Page:The World's Famous Orations Volume 7.djvu/50

 THE WORLD'S FAMOUS ORATIONS II

AFTER HIS EXCOMMUNICATION

(1498)

you that whoso opposes this work opposes Christ. Understand me well, O Rome! Whoso opposes this work opposes Christ. O Italy! Whoso opposes this work opposes Christ, O Christian people! If you oppose it you are fighting against Christ, and not against the friar. If you say that the priests of the Church are gathered together against me, I reply that this has come to pass that the prophecies might be fulfilled, even as in our Lord's passion many things were done that the Scriptures might be fulfilled. In this, your hour, you make me perforce a prophet; for you know well that long ago, and repeatedly, I foretold the opposition of the priesthood and of the wicked.

And I tell you that a new time is coming; and great wars are at hand and we must sustain a more severe contest than that in which we are now engaged. O Lord, I do not ask for peace. War! war! war! is my cry. War, I mean, with the devil; for it is enough to be at peace with Christ. As for the excommunication,