|
I pray to God that He plunge a burning torch into your heart. You who are the father of this world Let him raze the last stubble of hot anger consuming you. I pray too, that God should build a pyre round your soul, like the defenceless deer flee and escape the savage lion, swiftly as lightning, that you lose your yearning for brief honor-- in that dawn the skipping lambs and peaceful sheep will gather in the sacred fold now lit by the torch of paradisal light on this earth. Then will Peter's net be full: He restored the world with a shepherd's staff, peacefully, He did not take it by war. |
An image of the Italian text from Visconti's 1840 edition |
|
Notes: From V CXLI:301. See also B E23, 214; No MSs; 1548 Valgrisi; 1586; 1760 Rota. Translations: Roscoe 60, 342; Thérault 477. A second to Paul III, also written between May and June 1541, during salt war, and destruction of Colonna strongholds Tordi, "VC @ Orvieto," 501-2. Key |
