 colle sue mormorationi et infamie, ne il dimonio colla sua astutia, ne con 
 diversi et sottili inganni suoi, che spesse volte con inganni si pone in sulla 
 lingua della creatura, facendoli dire parole di rimproverio al proximo suo. 
 Questo fa solo per privarlo dell' unione della carita. Ne la propria sensu- 
 alita colla fragile came la puo separare, ma con lume della ragione le dispre- 
 gia, con dispiacimento della propria colpa sua ; questi conbatte virilmente 
 col mondo, et non e mai vinto, ma sempre vince, perche Dio, che e somma 
 et etterna fortezza, e dentro nell' anima sua per gratia ; et in qualunque 
 stato la persona e, vive virilmente et con affetto di virtu, quando e legato in 
 si dolcie legame et unito nella dilectione et carita dolce del proximo suo. Se 
 elli e subdito secolare, elli e sempre obediente alia leggie divina, osservando i 
 dolci comandamenti di Dio, et alia legge civile, non trapassando le costu- 
 tioni et comandamento del signore suo ; se elli e religioso, e osservatore dell' 
 ordine infino alia morte ; et se viene a stato di signoria, in lui riluce la 
 margarita della santa giustitia, tenendo ragione et giustitia al piccolo come 
 al grande, et al povaro come a richo ; et non la guasta questa virtu della 
 giustitia, ne per piacere alii huomini, ne per rivenderia di pecunia, ne per 
 amore che elli abbi al suo bene particulare ; pero che non atende al suo 
 bene proprio, maal bene universale di tutta la citta, et per6 apre 1* ochio dello 
 intelletto non passionato per alcuna ingiuria che elli abbi ricevuta, ma al 
 bene comune. Questa e quella dolcie virtu che pacifica la creatura col 
 suo Creatore, et 1' uno cittadino coll' altro, perche ella escie della fontana 
 della carita et vincolo d' amore et unione perfetta, la quale a fatta in Dio 
 et nel proximo suo. Onde considerando me ch' ella v' e tanto di necessita, 
 et singularmente in questo tempo, dixi che io desideravo di vedervi legati 
 et uniti nel legame della carita, pero che in altro modo non verreste in 
 effetto di quello che desiderate. 
 
 Voi avete desiderio di riformare la vostra citta, ma io vi dicho che 
 questo desiderio non s' adempira mai, se voi non vi ingegniate di gittare a 
 terra l'odio et il rancore del cuore et 1' amore proprio di voi medesimi, cioe, 
 che voi non atendiate solamente a voi, ma al bene universale di tutta la citta. 
 Unde io vi priego per 1' amore di Christo crocifixo, che per 1' utilita vostra 
 voi non miriate a mettere governatori nella citta piu uno che un altro, ma 
 huomini virtuosi, savi et discreti, e' quali col lume della ragione diano quello 
 ordine che e di necessita, per la pace dentro et per confermatione di quella 
 di fuori, la quale Idio ci a conceduta per la infinita sua misericord ia, d' avere 
 
 414 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 pacificati i figliuoli col padre, et rimesse noi pecorelle nell' ovile della santa 
 Chiesa. Et pero fate che voi non siate ingrati a tanto benefitio, el quale 
 avete ricevuto da Dio, col mezzo delle lagrime et della continua oratione 
 de' servi suoi, non per le nostre virtu, ma solo in virtu della focata carita di 
 Dio, el quale non dispregia 1' oratione et il desiderio de' servi suoi. Dicovi 
 che, se non sarete grati et conoscenti al vostro Creatore, si secharebbe verso 
 di noi la fonte della pieta ; unde io vi priego che giusto al vostro potere voi 
 vi studiate di mostrare questa gratitudine, d' ordinare che voi tosto abiate le 
 messe et 1' asolutione ordinata, accio che si possa dire 1' officio con voce di 
 laude dinanzi a Dio, et una processione ordinata con debita devotione, 
 accio che le dimonia, che per li nostri peccati anno accopata [sic] la citta et 
 tolto il lume et il conoscimento alii huomini, si caccino, legandole con 
 questo dolcie legame della carita, et cosl non ci potranno nuocere, ma piu 
 tosto noi noceremo alloro. Per questo modo compierete el vostro et el 
 mio desiderio, cioe, di riformare la citta vostra in buono stato, et terretela in 
 vera et perfetta pace. Ma se ogniuno volesse tirare a suo parere con poco 
 senno di ragione, noi fareste mai ; pero che la cosa che non e unita, non 
 puo tenere pur la casa sua, non tanto che una citta cosl fatta. Vogliono 
 essere huomini maturi, esperti, et non fanciulli, et cosl vi priego che facciate ; 
 et ingegnatevi di tenere i cittadini vostri dentro et non di fuore, pero che 
 usciti non fece mai buona citta, la quale reputo mia ; et il dolore ch' io 6 di 
 vederla in tanta fadiga mene scusi. Non credetti scrivarvi, ma a bocha con 
 voce viva vi credetti dire queste simili parole, per honore di Dio et vostra 
 utilita ; che mia intentione era di visitarvi, et fare festa con voi della santa 
 pace, per la quale pace io tanto tempo mi son afadigata, in cio che io 6 
 potuto secondo la mia possibility et la mia pocha virtu : se piu virtu avessi 
 avuta, piu virtu avrei adoperato. Fatta festa et ringratiato la divina bonta 
 et voi, mi volevo partire, et andarmene a Siena. Ora pare che '1 dimonio 
 abbia tanto seminato ingiustamente ne' cuori loro verso di me, che io non 6 
 voluto che si agiunghino piu offesa sopra ofFesa, peri che quanto piu se n' agiu- 
 gnesse, piu cresciarebbe ruina. Sommi partita colla divina gratia, et priego la 
 somma etterna Bonta che paciflchi et unisca et leghi e' cuori vostri, 1' uno coll' 
 iltro, si in affetto di carita, che ne dimonio ne creatura vi possa mai separare. 
 Cio che per me per la salute vostra si potra adoperare, infino alia morte 
 adoperro volentieri, a malgrado de' dimoni visibili et invisibili, che vogliono 
 impedire ogni santo desiderio. Vommene consolata, perche [e] compiuto 
 in me quello che io mi puosi in cuore quando entrai in questa citta, di mai 
 non partirmi, se io ne dovessi morire, infino che io non vedessi pacificati 
 voi figliuoli col vostro padre, vedendo tanto pericolo et danno nell' anime et 
 
 415 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 11 .... i j io rit-ti in tanta 
 
 ne corpi ; dolorosa et con tnstitia mi parto, lassando la lui.» 
 
 amaritudine ; ma Dio etterno che m' a consolata dell' una mi conso l 
 
 altra, che io vi vegha et senta pacificare in buono et fermo et perfetto stato, 
 
 acci6 che potiate atendere a rendere gloria et loda al nome suo, et non con 
 
 tanta aflitione stare sotto 1' arme. Spero che la dementia dolcie di Dio 
 
 vollera 1' ochio della sua misericordia, et compira il desiderio de' servi suoi. 
 
 Altro non vi dico. Permanete nella santa et dolcie dilectione di Dio. 
 
 Jesu dolce, Jesu amore. 1 
 
 V 
 A Francesco di Pippino sarto in Firenze 
 
 Al nome di Jesu Christo crucifixo et di Maria dolce. 
 
 Carissimi figliuoli in Christo dolce Jesft : 2 io Caterina, serva et schiava 
 de' servi di Jesu Christo, scrivo a voi nel pretioso sangue suo ; con desiderio 
 di vedervi constanti et perseveranti ne la virtu, accio che riceviate la corona 
 de la gloria, la quale non si da a chi solo comincia, ma a chi persevera infine 
 a la morte. Unde io voglio che perseveriate et cresciate in virtu, et non 
 sia veruna tribulatione ne battaglia dal demonio ne da le creature che vi 
 faccia vollere el capo adietro. Bagnatevi nel sangue di Christo, annegando 
 et uccidendo ogni propria volonta et passione sensitiva, et allora sarete facti 
 forti, che neuna cosa vi potra muovere, pero che sarete fondati sopra la viva 
 pietra, Christo dolce Jesi, et cosl sarete constanti et perseveranti infine a 
 la morte, et ricevarete el premio de le vostre fadighe. Non dico piu qui. 
 
 Per la grande bonta di Dio, et per comandamento del santo padre, mi 
 credo andare a Roma per di qui a mezzo questo mese, piu et meno come 
 piacera a Dio, et farcmo la via per terra ; si che io vel fo sapere, come io vi 
 promissi. Pregate Dio che ci faccia compire la sua volunta. Prego voi, 
 Francesco, per 1' amore di Christo crucifixo, che duriate fadiga di dare le 
 lettere che io vi mando con questa, prestamente, per honore di Dio et 
 piacere di me. Andate infine a Monna Pavola, et ditele, se ella non ae 
 avuto di corte quello che ella voleva, che me lo scriva, et io faro per lei 
 come per madre. Ditele che preghi, et faccia pregare le figliuole tutte per 
 
 1 Biblioteca Nazionale di Firenze, Strozzi MS., xxxv. 199. This important 
 letter was written between August 2, 1378, when Catherine left Florence, and 
 October 23, when the absolution was formally pronounced. 
 
 2 In the plural because addressed to Monna Agnese as well, though only 
 Francesco's name appears in the title. 
 
 416 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 noi. Ritrovate Nicoli povero di Romagna, et ditegli come io so per 
 andare a Roma, et che si conforti et preghi Dio per noi. Sopra tutto vi 
 prego che la lettera di Leonardo Frescubaldi voi la diate in sua mano el piu 
 tosto che potete, et cosl quella di frate Leonardo ; non vi sia grave di 
 portarglili, se elli non fusse costl. Barduccio vi prega che diate una sua 
 lettera al padre et a' fratelli, et dite loro che vi diano se egli vogliono 
 mandare cavelle, et fate di mandarci o recarci quello che vi daranno, se voi 
 venite qua. Permanete ne la santa et dolce dilectione di Dio. Jesu 
 dolce, Jesu amore. Fatta adl IIII di Novembre, 1378, in Siena. 1 
 
 VI 
 A Bartalo Usimbardi et Francesco di Pippino 
 
 Al nome di Jesu Christo crucifixo et di Maria dolce. 
 
 Carissimi figliuoli in Christo dolce Jesu : io Caterina, serva et schiava 
 de' servi di Jesu Christo, scrivo a voi nel pretioso sangue suo ; con desiderio 
 di vedervi grati et cognoscenti de' beneficii ricevuti dal vostro Creatore, accii 
 che in voi si notrichi la fonte della pieta. Questa gratitudine vi fara 
 solliciti ad exercitarvi alia virtu ; pero che, come la ingratitudine fa 1' anima 
 pigra et negligente, cosi questa dolce gratitudine le da fame del tempo, in 
 tanto che non passa ora ne punto, che ella non lavori. Da questa gratitu- 
 dine procede ogni vera virtu. Chi ci da carita ? Chi ci fa umili et 
 patienti ? Solo la gratitudine. Et perche vede el grande debito che a con 
 Dio, s' ingegna di vivere virtuosamente ; peri che cognosce che Dio non ci 
 richiede altro. Et pero, figliuoli miei dolci, recatevi con grande sollicitu- 
 dine a memoria e' molti beneficii ricevuti da lui, ad ci6 che perfectamente 
 acquistiate questa madre de le virtu. 
 
 Ebbi in questi dl le vostre lettere, cioe, una da Bartalo, una da Francesco, 
 et una da Monna Agnesa, le quali viddi volontieri. Rispondovi de la 
 spesa del privilegio, che ogni cosa a pagato el sangue di Christo crucifixo, 
 et per6 neuno denaio ci bisogna, ma voglio che vi costi lagrime cordiali et 
 oratione per la santa Chiesa et per Christo in terra, et che voi preghiate 
 ogni dl strettamente Dio per lui. Et bene confesso che se noi dessimo el 
 nostra corpo ad ardere, non potremmo satisfare a tanta gratia quanta Dio 
 ci a facta ; che in questa vita aviamo la certezza de la nostra salute, se noi 
 avremo viva fede, et saremo grati et cognoscenti. Ma el nostro dolce Dio 
 non ci richiede piu che noi potiamo fare. Siatemi virtuosi, et brigate di 
 
 1 Biblioteca Nazionale di Firenze, MS. xxxviii. 130. Cf. Letter 289 (292). 
 27 4 J 7 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 crescere per modo che io me n' avegga. Mandovi per frate Jacomo Manni, 
 portatore di questa lettera, el privilegio con la bolla papale, in sul quale e 
 Monna Pavola del monasterio da Santo Giorgio, et Monna Andrea sua 
 serva, et setevi su voi quattro, cioe, Bartalo et Monna Orsa, et Francesco 
 et Monna Agnesa. Et pero quando 1' avete ricevuto, fatene levare i vostri 
 nomi per carta al vescovado come bisogna, et il privilegio darete a Monna 
 Pavola quando sara tornata, che ora e qua. O inteso come Giannozzo e 
 preso ; non so quanto vi stara. Piacemi quello che voi, Francesco, me ne 
 scrivete, cioe, di non abandonarlo mai, et cosl vi comando, per parte di 
 Christo crucifixo, che molto spesso el visitiate, confortiate, et soveniate in 
 cio che v' e possibile ; pensate che Dio non ci richiede altro, se non che 
 sopra el proximo nostro manifestiamo 1' amore che aviamo allui. Io vel 
 racomando strettamente, et diteli per mia parte che sia buono cavaliere, ora 
 che Dio 1' a messo in campo, et il suo combattere sia la vera patientia, 
 chinando per humilita el capo a la dolce volunta di Dio. Molto el con- 
 fortate per mia parte et di tutta questa fameglia, i quali tutti gli anno 
 grande compassione. Quando Dio el permettara, gli scrivero una lettera. 
 Diteli che faccia cio che puo per spacciarsi tosto, et non miri perche non 
 abbi apieno sua intentione. Altro non vi dico. Permanete ne la santa et 
 dolce dilectione di Dio. Benedicete i fanciulli. Jesu dolce, Jesu amore. 
 Facta a dl VIII di Maggio in Roma. 1 
 
 VII 
 
 A Piero Canlgiani da Fiorenze 2 
 
 Al nome di Jesu Christo crocifixo et di Maria dolce. 
 
