The shield and triple veil of the curia; the death of Gregory XI

Some hint that they have power for this, which power they call lordshipdominium: lordship, and since it is given immediately by Christ, who gives to each of his priests abundantly, that power is prior, more principal and more extensive than the power acquired by a secular lord by carnal hereditary right, by conquest or by worldly titletitulus: title. And to this tend all the conclusions which the disciples of Antichrist, falsely, against scripture, hint at, to the disturbance of kingdoms and the diminution of the Christian religion, insomuch that those disciples of Antichrist are the chief enemies of those to whom they seem carnally attached, because the devil and all his membersmembrum: member, just as in imitating [him] they continually harm themselves, so they hurt the true peace of others whom they seem to profit.¹ And they allegeallegare / allegacio: allege / allegation that [saying] of the Apostle, Romans 8:32: "His own Son he spared not, but delivered him up for us all. How hath he not with him given us all things?"² And 1 Corinthians 3:22: 357"All things are yours"; and in Mark 10:29 Christ says that whoever has left the world and the flesh for his name will receive a hundred times as much.³ And in this world, they say, the priest, and especially the religiousreligiosi: the religious, has the rightius: right / law which is lordship, to exercise lordship over the whole world in secular fashion; and so Christ taught them to leave the world, that they might live more secularly. But when it is asked whether lay people who leave all things for Christ will be partakers with them, whether one who excludes another does him injury, with other things that concern civil lordship, they are in straits. Therefore they defend one captaincapitaneus: captain whom they name pope, under whose shadow they are faithlessly protected. And if it is objectedinstatur; obicitur: it is objected that the Roman curiacuria romana: the Roman curia extinguishes many errors, the answer is that in so far it is praiseworthy, and [in so far] its satrapssatrapa: satrap are to be obeyed. But if the little foxes that destroy particular vineyards have there holes in which, wrapped in crimes, they are defended more cunningly and more steadily, who doubts that that nest would be a fountain of poison from whose streams venom gushes into the faithful church militantecclesia militans / triumphans / dormiens: the church militant / triumphant / sleeping?⁴ And the shield and covering of this venom seem to be that perverse congregation and the triple veil by which the minds of the faithful are blinded. For when a moneyed man appeals to that curia, what with lies, what with the evil examples of crime taken up there, and what with the cunning traditions devised there both by our people and by others, a shield of unbeliefinfidelitas: heathenism, unbelief has been brought in to defend the member of the devil against kingdoms and holy church.⁵ And the threefold veil establishes first the principle that it is not lawful for a Christian to judge their word or deed, since they are gods beneath the earth, to whom is given the power of the keys equal with Christ, who can establish holy scripture, 358correct and change it;⁶ and since they could be convicted only from holy scripture and their own deeds, it is clear that no means of accusing them remains. The second part of the veil consequently adds that to be subject to them as the head of holy mother church, however they have lived, is for every Christian of necessity of salvation,⁷ and consequently to fulfil whatever they have commanded, since it is not possible (as they say) that any of them should be damned. The third part of the devil’s veil is the feigned plenitude of powerplenitudo potestatis: plenitude of power, by which they terrify the world with pretended legation and excommunication, so that, if they have decreed anything to be done in another church, by that very fact it must be done; and because with these arms they have reserved to themselves the power of conferring the benefices of the church, and the higher and weightier persons of the church abroad simoniacally covet pomp and temporal advantage, therefore, because of the multitude, because of the reputation and because of the terror of these satellites, the few simple men are frightened from speaking the truth.⁸

But blessed be the bridegroomsponsa / sponsus: bride / bridegroom of the church, who killed Gregory XI and scattered his accomplices, whose crimes have been laid bare to the church by Urban VI, and the quality of the poison has been somewhat mitigated by their division.⁹ And would that it pleased the bridegroom of the church to accomplish what some foretell and others pray for: namely that the number eleven, infamous and sterile, transgressing the whole decalogue,¹⁰ should put an end to the number of false superiors who say: "Let us possess by inheritance, civil standingcivilitas: civil standing and sword the sanctuary of God and the patrimony of Christ."¹¹ He, they say, was crucified on the wood, and the apostle to the world,¹² that we might kill with the sword and crucify on the gibbet those who rebel against us; because, they say, as necessary as was the power of working miracles in the primitive church, so necessary today is the bodily power of acquiring and defending temporal goodstemporalia: temporal goods. Yet we know that the one power infinitely exceeds the other, and that the propertylessexproprietarii / exproprietarie: the propertyless / without property life is more perfect than the secular life, and that temporal goods were as necessary to the clergy in the primitive 359church as now, and that their withdrawal, and the suspensionsuspendere; suspencio: to suspend; suspension of the plunder of goods with joy, would be more necessary now than it was then;¹³ nor is that feigned defence founded on holy scripture.¹⁴