Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - III. The Romanized Church under the Sverkers, Erics and Folkungar (1130—1389 A.D.)
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
Below is the raw OCR text
from the above scanned image.
Do you see an error? Proofread the page now!
Här nedan syns maskintolkade texten från faksimilbilden ovan.
Ser du något fel? Korrekturläs sidan nu!
This page has never been proofread. / Denna sida har aldrig korrekturlästs.
is- ST. BIRGITTA AT ROME AND IN THE EAST. 133
15. HER AMBITION TO BRING BACK THE POPE TO ROME
AND TO FOUND AN ORDER. CHARACTERISTICS OF
THE ORDER. VADSTENA. JOURNEY TO ROME.
LIFE THERE. URBAN V. RETURNS (1367) AND -SANC
TIONS HER STATUTES (1370). JOURNEY TO EAST,
AND DEATH. CANONIZED THREE TIMES, BUT
REVELATIONS TREATED WITH CAUTION. CRITICISM
AT BASEL.
She extended her messages to other European princes,
and she felt herself commissioned to declare in the name of
Christ that those two ferocious beasts, the kings of Eng
land and France, were to make peace on the basis of a
marriage, that so the kingdom might descend to the lawful
heir (Rev. iv. 104 and 105. Cp. Rev. vi. 34 and 63, to
Pope Clement VII.).
But her chief concern was to bring the popes from Avig
non, of the wickedness of which place she may have heard
from her father. The exile of the papacy from Italy for
seventy years was very distasteful to all good churchfolk,
at least outside France. In England it was made a reason
for the non-payment of the customary tribute and of Peter s-
pence. Even in Sweden it provoked resentment. Two
years after her husband s death Birgitta received a revela
tion, in which Christ thus spake to her:
"
Go to Rome:
for there the streets are paved with everlasting gold; tfrat
is, the blood of the martyrs and saints. There, by the
merits of the saints and the absolution of the pope, lies the
shortest way to heaven. In Rome thou shalt remain until
thou hast seen the pope and the emperor" (S.R.S. III. 2
202).
She wrote to the then pope, Clement VI. (1342 1352),
the implacable enemy of the Emperor Lewis, urging him
to break the fetters of his Babylonish captivity, and to re
turn to the capital of Christendom. The failure of her
entreaties, combined with other impulses, such as the wish
to attend the jubilee of 1350 and the desire to promote the
interests of her proposed order, led her to take her journey
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
