Catherine had ardently wished to see in the Seat of Peter a reformer, who
should have courage to apply surgery to the festering wounds of the
Church. She had her desire; Urban began at once a drastic policy of Church
reform. But his domineering asperity proved unbearable to the College of
Cardinals, and schism broke upon a horrified world.
This was the situation:--After the death of Gregory, the cardinals, of
whom a large majority were French, when assembled in conclave in what was
to them the barbarous city of Rome, had been terrified by the shouts of
the populace demanding a Roman, or at least an Italian, for Pope.
Resorting to stratagem, they reported as their choice the old Roman
cardinal of San Pietro, who repudiated the false rumour with distress.
Meantime, agreeing on compromise and finding a "dark horse," the Sacred
College elected with all due solemnity the Archbishop of Bari, and by the
usual formalities notified the Christian world of the election. They soon,
as has been said, rebelled against the man of their choice, and,
announcing that the election had been invalid because occasioned by fear,
proceeded to appoint an antipope--Robert of Geneva, a man of personal
charm but of evil life, known in history as Clement VII. The impudence of
the reasons alleged by the cardinals for their action is well pointed out
by Catherine. But Europe became divided in its allegiance, and war of
words was soon followed by war of swords.
Catherine rose to the occasion. The rest of her tempestuous life was spent
in the desperate defence of the cause of Urban--a man whom she rightly
believed to be the lawful successor of Peter, yet concerning whose
unlovely character she was, as we have already seen, under no illusions.
The many letters which she wrote with the aim of convincing important
personages of the validity of Urban's claims, are historical documents of
high value. One feels in them all the amazement with which a woman whose
native air was the mystical conception of an infallible Church, faced the
realities of the ecclesiastical machine. But loyalty stood the test, and
while never leaving the highest ground, Catherine proved herself capable
of a statesmanlike treatment of the actual situation. The present letter
is addressed to the three Italian members of the Sacred College, who,
after holding at first by their countryman, were induced by the Frenchmen
to betray him: it is a tissue of telling and convincing representations,
interwoven with indignant rebuke and eloquent pleadings.
This was not the first time that a great Italian patriot had remonstrated
with the churchmen of Italy. Catherine's letter invites inevitable
comparison with that noble letter to Italian cardinals written by Dante on
the occasion of the impending papal election that followed the death of
Clement V. Dante, like Catherine, appealed to the cardinals on behalf of
Rome and Italy: his plea, that they put an end to the Babylonian Captivity
in Avignon and return to the Seat of Peter. That letter marked an early
stage in the disgraceful abandonment of the Holy City; this of Catherine
treats of the outcome of that great wrong. "Yet the wound will be healed,"
wrote Dante; "(though it cannot be otherwise than that the scar and brand
of infamy will have burned with fire upon the Apostolic See and will
disfigure her for whom heaven and earth had been reserved)--if ye who were
the authors of this transgression will all with one accord fight manfully
for the Bride of Christ, for the Throne of the Bride which is Rome, for
our Italy, and that I may speak more fully, for the whole commonwealth of
pilgrims upon this earth...." Over sixty years had passed since Dante
wrote thus; they had been years of sin and shame. The words of Catherine,
as she confronts a situation yet darker than he had faced, breathe a less
assured courage. But her patriotism and her Christianity are of like
temper with his own.
In the Name of Jesus Christ crucified and of sweet Mary:
Dearest brothers and fathers in Christ sweet Jesus: I Catherine, servant
and slave of the servants of Jesus Christ, write to you in His precious
Blood: with desire to see you turn back to the true and most perfect
light, leaving the deep shadows of blindness into which you are fallen.
