1 result for (book:ecs4 AND heading:"esp class session may 25 1971" AND stemmed:centuri)
[... 46 paragraphs ...]
Now. For a while I was not in Rome, but held my religious call elsewhere. I wrote two Church laws. It should all go to show you that some good ends up from everything. I died of trouble with my stomach because I was such a glutton. My name was not Clement (to Theodore), though Clement is a lovely name. I was originally called Protonius. Now give me a moment. The last name is not nearly so clear, and this is not my papal name, but my, if you will forgive the term, common name. Meglemanius. The third. From a small village. Unless I summon the self that I was at that time, the memories for details are not that clear. But as I now recall them, without directly checking on our friend the pope, who has, you must understand, gone his own way, I am coming as close as I can. We did not have as many guards at that time, but we had many stolen paintings and jewels of great merit. Now some of these jewels, as well as the money, went for expeditions that you do not realize were adopted at that time, having to do with commerce and ships sent through Africa, and this interest had to do with my later life when I was involved with the oregano. My sniffing goes back for centuries.
[... 2 paragraphs ...]
I was very fond of my first mistress, whose name was Maria. And there were no such sane rules as those in which you now sit. And there were no governments as secure in which you could reside as those you now enjoy. I did believe implicitly in the God in which I was brought up, and in that belief. It was only later that I wondered how such a God would choose me for such a position and then I began to wonder. I had four lives following that of the most adverse circumstances to make sure that I understood the difference between luxury and poverty, pride and compassion. And there were days that I walked in other centuries the same streets that I had walked as a pope, but then only put my fancy toes abruptly upon and lifted them up again. But as a peasant I walked with a heavy foot and great weight until I learned the lessons that I had to learn, as all of you will learn your own lessons.
[... 5 paragraphs ...]