 Karissimo padre et figluolo in Christo dolce Jesu : io Katerina, schiava 
 de' servi di Jesu Christo, scrivo a voi nel pretioso sangue suo ; con 
 desiderio di vedere in voi quella gloriosa virtu della perseverantia, la quale e 
 quella virtu che e coronata. Et che modo terremo ad acquistare et con- 
 servare in noi questa virtu ? II modo e questo. Voi sapete che ogni virtu 
 s' acquista col lume, et sanza esso niuna virtu si pu6 acquistare, perche ogni 
 virtu a vita dalla carita, la quale carita e uno amore ; che 1' anima col lume 
 della fede, il quale e nelP occhio dell' intellecto, vede 1' amore ineffabile che 
 Dio P a ; vedendolo, cognosce la inextimabile bonta di Dio et se essere 
 
 1 i.e. 1379. Biblioteca Nazionale di Firenze, MS. xxxviii. 130. Cf. Letter 
 89 (290). 
 
 2 patrl meo secundum carnem, adds the scribe, Barduccio Canigiani. 
 
 418 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 amata da lui prima che ella fosse ; unde concipe uno amore, perche col 
 
 lume vide che Dio e degno d' essere amato, et che ella e obligata ad amarlo 
 
 per debito. Questo cosi facto amore incatena et lega tucte 1' altre virtu, per 
 
 si facto modo che una non se ne puo avere perfectamente che tucte 1' altre 
 
 non s' abbino. Adunque col lume s' acquistera questa reale virtu della 
 
 perseverantia. Questo lume la conserva, et questo lume 1' accresce : anco, 
 
 tanto cresce o menoma, quanto il lume crescesse o menomasse ; pero che 
 
 esso facto che 1' anima si truova sanza il lume, e sanza questa virtu della 
 
 perseverantia, et subito volta il capo adietro. Bene dobiamo dunque 
 
 studiare che questo lume non ci sia tolto dalla nuvola dell' amore proprio, 
 
 cioe, d' amare se et le cose del mondo et lo stato sensitivamente ; che, per 
 
 lo libero arbitrio che 1' uomo a, si pu6 voltare ad ogni mano. Unde se 
 
 1' occhio dell' intellecto e mosso dall' appetito sensitivo, subito si pone a 
 
 vedere et a volere cognoscere queste cose transitorie, le quali passano come 
 
 il vento, et in esse si vuole dilectare ; ma perche ciecamente vede, non 
 
 cognosce che in esse non e perfecto dilecto ne riposo ; anco, v' e tanta 
 
 inperfectione et inquiete, che 1' anima che disordinatamente 1' ama e 
 
 incomportabile a se medesima ; ma se 1' affecto ordinate muove 1' intellecto, 
 
 egli si pone a vedere et cognoscere la verita, la quale il fa fermo et stabile, 
 
 et per6 abraccia et seguita la doctrina di Christo crocifixo, che e essa verita, 
 
 dove ella truova compito dilecto, unde ella spregia se medesima, cioe, quella 
 
 perversa legge che impugna contra lo spirito. Et perche a cognosciuta la 
 
 verita, odia quello che prima amava, et ama quello che odiava. Per questo 
 
 modo fugge et schifa la colpa, per6 che la colpa nostra non sta in altro se 
 
 non in odiare quello che Christo amo, et amare quello che egli odi6. Tanto 
 
 gli dispiacque la colpa, che egli la volse punire sopra al corpo suo. Anco, 
 
 ne fece una ancudine, sopra la quale fabric6 le nostre iniquita ; et tanto am6 
 
 1' onore del padre et la salute nostra, che per rendere allui 1' onore et a noi 
 
 la vita della gratia, la quale avamo perduta per la colpa d' Adam, et accio 
 
 che la virtu et la buona et santa vita ci valesse ad vita eterna, corse all' 
 
 obrobriosa morte della santissima Croce. Per questa via conserveremo 
 
 questa virtu : satollianci d' obrobrii ; aviliamo noi medesimi ; facianci 
 
 piccoli per vera humilita, se noi voliamo essere grandi nel conspecto di Dio. 
 
 Lassiamo ogimai i morti sotterrare a' morti, et noi seguitiamo la vita di 
 
 Christo dolce Jesu, perseverando infino alia morte nelle vere et reali virtu. 
 
 Ad questo voglio che attend iate, et non ci mectete indugio di tempo, ma 
 
 con perseverantia, per6 che '1 tempo nostro e breve, tanto che non potiamo 
 
 piu che con grande desiderio spogliarci di questa vita mortale et dirizzarci 
 
 verso il nostro fine. Raguardate bene che egli e cosl ; et niuno e, giovane 
 
 419 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 [ne] vecchio, ricco ne povero, sano ne infermo, ne signore ne subdito, che 
 si possa fidare o pigliare speranza d' avere pure un' ora di tempo. Matto 
 sarebbe chi la pigliasse, pero che noi vediamo che ella viene vota manifesta- 
 mente, che quelli che si credono bene stare subito vengono meno. Voglio 
 dunque che raguardiate la brevita del tempo vostro, accio che, con amore et 
 con santo timore di Dio, 1' affecto vostro sempre vadi inanzi et mai non 
 torni adietro, crescendo continuamente. Troppo sarebbe peggio et maggiore 
 ruina dell' anima et del corpo, dopo il cognoscimento et buona volunta che 
 1' uomo avesse ricevuto da Dio, il tornare adietro che 1' offese dinanzi, et di 
 maggiore riprensione e degno nel conspecto di Dio et degli huomini. Tucto 
 dl vediamo questo, che non pare che mai bene gli pigli, se non ritorna gia 
 nello stato virtuoso suo. Non vorrei che 1' amore proprio di voi o de' 
 figluoli, colorato col colore della giustitia con parervi fare meglio, vi facesse 
 rattaccare a questi affanni miseri degli stati del mondo. So che non 
 bisogna dire molte parole. Io voglio che attendiate alia vostra salute in 
 cognoscere i beni immortali et mectervi socto i piedi i beni mortali. 
 Lassate la conversatione de' servi del mondo, et dilectatevi di quella de' 
 servi di Dio. 
 
 Guardate, guardate quanto avete cara 1' anima vostra, et anco per 
 vostro bene secondo il mondo, che voi non v' impacciate di queste frasche. 
 Fatemi come il vero peregrino, che cosl dobiamo fare, perche tucti siamo 
 peregrini et viandanti in questa vita. II peregrino non attende ad altro se 
 non di giugnere al termine suo. Pigliasi la vita [via] sua, et piu no. Et 
 con buona providentia mira di lassare le vie dubiose et passare per le sicure. 
 Se egli truova luoghi pacifichi et dilectevoli, non si rista pero, ma va pure 
 per li facti suoi. Et se gli truova in guerra o malagevoli, ne piu ne meno ; 
 se gia egli non vedesse che sanza suo danno, o impedimento del cammino 
 et termine suo, potesse fare alloro utilita ; per altro modo, no ; si che ne 
 pace ne guerra possono mai impedire il buono peregrino. 
 
 Cosl voglio che facciate voi. Su dunque, peregrino, destatevi dal sonno, 
 che non e ora da dormire, ma e tempo di vigilia. Gittate a terra il carico 
 de' pensieri et affanni del mondo, et tollete il bordone della croce, accio che 
 abiate con che difendervi da' nimici che trovaste tra via. Empite il vasello 
 del cuore vostro di sangue, il quale e il vostro conforto, accii che per 
 debilezza non veniste meno nel tempo delle fatighe. Ponetevi dinanzi a 
 1' occhio dell' intellecto vostro Dio, il quale e il vostro fine et termine, et 
 corrite con fame et desiderio delle virtu ; che avendone desiderio, desiderrete 
 di giugnere al fine vostro. Necessario v' e di corrire con 1' affecto del 
 desiderio, con la memoria di Dio, si come sempre corriamo verso il termine 
 
 420 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 della morte, che mai per niuna cosa rista questo corso. Dormendo, mangi- 
 ando, parlando, et in ogni altra cosa, sempre corriamo verso la morte. 
 Cosl dobiamo noi fare, et faremo se in ogni nostra operatione ci porremo 
 Dio dinanzi ; pero che allora sempre staremo col suo santo timore. Cosl 
 sara lunga et crescera questa virtu della perseverantia in noi ; unde nella 
 fine riceveremo il fructo delle nostre fatighe et la corona della gloria, 
 riposandoci nel termine di vita eterna. In altro modo, no. Et perche 
 altro modo io non ci veggo, dixi che io desiderava di vedere in voi questa 
 gloriosa virtu della perseverantia, la quale s'acquista, conservasi, et cresce 
 per lo modo che decto abiamo. Voglio adunque che con grande diligentia 
 et sollicitudine v' ingegniate d' acquistare in voi questi modi, accio che si 
 compi in voi la volunta di Dio et il desiderio dell' anima mia, perche cerco la 
 salute vostra quanto la mia propria. Spero nella infinita dolce bonta di Dio, 
 che vi dara gratia di farlo. Altro non vi dico. Permanete nella santa et 
 dolce dilectione di Dio. Jesu dolce, Jesu amore. 1 
 
 VIII 
 
 Alia Priora et Monache di Santa Agnesa da Monte Pulciano 
 
 Al nome di Jesu Christo crocifixo et di Maria dolce. 
 
 Karissime madre et figluole in Christo dolce Jesu : io Katerina, schiava 
 de' servi di Jesu Christo, scrivo a voi nel pretioso sangue suo ; con desiderio 
 di vedervi annegate nel sangue dello svenato Agnello, il quale vi mostra 
 1' amore ineffabile del vostro Creatore, che per trarci della servitudine del 
 dimonio ci dono questo Verbo del suo Figluolo, accio che col mezo della 
 morte ci tollesse la morte et rendesseci la vita della gratia. In questo sangue 
 conciperete amore a 1' honore di Dio et alia salute dell' anime, seguitando 
 questo humile Agnello che, per honore del padre et salute nostra et di tucto 
 il mondo, sostenne tante pene, stratii, obrobrii, et villanie, et nell' ultimo la 
 vituperosa morte della Croce. In questo glorioso sangue sarete fortificate ; 
 diventarete patienti, che di niuna cosa vi turberete, perche avrete veduto 
 col lume della fede che Dio non vuole altro che la nostra santificatione, et 
 per questo fine ci da. et permecte ci6 che ci da in questa vita. Et ancora 
 per desiderio che avrete di conformarvi col vostro Sposo, Christo dolce 
 Jesu, unde d' ogni cosa vi rallegrarete, cosl della tribolatione come della 
 consolatione, et cosl della sanita come della infermita ; pero che 1' anima che 
 
 1 Casanatense MS. 292. This letter was evidently written from Rome in the 
 latter part of 1379. 
 
 421 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 e annegata in questo dolce sangue perde in tutto se, et non cerca tempo ne 
 luogo a modo suo, ma a modo di Dio. Ogni cosa a in debita reverentia, 
 perche tucto vede che 1' e conceduto dal suo Creatore per amore. Niuna 
 cosa le da pena, se non 1' offesa di Dio et la dannatione dell' anime, la qual 
 pena non affligge ne disecca 1' anima, anco la 'ngrassa, perche e fondata 
 nell' afFecto della carita. Adunque bene e da inebriarsi di questo pretioso 
 sangue per continua memoria, poi che tanta utilita ne seguita ; et a questo 
 v' invito. Godete et exultate, madre et figluole mie dolci in Christo, che 
 ora avete di nuovo ricevuto del sangue di Christo in grande abondantia ; 
 pero che il santo padre, Papa Urbano sexto, m' a conceduta la indulgentia 
 di colpa et pena nella extremita della morte per tucta cotesta famiglia, cioe, 
 a quelle che non 1' anno, et anco m' a conceduto uno certo perdono a 
 cotesto luogo : non e ancora dichiarato quanto ne quando, etc. Destatevi, 
 destatevi, karissime, a ricognoscere si smisurata largezza di carita, con uno 
 dolce ringratiamento verso la divina Bonta. Guardate che non foste ingrate, 
 per 1' amore di Christo crocifixo ; ora vi conviene levare da ogni negligentia, 
 et con una sollicitudine et fame exercitarvi all' oratione santa, et studiarvi 
 d' acquistare le vere virtu. Non cessate d' orare con molta vigilia, lagrime 
 et sudori, per la reformatione della dolce Sposa di Christo, la quale vediamo 
 in tanta aversita che gia non pare che possa piu ; et per lo santo padre, il 
 quale e giusto huomo, virile, et zelante de 1' honore di Dio. Strignete lo 
 Sposo vostro, che infonda in lui uno lume di gratia, col quale egli confonda 
 la tenebre, divella i vitii, et pianti le virtu. Et per noi pregate, che ci dia 
 gratia di compire la volunta sua, et che noi diamo la vita per lo suo honore 
 et per amore della verita. Altro non vi dico. Permanete nella santa et 
 dolce dilectione di Dio. Jesu dolce, Jesu amore. 1 
 
 1 Casanatense MS. 292, which also contains a fuller text of the other letter, 
 336 (157), addressed to the same prioress and nuns. 
 
