Chapter XLIV: , p. 117b, of which long and most important Chapter (pp

116_c_-121_b_) only the first seven lines occur in the MSS. The passage (omitting a highly glossed bracketed clause and a parallel, secondary half-sentence) runs: “After this, ( ), the Lord gave her a Priest (_Prete_) to have a care of her soul and body. [ ] He was elected Rector of the Hospital in which she abode, and he was wont to hear her Confessions, to say Mass for her, and to give her Communion, as often as she liked. This Priest (_Sacerdote_), at the request of various spiritual persons devoted to this Beata, has written a considerable part (_buona parte_) of this work, having many times tempted her on and incited her to tell him of the singular graces which God had given her and had effected within her [; especially since (_massime che_) this Religious, owing to long experience and intercourse, knew and understood particularly well (_molto bene_) the sequence of her life].”

This introductory authentication is followed by the highly reliable and important matters described in my Chapter IV,--her manner of Confession; the incident of the perfume from Marabotto’s hand; her solemn declaration as to her twenty-five years of complete interior loneliness with God; and the murmurs of some of her friends as to the closeness of their intimacy, and his consequent absence from her for three days. All this (pp. 117_b_-121_b_) was certainly written down by Marabotto himself, at the time, in substantially its present form.

Although this whole series now opens out with “la prima volta che si volle confessare a questo Religioso” (p. 117_c_), the words “a questo Religioso” are doubtless an addition of the Redactor. For everywhere else Marabotto is always “il Confessore” or “suo Confessore,” whilst “un Religioso” is reserved for Vernazza: and wherever she uses any specific appellation to the Confessore,--a thing which is quite exceptional,--she says “Padre”; whilst where she does so to the Religioso, she says “Figliuolo.”[461] And, wherever the Confessore addresses her, there is never any specific address; whereas the Religioso constantly addresses her as “Madre.”[462]

As to “Confessore,” we get one mentioned as Confessor to the Convent of S. Maria delle Grazie in 1460, p. 2_b_ the same or another Confessor of the same Convent in 1473, p. 4_a_, _c_, is called “buon Religioso.” Both these men, or this one man, heard Catherine’s Confessions at those dates. But, a most important point: all the other Confessore-passages throughout the book refer to after 1499, and to Marabotto alone. For this is a list of them all. On p. 7_c_: here she is “so gravely ill, as to be unable to eat,” a thing belonging to the times after 1499. (In events of an obviously earlier date,--her fervent Communions,--pp. 8_a_, _c_, we get not “Confessore” but simply “Sacerdote.”) On p. 10_c_: here “to test her, he commanded her to eat,” an action of which the results are described on pp. 117_b_, 119_c_. On page 108_b_: but here her fasting is liable to damage her health, which points to after 1501. On p. 113_b_: but here the Confessore remains her sole aid, as in the accounts referring to Marabotto in January 1510 and shortly before, pp. 120_a_, 121_b_; 120_b_, 139_a_-_c_. On p. 115_b_: but here the possessed “spiritual daughter” is certainly Mariola Bastarda, who did not live with Catherine till after Giuliano’s death in 1497. On pp. 117_b_-121_b_: the Confessore is throughout avowedly Marabotto, and a treble indication here forces us to date his Confessorship from not before 1499. The remaining “Confessore”-references,--pp. 130_a_, 138_c_, 139_a_, _b_, _c_; 140_b_, _c_; 143_c_, 156_c_, 157_b_,--are all explicitly subsequent to 1501 and pertinent to Marabotto alone.

Now there is no good reason for doubting Marabotto’s original, and still largely unmodified, authorship of all the above passages in which he himself occurs. Only as to the scene with the possessed Mariola,