Then you shall be fathers to me; otherwise not. Yes, indeed, I call you
fathers in so far as you shall leave death and turn back to life (for, as
things go now, you are parted from the life of grace, limbs cut off from
your head from which you drew life), when you shall stand united in faith,
and in that perfect obedience to Pope Urban VI., in which those abide who
have the light, and in light know the truth, and knowing it love it. For
the thing that is not seen cannot be known, and he who knows not loves
not, and he who loves not and fears not his Creator loves himself with
fleshly love, and whatever he loves, joys or honours and dignities of the
world, he loves according to the flesh. Since man is created through love,
he cannot live without love; either he loves God, or he loves himself and
the world with the love that kills, fastening the eye of his mind darkened
by self-love on those transitory things that pass like the wind. In this
state he can recognize no truth nor goodness; he recognizes naught but
falsehood, because he has not light. For truly had he the light, he would
recognize that from such a love as this naught can result but pain and
eternal death. It gives him a foretaste of hell in this life; for he who
immoderately loves himself and the things of this world, becomes
unendurable to himself.
Oh, human blindness! Seest thou not, unfortunate man, that thou thinkest
to love things firm and stable, joyous things, good and fair? and they are
mutable, the sum of wretchedness, hideous, and without any goodness; not
as they are created things in themselves, since all are created by God,
who is perfectly good, but through the nature of him who possesses them
intemperately. How mutable are the riches and honours of the world in him
who possesses them without God, without the fear of Him! for to-day is he
rich and great, and to-day he is poor. How hideous is our bodily life,
that living we shed stench from every part of our body! Simply a sack of
dung, the food for worms, the food of death! Our life and the beauty of
youth pass by, like the beauty of the flower when it is gathered from the
plant. There is none who can save this beauty, none who can preserve it,
that it be not taken, when it shall please the highest Judge to gather
this flower of life by death; and none knows when.
Oh, wretched man, the darkness of self-love does not let thee know this
truth. For didst thou know it, thou wouldst choose any pain rather than
guide thy life in this way; thou wouldst give thee to loving and desiring
Him who Is; thou wouldst enjoy His truth in firmness, and wouldst not move
about like a leaf in the wind; thou wouldst serve thy Creator, and wouldst
love everything in Him, and apart from Him nothing. Oh, how will this
blindness be reproved at the last moment in every rational being, and much
the more in those whom God has taken from the filth of the world, and
assigned to the greatest excellence that can be, having made them
ministers of the Blood of the humble and spotless Lamb! Oh me, oh me! what
have you come to by not having followed up your dignities with virtue? You
were placed to nourish you at the breasts of Holy Church; you were flowers
planted to breathe forth the fragrance of virtue in that garden; you were
placed as masts to strengthen this ship, and the Vicar of Christ on earth;
you were placed as lights in a candlestick, to give light to faithful
Christians, and to spread the faith. Well you know if you have done that
for which you were created. Surely no; for self-love has prevented you
from knowing that in truth alone, to fortify men and give a shining
example of good and holy life, you were put in this garden. Had you known
this you would have loved it, and clothed you in that sweet truth. Where
is the gratitude which you ought to have for the Bride who has nourished
you at her breast? I see in us naught but such ingratitude as dries up the
fountain of pity. What shows me that you are ungrateful, coarse, and
mercenary? The persecution which you, together with others, are inflicting
on that sweet Bride, at a time when you ought to be shields, to ward off
the blows of heresy. In spite of which, you clearly know the truth, that
Pope Urban VI. is truly Pope, the highest Pontiff, chosen in orderly
election, not influenced by fear, truly rather by divine inspiration than
by your human industry. And so you announced it to us, which was the
truth. Now you have turned your backs, like poor mean knights; your shadow
has made you afraid. You have divided you from the truth which strengthens
us, and drawn close to falsehood, which weakens soul and body, depriving
you of temporal and spiritual grace. What made you do this? The poison of
self-love, which has infected the world. That is what has made you pillars
lighter than straw. Flowers you who shed no perfume, but stench that makes
the whole world reek! No lights you placed in a candlestick, that you
might spread the faith; but, having hidden your light under the bushel of
pride, and become not extenders, but contaminators of the faith, you shed
darkness over yourselves and others. You should have been angels on earth,
placed to release us from the devils of hell, and performing the office of
angels, by bringing back the sheep into the obedience of Holy Church, and
you have taken the office of devils. That evil which you have in
yourselves you wish to infect us with, withdrawing us from obedience to
Christ on earth, and leading us into obedience to antichrist, a member of
the devil, as you are too, so long as you shall abide in this heresy.