 422 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY 
 
 A. PRIMAL SOURCES FOR CATHERINE'S LIFE AND HER WORKS 
 
 (i) The Legend. 
 
 S. Catharinae Senensis Vita. Auctore Fr. Raimundo Capuano [Legenda]. Acta 
 Sanctorum, Aprilis, Tom. III. Antwerp, 1675. New edition, Paris and Rome, 
 1866. 
 
 Legenda deW amirabik verging beata Chaterina da Siena suora della penitentia di 
 Santo Domenicho. Printed by Fra Domenico da Pistoia and Fra Piero da Pisa, 
 Florence, at the monastery of San Jacopo di Ripoli, 1477. 
 
 La perfecta et consummata hystoria e vita de sancta Catherina Senese virgine admirabile 
 et desponsata da Christo Jesit. Printed by Johannes Antonius de Honate, Milan, 
 1489. 
 
 La Vita della Serqfica Sposa di Gesii Cristo S. Caterina da Siena. Translated 
 from the Latin Legend of Fra Raimondo by Bernardino Pecci, as vol. I. of 
 Girolamo Gigli, V opere della Serafica Santa Caterina da Siena, Siena, 1707. 
 Reprinted, Rome, 1866. 
 
 (2) The Process. 
 
 Processus quorundam dictorum et attestationum super celebritate memoriae ac virtutibus, 
 vita et doctrina beatae Catharinae de Senis. Biblioteca Comunale di Siena, MS. T. i. 
 3 ; Biblioteca Casanatense (Rome), MS. 2668. 
 
 Processus contestationum super sanctitate et doctrina beatae Catharinae de Senis. 
 Edmundus Martene et Ursinus Durand, Veterum Scriptorum et Monumentorum, etc., 
 Amplissima Collectio. Tom. vi. Paris, 1729. 
 
 (3) The Supplement. 
 
 Libellus de Supplement legendae prolixae Virginis Beatae Catharinae de Senis. By 
 Fra Tommaso CafFarini. Biblioteca Comunale di Siena, MS. T. i. 2 ; Biblioteca 
 Casanatense (Rome), MS. 2360. 
 
 Supplemento alia vulgata leggenda di S. Caterina da Siena. Translated from the 
 Latin of Fra Tommaso by P. Ambrogio Ansano Tantucci, as vol. V. of Gigli's 
 edition of the Opere, Lucca, 1754. Reprinted, Rome, 1866. 1 
 
 (4) The Minor Legend. 
 
 Epitome vitae beatae Caterinae de Senis, per fratrem Thomam eiusdem civitatis et 
 ordinis praedicatorum. In the Sanctuarium of Boninus Mombritius, vol. I., Milan, 
 
 La admirabile legenda de la seraphica vergine et del sposo eterno Jesu benigno 
 
 1 The references in the text of the present volume are to the Roman reprint of 1866. 
 
 4 2 3 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY 
 
 peculiarmente dilecta sposa, Sancta Catherina da Siena. End of fifteenth century ; 
 probably Milan. A copy in the British Museum. 
 
 Leggenda minore di S. Caterina da Siena e lettere dei suoi discepoli. Edited by 
 F. Grottanelli. Bologna, 1868. 
 
 (5) The Letters. 
 
 Lettere manoscritte di S. Caterina da Siena e di altri Bead, raccolte dalP abate Luigi 
 de Angelis. Biblioteca Comunale di Siena, MS. T. iii. 3. 
 
 Other manuscripts. 1 Rome : Biblioteca Casanatense, MSS. 292 and 2422 ; 
 Biblioteca Vaticana, Cod. Vat. Lat. 939 ; Biblioteca Nazionale Vittorio Emanuele, 
 MS. 102 (MS. S. Pant. 9). Florence : Biblioteca Nazionale, MSS. Palatini, 
 56-60 ; cl. viii. MSS. 1270 and 1380, cl. xxxv. MSS. 187 and 199, cl. xxxviii. 
 MS. 130 ; Biblioteca Riccardiana, MSS. 1303, 1345, 1678. British Museum: 
 Harleian MS. 3480. 
 
 Epistole utili e divote de la beata e seraphka vergine Sancta Chaterina da Siena del 
 sancto ordine de la penitentia de miser sancto Domenico, sposa singulare del salvatore 
 nostro miser Jesu Christo. Printed by Giovanni Jacomo Fontanesi. Bologna, 
 1492. 
 
 Epistole devotissime de Sancta Catharina da Siena. Collected by Fra Bartolomeo 
 da Alzano da Bergamo. Printed by Aldo Manuzio, Venice, 1500. 
 
 Epistole et orationi della seraphka vergine santa Catharina da Siena. Venice, 
 Federico Toresano, 1548. 
 
 Lettere devotissime della beata vergine santa Caterina da Siena, nuovamente con 
 tutta la diligentia che si ha potuto ristampate. Venice, " al segno della Speranza," 
 1562. 
 
 Lettere etc. [same title]. Venice, Domenico Farri, 1584. 
 
 V Epistole della Serafica Vergine S. Caterina da Siena. With the annotations of 
 Padre Federigo Burlamacchi. Vols. II. and III. of Gigli, V opere della Serafica 
 Santa Caterina da Siena. Lucca, 1721, and Siena, 171 3. 
 
 Le Lettere di S. Caterina da Siena. Edited by Niccolo Tommaseo. 4 vols. 
 Florence, i860. 
 
 (6) The Dialogue. 
 
 J I Libro facto per divina revelacione de la venerabile et admirabile vergine beata 
 Katerina da Siena. Biblioteca Vaticana, Cod. Barb. Lat. 4063 (formerly Barberini, 
 xlvi. 5). 
 
 77 Libro detto Dialogo della venerabile vergine et sposa di Jesu Cristo, Sancta Caterina 
 da Siena. Biblioteca Riccardiana, MS. 1267. 
 
 Libro de la divina providentia composto in vulgare da la seraphka vergine santa 
 Chaterina da Siena. [Bologna, Baldassare Azzoguidi, 1472.] 
 
 El libro de la divina doctrina revellata a quella gloriosa et sanctissima vergine sancta 
 Caterina da Siena. Naples, Karl Bonebach, 1478. 
 
 1 This is not intended as a complete list of MSS. of the Letter:, but simply of those used for 
 the present work. The same applies to the MSS. cited of the Dialogo. 
 
 424 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY 
 
 Dialogo de la seraphica virgine sancta Catherina da Siena de la divina providentia. 
 Venice, Matteo Capcasa, 1494. 
 
 Dialogus Seraphice ac Dive Catharine de Senis cum nonnullis aliis orationibus. 
 Brescia, Bernardinus de Misintis, 1496. 
 
 Dialogo de la seraphica vergine sancta Catharina da Siena, el qual profondissimamente 
 tracta de la divina providentia. Venice, Cesare Arrivabeno, 15 17. 
 
 D. Catharinae Senensis virginis sanctissimae Dialogi, a D. Raymundo a Vineis 
 Capuano ex Italico in Latinum conversi. Cologne, 1 60 1 . 
 
 // Dialogo della Serafica Santa Caterina da Siena, composto in volgare dalla 
 medesima, essendo Lei, mentre dettava ai suoi Scrittori, rapita in singolare eccesso ed 
 astrazione di mente. Vol. IV. of Gigli, V opere, Siena, 1707. Reprinted, Rome, 
 1866. 
 
 B. SELECTED GENERAL BIBLIOGRAPHY 
 
 Ammirato, Scipione. I storie Florentine. Part I. torn. ii. Florence, 1647. 
 
 Anonimo Fiorentino. See Diario. 
 
 Antoninus, St. Chronicorum Tertia Pars. Lyons, 1586. 
 
 Baluze, E. Vitae Paparum Avenionensium. z vols. Paris, 1693. 
 
 Bartholomaeus Senensis. Vita Beati Petri Petroni. Siena, 1 619. 
 
 Bartholomaeus Senensis. De Vita et moribus Beati Stephani Senensis Cartusiani. 
 Siena, 1626. 
 
 Belcari, Feo. La Vita del Beato Giovanni Colombini da Siena, fondatore dell' 
 ordine de 1 poveri Giesuati. Siena, 1 541 . 
 
 Benvenuto da Imola. Comentum super Dantis Aldigherii Comoediam. Ed. 
 W. W. Vernon and J. P. Lacaita. 5 vols. Florence, 1887. 
 
 Bianco, El. Laudi spirituali del Bianco da Siena. Ed. T. Bini. Lucca, 1 8 5 I . 
 
 Boulay (Du), C. E. Historia Universitatis Parisiensis. Tom. iv. (1 300-1400). 
 Paris, 1668. 
 
 Bridget, St. Revelationes caelestes seraphicae matris S. Birgittae Suecae Sponsae 
 Christi. Munich, 1680. 
 
 Caffarini, Tommaso [and Bartolommeo di Domenico]. Tractatus super in- 
 formatione originis et processus ac plenariae approbationis et confirmations Fratrum et 
 Sororum ordinis de Poenitentia S. Dominici. And : Historia disciplinae regularis 
 instauratae in coenobiis Venetis ordinis Praedicatorum. In Flaminio Cornaro, Ecclesiae 
 Venetae antiquis monumentis illustratae, vol. VII. Venice, 1749. 
 
 Canestrini, G. Documenti per servire alia storia della Milizia Italiana dal XIII. 
 secolo al XVI. (Archivio Storico Italiano, series I., vol. xv.). Florence, 185 1. 
 
 Capecelatro, Alfonso. Storia di S. Caterina da Siena e del Papato del suo tempo. 
 4th edition. Siena, 1878. 
 
 Capponi, Gino (the elder). // Tumulto d<? Ciompi. Ed. G. Tortoli. 
 Florence, 1858. 
 
 425 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY 
 
 Capponi, Gino. Sioria della Repubblka di Firenze. Vols. I. and II. Florence, 
 1888. 
 
 Cardella, L. Memorie storiche de' Cardlnall. Vol.11. Rome, 1793. 
 
 Carpellini, D. C. F. Gli Assempri di Fra Filippo da Siena. Siena, 1864. 
 
 Chronicles. Cronica di Bologna, by Fra Bartolommeo della Pugliola ; Cronica 
 Sanese, by Agnolo di Tura and Neri di Donato ; Cronica di Pisa ; in Muratori, 
 Rer. It. Script., vols, xviii. and xv., Milan, 173 1, 1729. Cronicon Siculum incerti 
 authoris, ed. J. de Blasiis (Societa Napoletana di Storia Patria), Naples, 1887. 
 
 Colombini, Giovanni. See Lettere. 
 
 Corazzini, G. O. / Ciompi : cronache e documenti. Florence, 1887. 
 
 Creighton, M. A History of the Papacy from the Great Schism to the Sack of 
 Rome. Vol. I. London, 1897. 
 
 Denifle, H. S. Chartularium Universitatis Parisiensis. Tom. iii. Paris, 1894. 
 
 Diario d' Anonimo Fiorentino dall' anno 1358 al 1389. Edited by Alessandro 
 Gherardi. (Documenti di Storia Italiana pubblicati a cura della R. Deputazione 
 di Storia Patria per le provincie di Toscana, dell' Umbria, e delle Marche, vol. 
 VI.) Florence, 1876. 
 
 Diurnali detti del Duca di Monteleone. Ed. N. F. Faraglia. (Societa Napoletana 
 di Storia Patria.) Naples, 1895. 
 
 Douglas, R. Langton. A History of Siena. London, 1902. 
 
 Drane, Augusta Theodosia. The History of St. Catherine of Siena and her 
 Companions. 2nd edition. 2 vols. London, 1887. 
 
 Ferrero, E. Di un codice delle Lettere di Santa Caterina da Siena. (Atti della 
 R. Accademia delle Scienze di Torino, vol. XV.) Turin, 1880. 
 
 Flavigny, Comtesse de. Sainte Brigitte de Sue'de : sa Fie, ses Revelations et son 
 CEuvre. Paris, 1892. 
 
 Frigerio, Paolo. Vita di S. Caterina da Siena. Rome, 1656. 
 
 Gayet, Louis. Le Grand Schisme d 'Occident d'apres les documents contemporains. 
 Les Origines. 2 vols. Florence and Berlin, 1889. 
 
 Gigli, Girolamo. Vocabolario Cateriniano. Lucca, 1760. 
 
 Gobelinus Persona. Cosmodromium, hoc est, Chronicon Universale usque ad 
 annum Christi 1418. Frankfort, 1599. 
 
 Gherardi, Alessandro. La Guerra dei Fiorentini con Papa Gregorio XI detta la 
 Guerra degli Otto Santi. Florence, 1868. 
 
 Graziani. Cronaca della citta di Perugia dal 1309 al 1 491 nota col nome di 
 Diario del Graziani. Ed. A. Fabretti. (Arch. Stor. It., Series I., vol. xvi.) 
 Florence, 1850. 
 
 Guidini, Cristofano. Memorie di Ser Cristofano di Galgano Guidini da Siena 
 scritte da hi medesimo nel secolo XIV. Ed. C. Milanesi. (Arch. Stor. It., Series I., 
 vol. iv.) Florence, 1843. 
 
