CATI

CHAPTER IV.

ATHARINE went to Florence, and strove very strenuously to put an end to the dissensions which raged between the two great factions of the Guelphs and Ghibellines, as well as to effect a reconciliation between the Florentines and the Church. In the frequent tumults which prevailed, she incurred great personal danger. The Eight of War were jealous of her friendship with Soderini, and provoked against her the hatred of the populace by pretending that she was an enemy to the democratic party. Once the angry mob burned down the house in which she resided, and when she escaped to another and yet another, followed her with incendiary torch, until the citizens feared to offer her an asylum. It was unsafe for her to be seen in the streets. Shouts were raised of "Where is that accursed woman? Bring her out, and we will burn her alive. Cut her in pieces!" But she who had preserved her courage when assailed by the powers of hell was not the woman to blench before an infuriated multitude. With her usual calm confidence she knelt down in a deserted garden, and offered up her fervent prayers to GOD. A band of zealots, armed with halberds, swords, and clubs, pursued her to her retreat :-"Where is the wicked woman? Where is Catharine?" Hearing their cries, she went forth and stood before them. The leader of the band rushed forward, brandishing his sword, and shouting furiously:"Where is Catharine?" Kneeling, she said in a firm, unshaken voice:-"I am Catharine, do whatever GOD permits you to do to me, but, in His Name, I forbid you to approach or molest any who are with me." This wonderful serenity abashed the rioter; he dropped the point of his sword to the ground; he cast down his eyes; her gaze overpowered him. He bade her begone. "Nay," she answered, "I am very well here, where would you have me go? For CHRIST, and for His people I am ready to die; nor is there anything I more earnestly desire. If you are ordered to kill me, do so at once, and without fear; I am in your hands; and know this, no harm will come to you from any of my friends." Confused and ashamed, the man

withdrew, carrying with him his followers, and Catharine's friends and disciples, pressing round her, saw that she was weeping; weeping for the poor wretches who had menaced her life. "FATHER, forgive them," she said, "for they know not what they do!"

Pursuing her object with unabated ardour and unflinching perseverance, she laid the basis of a better understanding between the Pope and the Florentine Republic; and both sides agreed to send ambassadors to a congress to be held at Sargana for the settlement of the affairs of Italy. The Venetians and the Genoese, Joanna of Naples, and the Duke of Milan were also represented at this congress, and a general pacification was agreed upon, when the death of Gregory, who had long been fighting against disease, occurred in March, 1378. Then, for awhile, the thoughts of men were turned from treaties of peace by the great schism which almost rent the Roman Church in twain. To the vacant chair of S. Peter was raised Urban VI., a man of great vigour of character, but of a haughty and self-reliant disposition. With a strenuous hand he immediately began to sweep away some of the abuses that were gravely weakening the Church, and to reform the lives of the clergy; but he pursued his object with an unwise zeal that stirred up against him a great mass of envy. Catharine, who had learned to know him at Avignon, appreciated his honest efforts for the Church's welfare, while she saw the evil that would result from his arrogance of will. And, therefore, she advised him to temper enthusiasm with charity, and to listen to the teaching of Christian counsellors, though never failing to commend, and encourage him in, his good works. The majority of the Cardinals, however, rebelled against a Pope who was so resolutely determined to abate their luxuriousness, and supported by the King of France and the Queen of Naples, declared the Holy See vacant, August 9, 1378, proceeding soon afterwards to the election of a new Pope, Robert of Genoa,1 with the title of Clement VII. In the great ecclesiastical quarrel which followed, Catharine was on the side

The character of this bold, unscrupulous man of genius, halfwarrior, half-statesman, appears in his famous saying:-"Certe non servirem Deo, si non faceret mihi bonum." (Certes, I should not serve GOD, if it brought me no gain.)

of Urban; and from her home at Siena,-whither, her work at Florence being happily completed, she had retired,she issued letter after letter to ecclesiastics and politicians, to strengthen them in the same cause. To Urban her advice and assistance seemed so valuable that he invited her to Rome in order the more easily and the more frequently to consult her; and with some hesitation she obeyed the summons, and attended by a train of more than forty nobles, priests, and women, she arrived in the Holy City on the 28th of October.