This is not the kind of blindness that springs from ignorance. It has not
happened to you because people have reported one thing to you while
another is so. No, for you know what the truth is: it was you who
announced it to us, and not we to you. Oh, how mad you are! For you told
us the truth, and you want yourselves to taste a lie! Now you want to
corrupt this truth, and make us see the opposite, saying that you chose
Pope Urban from fear, which is not so; but anyone who says it--speaking to
you without reverence, because you have deprived yourselves of reverence--
lies up to his eyes. For it is evident to anyone who wished to see, who it
is that you presented as your choice through fear--that was Messer di
Santo Pietro. You might say to me, "Why do you not believe us? We know the
truth as to whom we chose better than you." And I reply, that you
yourselves have shown me that you deserted the truth in many ways, so that
I ought not to believe you, that Pope Urban VI. is not the true Pope. If I
turn to the beginnings of your life, I do not recognize in you so good and
holy a life that you would shrink from a lie for conscience' sake. What
shows me that your life is badly governed? The poison of heresy. If I turn
to the election ordained by your lips, we knew that you chose him
canonically and not through fear. We have already said that he whom you
presented to the people through fear was Messer di Santo Pietro. What
proves to me the regular election with which you chose Messer Bartolommeo,
Archbishop of Bari, who to-day is made in truth Pope Urban VI.? In the
solemnity with which his coronation was observed, this truth is clear to
us. That the solemnity was carried out in good faith is shown by the
reverence which you gave him and the favours asked from him, which you
have used in all sorts of ways. You cannot deny this truth except with
plain lies.
Ah, foolish men, worthy of a thousand deaths! As blind, you do not see
your own wrong, and have fallen into such confusion that you make of your
own selves liars and idolaters. For even were it true (which it is not;
nay, I assert again that Pope Urban VI. is the true Pope), but were it
true what you say, would you not have lied to us when you told us that he
was the highest pontiff, as he is? And would you not falsely have shown
him reverence, adoring him for Christ on earth? And would you not have
practised simony, in trying for favours and using them unlawfully? Yes,
indeed. Now they, and you with them, have made an antipope, as far as your
action and outward appearance go, since you consented to remain on the
spot, when the incarnate demons chose the demon!
You might say to me: "No, we did not choose him." I do not know how I can
believe that. For I do not believe that you could have borne to stay there
otherwise, had you given your life for it; at least the fact that you
suppressed the truth, and did not burst out with it--for this would not
have been within your power--makes me inclined to think so. Although,
perhaps, you did less wrong than the others in your intention, yet you did
do wrong with all the rest. What can I say? I can say that he who is not
for the truth is against the truth; he who was not at that time for Christ
on earth, Pope Urban VI., was against him. Therefore I tell you that you
did wrong, with the antipope: and I may say that he was chosen a member of
the devil; for had he been a member of Christ, he would have chosen death
rather than consent to so great an evil, for he well knows the truth, and
cannot excuse himself through ignorance. Now you have committed all these
faults in regard to this devil: that is, to confess him as Pope, which he
surely is not, and to show reverence to whom you should not. You have
deserted the light, and gone into darkness: the truth, and joined you to a
lie. On what side soever, I find nothing but lies. You are worthy of
torture, which, I tell you in truth and unburden my conscience thereof,
unless you return to obedience with true humility, will fall upon you.
O misery upon misery, and blindness upon blindness, which does not let its
wrong be seen nor the loss to soul and body! For had you seen it, you
would not have deserted the truth so lightly, in servile fear, passionate
all, like proud people and arbitrary, accustomed to pleasant and soft
dealings from men! You could not endure, not only an actual correction
indeed, but even a harsh word of reproof made you lift up rebellious
heads. This is the reason why you changed. And it clearly reveals the
truth to us; for, before Christ on earth began to sting you, you confessed
him and reverenced him as the Vicar of Christ that he is. But this last
fruit that you bear, which brings forth death, shows what kind of trees
you are; and that your tree is planted in the earth of pride, which
springs from the self-love that robs you of the light of reason.