 Heywood, William. The Ensamples of Fra Filippo. A Study of Medieval Siena. 
 Siena, 1 901. 
 
 426 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY 
 
 Heywood, William. Palio and Ponte. London, 1 904. 
 
 Landucci, Ambrogio. Sacra Leccetana Selva. Rome, 1657. 
 
 Lettere del B. Giovanni Colombini da Siena. Ed. A. Bartoli. Lucca, 1856. 
 
 Lettere del B. Don Giovanni dalle Celle e d' altri. Ed. P. Bartolommeo Sorio. 
 Rome, 1845. 
 
 Lettere dei discepoli di S. Caterina. See A (4). 
 
 Lettere di Santi e Beati Fiorentini. Ed. A. M. Biscioni. Florence, 1736. 
 
 Lombardelli, Gregorio. Sommario della disputa a difesa delle Sacre Stimate di 
 Santa Caterina da Siena. Siena, 1601. 
 
 Lugano, Placido M. Origine e Primordi deW Ordine di Montoliveto. Florence, 
 1903. 
 
 Magnan, J. B. Histoire tTUrbain V et de son sikcle. Paris, 1862. 
 
 Maimbourg, L. Histoire du Grand Schisme <P Occident. 2 vols. Paris, 
 1678-80. 
 
 Malavolti, Orlando. Historia de' fatti e guerre de' Sanesi. Venice, 1599. 
 
 Manni, D. M. Cronichette antiche di vari scrittori del buon secolo della lingua 
 toscana. Florence, 1733. 
 
 Monaldi, Guido. Diario del Monaldi (1 340-1 381). Istorie Pistolesi. Prato, 
 
 >835- 
 
 Monumenta ordinis Fratrum Praedicatorum historica. Ed. Reichert, torn, iv, 
 v, vii, viii. Rome, 1899, I 9°°7 I 9°4- 
 
 Nieheim. Theoderici de Nyem De Schismate. Ed. G. Erler. Leipsic, 1890. 
 
 Osio, L. Documents diplomatici tratti dagli ArchiviMilanesi. Vol.1. Milan, 1864. 
 
 Palermo, F. Rime di Dante e di Giannozzo Saccketli. Florence, 1857. 
 
 Pardi, Giovanni. Delia Vita e degli Scritti di Giovanni Colombini. (Bullettino 
 Senese di Storia Patria, Anno II.) Siena, 1895. 
 
 Pastor, L. Geschichte der Papste im Zeitalter der Renaissance. 2nd edition. 
 Vol. I. Freiburg im Breisgau, 1 89 1. 
 
 Pastor, L. Acta Inedita Historiam Pontificum Romanorum Illustrantia. Vol. I. 
 Freiburg im Breisgau, 1904. 
 
 Pellini, Pompeo. Historia di Perugia. Part I. Venice, 1 664. 
 
 Petrarca. Libri et Epistolae Francisci Petrarchae. Venice, 1 501. 
 
 Pinus, Joannes. Divae Catharinae Senensis Vita. Bologna, 1505. 
 
 Professione, A. Siena e le compagnie di ventura. Siena, 1898. 
 
 Politi, Ambrosio Catarino. Vita Miracolosa della serafica S. Catherina da Siena. 
 Venice, 1 591. 
 
 Raynaldus, O. Annates ecclesiastici ubi desinit Cardinalis Baronius. Tom. vii. 
 
 ( I 35 6 - I 39 6 )- Lucca > x 75 2 - 
 
 Rodolico, N. La Democrazia Fiorentina nel suo tramonto (1 378-1 382). 
 
 Bologna, 1905. 
 
 Scudder, Vida D. Saint Catherine of Siena as seen in her Letters. London, 
 1905. 
 
 427 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY 
 
 Sercambi, G. Le Croniche di Giovanni Sercambi Lucchese. Ed. S. Bongi. Vol. I. 
 Rome, 1892. 
 
 Stefani, Marchionne di Coppo. Istoria Florentine. Ed. F. Ildefonso di San 
 Luigi. Libri VIII-XI. Florence, 17 80- 178 3. 
 
 Thorold, Algar. The Dialogue of the Seraphic Virgin Catherine of Siena. 
 London, 1896. 
 
 Tocco, Felice. / Fraticelli. (Arch. Stor. It., Series V., vol. xxxv.) Florence, 
 1905. 
 
 Tromby, B. Storia del Patriarca S. Brunone e del sua Ordine Cartusiano. 
 Tom. vii. Naples, 1777. 
 
 Valois, Noel. La France et le Grand Schisme cTOccident. 4 vols. Paris, 
 1896-1902. 
 
 Villani, Matteo. Historic Florentine. (Muratori, Rer. It. Script., vol. xiv.) 
 Milan, 1729. 
 
 Vincent Ferrer, St. <De Moderno Ecclesiae Schismate : trattato di Vincenzo 
 Ferrer. Ed. A. Sorbelli. Rome, 1900. 
 
 Archivio Segreto della Santa Sede. De Schismate. Arm. LIV, vols. 14-41. 
 
 Ibid., Regesta Gregorii XI et Urbani VI. 
 
 Formularium Urbani VI, Biblioteca Vaticana, Cod. Vat. Lat. 6330. 
 
 428 
 
INDEX 
 
 ACCORIMBONI, Gaddo, podestk of Siena, 
 
 210 
 Agazzari, Fra Filippo, his Assempri, 95, 
 
 123, 124, 161 
 Agnello (dell'), Giovanni, Doge of Pisa, 
 
 40,69 
 Agnese (Agnesa), Beata, of Monte- 
 
 pulciano, 123, 125 
 , Monna, xiv, 172 ; Catherine's 
 
 letters to her, 286, 373, 374, 416 n., 
 
 417,418 
 Agnolo di Tura, his account of the 
 
 pestilence, 4, 5 
 Aigrefeuille (de), Guillaume, Cardinal, 
 
 255, 261-263, 266, 271 
 Alberti, Benedetto, 232, 238 
 Albizzeschi, Bernardino, Fra (Saint), 
 
 403 
 Albizzi, Piero, 77, 235, 237, 238 
 Albizzo (di), Pietro, of Pisa, 130 
 Albornoz (de), Egidio, Cardinal, 30, 40, 
 
 41, 62, 65, 80 
 , Gomez, 41, 102, 150, 157, 175, 180, 
 
 189, 199 
 Alencon (de), Philippe, Cardinal, 286 
 Alete (de), Pietro Amelio, his Itinera- 
 
 rium, 195, 200 
 Alexander V, Pope (Peter Philargis), 
 
 402, 403 
 Altoviti, Stoldo, 203, 230, 233, 236 
 Amiens, Cardinal of. See Grange 
 Andrea, Monna, 90, 91 
 
 da Lucca, hermit, 294, 295, 297 
 
 del Conte, 204 n. 
 
 di Vanni, painter and politician, 
 
 90; Catherine's letters to him, 374, 
 
 375 
 
 Andrew of Hungary, first husband of 
 Queen Giovanna, 31, 32 
 
 Anjou, Louis, Duke of, intercourse with 
 Catherine, 185, 186, 195 ; adheres to 
 Clement VII, who invests him with 
 the kingdom of Adria, 279, 280, 283, 
 307, 322 ; attempts conquest of Naples, 
 
 395, 396 
 Antella (dell'), Alessandro, 163, 179, 181, 
 
 204, 232, 233 
 Antonio da Nizza, Augustinian of 
 
 Lecceto, 95, 98, 294, 295 ; Catherine's 
 
 letters to him, 295, 296-298 
 
 Appiano (da), Jacopo, 389 
 
 Aquila, Bishop Clement of, murdered 
 by Urban VI, 397 
 
 Aragon, Cardinal of. See Luna 
 
 , James of (of Majorca), 32, 103 n. 
 
 — -, Peter of, Friar, 62, 193 ; his revela- 
 tion about the Schism, 312 n. 
 
 Arzocchi, Nigi di Doccio, 89 
 
 Aycelin de Montaigu, Gilles, Cardinal, 
 182, 190, 194 ; his sudden death, 317 
 
 Azzoguidi, Taddeo, 160 
 
 BADOARA, Fra Bonaventura, 138, 259 ; 
 made Cardinal, 285 ; a link between 
 Petrarca and Catherine, 376 ; mur- 
 dered, 376 n. 
 
 Bar (de), Jean, 265, 279 
 
 Barbadori, Donato, his embassies, 148, 
 149, 155. 163, 164, 223, 233, 239; is 
 beheaded, 328 
 
 Barbiano (da), Alberigo, 307 ; wins battle 
 of Marino, 308 ; Catherine's letter to 
 him, 310, 311 ; besieges Urban VI in 
 Nocera, 396 
 
 Bardi, Alessandro, 145 
 
 Baronte, Fra, his contestation, 5 1 
 
 Bartolommea della Seta, Catherine's 
 letter to, 374 
 
 Bartolommeo di Domenico, Fra, 
 Catherine's second confessor, his 
 works, ix, xi ; letter from Catherine 
 to him, 51, 52 ; joins her fellowship, 
 S3 ; his doubts, 54, 55 ; brings Laz- 
 zarino to her, 56, 57 ; his account of 
 her trance, 83, 84 ; serves the sick in 
 the pestilence, 123, 124 ; accompanies 
 Catherine in her journeys, 128-132, 
 171, 178, 213, 215 ; offends Urban VI, 
 271 ; accompanies Catherine to Rome, 
 288, 320, 325 ; his last intercourse with 
 her, 348, 349 ; one of her literary 
 executors, 338, 353 ; aids the reform 
 of the Dominican order, 388 
 
 of Ferrara, Fra, ix 
 
 of Ravenna, Don. See Serafini 
 
 Beatrice, I ; compared with Catherine, 
 8, 53, 54, 85, 126 n. 
 
 Beaufort (de), Guillaume Roger, Count, 
 194 
 
 , Hugues Roger, Cardinal, 45 
 
 429 
 
INDEX 
 
 Beaufort (de), Pierre Roger, the elder. 
 
 See Clement VI 
 , Pierre Roger, the younger. See 
 
 Gregory XI 
 Bellanti, Andrea, 84 
 
 , Pietro, 168 
 
 Benedetto di Carlone, 237, 248 
 Benedict XII, Pope (Jacques Fournier), 
 
 2 7 
 XIII, Pope or Antipope. See 
 
 Luna 
 Benincasa, Bartolommeo, 6, 7, 71, 72, 
 
 122 
 , Benincasa, 6, 71 ; Catherine's 
 
 letters to him, 72, 73 
 — -, Bonaventura (Tegliacci), 7-9 
 
 , Caterina. See Catherine 
 
 , Eugenia, Catherine's letter to, 
 
 373 
 
 , Giovanna, 7 
 
 , Jacomo, the Saint's father, 6, 7, 
 
 10, 11 ; his death, 60 
 
 , Lapa, the Saint's mother, 6, 7, 10, 
 
 12, 13, 73, 122 ; Catherine's letter to 
 her from Genoa, 197, 198 ; meets 
 Catherine at Pisa, 198 ; at Monte- 
 pulciano, 213, 215 ; Catherine's letter 
 to her from the Rocca, 215; papal 
 brief to her, 215 n. ; with Catherine 
 in Rome, 288, 320 ; at her deathbed, 
 
 351 
 
 , Lisa Colombini, 7, 52, 59, 125 ; 
 
 accompanies Catherine, 178, 213, 215, 
 230, 239, 288 
 
 , Lisa di Jacomo, 7, 52, 53, 122 
 
 , Nanna, Catherine's letter to, 73 
 
 , Stefano, 7, 8, II, 72, 122 
 
 Bertini, Luca, papal nuncio, 145 ; 
 Bishop of Siena, 213 
 
 Bertrand, Pierre, Cardinal of Ostia, 38 
 
 Betto di Ciardo, 247 
 
 Bianco dall' Anciolina, his correspond- 
 ence with Catherine, 1 31-133 
 
 Birgitta of Sweden (St. Bridget), 3 ; on 
 the death of Clement VI, 29 ; antici- 
 pates Catherine of Siena, 42, 44 ; 
 writes to Clement VI, 45 ; in Rome, 
 45, 46 ; her revelations to the Emperor, 
 67 ; her revelations to Urban V, 77- 
 79 ; her revelations to Gregory XI, 
 ioi, 102 ; at Naples and Jerusalem, 
 102, 103 ; admonishes Queen Gio- 
 vanna, 103 ; last letters and revela- 
 tions, 103-105 ; her death, 105 ; 
 Catherine's reference to her, 128 ; 
 252, 253, 362 n. 
 
 Boccaccio, Giovanni, vii, 2 ; his 
 Decameron, 5 ; his conversion, 43 n. ; 
 
 his picture of the corrupt clergy, 
 
 362 
 Boniface VIII, Pope (Benedetto 
 
 Gaetani), 46 
 IX, Pope (Pietro Tomacelli), 323 «., 
 
 39S, 399. 4°o 
 
 Boulogne, Guy of. Cardinal, 68, 70 
 
 Bozzuto, Lodovico, Archbishop of 
 Naples, 313, 316 
 
 Brittany, Cardinal of. See Montalais 
 
 Brossano, Simone, Cardinal of Milan, 153, 
 245, 256 ; conduct in the election of 
 Urban VI, 263, 266, 269 ; attempted 
 neutrality, 273, 275, 276, 279, 290 ; 
 deserts Urban VI, 304 ; Catherine's 
 appeal to him, 304-306 ; his dying 
 declaration for Clement VII, 306 n. 
 
