194 THE MIDDLE AGES. A.D. 1294-1517.
thought, he imbibed the new spirit of free discussion, and was bold enough to assail the traditional dogmas of his time. In this way he contributed to the unsettlement of the pernicious mediseval theory of the seat of authority.
§ 21. Catherine of Siena, the Saint.
Next to Francisd^Assisi,^ the most celebrated of the Italian sainfsTs^CatherJTieQf .SifiJia — Caterina da Siena — 13.47-13g^. With Elizabeth of Thuringia, who lived more than a century before her, she is the most eminent of the holy women of the Middle Aofes whom the Church has canonized. Her fame de-
pends upon her single-hearted piety and her efforts to advance tlie mterests of the Cyiurch andLher natioii. She left no order to encourage the reverence for her name. She was the most public of all the women of the Middle Ages in Italy, and yet she passed unscathed and without a taint through streets and in courts. Now, as the daughter of an humble citizen of Siena, she ministers to the poor and the sick: now, as the prophetess of heaven, she appeals to the conscience of popes and of commonwealths. Her native Sienese have sanctified her with the fragrant name la heata poplana, the blessed daughter of the people. Although much in her career, as it has been handed down by her confessor and biographer, may seem to be legendary, and although the hysterical element may not be altogether wanting from her piety, she yet deserves and will have the admiration of all men who are moved by the sight of a noble enthusiasm. It would require a fanatical severity to read the account of her unwearied efforts and the letters, into which she equally poured the fire of her soul, without feeling that the Sienese saint was a very remarkable woman, the Florence Nightingale of her time or more, " one of the mostwonderful women_tJiat ha^*" ^"^'^^ li'vpjl/' as her most recent English biographer has pronounced her. Or, shall we join Gregorovius, the thorough student of mediaeval Rome, in saying, " Catherine's figure flits like that of an angel: through the darkness of her time, over which her gracious genius sheds a soft radiance. Her life is more worthy and assuredly
§ 21. CATHERINE OF SIENA, THE SAINT. 195
a more human subject for history than the lives of the popes of her age."i
Catherine Benincasa was the twenty-third of a family of twen^^five childreii. Her twin sister, Giovanna, died in infancy. Her father was a dyer in prosperous circumstances. Her mother, Monna Lapa, survived the daughter. Catherine treated her with filial respect, wrote her letters, several of which are extant, and had her with her on journeys and in Rome during her last days there. Catherine had no school
traininjg, and her knowledge of reading and writing she acquired after she was grown up^.
As a child she was susceptible to religious impressions, and frequented the Dominican church near her father's home. The miracles of her earlier childhood were reported by her confessor and biographer, Raymund of Capua. At twelve her parents arranged for her a marriage, but to avoid it Catherine cut off her beautiful hair. She joined the tertiary order of the Dominicans, the women adherents being called the mantellate from their black mantles. Raymund declares "that nature had not given her a face over-fair," and her personal appearance was marred by the marks of the smallpox. And yet she had a winning expression, a fund of good spirits, and sang and laughed heartily. Once devoted to a religious life, she practised great austerities, flagellating herself three times a day, — once for herself, once for the living and once for the dead. She wore a hair undergarment and an iron chain. During one Lenten season she lived on the bread taken in communion. These asceticisms were performed in a chamber in her father's house. She was never an inmate of a convent. Such extreme asceticisms as she practised upon herself she disparaged at a later period.
At an early age Catherine became the subjectof visions and revelations. On one of these occasions and after hours of dire temptation, when she was tempted to live like other girls, the Saviour appeared to her stretched on the cross and said : " My own daughter, Catherine, seest thou how much I
1 Gardner, p. vii ; Gregorovius, VI. 521 sqq.