oath, and committed various injustices towards the Church, he was
excommunicated the following year by the same Pope; and afterwards
deprived of his empire, and abandoned by the whole world. It is thus
that the greatness of the world, so fickle in itself, and always put
an end to by death, falls sometimes even before that, by misconduct,
and by the just judgments of God.

Zeal for the salvation of souls induced Francis to move his small troop
into the Valley of Rieti. He halted at an abandoned hermitage on a
large rock, which he thought to be a convenient place for entering
into conversation with God.

Being at prayer one day on this rock, and ruminating in the bitterness
of his soul on his past years, he was assured, by a fresh inspiration
of the Holy Ghost, that his sins were forgiven him, which filled him
with joy. We cannot doubt but that his sins had been remitted him at
the period of his conversion, by sincere contrition and the sacrament
of penance. But in this happy moment he received the assurance thereof
by revelation, and he learnt at the same time that the remission was
entire, that is to say, that all the temporal punishment due to his
sins had been remitted.

St. Bridget, whose revelations are sanctioned and respected by the
Church, relates that she learnt from our Saviour that, when Francis
retired from the world to enter on the way of perfection, he obtained
from God a lively sorrow for his sins, which enabled him to say: "There
is nothing on earth which I am not heartily willing to give up; nothing
so laborious and so toilsome that I would not joyfully endure, nothing
that I would not undertake, according to the strength of my body and
soul, for the glory of my Lord Jesus Christ; and I will, as far as is