 Bruna, Monna, 215 
 
 Bruni, Francesco, 63, 65 
 
 Budes, Silvestre, 289, 308 
 
 Buonaccorso di Lapo Giovanni, 127, 171, 
 172, 176 ; Catherine's letter to him, 
 191-193 ; opposes Salvestro de' 
 Medici and the populace, 237, 247 ; 
 his downfall, 391 
 
 Buonconti, Gherardo, entertains Cath- 
 erine at Pisa, 129 ; accompanies 
 her to Avignon, 178 ; acts as her 
 secretary, 372 
 
 Buondelmonti, Alessandro, 231 
 
 Cabassole (de), Philippe, Cardinal 
 Patriarch of Jerusalem, 28, 75, 106 
 
 Caffarini, Tommaso di Antonio, Fra, his 
 works, ix-xii ; one of Catherine's 
 earliest disciples, 22, 53 ; tends the 
 plague-stricken, 124 ; at Pisa, 128, 
 129 ; accompanies Catherine to 
 Lucca, 146, 147 ; on her interview 
 with Gregory XI at Genoa, 196 n. ; 
 visits Niccolo di Toldoin prison, 211 ; 
 cited, 216 n. ; on Catherine's last 
 letters, 331 «., 339, 34 1 n., 342 »., 343 n. ; 
 on her learning to write, 371, 383 n. ; 
 supports Raimondo's work of reform, 
 388 ; friendship with Stefano Maconi, 
 393 ; letter from Francesco Malavolti 
 to him, 394 ; his death, 405 
 
 Canigiani, Barduccio di Piero, xiv, 172 ; 
 joins Catherine's spiritual family, 231, 
 232, 239 ; accompanies her to Rome, 
 288 ; writes her letters to Urban VI, 
 330 ; his letter to Suor Caterina 
 Petriboni, 332, 333 ; with her in her 
 agony, 335 ; his account of the end, 
 348 n., 350, 351 ; her last secretary, 
 373 ; letter from Giovanni dalle Celle 
 
 43° 
 
INDEX 
 
 to him, 390 ; his happy death, 390 ; 
 417, 418 n. 
 
 , Piero di Donato, 172, 203 ; builds 
 
 Catherine a house, 230 ; involved in 
 the Guelf factions, 238, 239, 242 ; 
 implicated in the conspiracy of Gian- 
 nozzo Sacchetti, 327, 328 ; Catherine's 
 letters to him, 375 ; death in exile, 390 ; 
 unpublished letter from Catherine to 
 him, 418-420 
 
 , Ristoro di Piero, 172 ; his em- 
 bassies, 190, 199 ; urges rejection 
 of papal terms, 223 ; shares in the 
 politics of the Parte Guelfa, 231, 236, 
 237, 238 ; his house burnt, 239 ; 
 declared a magnate, 242 ; Catherine's 
 letters to him, 375 ; death, 390 
 
 Carrara (da), Francesco, Lord of Padua, 
 160, 324 
 
 Casini, Francesco ("Maestro Fran- 
 cesco da Siena"), 183, 258; his 
 testimony on the Schism, 269, 306 n. ; 
 letter to the Signoria, 321, 322; 
 corresponds with both Petrarca and 
 Catherine, 376 
 
 Castellani, Michele, 179, 181, 204 
 
 Castiglionchio (da), Lapo, 235, 237, 238, 
 
 242, 327, 395 
 
 Caterina dello Spedaluccio, 215 
 
 di Ghetto, 53 
 
 Catherine of Siena, St. Contempor- 
 ary materials for her life, vii-xi ; MSS. 
 and text of her letters, xii-xiv ; 
 editions of her Dialogo, xiv, xv ; 
 treatise on Consummate Perfection 
 attributed to her, xv, xvi ; her birth, 
 1 ; her testimony to the corruption of 
 the times, 3, 5 ; family and early life, 
 6-10 ; takes the Dominican habit, 11, 
 12 ; her austerities, 12, 13 ; work of 
 expiation, 14, 15; her visions and 
 doctrine, 15-18; suffers diabolical 
 temptations, 19-21 ; familiarity with 
 Christ, 21 ; reading and flowers, 
 
 22 ; her psychological condition, 22, 
 
 23 ; spiritual espousals, 24-26 ; her 
 predecessors, 42 ; leaves her cell, 47 ; 
 work and humility, 47-49'; persecution, 
 50-52 ; her first disciples, 52-58 ; 
 letter to Fra Lazzarino, 58, 59 ; loses 
 her father, 60 ; relations with her 
 brothers, 71-73 ; her gifts and 
 character, 81 ; mystical experiences, 
 82-84 ; her disciples, 84-90 ; accused 
 of unchastity, 90 ; receives a divine 
 injunction, 91 ; converts Fra Gabriele 
 and Maestro Giovanni Tantucci, 92 - 
 94 ; relations with the hermits of 
 
 Lecceto, 94-98; other followers, 98, 
 99 ; converts two condemned men, 
 100; enters public life, 101, 105 ; 
 letters to the papal legate and vicar 
 apostolic, 106-112 ; work in Siena, 
 113, 114; relations with the Visconti, 
 115-117 ; crusading enthusiasm, 118 ; 
 first visit to Florence, 120, 121 ; 
 labours for the plague-stricken, 122- 
 124 ; solicitude for Fra Simone, 124 ; 
 at Montepulciano, 125, 126 ; visited 
 by Alfonso da Vadaterra, 128; first 
 visit to Pisa, 129, 130 ; correspondence 
 with El Bianco, 131-133 ; receives the 
 Stigmata, 133-135 ; at Gorgona, 135, 
 136 ; her letters for the Crusade, 138- 
 141 ; letter to Hawkwood, 144 ; her 
 mission to Lucca, 146-148 ; remains 
 at Pisa, 148, 151 ; letter to the Anziani 
 of Lucca, 151, 152 ; letter to Gregory 
 XI > I53-IS5 5 to Niccol6 Soderini, 
 157, 158 ; implores the Pope to make 
 peace, come to Rome, and reform the 
 Church, 158, 159, 162, 163 ; her vision 
 of the cross and olive-branch, 164-166 ; 
 offers to mediate between the Pope 
 and the Florentines, 166-168; 
 receives Stefano Maconi, 168-170; 
 sends Neri to Avignon, 170, 171 ; her 
 second visit to Florence, 171, 172, 175 ; 
 accepts mission to Avignon, 176, 177 ; 
 relations with Gregory and the Floren- 
 tine ambassadors, 178-182 ; speaks 
 plainly to the Pope, 182, 183 ; opposed 
 by the papal court, 183, 184; relations 
 with the Duke of Anjou, 185, 186 ; 
 struggle with the French cardinals, 
 186-188 ; letter to Buonaccorso di 
 Lapo, 191-193 ; warns Gregory against 
 a forged letter, 193, 194 ; at Toulon 
 and Varazze, 195 ; at Genoa, 195-197 ; 
 returns to Siena, 198 ; writes to the 
 Pope at Cornet o, 199; pleads for 
 Luigi delle Vigne, 199 n. ; her attitude 
 towards the temporal power, 201, 202 ; 
 sends Stefano to Florence, 203 ; 
 supports the Sienese ambassadors, 
 203, 204 ; for peace at any price, 206, 
 207 ; at Belcaro, 208 ; letter and 
 promise to Francesco Malavolti, 209, 
 210; tenderness for the prisoners, 210, 
 211 ; relations with the Salimbeni, 212, 
 213 ; her apostolic labours in the 
 Sienese contado, 213-218 ; parts from 
 Raimondo, 218 ; relations with rene- 
 gade religious, 218, 219 ; letter to Fra 
 Simone, 220, 221 ; letters totheTrinci, 
 221-223 ; to Fra Raimondo on the 
 
 431 
 
INDEX 
 
 papal anger, 224-226 ; to Alessa from 
 the Rocca, 227 ; goes to Florence as 
 papal envoy, 229 ; relations with the 
 Parte Guelfa, 230, 231 ; letter to Pedro 
 de Luna, 234; secures the observance 
 of the interdict, 235 ; is involved in 
 the Guelf politics, 236 ; the attempt 
 upon her life, 239-242 ; first letter to 
 Urban VI, 243-245 ; announces the 
 peace, 246 ; her farewell to the 
 Florentines, 249-251 ; hopes in Pedro 
 de Luna, 256 ; apologizes for Fra 
 Bartolommeo, 271 ; appeals for unity 
 to Pedro de Luna, 281 ; denounces 
 the schismatical cardinals, 281, 282 ; 
 letter to the Count of Fondi, 282, 283 ; 
 her agony at the Schism, 284, 285 ; 
 various letters of 1378, 285-287 ; is 
 summoned to Rome, 287, 288 ; her 
 reception by Urban, 288, 289 ; wishes 
 to convert Queen Giovanna, 290, 291 ; 
 parts with Raimondo, 292 ; her dis- 
 appointment with him, 293 ; summons 
 the " servants of God," 294-296 ; letter 
 to Antonio da Nizza, 296-298 ; her 
 life in Rome, 298, 299 ; letters to 
 Stefano and Pietro di Giovanni 
 Ventura, 300-303 ; to the three Italian 
 cardinals, 304-306 ; alleged share in 
 the capitulation of Sant' Angelo, 309 ; 
 four letters of May 6, 1379, 309-312 ; 
 on the supposed conversion of the 
 Queen, 313, 314 n. ; to Urban at 
 Whitsuntide, 314, 315; letter to 
 Raimondo at Genoa, 318-320; to the 
 governments of Siena, Florence, and 
 Perugia, 321-323, 324 n. ; to Louis of 
 Hungary and Charles of Durazzo, 324, 
 325 ; her last appeal to Giovanna, 
 325 ; her solicitude for Giannozzo 
 Sacchetti, 326 ; approaching the end, 
 329 ; relations with Urban and the 
 Romans, 330-332; her last illness, 332, 
 333 ; her farewell letters to Fra 
 Raimondo, 333-343 ; her mystical 
 agony, 343, 344 ; her testament of love, 
 344-348 ; last interview with Fra 
 Bartolommeo, 348, 349 ; receives 
 Stefano, 349; her death, 349-351 ; in 
 the Minerva, 352 ; her Dialogo, 353, 
 354 ; its mysticism, 354-356; the 
 Trattato della Discrezione, 356-358 ; 
 the Trattato del? Orazione, 358-361 ; 
 the Trattato delle Lagrime, 361, 362 ; 
 Trattato della Divina Provvidenza, 
 362-365 ; Trattato dell' Obbedienza, 
 365-367; her universal prayer, 367- 
 370; comparison with Dante, 356, 366, 
 
 367 ; her learning to write, 370, 371 ; 
 her method of dictation, 372, 373 ; 
 characteristics of her letters, 373-376 ; 
 comparison with Petrarca, 376, 377 ; 
 her philosophy of love, 377, 378 ; the 
 symbolism of blood, 378, 379 ; letter 
 on the execution of Niccolo di Toldo, 
 379-381 ; on disordered love and love 
 of self, 381, 382 ; on servile fear, 382 ; 
 on the cell of self-knowledge, 383 ; her 
 Orationi, 383-385 ; her charge to her 
 disciples, 386, 387, 390-394 ; Stefano's 
 cult of her memory, 393, 399, 405 ; the 
 value of her work, 405, 406 ; un- 
 published letter to Bartolommeo di 
 Smeduccio, 407-411 ; to two unnamed 
 disciples, 411-412, 412-413; to the 
 Signoria of Florence, 413-416 ; to 
 Francesco di Pippino, 416, 417 ; to 
 Bartolo Usimbardi and Francesco di 
 Pippino, 417, 418 ; to Piero Canigiani, 
 418-421 ; to the Prioress and nuns 
 of Santa Agnese, 421, 422 
 Catherine of Sweden, St. (Katarina 
 Ulfsdotter), 44, 45, 105 ; her testimony 
 concerning the Schism, 266 n. ; 
 refuses to undertake Urban's mission 
 to Naples, 290 
 Celle (dalle), Giovanni, his life and 
 letters, 136, 137, 173, 174, 175 ; joins 
 Catherine's fellowship 175; 178, 231 ; 
 summoned to Rome, 294 ; Catherine's 
 letter to him, 295, 296 ; inclines to 
 Joachism, 299, 300 ; letter to Barduccio 
 Canigiani, 396 ; on Francesco di 
 Pippino, 391 
 Cenci, Giovanni, his part in the election 
 of Urban VI, 261, 262, 267 ; obtains 
 capitulation of Sant' Angelo, 308 ; 
 Catherine's appeal on his behalf, 309, 
 310; leads the Roman People, 332; 
 as Senator pays funeral honours to 
 the Saint, 352 
 Cenni, Matteo, rector of the Miseri- 
 
 cordia, 98, 122, 386, 392 n. 
 Ceva (di), Jacopo, 163, 291, 293 
 Charles IV, Roman Emperor, 2 ; his 
 first Italian enterprise, 37-40 ; 
 Birgitta's hopes in him, 46 ; his 
 second Italian journey, 62, 66, 67 ; 
 his humiliation at Siena, 68, 69 ; 
 threatens the Florentines, 164 n. ; 
 191 ; adheres to Urban VI, 280, 316 
 
 V, King of France, 63 ; Catherine's 
 
 first letter to him, 186 ; adheres to 
 Clement VII, 277-279 ; second letter 
 of Catherine to him, 311, 312 ; puts 
 pressure upon the University, 312; 
 
 43; 
 
INDEX 
 
 Raimondo's mission to him, 316, 317 ; 
 376 
 
 VI, King of France, 395, 398 
 
 I, King of Naples, 30, 141 n. 
 
