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overflowed with joy,
flooded with holy comfort.
122 But then there came a rapid change in events, as a new problem rose up in the world.a The joyful peace was quickly shaken as the torch of envy was lit and the Church was torn apart by internal warfare among its members. The Romans, that fierce and rebellious people, struck with their usual savagery against their neighbors and boldly stretched forth their hands against the holy places. 1 Mc 14:31 b The great Pope Gregory tried to restrain this rising evil, to control the savagery, and to stop the attacks, to safeguard the Church of Christ like a fortified tower. Danger multiplied, destruction increased, and in the rest of the world sinners lifted up their necks Ps 129:4 [Vulgate, Ps 128:4] in rebellion against God. What could he do? With great experience, he gauged the future and assessed the present, deciding to abandon the City to the rebels so as to free the world and defend it from more rebellion. He went to the city of Rieti, where he was received with fitting honor. From there he continued on to Spoleto, where everyone honored him with great reverence. He stayed there for several days to organize the Church’s cause. Then, accompanied by the venerable cardinals, he kindly paid a visit to the handmaids of Christ, dead and buried to the world.c Their holy way of life, their highest poverty, 2 Cor 8:2 and their renowned way of living moved him to tears along with his companions, encouraging them to despise worldly things and enkindling in them love for the life of chastity.
O lovable humility, nurse of all graces!
The prince of the whole world,
successor of the prince of the Apostles,
visits the poor women,
going to the lowly, humble and enclosed!
- The German emperor Frederick II controlled northern Italy and, through his mother, the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies; he exercised a vise-like grip on the Papal States. He invaded the Papal States and from a distance exercised his influence on the people of Rome, who revolted on Easter Monday 1228 during the papal Mass in Saint Peter’s Basilica. Gregory IX did not return to Rome until 1230. Thus, Thomas refers to the people stretching "forth their hands against the holy places."
- This passage is reminiscent of Bernard of Clairvaux’s comments to Pope Eugene III about the Romans in his work De consideratione ad Eugenium III, IV c. 2, n.2. "What shall I say of the people? They are Romans. I could say nothing more concise or express anything more openly than what I feel about your parishioners. What is better known to the world than the impudence and arrogance of the Romans! They are a nation hostile to peace, one that is merciless and unmanageable, completely ignorant of what it means to be subject unless they are incapable of resisting." Elsewhere he writes: "These people are hateful of heaven and earth, for they raise their hands against both: disrespectful toward God, irreverent toward the sacred, rebellious toward one another, envious toward their neighbors, inhumane toward foreigners."
- A reference to the Poor Ladies of the monastery of Saint Paul, near Spoleto.
Vita Prima, Fontes Franciscani, p. 401-402
superabundat gaudio,
et sancta consolatione perfunditur.
122 1Sed fit subita conversio rerum, et nova interim causa emergit in mundo.2Turbatur protinus pacis iucundum, et exardescente invidiae face, domestico et intestino bello Ecclesia laceratur.3Romani, seditiosum hominum genus et ferox, in vicinos ex more desaeviunt, et temerarii ad sancta manus extendunt.4Studet egregius Papa Gregorius exortam compescere malitiam, saevitiam reprimere, impetum temperare, et velut munitissima turris Christi tuetur Ecclesiam.5Multa pericula ingruunt, exitia multa crebrescunt, et adversus Deum reliquo in orbe peccatorum cervix w erigitur.6Quid enim? Experientissime futura dimetiens, praesentia ponderans, seditiosis reliquit Urbem, ut orbem a seditionibus liberet et defendat.7Venit proinde ad civitatem Reatinam, ubi honorifice suscipitur sicut decet; inde progrediens Spoletum ab omnibus magna cum reverentia honoratur. 8Ubi paucis diebus commorans, causa Ecelesiae informata, comitantibus ipsum venerabilibus cardinalibus, ad Christi famulas, mundo mortuas et sepultas, benignus advenit.9Quarum conversatio sancta, paupertas altissima et institutio gloriosa ipsum cum reliquis movet ad lacrimas, ad contemptum provocat saeculi, ad caelibem vitam accendit.
10O amabilis omnium gratiarum nutrix humilitas!
11Princeps orbis terrarum,
successor principis apostolorum
visitat pauperculas mulieres,
accedit ad abiectas et humiles carceratas,