Letters of Catherine BenincasaCatherine, of Siena, Saint
Religion
Letters of Catherine Benincasa
Catherine, of Siena, Saint
Catherine, of Siena, Saint, 1347-1380 -- Correspondence; Christian women saints -- Italy -- Siena -- Correspondence
I am quite sure that the counsel came from someone beside yourself. Will,
will to know the truth; who those men are, and why they make you see
falsehood for truth, saying that Pope Urban VI. is not true Pope, and
making you consider that the antipope, who is simply an antichrist, member
of the devil, is Christ on earth. With what truth can they say that to
you? Not with any; but they say it with entire falsity, lying over their
heads. What can those iniquitous men say?--not men, but incarnate demons
--since, on whatever side they turn, they must see that they have done
nothing but ill. Even were it true--as it is not--that Pope Urban VI. was
not the Pope, they would merit a thousand deaths for this alone, as liars
discovered in their untruth; for had they chosen him through fear in the
beginning, and not honestly with a regular election, and had presented him
to us as a true Pope, see! they would have shown us a lie for truth,
making us, and themselves at the same time, obey and reverence him whom we
ought not. For they did do him reverence, and asked favours from him, and
profited by them, as if they came from the highest pontiff, as they did. I
say, that were it true that he was not the Pope--(which is not the case,
by the great goodness of God, who has had mercy upon us)--for this reason
alone they could not be too severely disciplined; but they deserve a
thousand thousand deaths to pretend that they elected the Pope through
fear, when it was not so. But they cannot speak the truth, being men
founded in falsehood, for they cannot so hide it that its darkness and
stench cannot be seen and felt. What they pretended is perfectly true:
they did elect a Pope through fear after they had elected the true Pope,
Messer Bartolomeo, Archbishop of Bari, who to-day is Pope Urban VI.: that
was, Messer di Santo Pietro. But he, like a good man and just, confessed
that he was not the Pope, but Messer Bartolomeo, Archbishop of Bari, who
to-day is called Pope Urban VI., and revered by faithful Christians as
highest pontiff and most just man, despite wicked men--not Christians, for
they bear the name of Christ neither on their lips nor on their heart--but
infidels who have deserted the faith and obedience of Holy Church and the
Vicar of Christ on earth, branches cut off from the True Vine, sowers of
schism and of greatest heresy.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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