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Chapter 144

The bride saw a person dressed in a pontifical scapular standing in a house spattered with mud from the streets. The roof the house was almost pressing down on the person's skull. Black Ethiopians with hooks and other instruments of torture were surrounding the house but were unable to touch the said person, though they filled him with the greatest of terror.

Then I heard a voice saying to me: ”This is the soul of that pope whom you knew. This house is his spiritual reward. He dealt in worldly affairs, and his reward, therefore, is not yet a shining one, not until he has been cleansed in purgatory and made brighter with spiritual prayers and God's love. The roof is pressing down upon him. This is a mystical sign, for the roof symbolizes love for God. The wider and higher it is in respect to spiritual things and divine fervor, the greater love one has. Because the love of this soul was ardent for certain worldly affairs and preferred to follow her self-will, the roof, which is bright and high in the case of God's elect, is too low for her, until it is enlarged by the blood of God's Son and the intervention of the heavenly court. The soul is dressed in a scapular. This is a sign that he was eager to follow the religious life and his vocation, but his efforts were not great enough to be an example for advanced souls or a model for the perfect.
Now, however, you are permitted to know three of the works that he did in his life on account of which he is now being punished. The first was that he was disobedient toward God and his own conscience, for which his conscience felt contrition and remorse. The second is that he gave dispensations in some cases for the sake of carnal affection due to following his own self-will. The third is that he ignored some things that he might have corrected in order not to offend those he loved. Know, however, that this soul is not in the company of those that descend into hell, nor with those that come to the more painful trials of purgatory. Instead, he finds himself with those who day by day hasten nearer to the grace and vision of the majesty of almighty God.”

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