 II, King of Navarre, 280, 316 
 
 of Durazzo, the elder, 32 
 
 of Durazzo ("Carlo della Pace"), 
 
 afterwards Charles III of Naples, 32, 
 316, 324; Catherine's letter to him, 
 325 ; intrigues with Florentine exiles, 
 326-328 ; conquers Naples, 395, 396 ; 
 his death, 396 
 
 Martel, extolled by Dante, 31 
 
 Robert, King of Hungary, 31 
 
 (Karl Ulfsson), son of Birgitta of 
 
 Sweden, 44, 77, 102, 103 
 
 Chaucer, Geoffrey, 2 
 
 Clemanges (de), Nicolas, 362 n. 
 
 Clement IV, Pope (Guy Foulquois), 187 
 
 V, Pope (Bertrand de Goth), 27, 28 
 
 VI, Pope (Pierre Roger de Beau- 
 fort), 2 ; character of his pontificate, 
 27, 28, 30 ; Birgitta's revelations 
 concerning him, 29, 45, 79 n. 
 
 VII, Pope or Antipope. See Geneva 
 
 Colomba, Beata, of Rieti, 406 
 
 , Monna, of Lucca, 147 
 
 Colombini, Biagia Cerretani, 42-44 
 
 , Caterina, 7 n. 
 
 , Giovanni, 7 ; institutes the Gesuati, 
 
 42-44 ; 59 ; his relations with Urban 
 V, 63, 64 ; dies, 64 ; letter to the 
 Signoria of Siena, 65 ; 90 «., 96 «., 131 
 
 , Lisa. See Benincasa 
 
 , Matteo, disciple of Catherine, 59 
 
 Colonna, Agapito, 264, 286, 404 
 
 Condulmer, Gabriele, afterwards Pope 
 Eugenius IV, 401 
 
 Conrad, friar, of Prussia, 387 
 
 Consiglio, Jew of Padua, 373 
 
 Correr, Angelo, Bishop of Castello, 
 Catherine's letter to him, 376 ; elected 
 Pope, 400. See Gregory XII 
 
 , Antonio, Cardinal, 401 
 
 Corsini, Filippo, 233, 238, 245 
 
 , Piero, Cardinal of Florence, 77, 
 
 121, 159, 181, 184, 186, 200, 245, 
 254 n. ; his character, 256, 258 ; his 
 conduct in the election of Urban VI, 
 261-264, 2 66, 268 ; attempts to keep 
 neutral, 273, 275-279, 290, 304; 
 Catherine's letter to him and his 
 colleagues, 304-306 ; joins the 
 Clementines, 306 n. 
 
 Cosenza, Archbishop of (Nicola 
 Brancaccio), 279, 289, 312 
 
 Courtenay, William, Bishop of 
 London, 189 «., 286 
 
 Cros (de), Jean, Cardinal of Limoges, 
 255, 262; proposes Bartolommeo 
 Prignano for Pope, 263 ; flies to Sant' 
 Angelo, 266 ; quarrels with Urban 
 VI, 270 ; proposes Robert of Geneva, 
 278 
 
 Pierre, Archbishop of Aries, 190, 
 
 271, V2, 277, 289 
 
 Daniella, Suora, Catherine's letters 
 
 to, 284, 285, 288, 374 
 Dante, vii, 1-5 ; resemblance between 
 
 the story of Catherine and his Vita 
 
 Nuova, 8, 9, 53, 54 ; analogies between 
 
 the Diiiina Commedia and Catherine's 
 
 Dialogo, 356, 363, 365, 366, 377, 381 ; 
 
 her possible knowledge of his works, 
 
 367 ; quoted, passim. 
 Dini, Giovanni, 145, 171, 236 
 Domenico (di), Bartolommeo. See 
 
 Bartolommeo 
 Dominic, St., Catherine's visions of, 10, 
 
 21, 25, 165; her "Spaniard," 148, 
 
 319; in the JDialogo, 366, 367 
 Dominici, Giovanni, Fra, afterwards 
 
 Cardinal of Ragusa, 130, 387, 388, 
 
 389, 401, 402, 404 
 Domitilla, letter from Giovanni dalle 
 
 Celle to, 174, 175 
 Donati, Piero, 236 
 Duguesclin, Bertrand, 62 
 
 Easton, Adam, cardinal, 397 
 
 Edward III, King of England, 2 
 
 Elias of Toulouse (Elie de Raimond), 
 master-general of the Dominicans, 
 3 n., 120, 218, 284, 366 «., 386-388. 
 
 Elizabeth of Bavaria, writes to Catherine, 
 117 
 
 of Poland, Catherine's letter to, 
 
 141 
 
 Estaing (de), Pierre, Cardinal of Bourges, 
 74, 77, 80, 102, 106 ; Catherine's 
 letters to him, 106-1 10 ; his Bolognese 
 legation, 108 n., 114, 117, 118; his 
 enlightened politics, 182, 184, 186, 
 187 ; negotiates with the Romans, 
 200; his death, 229 
 
 Este. See Ferrara and Trinci 
 
 FERDINAND, King of Portugal, 280, 316 
 Ferrara, Marquis of (Niccolo II 
 
 d'Este), 31, 65, 160, 161, 190, 221 
 Ferrer, Boniface, prior-general of the 
 
 Carthusians, 400, 403 
 
 , Vincent, St., 284, 398, 403, 404 
 
 Fevre (le), Jean, 277 n., 317 n. 
 Fidati, Simone, Augustinian friar, 137 
 
 433 
 
INDEX 
 
 Fina, St., 14 
 
 Flandrin, Pierre, Cardinal of Sant 1 
 Eustachio, 255, 266, 275, 289, 312 
 
 Flete, William, the " Bachelor," Cath- 
 erine's revelation to him, 17-19 ; 
 becomes her disciple, 95, 96; Cath- 
 erine's letters to him, 96-98, 140 ; at 
 Belcaro, 208; Catherine's letter to him 
 from Florence, 235 ; summoned to 
 Rome, 294, 295 ; refuses to leave his 
 wood, 296-298 ; his work for Urban 
 VI, 298, 300 ; in charge of Catherine's 
 Sienese disciples, 386 
 
 Folgore da San Gimignano, his sonnets, 
 
 35 
 
 Fonte (della), Palmiero, 7, 9 
 
 , Tommaso, Catherine's first 
 
 confessor, 9, 10, 15, 21, 22, 50, 52-54, 
 56, 82, 89, 92, 93, 123, 129 ; letter from 
 Catherine to him, 148 ; shares her 
 labours in the contado, 213, 215 ; one 
 of her literary executors, 338, 353 
 
 Foresi, Madonna Paola, Abbess of 
 Santa Bonda, 43, 63, 64 
 
 Foresta (della), Guido, 327 
 
 Francesco di Naddo, Captain of the 
 People of Siena, 100 
 
 di Pippino, Florentine tailor, xiv, 
 
 172 ; shelters Catherine, 242 ; her 
 letters to him, 286-288, 326, 374 ; his 
 fidelity to her memory, 391 ; unpub- 
 lished letters from her to him, 416- 
 418 
 
 Francis of Assisi, St., vii, 1 ; Catherine's 
 devotion to him, 58, 59 ; his Stigmata, 
 134 ; allusions to him in the Dialogo, 
 265, 266 
 
 Frescobaldi, Leonardo, 393, 417 
 
 Gabriele da Volterra, friar minor, 
 92-94 
 
 Gabrielli (de'), Cante, 326, 327 
 
 Gaetani, Onorato, Count of Fondi, 252, 
 254 ; quarrels with Urban VI, 271, 
 276, 279 ; Catherine's letter to him, 
 282, 283 ; anathematized, 289 ; de- 
 prived of his states, 399 
 
 Gambacorti, Andrea di Gherardo, 36 
 
 , Andrea di Piero, 270 
 
 , Bartolommeo, 40 
 
 , Benedetto di Piero, 182, 389 
 
 , Francesco, 36, 40 
 
 , Gherardo, 69 
 
 , Lorenzo di Piero, 389 
 
 , Lotto, 36, 40 
 
 , Piero, 36, 40, 69 ; his magnan- 
 imity, 70 ; Catherine's letter to him, 
 129; welcomes her to Pisa, 129; 
 
 attempts to keep neutral between the 
 Church and Florence, 146, 154, 155, 
 198, 221 ; is murdered, 389 
 , Tora (the Beata Chiara), Cather- 
 ine's letters to her, 287, 389 ; her later 
 life, 389, 390 
 Gandelin, Pierre, 253, 271, 289, 308 
 Gasparo, Fra, Catherine's letter to, 
 
 381 n. 
 Geneva, Robert of, Cardinal, 175, 180, 
 189 ; orders the massacre of Cesena, 
 205 ; 221, 222 n. ; in the conclave and 
 after, 255, 263, 264, 266, 269, 270,271, 
 274, 275 ; elected Pope or Antipope 
 Clement VII, 278-280, 286, 289,305 ; 
 confers kingdom of Adria upon 
 Louis of Anjou, 307 ; is driven from 
 Naples, 312-314 ; his death, 398 
 Genoa, Doge of (Domenico Campo- 
 
 fregoso), 156, 191, 196 
 Ghelli, Niccol6, 88, 89 
 Giacoppi, Bartolommeo, 156 
 Giovanna I, Queen of Naples, 31, 32, 61, 
 66 ; relations with Birgitta, 102-104 ; 
 corresponds with Catherine about the 
 Crusade, 139-141 ; supports Gregory 
 XI, 156, 160, 189, 190, 199, 224, 225 ; 
 first adheres to Urban, 268, 277 ; then 
 declares for Clement, 277-279, 283 ; 
 Catherine's letters to her, 286, 290, 
 291, 311, 312; receives Clement, 312, 
 313 ; her feigned conversion, 313-316, 
 324 ; Catherine's appeal to her, 325, 
 373 ; deposed and murdered, 395, 
 396 
 Giovanna di Capo, 215, 230, 288, 299 
 Giovanni da Parma, Catherine's letter 
 to, 287, 376 n. 
 
 da Salerno, Augustinian friar, I75»., 
 
 178 _ 
 
 di Gano, Abbot of Sant' Antimo, 
 
 208, 213, 216, 320,321, 350 
 
 di Guccio, Augustinian friar, 95 
 
 di Mone, 145 
 
 Gobelinus Persona, 332 n. 
 Gonsalvo, Fra, his testimony concerning 
 the Schism, 254 n., 257, 270, 272, 274, 
 275 
 Gonzaga, Lodovico, Lord of Mantua, 
 
 181, 185, 272 
 Gori, Cecca, Catherine's companion, 
 52, 92, 123, 129, 178, 213, 215, 2l6»., 
 288 
 
 Giustina, 213, 215 
 
 Grange (de la), Jean, Cardinal of 
 Amiens, 198 ; at Sarzana, 232, 256 ; 
 his hostility to Urban, 270, 271, 277, 
 289, 316 
 
 434 
 
INDEX 
 
 Gregory XI, Pope (Pierre Roger de 
 Beaufort), 79, 80 ; his relations with 
 Birgitta, 101-105 5 sends to question 
 Catherine, 1 10, 1 1 1 ; desires a Crusade, 
 117, 118, 128, 138; quarrels with 
 Florence, 142, 143, 145/2.; sends 
 Catherine to Lucca, 146 ; announces 
 his return to Rome, 149 ; his new 
 cardinals, 153 ; letters from Catherine 
 to him, 153-156; appeals to the 
 Italians, 156 ; his process against the 
 Florentines, 156, 157 ; Catherine's 
 exhortations to him, 158, 159, 162, 
 163 ; puts Florence under interdict, 
 164 ; receives Raimondo, 167 ; letters 
 from Catherine to him, 170, 171, 176, 
 177 ; puts peace into her hands, 178- 
 182 ; listens to her counsels, 182, 183 ; 
 his vacillations, 185-188, 190, 193 ; 
 leaves Avignon, 194 ; at Genoa, 195 ; 
 last interview with Catherine, 196 ; 
 goes to Rome, 198-200 ; the Saint's 
 appeals to him, 201-204, 206-208 ; his 
 obstinacy, 223, 224 ; angry with 
 Catherine, 224-226 ; sends her to 
 Florence, 227-229 ; his death, 233, 
 252, 253 
 
 XII, Pope (Angelo Correr), 400- 
 
 402, 404 
 
 Griffoni, Leonardo, minister-general of 
 the Franciscans, 289 »., 387, 396 
 
 Grimoard (de), Anglico, Cardinal of 
 Avignon, 63, 64, 77, 79, 80, 106, 194, 
 256, 278, 291 
 
 Guillaume. See Urban V 
 
 Guccio Gucci, 145 
 
 Gudmarsson, Ulf, 24 
 
 Guelfaccio (di), Tommaso, converted by 
 Giovanni Colombini, 43; joins Cather- 
 ine, 59, 89, 92, 93 ; his missions, 203, 
 217 
 
 Guernieri, Jacomo, 71 
 
 Guicciardini, Luigi di Piero, 243, 247 
 
 Guidini, Cristofano di Gano, translates 
 Catherine's Dialogo, xiv, xv ; his 
 memoirs, 89, 90, 96, 98, 128 n. ; with 
 Catherine at Florence, 230, 231, 239- 
 241 ; letter to Neri, 300 ; last days, 403 
 
 Gutalebraccia, Giovanni, 130 
 
 Hawkwood, John, 62, 74, 127, 142-144; 
 Catherine's letter to him, 144, 145 ; 
 sacks Faenza, 160, 161 ; at Cesena, 
 205, 206 n. ; adheres to the league, 
 221 ; aids Stefani Maconi, 392 n. 
 
