382 BuoniCattolici
Sometimes we are privileged with a closer view. When Saint Pietro of Foli-
gno received a revelation from God that he would soon die, he began his
preparation. Each day until the Thursday before his death, he heard solemn
Mass in the church of San Feliciano. When he could no longer assist at
Mass, he called for a priest to make a general confession for the sins of his
entire life. He received his last Communion, the viaticum. The next Sunday,
lying ill in his little room in the church bell tower, he called for extreme
unction, the anointing of the dying. He had himself laid down on the hard
stones of the floor and took the sacred cross in his hands. Surrounded by his
admirers and friends, he died. When his soul departed the earth, those in
church for Sunday Mass saw the shrine candles he had so carefully tended
miraculously come alight. The clergy buried him there in the church, near
his beloved shrines, with great crowds assisting.^5
Heretics and excommunicates forfeited the consolation of the last rites. A
good death came in full union with the orthodox Church and the commu-
nity of the faithful. As the thirteenth century wore on, authorities monitored
the dying process ever more closely. In the late 1290 s, Don Giacopo Benin-
tendi of the church of San Tommaso in Bologna gave the last rites and a
Christian burial to his parishioner Rosafiore, who years before had been
penanced for involvement with heretics. The Bolognese inquisition punished
him with a stiff fine and burned the woman’s bones.^6 Earlier in the century
a lifetime of devotion to God and service to neighbor rendered one worthy
of the last rites. A good death was the promise of a good life. Zucchero
Bencivenni opened his Italian adaption of Laurent of Orleans’s treatise on
the virtues with the assertion: ‘‘Who does not know how to live, does not
know how to die; if you want to live authentically [francamente], learn to die
happily.’’^7 A happy death followed a life in which the Christian chose the
true goods (veraci beni) of divine grace over the inferior goods (mezzani beni)of
earth: beauty, wealth, power, knowledge. Earthly goods were not bad, but
only Christian love of God—charity—enabled the believer to master worldly
allurements and not be mastered by them. Charity made the Christian a
true lord (signore) of his life, with the prowess (prodezza) necessary to be a
knight of God (cavaliere di Dio).^8 Authenticity of action (franchezza) was central
to Zucchero Bencivenni’s treatise. The one who possessed it—as sinners,
children, and slaves could not—had true nobility (vera nobilita`) and so true
- Giovanni Gorini,[Legenda de Vita et Obitu Beati Petri de Fulgineo], 11 ,Analecta Bollandiana 8 ( 1889 ):
367 – 68.
6 .ASOB,no. 15 (April 1299 ) and no. 806 ( 20 April 1299 ), 1 : 37 – 39 , 2 : 597 – 98 ; on this incident, see
pages 444 – 46 below. - Zucchero Bencivenni,Trattato del ben vivere, 1 : ‘‘che non sa vivere, e non sa morire. Se tu vuoli
vivere francamente, appendi a morire lietamente.’’ - Ibid., 8 – 20.