Another time as this creature was at Saint John Lateran's Church in Rome, before the altar, hearing Mass, she thought that the priest who said Mass seemed a good man and devout. She was sore moved in spirit to speak with him. Then she prayed her man with the broken back to go to the priest and pray him to speak with her. The priest understood no English and knew not what she said, and she knew no other language but English. Therefore they spoke by an interpreter, a man who told each what the other said.

     Then she prayed the priest, in the Name of Jesus, that he should make his prayers to the Blissful Trinity, to Our Lady and to all the saints in Heaven, also stirring others that loved Our Lord to pray for him, that he might have grace to understand her language and her speech in such things as she, by the grace of God, would say and shew unto him.

     The priest was a good man, and by his birth he was a Duchman, a good clerk and a well learned man, highly beloved, well cherished and much trusted in Rome, and he had one of the greatest offices of any priest in Rome.

     Desiring to please God, he followed the counsel of this creature and made his prayers to God, as devoutly as he could every day, that he might have grace to understand what the aforesaid creature would say to him, and also he made other lovers of Our Lord to pray for him.

     Thus they prayed thirteen days. And after thirteen days the priest came again to her to prove the effect of their prayer and then he understood what she said in English to him, and she understood what he said. And yet he understood no English that other men spoke; though they spoke the same words that she spoke, yet he understood them not, unless she spoke herself.

     Then was she confessed to this priest of all her sins, as near as her memory would serve her, from her childhood until that hour, and received her penance full joyfully.

     Afterwards, she shewed him the secret things, of revelation and of high contemplations, and how she had such mind of His Passion, and such great compassion when God would give it, that she fell down therewith and could not bear it. Then she wept bitterly; she sobbed boisterously, and cried full loud and horribly, so that the people were oftentimes afraid and greatly astonished, deeming she had been vexed with some evil spirit or a sudden sickness, not believing it was the work of God, but rather some evil spirit, or a sudden sickness, or else simulation and hypocrisy, falsely feigned by her own self.

     The priest had great trust that it was the work of God, and when he mistrusted, Our Lord sent him such tokens by the aforesaid creature of his own misbehaviour and of his living which no man knew but God and he, that Our Lord shewed to her by revelation, and bade her tell him, so that he knew well thereby that her feelings were true.

     And this priest received her full meekly and reverently, as for his mother and his sister, and said he would support her against her enemies. And so he did, as long as she was in Rome, and suffered many evil words and much tribulation.

     And also he forsook his office, because he would support her in her sobbing and in her crying when all her countrymen had forsaken her; for they were ever her greatest enemies, and caused her much grief in every place where they came, for they would that she never sobbed or cried. And she had no choice; but that, they would not believe.

     Then this good man, seeing this woman so wonderfully sobbing and crying, and especially on Sunday when she wuld be houselled amongst all the people, determined to prove whether it were the gift of God, as she said, or else her own feigning by hypocrisy, as the people said, and took her alone another Sunday into another church when Mass was done, and all the people were home, no man knowing thereof save himself and the clerk only. And when he would housel her, she wept so plenteously and sobbed and cried so loud that he was astonished himself, for it seemed to his hearing hat she never cried so loud before that time. And he believed fully that it was the working of the Holy Ghost and neither feigning nor hypocrisy of her ownself.

     Then afterwards, he was not abashed to hold with her and to speak against them that would defame her and speak evil of her, till he was detracted by the enemies of virtue nearly as much as she, and it pleased him well to suffer tribulation for God's cause.

     Many people in Rome, that were disposed to virtue, loved him much the more, and her also, and often prayed her to meat and made her right great cheer, praying her to pray for them. And ever her own countrymen were obstinate, and especially a priest that was amongst them. He stirred many people against her and said much evil of her, because she wore white clothing more than did others, who were holier and better than ever was she, as he thought.

     The cause of his malice was that she would not obey him, and she knew full well that it was against the health of her soul to obey him as he would that she should have done.