 Henry VII, Roman Emperor, 2, 326 
 
 II, King of Castile, 280 
 
 Ill, King of Castile, 398 
 
 Imola (da), Benvenuto Rambaldi, 2, 3, 
 
 28«., 108 n., 309 n. 
 Inghen (de), Marsile, 273 
 Innocent VI, Pope (Etienne d'Albret), 
 
 29> 37, 4i, 61 
 
 VII, Pope (Cosma Meliorati), 400 
 
 Itri (da), Jacopo, Archbishop of Otranto 
 
 and Patriarch of Constantinople, letter 
 
 from Catherine to him, 155 n; his 
 
 sermon against Urban VI, 275, 276 ; 
 
 adheres to Clement VII, 289 n, 314, 
 
 396 
 
 Jacomo di Viva, Catherine's letter to, 
 
 xii 
 
 Manzi, Catherine's letter to, 113 
 
 Jacopo da Padova, Olivetan monk, 
 
 202 n. 
 Johannes V Palaeologus, Emperor of the 
 
 East, 74, 138 
 John XXII, Pope (Jacques d'Euse), 27, 
 
 173 
 XXIII, Pope (Baldassare Cossa), 
 
 403, 404 
 
 of Bohemia, King, 2 
 
 of Basle, Augustinian friar, 228 
 
 of the Cross, St., 24, 25, 100 
 
 Juan I, King of Castile, 280, 316 
 
 Ladislaus, King of Naples, 401 
 
 Lagier, Bertrand, Cardinal of Glandeves, 
 198, 255, 262, 264, 312, 316 
 
 Lagina, Monna, 147 
 
 Lando di Francesco, his letter to the 
 Signoria of Siena, 288, 289 
 
 Landoccio (di), Neri. See Pagliaresi 
 
 Lazzarino da Pisa, friar minor, con- 
 verted by Catherine, 56-58 ; his 
 correspondence with her, 58, 59 
 
 Leonardo da Firenze, master-general of 
 the Dominicans, 389 
 
 Limoges, Cardinal of. See Cros 
 
 Lisolo, Abate, 325 
 
 Lorenzetti, Ambrogio, 4 
 
 Louis, King of Hungary and Poland, 
 "the Great," 32, 33, 62, 117, 138, 141, 
 160, 191 ; adheres to Urban, 280, 300, 
 
 324 ; Catherine's letter to him, 324, 
 
 325 ; his death, 396 
 Luca di Benvenuto, 393 ft. 
 
 Lucera, Bishop of (Thomas de Acerno), 
 
 252 «., 260 n. 
 Lucio, Roman disciple of Catherine, 
 
 35i 
 Lucio di Lando, Count, 222, 224, 321 
 Luigi, Fra, Bishop of Assisi, on the 
 
 Schism, 253 n. 
 Luigi of Taranto, 32 
 
 435 
 
INDEX 
 
 Luna (de), Pedro, Cardinal of Aragon, 
 153, 184, 186 ; Catherine's first letter 
 to him, 234 ; his share in the election 
 of Urban VI, 256, 257, 259, 260, 263- 
 268 ; his reluctance to join the Schism, 
 271, 272, 274 ; view of the Italian car- 
 dinals, 279 ; Catherine's second letter 
 to him, 281; his Clementine zeal, 284, 
 290, 317, 318 ; elected Pope or Anti- 
 pope Benedict XI 1 1, 398 ; his obstinacy, 
 400-402 ; deposed and condemned, 
 404 ; death and character, 405 
 
 Lydwine de Schiedam, St., 14 
 
 Maconi, Corrado, 168, 169, 303 
 
 , Giovanna, 168 ; Catherine's letter 
 
 to her, 197 ; 303 
 
 , Stefano di Corrado, viii, x-xii, 13W. ; 
 
 Raimondo appeals to him, 99 ; joins 
 Catherine's fellowship, 168-170 ; ac- 
 companies her to Florence and Avig- 
 non, 171, 178, 179, 183, 184 ; at Genoa, 
 196, 197 ; at Siena, 198 ; Catherine's 
 envoy to the Eight, 202, 203 ; with 
 her in the Sienese contado and at 
 Florence, 213, 230, 236 ; writes in her 
 name to Dom Guillaume Rainaud, 
 284 ; detained at Siena, 288, 300, 301 ; 
 letters from Catherine to him, 302, 
 303 ; urges the government to help 
 Urban, 321, 322; at Rome, 349, 350, 
 352 ; on Catherine's writing, 371 ; her 
 secretary, 372 ; her letters to him, 374; 
 enters the Carthusian order, 391-393 ; 
 elected prior-general, 393 ; his letter 
 to the fathers of the Grande Char- 
 treuse, 399, 400 ; supports Council of 
 Pisa, 402, 403 ; resigns his office and 
 returns to Siena, 403 ; prior of Certosa 
 of Pavia, 403, 404 ; interest in Fra 
 Bernardino, 403 ; his happy death, 
 405 
 
 Magnus II, King of Sweden, 44 
 
 Malatesta, Galeotto, 41, 62 
 
 , Malatesta, 41, 66-68 
 
 , Perfetto, Abbot of Sassoferrato, 
 
 317, 31.8 
 
 Malavolti, Francesco di Vanni, his con- 
 testation, ix ; his account of his own 
 conversion and others, 85-89, 92-94, 
 1 13, 1 14 ; his relapse, 208 ; Catherine's 
 letter to him, 209 ; her promise to 
 him, 210; with her in the contado, 
 213, 214; describes her method of 
 dictating, 372 ; at Genoa, 393 ; his 
 monastic life, 393, 394; letter to 
 Tommaso Caffarini, 394, 395 
 
 , Orlando, 68, 81, 112 »., 204 n. 
 
 436 
 
 Malavolti, Niccoluccio, 393 
 
 , Vanni (Messer), father of Fran- 
 cesco, 66, 71 
 
 Malesset (de), Guy, Cardinal of Poitiers, 
 255, 266, 271, 275, 280 ; presides over 
 the Council of Pisa, 402 
 
 Malestroit (de), Jean, 289 
 
 Manfredi, Astorre, 40 
 
 Margherita of Naples, wife of Charles 
 of Durazzo, 32, 316 
 
 Marmoutier, Abbot and Cardinal of. See 
 Puy 
 
 Marsili, Luigi, Augustinian friar, 299 
 
 Martin V, Pope (Ottone Colonna), 404 
 
 , King of Aragon, 402 
 
 Martinez, Alvarez, 274 
 
 Martini, Simone, 6 
 
 Maso di Neri, 236 
 
 Matteino di Ventura, 69 
 
 Matthias of Linkoping, 44 
 
 Medici (dei), Salvestro, 236-238, 247 
 
 Megalotti, Giovanni, 145 
 
 Menendo, Fra, 318 
 
 Michele di Lando, 248, 326 
 
 Mogliano (da), Lodovico, Senator of 
 Siena, 112, 119, 120 
 
 , Mitarella, Catherine's letter to, 
 
 "3 
 
 Montalais (de), Hugues, Cardinal of 
 Brittany, 255, 263, 265, 266, 289 
 
 Montefeltro (da), Antonio, 151 
 
 , Buonconte, 363 n. 
 
 Monte S. Maria (del), Marchese, Fran- 
 cesco, 199 ; Giovanni, 247, 248 ; Pietro, 
 146, 190 n. ; Uguccione, 199 
 
 Montirac (de), Pierre, Cardinal of Pam- 
 plona, 194, 258, 278 
 
 Montjoie (de), Louis, 307, 308 
 
 Murles (de), Pierre, 277 
 
 Nardo di Giorgio, Roman bandarese, 
 his testimony on the Schism, 258, 259, 
 261, 262, 265 n. 
 
 Niccolb, the povero of Romagna, 288, 
 
 373, 417 
 
 di Mino, 92, 94 
 
 Nieheim (von), Dietrich (Theodericus 
 
 de Nyem), 258, 276, 277, 397 n. 
 Noccio di Vanni, 119, 120 
 Noellet (de), Guillaume, Cardinal of 
 
 Sant' Angelo, legate of Bologna, 119, 
 
 127, 141-143, 160 ; conduct at the 
 
 conclave, 255, 266 
 
 Oleggio (da), Giovanni Visconti, 30, 
 
 3i.4i 
 Ordelaffi, Francesco, 2, 40 
 , Sinibaldo, 151 
 
INDEX 
 
 Oristano (da), Mariano, Judge of Ar- 
 borea, 140 
 
 Orsini, Francesco, 185 
 
 , Giordano, 289, 308, 315 
 
 , Jacopo, Cardinal of S. Giorgio in 
 
 Velabro, 159, 181, 184, 186, 245 ; his 
 alleged designs on the papacy, 252, 
 256 ; his dubious conduct in the elec- 
 tion of Urban VI, 261-266, 268, 269 ; 
 attempted neutrality, 273, 275, 276, 
 278, 279, 290, 304 ; his dying declar- 
 ation, 306, 307 
 
 , Niccolb, Count of Nola, 45, 63, 78, 
 
 102, 105, 221, 313 
 
 , Raimondello, son of the above, 
 
 397 
 Osimo (da), Niccolo, Catherine's letter 
 
 to, 155 n. 
 Otho of Brunswick, consort of Queen 
 
 Giovanna, 185, 232, 277, 316, 395 
 Otranto, Archbishop of. See Itri 
 
 Pagliaresi, Neri di Landoccio, trans- 
 lates the Legenda, viii ; becomes 
 Catherine's spiritual son, 85, 86, 89, 
 92 ; accompanies her to Lucca, 146, 
 147 n. ; her envoy to Avignon, 167- 
 171 ; his illness at Genoa, 197 ; 198 »., 
 213 ; letters to him from " F. S.", 219, 
 220 ; with Catherine at Florence, 230, 
 239 ; with her at Rome, 288 ; his 
 correspondence, 300-303, 321, 322 ; 
 Catherine's envoy to Perugia, 323 ; 
 and to Naples, 325 ; letter from 
 Catherine to him there, 329 ; a student 
 of Dante, 366, 367 ; one of her secre- 
 taries, 372 ; friendship with Stefano 
 Maconi, 391, 392 ; dies a hermit, 393 ; 
 friendship with Francesco Malavolti, 
 
 394 
 Palagio (dal), Guido, 137, 174, 299, 300, 
 
 391 
 Palmerina, Suora, 47, 48, 50 
 Paolino da Nola, hermit of Lecceto, 294, 
 
 297 
 Pavola, Monna, 175 »., 287, 288 n., 416 
 Pazzi, Giovanna, 372 
 Pedro IV, King of Aragon, 280, 284 n., 
 
 316, 317 
 Pelagius, Alvarus, on John XXII, 27 
 Pepoli, Galeazzo, 308 
 
 , Romeo, 30 
 
 Perez, Fernando, Dean of Tarascon, 266, 
 
 267 
 Peruzzi, Benedetto, 331, 327 
 
 , Bonifazio, 327 
 
 — — , Simone, 232 
 
 Petra, Tommaso, apostolic protonotary, 
 
 188 ; on the Schism, 260, 267 ; papal 
 secretary, 338, 339 ; his injunctions to 
 Catherine, 344 ; one of her literary 
 executors, 338, 353 ; his loyalty to 
 Urban VI, 398 
 
 Petrarca, Francesco, vii, I, 4, 5, 27 ; his 
 picture of the pontificate of Clement 
 VI, 28, 29 ; on Charles IV, 38 ; his 
 relations with Urban V, 61, 62, 74- 
 76, 79 n. ; his death, 105 ; no n., 117, 
 138, 141, 178, 183, 308 ; his letters 
 compared with Catherine's, 376, 377 
 
 Petriboni, Suor Caterina, 332, 351 n. 
 