Oh me, no more thus for the love of God! Take refuge in humbling you
beneath the mighty hand of God, in obedience to His Vicar, while you have
time; for when the time is passed there will be no more help for us.
Recognize your faults, that you may be humble, and know the infinite
goodness of God, who has not commanded the earth to swallow you up, nor
beasts to devour you; nay, but has given you time, that you may correct
your soul. But if you shall not recognize this, what He has given you as a
grace shall turn to your great judgment. But if you will return to the
fold, and feed in truth at the breast of the Bride of Christ, you shall be
received in mercy, by Christ in heaven and by Christ on earth, despite the
iniquity you have wrought. I beg that you delay no more, nor kick against
the prick of conscience that I know is perpetually stabbing you. And let
not confusion of mind, over the evil that you have wrought, so overcome
you, that you abandon your salvation in weariness and despair, as seeming
unable to find help. Not so must you do; but in living faith, hold firm
hope in your Creator, and return humbly to your yoke; for the last sin of
obstinacy and despair would be the worst, and most hateful to God and the
world. Arise, then, into the light! For without light you would walk in
darkness, as you have done up to now.
My soul considering this, that we can neither know nor love the truth
without light, I said and say that I desire intensely to see you arisen
from darkness, and one with the light. This desire reaches out to all
rational beings, but much more to you three, concerning whom I have had
the greatest sorrow, and marvel more at your fault than at all the others
who have shared it. For did all desert their father, you should have been
such sons as strengthened the father, showing the truth. Notwithstanding
that the father might have treated you with nothing but reproof, you ought
not therefore to have assumed the lead, denying his holiness in any way.
Speaking entirely in the natural sense--for according to virtue we ought
all to be equal--speaking humanly, Christ on earth being an Italian, and
you Italian, I see no reason but self-love why passion for your country
could not move you as it did the Ultramontanes. Cast it to earth now, and
do not wait for time, since time does not wait for you--trampling such
selfishness underfoot, with hate of vice and love of virtue.
Return, return, and wait not for the rod of justice, since we cannot
escape the hands of God! We are in His hands either by justice or by
mercy; better it is for us to recognize our faults and to abide in the
hands of mercy, than to remain in fault and in the hands of justice. For
our faults do not pass unpunished, especially those that are wrought
against Holy Church. But I wish to bind myself to bear you before God with
tears and continual prayer, and to bear with you your penitence, provided
that you choose to return to your father, who like a true father awaits
you with the open wings of mercy. Oh me, oh me, avoid and flee it not, but
humbly receive it, and do not believe evil counsellors who have given you
over to death! Oh me, sweet brothers! Sweet brothers and fathers you shall
be to me, in so far as you draw close to truth. Make no more resistance to
the tears and sweats which the servants of God shed for you, but wash you
in them from head to foot. For did you despise them, and the eager sweet
and grieving desires which are offered by them for you, you would receive
much greater rebuke. Fear God, and His true judgment. I hope by His
infinite goodness that He will fulfil in you the desire of His servants.
Let it not seem hard to you if I pierce you with the words which the love
of your salvation has made me write: rather would I pierce you with my
living voice, did God permit me. His will be done. And yet you deserve
rather deeds than words. I come to an end, and say no more; for did I
follow my will I should not yet pause, so full is my soul of grief and
sorrow to see such blindness in those who were placed for a light: no
lambs they, who feed on the food of the honour of God and the salvation of
souls, and the reform of Holy Church; but as thieves they steal the honour
which they ought to give to God, and give it to themselves, and as wolves
they devour the sheep, so that I have great bitterness. I beg you by love
of that precious Blood shed with such fiery love for you, that you give
refreshment to my soul, which seeks your salvation. I say no more to you.
Remain in the holy and sweet grace of God: bathe you in the Blood of the
Spotless Lamb, where you shall lose all servile fear, and enlightened, you
shall abide in holy fear. Sweet Jesus, Jesus Love.