lay my hands on a copy of the seventeenth-century Italian translation of Benet Fitch’s Rule of Perfection. Extremely interesting in itself, this book is also of great historical significance; for from it, as I have tried to show, Berulle and his followers derived the principles of their personalistic pseudo-mysticism, and Father Joseph learned that technique of ‘active annihilation,’ by means of which he hoped to be able to disinfect his politics.

No attempt has been made in this book to depict in any detail the political and social background to Father Joseph’s career. Historical events and conditions have been described as briefly as possible and only in so far as they were strictly relevant to the main theme. In conclusion, I would like to express my gratitude for much valuable assistance rendered by the Librarian and staff of the library of the University of California at Los Angeles.

TRANSLATIONS

1. When, at day’s hottest hour,
   the burning Dog Star makes a furnace of the air,
   my roving feet affront the swarthy regions of the earth,
   though I be streaming with sweat.
2. The aspiring crests of the snowy Alps and Pyrenees
   have not sufficed to limit my long marches
   that aim at the very heavens.
   Dear Lord, if it is Thy hand which has penetrated me with the wound of this piercing design,
   I have the right to show Thee my tender hurt
   and to unveil my breast.
3. He who cleaves to God, is one spirit with God.
4. In peace is his place established.
5. Thy will be done.
6. Love, and do what thou wilt.
7. Depart from me, for I am a sinful man.
8. Dost Thou wash my feet?
9. Not my will be done, but Thine.
10. In peace is his place established.
11. O nobility and clergy,
    you elder sons of France,
    since you so ill maintain the King’s honour,
    since the Third Estate surpasses you in this point,
    your juniors must now become your elders.
12. In a thousand turns he fashions the long windings of his voice,
    so that the sky resounds with consummate singing.
    Of this song that continues night and day it is hard to say whether it dies,
    or swoons, whether it sighs with torment, bliss or love.
    And when, walking in the fields,
    I lift up my heart in some hymn of praise,
    this envious singer also tries to raise his voice to heaven.
    But in mid-music, the violent sweetness of the angelic harmony
    makes answer to the voices of my heart.
    These little birds, that join their various accents in a single theme,
    are like the choir of the saints united throughout the world.
13. God’s deeds by means of the French.
14. The deeds of the French are the deeds of God.
15. If, in order to succour thee,
    I overturn the whole world, it is all too little for my wishes;
    to quench the fires of my ardour,
    I must drown me in a sea of blood.
16. I know not whither my design,
    whose end I cannot see,
    is leading me so swiftly;
    but like a bright star blazing in the sky,
    it guides me through the night.
17. For cognate things stick together,
    France and Francis, names fatal to the Turks.
18. Skilful Hunyadi and Scanderbeg the Terrible.
19. To be a good man according to God is one thing;
    to be a good man according to men is quite another.
20. Tilly! thee too my lyre shall sing,
    and may the Shade of the cold sepulchre ne’er hide dune egregious name!
21. We must love God the avenger as much as we love God the merciful.
22. drag from the consecrated places the weeping virgins, whom they dare to carry off to be violated.
23. But as a punishment for having burnt them, they themselves are immolated in the flames.
24. Passer-by, is it not a strange thing that a demon should be next to an angel?