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influence with persons of all classes, with accounts of several notable persons whose lives were totally changed by her exhortations to peace and virtue, and descriptions of her consolations to prisoners and criminals on the scaffold, and of her visits to the wives and families of exiled nobles. A letter from her to the magistrates of Siena, in answer to one from them complaining of the length of her visit to the noble family of Salimbene, is extremely interesting, as showing the jealousy that existed between classes.

In the year 1374 Italy was devastated by the great plague, described by Boccaccio and other contemporary writers. Eighty thousand people are said to have died in Siena, and the town has never since recovered its former prosperity. Catherine became specially distinguished at this time, both by her unwearied exertions among the stricken population, and by the power of her faith and prayers in restoring health and courage to many of those attacked.

It is after the subsidence of this epidemic, in the year 1375, that we first hear of her work in the wider sphere of national politics.

The spirit of war and discord was at this time greatly stimulated by the presence in Italy of large troops of foreign mercenary soldiers. The old wars, though terribly frequent, and bitter enough while they lasted, had the advantage of being, as a rule, limited in duration, as the soldiers were citizens engaged in trades and occupations of their own, and after a few days’ campaign were anxious to return to their own busi­ness. One decisive battle, therefore, often settled the point in dispute, and tribute having been exacted, or other humiliations imposed upon the vanquished, the adher­ents of the defeated party being exiled and their goods confiscated, everything went on very much as before. But such w 7 as not now the case. In 1370, wars in Italy increased in frequency and duration until they became almost incessant, and the pres­ence of these large troops of mercenary soldiers made peace almost more terrible than w 7 ar. Catherine’s first object seems to have been to free Italy from this heavy burden, and by turning this restless fighting spirit into a legitimate channel by the old mediaeval idea of a crusade. She visited Pisa at this time and there met the ambas­sador of the Queen of Cyprus on his w 7 ay to entreat the assistance of the Pope against the Turks, w 7 ho had invaded the territory of that queen.

Catherine seems to have at once thrown herself warmly into this project and to have devoted herself for many hours each day to writing letters to the principal peo­ple throughout Italy, endeavoring to inspire them with her own enthusiasm. What­ever may be our own feelings as to the merits of this idea, these letters are full of interest and throw much light upon the ideas and feelings of the men and women of that day, and on the motives underlying the so-called “ Holy Wars.” We must now pass rapidly over the most important and best known events of Catherine’s life, her employment by the Republic of Florence, in the year 1376, as ambassador on their behalf to the Pope, Gregory XI., at Avignon. It is a matter of history that the influ­ence of Catherine had great part in the Pope’s final decision to return to Rome, and records of her conversations with Gregory, which were made at the time, show us the practical qualities gained in her experience as an artisan’s daughter, and a citizen of a free republican city.

The continued appreciation of her services is shown by her being again employed as ambassador between the Pope and Florence, and by her success in this capacity, first under Gregory and finally under his successor, Urban VI. And we need not think that Catherine’s influence can be accounted for by the weakness and ultra refine­ment of Gregory’s character, for Urban VI., a man'of a very different disposition, who had first made her acquaintance at Avignon, equally valued and appreciated her ser­vices. We feel that Catherine, among whose favorite words were “ virile ” and “ viril- ment,” and who constantly exhorted women as well as men to act in a courageous, strong, manly spirit, must have had much more real sympathy with the stern and uncompromising Urban than with the gentle and irresolute Gregory. We can not dwell upon the close of Catherine’s life, the last eighteen months of which were spent

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