 Petroni, Pietro, il Beato, 42, 43, 98 
 
 Piacenza (da), Cristoforo, his despatches, 
 181, 185, 199, 268, 270 «., 272, 273 
 
 Piccolomini, Gabriele, Catherine's dis- 
 ciple, 89, 92, 213; 219, 288 
 
 Pietro, priest of Semignano, Catherine's 
 letter to, 112, 113 
 
 Pietro di Giovanni Ventura, x, xii ; joins 
 Catherine's fellowship, 114; sent by 
 her to Siena, 216 ; her letters to him, 
 300-302 
 
 Pino (del), Lorenzo, Catherine's letter 
 
 to, 375 
 Prata (da), Pileo, Cardinal Archbishop 
 
 of Ravenna, 286, 397 
 Prignano, Bartolommeo. See Urban VI 
 
 , Francesco, called Butillo, 395, 396 
 
 Pruinis (de), Guido, Senator of Rome, 
 
 254, 258 
 Puy (du), Gerard, Abbot of Marmoutier, 
 
 his dealings with Birgitta, 102, 105 ; 
 
 his government of Perugia, 106, 107 ; 
 
 correspondence with Catherine, 110- 
 
 112; oppression and treachery, 119, 
 
 120, 141, 142, 145 ; besieged in Peru- 
 gia, 150; made cardinal, 153, 155; 
 accuses Cardinal Orsini, 252 ; con- 
 duct in the Schism, 255, 265, 266, 
 289 
 
 Rainaud, Guillaume, prior-general of 
 the Carthusians, 284, 387, 393, 399, 
 400 
 
 Ravignano, Andrea, 313 
 
 Ricasoli, Angelo, Bishop of Florence, 
 
 121, 171, 382 »., 383 n. 
 , Bettino, 236, 237 
 
 Richard II, King of England, 280, 316, 
 
 397 
 Rienzo (di), Cola (Rienzi), 37, 40 
 Robert of Geneva. See Geneva 
 Robert, King of Naples, 31, 32 
 Rodhez, Bernard, Archbishop of Naples, 
 
 103, 3'2. 313 
 Rostaing, Pierre, 271 
 
 437 
 
INDEX 
 
 Sacchetti, Franco, 206, 232, 327, 386, 
 
 391 
 
 , Giannozzo, his conversion and 
 
 poetry, 231, 232 ; Catherine's solici- 
 tude for him, 286, 326 ; his conspiracy 
 and death, 326-328 ; unpublished letter 
 
 of Catherine about him, 417, 418 
 Salimbeni, Agnolino di Giovanni, 120, 
 
 211-213 
 
 , Andrea di Niccolb, 119, 120 
 
 , Benedetta, 212, 213, 215 
 
 , Biancina, 212-214, 221, 222 
 
 , Cione di Sandro, 68, 69, 120, 211- 
 
 213 
 , Giovanni di Agnolino, 38, 39, 66, 
 
 212 
 
 , Isa, 212, 213, 215 
 
 , Niccolo, 68, 120 
 
 , Pietro, 68, 69 
 
 , Stricca, 212 
 
 Salle (de la), Bernardon, 273, 289, 308 
 Salutati, Coluccio, 155, 156, 206, 279 
 Salvetti, Angelo, friar minor, 58, 403 
 Salvi di Pietro, Catherine's letter to, 
 
 217, 218 
 Salviati, Andrea, 145, 232 
 Sangro (di), Gentile, Cardinal, 395 
 Sano di Maco, 98 ; Catherine's letter to 
 
 him on the peace, 246 
 San Saturnino (da), Niccolo, Dominican 
 
 friar, 278, 284, 289 n. 
 Sansedoni, Ambrogio, Beato, 95 
 San Severino (da), Tommaso, 397 
 
 , Ugo, 313 
 
 Sant' Angelo, Cardinal of. See Noellet 
 Sant' Eustachio, Cardinal of. See Flan- 
 
 drin 
 Santi, Fra, da Teramo, Catherine's dis- 
 ciple, 98, 99, 122, 213, 230, 288 
 Saracini, Alessa, Catherine's chief 
 
 woman follower and imitator, 52, 84, 
 
 92, 100, 129, 178, 213, 215, 216 n. ; 
 
 Catherine's letters to her, 227, 235 ; 
 
 with her in Rome, 288 ; Catherine 
 
 dies in her arms, 350; 371 »., 372; 
 
 her death, 386 
 
 , Francesco, 84 
 
 Savini, Nanni di Ser Vanni, 101, 208 
 
 Scali, Giorgio, 328 
 
 Scotti, Orietta, 195-197, 393 
 
 Serafini, Bartolommeo, Carthusian (da 
 
 Ravenna), his Contestation, ix, x ; 
 
 Prior of Gorgona, 135, 136 ; his letter 
 
 to Catherine, 270, 271 ; summoned to 
 
 Rome, 293-296 ; at Pavia, 392 
 Sigismund, King of the Romans, 404 
 Siminetti, Bartolo, 238 
 Simoncino, (Jetto Bugigatto, 247 
 
 Simone da Cortona, his Contestation, x, 
 50, 51, 124, 125 ; correspondence with 
 Neri, 219, 220 ; Catherine's letter to 
 him, 220, 221 
 
 Smeduccio (di), Bartolommeo, Lord of 
 San Severino, 139, 140, 189, 190, 224; 
 unpublished letter from Catherine to 
 him, 407-41 1 
 
 Soderini, Costanza, 375 n. 
 
 , Niccolo, 73, i2i ; Catherine's 
 
 letter to him as prior, 157, 158 ; ex- 
 communicated, 164 ; his efforts for 
 peace, 171, 175, 203, 228-231, 236; 
 his house destroyed and himself put 
 under bounds, 238, 239, 242, 243 ; 
 Catherine's letters to him, 375 ; dies 
 in exile, 390 n. 
 
 , Tommaso, 231, 239, 242, 390 n. 
 
 Soldi, Matteo, 145 
 
 Sortenac (de), Pierre, Cardinal of 
 Viviers, 255, 260, 266 
 
 Spinelli, Niccolb, 156, 160, 277, 289 
 
 Stefani, Marchionne di Coppo, on 
 Catherine, 230, 231 ; on Giannozzo 
 Sacchetti, 232, 326-328 ; quoted, 
 passim. 
 
 Strozzi, Benedetto, 190, 199 
 
 , Carlo, 127, 171, I7 2 , 237, 238, 242, 
 
 39° »■ 
 
 , Laudamia, 172 
 
 ■ , Leonardo, 127 
 
 , Pazzino, 179, 181, 182, 190-192, 
 
 204, 232 
 , Tommaso, 145, 328 
 
 Tancredi (da Massa), Felice, Augus- 
 tinian friar, 95, 162, 166 n. 
 
 Tantucci, Giovanni (Terzo), "the 
 Master," joins Catherine's fellowship, 
 92-96 ; at Avignon, 162, 166 n. ; in 
 Rome, 288, 296, 297, 320, 349, 352 ; 
 one of her literary executors, 338, 353 
 
 Tebaldeschi, Francesco, Cardinal of St. 
 Peter's, 156, 200, 233, 245, 256; his 
 fictitious election, 263, 265-267 ; ad- 
 heres to Urban VI, 272, 277, 282, 316 
 
 Tebaldi, Francesco, Carthusian of 
 Gorgona, 135, 136 
 
 Tegliacci, Niccolo, 7, 9 
 
 Teresa, St., compared with Catherine, 
 23,24 
 
 Thomas Aquinas, St., Catherine's de- 
 votion to, 361, 363, 366, 371 
 
 Tini, Niccolo, prior of Lecceto, 95, 96 n., 
 97 
 
 Toldo (di), Niccolb, 210, 211, 363 ft., 
 379-38i 
 
 438 
 
INDEX 
 
 Tolomei, Bernardo, founder of the Olive- 
 tani, 4 
 
 , Francesca, 84, 217 
 
 , Ghinoccia, 84 
 
 , Guccio, 38 
 
 , Jacomo di Francesco, 84 
 
 , Jacomo di Sozzino, 300, 301 
 
 , Lodovica di Granello, Catherine's 
 
 letter to, 285 
 
 , Matteo, Dominican friar, 84, 213, 
 
 215, 217, 320 
 
 , Rabe, 84, 217 
 
 , Raimondo, Senator of Rome, 41 
 
 — , Spinello, 213, 214 
 
 Tommaso da Fermo, master-general of 
 the Dominicans, 389, 402 
 
 Trinci, Corrado, 221-223 
 
 , Jacoma d'Este, 221 ; Catherine's 
 
 letter to her, 222, 223 
 
 , Trincio, 221-223 > probable refer- 
 ence to him in the Dicdogo, 363 n. 
 
 Tortelli, Cecco, 277 
 
 Turenne (de), Vicomte, 175 
 
 , Elys, 184 
 
 Ubaldini, Ippolito, Catherine's letter 
 to, 136 
 
 Ugurghieri, Neri, 88, 89 
 
 Unzio, Tommaso, Franciscan prophet, 
 222 
 
 Urban V, Pope (Guillaume de Grimoard), 
 his election, 61 ; comes to Italy and 
 Rome, 62-67, 73, 74 ; letters from 
 Petrarca to him, 74-76 ; his cardinals, 
 77 ; receives Birgitta's revelations, 78, 
 79 ; returns to Avignon and dies, 79 ; 
 Catherine's reference to him, 81, 187. 
 
 VI, Pope (Bartolommeo Prignano), 
 
 184, 185, 233 ; Catherine's first letter 
 to him, 243-245 ; makes peace with 
 Florence, 245, 246, 249 ; his character, 
 257-260 ; his doubtful election, 263- 
 269 ; his rupture with the Sacred Col- 
 lege, 273, 275, 276, 277 ; Catherine's 
 enthusiasm for him, 282-286 ; makes 
 new cardinals, 285, 286 ; summons 
 Catherine to Rome, 287-290 ; sum- 
 mons the " servants of God," 293-296 ; 
 hires the Compagnia di San Giorgio, 
 307, 308 ; foiled by the Romans, 308, 
 309 ; enters the Vatican, 314 ; Cathe- 
 rine's pentecostal letter to him, 314,315; 
 his brief to the Catholic world, 315 ; 
 instructions to Fra Raimondo, 316, 
 317 ; relations with Italian communes, 
 320-323 ; appeals to Louis of Hungary, 
 324, 325 ; Catherine's last letters to 
 
 him, 330, 331 ; she reconciles him 
 with the Romans, 332, 352 ; her 
 prayers for him, 383 ; crowns Charles 
 of Durazzo, 395 ; his nepotism and 
 cruelty, 396, 397 ; madness and death, 
 
 397 
 Usimbardi, Bartolo, 172 ; Catherine's 
 
 letters to him, 326, 417, 418 
 
 , Orsa, 172, 417, 418 
 
 Uzzano (da), Antonio, 327 
 
 Vadaterra (da), Alfonso, the " hermit- 
 bishop," confessor to Birgitta, 77,78 »., 
 102-105 > P a P a l emissary to Cathe- 
 rine, 128, 129, 146 ; testimony con- 
 cerning the Schism, 252, 257, 259, 
 260, 267, 272 ; befriends Tora Gam- 
 bacorti, 287 ; his death, 395 n. 
 
 Valentinois, Countess of, 183, 184 
 
 Varano, Rodolfo, 65, 189, 221, 224 
 
 Venice, Doge of (Andrea Contarini), 
 191 
 
 Vergne (de), Pierre, Cardinal, 255, 266, 
 268 
 
 Vico (di), Francesco, Prefect of Rome, 
 151, 199, 221, 280, 289, 330, 331 
 
 , Francesco Moricotti, Archbishop 
 
 of Pisa, 129, 148 ; Cardinal, 286 
 
 , Giovanni, Prefect of Rome, 40, 
 
 74 
 
 Vigne (delle), Luigi, 199 n. 
 
 , Raimondo, his Legenda, viii ; his 
 
 translation of the Dialogo, xv ; cited, 
 6-15, 17, 19-22, 25, 26, 47-52, 60, 
 82-84, 9', 98, 99 ; becomes Cathe- 
 rine's director and disciple, 122-126 ; 
 at Pisa and Gorgona, 129, 130, 132- 
 136, 138; goes to Hawkwood's com- 
 pany, 144, 145 ; 146, 151 ; goes to 
 Avignon, 161-163 ; Catherine's letters 
 to him there, 164-168 ; her " Giovan- 
 ni," 165 n. ; interprets between her 
 and the Pope, 178, 179, 18 1, 182, 183, 
 193 ; at Toulon, 195 ; accompanies 
 Catherine into the contado, 213-215 ; 
 accused of plotting, 213-215 ; prior of 
 the Minerva, 218 ; in bad odour at 
 Rome, 224 ; Catherine's letter to him 
 on the subject, 225, 226 ; consulted by 
 Niccol6 Soderini, 228 ; 229, 231, 234, 
 236 ; Catherine's letter to him from 
 Florence, 240, 241 ; quoted, 241-243, 
 250 ; friendship with Pedro de Luna, 
 257 ; 287, 288 ; opposes the sending 
 of the two Catherines to Naples, 290 ; 
 his first mission to France, 291-293 ; 
 his second abortive mission, 316-318 ; 
 
 439 
 
INDEX 
 
 Catherine's letter to him, 318-320, 
 329 ». ; her last letters to him, 333- 
 343 ; on her writing and Dialogo, 353, 
 354, 361 ; her letters to him, 355, 370, 
 371, 374, 378-381 ; his reforming work 
 as master-general of the Dominicans, 
 386-388 ; letter to Giovanni Domi- 
 nici, 388, 389 ; his death, 389 
 Villani, Giovanni, 3, 4, 36 
 
 , Matteo, 4, S, 37, 38, 39, 42 
 
 Vincenti, Francesco, colleague of Gio- 
 vanni Colombini, 42, 43, 44, 62-65 
 
 , Giovanni, 204 
 
 Visconti, Beatrice della Scala, 31, 115; 
 Catherine's letter to her, 117 
 
 , Bernabo, 30, 31, 41, 61, 62, 74, 
 
 105 ; sends an agent to Catherine, 
 114, 115 ; her answer, 115, 116 ; 118, 
 127 ; allies with the Florentines, 143, 
 145, H9. 155. 160, 179, 190; presides 
 
 over congress of Sarzana, 229, 232 ; 
 
 Catherine's letters to him, 372 n. 
 
 , Galeazzo, 30, 1 14, 145 
 
 , Gian Galeazzo, afterwards first 
 
 Duke of Milan, 155, 280, 391, 392 
 
 , Giovanni, Archbishop of Milan, 30 
 
 , Luchino, 30 
 
 , Marco, 117 
 
 , Matteo, 30 
 
 Viterbo, Bishop Niccol6 of, his testi- 
 mony concerning the Schism, 261 «., 
 
 269 «., 273 n. 
 Viviers, Cardinal of. See Sortenac 
 Voulte (de la), Guillaume, Bishop of 
 
 Marseilles, afterwards of Valence, 261, 
 
 262, 264, 291, 293 n. 
 
 Wenceslaus, King of the Romans and 
 
 Bohemia, 280, 300, 316, 317 
 Wertinger, Conrad, 145, 160 
 
 Richard Clay <5f Sons, Limited, London and Bungay.