At the Pope's request she appeared in the Consistory, and addressed the assembled Cardinals1 on the trials and troubles of the Church, with an eloquence which moved them to astonishment, and a fire that kindled in them a new energy. Her exposition concluded with an animated appeal :-"Be of good courage," she said, "most holy Father. Whom do the blows of your enemies injure? Whom but themselves? Their arrows return to wound their own breasts. And you, too, reverend pastors, who surround our supreme pastor, be of good heart, and enter fearlessly into the struggle forced upon you. If God be with you who can be against you? Fight, and fight earnestly; but with no other weapons than prayer, repentance, virtue, love." When she had concluded, Urban rapidly translated her speech to the Cardinals, adding :-"What a reproach it is to us, my brethren, to yield to hesitancy and fear! I stand ashamed before this poor humble woman. Poor, humble, do I call her? Yea, but not in contempt,as referring only to the natural feebleness of her sex. That she should be afraid, while we were courageous and determined, would be no matter of surprise; whereas, it is we who are timid, while she, fearless and calm, inspires us with her noble words. Does she not put us all to the blush? What should CHRIST'S Vicar fear, though the whole world were against him? CHRIST the All-Powerful, Who is stronger than the world, can never forsake His Church."

Now was witnessed the spectacle of Christendom divided into two Papal factions, the Urbanites and the Clementines;

To counterbalance the defection to Clement, Pope Urban had created twenty-nine new Cardinals.

a division which lasted for forty years, and unquestionably helped to prepare the way for the Lutheran Reformation. France declared for Clement, England for Urban, who had also the support of Germany and Bohemia, Hungary, Poland, and Portugal, while Scotland out of opposition to England, sided with Clement. Urban carried with him almost all Italy except Naples. The chief European thrones were at this time occupied by youthful sovereigns, whose authority was insufficient to decide the contention; nor was there, as in the former schism, any one commanding mind, like S. Bernard, who, by throwing all his weight into the scale of one of the claimants could ensure that the other should be generally regarded as an anti-pope. On each side were saints and prophets whom their contemporaries regarded with reverence; and Catharine of Siena, Catharine of Sweden, and the royal friar-prophet, Peter of Aragon, who embraced the cause of Urban, were to some extent counterbalanced by Vincent Ferrer, the famous Spanish Dominican preacher, and the miracle-working CardinalBishop of Metz. Still, the influence of the Maid of Siena was undoubtedly much greater than that of any of the others; and Urban solicited her to use it for detaching Joanna of Naples from the party of his rival. Catharine addressed the queen in a series of pathetically eloquent letters, endeavouring to win her, not only as an adherent to Urban, but as a penitent to the Cross of CHRIST. It is not known, however, that these appeals were successful. In her interposition with Florence, Siena, Bologna, and Venice, however, Catharine was more happy, and she confirmed them in their allegiance to the man who, in her belief, had been rightly and validly elected to the chair of S. Peter.

But the time was swiftly approaching when, on earth, Catharine could no longer serve the great cause she loved. She had long suffered from an incurable disease, against which she had striven nevertheless, with all her unbounded energy. We are told that she was reduced to the most pitiably emaciated condition, and that she was tormented with a continual thirst; but she still laboured and prayed without ceasing. Those who saw her believed her to be rather a phantom than a human being; her body was visibly consumed, but her soul rose serene and joyful above every

trial. Wonderful power of Faith, which can thus elevate the spirit above the consciousness of pain and affliction, which renders tolerable the anguish of the present by revelations of a glorious future! Every day Catharine received those who sought her advice and assistance in matters of public or private interest; every day she visited the sick at their bedside, and the prisoner in his cell; every day she corresponded with the leaders of the Church in all parts of distracted Christendom; every day she repaired to S. Peter's, to offer up prayers for the welfare of the people; every evening she retired to her room to pray and meditate during the greater part of the night. She was the right hand of the Pope, who did nothing without her counsel; the stay and support of the Roman people, who trusted solely to her guidance. The sword was wearing out the scabbard. A life of such activity would have tried to the utmost a robust frame; what then must have been its effect on the enfeebled and exhausted Catharine ?

Feeling that her end was approaching, and longing to be gone; desiring to depart where beyond the world's clamorous voices prevails the Sabbath-rest of the children of GOD, she addressed her final advice to Pope Urban, encouraging him to persevere in the reformation of the Church, and not less urgently beseeching him to guard against his infirmities of temper. Letters of farewell were also written to her dearest friends and disciples. And thus the end drew rapidly nearer. It was accelerated by an accident which befell her on Sexagesima Sunday, 1380, when she would seem to have fallen, perhaps from weakness or fatigue, upon the steps of S. Peter's, and injured her spine, or violently shaken the muscular system. Her sufferings were thenceforth cruelly increased. During Lent, every morning after communion, her companions were compelled to lift her from the floor, and carry her to bed as if she were dead. Yet in the evening of each day she would revive, and arise and march to S. Peter's, a mile distant; would remain there for Vespers, returning home completely exhausted. In this course she persevered until the third Sunday in Lent, when she bowed beneath the burden of her sufferings, and the weight of the anguish which tortured her soul in view of the sins daily committed against GOD, and of the