1A
There was a cardinal—Gastaldi was his name—who went a good deal into society to the neglect of more important duties. One evening, when he was at a conversazione, Padre Filippo came to the house where he was and had him called out to him in an empty room.
‘Your Eminence! come to this window, I have something to show you.’
The Cardinal came to the window and looked out, and instead of the houses he saw Hell opened and all the souls[3] in the flames; a great serpent was wriggling in and out among them and biting them, and in the midst was a gilt cardinalitial chair.
‘Who is that seat for?’ inquired the Cardinal.
‘It is placed there for your Eminence,’ replied St. Philip.
‘What must I do to escape it?’ exclaimed the Cardinal, horrified and self-convicted.
Padre Filippo read him a lecture on penitence and amendment of life, and for the practical part of his advice warned him to devote to good works moneys he had been too fond of heaping up. The Cardinal after this became very devout, and the poor were great gainers by St. Philip’s instructions to him, and the two churches you see at the end of the Corso and Babbuino in Piazza del Popolo were also built by him with the money Padre Filippo had warned him to spend aright, and you may see his arms up there any day for yourself.[4]