Spiritual background for REVELATION 17
previous - next - text - Revelation - BM Home - Full PageAR Chapter 17
AR 752. To this I will add this Relation.
It was granted me to speak with Pope Sextus Quintus. He came out of a certain society in the west to the left. He said to me that he was appointed as chief governor of a society collected from Catholics who excel the rest in judgment and industry; and that he was made their chief governor for the reason that he had believed for half a year before his death that the vicarship was an invention for the sake of dominion; and that the Lord the Saviour, because He is God, is He who is alone to be adored and worshiped; also that the Sacred Scripture is Divine, and thus more holy than the edicts of popes. He said that he remained firm in the belief of these two heads of religion until the end of his life. He also said that their saints are not anything. He wondered when I related that it was decreed in a synod, and confirmed by a bull, that they should be invoked. He said that he led an active life as he had done in the world; and that he proposed to himself every morning nine or ten things, which he wished should be accomplished before evening. I asked whence he obtained in so few years so great a treasure as he had laid up in the castle of Angelo. He replied that he wrote with his own hand to the rulers of the rich monasteries, to send him at their discretion from their resources as much as they were willing, as it was for a holy use; and that they sent abundantly, because they feared him. And when I said that that treasure was still remaining, he said, "For what use is it now?" While speaking with him, I related that since his time the treasure in Loretto had been immensely increased and enriched, and in like manner the treasures in certain monasteries, especially in Spain; but not to so great a degree at this day as in former ages. And I added, that they keep them without any end of use, other than to enjoy themselves from their possession. And when I related this, I said also that they are thus like the infernal gods, which the ancients called Plutos. When I mentioned Plutos, he replied, "Be silent, I know." He said again, that no others are admitted into the society over which be presided, but those who excel in judgment, and can receive the belief that the Lord alone is the God of heaven and earth, and that the Word is the Holy Divine; and that under the Lord’s auspices he is every day perfecting that society. And he said that he has spoken with the saints so called; but that they become foolish, when they hear and believe that they are saints. He also called the pontiffs and cardinals stupid, those who wish to be adored like Christ, though not in person, and who do not acknowledge the Word as the Holy Divine itself, according to which alone one should live. He wishes me to say to those who are now living, that Christ is the God of heaven and earth, and that the Word is the Holy Divine; and that the Holy Spirit does not speak through the mouth of anyone, but Satan, who wishes to be adored as God; and that they who do not attend to these things, as stupid, go away to their own, and after a time are cast down into hell, to those who labor in the fantasy that they are gods; who have no other life than the life of a wild beast. To this I said, "Perhaps these things are too hard for me to write." But he answered, "Write, and I will endorse it, because they are true." And then he went away from me into his society, and endorsed one copy, and transmitted it as a Bull to the other societies devoted to the same religion.