The Dialogue

Of many other defects of the said ministers ; and in particular of their frequenting taverns and gambling and harlotry.

" WHENCE comes the stench that so infects their souls ? From their own sensuality, which sensuality and selflove have they enthroned as the mistress of their soul, who has become sensuality's handmaid, whereas I had made her free with the Blood of My Son. I speak of the general manumission when the whole human race was freed from the servitude and lordship of the Devil. Every

268 THE DIALOGUE OF ST. CATHERINE

rational creature received this grace but, over and above it, I set free My anointed ones from the servitude of the world, and appointed them to serve Me, the eternal God, alone, and to administer the Sacraments of the holy Church, and so free have I made them, that I do not wish any temporal lord to be their judge. Dost thou know, dearest daughter, how they repay Me for so great a benefit ? They repay Me in this way by continually persecuting Me with such diverse and terrible sins that thy tongue could not narrate, and thou wouldest faint at hearing them. Certain things, however, I will tell thee of them besides that which I have already said, in order to give thee matter for weeping and compassion. They ought to remain at the table of the Cross with holy desire, feeding on the food of souls for My honour, and although every rational creature should do so, much more ought they whom I have chosen in order to administer to you the Body and Blood of Christ crucified, My only- begotten Son, and to give you the example by their labours, of a good and holy life, and to feed on the food of your souls, following My Truth with great and holy desire. But they have chosen for their table the public tavern, and there, openly cursing and per juring themselves, full of many miserable sins, like men blinded and without the light of reason, have become animals through their sins, and live lasciviously in word and deed. They do not know if there be any Divine office, and if sometimes they say it, they do so with their tongue only, their heart being far from Me. They are also rogues and cheats, and having played for their soul, and lost it to the Devil, they stake the goods of the Church, and the temporal substance which they receive by virtue of the blood, cheating and gambling it away. Wherefore the poor do not receive their due, and the Church remains unfurnished and deprived of the necessary ornaments ; for these men, having become temples of the Devil, take no further care of My Temple. But those ornaments which they ought to place in the church out of reverence of the Blood, they place in their own houses ; and what is worse, they do this as bridegrooms adorning their spouses,

A TREATISE OF PRAYER 269,

for these incarnate demons adorn with church property their she-devils, with whom they live shamelessly in iniquity and impurity, sending them about or keeping them with them, at their own pleasure ; so much so that these wretched demons, even when they are celebrating at the altar, are not the least disturbed if their wretched she-devil should come up with the rest of the people to make her offering, leading their children by the hand. Oh ! demons, and more than demons ! if only your iniquities were more concealed from the eyes of your subjects, doing them in secret, you would indeed offend Me and hurt yourselves, but at least you would not do the harm you now do to your neighbour, laying bare your criminal life before his eyes, sa that your example gives him no reason to leave his own. sins, but rather causes him to fall into similar and greater ones than you fall into yourselves. Is this the purity that I require from My minister, when he comes to celebrate at My altar ? What purity is this that he brings, who rises in the morning with his mind defiled, and his body corrupted with impure mortal sin, and proceeds to celebrate ? Oh t tabernacle of the Devil, where are thy matins sung devoutly in solemn choir ? Where is thy continual and holy prayer ? Where are thy night watches, during which thou disposest thyself for the holy ministry which thou hast to perform in the morning, meditating on thy self-knowledge, and deeming thyself unworthy of so great a mystery, and on thy knowledge of Me, who have made thee worthy, not through thy own merits, but have chosen thee to be My minister,, through My goodness, so that thou mayest administer Me to My other creatures ? "